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10. (178) THE
WHAT IS IT AMOUNTING TO?
Faithful and earnest Christians dislike to express
themselves freely, sometimes, lest they
hamper a good work or ehill the ardor of those
who are seeking to warm the church to a better
life. They do not wish even so much as to appear
to be in the way of good things. It would
be better, however, if they would speak out occasionally,
even though their motives may be
misunderstood.
In the matter of the "Men and Religion"
movement and its campaign now in progress,
there has been much questioning as to the nature
and practical value of it. Many most devoted
men have consented to embark in it and to
lend it vigorous aid. Very many more have expressed
themselves as entirely friendly to the
enterprise, and entirely unwilling to throw the
least obstruction in its way, but not ready to be
oome it.s active agents. A few have been outspok
en in discouraging it as a practical measure. The
latter have based their action upon the observation
of the little permanent results of similar enterprises,
upon the conviction that we already
have a superabundance of machinery in the
church, upon the belief that God has fully provided
in the organized chureh for the accomplishment
of all the ends he has set before her, upon
the persuasion that home workers can do all that
is needful, and upon a decided feeling that the
church world is just now overstocked with advisers-general
and groups of men and women
who think they have all the wisdom going.
A well known minister, one of the mast active
and devoted of whom we know, the very mention
of whose name would at once be a guarantee of
the sincerity and intelligence and conscientious
ness ot ins position, lias just passed through one
of these "Men and Religion" campaigns. He has
been induced to give his judgment of it, as a
practical, tested thing. lie has been in direct
contact with the movement, and has lent it the
aid of his great influence and large heart. He
has reluctantly expressed himself.
First of all, he notes that the movement is not
reaching those for whom it was supposed to be
designed. The great meetings are made up almost
entirely of that same set of earnest laymen
who by their presence and sympathy have sustained
all the other like movements. In a large
city it is easy to mass together a great body of
men, when all the churches are co-operating, but
a careful analysis of some huge meeting will show
that it is the same old set of splendid, consecrated
men, who are anxious to do any good that may be
in their power, and who have themselves been
educationalized and stimulated and inspirationalized
over and over again in all the movements
and meetings and conferences and conventions of
the past decade or two.
Next, he notes that there is a tone of depreciation
of the church on the part of the "teams of
special workers," the evangelists of new methods,
which tends to loosen the hold of the church upon
the outside masses. It is only too patent a fact
that the unevangelized masses are out of sympathy
with the church, not because the latter has
been faithless to them, but because they are by
nature oppased to it. A very little reading of
Ood's word and a very little close study of humanity
will show the last assertion to be true.
This inbred and natjral opposition to spiritual
fi,;nnc, +/> -i-.-?i. ? i-v- i 1 > -? ?
uiiiign, min m iuv uiiurcu as me iiernia or spiritual
truth, is had enough of itself and is already
sufficiently predisposed to disparage the church
without these expert workers strengthening those
who have it in their opposition or alienation.
The criticism of the church is always unwholesome
for the reason that it takes on added color
and strength from the natural enmity of the unregenerate
to the things of the Spirit of God.
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S<
There is a whole volume of untruths told about
the church, as to her unwillingness to receive the
poor, her illiberality towards the needy, her lack
of hearty welcome to strangers, her not sympathizing
with labor, her purple and fine linen, and
all such stuff and nonsense.
Next, he notes, as an experienced man, that
not a thing is accomplished by these great highpi
ensure meetings, attended in the main by the
"old guard," that cannot be just as easily and
far more permanently accomplished by the home
workers in the more ordinary and innnnsninmis
methods of every day work. The feverish conditions
of the special work, on the other hand,
leave the body weak and tired, and the commonplace
work which follows is riot up to the
mark, so that the results, all told, are decreased
instead of enlarged. Conscientious, steady home
work, uninterrupted by periods of high-pressure,
will produce more, year in and year out, than
all the "educational and inspirational" gatherings
that outside ingenuity can invent.
He notes, again, the degree of artificiality
and professionalism that attaches to the campaign.
This is almost unavoidable. Teams of
men cannot traverse the country, repating their
speeches week after week, without dropping into
a more or less perfunctory getting off of their
ideas arid methods, and without a daily increas
ing artificiality of application of them. It is
impossible for them to appreciate all the local
conditions and to adjust themselves anew each
week to the situation in which they find the
Christian communities which they are "working
up." It is a very reasonable belief on the part
of the home workers of each community that
they have a most peculiar and difficult field.
The visitors generally smile when they hear this
expressed. Each field has its own conditions and
difficulties, and in many of them no new-comer
can fully adapt himself until after many months,
sometimes years, of faithful work and study.
He notes, again, that all these campaigns are
not only projected for communities where the
people will be appreciative and liberal enough
to provide the funds for the heavy expenses,
thus making the burden to rest upon the same
old set over and over again, but, singular to say,
are predicated upon the idea that the local workers
do not appreciate their own situation or that
they are failing in their efforts to compass the
work. A New York committee of men, be they
never so charitable and devout, may not be able
to judge fairly of the workers of San Francisco.
There are no general conditions upon which a
common work may be projected. There is unwisdom
in expecting such work to produce the
desired end.
Tn all this no depreciation of the earnestness
and pious purposes of the prime movers or of
the traveling workers of the cause is intended,
much less any questioning of their motives and
sincerity. It is simply a question of the best and
most practical thing to do.
THE VIEWPOINT OF SERVICE.
Calvinism makes God the center of its thought
and fa;th. From that eminence it views every
truth of inspiration. The effect is to measure
all service, attainment, experience, relationship
and security by the standards of grace. It
makes men strong, reliant, brave, and self-for
fretful in their lifework. It makes them confident
that the Gospel will win and that Christ's
triumph is sure and complete. It regards life
as sifrnifieant only as it is linked to the life of
God and that such a union imparts to life immeasurable
difrnity. It supplies an adequate
reason for toil, self-sacrifice, moral courage,
earnest testimony, the cultivation of one's pow
)UTH [ February 21, 1912
rs urd use of opportunities, because of the oonviction
that God is in and above it all, pledging
his perfections and the resources of his kingdom
to the attainment of that which he has ordained,
which he has made known as his will and
in which he is therefore sovereignly concerned.
>NT0t only does such a faith impart efficiency and
vigor to service in active life, but it has been
often noted that it renders the soul calm, yet
rapturously confident in death. It is the faith
m u'liinli f a man4- J
iu uivn iu uiccv liic mat uic^acugci scrcucij anu
in triumph. An instance is found in the case of
Augustus Toplady, author of the most popular
hymn. "Rock of Ages," and the leading expounder
of the Calvinistic faith in his day. His
biographer says that during his last illness the
poet seemed to lie in the vestibule of glory. To
a friend he said, "0, my dear sir, I cannot tell
the comforts I feel in my soul?they are past expression.
The consolations of God are so abundant
that he leaves me nothing to pray for. My
prayers are converted into praise. I enjoy a
heaven already within my soul." To his friends
he said, "What a blessing that you are made
willing to give me into the hands of my dear
Redeemer, for no mortal can live after having
seen the glories which God has manifested to mv
soul."
Such triumphant faith is the normal consequent
of the conviction that the soul is in the
hands of the supremely graciotis G?d whose purposes
cannot change or be thwarted; who keeps
that which is committed unto him against that
day, and from whose love neither death nor life,
angels, principalities, powers, things present nor
things to come can separate the soul.
The truth about church union is coming to be
well understood and freely stated by the more
evangelical and discriminating religious journals.
For example, the Presbyterian Witness
puts the argument comprehensively and concisely
in these words: "Rome represses freedom
of thought. One head thinks for it and controls
it. Uniformity is thus attained. That church is
q vuof m o oli in A **? *
.uoi miKiiiiic. uui r roiesiani/ism iosters
thought. Its churches are the expression of a
life; and that life is bound to express itself in
various ways. The family of God is one in spirit,
in the things that remain forever, yet its members
keep house separately; and these separate
organizations are not antagonistic, but supplemental,
to each other; and they should ever proclaim
to the world their oneness.
The way in which some of our Church courts
adopt measures that are brought before them
strongly suggests that the measure has been
framed and put through by a committee or an
adventurous member or two, rather than expressing
the sober judgment of the court as to
the hest interests of the Church. This paragraph
in The Advance furnishes an instance of
apparently primitive but really modern methods
of disposing of some of the business that comes
before deliberative bodies: "In our boyhood
days, we attended a meeting of the rural branch
-*?=? *
v.* i,u& uui inunn v;uiiuiiia?iun in me iTome village.
An agent of the city organization was present
to make known the wishes and needs of the main
body. The farmer's wife who presided said,
after a clear statement of wishes on the part of
the agent, "The ladies will please hold np their
hands and pass it." Then turning blandly to
the representative, she would add with a seraphic
smile. "The vote is unanimous:" The function
of more than one church meeting we have attended
has proved to be simply that the council
should hold up their hands "and pass it."
Often as this method is resorted to, it ha^ never
become quite pleasant."