Socialism of Christ

by Austin Bierbower

  There is much in the words of Jesus, and still more in those of His disciples, to indicate that this ideal was contemplated, and its realization attempted as the object of the promised kingdom of Christ. I shall, accordingly, for the balance of this essay present what seems to be a strong case for the communism of Christ, which, however, can be maintained with consistency only on the theory of a gradual modification and subsequent reaction such as are common to all similar movements.

  Something like a complete communistic idea, I say, was entertained, if not by Christ at least by His followers. The utterances of Jesus were communistic on their face, and, when pushed to their farthest consequences, as they evidently were by His followers, they ended in something like modern Icarian communism. Let us see how naturally this was done.

  The four leading principles in this idea of socialism, (the Icarian) are : i. that there shall be no property; 2. that all men shall be provided for; 3. that each shall, for this purpose, contribute according to his ability and receive according to his wants; and, 4. that all shall labor and all serve in equal honor.

  All these ideas were more or less clearly set forth by Jesus, or at least by His immediate followers; and an effort was made to carry them into practical realization as the outcome of His system.

  The chief and the most difficult object to be obtained was the abolition of wealth. The principal opposition to communism has always come from the rich, and because of their riches. The poor have generally been ready to abandon their little, especially when there has been a prospect of getting more. Jesus had no difficulty in persuading fishermen and tax-gatherers to surrender their petty possessions; but when He came to the wealthy He met insuperable obstacles.

  He accordingly directed His efforts against wealth; condemning it as an evil and teaching men to fear it as a danger, alleging, as His experience proved, that it is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than a rich man into the kingdom of God. To the rich young man who applied for admission to His cause, and who had already proved his good moral character, He said, "Yet lackest thou one thing: Sell what thou hast and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven,and come follow me." This, if it meant anything to His contemporaries, was a blow at individual possessions. This young man was in no way different from other wealthy men, as far as the account shows, except that he was perfectly moral with all his wealth, so that the sacrifice of his wealth was not required for his morals, as commentators say. It was merely because he had wealth that Jesus wanted him to give it up, as if he disapproved of wealth as wealth, which is inconsistent with a community of goods. For Jesus said : "Yet lackest thou one thing—only one—Sell and distribute." A redistribution was wanted; and the "money bags" were required, as on all such occasions, to disgorge. So strongly did Jesus insist on this condition, that the young man, who was so good that Christ "loved him," was not admitted to membership at all; but "went away sorrowful because he was very rich." ' How hardly," thereupon says Christ, "shall they which have riches enter into the kingdom of God;" and then He utters the camel comparison again. Nobody could be admitted into such a community as His "kingdom" was at one time expected to be, except on the equal terms of surrendering his property for the benefit of all. This the rich would not do, and never will do; so that it is true,as He said,that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.''

  The disciples on hearing this utterance naturally asked, "How then can any be saved?" or how can a community succeed at all? when Jesus answered that "things impossible with men are possible with God;" conveying the impression that a forced community might be adopted, (effected, of course, in the name of God, as all great enterprises whether good or bad are). Then Peter put in his boast, "Lo! we have left all and followed thee;" whereupon followed still more strongly Christ's enunciation of the communistic idea: "Verily,

  Socialism of Christ—7

  I say unto you, there is no man that hath left houses, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting ;" an utterance containing two things; one the approval by Christ of those who give up their individual possessions, and the other His promise that they shall, by this sacrifice, get more in the end, and live happier for it. "There is no man that hath left houses, etc., * * that shall not receive manifold more in this present time,"—-more houses and lands according to the Gospel—the same promise that is made to-day by every communist, namely, that in an organized community all kinds of business and means of happiness will be better conducted than by individual enterprise ; including railroad and steamship lines, manufactures, farming, and every other branch of industry, as well as all kinds of entertainments 'and amusements, as set forth comprehensively in Cabet's "Icaria," and Bellamy's "Looking Backward."

  In fact, nothing has been too much to promise by these idealists in their schemes of perfectibility. The name of Thomas More's ideal community has furnished the strongest word in our language for exaggerated expectations— Utopian—and that of Cabet a similar word in the French language—Icarian. Plato's republic, which was also to be a community, gave similar promises; and the kingdom of Christ, so much like Plato's republic, and still more like Thomas More's Utopia, and most of all like M. Cabet's Icaria, is more prophetic and hopeful than any of them.

  Accordingly, Jesus sought by various arguments and promises to induce men to surrender their wealth, or else to think more lightly of it, with the view of arriving at some kind of a community. He particularly distinguished between giving it and lending it. He did not want to borrow of the disciples or of others, but desired to get their money absolutely, and to get them with it. "And if you lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again. But lend hoping for nothing and your reward shall be great," etc.

  It has been the uniform experience of cornmunists that persons of wealth desiring to unite with them, have been reluctant to part with their property absolutely. In most cases they have wanted only to invest it as in a stock company, or lend it temporarily to the community as an experiment, to be withdrawn if the scheme should fail. Jesus disapproved of this spirit when He said, "Lend hoping for nothing again." He wanted men to embark unreservedly, and put in their means as a final surrender.

  He wanted them, moreover, to give all they had. For there have always been some who have been willing to put in a part, and hold back the rest as a reserve, in case of failure. "He that forsaketh not all," is the substance of His remarks, "cannot be my disciple." The disciples visited terrible infliction on Ananias and Saphira for their sequestration of a part. Christ ostensibly condemned all individual possessions. We have seen how He inclined to loosen the property bonds and contrivances for security, commending the man who forgave his debtors when they could not pay, and the steward who compounded with his master's debtors by taking a part; how also He condemned the wealthy and exigent, and approved the lenient and benevolent. What the practice of His followers was, or what He taught them to practice, we may infer from the petition in the Lord's Prayer, as reported by Luke, "Forgive us our sins; for we also forgive evtry one that is indebted to us." In short He advised men to get rid of their property, as the disciples had done, and to get no return for it. "Sell that ye have and give alms." "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all, he cannot be my disciple." "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself," self-denial (of property, houses, lands, etc.) being a condition precedent— "and let him take up his cross and follow me," the cross being the red flag of that commune, which, though despised in comparison with the Roman "S. P. Q. R.," was yet to rise in honor, as the red flag of France rose to surpass in glory the white lily in the revolution.

  When a wronged heir came to Him, mistaking His doctrine of redistribution, and asked, "Speak to my brother that he divide with me," Christ said, contemptuously, "W
ho made me a judge or divider over you? Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man's life con- sisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth;" and then He related the parable of the foolish rich man, which is a further exposition of the emptiness of wealth, and of the character of the commune without it. "The ground of a certain rich man," He says, "brought forth plentifully, and he thought within himself, What shall I do ? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool! This night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself," etc.

  He then continues His exposition, in answer, I fancy, to the questions of the people as to how they could live without money or other individual means, or without providing for the future

  by some kind of accumulations, saying that they shall be provided for like the lily and the ravens by their Heavenly Father in the new kingdom, all in a manner that we shall hereafter explain. But He uncompromisingly keeps to the point, " Sell that ye have, and provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure that fadeth not," etc.; alleging, like the Icarians, that they cannot be genuine communists if they have individual possessions; " for where your treasure is there will your heart be also." And subsequently, when His disciples entered on this common life, which we shall presently describe, they acted out the directions of Jesus in the smallest particulars. For, it is related that, "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one mind; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, but they held all things common;" that is, they had no individual 'possessions. Thus did Jesus and His apostles, by precept and by example, appear to wage continual war against property and its rights, as the first prerequisite of communism.

  The next requisite of a community is that all shall be provided for. Though no one is to possess anything, all are to have the whole; and none are to lack anything which the whole can furnish. This idea is specially set forth by Jesus. He tells His followers, in view of His expected community, or "kingdom", that they need not be concerned, or even take thought, about their food, drink, or clothing, these being all provided for out of the general fund; but like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, they may be thoughtless, careless, and doless, except as to the work assigned them in the kingdom. All the wants of men are to be provided for by system, and the individual is to care only to fill his place in that system.

  The boasted advantage of the community is that it is to rid the individual of his temporal and physical anxieties, which now render so many unhappy; and to keep him free for the higher intellectual and moral considerations. For, as Christ pertinently asks, "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? "

  And for the future, as well as the present, He gives the same advice; inasmuch as next to the Actual wants of the present the apprehended ones *rf the future give most trouble. " Take, therefore," He says, "no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself;" that is, the community will provide for the future as well as the present. "Take no thought for your life," His words are, "what ye shall eat, neither for your body, what ye shall put on * * Consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them; how much more are ye better than the fowls ? Consider the lilies how they grow; they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If, then, God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith ? And seek ye not what ye shall eat, or whatye shall drink, neither be of doubtful mind;" as much as to say, these things will be provided in the community, where the people will not feel the lack of them in their individual capacity. "For all these things," He continues, "do the nations of the world seek after," or those who have not entered into a community; "and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things," so that they will not be neglected. "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God," He adds, '' and all these things shall be added to you." In other words He advises them to enter into the proposed kingdom, and promises that whatever they shall actually need, they shall have from the very fact that they need it. "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be o'pened unto you; for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Nor need it be feared, as is sometimes done, that the authorities, or majority in the community, will not judge properly for the individual, and so refuse him what he may really need, or apportion him an unsuitable work or allotment. "For," says Christ, comparing the Divine Leader and Author of the commune with an individual father, " What man is there of you whom, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone, or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent ? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him." All that is required, He assures them, is for all to observe the following rule— the sina qua non of communism—"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; " in other words, let every one do his duty and all will have their rights accorded to them.

  And also, in view of the near approach of this kingdom or community, Christ advised His disciples that in the meanwhile, until the actual community should be established, they should carry out their communistic principles as far as this was possible in their individual manner of life.

  On sending His apostles out on the work of propagation, He said to them, "Provide neither gold, nor silver nor brass in your purse, nor scrip for your journey, nor two coats, nor staves nor shoes. And in the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they give." In other words, they are to live off the people. If anybody should want an explanation of their conduct, He advises them to give this reason: "Say to the people, the kingdom of God is come nigh to you;" that is, tell them that this conduct is preparatory to what will be done more fully in the new kingdom.

  At all events He assures them that in the new kingdom all things will be provided, and that in the meanwhile it is preparation time; that dwellings, numerous and palatial, food and raiment in abundance and at seasonable times, and all else that is needed will be ever at hand. "In my Father's house" He says, "are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." There will be, He tells them, "a faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over His household, to give them their portion of meat in due season," and the " Lord Himself when He cometh, shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." No wonder that under such representations, one of the poor, hungry miserable!, such as it was the object of this community to relieve, cried out, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." "And I appoint unto you," says Christ, "a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom;" and, as showing the special advantage of this kingdom or community, to them, most of whom are poor and can bring nothing to the common fund, as is the case with nearly all who are ready to enter a community, He says, "I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor; other men labored and ye are entered into their labors;" so that it is true, in the beginning of the community at least, that "One man soweth and another reapeth."

  And, farther on, when the community was fully established and in operation, we are told, -' Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made to every man according as he had need." The community of the early Christians was carried on in ne
arly every respect like that of the Icarians in Adams County, Iowa, where the process corresponds closely with what is here described. All the members give up their property of whatever kind, and have a common fund and common officials— stewards, heads of industry, agriculture, etc., from which all are supplied alike with what they need., according as they may all, in council assembled, determine, or, in minor matters, as their officers may determine for them.

  This community ot the early Christians is also, in most respects, like that of the Herrnhueters, or Moravians, of Germany, and of the Ebenezers, near Iowa City, Iowa, where the same principles are put in practice, these last two communities being professedly formed on the model of the community of the apostles. It is also, in many respects, like that of the Fouriers, formerly established in New Jersey, and like the various other communities that have been established in modern times. Whatever, in short, may be the varieties of communism—whether Icarian, Fourier, St. Si- monian, Blanquist, or co-operative—the people are all provided for, as to their actual wants, from a common fund, which all the property and all the labor of all the members go to supply.

  In the apostolic community just as in the present, or recently existing, communities of this country, there was a common treasurer to receive the proceeds and make the expenditures. Judas, we are told, "had the bag to buy those things of which the disciples had need;" and, as in some modern cases, the treasurer was not the most honest person among them, the temptation of his office being then, as now, too much for his principles. "He was a thief,"we are told, " and held the bag."