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The Need of Lobe and Human Kindness
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. R roughton
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age,—Copyright applied for.
Text: 2 Kings 4: 8. —“And it fell on a day
that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great
woman; and she constrained him to eat bread.
And it was that as oft as he passed by, he turned
in thither to eat bread.’’
HF. foundation for my subject will be
the character of the woman of Shunem,
spoken of in my text; the woman of
whom it was said in the Scriptures,
that she was a great woman. We hear
very little about her, except what wo
hear in this immediate connection
Shunem was known far and wide as a
T
philanthropic, good-natured community,
so her environments are good, and doubtless she
got much of her spirit of love and kindness to hu
manity from the atmosphere that surrounded her:
for certain it is that environments make an in
delible impression. Indeed, I believe that environ
ment goes far in the shaping of the final destinies
of the race. I believe that it has more influence
than heredity. I believe it so strongly that I am
prepared to say that I do not believe that God,
though clothed with all power, operating as He
does according to fixed laws and principles, can
make a decent man or woman out of one who hab
itually associates with people who are not decent.
This woman of Shunem had good environments,
and the first thing that we notice about her is
her interest in the prophet Elisha. Elisha is pass
ing by her house, and she observes him and invites
him in to eat bread. She did not only invite him,
“she constrained him to come in and eat bread.”
Literally, she laid hold upon him and brought him
in to eat bread at her house.
WISDOM IN PHILANTHROPY.
Now, this stamps this woman to my mind as a
wise philanthropist, and well may the Scriptures
say of her that she was a great woman. She was
wise in her philanthropy in that she was attracted
to a tramp on the road-side.
I have observed very carefully the trend of the
world of philanthropy within the last few years, and
I have been very much interested, sometimes in
terested with fear, in the turn that the philanthropy
of this age is taking.
For example, we find that it is very easy to raise
large sums of money for great institutions of
learning; colleges and universities of higher edu
cation ; and I would not say a word against the
very highest university training, nor would I say
a thing against those philanthropists who see fit
to pour their money into these institutions. But
I would say this, I do not believe that such phil
anthropy is the wisest. Such philanthropy is tend
ing simply to the strengthening of the top rail
of the fence, while the bottom rail is allowed to
decay, and the result of the present trend of phil
anthropic endeavor is going to be, unless there is
a change, a complete collapse of our whole civili
zation.
If I had the direction of the philanthropy of
this age, I should divide with the schools of higher
learning, which appeal, for the most part, to the
children of the well-to-do, and to those who can,
by strenuous endeavor, help themselves; for that
young man who, after having a decent common
school education, cannot educate himself in the
university, is rarely worth educating.
STRENGTHEN THE FOUNDATION.
So would I divide my philanthropy between in
stitutions of this character and the institutions of
the character of the woman of Shunem. For, if
this civilization is to stand, we have not only to
concern ourselves about the top rails in the fence,
but we have got to concern ourselves, and much
more concern ourselves, about the bottom rails—
the foundation.
We have got to put money in this day in insti
tutions and enterprises that will lay hold on and
train and educate the great masses of our people
The Golden Age for June 13, 1907.
who are never touched, save very indirectly, by
the vast majority of the giving that is being done
t oday.
So 1 say the woman of Shunem was a wise phil
anthropist in that her philanthropy was directed
to meet the needs of the tramp that walked the
road.
Do you know how many tramps there are in this
country? Oh, I know you say, “Well, a man that
tramps in this busy age doesn’t deserve help”;
but that is not solving the question of civilization.
It is a question of his existence; and this civiliza
tion has got to reckon not so much with the face
that he is idle without a cause, as it has with the
fact that he is idle at all; for that he is idle without
cause makes his existence a far more serious prob
lem than otherwise.
When we see men who claim to be philosophers
and statesmen and sociologists of repute, who shut
their eyes and close their ears and turn their backs
upon the worthless vagabond, they are not deserving
of the compliment that is paid them.
I repeat: The fact that there is a man today
tramping the streets, who could have work if he
would, is a far more serious problem to our civili
zation than if he were tramping the streets and
the roads because he could not get anything to do;
and the church of God has got to give its atten
tion, from the standpoint of Christian civiliza
tion, to the solution of the problem of the unem
ployed. It has got to give its attention to the
question of remedying the condition that exists,
whether without or with cause. That man ■who
tramps the streets is a human being; in his breast
beats a human heart, and he has a human soul,
and that human soul is bound for an after life.
WIDE-AWAKE PHILANTHROPY.
Again, she had a wise philanthropy in that she
sought out this opportunity. You must understand
that the woman of Shunem was a rich woman, and
it is a rare thing to find a rich woman or man, or
one who is not rich, for that matter, who goes out
of his way to find a soul in need. Why, the most
of us had rather see a female book agent any time
than to see a man who calls on us for aid, and we
certainly wouldn’t go out of our way to find him.
Suppose the church was fired with the spirit
that actuated this woman of whom we are speaking.
Suppose every woman and every man in Atlanta
was on the look out; looking for men and women
in need. Perhaps they do not need bread; very
few do; but they need something as acceptable
for the time as bread, and perhaps more so, for
1 have seen times in my life when I needed some
thing far more than I did bread, and so have
you.
Suppose every child of God in Atlanta was im
bued with the spirit of looking out for the needy
ones; searching as they walk the streets, as they
go to their business, as they conduct their social
life, riding the cars, and as they go to and fro from
the.church. Suppose our eyes were keyed to dis
cover the man or woman in need. What an impres
sion we would make in this city for Christ!
Instead of that, the world knows that the av
erage churchman is like the other man; trying to
keep away from the fellow who is in need; actually
running away from him oftentimes; hiding from
him instead of trying to find him.
I remember a young woman who once lived in
this city, who was afflicted with tuberculosis. The
nearest relative she had was a third cousin. She
was a splendid, hard-working girl as long as she
was able to get out; but she finally had to give
up her work. She had a small amount of money,
but this soon disappeared. Her board bill became
due, and she must either pay or give up her room,
and she had nothing to pay with.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Where was she to go? There was not a single,
solitary institution in this city that could take
her. No family would take her. No hospital would
be allowed to take her. Only one institution in
the city could take her, the Home for Incurables,
and it only had a limited number of beds for con
sumptives, and they were all occupied. There she
was, too proud to beg. She was one of these wo
men who feel their pride of birth and family keen
ly, in spite of her efforts to overcome it.
She went on, hoping that somebody would come
to her aid, until the day when she was to 1
turned out into the streets, and lived in a square
with three or four members of her church; two of
them officers in her church. But nobody found
out her need. Why? Because nobody felt convicted
of the responsibility of being on the look out
committee.
The other day there came to me the news of a
woman, a member of a certain church in this city,
who was ill. She had to have attention. She ap
plied to her church for attention, since her church
did not apply to her, and when she applied they
appointed a committee to wait on her, and what do
you suppose they said to her? They said, “We
will help you out by sending you to the Charity
Department of the Grady Hospital.” That came
from a church that I have no doubt today could
draw its check for millions of dollars. She looked
the deacon in the face and said, “Help me out
by sending me to the Grady Hospital! What is
that to you? What does it cost you to send me to
the Grady Hospital?”
A CURSE INSTEAD OF A BLESSING.
I say to you today that that kind of Christian
living is the curse of the church of Christ. How
are we ever going to impress the world with that
kind of spirit? I simply cannot have any respect
for any preacher, or any church, or any layman
who allows a condition of things like that to ex
ist, and does not thunder with all the power of
Sinai against it. I believe that for a church today
to allow one of its members to become the object
of the city’s charity is a shame under heaven.
The woman of Shunem was a wise philanthropist
also in that she did not simply stop with giving
Elisha a piece of bread, but she continued to enter
tain him day by day. And she found by so doing
that he was a man of God. Listen: I thank God
that she did not require an investigating commit
tee to go around and get up his record before she
gave him bread; and I thank God that she did not
have any police committee to run old Elisha in
off the streets and wait until he could be investi
gated; and every such thing done in the name of
the Church of God is an abomination.
She sought her opportunity, and then examined
for herself as a child of God, to see what was
the best thing to do with old Elisha. She found
out by experience that he was a man of God, and
she said that because of that she wanted to give
him a room in her house. Her husband entered
into the plan, and a room was built on top of the
house, and prepared as a prophet’s chamber, in
which old Elisha spent his days when in the com
munity.
Oh, the blessed custom of having a prophet’s
chamber in the house! We have gotten so nowa
days that when the preacher comes to visit our
church, he must be sent to the hotel. It is much
more convenient for us. We do not like to be
troubled with him, and in so doing we are giving
up a custom that has had in it rich blessings to
humanity.
LOOKING FOR THE “PARSON.”
There is nothing that I remember with more viv
idness and more pleasure than the frequent visits
of the preachers to our country home when I was
a boy. We had an humble home, but we had a
welcome for the parson, and we children were verv
ranch delighted with the idea of having him around.
We liked it not, perhaps, with the highest motives,
but we got the blessing just the same. We liked
it more from the standpoint of an increased meal.
We used to put on some extras when the preachers
