For I
cannot help thinking that in a way these latter people are right. No
reasonable man can read the Sermon on the Mount and think that its
tone is not very different from that of most collectivist speculation
of the present day, and the Philistines feel this, though they cannot
distinctly express it. There is a difference between Christ's
Socialist program and that of our own time, a difference deep,
genuine and all important, and it is this which I wish to point out.
Let us take two types side by side, or rather the same type in the
two different atmospheres. Let us take the "rich young man" of the
Gospels and place beside him the rich young man of the present day,
on the threshold of Socialism. If we were to follow the difficulties,
theories, doubts, resolves, and conclusions of each of these
characters, we should find two very distinct threads of
self-examination running through the two lives. And the essence of
the difference was this: the modern Socialist is saying, "What will
society do?" while his prototype, as we read, said, "What shall I
do?" Properly considered, this latter sentence contains the whole
essence of the older Communism.
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