"I can't admit," he said, "that these troubles lie outside the sphere of
the church."
The employer came and stood beside him. He felt he was being a little
hard on the bishop, but he could not see any way of making things
easier.
"One doesn't want Sacred Things," he tried, "in a scrap like this.
"We've got to mend things or end things," continued the big employer.
"Nothing goes on for ever. Things can't last as they are going on
now...."
Then he went on abruptly to something that for a time he had been
keeping back.
"Of course just at present the church may do a confounded lot of harm.
Some of you clerical gentlemen are rather too fond of talking socialism
and even preaching socialism. Don't think I want to be overcritical.
I admit there's no end of things to be said for a proper sort of
socialism, Ruskin, and all that. We're all Socialists nowadays.
Ideals--excellent. But--it gets misunderstood. It gives the men a sense
of moral support. It makes them fancy that they are It. Encourages them
to forget duties and set up preposterous claims. Class war and all that
sort of thing. You gentlemen of the clergy don't quite realize that
socialism may begin with Ruskin and end with Karl Marx.
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