BUSINESS PUT
INTO RELIGION
Present Crisis in Nation's Life
Should Be Met First by
Spiritual Forces
BUILDS TEMPLE
International Sunday School
Lesson For November 7 Is
"Joash Bepairs Temple"
(Br WILLIAM T. ELLIS)
If I were czar of this Western
world In this present unequalled cri
sis in human events, there are three
or four fundamental things that I
would set the people to doing. Chief
among these I would require that all
the churches and religious societies
throughout the land receive lresh at
tention and that as may be neces
sary, they be rebuilt in their physi
cal equipment and spiritual organiza
tion. Wherever there is a breach in
the walls of the Churcn—literally or
metaphorically it should be quickly
repaired. The fashion of young King
Joash, of long ago, whose experience
in rebuilding the temple is to-day's
Sunday school lesson, is a foundainen
tal fashion to follow.
The reason is clear; such crises in
a nation's lite as the present are to
be met first of all by spiritual forces.
All the armies and navies that mili
tary genius could devise or command
cannot safeguard a nation whose peo
ple have lost their vision and their
noblest purposes. Ideals are ulti
mately the defense of a nation. No
people have lost their vision and their
noblest purpose*. Ideals are ulti
mately the defense of a nation. No
graver issue is before our time than
that of rehabilitating in the minds
of the multitudes the great old con
victions and purposes which first
made us strong. Nobody need lose
sleep at night from fear of a hostile
invasion; but there is real reason for
sleepless concern over the steadily
undermining of the intogrities of
faith and duty which may be detect
ed in process.
The nation looks to the Church for
spiritual strength and tor the vision
that will meet the new duties of the
high hour that is upon us. What
help remains If. in this time of times
instead of a Church with a clear,
lot'ty, ringing message to men's souls,
we have merely an agglomeration of
petty, contending, small-minded and
sordid ecclesiastical organizations, so
engrossed with trifling politics and
the material needs of self-sub
sistence. that they are deaf and
blind to the heroic summons of God
end humanity?
Life Mirrors Religion
Like every other national leaider
who lias had wit enough to know
anything about his business, Joash
understood that the prosperity of
Judah was bound up with the wel
fare and fidelity of religion. No na
tion ever comes to its height apart
trom the Inspiration and support of
a religious faith. Both France and
Germany a year ago, were the sub
ject of many articles concerning their
religious decline. Now, in the seven
times heated furnace of war both
have found their souls. Tet It is be
cause the nations had subordinated
spiritual concerns to material values
that we have this world war. Life
mirrors religion. When religion be
comes perfunctory, mechanical or
secondary, then we have such col
lapses of civilization as that which is
to-day staggering humanity.
Is it too much to hope that after
the awful obligations which this war
is creating have been laid upon the
survivors, and accepted open-eyed,
some nation will deliberately under
take to grive religion the right of way
in its life? Can we Imagine a peo
ple dedicated whole-heartedly to
God's highest purposes? What could
not such a nation do in this re-made
world! Occasionally mankind has
seen what one wholly, dedicated
Christian could accomplish. When
Dwight L. Moody was a young man
he heard a speaker say. "The world
Is yet to see what God can do with a
wholly consecrated man." Moody
resolved that he would be that man.
And Moody, whose bones are mold
ering on Little Round Top in North
field. still lives as one of the world's
greatest forces.
Making a Clean Sweep
If anybody asks why the temple at
Jerusalem so sorely needed repairing,
there is one sentence in the lesson
which makes answer. After the rec
ord nf Joash 'a loyalty to God. we read
"Howbeit the high places were not
taken away: the people still sacrifled
and burnt incense In the high places."
That Is a good picture of modern life.
Theoretically, we have a Christian civ
ilization: actually, materialism, pride,
arrogance, cruelty, selfishness and
avarice have kept the incense burning
on their high places. There is no
room even in the circumambient ether
for the smoke of the rival incense
from the altars of Jehovah and the
altars of idolatry and self-indulgence.
God demands that He be God alone.
A queer notion is lodged firmly in
certain pious minds that the passive
virtues are all that are needed for the
bringing in of the kingdom of heaven.
Some folk don't want to be disagree
able even to the devil himself. They
would not speak ill about even the
worst foes of society. This is the more
strange when we remember that if
anything at all is clear In the program
of God, as indicated in both the Old
Testament story and the New Testa
ment Record of the life of Jesus it is
that wickedness must be overthrown.
The Christian Is called to be an Icono
■ last, an idol smasher. There are
some men who are church pillars who
<io not weigh an ounce when it conies
to driving corruption out of a com
munity. Yet to fight evil is as surely
a part of the Christian program as to
proclaim the good. The high places
must be maintained in her Integrity,
for the service of the world. There
4U r a host of social ills that will have
to be remedied if we are going to meet
the new day in the spirit of the king
dom of heaven.
Overloading tlie Preacher
For a long time King Joash tried to
have the temple repaired, but without
success. He was slow in finding out
ft
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the reason, which was nothing more
or less than that he had followed a
very modern fashion of trying t9 have
the priests do it all. He wanted the
priests to provide the money and to do
the work, but that was more than even
the patient preacher could stand. Not
until a business system was Introduc
ed. and burdens distributed, and the
lay workers called in each to do hie
own part, was the big job of temple
restoration put through.
There are a good many objections
to the present popular program of
loading all the work of a church on
to the preacher. One Is sufficient to
mint out. It does not succeed. There
'never was a preacher bis enough to
[carry a whole church; and there never
'will be. Those congregations who are
I asking their ministers to be errand
boy, parish visitor, property commit
tee, financial agent, church supper or
ganizer, delegttte-to-everythi:ig, and
general factotum and roustabout, are
guilty of several blunders, the cardinal
one being sheer stupidity. The only
i way a church is going to thrive Is for
| everybody to bear his part. The minis
ter's tasks ought to be to preach the
! Gospel. Instruct the people and to be
a pastor of the flock. The officers of
I the church should have gumption
enough to see that he does this with
out neglecting it, and that they do
their own share of the work with equal
fidelity. The priests fitted beautifully
into Joash's scheme when Joash came
to his a«nMi, and developed a. busi
ness-like scheme for the enterprise of
temple repairing.
It has been said that the quickest
way to dampen the enthusiasm of a
prayer meeting is to talk money.
Nevertheless, as of old, BO to-day,
money Is needed for the work of the
Church. To secure It from proper mo
tives and in adequate amount, is one
of the greatest single difficulties of or
ganized religion. Somehow, the
Church has not as keen a financial
sense as she had in the days of Joasli.
There Is more pettiness exhibited in
the financial aspect of religion than
in any other manifestation of Chris
tianity—and that is saying a Rood
deal.
Anybody who has ever sat on a
church board has witnessed the
strange phenomenon of businessmen,
who are accustomed to doing practical
things in a practical way, and to con
ducting large enterprises in a broad
spirit, going about church matters
with an entirely new state of mind,
which is chiefly characterized by its
smallness. Who can explain why it is
that when businessmen go at the fin
ancial side of the church their ideas
immediately become peanut size?
Men who pay generously In the cham
ber of commerce, or in their social
clubs, count pennies when it comes to
the Church.
There is many a man with an in
come of thousands of dollars a year
who is a total stranger to the experi
ence of giving as much as one hun
dred dollars in a single year to the
church. A whoie crowd of epigrams
and stories' nave arisen, concerning
this well-known condition. One Is
"Some men give according to their
means, and others according to their
meanness." "Some Christians are so
stingy that when the minister gives
out 'Old Hundred' they start to sing
'Ninety and Nine' in order to get one
per cent, off."
If a Christian has not religion
enough to give generously, proportion
ately and systematically to the church
he has surely not religion
enough to take him to heaven, or to
any other Christian goal. The first
Tki Unl Yw Han Alwap Boirctit •« O&S/ffl&ZZZu
evidence of a revival In religion In
many a church would be an increasa
in the pastor's salary, and the
ing of the church. I have observed in
heathen lands that at the entrance
to the temples there is & large chest
—Joash fashion—for the receipt o*
offerings. The first act of worship in
heathendom is to make a gift.
Now, as of old. the grave problem
is one of putting the church Into flt
condition on her material side, and
in her spiritual strength, to meet the
crlsl that is now upon the world.
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