96 THE LAND QUESTION.
match anything that could be told in the same period of any heathen community at least, of any heathen com- munity in a like state of peace and prosperity. I think I could take a file of these papers, and match, horror for horror, all that returning missionaries have to tell even to the car of Juggernaut or infants tossed from mothers' arms into the sacred river ; even to Ashantee " customs " or cannibalistic feasts.
I do not say that such things are because of civilization, or because of Christianity. On the contrary, I point to them as inconsistent with civilization, as incompatible with Christianity. They show that our civilization is one-sided and cannot last as at present based ; they show that our so-called Christian communities are not Christian at all. I believe a civilization is possible in which all could be civilized in which such things would be impos- sible. But it must be a civilization based on justice and acknowledging the equal rights of all to natural oppor- tunities. I believe that there is in true Christianity a power to regenerate the world. But it must be a Chris- tianity that attacks vested wrongs, not that spurious thing that defends them. The religion which allies itself with injustice to preach down the natural aspirations of the masses is worse than atheism.
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