The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-07-05
The Boys Brigade Courier.

The Boys Brigade Courier.
The Boys Brigade now has an organ
devoted to its interests. under the title
of the Boys Brigade Courier, publish.
ed at Cincinnati, Ohio. This weekly
journal is not yet half year old, but
its origin and rapid development serve
to show how strongly the Brigade
movement is taking hold of the
Churches and Christian Associations
of young men, and to what proper
tions it is likely to grow in the near
future.
1t is no pleasure to have to criticise
movement whose professed object is
to attract the boys to the churches and
to win them to Christ. We deeply
sympathize with every innocent and
expedient means of attaining this end.
The church has been very unwise in
its generation in its neglect, often ex.
tremely careless and criminal neglect,
of the boys, at that age when they
need the most constant, the most pray
erful and at the same time the most
patient and sympathetic attention.
But, in the name of that very Chris.
tianity which this movement seeks to
promote and in the name of the saliva.
ton and ultimate good of the boys
themselves, we cannot throw off the
duty of protesting against it as radical
ly inconsistent with the real spirit OF
Christianity, as well as peculiarly fitted
to make the introduction of conscrip-
tive militarism into our country much
easier during the coming generation.
A glance at the Boys Brigade Cou.
rier shows to what q great extent mill.
tary ideas and military methods domi'
nate the whole institution. The gun
and the sword and the drill are every
where in the forefront, and will be. In
the very nature of the case. Chris
tianity, even as it is comprehended BY
the promoters of the Brigade, though
theoretically the inspiring reason Of
the movement, is practically quite sub
ordinate. The system of military
tactics of the United States Army Is
adopted en- bloc and incorporated into
the regular training. "Strict obedience
and discipline shall be enforced by eli
officers" the constitution does not say
by whet means.
A writer in the copy of the Boys
Bigade Courier lying on the desk be
fore US says: II think I may say that
boys invariably admire soldiers, look
ing up to them as type of manliness
Few cliques of boys do not at some
time in their history organize into mil
itary squads in their play, and as they
grow older they look forward to going
to West Point, to joining the militia
or at least to going to a military
school," He goes on to say: "We dc
not aim to make soldiers of the boys
purely and simply, but to use the in
terest developed by the manly eXer.
cises and discipline of military drill fol
high purpose, etc."
Nothing could be truer than the
statement about boys admiring soldiers
and so on. But vii! the Brigade de-
crease this natural admiration, as II
ought to do, if the boys are to be made
Christians through its use? It is not
necessary to "aim to make soldiers Of
the boys :" that will take caIe of itself
just as naturally as water flows down
hill. But it will take years for the re
suit to appear, and herein lies the great
danger of the whole thing. Napoleon
admired soldiers and played soldier
when small boy and was encouraged
by his mother to do 80, aud he became
one of the greatest criminals of his
tory. The soldier type of manliness
when you get back of the parade anc
the fine order, iuto the realities of the
camp and of the field is not the one
which Christian teachers ought to en-
courage or even excuse.
| One can not read much of what Ii
said about Boys Brigade without s
painful sense Of the imperfect and ever
radically wrong conception of the re
ligion of Jesus which prevails among
professed Christians. If the Boys
Brigade movement should succeed ir
winning large numbers of boys to tht
Church and infusing into their minds
this perverted notion of Christianity
it would be almost if not quite as vel
to leave them where they are. L
fighting and bloodshed, if hatred ano
killing enemies personal or national, i
the passion and frenzy Of the battle
| field are right and Christian, then LEI
the Brigade movement 60 on by al
means. If the result of the move
ment shall be, in after years, to give 6
deeper insight into and fuller accept
ance of the spirit of the sermon or
the mount, which is the very essence
of the moral teachings of Christ, with
out the practice of which we do no
see how any cne can be true ant
complete Christian, we shall be th'
first to withdraw what we have sale
about the deceitful and dangerous ten
dencies of the Brigade and to speak ir
praise of what it has accomplished
Am. ADV. of Peace.