Giant Hours With Poet Preachers

Giant Hours With Poet
Preachers [with accents]

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Title: Giant Hours With Poet Preachers
Author: William L. Stidger
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[Illustration: EDWIN MARKHAM ]
GIANT HOURS WITH POET PREACHERS
BY
WILLIAM L. STIDGER
Introduction by Edwin Markham

To WHITE-SOULED EDWIN MARKHAM DEMOCRACY'S VOICE,
HUMANITY'S FRIEND I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION.
FOREWORD.
AMERICAN POETS:
I. EDWIN MARKHAM.
II. VACHEL LINDSAY.
III. JOAQUIN MILLER.
IV. ALAN SEEGER.
ENGLISH POETS
V. JOHN OXENHAM.
VI. ALFRED NOYES.
VII. JOHN MASEFIELD.
VIII. ROBERT SERVICE.
IX. RUPERT BROOKE.

LIST OF PORTRAITS:
EDWIN MARKHAM.

VACHEL LINDSAY.
JOAQUIN MILLER.
ALAN SEEGER.
JOHN OXENHAM.
ALFRED NOYES.
JOHN MASEFIELD.
ROBERT SERVICE.
RUPERT BROOKE.

INTRODUCTION
In writing to the readers of Mr. Stidger's book I feel as though I were
writing to old friends, friends who may have an interest in knowing
some of the thoughts that I hold regarding questions of the hour and
questions of the future.
The Christian as he looks out upon the battling and broken world sees
much to sadden his heart. Thinkers are everywhere asking, "Is
Christianity a failure?" I hasten to assure you that Christianity has not
failed, for Christianity has nowhere been tried yet, nowhere been tried
in a large social sense. Christianity has been tried by individuals, and it
has been found to be comforting and transforming. But it has never
been tried by any large group of people in any one place--never by a
whole city--never by a whole kingdom---never by a whole people. It is
for this trial that the watching angels are waiting.
Our holy religion is not a saving power merely for individuals; it is also
a saving power for society in its industrial order. We have applied it to
the individual in the past, but we have never made any wholehearted
effort to make religion the working principle of society. Religion is
always cooperative and brotherly, but we have not yet made any
earnest effort to apply the cooperative and brotherly principle to
business. We have tried to persuade the individual to express the ideals
of the Sermon on the Mount, but we have made no earnest effort to
urge society to express the ideals of the Sermon on the Mount.
Therefore, while it is true that we have individual Christians--men and
women who make noble sacrifices in their effort to live the good life--it
is also true that we have no Christian society anywhere on earth, no
Christian civilization anywhere under the stars. Sometimes a careless
talker will refer to our social order as "a Christian civilization." All

such references, dear friends, disturb our hearts; for they prove that the
speaker has no conception of what a Christian civilization would be,
how noble and brotherly it would be. Five minutes' reading of the
Sermon on the Mount will convince any alert mind that we are yet
thousands of miles from a Christian civilization. To speak of only one
thing, it is certain that in a Christian civilization these cruel riches we
see standing side by side with these cruel poverties could not exist; they
would all crumble and vanish away in the fire of the social passion of
the Christ.
If we have not a Christian civilization, what have we? We have a
civilization that is half barbaric; we have a social order with a light
sprinkling of Christians in it. It is the hope of the future that this body
of earnest Christian men and women will awaken to the call of the
social Christ, awake determined to infuse his spirit into the industrial