Charity and all the other ten thousand devices are only temporary expedients,altogether insufficient to meet the necessity.Work,apart from the fact that it is God's method of supplying the wants of man's composite nature,is an essential to his well-being in every way--and on this Plan there is work,honourable work--none of your demoralising stone-breaking,or oakum-picking business,which tantalises and insults poverty,Every worker will feel that he is not only occupied for his own benefit,but that any advantage reaped over and above that which he gains himself will serve to lift some other poor wretch out of the gutter.
There would be work within the capacity of all.Every gift could be employed.For instance,take five persons on the Farm--a baker,a tailor,a shoemaker,a cook,and an agriculturist.The baker would make bread for all,the tailor garments for all,the shoemaker shoes for all,the cook would cook for all,and the agriculturist dig for all.
Those who know anything which would be useful to the inhabitants of the Colony will be set to do it,and those who are ignorant of any trade or profession will be taught one.
This Scheme removes the vicious and criminal classes out of the sphere of those temptations before which they have invariably fallen in the past.Our experience goes to show that when you have,by Divine grace,or by any consideration of the advantages of a good life,or the disadvantages of a bad one,produced in a man circumstanced as those whom we have been describing,the resolution to turn over a new leaf,the temptations and difficulties he has to encounter will ordinarily master him,and undo all that has been done,if he still continues to be surrounded by old companions and allurements to sin.
Now,look at the force of the temptations this class has to fight against.What is it that leads people to do wrong--people of all classes,rich as well as poor?Not the desire to sin.They do not want to sin;many of them do not know what sin is,but they have certain appetites or natural likings,the indulgence of which is pleasant to them,and when the desire for their unlawful gratification is aroused,regardless of the claims of God,their own highest interests,or the well-being of their fellows,they are carried away by them;and thus all the good resolutions they have made in the past come to grief.
For instance,take the temptation which comes through the natural appetite,hunger.Here is a man who has been at a religious meeting,or received some good advice,or,perhaps,just come out of prison,with the memories of the hardships he has suffered fresh upon him,or the advice of the chaplain ringing in his ears.He has made up his mind to steal no more,but he has no means of earning a livelihood.
He becomes hungry.What is he to do?A loaf of bread tempts him,or,more likely,a gold chain which he can turn into bread.An inward struggle commences,he tries to stick to his bargain,but the hunger goes on gnawing within,and it may be there is a wife and children hungry as well as himself;so he yields to the temptation,takes the chain,and in turn the policeman takes him.
Now this man does not want to do wrong,and still less does he want to go to prison.In a sincere,dreamy way he desires to be good,and if the path were easier for him he would probably walk in it.
Again,there is the appetite for drink.That man has no thought of sinning when he takes his first glass.Much less does he want to get drunk.He may have still a vivid recollection of the unpleasant consequences that followed his last spree,but the craving is on him;the public-house is there handy;his companions press him;he yields,and falls,and,perhaps,falls to rise no more.
We might amplify,but our Scheme proposes to take the poor slave right away from the public-houses,the drink,and the companions that allure him to it,and therefore we think the chances of reformation in him are far greater.
Then think of the great boon this Scheme will be to the children,bringing them out of the slums,wretched hovels,and filthy surroundings in which they are being reared for lives of abomination of every description,into the fields,amongst the green trees and cottage homes,where they can grow up with a chance of saving both body and soul.
Think again of the change this Scheme will make for these poor creatures from the depressing,demoralising surroundings,of the unsightly,filthy quarters in which they are huddled together,to the pure air and sights and sounds of the country.There is much talk about the beneficial influence of pictures,music and literature upon the multitudes.Money,like water,is being poured forth to supply such attractions in Museums,People's Palaces,and the like,for the edification and amelioration of the social condition of the masses.
But "God made the country,man made the town,"and if we take the people to the pictures of divine manufacture,that must be the superior plan.
Again,the Scheme is capable of illimitable application.The plaister can be made as large as the wound.The wound is certainly a very extensive one,and it seems at first sight almost ridiculous for any private enterprise to attempt dealing with it.Three millions of people,living in little short of perpetual misery have to be reached and rescued out of this terrible condition.But it can be done,and this Scheme will do it,if it is allowed a fair chance.Not all at once?True!It will take time,but it will begin to tell on the restering mass straight away.Within a measurable distance we ought to be able to take out of this black sea at least a hundred individuals a week,and there is no reason why this number should not go on increasing.
