CHAPTER XI.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR SECULAR DEMOCRACY.
Christian socialism, as a doctrine which is preached to-day, might, for anything that its name can tell us to the contrary, be as different from ordinary socialism as is Christian Science from secular--as the science of Mrs.Eddy is from the science of Mr.Edison.We can judge of it only by examining the utterances of its leading exponents.

For this reason, although I had long been familiar with the utterances of persons who call themselves Christian socialists in England, I felt bound to decline an invitation to discuss the subject in America, unless I could be furnished with some recent and formal version of the gospel as it is preached there.

Accordingly there was sent to me the precise kind of document I desired.

It formed the principal article in a journal called _The Christian Socialist_.

Its author was a clergyman,[17] and it was entitled "The Gospel for To-day." It was what I expected that it would be.