it is especially interesting to notice what happens when the bible texts work against the interests of the slavers and their clerical retainers. then they are null and void—and no matter how precise and explicit and unmistakable they may be! take for example the sabbath injunction: "six days shalt thou labor and do all that thou hast to do." karl marx records of the pious england of his time that,

occasionally in rural districts a day-labourer is condemned to imprisonment for desecrating the sabbath by working in his front garden. the same labourer is punished for breach of contract if he remains away from his metal, paper or glass works on the sunday, even if it be from a religious whim. the orthodox parliament will hear nothing of sabbath-breaking if it occurs in the process of expanding capital.

or consider the attitude of the church in the matter of usury. throughout ancient hebrew history the money-lender was an outcast; both the law and the prophets denounced him without mercy, and it was made perfectly clear that what was meant was, not the taking of high interest, but the taking of any interest whatsoever. the early church fathers were explicit, and the catholic church for a thousand years consigned money-lenders unhesitatingly to hell. but then came the modern commercial system, and the money-lenders became the masters of the world! there is no more amusing illustration of the perversion of human thought than the efforts of the jesuit casuists to escape from the dilemma into which their heavenly guides had trapped them.

here, for example is alphonso ligouri, a spanish jesuit of the eighteenth century, a doctor of the church, now worshipped as st. alphonsus, presenting a long and elaborate theory of "mental usury"; concluding that, if the borrower pay interest of his own free will, the lender may keep it. in answer to the question whether the lender may keep what the borrower pays, not out of gratitude, but out of fear that otherwise loans will be refused to him in future, ligouri says that "to be usury, it must be paid by reason of a contract, or as justly due; payment by reason of such a fear does not cause interest to be paid as an actual price," again the great saint and doctor tells us that "it is not usury to exact something in return for the danger and expense of regaining the principal!" could the house of j. p. morgan and company ask more of their ecclesiastical department?

the reader may think that such sophistications are now out of date; but he will find precisely the same knavery in the efforts of present-day slavers to fit jesus christ into the system of competitive commercialism. jesus, as we have pointed out, was a carpenter's son, a thoroughly class-conscious proletarian. he denounced the exploiters of his own time with ferocious bitterness, he drove the money-changers out of the temple with whips, and he finally died the death of a common criminal. if he had forseen the whole modern cycle of capitalism and wage-slavery, he could hardly have been more precise in his exortations to his followers to stand apart from it. but did all this avail him? not in the least!

i place upon the witness-stand an exponent of bible-christianity whom all readers of our newspapers know well: a scholar of learning, a publicist of renown; once pastor of the most famous church in brooklyn; now editor of our most influential religious weekly; a liberal both in theology and politics; a modernist, an advocate of what he calls industrial democracy. his name is lyman abbott, and he is writing under his own signature in his own magazine, his subject being "the ethical teachings of jesus". several times i have tried to persuade people that the words i am about to quote were actually written and published by this eminent doctor of divinity, and people have almost refused to believe me. therefore i specify that the article may be found in the "outlook", the bound volumes of which are in all large libraries: volume 94, page 576. the words are as follows, the bold face being dr. abbott's, not mine:

my radical friend declares that the teachings of jesus are not practicable, that we cannot carry them out in life, and that we do not pretend to do so. jesus, he reminds us, said, 'lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth;' and christians do universally lay up for themselves treasures upon earth; every man that owns a house and lot, or a share of stock in a corporation, or a life insurance policy, or money in a savings bank, has laid up for himself treasure upon earth. but jesus did not say, "lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." he said, "lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal." and no sensible american does. moth and rust do not get at mr. rockefeller's oil wells, nor at the sugar trust's sugar, and thieves do not often break through and steal a railway or an insurance company or a savings bank. what jesus condemned was hoarding wealth.

strange as it may sound to some of the readers of this book, i count myself among the followers of jesus of nazareth. his example has meant more to me than that of any other man, and all the experiences of my revolutionary life have brought me nearer to him. living in the great metropolis of mammon, i have felt the power of privilege, its scourge upon my back, its crown of thorns upon my head. when i read that article in the "outlook", i felt just as jesus himself would have felt; and i sat down and wrote a letter—

to lyman abbott

this discovery of a new method of interpreting the bible is one of such very great interest and importance that i cannot forbear to ask space to comment upon it. may i suggest that dr. abbott elaborate this exceedingly fruitful idea, and write us another article upon the extent to which the teachings of the inspired word are modified by modern conditions, by the progress of invention and the scientific arts? the point of view which dr. abbott takes is one which had never occurred to me before, and i had therefore been completely mistaken as to the attitude of jesus on the question. also i have, like dr. abbott, many radical friends who are still laboring under error.

jesus goes on to bid his hearers: "consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin." what an apt simile is this for the "great mass of american wealth," in dr. abbott's portrayal of it! "it is serving the community," he tells us; "it is building a railway to open a new country to settlement by the homeless; it is operating a railway to carry grain from the harvests of the west to the unfed millions of the east," etc. incidentally, it is piling up dividends for its pious owners; and so everybody is happy—and jesus, if he should come back to earth, could never know that he had left the abodes of bliss above.

truly, there should be a new school of bible interpretation founded upon this brilliant idea. jesus says, "therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men." verily not; for of what avail are trumpets, compared with the millions of copies of newspapers which daily go forth to tell of mr. rockefeller's benefactions? how transitory are they, compared with the graven marble or granite which mr. carnegie sets upon the front of each of his libraries!

there is the paragraph, "neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black." i have several among my friends who are quakers; presumably dr. abbott has also; and he should not fail to point out to them the changes which scientific discovery has wrought in the significance of this command against swearing. we can now make our hair either white or black, or a combination of both. we can make it a brilliant peroxide golden; we could, if pushed to an extreme, make it purple or green. so we are clearly entitled to swear all we please by our head.

nor should we forget to examine other portions of the bible according to this method. "look not upon the wine when it is red," we are told. thanks to the activities of that capitalism which dr. abbott praises so eloquently, we now make our beverages in the chemical laboratory, and their color is a matter of choice. also, it should be pointed out that we have a number of pleasant drinks which are not wine at all—"high-balls" and "gin rickeys" and "peppered punches"; also vermouthe and creme de menthe and absinthe, which i believe, are green in hue, and therefore entirely safe.

then there are the ten commandments. "thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." see how completely our understanding of this command is changed, so soon as we realize that we are free to make images of molten metal! and that we may with impunity bow down to them and worship them and serve them—even, for instance, a golden calf!

"the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates." this, again, it will be noted, is open to new interpretations. it specifies maidservants, but does not prevent one's employing as many married women as he pleases. it also says nothing about the various kinds of labor-saving machinery which we have now taught to work for us—sail-boats, naptha launches, yachts, automobiles, and private cars—all of which may be busily occupied during the seventh day of the week. the men who run these machines—the guides, boatmen, stokers, pilots, chauffeurs, and engineers—would all indignantly resent being regarded as "servants", and so they do not come under the prohibition any more than the machines.

"thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." i read this paragraph over for the first time in quite a while, and i came with a jolt to its last words. i had been intending to point out that it said nothing about a neighbor's automobile, nor a neighbor's oil wells, sugar trusts, insurance companies and savings banks. the last words, however, stop one off abruptly. one is almost tempted to imagine that the divine intelligence must have foreseen dr. abbott's ingenious method of interpretation, and taken this precaution against him. and this was a great surprise to me—for, truly, i had not supposed it possible that such an interpretation could have been foreseen, even by omniscience itself. i will conclude this communication by venturing the assertion that it could not have been foreseen by any other person or thing, in the heavens above, on the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth. dr. abbott may accept my congratulations upon having achieved the most ingenious and masterful exhibition of casuistical legerdemain that it has ever been my fortune to encounter in my readings in the literatures of some thirty centuries and seven different languages.

and i will also add that i respectfully challenge dr. abbott to publish this letter. and i announce to him in advance that if he refuses to publish it, i will cause it to be published upon the first page of the "appeal to reason", where it will be read by some five hundred thousand socialists, and by them set before several million followers of jesus christ, the world's first and greatest revolutionist, whom dr. lyman abbott has traduced and betrayed by the most amazing piece of theological knavery that it has ever been my fortune to encounter.