VTti
.1 '
-I-
,! ;r
fy:
j. r
J
J
-t
'
(
The Cdmmbner
j
a
"V0L&P.-N0.9
.T . .
'U
N
It
h
r
I
v
I
children on ono side should bo educated .and
tho' children On the other side condemned ", to
tho night pf ignorance; I shall assumo no . such
responsibility, I nni anXious that my chlldrdn
" and grandchildren shall ho oduc'atod, and I do -not
dtfslro (or a child or grandchild of niino
anything that I do not deslrd for every child
in tho world. Children come into tho world
'without thoir own volitlorf; they (ire -hero as
a part of the Almighty's plan, and there is not
a child oh God's footstool that has not as
much right to all that Hfg 'can givfc as my child
or you child. Education increases one's capacity
. for service ' and thorof oro "enlarges' tho rowdrd
that one can rightfully draw from society.
There Is no reason why every human being
should not have both a good heart and a
trained mind; but; if I Wore compelled to
choose between the two, I would rather that
ono should havq' a good heart than a trained
mind. A good hoarrcan make a dull brain use
ful to society, but a bad heart cannot" make a
good use 6f any brain, however trained or
brilliant.
When wo deal with tho heart we must deal
with religion, for religion controls tho heart,
and, when wo consdor this wo And that tho
religious environment that surrounds our young
people is as favorable as their intellectual en
vironment. As in tho case of education, lack
of appreciation may1 be due in part to lack ot
opportunity to make comparison. If we visit a
country in Asia where the philosophy of Con
fucius controls, or whore they worship Buddha,
or follow tho prophet, or observe tho forms ot
tho Hindu religion, we find that, except where
' they have borrowed from Christian nations,
, they have made no progress in fifteen hundred
years. "Here, all have tho advantage of
Christian Ideals, and yet, according to statistics,
something more than half the adult males are
"not connected with any religious organization.
Some scoff at religion, and a few are outspoken
enemies of the church. Can they be blind to
tho benefits conformed by our churches? Se-
durlty of life and property Is not' entirely due
to criminal laws, to a sheriff in each county,
andto an occasional' policeman. For every per
pori" made honest1 by, conscience' an hundred are-
made honest by law; for every one kept in the
straight and narrow way by fear of prison walls,
' a multitude are restrained by the invisible walls'
that-conscience rears about us walls 'that are
trongor than the walls of stone.
Law Is but- tho crystallization of conscience;,
moral sentiment must bo created before it can
express itself in- the form of a statute. Every
preacher and priost, therefore, whether his
congregation be large or small, who quickens
the conscience ol those who hear him helps the
community.' Every church of evory denomina
tion, whether important or unimportant, that
- helps to raise tho moral standards of ftfte land
"benefits all who live under tho flag whether
they acknowledge thoir obligations or not.
But lack of appreciation on thd'part ot those-
outside of the church would not concern-us so
much it all the church members lived Up to
thoir obligations. Let me ask those" not mem
bers of the-church to pardon me for a moment
While I speak to church members to everyone
who is connected with any branch of the
Christian ctfurch. How much is It worth to
-one to be born again? Of what value is it to
havo had the heart touched by the Saviour and so
changedJEhat it loves the things it .used to hate
and hates the things it formerly loved? Of
What value is it to have one's life so trans
formed, that, instead of resembling a stagnant
pool, it becomes Hko a living spriug, pouring
forth that which refreshes and invigorates?
What is it worth to tho Christian, and what is
it worth to those about him, to have his life
-brought by Christ into such vital living contact
with the Heavenly Father, that that life becomes
.tho means through which tho goodness of God
pours out to tho world?
But I go a. step farther and ask whether th6
church as an organization not any one demonl-
' nation but the church universal-r appreciates
Its groat opportunities, its tremendous responsl-
bility, and the infinite power behind it.
Take your Bibles when you go home and
turn to the concluding' versos of the last chapter
of Matthew. Note the use of tho little word.
ALL four times in .a few lines. It is the last
cdnterence that Christ has with his followers;
1 ' It is after His crucifixion and resurrection 'it
. ' was His last-word to them. E"e told them that
'alljpower not some power but all power in
heaven and. Jn earth, had been given into his
hands; He sent them out to make disciples of
air nations not of some but of all; He in
structed , them to teach all tho tilings that -he
had cotntnanded-; and Ho concluded witli that ,
wonderful promise: MLo I ani with you always,
oven unto tho end of the world." Is there any
other organization with such a commission back
of it?
Here is a gospel intended for every human
being; hero is .a moral code that is to endure
for all time; here is a philosophy of life that
fits Into every human need; and back of these
is all power in heaven and In earth! Does the
church realize that God has given Into its
keeping a solution for every problem that can,
perplex a human heart 6r vex the world? Does
it realize that it has not only Absolution but tho
ONLY solution of all problems?
J.t I mistake not there is more unrest in this
country than was ever known before, and the
world is nearer to tho verge ot chaos .than it
has been In centuries. Let me call your atten
tion to some of the problems that press upon
the church for solution not all of these prob
lems but three only.
First, tho labor problem. Js there any ,
Christian who does not see increasing class
conciouSness among the members of two great
classes known as capitalists and laborers? Is
there any Christian who does not-note a seem
ing solidifying among the members of these two
classes as if they looked forward with a 'vague
dread to what they regard as an irrepressible
conflict? Can any Christian regard the future
as entirely bright unless capital and labor . can
bo brought together in harmonious co-operation?
All desire that the laborer shall give to society
-the maximum of his producing power, but can
he do so if he is not a willing worker? Alt .
desire that the employer shall bo at his best
in organizing and directing ability, but cap he
be, unless -he is a satisfied employer?' .How Han
we fill our land with willing workers and. satis
fied employers except by the application of the "
doctrines of the Man of. Galilee?
The church believes in God, and it .believes
that the God who created the employer created
the employee; the church believes, in 'Christ,'
and it belieyes that tho Christ wh.o djed f'or'ontf
died for the other also; the church looks for'
ward to the comifig of an universal Brother
hood and it believes that this brotherhood will
include both" those wh6 work for wages and
those who pay wages. Is not this problem suf
ficient to challenge the supremo attention of "the
church? If not the church, what organization
can spoak peace to the industrial1 world? .
Another domestic problem, not so 4ld and
not so hard to solve I trust, but irritating, while
it lasts, is presented by the profiteer -
I do not know whether you have any prof
v iteers.in your community; it you have not you
ought to advertise the fact.' .An hundred mil--lions
. ot people are looking for just such a
town to live in and, so far as I know; you will
. have "no rival. We have some profiteers in Ne
braska and, if they can: invade the precincts ot
that great commonwealth, what gtate can hope
to escape this plague. In one Nebraska city a
clothing merchant, who sold on Installments,
was charging ninety-seven dollars and a lmlf
for suits of clothes that cost him thirteen and
a half. In another city a shoe merchant was
making an average prqfit of eighty-six per cent.
That you may understand this let me explain.
It means that, whenever he received a dollar
and eighty-six cents for shoes, he would put one
dollar of the dollar eighty-six cents aside and
thus address.it: "Dollar, out of you I must pay
the farmer who raised the animal that furnished
the hide; out of you I 'must pay the, tanner who
converted the hide into leather; out ofou I
must pay the factory that converted the leather
into shoes; and out of you I must pay all who
helped to carry the hide from the farm to the
tannery, from the tannery to the factory and
. trom the factory to my store. Nova dollar if
you pay all these others'-for the work thy have
done I'll pay myself the other eighty-six cents
for handling the shoes out over the counter to
the customer," That is profiteering on a small
. scale-rl say on a small jjcale because much of
the profiteering is on a larger scale. Some of the
corporations have piado returns to tho Treas
ury department at Washington showing a prof
it of one hundred per cent, some one thousand
per cent and some have gone to three, four and
even -live thousand per cent,
.y$ftstfall we ha,& a coal strike at the begin-
m. .9f J&nter. , . sThe. ne. workersomplain
: that UYiug, expenses were riling Easier than
wages and asked for more pay., The mine own
ers refused thejr demands" and. tho nation was
threatened with; a shortage' of- fuel. Wo now
jlndthat some4 three hundred of those coal
companies were making large profits, some five
hundred per cent, some a thousand per cent,
some fifteen hundred per cent and four of them
reported that, after paying all wages and other
. expeggesr they collected a profit of two thou
sand per cent on their .capital and this profit
was collected during tho war when young men
were leaving college- and offering on their coun
try's, altar their preparation for life; when
mothers were giving up their sons on whom they
hoped to rely in their declining years, when
wives Were taking upon, themselves a double duty
and when fathers Were leaving their children.
It was when the people were paying taxes such
aS ithey had never paid -before, and loaning
money to the government oh a scale never"
dreamed of before, When the nation was
straining '.every nerve to do it's part in the big
gest War the world ever knew; these corpora
tions, engaged in handling a nOcessary of life,
'were shaming the highwayman by their prac
tices. " T-
I was so impressed by the gravity of the sit
uation that I laid the matter before tho Pres
byterian -General Assembly when it met in
Philadelphia last spring, ' I suggested that tho
churches ought to take the lead in arousing pub
lic sentiment against the crime of the' profiteer
'and pointed out that these men will be sent to
tho penitentiary some day and that it will be
embarrassing to have a. sheriff enter a promi
' nent church and take a prominent member from
a prominent pew and show that he has been
stealing trora all the rest of the congregation.
I argued that we should drive all the, profiteers
out of the Presbyterian church o that, when
they go to the penitentiary,' they will"-not go
as Presbyterians- There t should be no Presby-
tefrlan ward in the .profiteer prison.
""" i also brought the matter fo the attention of
the Metnodist General Conference and would
have been glad 'to go before all the other
churches, but about this time" the "parties, began
tojfie-rd their national conventions and I thought
that theySnight do sOntethlrfg; to protect the peo
ple from 'the" greed of th$ Db1t6'er. ,'"
I went to the Republican convention first not
because I had more faith In that pa'rty but be
cause it met first. I urged the adoption of a
strong plank against the profiteer and expressed
my willingness to take such a plank to the
Democratic convention and 'ask for its adoption,
I thought wo might be able to unite the two
parties on this proposition and drive the prof
iteer out of the country. You can imagine my
disappointment when I read the Republican plat
form and found that the plank against the prof
iteer was the shortest plank: in the platform. It
contained, but one" sentence and that sentence
contained but eighteen ords, andV they did not
mean anything. I was disappointed but could
'understand the embarrassment under which the
party labored.
tt is much easier for a party to punish wrong
doing in the opposite party than among its own
-member. I heard" a story thirty years ago that
Illustrates this embarrassment. A man fwenfc
Into a clothing Btore and, whenthe merchant
was not looking, put on' a coat and ran out. The
merchant caught sight of. him as he went out the
door and Shouted, "stop thief," but the thief did
not stop,. Then a policeman joined in the
chase but utiU the thief did not stop. Finally,
the policeman drew his revolver and shouted;
"Stop, or I will shoot.' The merchant became
excited and, grabbing the policeman, protested:
"If you do shoot, shoot him in the pants, the
coat beongs to me," That- vy8" the trouble at
Chicago. Nearly all the profiteers were there, as
delegates, or in the gallery or at the Blaclcstone.
Of course, the convention was embarrassed any
convention would, be under the same circum
stances, :
Then I hurried out to San Francisco, confi
dent that our convention would give to the con
suming public that protection which the Repub
lican convention had refused to give. I prepared
a plank against tho profiteers, proposing reme
dies whiclr seemed to be adequate but the res
olutions committee turned the planlc down. As
committees dd not always reflect the sentiment
of conventions X took the plank before the con
vention and the convention turned it down even
more 'emphatically It' seemed as if all the prof
iteer who were not at Chicago had reached
v Sari Francisco before I atdarndome of the ms
' ones VeVatboth pla6d3V. ;.r v
- a
" 2.
-
V
'-v
f
i vr&mmMi.n
t
