Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, May 09, 1913, Image 12

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I EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian i THE HOME RARER THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Kunday B> THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabuina St., Atiunta. Gu Entered as secomi-ciasH matter at post of (he at Atlanta, under act of March 3.18.3 Subsc~!-)tPrice Delivered L urri«;r. 10 cents a week. By mail, J6.00 a >eur. * “able in Advance If You Are in Debt, You Are a Fly Glued to the Flypaper. | The More You Struggle, the lighter You Stick. Soon Your Courage 1$ Gone and You Are a Dead Fly. Copyright, 1813. The picture at the top of this page is a pioture for more than half of all the people in this country. More than half the people are in debt—that is to say, they are living beyond their means, or they are spending every cent. And the man who is spending every cent he gets is aotually in debt and running in debt, for he is running in debt TO HIB OLD AGE, when he won’t be able to make, and won’t be able to spend, and when the spending of to day means debt later. Those that are in debt know what debt is. There is no need to tell them about it. First you owe $50 if you are a little man, or $50,000 if you are a big man. And then you owe $100—or $100,000 if you are big. For a while you struggle and plan. You are going to pay it off soon. It is a good thing to use “0 P M,” that is to say, other people’s money, in the effort to get ahead. You tell yourself that all the big men have used their credit and borrowed and gone ahead rapidly. It all sounds very nice and plausible. But remember that YOU KEEP GETTING IN DEEPER The fly lights on the fly paper, perhaps with only one leg at first. He says this is nothing, and puts down the other leg to push himself off. AND THEN HE IS STUCK FAST And then he says to himself: “I will fly away from this fly paper,” so he begins flapping his wings. And both of his wings ■tiek to the paper. There he is with his feet stuck and his wings stuck and only his head free. That fly feels about as independent and hearty as you do if you are in debt. And he says: T can get off of this paper easily enough when I get ready. I’ll just put my head down and push myaelf off ” He buzzes for a while. THEN HE PUTS HIS HEAD DOWN ON THE FLY PAPER, TO PUSH HIMSELF OFF. Then his head sticks tight; he begins to ohoke. By and by he rolls over on his side, he sinks into the sticky surface—AND THERE IS ANOTHER DEAD FLY. The Flypaper of Debt Are you stuck on this flypaper? Are your hands and feet glued with debts? Fight. You will find no happiness while debt holds you prisoner (SEE EDITORIAL.) i So it is with men in debt. So it will be with you if you stay ta debt. The only hope for the fly, the moment he feels one foot on the fly paper, is to use those wings and fly away, not putting in the other foot; flying off as quickly as he can. And a million times wiser and better is the occasional rare fly. who sees the other ffies sticking to the fly paper and says: ‘‘I don’t like the look of those flies; I’ll stay away from them.” Look at the people in debt. See their worry. See the anx iety of the mother, reflected in the children. See the lack of standing, the extravagance and the poverty mixed together. You can't mistake the human fly stuck on the fly paper of debt. Since you cannot mistake him, why not keep away from that fly paper? Debt makes everything worthless. If you owe a thousand dollars, it seems rather foolish to save ten or twenty. You feel that you might as well spend it; it won't make any' difference. And so it goes, if you owe two thousand. And then it isn't worth while to save twenty or forty. And you become a failure. You put down your feet, and then your wings, AND THEN YOUR HEAD, WHICH IS AM BITION, and by and by you roll over and you are a dead fly. Keep out of debt. it t n Lord Welby, speaking in ! Congratulations I London at the annual dinner IA \I +\1' t of the Cobden Olub on the pros- e 1)0 l\Ot W ailt pects of free trade, said that — — ———————— J the members might congratu late themselves on President Wilson's new tariff bill. There is the bare truth about what is thought of the bill by the out-and- out free traders of England. Richard Cobden died in 1865. The population of Great Britain has almost doubled since. Railroads were in their in fancy, and it took weeks to cross the Atlantic. Telegraphy had just begun and ocean-spanning cables did not exist. Cobden could never have even dreamed of the cheap and vast transpor tation systems, by land and sea, of to-day. He could never even have dreamed of the year when the United States would prac tically consume all the wheat it would grow. He could never even have dreamed of the development of machinery, changing, as it has, the whole face of world-trade. Yet they did dream in those days. Cobden s associates dreamed and prophesied, too. They prophesied, and loudly, that within fifty years every civilised nation wonld have adopt ed free trade, and they were exactly wrong. It would take many volumes to tell the whole difference between the conditions of the world s business in 1866 and 1913, There are some congratulations that may be paid for too dearly. . _ Cheer Up—Summer’s a-Coming ByFERA. Rivalry in Religion t Written for The Georgian by REV. JOHN E. WHITE, Pastor Second Baptist Church T HE disappearance of secta rian bitterness is one of the most observable facts of to-day. Whatever may be thought of it, no man can regard it possible to check the move ment which is breaking down the old denominational antipathies It is interpreted by many as the best modern evidence that a Heavenly Power is at work in the world. They believe that the Spirit of its Divine Founder is prevailing in Christianity over the human passions of men, and that the gospel of love Is at last conquering completely the hearts of those who preach it. The large front of this move ment appears in religious conven tions and in the current religious literature. In reiterate^ proposals of church federation and mission ary co-operation not a few relig ious leaders ardently believe that the amalgamation of denomina tions in one great inclusive church is not only desirable but inevitable. Protesting the Movement. But this rosy view has Its checkmate and counter-blast. There are very many—probably at this time the majority of church communicants, who (jo not view the loss of the sectarian spirit with sympathy. Large numbers of leaders are flung in violent reaction against it. With in each denomination there are organs, and therefore an orga nization, of protest. A keen eye observes that the internal antag onisms in the different denomina tions on the subject is really helping on the movement of fra ternity as between the denomina tions themselves by transferring the emphasis of the old conflict between them as sects to mere family disputes. The question of denomination- alism will not be settled wisely in this fashion. There are profound reasons for the existence and maintenance of divergent groups in Christianity. There are many of the best men in each denom ination who observe the tendency of the times, feel its power, and are drawn into it, who stilf stout ly question, if it is not liable to cost the cause of Truth and the energies of religion more than ail its compensating amenities can amount to. The man in the street does not see very far into the problem of denominationalism*. It appears to him a plague of wick ed envies and a useless waste of power. The Real Values. Why Is It, then, that those in side the churches, as leaders and laymen, who are manifestly con secrated men of the finest (rood senee, are strong in their support of separate denominations, espe cially their own? It i« because they know the real value of rts- nomlnationalism. It is not a nar row sectarian meanness on their part. They lend no enronrage- ment to theological strife and re. ligtous bad feeling. They lament the. wounds which persecution and bigotry hay* made and * would make again But they know that after all there are convictions of religious truth worth fighting for, and that the great loyalties of conscience have been the levers of salvation for the human race. As students of church history, they know that * the stubborn quaMty of sonl. the heroic mold of character and the ’ magnificent manhood which have fallen out of that history, are not to be lightly set aside or inter preted apart from the great com petitions of religion in which they were generated. New Denomi nationalism. So the rapidly evaporating sec tarianism of our time, if full of promise, Is full of peril also. It is our task to provide & relation of religious groups to each other and toward their common cause which will conserve consecration and aggressiveness, while at the same time it encourages thetr basal fellowship. I believe it can be done Rnd that it will be done. As Christianity stands to-day. the demand for an arrangement of its group forces In a provok ing attitude toward each other, but with the supreme objective clear enough to cure the evils of sectarianism. The suggestion for a “New Denomlnationalism'' is offered therefore aa a substitute for the tendency toward “No De- nominationalism.” It is that the theological quarrel shall be subor dinated to the logical contest of religious groups engaged construe- ' tively for the kingdom of Qod on earth It should appeal to anyone that the rivalry of creeds giving way to the rivalry of deeds will be infinitely better than the mere subsidence ot -aft fjyglrj* Kfcioh threatened, t *