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Portal:Socrates

Works
An enigmatic figure, Socrates made no writings, and is known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers writing after his lifetime, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. Other sources include the contemporaneous Antisthenes, Aristippus, and Aeschines of Sphettos. The playwright Aristophanes is the main contemporary author to have written plays mentioning Socrates during Socrates' lifetime, though a fragment of Ion of Chios' Travel Journal provides important information about Socrates' youth.

Platonic dialogues
See Plato (includes dubious authorship):
 * Apology (Plato)
 * Charmides (Plato)
 * Cratylus
 * Critias
 * Crito
 * Euthydemus
 * Euthyphro
 * Gorgias
 * Ion (Plato)
 * Laches
 * Lesser Hippias
 * Lysis
 * Menexenus
 * Meno
 * Parmenides
 * Phaedo
 * Phaedrus
 * Philebus
 * Protagoras
 * The Republic
 * Statesman
 * Symposium (Plato)
 * Theaetetus
 * Timaeus
 * Alcibiades I
 * Greater Hippias
 * Epistles (Plato)
 * Epistles (Plato)/Seventh Letter
 * Alcibiades II
 * Theages
 * Eryxias
 * Axiochus

Xenophon

 * See Author:Xenophon:

 * Apology (Xenophon)
 * Hiero
 * Oeconomicus
 * Symposion (Xenophon)

Other works

 * (423 BC) "Clouds" by Aristophanes
 * (3rd century work, 1925 translation) Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book II by Diogenes Laërtius
 * (1833) "On the Worth of Socrates as a Philosopher", trans. by Connop Thirlwall in The Philological Museum, Vol. II.: 538–555 from the German of Friedrich Schleiermacher
 * (1841) "The Concept of Irony" by Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
 * (1892) Philebus by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett
 * (1895) The trial and death of Socrates, by Frederick John Church
 * (1903) "Socrates" by Florence Earle Coates
 * (1905) The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 2: "Condemnation and Death of Socrates" by Rossiter Johnson
 * (1914) "Socrates, Plato and the Roman Stoics", by Charles Pomeroy Parker, in The Harvard Classics Vol. 51

title: Portal:Socrates


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Author:John Adams (1857-1934)

Works

 * Evolution of Educational Theory (1912)

title: Author:John Adams (1857-1934)


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552 in letters he may be the most ignorant, yet in that little narrow skull he can carry more accounts than the most expert book-keeper. He knows the antecedents of everybody and everything on that place. He is a peon just as they are, but in many ways he shows his power over them.

The accompanying illustration, taken from life at San Miguel Sesma, shows him in the robes and dignity of his office.

Every night the raya (an account of the days' doings) is gone through by the mayordomo and capitan, who come to the office of the hacienda to give an account to the administrador of what has been done during the day. The names of the peons are read, and the captain answers: "Cetonale" ("He has worked to-day "), or "Homo cleno " ("He has not"), as the case may be. The mayordomo has a box full of beans kept for the purpose. Each time the captain answers "Cetonale" or "Homo cleno," a bean is pushed aside. When the calling and answering are finished, the beans in the two piles thus formed are counted, and the result entered in the day-book. The captain retires and the mayordomo takes orders for the next day.

Everything is kept as systematically as in a banking business. The books of the hacienda are under government seal, and any one wishing to purchase the property may satisfy himself by looking at them.

Haciendas have their marketable small products, such as pulque, wood, milk, lumber, charcoal, beans, sheep, goats, and many others known as esquilmos. Hogs are also fattened, but they are little used save to make soap, which is excellent in any part of the country.

The impression prevails that the peon is in such a state of servitude that he can be easily compelled to adopt any method his


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Rh employer may see fit to impose upon him; but the fallacy of this is too well known by all who have tried the experiment of farming. The peon, like the rest of his race, has an instinctive dislike to

any innovations and he clings to his rude methods of agriculture, driving the new-fangled notions to the wall or stacking them in the fields, while he unceremoniously returns to the ancient forked stick. He hugs the rawhide harness thongs and straps, and the primitive fixtures of his forefathers, and will not yield them up without a determined resistance.

In the hope of compromising matters with these ultra-conservatives, a wide-awake Chicago firm has recently invented and patented a steel plow that is the exact reproduction of the forked stick and makes a furrow much deeper, whereby finer results are obtained.

I visited several haciendas, and on each more or less of our agricultural implements were used. Every agent with whom I conversed spoke hopefully that finally the products of our manufactories would prevail over any and every competition. But with the inherent prejudice of the peon, it is not a source of wonder that even a progressive hacendado hesitates to introduce any new form. On some plantations both the ancient and modern work side by side. But on many large estates one sees as yet only the usages of the Romans or ancient Europeans. It is easy for the mind to travel backward to the days


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554 when the Moors conquered Spain. They did not desire the advancement of the people, and, bent on conquest, introduced few improvements except those connected with their warlike enterprises.

In their turn the Spaniards have impressed the character of their civilization upon the Mexicans. A further retrospect, and we find ourselves face to face with Bible scenes. The gleaners follow closely after the harvesters, as then; the story of Ruth may perhaps find many a parallel here.

Some Mexican writers have remonstrated against the introduction of labor-saving machinery, fearing it would militate against the interests of that large proportion of the population—the laboring class. But as the undeveloped resources are so immense, it will probably be long before interference in that direction will be felt, for the cry still goes up for more laborers for both mines and haciendas. One of the principal causes of this want may be attributed to the constant recurrence of feast-days, the observance of which occupies at least one-third of the time. It is anything but a pious spirit that induces the laborer to take advantage of these occasions, but rather his innate love of ease and dissipation. These days are to him more holidays than holy days. But it is astonishing how little these people can exist upon. In spite of their small wages being in this way so


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Rh decreased, they manage to live, and not uncomfortably either, on a mere pittance; whole families, sometimes, spending but twelve or even six cents a day.

The following extract is from a late letter to the Boston Herald, by Mr. F. R. Guernsey, the regular correspondent of that paper. Mr. Guernsey has resided in Mexico for several years, and is a very close observer and accurate narrator. This is what he says on the subject of introducing foreign labor: "What Mexico needs is such a flood of immigration as is being poured on the shores of the Argentine Republic, that Mecca of the Italian farmer class. A proposition was recently made here for the introduction of Irish immigrants into the State of Oaxaca, where large tracts of land could be secured for them at very low rates, and coffee and tobacco culture introduced on a large scale. I have no doubt that a large Irish colony, started in Oaxaca under intelligent supervision and with due provision for getting their crops to market, could be built up into a prosperous community. The Irish, being mostly Catholics, would not provoke religious hostility among the natives, and their sympathetic and gay temperament would commend them to the nation at large. There is land enough, and to spare, in this favored country for all Ireland, and here the sons of Irishmen would become men of property and influence. There are many Irish names in Mexican history as there are also in Chilian annals. An 'O'Donaju' was famous here in old days, and along the west coast of South America the 'Lynches' and Cochranes' are noted names. The 'Morans' are a noted family here. Other names common here suggest Irish ancestry. This matter might well be studied by persons interested in settling Irish emigrants on land of their own, and so giving to their children an honorable career beyond the reach of grasping landlords. Several colonies in this country are prospering, especially that founded at Ensenada, Lower California, under the auspices of the International Company, a Connecticut corporation. The railway system of the country, as it increases, will make markets for regions now isolated, and thus render agriculture more and more remunerative."


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556 The difficulty of transportation remains a serious drawback to every enterprise to be carried on in the republic. This is so obvious as to render credible the statement that an over-crop is as detrimental as an insufficient one. When there is a large surplus, much waste must ensue for lack of the means of transportation. If the crop is a short one, the natives must go on foot and carry "corn from Egypt." In any case it is the masses of pobres who suffer, and the need for not only more railways, but also for wagons and roads, is a real one. If only the hoarded wealth of the country were thus applied, Mexico would not long be in the rear of other countries.

Under the present land tenure, the owners almost escape taxation, while the peon, or the man who takes the products to market, must pay enormous taxes, at the gates of the cities, where the tax gatherers are located. A barrel of flour may be taxed a dozen or twenty times before it reaches the market. Every State, city, and municipality through which it passes has its own laws of taxation. Every page of a merchant's ledger or cash-book must have a stamp. Every receipt must have one at the rate of one cent for every $20. Tickets of all sorts—even to the theater—contracts, bills, and a number of other things must have stamps. But the man who owns houses pays no taxes except when they are rented. This, it may be added, is the reason of the high rents.

The lack of water naturally limits and impedes manufacturing, and the scarcity of fuel places a dead incubus upon it. The government has nurtured and given all the aid and encouragement in its power to such enterprises, but it is difficult if not impossible to rise superior to such great natural obstacles. Wood commands from $15 to $18 per cord, which is, of itself, enough to interdict the use of steam. But there is a solution in the future to this question of fuel. There is no wider field for enterprising capitalists than the opening up of the vast coal deposits that exist in the various States. In Durango there are very fine deposits of hard coal. In other places many varieties are to be found; and the States of Oaxaca and Puebla abound in coal of a fine quality. Surely this will prove a great blessing to the country,


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As it seems probable that no efforts will be spared on the part of many people in this country to make it a law of the land that a man may marry his deceased wife's sister, it is incumbent on all who fear God to know what His law is on the subject. The law of the land is not always the law of God. The one is made by man, the other by God, which is immutable.

Therefore, if it be the law of God that "a man shall not marry his deceased wife's sister," it is not a question for debate at all.

The Catholic Church, or the Church of Christ, always teaches us by the Spirit of the Word of God. Now, the Church has ever taught, does and will to the end teach from Scripture, that "a man may not marry his deceased wife's sister," or, which is the same thing, "a woman may not marry her sister's husband."

The Church consists of two great parts—the Eastern and the Western.

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Rh and a powerful agency of progress. Petroleum also exists in great abundance, but is still undeveloped. Though Mexico is a land of light, still more light is needed.

The culture and manufacture of silk promise success in the future. Mulberry trees flourish in many localities, and the climate is so fine that silk-worms require no protection.

There are sections well adapted to the growth of cotton, but it is cultivated only to a limited extent; the principal part of that used being supplied from the United States.

The mining and working of the precious metals had been carried on for centuries before the discovery of the New World. We read that the conquerors were amazed and their cupidity excited by the richness and splendid workmanship displayed in the costly peace-offering of Montezuma. Bernal Diaz enumerates among them "thirty golden ducks exactly resembling the living bird; also, a round plate about the size of a wagon-wheel, representing the sun, the whole of finest gold, a most extraordinary work of art; and a round plate, even larger than the former, of massive silver, representing the moon, with rays and other figures on it, as well as a quantity of gold trinkets," all displaying the most beautiful and skillful workmanship.

Mining investments for Americans have generally proved a sad experience. But still they venture, working and waiting, hoping against hope. They give up comfortable homes to labor and toil as never before, deprived of every comfort, and at last are forced to leave the scenes of their unfruitful labors ruined in fortune and hopes, and with


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558 broken and crushed. Some of the most utterly miserable-looking men to be seen are these unfortunate American miners. A few have been successful, but they make the exceptions to the rule. Mining laws, however, are said to be excellent, and are quite as favorable to the foreign capitalist as to the native.

In the production of fruits alone Mexico has advantages over other countries. In many places by stretching out the hands one may

gather both temperate and tropical varieties. While many have been imported, a large proportion are indigenous and daily tickled the palate of Montezuma. But peaches, apples and other temperate fruits are in a neglected condition, and consequently lack flavor. For the rest, nature is sufficient for her own free gifts.

The infinite variety and constant succession of fruits, all the year round, offer an attraction to growers as well as to those engaged in canning and preserving. Besides those familiar to home growth,


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Rh as peaches, pears, lemons, and oranges, or known to us through commerce, as the banana and pineapple, new, strange and delicious fruits meet the eye and invite the taste. At first Americans generally have a distaste to the native fruits of Mexico, but after a time relish them very much.

The accompanying illustration shows a few of the most peculiar of these fruits. The long, white one on the left is a lemon from Jalapa; it is nearly ten inches in length and about five inches in its largest diameter. The one in the center of dish is the chirimolla (custard-apple), delicious, and bears a stronger resemblance to a delicately flavored custard than to anything else. Another species of this fruit is the anona, which is seen on the right; it is brown, while the former is green. Both have the shape and appearance of the pineapple, and flourish in the latitude of the orange and lemon. Both have black seeds. The anona is so soft it is always brought to market enveloped in palm-leaves. The small fruit on the right, in front, is a mango, and the small one to the left is the aguacatl, or vegetable butter, commonly called aguacate, grows in almost all parts of Mexico. Some are green, others black; some as large as a man's fist, others the size of a marble. If the skin is removed and the substance spread on bread with a little salt, it is a good substitute for butter; it also makes a delicious salad. By putting the seed in a bottle, as with hyacinth bulbs, this fruit may be grown in all warm latitudes. Then there are the various kinds of zapotes; chico (small), brown skin; prieto (black pulp, green skin);

amarillo (yellow pulp and skin), long, very large seed and delicious; blanca (white), green skin, white pulp, and the zapote of Santo Domingo. All have a different skin, flesh and flavor, but the yellow and white are the


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560 most delicious. Along the Gulf coast there are miles of forest of the chico zapote. It is a very large and valuable tree, having dark, rich foliage, and for timber growth is almost unequaled. Pieces of the wood have been taken out of the ruins of constructions that were already ruins when the Spaniards came, and they were still as solid as though in use only a year. The mango is a large and lovely tree and is indigenous; the fruit is a reddish yellow, kidney-shaped, with fibrous flesh, and a large stone much the same shape. The flavor is at first objectionable to strangers, because of the strong turpentine taste, but this is finally overlooked. As it hangs on the trees in the hot lands nothing can be more beautiful than these great bright bunches of twenty-five or thirty hanging from the boughs.

The mamey is another attractive looking fruit of oblong shape, meat of salmon-red color, but a little education is also necessary for its enjoyment. When taken from the tree the fruit is warm throughout. The xicama, another curious fruit, looks exactly like a turnip, but with none of the flavor of the latter. The granadita is delicious, and bears a striking resemblance in appearance and flavor to our "May-apple." There are about forty varieties of oranges,


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Rh several of lemons and limes. Then there are capulins (wild cherries), the juice of which is used in tamales; the tejocote, ciruelas, cidras, all small fruits, besides cicapnatl (peanut), as also many other delicious nuts; the calabaza (pumpkin), one of the chief articles of food for the poor; the caña (sugar-cane); the cacao, from which chocolate is made; the guayaba (guava); gtanada (pomegranate); several kinds of figs, pears, and grapes; also, charvicannos (apricots), mora (mulberries), zarzamora (blackberries), grosella (raspberry). The aceituna (olive) thrives anywhere on the table-lands. Then there are the sandia (watermelon), the camote (sweet potato), the endless and delightful varieties of the tuna (prickly pear), and the maguey (agave Americana), known to us as the century-plant, which furnishes everything from a needle and thread to a house-top, as well as a variety of food and drink. Of the latter, several varieties are made, chief among which is pulque, the national beverage. The manufacture of this liquor is as peculiar as it is interesting. Just before flowering time (which occurs much oftener than once in a hundred years) the heart of the plant is extracted and a sap rises to fill the cavity. The tlachiquero, whose business it is to collect this sap two or three times a day, places one end of a gourd syphon in the cavity and the other end to his lips, and, by suction, draws the juice up into the body of the gourd. It is then emptied into a sheep skin which he carries upon his back, and from this put into a vat, also of sheep skin, which, like the other, has the wool turned inward. The odor imparted to the liquid by these skins, as may be imagined, is anything but agreeable. On bringing it to the lips for a draught, the first impulse is to seize the nose, without which precautionary measure it is doubtful if the induction into this beverage would ever be made. It is much pleasanter to the palate, however, than to the olfactories, and its effects upon the system are generally beneficial. It possesses medicinal properties and is considered a specific for Bright's disease. The cultivation of the maguey is quite a source of income, as a single plant yields about one gallon of sap a day, and rarely more than one hundred and twenty-five quarts in all, after which it dies.


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4 with a deceased wife's sister" illegal, i.e. contrary to the law of God, as laid down by Him in His written Word. In the great mass of writings which we have of the Fathers of any note in the Church, there is no sanction given to such marriages; but, on the contrary, when the Fathers have occasion to mention anything about such a union, they distinctly say that it is their custom, and that of the Church, not to consider such marriages as legal by the Word of God. S. Basil in the fourth century says, "Our custom has the force of law, because it has been handed down to us, i.e. in the Holy Writings, that marriage with a wife’s sister is not reckoned as marriage, and we are commanded not to receive such persons to the Holy Communion until they be separated."

We must remember that S. Basil, like all the others, is giving the custom and law of the Church as founded on God's command. Also the Eastern par up to this day forbids such marriages as being illegal.

The Western part of the Church, consisting of the Roman and Anglican divisions, has never taught that such marriages are lawful in the sight of God.

Not until A.D. 1500 was the Roman division asked to allow such a marriage by dispensation—a right which that division arrogates to itself, which is, of course, at once glaringly wrong and


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562 The other liquors besides pulque which this plant produces are tequila and mescal. The former, named after the district in which it is principally manufactured, possesses an agreeable flavor, somewhat resembling Scotch whisky. Mescal is made from a liquor obtained by pressing the leaves of the maguey in a mill. Both mescal and tequila are transparent, while pulque has very much the appearance of the milk of the cocoa-nut.

Tanneries are to be found at many places, but the leather must be of very inferior quality if one may judge by the rapidity with which shoes break and wear out. There is no greater inconvenience to Americans than the style and quality of shoes. Generally it is not possible for them to wear those made on Mexican lasts. I have seen in the windows of shoe stores, "American shoes made here," but the samples shown were far inferior to our home productions, and did not even resemble them. But for the artistic repairing of old boots and shoes the Mexican cobbler can certainly claim precedence. Shoes so old and dilapidated that even mothers could not use them instead of a switch on refractory children, or that would not be available for throwing after departing bridal parties, he will repair and return as good as new, for fifty cents. He sits on his stool on the sidewalk, himself unshod, verifying the ancient proverb, perhaps waiting for the mañana on which to begin his avocation.


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Rh More paper factories are needed, and no country offers greater inducements, as the maguey is ever at hand to furnish pulp for the enterprise. France and Belgium have heretofore supplied the market, with a moderate amount from Germany and England. If Americans do not go there to manufacture paper, they should certainly be able to compete with all others in supplying the market with a superior article.

Considerable attention is now paid to the importation and breeding of fine stock of all kinds, and Mexico offers unsurpassed facilities for this purpose, by reason of the equable climate and extensive pasturage. For, while cattle men annually lose thousands in their chosen sites in the United States, in Mexico it is perennial springtime for man and beast.

The meats are excellent in flavor and quality, the mutton being especially delicious. But a difficulty lies, generally, in the butchers, who cut and slash it in so many directions that it is difficult to tell what part of the animal you are eating.

Butter everywhere is a very scarce and inferior commodity. Housewives know nothing of making and caring for this article, which to Americans is a prime necessity. The most primitive means are employed in its manufacture. In some places the milk is put into a sheep or goat skin, then fastened on a mule or burro, usually the latter, and trotted at a rapid rate. Inferior in quality as it is, I have never seen a pound sell for less than from four to six reals. The natives make a cheese from goat's milk that is quite good when one becomes accustomed to it; but no attention is given to cheese-


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564, as we know it, although the facilities are at hand, in the labor, the cattle and feeding, as well as in the tastes of the people, who use it largely in their cuisine. At the capital a pound of American cheese costs 62½ cents (five reals). The finest butter and cheese in the world could be produced on the beautiful and abundant alfalfa. Our people should look into these openings for enterprise, particularly as the Mexicans themselves would be constant patrons.

The refining of salt is another much needed industry, for which ample material exists in immense deposits that are in the same condition to-day as when the conquerors came. A five-cent sack of American table salt costs three reals, while what is generally used is in the crudest state possible, requiring to be washed, dried in the sun, and then ground on the metate before it is ready for use.

Bacon and ham are both imported, the United States now furnishing the greater part. The price is never less than five to six reals a pound, even at the capital.

Finer hogs can be produced in no country, and with mountains forever snow-covered, and railways offering inducements to shippers, pork packeries and meat-canning establishments could easily be established and made a paying investment. No improvement can be made on the lard, which is beautifully white and sweet; but the supply in no wise reaches the demand, as shown by the price, which I have never known to be less than from twenty-five to thirty-seven cents, or three reals a pound.

Wheat is one of the best products of the soil, and flouring-mills convert it into excellent flour, but either the mills are not numerous enough or the supply of wheat is deficient, as prices are exorbitant—the cheapest I have seen costing three dollars and a half for fifty pounds.

Fond as the Mexicans are of dainties and delicacies, the cracker and wafer, so indispensable in our dietary, are not made in the country, with the exception of one or two factories at the capital from which they are supplied at three reals a pound. Factories of this kind would develop the general taste and doubtless also prove profitable.


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Rh By all means let some enterprising spirits establish goose ranches. Strangers are particularly impressed with the unyielding pillows and beds, encountered everywhere in hotels; and with few exceptions they are little different in private houses.

Both climate and soil are favorable to the production of broom-corn, and, as the native manufacturers are less skilled in broom-making than in almost anything else, I surely think this manufacture would be a desirable enterprise. American brooms, when obtainable, cost one dollar apiece.

I could go on enumerating the smaller industries which would find a ready demand, and require but little capital. But it is unnecessary. It has only been my aim to show that everything stands waiting for the ready hand and determined will of some who may desire to begin life in that old country on a moderate scale and grow to affluence.

There is no opening whatever for either American matches or match-makers; for the matches of the Mexican match-maker are matchless; a rule that holds good in more ways than one, and may even apply to scenes from the balcony.

I have found an elysium for the Smiths, Browns and Joneses. By merely crossing the Rio Grande, they will find themselves answering to extremely high-flown names, without legal or legislative intervention, or arousing the suspicion that they left their country for their country's good. Plain William Brown becomes Guillermo Moreno, James Smith flows off euphoniously into Santiago Esmith, while John Jones murmurs in the mellifluous Castilian as Don Juan Jo-nis (Huan Honis).

The very serious question of American families taking up their residence in Mexico is one that demands especial care. We of the United States have such a profusion of comforts, even among the plainer classes, that it is not to be expected of an American woman to settle herself contentedly in her Mexican home with the scanty allowance of furniture and otherwise primitive household arrangements she there encounters. As before stated, hotel life is not proper or customary for families, and there are no boarding-houses; the whole


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Rh daringly impudent, for the Church is a keeper and not a breaker or dispenser of God's commands. The case I refer to was that of Leopold, King of Portugal, whose family was extinct in the next generation. To this day the Roman division of the Western portion of the Church has to give a dispensation for this kind of marriage, which proves that it holds such a marriage to be illegal.

Now comes the Anglican division of the Western portion of the Church of Christ. We hold the same doctrine, gathered from the Word of God. Right up to the sixteenth century we held the same as the Roman par, and since the Reformation we declare such connections illegal. In the Reformatio Legum of our Church, it is stated that "those degrees which affect the man, also affect the woman"—"paribus semper pro pinquitatum gradibus"—"being always equal degrees of relationship."

Now, this stands to sense, that what affects man equally affects woman. For instance, a man may not marry his mother; then a woman may not marry her father. This commends itself to our reason, if we rightly use it.

Now let us turn to the Word of God.

The code of laws for the kinds of marriage strictly forbidden by God, is given in Leviticus xviii. 1-17. God says, "None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him—I am the Lord."


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6 This, of course, speaks of the man. (Query, does it refer to man as mankind?)

But at once God gives this marriage as forbidden. "The nakedness of thy father." This can alone refer to the woman (as verse 9:2 refers not to marriage, but a horrible lust of such a nature).

Consequently, when God says that man shall not marry any near of kin to him, He also, by even commencing with the marriage not to be contracted by woman, declares that equally woman may not marry any near of kin to her. A right use of reason surely commends this.

God, then, says, "A man may not marry his mother." He lays down this rule, which is reasonable, that a woman may not do what a man is forbidden to do in like things.

He starts us with one case for man and woman, thus—

A man may not marry his mother. ∴ A woman may not marry her father.

After this, throughout, the case of the man only is given.

The rule established for the woman is, shortly—place for man, woman, and for the female or male relationship its equal in the opposite gender—-e.g.


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Rh If this be not so, then the very next marriage which is given, where the man may not marry his father's second wife, or, as it is commonly called, his step-mother, in the case of the woman would be, "but the woman may marry her step-father." Such a thing is contrary to the law of God, and contrary, besides revolting, to nature and common sense or the right use of reason.

Then we say,—as surely cannot but be right, for God starts us with it in the first forbidden union,—that what applies to the man equally applies to the woman in a similar case.

So we go on down the list, putting the case of the woman in the way God commences.

∴ A woman may not marry her mother's husband. ∴ A woman may not marry her step-brother. 4. A man may not marry his granddaughter. ∴ A woman may not marry her grandson. ∴ A woman may not marry her half-brother. 6. A man may not marry his aunt. ∴ A woman may not marry her uncle. ∴ A woman may not marry her uncle (by marriage).
 * 2. A man may not marry his father's wife.
 * 3. A man may not marry his step-sister.
 * 5. A man may not marry his half-sister.
 * 7. A man may not marry his aunt (by marriage).


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8 * 8. A man may not marry his daughter-in-law. ∴ A woman may not marry her son-in-law. ∴ A woman may not marry her sister's husband.
 * 9. A man may not marry his brother’s wife.

Other forbidden marriages are given in verse 17, and from the whole list many others are forbidden. Such as with one’s own sister or daughter, etc.

But in No. 9, which is the last I have mentioned, is surely the marriage forbidden by God, which men desire to make lawful—a thing which a million of Acts of Parliament cannot make lawful, because God says "it is not lawful: I am the Lord."

But it may be said, Why put sister for brother in this particular instance? Well, if we leave brother, it is absurd, for then it would be a woman may not marry her brother’s husband, which is, of course, impossible. Also is it so, if we leave wife.

It simply must be for the woman, that she cannot marry her sister’s husband. But, it is idle to talk of it being allowable for a man to marry his deceased wife's sister, when that sister is strictly forbidden by the law of God to marry him.

God, then, distinctly states that a woman


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Author:Eva Dodge

Works

 * The Teaching of History in Girls' Schools in North and Central Germany. (1908)

title: Author:Eva Dodge


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Rh may not marry her sister's husband. This, of course, is sufficient to forbid a marriage with a deceased wife's sister.

Now, it is right for us, in the first place, to accept in faith the truth as given by God, and then reason will follow.

Can we see why such a marriage is forbidden?

God distinctly points out a reason for forbidding the marriages He enumerates, laying down in the first of them the same rule to be applied to woman as is applied to man.

The reason, which God gives for all, is because each is near of kin.

In the list half of the marriages are forbidden, when relationship is established by the marriage alone. Consequently, whether the relationship be by kindred or affinity, in God's sight it is reckoned as kinship by virtue of the marriage.

In the first forbidden marriage, it is stated that a woman shall not uncover the nakedness of her father so that this expression is equally applicable to marriage of woman with man as it is to man with woman. The particular reason against this marriage is that the man is her father, i.e. it is her father's nakedness.

Therefore the particular reason for a woman not marrying her sister's husband is that it is her sister's nakedness.

One might be content with this explanation. But we may see as clearly in another way from


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jeffreys, George (1648-1689)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jeffreys, John Gwyn


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jeffreys, Julius


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jegon, John


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jehner, Isaac


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jekyll, Joseph (1663-1738)


text: Armistice Day

title: Armistice Day


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jekyll, Joseph (d.1837)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jekyll, Thomas (1570-1653)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jekyll, Thomas (1646-1698)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jelf, Richard William


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jelf, William Edward


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jemmat, William


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Francis


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Robert (1584?-1652)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Robert (1590-1656)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Robert (1649-1688)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Thomas


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkin, Henrietta Camilla


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkin, Henry Charles Fleeming


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, David


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, Henry


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, John (1592-1678)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, Joseph (1743-1819)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, Joseph John


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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, Leoline


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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, Thomas


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkinson, Anthony


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Author:Titus Maccius Plautus

Works
(surviving plays)
 * Amphitryon
 * Asinaria
 * Aulularia
 * Bacchides
 * Captivi
 * Casina
 * Cistellaria
 * Curculio
 * Epidicus
 * Menaechmi
 * Mercator
 * Miles Gloriosus
 * Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
 * Persa
 * Poenulus
 * Pseudolus
 * Rudens
 * Stichus
 * Trinummus
 * Truculentus

 * Compilations
 * The Comedies of Plautus, translated into familiar blank verse, by Bonnell Thornton (vols. I, II) and Richard Warner (vols. III, IV, V)
 * First edition (1767), volumes I & II only
 * Second edition (1769–1774), vols. I & II (1769); vols. III & IV (1772); vol. V (1774)
 * The Comedies of Plautus, literally translated into English prose, with notes, by Henry Thomas Riley (1852)
 * 1880 edition, Vol. I:
 * 1895 edition, Vol. II:

Works about Plautus

 * Plautus and Terence by William Lucas Collins, 1873.
 * An Introduction to Latin Textual Emendation: Based on the Text of Plautus (1896), by Wallace Martin Lindsay
 * An Introduction to Latin Textual Emendation: Based on the Text of Plautus (1896), by Wallace Martin Lindsay
 * An Introduction to Latin Textual Emendation: Based on the Text of Plautus (1896), by Wallace Martin Lindsay
 * An Introduction to Latin Textual Emendation: Based on the Text of Plautus (1896), by Wallace Martin Lindsay

title: Author:Titus Maccius Plautus


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Author:Kathleen Simon

Works

 * Slavery (1929)

title: Author:Kathleen Simon


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10 these verses in Leviticus that kinship and affinity are reckoned the same by God, whether relationship by marriage be henceforth one of sanguinity, when physiologists themselves would forbid it, or not.

God says to man—

But before your uncle was married to her, she was not related to you at all. Now, by marriage, she is your aunt, and as such, like your father's sister, in No. 1, forbidden to be married to you.

Surely, now, these are the same for the woman, She cannot marry her uncle, either by blood or affinity. Her aunt's husband is as much her uncle by marriage as her father or mother's brother is by blood.

We see, then, that by marriage affinity is established equal in God's sight to blood relationship.

Therefore, as the husband of your aunt becomes your uncle, so the husband of your sister becomes your brother. But a woman may not


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 in the several local worships one and the same doctrine re-appears under different names and symbols. But he does not venture to assert that at any time within the historical period the worship of one God was anywhere practised to the exclusion of a plurality of gods. He only infers from the course of history that, as polytheism was constantly on the increase, the monotheistic doctrines must have preceded it. Another conclusion, however, is suggested by the Egyptian texts to which he refers. The polytheistic and the so-called monotheistic doctrines constantly appear together in one context; not only in the sacred writings handed down by tradition, and subjected to interpolations and corruptions of every kind, but even more frequently in literary compositions of a private nature, where no one would dream of suspecting interpolation. Throughout the whole range of Egyptian literature, no facts appear to be more certainly proved than these: (1) that the doctrine of one God and that of many gods were taught by the same men; (2) that no inconsistency between the two doctrines was thought of. Nothing, of course, can be more absurd if the Egyptians attached the same meaning to the word God that we do. But there may perhaps be a sense of the word which admits of its use for many as well as for one. We cannot do better at starting than endeavour to ascertain what the Egyptians really meant when they used the word nutar, which we translate "god."


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 Evidence as to the Meaning of the word Nutar.

At first sight, the Egyptian language is less likely to throw light upon the subject than might be expected if it really belonged to the same stage of speech as either the Indo-European or the Semitic languages. In these languages almost every word is closely allied to several others connected together by derivation from a common root, and the primitive notion conveyed by the word in question can be illustrated by the signification of the kindred words and their root. Generally speaking, however, in Egyptian every word is isolated. There is no distinction between word, stem and root. The same Egyptian word may sometimes have different significations; but this, as a rule, only means that the one notion which is expressed by a word in Egyptian has no single word corresponding to it in English, French or German. It seldom happens that we can advance a step beyond such a fact as that the word nutar is rightly translated "god." I am glad, however, to be able to affirm with certainty that in this particular case we can accurately determine the primitive notion attached to the word. None of the explanations hitherto given of it can be considered satisfactory. That which I am about to propose will, I believe, be generally accepted by scholars, because it is arrived at as the result of a special study of all the published passages in which the word occurs. Such a


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 THE TARTS

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 BANBURY CROSS

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 JACK AND JILL

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Rh marry her brother, therefore she may not marry her sister's husband, who, by his marriage with her sister, has become the same relation to her as her sister is, only in the male line, viz. her brother. Consequently, a man may not marry his deceased wife's sister.

We may argue the same point again from verse 8.

There we see that the man is forbidden to marry his father's wife's daughter who was born before his father married, say, his second wife.

Now, before his father's second marriage, the son by the father's first was no relation by blood or affinity to the daughter of the widow whom his father afterwards married. But after his father's marriage with the widow, the widow's daughter becomes the widower's son's sister, God distinctly says, "She is thy sister."

Here again we see kinship and affinity considered alike in God's sight.

It is very important to notice in this particular instance that there is no blood relationship between son and daughter before the marriage of the widower and widow, and therefore, i.e. according to the present theory of physiologists, there can be none after. It can, according to them, only be between the widower and widow, by consanguinity in the commencement of off-spring. Yet God says that by the marriage they are brother and sister, so that they cannot marry.


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 study, as far as I am aware, has not yet been made, but if made by any other person it must necessarily lead to the same result.

The old Egyptian word nutar had already in the popular pronunciation suffered from phonetic decay, and lost its final consonant as early as the nineteenth dynasty, as we see by the inscriptions in the royal tombs at Bibān-el-molūk, and it appears in Coptic under the forms nuti, nute. It is remarkable that the translators of the Bible into Coptic, who generally abstained from the use of old Egyptian words connected with religion, and used Greek words instead, nevertheless adopted this one as expressive of their notion of God.

There is another word, nutra, very frequently used either as verb or adjective, which is closely allied to nutar. The sense of "renovation" was first attached to it by M. E. de Rougé, on the strength of its final sign, which he considered as a determinative of signification. But this conjecture, which has been very generally accepted, is really without any solid foundation; the sign in question is here expressive of nothing more than the sound tra, and it will be found to all


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 The mortgage which the peasant has on heavenly property guarantees the mortgage of the bourgeois on the farms. Author:Karl Marx

''The same Christ, the same Buddha, the same Isaiah, can stand at once for capitalism and communism, for liberty and slavery, for peace and war, for whatever opposed or clashing ideals you will. For the life and the power of a church is in the persistent identity of its symbols and properties. Meanings change anyhow, but things endure. The rock upon which a church is founded is not the word of God; the rock upon which a church is founded is the wealth of men.'' Author:Horace M. Kallen, "Why Religion?"

the Middle Ages the heads of the Church exercised all the rights of a feudal lord, and were even more tenacious of their privileges. The serfs were prohibited from migrating from one part of the country to another. The daughter of a serf could not marry without the consent of the lord, who frequently demanded payment for permission; or, worse still, the infamous "Right of the First Night." The serf was bonded in a hundred different ways, and it is significant of the esteem in which the Church was held that in every peasant revolt which occurred, there was always a direct attack on the Church.

Professor Thorold Rogers, writing of the twelfth century gives the following picture of the poorer classes:


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Rh "The houses of these villagers were mean and dirty. Brickmaking was a lost art, stone was found only in a few places. The wood fire was on a hob of clay. Chimneys were unknown, except in castles and manor houses, and the smoke escaped through the door or whatever other aperture it could, reach. The floor of the homestead was filthy enough, but the surroundings were filthier still. Close by the door stood the mixen, a collection of every abomination streams from which, in rainy weather, fertilized the lower meadows, generally the lord's pasture, and polluted the stream. The house of the peasant cottager was poorer still. Most of them were probably built of posts wattled and plastered with clay or mud, with an upper storey of poles reached by a ladder."

"What the lord took he held by right of force; what the Church had it held by force of cunning. And as, in the long run, the cunning of the Church was more powerful than the force of the robber-lord, the priesthood grew in riches until its wealth became a threat to the whole of .the community. In England, in the thirteenth century, the clergy numbered one in fifty-two of the population, and the possessions of the Church included a third of the land of England. No opportunity was lost by the Church to drain money from the people whether they were rich or poor. The trade done in candles, and sales of indulgences brought in large sums of money, and there were continuous disputes between the clergy and the king and the Pope as to the divisions of the spoil. The picture of the Church watching over the poor, sheltering them from wrong, tending them in sickness, and relieving them in their poverty will not do. It is totally without historic foundation. When the poor revolted, and apart from the great revolts, there were many small and local outbreaks, the anger of the poor was directed as much against the Church as it was


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226 against the nobles." (C. Cohen: "Christianity, Slavery, and Labor.")

When the downtrodden masses of Spain, Mexico, and Russia revolted against the tyranny which had held them in the slough of medieval degradation, they likewise, in recent times, proved that they realized that their submission was as much caused by the Church, allied as it is with the state, as by the government itself.

The Church did attend the sick, but its trade was in the miracle cures and prayers, and so they very much resembled men hawking their own goods, and attending to their own business. And there is the plain, historic fact, that in defense of its miracle cures it did what it could to obstruct the growth of both medical and sanitary science. It did give alms but these constituted but a small part of what it had previously taken.

Through all the changes of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, it is impossible to detect anxiety on the part of the Churches, Roman Catholic or Protestant, to better the status of, or improve the condition of, the working classes. Whatever improvements may have come about, and they were few enough, came independently of Christianity, organized or unorganized. Controversies about religious matters might, and did, grow more acute; controversies about bettering the position of the working classes only began with the breaking down of Christianity. And when, as in Germany, there occurred a peasants' revolt, and the peasants appealed to Luther for assistance, he wrote, after exhorting the peasants to resignation, to the nobles:

"A rebel is outlawed of God and Kaiser, therefore who can and will first slaughter such a man does right well, since upon such a common rebel every man is alike the


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Rh judge and executioner. Therefore, who can shall openly or secretly smite, slaughter and stab, and hold that there is nothing more poisonous, more harmful, more devilish than a rebellious man."

And in pre-revolutionary France, the Church saw unmoved a state of affairs almost unimaginable, so far as the masses of the people were concerned, in their misery and demoralization. And this at a time when half the land of France, in addition to palaces, chateaux, and other forms of wealth were possessed by the nobility and clergy, and were practically free from taxation.

A contemporary observer writes, "Certain savage-looking beings, male and female, are seen in the country, black, livid, and sunburnt, and belonging to the soil which they dig and grub with invincible stubbornness. They stand erect, they display human lineaments, and seem capable of articulation. They are, in fact, men. They retire at night into their dens, where they live on black bread, water and roots. They spare other human beings the trouble of sowing."

In pre-revolutionary France, the clergy, counting monks and nuns, numbered, in 1762, over 400,000, with total possessions estimated at two thousand million pounds, producing an annual revenue of about one hundred and forty millions. The clergy were free from taxation and the higher members of the order possessed all the rights and privileges of the feudal nobility. To the end the Church in France, as in our day, in pre-revolutionary Russia, remained the champion of privilege and misgovernment.

In England, during the latter half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, developed the English manufacturing system. Woman- and child-labor were common in both mines and factories. The regular working hours were from 5 A.M to 8 P.M.,


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12 The God of Nature has said from the beginning that man and wife are one flesh, and He has repeated it in the Christian dispensation. There is such a union of bloods by marriage that cannot be separated. Sanguinity is established by consanguinity, or the "uniting together of two bloods," so that the woman imparts her sanguinity to the man, and the man his to the woman—they become one flesh.

If so, as it surely seems to be by the law of God as laid down in Scripture, then in the case we have before us of marriage with a deceased wife's sister or marriage with a sister's husband, the woman, being of the same sanguinity as her sister, cannot marry the husband of her sister, because that sister has, in the union of blood or flesh, united her sanguinity to her husband. Consequently, marriage with a deceased wife's sister is illegal, owing to the union of blood, according to the law of God and therefore nature—"Man and wife are one flesh."

The study of physiology has made one decided step in advance towards acknowledging the reality of union of bloods in marriage. It says now that, only when offspring commences, consanguinity, which is a union of two bloods, occurs.

Man and wife are only one flesh, then, by offspring, we may say. Before, although married, they were two as it were, and not considered one


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228 with six full days' labor per week. One investigator remarks: "It is a very common practice with the great populous parishes in London to bind children in large numbers to the proprietors of cotton-mills in Lancashire and Yorkshire, at a distance of 200 miles. The children are sent off by waggon loads at a time, and are as much lost for ever to their parents as if they were shipped off for the West Indies. The parishes that bind them, by procuring a settlement for the children at the end of forty days, get rid of them for ever; and the poor children have not a human being in the world to whom they can look up for redress against the wrongs they may be exposed to from these wholesale dealers in them, whose object it is to get everything they can possibly wring from their excessive labor and fatigue."

In the mines conditions were still worse, and a report in 1842 states: "Children are taken at the earliest ages, if only to be used as living and waving candlesticks, or to keep rats from a dinner, and it is in pits of the worst character, too, in which most female children are employed. It would appear from the practical returns obtained by the commissioner, that about one-third of the persons employed in coal mines are under eighteen years of age, and that much more than one-third of this proportion are under thirteen years of age." In certain mines there was no distinction of sex so far as underground labor was concerned. The men worked entirely naked and were assisted by females of all ages, from girls of six years to women of twenty-one, who were quite naked down to the waist.

But if oppression was rife, education at a low ebb, and misery prevalent, the religion of the people was receiving attention. The period was, in fact, one of revival in religion. The Wesleyan revival was in full swing, and Evangelical Christianity was making great advances.


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Rh Between 1799 and 1804 there were founded, "The British and Foreign Bible Society," "The London Missionary Society," and "The Mission To The Jews."

When the Education Bill of 1819 came before the House of Lords, out of eighteen Bishops who voted on the measure, fifteen voted against it! Thus the religionists were most active during the period when a condition approximating white slavery existed. And why should this not have been so, when the Church is not interested in the social and economic status of its adherents during their existence on this planet, but is avowedly concerned with deluding its devotees into a mythical belief in a life hereafter? The greatest number of slaves and the greatest degradation of workers is to be found in those times and places where religious superstition is most powerful.

In our own country, as well as in England, the labor movement has developed not merely outside the range of organized Christianity, but in the teeth of the bitterest opposition to it. Christianity, since it came into power, has always preached to the poor in defense of the privileges and possessions of the rich.

In a recent publication by Jerome Davis, which is entitled "Labor Speaks for Itself on Religion" the author has compiled the opinions of labor leaders in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, China, Austria, Australia, Belgium, and Japan. It is a terrific indictment by labor against organized religion. The author tells us, "Here is labor speaking for itself, and in the by and large it feels that the Church has not understood or helped it to secure justice. The majority believe that the Church has a capitalistic bias. It is a class institution for the upper and middle classes." This is putting the matter rather mildly when one considers their grievances expressed in their own words. Again Jerome Davis asks, "Is it possible that our Church


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 words so ending, whatever be their meaning; as hetra, whether signifying "join," "horse," or "tribute;" petra, "behold;" tra, "season." Another more obvious sense, "sacred," "divine," may be justified by the Greek text of the tablet of Canopus, where nutra is translated, as applied to the sacred animals. But this meaning, though a certain one, occurs but seldom in the Egyptian texts, and when it so occurs is, after all, only a derived meaning, as is in fact the case with the Greek, the first sense of which is "strong," "vigorous." The notion expressed by nutar as a noun, and nutra as an adjective and verb, must be sought in the Coptic nomti, which in the translation of the Bible corresponds to the Greek words, , , , "power," "force," "strong," "fortify," "protect."

The reason why the identification of the old form nutar with the more recent nomti as well as nuti has


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230 leaders are to some extent blinded by current conventional standards? Are they so busy sharing the wealth of the prosperous with others in spiritual quests that they fail to see some areas of desperate social need? Do they to some degree unconsciously exchange the gift of prophecy for yearly budgets and business boards?"

James H. Maurer, the president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, speaks for labor and the title of his subject is, "Has the Church Betrayed Labor?" Mr. Maurer's opinion follows: "A worker living from hand to mouth, and lucky if he is not hopelessly in debt besides, working at trip-hammer speed when he has work, with no security against enforced idleness, sickness, and old age, can hardly be expected to become deeply interested in, or a very enthusiastic listener to*sermons about Lot's disobedient wife, who because she looked back was turned into a pillar of salt. He is far more concerned about his own overworked and perhaps underfed wife who, due to the strain of trying to raise his family on a meager income that permits of no rest or proper medical care, is slowly but surely turning into a corpse. To go to a church and listen to a sermon about the sublimeness of being humble and meek, that no matter how desperate the struggle to live may be one should be contented and not envy the more fortunate, because God in His infinite wisdom has ordained that there shall be rich and poor and that no matter how heavy one's burdens on this earth, one should bear them meekly and look for reward in the world to come and remember that God loves the poor — such sermons naturally sound pleasing to the ears of the wealthy listeners, and the usual reward is a shower of gold and hearty congratulations by the sleek and well-fed members of the congregation. But to an intelligent worker such sermons sound like capitalistic propaganda, upon which he


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Rh flesh. In this way they explain the reason for God dispensing with His own law in a special case of the woman without issue being permitted to marry her deceased husband's brother, although God distinctly states, "A man shall not marry his brother's wife." The study of Nature or physiology cannot be perfect yet, when the God of Nature, who must know and cannot err, declares that consanguinity is established at once, or, at any rate, man and wife are one flesh, their bloods are united, their sanguinity is for ever united.

Then, shall we say that man, who is fallible,. knows better than God, who is infallible and the Author of nature? No.

It is, I repeat, one step on the way towards God's truth for man to say that consanguinity is established through offspring.

The next discoveries, if man in his carnal mind can make them, will be that by marriage not only a union of flesh is at once established, but that the sanguinity of the woman is imparted to the man, and that of the man to the woman, so that her relations are his and his hers.

While one may wish for such discoveries to be brought about, yet one cannot but feel that the mystery of marriage can never be solved by unsanctified knowledge. Offspring is a fact, but how it comes to pass is a miracle to man. It requires the eye of faith to see the glorious union


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Rh is constantly being fed by every labor-exploiting concern in the country, and quite naturally he tries to avoid getting an extra dose of the same kind of buncombe on Sunday….

"In Churches, men have listened for nearly two thousand years to lessons and sermons about 'the brotherhood of man,' 'the forging of swords of war into plowsnares of peace,' 'man is his brother's helper,' 'peace on earth, good will toward men,' 'thou shalt not kill’ We are taught to say the Lord's Prayer, and ask for heaven on earth, and yet, at every war opportunity, with a very few noble exceptions, the Church, at the command of the war lords, has scrapped its peace sentiments and turned its back to the Prince of Peace and Heaven on Earth and has shouted itself hoarse for hell on earth. And then the spokesmen of the churches of each nation at war have had the impudence to pray to a just God and ask Him to play favorites, to use His infinite power on their side and join in the mad slaughter of His own beloved children. And those slaughtered are the workers, and their folks at home naturally wonder why the one big international peace organization on earth, the Church, at the crack of the war demon's whip, deserts its principles of 'Thou shalt not kill,' and 'Peace on earth,' and helps to stampede its followers in the very opposite direction."

Mr. Maurer points out that labor's struggle to have a Federal Child Labor amendment to the Constitution ratified by the various state legislatures, and to have such legislation enacted as the Workmen's Compensation Laws, Mothers' Pensions, and Old Age Pensions, received no support from the clergy. He concludes by citing this occurrence:

"For a good illustration of what the Church is sometimes guilty of let us take a glimpse at what happened in Detroit, during the month of October, 1926, when the


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232 American Federation of Labor was holding its annual convention there. Nearly every church in Detroit sent invitations to prominent labor officials to speak in their churches before Bible classes, Sunday schools, and Young Men's Christian Associations. Most of the invitations were accepted by the labor officials, including President Green of the A. F. of L. As soon as the big employers learned about the program they not only frowned upon the idea of allowing their sacred temples to be contaminated with representatives of the working class, but put both feet down as hard as they could on the proposition. Did the clergymen stand firm when men with dollars talked? To their everlasting shame they did not. Ninety-five percent of them bowed to the will of Mammon and the representatives of labor were barred from the sacred temples erected in the name of God and the lowly Nazarene, proving conclusively to the minds of the average citizen who controls the churches and whom they serve. Small wonder that many workers have a poor opinion of the Church, and that so many pews are empty."

J. B. S. Hardman, the editor of The Advance, the official journal of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, gives us his opinion regarding the religion of labor. "It lulls the social underdog with a sham consolation for the oppression and exploitation which are his lot, and furnishes the exploiter and oppressor with graceful distraction and absolution from his daily practice and meanness. This is the actual basis of Church activity to-day. The religion of labor is godless, for it seeks to restore the divinity of man."

James P. Thompson, the national organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World, heads his article for Jerome Davis, "Religion is the Negation of the Truth," and in his militant manner proclaims "This organization designed to praise God and help him run the universe


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14 in marriage, as typified in the grand union of Christ with His Bride the Church.

It is our duty to believe the Word of God, and in it we see that woman may not marry her sister's husband, because he is near of kin to her; therefore nothing can make it lawful, and according to true physiology, the law of Nature, the law of God, no dispensation is needed for her, in the case of her sister not having any issue, that she should marry her deceased sister's husband. The cause of dispensation is to perpetuate his name. There is no need for one, then, in this case, for he may marry any one, not related, to perpetuate his name. It is God's law that a woman should not marry her sister's husband. It is immutable; man cannot dispense with it. It is only the Maker of it who can, and in this case there is no truly physiological or natural reason for it, but against it.

But here numbers of people say that, although it may be God's law, yet He has been pleased Himself to dispense with it by saying in Leviticus xviii. 18, "Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time."

The inference people draw from this is that after your wife's death, you may marry her sister.

Now, at first sight, it may be noticed that this verse does not begin like a dispensatory one,


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CHRISTIANITY AND LABOR is known as the Church. The established Church has always been on the side of the rich and powerful: Its robed representatives, pretending to be Godlike and favorites of God, having special influence with Him, have ever functioned as the moral police agents of the ruling classes. At one time or another, they have asked God to bless nearly everything, from the slave driver's lash to murderous wars. Thus they strive to extend the blessings of God to the infamies of men.

"To-day, under Capitalism, they teach the working class the doctrine of humility: tell them that if they get a slap on one cheek to turn the other, and, 'blessed are the poor.' They tell us to bear the' cross and wear the crown, that we will get back in the next world what is stolen from us in this. In other words, they try to chloroform us with stories of heaven while the robbers plunder the world. For this support the ruling classes donate liberally to the Church. The organized robbers and organized beggars support each other."

James P. Noonan, vice-president of the American Federation of Labor, asks a pertinent question, "Labor observes an increasing tendency on the part of the Church to regulate what man may eat, drink, or smoke, where and how he shall spend his Sundays, the character and kind of amusements he may participate in, and various other activities, many of which seem more or less trivial; all of which leads the average worker to ponder rather seriously just why it is that the Church can vigorously advocate and promote legislation seeking to curtail his liberty to enjoy, in his own way, the limited number of leisure hours at his disposal, and yet turn a deaf ear to the cry of tortured men, women, and children for relief from the curse of low wages, long hours, and scores of other industrial conditions and abuses which inevitably pave the way for numberless cases of moral turpitude."


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234 James S. Woodsworth, a former minister, speaking for the Canadian 'Labor Party, exclaims: "The Church a class institution what does the Church do to help me and those like me? The Church supported by the wealthy, yes, 'He who pays the piper calls the tune.' The well-groomed parson, with his soft tones prophesying smooth things, well, I'm glad I'm not in his shoes!"

James Simpson, secretary of the Canadian Labor Party, makes this statement: "I found that the conditions which called for radical change if the social and economic security of the people was going to be established did not concern the Church. As an institution it was concerned in establishing an outlook upon life that would induce men to do the right, but, if the right was not done, there was very little distinction drawn between the wrong-doer and the right-doer. This lack of distinction did not apply so much to what were re-regarded as moral indiscretions as it did to the larger failures to recognize man's relationship to man in the industrial and commercial activities of life. Labor thinks the Church is insincere. It Is an exceptional case for a minister to take a stand on the side of the workers, even when the issue between the employers and employees is a clear case of the former trying to enforce conditions upon the latter which are unfair and inhuman."

A. Fenner Brockway, the political secretary of the Independent Labor Party in England, writes in this manner: "The hymns of the Church are obsolete; the sermons are very rarely worth listening to; the forms of worship are unrelated to life; and such inspiration as comes from the devotion and beauty of some church services and buildings can be found ever more intimately and fully in the silences and beauty of nature."

George Lansbury is another Englishman speaking for British Labor, and he tells us that, "Ordinary working


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Rh which would begin something like this, "if" or "but if." But it begins' as a continuation of God's law—the law of Nature—"neither." That law is that a man shall have only one wife at a time (N.B. the case of Job, who is witness to God's law given from the beginning), and this verse forbids directly polygamy.

God lays down, first of all, kinds of forbidden marriages, and then He forbids polygamy. This would be considered right by all, I trust, in England.

But the verse says, "a man may not take a wife to her sister during his wife's life time." Then, may he afterwards? Certainly not, if she be his wife's own sister. Why? For several reasons.

When a special cause is removed, viz. his wife's being alive, then the law of God is in force as to marriage, the choice of a wife being restricted according to the code which God gave above.

The words "a wife to her sister," according to the marginal rendering, mean "one wife to another." But perhaps this may be objected to as a mere supposition. But what do we know of Hebrew expressions?

"A woman to her sister" means "a woman to a woman," as "a man to his brother" means "a man to a man." It occurs in Scripture—this style of expression, I mean—about thirty times,


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Rh people in Britain think very little about Churches, or about religion. Years ago I was asked, 'Why don't people accept religion? Why don't the masses go to Church?' I said then, as I say now, 'They, the masses, believe we Christians do not believe what we say we believe."

Lenin, Trotzky, Lunacharsky, and Yaroslavsky, are the speakers for Russian Labor in Soviet Russia. Their attitude toward Church and Religion is well known….

Arthur Crispien, president of the German Social Democratic Party, gives us his opinion. "Men should not look upon this earth as a vale of tears and fly from rude realities to a world of phantasms; they should embrace the beauties of the world, and realize and fulfill their social rights and duties. Our work lies in this world. As to the other, each is at. liberty to decide according to his needs."

Karl Mennicke, another former minister, points out the attitude of German Labor. "For modern labor the feeling that human life is first of all a matter of eternal life, and only secondarily a matter of this world, has been entirely lost. The high-strung eschatologic mood, or expectation of Jesus, has no sounding board in the masses of the proletariat of to-day. The Christian epoch in history is obviously on its way to extinction. The eschatological mood of Christianity has been a handicap, and still is, for the Christian community has difficulty finding an organic relationship to the creative problems of social life."

Emanuel Radl speaks of labor and the Church in Czechoslovakia. "In general the churches play a far lesser part in our public life than in the United States. People are accustomed to speak of the churches as exploded institutions that are factors only among the uneducated classes. The churches are not measuring up in understanding and helping the poor."


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236 Robert Haberman, representing the Mexican Labor Party, gives a clear-cut summation of the tyranny that the clergy of that country yoked upon the masses and the retardation that it has produced. It furnishes striking and conclusive evidence of the harm that is done when the Church and State are still integrally intertwined. There is no better example of the efforts of a reactionary clergy to keep the masses in poverty and ignorance than is this study of the church in modern Mexico. Mr. Haberman gives an account of the church activities in old Mexico and coming tb the present, "By the year 1854, the Church had gained possession of about two-thirds of all the lands of Mexico, almost every bank, and every large business. The rest of the country was mortgaged to the Church. Then came the revolution of 1854, led by Benito Juarez. It culminated in the Constitution of 1857, which secularized the schools and confiscated Church property. All the churches were nationalized, many of them were turned into schools, hospitals, and orphan asylums. Civil marriages were made obligatory. Pope Pius IX immediately issued a mandate against the Constitution and called upon all Catholics of Mexico to disobey it. Ever since then, the clergy has been fighting to regain its lost temporal power and wealth. It has been responsible for civil wars and for foreign intervention." Under the rule of Diaz, the constitution was disregarded and the Church was permitted to regain most of its lost privileges. "The Church bells rang out at sunrise to call the peons out, with nothing more to eat than some tortillas and chili, to work all day long in the burning fields, until sunset when the Church bells rang again to send them home to their mud huts. During their work they were beaten. On Sundays they were lashed and sent bleeding to Mass. After Church they had to do Faenas (free work) for the


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16 and refers to one of the same class, species, or sex. So that the rendering of this verse in most commentaries of the day is a wife to her sister, whether she be sister by her blood, or nation, or by common sisterhood. Indeed it would be doubly wrong to commit bigamy with one's wife's own sister.

The law of God is, that man may marry after his wife's death another woman. The question is, Can that woman be your wife's own sister? What is God's law about marriage? He distinctly points out to us in His code that His law is that a man cannot marry his wife's own sister, as we have seen. His law cannot be dispensed with, unless God Himself dispenses with it. But we see not the slightest sign of a dispensation given by God, and there is no natural or physiological reason for it. He simply forbids marriages near of kin and polygamy. It is absurd to think that God in the same breath, as it were, would both forbid and then allow the marriage. Besides in this case, according to the showing of nature, or true physiology, or God's law, there is no physiological or natural reason why a woman should marry her brother-in-law, because he can marry any one else (but not her by the law of God). Naturally speaking, I say, there is no necessity for a man to marry his deceased wife's own sister to perpetuate his name. He can marry any other not near of kin without breaking God's law.


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Rh Church, in the name of some saint or other either to build a new church or do some special work for the priests. It is no wonder then, that after the revolution against Diaz, in many places, as soon as the peons were told they were free, their first act was to climb up the church steeples and smash the bells. After that, they rushed inside the churches and destroyed the statues and paintings of the saints. During the whole period of havoc and exploitation, not once was the voice of the Church heard in behalf of the downtrodden. Illiteracy amounted to eighty-six percent. But the Church helped the further enslavement of the workers. There was not a church ceremony, birth, marriage, or death, that did not cost money. The worker had to borrow for each; and the more he borrowed, the more closely he riveted upon himself the chains of peonage…. The present conflict started in February, 1926, when Archbishop Jose Mora del Rio, head of the Church in Mexico, issued a statement in the press declaring war against the Constitution."

Gideon Chen, speaking for Chinese Labor asserts: "The Christian Church in China, brought up in a Western greenhouse, with all its achievements and shortcomings, does not speak a language intelligible to the labor world."

Karl Kautsky, the Austrian representative of labor, takes the attitude that, "The less Labor as a whole has to do with Church questions and the less it is interested in the churches, the more successful will be its strife for emancipation."

Otto Bauer, another representative of Austrian labor, makes the assertion: "Capitalism forces the worker into the class struggle. In this class struggle he comes across the clergy and finds it the champion of his class adversary. The worker transfers his hate from the "clergyman to religion itself, in whose name this clergyman is


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238 the social order of the middle classes. In Austria the bourgeois parties take advantage of the belief of hundreds of thousands of proletarians in a Lord in Heaven to keep them in subjection to their earthly masters."

Ernest H. Barker, the general secretary of the Australian Labor Party, holds forth in an article entitled, "The Church is Weighed and Found Wanting." He is quite emphatic in his statements. "The attitude of the Labor Movement in Australia to the Church is one of supreme indifference. There is little or no point of contact between the two and apparently neither considers the other in its activities and plan of campaign. … The Church preaches the brotherhood of man. What brotherhood can exist between the wealthy receiver of interest, profit, and rent and the struggling worker who sees his wife dragged down by poverty and overwork, and his children stunted and dwarfed physically and intellectually between the underworked and overfed commercial or industrial magnate and the underfed, overworked denizen of the slums? … The Church is put on trial in the minds of men. They ask, 'What did the Church do when we sought a living wage, shorter hours of work, safer working conditions, abolition of Sunday work, abolition of child labor?' The answer is an almost entirely negative one. The few instances when church officials have helped are so conspicuous as to emphasize the general aloofness…. In how many of the advance.d ideas of our time has the Church taken the lead? Is it not renowned for being a long way in the rear rather than in the vanguard of progressive thought and action? It resents any challenge to its ideas, doctrines, or authority."

Emile Vandervelde, the leader of the Belgian Labor Party, discusses the personal religious convictions of the Labor leaders in France and Belgium. "Today as yesterday the immense majority are atheists, old-fashioned


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Rh Consequently, when a man's wife dies, if he wish to marry again, he is at liberty to marry any of his wife's sisters by nation or by common sisterhood, but not his wife's own sister by blood (or affinity), because God's law forbids him so to do, she being considered by God near of kin to him through his marriage with her sister.

We now see what this 18th verse means. It is this—

(1) A man shall not marry a second woman, who is not "near of kin" even to his wife, while that wife is alive.

Why? Because God forbids polygamy.

Or (2), if for sake of argument, the word sister be counted blood relationship, it means then, "a man shall not marry a woman, who is his wife's own sister, while that wife is alive.

Why? Because (i.) God forbids polygamy. (ii.) It would be more incestuous even than the other, for a man cannot even marry this one, even if his wife were dead, because God forbids him, as she is near of kin to him through his deceased wife. It is seen from God's Word that a man may not marry at any time his deceased wife's own sister.

God, who is the Lord of Nature, says it is wickedness. The Hebrew word translated wickedness expresses the vilest kind of lewdness.

But it may be argued that the moral law of the Jews is not binding on Christians. What?


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Rh materialists, or at least agnostics, to whom it would never occur to profess any creed, no matter how liberal it. might be."

Toyohiko Kogawa, the secretary of the Japan Labor Federation, says: "Labor considers the Church too otherworldly. It thinks it has no concern with the interests of labor; and that the Church has lost her aim in this world and is looking up only into heaven. And labor forgets where to go, loses its sense of direction. So labor; stops thinking about religion, and religion stops thinking about industry. The Church has no principle of economics, and labor has no religious aspiration."

The opinions of these men who are daily in contact with the problem of social justice the world over surely furnish a tremendous amount of information regarding both the unconcern of religion upon the furtherance of social justice and its actual negative and harmful influence. The devout Sherwood Eddy, a sincere and noble exponent of social justice, is forced to exclaim: "But I saw that there would be much more opposition from professing Christians if I preached a gospel of social justice, than ever there had been from so called 'heathen' nations in calling them to turn from their idols. Indeed, Mammon is a much more potent idol, it is more cruel, smeared with more human blood, than Kali of Siva. They sacrifice goats to Kali and we shudder; we sacrifice men to Mammon and justify our 'rights.' In simple fact, though they are not worthy of mention, I have met with more opposition and misrepresentation, ten times over, in 'Christian' America, than I ever met in fifteen years in India, or in repeated visits to China, Turkey, or Russia." (Sherwood Eddy: "Religion and Social Justice")

Religious philosophy is slave philosophy; it teaches of a God who is personally interested in the individual and who will reward present misery with future bliss. The


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240 demoralizing effect of this infamous fraud is apparent everywhere. If a worker is constantly assailed with this nonsense from the pulpit, the result is the production in him of a mental as well as a physical slavery; it aggravates his mental inertia, and the force of repetition achieving its effects, he soon resigns himself to his present miserable state drugged with the delusion of a better life in the hereafter. He believes that his destiny is predetermined by God and that he will be rewarded in heaven for his sufferings on earth.

What a marvelous opiate the ecclesiastics have been injecting into the minds of the masses! It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that capital has aided throughout the ages and has stood by religion. The irony of the situation lies in the fact that the slave will fight so valiantly for his tyrannical master, that the unscrupulous few who derive all the benefits, can, like a malignant parasite, suck the life-blood of its victims while their still living prey submits without a struggle! The worker, inebriated with his religious delusion, calmly allows his very substance to be the means through which his parasitic employer grows fat.

"That was the net result of Christianity, and of the activity of the Christian Church in spreading abroad a spirit of kindliness, humanity and brotherhood! The coquetry of Christianity with Labor within the last generation or two is only what one would expect. But it is clear that the one constant function of Christianity has been to encourage loyalty to existing institutions, no matter what their character so long as they were not unfriendly to the Church. Slavery and the oppression of labor continued while Christianity was at its strongest and wealthiest; its own wealth derived from the oppression it encouraged. Slavery died out when social and economic conditions rendered its continuance more and


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Rh more difficult. And the conditions of labor improved when men ceased to talk of a 'Providential Order,' of 'God's Decree,' and dismissed the evangelical narcotic served out by the Church, and began to realize that social conditions were the products of understandable and modifiable natural forces." (C. Cohen: "Christianity, Slavery and Labor")


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18 If it be God's law, as given at Mount Sinai in writing, it must have been and will be His law through all time and eternity, for He is unchangeable, and with Him all is one vast present, so that it is binding on all mankind throughout time.

Besides, what do the physiologists at the present day think of the Levitical code? They think that it is the best sanitary and social code ever produced. As, then, the moral law of God is unchangeable and always in force, so we find that the whole Church of Christ has kept it intact, as we have seen in this particular instance of the forbidden marriage with a deceased wife's sister.

But in this case it may be said that most if not all, nations allow this marriage.

Does that dispense with the law of God? Decidedly not.

Did the cases of Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon, dispense with God's law? Decidedly not, for the practice of fallen man can never interpret the law of God aright. Were the practice of fallen man right, there would be no need of the Law. Were there no disobedience or sin, there would be no law.

The state of men, by the light of the Law at its re-promulgation at Mount Sinai, shows to us their forgetfulness or neglect of God's law by tradition, as handed down from Paradise. Let me ask, What was the proportion of the Israelites


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Rh with the people of the earth, at the giving of the Law in writing on Mount Sinai? May we say the proportion was one to a hundred, or even a thousand or ten thousand?

Then, what does God say to the Israelites? "Ye are not to do as the nations do, anything contrary to My moral law.

What does He say to Christians now? The very same.

Therefore, the Church does keep intact the Levitical code, being God's moral law, and commands all to obey it, as in this case which we have before us.

Sympathy is brought to bear frequently. People argue that the wife's own sister will surely take the most care of her sister's children. Now, so will any good second wife, and such sympathy is insufferable, in that, if God's law be broken by it, no amount of sympathy can be allowed.

As a judge refuses sympathy to be created in a law court, so must we.

But, it may be argued, the majority, either ignorantly or wilfully, are in favour of such a marriage being made legal by the law of the land, which is an impossible thing to be done in the sight of one who fears God.

Are we not told in God's Word over and over again that the world is at enmity with God? All history, too, shows that in any case contrary to nature, or, that is, God's laws, the mass are


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20 in the wrong, although for a time they may seemingly have their wilful way, and that the minority are in the right. This is customary to fallen man, and in accordance with a Christian's expectations as set forth in Scripture.

The world is wrong—God is right.

Then, on whose side are we?