{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62420/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62420","id":"gutenberg_62420","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62420","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Socialism and Christianity"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1800\u2019s Religious Tract Society pamphlet by David\nPrice, email ccx074@pglaf.org\n\n                      [Picture: Public domain cover]\n\n\n\n\n\n                           TALK ABOUT SOCIALISM\n                          WITH AN OLD SHOPMATE.\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n              THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, INSTITUTED 1799.\n           56, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 65, ST. PAUL\u2019S CHURCHYARD.\n\nTHINKS I to myself the other sabbath afternoon, as I sat alone with my\nBible before me\u2014thinks I to myself, that was a comforting text in God\u2019s\nholy word that our minister preached from this morning; \u201cAll things work\ntogether for good to them that love God:\u201d and a capital sermon it was,\ntoo, that he gave us; for though it cut me to the heart on account of my\nsins, it brought the tears into my eyes, on account of God\u2019s mercy and\ngrace.\n\nWell, I read the chapter that the text was taken from all to myself; for\nmy Nancy was gone to public worship, and I was left to take care of the\nhouse, and our little Mary, and the young one in the cradle.  The house\nwas clean and tidy, and everything was quiet, and I felt happy like.\nTrust me for having as many cares as my neighbours; a poor man ought not\nto expect to be without them, nor, for the matter of that, a rich man\nneither: but I felt happy, and though I said nothing, my heart thanked\nGod.\n\nThinks I to myself, we are bad enough as it is; ay, the very best of us;\nbut if places of worship were to be shut up, and we had no ministers to\npreach to us, and had no Bibles to read, we should be a deal worse than\nwe are: and this set me a thinking about the blessing of the sabbath day,\nand the comfort of prayer, and the peace of mind there is in thinking of\nthe salvation of Christ, and the promises of God.  Not that I can always\nget the comfort from them as I could wish, for I am a poor ignorant\ncreature, and the turn of a straw is enough, at times, to turn my\nthoughts from good things to bad.  But I felt, as I said, happy like in\nthe quietness that a God fearing man enjoys on the sabbath day, and in\nthe peace of that religion in which my dear father and mother before me\nhad lived and died; and I was determined, with God\u2019s help, to stick to\nit, while I had any breath in my body.  Thinks I, there is many of us\nthat have sadly stood in our own light, in neglecting the sabbath and\nholy things.  What fools we are to cheat ourselves as we do!  When we run\nafter our follies, the jack o\u2019 lanterns that dance before us, and lead us\nastray, no wonder that we get into the mire; \u201cbut they that wait upon the\nLord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as\neagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not\nfaint,\u201d Isaiah xl. 31.\n\nAs I sat musing in this way over my Bible, the door-way was darkened a\nlittle, all on a sudden; so I lifted up my head, and there I saw Tom\nFletcher with a lot of books in his hand.\n\nTom was once a shopmate of mine; and, though I never took him to be a\nvery wise man, nor over bright in his upper story, yet, for all that, he\nwas better than many.  He had brought his books on purpose to talk to me\nabout them.  In a minute or two we were in the thick of them.\n\nSays he, \u201cI have not seen you for some time; and since you and I met, I\nhave joined the Socialists.\u201d  \u201cJoined who?\u201d says I.  \u201cWhy,\u201d says he, \u201cthe\nSocialists;\u201d and with that he told me all about it.  By his account it\nseemed that the world had been going round the wrong way ever since it\nwas made, but the Socialists were going to put matters to rights again.\n\u201cJust shut up your Bible,\u201d says he, \u201cand I will show you my books.\u201d\n\nNow I had heard of the Socialists before, and as I had not the best\nopinion of them, I thought my Bible quite as good, and a pretty deal\nbetter than their books.  \u201cTom,\u201d says I, \u201ca bird in the hand is worth two\nin the bush.  If I shut my Bible, you are not likely to open as good a\nbook, I have a notion; so we had better let well alone.\u201d  But Tom was\nvery pressing; and so, putting his books on the table, he began to tell\nme, that the Socialists had no object in the world but the good of\nmankind; that everything had been for ages, and now was, all sixes and\nsevens; and that matters were not likely to be mended, till, burning our\nBibles, and putting aside religion, and all our other fanciful notions,\nwe became Socialists.\n\nThinks I to myself, Great cry and little wool, Tom; but as I had never\nlooked into any of the books of the Socialists, I picked up the one that\nlay at the top, and turned over a few pages, dipping here and there.\n\nI suppose the colour came into my cheeks; for Tom looked hard at me.\n\u201cTom,\u201d says I, \u201cif so be that I haven\u2019t been walking on my head instead\nof my heels all the days of my life, and if I know black from white, why\nthen this book of yours is an indecent and abominable book, that I should\nbe ashamed to put into any body\u2019s hand.  Is it possible that Tom\nFletcher, my old shopmate, can hold\u2014\u201d  \u201cOh,\u201d says Tom, looking as sharp\nas a hawk at the book in my hand, \u201coh,\u201d says he, \u201cI didn\u2019t mean you to\nsee that!  I thought I had put that number a one side.  I don\u2019t hold\nexactly with it.\u201d  \u201cDon\u2019t hold exactly with it!\u201d says I; \u201cwhy it\u2019s no\nmore fit to be touched than a tarred stick.  If the rest of your books\nare like it, a precious lot they must be altogether.\u201d\n\nTom looked a little queerish, as if he was ashamed of the book and of\nhimself too.  Thinks I to myself, Now\u2019s my time to have a rap at him; for\nthough I feel kindly to him, yet as he seems to want it, a rap on the\nknuckles mayhap will do him good.\n\n\u201cAnd so, Tom,\u201d says I, \u201cthis is one of the books of the Socialists, is\nit?  One of the books that you want to recommend to me?  Now tell me if\nyou really think in your heart and conscience that that book is fit to be\nread by anybody?\u201d\n\nTom looked first one way, then another; he was all abroad.  At last, says\nhe, \u201cI meant to burn that book.\u201d  \u201cGlad to hear it,\u201d says I; so taking up\nthe book, with his consent, I poked it between the bars of the grate, and\na rare blaze it made, flaring half way up to the mantel piece, giving\nmore light to the world than it had ever done before, or ever would have\ndone in any other way.\n\nSays I to Tom, when the filthy book was burned, says I, \u201cTom, when a man\ngoes to market to buy a cheese, and the cheesemonger pushes in his borer\nthat he may taste it, if he doesn\u2019t like the bit that he bores out, it\nsets him against the whole cheese; for he naturally expects that one is\nlike the other.  Now it is just the same with your books: birds of a\nfeather, you know, flock together; and as one of them has turned out to\nbe a black crow, I hardly expect to find the rest of \u2019em to be white\npigeons.\u201d\n\nWell, I took up all his books, one after another: some things in them I\ndid understand and some I did\u2019nt; for there was so much about\n_impressions_, and _principles_, and _institutions_, and _propensities_\nand _organizations_ that it flustered me.  It was clear that a longer\nhead than mine had been concerned in getting \u2019em up; so all that I could\ndo was to try to get at some of the marrow of them here and there.\n\nI\u2019m not over clever at book learning, but still I had gumption enough to\nmake out a few points that settled my opinion about Socialism.  I saw, or\nthought I saw, that the god of the Socialists was only a \u201cCause of all\nexistences;\u201d that he never troubled his head about us, and that we ought\nnever to trouble our heads about him.  That, in fact, there was no such\nGod, in the Socialists\u2019 opinion, as the gracious Almighty Being whom\nChristians worship.\n\nI saw, too, that Socialists believed the Bible to be a lie, trumped up to\nkeep silly people in bondage: that marriage was considered \u201cthe greatest\ncrime against nature,\u201d that ought to be done away with; that theft,\nadultery, blasphemy, and murder were no crimes, for man was \u201cnot a\nresponsible being;\u201d he was \u201cneither to be blamed or praised, rewarded or\npunished for either his thoughts, feelings, or actions;\u201d that death was\n\u201csimply a change of one organization for another;\u201d and that the Christian\nnotions of hell, heaven, and hereafter were all a bag full of moonshine.\n\nNow it grieved me that an old shopmate of mine should have tumbled into\nsuch a bog hole as Socialism; but thinks I, mayhap, after all, he has\nonly been led out of the way by sharper fellows than himself, and doesn\u2019t\nabove half believe the juggling claptraps that are printed in his books;\nso I said to him, \u201cTom, look at me and answer me this question, Do you\nbelieve that there is a God?\u201d  Tom blinked, and shuffled, and stammered,\nand opened one of the books and read a bit about \u201cnature,\u201d and a \u201cfirst\ncause,\u201d and \u201ca general principle,\u201d and a \u201csupreme power,\u201d and \u201can\nexternal cause of all existence,\u201d and an \u201call pervading cause of motion\nand change;\u201d but I stopped him at once.\n\n\u201cTom,\u201d said I, \u201cyou may spare yourself the trouble of running over that\nlong rigmarole; for I\u2019m not to have dust flung in my eyes in that way.  I\ndo not want to know what _your book says_, but what _you believe_; so\nanswer my question.  A handful of good grain is better than a bushel of\nchaff, and a yes or a no can be understood by any body.  Do you believe\nthat there is a gracious and merciful God, that you are bound to fear and\nto love with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and\nwith all your strength, to worship him, to give him thanks, to put your\nwhole trust in him, to call upon him, to honour his holy name and his\nword, and to serve him truly all the days of your life?\u201d\n\nI saw that whether Tom said yes or no, it was all one, for he didn\u2019t know\nwhich to say.  It suited him better to read to me out of his books than\nit did to answer my questions; but I asked him another question.  \u201cTom,\u201d\nsays I, \u201cdo you really believe that the Bible is a lie?  You don\u2019t doubt\nthe history of England, the history of Rome, and the history of Greece,\nand these have never been kept with half the care, nor gone through a\ntenth part of the sifting that the Bible has.  Do you really believe that\nthe Bible is a lie?\u201d  Tom had not the boldness to say that he did; and I\nfelt sure in my heart that he did not think it was.  \u201cTom,\u201d says I, \u201care\nyou so far gone as to think that marriage is a foolish and wicked\ninstitution?  I thought your sister was going to be married; is it all\noff, then, or is she to disgrace you and her family?\u201d\n\nThis question twisted Tom as much as the last, and I saw that I was about\nas likely to get a badger out of his hole, as to get an answer from him.\n\u201cWell,\u201d says I, \u201cTom, I\u2019ll say nothing about your sister, if its\ndisagreeable, but ask you another question instead.  Have you so little\nuprightness left in your deceived heart as to suppose that theft,\nadultery, blasphemy, and murder are no reproach to a man; and that any\none may set up the trade of a robber on the highway, and justify himself\nby saying that he cannot help it, for \u2018his character is formed for him by\ncircumstances?\u2019\u201d\n\nTom was not at all staunch; he did not stick up like one that believes\nand has confidence in what he says.  \u201cTom,\u201d says I, \u201ct\u2019other day a loaded\ncart was standing in the road half way up Gravelly Hill, with the wheels\nscotched, when a mischievous lad knocked the stones from under the\nwheels, and away went the loaded cart, over his foot, rattling down the\nhill, clearing every thing before it.  The young urchin was half\nfrightened out of his wits; he set the cart off easily enough, but not\nthe whole neighbourhood could stop it.  Now I take it, Tom, that the\nyoung rapscallion played just the same game as the Socialists are\nplaying, with this difference, that the wheel of the cart only went over\nhis toes, whereas the mischief that the Socialists are setting on foot\nwill in the long run, go over their own necks.\u201d\n\nTom kept fumbling at his books, not knowing what to be at.  He wanted\nsomebody to back him.  He believed his books just as much, and no more,\nthan he would have believed any other tale of a tub, told him by a\ncleverer fellow than himself.\n\n\u201cTom,\u201d says I, \u201cwhen a man once turns his back upon God, there is no\nfolly and no sin that he may not be led to commit.  You have gone a long\nway, and I\u2019m sorry for it; but I hardly think you are gone as far as your\nfamous books will take you.  Speak up now like a man, and tell me, have\nyou been fooled into the belief that there is no hereafter?\u2014no hell, and\nno heaven?\u201d\n\nAt this Tom looked like any thing but a conjurer.  At length he said that\nif I would read more of his books I should understand them better than I\ndid.\n\n\u201cRead your books, Tom!\u201d says I, \u201cI should just as soon think of taking a\ndose of arsenic.  A pretty deal rather had I walk barefoot through Boxley\nBog, and many a better man than me has been stuck fast there,\u2014a pretty\ndeal rather had I do that, than turn Socialist.  If I wanted to be worse\nthan I am, to deprive myself of all hope, and to plunge myself into\ndespair, I couldn\u2019t do a better thing than read your trumpery; but as it\nis, I will have nothing to do with it.  Tom,\u201d says I, \u201cyou are no fool in\ndriving a bargain: you would not be persuaded to exchange a quartern loaf\nfor a handful of sawdust.  Now Socialism takes away from a Christian man\nthe Bible that comforts him, the sabbath that is his delight, the God\nthat he worships, the Saviour that died for him, and the heaven that he\nhopes for: tell me, then, Tom, what does it give him in return?\u201d\n\nIf ever poor fellow was confounded, it was Tom Fletcher.  Had he been\nsitting on a furze bush, he could hardly have been more fidgetty.  He got\nout a few words, but they were very scarce and a long way apart; and as\nhe could\u2019nt well put \u2019em together, no wonder that I can\u2019t.\n\nWell, I had only been firing at him, as it were, a pop, now and then,\nfrom a long way off, but now I was determined to bear upon him all at\nonce.\n\n\u201cIt isn\u2019t for me, Tom,\u201d says I, \u201cthat am not what I ought to be by a\ngreat deal\u2014it isn\u2019t for me, knowing as I do a little of the wickedness of\nmy own heart, to deal out fire and brimstone against my fellow sinners,\nand to pretend that I am white as snow and they as black as soot; but for\nall that, Tom, we may be too tender with one another.  If I see an adder\nlying in a thoroughfare where he may sting the passer by, I\u2019m bound to\ndisable him; and if I see a mad dog, foaming at the mouth, running\nthrough the crowded street, I\u2019m bound, if I can, to kill him.  Now the\nadder and the mad dog are not likely to do half the mischief that your\nbooks are, and therefore I hold up both my hands, and cry out aloud\nagainst them.\n\n\u201cLook you,\u201d says I, \u201cTom, there lies the Bible.  It condemns every thing\nthat is evil, even every sinful thought, and upholds every thing that is\ngood.  It teaches me to fear God, and to love my neighbour; and tells me,\nsinner as I am, that there is mercy for me through Jesus Christ who died\nfor sinners.  It gives me comfort in life, it promises me support in\ndeath, and holds up before me the bright prospect of a happy eternity;\nand it has done this for thousands who have left this world in peace, and\nwho are now, as I believe, in a world of glory.\n\n\u201cAnd there, Tom, be your wretched books, which tell me, that is, if I at\nall understand them, that there is no God; that the Bible is a lie; that\nmarriage is a foolish institution; that men ought to live just as they\nthink proper; that theft, adultery, blasphemy and murder are no crimes;\nthat there is neither hell nor heaven; and that it is idle to dream of a\nhereafter.\n\n\u201cIf I know my own heart, Tom, or even any part of it, I wouldn\u2019t\nknowingly say a cruel thing of a butcher\u2019s dog; but this I will say, that\nI should as soon expect to be taught manners by a Hottentot, cleanliness\nby a sweep, honesty by a highwayman, and godliness by a heathen, as to be\nmade either wiser, better, holier, or happier by having any thing to do\nwith Socialism.  But what says that book?  \u2018The grace of God that\nbringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying\nungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and\ngodly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the\nglorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who\ngave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and\npurify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,\u2019 Titus ii.\n11\u201314.\u201d\n\nNever did a poor fellow caught in the fact of robbing a hen-roost, slink\naway in a more humble, chopfallen spirit than poor Tom Fletcher did.\nWhether he will ever bring me another batch of his Socialism books or\nnot, I can\u2019t tell; but if he does, the first question that I shall ask\nhim will be this, What have you got to offer me in exchange for the\nconsolations of my Bible, the comfort of prayer, the peace of the\nsabbath, the goodness of God, the mercy of the Redeemer, and the\nnever-ending joys of heaven?  And never till he gives me something like a\nreasonable answer will I ever open another of his books on Socialism.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nHYMN.\n\n\n   GOD, in the gospel of his Son,\n   Makes his eternal counsels known;\n   \u2019Tis here his richest mercy shines,\n   And truth is drawn in fairest lines.\n\n   Here sinners of an humble frame,\n   May taste his grace and learn his name;\n   \u2019Tis writ in characters of blood,\n   Severely just, immensely good.\n\n   Wisdom its dictates here imparts,\n   To form our minds, to cheer our hearts;\n   Its influence makes the sinner live,\n   It bids the drooping saint revive.\n\n   Our raging passions it controls,\n   And comfort yields to contrite souls;\n   It brings a better world in view,\n   And guides us all our journey through.\n\n   May this bless\u2019d volume ever lie\n   Close to my heart, and near my eye,\n   Till life\u2019s last hour my soul engage,\n   And be my chosen heritage!\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n  _London_: _Printed by_ W. CLOWES _and_ SONS, _Duke street_, _Lambeth_,\n   _for_ THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; _and told at the Depository_, 56,\n   _Paternoster row_, _and_ 65, _St. Paul\u2019s Churchyard_; _by_ J. NISBET\n     _and_ Co., 21, _Berners street_, _Oxford street_;_ and by other\n                              Booksellers_.\n                     [_Price_ 2_s._ 4_d._ _per_ 100]\n         _Considerable Allowance to Subscribers and Booksellers_.","title":"Talk about Socialism with an old shopmate","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":3499}