The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-06-26
TIE ORGANIZING DRIFT.


people of to-day, that no apology
needed for its publication, especial
where the prominent name attached d
the close is considered.-ED.
A remarkable feature in the presen
condition of society is the great and in
creasing number of voluntary associa
tiOns, organizings of individuals, in socit
ties for vast variety of purposes. 1t
the drift of the time. Every villag
pastor finds certain kins of them occupy
ing all available evenings in the week
and sometimes drawing TO themselves ai
interest which he feels should belQn
to the church. There is great compass
to these organizations. They are lik
the range of chapter in the Massachu
setts statutes, single section of whicl
provides for the incorporation of church
es and of societies for improving tn,
breed of chickens. People organize 10
the promotion of every good whicl
philanthropy can imagine, and ''for tn
suppression of every evil which can b,
discovered Men combine for object
outside the line of church action, anC
the church Itself favors the drift b,
abandoning to independent cOmbina
tions the work which often apparently
belongs to itself What can be saiC
about it? 1t is well to see wha
gives shape to this reorganizing process
1. Mutual aflinites are frequen
cause. Ministers associate because they
are ministers. College graduates make
college clubs. Old soldiers get together
in Grand Army Posts because they once
wore the blue together in the field
Congregationalist multiply Congrega
tional clubs, and Baptists, Baptist clubs
Socialists meet to talk socialism witt
each other. Specifications might be
multiplied hundred-fOld, where af1ini.
ties made new arrangements of society.
2. There are also arrangements fol
practical work. The temperance peo.
lple have number of great organizations,
with certain attractive features also, foI
their specific philanthropy. Friends OF
missions, city or country, home or for
eign, to various kinds of the neglected
or the sinful, form their several Organi-
cations; SO charitable people, for the
assistance of the poor, or for peculiar
departments of relief, as to widows and
orphans. So far as our denomination is
ICorcerned we have rather prided our
selves on encouraging the manufacture
of voluntary societies, and have turned
over to all the distinctive work which
r1ie churches as such could possibly get
rid of. The church, is, therefore greatly
Irresponsible for the present drift
| 3. Much recognizing is evidently for
purposes of personal gain, or increase of
strength by combination. Among these
are various ''benefit'' societies, some of
which are purely for insurance, but many
of which unite also attractive features.
| The insurance societies of this latter
| type furnish pleasant associations, but
have more strength in the fact that n
stranger knows he will not be left alone
in illness, and, if he dies, his widow and
children will not be friendless. One
ought not to be surprised at the growth
of these institutions. They are a sign of
yeaTning of help which comes in no
other practical way.
Organizations make power. We see
| it in the trades-u union. A "lasters' union
fixes prices; and SO does medical
society, whose scale of prices is now in
my hands, and which fixes the cost of
every luxury from a broken leg to a
| common visit. Both are trades-uniOns,
with power over members and employers.
Combined wealth and combined labor
are alike powerful, and men have
discovered the fact. The weakness of
mdividualism finds refuge in the strength
Jf combination. ''If you worked for a
dollar and forty cents day." man who
had that pay said to me, you would
Join a labor organization and be some
bodyl" The man, helpless while alone,
finds himself formidable in the unions.
society largelybreaks up in asteroid frag
ments, taking some orbit.
A man standing on the steps of a
church in Boston, some time ago, pointed
20 the lofty and massive "Odd Fellows
Hall" and said, "That is what is Grip
pling the churches" Was he correct?
Is there anything the church needs to do
| to meet the want which the other body
seems to supply? 1t is difficult to say.
''If the church did its work, - we have
often heard itsaid, 'these societies would
not exist But am not sure of that.
/. The church is peculiar. 1t is the
possessOr of Christian life, the agent of
Christ's power to renovate the world.
| But it is not debating society, and is
not to supersede and destroy abating
societies. 1t is not civil service re-
form league, nor a social science club,
nor tariff dinner-party, nor a savings
bank, nor a temperance society. Nor Is
it an insurance company. 1t would be
sad if any sick member should need a
watcher by night and have to 60 outside,
but this must be met in love, not league.
| If the apostolic statement were now re-
allied, that "they who believed were to-
gether and had all things common"
there would be no need of insurance for
| its membeTs-if we could but agree
what the apostle meant. But this would
not help those outside. Christian love
can, however, make much outside help
needless. But it cannot put the church
where external business help are not
needed. Nor is that its province. The
church is not for self-insurance in any
way, and must not be degraded to that
position.
| 2. 1t is a mistake to suppose, or try to
make it true, that many of these eXter-
nal organizations are dangerous to the
church. Better claim them, so far as
they are good, and do good, as the off
spring of the power of Christ through
His church. There is not good thing
which the Christian thinker has not a
right to claim as coming through a
Christian civilization. The church is
not a corporation whose effectiveness is
limited by church lines, and recorded in
church statistics. | saw fountain once
in the american desert" and beneath
its spray the grass was green. did not
see the pipe through which under ground
the water came, but ! knew it must
bring it unseen, from the dark hills
saw many miles away.
1t is the work of the church to send
out its life where it can. Let it then
recognize, without fear, the good it may
see, and let it so preach the gospel that
societies and men may be imbued with
Justice, righteousness and love. The
church is not to allow itself to consider
itself as one of number of competing
societies.; it is, in its own thought, the
supreme society. Its mission is Il
Christianize. Its members should holt
it sacred, its meetings first in precedenc,
: its interests paramount. Other societies
are human, this is diyinely ordered
Any member of a church who allows hii
duty to any organization TO interfer,
with his devotion to his church. eithe
as TO hours or money or labor, is no
worthy of his Master.
A. The workman who received dol
lar and forty cents a day said to me
"Can anyone of your church member
4 put himself in my place? Until he does
he can't understand us." Perhaps if w
could put ourselves in the place of many
Z and see what sends them into outsid
organizations, we could see some thing
+ to be done. We meet, of course, Ofte
the sad fact of lack of religious tastes
but there may be needless aggrevation
of even this. Let me say it. A man i
moderate circumstances goes into
d Christian congregation, and he finds
4 hundred-dollar pew set apart on tn
centre aisle for hundred-dollar mar
who is practically labeled rs such;
five-dollar pew under the gallery corne
4 for live-dollar Christian. lie read
what James so scathingly says on thi
..ui,.A n,,L .r.nuLnr.. LIZ 1r..o.. IT,. -.