^ 
 
 ■ I WI I IUUH M UIH H! 
 
 DEMOCRACTand 
 THE CHUKCH 
 
 so 
 
 F AvAGAR 
 
 niUIIff(n«HItnMl«IHMt««MI*<*fllHIMNMMmMIMMIM 
 
So 
 ■A'i 
 
Democracy and the Church 
 
Democracy and the 
 Church 
 
 21 
 
 By 
 F. A. AGAR 
 
 Author of '*Dead or Alive,'* **Help Those 
 Women ! " etc. 
 
 New York Chicago 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1919, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York : 1 58 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago : 1 7 North Wabash Ave. 
 London : 2 1 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh : 75 Princes Street 
 
Preface 
 
 DEMOCRACY is paramount in the 
 minds of the people of this generation. 
 The spirit of democracy is hke the star 
 in the West which drew towards it the Wise Men 
 of the East. The wise and good men of all the 
 world are turning with courage and hope towards 
 true democracy. 
 
 The need of the world for peace and justice, 
 for progress and prosperity, can only be met as 
 the principles of democracy govern nations and 
 people. Therefore, other forms of government 
 are giving place to democracy. 
 
 Herein the Church of Jesus Christ finds re- 
 ward and encouragement, for true Christianity 
 has ever been the opponent of autocracy and the 
 exponent of democracy. The only hope fur 
 democratic principles to rule in the world is 
 found in the Hfe and teaching of Jesus Christ. 
 
 This study has been made for the purpose of 
 assisting Christian democracy in making a self- 
 examination which will enable it to occupy in 
 the immediate future the place of inllueuce and 
 5 
 
6 PEEFACE 
 
 power that must be filled by the great institution 
 called the Church. 
 
 If democracy is to fill the world with hope, 
 peace, justice, and progress, the Church of Jesus 
 Christ must take her place of leadership and reveal 
 to all men the powers and wonders produced 
 within her fellowship by the fundamental spirit 
 and governing principles of a Christian democ- 
 racy. 
 
 The spirit and teachings of Jesus are in truth 
 the aims and purposes of a true democracy. 
 There is hope for democracy in the world in 
 proportion as these animate and control the 
 membership of His Church. No more, no less. 
 
 If this book helps inaugurate the great Chris- 
 tian democracy to achieve its purpose, the grati- 
 tude of the author will be shared by several of 
 his friends who have been of great help in the 
 preparation of the material herein contained. 
 
 F. A. A. 
 
 New Tork, 
 
Contents 
 
 I. The Ideal Democracy ... 6 
 
 II. Democracy and Efficiency . . 31 
 
 III. Democracy and Inefficiency . . 52 
 W. Democracy and Discipline . . 76 
 
ANALYSIS— CHAPTER I 
 
 THE IDEAL DEMOCRACY 
 
 1. Democracy to-day. 
 
 2. A world safe for Democracy. 
 
 3. Democracy made safe for the world. 
 
 4. The Church as the ideal Democracy : 
 (i) There are autocracies in religion. 
 
 5. Some definitions of Democracy. 
 
 6. Four definitions of Christian Democracy. 
 
 7. Fourth definition applied to the local church 
 
 should produce definite results : 
 (i) Surrendered individualism. 
 
 (2) Interdependent relationship. 
 
 (3) An adequate form of government. 
 
 (4) A system of universal education. 
 
 (5) A missionary dynamic : 
 
 (/2) Five reasons why this is vital. 
 
 8. This ideal Democracy will produce : 
 (i) A cooperating individualism. 
 
 (2) A voluntary recognition of authority. 
 
 (3) A regulated people. 
 
 (4) An educated constituency. 
 
 (5) The exercise of police powers. 
 
 9. Results summed up for the sake of emphasis. 
 10. When a Democracy is ideal. 
 
I 
 
 THE IDEAL DEMOCRACY 
 
 DEMOCRACY is the battle-cry of the 
 present day world. It is at once the 
 hope and the desire and objective of 
 all sane and normal peoples or nations. 
 
 A World Safe for Democracy 
 
 To make the world safe for democracy the 
 loftiest principles and greatest powers of each in- 
 dividual and nation must be invested in the work 
 of preparing the world to receive it. Even with 
 the best we have invested in this cause, it will 
 fail unless to all human powers is added the di- 
 vine power which lifts mankind out of itself and 
 enables men to regard their neighbor from the 
 Christian point of view. 
 
 We are our brother's keeper, but when God's 
 view-point prevails we are also our brother's 
 brother, and when this comes to pass the ideal 
 democracy will rule safely in the world. 
 
 Democracy Made Safe for the World 
 It has also been well said that democracy must 
 be made safe for the world. The truth of that 
 9 
 
10 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHUKCH 
 
 statement was evidenced when the great Russian 
 people broke the chains of autocracy and set up 
 a form of democracy. But it was not a type of 
 democratic government that was safe for the 
 people who established it. It allowed another 
 nation to take brutal advantage of a simple, peace- 
 loving people and to put an iron ring of autoc- 
 racy about the neck of that misguided people. 
 An unsafe form of democracy supervened in 
 place of the genuine, so well described by Presi- 
 dent Lincoln as a government of the people, by 
 the people, for the people. 
 
 Only the religion of Jesus Christ incorporated 
 with the principles of democratic government 
 can make democracy safe for the world. 
 
 The Church as the Ideal Democracy 
 
 The Church of Jesus Christ was instituted in 
 the world upon the true principles of democracy. 
 The organization was designed to meet the im- 
 mediate personal needs growing out of human 
 relationships with God and fellow men. 
 
 Beyond the Church, national governments had 
 been projected. But the founder of the Church, 
 though He was the Son of God and had at His 
 disposal omnipotent powers, yet recognized 
 human government for Himself and paid a tax 
 to maintain it. Such governments depend upon 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCEACY 11 
 
 human relations rightly constituted and then 
 righteously maintained. One of the purposes of 
 His teachings was to establish right human rela- 
 tions and to maintain them in righteousness. 
 His Church, therefore, should reveal the fruits of 
 democracy, for if it cannot succeed in the Church, 
 there is little hope for its success anywhere. The 
 reason for this last statement is evident, when it 
 is remembered that the Church of Jesus Christ is 
 supposed to be composed of people who have 
 given themselves up to the will and power of 
 God, thus changing the controlling motives of 
 their hves and actions. They are supposed to 
 be seeking the unselfish path of service in Christ's 
 name, and not their own selfish enjoyment and 
 enrichment. If democracy cannot succeed in the 
 Church with its self-selected class, it is logical 
 and practical to conclude that it has no hope of 
 success elsewhere. The Church of Jesus Christ 
 should be the ideal democracy, the pattern for 
 all other democracies concerned with human re- 
 lations and government. 
 
 If this argument seems specious and ill-advised, 
 it must be remembered that the Christian ideal is 
 supposed to be all inclusive and should make its 
 followers more competent and stronger for every 
 phase of their life-work and contacts with fellow 
 men. 
 
12 DEMOOiiAOY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 There Are Autocracies in Religion 
 
 We must not be blind to the fact that to-day- 
 there are reUgious organizations that are as au- 
 tocratic as any that have ever marred the face of 
 the world. 
 
 Christianity and the teachings of Christ are 
 not always identical and the danger to-day is 
 that some Christian groups in their intense zeal 
 and close organization become autocratic in their 
 dealings with their own members and with other 
 organizations. To grow and acquire power at 
 such a cost is to pay a terribly great price. It 
 is worse than a calamity, for it hampers the 
 progress both of Christianity and democracy in a 
 world that needs both of them more than it needs 
 either of them singly. The world cannot use 
 any form of autocracy even when it comes in the 
 guise of Christianity, nor can it long use de- 
 mocracy when it lacks Christianity, because in 
 lacking the latter, it becomes untrue to the real 
 principles of democracy. 
 
 Some Definitions of Democracy 
 
 At this point it will be wise to define de- 
 mocracy. The dictionary gives the following 
 definitions : 
 
 I. The political system in which govern- 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCRACY 13 
 
 ment is directly exercised or conlrolled 
 by the people collectively. 
 
 2. A commonwealth in which the people as 
 
 a whole legislate and choose executive 
 and judicial officers, either directly or 
 through elected representatives. 
 
 3. Political and legal equality, a state of so- 
 
 ciety without class distinctions made or 
 favored by law or custom. 
 
 Four Definitions of Christian Democracy 
 
 In order to study the Church as a democracy, 
 let us now turn those definitions into religious 
 phraseology. They will then read like this : 
 
 1. The spiritual brotherhood in which gov- 
 
 ernment is directly exercised or con- 
 trolled by the people collectively. 
 
 2. A brotherhood in which the people as a 
 
 whole legislate and choose executive 
 and ministering officers, either directly 
 or through elected representatives. 
 
 3. Religious and fraternal equality, a state of 
 
 spiritual life without racial or class dis- 
 tinction made or favored by law or 
 custom. 
 
 No one of these definitions, however, seems to 
 cover the actual needs of the case, so this addi- 
 tional one is presented. 
 
14 DEMOCKACY AND THE CHUECH 
 
 4. A Christian democracy is a brotherhood 
 of the followers of Jesus Christ who have 
 voluntarily associated themselves to- 
 gether in a spirit of fraternity and 
 equality for the purpose of nurture, 
 culture and the development of the 
 same spirit of brotherhood throughout 
 the world. 
 
 Fourth Definition Applied to the 
 
 Local Church Should Produce 
 
 Definite Results 
 
 Applying this definition to a local church 
 would produce some definite results. An ideal 
 democracy should result in — 
 
 Surrendered Individualism. 
 
 First of all it would provide for the voluntary 
 surrender of the individualistic life and point of 
 view. The principle of voluntarism is essential 
 here. 
 
 Interdependent Relationship. 
 
 Its acceptance would cause the installation in 
 the daily life of an interdependent relationship 
 that would produce action of a marked sort. A 
 great apostle expressed this result well when he 
 said/' If to eat meat offend my brother I will eat 
 no meat." Again it is expressed in the words, 
 " We are members one of another." The in- 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCRACY 15 
 
 terdependent relationship once established would 
 lead to the voluntary surrender of individual op- 
 portunities and powers for the purpose of doing 
 good and providing safety and comfort to all 
 others in the association. On the other hand, 
 the individualistic life is selfish. It does not con- 
 cern itself with the weak or less fortunate, but 
 seeks ample scope for exploitation of others. 
 
 There are churches and people who claim the 
 right of individualism. The right is granted to 
 them without argument, but the practice of this 
 privilege is impossible under present conditions. 
 Any man or church is too dependent upon 
 others for the various essentials of life to practice 
 individuahsm. In the face of this fact, to affirm 
 the right to practice individualism or independent 
 action is an evidence of a lack of common sense. 
 We are all interdependent individuals or churches, 
 because with good sense we have at once volun- 
 tarily surrendered this right of individualism for 
 a practice that conforms to the will of God and 
 the good of the rest of the human race. A Chris- 
 tian church, if it is true to its divine origin, must 
 be interdependent and, therefore, democratic even 
 to the point of self-surrender. 
 
 An Adequate Form of Government. 
 
 In the next place, the definition given above 
 
16 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHUKCH 
 
 implies that a form of government must be es- 
 tablished and accepted when interdependency 
 takes the place of individualism. 
 
 Now government, of necessity, always imposes 
 restraints upon the governed, but these are rec- 
 ognized as being for the good of the greatest 
 number and hence are cheerfully accepted as 
 soon as the will of a majority has expressed 
 itself in what is called a law or statute. In the 
 case of the church member, the Christian life 
 was begun when the individual gave up his own 
 will and way for the will and way of God. In 
 other words, he submitted to be governed by the 
 will of God and then by the will of all his fellow 
 members with whom he voluntarily associated 
 himself. 
 
 The highest type of people do not govern 
 their actions by the mandate of the majority 
 but their own will to help others in a loving 
 spirit conquers their individual desires or prefer- 
 ences. They are controlled by the spirit of love 
 and brotherhood rather than by law. To do 
 right simply through fear of law and its penal- 
 ties is to be wrong in spirit. 
 
 Government which establishes law must of 
 necessity provide penalties for the disregard of 
 that law. These penalties are provided in no 
 spirit of vengeance, but are corrective rather 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOOEACY 17 
 
 than punitive in all their application. But a law 
 without a penalty is a farce. 
 
 The Church as an ideal democracy must have 
 a measure of surrendered individualism. This 
 surrendered individualism in its interdependent 
 relations will have a form of government grow- 
 ing out of the expressed will of the majority. 
 The laws accepted by those people thus asso- 
 ciated together will be binding so long as the 
 association continues, and penalties incurred will 
 voluntarily be met by the delinquent. There 
 will be no exemption in the application of the 
 laws, no favored individuals or classes, but all 
 alike without fear or favor will be governed by 
 the laws made for that purpose. The rules 
 agreed upon by the church will accord with 
 God's expressed will in so far as they are appli- 
 cable to the conditions and objectives in the lives 
 of the people who are voluntarily associated 
 together in that church. But always with the 
 normal people love will control far more than 
 law. Having once united with the body, the 
 rules of which were known to him in advance, 
 subsequent unwillingness to conform to these 
 requirements constitute a delinquency which is 
 not condoned by the withdrawal of the indi- 
 vidual unless a conscious change of view has led 
 him to a new position. If his desire to with- 
 
18 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 draw is merely rebellion against an existing law 
 well known to him, he becomes a rebel and 
 should be dealt with as such. 
 
 A System of Universal Education. 
 
 The definition next implies that in the church 
 there will be a system of education that will be 
 so thorough as to produce a nurture and culture 
 of all those associated together. They will all be 
 cared for without regard to impediments to these 
 processes of nurture and culture that might arise 
 in individual cases. The will of the majority to 
 institute nurture and culture for the whole body 
 would be recognized in the life of all so long as 
 they continued in the association, and only ca- 
 pacity to receive would Hmit the scope of the 
 process in individual cases. 
 
 Nurture and culture are two great processes 
 of prime importance where human or spiritual 
 relations are concerned. Out of those two proc- 
 esses will come a disciplined life, and a disci- 
 plined life is the distinguishing mark of a Hfe 
 that is educated. 
 
 The power of a Christian democracy rests first 
 of all upon the knowledge which every member 
 possesses and uses of the way and the will of 
 God. It is no kindness to allow any one to be- 
 come delinquent in any phase, whether the 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCRACY 19 
 
 delinquency is caused by ignorance on the part 
 of the individual or by failure to apply training 
 and knowledge to the individual. In either case 
 the result is the same, and the injury is both to 
 the one and the whole. 
 
 If the Church of Jesus Christ is to show the 
 world the ideal democracy, there must be no 
 failure on her part to institute nurture and cul- 
 ture to the fullest possible extent in every indi- 
 vidual in her membership. Any weakness in 
 this connection will be a betrayal of all that is 
 high and holy. On the other hand, there will 
 be a clear recognition that all are not of equal 
 endowment or capacity. The Gospel gives us 
 ample ground for the recognition of different 
 capacities and powers as between individuals. 
 For instance, we are told, " Give — as God has 
 prospered you." " As much as lieth in you live 
 peaceably with all men." The parable of the 
 talents is another divine recognition of the fallacy 
 that we are all created equal in human endow- 
 ments notwithstanding all men's fundamental 
 equality in the sight of God. Therefore, up to 
 the recognized capacity and opportunity of the 
 individual, the interdependent relation will pro- 
 vide a uniform training and education for all its 
 individual members. Any attempt to evade this 
 fundamental training and teaching will involve 
 
20 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 the further obligation in love or in law to use 
 every effort to correct the evasion so long cis the 
 voluntary association is binding. This is at once 
 the requirement of the individual who has volun- 
 tarily associated himself as well as being the 
 obligation of the group with whom the individual 
 has become associated. It is a true democracy 
 just in so far as the voluntary association pro- 
 duces the results declared to be the purpose of 
 the association. To the extent it fails to pro- 
 duce the will of the majority, in that measure it 
 becomes a departure from a democracy and 
 therefore a menace. 
 
 The definition has a final and most important 
 result. 
 
 A Missionary Dynamic, 
 
 It accords a complete recognition of the fact 
 that projection is the one great purpose outside 
 of the nurture and culture of all those within the 
 association. All such projection, in a true de- 
 mocracy, must be in a spirit of pure voluntarism 
 on the part of all who project the purposes of the 
 Church, as well as upon the part of all who accej)t 
 the advances made by the Church, whether they 
 be individuals or other similar associated groups. 
 
 No projection by force can ever hope to 
 succeed permanently. Force is no weapon to 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCRACY 21 
 
 use in pushing the ideals of democracy into the 
 stronghold of autocracy. No true democracy 
 will thrust its ideals upon others by means of 
 brute strength as though might made right, but 
 on the other hand, no true democracy can remain 
 inactive in the presence of incursions by brute 
 force or assaults upon the peaceful and peace- 
 loving people of their number by those who 
 invade for lust or greed. Our Master Himself, 
 who is the Prince of Peace, repelled with force 
 the incursions of hate and greed when the money 
 lenders invaded the sacred precincts of the house 
 of worship. While, therefore, the Christian 
 Church can never rightly use force to invade 
 another realm for selfish purposes, it has at its 
 command a power of compulsion that is the 
 most wonderful projecting agent in all the world 
 of human endeavor. That is the power of a 
 compelling love. 
 
 The marching orders of the Church are, •• Go )e 
 into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
 creature," and to that command we may add the 
 other injunction implied in the teaching of a 
 great parable, " Go and compel them to come 
 in." Therein the Christian democracy has a 
 world mission. Since its motive power is love it 
 has a force unlike any other. 
 
 A democracy that is content with possessing 
 
22 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 within itself what it beheves to be the best in 
 hfe, without any concern whether or not others 
 secure hke blessings, is not only condemned by 
 its action, but will lose within itself that best 
 thing, for the law of life is that we can keep only 
 as we impart to others. The Church will be able 
 to keep its fundamental principles and powers 
 only by using them for the betterment of all 
 others. Stagnation and loss will always follow 
 any other poHcy. 
 
 Five Reasons Why this is Vital. 
 
 There are some great and compelling reasons 
 why the Christian democracy must constantly 
 offer to all others whatever it possesses. Love 
 for the Founder and for the Father is the first 
 great reason for a spirit of missions or propaga- 
 tion. Obedience to the expressed will of the 
 leader is the second impelling motive for a con- 
 stant effort to progress. A desire to give others 
 the benefits of all that is good, noble and enlarg- 
 ing is the third reason. The need of the people, 
 and finally self-preservation, are the concluding 
 reasons why the Church and the individual must 
 peacefully, but powerfully, project itself into every 
 available area of the world where people are to 
 be found. True democracy can never grow by 
 forcible annexation, but only by absorption and 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCKACY 23 
 
 assimilation of those who recognize the good in 
 the democracy and willingly become members 
 of the voluntary group. 
 
 Any element in a democracy that is not con- 
 tained therein on a voluntary and cooperating 
 basis is a constant indication of danger and is 
 a tendency towards a spirit of autocracy. The 
 power of projection rests upon the fact that a 
 church or Christian democracy is an association 
 of people voluntarily joined together for the pur- 
 pose of learning and then doing the will of God 
 their Father. This merger of the individual on 
 a voluntary basis into a state of interdependence 
 or democracy if it is to succeed must recognize 
 the right of the associated group to do certain 
 definite things for the good of the whole, even 
 at the expense of limiting individuals in some 
 directions. 
 
 This Ideal Democracy Will Produce 
 A Cooperating Individualism 
 
 In a true democracy there can be no such 
 thing as absolute independence. 
 
 But there can and must be a thoroughly coop- 
 erative individualism which produces an interde- 
 pendence that is noble and sacrificial. Every 
 thought, word, or deed must be determined by 
 its influence upon others. Many things that one 
 
24 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHUECH 
 
 could do without any injury to his own Hfe must 
 be left undone because they might injure others. 
 In the case of some individuals some things 
 might be left undone with absolute safety, but 
 if omitted by others would cause them injury; 
 therefore, all must do them. In a democracy, 
 the good of the whole must always supersede 
 the individual good. The ideal democracy must, 
 therefore, capitalize interdependence if it is to 
 succeed, but that interdependence must first be 
 the result of voluntary surrender on the part of 
 the individual. Let me again reiterate, that to 
 be within the democracy without a surrendered 
 individuahsm is to be there under false pretense. 
 It is dishonest and shameful. 
 
 A Voluntary Recognition of Authority. 
 
 An interdependent relation will at once de- 
 mand a form of government which means the 
 recognition of authority. 
 
 One of the bulwarks of this voluntary sur- 
 render on the part of the individual is the proper 
 and adequate recognition of authority centered 
 in a form of government which is controlled by 
 all the people and secures for the whole, justice, 
 peace, progress, projection, nurture, and culture. 
 
 Because the will of the majority does not suit 
 a minority is no ground for rebellion on the part 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCEACY 25 
 
 of any minority, but cause for an expression of 
 the highest form of democracy to be shown in 
 cheerful submission to the properly expressed 
 will of the majority. Majorities may sometimes 
 be wrong but even then there are ways and 
 means at the disposal of a minority that will not 
 destroy the democracy. Agitation and discus- 
 sion are very different from anarchy. 
 
 To fulfill its character as the ideal democracy, 
 the Church of Jesus Christ must exhibit a high 
 order of respect for constituted authority, both 
 within and without its own borders. 
 
 A Regulated People. 
 
 Government or authority will of necessity lead 
 to regulation or control. In a democracy all the 
 individual units are not equal in talents, resources 
 or strength of character, and therefore, the Word 
 of God and the statutes of human democracy 
 give ample authority for the exercise of a meas- 
 ure of control and regulation over the conduct 
 of all, whether they be of large or small en- 
 dowments. Without this regulation or control, 
 proper standards of hfe and conduct are impos- 
 sible to maintain. To allow a backward or 
 misguided individual to destroy himself without 
 any intervention on the part of the whole is to 
 condone murder, for suicide is self-murder. To 
 
26 DEMOCEACY A^D THE CHURCH 
 
 allow an uneducated or subnormal individual to 
 continue a practice that would injure others, 
 either from ignorance or from choice, is an un- 
 thinkable thing. The will of all the people must 
 be exercised for the good of the individuals 
 making up the democracy. 
 
 An Educated Constituency ^ 
 
 The uneducated individual must be educated, 
 or if that is not possible, then he must be regu- 
 lated in his ignorance. The subnormal must be 
 given the best and most salutary treatment in 
 order to safeguard him and all others. So it 
 must be with all the varied expressions of the 
 varied individuals, they must be merged in their 
 individualism for their own good and for the 
 good of all the others. The spiritual life is the 
 highest expression of life and, therefore, is of 
 the greatest importance. To say piously that 
 there must be no regulation after a voluntary 
 submission of their all to the Christian democ- 
 racy is to put a premium upon the inclusion of 
 an autocracy within the democracy. That is in 
 effect like including a stray bomb in the cargo 
 of a ship ; an explosion is likely to occur at any 
 moment. 
 
 To allow a subnormal or delinquent to depart 
 from the democracy once he has given himself 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCRACY 27 
 
 to it is an endorsement of autocracy and self- 
 destruction on the one hand and an abdication 
 of democratic principles on the other hand. The 
 place of all others to exercise care is at the point 
 of entrance. 
 
 The Exercise of Police Poivers. 
 
 Jesus Himself recognized the police powers in 
 the government under which He lived while on 
 earth and even when those police powers were 
 used to perpetrate upon Him the supreme crime of 
 history He calmly submitted, even to the giving up 
 of His life. If in spite of every effort on the part 
 of the whole body, any individual continues to go 
 contrary to the will of the whole, then either one of 
 two things must result, corrective punishment or, 
 as was the case with Judas, the relations of the 
 whole with such a persistent offender and autocrat 
 must be severed. A little clear analysis will at 
 once reveal the vast difference between the petu- 
 lant or disgruntled departure of an individual 
 because of temporary disagreement with the 
 authorities and the permanent severing of the 
 relations between the democracy and the in- 
 dividual upon the initiative of the whole. In 
 effect it is like a capital sentence in civil life and 
 should be rarely used. In i John 2 : 19 wc find 
 the writer expressing the inevitable result of 
 
28 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 such a case when he wrote, " They went out 
 from us but they were not of us, for if they had 
 been of us, they would have continued with us : 
 but they went out that they might be made 
 manifest that they were not all of us." 
 
 Results Summed Up for the Sake of Emphasis 
 
 Interdependence, governmental authority and 
 control in a Christian democracy are but the 
 varied aspects of the one great divine democracy 
 which is in effect the government of the people, 
 by the people, for the people, in order to ac- 
 complish in the world the divine ends and ob- 
 jectives. 
 
 Not even the Church of Jesus Christ can long 
 survive without government. Without properly 
 exercised control, the interdependence is lost and 
 the vagaries of unbridled and conflicting inde- 
 pendency give rise to a condition of anarchy, or 
 the power is seized by a sectarian party which 
 assumes control with all its malignant autocracy. 
 
 If the Church is to lead the world along the 
 path of democracy, we must conclude that it will 
 exalt to its proper place a fitting form of govern- 
 ment in order that all its members may fill an 
 adequate place in the world and Church. 
 
 Furthermore nurture and culture must be uni- 
 versal among its membership in order to achieve 
 
THE IDEAL DEMOCKACY 29 
 
 unity of purpose. The untrained or insane can- 
 not act together in any happy effective way. 
 Only a sane, trained, disciplined body of people 
 can give a manifestation of unity and strength 
 that will command the attention and admiration 
 of other differing or antagonistic bodies or in- 
 dividuals. 
 
 Lack of unity in doing right things as well as 
 lack of solidarity in divine principles is the result 
 of a lack of nurture and culture and cannot long 
 be permitted to continue. 
 
 When a Democracy is Ideal 
 
 A democracy is ideal only in so far as it 
 measures its interdependence by a government 
 which produces a trained and disciplined body 
 of people for the unified aims of all the indi- 
 viduals voluntarily associated together in the 
 group. 
 
 We must next attempt to show how far the 
 Church of Jesus Christ has met with success and 
 then examine wherein it has failed to achieve 
 this goal and finally examine its future methods. 
 
ANALYSIS— CHAPTER II 
 
 DEMOCRACY AND EFFICIENCY 
 
 1. The hope of Democracy. 
 
 2. History and the Church Autocracy. 
 
 3. The real objective. 
 
 4. Necessary elements to promote efficiency, 
 
 (i) Quality of soul. 
 
 (2) Unity. 
 
 {a) Christ the basis. 
 (^) A trend towards it. 
 
 (3) Simplicity. 
 
 (4) Spirituality. 
 
 (5) Nurture and culture. 
 
 (6) Recognition of authority. 
 
 (7) The methods of Christ. 
 
 (8) Universality of expectations. 
 
 (9) A good stewardship. 
 
 (a) Love and its objective, 
 
 5. Present signs of efficiency. 
 
 (1) The Bible School. 
 
 (2) Contingent organizations. 
 
 (3) Finances. 
 
 (4) Democratized worship. 
 
 (5) Educational goals. 
 
 (6) Demand for trained ministry. 
 
 (7) Business assets. 
 
 (8) Humanized spirituality. 
 
 (9) Care of ministry. 
 
 (10) Womanhood recognized. 
 
 (11) Developed manhood. 
 
 6. The whole and its parts. 
 
II 
 
 DEMOCRACY AND EFFICIENCY 
 
 THE great and divine statesman has said, 
 " For all the law is fulfilled in one word, 
 even in this, Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself." The only hope of bringing 
 democracy into all human relations both secular 
 and religious rests upon the unifying and cleans- 
 ing power of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other 
 words, the hope of bringing democracy into 
 world, national, civic and individual relations 
 rests upon Christianity. The Church is an or- 
 ganized Christian democracy and must set a 
 worthy example to the world. Its power in this 
 direction will lie in the exemplification of the 
 spirit set forth in the declaration •• By this ye 
 may know that ye have passed from death unto 
 life because ye love the brethren." Love will 
 solve all the problems and secure efficiency in 
 any democracy. Without it the Christian de- 
 mocracy must fail. 
 
 History and the Church Autocracy 
 In the past the Church of Jesus Christ has not 
 31 
 
32 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 been the most efficient instrument in projecting 
 the principles of democracy, for the pages of 
 history are dotted with records of its autocratic 
 failures. This is due to the fact that men have 
 sought to make use of a divine instrument for 
 human ends. The Church is one of God's in- 
 struments for implanting the divine into the life 
 and every-day activities of His people and thence 
 into all others. Wherever men have greedily 
 sought to acquire that power for human and 
 selfish ends it has sooner or later crushed them 
 in the resulting catastrophe. This condition was 
 foreshadowed by the experience of Jesus who 
 found it necessary to refuse with a rebuke the 
 request that James and John might have the 
 chief seats on either side of the Master when He 
 came to His throne. We read also of the 
 attempt made by one Simon to buy the power 
 of the Holy Spirit for pecuniary ends of his 
 own. 
 
 The Real Objective 
 
 Christian democracy must produce in every 
 member divine powers and graces to be used for 
 Christlike ends in accordance with the will of God. 
 Its real objective is the creation of spiritual power 
 and insight so that men shall love and serve each 
 other as Christ has loved and served us. 
 
DEMOCEACY AND EFFICIENCY 33 
 
 Necessary Elements to Promote 
 Efficiency 
 
 Let us just now consider some of the elements 
 that must be present if the Christian democracy 
 is to be truly efficient. 
 
 Quality of Soul. 
 
 Efficiency will be promoted when the Church 
 remembering the lesson of Gideon's band gives 
 first attention to the generation of spiritual 
 powers rather than to the increase of numbers. 
 A genuine democratic spirit will always sub- 
 ordinate numbers to an inherent spirit of sacri- 
 ficial service. Not quantity of individuals but 
 quality of soul and character will mark the 
 efficiency of the organization. Given efficiency 
 in the production of high quality of spiritual life 
 and ultimately the numerical growth will be 
 eminently satisfactory. A low type of character 
 and spiritual responsiveness will in the end doom 
 any democracy, for the hope of democracy must 
 forever rest upon a thorough nurture and culture 
 which imposes adequate standards and exalted 
 character upon all who elect to follow its lead- 
 ings. In other words a democracy rests upon 
 surrendered individualism and its consequent 
 actions for its efficiency, and surrendered indi- 
 
34 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHUECH 
 
 vidualism is the result of the neighbor spirit 
 spoken of by Christ which has its foundation in 
 none other than the sacrificial spirit of God which 
 leads one to serve another as he would serve and 
 love himself. This precludes the possibility of 
 popularity and thereby lessens the number of 
 t>3ose who will accept a sacrificial task and life. 
 
 Unity. 
 
 As we have pointed out elsewhere a lack of 
 efficiency is the result of a loss of unity. The 
 past has seen a multiplicity of organizations la 
 large areas and then a magnifying of groups 
 within the local church till the original unity 
 contemplated b)^ the Founder of the organization 
 has been lost in the clatter and confusion of the 
 numerous pieces of machinery of differing or- 
 ganizations. Men apparently have forgotten 
 that a spiritual and consequent democratic 
 efficiency will not be produced by multiplying 
 organizations that emphasize differences but by 
 the increase of the spiritual insight which leads 
 men to love where they do not like and there- 
 fore leads them to such a practice of neighbor- 
 liness that differing points of view will not lead 
 to separations but to such tolerations as belong 
 to any group of individuals who have surrendered 
 themselves to the will and purpose of God. 
 
DEMOCRACY AND EFFICIENCY 35 
 
 Christ the Basis. 
 
 If it is impossible to build a democracy upon 
 the basis of surrendered individualism to the way 
 and will of God, then there is little hope for a 
 democracy that would deal with the shifting 
 scenes and changing view-points of human wills 
 and ways. The Christ we serve is the same 
 yesterday, to-day and forever. His Word is our 
 plain guide so long as we take it and not what 
 some one thinks or ha^ said about it. Demo- 
 cratic efficiency will be produced when people 
 cease to place emphasis upon the divisive opin- 
 ions and interpretations of men and once more 
 accord authority to and place emphasis upon the 
 clearly expressed will and way of God. In no 
 other way can unity be secured or a neighborly 
 love built up. 
 
 If Christians cannot be one in spirit and in 
 organized Hfe upon a basis of love and obedi- 
 ence to Christ then it seems to me that there is 
 little hope for the unregenerate mind of the world 
 to be able to fashion a democracy that will be 
 anything more than a shell to be cracked by the 
 first explosion of greed or hate upon the part of 
 some included unit. 
 
 A Trend Towards It. 
 
 Of late the Church in larger areas has shown 
 
36 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 some signs of efficiency along these lines by the 
 union of groups of people of basic similarity but 
 with slightly different view-point upon minor 
 matters. Until all the Baptist or Lutheran or 
 Methodist or Presbyterian bodies can secure a 
 unity among all of their own basic names it is 
 idle to talk of any further union along demo- 
 cratic or federalized lines. 
 
 Simplicity. 
 
 Efficiency is promoted by simplicity. The 
 Church instituted by Christ was magnificently 
 simple. We must have in our modern world 
 various avenues for expression in order to meet 
 the needs that confront the Church of to-day. 
 But the organization must be simple and adapt- 
 able and not complex and cumbersome. The 
 machinery of any democracy reaches the dan- 
 ger-point when it unduly leads to the exaltation 
 of workers or classes of work. Any approach 
 to autocracy, to a machine-made leadership, to 
 wheels within wheels, to a man-made expression 
 of authority will in the end be self-limiting and 
 self-destructive. History has taught us that sim- 
 plicity and service but not supremacy are the 
 signs of efficiency. The one great badge of 
 honor in a democracy is service. Position, power, 
 intellectual endowment, possessions are all mere 
 
DEMOCEACY AND EFFICIENCY 37 
 
 baubles and meaningless until turned to the serv- 
 ice of Christ and our fellow creatures. Such is 
 the simple plan of Christ. 
 
 Spirituality. 
 
 Efficiency will be marked in the Christian de- 
 mocracy by the attainment on the part of every 
 individual of a measure of spiritual activity and 
 culture. The measure of attainment will be ac- 
 cording to the capacity and opportunity of the 
 individual. To-day there is tremendous differ- 
 ence between the best and worst elements in the 
 membership of the Church, a difference due to 
 the non-participation in its activities on the part 
 of large numbers of people. There should al- 
 ways be a difference between those of highest 
 ideals and best attainments and those of poor 
 attainment and low ideals. But all will possess 
 spiritual ideals that are worth while and at- 
 tainments that mark them as differing from 
 the unredeemed in the world when the Chris- 
 tian democracy is efficiently administered. The 
 marked variety of ideals and attainments found 
 to-day has undoubtedly come from the utter 
 failure of the Church to provide a nurture in 
 spiritual infancy, this to be followed by an ade- 
 quate educational program which produces a 
 culture of the soul while it trained the mind and 
 
38 DEMOCKACY AND THE CHUKCH 
 
 body to recognize the authority of the Word of 
 
 God and of the democracy. 
 
 Nurture and Citltiire. 
 
 Efficiency must be shown in the appHcation 
 of the practice of nurture and then of every peda- 
 gogic principle till the lack of knowledge and 
 the consequent lack of divine practices has dis- 
 appeared in practically all the normal members. 
 
 Recognition of Authority. 
 
 Beyond that, with a proper foundation of 
 knowledge and nurture efficiency will produce 
 such a recognition of properly constituted au- 
 thority as will be a distinguishing mark of the 
 Christian democracy. It will be just one more 
 manifestation of the reality of the surrendered 
 individuality of each member. That will produce 
 further efficiency. 
 
 The Methods of Christ. 
 
 Efficiency will be produced by a study of the 
 methods of Christ, as we learn to adjust the indi- 
 vidual ideas, idiosyncrasies and expressions to 
 the demands of a thoroughgoing spirit of service 
 along democratic lines. The individuality then 
 merged for interdependent activities will more 
 and more learn to shape all the activities of the 
 
DEMOCEACY AND EFFICIENCY 39 
 
 life so as to meet the demands for service from 
 the Church in civic or national spheres of activity. 
 
 Universality of Expectation. 
 
 Again the real efficiency of the body will be 
 revealed by the ability to meet the necessary and 
 wise demands of the Christian democracy that 
 aim to secure a just distribution of the bounties 
 of God, the privileges of the church membership 
 and the continuous joys of Christian service. 
 These things cannot be expected to appear 
 spontaneously in the life any more than good 
 table manners will appear in the life of a child. 
 Instruction, training and persistent example alone 
 will produce the necessary result. 
 
 A Good Stewardship. 
 
 Finally a genuine efficiency will only be pro- 
 duced in the Christian democracy when the in- 
 dividuals believe themselves to be stewards of the 
 living God and that all natural endowments, ad- 
 vantages and possessions are entrusted by the 
 Donor to the individual that he may develop a 
 power to administer to the enrichment of his 
 own soul by giving magnificently of all good 
 things in his possession. In a thoroughgoing 
 democracy duties will always accompany priv- 
 ileges. 
 
40 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 Love and its Objective. 
 
 Love always seeks communion with the object 
 of its affection. It is worse than mockery, it is 
 hypocrisy to proclaim a love for Christ and then 
 to fail to produce the results which are the 
 legitimate fruitage of that love. True love is 
 always costly to the lover. Efficiency methods 
 in the Christian democracy will so increase the 
 cost of its privileges and duties that they will 
 ultimately become the most costly phase of the 
 life. There is ample warrant in Scripture for 
 that expectation when we remember " So like- 
 wise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not 
 all that he hath cannot be my disciple." If you 
 have not committed your all to Christ you are in 
 the wrong place when you are in the Church of 
 Jesus Christ. Hence an efficient Christian de- 
 mocracy will produce a race of individuals with 
 the heroic and sacrificial spirit, so that any cost 
 will be met to save the world through service 
 in Christ's way. That is being a good steward 
 of the manifold mercies and graces of the Lord 
 God. 
 
 Present Signs of Efficiency 
 
 Let us at this point remember the things that 
 the Christian democracy has been doing with real 
 efficiency. 
 
DEMOCEACY AND EFFICIENCY 41 
 
 The Bible School. 
 
 Enrolled in the Bible schools of the Protestant 
 churches are more than twenty-two million 
 scholars and a force of teachers and officers 
 aggregating over a million and a half. No other 
 single piece of organized propaganda, com- 
 parable to this, is to be found anywhere in 
 American life. It is an achievement of a por- 
 tentous character. The Church is thus enabled 
 to keep alive in the hearts of those millions the 
 simple evangelical truths of the Gospel, and it is 
 in the Gospel of Christ that we find the power 
 of unity and of democracy. 
 
 Contmgent Organizations. 
 
 The Church has fostered organization in world 
 areas where the limitations of the local church 
 do not affect the situation. These outside or- 
 ganizations depend upon the Church for their 
 personal and money resources and some of them 
 thus manned by church members and supported 
 by their money are most potent factors in world, 
 in national, and in civic life, I refer to the 
 Young Men's Christian Association, the Young 
 Women's Christian Association, Christian col- 
 leges, schools, hospitals and similar organizations. 
 Without the Christian Church these activities 
 would not have been humanly possible. 
 
42 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHUECH 
 
 Finances. 
 
 Next we must remember that the Church has 
 in recent years democratized its finances by re- 
 fusing national or state support and by ending 
 the selling of its sittings and in lieu of these 
 means of support has come to the place where a 
 stewardship on the part of every member is ex- 
 pected to produce giving regularly and propor- 
 tionately. This achievement is not yet wholly 
 accomplished but the principles of it have been 
 clearly recognized in every group and the 
 spiritual forces are at work to put them into 
 practice. In the past five years it is safe to say 
 that the number of church members enrolled as 
 regular contributors has more than doubled. The 
 next great aim is to push the Scriptural idea of 
 stewardship until it covers every phase of life and 
 every child of God has the spiritual idea contained 
 in these following verses : •' The life is more 
 than meat " and *' A man's life consisteth not in 
 the things which he possesses." Where this has 
 been worked out so as to reach a great majority 
 of the individuals who have surrendered them- 
 selves to an interdependent relation, the great 
 pauper and indigent class in the Christian de- 
 mocracy will practically be ended. They are 
 fast disappearing and this is a genuine sign of 
 efficiency. 
 
DEMOCRACY AND EFFICIENCY 43 
 
 Democratized Worship. 
 
 The services of worship of the Church have 
 been largely democratized, and poor and rich 
 alike find ample welcome in any house of wor- 
 ship where the Gospel of Christ is preached. 
 This has been brought about in part by the new 
 approach made by the Church to the forces out- 
 side their organization. The new social spirit 
 has radically changed the ideas and methods of 
 many churches in spite of the fact that many do 
 not yet like the common term " social service." 
 The name is relatively unimportant when com- 
 pared with the actual results accomplished, for 
 social barriers are broken down as men learn to 
 work together at a common task. As people 
 v/ork together in national, in civic, and in Chris- 
 tian service the hindrances to unity and neigh- 
 borly love most effectually disappear. 
 
 Educational Goals. 
 
 The direct contribution made by the Church 
 to the educational facilities of the day is an 
 achievement denoting efficiency. We have said 
 before that the strength of any democracy rests 
 largely upon the intelligence of its constituency. 
 It is now a fundamental recognition that the 
 Church must produce its own leadership and 
 consequently must provide adequate educational 
 
44 DEMOOEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 advantages under Christian leaders. A democ- 
 racy must have leaders growing out of its own 
 Hfe and teaching, so the Christian democracy has 
 learned that it cannot allow even the State to 
 educate its future leaders in institutions of great 
 erudition which, however, lack fundamental eth- 
 ical bases because they are prohibited from teach- 
 ing the Word of God and therefore are shut off 
 from the only sure foundation for any real char- 
 acter building. No education is complete or 
 sound that does not pay adequate attention to 
 spiritual truths. 
 
 Demand for Trained Ministry. 
 
 The insistent demand for a trained as well as 
 an educated ministry has already led to some 
 changes in the curriculum of the theological semi- 
 naries. Greater changes are impending which 
 will result in giving to the student such clinical 
 advantages as will produce men both of culture 
 and power of executive leadership. The pro- 
 duction of a better trained ministry will have the 
 further effect of producing a corps of trained lay 
 officers in every local democracy. A trained 
 ministry will be able to prepare clinically all those 
 chosen by the votes of the group to occupy the 
 places of leadership. Thus efficiency is shown, 
 which is worthy of recognition, when it is re- 
 
DEMOCRACY AND EFFICIENCY 45 
 
 membered that the Church has ahvays been slow 
 to change its processes. But to-day these changes 
 are produced harmoniously and effectively. 
 
 Busi7iess Assets. 
 
 Another mark of efficiency in the processes of 
 the Christian democracy is the demand for and 
 then the utilizing of the business powers and 
 acumen of men of large affairs in commerce. 
 At last the Church is making her business opera- 
 tions to be businesslike and efficient. 
 
 Humanized Spirituality, 
 
 Large progress has been made in the break- 
 ing down of the austere aspects of Christianity. 
 While retaining its spiritual note it has been 
 humanized in the eyes of many. Christianity is 
 not necessarily austere or severe. It may pre- 
 sent some aspects of that character under some 
 conditions of life, but it also has its joyful and 
 happy sides while retaining its reverential atti- 
 tude towards God. The world of late has begun 
 to be impressed with this fact by the concern 
 of the Church to furnish proper social life and 
 amusement for all its constituency. The Chris- 
 tian democracy of the past was constantly sound- 
 ing a note of negation, " This is wrong," " You 
 must not do this." No interdependent relation 
 
46 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 will thrive long on negatives. So to-day modern 
 church structures usually contain ample facilities 
 for the social recreation and amusement of the 
 various groups in her membership. This is be- 
 coming true even in rural regions, usually con- 
 sidered difficult to change in such matters, but 
 often found to be quite as progressive as the city. 
 Plans are being made to push widely this hu- 
 manized approach of things spiritual until it has 
 permeated every local church. 
 
 Care of Ministry. 
 
 Another marked evidence of an efficient spirit 
 in the Christian democracy is the concern to pro- 
 vide ample pensions for old or disabled ministers 
 and missionary workers. Salaries for many dec- 
 ades have been shamefully low and therefore 
 many a worn-out servant of the Church became 
 a charitable object. A proper value is rapidly 
 being placed upon such service by the democ- 
 racy and, while salaries are being steadily pushed 
 up, pension funds are being created which will 
 care for the worn-out workers of the Church on 
 a self-respecting basis. 
 
 Womanhood Recognized. 
 
 The Church has always been conservative 
 along many lines, and one particular example 
 
DEMOCEACY AND EFFICIENCY 47 
 
 has been in regard to her womanhood. While 
 counted as a democracy in many ways, in a 
 number of groups the women have been partially 
 or wholly disfranchised. Yet womenkind con- 
 stitute about sixty-two per cent, of the members 
 of the average church. But the democracy has 
 of late been banishing such limitations and this 
 is surely a mark of efficiency. 
 
 Developed Manhood. 
 
 Men in the membership of the Christian de- 
 mocracy, while usually holding in their hands 
 the bulk of the official positions, have often not 
 bulked large in participation of a virile character. 
 Many a local church and some communions have 
 been " menarchies " and that is worse than a world 
 monarchy, because the Church is supposed to 
 belong to Christ and to follow His divine prin- 
 ciples and so there is far less excuse for any 
 group of believers to exercise unjust discrimina- 
 tion as between men and women. Christianity 
 has always stood for the exaltation of woman- 
 hood and the equality of all human souls in the 
 sight of God. But of late a new sense of respon- 
 sibility has come to many men and to-day they arc 
 reaching out in an efficient measure of coopera- 
 tion that promises large things for the future and 
 has already produced some marked contributions 
 
48 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 to the power and resources of many a local group 
 or group of larger area. These several manifesta- 
 tions of efficiency when examined and related to 
 the Christian democracy are found to be quite 
 largely concerned with the larger and organized 
 aspects of the Christian religion. While the 
 progress in the local areas has made possible this 
 growth and efficiency, not enough progress has 
 been made in local areas to make the Church 
 fully able to meet the needs of the situation. 
 The local democracy will never become thor- 
 oughly efficient until a much more efficient 
 system of nurture and culture is applied which 
 will insistently subject every individual to its 
 processes. On the other hand, full recognition 
 must be given to the cumulative power of the 
 eleven manifestations of present day efficiency 
 just cited as being found in the Christian de- 
 mocracy. It is safe to say that no other group 
 in all the world can approach the sum total of 
 those eleven items. 
 
 The Whole and its Parts 
 
 The efficiency of the whole depends upon the 
 efficiency of the individual unit, and in the im- 
 mediate future the problem of making the 
 individual, who has supposedly surrendered his 
 individuality for his own good and the good of 
 
DEMOCRACY AND EFFICIENCY 49 
 
 all the others, into a competent interdependent 
 part of the whole, must be solved for the good 
 of the Church and the good of the world. 
 
 Only a competent, efficient, resultful Christian 
 democracy will be able to convince the world of 
 the power of Christ and the value of democracy. 
 
ANALYSIS— CHAPTER III 
 
 DEMOCRACY AND INEFFICIENCY 
 
 1. A picture of failure. 
 
 2. A description of inefficiency. 
 
 3. A divine institution conducted by frail humanity. 
 
 4. A purpose behind the divine institution. 
 
 (l) The lack of unity which spoils the purpose. 
 
 5. Variety of expression not cause of inefficiency. 
 (1) Type of government not the cause. 
 
 6. Restating our definition of Christian democracy. 
 
 7. The Church examined on the basis of that defini- 
 
 tion shows a lack of intelligence which 
 causes inefficiency. 
 
 (1) Failure to properly surrender individuality. 
 
 (2) Inability to produce nurture and culture. 
 
 (3) A cheapened idea of individual responsibility. 
 
 (4) A lack of service in its interests. 
 
 Statistical and other proof to emphasize 
 these failures. 
 
 8. A question concerning the cause of these failures 
 
 shows these further inefficiencies. 
 (i) A failure of human administration. 
 
 (2) Idealism without resultant government. 
 
 (3) A lack of love. 
 
 9. A further query concerning delinquency in a 
 
 Christian democracy. 
 
DEMOCEACY AND INEFFICIENCY 51 
 
 10. All inefficiency classified or grouped for the sake 
 
 of emphasis. 
 
 (1) Faulty idealism. 
 
 (2) Inadequate government. 
 
 (3) Lack of nurture and culture. 
 
 (4) Failure to progress. 
 
 (5) Untrained officiary. 
 
 (6) Sex distinction. 
 
 (7) Divisive elements in unit. 
 
 11. In spite of failure, ideals of democracy are still 
 
 the goal of the Church. 
 
 12. The law of averages. 
 
Ill 
 
 DEMOCRACY AND INEFFICIENCY 
 
 MANY times while riding on a train 
 you have watched a collie dog come 
 tearing out of a farmyard at the noise 
 of the approaching cars and rush with sur- 
 prising speed towards the train as if intent upon 
 catching it. You have wondered what the dog 
 would do if he should really catch the train. 
 He could not bite its lower extremities as he 
 might a sheep, nor could he drive it whither he 
 would. He could only stand helpless and look 
 at what was before him. The thing is too big 
 for him to handle and if he got in its way it 
 would soon crush him to death. The dog is not 
 to blame ; he should have been taught not to waste 
 his energy on such a useless race. The picture 
 thus presented is a serious one from the dog's 
 standpoint, but it does not disturb the train at all. 
 
 A Description of Inefficiency 
 
 Men and women have professed faith in Christ 
 Jesus and joined His Church, often in a haste com- 
 parable to the approach of the dog to the train, 
 52 
 
DEMOCRACY AND INEFFICIENCY 53 
 
 but it was not a reasoned, studied approach, for 
 when they supposedly have voluntarily sur- 
 rendered themselves to the will of God and 
 joined the Christian democracy, they are found 
 in large numbers to be inactive in the organiza- 
 tion, having a name to live on the church roll, 
 but being dead if judged by the findinr^^s of their 
 daily lives. It is of great importance to the 
 Church that a study of available statistics, cor- 
 roborated by a further study of the local church 
 life will reveal that each year half as many are 
 dropped or excluded as are added to the organ- 
 ization upon profession of faith. To express this 
 statement concretely, a given denomination 
 added eight and a half per cent, to its member- 
 ship in one year by profession of faith and in 
 that same period removed for disciplinary causes 
 or non-participation about four per cent. It is a 
 well-known fact that church discipline is very 
 lax and is difficult to put in operation and only 
 urgent necessity produces it. So it is proper to 
 conclude that many more are retained that should 
 be subjected to similar discipline. A well-known 
 minister of wide experience has said that in a 
 national army deserters are shot, but if the 
 Church undertook such an operation the supply 
 of ammunition would run out before the con- 
 clusion of the punishment. This fact is pur- 
 
54 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 posely thrown out into bold relief at the begin- 
 ning of this discussion upon inefficiency in order 
 to make plain the fact that the Christian democ- 
 racy is not efficiently administering its individual 
 units, and an undue amount of failures are re- 
 sulting. 
 
 A Divine Institution Conducted by 
 Frail Humanity 
 
 The Church is divine in its conception and 
 origin ; of that there can be no question, but its 
 divine originator purposed that His Church 
 should be maintained and projected through hu- 
 man agents who give themselves up to Him for 
 His purposes. And it is therefore not a failure 
 of the divine that we face, but rather a failure of 
 human agencies to submit themselves for divine 
 ends. Any failure of the church member is in 
 no sense a failure of the divine element, but of the 
 human, and the organized Church of to-day is in- 
 tensely human in its failures. Nor must we forget 
 that in some great things the Church has done 
 work of tremendous and far-reaching import to 
 the glory of her divine founder. But for the 
 present, let us go back to an examination of the 
 inefficiencies in the Christian democracy and find 
 out in particular their scope and effect upon the 
 organization and the world. 
 
DEMOCRACY AND INEFFICIENCY 55 
 
 A Purpose Behind the Divine Institution 
 One of the purposes lying behind the origin 
 of the Church was the construction of Christian 
 character. This could not be done wholly upon 
 an individualistic basis. It must be done in part 
 by contact and cooperation with the lives of others. 
 For Christian character is not a gift outright, nor 
 is it the result merely of a profession, but it 
 consists largely of an unselfish Christ seeking 
 Hfe which is shown to the world in the expres- 
 sion of an individualism surrendered for the ex- 
 press purpose of helping others in the name of 
 and for the sake of Christ. Hence the Christian 
 democracy grew apace, for in its associations, its 
 contacts, its service, its sacrifice and its worship 
 would be found both the test of and the growth 
 from the changed relation towards God that pro- 
 duced a sound profession of faith in Him and 
 then an alliance with others who were similarly 
 related to Him. In other words, an initial proof 
 of the right to belong to the democracy of Christ 
 is found in conformity to the prayer of our Lord, 
 " That they all may be one." 
 
 The Lack of Unity Which Spoils the Purpose. 
 Unity is essential to democracy. Such unity 
 will have individual expression. That is part of 
 
56 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 God's plan and does not limit the power of the 
 democracy, but rather manifests the power and 
 reality of its unity. To determine the efficiency 
 or inefficiency of the democracy, let us seek out 
 the facts that will tell the story of the Church 
 along this hne. 
 
 Variety of Expression Not Cause of 
 Inefficiency 
 
 Unity was not designed to be negative in its 
 character or regulation, but positive in its beliefs 
 and expressions along essential lines. We pro- 
 ceed now to the discussion of the causes of ineffi- 
 ciency in the Christian democracy. It is often 
 claimed that subscription to a creed will fail to 
 produce individual expression of Christian faith 
 and this has led many to accentuate an inde- 
 pendence that is just as harmful as following too 
 credulously the formally adopted expression of 
 some other person's faith. An equal amount 
 of failure or inefficiency has resulted wherever 
 groups have followed either of these principles. 
 In fact a close study of the two widely separated 
 groups, the one intensely individualistic in its 
 form of expression, and the other united in the 
 acceptance of a creed, will certainly show that 
 the delinquencies and failures are alike both in 
 character and in number. What inefficiency 
 
DEMOCEACY AND INEFFICIENCY 57 
 
 there is cannot, therefore, be the result of a 
 creed or lack of one. Over-emphasized or under- 
 emphasized individualism is a potent foe to de- 
 mocracy. In fact it is in genesis and result autoc- 
 racy of a most dangerous type. On the other 
 hand, a form of rehgion which does not contain 
 the true spirit of Christian faith and character 
 will produce another form of autocracy that will 
 ultimately destroy true democracy. No matter 
 which type of church the reader may believe in, 
 he is compelled to look from both ends towards 
 a center for the real causes of inefficiency. I 
 repeat, both types of expression have similar 
 inefficiencies in about equal amounts. 
 
 Type of Governmejit Not the Cause. 
 
 Nor can the failure be ascribed to the particular 
 form of government used by a local church or 
 group of churches. Whatever inefficiency is to 
 be found lies beyond a form of government am; 
 seems to be personal in its tendencies rather than 
 governmental. The inefficiencies are alike per- 
 sonal and cumulative only in the measure that 
 personal failures cause a failure on the part of an 
 associated group. Can it be that, like the dog 
 before referred to, these individuals have caught 
 a train only to discover it to be a possession 
 which they can neither use nor enjoy ? 
 
58 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHUECH 
 
 Restating Our Definition of Christian 
 Democracy 
 
 We have said that democracy in its Christian 
 form is a brotherhood of the followers of Jesus 
 Christ who have voluntarily associated them- 
 selves together in a spirit of fraternity and 
 equality for the purpose of nurture, culture and 
 the development of a similar spirit of brother- 
 hood throughout the world. 
 
 We shall do well just now to examine carefully 
 how far the local churches fail to express this 
 definition of Christian democracy. Of course 
 there are a few churches that do their great tasks 
 with real efficiency so as to measure beyond most 
 of the others, but in general one local church is 
 only a little better or a little worse than all the 
 others. The law of averages holds good in church 
 life just as it does in hfe or fire insurance. 
 
 The Church Examined on the Basis of that 
 Definition Shows a Lack of Intelli- 
 gence Which Causes Inefficiency 
 
 In the first chapter is presented the plan of an 
 ideal democracy and it indicates that to be effi- 
 cient, the following must be found in the life of 
 the Church : interdependence, nurture, culture, 
 government, and control with its consequent 
 
DEMOOliACY AND mEFFlCIENCY 59 
 
 police powers, and finally projection with its con- 
 sequent service. 
 
 Failure to Properly Surrender hidividuality. 
 
 Voluntarism presupposes intelligent study of 
 the principles and practices which underlie and 
 govern the original group which is voluntarily 
 joined together. Interdependence to be effective 
 must be entered into willingly and knowingly. 
 But a loving examination to-day of any large 
 number of church members would reveal the fact 
 that hosts of people in the Christian democracy 
 do not know why they are in the organization, 
 nor the ends for which it exists. Many of them 
 I fear are like an emigrant who said that he came 
 to America because of the stories he heard about 
 the wealth to be gained and the opportunities for 
 freedom and equality presented therein ; then he 
 added, •• but they did not tell how hard you must 
 work to get money, nor the price one must pay 
 to be free to enjoy the equalities of the people in 
 this country." Then he concluded, " I go back 
 to my old country." In like manner, many a 
 professing Christian has sought out the Church 
 hurriedly, but has soon found it to be a place of 
 great opportunity and privilege, and consequently 
 a place of resulting service and hardship. It is 
 to be feared that much inefficiency and failure in 
 
60 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 the local church has been caused because the in- 
 dividual has not really surrendered himself to 
 God first and then intelligently to the Christian 
 democracy for all the purposes for which it was 
 called into being. The full surrender to God in 
 the name of Jesus Christ will have produced that 
 greatest of all divine results in the human life, a 
 new birth. Without this regeneration all else 
 will ultimately fail. 
 
 Inability to Produce Nurture and Culture, 
 A life truly nurtured in its infancy and then 
 properly educated and trained develops a desire to 
 participate in all that the democracy stands for. 
 To join, with a statement that I have faith in 
 God and in His Son Jesus when I do not know 
 nor am I instructed in what is involved by that 
 declaration of faith, is neither a good democratic 
 practice nor a common-sense Christian principle. 
 So we are brought face to face with those words, 
 nurture and culture. The Church or Christian 
 democracy has failed of efficiency in so far as it 
 has failed to produce nurture and culture of every 
 individual member. In all normal cases the twin 
 practices of nurture and culture will produce a 
 voluntary participation in all that makes a de- 
 mocracy strong. In the past the Church has not 
 in any adequate manner produced a nurture for 
 
DEMOCRACY AND INEFFICIENCY 61 
 
 those who associated themselves with the local 
 body. Nurture is concerned in particular with 
 the initial stages of life ; it does its best work in 
 the days before, during and immediately follow- 
 ing infancy. Spiritual infancy has great need 
 of nurture and because it has not been applied 
 properly to the lives of the newly born souls is 
 one great reason for much of the inefficiency that 
 exists in the local Christian democracy of to- 
 day. 
 
 A Cheapefied Idea of Individual Responsibility, 
 It does not matter what type of an organized 
 democracy you join, your helpful participation 
 will depend upon your intelligence. Without 
 intelligent interdependence both the individual 
 and the group will fail. The Christian de- 
 mocracy has ofttimes sought to make entry into 
 its membership quick and easy with the idea that 
 it would thereby attract the many. This has so 
 cheapened the benefits to be derived from the 
 organization as to make them seem worthless 
 and in the long run has defeated the very pur- 
 pose in the divine mind that originated the in- 
 stitution, and also the objective sought by those 
 uniting with it later. The Christian democracy 
 is inefficient wherever it has become cheap or 
 easy of attainment. Certainly Christ never in- 
 
62 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 tended His followers to regard His way as either 
 cheap or easy, as those words from His lips 
 plainly testify (Luke 14:27 and 33): "And 
 whosoever doth not bear his cross and come 
 after me cannot be my disciple. So likewise, 
 whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all 
 that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." 
 
 A Lack of Service in Its Interests. 
 
 The price of intelligence is generally hard work 
 and hard work is a tremendous power in the 
 world of values. The intellectual processes cause 
 inward agitation and outward perturbation and 
 therein is one of the chief values of educa- 
 tion. It is a powerful process in disciplining 
 the individual and the safety and value of 
 the Christian democracy depend in a con- 
 siderable degree upon the disciplined unity of 
 the individuals comprising the group. Is there 
 any one who really knows the Christian democracy 
 of to-day who would be wiUing to assert that it 
 is composed of Christlike disciplined people to 
 any great extent? Therein is found one of the 
 factors contributing to its present inefficiency. 
 
 Statistical and Other Proof for Emphasis. 
 But it might be claimed that except for the 
 opening statement these other things are glitter- 
 
DEMOCEACY AND INEFFICIENCY 63 
 
 ing generalities, so we must particularize in order 
 to demonstrate the measure of our present in- 
 efficiency. Let me repeat that the inefficiency is 
 not on the part of the divine organization pro- 
 jected by the Lord, but is due entirely to the 
 human administration concerned with it. The 
 train is complete and perfect but the train crew 
 have not been properly trained to run it and are 
 incompetent. 
 
 Many hundreds of times in the past few years 
 large groups of men and women have been asked 
 to determine to the best of their knowledge the 
 percentage of efficiency shown by the local 
 churches within their personal knowledge. This 
 percentage was to be determined by the measure 
 of their spiritual attainment in worship and de- 
 votion shown by the members as well as upon 
 the degree of sacrifice shown in constructing an 
 organization and then utilizing it to serve its 
 members, the community in which it was placed, 
 and the world beyond. The service considered 
 was to be rendered through three great agencies, 
 money, personality and intercession. 
 
 In such groups there are always a few who are 
 somewhat irresponsible for what they may say, 
 yet never has any one ventured to affirm that 
 more than thirty per cent, of efficiency was pro- 
 duced. Many have said that less than five per 
 
64 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 cent, of efficiency was shown by the Christian 
 democracy, but there has ahvays been a very 
 general agreement that tea per cent, was a safe 
 and generous estimate. In other words, through 
 inefficiency the Christian democracy is losing 
 ninety per cent, of its power and opportunity. 
 
 A Question Concerning the Cause of These 
 
 Failures Shows These Further 
 
 Inefficiencies 
 
 May we not properly ask if the democratic 
 principle is the cause of this inefficiency? Is 
 this appalling failure due to the fact that the 
 Christian democracy is not a proper instrument 
 or channel for the interpretation of Christ love 
 and service ? 
 
 A Failure of Human Administration. 
 
 In fleeing from the autocracy of sin to the in- 
 terdependent relations with God and our fellow 
 Christians we have failed to realize all the pos- 
 sible advantages and find that we have lost a 
 measure of love, of unity, of neighborliness, so 
 that together we are unable to produce the 
 needed nurture and culture which would make 
 effective the life with all its powers that was en- 
 trusted to us for service in the world. God has 
 not failed us as we have failed Him in that we 
 
DEMOCRACY AND INEFFICIENCY 66 
 
 left an autocracy of sin and on the way to de- 
 mocracy we stopped with the Bolsheviki — those 
 poor deluded idealists who without nurture or 
 culture in democracy mistook sentiment for a 
 love that was of great cost because of intelligent 
 priceless service. Bolshevikism is idealism with- 
 out love or common sense. It is an attempt to 
 govern by ideals but without a settled basis for 
 governing. Hence sooner or later it progresses 
 towards anarchy and autocracy. 
 
 Idealism Without Resultant Govcr7iment. 
 
 The Christian democracy has failed on its hu- 
 man side in proportion as it has ideals and no 
 resulting government with wise laws and re- 
 straints to lead the whole people towards the at- 
 tainment of those ideals. 
 
 For instance, God calls every child of His a 
 steward. In love He desires that we shall ad- 
 minister our stewardship according to His will. 
 He must, therefore, have the first-fruits of our 
 time, our energy, our talents, and our possessions. 
 Nor must it be forgotten that what our Father 
 asks in love He also commands in His capacity 
 as Lord and Master. 
 
 A Lack of Love. 
 
 In our voluntary submission to Him we pro- 
 fessed our love and obedience. We also gave 
 
66 DEMOCHACY AND THE CHUBCH 
 
 ourselves up to His Lordship. The double obli- 
 gation rests upon every one to follow His will 
 because we love Him and because we are His 
 servants. A love that is scorned or mocked is 
 in the end a lost love, and a law persistently 
 broken must have a consequent penalty. Is it a 
 matter of common experience that the Christian 
 democracy pays attention to the requirements of 
 love and visits upon the breaker of laws the 
 penalties of the broken law ? 
 
 To hear of church discipline in this day is to 
 hear of a very unusual procedure and conse- 
 quently love has lost its meaning and law has be- 
 come a farce with a consequent measure of 
 inefficiency. This must not be construed as a 
 plea for punitive discipline, but rather for resto- 
 ration of such a unity that love will compel an 
 efficiency honoring to all concerned. Where 
 love finally fails then law shall take its course in 
 order to strengthen the purposes of life. The 
 Christian democracy is inefficient in proportion 
 as love and law are not used to produce God's 
 expectation from every steward who has united 
 with the organization on the basis of a sur- 
 rendered individualism and a consequent inter- 
 dependence. The whole body must endeavor 
 steadily and progressively to secure results that 
 are commensurate with the endowments, the op- 
 
DEMOCEACY AND INEFFICIENCY 67 
 
 portunities and possessions of every member and 
 in particular secure a democracy wherein all 
 alike and in due measure worship, work and give 
 for the maintenance of the whole organization. 
 Nor will it do to be so slow and supine in secur- 
 ing the necessary results that the slowness will 
 be an open encouragement of failure. Therein 
 lies another cause of inefficiency. 
 
 A Further Query Concerning Delinquency 
 IN A Christian Democracy 
 
 A leading layman in the membership of a 
 country church asked this question : " Does 
 making a profession of faith and then joining 
 the church cause the loss of an ethical sense ? " 
 Asked to explain the purport of his question, he 
 said, " In my church are more than twenty men 
 whose word is good in the business world, as 
 good as their bond in most cases, but in the 
 church it is good for nothing. They have made 
 certain well-defined promises to God and the 
 church, but they cannot be made to fulfill those 
 promises, and it is common knowledge that they 
 are quite capable of immediately fulfilling them 
 if they determined to do so." The question and 
 statement reveal a very common delinquency in 
 the life of the ordinary local church, and therein 
 lies another source of inefficiency. Is it because 
 
68 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 such delinquency is part and parcel of a democ- 
 racy? The Christian democracy is confronted 
 with that condition on every hand. If a Chris- 
 tian democracy is the breeding ground of lying 
 and dishonesty, of supineness and weakness and 
 then of the failure of authority and discipline, 
 there is small hope that the world reaching out 
 for democracy will find in the interdependent 
 state the golden fruit that has been envisioned. 
 
 But the man of clear vision will not discount 
 the principle of democracy because of instances 
 which may come under his notice. This failure 
 is but the invasion of democracy by an insidious 
 form of autocracy. Let the Christian democracy 
 assert itself and drive out the sentimental weak- 
 ling who breeds autocracy in the midst of de- 
 mocracy on the plea that " you cannot make any 
 one do that.*' To admit such a plea is to banish 
 love with its compelling power as well as to 
 banish the tremendous power of a majority who 
 set a delinquent minority a good example and 
 then call on that minority for the purposes of the 
 democracy to be fulfilled by an adequate response. 
 Not to do this is to cultivate inefficiency. 
 
 All Inefficiency Classified or Grouped 
 FOR THE Sake of Emphasis 
 
 To sum up this discussion of democracy and 
 
DEMOCEACY AND INEFFICIENCY G9 
 
 inefficiency, notice that the failures of the Church 
 when analyzed can be classified in groups. 
 
 Faulty Idealism. 
 
 First there is the inefficiency due to a distorted 
 expression of idealism that lies behind any de- 
 mocracy. The ideals are not expressed by ideal 
 people. 
 
 Inadequate Goverfiment, 
 
 Then there is the inefficiency due to faulty 
 government largely to be ascribed to untrained 
 officials and poor organization. In this connec- 
 tion we are compelled to draw attention to the 
 production of a large class of members who 
 seemingly are above the law of democracy and 
 beyond the reach of its loving ministry if present 
 conditions are to govern our judgment in the 
 case. A privileged class is a da;igerous class in 
 any interdependent state. 
 
 Lack of Nurture and Culture. 
 
 Next there comes the inefficiency consequent 
 upon faulty or absent nurture and culture. This 
 leads sooner or later to a lack of unity and then 
 by various stages to differences of character and 
 attainment with its consequent loss of achieve- 
 ment. 
 
70 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHUECH 
 
 Failure to Progress. 
 
 Then there is the iiiefficieiicy that grows apace 
 when projecting powers are not encouraged and 
 built into the hfe of each member. The dynamic 
 of the Christian hfe hes in the love that deter- 
 mines to let all the world know about the Lover 
 who died to save the object of His love, and that 
 without regard to cost. 
 
 Untrained Officiary, 
 
 Next there is the inefficiency due to a leader- 
 ship that is limited in its powers because it has 
 been educated but not clinically trained. Is not 
 this the case with the graduates of very many of 
 the theological seminaries ? 
 
 All of these groups in consequence of inherent 
 weaknesses are unable to relate the divine powers 
 and graces to the needs of their democracy as 
 could be done if the weaknesses were eliminated. 
 As a further consequence, democracy is endan- 
 gered in the eyes of the world when it looks 
 upon the weaknesses betrayed by the Christian 
 democracy. 
 
 Sex Distinction. 
 
 Two other matters must be considered before 
 we pass on to discuss other phases of the topic. 
 One concerns the fostering by the Christian de- 
 
DEMOCRACY AND INEFFICIENCY 71 
 
 mocracy of sex distinction. In some particulars 
 the Church has led in the recognition of the rights 
 of womanhood consequent upon their treatment 
 upon a common basis with all the other human 
 beings by the plan of salvation and the command 
 to evangelize the whole world. Yet it is worthy 
 of note that a large measure of inefficiency has 
 been fostered in the Christian democracy by an 
 unjust and unchristian discrimination against 
 women Christians. If a true democracy is a 
 government of the people, by the people, for the 
 people, why has the Church until recently per- 
 sisted in refusing to women members their dem- 
 ocratic rights? The discrimination has foisted 
 into many an office a man who though utterly in- 
 competent has been given the place of responsi- 
 bility. At certain periods in the history of the 
 Church the Word of God has been interpreted 
 as putting a sex limit upon the filling of certain 
 specified offices in the Church, but even with 
 the acceptance of that interpretation only a spirit 
 of man-made autocracy has prevented the church 
 offices and the governing bodies from being filled 
 upon the basis of ability to render competent 
 service. The reply often given is that if com- 
 petency was to determine, then the women 
 would secure all the places of responsibility. 
 The reply furnishes its own refutation in the 
 
72 DEMOCRACY AKD THE CHURCH 
 
 assurance that men would soon become competent 
 enough to compete with women of ability, so 
 that there would be an equitable basis of distri- 
 bution as well as a great advance in the com- 
 petency of all. 
 
 Divisive Elements i?t Unit. 
 
 In the United States we have a good example 
 of a federal government. There are towns, cities, 
 counties and states which exercise governmental 
 functions for the areas they represent, but they 
 are all subordinated for federal purpose to a 
 national government. In the Christian democ- 
 racy we have a dangerous situation, particularly 
 in the local churches because the Bible School, 
 the Young People's Society, the Women's or- 
 ganization or some other part of the whole is not 
 properly federalized into a strong unit which 
 while exercising needed control and taxation for 
 the good of the whole, yet permits activity and 
 organization for some particular end belonging 
 to such a segment. 
 
 A broken up, unrelated, non-cooperating set 
 of small units with governmental functions in a 
 local church is a sign of inefficiency and often of 
 an autocratic spirit in a segment. The same 
 statement is true concerning units in larger areas 
 which cling to a distinguishing name, but refuse 
 
DEMOCEACY AND INEFFICIENCY 73 
 
 to federalize with the whole body covered by the 
 distinguishing name. 
 
 Present day forms of Christian democracy are 
 organized on the basis of love for God and a 
 consequent love for fellow men and in particular 
 for those of the organized group to which the 
 individual belongs. The immediate danger 
 which results from this relation founded in love 
 is that it will fail in efficient administration be- 
 tween a sentimental fear to administer properly the 
 responsibility and an autocratic system founded 
 on law which works without regard to individu- 
 ality. But if the Church cannot successfully 
 surmount that difficulty, then there is little hope 
 that the people of the world minus the impelling 
 love of God and the consequent Christlike love 
 of their neighbor will be able to succeed in de- 
 mocratizing human relations and governments. 
 
 In Spite of Failure Ideals of Democracy 
 Are Still the Goal of the Church 
 
 Up to the present time it is to be feared that 
 the Christian democracy as shown in this chapter 
 has not made a notable success in the use of the 
 principles of democracy or in the development 
 of its spirit in the lives of its members. It is 
 still a hope and a possibility, but not yet an 
 actuality in the lives of Christian people organized 
 
74 DEMOCKACY AND THE CHUECH 
 
 in local churches and then in communions. The 
 ideals of democracy are already seen, the desire 
 for democracy is very great and its principles are 
 constantly being held up for public approbation, 
 but in the attempt to administer democracy this 
 chapter would indicate that much has yet to be 
 accomplished by the Church if she would show 
 the world the real value of democracy. How 
 can this be done efficiently is the next question 
 we must face. 
 
 In the past the organized groups of believers 
 have strenuously resented criticism even when it 
 was constructive and kindly, but that era has 
 passed. 
 
 To-day the Church faces its task in the world 
 with the desire to know what must be attempted 
 and then to find the most efficient ways of doing 
 its work to the best advantage of all concerned. 
 It invites criticism that is constructive and will 
 lead to the discovery of failure. 
 
 Statistics 
 
 Church statistics have always been accepted 
 with a measure of doubt because too often they 
 were gathered hastily and without the coopera- 
 tion of scientific help. 
 
 Whatever doubt may be cast upon church sta- 
 tistics it is impossible to cast discredit upon the 
 
DEMOCRACY AND INEFFIENCY 75 
 
 law of averages which is found in successful 
 operation in every sphere of human endeavor. 
 
 Church life furnishes ample proof of the ef- 
 ficiency and reliability of this law of averages, so 
 it is to be hoped that whatever tabulation of facts 
 found in this and other chapters will be judged 
 by the law of averages rather than upon the basis 
 of their being «♦ just church statistics/' 
 
ANALYSIS— CHAPTER IV 
 
 DEMOCRACY AND DISCIPLINE 
 
 1. A product of Democracy. 
 
 2. The mark of power in a believer. 
 
 3. Surrendered individualism. 
 
 4. Punishment and discipline. 
 
 5. Discipline essential. 
 
 6. Some definitions. 
 
 7. Discipline and disciple. 
 
 8. Our definition of Christian Democracy. 
 
 9. A study of discipline : 
 
 (i) What prevents and destroys discipline: 
 (/?) Improper public opinion. 
 (^) Class distinctions, 
 (f) Lack of organization. 
 (</) Untrained leaders. 
 (^) Failure of authority from fear of criticism. 
 
 (2) What will create discipline : 
 (a) Nurture and culture. 
 (S) Adequate leadership. 
 (r) Education and oversight. 
 (<f) A world task. 
 
 (f) Submission to God : 
 
 f a) Prayer, (b) Service in His name. 
 
 (3) The products of discipline : 
 (4) A spiritual Church. 
 (if) A serving Church, 
 (f) A sacrificing Church. 
 
 10. Showing the world the value of Democracy. 
 
IV 
 
 DEMOCRACY AND DISCIPLINE 
 
 A DISCIPLINED individual unit is one 
 of the finest products of a true democ- 
 racy. The discipHne is the result of a 
 nurture and culture that produces an interde- 
 pendent being whose powers and possessions are 
 used in neighborly love for the service and good 
 of others. Unregulated, uncontrolled, and even 
 misdirected individual units in any democracy 
 are a continual menace and will constantly tend 
 to grow worse. In the world about us insanity, 
 idiocy, subnormality, outlawry, ignorance, dis- 
 ease, and death, are part of the price paid for a 
 lack of discipline in the life. 
 
 The Mark of Power in a Believer 
 In any group of believers the mark of the 
 Christian power and graces should be a disciplined 
 body, mind and soul. To serve Christ is to have 
 surrendered self. To be part of the Christian 
 democracy is to have reached the place where 
 individualism has been merged into interdepend- 
 ence and therefore self-will, like or dislike, self- 
 77 
 
78 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHUECH 
 
 ishness and wrong self-seeking are vigorously 
 excluded in every possible way from the rela- 
 tions sustained towards fellow members and God. 
 This is not easy in any life. Christ never prom- 
 ised ease to His followers, but plainly warned 
 them of cross bearing and sacrifice; but ultimate 
 victory was also promised. To live this Christ 
 life the redemptive work of divine grace must 
 have begun in the hfe through being born again, 
 then there will of necessity be required a soul 
 and body that is disciplined. In such a life 
 attitudes are first of all more important than in- 
 formation, and habits must often precede princi- 
 ples. To illustrate : A child must be taught to 
 reverence and love God long before much infor- 
 mation concerning Him is given and a habit is 
 formed in the child life long before the mind of 
 the little one is capable even of comprehending 
 the principles that lie behind the necessity for 
 the habit. That beautiful habit of childhood, 
 prayer, is an example. 
 
 Surrendered Individualism 
 
 It is a striking fact that a surrendered indi- 
 vidualism, disciplined after divine redemptive 
 processes have begun, is the one great source of 
 the strength essential to a good thoroughgoing 
 democracy. That source of strength is indi- 
 
DEMOCEACY AND DISCIPLINE 79 
 
 viduality of a commanding type. Scripture is 
 once more vindicated in its statement that to lose 
 a life for Christ's sake is to save it. Discipline 
 and surrendered individualism have much in 
 common. 
 
 Punishment and Discipline 
 Punishment and discipline are quite different 
 and must not be confused even when punishment 
 is understood to be corrective and not punitive. 
 A disciplined body or soul is one under control 
 of the mind and spiritual power in the life. The 
 control is exercised for the highest good of what- 
 ever or whoever is concerned and it is exercised 
 as the will of the disciplined individual. It in- 
 cludes both positive and negative attitudes. It 
 is not the result primarily of force outside but of 
 power within. 
 
 Discipline Essential 
 Discipline is essential to any democracy and it 
 can only be the product of nurture and culture. 
 Not even divine grace can do more than sow the 
 seed of it. It is not a thing of momentary growth, 
 but the product of time, energy and concentra- 
 tion and also of self-sacrifice. In the life of a 
 Christian it is furthermore the product of love 
 for God and the constant ministry of divine grace 
 in the human heart and life. Yet it must be 
 
80 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 pointed out here that an individual of clear vision 
 would seek discipline from self-interest in order 
 to get the most and best in life. Of course even 
 then the cost of it must be paid in thorough sur- 
 render. 
 
 Some Definitions 
 
 The dictionary definitions of the vi^ord disci- 
 pHne are interesting. Here are several : " Culti- 
 vation and improvement comprehending instruc- 
 tion in correct sentiments, morals, manners and 
 due subordination to authority," " subjection to 
 laws, rules, order, precepts or regulations as, ' the 
 troops are under excellent discipline.' " From 
 these definitions it will be seen that the word 
 disciple and discipline are of common origin and 
 meaning. Two verses of Scripture considered 
 here will relate our whole discussion of democ- 
 racy to the intent and heart of all God's plan for 
 His people. " Go ye unto all the world and dis- 
 ciple all nations teaching them to observe all 
 things that I have said unto you " and " That 
 the trial of your faith which is much more pre- 
 cious than gold which perisheth though it be tried 
 by fire might be found worthy of honor and 
 glory and praise at the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." Thus we are led to see that our study 
 of the ideal democracy brings us to the place 
 where the essential element in that democracy is 
 
DEMOCEACY AND DISCIPLINE 81 
 
 found to be the sort of person God had in mind 
 in His plan for the world's redemption when He 
 told His people to go and seek in the world the 
 unredeemed and then in the language of the 
 apostle just quoted, prove their faith by trial. 
 
 Our Definition of a Christian Democracy 
 But once again let us remind ourselves of the 
 definition of Christian democracy given in chap- 
 ter one. " A Christian democracy is a brother- 
 hood of the followers of Jesus Christ who have 
 voluntarily associated themselves together in a 
 spirit of fraternity and equality for the purposes 
 of nurture, culture and the development of a 
 similar spirit throughout the world." This seems 
 to add the one essential element lacking in the 
 dictionary definition of discipline when it adds 
 the idea of projection by love and power and 
 without force to the ideas of nurture and culture 
 in the production of a democracy of discipline. 
 A Christian democracy is but a body of well dis- 
 ciplined children of God. Democracy subor- 
 dinates things to people and the Christian de- 
 mocracy subordinates everything to the great 
 Person, Christ. 
 
 A Study of Discipline 
 Let us conclude this discussion of the Chris- 
 
82 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 tian democracy, therefore, by a concise study 
 of three things in connection with discipHne. 
 While we have already discussed the relation of 
 discipline to the efficiency of the Church we now 
 face the matter again from another point of view. 
 
 What Prevents and Destroys Discipline ? 
 
 First, what prevents and destroys discipHne ? 
 Discipline is essential to the well-being of democ- 
 racy. Without obtruding the obvious we will 
 begin by mentioning improper public opinion. 
 
 Public Opinion. 
 
 The place of public opinion is important in a 
 democracy. Many times it is but the behest of" 
 the slacker, the parasite and the lawbreaker. 
 Certain types of public opinion are often used 
 for purposes of sinister control for personal 
 ends. That is autocracy in its last analysis. 
 The will of all the people is not to be expressed 
 by an intangible pubhc opinion, but by a public 
 opinion which expresses itself in a vote. Public 
 opinion of the harmful type is largely intangible, 
 invisible and insidious, but a public vote is just 
 the reverse. The Church must not be controlled 
 by a harmful public opinion but by the proper 
 pubhc expressions of its disciplined individual 
 units. Improper public opinion destroys dis- 
 cipHne. 
 
DEMOCRACY AND DISCIPLINE 83 
 
 Class Distinctions. 
 
 Class distinctions are decidedly dangerous to 
 discipline. To raise a ministerial group as 
 against a lay group is the height of folly. Such 
 groups have their place on the surface just as 
 there is a place in the national life for a democrat 
 or republican, provided they are true Americans 
 first of all. But to be party politicians in the 
 face of the real interests of the country, is to be- 
 tray ourselves. So to preserve a sex distinction 
 or a class difference to the destruction of effi- 
 ciency and justice is to destroy both discipline 
 and the democracy in the Church. To entrench 
 an official class for hfe with inherent official 
 powers of great reach is ultimately to destroy 
 discipline even in the Christian democracy. 
 And when those high officials grow out of a 
 union of Church and State and the individual 
 units have no voice in the selection or removal 
 of them it is no wonder that the Church becomes 
 the poisoned honey on the breath of a terrible 
 autocracy. 
 
 Lack of Organization. 
 
 Lack of organization or a plethora of disorgan- 
 ization precludes discipline. Organization is for 
 the purpose of using all the inherent parts of 
 any unit in the most efficacious and productive 
 
84 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 manner, while preserving the essential spirit of 
 the unified whole. The Church is either un- 
 organized or disorganized by a maximum of 
 segmentary organizations that have no organic 
 relation to the whole. This accounts for much 
 of its loss of power and discipline. 
 
 Untrained Leaders. 
 
 Failure to raise up a body of trained lead- 
 ers out of the unit is to produce an undis- 
 ciplined mob. A disciplined unit can only be 
 produced by a trained lay leadership secured by 
 adequate nurture and culture from among the 
 whole and then set to the task of propagating the 
 essential elements of their disciphne among all 
 the body. The less distance and the more com- 
 petency there is among all the elements in the 
 democracy the better will be the discipline in the 
 Church. 
 
 Failure of Authority from Fear of Criticism. 
 
 Finally in this connection it is necessary to 
 mention that an absence of authority to proclaim 
 and enforce adequate standards will destroy dis- 
 cipline and produce the destruction of the de- 
 mocracy. Fear of criticism on the part of 
 leaders is often at the bottom of this factor. 
 Fear of criticism on the part of leaders is a con- 
 
DEMOCRACY AND DISCIPLINE 85 
 
 fession of failure and weakness. For years the 
 Christian democracy has been halted because of 
 it. For instance, fear of criticism has made them 
 afraid to spend adequate sums of money in order 
 to produce a corresponding increase in resources. 
 A great missionary leader has just put this de- 
 structive spirit to flight in the Methodist Church 
 and at the same time a Baptist layman attacked 
 a similar evil spirit in his communion. The Lord 
 raise up many more such leaders ! Fear of 
 criticism has caused a multitude of church officers 
 to fail in the ordinary regulation of the sur- 
 rendered individuals until now it is almost the 
 exception rather than the rule for a church mem- 
 ber to consider he has any obligation to conform 
 to the simple fundamental requirements concern- 
 ing worship, service or giving. In consequence 
 discipline is destroyed and therefore the Chris- 
 tian democracy often looks like a group of self- 
 regulated autocrats. 
 
 IVkat Will Create Discipliyie ? 
 Now consider what are the elements needed 
 to create a sense of discipHne. 
 
 Nurture and Culture. 
 
 Nurture first of all : and proper nurture even 
 precedes birth. Then should follow an adequate 
 
86 DEMOCRACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 education that gives both mental discipHne and 
 moral and spiritual values so as to produce cul- 
 ture. Not Kultur! That is mental, but lacks 
 soul and interdependence. There is a culture 
 that is not culture but is cult. We must never 
 forget that there can be no real culture apart 
 from God and spirituality. That culture inevi- 
 tably produces discipline and makes democracy 
 safe anywhere in the world. 
 
 Adequate Leadership. 
 
 These twin needs for nurture and culture will 
 of course necessitate adequate professional but 
 brotherly democratic leadership as well as a large 
 amount of trained lay leadership properly utilized, 
 in adequate processes touching every department 
 of the Christian democracy in a unified plan. 
 
 Education and Oversight. 
 
 The checking of delinquency must be at- 
 tended to, but of more importance is the pre- 
 vention of delinquency by proper teaching at 
 the proper time. Democracy recognizes a dif- 
 ference between essentials and non-essentials. 
 For instance, in America to-day you can dye 
 your hair or rouge your face if you are foolish 
 enough to do so, but you cannot use any mor- 
 
DEMOCEACY AND DISCIPLINE 87 
 
 phine. Preventing the use of the last named 
 drug is essential to public welfare and private 
 good, while the freedom to use the dye or rouge 
 is a matter non-essential to all but good taste. 
 Oversight is very essential to good discipline. 
 What is everybody's business is nobody's. Those 
 charged with the oversight must be closely 
 answerable to their constituency. Nor must it 
 be forgotten that the standards of the officiary 
 soon become the standards of the whole body. 
 It has often been said that a good, well loved 
 pastor can do what he wants with his member- 
 ship ; but whether or not that is altogether true 
 I know that a poorly chosen, covetous, lazy board 
 of deacons can speedily destroy all sense of dis- 
 cipline in any Christian democracy. So to create 
 and preserve discipline, let me repeat, we must 
 have proper oversight by trained lay and pro- 
 fessional leaders. 
 
 A World Task. 
 
 A world task produces a fine sense of disci- 
 pline. The largeness of Christ's objective is a 
 tremendous spur to any well-nurtured soul and 
 develops in their soul and mind a species of 
 world culture that is enlarging and ennobling as 
 well as giving a spirit of heroic venture to all the 
 plans of the life. Is the missionary principle as 
 
88 DEMOCKACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 set forth in the Bible one that is left to the voli- 
 tion of the individual ? Or is it mandatory ? If 
 mandatory and essential should it not be funda- 
 mental in the teaching, planning and projection 
 of the Church? Should it not be absolutely 
 divorced from all idea of money raising ? The 
 cause is love to God, the effect is obedience to 
 God's world aims, hence the production of money 
 as one of the necessary effects. A Christian 
 democracy that is not intensely interested in 
 producing other similar democracies when needed 
 has failed to catch the true spirit of Christ and 
 deserves to perish. This enterprise of the Church 
 when properly laid on the hearts of each indi- 
 vidual produces a disciplined life by the very 
 breadth of its vision, which calls even for heroic 
 giving and service in order to attain to its 
 objective. 
 
 Submission to God. 
 
 Last but not least is this connection. Let us 
 note the urgent need of an adequate submission 
 by each individual to the God and Father of 
 us all. 
 
 Prayer 
 
 Nothing will produce a disciplined life without 
 proper standards of a prayer life. It is the key 
 
DEMOCRACY AND DISCIPLINE 89 
 
 to every other surrender which the hfe has to 
 make. Without it all others will not avail much. 
 With it put into the first place all other elements 
 in a life properly disciplined will be seen to owe 
 their power to prayer being first. Prayer has 
 three great phases. Communion, where one lets 
 God talk to him. Petition, where the soul talks 
 with God, and then intercession where the soul 
 seeks God for the blessing and saving of others. 
 Prayer is a divine principle and must become a 
 human practice in a well-disciplined life. Divine 
 principles never change, only they find new and 
 varied expression in a changing world. To make 
 the Christian democracy ideal we must first of all 
 have individual units who submit themselves to 
 God and then to their fellow believers in God's 
 name for all His purposes. 
 
 Service in His Name 
 The tasks of democracy are quite essential to 
 its well-being and safety. All the tasks can be 
 put into two phases. Producing a set of disci- 
 plined units in order to give to all peoples the 
 Word of God and the spirit of Christ. This is 
 to be done by self-sacrifice and self-elimination 
 that the whole world may share equally with you 
 your blessings, privileges and duties. 
 
90 DEMOCEACY AND THE CHURCH 
 
 Products of Discipline. 
 
 Now we need in closing to show the products 
 of discipline. They will be both democratic and 
 individual. The former because of the latter. 
 The latter will be the result of the former. 
 Briefly these products of discipline can be summed 
 up as follows : 
 
 A Spiritual Church. — The membership wor- 
 shipping God and at prayer securing power and 
 unity. 
 
 A Serving Church. — A church at work with 
 God using the power to impress its unity upon a 
 world of individuals lost, alone, yes sheep with- 
 out a sheepfold or shepherd. But they will 
 provide in God's name a fold by first producing 
 the Shepherd. 
 
 A Sacrificing Church. — A church made up of 
 God's partners, victorious in spirit, sacrificing in 
 all their worship and service, therefore ready for 
 the coming of the King, hence ready for what- 
 ever comes. 
 
 Showing the World the Value of 
 Democracy 
 
 These products of Christian discipline will 
 help the Christian democracy to show its ideal 
 nature to the world and then the world will see 
 in the Church a pattern for democracy and in 
 
DEMOCEACY AND DISCIPLINE 91 
 
 the search for democracy many will find Christ. 
 The hope for world democracy rests in the uni- 
 fying power of Christ's love and in Christian 
 brotherhood, produced by fatherhood in God, 
 and resulting in loving service. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America