Excerpt from Christianity and the Social Order It may not be out of place to say a word as to the way in which I have come to be identified with the Socialist movement. The first and most obvious influence in this direction was the study of Christian origins, which led me gradually but irresistibly to see that the first Christian preachers did not know of any other gospel than that of a universal brotherhood on earth. I have never been anything else than a liberal in theology - all assertions to the contrary notwith standing - but my way of presenting the truth in the earlier years of my ministry was necessarily less clear and coherent than at present, for it rested too much on the other-worldism of con ventional Christian preaching. The realisation that this other-worldism was totally absent from primitive Christian thought forced me, like so many others, upon What was practically the Socialist position without any first-hand acquaint ance with the Socialist movement itself. Inow regard Socialism as the practical expression of Christian ethics and the evangel of Jesus. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.