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8 The Golden Age {SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUU) Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing Company (Inc.) OFFICES: LOWNDES BUILDING, ATLANTA, GA. Price: $2.00 a Year WILLI HMD. UPSHAW, - - - - Editor A. E. RAMSAUR, . . . Associate Editor W. F. UPSHA W, - - - - "Business Manager H. R. "BERNARD, - . . Sec’y and Treas. Application made at the Post Office in Atlanta, Ga., to be entered as second-class matter. What Shall We Render. This has been a radiant week for The Golden Age.. In one short span it has been born; it has been nurtured; it has leapt into vigorous life I Some of us who have kept mid night vigil over its forming in the office and hung day and night over its forms in the pub lishing house, are now more than gratified over its launching. From far and wide messages of congratula tion —and what is proof positive—subscrip tions! are pouring in upon us! The editors wish they could answer personally every good letter that has come. But that is impossible. The best answer that can be rendered is the best service that can be given to meet the expectation of friends and the generous en thusiasm which has been accorded the first issue of The Golden Age. And in rendering thanks we would not forget our expert and efficient publishers, Converese and Wing, who are due great credit for the beautiful ap pearance of the paper. They have been tire less in their efforts, and in the highest print er’s art they have won. Let all our riends tell the good news about The Golden Age to their neighbors, as many are doing now. and together we will build up speedilv in this section the greatest and most fruitful paper which the South has ever known. Denied in Creed, but Crowned In Song. On a recent Sunday night in Atlanta a large audience gathered in The Grand opera house to attend a service under the auspices of the Unitarian church of this city. The unusual attraction was a Sunday night service at The Grand, and a new and schol arly minister, the Rev. Moore Sanborn, a man of engaging personality and an imperial, flowing type of eloquence. His theme was ‘ Jesus, the Man.” Os course, he took the well known Unitarian position—wreathing flowers of beautiful rhetoric about the hu manity of Jesus, but disputing the immacu late conception and denying the Deity of our Lord. But, lo! from the printed slip of hymns selected by the minister the congregation was invited to sing, “In the Cross of Christ I Towering o’er the wrecks of Time.” But those who love Him who said: “He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Fa ther,” —those who love Him for His willing Death and His triumphant resurrection (meaning His atonement and his Divinity) wonder how the singers could glory in the Cross of Christ? And then, more than all, that great congre gation, at the invitation of the minister, stood up and sang “All hail the power of Jesus’ name,” pealing forth those wondrous lines, “Bring forth the Royal Diadem And crown Him Lord of All!” Why crown Him Lord if He were not Di vine? Ah! the human Christ is not enough. “Naught but God can satisfy the soul.” We ask in tenderness but in fidelity: Why deny Him in creed, but crown Him in song? The Golden Age for March 1, 1906 Reforms In Life Insurance. Public attention during the last year has been riveted on the life insurance upheaval. The hurricane of revelation, investigation and condemnation has passed. A cold and sullen calm has followed. The unthinking eye sees little save the havoc wrought. Those who have studied precedent conditions have found and analyzed the logical causes of the crisis. Having pointed them out, intelligent thought is now seeking to find helpful results. Ameri can sense and genius will eradicate its harmful faults and deceptive fallacies and retain the re sultant sound system of legal reserve insur ance. Briefly put, the cause of the crisis was this: The "business” incident to the conduct of life insurance had come to overtop its beneficence. This condition came gradually with the growth of the several companies. As their accumula tions gathered, large financial prestige center ed in the personality of the men who controlled them. Shrewd men of great business insight as they were, they quickly saw that in press ing their respective institutions into greater and still greater size, swelling and doubling the accumulated savings of their patrons, they multiplied over and over their personal finan cial power. Their dominant note became an insistent cry for more new insurance; consid eration was too seldom given to the question whether this new insurance was secured at a cost consistent with the interests of those al readv policy holders. Sharp competition arose. Competition may lessen the cost of some commodities, but not the cost of life insurance. Competition brought higher commissions and heavier expenses all along the line. The result was an increase in the cost of life insurance. Premium rates ad vanced and dividends decreased. Os course, the simple forms of policies carried for pure protection could not stand the burden of this pressure. The competing companies were too wise to place it there; instead, they encouraged the sale of investment insurance, actually cre ating a great demand for it. As these policies carried high premium rates, upon them could safely be placed the burden of expense. fascinating forms, clad in the glittering rai ment of radiant promises, obscured the vital principle of insurance for pure protection. As it is impossible to determine in advance tne actual cost of insurance, it is necessary for a sound institution engaging in the business to charge a gross premium large enough to cover the cost in any contingency. As nearly all companies are theoretically mutual, the prom ise is made to return at stated intervals these excess payments, vulgarly called dividends. It finally occurred to the management of most companies that if policy holders could be in duced to defer the time of receiving back the surplus premiums they paid, it would add to their holdings, and to their personal prestige, iience the origin of the deferred dividend pol icy. This form of contract left its purchaser no assurance of dividend save what the con science or capric of the ecompany might award him at the expiration of the term —gen- erally twenty years. It created a large fund for which the management was legally respon sible to no one. It gave the power to press the reckless battle for magnitude. Theoretic ally, the deferred dividend policy is not bad; in practice* it is all wrong. It is the mudsill up on which the wasteful fabric of extravagant management was built. It must go. The econ omy of life insurance for the future has no place for it, save to fulfill honorably the con tracts of this class already in force. Absolute divorce of life insurance from the field of spec ulation investments must come. Small commis sions and general economy must replace expen sive past administrations. This means less in surance written, less lapsed, less cost to the insured. Some things must go, but not the system of legal reserve insurance. Like pure gold, it shines out clearer after the fires of criticism have burned the trappings which trammeled it. Protection for the home is an absolute ne cessity and sound life insurance must remain as long as the burden of providing for one’s own family remains an individual responsi bility. W. F. U. Foster, Straton and the Bible. Professor George B. Foster, of the Univer sity of Chicago, recently published a book, "rhe Finality of the Christian Religion,” which voices the most advanced expression of “new thought” and criticism. The book is in substance an attack upon the Bible as the Word of God. The inspiration of the Bible is denied ; miracles are disputed and the res urrection is questioned. Concerning miracles, he says: An intelligent man who now affirms his faith in such stories as actual facts can hardly know what intellectual honesty means.” The book has attracted wide attention. Rad ical utterances generally do. In Chicago, Rev. John Roach Straton, pastor of the Sec ond Baptist church, has introduced a resolu tion before the Ministers’ Conference of that city, asking that Professor Foster be requested to resign his position with the University of Chicago. The action of the ministers on this resolution is awaited with special interest by Georgians, Mr. Straton having been reared in Georgia, and indeed all persons who find from their personal experience that the Bible is the Book of Books, are united in hoping that the Conference will pass the resolution. Not that such action of these Chicago ministers would mean the "finality” of Professor Foster’s book, but because it would speak the attitude of lead ers in spiritual things who have seen under their own ministry countless refutations of Professor Foster’s hurtful volume. But despite the continued attacks —the pitia ble mistakes of ultra scholarship and its mis guided devotees, the conquering Church of God continues to do business at the same old stand without having to mark down its goods. Whoever witnessed the miracle of regenera tion take place under the teaching and preach ing of “new thoughtism” and “higher criti cism”? But men who love the Old Book, be lieve in it from cover to cover, and preach it with uncringing fidelity, are witnessing every day the miracles of the “new birth” in lives redeemed from sin and ruin. "Hammer away, ye hostile bands! — Your hammers break—God’s anvil stands.” Chadwick Coming. In another column will be found the an nouncement of the Tabernacle Bible Confer ence which convenes in Atlanta March Bth, lasting ten days. These conferences have for several years been marvels in attendance and spiritual in spiration. The program this year is wonder fully rich, bringing together some of the strongest speakers in America or the world. But Dr. Broughton and the thousands who will attend the conference are to be congrat ulated that Chadwick, the great English preacher, will be present and speak twice each day. He will be open to a few engagements — two or three days in each city—after the con ference, and Dr. Broughton is now weighing the invitations toward the widest possible good. Editorial Heart Throbs. If your life —your duties are cheerless, put cheer and sunshine into them. What if Disappointment, Uncongeniality and Sorrow do often “sit and sup with you when you have bidden smiling Joy alone?” God can take anything, any circumstance, and bless it to your good—if you will.