Practicable Socialism
Henrietta Octavia Weston Barnett
9781465655936
188 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The first edition of Practicable Socialism was printed in 1888, the second in 1894. Now, twenty-one years afterwards, a new series is issued, but the most important of the two authors, alas! has left the world, and it therefore falls to me to write the introduction alone. In selecting the papers for this volume, out of a very great deal of material, the principle followed has been to print those which deal with reforms yet waiting to be fully accomplished. It would have been easier and perhaps pleasanter to have taken the subjects dealt with in the previous volumes, and by grouping subsequent papers together, have shown how many of the reforms then indicated as desirable and “practicable,” had now become accepted and practised. But so to do would not have been in harmony with our feelings. My husband counted the sin of “numbering the people” as due to a debased moral outlook, and the contemplation of “results” as tending to hinder nobler efforts after that which is deeper than can be calculated. Of him it is truthful to quote “His soul’s wings never furled”. The papers have been grouped in subject sections, and though the ideas have for many years been set forth by him in various publications, in most instances the writings here reproduced are under six years old. In a few cases, however, I have used quite an old paper, thinking it gave, with hopeful vision, thoughts which later lost their freshness as they became accomplished facts. The book begins with The Religion of the People and Cathedral Reform, for Canon Barnett held with unvarying certainty that—to quote his own words—“there is no other end worth reaching than the knowledge of God, which is eternal life,”—and that “organizations are only machinery of which the driving power is human love, and of which the object is the increase of the knowledge of God”. To this test our plans and undertakings were constantly brought. “Does our work give ‘life’ by bringing men nearer to God and nearer to one another.” “In the knowledge of what ‘life’ is, let us put our work to the test.” “Do the Church Services release divine hopes buried under the burden of daily cares?” “Do the new buildings refine manners?” “Does higher teaching tend to higher thoughts about duty?” “Does our relief system help to heal a broken dignity as well as to comfort a sufferer?” “Do our entertainments develop powers for enjoying the best in humanity past and present?” That the Church should be reformed to make it the servant of all who would lead the higher life, was the hope he cherished throughout many years spent in strenuous efforts to obtain a social betterment. He writes: “The great mass of the people, because they stand apart from all religious communions, may have in them a religious sense, but their thought of God is not worked through their emotions into their daily lives. They do not know what they worship, and so do not say with the psalmist, ‘My soul is athirst for the living god,’ or say with Joseph, ‘How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ The spiritualization of life being necessary to human peace and happiness, the problem which is haunting this generation is how to spiritualize the forces which are shaping the future.” My husband urged that the reform of the Church would tend to solve that problem. “The Church by its history and organization has a power no other agency can wield. If more freedom could be given to its system of government and services, if it could be made directly expressive of the highest aspirations of the people, it is difficult to exaggerate the effect it might have. In every parish a force would be brought to bear which might kindle thought, so that it would reach out to the highest object; which might stir love, so that men would forget themselves in devotion to the whole; and which might create a hope wherein all would find rest. The first need of the age is an increase of Spirituality, and the means of obtaining it is a Reformed Church.”
