Torches Aloft By William Melvin Bell, D.D, Twelve Years a Pastor, Two Years Superintendent of Indiana Sunday- School Association and Editor of the State Paper, Twelve Years General Secretary for Home and Foreign Missions, Eleven Years Editor of the Search Light, now Serving in his Third Consecutive Quadrennium as Bishop of the Pacific District; Author of "The Love of God" and "The Social Message of Our Lord." 1914 THE OTTERBEIN PRESS DAYTON, OHIO Copyright 1914, by The United Brethren Publishing House Dayton, Ohio ebicateb to flje g>tate of California, flje commontoealtf) of mp citi^en- sljip for nine ebentful pears;, commontoealtfj, Untfj an abonno= ing generosity, Ijas afforbeb magnificent ebucational institutions in tofjid) most of mp cfjilor en IjaD e been ebttcateb, in tofjidj some of tljem notu serbe, in tutiictj a beboteb toife, cljilbren, an ageb mother, an onlp s'urbiuing brotljer, fjabe con= tfittitcb to a ijomc life, tije memorp of luijictj toill be foreber ijallotoeb; luijerc s'unnp gUies; anb faboring climates fjeal, anb manp frienbsf gibe jop, natural toonbers in a most bartetp excite perpetual praise to ^llmigfjtp 4lob; toijere citizens! are un= afraib to leab ttje toap in progreggibe gobernmental ibeate anb enactments, tutjcre toealtlj toatts on inbus'trp, anb toljere a migfjtp empire, noto in ttje ruggeb gtrugglefi of itJS malting, pro= posed to beal bountifullp anb jus'tlp ttjttfj tlje sons anb baugfjters of men. INTRODUCTION THE messages of this modest volume have been given to many public assemblages throughout the United States in the form of sermons, lectures, and addresses, in the immediate past. They have been given under the auspices of chautauquas, brotherhoods, clubs, church conventions, and various other organiza- tions and occasions. The hearers have been both gracious and hearty in expressing appreciation and urging this added publicity. The author submits the product with a keen sense of the inadequacy of his efforts, but begs all readers to consider that the subjects treated have profound interest to the writer and that his deepest heart has been embodied in the output. In very truth a new Americanism is athand ; a new righteousness is demanded in every process and institution of our American life. The Church, as the embodiment organically of the Kingdom of God, is face to face with a challenge at home and abroad such as, in the judgment of the writer, has no parallel in history. The author believes with greater firmness and intensity than ever in the ade- quacy of the Christ evangel as the leaven by which our entire social fabric is to be elevated, purified and conserved. Our civilization is about ready to accept a new vitalization by Christ as Savior and Lord. We are growing surfeited with our mate- rialism and a revival of interest in spiritual values and development may now be surely and rapidly promoted. An adequate leadership never had such an opportunity as now in Church and State. The demand for social justice and a new social efficiency is now all but dominating. The Church must accept the challenge to a new emphasis on genuineness and social interest. From altars at which she will offer herself in complete self-dedication she must arise mantled in power and fling herself into the front line battles for a new heaven and a new earth so- cially. It shall be hers to reincarnate the sacrificial life and project it in the spiritual conquest of all mankind. The author earnestly hopes and prays that the contents of this volume may contribute in some humble measure to arousing every reader to a deeper and diviner passion for the setting forward of our twentieth century civilization towards the glorious efficiency of which our prophets have had a vision and our great leaders in Church and State are now forth telling. THE AUTHOR. 227 West 51st Street, Los Angeles, Cal. February 12, 1914. CONTENTS Chapter I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. Page 1 10 19 of 28 37 Torches Aloft - Age Tendencies - Leadership The Ministry Co-operation in the Christianization America Whence the Ills of Humanity? Current Changes and the Religious World 49 One Religion For All Men - - 58 Religion and Social Reform 67 The Upward Pull of Christianity 73 Democracy and Government - - 80 The Present Social Urgency - - 94 Socialism and Capitalism 108 Significant Developments in the Commer- cial World 131 The Coming Catholicism - 140 Some Modern Fallacies 147 The Early Church and Social Welfare 155 The Church in Social Progress - - 163 The Aims of Christ 180 Christ's Method For an Efficient Hu- manity ----- 190 Three Giants 197 Some Things That Are Being Overlooked in Current Thinking The Virtues of Religious People Some Faults of Religious People Objectives of Religious People The Perils of Religious People Some Modern Incongruities Awakening America 214 225 240 249 261 274 285 I. TORCHES ALOFT. From a remote past the torch has served as a symbol both of illumination and destruction. The torch aloft is a symbol of kindly and constructive ministries. Torches lowered have always been ominous of cruelty and devastation. The army, the incendiary, and the mob have used the torch as the instrument of destruction. The choicest treas- ures of art, the hard-earned accumulations of a life time, every kind of material good, yea, even hu- man life itself, all these have gone down before the fell destroyer at the instance of human passion. The torches of hate and cruelty have figured far too largely in the history of mankind and they can- not disappear too soon. It is disappointing to be compelled to know that human hands have at any time been employed in wielding the torches of per- secution and death. It is indeed high time that "peace on earth and good will to men" should em- body the temper of all mankind- Trie torches of redemptive and redemptive-social truth are the only ones that justify human use and interest. There is one supreme duty for all men and nations, and that is the holding aloft of the torches of illumination and beneficence until all the dark places of the earth are lighted. The night of the 2 Torches Aloft race shall pass, for the rays of the Great Luminary have long contended with the appalling darkness. Of the Savior-Lord it has been said, "He lighteth every man coming into the world." The essential and universal illuminations that flow from Christ are being better understood as the evolution of mankind moves onward. In the realm of human hope and progress he is the Day Spring from on high. He alone can and does vitalize the funda- mental processes of human advancement. His life is generic and his headship of the race is a most blessed and significant fact. It is the plan of God that all responsible beings shall serve as sub-lumi- naries taking light for their torches from Christ, the Light of the world. Torches lighted from him are readily identified for they reflect their glorious author and the likeness is unmistakable. "Let your light so shine." "Ye are the light of the world." "Among whom ye shine as lights in the world." The human obligation for identification with Christ in the task of universal enlightenment is the most urgent duty and neglect here is treason to the moral government of God. This identification is also the most exalted privilege in any human career. It gives zest and a beneficent mission. No responsi- bility so weighty and none with such abundant and satisfying rewards. Questions of character, view- point, and intelligence are all involved in this statement. It behooves us all to approach this challenge seriously and penitently. The God- lighted life is needed everywhere. Torches Aloft 3 The absence of humane ministries and tempers in modern civilization is greatly to be deplored. It seems almost impossible that the inhuman ten- dencies should yet survive as they do. It appears to be necessary to make far more extensive and per- sistent effort to give the human mind the intelli- gence, and the human soul the power and aptness for acting agreeable to the intelligence when it shall be attained, that all processes and actions in- spired by hate are costly beyond all estimate. War is hell, according to a noted military leader and yet the world will have more of it. The economic waste of indulgence in the common expressions of hate and malice are beyond estimate and yet our civili- zation has not sufficient self-control to act accord- ing to the fact. Individual character has always been important, but in this age of non-isolation and social com- mingling it is, if possible, more important than ever. An evil minded man can be more hurtful and the high minded man more helpful than in any previous age. Proximity always raises numerous questions that are scarcely thought of in remoteness. Indi- vidual sources of evil contagion are now subject to serious and vigorous attention such as no former age ever witnessed. If a mad dog is within reach of a single individual, his prompt dispatch is justified, but even more so when he is within reach of a hun- dred people. It follows logically that in the present unprecedented social relationship the quality of the individual character must be a matter of growing 4 Torches Aloft concern. The agencies for securing high-grade indi- vidual character must exercise upon themselves an unsparing introspection. These agencies are charged with the duty of bringing to the character problem an adequate efficiency. The hindrances to efficiency must be noted and eliminated as nearly as may be. The methods and occasions of approach must be studied in a progressive spirit and the necessary program carried forward at any cost. Solicitude, intercession, adapted approach, patient contact, are all in order in behalf of those who are missing the way. The efforts in behalf of general intelligence are quickening as they should and must if we are to witness the divine fulfillment in human destiny. The need of education is too apparent to require ar- gument, and progress is now rapid because of the general interest and co-operation. Religion affords the appropriate atmosphere and the befitting mo- tive for education. The resultant moral control alone can guarantee that the process shall not be in vain. The rapidly increasing social responsibility makes the demand for training as a prerequisite for a noble career all the more imperative. Men must know if they are to do, and the quality of their being determines the character and utility of their doing. All the human activities are but so many reflections of character. The relation of knowledge, character, and service is intimate and vital. Gen- uine religion is all determining as to character. Torches Aloft 5 Education and intelligence condition efficiency and point of view. With the American emphasis on the individual it is becoming very evident that not only individ- uals but corporations, institutions, and organiza- tions of every kind that have to do with our civili- zation must modify, in conformity with a growing humaneness and social equity. There is a growing protest against so many lives being submitted to scant requitals of toil, to inevitable disappointment, and social disaster. Human life as compared to all material possession and wealth, is to be exalted just ahead as never before. Industrialism, as one of the institutions of civilization, will inevitably accept the social and humanitarian viewpoint, and business shall be made to contribute first of all to the needs of humanity. Business for the elevation and com- fort of the rank and file, rather than for the great wealth of a few individuals, is a genuine and wor- thy demand. A lack of passion for universal human welfare is in far too large a measure characteristic of the modern commercial and financial world. Effort to- ward a change in this respect is most compelling. For many of the good and merciful rewards of hu- man life the world has waited patiently. A rea- sonable measure of comfort in life is a just expecta- tion for all right-minded people in this age of abounding wealth and bounty. All the processes and ideals of our industrialism should concede this expectation as normal and this conception should 6 Torches Aloft attemper capital through and through. This is the twentieth century with the date line determined by the advent of the Friend of man into the world. He would have us cast out the harsh and cruel from the institutions of civilization. To be sure progress in this direction is being made and any other than a hopeful view would not conform to the facts. The temper of our industrialism is gradually changing for the better. On the other hand he would indeed be stupid who did not observe that there exists a strong reactionary opposition to the now well-ad- vanced social and industrial reform. Some cruel, unjust, and unhumanized tendencies and methods survive, and these must be laid bare unsparingly. The world must have more heart, more sympathy, more disinterestedness, and far less of the unwar- ranted ambition for material gain accruing to the individual, out of all proportion to any individual ability to use sanely and justly. If we mistake not, the modern mind is increas- ingly earnest for the modification of the hardened mind. The acquiring of almost unlimited wealth by any individual is being seriously challenged, as it should be. Beyond a modest sum, no individual or family has a real or legitimate need. Touching this whole matter, a lot of unwholesome and un- Christian thinking has obtained. Abnormal wealth at the command of any one individual confers alto- gether too much power and constitutes a social and economic menace. It is athwart the will of an all- wise God, who has specifically warned against the Torches Aloft 7 result upon the owner. What great wealth as a rule does with men, is worthy of fresh study and serious attention. We believe the time is near when men will have far less desire than now for the accu- mulating and hoarding of a colossal fortune. It is not only a question of what effect the great fortune has upon the individual, but we are coming to know that every such large accumulation under present methods is at a deplorable sacrifice of count- less human lives. It is written of the Christ that, "though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might become rich." We do not hear in these days of many rich people voluntarily becoming poor that the poor may become even comfortable. It is clear that the great individual fortune inevitably abridges the fortunes of others and yet this phase of our industrialism has gone on almost unchallenged. There has been scant thought as to how it might be otherwise. If such a price as this from the many must be paid for the large individual accumulation, then it ought not be wondered at that a vigorous pronouncement and protest is rising against such social injustice. It is a legitimate inquiry as to whether one may in- dulge in these enormous fortunes without being hardened as to the fearful cost at which the fortune is secured. There is something about the process of amassing large wealth which blinds the mind and freezes the heart. Christ made it very clear that riches are not only undesirable but the positive occasion of guilt. It is not improbable that society 8 will soon assert the right to limit the individual for- tune and compel the vast individual wealth of the world to yield in a sane way to such methods as will insure a more equitable distribution. In this mat- ter the state will, in all probability, accept a duty and assume a function which until now it has never taken upon itself. A new viewpoint is becoming more and more prevalent among thoughtful and rightminded people. It would indeed be deplorable if civilization should at last rend itself in conten- tion over the very wealth which by its ingenuity and skill it has created. Much of modern conten- tion and irritability grows out of the struggle for a more universal and just distribution of the commod- ities which the world is now producing. The hu- man mind has, in many respects, manifested a strange obtuseness as is evidenced in the fact that the Golden Rule has usually been derided whenever any genuine application of it to the commercial world has been suggested. Goodness has often been pronounced impractical, and brilliant wickedness ap- plauded. All this in face of the fact that nothing in the universe is so impractical as evil. Evil, indulged and obstinate, resulted in the American Civil War, and to-day seventy per cent, of our taxes are spent on war pensions and war preparations. The out- put of the slums of civilization is becoming such an economic menace that in sheer self-protection the municipalities are being driven to the problem of their elimination. Christian righteousness is the most constructive force in the world. The con- Torches Aloft 9 science makers of a nation are its greatest economic benefactors. In the long run counterfeit foods are quite as destructive as counterfeit dollars. Adul- terated foods should have no better standing than adulterated dollars. Both capital and corporations are now being punished for past misdeeds. Organ- ized injustice and self-interest can never obliterate justice nor pass as a constructive force in civiliza- tion. We must have higher standards for business conduct. The square deal is an economic as well as a moral demand. II. AGE TENDENCIES. The civilized world lias become accustomed to the round-the-world traveler, but it is doubtful if we know how largely national ideals are affected by this abundant and constant intercommunication. The man who travels extensively finds himself pass- ing from the provincial to the cosmopolitan in his sympathy, interest, and outlook. He becomes a world citizen. The present generation has been ac- cused of having the "wanderlust." There is such a thing as yielding to the temptation to go from place to place and pander to one's desire for change of scene and society at the expense of deep-rooted and efficient life. When one travels he inevitably read- justs his viewpoint on many things. All the social institutions to which he has been accustomed in early years naturally have preference in his think- ing and estimate. However, as he comes to study distant races and nations, if he be fairminded and alert, he drifts to certain universal sympathies in spite of the grip of early environment. His ideals are modified and indeed all that goes to make up his essential life feels the tendency and obligation of change. When mankind mix by the processes of travel, the movement is toward harmony and unifi- cation. The essentials are likely to appear in bold relief, while the non-essentials fade into competi- tive importance. Age Tendencies 11 Another characteristic of the age is the marvelous discovery and command of natural resources. Every- thing on the earth, under the earth, and in the air, is being approached with the passion of development and utilization. Secret forces are being discovered and chambers hitherto locked are being opened. Productivity of every kind is being augmented. This tendency is so universal that it affects all the sources from which the race draws sustenance and gives to life its richness of content. As long as man articulates with the earth he is bound to be powerfully affected by the material developments to which he is, for the time, related. No sooner are the resources of nature made available to the use of man than the tendency to monopolize them for com- mercial advantage appears. It is the history of capital that its eyes are ever open to the possession of standard commodity with a sharp tendency to- ward the fixing of arbitrary values. This offensive tendency often annuls the social advantage of mar- velous discoveries and makes it impossible for na- ture's resources to serve human comfort in anything like an equitable way. The standards of living are constantly rising and it follows that our children begin where we leave off. What was luxury to parents becomes necessity to children. All this has a profound bearing on every phase and issue of life. As the mastery of man over nature extends, com- pelling the surrender of nature's bounty to utiliza- tion for the comfort and progress of man, the per- plexity of the problem of just distribution presses 12 Torches Aloft for solution. As we elevate the ideals of the indi- vidual we necessarily foster an insistence for indi- vidual opportunity and thrift. So it is fair to say that man is growing more and more self-conscious and increasingly earnest as to his rights in any given environment. Another phase of the age, which is worthy of our study, is the rapid increase in transit speed. Both individuals and commodities are now hurried to and fro in such brief time that we think of space as not particularly related to human will and plan. All this gives added value to life and to every commodity associated with life. Thought is quickened, issues arise and reach a stage of acute development in un- expectedly short periods of time, while great causes make their way to victory within a single genera- tion. The world does not need to wait so long for reforms to ameliorate human conditions. It is not in the mood of waiting so long. Within a brief period gigantic evils are removed and triumphs long sought and patiently waited for are secured. Lack of progress in the direction of desirable betterment hangs like a pall on the human heart. Any attain- able good, too long postponed, crushes hope and di- minishes effort. The human pulses quicken and the life horizons brighten, as the world becomes con- scious of speedy changes for the better. It is a great encouragement to all laudable human effort that life ripens and achievement hastens and con- summates more rapidly than ever before. The race has always been humbled by the fact of the brevity Age Tendencies 13 of life, but now, since all human processes are quickening, the encouragement to noble effort is in- spiring. Every one now expects to make life worth while. No one gives up to hopelessness, nor to the feeling that fine life programs are idle dreams. Into this splendid enrichment of life no jar or discord comes, save as they may arise from persistent hu- man perversity. It is most disappointing, but sadly true, that man's most relentless and harrowing en- emy is his own fellow man. May the God of all grace and transformation hear us when we pray that all this may be speedily changed. The spirit of the age is demanding that men so modify and attemper their evil passions as to remove all fear of evil as between man and man. The world is in the mood of expecting all persons to manifest a humaneness and brotherly genuine- ness which will serve to encourage the rising tide of hope for large and comforting achievement in the humblest career. The age of brotherhood and good will must be nearing even while the world prays and weeps. It must be so, for it is in the heart of the Savior of mankind that it shall be so. Amen and Amen. Another age characteristic that is of great inter- est, is the wide prevalence of social and industrial restlessness. This, in effect, is of great note as evi- dence of the growing desire shared by all civilized people for better conditions in the earth life. How- ever inspiring it may be to look forward to the fu- ture for ultimate rewards, it is, nevertheless, a mat- 14 Torches Aloft ter worthy of approval, that all men and women arc living in the expectation of bettering their condi- tions here and now. Whatever presumes to oppose the current movement for present betterment, must, therefore, expect to give battle and finally to go down. We reckon on the interest and power of Almighty God in care for human life beyond the grave, and indeed the gospel involves all that, but we can quite as certainly reckon on the divine will and interest being back of all effort for a better world here and now. Mankind has often seriously overlooked the sacred claims of the bit of life that lies on this side of the grave. Indifference to its sacred rights must always be costly to those who indulge in such indifference as' well as to those who are wronged by it. Social restlessness is not, there- fore, an occasion for reget, for it is the reflection of a most hopeful social vitality. The outcome of the struggles that emanate from it is very certain to be good and increasingly good. At bottom, the world moves irresistibly toward better things. Many forces in civilization appear to be slipping away from restraint and control. There is an ele- ment of peril here, but the danger is voidable. There are tendencies toward some forms of social disruption. We evidently face the alternative of humane and equitable readjustment or of violent upheaval. If our leaders shall be over-conservative and attempt unduly to suppress every movement of the progressive kind, we shall soon reach the crisis of a radical demand. Conservatism needs always Age Tendencies 15 to have this fact in mind. It appears to be alto- gether better for those who need to make conces- sions in behalf of the general welfare to do so without awaiting the compulsions of radicalism. Reasonable and certain progress in the establishing of equity in the industrial and economic world, will satisfy the average mind, but the great middle class will no longer be trifled with or duped. He miscal- culates the temper of the people who reckons that persistent effort in opposition to reform and social justice will not provoke protest and even reprisal. The Savior-power and compassion are entering into the social conscience and even so unsentimental an institution as industrialism must reflect and exalt the fact. The plans of God are not to miscarry and they have in view universal progress and betterment. These plans are sometimes delayed by human ob- duracy and cupidity, but they cannot be annulled. The kingdom of God has been set for the improved social order, so the movement is ever coming to the final goal. The moral government of God has always been a factor in the life of mankind. As sure as the great verities cannot be cancelled, as sure as God is the creator and preserver of all things, so surely does he assert his power and character in the moral govern- ment of the race. There are times in human his- tory when the children of men apparently lose sight of fundamental righteousness, and when that over- looking cannot be checked in any other way it is the prerogative of God to release his wrath. It 16 Torches Aloft transpires that at times this attribute of deity ma- jestically burns its way through human processes and plans. Retribution is a principle of unques- tioned reality and power. Some of the phases of these days are reflected with remarkable clearness in II. Thessalonians 2 : 8-10. "Then will wickedness incarnate appear, but the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his lips and bring him to nothing with the splendor of his coming. For at the coming of the Lord there will be great activity on the part of Satan, in the shape of all kinds of de- ceptive miracles, signs, and marvels, as well as of wicked attempts to delude to the ruin of those who are on their way to destruction, because they have never received and loved the truth to their own salvation." So it is more than a mere exhortation that would call upon all men in the midst of their financial and other schemes to have reverence for that righteousness by which alone human society and commercial success can be immuned from the holy wrath of a holy God whose right it is to reign. There is developing to-day, from what may be classed as non-Christian sources, what may be called the religion of socialism, which in the last analysis is the worship of humanity. It is based upon the assumption that man has the ability in- herent in himself for his own complete salvation and deliverance. It appears to be an effort to bow the Almighty down and out from the world of his own creation, and to dismiss religion as unworthy of the serious attention of the present age. Is it not Age Tendencies 17 indeed strange, that after long centuries in which religion has borne the race upward, that now there should be a tendency to turn humanity back upon itself and ask it to save itself without a divine Savior to lift it up, against the one force that has brought the present measure of social well being to pass? The effort is futile, misguided, and will fail as it deserves to fail. There is now in existence a well conceived plan by astute men to secure full control of all commer- cial and industrial operations. This control is to be, in effect, a world-wide trust. Not satisfied with trusts and monopolies that have controlled the com- modities of a nation and fixed arbitrary prices for the same, it is proposed to control those of the whole world. Our industrial forces are gigantic. Human beings and animals are being superceded. Business success is all but deified. Men press for wealth with a passion worthy of a nobler cause. So dominant is the demand for the protection and pros- pering of business interests, that it has become the supreme concern of governmental and political or- ganization. The one standard of all legislation is its probable effect upon business. Commercial suc- cess is the cry of the morning, the noon, and the night. We question if human energy was ever so consumed and burned up in the seeking of material good as now. Business success is really a mock- ery and a calamity unless it shall accept the reli- gious motive and the Christ passion for human wel- fare. Unfortunately, the almost universal motive 18 Torches Aloft for wealth has been gain and power for self-indul- gence, rather than service to humanity. All the current developments, commercial, politi- cal, economic, religious, pleasure promoting, must be closely studied, for they bear some message to all the agencies and institutions that propose a min- istry to the real good of humanity. Discriminating study of the age characteristic is called for, so that what is good may be recognized, conserved, and di- rected, while that which is evil shall be known as such and dismissed from public patronage and in- terest. Some of the movements that are now afoot are destined to move forward to glorious consum- mation. Those movements that have disinterested- ness and upbuilding power are sure to yield re- markable results. It is worth while to so study the current social and religious phenomena and trend as to be able intelligently to contribute to the desir- able and inspiring goals that are in sight. Other current movements have little or no merit, and they will evaporate and pass away. Others are wholly mischievous and will be overpowered by the united forces of righteousness and driven from the field. Humanity will rapidly socialize its complete energy and product. It will keep steadily in view the comfort, well-being, and happiness of all mankind. Collective humanity is ever on the move to better its condition. The things that are forever luring us on, that are worth while, and reflect the aims of Christ, will amply reward our efforts in their attain- ment. III. LEADERSHIP THE MINISTRY. In the divine order, the minister stands at the very front as one of the beneficent agencies of any age. He must be careful not to frustrate the divine plan in his leadership by lack of exacting programs, which he shall faithfully enjoin upon himself, to- gether with appropriate intensities in their execu- tion. He is not bound to the daily scheduled task as is the man in some other vocations. The very fact that he has a large immunity from schedule, may become an occasion of great loss in the sum to- tal of his achievements. The doctor must respond instantly to whatever call may come. The lawyer must undertake whenever his client applies. The merchant must make sales when customers are at his counter. The clerk, or other employee, must be on hand when the hour for his appearance is indi- cated. Something of this law enters into the life of the average clergyman, but in considerable part, he is in control of his time. What he does in the inter- vals that are in his own keeping, is an all deter- mining factor in his life. No kind of mastery is as difficult as self-mastery. It is under this law that the minister's test comes, and happy the man who is not found wanting. 20 Torches Aloft Occasionally in conversation with church goers, the query as to what was especially impressive in the recent sermon or service, is answered by the sig- nificant statement, "Oh, nothing unusual or out of the ordinary." Or after the appearance of a clergy- man in a given community it may be found that none of his auditors has any disposition to refer to anything that he has said or to his appearance at all. This silence is usually ominous of a regrettable lack of impression. The minister's stated occasion may be treated as matter of course instead of being magnified and accepted as a challenge for the best that is within him and available for his people. The pulpit was intended to be a throne of power and the minister must fire his heart and energy to the point where he puts such blood and life into every ap- pearance for a public hearing as will literally com- pel the occasion to bear the impression that abides. Every minister probably considers himself a busy man, but there is a vast difference between being a busy man and the doing of the things that are worth while. Sometimes the minister is simply fussy, lacking such relation of energy to ideals and occa- sions as will compel progress and leave a lasting impression. Comparatively little comes from the minister's life unless he has a good plan and ad- heres to his plan tenaciously. The minister, for in- stance, has absolutely no compulsion for the early beginning of his day's work. The first royal claim- ant on the time of the minister each day, is the call to his early personal waiting upon God, the meeting Leadership The Ministry 21 of his Lord face to face in the quiet hour. No effi- cient life unless God suffuse the human personality. This need is genuine with all people; it is abso- lutely essential in the life of the minister. Other claimants make appeal for early audience at the door of the minister's home. There comes for his early attention the daily newspaper, for intelligence of what is going on in the world is important to the minister. The minister must read with discrimina- tion, for much of its content lacks essential value. Its pages convey the good, bad, and indifferent, and the proportion of the good is not as large as it will be at no distant day. Yet such is the imperative demand upon the minister for leadership, that he must be intelligent and even sensitive as to what is passing on the great stage of human interest. These are crises days. The world is literally writhing with discontents, insurrections, protests, and calls for readjustment; forces are in formation and alignment with a rapidity which the world has never witnessed until now. It is not only the mat- ter of direction in these days, but it is the mat- ter of speed in the direction which we must note, and touching which, our most careful adjustment and response must be made. Even in the whirl and turmoil of politics, in the clean strong sense of the word, the clergyman has his natural place. The state invariably needs the moral pressure and lead- ership which the Church affords. Government is a fundamental problem. Politics is the science of government, and all the organizations of men that 22 Torches Aloft presume to be related to the government should come under the careful survey of the minister. The clergyman dare not be an impotent factor in deter- mining the efficiency of the government under which he lives. He needs to possess such sanity, such intelligence, and such discretion, as to give him an accorded place of leadership and inspiration in civic affairs. By a strange oversight, though the fact is some- what natural, we have allowed national and state legislative bodies to be composed almost entirely of lawyers. Some phases of the lawyer's training are certainly conducive to his probable efficiency in legislative and official life. As much, however, may be said touching the training for any standard profession. It is certainly not wise that the lawyers should be permitted to monopolize the functions of legislative, judicial, and official life. All experience shows that in the many sided interests and processes of civilization all classes need to be represented in order to that balanced view that is so essential to peace and progress. It seems anomalous that legis- lation which in the main is enacted by lawyers in legislative assemblies should by another set of lawyers who are known officially as judges, be so frequently pronounced unconstitutional and set aside by other lawyers. May not this tendency or result be in good part directly traceable to the evil of allowing one procession to dominate this field? It would be well if men from other walks of life than the law in considerable numbers, should be associ- Leadership The Ministry 23 ated in the responsibilities of legislation. One rea- son why in some instances the judiciary has scant fidelity to the rights and welfare of the common peo- ple is because the judge has had purely technical training and has been elevated to a pedestal which places him entirely beyond recall. His training has naturally been along conservative lines and with a tendency to favor property and prominence as against the demand for social justice to all the peo- ple. Superficial sanctity of the judiciary has the flavor of the dark ages, and has no place in a twen- tieth century democracy. The authority which calls into official life has an unquestioned right to recall from official life when the results show that the be- stowment of power has been misplaced. There is an inevitable recall which acts upon us all impartially, but it is the recall of the grave. This form of re- call moves upon all classes relentlessly. Another form of recall moves upon the clergyman and the professional man with a merciless severity. Unless he absolutely makes good and carries with him ap- proval for progressive policies and efficiency, his recall is certain. Almost as automatically as the cemetery is filled with the dust of the dead, do min- isters and most other professional men find them- selves without employment ; tested, tried out, or accorded, if capable, and in vigor, a gracious leader- ship. These are days of befitting beginnings. Conserv- atism has its place and value in the evolution of the race, but we must guard against its manacles. It 24 Torches Aloft is important that we remember that whatever of fundamental good has entered historically into the life of the race, there are new beginnings that are required and essential in every department of hu- man activity. The stand-patters have appeared not only in the world of politics, but they have always had a place in the realm of religious organization and activity. A distinguished official in a great State, gave utterance to his sentiments on a public occasion, recently, in the following significant lan- guage : "I was brought up in the church with which I am now proud to be identified, have always given fidelity at her altars, and even now am gratified with her declaration of faith but whenever she be- gins to raise the issue of her perpetuation as an or- ganization for perpetuation's sake, when she conies to regard her own organization as an end rather than as a means to an end, then, as much as I love her, I am done with her." Our denominational jackets throughout are not as snug and stiff as they were some years ago. The clergy are in the temper and atmosphere of rapid and even radical mobilization around new interpre- tations and adapted organizations. The minister must maintain an aptness for what may be called swivel-gun action. He must be in the attitude of sensitive and constant response to the will and au- thority of Christ and the growing interpretation of that will in the light of the social need of his fellow- men. Leadership The Ministry 25 As to the minister's relation to book literature, it is imperative that he freshen and immerse his mind in the strongest and best books. He cannot forego their messages ; but in a sense every preacher must discover his own books. Let him not give up the quest for good ones because of their compara- tive scarcity. He may not be governed by the ad- vice of his most revered friends, for a book that may have great value to one clergyman may have none at all to another type of mind. The reader is such a vital member of the book equation that the use- fulness of any book may be said to be in the keeping of the man who reads it. Of course, no bad book can be made good by a good reader ; but a strong book may not yield its strength unless the reader moves toward its contents in proper mental alert- ness and concentration. What will quicken one mind may not have that effect upon another mind. The book, which above all others, has a vitalization for all minds, is the Book of books, and to it the minister may turn with unfailing profit. The highest type of religious efficiency is an un- varying condition of success in the work of the min- istry. Fine religious vitality often succeeds in soul winning in spite of many defects in training and even in native endowment. Many a community has accepted the ministry and services of a clergyman solely because he was godly and splendidly good. This religious vitality sways the multitude wher- ever it is incarnate and sanely applied. Associated with collegiate and seminary training it becomes 26 Torches Aloft irresistible. It is taken for granted that the day has passed for argument touching the rational and in- sistent demand that the minister shall be thoroughly educated under the best curricula and faculties ob- tainable anywhere. The exactions of ministerial service will tax the highest and best intellectual life presented by any human being, and within and with- out the schools the mind must be disciplined and stored with knowledge. The equivalent of schools is not to be had outside of them, for no matter how well one may apply himself in self culture, some phases of his education will always be lacking. The far greater number of the leaders of the church mili- tant have been college trained, and it will always be so. Too much cannot be said furthermore of the Christian college as compared with the State insti- tution from the viewpoint of the Church and its work. But few ministers are forthcoming from the State universities. In the movement toward stand- ardization in college and university equipment, it will likely be necessary for the churches to federate in the educational field as they are now doing in some other departments. Deeds, bequests, scholar- ships, with all property and assets should be kept mobile, for no one may foresee what shall be desir- able and even necessary in the realm of Christian education in the next few years. There is no rich vocabulary, without a rich soul life. The language of some ministers is a flowing flame, a perennial fountain, a healing stream, a li- quid life. With others their words are hard, angu- Leadership The Ministry 27 lar, exact to a fault and well nigh soulless. There can be no rich religious vocabulary save as the soul is made molten by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The heart is vocal when reason is speechless. The persons whom ministers win to Christ are more usually touched and moved by heart power than by mere literary exactness. The sermon, after all, is as much dependent upon soul passion and temperature as it is on literary form and organization. Beneath a certain temperature no seed will grow. Too many ministers to-day are lacking in appropriate religious emotion, divine pas- sion and tenderness. He who would reach the heart must, with his own heart, warm and vitalize the truth as he gives it out. Otherwise but small influ- ence and result will follow. The gospel is an act, it is the expression of power. The minister who would voice this gospel must know the imperative demand for appropriate spiritual enduement, for without this, the clergyman fails of his mission and vacates his throne. IV. CO-OPERATION IN THE CHRISTIANIZA- TION OF AMERICA. To thoroughly Christianize the civilization and social order of the North American continent, is the greatest task ever confronted by Christianity. It is even greater than that of the apostolic age. Our civilization is the product of unparalleled energy, is permeated by growing ideals and characterized by militant organizations. There are numerous agencies at work that are entirely secular and ma- terialistic in their propaganda and purpose. While the Supreme Court has declared that the United States is a Christian nation, and while all fair minded people will admit that the Church has been most influential in forming the ideals of the Ameri- can people, yet inevitably certain forces, antagonis- tic to the Christian religion, have developed within our borders. The contest for the dominant place and influence with the American people could not but be sharp and keen. Great liberty has been al- lowed to all types of thinking and the government has always been patient toward all sorts of men, so long as their acts were not radically destructive and dangerous. Certain types of mind have logically developed under this very generous attitude of the state. The state as such has omitted the religious Co-operation in the Christianization of America 29 emphasis. That fact, coupled with the generous at- titude towards all faiths or no faith, must have cer- tain results in a country developing as rapidly as ours, in the encouragement of certain types of mind toward secularism and irreligion. Christianity has often been misunderstood and misjudged. Its rep- resentatives and adherents have never been perfect. No thoughtful man has ever expected they would be. Any force or institution, redemptive or other- wise, that has to do with human nature, will find that the material through which it must express it- self affords a serious handicap to the ideal develop- ment and status. The rapid advance of our indus- trial life, the great accumulations of wealth, the ever-rising standards of living, have all conspired to create conditions and develop issues that can but challenge the virility and strength of religion in the matter of control and direction. The Church has been thrown upon the voluntary support and co-op- eration of the people, with the state quite disen- gaged and free from any special obligation to aid and promote the enterprises in which Christianity must inevitably be vitally interested. Neither has the state seen fit to actively encourage those con- structive moods and tempers of mind which Chris- tianity holds as especially fundamental. It has been easy for the officials of the state to over-emphasize this lack of formal identification of interest and ef- fort between the Church and the state. From the attitude of non-Christian it has been but a short way to the attitude of anti-Christian. From the 30 Torches Aloft foregoing it is very evident that any religion that proposes to thoroughly realize its ideals and doc- trines as practically applied to all the people, must be a religion of essential genuineness, truth, and power. Furthermore, since the administrative side of ecclesiastical organization is always important, it is becoming clear to all the thoughtful that the de- mand for co-operation and even co-ordination in the great task of Christianizing America will be- come more and more insistent. America has witnessed the unprecedented multi- plication of religious sects and organizations. In no country on earth, since the beginning of the Christian era, have so many different sects and de- nominations, all purporting to express and repre- sent the true religion, sprung into existence. The temper of the public mind has been such as to allow these divisions to increase without any serious chal- lenge. The time has come, however, in the evolu- tion of Christianity in North America, when these divisions are passing under a timely scrutiny and survey. It seems quite certain that as the situation is studied impartially, and with a view to reaching an unbiased verdict in the light of an earnest and practical age, that it will become increasingly dif- ficult to defend, perpetuate, and maintain these separating lines and organizations among Chris- tians. Up to the most recent past, no serious effort has been made to secure concert of action among the different religious bodies. This omission is becom- Co-operation in the Christianisation of America 31 ing noteworthy as the fact is forced upon the churches that the conveying of the Christian mes- sage to our great population is so inadequately done. True, the Christian forces have been more or less sympathetic, but they have not always lined up as allies in the day of battle. Neither have they reached the point of such disinterestedness as would enable them to join forces in a commensurate plan of cam- paign. This illogical situation has a strange and un- reasonable persistence. It is supported by prejudice and sometimes by bigotry. The tendency to isola- tion, and the desire for absolute independence in action seems to be so cherished and exalted by some as to forbid their being at all approachable for inclusive alignments and effective co-operations. It appears difficult to eliminate from religious organi- zations the prejudices, methods, and administrative policies that are even known to be unfruitful and inadequate. Not only has the Christian world wit- nessed among the denominations of America an ir- rational persistence in exaggerated local autonomy, but at times the forces have taken on the spirit of contention and questionable rivalry, all dictated by mere tradition and sentiment. These have been ex- alted to a control that ought never to be allowed save to the essential message of the Christian gos- pel alone. We have, therefore, to our sorrow, wit- nessed among Christians all of whom were ostensi- bly pledged to one Christ and one Cross, an amount of prejudice, narrowness, deliberate isolation, even fanaticism, bigotry, and intolerance, which all right- 32 Torches Aloft minded people only can deplore and seek to remove. These elements of weakness are not original with Christianity, but survive as unfortunate traits of unsanctified human nature. It is high time that all the denominations and seg- regated forms of Christianity study these facts with an open mind. Church leaders all are re- sponsible for such information and instruction as will lead to serious and candid thought on the whole situation. The people are ready for the call to a consideration of the subject, and some of the laymen are in advance of the average clergyman in their at- titude and interest. The striving of any denomina- tion of Christians in a given community without any reference to what fellow Christians are doing, is worthy of real censure. A point of contact must be found and maintained. Mutual suspicions must be displaced by confidence and good will, while conference and conjunctive effort shall take the place of sporadic and unrelated activity. Fellow- ship and co-operation, following acquaintance, will be sweet and uplifting. The measures, methods, oc- casions, and possibilities of federated activity must be well thought out and agreed upon. One problem in the Christianization of America arises from the over-lapping of religious agencies, institutions, and organizations. There is not as much of this as some people have supposed, but all who have administrative responsibility in the sev- eral churches know that it does exist to no incon- siderable degree. There are many localities where Co-operation in the Christianisation of America 33 this overlapping and competitive duplication mars, hurts, confuses, and destroys the influence of the Christian religion. Every now and again the writer, as an administrative officer in one of the churches, has been compelled to protest in behalf of the prin- ciple of comity for the protection of a community, where one religious organization was quite suffi- cient to meet the community need, but where exces- sive denominational zeal was impelling toward ruinous duplication. It sometimes transpires that in the eagerness to make a showing for separate or- ganizations and administrative offices, that minis- ters are sent into communities already sufficiently churched, to the great confusion of the public mind and with the result that neither of the competing churches can become strong or commanding in the community. If there were not so many distinct and competitive religious bodies in the country, this unseemly insistence in forcing church organizations into communities until the competition becomes disgraceful would not obtain. Another problem related to the last one men- tioned is the neglect of many districts entirely, be- cause the denominations have exhausted their re- sources in unnecessary duplications, with the re- sult that neither men nor money are available to care for the great number of communities that are either wholly neglected or poorly served. Obser- vations in the States west of the Rocky Mountains compels the plea that the Christian forces shall unite in a constructive and adequate plan for bring- 34 Torches Aloft ing the ministries of the Church to the whole coun- try and population. The hundreds and even thou- sands of unoccupied towns and school districts must, by some sane and disinterested plan, be dis- tributed to the respective churches so that no dis- trict shall suffer from neglect. This complete Christian contact is impossible unless the different church organizations and administrative officers are willing to get together and develop a campaign in which the responsibility is definitely distributed. When this is done, and the whole work undertaken under a comprehensive plan or organization, in which all interested shall submit their isolated am- bition and program to the larger objectives, we shall witness the progress of Christianity as never before. By this method, the creative activity of each de- nomination will be promoted and utilized in the very act of co-ordination and united effort. It will be a great day for America when all the Christian forces arise to the height of a great national out- look and campaign. Our lack of co-ordination and hearty co-operation is the deadly foe of an ade- quate religious impact. In these days when the brain of the world is consenting to unification for power and efficiency in so many fields, it seems thoroughly practical that Christianity should prof- itably embody the same principle and administer it for the good of all in the beneficent compassion which Christ embodies. Beyond our comparatively petty denominational program rises like a mighty colossus the inviting conquests that shall appeal to, Co-operation in the Chris tianisation of America 35 and shall persuade the vast population for whose betterment and salvation American Christianity exists. This larger outlook will compel the survey of institutions and organizations with relation to the entire need. Certain eliminations are sure to result from any sane and serious study of the pres- ent situation. Against these eliminations the nar- row minded will protest as if something really vi- tal were passing, but the eliminations lie in the di- rection of progress and victory. In the transitions just ahead the conservative elements and forces that always resist any move- ment toward adaptation or new alignment must be reckoned with, but never feared. The principle and prerogative of differentiation in American Chris- tianity has been overworked. Freedom in religious thinking and worship is invaluable, and is an in- heritance which every Christian holds dear. But this does not even hint that it is now in place to give encouragement to a continued magnifying of the outgrown divisions in the body of Christ. The fear that if large unifications of Christian bodies in America should take place, individual liberty and the rights of the minority would be in peril from fellow Christians, is not well founded and the dan- ger is exaggerated. Such a thing might have been feared in the long ago, but, thank God, the world has outgrown the menace. Persecution or oppres- sion of every kind is well nigh dead in America, and its survival among Christians is unthinkable. The fear of such a thing would have been in order a 36 Torches Aloft few hundred years ago, but not now- No power for unification has ever touched the race that is com- parable with Christianity. Is it not high time its trend toward unification were recognized? Reli- gious truth is the final and ultimate truth. Our di- visions come from the non-essentials. Only the es- sence of Christianity is authoritative. When the Christian world is sufficiently intelligent and broad- minded to comprehend the real program of Christ, less disposition to apologize for, defend, and per- petuate our unnecessary and unmeritorious divis- ions will be in evidence. May God hasten the day. V. WHENCE THE ILLS OF HUMANITY. Ever since the beginnings of human history, a school of thinkers has been inclined to attribute to environment the sum total of human ills. This keen interest in the subject is to be commended, but such an extreme view is, as it appears, unwar- ranted and misleading. The emphasis on environ- ment is timely. As now in evidence, we should wish to credit it with being in keeping with the ex- altation of the spiritual above the material in rela- tion to human progress. However, it seems clear that scientific socialism goes too far when it pro- poses that all the ills of life are chargeable to bad surroundings. That the age is alert to this rela- tion between environment and the net results of a human career, is praiseworthy and encouraging. Just in proportion as Christians are genuine, and therefore earnest, will they get under the prob- lems and task of eliminating the harmful and per- nicious from the environment of mankind. Christ has not only proposed that salvation shall guaran- tee a desirable condition after death, but quite as certainly has he indicated his purpose to exalt the importance of life this side of the grave. Everything said and done by our Lord while on the earth pro- claims in unmistakable terms his purpose and plan 38 Torches Aloft to remove the objectionable, unjust, oppressive, and harmful from the world in which mankind begins existence. This phase of Christian duty and inter- est has sometimes been obscured in the thought and conscience of the Church. Now the Church wel- comes the new challenge for participation in se- curing social righteousness, and at the same time re- fuses to believe that environment is to be wholly or even chiefly charged with responsibility for hu- man conduct. It may be freely admitted that its place in the human career has not been duly estima- ted and that interest in a good one has not been in ratio with its importance. Another school of thinkers has advocated a the- ory of human life that would account for all its ills by referring them to human nature itself. Christ made it plain that the kingdom of God is inward quality, and also that determining immorality and guilt have origin from within. It appears plain and clear that the ills of humanity have a dual ori- gin, from within and without. There are latent forces of evil within us. and the lures of evil from without would be really powerless if we did not give way to the seductions of evil. Man has a holy and God-given sovereignty and until he chooses to do evil he abides in moral wholeness. On the other hand, that bad economic conditions are contrib- uting causes to human downfall cannot be ques- tioned. Poverty cannot be classified as promotive of virtue. Certain of the evils of life do no doubt have such a relation to the circumstances surround- Whence the Ills of Humanity 39 ing the life as to become palliative of guilt on the part of the individual, and convincing as to guilt on the part of society. So many of the handicaps on mankind are removable that it is incumbent on all right-minded people to determine where the respon- sibility of society ends and the responsibility of the individual begins. The need of the hour is such a study of origins as to locate properly in each source and be governed accordingly. No adequate solu- tion of this problem can come until a sane, biblical, and scientific pronouncement has been made, ac- cepted, and acted upon with wisdom. We must have correct diagnosis before the remedy can be prescribed and applied. It is an indisputable fact that men do not always improve with improved surroundings. Men who have lived in palaces have not always been royal and kingly in character. Women who have lived in beautiful environment have not always been beautiful in spirit. Beauty of soul is often found in surroundings wholly disappointing. It appears therefore, from the foregoing, that any scheme or method of human improvement that is based on either theory alone will be incomplete and disap- pointing. If we could truthfully attribute to en- vironment all the coarseness, animalism, cruelty, and injustice shown by mankind it would afford a sort of relief to human nature in its moral respon- sibility. All that men would need to say in self- justification when arraigned for their wickedness, would be a reference to their surroundings, and de- 40 Torches Aloft clare their total release from all responsibility. It seems perfectly clear that there are certain funda- mental integrities that the Almighty expects of his creatures in any kind of environment. True, our surroundings cannot always be controlled, but the fact cannot cancel our moral responsibility. All administrations of justice take into account the sur- roundings, but fundamental moral obligations can never be annulled. Interest in environment for the purpose of making it easier to do right and more difficult to do wrong, is the only attitude permissi- ble to correct thinking. We have every reason to expect this attitude from the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of our Government. One must indeed, blush with shame to think of any other attitude ever coming into evidence. Interest in bet- ter surroundings is the duty of all, because im- proved surroundings do count in the battle for better civilization. While good environment is no savior, yet a befitting one is such a help in im- pressing and applying the passion of saviorhood, that it becomes the duty of us all to enlist for bet- ter conditions in every way. We need to consider that while something of moment in human better- ment is done automatically, the fact remains that intelligent, generous, energetic, and persistent ef- fort in that direction will, in a marvelous and wor- thy way, facilitate human welfare. There are al- most always more well-minded people in a commu- nity than evil-minded, more enlightened than ig- norant. If these elements of uplift and betterment Whence the Ills of Humanity 41 can be associated, aroused, and organized for serv- ice, then good environment hastens on apace. While in this interesting region, let us tarry to establish vitally within ourselves what must for- ever stand at the threshold of all serious thinking. When all that can be said has been said by way of attributing the evils of mankind to environment, we are well assured that all men need to be constantly and unflinchingly challenged in behalf of the im- provement of their moral natures ; mark you, all men and in any and every kind of environment. Accept this as a matter of course and then go in to emphasize the importance of setting justice in the midst of the complete social order. Whenever any man does not feel constantly the upward pull and pressure of higher standards for character and con- duct, he becomes a social liability rather than an asset. It is imperative that man be held in all cir- cumstances to ideals that challenge his moral na- ture and power. This continuous care and anxiety for the maintenance of character and conduct on high and yet higher levels will immediately reflect itself in every phase of environment. The human mind never thinks of God in contrast with all that is unlovely in human life but what intuitively the feeling arises that all unlove- liness, unbrotherliness, and ugliness is contrary to his will. It must be that when his plans are finally understood and his fruitions are fulfilled, that only the beautiful shall remain. As crowning every hu- man prerogative and control we need to remember 42 Torches Aloft that only the character that incarnates and reflects the mind of Christ meets the divine standard. Christ is the universal man and elder brother to every man, and we are to be approximately like him. The relation which material prosperity sustains to human happiness and welfare is so manifest and so easily overlooked that we must discuss it here. Lack of the comforts and bounties of life is so gen- uine a menace to satisfactory and efficient living that its emphasis at any time is in order. More es- pecially is this emphasis needed at a time when ad- mittedly there is a growing tendency to allow that poverty to many is to be taken as a matter of course. There is great danger in such a viewpoint in an age when material good has multiplied as never before. To allow poverty and squalor to abound and become chronic in such a republic as America, is both a disgrace and a reflection on our institutions. There is a way out and our public leaders are bound to find it. When the remedy has been found, we are bound to apply it thor- oughly and impartially. America needs first of all the overdue conviction that the present conditions can be changed and the condition of every family and individual be better than it is now. Instead of this sane social passion and viewpoint we have al- lowed the arbitrary acquisition of wealth to be- come an unchallenged economic principle. The protest of right-minded men has been both feeble and futile. Wealth has such a real relation to hu- Whence the Ills of Humanity 43 man happiness and welfare, and is so potent an agency for human betterment that its acquisition must become amenable to social justice and the general welfare. It is a subject deserving of the most thorough study on the part of statesmen and churchmen. Whenever any man fails to give in personal service to the world a fair equivalent for his wealth, he is bound to incur growing hostility and challenge. Sooner or later the protest will be- come insistent and find expression in suitable legis- lation, if moral control and social conscience be not accepted. If this principle of achieving wealth by arbitrary methods and values were generally con- demned, a way would be found to limit the individ- ual fortunes of men. The demand for this reform would not be characterized as fanaticism or insane socialism. No single man lives, or ever will live, who has a capacity for giving the world an equiv- alent for millions upon millions of money to be held as an individual fortune. The individual capacity to earn this particular kind of result can never exist. Every now and again the words "over production" are used in connection with current industrialism. So far as the world's need is concerned the words are a misnomer. They also convey a real warning, for it does occur that goods are manufactured only to be submitted to human use under absurd and arbitrary valuations in order to secure abnormal dividends. All the good of the world, including material good, is the gift of God, and he is the only real and proprietary owner. All men are but the 44 Torches Aloft stewards of his bounty. For a little while they pre- sume to administer on that which is not their own. If a man shall amass wealth in the spirit of secular- ism, and irreligion, omitting the voice of an en- lightened conscience and the law of God, he appro- priates as if it were his very own that which is really another's. Yea, because of the solidarity of the race it belongs to many others. Such an act of appropriation will not bear scrutiny. America is in a delirium of materialism. The most hopeful and charitable view of the fact is to reckon that it is only incidental, and on the way to higher developments with the discoveries of real values. We have reason to hope that a sane reac- tion is at hand. It appears to the writer that Amer- ican thinking is soon to brood anew over the spir- itual values and realities. As it is, the one science that is always popular is commercial or applied science. Everything must facilitate the production of wealth. The chief con- cern of the Government is business extension and business success. Vast armaments are maintained for the protection of the sacred rights of business. The world has never witnessed such keen and or- ganized pursuit of gain and large wealth as ob- tains to-day. Thrift and commercial success are in the proper relativity entirely desirable ; but when the pursuit of riches becomes a mania and is at no less cost than an increase of the total misery of hu- manity, objection is appropriate and timely. When- ever the passion for wealth hardens the human mind Whence the Ills of Humanity 45 and chills the blood of human sympathy and slows the hand of worthy philanthropy, the time of con- cern and protest is at hand. It is a matter of com- mon knowledge that under the magic-like touch of machinery and inventive skill the products of the world are increasingly abundant. A new conscience as to distribution must be forthcoming or a conten- tion is sure to offer menace. This contention will grow more earnest as the rights of citizenship are extended and the ideals of the individual are ad- vanced. So long as progress in the art and imple- ments of war shall outstrip the progress in the tem- pers of peace and brotherhood, so long shall the up- building forces of our civilization be held back. Let this fact stand out before the mind of Christendom until befitting attitudes prevail. Let the warning note appear in journalism and literature. Sound out the new evangel from platform and pulpit. Ours is the age of numerous and epoch-making inventions. It is said that some of those that are the most useful are pigeon-holed because of human rapacity. Almost every day witnesses a new triumph of the human mind over the forces of nature. This fact should really minister to the superior phases of hu- man development and to spiritual quickening throughout the world. A test of our civilization is made as these new inventions are caused to contrib- ute either to human happiness and upbuilding or to destruction. In the last few years we have wit- nessed a remarkable triumph of man in the air, but, 46 Torches Aloft as yet, the most talked of use of the conquest is a military one. The invention has been heavily fi- nanced for man-killing. Let us face about and fi- nance and sanctify all human achievement in the passion of Christ and the uses of peace and benefac- tion. To be sure, even a military appropriation of the airship may be overruled for good, but it is nevertheless disappointing that a malevolent rather than a benevolent use of it should be in command- ing evidence. In the matter of panics and business depressions, it is worthy of note that these arise almost uni- formly from the low ideals and motives which gov- ern in the world of finance. Occasionally these la- mentable periods appear with the admission that this is the method taken by the lords of finance to punish the people for expressions of public opinion which are received with disfavor in certain specula- tive financial circles. More is the pity, if true. What of all that our boasted civilization achieves if we build not the imperishable kingdom of God by the incarnation of the spirit of Jesus the Christ? Occasionally we hear it said that business is busi- ness, politics is politics, and religion is religion, but these statements are all far from the truth. Both business and politics, we are coming slowly to see, are destructive save as they bear the motives and controls of true religion. Let us not dismiss state- ments of this kind from our attention as if they were the language merely of preachers and priests, and unappealing to hard-headed business men. Be it Whence the Ills of Humanity 47 remembered that the world is proving every day in business, in diplomacy, in law and economics that they are vital and true. In the Balkan war, there has been no inconsiderable discussion of the situation and the points in contention by the Euro- pean nations. Nothing more significant of the changed atmosphere of diplomacy has recently ap- peared than the statement made by a French diplo- mat to the effect that the only attitude the govern- ments of Europe could safely take was that of "dis- interestedness." When did a clearer note ever fall upon the ear of the world than this one from the great French diplomat in avowal of a great Christian principle? Such notes will come more frequently and from such sources in the days that are now in sight. When once the world shall learn, as learn it must, that the principles of the gracious king- dom of God are not arbitrary enactments, but are based upon sane and essential conditions of human welfare, religion will be accorded a hearing in circles of human thought and action from which it has been strangely omitted. Somehow, by some sort of infatuation and bewilderment, the human mind is capable of taking on an attitude of incredulity and sometimes aversion to the em- inently practical pronouncements of Christ touch- ing social progress. We have not understood the mastery of Christ in all of these realms of human interest and concern. We have not appreciated the fact that all constructive thinking must be in the direction of the conclusions of true religion. 48 Torches Aloft The day of the new attitude is at hand when the jus- tifications of the laws of the Christ-kingdom will be in popular thought and consent. History shows that the human mind grows slowly up to the due appreciation and use of any great truth. The Christ was obliged to say at one time to those who had been most constantly with him and had heard him most fully, that he had many things to say unto them, but as yet they were unable to bear them. The prophets who are on the mounts of outlook must keep heart, for the world moves in the direc- tion of the highest consummations. All the pur- poses and plans of God cognate with the upward march of the centuries and Christ shall not fail or be discouraged till he has set justice in the earth. True, we have often cried, "How long, O Lord, how long," but to doubt the triumph of the right would be to face away from God and heaven. VI. CURRENT CHANGES AND THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. Man has inherent tendencies toward religion. The tendency is not always recognized, correctly interpreted, understood, or given its right name. No matter, for all this, as to the fact, for it remains with all its heavenly hopefulness to the end of life, so far as we may know. Man belives in the exist- ence of unseen forces, and this belief if not always intelligent is basic in religion. He believes in the relation of these forces to himself. In superstition he clothes them with darkened ways and cruel might. In intelligent faith he clothes them with benevolent power and ministry in behalf of human uplift. The religious instinct then is a part of the human constitution. In discussion of the subject indicated by the chapter title, we must distinguish between the religious world and the Christian world. The non-Christian religions still appeal to the in- terest and faith of a considerable portion of the hu- man family. It is, therefore, necessary to observe that one may be a religionist and yet not be a Christian religionist. It seems also necessary to state that a man may be religious in a sense and not be a Christian. There are a number of vital differ- ences as between the Christian religion and many of 50 Torches Aloft the other religions, and at the very center, subject- ively speaking, is the doctrine and demand for the moral recreation by the new birth. This essential message of Christianity is unchangeable and to the end of time will hold its imperial reign and place. Its presentation may change, but the essential mes- sage will abide. In the religious world, a universal crisis which presages change and readjustment is in evidence. All the uncivilized races are passing through re- markable changes with epoch-making stages of re- ligious and moral evolution. With the civilized races the crisis is not less acute. The non-Chris- tian religions are breaking and Christianity is mov- ing forward to new social interpretations and other practical adjustments. It is a significant parallel to these conditions in religion that there is a world- wide demand for change in the economic conditions of the people. The relation between the two is worthy of study and analysis. It is an unquestioned fact that genuine religion always reflects itself at once in the effort toward social uplift and better- ment. The ideals of Christianity have slowly per- colated into the universal human aspirations until social improvement is a world demand. The move- ment for social welfare has apparently gone in ad- vance of the redemptive evangel. Both are beauti- ful composites of the Christian message. They are vitally related to each other and working unitedly have produced throughout the world a pressing desire for the ideal social order here and now. This Current Changes and the Religions World 51 is not immediately realizable ; it may be character- ized as a prophet's dream or a poet's imagination, but, in any case, it will not forsake the mind and hope of struggling humanity. It lingers like a good angel to lure the world onward under the inspira- tions of hope and redemptive expectation. It is but natural that with such great forces at work in the heart of the world the betterment movements should go forward in gratifying cycles of power. Occasionally the progress becomes especially ap- parent, the evidences of change and readjustment rising to the surface and, therefore, easily discov- ered. The epochs in which the forces were less visible and the manifestations for improvement not so marked, have always tried the faith and persis- tence of humanity. Nevertheless, in a happy com- bination of siege work and charge, of evolution and revolution, lie world has moved forward to satisfy the expectations of God and to gather mankind to the highest fruitions and happiest fulfillments. There are in the present world situation features in both the religious and the economic world that are in common. The desire for better social condi- tions for all the people seems to permeate the very atmosphere. Touch men and women on this sub- ject and the interest is keen. Dissatisfaction with almost everything as it is, can be discovered in almost everybody. In both the world of business and religion the desire for unification and more effi- cient administration is all but unanimous In the commercial world competition, often keen and un- 52 Torches Aloft scrupulous as well as wasteful, has fallen under challenge. By a strange aptness for blundering, we have undertaken the correction of vicious com- petition by even more vicious monopoly. We are, however, discovering the value of the qualita- tive word. Many good things are vitiated when cer- tain qualities of administration are connected with them. Competition without a code of honor or a Christian conscience is irritating and destructive. The difficulty in either competition or corporation control arises not so much from the principle in- volved as from the fact that the men operating un- der the principle are lacking in Christian character and social conscience. It is not too much to say that Christendom needs a generation of business men who will do business under the passion and motives of Christ ; men who will do business, not so cer- tainly for their own welfare, as for the welfare of mankind as a governing passion. If you are inclined to say that this is but a fond Utopian dream, we an- swer, no, it is not at all a dream, but it is the con- structive attitude to which business men are at last to come. The commercial leaders are not forever destined to remain in blindness and selfishness. Speaking thoughtfully and deliberately, monopoly as now indulged in the United States, is nothing short of "social violence." True, not all the people have so classified it as yet, but it is for want of thought and moral candor if they have not. We are rapidly coming to the time when it will be the con- trolling point of view. We decry other forms of Current Changes and the Religious World 53 social violence and bring them into fear by the open- ing doors of prison cells. The same estimate, moral earnestness, and indignation, with impartial punish- ment, must come into the American treatment of the vast monopolies which override all human rights for the sake of exorbitant dividends. Monopoly has come to be the favorite method with rapacious plunderers, who are only satisfied as they prey upon their fellows. The dragon's teeth must be taken out of our industrialism and commercialism by the con- straining power of the kingdom of God. In the midst of the current widespread agitations, it is only fair to say. that the Church is receptive to the modern social appeal. She is slowly but surely moving into the thickest of the fight for industrial righteousness. At any cost she will take up the cause of the oppressed. She has done so in the past as she has walked in the footsteps of her Lord, and she will do so again with a mighty enthusiasm. She is not sealed against wholesome and needed readjustment or change. She may not have given the leadership that she should have given ; she may not have come into the open and faced the battle with predatory forces, but she has shown herself willing and capable in meeting new problems with courage and accepting new duties in the spirit of a genuine interest in all mankind. In so far as the ideals of the business world are worthy and sane, she will adopt them. She confesses that her own competitions have been wasteful and sometimes not as careful of the obligations of brotherhood as they 54 Torches Aloft should have been. She admits a new responsibility to the principle of efficiency about which the busi- ness world hears so much these days. She is ready for a new economy in administrative forces and propagative methods- She is ready for the world outlook and the world program, proposing to follow the Lord who bought her with his own blood. It should be noted in passing that the appreciation of the different communions of Christians for one another is ever deepening. Out of now unjustifi- able divisions and sectarian strife the church ex- pects to emerge to a new, because a deeper loyalty, and to adopt every sane and commendable prin- ciple for the Christianization of the whole world at the earliest possible moment. She will magnify God for the day of his glorious visitation and the enlarged social responsibility which she stands ready to assume. The period, process, and temper of change, and the open mind, have their dangers. By a kind of intellectual anesthesia, we may move over from the open mind about everything to the point of deter- mined and decisive mind about nothing. All of our keenness and liberality of thought is lost if we do not think and act decisively about the fundamentals to which all right-minded people need to give sur- render with a holy abandon. All the anti-Christian forces are now rallying in united effort against any and every form of Chris- tianity. In the so-called secular world, we are in danger of assuming seriously a deliberate attitude Current Changes and the Religious World 55 toward the elimination of God from normal consid- eration and consciousness ; from an endeavor to make-believe that religion has no fundamental ur- gency, and that its interdictions are unwarranted intrusions on the modern mind which assumes to have more weighty matters for its consideration. We cannot forego the remark that, in the light and logic of all American history, it is unbecoming and even brazen to omit the suitable recognition of God from any public and vital occasion. Another dan- ger is imminent in the fact that from our enthusias- tic study of anthropology and psychology, which naturally leads us to allow the physical and social unity of the race, that we rush to the unwarranted conclusion that the distinction has been eliminated between those who have regenerate life from God in answer to personal faith and those who do not. Apparently there is a tendency to dull the urgency for the spiritual life and experience as a definite objective in the upward trend of the soul. We have had an unmated emphasis on individual sal- vation because of the omission of the burning mes- sage of social righteousness. Now we are in danger from a mere humanism as a system of religion. Some are ready to assume unqualifiedly the universal di- vinity of human nature unregenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. This hasty omission of what is vital in the Christian religion is, as it seems to me, a most serious mistake, and the result will be to turn man back upon himself only to reveal his exhaus- tion and bankruptcy as to moral and spiritual char- 56 Torches Aloft acter. "Prove all things and hold fast that which is good," is appropriate just now as may be, never before. If the ages have taught us anything, they have established the fact that vital spiritual minis- try must come into human personality, or, not- withstanding some flashes of the divine which visit all men, there is destined to be profound disappoint- ment with some of the theories now adopted with flourish of trumpets. Let us observe in conclusion, that the essentials of genuine Christianity are unchangeable. Observe the emphasis is on the essentials. In the realm of the non-essential we must and should remain mo- bile and open minded for warranted change. All constructive truth must be made known and so sympathetically accepted as to put an end to un- necessary religious divisions and social strife. It is time the race passed from division and estrange- ment to unity and brotherhood. Laboriously, but heartened for the task, the race is rinding the way to the great unifications and common bonds. A domi- nant principle is being evolved. It is the principle of democracy or confidence in collective humanity. This confidence in the human possibility entails the task of upbuilding ministries in behalf of all men, and makes such a passion and desire the com- mon duty of all men. We are reaching toward a new appreciation of the possible results from the Chris- tian and scientific development of a human being. The world has probably yet to discover all that can result from submitting child life trustfully and thor- Current Changes and the Religious World 57 oughly to the divine comradeship and law in reli- gious development. Some day the world will be so enlightened and so minded and so judicious, as to reckon the place and function of religion in human development. The cost of allowing a human life to advance through half its career without the in- dwelling of the Christ and all the nourishing which his presence affords, is beyond all estimate. A sci- entific study of man as man, will sooner or later bring the world to a complete admission and recog- nition of the legitimate place which religion in the evolution of mankind. VII. ONE RELIGION FOR ALL MEN. Even in the most apologetic mood, we are bound to admit that religious differences are not con- structive. We may tolerate them and partially swal- low our protest, but we fail to reach the conclusion that they are really helping the world. Like many other phases of human life and experience, we have grown accustomed to them until we are not really thoughtful about them at all ; we take them by auto- matic consent. They certainly have caused us all, at some time or another, to hang our heads in shame, and wonder if there was ever to be relief or whether the race must always remain childish and refuse to put away childish things. "When that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away." The race does need a universalized religion. Ear- nest efforts are being made to make the whole world cognizant of various other facts and forces that are of such merit and utility as to make their universal use desirable. There is the effort to introduce a uni- versal language and cause the confusions and isola- tions that have followed the sad day at the Tower of Babel to be forgotten and overcome. But we all know how persistently the users of any mother tongue contend for its preservation and teaching. One Religion for All Men 59 Such contentions are usually from want of thought and poorly justified prejudice. The principle of util- ity and future good should decide and govern in such matters. But men are fond of higgling, and there is a subtlety about our preferences which we exalt to undue importance so frequently. Think of it, if you will one religion for all mankind, and what it would at once mean for human progress and happiness. Its contemplation is enough to arouse the most sluggish mind. Carlyle said, "A man's religion is the most important thing about him." This trenchant statement is but a modern confirma- tion of what He said about the same subject, who taught as never man taught. Christ did teach us to put first things first, and that the first thing was re- ligion. If it be said that since so many men dis- claim any religion at all, their religion cannot be the most important thing about them, we only need re- ply in such case, "The man's religion is his irreligion." That is a mighty poor kind of religion for a man to adopt, but it is the best some men have, as we all know. If a man is religious, his religion is the de- termining fact in his history. Even though he may be anything but thorough in his religion, it is the one most outstanding factor in his life. A hearty interest in religion and an unselfish in- terest in humanity are synonymous states of the mind and heart. Wherever either of these charac- teristics genuinely exist you may be assured that both are present as forces in the life. This princi- ple is not always genuinely allowed, but it safely 60 Torches Aloft may be. There can be no unselfish interest in hu- manity unless the Christ life and love have been in- stilled within. Christianity immediately reflects its holy origin from the heart that is possessed by its inspirations and impels to humanward sympathy and interest. When the value of religion is to be estimated, put this fact in the inventory. There is not as much unselfish interest in humanity as of the opposite kind. Far too many men are having an eye upon their fellows with a single thought, and that is self aggrandizement. Men do make mer- chandise of their fellows, and this is the cause of in- finite sorrow and burning judgment at the last, for God by his moral government reaches unfailingly every responsible being and compels him to feel the sanctities of life- Since Christianity is of supreme importance, it will some day take its place, its rightful place in hu- man attention. This should encourage religious workers, for they are certainly often tempted to the conclusion that everything else under the sun has the right of way in human interest. The acid test is destined to reach many things beside metals, and the canker and curse of the irreligious attitude and life are sure to be properly estimated finally. Re- ligion has nothing to fear from the critical spirit, for the analysis will be followed with synthesis, and the synthesis will magnify the values of true religion. It will require less and less of the merely hortatory to move men toward religion as the human mind advances to higher type and truer estimate. True, One Religion for All Men 61 there will always be the downward pull of a deadly depravity, but the uplift of higher and truer think- ing will slowly make the attitude of the human mind more favorable toward the messages of religion. There will be the ebb and the flow, but the tide will slowly rise toward sanity and wisdom. Increas- ingly the preacher will have well accredited truth to his hand, and he will always be advantaged by the climb upward. Turn on the light ye winged minds, for everywhere the glory of the Lord shall at last appear. High thinking means religious think- ing ultimately, and it is the last findings that count. The wide and generous diffusion of knowledge makes the problems of religion acute, because of the dangers that arise with the quickened quests of the mind. Not but what the quickening is to be surely welcomed, but because of the likelihood of hasty conclusions that for the time may possess a sort of infatuation. At its best, the human mind has a pre- cariousness and uncertainty in its action, and its processes disclose peculiar lapses and conceits. At last the homing is made if the heart be trustful. Religion is the science of God and the human soul. That much said and the heart leaps with an ardent expectancy. God and the soul were there ever such mighty words known to the vocabulary of any other world? God, on whom the soul may rest when the days are cloudy and the plains of life are bare. The soul, which shares in the life and aspirations of its maker, God. Each for the other, and both for eter- nity ; comradeship and mutual exchange of love. 62 Torches Aloft With the two words central in religion, ought not the world to find it comparatively easy to exchange its discords for the great unisons which such words suggest? No wonder we are ready to admit that the knowledge of religion is bound to be compelling. Religion deals in what, for want of a better word, we call the supernatural. Some day the soul will be able to dismiss the big, hard word. We already feel the pull in that direction. The face of the race is set forward. If it shall move in the direction indicated, it must move toward the natural and the super- natural as well ; deeper into nature and closer up to God. The brilliant Liddon has said that not to be in- terested in the life of Christ is not only to be irre- ligious, but it is to be unintelligent. Men are fond of the mazes of philosophical reasoning. The hu- man mind may move toward God through philoso- phy, but at its best it can go only to a given point. Beyond this, a new outfitting must be found. One must take ship at shore boundaries. If not, unless he has command of some other adapted means of sea travel, he finds progress impossible. All philosophy and all science must, sooner or later, merge into questions of theology. What about God, and the soul? are questions that are unavoidable. Every great philosopher has splashed along the shore lines of religion whether he wished to do so or not. Such is the nature of the human mind that it must forever do so. The geologists think they have discovered the order in which the earth was created and that One Religion for All Men 63 they know how old it is, but they have not found out whether or no it was God who created it. They all adopt some theory of causation, but are not clear or harmonious in their findings. Some theory in the premises they feel bound to adopt, for they cannot escape the question of creation. Here, of course, they enter the field of theology as well as science. He whom the geologist may fail to find, the Chris- tian has already found. Science will never fathom the problem of the uni- verse, for it transcends the human intellect. Like the piano, the mind has, after all, but a limited range. Both above and below the octaves within which the piano does its work the silence is omi- nous. Marvelous harmonies are possible within its compass, but who knows what lies beyond? We know something of the little earth on which we live, and within certain painful limitations we form opin- ions as to the vast universe which environs the world. About all we can do is to employ our pow- ers of imagination and let it go at that. Our minds can go a little way in the study of natural force and phenomenon, but they pause before the unsolved mysteries of the universe. In these regions all the race are akin with the common admission that they are beyond their depth. Here the religion of Christ comes to the rescue and the mind reaches rest where it cannot fully explain or understand. This universal human need can best be met by the message of a universal religion, and that religion can best be universalized, that is best adapted to 64 Torches Aloft i the universal requirements. The proposal of Chris- tianity is, that the method of test as to adaptation shall be the experimental method. This method is sane and satisfying. The prevalence of one religion is of the supremest importance because it conditions the highest social progress. No ordinary gait in the above direction will satisfy the modern demand. The matter of di- rection is only second to the matter of speed. Too slow, in these days can easily be ruinous. Start out in any campaign for social reform and the embar- rassment that comes from warring religions is soon felt. In many causes of the most vital importance the good movement is often defeated because of the cleavage made by the different religions. It would be comparatively easy to promote social reform if the alignment could come on the main issue, instead of the cross wires of religious complexity interfering to break up an otherwise dominant support. Refer- ence is sometimes made to those countries in which a single religious faith exists, and yet social progress is very slow and unsatisfactory. The answer to such reference is, that in such case the religion prev- alent is not the true religion, and most unquestion- ably not the genuine Christian religion. In some countries where tolerance in religion does not exist and where the religion that is dominant claims to be the Christian religion, it is evident that a lapse from genuine Christianity has occurred. Whenever any religion has had full control for a long period of time, and social progress has been One Religion for All Men 65 paralyzed and held back, it is self-evident that the religion assuming control is not genuine and virile. Here the religions of the world must absolutely face the test and accept the verdict, "By their fruits ye shall know them." More and more Christianity will be submitted to this test of social efficiency. The great founder of Christianity never shrank from this principle and he does not to this day. If the Church, which presumes to represent him does, it will repudiate by so much the Lord who has called upon it to serve human welfare in his name. The age is ready for a new interpretation of the Church and it is coming. If the organized Church gets in che way of our Lord's program for social justice and progress, then the world will discriminate between true Christianity and the ecclesiasticism that mis- represents him. The demand that churchmen shall reflect in the business world the very spirit of Christ is fast becoming imperative in tone. A social ex- pression of Christianity is the only one that will be accepted in this practical age. If Christianity can, in the light of such a test as this, meet the world's need, it is reasonable to expect that it will become speedily the one religion for all men. It will be found, on the most careful examination, that religious beliefs are the determining factors in the social progress of any people. Christianity is unique among the religions as to the character and conduct which it prescribes. The character and con- duct prescribed are of distinguishing social signifi- cance. Take up the Christian virtues one by one o6 Torches Aloft and observe what their existence is sure to mean in all that affects human society. Study the mind of Christ and incarnate his spirit, and observe the so- cial effect. It does not require a vivid imagination to picture the new industrial and economic conditions that would obtain. Almighty God, hasten by thy power. VIII. RELIGION AND SOCIAL REFORM. Since the movement of mankind is toward author- ity from democracy, no social reform is possible save as the units of society are pervaded with com- mon ideals. No force is so certain to produce social ideals of the right sort as is the Christian religion. All the religions except Christianity are divisive. Christianity alone stands for the unity of the race and for the universal welfare. It has no note of discrimination as between races, but recognizes the uniform dignity of all humanity. Since Christianity is, therefore, the great unifying force, it is very evi- dent that it must be at the basis of all genuine social progress. Unfortunately, Christianity is not the only religion to claim the allegiance of the race. No antipathies are as strong as the religious antipa- thies. While one naturally thinks of any kind of re- ligion as inspiring to brotherly feeling and good wishes, yet, by a strange perversity of the human heart, history shows how various portions of man- kind have indulged in the bitterest hatred toward their fellow men on the ground of religious differ- ences only. Substantially, the attitude has been, "His religion is not my religion and therefore I hate him." Christianity makes the unique proposition of im- parting power to convert persons from their sins 68 Torches Aloft and to give them citizenship in the moral and spir- itual kingdom through the process which we ordi- narily designate by the word "salvation." This dis- tinct message of Christianity makes it possible to classify religionists of all sorts and kinds as com- pared to this fundamental statement. History has demonstrated that Christianity is the supreme force for equality and unity. After caste has set up its superficial barriers to love and communion they are hard to remove. Only one power has been found adequate, and that is the power of Christ. Uniformly the result is the same wherever Christ is enthroned in the heart, and men at once look upon all men as their brothers. The plurality of religions makes very complex the task of bringing a better social order to the world. How shall we have the ideal social order until we have made universal the ideal religion which must lie at the foundation of such an event? There are many people who do not think how se- rious the great diversity of religions must always be- They go upon the supposition that the matter is to be relegated to the realm of the speculative rather than the potential. This is a superficial view. Universal brotherhood was the dream of the proph- ets in the centuries before the Christ came ; now universal brotherhood is the goal presented in the message of the kingdom of God. Christ antici- pated the time when there should be a common re- ligion throughout the world. He had no other thought than that the religion of which he was the exponent, high priest, and head, would continue a Religion and Social Reform 69 constructive reign until all men were embraced in its assurances and truth. History has demonstrated that a false religion is the supreme deterent of social progress. If a man's religion is defective, his social ideals are of the like character. As Wescott says, "Conduct in the long run corresponds with belief." What shall we say, then, of all this silly talk about matters of belief having little or no importance? Logically and psychologically the religious beliefs are the fore- runners in the formation of society, as well as the individual character. Rome made surrender to a false religion and she was led to the slaughter by her resultant animalism and decadent morality. It was the same force that led Pliny to announce that so far as he could see suicide was to be practiced as the gift of the gods. The present state of society in India and China must be decidedly changed before these countries shall cease to become a liability among the nations of the world. Social customs that are destructive must be displaced by those which build up the social order. Christianity has made no inconsiderable social change in both of these great nations, but greater changes are to be made and must be made. They will never come until false religions have given way to the true. The religious problems, say what we will, must forever remain the chief concern. When, therefore, an effort is made to excite in the mind of every American an interest in the world-wide propa- gation of the religion of Christ, let it be understood 70 Torches Aloft that the interest is solicited not only for the pur- pose of what we ordinarily call the salvation of the soul, but it is for the purpose of reforming the social evils of the world. So long as in unchristian lands the lives of the people are essentially identified with their false religions, so long will the age of universal social efficiency be postponed. The unchristian civi- lizations are going ahead with an inadequate knowl- edge of Christ. In America our social order is in process under the tutoring of Christianity. If Christianity has her way, the slum life at both ex- tremes of our social order will go. Our civilization has demonstrated that we can have slum life among the very rich as well as among the very poor. The message of Christ has in view the high average social efficiency for all our people. Can we ever have the high average universalized? Whenever Christianity has done its work in civilization, it will be so. Christianity cannot fail to deal with labor, indus- try, commerce, and politics. These are all great for- ces for the weal or the woe of our people. If the message of Christ shall be carried four-square into all of them, it will be the deliverance of the American nation. All right thinking is urging us forward to the conception that Christianity is the most constructive force to which any people can yield itself. It is the supreme utility. The evils which blight many phases of modern life can be and shall be eliminated. Why not? They have no right to exist. They are intruders in a world which God Religion and Social Reform 71 intended should be full of peace and love and com- fort. Christianity alone can cleanse our civilization from these harassing evils. Child labor, trusts, unions, strikes, sweat shops, and the liquor traffic are at bottom religious questions; that is, the message of religion will finally be accepted as the only method of defending society against the blight of these inhuman forces. What does religion say about these, and what does religion put in their places is a matter of most practical concern. Tap roots of evil like these would not grow in the soil of our American life if there were not large numbers of irreligious people who shelter these roots and af- ford them hospitable soil for their home and growth. These evils all require more than a political and leg- islative poultice as good as these are in their place. Politics and legislation can no longer be excused from taking the Christian attitude toward these evils. But suffusing all and deeper than all are the profound spiritual transformations which Christ in- dicates as the supreme remedy. Christ does reach the seat of the disease. By so much as there are flashes of false religion in the life of the American people, by so much do we make impossible the so- cial progress for which all high-thinking people are increasingly anxious. Let us think through the lab- ryinths of false religion until we have reached the clear conceptions that are sure to come with the study of the Christian message. Let us persist un- til the air is clear and the social order yields to the uplift. The urgency is upon us. Millions are in 72 Torches Aloft helplessness. The day of our opportunity is soon gone. It must be self-evident that every religion, whether true or false, reflects itself in the social life of the people. The true sociology can, however, only come from the true religion. In these days when the social aspects of Christianity are having an em- phasis hitherto unknown, some people are ready to say that the world is getting into the church and religion. This is because the average Christian mind has not been trained to a just appreciation of sec- ular wholesomeness and efficiency. Of course we should not have the word "secular," if it were not that the complete message of Christianity has not been hitherto given to the world. In short, religion to-day, is getting 1 into the social order and nothing is reckoned as outside its rightful interest and bounden duty. No great problem of civilization can be settled without the helps and controls of the Lord Christ. He is indeed the embodiment of social dynamic. Power from him to elevate the nation, to cleanse all our processes, to lift up all our lives, is graciously available and awaiting the draft of faith, and prayer, and appreciation. IX. THE UPWARD PULL OF CHRISTIANITY Genuine and rapid social development is the in- variable outcome and parallel of genuine religious life and development. A state of religious genuine- ness is not easily obtained. Christianity is the one measuring stick of all energy and quality. Its tests are inexorable and its white throne cannot be bribed. No variations by a hair's breadth can ever be made in its fundamental requisites and standards. This is not the language of severity ; it is the lan- guage which genuineness compels. True religion is ample and all embracing; nothing in the whole cir- cle of one's life may escape its control and challenge. The whole diameter and content of life is uplifted into the comfort of an abiding comradeship with omnipotence. Prostrate though we be in the pres- ence of the lofty requirement of such religion as this, it nevertheless is the prostration which must come before the great character changes take place. Christ does lift up the whole life into an effect- ive unity. Can anything so subtle, elusive, and potent as human life be brought into unity? Is there such a thing as life harmony, and unison of the human with the divine? Human nature is a com- plete circle and cannot be elevated by fractional 74 Torches Aloft pressures. Effort to elevate a building by applying the power at one side has but one possible result, and that is the collapse of the building. On the other hand, if care be taken to bring to bear the pressure evenly, the entire building, even though compara- tively fragile, can be lifted safely and moved at will. Elevation before motion is essential. The proposal of Christ is inward, essential, uplifting power, and this constitutes the upward pull of Christianity. If one undertook to move a building without elevating it from its contact with the earth, he would be act- ing just as sanely as one does who proposes to hold life responsible for high moralities without the pres- ence of Christ. Penitence, a godly sorrow for sin, is efficient and logical because it opens the gateway to the soul and allows the Christ to come in with all his upward pressures and potencies. He is the dynamic necessary to set us safely in the center of all the Christian processes. It is gradually dawning in the minds of men that Christ proposes to make sacred not only one day in seven, but the entire seven days in the life of the world. He will teach the world how to live, love, and serve together every day. It is this unique pro- posal of Christ to humanize and make sacred the complete cycle of the days that constitutes Chris- tianity the religion of the upward pull. This is enthroning divine omnipotence upon human inertia and the enthronement is essential. It is the impact of life on the boundaries of death. Christianity de- The Upward Pull of Christianity 75 mands the convert, and the convert's experience im- mediately identifies him with Christ in this upward pull for and with mankind. Christ installs the note of evangelism and conqest so that no sooner have we come to know him than we feel the sacred commis- sion to make him known to others. Christ embod- ies the qualities and experiences which the convert appraises as the best and holiest experiences possi- ble in any soul, so that the compulsions to evangel- ism are normal in the Christian life. The Christian can never be at one with human beings unwon to the Redeemer King. Christianity can never be at rest until the entire race is under the universal reign of Jesus as Lord. It must in so-called Chris- tian lands challenge the social order until it is made Christian through and through. To multiply his essential Christian experience is the dominant passion of every true Christian. It has brought him such a ministry of comfort and uplift that out of the purest and most unselfish love he would have the same ministry installed in the lives of all his fellow men. The ideal Christian life is based on normal development in the Christian expe- rience, and vice versa. The Christian experience en- genders fine and exalted ideals which may not be disregarded without impairing the experience and causing it to be sub-normal. When the normal de- velopment goes on, the passion for evangelism grows stronger with the passing of the years. Hav- ing received the grace of the Savior and Lord, iden- 76 Torches Aloft tification with his program is imperative at any cost. His program is comprehensive and provides ample scope for all constructive human energy and activ- ity. The primary passion of Christianity will never be restrained until world-wide missions have done their gracious work. The missionary passion of Christianity is now installed in the life of the race and it will never be exterminated. It moves forward with a strength augmented by every convert secured and every life helped. This bent to soul winning feeds upon its every day achievements. It makes necessary the constant evangelistic activity of the Christian. No Christian life and experience can be kept vital without it. Touching the whole problem of evangelizing the world, it should be noted that courage is rising and the expectation that the unfinished task will be con- summated speedily is pulsing in the life of the pres- ent and coming generation. As courage rises, the necessary resources are dedicated to the noble and holy enterprise. Inspiration in the hearts of God's people becomes more pronounced and active. Young people offer themselves in increasing numbers for the service of God and humanity. Missionary secre- taries are not generally called upon to plead with Boards of Control for challenging outlines of ad- vance. A higher type of administrative wisdom is in evidence and all the great missionary societies are moving upward into higher efficiency as related to their great work. Time was when the boards The Upward Pull of Christianity 77 scarcely thought of a scientific administration of the resources at their command. Now all the boards work through representative and permanent com- missions and these commissions work continuously through long periods of time, not presuming that any devotion short of this would be at all worthy of their great responsibility. All the mission fields are studied with care even to every detail. The strong minded men of all Christendom are coming to feel that there is but one universal appealing un- dertaking, and that is the Christianization of the entire race. Concerning the work of home missions, the judg- ment prevails among the administrative officers of all the churches that this vital department of activ- ity and service must be more judiciously and ade- quately promoted. A program which presumes on the giving and using of small and inconsequential sums of money for a task so colossal as that of the Christianization of America is now felt to be inap- propriate and unworthy. The business men of our country are coming to see that if our institutions are to be perpetuated in an ever-increasing efficiency. and if our civilization is to be progressive and abid- ing, and even our prosperity assured, the religious message must be exalted to its true and logical place in American attention. The issue of a genuine reli- gion for all the world and all the world for a genuine religion is on, and it will compel attention increas- ingly in all parts of the world. Men of strong and 78 Torches Aloft rugged life are appreciating the challenge which our material prosperity is lodging at the door of the Church. Among non-Christian people and even in non-Christian lands there is a craving more or less clearly defined for a unity of faith and order. In our own country contact with the unchurched masses all but invariably reveals a sentiment in favor of a larger union of Christian forces. The Christian fun- damentals are accredited as having a royal right to the interest and obedience of all the race. Men are less inclined than they were even a few years ago to withhold themselves from the enrichments and con- trols of religion. The presuppositions of Christi- anity are more universally accepted than formerly, and there is an unmistakable movement for the in- stallation of Christianity in the entire social order. We are coming to see that the claims and mandates of religion are not arbitrary, but are immediately re- lated to genuine human welfare. They are not the outgivings of ecclesiastical or priestly caprice, but fit exactly into the nature and need of mankind. It is only as men examine the claims of religion super- ficially that they are able to conclude that religion is to be looked upon as abnormal. Men are coming to know that the claims and laws of religion are nor- mal and assure normal life and power to mankind. Men now give attention without strained effort to the message of the Christian gospel. All the scat- tered and isolated sons of men are to come into a healing, religious brotherhood, where the scars that are made by evil are to be forgotten as the forces of The Upward Pull of Christianity 79 evil themselves are restrained and pass away. The brotherhood of the renewed sons of God is to be as wide as the race. Christianity alone sets before a weary and exhausted age a revelation that clarifies, a gospel that meets the universal human need, and a Savior who is the embodiment of the revelation and the one perfect incarnation of the gospel. X. DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNMENT The American people are most unquestionably committed to democracy as a system of government. We are mid-stream in the great experiment. We have not solved all of our problems and many of them seem to be especially urgent at this time. Our definition of democracy is, of course, growing. New developments in our social and industrial life compel the extension of the principles of democracy into fields hitherto untouched and untried. Under this form of government the method of selecting offi- cials is by popular vote instead of having them come through heredity and a royal line. Under any form of government, government itself is a fundamental problem. This is even more so when the proposal is that all the people are sovereigns and have theoret- ically an equal responsibility in determining govern- mental agencies and policies. It is an accepted principle in a democratic form of government that every good shall be equitably dis- tributed and made as nearly as possible universal. Intelligence, which is the cornerstone of popular government, must be brought within the reach of all. If any are indifferent and show a disposition to neglect the means of intelligence, it becomes the duty of the state to overcome that neglect. Every- Democracy and Government 81 thing done is with a view to procuring the social efficiency of all the people. There is constantly in mind equal opportunity and equal justice for all. It is unthinkable that we should have favored classes who shall live on special favors. No invisible gov- ernment can be allowed to exist. Every influence, school of thought, or organization which proposes to have to do with the government must come into the open and stand the searchlight of publicity. There are objections offered by serious students to our democracy. For instance, it is argued that because no citizen may know in advance that he is to be called upon to rule and administer for the peo- ple, therefore, the ruler must often be an untrained man. The most enthusiastic advocate of our de- mocracy will admit that there may be some advan- tages where a monarch comes to his throne because of membership in a royal family, and who carries into his official responsibility a genuine and sympa- thetic interest in the real welfare of his people. Such a one, feeling from his early years that he is des- tined to be a ruler, may devote himself most fruit- fully to preparation for his rulership. This is ideal indeed, and unfortunately has not always been illus- trated in the monarchs of the world. Our answer to this objection, however, is that the very fact of official position being possible to any citizen is a leverage for high-grade citizenship and an inspira- tion to the acquiring of high ability of every kind. Since in a democracy all men have an equal oppor- tunity for political preferment, they must, as a mat- 82 Torches Aloft ter of course, feel the necessity of being ready for any such exigency. Hence, since we are to think about the elevation of averages in the midst of our people, we are tenacious of the view that democracy as a system of government affords a superior inspi- ration to good citizenship and general efficiency. The objectors to democracy also tell us that we are sure to suffer from extravagance and graft. It is sufficient answer to this to say that the criticism is not well grounded. True, in a government such as ours, more or less of this weakness will appear in certain stages of progress. But the weaknesses are destined inevitably to fall out gradually from the life of the people. There must be such a fer- ment of public interest and such a growing demand for efficiency and honesty as will make these vipers appear more and more hideous. Then, when the correction does come, it has the support of public opinion, a majority, and intelligent consent. In a democracy there is a way of reaching these things such as is found in no other form of government. The theory that the power is vested in the people must finally work itself out. It has much merit, such grasp and control, that in the end every evil thing must go down before the power of advancing public sentiment. It has been said that in a democracy panics can but be more frequent than under an autocratic form of government. Here again the answer is that de- mocracy makes a favorable showing in comparison with monarchial governments in this respect. De- Democracy and Government 83 mocracy is comparatively new and has not had cen- turies of opportunity to develop and prove its power. It is now becoming evident that in our own country the panics have been almost invariably the result of sharp practices and unscrupulous financiers. It has been a favorite method with big business to bring on a panic deliberately whenever the Govern- ment offended its mightiness. At the present time, however, the Government is recovering its poise and control. Even Wall Street does not have the temerity to presume to bring on a great financial de- pression. Instead of punishing the Government when its policies are true to the general principles of democracy, the would-be promoters of panics are now held in leash and compelled to fear the power of the whole people as expressed in their govern- mental authority. We are told again that we are bound to suffer from weak and corrupted officials. We are stanch believers in the evolution of society. We believe that this manifestation in our national life can be re- moved and is being removed. It is as evident as can be that fewer of our officials to-day can be bribed from duty than ever before in our history. The number will grow less from year to year. The very seriousness of our universal responsibility will compel our officials to rise up in strength and smite the foes of the people. It has been averred that the selection to adminis- trative leadership cannot be so certainly providen- tial when done by the voice of the people as com- 84 Torches Aloft pared with the progeny of a royal household. The answer to this of course is the statement of facts as revealed in the history of our own republic for even these few years. Our long- list of presidents has afforded, with almost unvarying certainty, the lead- ership of a fine and splendid life. If God has not been in the selection of American governmental leaders, we would not know where to look for a chapter in world history that would lead us to con- clude that he has appeared anywhere in the direc- tion of human affairs. Most assuredly the voice of the people may be the voice of God. We are told, too, that the fact of democracy in ap- plication being limited to such authority as public opinion may give it, is thereby handicapped. But we answer, What is the real basis of social progress if it be not public opinion? No matter what kind of government is being administered, public opinion is in the ultimate the base line of operations. Public opinion is finally dominant and conclusive. Public opinion has overthrown the king and turned him from his palace away. It has ended the reign of monarchs abruptly and compelled autocrats and des- pots to stand in fear. It is the one power dreaded by all the enemies of human progress and welfare. It is the glory of our democracy that public opinion is the final arbiter in all our contentions. Every great cause has the right of appeal to public opinion. It has the duty also of making the public opinion intelligent, of formulating its ideals, of keeping alive its energy, and expressing its sovereignties. 85 If it be said that public opinion is likely to be vac- illating, the answer is, Not more so than any indi- vidual, monarch though he be, is likely to be vac- illating. Public opinion rises up like a great giant, slowly but surely into fixedness of attitude, and what, for the time, is finality in form and plan. It has the advantage, too, under a democracy, of being- compelled to listen to the demand for readjustment, as that demand becomes worthy and well grounded. Under a monarchical form of government, years and even centuries wear away with a people depressed and power ridden. Generation after generation dy- ing in protest, but with their cause unheard. What- ever other nations may do, America will certainly feel that her future is forever identified with the efficiency of a genuine democracy. She has made her stake and will not turn back. There are problems for solution under a democ- racy that are serious and worthy of careful study. For instance, excessive individualism. Individualism is a good thing, and certainly our country has af- forded ample reward for the individual initiative. But we are a great brotherhood and individualistic tendencies must accept the modification required by the collective welfare. The dislike of control is another problem. Since democracy is so largely a matter of self-govern- ment, each unit in a democracy must become in- creasingly genuine in placing upon himself certain codes of social and general honor to which he holds himself strictly responsible. Law or no law, he will 86 Torches Aloft do right. Threat or no threat, he has respect for probity. America has afforded a gracious vent to the pent-up protest of the people once under monar- chical governments. Some of the immigrants who have come to our shores have become drunken with their liberty. They may have thought that the best way of expressing their appreciation. They have passed under the influence of a real intoxication which at times may have thrown them off their guard and made them the fertile soil for extrava- gant programs and radical policies. All restraint thrown away can appear desirable only when the mental processes are superficial. We have also to contend against a disposition to surrender to personal indulgence. This may be of various kinds, but whenever it involves injury to society and threatens the welfare of others, then our indulgence is at the cost of our country. We have such a real aliveness to individual rights that sometimes resistance to the programs for the gen- eral good is the result. We have citizens who are short on community duties. What they do for the public welfare is done under protest. And yet, if we are to have a democracy at all, every citizen must be enthusiastic, at least measurably so, in the dis- charge of his duties to the public. Unbalanced development becomes an impediment to a democracy. We must go ahead on parallel lines and preserve the parity of our forces. Tre- mendous materialistic achievement must be bal- anced by gracious religious efficiency. Democracy and Government 87 Another challenge which comes to the democracy is that of the steady eradication of the harmful. Un- der a monarchy the king's command might at a word do away with a great evil. In a democracy the evil cannot go until the majority say it can go. Hence, the problem of setting majorities right. The appeal ever must be for an interest in the units of our sovereignty. Not one of them may be neglected if we are to gradually adjust the conscience and in- telligence of the people to the task of putting away those things that hurt and destroy. Everything harmful must go, and it must go by the sovereign will of the people. A democracy must further confront the serious task of so keeping watch over the controlling for- ces that there shall be an unhampered selection of its official representatives. Selfish interests will al- ways stand by, ready to manipulate, and boss, and program for the exploitation of the people. It, there- fore, follows that we must accept the duty of sup- pressing the demagogues, the man of predatory programs and selfish schemes. The unscrupulous lobby, wherever it shall dare to appear, must be restrained. Steadiness in policy and administrative program become imperative. One weakness of good people is a tendency to reaction. A great moral issue has been settled and settled right, but under the demand for ceaseless watchful- ness and constant alertness, good people often grow weary of maintaining the advance ground which has been taken in some splendid reform, "Steady" is the 88 Torches Aloft watchword needed by good people everywhere. Then, old-fashioned honesty will serve us well. The preservation of our departments of government from all corrupting influences, the maintenance of our courts in the atmosphere of an unquestioned im- partiality is also imperative. Authority when be- stowed must not become autocratic or vindicative. It must be tempered by humaneness and good will. We shall have to stand fast in the common bonds of co-operative interest. The success of one be- comes contagious. His success makes obligation for a new interest and a sharing for the general good. All classes and all professions must come forward to unite as against evil and in promoting the good. Occasionally the democracy must meet the exigency of misplaced power, hence the recall is becoming popular. The demand for a constitution that shall be revised at suitable frequency and in which the methods and provisions for revision shall be reasonable and not too difficult, is insistent. There is coming too, the wholesome demand that the legislation shall be progressive as well as the constitution. All our institutions must expand and adapt themselves to the exigencies of a progressive civilization. There must be sane periodical read- justment in every institution and agency that serves in democracy. This requirement is wholesome and safeguards from explosion and radical action. What shall we say of the scope and limit of a de- mocracy? What can it do and what can it not do? Will it disappoint, after all, its ardent friends and Democracy and Government 89 votaries? Observe, first, that under any form of government discontent will not entirely disappear. There will always survive a sufficient capacity for blundering under the most ideal government as to at times irritate and make uncomfortable. Democ- racy, while built upon the principle of equality, never can secure uniformity. Some men will see opportunity and grasp it where others have not dis- covered it at all. But on the whole a democracy holds us to the policy of development in a scientific and orderly way. Heredity is not necessarily deter- mining and no sort of aristocracy is encouraged. There is just one type of man who is worth while, and that is every man, the great commoner, the av- erage man. He may not possess uniformly the ex- cellencies and high qualities which a few possess, and there will still be a place for the brilliant and the masterful. Superficial distinctions, however, are not to dominate ; the lowly are to be encouraged ; from the most modest home there will be a constant invitation to front line achievement and gracious reward. The democracy cannot be infallible. No human institution or agency is or can be. Mistakes will be made. Costly experiments are sure to be the price of progress ; but experience, though costly, will be worth all it costs. Experiments unavoidable will show the true way. There are foes to a democracy. One of them is the demagogue who makes use of a genuine appeal with an ungenuine motive, for self-interest, and with a view to his own aggrandizement. Wealth, 90 Torches Aloft if it shall refuse to accept the obligation of dedica- tion to the whole welfare is to be so classed. No sooner does wealth exist than the question of who shall use it, how many shall use it, and how it shall be used, arises. Wealth must accept an honest and proportionate distribution of responsibility in the support of our institutions. Very naturally the spirit of a democracy is antagonistic to the accumu- lation of the colossal individual fortune. Every- body is to know, everybody is to be happy, every- body is to thrive, everybody is to have a compe- tence, everybody is to be free from want, the dread of poverty, and dependence in old age. The irreli- gious rich become a menace, as also the irreligious poor. So also the political machine which is organ- ized for the purpose of spoils, which stands ready to carry orders no matter how much of social injus- tice it may involve. The machine ready for use by unscrupulous men and for programs that infringe upon the welfare of the public such a machine is the deadly foe of democracy. So the boss, who con- trols the machine, for he is the great deformity in the political life of a nation. He is a deformity which will more and more offend and more and more invite contempt. There are conditions which guarantee the efficiency and permanency of a democratic form of government. The primary requisite is genuine and sane Christianity, with all that the terms involve. Religion is the supreme force in the uplift of the people, in their economic advancement, and their Democracy and Government 91 general emancipation from unfavorable conditions. The American people are forever committed by their theory of government to the maintenance of a high state of religious attention and efficiency. Ed- ucation must continue to do its constructive and splendid work. The policies of the state are not yet as generous as they should be in the maintenance of suitable equipment for general education. In some communities there is great hesitation in levying an adequate amount of taxation to support an aggres- sive educational policy. We shall have to be alive to the creation of so- cial ideals of the very highest class. These do not come of themselves, they come at the end of costly processes and earnest toil. The social ideals must be enlightened so that they know where to connect in the problem of uplift. They must be util- ized, for otherwise they are mockeries of wisdom. We shall have no aristocracy of any kind. We shall be careful to encourage adult mentality. After our people leave the school there comes the test of bread winning, the devotion to economics. This is un- avoidable, but we must be very sensitive to the need in any community, of keeping from mental inertia, that portion of the people who have passed out of the schools. The chautauquas, the reading clubs, the study classes, the public libraries, the books and papers, must all be used so that grown folks shall continue to grow. When this is so, there is always a mental strength ready to cope with the problems as they arise. 92 Torches Aloft There comes, too, the distinct demand for main- taining high-grade physical life. Whenever a people decay physically, decay in other respects falls rap- idly. We shall have to be careful to study genuinely and constructively the conditions of thrift for the family life of the nation. The state, the church, and all the institutions of our civilization will need to promote the spirit of enterprise in municipalities and in individuals. Comfort and plenty for all is not a vague and exorbitant demand. The financing of family life, an interest in the man who stands back of the family budget, an attitude on the part of legislation, corporations, and financial institu- tions to encourage a rise in the average income and average possession for the average home will be the highest wisdom. We shall have to provide lib- eral pay for public service. The spectacle of a great nation paying to the members of the President's cabinet the beggarly sum of $12,000 or $15,000 a year is not conducive to national self-respect. The low salaries paid our ambassadors abroad must be an occasion of weakness in the service, and the cor- rection of the evil cannot come too soon. Let us exact of men in public life high-grade service, and then make the financial recognition of that service so generous a sum as to insure efficiency. We cer- tainly have no better use for money. Let us have no loose cargo in our ship of state. Whatever can- not be attached to the great constructive forces and processes that are to build up the life of a nation must be thrown overboard. We can count on vice Democracy and Government 93 and ignorance uniting and holding forth for their continuance and supremacy. That unity and rule must be overcome by our alertness and by right- eous co-operation. The privilege of suffrage now being gradually ex- tended to the women of the country will safe-guard additionally the efficiency of our institutions. Be- yond any question the privilege of voting should not be denied to the intelligent women of America. No good argument can be brought forth to sup- port the contention that the privilege should not be allowed. Let us also make the duty of voting far more obligatory than now. If men do not vote dur- ing repeated calls to exercise their responsibility at the polls, they ought to be disfranchised. A citizen who does not have enough concern in the policies of his government and the conduct of public affairs in his community to take time to go to the polls and vote, needs to be dealt with in a very definite way. This brings us to the task of citizenship improve- ment. We shall have to work unceasingly for the highest type of citizen. All the agencies that mold public sentiment will need to band together for a new efficiency and a new attack upon the problem. The democracy will grow into efficiency and it will stay indefinitely if we exalt the school, the church, and the home. XL THE PRESENT SOCIAL URGENCY Social welfare problems confront us at every turn in these eventful days. The bent of the American mind is to scrutinize vigorously and unsparingly the present economic conditions. There are certain basic laws which have to be dealt with when we take up the question of making more nearly general the distribution of wealth and property. The position that the distribution of property and all other forms of economic value should be to all, carries with it an appeal of great force. In the study of these questions let us observe that whenever any fact or institution exists in a civilization for any respectable period of time, it invariably calls out a defense of conditions as they are. The present status in any phase of our social progress has a fatal fascination. It is always easier to be satisfied with things as they are than to search intelligently for the possible improvements, and devise a way for securing them. In the matter of political organization, no sooner is a political party brought into existence, its plat- forms and policies announced, its appeal for support issued, than the tendency to conserve the life of the organization for itself becomes manifest. A certain measure of interest and concern for a political or- ganization as such is of course justified and neces- The Present Social Urgency 95 sary, but the invariable danger comes from tend- ency to forget that the political party or organiza- tion has no real justification save as it holds itself responsible as a means to those ends which shall most unmistakably promote, with the utmost rapid- ity, the public welfare. The dominance of a political organization carries with it certain emoluments or rewards, which, unfortunately, are often dealt out without regard to the public welfare and efficiency at all. Whenever this law of service, which requires alertness in keeping the proper estimate upon the place and purpose of the organization itself, and keeping the mind constantly on the stretch for the next thing which may be secured as an advantage to all the people, is not kept in mind, then society has the right of visiting judgment on the institution or organization involved. God has written the law everywhere that he is the greatest who serves most and serves best. But behold, here come the great brainy men and the coterie of men to make the appeal for loyalty to the party as such. The party at all cost first, last, and all the time must be main- tained. Its supremacy must be the slogan. This would be safe and sound as a policy if it were not for the deadly poison of selfishness, inertia, and non- progressiveness which creeps in. Parties and men have a small margin of authority for placing the emphasis on a consent to things as they are. Suppose that principle would obtain gen- erally? How soon the moss would grow on the mind of the world. Even the Church itself, because 96 Torches Aloft its work is committed to human beings, is often handicapped by this worship of things as they have been and customs as they now are. How easy for an abnormal sanctity to gather about traditions and methods and policies which have no real authority because they are not of the essence of religion. The difficulty of inducing church organizations to make rapid and sane adjustment to new needs and condi- tions is well known. Whenever any kind of inequality exists for a con- siderable length of time, a multitude of advocates will come forward to tell us that the inequality must always exist. This causes the hopelessness which you sometimes discover in your fellowmen. You discuss the thing as it ought to be and they list- lessly say, "Oh, yes, yes, that is the way it ought to be, but it is now too late, it never can be done." This surrender to conditions as they are is so fatal and yet so general as to make it worth while for every tongue to flame and every pen to shine with the message of warning and for the overcoming truth. Take the inequalities that exist to-day in a finan- cial way and there are plenty of people ready to apologize for these inequalities and say they have always been so and they always will be so. But this is not the final word. A new social conscience has arrived. A new economic standard is in the air. For instance, America is in protest against poverty. She puts no premium upon shiftlessness or lack of industry, but she also recognizes the fact that much of the poverty in America to-day would be removed The Present Social Urgency 97 if we had social and industrial justice. Let us make sure that we do not register with the army of de- fenders of those things in our civilization which we know ought to be changed. What ought to be done can be done in the reform of human society. Let us recognize potency where it exists, for power is in the direction of the constructive programs. Many things that have been pronounced impossi- ble have been done by men and women of royal courage and of holy persistence. In surrendering to this tendency to exalt an or- ganization for its own sake and to be satisfied with its conservation when it has ceased to serve human need, and to consent to numberless inequalities that could be removed if society had the will to remove them, any organization can reach an untimely end. The final result is the challenge of every good and progressive movement and principle. Conservatism, when it crystallizes, becomes retroactive and is forced by its very nature into conflict with progres- sivism. Democracy itself in these days is seriously chal- lenged. All this arises from the fact that the task and obligation which follow the principle of democ- racy are so humanitarian, disinterested, and colos- sal that conservatism shrinks therefrom and finds it the easiest thing to challenge democracy in total. That, you see, gives release from the call to con- secrate to the glorious work of uplifting and bless- ing all men. It immediately causes one to resign to the derelicts of the social order, and say sadly, 98 Torches Aloft as they float down the stream of life, "It's too bad, but it can't be helped." Oh, the deadly paralysis that follows this narcotic ! We can but wonder whether we are all as aroused as we should be just now to the duty of persisting in certain social and economic discontents, just because conditions can be changed if we will change them. If America can make such a record, she will set forward the prog- ress of the race by a thousand years within the next twenty-five. Intead of challenging our democracy, let us challenge our inertia. Instead of speaking in doubt as to the possibility of great reforms, let us give ourselves to the battle. No generation has ever confronted such an opportunity. Let neither our faith nor courage fail. Let us be as resourceful and as alert as the cause is noble. In the recent past in the United States, wealth and political control have been too nearly identical. This is to say, it has been found quite easy for our political policies to take orders from big finance. Civilization through long centuries has allowed wealth to have abnormal control in human affairs. It has been difficult to get money to hear the appeal of humanity. In the financial realm, the poison of unsocialized ideals has survived unduly. The writer has no disposition to decry against thrift, against business achievement, or against wealth per se. He believes, however, that the Government, with all that the term involves, should be emancipated from control by predatory and unsocialized wealth. It must be freed from the suspicion that it is forever The Present Social Urgency 99 taking orders from the largest check-book. Our people need the general assurance that our Govern- ment is moving rapidly to the viewpoint of the so- cial welfare. We can even stand a little "hurry up" call in that direction. Social efficiency, genuine character, intelligence and industry, devotion to duty these are to have full access to the govern- mental sanctuary. Palsied be the hand that throws any cordon about the thrones of government that would stay the approach of the common people. If we really consent that wealth and governmental policies shall be synonymous, this of itself means death to democracy. So we might just as well ac- cept the challenge, for the battle is on. Wealth and property have their rights, and law and tradition and government have had a tendency to warp in their direction. But the day of humanity is here. The reign of the common people is at hand. This will mean a happier world. Everybody will be hap- pier, even those who have imagined that they could not be happy save as they had abnormal individual possession. History shows that any class securing control of legislation forthwith is inclined to forget every- thing but self-interest. This is short-sighted and destructive. Just because a given class or party is in control it should charge itself all the more with the duty of remembering the rights and interests of those who are not represented in that control. We sometimes say of men and of political parties, "They have been taken out of the saddle." How does it all 100 Torches Aloft come about? Simply because in their exercise of authority they forgot everything else but their own rights and their own interests. Humanity is great enough and has sufficient consciousness of its own inherent nobility to make it rise up in earnest pro- test against this unrighteous policy. The real prin- ciple of government is that those in authority are in authority to serve all. The periodical reverses that come to govern- mental parties are brought on by this neglect of con- sideration for the rights of those who are not in au- thority. Commercialized politics must always be the bane of civilization, while humanized and Chris- tianized politics will always promote the uplift of civilization. Any political administration which takes exclusive orders from wealth is bound to be unjust. Economic inequality means political inequal- ity. Theoretically, we try to assure ourselves that this is not true, but here is the evil of consenting to economic conditions which ultimate in the presence in every community of vast numbers of families that must live in squalor and poverty. Christianity and the American Republic both bear witness to the doc- trine of the inherent equality of all men essentially and as to their political rights ; but whenever we allow such economic conditions to obtain as that the numbers of the poor are increased while the num- bers of people who are in comfortable circumstan- ces are diminished, we violate the fundamental prin- ciple to which we have sworn fidelity. Let nobody dismiss in these days the appeal which is coming The Present Social Urgency 101 for a more general and equitable distribution of wealth io if it originated in some wild or disor- dered brain. It is a sane, a Christian demand. Capital has well nigh taken over the machinery of government. Some of our money kings have been willing to debase the morals of our men in public life. We must see the end of this. If men cannot go into public life without being exposed to a constant appeal to violate their vows of fidelity to the public welfare, through the overtures of big business, then we have indeed come to a sad day. The time has come when America must say to big business : "Keep your hands off our men in public life except in so far as you have a recognized right for approach to them. Cease to imagine that you are to control them, that they are obliged to you, and to you only. Remember that the whole people are more to be considered than any few of the people." Our cities have turned over to financial corpora- tions almost every function except granting char- ters and levying taxes for public expenditure. Many of our cities are almost in bankruptcy ; street im- provements cannot be carried forward, school houses cannot be erected, lights for the streets can- not be purchased, parks and playgrounds for chil- dren are not to be thought of, while at the same time, a few men with large capital are amassing tremendous fortunes under privileges and char- ters which have been granted by these self- same cities, and in most cases granted gratuitously. 102 Torches Aloft In many of our cities, as in some of our States, pub- lic service corporations have literally dominated and ruled. Until very recently this dominance has been allowed as a matter of course, nobody having cour- age enough to even challenge the situation. The constructive will, however, and the American con- science are coming to assertion and power. It is a matter of public knowledge that when the great coal strike in Pennsylvania was on a few years ago, and when the railroads who owned the coal mines had brought about conditions which could not longer be suffered, an appeal for settlement of the contention was finally taken to Mr. Roosevelt, who was then President. He hesitated, as any man in his position would naturally do, but finally reached the con- clusion that at any cost it was his duty to undertake for the people. He bravely said : "Yes, I will do it. I suppose that ends me; but it is right and I will do it." It is easy to discover here what Mr. Bever- idge has called our "invisible government." Mr. Roosevelt knew what the exigencies of the case re- quired. He knew the people were suffering intol- erably and unjustly. He knew that the greed of men who composed great corporations and con- trolled vast sums of money were apparently heart- less and certainly inclined to harden their hearts against all the appeals of humanitarianism. He un- derstood, too, that this tremendous financial power was not so scrupulous but it would destroy him if it found it possible to do so. He was great enough to say, "It is right and I will do it." Amer- The Present Social Urgency 103 ica will need to have many more men of his stamp in public life before our social urgency has ceased. Take another phase of the situation. Every now and again in our State legislatures and in the Na- tional Congress, legislation is proposed for the pro- tection of the wage earners and for better sanitary conditions while they toil. No sooner is any such legislation proposed than there appears immediately a most determined lobby against it. That lobby comes well supplied with money and makes a fierce onslaught on the timely effort to improve social con- ditions. If the legislation is finally passed under the overwhelming pressure of public sentiment, then we have had the sad spectacle of a fiendish effort to bring the laws into disrepute and to break them down entirely. This course cannot longer be en- dured in free America. It is foreign to the spirit of our institutions and is at war with our most sacred ideals. We have reason to hope that this sort of thing has about run its course. Everybody, however, ought to be aware of this menace and stand like granite for the obliteration of such sad exhibitions of human mendacity. A civilization like ours cannot conduct its affairs without entailing a large burden for public enter- prises and improvement. Capital has exhibited a brutal tendency to evade its share of the public bur- den. It cannot be denied that on the lists for taxation it is guilty of wrongs that smell to heaven. If you will investigate the tax lists you will find this statement confirmed. The financially strong 104 Torches Aloft in America have never borne their share of taxa- tion. Tax returns show a discrimination in favor of the wealthy as against the middle class that is most offensive. A certain writer took the pains to investigate touching some New York estates. He found that in a little group of rich families oath had been taken to about $4,000,000 of personal property. Death came in these same homes and the valuation then disclosed of this same personal property was more than $215,000,000. Invariably our farms and homes are assessed at sixty per cent, of their value. The railways are assessed at from thirteen to thirty- five per cent, of their stocks and bonds. The in- terests that evade taxation are those that have had the advantage of rich grants of land, of almost in- valuable franchises and gifts from the public. The courts are supposed to stand as the final bul- wark for the social welfare ; but here again the fi- nancial organizations have sought control. What a serious effort at despoliation this is. What a sti- letto thrust at the very heart of our democracy. What an audacious effort to snuff out American ideals. Theoretically, all are equal before the law. The theory is more radiant than the practice. It is well known that the poor cannot appeal from an un- just decision while the rich do so indefinitely. Even in the police court the poor suffer beyond all esti- mate. Politicians are usually elevated to the bench and become our judges. We know too well that their official position often fails to correct in any way their deformed lives and social ideals. We The Present Social Urgency 105 wish the integrity of the judiciary were beyond all question. It is an indisputable fact that training in and for the law naturally exalts precedents. The lawyer's sympathies are quite likely to be toward the educated and wealthy classes. Trial by jury is the American protest against judical bias. The cor- porations always fight shy of a trial by jury. They reckon their chances are better to carry the day with the judge than with twelve American citizens. The only remedy for a decadent American life is an aroused public opinion. It must be aroused to a sane and vigorous policy. It must be aroused to a sense of the sacredness of our American inheri- tances and free institutions. It is a giant's task to arouse and direct public opinion into effective forms of expression. It is sadly true that only glaring evils make an impression. The public is easily for- getful and quiescent and the flagrant injustice is soon forgotten. All evil causes understand the tact- ful value of delay ; they reckon that the people will forget. Unscrupulous business interests seek to control the agencies and forces that mold public opinion. Newspapers and magazines are bought off or smothered or suppressed or thrown into bank- ruptcy by predatory wealth. When Chicago voted municipal ownership of her public utilities the As- sociated Press, that supposedly free and powerful friend of the people, withheld the information indef- initely. Evidently, even this news organization had taken orders from the largest checks. Who can es- 106 Torches Aloft timate the crime of deliberately misleading the greatest jury on earth, the American people? Shall America become the heavy hand on the world-wide movement for democracy? We think not. Proffered and solicited to take the wrong way, let us persistently choose the right. Intimidated and threatened, let us persistently resist the wrong. All about us may be heard the deadly thud of wrecked character. Too many yield to the deadly downward pull. For one reason or another ninety per cent, of our business men go down. We have al- lowed our competitive commercial life to exalt self- ishness and undertake to enthrone it as a moral prin- ciple. We hear men say, "Business is business" as if it were clearly beyond the purview of moral prin- ciple and the laws of righteousness. No age has ever witnessed such a tax upon self-control and integ- rity. The American passion for self-control, and desire for righteousness in society as in the indi- vidual is a process of slow growth. It involves painful work in moral education. May the work not be abandoned. It shall not be. The lack of moral integrity is a raging cancer in our social and business life. Official corruption is, after all, the reflection of corruption in business life which is more or less respectable. Public opinion must be felt at this point. Gambling, which exists in Chicago and New York to the extent of a nation's disgrace, is a relic of barbarism. The principle of no dollar without its equivalent in honest toil or other standard value must be established. The The Present Social Urgency 107 proceedings of the New York and Chicago stock exchanges are a disgrace to Christendom. We have seducing leadership in the direction of vicious lux- ury and lavish expenditure. A lack of conscience in competitive life means social destruction. Our adulterated foods and misrepresented goods total in value each year $3,000,000,000. The liquor traffic has been justly designated as belligerent capitalism damning the race for dividends. The rapacity of the passion for gain does not hesitate to deliberately enlist for the promotion of wars. We are in the presence of the glamour of brilliant and for the time successful sinning. We are allowing our competi- tive commercialism to stab character and give the lie to human brotherhood. Let every American who considers America worth while, and who is in love with mankind take a stand for a genuine de- mocracy, for a dominant Christianity, and the reign of social justice throughout all our borders. XII. SOCIALISM AND CAPITALISM The instinct for collective welfare is normal and pervasive. In the creations below man it is note- worthy and traceable to instinct alone. With man the desire for universal welfare has been a growth promoted by a growing conscience. If a wounded bird or a disabled fish may enlist its kind to try to overcome its disability, how much more may we ex- pect that man will have interest in bringing restora- tion and comfort to those most needing it. With all the great refinements we find at work in the heart of man, it must be observed that the growth of conscience has been slow. There are im- pediments that account for this. Man's nature is com- posite. He is both good and bad in his makeup. The kindly instincts and tendencies struggle for mastery and control. Those of the opposite character do the same. The confusion which results from this con- tention of dispositions impairs the social efficiency of mankind. If we could establish in human nature a united disposition for social progress, we should do wonders in human upbuilding. It is fair, there- fore, in the study of socialism and capitalism to make note of the fact that the effort for enthrone- ment of interest in the general progress of all the people is normal and sane. Socialism and Capitalism 109 Socialism is a protest against those inequalities which have developed and are developing in our civilization to the point where they are injurious and offensive. It insists that every resource and product of society should be distributed absolutely for the good of all. It makes this a dominant de- mand, and by so doing contravenes all right of amassing large individual fortunes. There is a moral principle in this proposal which has merit and is worthy of consideration. It seems to be a sound principle that all should unite in sharing the wel- fare of all. If we could cause this attitude to be paramount in society, it certainly would elim- inate much of the suffering of the world to-day. Is it not worth while to hold up such an ideal? It is more than the dream of a visionary. Civilization has had sufficient time to try out all schools of thought and reach a conclusion as to whether or not this attitude of brotherhood and uni- versal interest would really be constructive. We are impressed that the time has come when good- ness, and kindness, and brotherliness, and honesty are to be expected, not only because they are the message of the Christian preacher, but because they offer the only way to economic prosperity and human advancement. Socialism contends that if this co-operative prin- ciple was embodied in modern industry and com- mercial life, every member of society would be able to have in return for his toil more than he contrib- utes to the general welfare. In other words, that 110 Torches Aloft this principle of co-operation would be so potent in building up the resources of human comfort as to place at the disposal of all men the largest possible bounty of nature. The result would be a composite of each individual contribution. In reaching such a result all persons co-operating would be expected to bring the quality of genuineness to the processes, nobody evading the just claims of industry, intelli- gence, and high character. If any member of society should do so, he would thereby forfeit his claim and interest in sharing. It is contended that if this were generally understood it would prevent all sane men from forfeiting by their lack of character, intelli- gence, and industry, their right to share in the whole production of the social order. Here we meet the critic's taunt that this uniform high quality on the part of the members of society is impossible. We answer that in so far as it is impossible the fact must be accepted, but we have lived long enough to know that we readily conclude that many things are im- possible which, when approached by the right kind of attention and consideration are readily possible. This must be especially true in the improvement of our social order. We have not yet begun to study scientifically the processes and elements of social advancement. We have been too busy with things. We have been too much absorbed in our financial conquests. We have yet to take up seriously the principle of studying man as man, society as society, and of relating the machinery of government to the real problems of human betterment. Socialism and Capitalism 111 Our relations to God are integral with our rela- tions to man. The logic of this statement forces us to the conclusion that men who omit attention to religion, and therefore have no vital relation with God, cannot, in the very nature of things, have a vital, hopeful relation to man. It needs to be reiter- ated again and again in the hearing of every Ameri- can that irreligion disqualifies any man for helpful influence in society. We have semiskepticism at this point which must be eliminated. We must become so genuine in our search for the truth touching this question that we shall get out of this fog and delu- sion. Vital relation to God is the absolute requisite for helpfulness in society. On the other hand, holy wisdom has made it plain that faith in God would be immediately violated if man disowned or dis- claimed his responsibility to his fellows. Let us note, then, that these qualities of relationship to man to be helpful, are indissoluble and must exist in conjunction in every human personality. Every individual is a factor in social progress. No one can escape from this inexorable law. Whether the individual shall be helpful as a social factor or whether he shall hold back the progress of society is at once a vital matter. The race is a unit. The individual is more than a single factor in every case because of this realized unity. Social derelicts in any of the great races are a menace to social prog- ress in all of them. We are absolutely face to face in every enlightened country to-day with the prob- lem of lifting up the whole race into fellowship, com- 112 Torches Aloft fort, and high character. If we could create this sense of cosmopolitan interest and cosmopolitan for- tune, we would set forward the world at a rapid pace. Love to God and man is the supreme and eternal law, and every individual who comes under the dominance of this truth will help the race to its highest consummation. Love to God and love to man becomes a bond of essential union. This bond crosses the seas, overcomes racial prejudice, inaugu- rates justice between the races, and heightens the appreciation of men for one another everywhere. We hear much in these days of the noble character of fidelity to vows and societies and social groups. Fidelity is a noble virtue, and any individual illus- trating in a high measure this fine quality deserves the compliments of his fellows. When this is said, something more must be said, and that something more is this : Fidelity as a quality is a delusion and a snare unless it has the high sanction of elevated principles, integrity, and truth. Men may pledge fidelity to one another in the most ignoble sanctions. Their motives may be base and destructive. Hence, as to whether this principle of fidelity is a matter of merit is determined wholly by the underlying mo- tives and the overlying sanctions. No loyalty can be worthy except it be nobly inspired and worthily applied. When human life is not pitched in this key the discords multiply until life is a jargon of motley and contending forces. Human lust and avarice are at the throat of our civilization to-day. Manifestations of this deprav- Socialism and Capitalism 113 ity are distressing. They have to be met in the spirit which the gospel of Christ demands. The destructive forces must be brought into captivity, for they have no right to ply their deadly doing in our social order. Collective living based on divine love and divine law is the order of an all-wise God. More and more we all shall have to accept the con- trol suggested by what is best for society. We are approaching an era of the new social conscience. No one of us may live to himself. We must accept the principle of the larger interest and larger claim of the general welfare. Socialism is not purely a question of economics. It, on the contrary, has to do necessarily with the Bible and religion. A socialism that omits attention to either of these or both of them is destined to lose its grip on human interest. The Bible is full of so- cial teachings and social institutions. Religion as set forth in the Bible is a message of human brother- hood. Christianity bears in a unique way, and with a unique power, provision for enforcing this princi- ple as the law of life. One is not amiss in classifying as a socialist one who shall challenge the existing social order as to completeness, quality, and net result. We have always in society a large element that contends against any challenge of the existing order. It would be unfortunate for mankind if this were a universal quality. In the sense that we do seriously challenge the existing social conditions, in so far as they can be improved by better devotion and higher 114 Torches Aloft ability, we all should be socialists. Others consider one a socialist if he works for social improvement. In this sense, also, let it be hoped that we are all ready for that classification, for do we not all desire social advancement? Society, like the individual, cannot stand still; it must progress. The kind of socialism that has our interest is not a theory or state of society, it is rather an attitude toward all of the processes of so- ciety ; it is a movement in the direction of social justice and general betterment ; it is an evolution based on the high controls of religion and the ad- vancing ideals of the true friends of humanity ; it proposes to work governmentally through a gen- uine democracy. America, therefore, offers the most promising field for the test of its power and the proving of its value. One of the schools of socialism would have the instruments of production and distribution owned collectively rather than by the individual. That there is a tendency in modern thinking toward this view is undeniable that activity should be co-opera- tive rather than severely individual ; all activity to be for the equitable good of all ; competition to be displaced by co-operation, including a method for the equitable distribution of the products of toil ; the individual and family own- ership to be limited to what can be reasonably con- sumed and utilized legitimately. We also have an appeal for what is called State socialism, that is, such an expansion of the func- Socialism and Capitalism 115 tions of the State as will take the place of our in- dividualistic responsibility and function. Scientific socialism declares that conduct arises solely from environment. It does not recognize any such thing as sin as a human quality. It charges all the evil in the world to bad surroundings. This contention cannot, of course, be grounded upon Christian au- thority. We are compelled to the position that con- duct is only in part the result of one's environment; yet Christianity is at this moment encouraging a larger interest in the question of environment than ever before. While Christianity cannot grant the contention of scientific socialism, it does most em- phatically encourage a proper estimate of the influ- ences of environment in determining human quality. It is hopeful as a feature of our age that this whole subject is under study and that minds with keen penetration and in an attitude of reaching an impar- tial verdict are employed in getting at the truth. One contention of socialism is that the public util- ities should be owned by the public. This conten- tention is being more largely accepted every day. We know of no return to private ownership when once State ownership has obtained. It is worthy of note that very recently the city of San Francisco, California, voted four to one for a bonded indebt- edness of several million of dollars for the purpose of extending their system of municipal railways. This verdict at the poles was based on the experi- ence in a small way with a single line of street rail- way operated by the city. The results were so sat- 116 Torches Aloft isfactory that with all that a subsidized press could do to discourage the people voting the bonds, they were voted with this large majority in every ward in the city. We thoroughly believe that public ownership of public utilities is in the direction of social advancement. America will not be satisfied to longer continue so far behind the civilization of Europe in this respect. There are some tendencies which organized so- cialism must guard against. For instance, the undue emphasis on the external, and the under emphasis on the inner and the spiritual. Also, against the dwarfing to the danger point of individualism and personal responsibility. Our civilization will not prosper unless it constantly holds out an induce- ment for every citizen to advance into the highest realms of personal achievement and development. The acceptance of this responsibility cannot be de- clined without degeneracy in the quality of our manhood. We shall never be able to release men and women from the largest possible obligation to develop within themselves their highest potency. Society will always claim the right to acknowledge distinct and worthy achievement by the individual. It will ask only that in allowing the crown to go to the individual effort, that the effort shall be con- trolled by social ideals and by social conscience. We should certainly be able in the twentieth century to give the exact proportion and boundaries for these qualities in individuals. Socialism and Capitalism 117 The modern social movement must avoid appeal to passion and class hatred. We have no place in this country for destructive methods. The mob shall not rule. Violence and force are barred. While it is perfectly natural and proper that a certain amount of class consciousness should exist, it must be modified by recognition of the supreme value of the social and brotherhood consciousness. That is to say, while any class in our republic has the right to fellowship, communication, union, and organiza- tion, they must not thereby isolate themselves from the larger outlook and the fellowship of the whole people. Community ideals and community methods must have preference in our thinking. Socialism must beware, too, of being so immediately radical as to excite outlawry. Radicalism properly believes in arousing public sentiment and overcoming inertia, but it dare not be indulged to the point where it breaks the present order in a rude, angry, and de- structive temper of mind. It must have larger faith in the processes of peace. We might be so radical and destructive against the present order, as one writer puts it, that "all we would have to pass around in any equal distribution would be common poverty and want." Hence, with all our devotion to social reform, we must have reference to those methods that are approved by good thinking and have been found valuable in the test of the centu- ries. Individual initiative, interest, and industry, have been exceedingly important in our civilization. A study of the forces at work in our development 118 Torches Aloft discloses the fact that socialism and anarchy are op- posing forces. Socialism seeks to reach a discrimi- nating and just view of the value of individual ini- tiative and of social responsibility, while anarchy denies every obligation to orderly methods for the control of these elements in our civilization. An- archy rejects authority of any and every kind. It goes on the supposition that individualism has to be absolutely untrammeled. Society has no claim which it is bound to respect. It is the rule of might and ignores the rule of right. In the solution of our urgent problems it suggests force. Accredited socialism stands for education, legislation, and re- ligion. Socialism is an effort at solution, and by so much it is worthy of the sympathetic interest of all in- telligent people. Originally, certain schools of so- cialistic thinking were unfriendly to religion. This has been true in certain sections of Europe. It is also true in certain sections of the United States to-day. But Christian socialism insists that Chris- tianity should be directly applied to the industrial and commercial activities. It would displace ruin- ous and unscrupulous competition by co-operation, foundationed on the laws of moral control. All to equally offer themselves in profitable employment of some sort, and then as nearly as may be, the State make it possible that all shall share generously as members in the whole product. Christian socialism does not stand for arbitrary changes in condition and environment as determining and satisfactory. Socialism and Capitalism 119 It stands for education and regeneration of charac- ter, and believes that both of them are essential in social progress. It would have the State lead on by progressive legislation. It confesses to a pur- pose to modify and limit individual possessions, and favors the principle that moderate wealth well dis- tributed is the ideal for social progress. It exalts the genuine creator of wealth. It believes that the honest creator of wealth is the only one deserving consideration, and that the mere accumulation of wealth without regard to the high principles that should govern in such creation is an injury to so- ciety. The word "capitalism" comes from the Latin word "capitalis," pertaining to the head, the chief, first, as the first letter in a sentence. Capital punishment for crime is the most dire punishment that can be dealt out to a criminal. It is a punishment of the first importance. These glimpses at definition help us in our study of what is involved in the relation of capital to social welfare. In the present order, cap- italism controls the forces and means of production. In its operation its method is by wage labor, and that wage labor to be bought where it can be had for the least money. It acts on the hypothesis that the labor which can be bought for the least money is the most economical. We are inclined to challenge this conclusion. There was a time in the history of the United States when the employers of labor de- cided that the cheapest labor would be the African slaves, and SQ the African slave was introduced into 120 Torches Aloft the fields of American husbandry. But we have found out to our great sorrow that the slave labor was not cheap labor. The nation is paying for it yet in the awful bills of a Civil War. Capitalism has felt inclined to go to civilizations less developed than our own, and there find its laborers, because they could be had for less money. This policy is a mistake. If American capital would frankly ac- knowledge its obligation to employ American labor, even at a price above that for which imported labor can be secured, it would be operating under a safer and better social principle. There is no advantage on the whole to our American citizens in cheap la- bor, no matter who obtains or who renders it. The disposition of capital to bring in foreigners with lower standards of life is of questionable pro- priety. The American Government has been too lenient in its attitude toward setting a standard for immigrants. We are inviting problems, the solu- tion of which will cost us millions of dollars, be- cause of the short-sighted policy at our ports of en- try. Suppose we do for the time being give capital the advantage of cheap labor, will we not afterwards have to pay for this false economy? We ought by this time to begin to think of standardizing Ameri- can citizenship and American civilization through and through. The great American ideals that have been wrought out through our years of stress and struggle ought to be allowed their legitimate fruit- age and control. Our industry and capital ought to consider what it means to fill our country with a Socialism and Capitalism 121 poor type of family life. This is a big question and far too comprehensive to permit of a full discussion in this paragraph. We shall give it more attention in another chapter of this volume. Capital is also that part of our total wealth which is available for its own increase. It is that portion of national and individual possession which is avail- able for financing productive toil and process. It has control of the means largely of increasing wealth. It is either active or fixed, mobile or local. The mobile capital of the country is controlled prac- tically by Wall Street, New York. The Government is studying as never before the problem of its con- trol, with a view to compelling a larger response to our social ideals and needs. Any study of the relation of capitalism to civilization would be in- complete which did not dwell upon the evils of over- capitalization in many of our industries and corpo- rations. This custom has been allowed to go on too long. It is only recently that the government in response to public opinion, has seriously taken hold of the question. It is now the general consensus of opinion that one of the first duties of State and National government is the reduction of corpora- tion finances to the principle of genuine capitaliza- tion. The watered stock must go. Over-capitaliza- tion is abnormal, vicious and inherently destructive. We have reached the age of the new challenge of individual wealth. One expression of that challenge is being applied to corporations in the demand that 122 Torches Aloft their finances shall be conducted on a basis of actual values and cost of service. In what we have said thus far, we have in part ar- raigned both socialism and capitalism at the bar of public opinion. Theoretically, socialism and capi- talism are alternatives. Practically they should be co-operative factors in our progress. Sooner or later we shall be obliged to install this conclusion and make it mandatory. Socialized capitalism and capitalized socialism are terms worthy of our thought. The modern contention is about the dis- tribution of the products of our great country. The contention is here because everybody knows of the unparalleled production of our capital. Never in the history of the race has there been such mammoth accumulations of wealth in the employment of capi- tal as have transpired in the history of the United States. We have released the constructive forces of our democracy upon our population and devel- oped a nation of intelligent people. They know that the resources of the Republic are ample for the com- fort of all. Our educational institutions have justly fostered the contention that our resources exist for the benefit of all. So it will not be a matter to be wondered at if we shall have a modification within the near future of the relation of capital to the in- dividual, and to society as a whole. With all our tremendous resources our capital has been so employed and our people have been so de- nied their opportunities that two millions of our population are now without employment for half of Socialism and Capitalism 123 every year. This fact from an economic standpoint is perilous and ominous. We cannot have two mil- lions of people without employment for half of every year without impairing multiplied thousands of families in their efficiency. It means encourage- ment to change of residence with all of the perils that may be involved in that experience ; it means interruption of the educational processes of the chil- dren. It means jeopardy to religious stability and church membership. It means the encouragement to vagrancy, and it means a growing protest against social injustice. As a fact, it must be reckoned with. The republic will be responsible if it does not face the evil and correct it. We have also two millions of mothers and girls in sweat shops. They toil without adequate recom- pense. They are void of the great ambitions and laudable hopes of motherhood and girlhood. They represent human life with all of its divinely created dignity submerged in hopelessness and night. Two millions of our children are in toil who should be in school. The nation will pay the penalty for this condition of affairs. The day of reckoning must come. In the face of these facts our industrial in- stitutions and processes forge ahead, and the lion's share of the product of our toiling millions is handed over to the already rich. Please do not ask intelligent Americans to be reconciled to such a con- dition of affairs. We belittle our own people when we ask that they do so, Agitation against it surely 124 Torches Aloft cannot be avoided. Protest, and legislation as the fruit of protest, must be forthcoming. It is an undeniable fact that the poverty of the poor is becoming more marked and less endurable. One needs only to travel with eyes open in any of our States to find a confirmation of this statement. On the contrary the appeal is cumulative for mater- ial wealth in all of our families and homes. The country is every year more prosperous in the aggre- gate. Our toilers reach their noonday and rapidly decline in their earning ability. If they do not ac- cumulate by middle life, their condition becomes less hopeful with every passing year. Dependence in old age becomes more regrettable as one ap- proaches the possibility. We are responsible for this human economic and industrial inferno. Christ stands for the corporation of all humanity. His con- trol and religion will compel our industrialism to call a halt on its selfishness and inhumanity. The social message of Christ is only now being discovered and applied. The ministry and the church have been slow to discover the social applications of the Christian religion. We are now beginning to talk of applied Christianity. Let us never forget that the kingdom of God as represented in Christ and proposed by him is for the purpose of securing and maintaining human welfare, materially and spiritually here on earth. Our marvelous increase in wealth should mean the removal of all removable handicaps, and most of them are removable. It will not do to allow their existence and charge them to Socialism and Capitalism 125 a divine Providence. We must remember that wealth now comes with an ever lessening expend- iture of human energy. The capitalistic class give less and less of personal service for their accumula- tions. Machinery and cheap labor make this pos- sible. In recent years the American mind has been ex- ceedingly fruitful in useful inventions. The chief result of the inventions should be humanitarian. In other words, every great invention should immedi- ately register its efficiency in alleviating the un- favorable conditions of life. It is only fair to say that this should be the outcome. Our great wealth should flow out in beneficent ministrations only. Its use in any other way is criminal. The sooner this fact is fastened upon the attention of all distributors of wealth, the better for their own happiness and welfare. The church must bear testimony on this point in unmistakable terms. It is time that the forces of uplift in our civilization were amply finan- ced and set at liberty everywhere for their mighty ministrations. It is more than strange that with all our acumen we should so inadequately finance our religious and educational leadership as we are doing to-day. Our teachers are so uniformly underpaid that most of them find it necessary to turn aside from the school and enter employment more remu- nerative than teaching. Through criminal careless- ness we allow college presidents and professors and high-school teachers, as well as the rank and file of teachers, to be so inadequately rewarded financially 126 Torches Aloft that many of them die in poverty and dependence in old age. This evil must be corrected. The salaries of college presidents, and professors, and school teachers all through are shamefully inadequate. In our neglect to properly finance our religious leader- ship we have a condition of affairs equally evil and unworthy. It is high time we financed the good man and not the evil man. It is strange that in so many instances it is difficult to finance what is good, and easy to finance what is vile. Many a commu- nity apparently acts upon the proposition that if God will keep the minister humble they will keep him poor. Again, duty is clear that we should so release the forces of wealth as to inaugurate the dominance of the higher elements in our civiliza- tion. Thus, and thus only, shall we conserve the greatest institutions of the American republic and bring about conditions that will benefit the whole citizenship and guarantee the progress of mankind. God never intended the oppressive ownership of wealth by the few. The unwarranted concentration of wealth not only is an injustice to individuals and the community, but it diminishes every vital ele- ment of our civilization. Into every phase of life the demoralization cuts its way. Say what you will, our civilization has reached the place where it is absolutely essential that American homes and peo- ple be generously and adequately financed. We cannot allow any creed of mistaken individualism to blind us to the importance of the issue. Six thou- sand multi-millionaires in the United States and Socialism and Capitalism 127 ten millions in awful poverty is an incongruity for which we are answerable. Capitalism forever moves forward with a view to monopoly. It seeks absolute and arbitrary con- trol of production and transportation with a view to assessing arbitrary values and prices. As matters go to-day, capitalism comes near controlling our in- stitutions of higher education. Higher education is becoming so costly as to be beyond the reach of most of our people. It will be a sad day in the history of our democracy when the way to the college is made impossible for the sons and daughters of our poor. Indeed, one test of our civilization will come in the matter of making popular and comparatively easy the approach to the college from any American home. In the contentions between socialism and capital- ism, there is a way out and we must find it. Mod- ern socialism will fail unless dominated by the deep- est religious motives and sincerity. This is true be- cause united humanity is intended to be construc- tive, but often becomes destructive unless it bears the mind and spirit of Christ. Christianity will more and more express itself in Christian socialism. This Christian socialism will modify and humanize all of our industrial and social processes. The prob- lems of our civilization are religious as well as eco- nomic. It easily follows that we must have a larger attention to the subject of personal religion on the part of our people. Our power units must be con- trolled by conscience and religious intelligence. The 128 Torches Aloft masses are easily moved to envy and hatred. We must remember our duty to remove occasions for this attitude and feeling. The bulk of our people are proud of being desig- nated as the common people. Those who lead them must have high character and capacity. Both of these must be embodied in our leadership of every order and kind. We shall have to properly limit by law the profits of the corporations and trusts and fix by law the maximum price of commodities. If we cannot limit the profits of the corporations and trusts, then the Government will find it necessary to purchase them and operate them. As matters now stand, the trusts have come dangerously near to owning the Government and doing its business. They have shown a vicious ability to control legis- lation. They are short-sighted enough to imagine that their selfishness can be embodied in legislation without great irritation and loss of social efficiency. The great desideratum is the conduct of human activity under the motives and controls of genuine religion. Intemperate devotion to large money- making enterprises arises from three phases of un- regenerate human nature; namely, our selfishness, our pride and vanity, and our unbelief of God's truth about the accumulation and use of money. The Bible, which is the foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilization, forecasts a radical change in the social order. This change is now in the dawning. The culmination of the money-mad and the money- hoarding passion is at hand. Our increase in wealth Socialism and Capitalism 129 has not been paralleled by a proportionate tendency and effort in improving the condition and character of mankind. We have not seriously, as a religious people, taken up the obligation to lay out ourselves and our resources for human improvement. In other words, our wealth has been unsanctified by the counsel, motives and practical requirements which Christ makes obligatory upon all men. On the other hand, our increase in wealth has developed what is really a consuming lust for dehumanizing gain, with a perfect craze for pleasure and extrava- gant indulgence of every sort. We have also grown in the direction of such lapses as have registered in divorces, in murders, in suicides, robberies, and in insanity. We must incarnate the Christ-spirit and enforce throughout the Christian viewpoint. We shall also need to reach the attitude in which we welcome Christian control. Human adjustment alone cannot protect us from industrial revolution eventuating in evil. Our moral and religious development must be kept in wholesome proportion to our industrial de- velopment. In some way we shall have to compel capital to cease following the lead of abnormal in- terest and dividends, thereby reducing the mobile capital all through the country. The call loans of the New York and Chicago stock exchanges must be forbidden if we are to preserve our financial equi- librium and honor. America needs both intelligent and moral leadership, and more urgently moral lead- ership, for that is especially constructive. The God 130 Torches Aloft of all the worlds awaits our dedication to him and to humanity. All of our inherited good will slip away from us unless we win it anew by our holiness, integrity, and honor. We must remember that revo- lution begins when civilization ceases to be alert and progressive. The day of man is yet to come, and may God hasten that day. XIII. SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COMMERCIAL WORLD An unprecedented concentration of energy on pro- duction of every sort is in evidence in the present age. When our primitive continent was assailed by the genius of Americans, speedy inroad was made on all the natural resources. Everything that could be turned into a commercial value was immediately drawn upon, and that attitude has characterized our civilization from the beginning until now. But not only have we had in evidence an unprecedented en- ergy for production, but we have likewise developed the instruments of distribution. Products cannot have value unless established transportation facil- ities are provided. Hence, in the United States we have developed more lines of railway in proportion to the area, than are found in any other country of the globe. Our commercial life has been vigorous from the start, and to-day the American business man does not yield the palm to any business man on earth. As a result of our concentration on produc- tion and distribution, we have had an unparalleled increase of wealth. No one but rejoices in the in- crease of wealth as such. It becomes the occasion of contention and distress only when it is not made re- sponsible to humanitarian impulse and program. 132 Torches Aloft The dissatisfaction of recent years as to the social and industrial conditions of our people has arisen be- cause of the grossly unequal distribution of our wealth. One cannot discuss this phase of our development without finding it necessary to recall the fact that many of our citizens refuse to render in service the equivalent of wealth. It is also to be remarked that we have developed in our people a great capacity for spending money. Everywhere the pace is set for high living. Rich and poor alike feel the appeal. There are many people who belong to the laboring class who do not have the honor and fidelity in their service to their employer which they ought in honor to have. It is a matter of every day experience that many employees cannot be depended upon at all. This is so serious a condition as to merit definite effort to correct it. Many of our laboring people are quite bent on pleasure and exalt that above their own thrift or their responsibility for good industrial habits and integrity. Men who seek employment do not always understand that those who pay for labor have the right to expect faithful service. We halt for this paragraph in this discussion because it is an emphasis certainly needed. One needs only to ob- serve the slovenly habits of the man who delivers goods from the store, or of the man who handles the laundry, or of the tailor who takes an order for a suit, to find out how many people there are who are indifferent to their work, or to the good name of their employer. When laboring people are exer- Significant Developments in Commercial World 133 cised as they have need to be for a better remunera- tion, they need at the same time to remember that by the consensus of American opinion multitudes of them are unworthy of a better wage. It should be said too, that the quality of thrift is not general, that many of our laboring people are not ambitious for thrift. They seem to be absolutely wanting in a desire to accumulate even the simple good of a modest home. Our population needs everywhere the education which must be forthcoming as to the duty of being devoted to a reasonable prosperity. Ten per cent, of Americans are to-day in posses- sion of more than ninety per cent, of the wealth of the nation. There is no justification for this condition. It can be regarded only as a menace to our social welfare and the maintenance of our demo- cratic institutions. We suffer every now and then from industrial disturbances of one kind and an- other. Invariably the blunt of the burden and loss in these disturbances falls upon those who are weak- est and least able to suffer. This is an evil that our whole citizenship should seek to correct. There is a demand for readjustment. The leadership in such a demand must be genuinely unselfish and at the same time statesmanlike and capable. Remarkable religious movements are characteristic of this age, and these are affecting our commercial life. The public discussion has more recently been on the relation of wealth to the universal welfare. Our commercial leaders make a mistake when they lose sight of everything else except the gain which can 134 Torches Aloft come from business. Unless we modify that harsh, severe, and hardened view of our commercial trans- actions and interests, we shall reverse our increasing, prosperity. God has installed deeply in human so- ciety the law of respect for human needs. We must accept the modifications of our intense commercial- ism by the reflection that business is not a god to be worshiped, but an agency for service to mankind. It is a mistake to make business a religion and money a god. It is a mistake also to expend our supreme effort on the accumulation of money. It does require constant attention to make money in any large amount, but it never ought to be with any one the supreme enterprise. With all that our commercial success is doing for us, and with all the popular attention which is being bestowed on the conditions necessary for that suc- cess, we are yet being driven to the consideration of the moral principles that must be respected in our commercialism. We are finding to our sorrow that no quantity, development, or distribution of our natural resources can ever eliminate sin from the race. This evil of the human heart is forever a dis- turbing quantity in the economic development of mankind. In our secularism and worldliness we attempt to taboo this question of individual propen- sity for sin by relating it in the most distant way to the question of every day business success, and yet, over and over are we halted and compelled to learn the lesson that moral evil in the heart of mankind is the most appalling handicap of human progress in Significant Developments in Commercial World 135 every direction. Therefore it is an omen of good that our commercial development is having a larger respect for moral principles and control. We shall have to welcome in the business world as never before the wholesome purification and re- straints of Christianity. It should be noted that as matters now are the vast increase of wealth in the United States goes largely to the non-producers of the country. This unfairness cannot endure. The strike is a coarse and brutal, but significant pro- test against this exploiting of industry. We must in some way eliminate strikes and panics from our civ- ilization, for their indulgence will destroy our pres- ent economic order entirely. A system which results in the existence of wide- spread destitution and at the same time overpro- duction, cannot in the long run be vindicated. When suffering comes from real shortage, such as may be occasioned by drought and other forms of natural visitation, we can accept the suffering. When it comes from the over-accumulation of the very goods which our people are needing everywhere, then it is time for us to have some new lessons in logic. Somewhere along the line our economic processes are not what they ought to be. A lessening ability to purchase on the part of our people is not a lawful bedfellow for over production. We are, therefore, all interested in the increased purchasing ability of our people. We are also interested in their increased ability to earn legitimately and fairly a larger pro- portion of our total wealth. Apparently, we have Torches Aloft developed a sort of punishment for production; namely, that the fact itself is used as an argument for reducing unduly the hours of labor and for re- ducing the number of laborers. Production should have as its uppermost object- ive the supply of human need. When shall we un- derstand that the finest element of any civilization is its passion for the universal welfare? Production for unreasonable profit and for prices that are pro- hibitive to the large masses of people will invariably benefit the few only. A few wealthy people now control the agencies for the distribution of produc- tion, while at the same time they control the natural resources of the country as well. This control is contrary to good ethics and violates the law of so- cial progress. The supreme motive in this unfortu- nate situation seems to be that of gain. Gain for what? This is the question we must herald from east to west, and from north to south. Why need any of us be so unreasonably devoted to the accum- ulating of gain out of all proportion to our need? When dividends are not large enough, then our manufacturing establishments are shut down and our laborers dismissed. The capitalist tells us that it must be so until times are better, and he means until times are better from the standpoint of his own dividends. Unless we make rapid adjustment of a character that will secure better conditions eco- nomically in the United States, we may reach a stage where it will be necessary to abolish individual capital and profits entirely. Some democracy will Significant Developments in Commercial World 137 try this out before long. Labor receives less than half the wealth which it creates. The half that goes to capital goes to less than one per cent, of our peo- ple. This flagrant abuse of our brotherhood in our commercialism will be corrected, or we shall face conditions so appalling as in themselves to be cor- rective. Selling cost is often greater than producing cost. Whenever the public is served in any wise for a financial consideration and that service is charged for quite more than it costs to render it at a reason- able profit, a day of reckoning somewhere must come. Only legitimate profits, profits determined by social interest and obligation, are morally lawful. With all this facing us it seems astonishing that there are many of the leaders of our commercial life who seem to be free to adopt the attitude of extract- ing all the traffic will bear from the public. The prin- ciple of moderate and legitimate returns on capital is a constructive principle. Whenever we exploit the people for the sake of abnormal income to cap- ital, we destroy ourselves. This process of self-de- struction is sometimes delayed and postponed as to its full fruition, but the deadly end is as sure to come as death. The day of reckoning for social in- justice and economic oppression is as sure as the day of judgment in the career of a human soul. When you add to the cost of production of the com- modities which we all need, the retail price, and compare that with the scant purchasing power of 138 Torches Aloft our wage earners, you have a problem serious enough to arouse the average mind. It is a matter of economic wisdom for the rich people of the United States to take steps to increase the purchasing power of the American families. The wage earner constitutes ninety-nine per cent, of the purchasing public. If capital is so shortsighted as tc oppress by unjust wage or otherwise the wage earner, the day of retribution must come. The pur- chasing power of the laborer is being constantly di- minished under the existing economic usages anc 1 conditions. It is self-evident that the rich few cannot consume the products of such a nation as ours. The occasional panic comes because of human avarice. The poor would consume and should consume, but they have no ability to purchase. So our over com- mercialized civilization has glutted markets, mil- lions of unemployed, and the recurring panic. All of these give evidence of our lack of consideration for the laws that govern social progress. We need a mighty injunction against the raw and unscrupu- lous processes of certain of our commerical leaders. A world-wide crisis is near. We are creating two classes, the rich and the poor, and the gulf between them is constantly widening. The laboring classes are growing in numbers and, thank God! in the United States they are growing in intelligence. They must and will accept the law of efficient service for generous compensation. They must and will aban- don those practices and indulgences that forbid their thrift. They will accept the call for high character, Significant Developments in Commercial World 139 and then, based on all these requisites of their own self-respect, they will advance, in the presence of all mankind, their claim to industrial justice. Their protest against the injustice of present conditions is growing more insistent, and this is bound to con- tinue. This is the hour for voluntary adjustments between the contending forces of our civilization. We ought to have the wisdom of conferences, con- cession, and change in viewpoint, as embodying the highest wisdom for us all. Our social legislation, which is now finding favor in all of our legislative bodies, can do much to amend and change so as to bring peace and good will and comfort to our peo- ple, but all of our commercial institutions should move without legal compulsion for the larger eco- nomic blessing of our American citizenship. Un- less these adjustments are made, we shall have one of two things in America, either absolute slavery to wealth and an overbearing aristocracy, or a pure socialism enforced by the uprising of the people. XIV. THE COMING CATHOLICISM The word "catholic" is a universal term, and only the fact that it has been, in our thinking, so gener- ally associated with the Roman Catholic Church has made it pass current as a narrow and sectarian term. World civilization is slowly evolving a new Catholicism, in the generic meaning of the word, which will not be Roman Catholicism at all. This is obvious, because Roman Catholicism as it exists to-day and as it has existed in the past is not cath- olic. Instead of being universal it draws hard and fast lines of ecclesiastical excommunication and iso- lation. In the evolution of the religious life of the world, we are witnessing just now an effort to create a new religious system out of all the existing reli- gions. This effort, to be sure, has origin outside of Christianity. It is for most part a Christ-excluding effort. If it were to have its way it would make Christ one of many saviors and rob him of his divine glory. This proposed new religion cannot be the basis of the coming Catholicism. Neither can it be the basis of a reunited Christendom. The com- ing Catholicism must be heartily and genuinely evangelical. While accepting the helpful and legit- imate conclusions of scholarship, and approaching The Coming Catholicism 141 the demand for readjustment with an open mind, it will, nevertheless, hold the established views about historical Christianity. There are certain fundamentals of the Christian religion that never can be annulled. They will stand out like the Gibraltar of the far East. There are those elements in Christianity which have demon- strated their efficiency through the centuries and are finding confirmation in every modern process. On the way to this coming Catholicism we shall witness the disintegration of many religious bodies. Disin- tegration is not always destructive. It is often the road to those new structures that are necessary to growing life and power. It is stimulating intellect- ually and in every other way to consider how the laws of change as applied to those phases of reli- gion in which change and adjustment are permissi- ble, lie in the direction of the highest efficiency. Such disintegration and change instead of weakening the growth and flow of true Christianity are conducive to its highest and fullest power. So while some of the forms of Christianity are destined to change and decay, the spirit, which is the real continuity, will reincarnate itself in better forms. Some have told us that they see signs of the pass- ing of the Protestant age. A Protestant is a wit- ness. The witnesses of Christ are not to pass, but they are to abide with accelerated power and in- spire the faith of the world. That Protestantism which is a witness of Christ is to find its mission 142 Torches Aloft more welcome and its ministry more and more en- couraged. The real Protestantism is to be the coming ca- tholicism. Our age is characterized by a seeking after strange cults. The word "cults" is as dignified a term as these movements will justify. Religious cults and fads of every sort characterize certain of the lapsed sons of modern Christendom. They are the phenomena peculiar to citizens of the countries in which Christianity is the dominating religious faith. The agnostic and skeptic are the abnormal prod- uct of a Christian civilization. The doubters of re- ligion are not to be found in the so-called heathen countries. The heathen accept some sort of re- ligious belief. It may be the merest superstition about demons and their agents of supernaturalism, but they firmly believe in unseen forces. The lapsed sons of Christendom alone are capable of announc- ing themselves as being utterly of no religious faith. The outburst of secularism in our twentieth cen- tury is a part of the evolutionary process through which we are passing on our way to that coming Catholicism, which, when once forged on the anvil of progress, investigation, scholarship, and spiritual discernment, will establish itself fully in the heart of the world. Many tell us that they feel religious generally, but have no particular religious feeling or belief. This system also is evanescent and in the passing. We are as sure to evolve out of these digressing The Coming Catholicism 143 religious views and fancies into the fuller interpreta- tion of genuine Christianity as anything in human experience can be certain. The current breakings-up of every sort presage change, and we are in the proc- ess. It is a part and parcel of this religious evo- lution that we have widespread revolt against the existing economic system and the demand for a new social order. The coming Catholicism will impress this last with all heartiness and offer it leadership, support, and direction. We hear in some quarters of the weakening of the influence of the church, a lessening grip on the interest and attention of the people. All this is a passing symptom. We shall find directly the difference between ecclesiasticism, in which the people will always have scant interest and Christianity, with its social interpretation, in which all sane people are bound to have an enthusi- astic interest. Some men are declaring from the platform that the Church must be saved. They mean by that, that the Church is not yet wholly Christian. Others would have us believe that Christianity needs to be saved and that the only remedy is to obliterate it from the thought and faith of man. They tell us freely of their desire to repudiate important doc- trines of Christianity. These iconoclasts have no structure to take the place of the one they would de- stroy by their thoughtless bonfires. What is to take the place of that which they would annihilate is not at hand, and the best they can say is "just wait." This current of unbelief is also in the passing, and 144 Torches Aloft is a part of the religious evolution of the American people. The Church needs to be saved, that is true. Its salvation, however, will come by fidelity and modi- fication as well. Fidelity in the realm where that virtue is decisive, and modification in the realm where modification is strength. The world has al- ways been willing to compromise with the Church if the Church would give up its fundamental prin- ciples and its glorious Saviour. This compromise the Church can never accept. There is less occa- sion for compromise of any sort at the present stage of religious development in America than in any pre- vious age, simply because the light has fallen upon the truth as it is in Christ. From every quarter of the world we are receiving confirmation, scientific and otherwise, of the fundamental positions and pos- tulates of Christianity. This applies especially as to the creation of man, the creation of the world, the need of divine indwelling, and character transfor- mation by divine power. Constructive religious work is just ahead. The period of useless theological discussion and man- imposed dogma is forever past. Henceforth Chris- tianity is to devote itself with genuine consecration to building up the race through what is essential in its message and mission. The coming Catholicism must be something more than the consummation of gigantic ecclesiastical organization. That might or might not be the occasion of strength in human de- velopment. The coalescence of organizations is The Coming Catholicism 145 only possible when they are moving in the same di- rection and have in common certain unifying prin- ciples. When these conditions are present the coa- lescence increases the momentum. The coming to- gether of segregated groups of Christians, who have common spiritual quality and inspiration will in- crease the momentum toward the Christian con- quest of the world. Some disintegrations must come before the con- structive work will be wholly possible, \\hen the merger of religious bodies is discussed, we have a certain residuum of protest, or indifference, or crit- icism, with which such a movement must contend. It may be that matters will have to grow worse be- fore this ill-advised resistance is done away. We are at the hour when a great constructive program in the name of our common Christianity is urgently needed in America. If on the way to that larger po- tency some of the segregated groups will need to pass into larger groups and shall legitimately cease, no one need be in sorrow. One must be filled with prejudice, vain glory, and self-conceit, to feel author- ized to resist a larger unity in the presence of the major religious opinion of the age in this direction. God is in man to be known in the experience of man. The age is hungry for this realization. The true penitence, humiliation, and fidelity to religious au- thority is most worthy of our welcome to-day. Strange that men will accept palpable nonsense in lieu of these if only it carries unctious flattery to their pride. 146 Torches Aloft We are asked in these days by some people to render obeisance to a new creation in religion to be based on history, science, and democracy. The answer to this challenge is to be found in the fact that Christianity is based on history and it is being continuously confirmed by science, and that democ- racy is its child and offspring. History, as we know, is a mixture of facts and fables. Christianity is not among the fables, but on the contrary is the prime outstanding fact of the whole historical period of mankind. Science has to do with the substance and forces of nature. Christianity indicates the true re- lation to the race of these forces and has commis- sioned that men who are to be inspired and indwelt of God, are the concrete forces in this domination for humanitarian purposes. Christianity has afforded the doctrine of democracy and indicates that the effi- ciency of democracy depends upon the quality of the individual sovereigns. We cannot afford to exchange the unsearchable riches of Christ for the miserable weaknesses of the modern cults and fads. The coming Catholicism conveys a message of re- demptive efficiency in Jesus Christ as the only mes- sage capable of lifting up and solidifying the race around the great ideals by which mankind shall be perfected. As to ideals and power for fulfilling them, Christianity alone is the adequate message. Let us beware in this age of exalted illumination and scientific confirmation of the truth of the Bible, of any disordered vision of the night. The day is at hand, let us be children of the day. XV. SOME MODERN FALLACIES New England was formerly the center of ortho- dox Christianity. It is not so classified to-day, sim- ply because the dominance of orthodox Christianity m that section has passed. The change is radical apparently. We hear now of the collapse of the old and accredited New England theology. We wonder why it has not occurred to more people that this collapse is in reality an apostasy from the true faith. There are those who tell us when we speak in de- fense of orthodox Christianity that we are in bond- age to a Book. Some of the ministers of New Eng- land, who are in so-called Christian pulpits to-day, answer very certainly to such men as Dr. Campbell, of London. The common position of this school of modern religionists is to the effect that the human intellect is not to be subordinated to the Bible. At this point the whole issue is created. The human intellect, with all of its vagaries, its mists, its liability to warpings, its susceptibility to the control of preju- dice, is, nevertheless, to be exalted above the Book which has for centuries proven its place in the di- rection of human thinking. Intellectualism should by all means be encouraged. Instead of frowning upon it, the Bible is its greatest stimulus. The Bi- 148 Torches Aloft Me puts no premium upon intellectual stupidity. It speaks out for the highest mental development, but it does teach its own right to supremacy and ul- timate authority. It makes plain the fact that when the human intellect is really freest, strongest, and divinest, it is most ready to accept and rejoice in the profound declarations of Holy Writ. The Bible recognizes the fact that every pro- nounced intellectual advancement increases individ- ual power. Also that in many minds this engenders a feeling of almost unbounded superiority. In some minds, when there is no ballast of intense and ear- nest religious faith, it begets a feeling of complete and radical independence. This is intellectualism without balance and counterpoise. Untrained in- tellectual radicalism is comparatively easy as a stage in intellectual evolution. When once it obtains it recognizes nothing that does not harmonize with its own chosen processes and positions. It becomes fond of scattering and destroying. It becomes the implacable and even arrogant foe of historical cre- dence and tradition. It is the temper of the icono- clast and every tradition and accepted fact are ap- proached by the chronic attitude of doubt inhibiting a fair hearing. Surely something constructive is needed to modify such a tendency as this in the hu- man mind. Unless modification is had one perishes in the intellectual cataclysm. This accounts for some of the disasters to early faith that are reported by our college students. Some Modern Fallacies 149 There is in modern education a tendency to install man as the measure of everything, and everything must be modified and accommodated to that prin- ciple. The difficulty of such a position is that it leads to loss of discrimination between what is fun- damental and what is freakish and weak. It destroys the capacity to discern between human caprice and divinely ordered and inspired character. Not every- thing depends upon point of view. Some things are fixed and final and our point of view will not add a new color or enlarge a single dimension. When re- straints of our intellectual caprice and immoral ca- price are laid aside, respect and reverence depart. Then human nature reflects itself in the right of might in the mistaken fulminations of intellectual liberty. We do ask that intellectualism should take cognizance of the development of the inner life. We do ask our intellectual devotees to pay respect to the law of moral control and the demand for re- ligious genuineness. It is the truth that shall make us free. The intellect will bring us into slavery unless it apprehends the truth. Every human effort must accept the law of responsibility to superior author- ity. Our resentment against this always has origin in stupid self-complacency. The validity of truth is not conditioned on our consent at all. The real intellectuality rests upon trained interest and appre- hension of the truth in its proportions and as related to fundamentals. Without intelligent effort and genuine religion no one can hope to formulate a con- 150 Torches Aloft firmatory and conventional morality. Knowledge is the guide to life. There is a determined effort in some quarters to disparage the Bible. Democracy is defined by some to be a freedom from all authority except that which is self-imposed. What a superficial and unscientific declaration this is. These moderns always tell us that Christianity must accept and submit to this definition. We all should recognize the fact that self-imposed authority is authority in name only. It is a huge joke. The proposal of our schools govern- ing themselves has borne its legitimate fruit in loss of ability for self-government and respect for con- stituted authority. Some people are wishing for that type of democ- racy which rids itself entirely of the Bible or of any ultimate authority. They tell us that that which re- strains human nature must be gotten out of the way. Learned professors are teaching the unquali- fied freedom of the human intellect and putting it on the pedestal of deification. Not only the free- dom of the will, but freedom of the intellect, with their own interpretation of what that freedom in- volves. This is lawlessness, and the nature of man as unchanged by the grace of God and escaping from moral control thus reaches a state of anarchy. Some tell us that the doctrine of authority and the Bible is now dismissed by learned people; that those who cling to it are very igno- rant, weak-minded, and fanatical. Science, progress, so-called freedom of the intellect, and scholarship, Some Modern Fallacies 151 are some of the Goliaths which have pompously ar- rayed themselves against the Bible. How falla- cious, how lacking in intelligent genuineness, how perverse in moral attitude! The higher criticism has created the atmosphere in which this sort of stuff thrives. The higher critics tell us that the people now are different and that the change is intellectual. Our chief difficulty is that we really do not take to serious thought with all of our pretenses to schol- arship and scientific investigation. Our age is super- ficial. Everybody now is in a hurry to go some- where and when they arrive they immediately ask, "Where shall we go?" We live in the fret and fury of constant superficial agitation. We live on the surface of things. Our civilization is in the white heat of devotion to environment. Meditation upon the inward or spiritual is given scant attention. We have developed an aversion to most forms of serious toil. We are in the mad haste and feverish pursuit for money and pleasure. Instead of the present re- cession from the tried faith in the tried Book and the tried creed being occasioned by our intellectual profundity, it is rather a symptom of our intel- lectual senility. Yes, they tell us that the old theology has been displaced in knowledge and ethical conception ; that the doctrine of regeneration by the Holy Spirit has been ante-dated ; that the demand for a change of heart, for repentance on account of sin, and for a new life in Christ Jesus is old-fashioned. In answer 152 Torches Aloft to all of these we need only remind ourselves that the will, wish, and whim of people in any age can never be a test of any doctrine. Human will, wish, and whim are not dependable sources for final ver- dict. Another modern fallacy is that the Bible is aban- doned by the best religious consciousness of the times. We answer that this is a sad commentary on the current religious consciousness. We remind people of this type of thinking that it was by the unanimous voice of the current religious conscious- ness that our Lord was delivered to the Roman exe- cutioner. That current religious consciousness was unpitying, hypocritical, pharasaical, and even tol- erant of murder. Oh, what incongruities have been thrown into the history of mankind in the name of religious consciousness! The treatment accorded to Christ and the Bible are ever essentially the same. Truth is not always popular. The unjusti- fiable exaltation of the natural inclinations of man is always popular with people who are not profound and careful in their thinking. The religion of un- regenerate humanity is a modern fallacy. It chal- lenges God and defies judgment upon irreligion and the rejection of Christ. Man is now declared to be of such a nature and with such attributes as are allowed to God only. In short, they tell us that God and man are now transposable terms. They de- clare that man is essentially love and when we point to the cruel treatment of his fellows and the wrong for which he is responsible to-day, they say, "Never Some Modern Fallacies 153 mind the outcry." They deal in poetical terms, of hatred, the existence of courts, prisons, police, ar- maments, and of the awful human devastations. They charge all of man's weakness to environment. They tell us the age needs to accept what is pleas- ing rather than accept what is true. Let us be re- minded that the nature of man apart from the grace of God, is fixed upon selfishness, pleasure, money, and lustful indulgences. We should be able to dis- criminate between progressiveness and moral apos- tasy. In the Church of Rome this fallacious tendency records itself in Modernism. This is a part of the whole age movement which is on everywhere. Rome has always been anxious for temporal power. It has been fond of political ecclesiasticism. To her head a unique power is accorded. The Modernists of Rome refuse to go outside the Church. The slo- gans are Democracy, Science, Solidarity of Man- kind, and the Supremacy of Human Reason. They start out with the fullest assumption that the activi- ties that govern the world to-day are essentially cor- rect and permissible as we find them. The Modern- ists, Higher Critics, and New Theology devotees are in the same class. They all unite in declaring that no matter how well authenticated and tried the truth may be, it must go if not palatable to the mod- ern mind. Some of the so-called forward movements are not forward movements at all. We must be careful to analyze them before deciding that they are correct 154 Torches Aloft or authorize their being called advance movements. Let us remember that enthusiasm always needs a good foundation. We shall never be able to bring the religious experience of Christianity to the plane and data of philosophy and science. Christ is God's revelation to man, and his power alone is adequate to the saving of sinful man from his sins. His transforming love can make the individual a desira- ble social unit in society. The doubter amuses himself with the theory that what he should like to have said and done is to be the measure of everything in the great old Book. This vain, conceited, and faulty judgment of Chris- tianity is what is called scientific criticism. What a misnomer! The bald announcement that man as he is, without regeneration, or the distinct experi- ence of salvation by faith in Christ Jesus, is identical with God is pantheism. Let us remember that there is such a thing as having all the heresies in one. If any generation ever had need of the strong unvar- nished message of repentance and faith in Christ and the new birth by the Holy Spirit, as a sound basis for standard human character, this age needs that message. Our repentance might humble our in- tellectualism and pride, but it is a kind of humilia- tion that makes man have life and hope. It guaran- tees the vision of God, correct moral estimates, and the appreciation of such a character as will stand the test of time and eternity. To such a character and such an experience of divine grace may God bring us all. XVI. THE EARLY CHURCH AND SOCIAL WELFARE Very naturally when we give thought to the early Church, we first of all recall its worship of the di- vine Christ. The early Church was worshipful in the highest sense of the term. That worship was characterized by fervent spirituality and by varied manifestations of divine power. Reverence and awe prevailed and a generally deep impression was made as a result of these occasions of worship. However, we would make a great mistake if we concluded that worship was the sole objective of that early body of believers. The Church of the first century was a genuinely democratic body. This was manifest in its worship and was also manifested in other phases of early church life. For instance, the democracy of the body was reflected in the fact that religious addresses were made by laymen in the church and so far as we may judge spontaneous Christian ad- dress was all but universal with the early disciples. In this day speaking upon religious topics in public has been almost entirely relegated to certain church officials, including the pastor. The early Church evidently felt compelled to develop the talent and religious experience of all its members. 156 Torches Aloft The first step, however, in the organization of the early Church was the selection of a board to ad- minister the relief funds to the poor. It is clear, therefore, that the primitive concern of the disciples of Christ was that they should be faithful in a social ministry in behalf of the dependent. This devotion to social welfare is worthy of special note and justi- fies the growing interest of the present day church in social reform. We have no difficulty, therefore, in concluding that the early Church was genuinely re- ligious as evidenced in its spiritual worship. It was democratic as was proven by the general participa- tion of its members in religious utterances, and it was social in its interest, because it at once under- took the task of relieving distress and overcoming poverty. The early Church was inflamed with a hearty hope of a future life. Much was made of heaven as the final state of the blest. The resurrection was dwelt upon frequently. Both the resurrection of Christ and the anticipated resurrection of believers in Christ were continually in mention. But with all this hope of the future the Church became immedi- ately interested for present social improvement. Society then, as now, was borne down by many evils and these were sources of oppression which needed to be restrained, and the early Church was alert as to its duty in these premises. Giving in the early Church was not entirely de- voted to brotherly relief. This to be sure was not the end or fully developed program of Christian benevo- The Early Church and Social Welfare 157 lence and philanthropy, but it indicated the prompt interest which the Church had in improving the earth life conditions. The Church was not able then to work out perfectly the ideals of her Lord as to the correction of social evils. It may never be quite pos- sible for the Church to fully project its program into the social order, but the Church of to-day at least has an inadequate realization of its possibility and power in this respect. Always the Church is to be credited as having germinal Christ-life at work and that Christ-life is invariably reflected in social improvement of every kind. For instance, the uni- fication of human interest and extension of the feel- ing of friendliness and brotherhood, is a great social factor. Christianity proposes by its gracious expe- rience in the human heart to install these feelings of friendship, good will, and loving co-operation. The very character of a Christian experience is such that it becomes the mightiest power on earth for the unification of competitive humanity. Christianity is always conscious of a mission to create a new social life. When men, women, and children become Christians they are immediately seized upon with a desire for social efficiency and uprightness. The social promptings of the Chris- tian religion affect fatherhood, motherhood, the la- borer, the employer, the children in their relation to parental control. It makes a supreme contribution to social welfare. There are no other forces known to mankind that compare for a moment with the 158 Torches Aloft power of Christianity to elevate a people. The his- tory of the different races of the earth corroborates this statement again and again. Christianity stands for complete life transformation so that vicious and powerful forces yield to the superior control. Most social organizations follow the lines of least resistance, but not so with Christianity. It fearlessly confronts the task of uplift, laying hold upon the raw material of unregenerate human na- ture and installing the transforming powers of the kingdom of God. Christianity undertakes to save the lowest, the vilest, the most hopeless. In mil- lions of instances its power in such cases has been illustrated in the complete transformation of sinful men. Christianity is the highest embodiment of con- structive energy. No sooner is this energy applied to current social improvement than indifference and often hostility are manifest. The kingdom of God stands for conquest in spite of and in the midst of unfriendly forces. The high-minded social life for which Christianity stands, necessarily crosses the plans and schemes of selfish and irreligious men. It therefore, must always be willing to carry into its work the spirit of martyrdom, heroism, and enthu- siastic devotion. Christians must count upon car- rying forward the constructive programs of their work at any and every cost. Any forward move- ment must of necessity work certain destructions for the time being. An evil-minded man is not The Early Church and Social Welfare 159 turned from his sin until the grip of evil habit is broken. The temporary destructions which are wrought by the ongoing tides of religious life and grace are soon recognized as wholesome destruc- tions. Men who accept Christ and give up their evil ways soon find the decided advantages which their course insures. Anything which we are called upon to give up in order to Christian discipleship, is good riddance. In prosecuting the work of Christian persuasion there comes the subtle temptation to surrender to mere policy and to conditions that are antagonistic to the supremacy of the Christian re- ligion. A leader in the religious realm, as in every other, if he proposes advance is always misunder- stood. It follows, therefore, that Christians should feel themselves obligated, as they certainly are, to constant watchfulness for social improvement. They must reckon on a measure of opposition which will make their work more or less difficult. The disciple of Christ is the fitting and God-ap- pointed leader for the increasing social efficiency of civilization. The race as a whole is always in need of constructive consciousness, as for instance, that of our social unity, of our social power, and of the social mission to which all mankind are called. In- stead of being the prophets of failure for social re- form in these days, let us the rather believe in the potency which is lodged in any movement for these higher conquests and expect our fellows to respond to the summons for identification and devotion. 160 Torches Aloft There is such a thing as narrow patriotism which makes nations and races bigots. This narrow sym- pathy and interest is destined to feel the corrective influence of the growing spirit of internationalism cutting across all our boundaries. Isolation and bigotry contravene the great fundamental currents of common interest and cosmopolitan control. We certainly are in the age of world-wide enthu- siasms and outlook. There is but one source for this world-wide aptness and capacity, and that is Christianity.. Christians by their temper of mind, their catholicity of spirit, and their devotion to hu- man welfare, become the transforming spirit of the world. They represent and reflect the Holy Spirit of God, who moves ever upon the chaos of unsanc- tified human nature. Christianity begets the at- mosphere of brotherly communion and also imparts power for unselfish interest and service. It begets the desire for sharing. It has always carried a mighty collective hope, a hope that implants com- mon anticipation, that lifts up the lowly and causes expectation to take the place of fear. It carries a message of twofold salvation, namely, salvation to the individual, and salvation to society. It repre- sents the eternal life in Jesus Christ and the king- dom of God for the social order. These are the base-lines of universal human progress. All normal life should be identified with both. Christianity does, at times, speak in tones of judg- ment and withering condemnation. Its character The Early Church and Social Welfare 161 and heart are such and its programs for human wel- fare are such that its authority for the utterance of judgment is unquestioned. What Christianity judges wrong, may well count on withering rebuke. Christ had tender, loving, comforting words for all who were entitled to that sort of thing, but he had the opposite for certain types of humanity to whom his comforting message would have been altogether out of place. When Christianity pronounces her woes she al- ways sings her prophecies and advertises her con- solations. The two are invariably associated. A prophet once said, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon"; but the same prophet cried out, "Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." The Babylons of the world must fall ; they deserve to fall. The noble, the penitent, the disinterested, the humane, shall rise forever and forever. Christianity is planting in the life of the race to-day great kingdom expecta- tions. These are pervading all departments of hu- man interest and activity. What the kingdom of God anticipates is to come through a spiritual or- ganism. That organism is composed of believers in Christ, who, having repented of their sin are in- dwelt of him. The discipleship of the age must ac- cept the commission to bring on the coming of the kingdom. Religious, political, and industrial life, are all being slowly, but surely, purified and set free for larger service and utility. One who looks out upon the contending forces and by faith anticipates the triumph of the right needs to persist in his work. 162 Torches Aloft It is the hour for faith and love and service. Let no one be discouraged as if God had forsaken his own world. He was never so certainly or more cer- tainly at work in human society than he is to-day. Let all the friends of human progress take courage and let our consecration to the program of Christ be full and complete. XVII. THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL PROGRESS The Hebrew prophets kept steadily in view the social and political integrity of the nation in which they had citizenship. Their major emphasis was on the spiritual message of their religion, but they acted clearly on the conviction that their religion obligated them to the deepest patriotism. Neither in the Hebrew or the Christian age have we justifi- cation for the citizen's neglect of the duties of his citizenship. Christ would establish the kingdom of God on earth and this was the burden of his preach- ing. The early church did its best to establish so- cial life on wholesome moral foundations. By vir- tue of its lacking in influence as we know influence to-day owing to the comparatively small number of the Christians and owing to the fact that the social influence of the Church was small, they did not as- sume the leadership which befits the Church of the present age. The Church to-day is influential, has ample wealth in the stewardship of its members, has eminent men and women in its lists everywhere, and hence must not excuse itself from social interest based on the example of first century Christianity. It is in the power of the Church of to-day to put down any social evil. This is a very grave respon- sibility and one which is not appreciated as it should 164 Torches Aloft be. In order to be influential for social progress, the Church must have good leadership and in that leadership exhibit sagacity and wisdom. A vast deal of this great work for social advancement is yet un- done. Such a program as the twentieth century might adopt would have been impossible in any past age. In the comparative sense, however, the Church has always been faithful and instrumental in promoting social efficiency. In estimating the fruitfulness of the Church in any age we must deal in just comparisons. In estimating the task which the Church confronts in promoting any decided so- cial advance we must respect the fact that there are customs, traditions, and institutions that have had years of sway and patronage. These, many of them, are strongly entrenched sometimes behind the law and sometimes behind public opinion. The elimina- tion of those institutions that have become decadent and that have outlived their day is not an easy proc- ess. This is true because inspiration is a requisite for the willingness to give up what is effete and out- grown. The age needs vision and that vision must comprehend our social weaknesses and have strong aspiration for their passing. The process through which society must go in some of these eliminations will be laborious and trying. Nothing will hold us steady through these trying processes except a cer- tain high-mindedness which is the result of being inspired with higher ideals and holier purposes. Every careful student of this age will admit that the time is ripe for the Church to undertake some The Church in Social Progress 165 definite and radical programs for social reconstruc- tion. This leadership must be accepted if the Church is to hold its place in popular interest. We believe the time is at hand when the Church may assume direct responsibility for ending the complicity of the American government in the liquor traffic. The Church, through the Anti-Saloon League and other agencies sharing the common purpose of that League, can now deliver the final blow that will end the legalized saloon's existence in the United States. This bit of definite work the Church has been preparing for and the time is ripe for the con- clusion of the battle. The slogan of the revision of the National Constitution by 1920 with an amend- ment which will forever make illegal the liquor traf- fic in the United States is worthy of enthusiastic adoption and support. It will be greatly to the credit of the Church in future years to have the his- torian record that under her leadership that monster evil was brought to bey and destroyed essentially in the year of our Lord 1920. To the end that this may be true, every Christian leader and disciple of any rank must charge himself immediately with the duty of co-operating in the task of information so that the American citizenship will pay no attention to the deceptions of the liquor organizations and unite in removing this enemy of our progress. The Church in social progress works by two methods, namely, that of direct identification and leadership, and that of indirect influence through in- dividuals. We are all delighted when some promi- 166 Torches Aloft nent Christian and churchman reaches a position of political responsibility, and especially so when he exhibits under that responsibility sanity and demo- cratic integrity. Through the individual Christian on his own personal initiative, Christian influences of reform may be installed, but the Church, in which the individual disciple has membership, is an organi- zation. It represents individuals in associated respon- sibility. Organization always has in view such a relation of the individual to other individuals shar- ing like ideals as will make possible the larger agen- cies of civilization. Individuals working alone can- not accomplish what individuals united may accom- plish. By so much as the Church is an organized institution is it responsible for that higher influence which we have a right to expect as a logical result of the fact. It will not do for individual Christians to depend wholly upon this indirect method of in- fluencing society and government. Concerted move- ment, co-operation in effort, unity in making ideals influential, are requisite to the moving of such a civ- ilization as ours in the direction of social improve- ment. The social life of the world is to be Christianized. We dare not set opposite the twentieth century any program less comprehensive or aspiring. To un- dertake such a great task as this will of course chal- lenge our faith and it will especially call for the adoption of a propaganda of the most intense and genuine sort. Too often our church membership is not characterized by the high type of consecration The Church in Social Progress 167 and self-dedication of which the cause is worthy. The resources of the Church to-day are only in part available for our Lord's program in society. It must be brought home to the conscience of church people everywhere that no discipleship is worthy of the name in these days unless that discipleship is sufficiently genuine to compel a full consecration to Christ and his will in society. We occasionally hear it said that the New Testa- ment Church did not have anything like a social propaganda ; that it was given exclusively to the tes- timony to Christ and the resurrection and the an- nouncement of the duty of repentance because the kingdom of God was at hand. However, it is not fair to say that the apostles were recreant to the duty of definite social teaching and effort. Here again we must remember the environment in which the apostles lived. Those early Christians were under suspicion as political enemies of the civil government. They were not supported by centu- ries of historical development and record. They were cutting their way into the arena of human ac- tivity and interest under many handicaps. If they were less enthusiastic for social reform than modern Christians believe themselves called upon to be, it was because that attitude was compulsory. It is different to-day. All Christian citizens in almost every government on earth are citizen kings. Their sovereign responsibility is unique and exalted be- cause the individual church member is a citizen di- rectly responsible in the direction of the govern- 168 Torches Aloft ment under which he lives and because he has a voice in determining the policies of his govern- ment. There can be no question but what the Church is under obligation to instruct the individual church member in the duties of his citizenship. No- body in these days questions the right of the Church in her moral message and her spiritual evangel. Neither may we longer challenge the obligation of the Church through her ministry and otherwise to establish the Christian conscience and viewpoint in the individual membership of the Church with a view to consistent political action. It should also be noted as one reason why the early Church was not more fully enlisted in behalf of the social life of the age, was because of the general expectation of the speedy second coming of our Lord. For some reason the first cen- tury Church was more exercised with regard to the second coming, than probably the Church of any century since. This may have grown out of a misunderstanding of the teaching of Christ and the nature of his kingdom. It may also have grown out of some misapprehension on the part of the apostles as to the divine program in this respect. At any rate, we know the fact and beg to use it as in part accounting for no marked social leadership in the apostolic age. Under such an expectation of the early second appearing of Christ on the earth, no program that had reference to processes through years of constructive effort was possible. Nothing The Church in Social Progress 169 like laying siege to evil institutions would be in mind in such an atmosphere. Dependence was placed on the early appearing of Christ as the personal leader of his militant hosts on earth. Nineteen centuries have passed since then and our Lord still tarries. We do not know the hour of his coming. We do know that the gospel which he preached and which he commissioned the Church to make known in all the world has a great message for the life that now is. Christ not only asks that his Church shall speak out the message of salva- tion from sin and its penalties in the life to come, but he serves as an exponent of that gospel as ap- plied to all the affairs of the life that vestibules, eternity. It would not be rational to expect the larg- est social interest in Christianity in its historical be- ginnings. It would be normal to expect the Church to gather momentum and come to self-consciousness with the passing of the years. It is not to be won- dered at that the social program of Christianity has been gradually unfolded and applied. Every force and institution related to human progress has to be tried out before mankind comes to a realization of its pos- sible efficiency. With twenty centuries of Christian history the Church is now ripe for assuming a larger responsibility in the government, the com- mercial life, and the educational institutions of man- kind. Any omission of social interest which character- ized the Church of the first century cannot therefore be used in extenuation of our lack of interest. The 170 Torches Aloft Church has a mighty imperative for enlistment in behalf of improving human society everywhere. Human life even under religious inspiration and di- rection is naturally conservative. If one is not guarded against his own weaknesses in this regard even his religion will intensify this tendency to con- servatism. One result of personal piety is to bear in upon the human mind a consciousness of the in- tegrity and comparative unselfishness of one's mo- tives. This is justified up to a certain point, but we must always remember that our religious assurance may be easily abused at the point where we become presumptive as to our ability to always see and do the right thing. There is such a thing as religious self-complacency when the man abuses his reli- gious assurance by pressing it into service for the confirmation of his somewhat superficial attitudes, investigations, and viewpoints. A religious man may be right in his heart but very much astray in his ideals. He may know how to pray, but be very amateurish as to how to vote and associate himself with high-minded men in the progress of civic righteousness. The Christian must be careful to work himself out of amateurishness of every sort. He must become the seasoned veteran in every worthy conflict. He must be so alert against decep- tion, duplicity, and the bluffs of evil-minded men, as to become a terriffic enemy to every evil cause. The Church of the twentieth century needs to be aroused and charged through and through with the social passion and interest. If Saint Paul were on The Church in Social Progress 171 the earth to-day, we have no question but what he would be identified immediately with a sane move- ment for good government. Certain institutions that have been associated with the forms of Christianity in the past have lim- ited the Church in its contribution to social recon- struction. We believe, notwithstanding our appre- ciation of the devotion of some of the celibate priests of Romanism, that celibacy and monasticism have had their influences in withdrawing the Church from identification in the great forward movements for the elevation of society. It is quite proper that the Church should stand for other-worldness, but the Church also is to be characterized by its growing interest in the efficiency of the people in the social order here on earth. Christianity is interested in the cultivation of the soil, in multiplicity of inven- tions, in the promotion of business efficiency, in the advance of science, and in the thoroughness and uni- versality of education. But in the past, for various reasons, the full social expression of Christianity has been suppressed. Conservatism, conventional- ism, prejudice, narrowness, misapprehension of the true nature of religion, have all contributed to this situation. The twentieth century affords the oppor- tunity for the full release of the message of Christ into the very midst of the most acute problems of this age. Let us hear his voice in politics, in educa- tion, in commerce, in every possible phase of our complex civilization. His is the voice of assurance and certainty. The Church needs to come to a 172 Torches Aloft Christ-like openmindedness as to its full duty in the present economic struggles. In the beginning Christianity was almost entirely free from ceremonialism. It was new to the world, had no slavery to precedent, was not narrowed into ecclesiastical grooves, was spontaneous and free. The centuries have brought more or less subser- viency to the conventionalisms of Christianity. The Church in some sections lays a very great emphasis on the ritual and the sacraments, and who knows but the stated occasions and prescribed rites of the Church have been allowed through misapprehen- sion of their real nature and purpose to dull the so- cial conscience and interest of church members. The Church must be identified with the day of rest, the one day in seven known as the Christian Sab- bath or Sunday. The Church has legitimate use for the ritual and the sacraments, but these must be as- signed only their proper place and relation. No man can be justified in these days of social unrest for the divorce of his six-day life from the Holy Day on which he assembles in his church for wor- ship. That worship day is a travesty if it shall not work in the mind of the church-goer a keener in- terest to carry the very breath of the sanctuary and the high social ideals of the Christian religion into each and every activity of the six-day world. We dare not put our religion into one compartment and our business and politics into another. Christian- ity must rule us through and through or it does not The Church in Social Progress 173 rule us at all. Business is not one thing and reli- gion another thing. We are fully convinced also that theological spec- ulations, and they have been multitudinous, with the ecclesiastical dogmas which have grown up in the life of the Church have served as a substitute for interest in, and a sense of responsibility for, hu- man welfare here and now. It is a trick of the evil one to exhaust human interest and energy on val- ueless theological speculations and discussions. The same is true with regard to those matters of opinion which sometimes are defended and propagated as if they were fundamentals and of the essence of re- ligion. When will we learn that the only element in Christianity which is authoritative is the essen- tial message and that in matters of church polity, and touching all that is associated with the church in its organization in which the human mind is al- lowed liberty and supposed to accept creative re- sponsibility generation by generation, we are to find the realm of liberty and readjustment. The exaltation of ecclesiasticism has been allowed to obscure the importance of the spirit of Christ. The Church is subordinate to the King and his king- dom. No church organization, as such, has any ul- timate authority. It is only a service organization. It is to find its highest ambition gratified when it serves as a means for bringing the gospel into the heart, hope, and program, of society. Because this subordinate relationship of the Church as compared to the kingdom has not always been appreciated, 174 Torches Aloft the world has at one time and another witnessed worldly even though powerful ecclesiasticism which at the same time was a sorrowful misrepresentation of the kingdom of God. The world does not need the supremacy of ecclesiasticism except in so far as that ecclesiasticism represents the spontaneous and free consent of disciples in a given age in meth- ods for promoting the coming of Christ's kingdom in society. We should be as impatient of ecclesi- astical aristocracy as we shall ever be of an aristoc- racy of wealth or any form of secularism. The Church must make contention and offer battle in behalf of the people and not for herself. According to the law of discipleship she finds her life when she loses it in consecration to human uplift. Church organization is necessary, but it is only justified as a means to an end. The Church is a service organi- zation to promote Christian experience in individ- uals and the kingdom of God in society. No institution, organization, or individual, has the right of self-aggrandizement. The State is un- der obligation in all its institutions and administra- tions to unite with the Church in enforcing and pop- ularizing this ideal. Theoretically the State is the custodian of public welfare, but if the spirit and influence and ideals of the Church do not permeate the State and its administrative offices, the State may come to be the organization of a few people for the fostering of special interests as against the general welfare. The most offensive feature in twentieth century Americanism is the disposition The Church in Social Progress 175 on the part of strong and alert men who are banded together in our great business corporations to make warfare on the public. One would think that with all the effort of these years to free our Americanism from such selfishness that our financial kings and corporation leaders would be free from this offense. One only needs to observe the affairs of almost any of our great cities just now to find how flagrant this evil is and how brazen in its attack upon the rights of the people. It is disappointing to find offi- cials sworn to be on the alert in the protection of the people's rights suborned, bribed, and corrupted, until any highminded man can only have for them feelings of contempt. The Church must prompt and lead the State to- ward higher ideals. There is a difference between things as they are and as they ought to be. The Church can never stand for anything else than for ideal conditions. Let no man ask her to vacate this high and holy position. She must always have her eye on what ought to be and refuse to compromise in the declaration she makes for the perfected vir- tue of Christian integrity. The Church is inter- ested in having all the people actively enlisted in high-grade politics ever remembering that political interest and administration are matters no longer to be left to the tender care of a chosen few. Every man and woman called upon to discharge a part of his political duty at the ballot box has the gravest responsibility in the securing of intelligence and in the development of the best type of civic conscience. 176 Torches Aloft An entirely new kind of so-called political preach- ing is now in order. Our audiences are now free men. In the past the ruling classes have been more than willing to have the preacher exercise himself in political preaching of a prescribed kind. To their mind it always involved exaltation of the duty of submitting to the "powers that be," but with scant instruction as to what should be the character and program of these self-same "powers." As our elec- torate is enlarged so must the message of the Church be enlarged until worthy political sover- eignty exists. It should be instructed and directed to the most efficient expression of Christian charac- ter in political action. We are unwilling in the twentieth century to concede anything as being out- side of the realm of genuine religion. Our industry, politics, and commerce are all included. The Christian citizenship of America comes short of its duty unless it raises the standard of govern- mental and business morality. It is an ordinary ex- perience in our cities these days to find the lines tightly drawn in the conflict between the corpora- tions which own and control public utilities and the people as consumers of their product. Any kind of trickery, fraud, and subtle deception, is by some men in business thought to be entirely permissible. We hope that the time is not distant when corpo- ration men can be brought to see that the most con- structive thing for them to do is to deal with the public as if they were dealing with their fellow Americans and brothers. Some men are short- The Church in Social Progress 177 sighted enough and have such dullness of moral apprehension as to believe that such policy would be unfruitful of good financial results. This is a serious mistake. Suppose corporation managers, without legal compulsion, would act in a way con- ciliatory to public interest and collective welfare. Suppose they should be satisfied with exact social justice without compelling the people to force such justice from them by the processes of law and the courts. It is not difficult to forsee what a fine temper of mind this would create in the life of our cities. As it is we are fighting one another. Cor- poration managers consider that they are smart, if under the direction of highly paid lawyers they can "put over" on the people the most offensive rates and unscrupulous business dealings. It seems clear that any corporation enforcing the mandates of pred- atory wealth will in the long run find its day of judgment and reckoning. Profits wrung from the people over their protest when that protest is based on reason and equity for all, are bound to fade away in due time as snows before the springtime sun. All of our institutions must accept the principle of wholesome change and normal evolution toward higher forms of social justice and efficiency. The standpatter in corporation management in these days is unpardonable. The intelligence of our American public has advanced to that stage where the old methods of extortion, evasion, and deceit, are not longer to be tolerated. The age is demand- ing the new viewpoint and it must come. Those of 178 Torches Aloft our people who stand for social justice and for the establishment of moral principle in all our business affairs, must not be discouraged or become impa- tient if the seeds planted to-night are not full-grown plants by the morning. We shall have to agitate and educate until intelligence and conscience in bus- iness managers will respond to the new social ap- peal. In this process of social and industrial re- construction no fairy wand will do the work. Faith- ful seed sowing, sane efforts in reform, persistence in educational processes, will all be required to bring the new era of public welfare. Christianity invariably bears testimony in favor of conditions as they should be and therefore reli- gion is a disturber of our selfishness and our slug- gishness. It will always be in advance of the polit- ical mind for the political mind runs in the grooves of compromise. To a certain degree this attitude of the mind in the politician is necessary with our ex- isting citizenship, but we are convinced that many a politician yields to it far more largely than he should. This demand for the lowering of ideals and moral laws as a matter of expediency, must be ser- iously considered. If men in official life would have a larger confidence in the constructive power of fidelity to the right, they would make a better contribution to human progress. Political leaders, as also leaders in other departments of life, often lack the moral courage which ought to be the requi- site of all good leadership. The Church in Social Progress 179 All the causes that held back the social efficiency of Christianity have passed away. To-day the field is absolutely open to effort of the intelligent and prescribed sort. If Christianity does not in the next few years assert its power in behalf of the elevation of society and the adjustment of our most trouble- some problems, it will be because its leadership is lacking in both insight and bravery. The Church has liberty as in no other age to magnify its com- mission and to bear the message of righteousness, reconciliation, and brotherhood, into the midst of our distracted people. In such an open field what may not Christianity do? The leader of the Chris- tian forces is Christ the Lord. He is immaculate. He is beyond the assault of human criticism. His character is becoming more colossal as it is better understood and as the intelligence of the race ad- vances. There is weakness in his Church and lack of social interest and devotion, but neither of these are true of the great Head of the Church. XVIII THE AIMS OF CHRIST Character determines vision. What we are is vi- tally related to what we see. There are strong- minded men in our civilization to-day who are men- tally alert and keen but who are impaired in their social efficiency by a strange moral stupidity. It ought to occur to intelligent men in this age that moral obtuseness and density is economically un- profitable. When a man's character has been dulled to moral law and ideals he misapprehends not only his own relation to social progress but he misappre- hends any institution or agency which is engaged in its promotion. It is under this principle that a cer- tain type of human personality invariably misjudges Christ as to his aims and his program. In order to appreciate the Bible one must have a certain gen- uineness of moral quality. If this is absent then the man stupidly blunders in his attitude toward Chris- tianity and the Bible as its great text-book. The moral quality of the man invariably determines his relation to the Holy Scriptures. This principle oper- ates with absolute certainty and it is the explana- tion of much or all of the vituperation which certain men heap upon the Church and its religion to-day. By so doing they simply advertise their moral obli- quity and perversion. If men appreciated more gen- The Aims of Christ 181 erally how the declarations of enmity to the Bible and Christianity disclose their true character, they would certainly be more cautious in their ebuli- tions and ravings. Because of the fact that character is reflected at once in one's attitude toward the Bible and Chris- tianity it has followed that men have read mean- ings into the Bible which are not there at all. Lit- erally speaking, it has been said that copies of the Bible have been chained, having reference to local custom and usage, but in no essential sense has the Bible ever been chained. On the contrary the hu- man mind often has been enslaved and bound. The Bible itself has made the strongest contribution to the freedom of the human mind. It alone contains the disclosure of those laws by which the intellect may reach its highest possible development and effi- ciency. Because the Bible has been exerting its be- nign influence for these centuries our age and gen- eration have reached the new vision. The new in- terpretation of life, politics, commerce, education, and of the Church itself is at hand. There will be no change in the essential laws that have been from the beginning constructive and wholesome, but the change will come in the new appreciation of the re- lation of these vital forces to moral control and to social efficiency. This age is looking out upon the processes of modern civilization through the lenses of many neg- lected truths. The individualistic viewpoint in re- ligion has had a long and continuous reign. It 182 Torches Aloft slowly yields to the social point of view and we must count on reluctant surrender to the new Americanism. We are discovering that the aims of Christ were pre-eminently social. In conformity with this fact he approached the ills of life from the moral viewpoint. He thoroughly understood that all the misfortunes of life that were really affecting the social status, grew out of moral evil and that if the natures of men were set right by the divine in- dwelling, the most serious ills to which men are heir would pass away. Our modern civilization has been inclined to reverse this viewpoint and relegate the moral principle to the very last consideration. Sometimes the moral phase of our processes has had the least consideration when it should have been the object of our major concern. Our Lord wished the upright life to be the common quality of all men. He had constantly a vision of a social or- der in which this integrity of the individual in the light of the kingdom of God would be as common as humanity itself. He looked upon the forces of evil as the implacable foes of human progress. With all that man might wish in his environment granted to him our Lord taught that his life might yet be bar- ren and comfortless. He stated explicitly that the kingdom of God was to indwell human personality and with that indwelling would relate one to the highest and holiest satisfactions possible in human existence. It is also plain from the teachings of Christ that if it were possible to universalize every earthly and The Aims of Christ 183 material good, the life of the race might yet be in- sipid and unsatisfied. This teaching is evidently based on the principle that the deepest need of man is the spiritual need. Communion and comradeship with God as his Creator, Savior and Friend is a pri- mary requisite. It is a primary need rather than a luxury or a seventh day indulgence. All this comes of its possible registration in terms of social atti- tude and service. It means in that form purity, sympathy, moral courage, social conscience, and high ideals. We have all witnessed how certainly covetousness, haste, duplicity, irritability, unholy ambition, worry, selfishness, all conspire to bitter the waters of life. Wherever these exist the human personality is a raging sea in which forces are for- ever conspiring for moral ruin. They obscure the world of life and peace and isolate us from God and the angels. Once enthroned religion becomes immediately constructive and therefore reconstructive. Religion and the social life cannot be separated. There is a holy continuity in this forcible fact so that in any age Christ is contemporary. He is parallel all the centuries with an anxious leadership which has often been embarrassed by the evil of the human heart and by the lack of alertness to the laws of progress. With certain types of character Christ draws and with others he repels. Once he is in- stalled in the human heart the ideals arise con- stantly and the processes of social efficiency are in- stalled. 184 Torches Aloft The keynote of our Lord's gospel may be indi- cated by the words repentance, brotherliness, so- cial justice, and adjustment. In the light of such a gospel it is evident that grafters and parasites have direct and scathing rebuke. Christ declared the ex- ploitation of the people was especially worthy of all condemnation. He did not hesitate to deal in the most unsparing terms with character of this sort. He was in the greatest earnestness for the doing away of all social wrong. His conception of the kingdom of God was that it involved immediately, and expressed itself in, the reign of social justice and genuine religion. It was a fundamental princi- ple in his teaching that the kingdom was not to be promoted by force, but by instruction and persua- sion. The battle of the kingdom of God to-day, as in the past is the battle of the compassionate mind against hardened mind. It is affection, sympathy, and brotherliness, in protest against heartlessness. The kingdom provides for a righteous social order in which all are to participate and to which all are to be pledged. Christ as Lord of the kingdom never for a moment lost sight of the collective nature of mankind. He was thoroughly identified with the blessing and prosperity of his nation. The very first appeal he made was to his nation. He well under- stood that unless the Hebrew people should realize the day of their visitation and should be led to reject him that his rejection would mean their national doom. The Aims of Christ 185 With unmistakable authority our Lord instituted the Church because as he apprehended its function its establishment on the earth would promote the kingdom of God among men. This essential feature of the Church's original charter needs emphasis in every age. The Church exists to extend the king- dom. The Hebrew prophets had been identified with that kingdom as indicated in the before-Christ age. Even in the light afforded to them they were seeking to establish society under the highest ideals known to them. They evidently believed that man- kind was to be socialized and made amendable to the law of universal interest and co-operation. They conceived the highest type of goodness to be social or community, rather than individual. It is growing especially apparent to us in this age that the most culpable weakness is that which uses community wealth for the aggrandizement and wealth of a few individuals. The Christian virtues are of such a na- ture as to make them the constructive forces of so- ciety. Love is a better guide to conduct than all the conventional rules that have ever been pub- lished on the subject. Opposite coercion, exploitation, and inequality, our Lord set love, service, persuasion, and equality. Prophetic religion was invariably hostile to ritual- istic religion. The prophet's soul was on fire with a vision of the future. He felt the lure of the heights above him. He was inspired to the limit of a holy emotion. His enthusiasm was of the intense and consuming kind. As compared with this intensity 186 Torches Aloft and as tested by its onrushing tides anything like ritualistic observance was meaningless, cold and re- pulsive. Prophetic religion carries the white heat of enthusiasm for human betterment. It exempli- fies what was shown in our Lord by his hostility to whatever harmed men and women and children. He was the uncompromising foe of whatever injured the least among human creatures. It was because of this intense social passion and interest that Christ warned against the over-ardent pursuit of riches and indicated that such pursuit always was a menace to the highest qualities of the soul. His great phrase "the deceitfulness of riches," is not a meaningless expression. It is exact, non-pictorial and severely true. He understood full well that when great wealth, no matter by whom amassed, rapidly comes to the ownership of men, that owner- ship is on a throne which should be reserved to God alone. Christ knew full well that when men were consumed in this lust for wealth they were lost to the kingdom of God. The peculiarly poisonous influence of great wealth upon the character is indicated in the fact that no covetous man ever discovers that he has fallen. The harlot and the drunkard feel the bitter- ness of their sin and know that they have gone far astray; not so the covetous man. It is the rarest thing that the sin of covetousness is ever confessed. When men follow the bent of their covetousness and accumulate vast wealth, their sympathy dies ; they cease to have a sense of dependence, sociability The Aims of Christ 187 and moral responsibility. The hard-heartedness passes into stolidity, indifference to human need, and a general stoicism which is benumbing and fa- tal. The lures of great wealth are its curses. Put a rich man in a church of poor people and embarrass- ment is unavoidable. The sense of democracy which Christianity naturally creates is offended and jeal- ousies arise. The minister becomes endangered to compromise since very few men can do as Christ did, sit at the table of a rich man, and not be affected to a patronizing air. The feeling of equality in the Church is especially to be desired, but it is impos- sible save as equality is a fact. Riches have a three-fold relativity ; to the posses- sor, the people, and to God. Jesus made this clear in his treatment of the rich young ruler. The ruler became aware that in our Lord's thought the king- dom of God is the ideal human order and that if his wealth arose between him and citizenship in that kingdom he could never be happy until his wealth was consecrated to human need. Jesus was inter- ested in having the young man reach membership in his kingdom, because that kingdom unites jus- tice, equality, and love, in the most beautiful har- mony. The rich man had not been able to approx- imate these qualities for he had not been willing to exercise self-renunciation. He was filled with the gloating sense of proprietorship over his wealth in- stead of a conviction of stewardship. So long as any man holds his possessions as his very own, re- ligious genuineness is impossible. There have been 188 Torches Aloft numberless efforts to get the rich man through the eye of the needle, but we have yet to hear a theolog- ical disquisition that puts him through. The instinct for the acquisition of property and thrift is divinely implanted and as we have indi- cated eleswhere has disti; :t social value. It is even a virtue commended in the Holy Scriptures, but it must be challenged and controlled. Unwary feet have been beguiled into the highways of destruc- tion because their rapidly increasing devotion to money making was not challenged and brought un- der the control of faith and prayer. We know that our Lord was interested in relieving all sorts of so- cial distress, for his miracles had that in view rather than the proving of his divinity. Christ knew the struggles of poor people and hence when the poor widow offered her two mites he was unstinted in praise of her self-sacrifice and devotion. He under- stood too full well how in cases of disagreement be- tween men when the question of rights should be taken to the courts that it would be difficult to keep the courts impartial and unbiased. He recog- nized the difficulty in the way of a judge serving the cause of the poor as is shown in the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. He knew too that those who most needed a dinner were never invited to one and so he exalted the virtue of making a feast for the poor, the blind, the maimed. In the various contests of the present age when many policies of state are proposed that are un- Christian, it is especially incumbent on church peo- The Aims of Christ 189 pie to be careful of their attitude. They may easily oe beguiled through the control of partisanship into such political action as discredits their Christian discipleship. It needs to be kept in mind that Christ often opposed the popular order and stood out sol- idly for its amendment in behalf of righteousness. Minorities often have the custody of the truth and time frequently justifies their contentions. The Christian may never accept the present order as so fully good that it can be accepted as final and unal- terable. Gasoline burned in bulk serves no good purpose, but distributed in the engine for measured explosion it is invaluable to society. The men who to-day are working for a new and equitable social order certainly may point to Christ as their leader. Interest in guiding our civilization out of the mazes created by its selfishness and want of moral fidelity is worthy of all praise. Christ would have us iden- tified in every possible way to this glorious consum- mation. XIX CHRIST'S METHOD FOR AN EFFICIENT HUMANITY Perhaps at no time in the history of the race has there been such a keen interest in human efficiency. Man is studied to-day as if he were a machine and the question is how to secure the largest number of power units within a given period of time. Of course, man is more than a mechanism. He is an immortal spirit retaining even in his present estate a measure of the likeness of his Heavenly Father. Nevertheless such is the pressure of the age from the economic standpoint that everything is being scrutinized with relation to man's industrial and la- bor efficiency. Recently a great commission in Ger- many made a report as to the influence of alcoholic beverages upon the efficiency of laboring people. Of course, the verdict was against the use of stimu- lants. In our rounds of investigation we are destined ul- timately to turn to the divine order for human re- enforcement and efficiency. Christ Jesus raised from the dead is the beginning of the new humanity. He is the typal man and the high potency which he evidenced is, through the marvelous providence of divine grace, available for all the children of men. By a peculiar obtuseness the headship of Christ in Christ's Method for an Efficient Humanity 191 its relation to our increased power in the tasks of life has not been duly appreciated. The new hu- manity which is possible, as the typal life which is in Christ is appropriated by humanity, will shortly be appreciated as it has not been for decades in the recent past. Every fresh scrutiny of the problem of human efficiency will bring the intelligence of the race closer to Christ. Christ stands for vitalized humanity. That vitalization has reference to body, soul, and spirit. It takes in the full scope of man's powers and his relation to every kind of achieve- ment. The Church is the highest expression of the humanity that has been divinely endowed. The Church speaks in definite terms to the faith of man so that explicit obedience may be had to the condi- tions of power. God has given Christ, who is the head over all things, to the Church which is his body and which he indwells and quickens. This statement is more than religious poetry. It is a practical fact susceptible of demonstration in all the rugged processes of toil and effort. The Incarnation installed the regnant life of God in the constitution of the race inasmuch as it brought God directly into human nature for specific purposes of uplift. Constitutional strengthening is often prescribed for human ailments and weak- nesses. God in the constitution of the race through Jesus Christ is the most potent factor in social up- lift to-day. It is the plan of God to make the race a mighty organism which he himself will inhabit. Man inhabited by the Almighty through the minis- 192 Torches Aloft try of the Holy Spirit is the ideal in human expe- rience. The Creator continues to create in the realm of human personality and character. He does this as we repent of our sins, receive the divine spirit, and become the sons of God by the new birth. It is inspiring to think of God as not only creating worlds that are beyond our ken, and to think how he is peopling in all probability the millions of worlds which are flung out in space, but that he is also new-creating men in his moral image and like- ness. Sin has impaired the image, but God can re- store it completely. The world is in need of these new character creations and specific interest in this process is a general revival of religion. This new creation in human character is God's message for an efficient humanity. Christ indicated that this proc- ess was basic and vital. No human living in Chris- tendom ought to think for a moment of sinning against the light of so gracious a gospel. Humanity has a God imparted dignity and value, but how much more is the dignity of manhood enhanced when it is definitely and consciously indwelt of God and made to reflect and manifest his power. It is the divine order that we all should come into the like- ness of Christ and that likeness is not reserved to the disembodied state. It is held out to be an imme- diate goal to be utilized in one's career from the cradle to the grave. Very naturally the mind needs information as to God's message by which the efficacious vitalizations of the new birth are made possible. If such a vital- Christ's Method for an Efficient Humanity 193 ization has efficacy, and it has, and if knowledge of the method is possible and it is, then by all means let our attention be riveted upon the realization. We hear much in these days about the proposed unity of the race. In fact, Christianity teaches definitely that unity. God's method for actualizing that unity and making it a potent factor for the uplift of all nations is by this gracious vitalization. The Heav- enly Father declares that this actualization is imme- diately in the zone of a divinely begotten brother- hood. The brotherhood is essentially impossible without the vitalization. Satan has a spurious plan for forming a unified humanity. He presumes to parallel God's plans, but he cannot employ God's methods. He is capable of strategy and one phase of it is to lead men to confide in his futile and power- less methods of unification. Many apparently keen- minded people in these days are deceived by satanic strategy. They presume to omit God's method for unifying mankind and yet succeed in reaching the great goal. They are doomed to disappointment. Unmistakably the age is evolving a new humanity and the Church, which is the body of Christ, com- posed of all who have been divinely quickened and who are citizens of the heavenly kingdom, is the center of the new humanity. The Anti-Christ or the would be unified secular humanity which omits spiritual religion and the new birth is in evidence in the thought life about us everywhere. The secu- larists affirm that all the world needs is a few social and ethical ideals. They seem not to have noted at 194 Torches Aloft all that all history confirms the position that men are helpless under the highest ideals unless they re- ceive moral power for their measurable achieve- ment. High moral ideals but plague the human con- science until the glorious Christ has been enthroned in the soul. The age needs more than ethical ideals. It needs the power of God as manifest in Christ Je- sus. Any kind of a unification that omits the gos- pel of Christ is really a hindrance to human prog- ress and will prove to be a broken shaft wounding those who lean upon it. In his devotion to science, which is an age char- acteristic, man sometimes becomes a self-worshiper. With some modernists science has been set in Christ's throne and stead. Such an attitude means loss and disappointment. It means broken life and arrested development. The human heart thrones belong to our Lord and when he occupies them we know the reign of peace and power. Some would have us believe that all that is needed in this age is purely secular education. They would exact for science and secular education the religious attitude. They ask the present age to accept these in lieu of the gospel of our Lord and Savior. By misappre- hension, or moral perversity, they bow down and out the spiritual experience of Christianity. They would annul the demand for the moral and spiritual cecreation of mankind. All the devotees of this spur- ious and would-be gospel are sure to meet disap- pointment. It will be found by all who worship at this shrine that it is inhabited by satanic deception. Christ's Method for an Efficient Humanity 195 Satan can only work with twilights and shadows. The noondays and certitudes belong to the Christ and to him only. Satan must needs work with per- ishable material in the form of unregenerated per- sonality while Christ builds in the imperishable character creations of his own mighty grace. Christ creates a living organism which he indwells, while Satan can only form an organization which he dis- appoints and deludes. Satan can only undertake to draw unquickened humanity about certain unifying ideals, such for instance as human brotherhood. These ideals he would steal from the only Lord of life and presume to delude men into believing that real brotherhood is in his province and power to be- stow. He encourages the false hope that all the ills of human society can be cured by secular organiza- tion and agency. He inspires men to disparage the Church, belittle the ministry, and ridicule the Bible. Those whom he deceives are to be pitied and the day of their disillusionment is to be forwarded in every possible way. The call of Christ, which is to all mankind, is the call to genuine religious character under his master- ful power and direction. Our Lord understands full well, for he has clearly communicated the fact to us, that spurious religion is as fatal as genuine secular- ism. They are both in the same zone or class. When Christ came he was immediately confronted and op- posed not only by the secularists and the worldly but by the spurious religionists as well. It was these latter who put him to death upon the cross. 196 Torches Aloft When Anti-Christ comes in modern movements and propagandas, the misguided crowd may place him at the head of the procession and worship him. What a usurpation of the place which belongs to our Lord this is and how the misguided crowd must always appeal to our sympathy. Adam, as the head of the race physically failed in moral integrity, and dissension followed. The race was dispersed and divided into contending tribes and groups. Now the race is intuitively and anxiously feeling its way toward a new headship. The desire for dependable and worthy leadership is one of the strongest cravings of the race at this time. The world was never as ready to follow gen- uine and unselfish leadership as now. It was never so thoroughly rebellious against the boss and the demagogue. It scorns mere party slogans when the party has abdicated in the defense of the rights of the people and has no progressive policies. Our ef- forts at unity are but the reflection of a genuine and deeply felt need. We need to get together. Our dissensions ought to perish. The great harmonies ought to be magnified and heralded. The fact that the race is calling out for unity, is a disclosure of a divinely implanted desire. Christ as the second head of the race, the type to which we all may come, will "not fail nor be discouraged till he shall have set justice in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law." To him be the glory, the honor, and the do- minion, forever, amen ! XX. THREE GIANTS The three giants which we presume to discuss in this chapter are the Home, the Church, and the School. They are all, by the common consent of civilized races, of tremendous importance and their study and exaltation become us all. These giants are natural allies of one another but they are not always in co-operation as they might be, if, as insti- tutions, they were better appreciated and their common work accepted heartily and faithfully by all the people. If our civilization is to be efficient they must be brought to sympathetic and supple- mental effort. The idea of training and nurture runs through all of them. In the home it is pa- rental training in all the fundamentals of life. In the Church it is training and nurture with especial emphasis on religious development. In the school the State acts with a view to a worthy and intelli- gent citizenship. Are there common bonds and ob- jectives, which make it necessary and exceedingly desirable that all these institutions act in close con- junction and with mutual recognition and respect? Is it true that the greatest efficiency of each is con- tingent on well denned programs of co-operation so that while methods are necessarily different they all agree in the mutuality of their obligations and the sacred functions of each? To these questions 198 Torches Aloft there can be but one answer and that is in the affirmative. The home is the oldest institution in the history of the race. It not only comes first historically, but it stands first by logic and efficiency. Its creden- tials are honorable and its utility has never been successfully or seriously questioned. Our civiliza- tion has brought it under some new tests and a few persons have gone so far as to declare that the home is passing. We do not for a moment accept the statement even in the sense that as a training in- stitution it is about to be misplaced. The fact is that for certain obvious reasons no mortal ever escapes an educational touch of some sort from the home. It may be negative, but the impression is sure to be made. The very atmos- phere of the home stays with us as long as life en- dures. The race has no other institution that can take its place, for it came by Divine order and it is fundamental in human happiness and welfare. The Church and the school touch human life after the home has had the first chance and, good and glorious as they are they can never entirely recover a human life from the hurt of a bad or inefficient home. The poets of the world have poured out their treasures in the praise of the home, and mere mention of the word revives the tenderest mem- ories and the deepest emotions. The hour is ur- gently calling for a fresh study of the home and the laws of its efficiency, for our modern civilization can but be in peril by its omission in the nurture Three Giants 199 agencies. There are serious defects in many of our American homes, but if we can agree as to what they are, and set ourselves to the task of eliminating them, we shall do well. The home is seriously lack- ing, when it does not do a goodly share of the real educational work required in the training of the child. Truly the home that does little or nothing of this vital work within its own threshold, is sadly delinquent. Fathers and mothers have a responsi- bility for actual effort and achievement in this respect and they can not turn it all over to proxies without irreparable damage to their offspring. Honored and rewarded will be the parent who serves first and foremost in the education of the child and blessed and favored the child who receives such nurture. To look into the love-lit faces of godly and intelligent parents, is to face the finest university the child may ever know. No teaching after all can ever be as influential as that which parents can give to their own children. Fathers and mothers may well be jealous of this heavenly opportunity. Many homes lack the essential element of whole- some, intelligent, and firm discipline. It is fair to say that in comparison with the homes of a half century ago, the homes of to-day have a lower per- centage of this quality. A number of things ac- count for this and other defects in our modern homes. Take for instance the struggle for a live- lihood and in many homes this is so severe and un- ceasing, that parents have almost no time or strength to expend in the supremely important duty, 200 Torches Aloft of controling and directing their own children. Economic conditions that have this result, should be observed and remedied. We must do something more than deplore such a condition. We must lo- cate by impartial and thorough investigation, the cause and proceed forthwith to remove it at all cost. In other chapters of this book, we discuss this ques- tion at some length while here we especially seek to freshen the thought and interest of fathers and mothers, so that they will accept and act upon this most sacred trusteeship of child training and nurture. Fathers and mothers are administrators of law and government. They represent God in moral authority and restraint. The responsibility for begetting children in holy wedlock, is paralleled by the obligation for government and guidance. This is all endangered by low standards and ideals in parents and is a cogent reinforcement to the Christian demand, that all parents should be deeply concerned for their own example, character, and in- fluence. When discipline is destroyed in the homes it installs a small kingdom of anarchy and the heavens weep. Because of all of these and other considerations, it is evident that divorces, family quarrels, and bickerings are all the deadly foes of home efficiency and that they pass into the life of society, broods of poisonous influences. The nation may well weep, when altars and harmonies disappear from our homes. Almost every good which the Church and the school are set to accom- plish, is either annulled or made exceedingly diffi- Three Giants 201 cult when the homes of the community fail in the exercise of those wholesome restraints which time has shown to be imperative. It is evident that many of our American homes should co-operate more directly and specifically with our churches and schools. There should be strong lines of sym- pathy and interest running straight from every home to both of the other great institutions named. Parents should most unquestionably be identified with the Church and they should frequently visit the schools. They should seek by appropriate in- terview or otherwise, a point of contact with the teachers of their children. They should familiarize themselves as fully as practicable, with the school study courses and methods. It is serious beyond estimate when the home for any reason omits its own share of systematic instruction and nurture. Neither the Church nor the school can be restrained for this exalted min- istry of the home. The home which does not give its offspring definite religious culture is even more culpable than either Church or school, for it has the first and most primary responsibility. If fathers and mothers would take time to lead their children into real intelligence of the Bible, the Church, and the laws of religious development, they would in- sure the moral safety of the children and the efficacy of the Church and the school. It is illogical to throw the blame for straying youth on either of the last named institutions, when the home has failed to make its own contribution to integrity and high 202 Torches Aloft character. Unfortunately, many homes in our country are nothing more than poor boarding houses, where children fail to receive either good food or wholesome sleep. These defective homes that are a travesty on a great institution as God has ordained it, may well appeal to our time and effort in their reconstruction. The talent and capital of the nation may well be enlisted to change poor homes into better ones and reckon that no task has greater promise of reward. How dare we be inactive and unconsecrated when the future of the Republic is in our keeping? It is more than desirable that the time honored and sane practice of family worship in the home, be- come the universal custom of Americans. Appro- priately, thoughtfully, and tenderly done, it has in- calculable power for good. With all that modern life is doing for us to-day, there are multitudes of our citizens, who can testify that much of their moral strength is to be attributed to the fact, that in childhood, a godly father and mother trained them daily in family prayers. America can well afford to tabulate the names and addresses of the parents of every school district and carefully cultivate them through the mails and otherwise by suitable liter- ature, by occasional lectures, and in every appro- priate way or method, in behalf of a generation of stalwart citizens. We shall never have them until the original institution for their training has been more nearly standardized, so that it shall turn over to the other giants of this trinity, an embryo- Three Giants 203 nic citizenship, ripe for fuller development. The home simply must do its work genuinely, and if you please scientifically, if our civilization is to be power- ful and enduring. Our municipal, state, and na- tional governments, may well take up this home culture assiduously, for it is even more important than our departments of agriculture and commerce. It will bear fruit in less work for juvenile courts, reform schools, and all punitive processes. Why should the government omit its best efforts to de- velop home and family efficiency? America can not afford inferior home life for its children. By what sort of logic are we more active for food stock, than for the human stock? The Church is the natural ally of the home and the school. On the whole it is fair to say that even when the State has hesitated, the Church has undertaken the task of providing for the education of the children and ;youth. Christianity by its essential nature, imposes the duty of educating the young, upon organized society. Not only indirectly through the States does the Church stand for educa- tion, but directly it establishes schools where their establishing seems necessary. Christianity has been the most potent influence in the history of the race in behalf of learning. At times and in some forms the organized Church has incompletely embodied the Christian position as to learning and so has not uniformly stood for the most liberal education, but this misapprehension of the attitude required by Christianity has been corrected so that the Church 204 Torches Aloft has stood for the highest possible human devel- opment. At the present time the attitude of the Protestant Church throughout the world, and cer- tainly in the United States, is that of the fullest and heartiest sympathy with the public school sys- tem as conducted by the State. This discussion is from the viewpoint of the Protestant Church. The Roman Catholic must answer for its attitude of hostility which we hold to be dictated by a misap- prehension of the real Christian position. The Church asks that those who administer in behalf of the State in education shall reach a correct and logi- cal attitude, in regard to the moral and religious development of the children, as well as their intel- lectual development. In the United States, the State has practically assumed the total educational re- sponsibility. It is not only dominating the public educational system, but is dictating to the denomina- tional colleges as to study courses, faculty, and equipment. In other words the State is enforcing its requirements of standardization. There is no ob- jection to this on the part of the Church for she ac- cepts the principle that the power of the State is or- dained of God. She does ask however that those who administer for the State in education as well as those who teach directly, shall be ever careful not to violate the reasonable expectation of the Church, that the schools conducted by the State, shall re- frain from all antagonism to the Church and re- ligion, as the lowest grade of attitude permissible in school circles. The State can not do less than Three Giants 205 enforce this negative position and it should be the practice by an innate sense of propriety. At the present the State, probably, without knowing it, or at least without fully appreciating its serious- ness to the Church, in effect circumscribes the Church in her own educational work. Because the normal development of the child calls for the re- ligious life, and because the State has no right to be oblivious to this need, it is unwise for the State and unfair toward the Church, for the school to exclude the distinguishing textbook of the Church from the schools in the form of selected portions at least. The use of selected portions would satisfy the Church and at the same time be in keeping with sound pedagogical principles. In our system of government the State undoubtedly has the right to exclude sectarian teaching from the schools, but it has no right to exclude the essential messages of religion, which are accepted by the universal Church. The Church has no wish to dominate the public schools directly for that would be obviously un-American. She only asks to be classified as a helper and ally of the home and the school, and that she be allowed and allotted by school adminis- tration her essential message and function in the process of building up a great nation. The Church believes in her message as she believes in God the Father and in the Savior, in whose redeeming love she bases her hopes. The Church does wish to serve the State and the race in God's order, for she believes that at the last she must give account to 206 Torches Aloft God for her stewardship. It seems entirely reason- able that the State should allow the use of public school buildings for vacation Bible schools and even encourage such use of them. Some communi- ties have taken up the method of dismissing the scholars for a half day in each week or for an hour at least, and encouraging their assembly in their preferred churches for religious instruction by the respective church authorities. There does not ap- pear to be any convincing objection to this plan and the school authorities might well recognize this work by giving suitable credit. The students would then feel that the work was not an intrusion on their time and interest. In these and other ways the Church would like to have the alliance between the "Three Giants" demonstrated. She would like the door open for service and co-operation. She believes that religion should be given its normal place in the development of the nation's coming cit- izens and offers a plea for the normal in human life. She holds that religion is after all normal and irreligion abnormal. It is because the Protes- tant Church believes thoroughly in the public schools and their efficiency as agencies of good that she asks earnestly to have her message and exis- tence as an ally admitted sympathetically and acted upon appropriately by the school. The Church has incorporated the school idea and method into her one special day of activity and accepts the demand as legitimate that the Sunday Bible school shall be made increasingly efficient by the adoption of Three Giants 207 modern principles of pedagogy and the erection of buildings that may suitably house this most impor- tant department of her service. The Sunday school having a sense of disadvantage in the fact that it has the scholars for only one hour in the seven days asks through the Church that its tasks and message be incorporated so far as may be in the program of the week-day schools. This demand does not ap- pear to be unreasonable or sectarian. The Church, meanwhile she asks for common interest between the public schools and the Sunday schools, will hold herself responsible for bringing the teaching force of her Bible schools up to modern standards of efficiency. The problem of allying the public schools with the Church in the work of religious education is made more difficult owing to the fact that the formal organization of the Church is not simple but exceedingly complex. America has ac- corded the fullest liberty in religious faith and prac- tice with the result, that we have a multitude of sects who in the very nature of the situation are more or less competitive even to the point of rivalry which makes jealousy easily possible. This situ- ation works a measure of embarrassment whenever the subject of religion is brought up in connection with the work of the public schools. These reli- gious sects are all anxious for the success of their special propaganda and they seek disciples in all the community of the country. We believe that in a matter of such fundamental importance, sectar- ian leaders should bury their differences and put 208 Torches Aloft an end to their jealousies. It does not seem nec- essary, that when the simple proposition is up of in- troducing the use of selected portions of the Bible into the schools, that the different schools of re- ligionists should bring on a contention that would at once tie the hands of the school authorities, so that they feel compelled to disallow even so sim- ple a recognition of the place of religion in education as this would indicate. We believe that it is the duty of Church leaders to come to such sanity of attitude toward the solution of this problem, as will lead us out of our dilemma into an approved policy, such as will command the essential agreement of the public. It will be necessary for the different sects to forego in some degree their zeal for their own particular views. They will need to unite in a dis-> position to serve simply and solely the religious need of the child, omitting entirely any reference to sectarian affiliation. Let the educational process carry only the fundamental religious truth in which all right-minded people can agree. What is the appropriate attitude of the public school and the authorities who administer it, in the United States, toward the Church and religion? Most certainly there is no history or logic to jus- tify hostility, estrangement, or scant courtesy. One who would line up the schools against the Church and religion, does violence to the highest courts, ideals, and traditions of America. It is incongruous for any American community to encourage or allow either omission or evasion of the place of religion in Three Giants 209 the educational process. If the writer has any bias on this subject it is in favor of the American Public School system, but he is also convinced that in our great zeal to keep the schools free from so- called sectarian control we can easily drift into an attitude of semi-antagonism to religion of any faith whatever. There is but a thin partition between neutrality and antagonism. On the broad question of Christianity and religion, our American schools have no justification for either neutrality or an- tagonism. We must consider that under our form of government, excellent as it is, we are in danger of permitting multitudes of our children and youth to pass through their most impressionable years, without anything like a befitting contribution from the schools to the religious culture and development of our coming citizenship. This omission is unfair to our boys and girls. The history of the race dem- onstrates absolutely the need of religion in es- tablishing dependable moral character and conduct. There have been lamentable weaknesses associated with various religions in many lands and in many periods of history, but this affords no argument against the essential worthiness of religion in the curriculum of any institution that proposes to train the oncoming generations. Repeatedly the Su- preme Court of the United States has declared that this is a Christian nation. These declarations give the highest legal sanction to the idea that in the matter of laws and institutions, the American Re- public has accepted as fundamental, the institutions, 210 Torches Aloft laws, and principles of Christianity as her standard. This is the historical American attitude. The Ordi- nance of 1787 declares "that general morality and knowledge are necessary to good government" and this is the Christian position. Washington, the first President of the Republic, said, "We cannot expect national morality to prevail in exclusion of religious principles." It is in controvertible that the best minds in judicial responsibility have by their declaration left no room for doubt as to how America is to be classified religiously. We can think of no greater calamity, than that the home, the Church, and the school, should fail through misapprehension of common duties to be front line allies in the mighty task of keeping back the forces of disintegration and promoting the high type of character which our citizenship responsibilities require. Hostility to a sound religious message on the part of school au- thorities and teachers is inexplicable. It seems more than strange that recently some of our courts and legislatures have shown more or less hostility to bringing into the public schools any religious teaching and especially against the use of the Bible in the schools. We fail to see that it follows, be- cause, we have ordained the separation of church and state in America, that even such a recognition of religion and the universal Church as the use of selected portions of the Bible in the schools in- volved, is forbidden and illogical. Such a conclu- sion seems to be based on defective if not vicious logic. We believe that every educational process Three Giants 211 and institution in the country should embrace and forward the message of Christian morality. If we are not careful our apprehension of trouble, with re- ligion recognized in the schools, and our purpose and effort to side step it entirely, will entitle us to the criticism that our educational system is pagan. It should bring no offense to any fair-minded Ameri- can if our schools were to show the contemporan- eousness of Biblical and non-Biblical characters. In view of the difficulty of relating the home, the Church, the school, in such fellowship, as will make them allies in fact, contributors to a common end, inspired by a common motive, we believe it is the urgent duty of educators, religious leaders, parents, and citizens to get together over the question and confer for the solution of the problem. Since the subject can not be neglected without a fatal injury to American citizenship a way out must be found. The world has yet to find how it can be made safe to undertake to develop a human life apart from God and the experiences and restraints of Chris- tianity. As to the very great desirability of reach- ing a practical basis for co-operation there can be but one opinion. We shall need to require high- grade character in school authorities and to keep the control of the schools out of the debasing influ- ence of partisan politics. We believe that all pub- lic school-teachers should be identified with some religious organization. We fail to see any excuse for neutrality or omission of this identification. 212 Torches Aloft Nothing but blighting effects can follow if sepa- rately or in toto these "Three Giants" fail of effi- ciency and co-operation. When they are not all doing their work well, we shall find our youth lacking in docility, reverence, teachableness, and self control. We shall find them blatant, brazen, given to offen- siveness, audacity, lacking in respect for constituted authority, and lawlessness growing in the whole social order. If they fail we shall find our civili- zation suffering from weak and confused moral con- ceptions. The omission of religion is the unmaking of character. Selfishness grows apace and every- where an apathy toward the highest qualities and achievements of human nature. If this God-or- dained trinity fail, we have nothing to expect but progressive degeneracy and character ruin. We must stem these destructive tendencies and forces of evil and we must do it by laying down our jeal- ousies and animosities and uniting to exalt the great constructive message of religion in all the institu- tions that contribute to the social life and ideals of the Republic. This is not special pleading in behalf of the Church, it is simply calling attention to things fundamental and normal in the development of man- kind. Let every American arise to put his best life and interest into each of these institutions for duty toward them is very plain and service in them is an exalted privilege. We exhibit a depressing narrowness, when we exhaust all our enthusiasm in one and neglect the others. They each embody a high potency and should appeal to our interest and Three Giants 213 devotion. In the home we begin our earthly pil- grimage, in the Church and the school, we are to finish preparation for the life that now is as well as for the life to come. Sweet ministries are in them all and we ought to thank God every day that we are living in an age when they are released from so many enslavements and when they are in the line to even higher efficiency. XXI. SOME THINGS THAT ARE BEING OVER- LOOKED IN CURRENT THINKING Every age exhibits its own characteristic tenden- cies to superficiality of some kind. This statement is not flattering to human pride but it must be made nevertheless. Our own age we are sure is keeping up the record and tradition in this respect. We have our share of uncomplimentary skepticism and moral indifference and these reflect our shallowness of thought on questions of religion and character. Some of the essential positions of Christianity are now flippantly challenged until we have in certain schools of thought a battle royal about the existence and nature of sin itself. It is so easy to bow sin out of the world by declaring that it has no existence and so daub with untempered mortar the modern conscience. This superficial thought and method with sin has nothing to commend itself and its gen- eral acceptance would set back the progress of man- kind instead of forwarding it. Beyond all the pro- nouncements of would be unctious human nature flatterers, stands the historical background which casts the doubtful mark upon all they are now giv- ing to a world which knows too well the sorrowful record made by its own sinning. Through all the centuries the sin of the human heart has been a rag- ing cancer. Men and women and children brought Things Overlooked in Current Thinking 215 up under good auspices are forever going out to poison society and violate confidence in the integ- rity of human nature. We wish it were not so, but the slimy trail from human sinning is everywhere. True, many who destroy others and certainly them- selves, have not been well brought up, but even this fact does not relieve the situation. The sin of the human heart is deeper than training and environ- ment, and either good or bad example. If you want to know how to get something of an estimate of its depth go look at the cross and the immaculate sac- rifice offered thereon and ponder well. No theory has ever made human sinning appear reasonable for it always and everywhere violates all intelligence as well as all goodness. In unmistakable terms the Bible declares that God does take cognizance of sin in the human nature and that he does not deal with it as though it were a myth. The holy scriptures hold frankly that the nature of man has in it the ele- ment of moral depravity. Any theory of life that proposes to omit the doctrine of positive evil in the human heart and its fearful power to wreck life and happiness must invariably be disappointing and dangerous. It would appear reasonable that after the record of the centuries all on one side of the proposition that men would cease crying peace, peace, when there is no peace save by a genuine rec- ognition of sin and the acceptance of God's method of dealing with it. Touching this element of evil in human nature, nothing but a radical statement can be justified or warranted. Terminology may change 216 Torches Aloft as to the fact but the fact is not thereby changed. Our age is superficial in its thinking as to sin. It is lacking in pungent individual conviction of indi- vidual sin. The seriousness of sin is deliberately minimized. Men do not like the fearful individual and social results of sin any more than in former generations. They would especially be pleased if they could sin freely without being compelled to meet the consequences of their sin. They whine and bellow when caught in the act of evil doing not at all because they are ready to estimate sin in its real character, but because the result is their shame and disgrace. If such a moral nature does not call for radical treatment then pray tell us what does. We submit that a desire to continue in sin until forced to abandon it by its awful results is the most unquestionable proof of human depravity. If the nature of man was not essentially evil he would set himself against the sin itself, but instead, men are fond of sinful indulgences and the cry and the moan are postponed until the results of their evil ways are visited upon them. A character is essentially de- fective which has little or no concern for its sin until punishment has been visited and doom is at hand. The age needs such a deepening of its think- ing and such an adjustment of its conscience and such a reappraisement of moral values as will lead men to estimate sin according to its real quality. For various and obvious reasons offenses against the laws of God and social welfare in this age are more serious than ever. Things Overlooked in Current Thinking 217 The doctrine that a man's evil nature may be wholly attributed to his environment is of course anti-Christian. To apologize for one's vileness by the fact that temptation was placed before him, and therefore yielding to the evil is in good part justi- fied, is vicious in the extreme. Men need such a moral sense as will compel them to appreciate the fact that moral law is a unit and that its violation under any circumstances is an assault on moral order. That man's wrong doing is to be either ex- plained or vindicated by the fact of temptation and bad environment is historically untenable, for men and women have grown up into purity of character in spite of bad surroundings and persistent tempta- tions. Men and women have developed into im- moral monsters in immediate contact with good en- vironments and a moral appeal which always be- sought them to a better life. Environment is not an all-determinating quantity. There are people here in our favored America who have been instructed in keeping with high standards of morality who never- theless exhibit persistent selfishness, offensive ex- travagance, coarse immorality, and all manner of sinful indulgence. Let us look into an economic ap- plication of this anti-Christian doctrine of the all sufficiency of a comfortable environment. There is extant an almost universal demand here in America tor property. We all want more money and we think we have a right to have it. This demand for reasonable accumulations of property and a finan- cial competence is in proper relation a rational de- 218 Torches Aloft mand. We wonder, however, if the people who are insistent in this respect are all appropriately con- scious of the fact that material prosperity alone is powerless to produce ideal character and free hu- man nature from its sin. Americans should insist on the social wrong of the abnormal individual for- tune and on the universalizing of our great wealth as nearly as may be, but our civilization will rot and the nation perish unless we recognize the sin of our hearts and flee to religious genuineness. We need Christ in the absolute emancipations of his wonderful grace and our cry for him should be the most insistent of all our cries. We are forging ahead in our industrial progress and growing proud of our commercial supremacy, but we need to get down before God in the spirit of a national supplication for divine mercy and spiritual salvation. Sin is lawlessness in the presence of the divine law for human character and conduct. It is a vio- lent assault upon the white throne of divine justice and installs the will of man in the place of the good and perfect will of God. Sometimes it finds expres- sion in an election when a misguided people abuse the franchise by voting against the right principle and thereby set up the wrong one. Majorities do not always represent righteousness. God has re- vealed to his own creature man, a moral standard, and our safety and wisdom are in keeping it invio- late. The Word of God is a perfect instrument for social welfare and progress. The assault of the di- vine will by the depraved human will is the real Things Overlooked in Current Thinking 219 origin of our bad environment to-day. Sin creates every sort of vicious relativity. Every good that is known to us mortals can be turned into a curse by man's perfidy. This applies to marriage, family life, money, and property, prosperity and education. This human lawlessness in the realm of morals is responsible for the world's sorrow and shame. Man- kind cannot escape this grave responsibility. It cannot be put upon the All Father, for he has pro- vided for the elimination of this evil from the indi- vidual and from the social order. God is not the author of confusion and certainly not of the con- fusion which arises from human sinning. Much of our current thinking is overlooking the method of Christ with sin. He provides for its elim- ination and for a new creation into the moral like- ness of God. He offers the kingdom of renewed moral being and assures us that the new heredity is both available and potent. Individual spiritual conversion is called for by all that has gone before and that involves penitence by which one changes his point of view as to sin and relates himself ap- propriately to the powerful ministries of grace and salvation. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature." "Except a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." The chief glory of God is his moral attributes, and conversion is the whole process of man's response to God's chiefest glory. The empowering of human personality to make this re- 220 Torches Aloft sponse is salvation and nothing else is entitled to such an exalted designation. Salvation is a new creation and a continuous process. The impotence of sin is certainly non-ideal for a human being, while choice and power for right doing is as certainly ideal. Christian conversion transfers one from the non-ideal to the ideal moral state. Conversion de- scribes both the moral crisis and the process of transition to the new kingdom and heredity in Jesus the Christ. It helps one to ponder the fact that con- version is both a crisis and a process. The crisis must come because of our sinful nature, and the proc- ess must continue because life is a probation and searching ideals call for realization. A moral crisis growing out of our penitence and choice of the life of obedience to Christ has the advantage of a registration in consciousness and memory so that forever the experience of conversion remains irre- futable and assuring. Conversion and sanctifica- tion, which are in many respects interchangable terms, work the harmony of moral qualities be- tween man and God. Correspondence in moral character between man and God is really the moral problem in all ages. Every human being is under responsibility to possess in his measure the moral qualities that are in God for every one may know and test the power of divine salvation. In seeking salvation we must be alert to the peril of slavery to externals such as sacraments and other conventional expressions of Christian faith and experience. Christ is salvation and he stands for all the conver- Things Overlooked in Current Thinking 221 sion processes. "Nothing in my hand I bring, sim- ply to thy cross I cling." Something more is in- volved than an heroic effort to enforce a fine list of good deeds. This is wholly worthy but it is not sal- vation. Salvation goes deeper far for it acts in the realm of the deepest consciousness of the soul. The radical demand is for renewed moral being and nothing else will avail. It is a fatal mistake to place the result of salvation in the place of the funda- mental life which installs it. We must not mistake a part for the whole. What we shall be able to do is forever dependent upon what we are. Conversion is more than a few improvements in conduct. It is a change in essential moral nature and essence and constitution. It lies back of all outward moral ac- tivities. We need a tremendous emphasis just now on this change in the inner self. There is such a thing as the touch of God immediately on human personality and character. Then comes the exter- nal manifestations of spontaneous life and they are inevitable. Goodness in the abstract out of which we may show forth goodness in the concrete is the fundamental character and life we all need and the process that makes this possible is called salvation and it comes by faith in Jesus Christ. With mod- ern thinking the distinction between character and conduct has almost been lost and this is great weak- ness. Moral character by inward personal right- eousness is the only moral efficiency. The kingdom of moral recovery must be established within. Con- 222 Torches Aloft version is not complete until the mixed moral quali- ties are displaced by moral unity and that comes by faith in a Divine Person who has the power of impartation. For our moral stability we must reach this unity in our moral quality and substance. We need to be made inwardly good. Mere abstinence from wrong is negative and colorless virtue. The great positive virtues of the Christian character are impatient for incarnation and they are in Christ po- tentially and for our use by his impartation. Con- version and salvation impel us to the point of the positive reconstruction of the inner man. The con- tent of our spirits must come to be a perennial fountain of holiness and from such a source, if it be kept uncontaminated, will flow constantly the holy thought and deed. Salvation anticipates and pro- vides for such a confirmed state of goodness as that evil may not pass unchallenged into our volitions. The whole being essentially good and the grip of goodness affording motive power for daily life and stress. In some of our actions we may fail of the proper moral control, but the life bent and flow is toward God and his holy law. Salvation establishes within a permanent living quality which is well ex- pressed in the term goodness. It is such goodness as is the result of a mighty inward force and inspi- ration rather than result of mechanical struggle with ethical ideals. The divine wisdom is embodied in the statement, "He came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." This sacrifice is potent for our salvation. Things Overlooked in Current Thinking 223 Christianity stands emphatically for social im- provement and God's method of promoting it is by dealing directly with sin both in the individual and in society. The emphasis just now as to sin is on social sin rather than the individual, and this is because the next great convictions for sin are to be convictions for the sins that society indulges and shelters. Not to be sure directly or actively but by sufferance and the lack of public action in behalf of social and industrial justice. It follows that the government as an agency of mighty influence either for good or evil is being charged with a new respon- sibility in allowing or directly ordering policies and principles that make for righteousness and social uplift. Social and individual sin is the great foe to human happiness and progress. Therefore, God is the enemy of these forever. He has willed for hu- man happiness from the cradle to the grave and be- yond. As an all wise Father he understands the laws by which alone this happiness and welfare are to be had. Opposed to all this gracious gospel is the mystery of human perversity. No movement of the day that is not essentially Christian can suc- ceed and we are slowly learning the fact that the ad- vantages of a Christian civilization are not perma- nently possible without religious genuineness and devotion. America will pay for the prevalence of indifference to religion and pay dearly. We need a nation-wide revival of spiritual interest which should start in confession of sin by individuals and by society. The wrongs condoned by society are as 224 Torches Aloft damning as those allowed by the individual. As in- dividuals we cannot escape our larger responsibility and obligation. We are parts in a great whole which can arise and smite the doers of evil until they abandon their programs of evil if it will. So- ciety acting as a unit can do what no individual can possibly do. Action against such oppression as child labor in Georgia and other States is our bounden duty and this evil is but one of many that must be given the knockout blow. XXII. THE VIRTUES OF CONVERTED PEOPLE The age is in the mood of standardizing the vir- tues of good character. The virtues that are spe- cially noteworthy in Christianity are worthy of spe- cific mention and study. Christianity is not only a matter of theological conception and faith, but a matter of concrete virtues which give demonstra- tion of vitality and faith. We put at the head of this list the virtue of earnestness, for our race has ad- vanced in its evolution to the point where the ab- sence of this virtue is immediately rebuked. Heart- iness, genuineness and intensity are qualities of su- perior worth. Religious earnestness often over- comes prejudice and wins by its inherent goodness. It prompts respect everywhere and only loses its power when it ceases to be earnestness and becomes fanaticism. Another virtue which converted people are ex- pected to possess is that of enthusiasm. It is kindred to the virtue of earnestness noted above, and yet is sufficiently distinct to justify special study and em- phasis. Some people imagine that Christians are incapable of but a single enthusiasm, that of course, gathering about their religious ideals and experien- ces directly. We beg to say, however, that the Christian virtues are comprehensive and all embrac- 226 Torches Aloft ing, and therefore converted people are called upon to exhibit broad-range enthusiasms. Life in its cat- alogue of achievements embraces a long list of sub- jects, enterprises and causes that carry a very legit- imate appeal to every intelligent person. Converted people are called upon to evidence interest in what are called secular matters and concerns. Christian people are to lead in all matters of social interest, development, and reform; indeed, there is not a single phase of life and social order that does not have a legitimate claim on Christian character. Christians are to lead in public improvements and movements for public welfare. When Christians evidence narrow enthusiasm, by so much do they reveal that their approach to, and identification with, their religion is superficial and inadequate. What- ever good thing ought to be done in the neighbor- hood, the city, the nation or the world, has a claim on our interest and devotion as the followers of the Christ of Nazareth, Another virtue to be emulated and magnified is that of disinterestedness. This virtue is confessedly difficult. Selfishness is so thoroughly a part of hu- man nature, that the prescribed processes of Chris- tianity alone can deliver us from this evil. In our associations with one another we rarely count on dis- interestedness as a quality in our fellow men. Un- fortunately for society we have come to expect that those with whom we deal in daily life will bear watching lest we be worsted by their lack of this high virtue. We ought, however, to remember that The Virtues of Converted People 227 if one expects his business contact with others to reveal this virtue in them, it becomes his duty to evidence it in his own transactions and attitude. This principle of disinterestedness is the most con- structive law in the world. Civilization has not found this out as yet because we are, after all, not so far removed from some of the streaks of barbar- ism that have characterized our ancestors. Because this virtue is so rare, and because we so readily re- lease ourselves from the obligation to exhibit it in our contact with others, we have contentions in so- ciety to-day that are serious and distracting. Our municipalities must deal with great corporations, and the corporations must deal with the municipali- ties and the public. The business game in either case seems to be to secure undue advantage in whichever direction our individual interests lie. A lack of disinterestedness brings on contention, costly litigation, and often financial ruin. In the long run selfishness does not pay, for even cold-blooded busi- ness at last turns on and rends those who are guilty of this evil. Another virtue of the Christian character is that of activity. Mankind bears the unmistakable evi- dence of design for a busy life. True, we have to take time to eat and sleep, but the major joy of life comes from our periods of activity. We are fond of action even to the straining point, and often nothing but a break in strength and nervous energy brings us to a halt and moderation. Activity is a Christian virtue and the use of that virtue demands that it 228 Torches Aloft shall be sustained and well directed. Fuss and fury do not count, and being busy passes for naught un- less we have sufficient mental and moral perception to drive our activities in praiseworthy directions. All great causes need to be backed up by persistent and steady support. Moral reform so desirable, political reform, surely necessary, industrial justice, which is more and more a compulsion in modern life, all are impossible unless high-minded people have such an ability for perseverance in well doing as will secure the fruitage which everybody must desire. A vast deal of energy in society to-day is worse than wasted because it is not expended in proper directions and has no reference to constructive goals. Christianity, therefore, demonstrates its divine right to our con- secration and faith, in that it not only bids us be busy, but it bids us be persistently busy for the things that promote social advancement and that help mankind. While Christianity exacts that we shall be diligent in business and fervent in spirit serving the Lord, it also provides for a sane propor- tion of innocent relaxation in the schedule of life. This side of Christian character is not always mag- nified as it should be and some people who are other- wise very good do not appreciate the smile and the diversion as they really should. The divine order is that we should be neither silly nor unduly sedate. Another principle worthy of all exaltation is that of service. The Christian view is that service is a privilege in the development of one's life and that it is to be prized and magnified because it is the chan- The Virtues of Converted People 229 nel through which high-grade personality may pro- ject blessing and comfort upon fellow creatures. Service is of three grades, namely, that which is passable; that which is skilled and that which is expert. The demand of Christianity is that every converted person shall set his face deliberately in the direction of ability for expert service to his fellow man. It is to be feared that service, as we ordinarily think of it, is not first of all given the social signifi- cance. That is to say that when we give ourselves to any sort of labor or activity, we are so likely to forget that our service is not just for the considera- tion of wage or wealth, but that it is rendered be- cause we have a passion for serving our fellows and building up society. Surely no age was more ap- pealing as to the doors that open everywhere for so- cial service. Genuine social service is impossible without genuine Christian character. Let us never forget that this is the determining element as to the outflow from a human career. As long as health is ours and life endures let us prize our privilege of service and in Jesus' name give ourselves to it with absolute concern. When converted people in their thinking set about them as objectives all of these virtues above men- tioned, they will invariably find that they need a common bond to hold them in proper relation and unity. The love of Christ enthroned in the human heart is that bond of perfectness. How true it is that love unifies, so that virtues that were struggling and evanescent, concentrate into fine integrals of power 230 Torches Aloft and service. Human personality dare not be dif- fusive. The law of concentration demands that every one of us shall bring life into harmony for the sake of strength. Until the love of God rules in a human soul no coherence in the virtue demonstra- tions are possible. People who live apart from the conscious love of God as a unifying power in their lives have flashes of goodness. We cannot imagine a soul so base but that some of the fluttering de- sires for goodness should at least occasionally mani- fest themselves, but oh, how far short of power such as God wishes for us all is this unsatisfactory state. Like a great girdle, divine love in the soul completes the great virtues required in a Christian character until they are all strong and enduring. Then let us be sure not to miss the important in- structions that divine love is really the agent and force which alone can put into the highest forms of power all the desirable human virtues. Love truly perfects human character in the legitimate sense of that splendid term. Until this holy love reigns in the heart all of our virtues are fractional and incom- plete. Fractions make whole numbers, but if in our struggle for high character we never get beyond the feeble fractions in the Christian virtues, we shall be unprofitable in the social processes. This love is required to unify the otherwise contending social interests of society. It alone can correct the undue self-interest and compel us all to respect the principle of the "square deal." Individuals often, apparently at least, become antagonists because The Virtues of Converted People 231 they have hostile views and divergent opinions. These divergent opinions must be allowed for in all normal personalities, but they dare not have their way, they must yield to reason, to fuller information and to moral law. But these hostilities are unyield- ing until we have enthroned the principle of love for human welfare as the supreme law of our lives. Love corrects and modifies our aloofness and brings the contending factions of society into brotherhood and the community interest. It becomes the duty of every intelligent man or woman to challenge himself as to the enthronement of this divine love, for as a virtue, it must be personal and it needs to be universal. It is very important that we consider the weak- nesses that are encouraged to rise up and smite us and dominate us when these virtues are absent. A most serious weakness is that of dealing in a mis- taken and prejudicial way with regard to these char- acter challenges with ourselves. Our true moral quality is revealed by our failure or success in deal- ing unsparingly with ourselves in the light of the demand for the incarnation of these living virtues within us. Self-analysis is always highly important. It is not an agreeable task because it crosses our egotism and our self-complacency. When these great Christian virtues are lacking, our egotism be- comes rampant, and our self-complacency ruinous. Unsparing moral introspection is the requisite of satisfactory character growth. If these virtues are absent, we are sure to omit adequate effort for prac- 232 Torches Aloft tical and persistent self-culture. God deals with us in the fundamental problem of character by for- giving us our sins as we repent of them, and install- ing the new life of grace and salvation within the soul. In reaching this gracious experience, there conies an end to human ability and power. There comes a time when the soul implicitly waits upon God for the reception of the Holy Spirit in the expe- rience of sonship, but when all this has come into the human consciousness, the virtues of the Chris- tian character immediately make their demand for our fidelity to approved methods of self-develop- ment and education. Some good and godly people make a pitiable failure at this point. Salvation and grace are supernatural and fundamental, but culture is the prescription of the Christian virtues by which personality is to become influential for good. Another evil that thrives when these gracious virtues are absent, is that of distempered self-love. Many a man leaves an unhallowed influence wher- ever he goes because he loves himself too well. This undue and poisonous self-love is really so serious and pernicious that it deserves to be characterized as a distemper of the mind. It shows itself in the intemperate greediness for one's own indulgence and pleasure. It develops in a man an inordinate passion for wealth and gain, thus destroying the fine and fit adjustment of the mind for rational and tem- perate economic achievement. Christianity places no premium upon a lack of thrift, or industry, or reasonable accumulation. It does lay bare unspar- The Virtues of Converted People 233 ingly the vicious character of covetousness and the danger of over devotion to merely money mak- ing. Another noxious growth which is sure to flourish in the absence of the sovereign Christian virtues, is a misapprehension as to the nature and dignity of self-denial. Many well-disposed people, as we fear, look upon the negative side of the law of Christian denial only. Rest assured that no act of life or temper of the mind is treated by a divine interdic- tion except for the sake of bringing personality to affirmative virtues and constructive power. Chris- tianity does not exhaust itself in a series of "Thou shalt not's." They have their place in our moral development, but we must always be keenly alive to the fact that the "Thou shalt's" are dominant in the Christian life. In other words God has in view the exhibition of the positive virtues all the time. Some people imagine that the self-denial imposed by Christianity is such a tremendous sacrifice, and such a keenly felt foregoing of the things one would like to do, and see, and have, and feel, as to of necessity cause the Christian to be long-faced and sorrowful. This is a radical error in human thinking, and every mind ought to rid itself of such a travesty on the religion of Jesus Christ. Self-denial, as Christ rep- resents it, has supreme dignity, beauty, and power. It opens the highway to character success and the most splendid achievements known to mankind. Christ did deny himself of evil, but he also exhibited the very power of God and the 234 Torches Aloft deathless world so that to all eternity his kingly character and sovereignty will move man- kind to wonder, love, and awe. Real self-denial leads to this worthy sovereignty. Our Lord was able to say with the whole earthly order at his feet, "I have overcome the world." He was able to say that to the end of time his kingdom, based on the unchal- lenged splendor and power of his character, should be the embodiment of the most constructive force known to the world and for the restoration of a lost race to the moral likeness of God. The kind of de- nial which our Lord exalts, and which he himself exemplified, enabled him to say at the threshold of our discipleship, "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." This was but another way of saying that any human who should release his life into the love, power and program of Jesus Christ should find it marvelously enriched, beautified, and hallowed, until the very glory of God should shine in it through all its pilgrim way, while at the last it should be immortalized with God in the heaven our Savior has gone to prepare. By so much as any hu- man life is poured into Christ's plan and service, it is made richer and better and more resplendent. Christian self-denial is really man's most significant right and privilege . It is a marvel that mankind has the honor and exultation of such a unique opportu- nity. Man is a creature of moods. Great men and great women have afforded in their experiences marvelous contrasts as to tempers of mind and disposition. The Virtues of Converted People 235 Sunny moods are not always abiding with us poor mortals. The shadow and the scowl and the grouch are often at least, transient visitors with us. At times our moods make us the kindred of the an- gels, while at other times they suggest relationship to spirits that are fallen and shorn of their glory. The human career is the registration in a more or less concrete way of our mental moods, so many of which are strangers to one another, and reveal the fact that we have not discovered the way by which our moods can be reasonably uniform and elevat- ing. We so often find ourselves inhabiting heights which for some reason we fail to hold. Christ, if he be enthroned, and if we pay the price of constant communion with him, will deliver us from the weak- ness of the moods that mar. Some of our moods make such uncanny impressions upon those we love most and whose friendship is our chiefest delight. The soul of changing, flitting and contradictory moods, needs Christ and the unification for which he stands. When these virtues that he would have embodied in all his dear children are absent, we al- ways show a lack of self-control under the testing experiences of life. Oh, Christ, thou who dost stand at the threshold of our hearts and lives to bid us always live in the moods that speak of thee, help us now to hear thine own voice and be at peace in thee. The question presses at this stage of our medita- tion, as to how these virtues of converted people may be guaranteed. There are a few simple rules and laws of life which happily govern here. We 236 Torches Aloft need not go on in our weary way only to be ex- hausted by our repeated failures. These virtues first of all will come naturally to us when we have, after suitable penitence for our sins, reached the sweet and assuring state of union with Christ our Lord. When once this union is real, then the life and im- partable personal power of Christ flows into the hu- man personality. This means infinite enrichment and the exhibition of a new family life and type. When once the Christ life flows into the soul, the virtues in which he delights, arise like beautiful lilies from appropriate soil and moisture. These virtues are impossible without him, but wherever he abides they flourish and give out their peren- nially sweet perfume. Another law that guarantees the presence of these virtues is fidelity to salvation's doctrine. If we accept the doctrine of pardon, of regeneration, of divine communion, of purity and consecration, of a fully devoted life before God, and abide therein, we shall find these virtues flourishing day by day and attesting the reality of our Chris- tian discipleship. We shall need also to persevere in the highest kind of fidelity to our most exalted and divinely nurtured faith. We need not yield to chang- ing grades of faith. It is really possible to learn the art of declaring with unwavering steadfastness and under all circumstances, the highest type of con- serving faith. It is our privilege to so secure mas- tery over our doubt and fear, that the faith position cannot be stormed by any foe successfully. It is wholly desirable to reach this cleft of the rock in our The Virtues of Converted People 237 experience of the divine presence. To have the high- est type of faith we have ever reached become the fixed law and quality of our lives is not only de- sirable but wholly practicable. If we have ever had high-grade faith for a moment, let us charge our- selves with the task of establishing what was mo- mentary and sharing the strength of its perpetual power. Our Christian experience has height and depth. It has a variety of weaknesses and a paucity of power because we ourselves will have it so. Ev- ery Christian is sooner or later led into experiences of peculiar comfort and assurance. The law of fidel- ity holds here. Let us be true to the sweetest expe- rience our Lord ever permitted us to have or know. So the three principles are, union, inflow, and fidel- ity. Let us hold them fast, let us build them into our very souls, for in so doing we will make it sure that all the virtues upon which Christ would smile when they have come to be ingrained in our char- acter, shall be our present and perpetual possession and inheritance. That converted people are to be possessed of this fine list of desirable virtues, that weaknesses of a distressing sort are encouraged to grow up when we for any reason allow ourselves to be strangers to these virtues, that these virtues may be guaranteed under a few simple laws, all conspire in a specific and glorious result. Our human co-operation with God for the establishment in human society of the order and power of his kingdom, will cause men to recognize the glorious potency of the religion of 238 Torches Aloft Jesus Christ. There is such a thing as a human life glorifying God. The only sure way of causing God to be glorified, exalted, praised, is to so project re- deemed and virtue-endowed character into all the processes of social and industrial life that such exhi- bitions of character shall wring from men the con- fession that religion counts as a factor in daily life and toil. We believe thoroughly that the exempli- fication of the Christian virtues by us poor mortals who have confessed faith in our Lord and Savior, is sure to bring the confession that character of such quality must have origin in God's holy help and grace, and that salvation is more than a sentimental term. Another result of the genuine indwelling of these virtues will be that human personality shall be evidently endowed with superhuman influence. My, how it humbles us to consider that if our Chris- tianity is genuine, it will compel our fellow men to acknowledge the power and reality of the Christian life. Many of our fellow beings of this age are skep- tical at this point. They tell us that they see no dif- ference in the conduct and character of church peo- ple and the people of the world. That remark may be the remark of a cynic or of an iconoclast, but one thing is sure, if these virtues be in us and abound, they will compel respect for religion and stop the mouths of the critics. Again, another result of these virtues wrought really and truly into human life will be the more powerful and universal existence of the constructive mind. This is to say that the minds of men more and more will take on the atti- The Virtues of Converted People 239 tude of interest in improving the conditions of life for all the people. No mind is constructive until it has reached this Christ-like temper and position. All our communities, and indeed, the whole American nation are in need of this mental attitude by which we shall seek by all the processes of our mighty industries and all our programs of commercial achievement, to make life easier, happier, and more satisfying for everybody. It is this social passion, this instinct for man building, this desire for family joys and comforts, that is to take the place of our hard-minded and selfish programs. All hail the age of brotherhood and humanized commercialism. XXIII. SOME FAULTS OF CONVERTED PEOPLE The order to "Move on" is not usually taken with good grace because we are so likely to be "sot in our ways." It is, nevertheless, a very necessary order and it was given in ancient time when a great leader said to a favored people, "Ye have dwelt long enough in this mountain." That was just another way of saying, "Move on." It was needed then and it is needed now no matter how it may rasp on our feelings. Other creations beside matter have the property of inertia. Good converted church people sometimes show a like capacity or quality. It is never an agreeable task to talk of such besetments as faults but the dull monotony of life would for- ever be unbroken if the facts were never confronted. Just to keep the slack out of the life ropes and stand taut and tense so that the command to "loose away" can be instantly obeyed and obeyed with perfect safety, is indeed an achievement of high quality. No matter what position we may occupy nor what sort of training and experience we may have had, the ability to get right up alongside of a new and trying situation and master it, is absolutely essential to real success in life. Converted though we have been, and church members though we are, let us so- berly review our long list of faults and fearlessly Some Faults of Converted People 241 ask for help in ridding ourselves of them one by one. This introspection will test our courage and quality in many ways but we will come out of the process with virility of a much higher type. We all recall the days in school when we were drilled in the conjugation "good," "better," "best." In those happy days we probably did not appreci- ate the fact that this conjugation embodied the very logic of life and that we should all be put to test by it. If we stop to think we will all admit that we have too often tarried in the "good" while the "better" and the "best" were beseeching us to look their way. In the achievements of a lifetime it is often no inconsiderable distance between the "good" and the "best," and how to compass that distance in so brief a span as the earth life affords is indeed a problem. Who can measure the value of a constant compul- sion toward the "best." There are subtle tempta- tions to be satisfied this side of such achievement and one is seriously at fault when he yields to these temptations. This fault hinders seriously in the work of the world and we know of no organization that has not felt the blight that falls from its pres- ence and control. It is to-day holding back the work of the kingdom of God, and the Church, as the organized expression of that kingdom often suffers from its presence. In every department of human endeavor it paralyzes progress and holds back re- form. A serious phase of this matter is that this and other faults linger with us without our realizing 242 Torches Aloft their presence. Men sometimes make a fight for out of date methods, while at the same time compli- menting- themselves that they are thoroughly wide awake and progressive. This is because they have no perception of what is superior to the present or- der. Because this fault of accepting the good in- stead of the best often exists where its presence is not suspected, men may even mistake it for a praise- worthy fidelity. They think they are true to some noble principle when they are simply stupid and non-progressive. This amounts to exalting a fault through self deception until it is accredited as if it were a virtue. An abnormal and debilitating self approval is of- ten manifest in the character of converted people. A certain degree of self esteem is necessary, but when it works over the line and becomes a vain self com- placency the result is disastrous. This is the soil out of which pride grows and "pride cometh before a fall." An excess in any good thing destroys its value. One can be proud of his humility. In such case lowliness becomes vanity. It appears to be absolutely true that any quality overworked loses its distinctive value. The fault under remark is a form of large satisfaction over small achievement which is always lamentable. There are compara- tively few people who really reach such attainments as to justify any long period of satisfaction. This observation holds good even after all allowance has been made for what we usually designate as "cir- cumstances." If men will not yield to undue self- Some Faults of Converted People 243 approval as an attitude of the mind they will thereby practically assure a mastery of "circum- stances." Another fault that is far more prevalent than one might suppose and which is such a handicap on hu- man progress in whomsoever it exists is an unpro- gressive spirit. We do well to dwell here until we have organized in every heart a new care against this abominable evil. The non-progressive spirit always rebels before the call to higher planes of life and it leads to intolerance and even wicked perse- cution of those people and measures that challenge our status and viewpoint. Woe betide the man or measure that insinuates in the remotest way against our superior qualities directly or indirectly. When this fault is on duty we are easily angered at what- ever disturbs our self complacency and resplendent self esteem. When it exists in any kind of organi- zation, no matter how really unfruitful the organi- zation may be, it has abundant ability for explain- ing the unfruitfulness and lack of efficiency. It survives sky and earth to find justification of the prevailing order. It will even become apologetic of laziness, lack of enterprise and alertness. Shrinks from meeting new situations with a cry for victory that will not be denied. Easily surrenders to the lions in the way and magnifies the difficulties of progress and change. Exalts to a virtue the vicious weakness of going around in a mere keeping time process and the treadmill of antiquated methods. 244 Torches Aloft This non-progressive spirit talks loud and long about the "old paths," though not at all certain of a definition for the term. It fails absolutely of ear- nest search for the deeper meanings of such a chal- lenging attitude toward progressive programs as the words really convey. It is incapable of anything ex- cept the most superficial adherence to paths ancient or modern. When this spirit is indulged by reli- gionists it destroys the capacity for discernment as to what is the real essence of religion and makes possible for a vast amount of pious blundering un- der the guise of a deep devotion to God. It was this spirit in certain Jews that led up to the crucifixion of the Lord Christ. Holding dominion over a man it causes him to oppose advance movements even when they are wholly meritorious. It makes of good people obstructionists when they should be front line promoters of progress. It hears of the deeper experiences of the Christian life only to dis- count them with ingenuous sarcasms, not stopping to consider that such discounting is a revelation of personal prejudice and shallowness. It has no abil- ity for farseeing measures and provisions such as only can compass the need of the coming generation and selfishly cries out, "Let coming generations take care of themselves." It is always blind to great opportunities and does what it can to discourage those who would at once go up and possess the land. It makes one a brakeman among a people who would be progressive under the right sort of leader- ship. It can be viciously obstinate reminding of Some Faults of Converted People 245 a certain animal that has a reputation for that sort of thing. One under the spell of this fault, if in official position even, and at the head of a stagnant and well-nigh dead ecclesiastical or other organiza- tion, is sure to be self-satisfied and would rather hold his job than join in any movement that might demand readjustment and insist on life and effi- ciency. Such a one is willing to diminish area for the sake of giving the impression that his propor- tions are large and stately. A small frog does ap- pear larger in a small puddle than in a large pond. The non-progressive spirit means stagnation and a resultant brood of evils. We all need to fight against stagnation for it marks the boundaries of death. In contrast with this fault as above, let us con- sider what its opposite, the constructive spirit, guar- antees. First and foremost it recognizes that growth and expansion alone can annul the law of decay. It waits only until sure of the ground over which it may move to victory and forthwith proceeds with full steam ahead. It moves splendidly, without haste, in good order, holds advance ground, when once it has been taken, against all comers and spies the land for the next conquest. We all have an un- fortunate capacity for becoming grooved and rutty. Freshness, vivacity, alertness, and progress are any- thing but easy. The absence of these qualities dim the luster of many an earthly career. They keep the life goals ahead as rebukes for our slight achieve- ment. Stagnation has marked antipathy to the con- structive spirit and would thus retard all true prog- 246 Torches Aloft ress. The good angels from the heights above us would protest always against our self-satisfied slumbers. How their voices rebuke us from the heights we might have scaled if we had but been willing to pay the price. Surely our eyes have not been holden so that the heights have not appeared with their lures to better life and service. Let us remember that when the present status is easy it is time for us to be warned and quickened. Any good thing that challenges our faith, heroism, and devo- tion should be adopted for our best effort. It is probable that doing our real and mighty best is all that lies between us and the highest achievement. Under way is steamer safety. Otherwise the tides, waves and winds make havoc of schedules and aug- ment perils. Another fault of otherwise good people is an un- willingness to pay the price of progress and growth. If we would go and grow we must be willing to plod, for the plodder is usually a winner because the quality compels success finally. The brilliant dash, the short cut, are admittedly appealing but they are not the sure precursors of success. All persons who wish success in life must be willing to study, for habits of study all through life are abso- lutely essential. There are vital subjects which we all need to investigate and unless we are willing to undergo real effort for the sake of adequate knowl- edge, we shall fade out from productive and respon- sible life. Willingness to undergo for the sake of reaching a desirable end is a quality to be coveted. Some Faults of Converted People 247 If we reverse the form of the word we have go under and that too tells the tale of success. There are men all about who would like the comfort of competence, the strength of good repute, the com- manding influence which crowns the life of fidelity to high ideals, but they will not go under the terms of their possession. They must prepare to be hu- miliated while those who are willing to render equivalents on the counters where the life prizes are handed out, pass by them on the upward way. Set about the lives of all men are the challenging tasks which brave souls must be willing to con- front without fear. They are there as tests to life quality. The price of power for great tasks is faithfulness in the demand for full preparation. What a fine word preparation is for it has the flavor of genuine respect for the coming opportunity. A man who is not willing to prepare well and ade- quately for the life task shows a fatal lack of ap- preciation of the dignity of his own life and the high character of the service he would render to so- ciety. Society has a way of rebuking people who jump into responsibility with little or no prepara- tion to meet it. We must let go of the things that are fatal to progress and power, or ours will be a short race and the end without honor. In confront- ing such a series of requisites of success in life we shall often be tested by the law of crisis. We shall find the crisis of adolescence and of maturity, of the educational opportunity, courtship and mar- riage, thrift and economic success, the religious life, 248 Torches Aloft and the adoption of high ideals for life. Central in the whole question of life and growth is the decis- ion for, and experience in, the Christian religion. No man may overlook the crisis which the appeal for religious devotion brings upon him. When a young person confronts the claims of Christ and the faith of which he is the embodiment, he has indeed come to a decisive hour. The deeply religious life is not easy and we must always pity the life that attempts nothing except what is easy and that will not dis- turb our comfort. Religion is the one decisive proc- ess in which we find the highway that leads to triumphant results in life. Whoever neglects reli- gion comes into numberless delusions and snares. Prayer and all the spiritual inspirations that come to us through the sweet and strengthening experiences of comradeship with Christ are all determining fac- tors in human life, but religion never was intended to be a way of escape from legitimate toil and pre- scribed effort on the way to success in life. CHAPTER XXIV. OBJECTIVES OF CONVERTED PEOPLE The law governing in these objectives is indicated in these words of Saint Paul, "Striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily." So the Christian works as Christ would work if he were now on earth in bodily manifestation, and, that he is to work with vigor is reflected in the words, "which worketh in me mightily." The "striving" or working is the outgrowth of 'the in- dwelling Christ. The first clear objective for the converted man is soul winning. Christ gave royal battle to the enemies of the souls of men and the centuries have attested the success of his work. Soul winning as a goal for the Christian's life is surely appealing even though the work is of a most delicate character and for several reasons is some- what baffling. The laws of approach, the overcom- ing of prejudice, the 'removal of ignorance, the methods to be employed, all have to be studied with great care. Appreciation of Christ and the func- tion of leading souls to him must be such that a full consecration to the work is forthcoming as the only fit expression of such appreciation. No success save as confidence is established and no confidence is possible without such personality and character as commands it beyond all question. The greatest 250 Torches Aloft experience to which any human being can be brought is an experience of Christ as Savior and Lord. Any occasion on which this great experience is inaugurated is a great occasion. The wayside meeting, the planned interview, the mutual study of the Bible, service in physical relief, sympathy and kindly ministry in sorrow, the showing of a good example, may all be utilized and made fruitful. Pa- tience and skill in meeting evasions, knowledge suf- ficient to meet certain intellectual difficulties, dis- cernment as to the thoroughness requisite for over- coming the tendency toward superficiality in a proc- ess so imperatively calling for genuineness, are requisites of success. Life saving is another worthy objective and by this we mean to cover the earthly career and achievements. Salvation for disembodied spirits is one thing and help for life efficiency here and now is another, even though, as we believe, they are vitally related to one another. There can be no doubt that placing a human being under instruction whereby he can make the most of his opportunity in this life is a duty of first importance. God never intended the present life to be wasted and it is the high obli- gation of both the Church and the State to conserve it. The Christian always has opportunity to help especially young people to such knowledge as will enable them to keep out of the pitfalls that are pre- pared for their destruction. Our young people are exposed to insidious temptations to physical vices which, when once endulged in enslave with chains Objectives of Converted People 251 that grow stronger constantly. The day of reckon- ing is sure to come for these excesses and parents and all others are called upon to save life by giving knowledge. We save a life when we turn it toward education and preparation for useful employment. If we can encourage young people to take training with a view to doing something of a constructive character which the world is sure to want done well, we shall be real benefactors. If we keep our eyes open and have in mind constantly the duty of guiding persons into the means and methods of life efficiency great will be our reward and the result will be a better world. Every life should be saved from failure and those who know how to make it a success should get busy in behalf of multitudes who are in part helpless. Let us set ourselves to be- come boosters of humanity. We cannot save life in any permanent sense un- less we put it in the way of building itself up and so life building as well as life saving becomes an urgent duty. An architect who has watched the erection of a building by the contractor from start to finish has a pardonable pride and a justified pleas- ure when the structure has been completed. But we know that even the angels of God rejoice in heaven when soul winners and life builders have succeeded. From foundation to top stone the build- ing of a life is of surpassing interest, for time and eternity are involved in the issue. Spiritual, intel- lectual and physical welfare enter into the problem and neither may be neglected. No real life building 252 Torches Aloft is possible without a sense of God and a relation to him that is vital and gracious. In the process there comes early and logically, deliverance from sin and a program which anticipates the elimination of all removable human weaknesses. Much more of hu- man weakness is removable than is usually sup- posed. We need this optimistic view of human na- ture for we live in the dispensation of the grace of Jesus Christ and the way is open to the highest quality and order of human life. Salvation by Christ equals character, and character of high order is a fundamental requisite in all life building. In part the objectives we are discussing are the direct work of God and in part they have origin in man himself. This co-partnership is a joyful and essential reality. God does not presume to do what is distinctly our own duty and prerogative. Hav- ing created man he dignifies him by expecting and even requiring that he shall be true and genuine in accepting his own full function. By a failure to ap- preciate this principle and act accordingly we may overburden the most gracious Christian experience and such a mistake seriously injures the cause of religion. There are certain well defined spheres and boundaries in human nature in which religion is the distinct and final force and there are others in which culture and natural process are essential. The religious experience is the starting point for every worthy objective in life and contributes to the enrichment of every faculty of the human per- sonality. Objectives of Converted People 253 The whole nature of man is a sphere for salva- tion, and no sooner are the salvation processes in- stalled than all the faculties are instantly quickened and strengthened for normal action so that all the cultural processes may be made efficient. Religion delivers from diseased self-interest which makes so many persons a social burden and menace. It makes one upright and downright. As a force in personality it sets will and judgment and desire to- ward intellectual training and development. It voices the prayer for deliverance from heart hard- ness and will feebleness and body filthiness. Sal- vation sometimes begins with intellectual illumina- tion. The mind is brought to a very ferment and the agitation is wholesome and happy. The mind seems to break forth into a new world and heated by the religious experiences rises to heights of pure desire like a bird of flight. In other individuals sal- vation begins with spiritual illumination and the conscience at once sets new standards of character and conduct. In other words it accepts and makes potent by that acceptance the standards the Lord God has set up. When an individual begins to ask with a new moral earnestness about the Tightness and wrongness of human conduct you may be as- sured that salvation processes are being established within. A sensitive conscience is a jewel to be cov- eted, and nothing short of the saving grace of Al- mighty God can produce it. The Word, grace, and Spirit of God are the superhuman agencies of con- science creation and discipline. Within some people 254 Torches Aloft salvation operates first in the will and that is at once a most hopeful evidence of sanity and safety. The will was given us that we might thereby con- trol ourselves in relation to morals and religion as well as touching other matters in life. It is often in the will that the rankest sort of irreligion rages and rules. The Bible asserts again and again the mighty prerogatives of mankind as embodied in the will. Comparatively few people know the full scope and function of this element in human nature. Jesus referred to the will frequently and never failed to impress his hearers with the seriousness of human responsibility in its use and attitude. "If any man will let him come." "If any man will open the door I will come in." But in all the problem of moral action and progress we should be helpless if God had not endowed us with a rich and significant emo- tional nature and so salvation often begins the up- ward pull in some form or phase of emotion. Every emotion known to man as a part of himself is ap- pealed to by the gospel of Christ. Even fear has place in summing up the feelings that are rightful in the relation to the complete message of the religion of Christ. Far from believing that fear ought not to be appealed to in be- half of religion we believe that omitting to do so is illogical and weak. Fear has a large place in all moral government and because God so thoroughly understands human nature he has not hesitated to make it plain that any sane mind may well fear to disobey him. Shall we fear God? We answer most Objectives of Converted People 255 assuredly, yes. If God shall move upon us through our emotions well and good, let us heed and give welcome. If he shall not so come, then let us wel- come the persuasions that come through any other faculty of our nature. Let us earnestly inquire as to how we may reach the objectives that are appropriate to converted peo- ple. It is about the how that we must often gather with the gravest spirit of inquiry. If we miss here we miss all. Mind, will, conscience, affections, all unite to move us toward the great God-given goals so that our lives may be so many manifestations of God's glory and power. First of all we must go to work where God is at work in individuals and in society. This sort of activity will set us forward to- ward character success for that inevitably follows the identification of human activities with divine activities. Unmistakably God is at work in the indi- vidual and in society with a view to establishing the reign of the kingdom of equity and peace on earth. He is at work in behalf of social righteous- ness and such use of law and moral suasion as will curb human rapacity and forbid the oppression of the weak by the strong. He is shining forth in the camp fires of social reform, in the movements for political genuineness, in the demand for the dis- tribution of medium wealth to the many rather than the criminal accumulations of abnormal wealth by the few. If you have been indifferent in the fight get into the front line at once or you will be forever a stranger to the objectives that alone make of 256 Torches Aloft men and women the allies of God. We shall reach these character objectives also by giving sympa- thetic co-operation in the almost new phases of ef- fort in behalf of human progress and development that are now coming to the attention of all inquir- ing minds. It is time we all set out to meet all human need in the name of Christ. Just as nearly as may be, let it be done without further delay, for the weary world has waited now too long. There are life burdens as well as sin burdens and they are to be lifted from shouulders and hearts by the work of the Savior and those whom he has empowered to the joint mission. Because he works we also must work and so the hurt of the world will be healed. There are burdens on the homes of millions in America to-day because of a widespread lust for gain by hu- man tyrants and hyenas who are willing to devour the helpless that they may revel in the brainstorms of the money mad. The most vicious conduct that is known in America to-day is indicated above, be- cause it sets up impassable barriers to the higher development of millions of our people through this violent economic injustice. Public sentiment must be created by education as to the enormity of this evil and the government aroused until all its power is exercised for its elimination. Corporation dom- inance in municipal, state, or national affairs is a plague more deadly than yellow fever and should be fought with a determination to end it forever in the United States. The hypocrisy of the trusts was never more flagrant and defiant than now, but the Objectives of Converted People 257 tearing off of the mask is also at hand. Their men- dacity has about run its race and the people are ready to assert their rights. Falsehood, deception, and jugglery in bookkeeping will not carry the American people longer. Let the Church make sure that it is free from any sort or measure of complic- ity in this corporation sinning, for it is to-day a greater foe to the highest development of the pres- ent generation than any other evil extant. In fact, it is part and parcel in every vice that afflicts the nation. America is becoming unwilling to longer encour- age or allow an aristocracy of wealth to dominate the country. The income tax should have been used long ago to compel the distribution of wealth and compel it to accept something like a just share of the burdens of government. Our government has as yet dealt very inadequately with the trust evil as witness the travesty of dissolution in the case of the Standard Oil Company, and the Tobacco Trust. No real compliance with the spirit of anti-trust leg- islation has been observed anywhere. This is creat- ing a growing unrest and it will increase as it should. The temper of the age is such that genuine and equitable adjustments to new legislation must be made or radicalism will carry any measure it may decree. The legislation must be sufficiently radical to reach the class of offenders who are in need of drastic measures before they will respect the modern standards of social decency. The public is rapidly revising its standards of what is decent 258 Torches Aloft and what is not, with the result that many men who have passed muster will shortly be classed among the monsters of society. Because a man has amassed a million or several million, it does not follow that he is a benefactor. The verdict of the twentieth century is that no man is socially decent save as he measures up to the demand for constructive social achievement. Wealth and social helpfulness are not necessarily concomi- tants. Our civilization has developed a consider- able amount of money boorishness which indulges the nonsense that a man may offer to society in lieu of achieved strength of character, a large bank account. The age is at last putting its condemna- tion on such twaddle. Low character perception and achievement means not only our own moral failure but it means that we have no ability to help others. Society cannot be lifted up by those who have been guilty of character defalcation them- selves. The age requires that we shall be willing to sacrifice anything in order to be of service in bringing our civilization to character fundamentals. In giving ourselves to a discipleship of higher ideals we must be quite ready for excommunication from a few men who are deeply demoralized and far from social integrity. Let us count on being often mis- represented and misinterpreted. The contention for higher standards of righteousness must be carried forward at all cost until our glaring wrongs have been removed and the doers of evil brought to their knees. To-day many evils have a multitude Objectives of Converted People 259 of defenders who cry out stoutly in protest against reform and our moral processes must become suffi- ciently strong to overcome this moral decay and fully cleanse our social life. A warfare must be waged on insatiate greed no matter how strongly intrenched it may be until equity and righteousness have been established in the social processes. These are days in which we should be setting before our minds the ultimate America and all that we now do should have reference to such an ideal. Our thinking has probably not been as far reaching and inclusive as it should be. We have been satisfied to improvise and meet emergencies as they have arisen when we should also be giving ourselves to the most thorough effort in behalf of the final aims of our civilization and government. We should be building for the future as well as for the present. The foes of human welfare are legion and they con- tend furiously for the continuance of their privileges of destruction. The lovers of righteousness and re- form must give battle being well assured that where the line of resistance is now flung the banners of moral conquest will shortly be floating in the air. Ground that is now occupied by the hosts of evil shall soon be under the peaceful flag of Emmanuel. Righteousness is entitled to the comfortable sense of achievement which comes when the cohorts of evil have been driven back and the resources and equipments possessed by them are turned over to humanized control. The gracious objectives of good people are to be attained and even if the proc- 260 Torches Aloft esses of their attainment are baffling because we are so unsophisticated, we must persevere until victory comes. We must be willing to pay the price of establishing a good principle and in this world the price is often considerable. We are, in this en- terprise "workers together with God," and we must show ourselves dependable in such a partnership. He is at work in the moral conflicts about us by the moral qualities of his own character and in prov- idences which we may not always comprehend. Our lack of fidelity limits his gracious manifestations of power, but the ceaseless pressure of redeeming love never fails. With such an ally as the Lord God Almighty with what courage and wisdom should the campaign be waged. No whimpering or crying out with fear, but resoluteness and compos- ure are appropriate to the militant children of God. "Workers together with him." Pass the glorious news along the line until no one falters or fears. Ring out in clarion tones the glad fact until men forget their strange fascinations with evil and take up the task of universal human betterment. What a good world we can cause this one to be if we will have it so ; how like the heaven to which we all hope to pass at the last. CHAPTER XXV. THE PERILS OF RELIGIOUS PEOPLE "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God," is expressive of an attitude which good people must constantly maintain. The Christian life is our high privilege, but one is not immune from the peril of falling below the actualizations that are indicated for Christian character and serv- ice. For every Christian the after-conversion devel- opments are matters of determining importance. Christianity puts a genuine test upon human per- sonality and it is a universal law that test implies the danger of failure under test. There could be no human greatness and achievement if this were not true. The principle of peril with privilege is to be observed everywhere. Marriage and home life are an infinite privilege but our civilization is chastened by the sadly nu- merous exhibitions of marital infelicity. The di- vorce courts are thronged with suits for separation and the revelations of animalism and depravity are enough to discourage the stoutest heart. Not only is all this failure under the privilege of matrimony hurtful in the extreme to the parties involved in the actions for divorce, but children are disgraced and the order of society is viciously assailed. This sense of peril in the marriage relation should not deter us from entering upon it, but it should steady our 262 Torches Aloft giddy heads until we accept the wisdom of the de- mand for religious experience and character to the end that we may have self-control and may guar- antee marital efficiency. The offense against soci- ety of marrying and then defaulting from its laws of service and fidelity is so serious that its heinous- ness should be published by all the agencies that have to do in training the race and creating public opinion. The people who evidently take marriage and divorce as a joke should be reprimanded from every quarter until the shame of their course should become intolerable and their defiance of public sen- timent an impossibility. The happiness resultant from marriages and homes constituted according to God's order has never been adequately described by any mortal tongue and never can be. Genuine and sane religious life is the one solvent for the problems of marital and domestic life. The institutions of marriage and do- mesticity are divine and they imply Christian char- acter on the part of all who would participate in their obligations and privileges. When men and wo- men presume to ignore this requisite for social effi- ciency they are sure to be under penalty for the in- fraction of the governing law and there is no escape. It seems all but unthinkable that so many otherwise intelligent people should reckon on a wholesome use of a divine institution which is based on the fundamental requirement that all persons entering into the sacred relations made possible by such in- stitution shall be genuinely and sanely religious, The Perils of Religious People 263 while they themselves remain irreligious. Genuine religion as a requisite of every sort of social effi- ciency is not the arbitrary announcement of the church or the clergy but the announcement of the human constitution, nature, and need. Parents who abdicate from their responsibilities and privileges in the training of offspring in the home may well fear what occurs again and again when in the courts where criminals are confronted with their crimes and compelled to answer to society for the same, parents come to lamentation, to great and inconsol- able grief. The most of our criminals are young, surprisingly young, showing that we are only a lit- tle way from the contributing cause of a defective home life and the absence of parental control as a most unpardonable defect among many defects. No sorrow pierces deeper than that which comes from straying offspring. Establishing a home and exer- cising the God-given prerogative of parenthood are exalted privileges, but remember, parents, if we tol- erate disobedience, youthful vagrancy, truancy, questionable and hurtful habits, consorting with evil companions, neglect of moral and intellectual train- ing in our offspring, together with or apart from our own neglect of righteousness, we are bound to meet a day of judgment, and sorrow shall pierce our hearts. Given a good example and good training a child will sometimes sin against it all, but that is the exception and not the rule. Let the truth grip us and arouse us that with every high privilege we are exposed to subtle dangers and we must be on 264 Torches Aloft guard and place ourselves in the keeping of divine grace. We must also make ourselves intelligent as to the laws of efficiency that govern in any given privilege. As showing how vital the question of religious development is, let us note that Christianity is foun- dationed on two great principles, namely, light and power, or illumination and inspiration. If as cit- izens of an enlightened nation we wish to know what are the laws that should govern us in any given relationship to privilege we may be assured that God stands ready to throw clear light on the whole sit- uation. If we but apply ourselves to him, Christ does lighten every man that cometh into the world. His light shines by the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Bi- ble, by all the good literature to which we may have access, and through our own conscience and intelligence he would have us wise as against our perils of every sort. But one might have light and yet be comparatively powerless to meet the exigen- cies of life. So Christ stands for the installation of the suitable disposition toward privilege and duty together with an appropriate moral power to fulfill one's day and duty. All hail the Christian emancipations and endowments. It is pertinent that we should inquire as to what are the facts and forces which account for and con- stitute the dangers of good people. First of all it is easy to be superficial. Many do only what is easiest to be done and never get beyond that view of life. To go deeply into the character and life The Perils of Religious People 265 struggles is no ordinary challenge to human quali- ties. Skimming about on the surface of things sat- isfies far too many people. No matter how noble the challenge or how ennobling our response would be we all have a fine capacity for evading the exacting and the genuine. We need to have our hearts laid bare at this point and no pulpit does its full duty that does not at times deal in the most unsparing way with our religious inertia. There are certain enticing allurements in the direction of ungenuine- ness and superficiality. For instance the tendency to feel that there is a kind of smartness in specious- ness and evasion, the while forgetting that though this subtle attitude may tickle our vanity it is the deadly foe of genuineness and true power. Intel- lectual vanity is especially perilous because it makes havoc with all moral progress. It speeds the man over the highway that ends in perdition. Instead of flattering ourselves when we have evaded any moral or religious appeal, or when we have parried suc- cessfully the claims of duty, repentance and a cry to God for recovery are the only acts that are com- patible with real sanity. There is an innate human tendency toward an undue satisfaction on a matter of such trifling im- portance as that appearances are maintained. True we should have regard to what is conventionally correct, but what a sham to allow the case to rest there and stop at that. All that is essentially valu- able in life lies deeper than that. One who lives at the heart of things has an invaluable guarantee 266 Torches Aloft against unfavorable appearances, and, a fine and really essential guarantee or justification for good appearances. Only such a one can possess real power of any sort. Unless good people are really better than they appear to be there could not be much hope for the progress of the race. Piety is more fundamental than any institutional expression of it. Formality is not religion and religion is often informal. Its power is in its spontaneity. At conversion the human soul is molten and this is well, for it is a part of the salvation process that the heart shall be sensitive to the high ideals which Christ unfailingly presents. The church and the pastor are wise if this period of warmth is utilized fully in setting before the convert the true charac- ter and requirements of discipleship to Christ. The after-conversion development of the convert is the true test of pastoral efficiency. This is the period of fine sincerity and teachableness. The period is dan- gerous and critical because of the law of reaction which asserts itself with unfailing certainty in con- nection with every crisis for superior life and char- acter qualities. Old Doctor Reactionary is always on duty and he smiles when he can by any sort of pretext slow down the processes that make for the forward-going of the individual or society. He loves to chill the zeal of the new convert and cause him to desist from delivering in rapid succession the telling blows against the kingdom of evil which are sure to follow a complete surrender of the convert to Christ and his program. No sooner born of the The Perils of Religious People 267 Spirit than there comes the consciousness that the claims of Christ, of humanity, and social service in the Savior's name, are to be supremely commanding and insistent even in an ever deepening degree. Old Doctor Reactionary stands by to suggest how sane and permissible it will be for the new convert to shrink from the deepening claims. Alertness as to the absolute destructiveness of this suggestion is imperative, for, mind you, the virility of discipleship is immediately cancelled when it is accepted. Moral and spiritual power as manifest in human character must be cumulative and it cannot be cumulative unless its sway over the soul shall be increasingly complete and its social expression degree on degree more commanding, true, and ade- quate. Such moral and religious strenuousness is not exactly easy, but it is exceedingly satisfying, exhilarating and fruitful. Self-deception is always an imminent danger to good people and when one is self-deceived he is in- variably a formalist lacking in aspirations for holi- ness and soul winning power. Certain of our reli- gious denominations at least formerly made much of the class meeting and the class leadership. La- terly as the age has come to be more utilitarian as some would have us believe, there has developed a criticism of the class meeting to the effect that it had developed a multitude of sentimentalists who were long on talk and short on actualization and ethical expression. This criticism can never have a fraction of justification save as religious people be- 268 Torches Aloft come formalists and suffer the loss of that spon- taneity which the presence of the Holy Spirit inva- riably creates and directs. Emerson, he of the in- cisive tongue and pen, characterizes these loqua- cious, self-deceived formalists as "talkers who mistake the description for the thing, the saying for the having." This trenchant statement strikes at the heart of this danger from formality and may well serve to put us all on guard lest we be found the mimics of the reality. Any man who dwells much on high religious ideals while he is seriously lacking in their high potency as an inward realization and who does not compel their actual deliverances in his own soul and life is a religious debauchee, he is drunken from mere verbalism, he has vitiated the quality, condition, and virtue of religious genuine- ness. This type of character is easily and essen- tially pharisaical. It is most difficult to bring such a one under conviction for repentance and deepen- ing of his own experience and religious quality. His self-deception involves his mistaking disease for health, a form of religion for its power. All that has been said here is not to discourage the class meeting with appropriate expressions of individual Christian experience, but to warn against the peril which lurks even here and against which all good people need to be on their guard. Let us consider somewhat carefully the after-con- version illuminations. The disciple of Christ is im- mediately brought under a flood of light, attem- pered, to be sure, but abundant, full and all embrac- The Perils of Religious People 269 ing. A wide range of virtues are indicated for in- dividual obtainment and a broad and comprehensive program of duties is indicated. All around, and out and in, and through and through, the path of duty is made plain. There comes the call to complete doctrine, faith, and character. Oh, what an under- taking for us poor mortals, but oh, what glorious help is afforded us giving a full guarantee of our relative success. Let us follow the vision and as quickly as may be overtake the reality. Having once had the vision of what our Lord would have us be and do, we dare not draw back. God has pleas- ure in us as we face the searching demands of the kingdom of righteousness and we must face a final responsibility. Now that light has come and we see the way and have been referred to the source of power, we must act promptly, decisively, earnestly and adequately. Our failure in the presence of both light and power must be calamitous to ourselves and we must awake and shine, our light having come and our Almighty Savior being at hand. There are some mistakes as to character success and we must avoid them. Some tell us that char- acter comes as a long-drawn out and wearying proc- ess. There is a half truth in this statement and the other half is dangerous and misleading. The completed character does not come until life as a probation has ended and some of these perfecting processes are to be carried forward beyond what we call death, but as to essential and determining qual- ity, godly character may be had instantly as the 270 Torches Aloft gracious renewing act of God's redemptive-creative power. Godly character is a divine impartation and when once installed is to be carried forward and developed by grace and education. This truth as to character does not minimize the importance of edu- cation, but the rather exalts it by assuring its fruitfulness because applied to dependable person- ality, the personality being made dependable by divine grace. If we could not preach this doctrine of instantaneous character transformation we should discourage immediate moral awakening and we would stupefy the moral desires of men. They would be compelled to think of personal goodness as a remote and uncertain contingency whereas it is an immediate impossibility. Men who adhere to the view that character from the standpoint of religion must be entirely an educational product, tell us they would thereby avoid hasty and superfi- cial professions of success in achieving a Christian character, and the answer is, the method does not secure the desired result and never can do so. If we are to postpone essential Christian character as a possession only to be associated with the end of life we make the gospel impossible to a rugged, rushing, sin-enfeebled race. The moral and religious history of mankind re- veals the fact that men and women have always moved forward to the possession of the Christian character by the law of crises. The appeals of God for repentance are all couched in language that in- dicates the expectation, possibility, and need of im- The Perils of Religious People 271 mediate action and the Scriptures everywhere indi- cate that the response of God to man's penitence is immediate and determining. So it is fallacious to assume that either God or man alone can solve this problem of Christian character while it is edifying to assume under the justifications of Holy Writ that when God and man co-operate the Christian character is immediately possible even though sal- vation and educational processes go on to the end of life. Let us look yet more carefully for the truth as to character success. The Word of God inspires faith by assuring us the interest of the living God and Savior in our character struggles. It also gives vision and incites to the gracious goal. The will, the conscience, the intellect, the affections, to- gether with our own human industry, all make con- tribution and enter into co-operation with Almighty God for the achievement so much to be desired, a Christian character. The will holding as steadily toward the claims of religion, the conscience pun- gently corroborating the witness of the divine word as to the sinner's condemnation, the intellect ad- mitting the reasonableness of the sovereignty of God over human life, the affections making our hearts tender toward a stranger who has stood a long time at the door waiting for welcome from within, our industry compelling us to give attention to our religious needs and duties. Failure to thus enlist our faculties in the processes of character suc- cess can but augment our guilt. If we use the di- 272 Torches Aloft vine prescription, success is sure to be ours. We dare not, must not fail, for the promise of God is athwart the sky. Shall we conclude our study of the perils of con- verted people and of the glorious desirability of success in obtaining a Christian character by a sum- mary of our duty in the premises? We will now resolve to yield neither to under-expression or over- statement in this matter. We will confront the facts as to whether we have measured up to our guaran- teed possibilities of success under our reasonable, even if exacting ideals. We will give ourselves to unflinching intro-spection and then courageously refuse to disguise first of all to ourselves the fact that we have failed even as we need not have failed of being like our Lord and Savior in those phases of likeness where he meant us to be like him in this world. We will not be satisfied with superficial re- semblance to the purifications that are ours by faith in Christ Jesus. However well we might main- tain this superficial resemblance it cannot at all take the place of genuine religious experience and power. We will beware of even disguised evil- speaking and all uncharitableness. We will remem- ber that a high price must always be paid if we would possess a spirit of universal love and fellow- ship. This love must be without dissimulation. Genuineness alone is real power. We will duly con- sider that since religion is the realm of vision and inspiration, the demand upon us is for morality of the highest order. We will be warned of the fact The Perils of Religious People 273 that the very sublimity of the moral conduct which Christianity enjoins tempts us in our weakness to rest in fine sentiment and scant realization or achievement. While it is undeniably true that ex- pediency and conventionalism have entered largely into church and social life, we will, nevertheless feel ourselves called upon to possess an unquench- able enthusiasm for the highest Christian ideals and experience. We will endeavor especially to keep ourselves in the attitude of thoroughness in our re- ligious life. We are convinced that if we had more enthusiasm for that which is highest and best in our holy Chris- tianity, its triumphs would be more marked and irresistible. Knowing that in proportion to the fidelity of the followers of Christ in fulfilling the highest ideals of his law and kingdom, in that pro- portion will religious efficiency be possible and manifest; we will pledge ourselves to self-sanctifi- cation to the end that God may make us pure and holy and that we may thereby serve our fellow man in the Christianization of the social order. XXVI. SOME MODERN INCONGRUITIES Great events in the evolution of the race do not come without order or relativity. It matters not if the event be political, religious, or the birth of an important invention, the above law holds good. James Watt made a practical application of steam in 1769, the American Declaration of Independence came in 1776, and the French Revolution in 1789. Reviewed from this distance, these events were all epoch making. They all signify the awakening of man to the exertion of his powers and the assertion of his rights. For decades of centuries he had struggled for the mastery which he felt should be his in the realm of nature. The harnessing of steam to mechanism meant that henceforth he would be able to command the forces of his material en- vironment for his comfort and more ample and rapid development. It meant in short, his emancipation from certain forms of servility and presaged his re- lease toward higher development in every way. It meant that life would have pressed into the years of an average career the possibility of much larger achievement by virtue of the advantages of rapid transit. The use of steam has accomplished wonders and the entire race practically has felt the forward moving impetus which has resulted therefrom. The Declaration of Independence and the French Revolution were both expressions of man's determi- nation for political emancipation and an approxi- mate social equality. They came as the crest of Some Modern Incongruities 275 mighty movements in behalf of the rights of the common people and embodied the world's growing passion for democracy. While one was an Old World event and the other was staged in the New World, they were parts of a single world-wide ten- dency. Both grew out of the world's yesterdays and attested the steady evolution of civilization toward a recognition of the essential rights of every human being on the earth. It was wholly befitting, that, based on these strong and vital protests, the race should immedi- ately enter upon a rapid ascent toward social equal- ity and universal well being. One might well reckon that the lesson from such significant events would be accorded sovereignty in all quarters gladly and that no one would be willing to resist the benevo- lent message which they, beyond all question, put forth. Unfortunately human nature has a capacity for the reactionary, and civilization has always found it necessary to contend 'persistently against this wily foe of humaneness and brotherliness. No sooner was machinery invented than industry was gradually concentrated. That meant that there would be assembled about the machinery, raw ma- terial, labor, and capital seeking the large dividend. Of course, invention must be capitalized from some source and as was inevitable it was forthcoming from the favored classes with the expectation that it should be administered for the benefit of the fa- vored classes. Capital unquestionably carried with its appearance about the machine a certain equity, 276 Torches Aloft but being the stronger it was more exposed to the temptation to take advantage by virtue of its power and ride rough shod over the less powerful factors in a new and fascinating industrial process. Passing rapidly over developments which in detail are both interesting and profitable for study, the un- happy ratio in the increase simultaneously of wealth and poverty is a matter for serious consideration and the Church and the State must now tarry for so- lution of the problem. Our bountiful resources which are the gift of a gracious Father are adequate for the needs of all, but a majority, harassed by want and the fear of absolute dependence in old age is the unseemly spectacle presented. We are com- pelled to the feeling that it is incongruous to have such an unprecedented increase of wealth in im- mediate conjunction with a horrifying increase of acute poverty which always has a strong tendency to become chronic. In such a country as ours and in connection with the appearance and general use of mechanism which insures greater profits with less effort, ever deepening human degradation and in- creasing destitution are unwarranted and appalling. America stands for the elevation of mankind in the total and not simply for certain favored classes. When we allow our commercial rapacity and greed to break down this principle and destroy this pas- sion for the welfare of all, we hasten a day of doom. The world has witnessed quite enough of the ag- grandizement of the few at the expense of the many in other lands so that the manifestation of the like Some Modern Incongruities 277 dominance in this country robs us of all distinguish- ing hope or expectation. Almighty God knows nothing about favored nations except as they serve to universalize the blessings and comforts of life. If America is to have any claim to a favoring provi- dence it can only come as she advances the cause of social justice. Favors to the few will destroy u? root and branch while justice and blessing to all will make the republic immortal. In the last few decades capital has risen to power in the United States as in no other country and as in no other age in human history. Capital has a right to its own power equity only as it accords to labor its merited share of power. Capital has certain rights, but they are all forfeited when it rides rough shod over the rights of humanity. This forfeiture of rights by any element in our civilization which assails the collective welfare is slowly dawning upon the mind of the American people. That which becomes pred- atory passes from the pale of legal protection. Capitalism rising to power through injustice is out- lawry. Whenever the present system of capitalism shall so demean itself as to make it clear that its continuance in its present power must mean more physical suffering than could possibly come by its overthrow its days are nearly numbered. That con- viction in the minds of a majority of American cit- izens will cause radical readjustments or a com- plete social and industrial revolution. The time has passed when any man or coterie of men can jus- tify to thoughtful Americans the fact that our 278 Torches Aloft mighty industrialism is leaving in its wake so much of poverty and social debris. The fine ability of a few Americans to accumulate vast and unheard of individual wealth with scant disposition to distribute it equitably and the State failing to make such abnor- mal economic conditions impossible can but mean a crash in our civilization. Let us be warned in time. The only law of safety is that our industrial devel- opment shall be balanced and modified by an equally intense and powerful moral and religious develop- ment. This last alone can bring us to social jus- tice, for it will compel appropriate legislation. Our mighty compulsions toward money making with scant compulsions toward ministering to human need and uplift, will make the words of the Son of man appropriate to our age and nation when he said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." There are certain forms of incongruity which pro- mote laughter, but incongruities of this sort will fi- nally cause hatred and end in revolution. These blighting aspects of our civilization are so out of place that we need to repent for not sensing the blight and removing it promptly. Our industrialism must be brought to possess and voice the passions of brotherhood and social righteousness. A remedy must be found for the dreadful effects of our mod- ern commercial enterprises. What are the remedies that may be applied to the removal of these fearful social blights on our twentieth century civilization? Unquestionably the encroachments of capital are such that labor must Some Modern Incongruities 279 be generally organized under correct ideals. If this organization is to count there must be at the front an unpurchasable, unselfish, and capable leadership since any organization fails when these elements of efficiency are wanting. We must also have from the national government an impartial and exhaustive survey of industrial and social conditions and the exact and full information when secured must be given out and a remedy provided and applied with- out fear or favor. The government, national, state, county, and municipal must interpose with adequate action in total disregard of the criticism from preda- tory sources that such action is paternalism. The protest from the managers of capitalistic enterprises that they have the sole right to decide as to what shall be charged the public for the service rendered by the utility corporations because they are experts and specialists and that the interference by state and national commissions is bad policy because the men who compose these commissions are without ex- perience in conducting such big enterprises is not well grounded. Deference should for obvious rea- sons be paid to the contentions of the men who ad- minister for the big utilities, but all human experi- ence shows that it would be an act of unsophis- ticated self-immolation to leave the public entirely at their mercy and discretion. It is a display of both egotism and presumption for the managers of big business to assume such an attitude as above in- dicated toward the modern, well-timed effort at governmental regulation of utility corporations. 280 Torches Aloft The policy of allowing big business to go ahead in the exercise of its own self-imposed con- trol has been tried and found wanting. Human nature has not reached that stage of unsel- fishness and sensitiveness to the welfare of the public as to make such a policy safe or desirable from any viewpoint. The people do well to require that the government shall place in service for just control an intermediary in the form of a commission to represent the rights and interests of the public and which intermediary while being just and fair to the corporation, shall be responsible to the people. Many of the policies that should govern in the busi- ness world are simply questions of fidelity to the ac- credited ethical principles and the supreme requisite for the commissioner is moral integrity and a keen sense of social justice rather than identification with or technical knowledge of the operations of the public service corporations. The day is at hand when only those business processes and methods that are approved by a con- sensus of intelligent public opinion can be sure of perpetuity. Public opinion is to be the real and supreme law of the land. In the past the policy has been to keep the public in the dark as to the methods the big business enterprises are operating, under which and this holding of the public at a distance instead of cultivating confidence and good will has not had a happy effect. The people are going to rule in America and if the insistent social conscience which we are rapidly engendering is not controlled Some Modern Incongruities 281 by a public opinion made intelligent by the mutual desire and co-operation of big business and the peo- ple we shall invite trouble. It is right that the pub- lic conscience should be aroused and it is essential that the public opinion should be informed openly, genuinely, and fully. Destructive radicalism and non-progressive conservatism are imminent perils in the present situation. The hour demands the universalizing of the tranformations and controls of genuine Christianity. It is to be hoped that capi- talism may on its own initiative recognize its evils and voluntarily correct them. There are certain aggravating tendencies growing out of the present attitude and methods of capital- ism that should be remedied without the pressure of legislative action. Such a voluntary adjustment by capital to the new social conscience will have a most wholesome influence on the present disturbed conditions which have in them the possibilities of so- cial revolution. There will be some temporary dis- comfort in reversing any vicious policy and correct- ing any evil tendency, but that must not deter us from genuine reforms. Our tremendous accumula- tions of wealth must be balanced by constructive dis- tributions of this element in modern social progress, which is appreciated now as never before in the history of mankind. All abnormal accumulations of individual wealth have an inevitable tendency to produce abnormal social irritation. In the present stage of civilization this is not to be wondered at 282 Torches Aloft and if we did wonder at it the facts would not be changed by our wonder. The forces, agencies, and institutions that are re- sponsible for moral standards and insight must be awakened and their leadership and service made effi- cient in the present social urgency. Our American civilization is in a fearful turmoil and all classes are hungry for the voice and passion of brotherhood. We are shrinking with acute pain from the thrusts of one class of contending persons and interests into the other and we are in great anxiety for confidences that will not disappoint and mock us. Who will ex- emplify and pass on the social righteousness and integrity which we all so much desire in public and individual life? Will you, and you, and you? One reason why the problem of dealing with the great wealth of America while at the same time sat- isfying the demands of an awakening social con- science is difficult, is because the centralization of capital as obtaining in America to-day has no prece- dent in all history. To be sure the world has had wealth and much of it in all ages in the comparative sense, but such concentration of vast accumulations in the hands of a few men has never obtained as it now obtains in our country. No wonder every seri- ous-minded citizen feels that the fact is becoming a distinct test to our democratic institutions. Admit- tedly social justice is not probable without extreme care as against the irritations that are arising be- tween capital and the laboring classes. Even under our popular form of government we shall not be de- Some Modern Incongruities 283 livered from admitted peril unless forceful conten- tions are made and a judicial and well tempered mind shall obtain among all classes of people. True we have the ballot, but even that vehicle of popular sovereignty is no guarantee of safety unless the people are impartially informed and kept alert and aggressive in behalf of real and all around social justice. The ballot was designed as a weapon of of- fense and defense, but it lapses into a hollow sham unless kept uncorrupted and used by a citizenship of high intelligence and exalted character. Capital- ism needs to restrain itself from the creation of two contending classes and the government must assist toward such self control by appropriate legislation. Beyond all question and notwithstanding all of our democratic traditions, no country on earth to-day has such a plutocracy as has the United States. The responsibility for such a condition is a total respon- sibility and America must act quickly and sanely because both our momentum and speed are unprece- dented. The moral element underlies and enters into every condition and trend of society so that our social salvation is dependent upon the prevalence and maintenance of high moral qualities in our cit- izenship. A well nigh universal social and spiritual regeneration of our people is to be expected and sought. The moral and spiritual power of Christi- anity alone is equal to such a task. This gracious power is happily available. Without stint it is of- fered to us all on terms which are within the reach of all. In the meeting of these terms we do but 284 Torches Aloft intensify every divine element of our nature and put ourselves in the way of true life efficiency. Since such a power is available there should be no hesita- tion in using it. The incongruities which have been so inade- quately discussed in this chapter are not hopelessly attached to our social life. We may remove them if we will and there is encouragement in the fact that we feel our social wrongs keenly and the spirit of protest is abroad in the land. The cry of the op- pressed shall be heard and all shall be happier for the hearing. Impartial justice to business great and business small shall in much larger measure be meted out and then we shall all wonder why we did not think of it long ago. We are going to be able to see one of these good days that the welfare of one class is impossible in any final sense until it is di- rectly related to the welfare of all classes. Any injury to the industrial workers must react and be felt in a damaging way by the capitalist. We shall discover that the advantage of any portion of our population must not be at such fearful and un- called for privation to some other portion. Added encouragement is to be found in the fact that the temper of the average mind is coming to be such that the whole status is being more generally dis- cussed with calm and dispassionate interest. Men are saying let us hear and study all sides of the mooted questions and get at the exact and impartial truth. Then when we have collected and organized the facts, let us build our policies on lines of broad and collective justice. XXVII. AWAKENING AMERICA All the zones of American thought life are to-day vibrant with a new social passion. Go where you will, talk with whom you will, mingle with any class you will, and you will find immediate interest in economic questions and conditions and their re- lation to the total welfare. Even the leaders in big business are showing themselves sensitive to the advance of public sentiment as to financial methods which are passing under censure because the said methods are adjudged injurious to public welfare. The question of financial success is raised but it is followed at once with the inquiry as to whether the financial success is by such methods as to be hurtful to society. A new guardianship of society, as well as a new responsibility for society is in evidence. No one wishes our financial prosper- ity impaired, but an increasingly large number of people are asking that all financial prosperity yield to such restraints as the generous good of all the people shall require. The principles and controls of Christianity are going into our economic life with a new imperative and a much fuller dimension than ever before. Our democracy is the result and concomitant of our Christianity. Both must have concrete expression in our economic development. The laws of eco- nomic efficiency require such a distribution of wealth 286 Torches Aloft as will provide for the church, the state, the family, and the individual, adequately. This law and its concrete expression as above indicated are impos- sible except as we yield ourselves in a fine fidelity to the laws of Christ and democracy. We have been guilty of much financial sinning and as usual the sinning is bearing fruit. It was ever so. Christi- anity in big financial enterprises is not an impossi- bility. The comradeship is not incompatible and al- ways contributes to human progress. It is not diffi- cult to perceive how one might be too successful in business. This would be so when the accumula- tions were made by violations of Christian princi- ples and also if the accumulations were of such pro- portions as to overcome the consecration to God and the sense of stewardship. It is clearly a violation of Christ's law of life that we should accumulate by entailing privation and poverty upon others. Unless one can look Jesus the Christ in the face and declare that his business success has embodied the square deal and has not violated a single right of a single individual he may rest assured that he has been too successful in business. This is Christian principle applied to money making and shows how carefully an all-wise God has guarded the economic welfare of every human being on the earth. Another feature of the thinking, incident to an Awakening America is the popular verdict that it is un-American that a very small minority shall be major owners of American wealth. The average of intelligence and economic aspiration among Ameri- Awakening America 287 cans has become such that the viewpoint which al- lows that most of our people are to be reconciled to live in poverty is no longer to go unchallenged. The demand is for the reversal of this condition for all industrious and deserving people until poverty shall be done away. Why should not this ideal dominate all civilized minds since it is self-evident that moder- ate wealth so distributed as to afford the economic basis for general domestic efficiency and comfort would set forward human progress immeasurably. Industrial control of the many by the few for the benefit of the few is equally undemocratic and un- American. The government and the courts as em- bodying the judicial verdict of the government must resist the temptation and tendency to become un- democratic, for if they do not we shall be governed by subtle, disguised and unsocialized forces. Gov- ernment by any unsocialized force is destructive. Ours being a democratic form of government the matter of elections without financial control of same becomes immediately important and vital. Capital has not hesitated to undertake a control of the electorate by purchase and as in the case of all wrong doing the immoral deed reacts on the guilty party. Awakening America is beginning to realize that unless the ballot is kept uncontaminated the seeds of anarchy are afforded a seed bed and no settled order of society is safe when the seeds begin to grow. It will indeed be a sad day for the republic when the people know that there are interests that do not hesitate to pervert the most fundamental in 288 Torches Aloft strument of our free government. A sad day when they understand that the verdict of the ballots is not to be trusted and revered because not genuine. In order to safeguard against the financial control of elections it has become necessary to compel both publicity and limitation as to the use of money in connection with elections. Because big business has often secured control of nominating conven- tions Awakening America has been driven to direct nominations, as it is obviously impossible to corrupt all the people. We started out with the assumption that representative government could be trusted, but experience has shown that it cannot and so we have been compelled to adopt the principle of direct government by the initiative and the referendum. The first war of independence was for the right of representative government, but a second war of in- dependence has been made necessary and it is now being waged. It has not been brought on by irre- sponsible agitators, but by the most patriotic and thoughtful of American citizens. It is the awaken- ing of the American heart and conscience. Investigation, publicity, and the facts are doing the work. The light has disclosed a nest of vipers and America is pledged to rob the vipers of their evil power. Awakening America is ready to repent of the national sins and clean the page of each un- happy vestige of dishonor. From the investigation of insurance finance in New York by Governor Hughes until the report of the Vice Commission in Chicago, there has been a steady rise in the stand- Awakening America 289 ards of morality in civil government. With the rise of collective morality and the reign of the Christian conscience in business, some of our brothers will be happier if they shall disgorge their abnormal pos- sessions for the public welfare and it should come in the form of social justice rather than as donations to charity. Our civilization has suffered from a fever- ish financial lust, but the fever will yet subside and a sense of shame grow in its stead. Awakening America is saying in kindness but in much earnestness that predatory wealth has gone the full length of the rope and the rope is not to be lengthened. In fact the leash is at hand. In money matters, it has been felt that the tide was going out, and increasing hardship was to be expected as a matter of course, but the tide is coming in and money is to be sanctified by a better heart and a growing passion for social justice. Oppression has been reckoned as an aspect of the dark ages, but we have detected its survival in modern life. Be- cause the survival is incongruous there is rising a new indignation against the survival in any form whatsoever. Along with the growing indignation against oppression, America has come to feelings of intense censure for dishonesty of the big sort, and is compelling a reappraisement of its real character. It is being classified with any other act of social violence and brigandage. This could not be if it were not for the fact that the nation as to a social conscience, is being born anew and from above. The birth pains an even now on and 290 Torches Aloft the nation is to have a new joy day. We are com- ing to see and feel just how sacred are the ties of human brotherhood because the conscience that was adolescent and quiescent has moved forward toward a mighty manhood. Another proof of an Awakening America is the fact that the social ideals of Christianity, some of which are practically new discoveries, are being wel- comed by the serious American mind. The capacity to receive into its intellectual life essentially new ideals is complimentary to any age or people and especially so when economic questions are involved. The social ideals of Christianity are only new in the sense that the age has a capacity for their apprecia- tion and use which has not formerly existed. As a result of the quickened appreciation of these social ideals the constructive will is manifest as it has not been hitherto, and there is rigidity and firmness where there was once supineness and lamb-like res- ignation to pronounced social wrongs. There is also a growing impatience with cowardice in leaders or in the rank and file. Men are expected to stand and be counted and to be unafraid. The old school of political leaders are being treated to political osler- ization and their places taken in the esteem of the people by men of advanced moral character. The new moral leadership is here in response to a real demand, and the followers of such leadership are an increasing host. The public mind is not so amateur- ish and unsophisticated as formerly. It detects and analyzes motives and is not so gullible as certain Awakening America 291 types of political manipulators would have it be. It has a fine discernment of newspaper mendacious- ness and refuses to be influenced by any newspaper which has not an established reputation for genuine- ness. One hears the remark often that certain news- papers afford the news, but you cannot trust either their headlines or their editorials. They have lost their influence by playing fast and loose with moral principles until no impartial and informed mind ac- cepts their proffered leadership in anything. They are deceiving fewer people every day because the public has taken their true measurements. They have no one to blame but themselves for the great loss of influence which they are now experiencing. Awakening America is releasing on our social problems a new social energy, and it is becoming a force to be reckoned with in every appeal to the public. Tasks that would have been regarded as im- possible a few years ago, even though their achieve- ment admittedly would have set forward human progress, are now undertaken with determination, and a victory soon secured. The growing feeling that the thing that ought to be done is the thing that can be done is a distinct national asset for which all who wish America well may be truly grateful. When the moral pulse of the people is feeble, all the constructive processes of civilization are held back and barnacles attach to the ship of state. The fresh water immersion that will scrape them off is the new social energy. Moral grit is a 292 Torches Aloft fine commodity in which more men are having hon- orable mention than formerly. It is as refreshing as the hours just after a June rain or an autumnal frost to feel that the nation is rising up in moral courage to remove the impediments to social prog- ress, and to observe that a real reformer is no longer looked upon as a harmless curiosity. Battle- ships and forts, swords and guns are yet to be dis- placed, and boards of arbitration will yet take their place in the settlement of differences between na- tions. Heart and mind are to rule instead of brute force, and militant goodness is to cover the earth. The religious spirit is growing outside the church and the social awakening is gripping the Church so that the total result is gratifying. The ultimate will be a better appreciation of the Church and a better service by the Church to daily human neces- sity. Beyond question the Church is taking on a new interest in what has been called the humanita- rian movements. These are no longer regarded as secular matters to be left to secular agencies. The Church is discovering the social application of Christianity and is growing in courage to apply what is discovered. She is beginning to talk seriously about collective welfare and social justice. Enthu- siasm for the public welfare and the most advanced programs for social progress are being accepted as a part of religion. The churches are coming to see that the installation of the kingdom of God on the earth is the supreme purpose of Christianity. The Church is an integral part of the nation and if she Awakening America 293 will accept her ordained place in the leadership of the movement for social equity and progress, we shall witness the greatest revival of religion in all history. In the current social awakening the Church has the opportunity of this generation and should not fail to gather its real significance. It is as if God had placed in the hands of the Church a lever for uplifting the masses to kingdom levels. This is the supreme hour for redemptive passion and social idealism. Both of these are now to harness them- selves to the concrete task. All about there is a vast deal of nebulous social passion which must be called out for enlightenment and better form. Our indus- trial slavery, which is in some aspects harsher and meaner than African slavery must be done away and our mighty capitalism must be brought to a human- ism it has not as yet exemplified. Sunday schools and churches should lead in providing study classes and clubs for the study of the social teachings of Jesus and for social conditions as they now exist. A fine literature is available for such study and it should be generally utilized. Our foreign mission- aries home on furlough find it difficult to account for our supineness before gigantic social evils which they believe under our commanding advantage as Christians in a land so favored as ours, should be forced from the field. Central in pro- phetic idealism is the bringing of the kingdom of God into the social order and it is an appeal- ing task. Christian leaders must think through to a complete Christian program for society. It is 294 Torches Aloft quite clear that full modern social responsibility will not readily be accepted by the Church just as it is not by the State, but we must hold on for it in rugged determination. What no government ever has done or ever can do the Church can and must do. She will shrivel, decay and die if she shall pre- sume to evade her mighty task. The law of the Cross which is sacrificial life is her supreme law. She has created a civilization which is now facing toward her in a severe test of her leadership. She dare not, must not fail. Finally, we must rest our plea for the beneficent ministries in modern civilization with our patient readers. It has been our hope to make some modest contribution to the inspiration of American leader- ship, commercial, financial, political, educational, and ecclesiastical, to the end that Awakening Amer- ica may evolve the New America of which our prophets are already having visions. The torches are aloft, the age tendencies have helped us to be thoughtful, ministerial leadership has been asked to meet a critical situation with befitting celerity and wisdom, administrative officers of the churches have been asked to consider the call to co-operation in the Christianization of America, an honest effort has been made to locate some of the ills to which hu- manity is heir, current changes have been indicated and an effort made to interpret their message to the religious world, we have tarried before the inspiring conception of one religion for all men, attention has been drawn to the vital relation between religion Awakening America 295 and social reform, the upward pull of Christianity has been noted, democracy and government have been presented for deeper study, an effort has been made to secure a better appreciation for the present social urgency, socialism and capitalism have been studied earnestly and dispassionately, encourage- ment as well as warning have been sought in observ- ing certain significant developments in the com- mercial world, our hearts have warmed and sympa- thies broadened while we thought of the coming ca- tholicism, testimony has been borne as to the empti- ness of some modern fallacies, we have taken a glance at the early church in relation to social wel- fare so that we might the better comprehend the duty of the church in social progress, we have sought light on all these problems by taking a look into the aims of Christ, we have added to our convic- tion as to the social efficiency of Christianity by sur- veying Christ's method for an efficient humanity, we have looked over the functions and adaptations of three giants at work for a worthy citizenship, some things that are being overlooked in current think- ing were examined carefully and our minds were prepared to consider the virtues, faults, objectives, and perils of religious people, some modern incon- gruities were rebuked, and all with the hope that an awakened America should rise up in the power of practical righteousness and lead the world toward God and social efficiency. 296 Torches Aloft Ode to America "Land that we love ! Thou future of the world ! Thou refuge of the noble heart oppressed ! Oh, never be thy shining image hurled From its high place in the adoring breast Of him who worships thee with jealous love! Keep thou thy starry forehead as the dove All white, and to the eternal dawn inclined ! Thou art not for thyself, but for mankind, And to despair of thee were to despair Of man, of man's high destiny, of God." "Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive all praise, and honor, and power, for thou didst create all things, and at thy bidding they came into being and were created." "Worthy is the Lamb that was sacrificed to re- ceive all power, and wealth, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and praise, and blessing." "To the only wise God our Saviour be glory, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 '85T 001 921