32O PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
inevitable psychological outcome of those conditions. The more seriously this situation is studied, the less will it appear to be the result of mere perversity or depravity on the part of the labouring class; on the contrary, the more clearly will it appear to be the spiritual resultant of social condi tions which the labourers themselves are striving to abolish, somewhat impulsively and blindly, we grant, but with a strenuous earnestness which is not lacking in ethical enthu siasm. For preachers and churches in general it creates a problem of the utmost importance. Before it is solved it will require a thoroughgoing restudy of the whole ethical and social content of Christianity. If Christianity has a prac tical word to say on this subject, if it offers a solution, or can put the thought of this age into a path that leads to a solution, it is certain that it will be able to secure a sym pathetic hearing from the class that has been so seriously alienated. But it will not be easy. The labouring men have come to think of the problem of their lives in terms of this world. And they can not be won back to allegiance to Chris tianity, i.e., organized Christianity, by a promise of compen sation, in the world to come, for what they regard as mani fest wrongs which the church will not antagonize here.
It is manifest that the economic situation has become at heart a spiritual problem. Go deep enough into it, and you always strike a spiritual core. The demand is not that the church shall leave her proper sphere and busy herself with issues that are foreign to her mission ; but that she shall un dertake to grapple with and solve a problem which has arisen within her proper sphere, and which has its roots in the life conditions of those to whom she is commissioned to minister. It may be improper for the church, a spiritual institution, to invade an alien territory and undertake to set things right there ; but the fact is that the economic forces have invaded the spiritual realm and are working havoc there. It is surely a significant phenomenon that there is today a growing hostility towards the church within the very class among whom the Lord of the church found his most
�� �
