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VOL. LXXXV1. RICHMONE
Relation of the
The selfish man of the world, the man who
enjoys or profits by the conditions of society as
at present organized or administered, whether
nominally in, or actually out of the church, lias, (
usually, a most profound conviction that the
Church, as such, has no right to interfere in, (
or even to consider or discuss any social question.
The manufacturer whose profits are in
part dependent on unjust monopolies, or who
oppresses his working people with long hours
of labor, frequently including Sunday deseera
"ion; whose shops ane badly lighted; badly heat- "
ed; badly ventilated; unsanitary; with no proper
safeguards for the prevention of accidents;
with no just sense of responsibility to compensate
injured employees or their widows and orphans;
who makes no provision for the moral
or spiritual welfare of those in business relationships
to him, invariably resents deeply any practical
sermon or other ecclesiastical deliverance
on the subject of the Golden Rule. Such have
sometimes been known on occasion to cancel their
subscription to the pastor's salary and to decline
the further support of the missionaries hitherto
accredited to them. Landlords whose wretched
tenements, let at comparatively extortionate
rental, violate both the spirit and the letter of
till* la WO A P rin/l 4-V*rv 1 ?
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sensitive when the Church deals in anything like
a vigorous manner with the subject?"Am I
)ny brother's keeper?" "Well to do and influential
church members whose property, generally
in the hands of agents be it said, is rented out
i'or saloon, or brothel, or other immoral purposes,
vehemently and indignantly reiterate their adherence
to the principle that the Church should
not meddle in affairs of state when she is giving
some sort of countenance to the side of right
in the heat of a strenuous contest for prohibition.
?? _ _ it i ' -
"i wine inner moral issue. AiDie lawyers, some
of them officers in the church, who are, perhaps,
making large fortunes teaching rich and greedy
individuals and corporations how to bribe legislatures
and courts and to evade the just laws
of the land, have been known to fulminate upon
Ihe floors of our Church courts against the alleged
impropriety of the Church forsaking her
high mission of pious aloofness from the realm
of practical things to descend into the turmoil
and strife of the political arena. Merchants and
planters whose wealth is derived from the exploitation
of the ignorant and helpless classes,
whose business methods partake of both injustice
and extortion, sometimes deieply resent pulpit
allusions to present day business immorality. In
a A.1 *- 1 3 ?- * * '1
<?wi l( n gus|iej max wouia meet witn tne entire
approval of snch men as these I have mentioned,
would he so emasculated and devoid of sincerity
as to deserve the contempt and neglect of all
those capable of impartial thought. Indeed, not
a little of the present day indifference to rffligjon
an the part of the toiling masses arises from the
fact that the impression, really quite unsupport
), NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA, OCT
; Church to Sc
By Rev. Logan Irvin]
L*d by the facts of the case, has gone abroad that
too many ministers and churches, from the fear
uf alienating wealthy supporters and parishoners.
will not allow a red blooded gospel of Obristian
brotherhood and responsibility to be preach
eel from their pulpits. There may be a few
worldly ^parishes where a tx>o vigorous emphasis
on applied Christianity might he forbidden, but
in very many instances the neglect of the treatment
of such subjects arises not from a lack of
interest in wronged and suffering humanity, but
in a failure to appreciate the social responsibilities
of the Church. That the Church has a very
important duty in regard to individual and
family morality nobody at all denies, but that
the Church has responsibilities toward society,
toward the state, this is less perfectly understood.
Hut there are today encouracimr sicms thnt in.
terest in the social phases of the gospel of Christ
is on the increase, ministers and laymen are
studying social questions, sermons are preached
setting forth this viewpoint of the truth, loeieties
aud organizations having in view the dissemination
of social knowledge and the promotion
of social service are multiplying on every
hand. Indeed one of the dangers at present is
that in the novelty of the phases of the new
social consciousness just being brought to light,
the original and fundamental idea of individual
responsibility shall come to be neglected. It
would be sad indeed that if in serving society
and the world the Church should herself become
a castaway. These things must be carefully considered
and guarded against. Let us preach a
well rounded gospel, a gospel of individual righteousness
and individual responsibility, of social
righteousness and social responsibility.
It beinsr conceded t.hp rThnw?Vi hoc o d/u.;o 1
w -?VMW MA V/A* AXUO U OUVjX X I
mission, and no one who is at all familiar with
the spirit of the teachings of Christ can deny this,
in what way can that responsibility be most
faithfully and successfully discharged?
That the Church has no divine appointment
to direct civil administration I think the many
centuries of Roman Catholic history abundantly
illustrates* There is an old staying current
among the students of civics that, "Of all the
forms of human government, a government by
priests or tne unurch is least meritorious and
least efficient." The Papal states of Europe, the
Latin American states are all sad reminders and
constant warnings against the folly and wickedness
of a Church ruled state. The Church is
never so little a moral and spiritual factor in a
state as when she rules, or dominates the rulers
of, that state. She must be in the state, she
ought never to he of the state. The world is
slowly but snrelv coming to the full realization
of this fundamental principle. Once and for all
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?al Presbyter/an <
thern Presbyterian
OBER 2, 1912. NO. 40.
trial Questions
let us dismiss the idea, if we cherish such, of a
Church dictatorship in the temporal things of
the state as at once unchristian and uneconomic.
The realm in which the Church can render
the noblest and most efficient social service is in
her legitimate and God-appointed sphere as a
teacher of righteousness, individual and social,
and as an inspirer of Christ-like characters and
ideals. In this high realm she reigns supreme
and unchallenged, from this holy throne on the
rootstooi or liod she may?she will?rule the
world! As to how and when she is to exercise
this prerogative the considerations of a sane
Christian policy and the exegencies of the moment
must determine. Herein she must always
seek the counsel of her Lord and King. But the
Church is essentially a teacher. Hers was the
first founded university, her schools are on the
apex of the world's educational system today,
and always will be unless she, false to her mission,
voluntarily abdicates her prerogative. Let
the minister of the gospel always remember that
he is both a preacher and a teacher, a professor
if you will, with a wide and free range of choice
as to themes for his lectures under the general
heach of Christian theology, Christian sociology,
Christian law, Christian ethics. It is the minister's
duty to study to show himself approved
mito God and man in all these several phases
of the gospel message. The wisest ruler is he
who rules so fundamentally as that his people
do not suspect that they are being ruled. He
who suggests a line of civil policy clearly and
effectively, putting it at once so strikingly and
so appealingly that men see in it the light
of a great and helpful truth that they can understand
and apply to their every day lives, to their
business, to their government, deserves more
than he who drafts the idea into a statute, or
executes the law when it is made. The real king
is after all the power behind the throne, be that
power temporal or spiritual. So, let the Church
of Christ aspire to rule, not by worldly might
or power, not by bullying or intrigue, but by
great and unselfish idea,? patiently and consistently
taught. "He that taketh the sword must
perish by the sword," but he that wields the
scepter of a blazing Christian logic exercises
a sway that the world cannot delegate and can
not take away. The prophet of old, if he were
a man of intelligence and integrity, ruled the
kingdom more surely than the ostensible mon- ,
arch himself on the throne. It was Knox who
ruled the Scotland of his day rather than Mary
Stuart. These men ruled not by might but by
nght. not from an authority delegated from below,
but from a power that came down from
above, a power that worloed through an unselfish
heart and a sanctified life.
In the administration of practical sociology
Ihe Church must always be a pioneer and leader,
but after she has faithfully inculcated the principles
involved society may invariably be de