THE OLD GOSPEL IN THE NEW CENTURY JAMES D. MCCAUGHTRY iRARY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT BV 603 .M22 1915 NcCaughtry, James Dailey Old gospel in the new century t:g7^T M THE OLD GOSPEL IN THE NEW CENTURY BY JAMES D. McCAUGHTRY OCT ^ yi in "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Psalm 90:12. BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER TORONTO: THE COPP CI/AKK CO, LIMITED Copyright, 1915, by James D. McCaughtry All Rights Reserved THB GORHAM PRB88, BOSTON, U. S. A. To The Reverend DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D.D., LL.D., Pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church of New York City, whose helpful suggestions and wise counsel in my early ministry, helped to make this volume possible, this book is dedicated with grateful acknowledgment of his friendship. CONTENTS Page The Church in the Light of History 9 The Bible Tested in the Crucible of Time 21 The Biblical Basis of Foreign Missions 31 Figuring Out the Profits in a Losing Game 43 The Church and the Working Man of the Twen- tieth Century 53 The Practical Value of Christianity as a National Asset 73 The Call of the Hour 87 THE CHURCH IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY "For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it"— Acts 5:38, 39- "The small mud-huts of bigotry will be submerged by the mighty cataclysm of human progress, but the Church, founded upon a rock, will remain above the floods'* — Ecce Deus. The Old Gospel in the New Century THE CHURCH IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY IN the years of childhood we accept with unques- tioning faith the instructions of our parents and teachers; but as the years pass and the faculties of the mind expand, as the reason grows stronger and we begin to broaden the foundations of our faith, we come to a point where we begin to ask questions about our environment and want to be able to give an intelligent rea- son for our faith. We come at length to a place where we awake to the fact that we are in a world thst is several thousand years older than we are, that we are living in the midst of laws and institutions that have come down from hoary antiquity, and we very naturally want to know the meaning of these facts and institutions. We find among these institutions the Church with its system of doctrine and its forms of worship, and we begin to ask ourselves, What is the Church? What is its mission to our age and what its relation to our life problems? Our fathers believed that it was a divine institution founded by Christ for the purpose of saving men and women from sin and at length establishing the reign of righteousness in the earth. There are those in our day who tell us that the church is merely a human institution like the lodge, the school or the lyceum; that people of like tastes and aims have banded themselves together for mutual improvement and have called the society thus formed a church. Sooner or later the question will force itself upon each 9 10 THE OLD GOSPEL of us, Is the Church a human institution? or is it a divine institution resting upon the life and character of Jesus Christ? It is my purpose in this chapter to try to meet this inquiry by an appeal to history and an examina- tion of facts. The Church has proved itself to be of God by the fact that It has met and successfully vanquished every form of opposition that it has encountered in the nearly tw^o thou- sand years of its existence. When the divine Founder of the Church w^as born In Bethlehem a price v^^as put upon his life. A royal edict was issued from the palace of Herod that all the male chil- dren In and around Bethlehem should be slain. But In spite of this cruel edict the very child for w^hom It w^as intended escaped and grew to manhood In the village of Nazareth, and when He was about thirty years old began to proclaim himself the founder of a kingdom — a kingdom unlike any other that had ever existed on earth. It was not founded upon force or wealth or learning, but upon love. It was a kingdom that was to have no limitations In time or geographical extension. It was to reach to the uttermost parts of the earth and to the uttermost limits of time and to the uttermost depths of man's need. Jesus gathered around him twelve men, taught them his doctrines, showed them his works and sent them forth to preach his gospel to all nations. When these twelve men set out upon their task they found heathenism strong- ly entrenched on every hand. Heathenism had the patron- age of emperors and statesmen. It counted among Its adherents the Pharaohs of Egypt and the Caesars of Rome. Heathenism had then all the machinery of government at IN THE NEW CENTURY ii its command, all the courts of law, all the armies and navies. If the apostles appealed to the courts for redress of any grievance, their case must be tried before a tribunal that was not in sympathy with their views. The judges had been reared by heathen mothers, trained in heathen schools, and were thoroughly heathen in all their ideas. If the apostles appealed to arms to establish their cause, all the armies were commanded and manned by those who were heathen in their ideas. Christianity had no great statesmen or soldiers, in fact no great names save that one NAME that is above every name, the name of the crucified Christ. Heathenism had the support of the accumulated wealth of forty centuries. All the treasuries of the nations were controlled by those who were heathen. We know some- thing of the power of wealth in the hands of corrupt men to prevent the progress of righteousness in our own day, but that power was tenfold greater in the degenerate days of the Caesars than it is now, and these corrupt opponents of the Gospel did not hesitate to use money to bribe men to oppose the spread of the Christian religion. Heathenism had the prestige of the best scholarship of all the past ages. It counted among its followers the great poets, philosophers, orators and historians. However much any of these men might have wished to be in sympathy with the message of the apostles, they had their present environment and their past training to overcome. Homer and Virgil wrote their great epics to set forth the glory of heathen gods and goddesses. The philosophers wrote from a heathen point of view, the orators knew no other gods than those of Mt. Olympus. We are aware of the 12 THE OLD GOSPEL power of great universities and educational centers in moulding public sentiment in our day, but that power was even greater in those far-off days when there were no newspapers or magazines and when only the few could read and write. Christianity had no schools at the first — no poets, no philosophers, no orators. Its representatives were twelve humble men from around the shores of the sea of Galilee who were imbued with the spirit of the Christ and who were willing to surrender their lives if need be for His cause. Heathenism was entrenched behind the prejudices of the people. It appealed to the passions and vices of men. Christianity sought to overcome the prejudices, curb the passions and destroy the vices of the people. Heathenism had its temples and its votaries in every land. Christianity had no temples and few disciples. The Master said to one who would become a disciple: "The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." The sermon which is the keynote of his teaching, known as the Sermon on the Mount, was delivered on a hill in Galilee and most of his discourses were delivered from a fishing boat or in the open air around the shores of the sea. The first three hundred years of the history of the Church are a history of persecution, poverty and martyrdom ; but out of this baptism of fire and blood and tears it came triumphant, and in the year three hundred and thirteen placed a Christian emperor on the throne of the Caesars. In the enthronement of Constantino, Chris- tianity became the recognized religion of the Roman Empire. IN THE NEW CENTURY 13 Again, the Church met with opposition in the deism of England and the atheism of France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Gibbon and Hume, the great his- torians, hurled all the force of their great powers of in- tellect against the religion of Jesus Christ. They dashed their arguments against the Rock of Divine Truth; but it was like striking one's fists against the rock of Gibral- ter, and Hume acknowledged at the last that he had failed. These are his own words: "I seem affrighted and con- founded by the solitude in which I am placed by my philosophy. When I look abroad on every side I see dispute, contradiction and distraction. When I turn my eye inward I find nothing but doubt and ignorance. Where am I ? What am I ? From what cause do I derive my existence? To what condition shall I return? I am confounded with questions. I begin to fancy myself in a very deplorable condition, surrounded with darkness on every side." Voltaire and Rousseau, the versatile skeptics of that time, wrote scathing denunciations of the Christian re- ligion and tried to laugh it out of court, but it would not be laughed out any more than it would be reasoned out, and while their sneers are forgotten the Gospel still lives and exerts a mighty uplifting and ennobling influence upon the lives of thousands who do not know even the names of these men of genius, wit and ridicule. Voltaire once made the prediction that within one hundred years the Bible would be out of print and the Christian re- ligion would be swept from the earth as an effete super- stition. But what are the facts? Since that prediction was uttered more people have accepted Christ as their 14 THE OLD GOSPEL Saviour and united with the visible Church than all the people that had accepted the Christian faith in all the sixteen centuries that had gone before. Verily Voltaire was a prophet, but like Balaam a false prophet! "Oh where are kings and empires now Of old that went and came? But, Lord, thy Church is praying yet, A thousand years the same. We mark her goodly battlements And her foundations strong; We hear within the solemn voice Of her unending song. For not like kingdoms of the world Thy holy Church, O God ; Though earthquake shocks are threatening her, And tempests are abroad ; Unshaken as the eternal hills, Immovable she stands, A mountain that shall fill the earth, A house not made with hands." The Church of Jesus Christ has shown itself to be a divine institution by what is has done to elevate and im- prove men and nations materially, intellectually, morally and socially as well as religiously. Some years ago there fell into my hands a book entitled, "National Salvation." One of the chapters of the book, on "The Economic Value of Redemption," interested me much. In this chapter the author went on to show the material advantage given to men and communities by the Christian religion. He took IN THE NEW CENTURY 15 as the unit of comparison the wages of an ordinary day laborer in different countries. For instance, the wages of a day laborer in India and China, countries dominated by heathenism, is about ten cents a day. In Mohammedan countries, where there is some knowledge of the true God, the wage is from twenty to twenty-five cents a day. In Roman-catholic lands, where Christ is known as a Saviour very imperfectly, wages rise to forty and fifty cents a day. In Protestant countries, where the Gospel of Christ is taught in its purity, we find the wage of a day laborer is from a dollar and forty cents to a dollar and fifty cents a day. But some one will say that the difference is largely a difference in the purchasing power of money. This sounds reasonable until we are told that good bread and but- ter and cotton and woollen goods, and other things which working men in Christian lands regard as necessities of life, cost more in Bombay and Peking than they do in Chicago, New York or London. Again it may be argued that the wages of a country is determined not by religion but by the fertility of the soil and the condition of the climate. That sounds very plausible until you reflect that the wages of a day laborer is only forty or fifty cents a day in sunny France and among the vine-clad hills of Italy, while among the heather-clad hills of Scotland and the rock-ribbed hills of New England, with less fertile soil and less salubrious climate, men are getting a dollar or a dollar and a half a day for common labor. In the last analysis it will be found that the prosperity of a country is not so much determined by soil and climate as by the intelligence and morality of the people. Where i6 THE OLD GOSPEL the Church of Christ becomes the dominant factor in the life of any people men and women become more intelligent, and as they rise in the scale they make more use of the forces of nature and are able to get more out of the soil. As men increase in wisdom and righteousness their wants increase and their ability to satisfy those wants is enhanced. The fact is that the day laborer in Christian lands lives better, is better housed and better fed and clothed, than the workers in heathen lands. It should be remembered in this connection that almost all the great inventions and discoveries that have been made in the last thousand years have been the fruit of Christian thought and enterprise. If you were to move all the churches out of any State in this Union, property would depreciate in value from thirty to sixty per cent, within six months. The Church has been the patron of free education, the founder of colleges and universities, the publisher of books and tracts and the originator of hospitals in every land. Wherever the Church goes it sets up the printing-press and builds a schoolhouse and hospital. The Church has shown itself to be of God by the fact that it has won the confidence of all sorts and conditions of men in every age since the beginning of the Christian era. It has the power of adapting its message to meet the needs of all kinds of people. Without wealth or culture or social prestige it went forth and conquered the Roman Empire. In the days of feudalism it concentrated its strength in a great hierarchy and met force of brawn with force of brain, and the monasteries became the conserva- tors of religion and of learning during the dark ages. When the revival of learning came the Church awoke IN THE NEW CENTURY 17 in the throes of the Reformation and the new conditions of life were met by new methods of applying the Gospel message. Witness some of the more recent devlopments of the Church to meet the new needs of society. The Sunday-school, founded about one hundred and fifty years ago, is the Church adapting its message to the children of the world. The Salvation Army is the Church adapting its message to the submerged classes of our great cities. The Y. M. C. A. and the Christian Endeavor Society are but the Church reaching out to win the young manhood and the young womanhood of the nations to Christ. "Like a mighty army moves the Church of God ; Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod; We are not divided, all one body we, One in hope and doctrine, one in charity. Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane, But the Church of Jesus constant shall remain; Gates of hell can never 'gainst that Church prevail; We have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail." THE BIBLE TESTED IN THE CRUCIBLE OF TIME "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, purified seven times** — Psalm 12:6. "The Bible, diamond-like, casts its lustre in every direc- tion; torch-like, the more shaken the more it shines; herb-like, the more pressed the sweeter its fragrance'* — Anon. THE BIBLE TESTED IN THE CRUCIBLE OF TIME THIS is an age of books and reading. A hun- dred years ago reading was the privilege of the favored few. Books were so costly that only the opulent could afford them, but now everybody reads. Newspapers are scattered like the leaves of the autumn. Every village has its public library, and every home, however humble, has it case of books. The public libraries of our own country alone contain many millions of volumes, to say nothing of the great libraries of the old world, like the Vatican at Rome, the Imperial at Paris, or the Bodleian at Oxford, centers where books have been accumulating for centuries. But among these millions of volumes there is one book that still holds the pre-eminence. It is called The Book (ton biblion), as if there were no other book worthy of the name. This book is remarkable in many respects. It is remarkable in its origin. A book is generally the product of the mind of some individual who has some- thing to communicate to others or who wishes to transmit his thoughts to future generations; but the Bible is the product of no one man. It is the work of some forty different men who lived in different countries, spoke dif- ferent languages, and whose lives covered a period of almost seventeen hundred years. This book that we call the Bible is made up of sixty-six books nicely fitted together and as concrete as if it were 21 22 THE OLD GOSPEL the work of a single author. It is as if some one had hewn a rock out of the hills of Vermont, and, in the next generation, another had hewn a rock from the quar- ries of Dakota, and another from the Rocky Mountains, and so on for more than a century, and then, when the stones were brought together by mere accident, they were found to form a cathedral which surpassed in magnitude and beauty the Cathedral of Cologne or St. Peter's at Rome. The Bible is the cathedral of literature. It is an oratorio wrought out on the keyboard of the centuries by the fingers of God. The Bible is remarkable for its antiquity. When Shakes- peare was a child playing on the banks of the Avon the Bible was an old book. Three thousand years before Chaucer, the father of English literature, began to write, this book was read in the tents of Oriental shepherds. Some parts of this book were in existence seven hundred years before the foundations of Rome were laid. The Laws of Moses were promulgated before Greece became a commonwealth, and the Book of Job antedates the Fall of Troy. Yet in spite of its antiquity this Book is ever new. It has the freshness and dew of youth upon it. Other old books have their day, do their work, and then are left to moulder on the shelves of old libraries, but the Bible is read and re-read age after age as though it were the latest novel. The Bible is remarkable in its claims. It claims God for its Author, and pretends to set forth truth that could not have been discovered by the unaided mind of man. It claims to give us a revelation of the ultimate and highest truth. "For no prophecy ever came by the will IN THE NEW CENTURY 23 of man, but men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit." This Book claims to set forth all that we need to know about God, all that we need to know about the future, all that we need to know about sin, all that we need to know about our own souls, or any question concerning our eternal salvation. These are high claims. Can they be shown to be true? What is there about the history of the Book to justify these claims? My reply is that these claims have been tested in the crucible of experience. The Bible has been "tried as silver is tried in a furnace on the earth." It has been tried in the furnace of persecution. When the followers of Christ first began to meet behind closed doors to read his sayings and those of the old prophets and the apostles, their assemblies were broken up and the read- ing of these sacred books was prohibited. The enemies of the Bible, as w^e have shown in the preceding chaptei, had back of them the accumulated wealth of forty cen- turies. The friends of the Bible had no wealth at all. They were shepherds from the hills of Judaea, fishermen from the Sea of Galilee, and peasants from Samaria. The opponents of the Bible had the patronage of emperors and statesmen. The wealth the learning and the aristo- cracy of the world were arrayed against the Bible and against those who believed its teachings. In spite of all this persecution and opposition the Bible is the most popular book in the world to-day. The longest telegraphic message that ever flashed across the continent on the wings of electricity was a message of 118,000 words of the Revised New Testament from 24 THE OLD GOSPEL Matthew to Romans, sent in 1881 from New York to Chicago to be printed in the great Chicago dailies. In the year 1800 only about 5,000,000 Bibles were in ex- istence in all languages, then about forty languages and dialects. Now there are more than 250,000,000 Bibles scattered over the world in at least 350 different lan- guages. In the year 1804 a society was formed known as the British and Foreign Bible Society; since then thirty similar societies have been formed. Think of it! Thirty societies controlling many millions of dollars of capital and employing thousands of men and women in the work of publishing and distributing the Bible! Of what other book can this be said? The best selling book on the market to-day is the Bible. And this Book has been tested in the crucible of bigotry and superstition. In the Dark ages the priests took this book and coffined it in a dead language and buried it in a monastic tomb. Then the darkest period of history settled down upon the world for a thousand years, but like the incarnate Word of God, the grave could not hold the written Word, and when the fullness of time was come God sent forth His angel in the person of Martin Luther to roll the stone from the door of the sepulchre, and the Bible arose from that tomb to shed its light over two hemispheres in the language of the common people. Every effort of superstition to destroy the Bible has only multiplied its influence for good. A writer in the "Review of Practical Christianity," a French magazine, says that in France even the Catholic clergy are beginning to see their great mistake in with- holding the Bible from the people, and he quotes M. IN THE NEW CENTURY 25 Michael, a Catholic priest, as saying: "All teachers of free schools, at least, should make the young under their care commit to memory the greater part of the Bible, and those who have the care of souls should assure them- selves that every family possesses at least one copy of the Word of God." He also quotes the rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris as saying, in his Lenten sermon at Notre Dame, that the "careful and guarded perusal of the Bible is one of the most powerful means of strength- ening faith and giving a Christian bias to souls." The Bible has been tried in the crucible of experi- ence. Observation teaches that where the Bible has found a lodgment in the minds and hearts of the people it has produced a unique type of civilization. Every great civilization is built up on some basal prin- ciple or ruling idea. The civilization of Egypt was built upon the idea of accumulation. The ruling passion was wealth. Hence Egypt could build the pyramids and the grain cities that have recently been unearthed. The finish- ed product of Egypt was a pyramid or a sphinx; but in Egypt the people were slaves and the many labored for the benefit of the few. The civilization of Greece was founded upon the idea of culture. Greece built beautiful cities. Greece sang the sweetest songs and carved the most beautiful sculpture of the past. Greece excelled in art, literature and archi- tecture. The finished product of Grecian civilization was a statue, a Parthenon or a poem, but the common people of Greece were not happy and her philosophers taught that only the educated were endowed with souls. Rome built up a civilization on the idea of law. Her 26 THE OLD GOSPEL legions carried her eagles to the four corners of the earth. Rome put her iron heel on the neck of humanity and ruled the world with an iron sceptre, but the people of Rome were vagabonds, satisfied with being fed at the public crib, and delighted with the brutal shows of the Coliseum. Rome gave the w^orld the Temple of Justice; but it crushed out individual initiative. The civilization produced by the Bible is one of man- hood and womanhood. The ideas of wealth, culture and law are all included in the Christian ideal of civilization, but they are all made subservient to the one great ruling purpose of making men and women Godlike. The finished product of Christian civilization is a man recognizing his divine origin and looking up into the face of God and saying "Our Father." The Bible alone has given to the world a man in all that the word manhood means, and it has put a new and broader meaning into the word. Ulfilas, a Gothic youth, translated the Bible into the language of the Goths^ — a task of seven long years; and the silent influence of that Bible, working like leaven in the minds and hearts of the people, gave to the world the great German masters; gave to the world the Reforma- tion ; gave to the world the civilization that made possible a Luther, a Goethe, a Schiller, and a Von Humboldt. A hundred years ago the Hawaiian Islands were inhabited by savages who ate each other and worshiped on altars reeking with human blood. About sixty years ago the Bible was taken to those islands, and behold the civiliza- tion of that country to-day! It is sometimes objected that the original manuscripts were full of errors. Suppose the statement were true, IN THE NEW CENTURY 27 what does it matter? No man living ever saw the original manuscripts, but the Book is here like a beautiful lake in the midst of a rich and fertile valley. The fertility of the valley is due in large measure to the lake. Will any man object to drinking water from the lake because thou- sands of years ago there was a report that there was con- tagion in one or two of the springs away back in the hills which flow into the lake? The Bible nowhere claims to be an absolute authority in matters of science or history or philology; but it does claim to give us the history of the plan of salvation. It claims to be an all-sufficient guide in matters of religion and a perfect rule of conduct in dealing with our fellow-men. In view of the foregoing facts may w^e not say with the Psalmist — "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path?" At the top of the Queen's staircase in Windsor Castle is a statue in bronze. It represents a man with a Bible in his outstretched left hand, while with the index finger of his right hand he points to the words from the 119th Psalm, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." It is said that Edward VI. had it placed there that his sons might always be reminded that the Bible is the only safe book for a king to follow. This was a very commendable act, but why should we wait until death has sealed our lips and frozen our hands before we commend the Bible to our children and friends? Let us hold it up in our living hands, and speak of its truth and beauty w^ith these living lips of ours, and God will bless us for doing so. In closing let me remind you, that, the world's greatest thinkers have reverenced and followed this Book." 28 THE OLD GOSPEL John Quincy Adams said: "So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens to their country and respectable members of society." Daniel Webster said on one occasion: "Without the Bible man would be in the midst of a sandy desert, sur- rounded on all sides by a dark and impenetrable horizon.'' William H. Seward felt and said that: "The whole hope of human progress is suspended upon the ever-growing influence of the Bible." Dana, a man who spoke with authority among men of science in his day, had this to say about the Bible and science: "There can be no real conflict between science and the Bible, between nature and the Scriptures the two Books of the Great Author. Both are revelations made by Him to man; the earlier telling of God-made har- monies coming up from the deep past and rising to their height when man appeared ; the latter teaching man's rela- tion to his Maker, and speaking of loftier harmonies in the eternal future." THE BIBLICAL BASIS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS ''Go yc therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing thc?n into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you', and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the luorld." — Matthew 28:19, 20. "Heathenism was the seeking religion, Judaism the hoping religion. Christianity is the reality of what Heath- enism sought and Judaism hoped for." — Luthardt. "The religion of Jesus Christ is a missionary religion. The work and example of its Founder destined it to be such. Its early spirit was missionary and its history is a mis- sionary history. Whenever it has lost its missionary quality it has so far lost its character and ceased to be itself. Its characteristic temper has always been missionary, its re- vivals of life and power have been attended by quickening of missionary energy, and missionary activity is one of the truest signs of loyalty to its character and its Lord." — William Newton Clarke, D.D. THE BIBLICAL BASIS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS THERE are many grounds upon which we might urge the necessity for an aggressive Missionary propaganda. Among these may be mentioned the following: First: The superiority of our Christian civilization over the decadent and effete civilizations of the non- Christian world. Wherever the Gospel of Christ becomes a dominant factor in the life of any people it establishes a new basis or new conception of civilization. Second: The value to us of the reflex influence of missions — the knowledge of Philology, Ethnology, An- thropology, History and Geography has been much en- riched by the labors of the missionaries. There is scarcely a branch of science that is not largely indebted to the dis- coveries and contributions of men and women who have gone into distant lands for the express purpose of carrying the gospel to the heathen. Third: The commercial value of missionary enter- prise; for it must be admitted that commerce follows the Bible into all lands where the gospel is carried. The economic value of redemption is shown in the wages of an ordinary day laborer in different countries. As men rise in the scale of civilization their wants increase and new demands are created for the products of our factories and fields in Christian lands. Fourth : As a matter of statesmanship it pays to evan- gelize the heathen. It is only a few years since China, 31 32 THE OLD GOSPEL Japan and Korea were hermit nations under the sway of the most despotic rulers and refusing to enter into treaty relations with the great Occidental nations. Now, through the efforts of our Christian missionaries very largely, these nations are open to the world and their representatives are at Washington and Paris and London, and even Turkey has so far adopted the Western forms of government as to have a parliament, and China a president. But to those of us who accept the Bible as an inspired Book, giving us the history and philosophy of God's plan for the redemption of a lost world, the chief argument for the carrying on of any missionary enterprise must ever be the message of the Book. Here we get our marching orders and it is ours to follow the divine signals as therein revealed. Even if our civilization were no better than the civiliza- tions of the non-Christian world, still from the viewpoint of the Bible we would be under obligation to send the gospel to the heathen. If there were no commercial ad- vantage to be gained and if the missionaries contributed nothing to the general store of the world's knowledge, still the Church of Jesus Christ would be under the same great obligation to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. For be it remembered, our first and highest obligation is not to the heathen for their own sakes, nor to the business world, nor to ourselves as in- tellectual beings seeking for more knowledge, but to our God and His Son Jesus Christ. It requires only a very superficial knowledge of the Bible to discover that from beginning to end it is a mis- sionary book. The extension of the kingdom of God over IN THE NEW CENTURY 33 all the earth is the supreme purpose for which this divine revelation was given to men. The whole inspired record from Genesis to Revelation is a missionary book. It was written by men who w^re thoroughly imbued with the missionary spirit. Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees that he might establish for all time and thoroughout all the world the truth that man in his normal condition walks by faith and not by sight, and the promises made to him by God was that in him and in his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed. The writers of the Bible were nearly all engaged in missionary work of some kind and wrote for direct missionary purposes. Some of them sought to extend the reign of God over the hearts of men by the sword, others by statesmanship and diplomacy, and others by preaching and teaching. From the Penta- teuch to Revelation the waiters had for their supreme purpose the extension of the knowledge of the true God and His son Jesus Christ among the heathen. The belief that God intended his Church to be a Mis- sionary Church is warranted by the predictions of the Bible concerning the heathen. Beginning with the promise made in the beginning of the world that the seed of the woman should ultimately destroy the head of the serpent, we find running through the entire w^eb of Scripture a golden chain of promises and prophecies looking to the final bringing of the kingdoms of the world under the sway of the Prince of Peace. In Isaiah 9:6, 7 we have the foregleam of the incarna- tion and the prediction in these words: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called 34 THE OLD GOSPEL Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the Increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold It with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever." In Daniel 2:44 we read: ''In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and It shall stand for ever." In Daniel 7 127 there is the very definite prophecy which reads: "And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all domin- ions shall serve and obey him." In Matthew 24:14 we have Christ's own words de- claring: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preach- ed in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come." And on another occasion, after his resurrection from the dead, in talking with his disciples about their preparation for their future work as apostles, Luke tells us that he then opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them: "Thus it Is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, begin- ning from Jerusalem." Here it is taken for granted by the Saviour that the Old Testament Scriptures furnish a IN THE NEW CENTURY 35 sufficient warrant for the preaching of repentance and remission of sins through Christ to all the nations of the world; and St. Paul in his letter to the Romans touches upon this same thought and declares that ''whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But, he asks, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?" Rome 10:13, 15. That these predictions are in line with the definite purpose of God as revealed from age to age will appear from a comparison of the very plain commands given by God to the leaders of his Church in every great epoch of the world's history. In I Chronicles 16:23 there is the command to the Church of the Old Dispensation: "Sing unto Jehovah, all the earth; Show forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, His marvellous works among all the people." In that age when David the sweet singer was upon the throne of Israel this command was breathed from the harp of the poet king: "Declare his glory among the nations, His marvellous works among all the peoples. For great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised : He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols: But Jehovah made the heavens." 36 THE OLD GOSPEL Again we read: "Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." At a later day Jonah was sent to preach the salvation of the true God to the people of Nineveh. "And the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days' journey." Now it is evident that it was not for the sake of giving them a better civilization, for the Ninevites were more highly civilized than were the Jews. It was not for the sake of increasing the commercial prosperity of the nations, for Nineveh was the great commercial metropolis of the world. God sent Jonah to Nineveh because the people of that city needed God. They needed salvation from sin. They needed moral regeneration: and what the people of Nineveh needed then the people of every great city in the world need now. But the command to the Church of our time is even more explicit than that to Jonah. It is from the lips of the Divine Master and embodies almost his last expressed wish: "And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying. All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father IN THE NEW CENTURY 37 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and lo, I am w^ith you alway, even unto the end of the world." Those who argue that the heathen religions are good enough for the heathen should remember that when our Saviour uttered this command he did it with the full knowledge of what these heathen religions were and what they were able to do for their votaries, and yet he said, "Go!" With this fact in mind dare any one who accepts the Bible as a divine revelation and Christ as his own Saviour say that the heathen religions are good enough for the heathen? To do so is to set up his frail judgment against the judgment of Christ as to the comparative merits of the world's great religions. But there are others who object to sending out mis- sionaries on the ground that the task is so great that it can never be accomplished. There are so many millions of heathen, and they are so sunken in vice and supersti- tion, that there is no possible hope of ever saving them. On the biblical basis of missions, and on that alone, can this argument be met and successfully answered. But the individual who accepts Christ as an authority must admit that he must have given this command with a full knowl- edge of all the difficulties involved in carrying it out. Had we lived when Christ was on earth we would have likely said that it was unthinkable that within two thou- sand years the greater part of Europe and America would be nominally Christian. Heathenism was then world- wide in its extent and w^as strongly entrenched behind the prejudices of the people to whom the gospel was to be preached; but in spite of this it had permeated the 38 THE OLD GOSPEL Roman Empire within three hundred years. Those who use this argument against the missionary propaganda for- get the promise given with the command: "All authority hath been given unto me." Mark you, he does not say that all authority or power is given to the Church or to its missionaries, but to Christ himself, and the Church can have just so much of that power or authority as she is willing to appropriate and use. The whole problem then resolves itself into this: If the Church is obedient to the great commission and goes forth to preach the gospel to all nations, it is then the power of heaven against the power of vice and ignorance and superstition. Our business is to give the heathen the knowledge of Christ; it is God's business to make that knowledge effective in overcoming the moral darkness of the heathen world. Are we willing to do our part and trust God to do His? Whatever may be one's views as to the wisdom of missionary work and the validity of other motives for engaging in missionary efforts, no one who believes the Bible can doubt God's power to overcome sin and heathen superstition when those who have the gospel heed the Saviour's last great command and give God the right of way. "All authority hath been given unto me In heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore." The Church must go trusting in the divine power and the divine wis- dom and willing to follow where God leads the way. It Is plain if the missionary enterprise of the Church Is to continue through the years and be carried on with increased zeal and energy, the motives which impel the people to such effort, as another has very clearly expressed it, must be strong, self-justifying, permanent and Scrip- IN THE NEW CENTURY 39 tural. That many of the old arguments for missions and some of the new ones now being urged are neither per- manent nor Scriptural can easily be shown. The grounds mentioned in the opening of this chapter afford a good il- lustration of what I mean. All of them are strong and self- justifying, but some of them are neither permanent nor Scriptural. A careful analysis of the Scriptures herein quoted leads to the conclusion that the two great motives for missionary enterprise are: First, because of what mis- sionary efifort means to Jesus Christ who made salvation possible for all men by His death upon the cross,- and, sec- ond, because of what missionary enterprise means to us who have the gospel of Christ. In proportion as we appreciate what Christ's salvation means to us will we be interested in giving that salvation to others. If we esteem our salva- tion as an incalcuable blessing, we will be anxious that all men should have that blessing; but if we place little value upon our religion, we will not be likely to have much interest in giving a knowledge of it to others at home or abroad. In the words of Dr. William Newton Clarke: "God's best and richest gift appreciated brings its own call to missionary' endeavor. Hence the missionary impulse de- pends for its vitality upon the vigor of the Christian life in the Christian people. Only a living Church can per- manently be a strong missionary Church, for only a living Church can feel the value of its blessings and be impelled to offer them to the world." In the light of these Scriptural motives the argument that is so often made against missions, viz., that the heathen may have another chance, counts for nothing, for 40 THE OLD GOSPEL the Bible answers, that this is our only chance to give them the blessings we have. This is our only chance to obey the Saviour's command: — "Go ye." Disobedience may not mean the eternal death of the heathen, but it may mean, yea, it does mean, disobedience on our part and con- sequent loss of God's favor and co-operation. The first essential for an active, aggressive missionary propaganda is a strong, vigorous, spiritually awakened Church at home. The Church at home must be depended upon to furnish the base of supplies. The missionaries, the money and the inspiration to evangelize the world must be fur- nished by the church in the homeland for a long time yet to come. "Put it first — the great commission, Put it first — the great command ; Put it first — our standing orders, Put it first — on sea and land. Put it first — 'twill draw us closer. Put it first — 'twill banish strife; Put it first — the rest will follow; Put it first — 'twill bless our life." In the light of all that has been said is it not very plain and clear what Saint Paul meant when he wrote to the Ephesians, saying: "And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full- grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ?" FIGURING OUT THE PROFITS IN A LOSING GAME "For zuhat shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the li'hole ivorld, and lose his own soulf" — Mark 8:36. "Seek thyself only in Christ, and not in thyself ; so wilt thou find thyself in Him for eternity." — Luther. FIGURING OUT THE PROFITS IN A LOSING GAME IF you and I had never seen a Bible before and were to have come upon this question, — "What doth it profit a man to gain the w^hole world and forfeit his life?" — out of its connection, we would no doubt have been a good deal surprised to learn that it was the language of a young Jew who lived nearly two thou- sand' years ago. It sounds as if it were the language of a sagacious, long-headed business man of our own genera- tion. "What doth it profit?" is a very modern question, we are apt to think. It breathes the spirit of the twentieth century. It is about the first question that is asked in regard to any enterprise. It matters not whether it is the digging of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama or the building of a transcontinental railroad or the opening of a new bank or the endowing of a college or a hospital or the starting of a little mission church out on the frontier, the question at once comes up — "What will it profit?" Now I do not say that the spirit is wrong that prompts the asking of that question: what I do find fault with is that we do not make enough of the question. We do not ask it often enough or with enough seriousness. It is a very legitimate question and should be asked not only in regard to our business ventures but also in regard to our beliefs and our moral actions. What doth it profit a man to believe in the inspiration of the Bible? What doth it profit a man to believe in the immortality of the soul? 43 44 THE OLD GOSPEL What doth it profit a man to believe in the divinity of Christ? These are questions of greater moment than those before mentioned; but men are not asking these questions with as much concern as they ask w^hat it will profit where dollars and cents are concerned. What does it profit a man to lead a clean, moral, upright life, is a more important question than, what does it profit a man to invest money in any kind of earthly securities? From the view-point of this world alone, to say nothing of the future, it is always profitable to live up to one's highest ideals and to believe those time-honored doctrines that have come down to us from the wisest and best minds of the past ages. If it could really be proven that belief in these teachings of the Christian faith did not produce the kind of character that counts for most in this life, we might disregard these teachings; but the combined efforts of freethinkers and atheists have failed to show that disbelief in these great fundamental doctrines of Jesus develops better men and women. The superiority ot oui Christian civilization to the civilizations of the non-Chris- tian world would seem to create a strong presumption that these Christian doctrines have a positive value for this life. If one casts aside these teachings as of no value what has he gained? This passage affords a good illustration of how easy It Is for us to read Into the Bible what the Divine Author never Intended us to get out of the Bible. The text Is often interpreted as If It were meant to teach that ever}'- one must make a choice between gaining the world and losing his soul. That If one gains the good things of the world or makes an effort to gain the things of this world IN THE NEW CENTURY 45 he is sure to lose his soul. I, for one, do not believe that our Saviour meant to set any such alternative before men. I believe that God intends the good things of this world for His children, and the more rapidly the world and its wealth pass into the hands of the followers of Christ the better it will be for all concerned. I believe it is the duty of every true child of God to make an honest effort to get just as much of this world's goods as he can get honestly, and then use it in the service of his Lord. It does not seem reasonable to me that God has created the world with all its wealth and treasure for the wicked. It is the plain duty of every Christian to be thrifty and industrious and to get all that he can ; for are we not told that the righteous shall inherit the earth and that the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord? This passage is also sometimes interpreted as if it taught that by giving up the world one could save his soul. There can be no more dangerous error than this. That was the mistake made by the monks of the dark ages, w^ho thought that by withdrawing from the world and shutting them- selves up in old monasteries or in the cloisters they could save their souls. It is not by asceticism or withdrawing from the world that we are to be saved, but by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who when he was here on earth did not withdraw from the world but went about doing good. And did He not say, "I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done?" Our salvation is not determined by whether we have much or little of this world in our possession. It is not, in the last analysis, a question of one's bank account, but it is a 46 THE OLD GOSPEL question of character, and character is determined by our attitude toward Christ and His moral ideals. Just what, then, did the Master intend us to under- stand by this question? This: That a man or a woman makes a bad bargain when he or she barters away his or her eternal interests for the sake of some temporal advan- tage. "The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Somewhere be- tween the cradle and the grave Satan appears to each one of us as he appeared to our Lord, and shows us the king- doms of this world and the glory of them, and says, "All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me." To some the temptation comes often, to some only once, but it comes to all, and one makes a serious mistake when he surrenders conscience or character for the sake of worldly gain. There are spiritual things that money cannot buy. In Irving Bacheller's book, "Eben Holden," there is a senti- ment expressed by the old poet of the woods which has a world of truth in it that we ought never to forget: "There's a money of the soul, my boy, ye'll find in after years ; Its pennies are the sweat-drops and its dollars are the tears ; And love is the redeemin' gold that measures what they're worth, And ye'll git as much in heaven as ye've given out on earth. "For the record o' yer doin' I believe the soul is planned With an automatic register to tell jlst how ye stand, IN THE NEW CENTURY 47 And it won't take any cipherin' to show that fearful day, If ye've multiplied yer talents well or thrown 'em all away." I have read of a child playing by the seashore who found a pretty stone which she traded to a young sailor for a glass prism. Through the glass the white ray of sunlight was broken into all the beautiful colors of the rainbow, but it was only a piece of glass and nothing more couid be made of it. The stone which she bartered away for this piece of glass was a rare agate capable of being ground by the lapidary into a gem fit to be placed in the crown of a king. God has intrusted to each individual an im- mortal soul with capabilities surpassing those of the agate, and multitudes are bartering their souls away for the tinsel of time that is as worthless as the piece of glass which the child received for the agate. "What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" But the passage throws an interesting light upon Christ's estimate of the value of the soul in relation to other things. It is the thing of supreme value, because it is the im- mortal part of man. When the body with all its strength and beauty has returned to dust the soul will live on either with Christ in glory or shut out from the presence of God for ever. The soul is of supreme value when compared with the wealth of this world because God alone can create a soul. Men create fortunes w^ith their own hands and skill and wisdom, and a fortune if lost may be regained by toil and industry; but a soul once lost is lost for evei. The value of the soul in comparison with other things is 48 THE OLD GOSPEL seen in the fact that Christ died to redeem it. He would not have left His home with the Father for all the material wealth of the world, but to save a soul He left all and came to our earth and died upon the cross on Calvary. "What doth it profit a man?" The word profit im- plies something invested. There can be no profit where there is nothing invested. A man may have a house and lot given to him and may sell it for several thousand dol- lars, but there was no per cent, of profit because there was nothing invested. The serious question is, what kind of investments are we making? Are we in- vesting for time or for eternity — for God or for self? If we are investing our talents, our time and our energies, for God and for eternity, our dividends will be in kind; but if we are investing our talents, our time and our strength, for the here and the now, the dividends will be of the kind that must be left here when the soul goes to render its final account at the bar of God. "What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" It is a principle in business that it is not the amount of the original investment that deter- mines the ultimate profits, so much as the character of the investment. A man may invest a million dollars in such a way that at the end of twenty years he will be a bank- rupt. On the other hand one may invest a thousand dollars in such a way that at the end of twenty years he will be a millionaire. This principle holds in our moral and spiritual investments. It is not so much the original endowment with which we start in life that determines the ultimate profits as it is the use we make of our endow- ment. A little invested for God may bring greater profit IN THE NEW CENTURY 49 than a great deal Invested for self. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal ; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also." THE CHURCH AND THE WORKING MAN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY "The laborer is worthy of his reward.*' — / Timothy 5:18. ''Labor troubles come as the result of an advancing civilization. Social unrest is sometimes an indication of social progress. There are no labor troubles in Darkest Africa. Therefore the cloud on the industrial horizon has its silver lining, if one will but look for it.'* — Charles Stelzle. THE CHURCH AND THE WORKING MAN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LABOR lies at the foundation of all true pros- perity and progress. We have here in this country of ours fertile soil, valuable quarries, rich mines, and extensive forests of valuable timber. Our resources of every kind are abundant, but without labor these resources are of little or no value to anybody. Fields must be cultivated, mines and quarries must be developed, forests cleared aw^ay, and their prod- ucts transformed into things useful to man. As the working class rises in the scale of prosperity and intelligence all other classes are benefited and the inter- ests of the country advanced. The working people are the foundation upon which must be raised the superstruc- ture of the nation's prosperity. They are the backbone of the national wealth. Given an intelligent, industrious and thrifty working class, and all other classes will be im- proved. Given a poor, poorly paid and hopeless working class, vnth the life crushed out of them, and all other classes will be dragged down. The countries and nations that have done most to pro- tect the laborer in his rights and to secure to him the just reward of his toil have grown rapidly in wealth and in- fluence; while those nations that have oppressed the toiler have invariably suffered in consequence. To prove this you have only to contrast England, Ger- many and America with Russia, Turkey and Old Mexico. 53 54 ITHE OLD GOSPEL In England, for more than a hundred years, laws have been enacted looking toward the betterment of the work- ing class. In Germany I think the same thing is true. Even better laws to protect the interests of the working- man are to be found in Germany to-day than perhaps in any other country. For the last forty or fifty years there has been an upward tendency in the kind of laws enacted in the interests of the working people of this country. To-day the working man gets from 50% to 100% more wages for 20% less time than he did fifty years ago. In Russia, in Turkey and in Old Mexico the laborer is poorly paid. He is a peasant, or peon, or little better than slave. Somewhere I think I have read this statement, and I suspect it is true: In Old Mexico lead and zinc ore can be mined and sold at a profit, for $13 a ton, while in the Carthage, Mo., district lead and zinc ore cannot be mined at a profit for less than $38 a ton. The difference is not so much in the condition of the mines, as it is in the difference in the workingmen. Those men are living on food that we would not feed to our dogs. The working- man is better paid, is better housed and is better clothed in the United States than he is in Mexico. There are two erroneous theories that must be carefully guarded against in any serious consideration of the subject of capital and labor. One of these erroneous theories is that labor is only a commodity to be bought at the lowest possible price 01 to be sold to the highest bidder. This is an erroneous theory held by many men who employ labor. They say, "Why, labor is just a commodity like any other com- IN THE NEW CENTURY 55 modity, to be bought at the lowest price, or to be sold to the highest bidder." They forget that back of the com- modity is a man; that labor is a commodity plus an im- mortal soul; that it is different from every other com- modity in the fact that back of the thing sold there is an intelligent being created in the image of God. The man who sells a ton of hay has no interest in the ton of hay beyond getting the market price. It does not make any difference to him where that ton of hay is used or how it is used. The man who sells a load of wheat, when he gets the market price for the wheat, does not care whether it is ground into flour or turned into a cereal or what use it is put to. He gets the market price and it is all the same to him. Not so, to the man who has labor to sell. It may make all the difference in the world to him and to his children and to the community at large what is done with his labor. He has no business to sell that commodity where it is to be used under circumstances that will injure the community, or that will maim or cripple himself need- lessly, or that will work an injury to himself or his family or to the State. The other fallacy is one often held by the working- man, viz., that all wealth is produced by physical labor. In talking with working men I have heard that statement made again and again. "All wealth is produced by the toil of the laborer." The man who makes the assertion forgets that the man of capital furnishes all material, the tools and appliances, without which his labor would be worthless. Let us suppose a case like this: Suppose that in your 56 THE OLD GOSPEL own town or village are a dozen men, carpenters, good workmen, splendid skilled workmen. They have very poor tools and a very small amount of capital, a little credit. They can buy a little bit of lumber here and there and pay for it and make a certain amount of furniture which they sell at a fair profit and make a living. But there is not much demand for that furniture in the town, and so there is not much of it sold, and they make a poor living. Then comes a man with $25,000 and puts up a factory. He equips it with the very best of modern machinery. He employs an expert advertiser to write advertisements for the papers and magazines. He employs five or six travelling salesmen to go out over the country and talk up these goods and create a market. The carpen- ters do not make the market. The man w^ith the capital has made it possible for these men to do five times as much work in a day or month or a year as they were doing before, and to do a better grade of work, and to create a market for their work. Would you say that it was the workingman who created the market for that factory? Part of it. Would you say that it was the man with the capital? Part of it. Would you say it was the travelling salesmen who went out and created the market? Part of it. Or was it the man of genius who wrote the adver- tisements for these magazines and papers that opened up the way for the travelling men? Part of it. They all worked together, and they must work together. I saw a little story in one of the papers lately. It may be true or it may be just a legend or a fable. I do not know. I do not care whether it is true or not true, but it illustrates the point I am trying to make better than IN THE NEW CENTURY 57 anything else I can think of. The fable or legend as I remember it was something like this: Once upon a time there was an ambitious little city in Southwest Missouri, and in this little city there was a young mechanic who worked in a garage. He con- ceived the idea that he could improve automobile trucks. He tried to interest some capitalists in that little city in Southwest Missouri in his idea, but they either did not have snap enough about them or something was wrong. They didn't take to his idea at all. Then he went into Texas and there interested some people who put up $50,000, and they built a factory and in a few months there were 800 men employed in that factory. And now this same mechanic who was making $2 or $3 a day in the garage in this enterprising little city in Southwest Missouri is getting $10,000 a year as manager of that business in Texas. Who created the wealth of that business? The 800 men who are working in the factory? Well, if it had not been for the man with the idea, those men might be tramp- ing over the country hunting a job. And but for the men with the $50,000 this mechanic's idea would not have amounted to anything. Was it the men with the $50,000 who created the wealth? Not altogether, for without the eight hundred men, and without the man of genius, their money might have been bringing them 3% interest in some bank or in Government bonds perhaps, but it would not have been producing the dividends which, ac- cording to this story, are being produced to-day. What is the point I am trying to make? Simply this: The wealth of the world is not produced alone by phy- 58 THE OLD GOSPEL sical toil; nor is it alone produced by capital, by the men who furnish materials and tools and buildings; nor is it alone produced by the men of genius. But here are the three factors: Genius, money and toil. They are bound inseparably together. They are the factors that produce wealth, and without the co-operation of all three of them no wealth can be produced. You must have the three factors working together. The man of inventive genius, the man of executive ability, and the man who has the ability to organize great forces are as indispen- sable as the man with the millions, and the capitalist is as indispensable as the man with the pick and shovel or the man with the hammer. The business of a country can only be carried on when these three classes stand shoulder to shoulder and face to face with each other as men who, in the fear of God, recognize that they are created by one common Father, are responsible to the same God, and redeemed by the same blood of Christ, and that they must share with each other in the great work of producing the wealth of the nation. All this being true, society owes it to the working- man to secure to him the best possible conditions in which he may serve the public. First, it must afford him protection against accident and disease as far as possible. We shrink with horror from the awful atrocities of ancient rites where human lives were offered up in sacrifice on Druid altars. We are appalled at the awful slaughter in a war between Russia and Japan, or the Civil War here in our own country a few years ago. But is it generally known that the death-roll of industry IN THE NEW CENTURY 59 in the United States is greater than the death-roll of any war in history prior to the present war in Europe ? In the modern industrial enterprises of the United States 525,000 human lives are sacrificed every year. That is 200,000 more than the entire number slain on both sides during the war between Japan and Russia. In the course of four years, in these times of peace, there are 80,000 more violent deaths in the United States in the ranks of industry than there were lives lost on both sides during the four years of the Civil War. Let me analyze these figures a little further. Last year there were 5,000 violent deaths in the anthracite coal- mines of Pennsylvania. 94,200 railway employes losi their lives w^hile at the post of duty. 425,000 people lost their lives in the manufacturing and building industries in this countr}^ in a single year. Some of these lives were sacrificed upon the altar of progress. No amount of precaution could have availed to prevent some of these deaths, as in the tunnelling under the river in New York a short time ago w^here the work was of such a character that it was a foregone conclusion before they w^ent to work that a large per cent, of them must lay down their lives, or in the matter of navigating the air. There has been an awful death-rate among the men who sail these air-ships. These lives are laid upon the altar of science and progress, sacrificed to the advance- ment of civilization. But many of these 525,000 lives were sacrificed on the altar of carelessness — carelessness either of the individual himself, or of a fellow-servant or of the general public or of the corporation for which he was working. 6o THE OLD GOSPEL But a still larger per cent, of these 525,000 lives were sacrificed to the demon of greed and avarice. Men are required to work in insanitary conditions, in the midst of dust or steel filings or fine bits of glass flying about in places where cut glass is made, or in places where there are poisonous gases or fumes of acids or in a factory where dangerous machinery is allowed to be exposed need- lessly — sacrifices to the demon of greed! In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, three lives are sacrificed in the production of every 10,000 tons of coal; one life goes out for the production of every 70,000 tons of steel rails; and one for every 7,600 tons of steel. Are these sacrificed upon the altar of progress? No. Are they sacrificed on the altar of carelessness? Some of them. But the majority of them are laid down upon the altar of greed, because it is cheaper to kill men than to protect life by expensive devices or safety appliances. Ex- perts capable of passing judgment on this matter have given It as their unbiased opinion that the majority of these lives have been sacrificed because it was cheaper to kill men than to safeguard their lives by the use of ex- pensive safety devices and appliances. The permission of preventable accidents ought to be counted a crime against society as well as against the individual injured. It is a crime against society as well as against the individual, for it not only injures the indi- vidual, who is killed, or maimed for life, but it entails a burden upon his family. It increases the number of pau- pers and dependent persons who have to be cared for by the public at large. There is no State in the Union where a man would be permitted by law, for a money considera- IN THE NEW CENTURY 6i tion, to allow himself to be crippled for life. It is against the best interests of society; and men should not be allowed to engage in work under circumstances where they might needlessly be crippled through the criminal care- lessness of the employer who refuses to safeguard the lives of his employes by proper appliances that may be had for money. John Mitchell never uttered a greater truth than the following statement, and it should be proclaimed from one end of this land to the other: "No country, however powerful or formidable, can be counted truly great which does not hold important the life and happiness of its citizens, even if they be the hum- blest of untrained working-men or the least of the little children in the factories." Society ought to share the burden and the responsibility of the loss of life or limb in the industrial service of the country. It is not fair that the workers and their families should bear all of the burden of the loss resulting from accident in the ranks of industry. Indeed they are the last who should be expected to bear the burden. Usually they work for merely a living wage, and when accident comes, if it be the bread-winner, it means that all of the children must be taken from school to earn bread, or that the family become objects of charity. It would not always be right that the men in whose employ a worker loses his life or is maimed for life should bear the whole burden of responsibility. If it can be shown that the accident resulted from any carelessness on the employer's part, or from a failure to provide for the safety of the men in his employ, then he should be held 62 THE OLD GOSPEL responsible. I am not lawyer enough to pass judgment upon the law in regard to the employer's liability for the carelessness of a fellow-servant. I know that if employ- ers had always to pay an indemnity for the loss of life or limb, this law would be prohibitive in some lines of busi- ness, for the indemnity would be so great that it would put the man or the corporation out of business. But is there not another remedy? Who gets the benefit of the toil of these men who work in the factories and in the mills? The public. In the old days of individual initiative, when a man had a little shop and employed three or four or half a dozen men, there was not much danger of accident or loss of life. But in the great mills and factories where five to ten thousand are employed, ac- cidents are of common occurrence. What do these great organizations mean to the public? They mean cheaper goods of every kind and the public is the beneficiary. Is it right then that the corporation employing the men or that the men themselves should bear the burden of these accidents? The nation pensions its maimed and crippled soldiers and their widows and orphans because of service rendered in time of war. Are times of war more important than times of peace? Why, then, should not a nation provide pensions for those who have been crippled and maimed in the ranks of industry? When men have bared their breast to the cannon and faced powder and shot and shell, the Government rec- ognizes that they have done a heroic thing, and it pro- vides in pensions something for them when they have been crippled and for their widows and orphans. IN THE NEW CENTURY 63 The men who have bared their breasts to the cannon and gone out to face powder and shot and bayonets are not braver men nor more heroic than the men who go down into the mines and up on the high buildings, who work on the sky-scrapers in the great cities. These are the true heroes. These are the men who are showing courage day by day; and the Government should make provision for them, and the people should not begrudge the slight addition it would make to the taxes, to provide the pensions. Society owes it to the workers in all branches of in- dustry to safeguard the laws relating to contracts defining the hours of work, the place of payment of wages, and the frequency of payment of wages. In small establishments it does not make much differ- ence whether the workers are paid once a week or once a month, either to the emploj^e or the employer; but in the great establishment employing from a thousand to seven thousand men, where the pay-roll is from $100,000 to $300,000 per month, it may make a w^orld of difference to the toilers and it certainly makes a great diflFerence to the corporation employing them. The interest of $250,000 or $300,000 for a month is quite an item, and if they can withold payment from month to month they make quite a little on the interest, I have heard of such an instance as this, where men are employed at simply a living wage and paid once a month, and as long as they keep their health and ever}^- thing goes all right, they get along; but if sickness comes and they have a physician's and a nurse-bill to pay they begin to run behind; and then the company offers to 64 THE OLD GOSPEL pay them each week, provided they will take from 6o% to 75% of the wages contracted for. The law ought not to permit such a condition to exist. In a great corpora- tion where large numbers of people are employed they should be paid weekly. "The laborer is worthy of his reward," and is worthy of his reward when the money is earned. But the place of payment is quite as important to the working-man and his family as anything else. It ought to be against the law to pay men in places where there is a temptation to squander the money. There is a little city of i8,ooo population in Illinois where there are several large factories employing about two thousand men. The men are paid twice a month. Salaries or wages range from $1.75 a day to $100 a week for some of the skilled workmen. These men are paid at five o'clock on Saturday night at the office of the com- pany, or at their two offices, and facing those two offices are six saloons. It is five o'clock in the evening when the men are paid, and the banks are closed. But the saloons are open with money on hand to cash the checks. And many of the men, rather than wait till Monday for the banks to open, when they will be busy again at their work, go into these saloons and cash their checks. While the pay-roll of the Company in that towoi is $80,000 a month, from 25% to 30% goes back into the till of the Company over the saloon bar. The men get their drinks on credit, and of course when they go in there to cash their checks it means that they will spend more money. We say the pay-roll of $80,000 a month is a big thing, but really the pay-roll is not over $60,000 for IN THE NEW CENTURY 65 $20,000 goes back into the till of the saloon-keeper, into the coffers of the men who employ the laborers. This ought to be against the law. Experience and observation have proven that it cannot be safely left to the general public to see to it that the laborer always gets a just reward for his labor or fair treatment from the corporation employing him. Organiza- tion is necessary on the part of the workers to secure and protect the rights of the industrial class. I believe there is Scriptural ground for this statement. I read in Scripture: "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, and hath not another to lift him up." — Eccles. 4:9, 10. In this day of great aggregations of capital, or com- binations that we call trusts, what chance does the indi- vidual worker have in settling any kind of a difficulty? He may not like the conditions under which he has to work at his trade. What does the corporation care? It can get plenty of other men. So it is necessary for the working-man to join hands with his fellow- workers. It is necessary that those who belong to the same trades or occupations should be organ- ized and stand together in the defence of their rights. Let us consider briefly some of the benefits that have been secured to the working class by means of organized labor. One of them is shorter hours of service. John Mitchell has this to say in — "Organized Labor:" "The success of organized labor in increasing the wages of working-men has been brilliant and signal, but it has 66 THE OLD GOSPEL not been more important than the success in reducing the hours of labor. An increase in the wages means moic of the comforts and luxuries of life; a decrease in the hours, the opportunity to enjoy these comforts and lux- uries. The shortening of the working day further stands for the freedom from toil at the time when it becomes most exacting, nerve-wearing and dangerous; still further it stands for leisure, recreation, education and family life. During the nineteenth century American trade unions diminished the length of the working day from twelve hours, and in some cases fourteen, to ten, nine and finally eight hours." Again, organized labor has reduced the amount of child- labor and given better sanitary conditions in the mills and factories. According to the report of the United States Census, we have these figures: In 1880 6.55% of Industrial workers were children under fourteen years of age. In 1890 2.68% were chil- dren under the age of fourteen years. In the State of Connecticut the proportion has been reduced from 7.43% to 2.10%; in Massachusetts from 4.92% to 1.84%; and in Illinois the proportion of children has been reduced from 6.17% to 1.83%. If union effort had done nothing else than reduce the child-labor, as it has In Illinois, and bring about better sanitary conditions in the mills and factories, it would be worth while. Another object that ought to be kept before the mind of working-men in their unions, and I think is being kept before the mind in many unions, is the effort of the union to produce greater skill and effectiveness on the part of the worker. IN THE NEW CENTURY 67 There was a time when the union seemed to go on the theory that "A man was a man for a' that." Whether he could do the work or not, they sought to bring up to a common level and demand the same wage for every man. But through the leadership of John Mitchell many unions have come to see the fallacy of that idea, and that skill and effectiveness and ability to do things ought to count, ought to stand for something. The unions ought to inculcate that idea, and many of them are endeavoring to make skill and effectiveness stand for a better wage and a better position. There are three facts that should be clearly under- stood and constantly kept in mind, and with this I close. First: That changes and reforms that help the cause of labor should be sought by evolution rather than by revolution. This is the day of books and reading. Five hundred years ago the average toiler could not read or write. To-day the working-man goes back and forth on the trolley car to his work reading his daily paper and dis- cussing the political issues and the labor question and other great questions with as much statesmanship as the men we send to Congress. Reforms should be sought by enlightenment, by the use of the printed page, by the lecture platform, by the pulpit, and by every means that will help to enlighten and educate and train men. As I said in the beginning, there are three factors that make for progress, the toiler, the organizer and the man with money. These three must understand each other, and they must work in harmony, or they cripple each other and 68 THE OLD GOSPEL cripple the nation in its pursuit of wealth and happiness,* hence every improvement should be by evolution rather than by revolution. Whenever men, whether they be working-men or capitalists, resort to brute force, to dyna- mite, to acts of violence of which the general public dis- approves, they injure the cause, whether it be the cause of capital or the cause of labor. Second : Anything that fosters a class spirit and arrays one class against another, anything that tends to array <-he workers against the capitalists, or the organizer, or the man of genius who has invented things ; anything that cripples the wealth of the nation, is a mistake and works injur}' to the cause of industry. Anything that fosters a class spirit is wrong anywhere, whether in the church or in politics, or in labor circles or anywhere else. Third: Let me assure you that the church is not the foe but the friend of the working-man. There are many working-men who believe just the opposite. I suppose I met one of these one evenmg in handing out an invitation card to attend church, for with a bitter oath, he said he didn't go to such places. Well, I knew by the language he used, that he didn't go to church. But that man perhaps is laboring under the delusion that the church is the foe of the working-man. I want to remind you, fellow workers, for I work as many hours as any man, that the first great defender of the labor cause proclaimed his reforms from the carpen- ter's bench. Jesus Christ was the first labor reformer and he pro- claimed his message from the carpenter's bench in Naz- IN THE NEW CENTURY 69 areth. Although we live in strenuous times, in the midst of gigantic enterprises and mighty problems, we ought to be thankful that we have these problems to face. We ought to be thankful that we live in the twentieth century when there arc problems worthy the courage of a man. Let us not be discouraged because there seem sometimes insurmountable difficulties. "Be strong. We are not here to play, to dream, to drift; We have hard work to do and loads to lift. Shun not the struggle, face it; 'tis God's gift; Be strong, be strong. Say not the days are evil, Who's to blame? And fold the hands in acquiescence, — O, shame! Stand up, speak out, and bravely in God's name Be strong. It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong, How hard the battle goes, the day how long; Faint not, fight on, to-morrow comes the song." THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF CHRISTIANITY AS A NATIONAL ASSET ''Offer unto God Thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High/' — Psahn 50:14. ''Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him and bless His name." — Psalm 100:4. THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF CHRISTIANITY AS A NATIONAL ASSET I HAVE read somewhere in English history of an old castle in which there was said to be a golden table, around which twelve royal knights, clad in golden armor, were accustomed to sit and quaff delicious wine from golden goblets. This, no doubt, is the creation of fancy or the product of superstitious imag- ination, but it suggests to my mind that there is a stately castle the foundation of which was laid by the Pilgrim Fathers on the rock-bound shores of New England. In architectural grandeur it far surpasses any of the famous castles of the old world. Its floor is a rich mosaic of gold and silver, iron, copper, tin, lead, zinc, and coal. It has an area of more than three million six hundred thou- sand square miles of surface, and is capable of accommo- dating more than five hundred millions of people. In each of its forty-eight rooms, there is spread on the last Thurs- day in November, by the authority of our honored Chief Magistrate, a golden table of thanksgiving; around this table the knights and ladies of the twentieth century, clad in the white robes of civil and religious liberty are in- vited to come and partake of the sweet nectar of w^orship from the golden goblet of God's Providence. From the day on which the corner stone of our national castle was laid, this table has been spread as an annual feast of thanksgiving in some of the States, and for fully half a century it has been a national custom. It is distinctly an 73 74 THE OLD GOSPEL American custom and as such should be fondly cherished b}' every true American. It is not with the origin and history of thanksgiving day that I wish to interest you in this chapter. It is not of our growth and prosperity as a nation that I wish to speak, nor do I mean to recall the mercies of God and the in- numerable blessings He has bestowed upon us during the past year, although each of these subjects is of great inter- est to us all. The theme to which I now invite your attention is, "The Practical Value of Thanksgiving Day to the Na- tion." VVe are living in an intensely busy and practical age. Men are not so much concerned with the past as with the present and the future. Our age does not ask of men who have been their ancestors and what their family history; but it puts the blunt question. What can you do? What are you good for now? So also of institutions, our age asks. What is their practical value? What can they do for humanity? These questions it asks of higher educa- tion, of modern inventions, in fact of every thing; hence the propriety of the theme, What is the value of our Na- tional Thanksgiving Day? First: It keeps before the public mind the truth that God reigns among the kingdoms of men. Second : It strengthens family ties. Third : It binds the Nation closer in its allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, the true king of Nations. First; It keeps before the public mind the truth that God reigns, and just so long as this truth is kept clearly before the minds of the rising generations are we secure; IN THE NEW CENTURY 75 but whenever we lose sight of this fact our national glory will melt away like the sparkling frost on an autumn morning and our national greatness will crumble into dust. Aside from all considerations of religion, the belief in a personal, sovereign God is of inestimable valu? to every nation. It is a better protection to liberty than law and police regulations. It is a greater safeguard than walled cities and standing armies. "Rob men of their belief in a personal God, and you tear the throbbing heart out of a warm intelligent civilization and leave it a lifeless and worthless corpse." Take away the belief in a Divine Ruler, and the oath will no longer be sacred, the marriage ring will be forever broken, the sanctity of the home vio- lated and the reign of selfishness will be established. Under such conditions man wnll have no rights worthy of respect; law will become a dead letter; property a bone of contention, and religion a farce. Blot out the name of God from our language and the "Reign of Terror" would be the result here in America as it was in France. Am I told that culture and mutual sympathy would be sufficient to protect society from the reign of Judge Lynch and mob law? As well might you tell me that you can remove the sun from the sky and illuminate the spheres in their wanderings through space by the light of a tallow candle. No, no, God, and God alone is the light of the world. Wherever His name has been entirely forgotten you will find the very lowest condition of savage life. Where God's name is not known by men, your life is only safe when you are well armed. Brute force is the court of last resort where there is no God. I do not ask you to agree with me without first 76 THE OLD GOSPEL weighing the evidence for what I say. When I tell you that to rob men of their belief in God is to establish the reign of anarchy, I call to witness the testimony of history. Here it is in the language of one who has made the history of infidelity a lifelong study. Dr. Scott F. Hershey whose book on the "Failure of Infidelity," is worthy of careful perusal says, in speaking of the convention of French in- fidels who met and declared that they had abolished God and the Sabbath, "The assembly convened and revoked all law and order, and vested authority in the irresponsible classes. Mobs, riots, and communistic parties contested everything and went into the work of making laws with- out any idea of what the people needed. Paris was the victim of the legislation of mobism. To such excesses and blunders the Revolution is indebted for its existence. Words of awful meaning gather in that hour of unsettled society a dreadful significance. The prison rooms became frescoed with blood, and the prison walls spattered with brains. The pavements were reddened with blood and the gutters filled with the torn shreds of human flesh. The morning breeze and evening wind bore alike across the vine-clad hills of France the cries of suffering and the heart chilling shrieks of terror. Society was for the first time utterly disorganized. Property was confiscated. In the scales of that hour passion weighed heavier than life and hatred became a substitute for good will. Fear drove away the timid and fortitude brought the brave to execu- tion. Treachery, licentiousness, and libertinism har- nessed themselves to the iron-axled car of anarchy and drove ruin up and down the streets of Paris until thou- sands lost their lives in the prison, at the block, and on the IN THE NEW CENTURY 77 guillotine. An injured humanity with angered conscience but discriminating judgment will ever point to the infidels of France and say 'Your work' and from that most pain- ful break in human progress whose darkness was only broken by the glare of blood and the flash of the guillo- tine knife, the infidels of France will have to answer 'Our work.' " This is a dark picture but it is history. Now I ask you, do you want to see that history repeated on American soil? Then relegate to the old fogyism of the past your National Thanksgiving festival. Teach your children that all expressions of gratitude to God for the blessings of life are silly and only evince a weak mind. Teach your children that the Bible is only mythology, that religion is only superstition and that belief in God is fanaticism. But if you would continue to enjoy the blessings of peace and good government and the consolations of religion, adopt as the motto of your private life and the watchword of your national life the language of the Psalmist, "Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High." Do you ask for more evidence on this point? Again I take up the volume of ancient history and looking back through it into the dim and shadow}^ past I behold the graveyard of nations now buried in ruins; I ask the cause of their desolation and ruin, and the answer comes back as an echo from the hills of divine Revelation : "The nation and the kingdom that will not serve God shall perish. The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God." Looking back over the departed greatness of Egypt, JBabylon, Nineveh, and Tyre, we behold one inscription 78 THE OLD GOSPEL written over them all, and this is the writing, "God hath' numbered thy kingdom and finished it." These nations forgot God, they ignored His law and trusted to material prosperity for their perpetuity and glory. Would you bury in a like oblivion this fair land of ours, then follow their example — Give up your Sabbath, your Thanksgiving and all those special days that call us to the worship of God ; but if you would not share their fate I ask you to turn to God's own Book and learn a lesson in government from that king whose name will shine on history's scroll as long as time shall last. Turn to king David, and learn upon what the stability of government depends. "Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High" was his watchword. Let us pray to the God whom we adore that He will help us to follow the example of king David in keeping before the mind of the rising generation the truth that God reigns. Second: Our annual thanksgiving festival strengthens family ties. It is a day of grateful acknowledgment of our many mercies and blessings, both temporal and spirit- ual, but it is also a day of family reunions. As I write these words my thoughts take wings and fly back to the hills of Pennsylvania; in fancy I sit once more with the family circle at the old homestead. I recall the faces of old friends and acquaintances that were almost forgotten. I think of the playmates of my childhood, many of whom are now sleeping beneath the green sod ; I live over again the years of childhood and long for the simplicity and innocence of those happy years before my heart had tasted the bitterness of sin. In the midst of IN THE NEW CENTURY 79 those scenes of bygone years my heart is touched and I am made better. Father and mother, brothers and sisters, and the old home are all dearer to me than they were before. I behold on the page of memory another spot more sacred even than the old home. I stand once more beside two little graves upon which the autumn leaves have fallen in the silent church yard, and my thoughts soar away to a brighter home where angel hands are beckoning me, and I hear sweet voices calling to me from the distant shore assuring me that there is a home in heaven for those who love their Redeemer. "Home of my childhood thou shalt ever be dear To the heart that so fondly revisits thee now. Though thy beauty be gone thy leaf in the sear, The wreathes of the past still cling to thy brow. Spirit of mine, why linger ye here Why cling to these hopes so futile and vain? Go, seek ye a home in that radient sphere Which through change and time thou shalt ever retain." I dwell upon these scenes of the past because all over this broad land there are those whose lives will be made happier and better on Thanksgiving day by the memory of home and friends and former thanksgiving days. But there is another class who may be influenced by the thanks- giving occasion ; I have in mind those who have no homes. There are many who have never known the joys of home. There are many who were turned out in helpless and tender childhood upon a cold, unfeeling, and heartless world. The return of this glad day should serve to 8o THE OLD GOSPEL remind Christian people at least, that they owe a duty to these unfortunate ones of humanity. They are our broth- ers and our sisters, for, "God hath made of one blood all the nations of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth." Then again, there are those who have gone out from homes of plenty and comfort and love to plunge deep into the boiling sea of this world's wickedness, and drink to the dregs the cup of this world's woe. I have read some- where of a young man who had been reared in a Christian home with the best of moral surroundings, but who went out into the great world to seek his fortune and who gradually came to look upon the teachings of the family altar as not worth while, and who in time drifted far away from the religion of his father and mother. One night he wandered through the streets of Paris intoxi- cated. He came finally to a beautifully lighted house where he could see through the window a woman, and could hear her singing in the English tongue, "Home Sweet Home." He listened to the notes as they rose and fell upon the night air and at last when the song was over he turned to go home. But no, he had no home. The waves of the Atlantic rolled between him and the home of his childhood. The memory of that home ot other days came back to him and he knelt there in the street and gave his heart to God and became a new man in Christ Jesus. Let us hope and pray that many of these erring sons and misguided daughters will on next Thanksgiving day he brought to Christ and to a better life through the memory of home and past Thanksgiving days. In many homes families that have been separated for months and even for years will be reunited on Thanksgiving day; IN THE NEW CENTURY 8i their love for each other will be rekindled as they gather once more around the family table to partake of God's bounty. Family ties will be strengthened as they bow once more around the family altar for prayer. Some who met in these home circles last year will not be there this year, for they have crossed the dark river of death and are now on the other shore; but the memory of the sainted dead calls us on Thanksgiving day to meet them in that home above. As we gather our families and friends around the well- fiUed table on this most hallowed day of all the 3'ear, let us remember that this day may be the last Thanksgiving day that we will ever spend together on earth. It may be that ere the wheel of time has brought another Thanks- giving day around we too may be among the number who sleep beneath the dust of the valley of death. These homes of ours are not permanent. Link, by link the family chain is broken off. One by one we are claimed by the grim messenger, Death. One by one we are called to cross the dark river alone. Let us then learn to love each other better. Let us learn to strengthen the ties of true friend- ship here and prepare for that better friendship over there. It should be borne in mind in this connection that whatever influences tend to ennoble the home life should be valued by us as priceless jew^els. Whatever customs make the home better are of great practical value to the nation. The home is the center of those influences that shall be felt in the future histor>^ of our country. The home is the cradle of patriotism and the corner stone of the state. It is in the home that character is formed and if the stability of the state depends upon the good char- 82 THE OLD GOSPEL acter of its citizens, how important does it become that these home centers where character is developed should be good. We do not expect to find grapes on thorns or to drink pure water from an impure fountain. No more can we expect to see pure and honest manhood and womanhood nourished in impure homes. Where parents are disloyal to God and hostile to all righteous authority, children aie very likely to follow in their footsteps. In the name of home and country I plead for a better and a more religious observance of Thanksgiving Day. Third: The setting apart of one day in the year to be religiously observed by all the people tends to quicken the spiritual pulse of the nation and bind us closer in our allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, the true King of Nations. When our Saviour was on trial before the Roman tribunal, Pilate asked the Jews what he should do with Jesus their king, and they answered, "Away with him, we have no king but Caesar." From that day Israel's glory faded away. As long as the Jewish nation pointed men to the coming Christ it flourished. God's hand guided the ship of empire and gave it prosperity, but when Israel rejected Christ it perished as a nation. So will it be with us or with any nation if we refuse to own Him as the rightful King. Whenever we as a people cease to observe our national Thanksgiving or permit it to degen- erate into a day of pleasure seeking and carousal, whenever we turn the Sabbath into a mere worldly holiday, when- ever we give up those institutions that do honor to Him, by so doing we say like the Jews of old, we have no king but Mammon. God the Father has given the providential IN THE NEW CENTURY 83 government of the world into His hands and by Him the nations of the earth will be judged. So long as we are true and loyal to Christ and His cross He will be true to us. To offend Him is to offend our King. U we with our cold and unsympathetic hearts, feel the sting of pain when friends are ungrateful to us, what must be the feeling of our Saviour when men turn traitors to his cause ? Shakespeare represents King Lear as saying: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." Now if a weak and thoughtless man like King Lear can say, "Tis sharper than a serpent's tooth to have a thankless child," what must be the feelings of a kind and loving Father in heaven, when He looks down to earth and sees thousands of thankless children, for whom Christ gave His life on the cross. To reject the cross is to desert the army of the living God. Christ, the captain of our salvation, is the greatest conquerer of all time. There have been many great names among the sons of men, but Christ was more than a man. He was God manifest in the flesh that he might destroy the works of the devil. I scan the roll of earth's heroes and conquerors, and I see the name of Jesus written in letters of blood high above them all. Napoleon was a great conqueror. You have read how he led his army over the snow crowned Alps, down through the sunny vales of Italy, across the sands of Egypt to the pyramids, on a tour of conquest, but he was defeated on the field of Waterloo and died a prisoner on the desolate wave washed island of St. Helena. Our own Sherman was a mighty conqueror. You know how he led the Union army to the sea, cut in twain the Confederate army and thus ended the war; but Jesus 84 THE OLD GOSPEL Christ the captain of the Lord's Hosts is marching with a mighty army across the empires of the ages. For near two thousand years the Christian armies have been assaulting the strongliolds of sin and satan. Idolatry, superstition, and bigotry are retreating before the onward march of the Gospel, and so it will continue until the last page of human history has been written, and then, having cut in twain the forces of error and ended the war between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, the victorious Saviour will lead His redeemed hosts into the heavenly Jersusalem, where there shall be one eternal thanksgiving, a family reunion that shall never end. THE CALL OF THE HOUR "And He called the multitude." — Matthew 15:10. *'And a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles/' — Jno. 6:2. "Though it be true that life is short and the world full of vanity, yet God's work must be done diligently and to the last." — Conybeare. THE CALL OF THE HOUR THERE are in the world to-day, three institu- tions, which take precedence of all others in point of antiquity and influence. These are the Home, the State and the Church. These are all divine institutions in the sense that the necessity for them was implanted in man's nature by the Creator when He made man. Wherever you find man on the earth you will find these institutions, not always fully developed to be sure, but at least in rudimentary form. They are all divine institutions in the sense that they have their origin in one or another of the Divine attributes. The home rests upon or grows out of the attribute of love. Take love away and you cannot have a home. You may have a club or a boarding house but not a home in the best sense of the word. The state rests upon the attribute of justice. It is the function of the state to secure justice between man and man. In so far as any government succeeds in accomplishing this purpose it has fulfilled its mission, but in so far as it fails in this it fails in its God- given purpose. The church rests upon the attribute of righteousness and its mission is to establish the reign of righteousness over all the earth. The church is regarded by many as representing mere sentiment, beautiful sentiment to be sure but nothing more. Others think of the church as a means of prepara- tion for death, a kind of fire escape or insurance company 87 88 THE OLD GOSPEL to insure against loss by fire in the future life. As to sentiment, the church stands for the highest and best sentiment that has ever entered into the mind of man. As a means of preparing for the future, it is the only means that is of any great value, ''for, there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." But the church is also the greatest business enterprise in the world to-day. It is a significant fact that the first recorded utterance of our Lord was a statement in which He characterized His lifework as a business enterprise. "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" This is an age of big business. Great corporations con- trol the business and commercial world and we are con- stantly hearing about the importance of big business. Let us not forget that as a business enterprise the church of Jesus Christ represents the largest permanent investment, the largest annual expenditure for running expenses, and employs the greatest number of trained workers, of any business in the world. The church represents a permanent investment in church edifices, furnishings, and grounds, mission stations, publishing houses and hospitals with their equipment, of something more than $50,000,000,000. It represents an annual expenditure, for the conducting of the business, of about $2,100,000,000, and employs over 7,000,000 trained men and women in its work of dis- seminating the Gospel. What other business is carried on upon such a gigantic scale? 'I he great work of the church is to persuade the multi- tude to follow Jesus Christ. It may do many other things, good and useful things and fail In its mission as a church. IN THE NEW CENTURY 89 It may collect vast sums of money for Home and Foreign missions and be only a collecting and distributing agency for philanthropy. It may support sewing and cooking schools and maintain baths and reading rooms and have many institutional features and be only a pious club. It may have eloquent preaching and the best of music and an aesthetic and beautiful ritual and be nothing more than a mutual admiration society. We hear a great deal in these days about the social message and the social mis- sion of the church. That the church has a social mission must be granted, but there is danger that in our interest in the social problems and social needs of the day we shall forget that our Lord's program was to regenerate society through the saving of the individual. Christ's message is to the individual soul. Society is not to be made better enmasse, but by winning individual men and women to the faith and service of Christ. "The call of the Hour" is the call of the Master's voice that has come ringing down the centuries from the shores of the Sea of Galilee — 'Tollow thou me." Dr. W. M. Clow in his book, "The Secret of the Lord," has put it very plainly and forcefully In these words, "The office and function of the Church is plainly to do the work Christ gave it to do and no other. Her first and ruling purpose should be to win men to Christ. She should regard as beyond her province whatever would imperil her fitness or her force for this primary duty. She should watch with a keen eye any introduction into her pulpit of economic or industrial or political questions. The min- ister in the pulpit represents the Church at prayer. What- ever personal liberty he may rightfully claim for himself, go THE OLD GOSPEL he must not desecrate so sacred an hour and waste so solemn an opportunity. In a single word, the office and function of the Church is to proclaim the truth as it is in Jesus and apply that to the hearts and consciences of men." It is a matter for congratulation that in the Protestant Church to-day, with possibly a few minor exceptions, there is in all denominations, one and one only standard for church membership, viz: personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and proof of such acceptance by a life of faith, love and obedience. Sometimes the church is criticised by those outside for not requiring subscription to a definite creed. But our reply is that the church cannot afford to set up any standard or make any requirement other than that which Christ made and his message ever was, "Follow me." Sometimes the church is criticised for making the standard too high and insisting upon personal allegiance to the divine Christ, but our reply is that the church cannot be loyal to Him and lower the standard which He set up. But each one must find Christ in his own way. As no two people look just alike so no two people have exactly the same religious experi- ence. Christ appeals to each according to his individual mental qualities. He takes into account the personality and individuality of each person and makes His appeal accordingly. For example, Matthew did not find Christ in just the same way that Peter did. Peter was not called in the same way that Paul was and Paul was not converted in just the same manner as was the Philippian jailor. We do not read however, that St. Paul ever doubted the conversion of the others IN THE NEW CENTURY 91 because they had not arrived at their decision to follow Christ in exactly the same way that he did. This is some- times a stumbling block to people outside the church. They say, "here are five hundred people in this church and no two of them have had exactly the same religious ex- perience and no two of them believe just alike. Now if there was anything in religion they would all believe alike. There are so many denominations and so many beliefs that we cannot accept any of them." But this is to mis- understand God's way. God's method in nature and in grace is the method of unity in diversity. Paul says: "One star differeth from another star in glory," but there is a perfect unity and harmony about tiie starlit sky. You look out upon a landscape and you do not see all golden fields of grain or all green fields of corn or all woodland but here and there the yellow fields of grain interspersed with the green of the cornfields and these surrounded by the deeper green of the woodlands, but all one harmonious and beautiful landscape. It was my privilege not long since to hear the Oratorio of Elijah rendered by a choir of two hundred and fifty voices and an orchestra of one hundred and fifty instruments. They were not all one kind of instruments nor were they all soprano or alto or tenor or bass voices. Each voice had its own peculiar tone quality and there were the four parts but one beautiful and perfect harmony. So it is in the church of Christ, many individual experiences but all attuned to the same divine Christ. The fundamental question in religion is not, does this one or that one accept this or that particular dogma of the church or subscribe to the same creed that I accept, but 92 THE OLD GOSPEL does he love Christ and put Him first in his life. Does he put his love for Christ before his love of gain, his love of pleasure or his love of ease or self indulgence. Is the individual honestly striving to obey the Master's com- mand when He says: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." If he is doing this we have no right to insist upon anything more as a condition of church membership. Second: Christ is calling the multitude through the lives and efforts of His professed disciples. The Master has committed to His church the work of winning the world to himself. "Ye are my witnesses." There is a story that I have read somewhere, to the effect that when our Saviour left this world after his resurrec- tion, he was met in heaven by Abraham and others of the old Testament prophets and one of them asked Him what provision He had made for saving the world, and He replied, that He had chosen twelve men and Instructed them in the ways of salvation and sent them forth to tell others of His suffering and death upon the cross and these in turn would tell others and so on until the end of time ; but, said one, what if a generation should arise that would neglect to tell the message to their children, and the Mas- ter replied, "No other provision has been made for the salvation of the lost world." This brings home very forcibly the duty of the church to witness for Christ and to be in earnest in the work Pie has entrusted to her. We who profess to be the followers of Christ have a great responsibility resting upon us. We need to pray for greater earnestness and more zeal in the matter of making Christ known to the lost. IN THE NEW CENTURY 93 It Is sometimes said that the Bible is not read as much now as it was in a former time and that the sacraments do not mean as much as they did in a bygone age. If this be true, which I very much doubt, the fault lies at the door of the church. If church members neglect to bring their children to the baptismal altar is it any wonder that the world says there is not much in baptism after all? If church members neglect the Lord's table with impunitj- is it any wonder that those outside the church should conclude that our Lord's commands are held lightly by His followers? When professed Christians put the pre- cepts of the Bible into practice in all the relations of life, in business, in politics and in society, the world will place a higher value upon the Bible than it now does. "Ye are living epistles, known and read of all men." The value of the sacraments is either enhanced or depreciated bv our faithfulness or lack of faithfulness. The Bible will never mean more to the unconverted than it means to the followers of Christ. Third: God is calling His church as never before to the work of evangelizing the multitude. There never w^as an age when the call was so loud and clear as it is to-day. This call comes to us through the opportunities that open to us for service. Many fail to hear the call because their minds are preoccupied, they are too busy with other things. In one of the smaller towers of St. Paul's in London there is a clock which strikes the hours from one to twelve through the twenty-four hours of the day and night. But I have been told that there are at least five hundred thou- sand people within ten squares of St. Paul's who nevei hear the clock strike. They hear the rustle of fabrics on 94 THE OLD GOSPEL the counters of the marts of commerce, they hear the clink of gold on the counters of the exchange, they hear the click of machinery and the rumble of the wheels of commerce, but they do not hear the clock because their minds are taken up with these other things. So there are many to-day who do not hear the call to service because they are too busy with the things of this world. Others fail to hear the call to service because they are looking for some great opportunity. But there is no such thing as a great opportunity. Great things are accom- plished when we do the thing that needs to be done in God's time and in God's way. We say, when we think of the Sunday school with its 500,000 schools and its 26,000,000 members, that a great opportunity came to Robert Raikes. But Robert Raikes never saw the Sun- day school as you and I think of it. What he saw was a few children playing in the streets of an English city, and what he did was to try to meet the need of the hour by securing a number of Christian women to gather those children out of the streets and take them to the church on the Lord's Day and teach them the Bible and the cate- chism. But God's hand was upon that m.ovement and out of that efFort to save the children grew a great institution that God has abundantly blessed in the saving of many souls. You may say that a great opportunity came to Dr. F. E. Clark when he organized the Christian En- deavor movement. But what he did was to organize the young people of his own church in Portland, Maine, for service. God blessed his work and it grew to be a world wide institution. You do not know when God calls j^ou to any particular service that that sei-vice will not count IN THE NEW CENTURY 95. for more in eternity than any thing else you have evei done. Again, God is calling His people to service by the gifts with which He has endowed his church. Never before was the church so rich in money, culture and influence as it is to-day. We used to speak of having an educated ministry, but now we have also an educated and cultured constituency as well. But God has not bestowed these gifts upon us to be used for our own selfish ends. If He has given wealth it is that it may be used for His glory. Has He given us the advantages of schools and culture, it is that we may consecrate these to the work of saving the multitude from the paths of sin. But you say that while all this is true in general, you are not aware that you have any special gifts that you can use for Christ, It should be remembered that God's gifts come to us in the form of raw material to be worked out by us. God does not give us cities ready built. He gives us the timber in the forests, the rocks in the quarries, the iron in the mountains and we must cut the timber and work it up into lumber, we must bring the rock from the quarry and the ore from the mines and by developing the raw material we build our cities and our factories and our homes. So it is that God does not give us churches manned and officered, but he gives us the raw material upon which to work, men and women who are lost, men and women struggling and striving and bearing great burdens upon their hearts. He gives us the Gospel message in the Bible and He sends us out to call the multitude to the service of Christ. If we are only willing to bring the little that we have 96 THE OLD GOSPEL In the way of ability to work for Him and lay it at His feet He will bless and use it for His own glory and the salvation of men. Many years ago there was a boy In Chicago clerking in a shoe store. He was not a brilliant boy, but he was hi early life converted, and consecrated all his powers to the service of Christ. He went out Into the streets of the city and gathered together a class of news boys and boot blacks and formed them into a Sunday-school class. The class grew until there was a church and the church grew until there was by its side a school known as the Moody Institute and then the work grew until Northfield was realized and then Mr. Moody in company with Mr. Sankey went up and down the land preaching Christ to the multitude and thousands were saved. Like the loaves and the fishes brought by the lad to Christ, with which He fed the thousands, the talents which Mr. Moody brought were small In the world's eyes, but with the Master's blessing they were sufficient to feed thousands with the bread of eternal life. You may not have much to bring, in your own estimation, but if you are willing to put it all at the service of Christ he can make that little mighty for good. Finally, God's call to service always involves a call to preparation. The preparation required is not elaborate or expensive but it is absolutely Imperative. God cannot use those w^ho are not prepared to be used of Him. The first element in that preparation is repentance for sin. God cannot use the unregenerate man or woman in win- ning souls for Christ. "If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me." IN THE NEW CENTURY 97 The second element in preparation for service is a knowledge of God's Word. The Word is the instrument that God uses in bringing conviction to the heart. One verse of Scripture is better than yards of rhetoric or hours of logic. God has not promised to make argument or human logic efficient to the saving of souls, but he has promised to bless the use of the Word. For, "My Word shall not return unto me void but shall accomplish that which I please and shall prosper in the thing whereunto 1 have sent it." Another element in our preparation for service is de- pendence upon the Holy Spirit. Some time ago I read this incident (in the Homiletic Review) which helps to make plain what ought to be our attitude toward the Spirit. In a factory where rich fabrics were woven it was the rule of the factory that when an operative found a snarl in his thread he or she was not to attempt to straighten it out, but was to press an electric button and an expert would come from the office, whose business it was to straighten out the snarl. One day a woman who had worked many years In the factory found her thread in a snarl and undertook to fix it herself, but the longer she worked the worse it became entangled, and at last, in despair she pressed the button and when the expert came he found that he had to cut the threads and thus tht web was marred forever. As the man turned to leave, the woman said by way of apology or explanation — 'Well. I did the best I could' — to which the man replied, 'Your best is always to depend on me' — How often in life the threads become entangled and we attempt to straighten out the snarl only to make things worse. If we would 98 THE OLD GOSPEL only remember that our best is always to depend upon the Holy Spirit and seek through a careful and prayerful study of the Word to know what is the mind of the Spirit and be willing to be guided thereby, the web of life would not so often be marred. With earnest prayer for the help of the Holy Spirit may we all hear and heed the call to serve our Lord in the great work of leading the multitude to know and serve Him. Princeton Theoloqical Seminarv Li^^^^^ 1012 01197 0649 .l>i:?rMi?! fVAKTIetVeRITATifQ