now regimented for labour are not dumb
driven cattle : they are intelligent human
beings accepting all that is involved in an army
of labour in order to accomplish certain well
defined ends.
I have not dealt with the religious education here as I do so in another chapter. I can only say here that in a society where opinion on official religion is as it is in Russia, there can be no official religion. All that those of us who care for religion are entitled to ask is that religion shall have its chance.
The priests and ministers who desire to teach ethics should be allowed to do so freely and without hindrance of any kind : but as I see this matter in connection with children I must put on record my belief that Lunacharsky and his colleagues are living up to the gospel conveyed in the words, “ Suffer the little children to come unto me,” for they are giving to every child full opportunity to develop the highest and best. Unlike the British and German system, education is a means not for personal ambition and aggrandisement but for social service and if it is true we “ worship God by doing good, that deeds not words are understood,” then these Bolsheviks, feared and hated because they are feared, are the true Christians of to-day, for they hold aloft the beacon light of truth, that each child’s life is of equal value and that each
