The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-06-13

lOIbu ny d lew TO elevate bQ6
under classes, in part, are of ideals, diff
fering little and referring substantially
to the same ends.
That this is in measure progress
and real help no one will deny. To plant
settlements and maintain them, burrow.
ing in dirt and squalor in depraved
quarters in our congested cities, out
side of Salvation Army work, is perhaps
the best that is being done; always ex
cepting the Christian church itself,
which is the principal source of inclina
tion in men and women to do these
things. 1t is doing well. "Cleanliness."
said Mr.. Wesley, sis next to Godliness;"
and to induce industrial efforts at
washing and clothing and refining sur
roundings, as we'll as efforts at bread
winning is service the Lord of the har
vest will approve.
But to remain limited to these incom-
plete ideals is to perpetrate error that in
the end will be fatal to the undertaking
itself. One may seek these things and
put about himself the most ethetic
conditions. and be patron Of them, and
still be moral leper whose pollutions
are the ferment of all the black streams
that befoul our fair land. AS a rule, a
man that bears dinner pail and has
upon his arm and face the Drawn of in
dustry, or the one who takes the early
and late trains to and from his desk,
loves wife, child, mother, sister.
And as rule, the habit evokes the love.
But it alone, and even when re enforced
by these potent loves, is no guarantee
against the saloon and the gambling
and deadly menace to, that same home.
The six thousand saloons of this city
are in fact the product of this industrial
army. The idler gives little support to
the saloon and less to the home. He is
but the cinder fallen through the fire to
take his place under foot
To reclaim from idlenese is to confer
an invaluable favor, no doubt. To in
duce an industrial use of over-hours,
between labor and refreshment, in orna
menting the home and the mind, is a
of the turnerverein materialistic levels.
that say, "Let us eat and drink. for to-
morrow we die" No ideals from above
from the infinite Godward heights
inspire them to climbing.
Nature has ordered that neither life,
nor any other objective existence, shall
remain at the same level. Ascent or
descent are the only alternative. Greece
stood for a moment on the topmost
round of materialistic art, and then re-
turned. She saw no Madonnas, no st.
Stevens and no Christs. looking into
heaven and the face of God. The un-
nourished pencil grew lean, faltered, and
descended; no new inspiration evoked
the chissl and its echoes were heard
lower and lower on the scale.
If materialistic ideals are all, the oft
repeated alternations of civilization and
degradation can but be re-enacted, and
man and society, that for time re-
mained we'll up, must again descend.
But it is contended in some quarters
that the masses will not receive the re-
ligious. and will decline what savors of
religion, and must be met by conces.
sions to their own ideals, and for the
time religion must be retired or dis
guised, and. as nearly as possible, there
must be donning of their habits. in
Guiding vigorous slsps at church and
Bible. with however, it may be, no inten-
tion that they shall finally remain away
from the church. If they decline Jeho-
vah, we will for a time fall before Baal
with them.
While in missionary work in foreign
lands the church has always seen it nec-
eseary to make settlements among them,
to live with them, and to be their neigh
bors and sincere friends, and to instruct
them in all that pertains to life and liv-
ing, il may we'll adhere to the same
principle in respect to the heather at its
home door.
The settlement theory in itself is fun
damentally sound. and consistent with
the whole history of the church.
The church also has commonly con-
ceded to the heather, wherein they
were found in the right. and did it for
the sake of right, and at times too lib
orally, in order to strengthen the bonds
of amicability, and as leverage by
which to work and save. II caught you
with guile" said the great missionary
who went out to settle among the hea-
then. But nowhere was the religion of
Jesus Christ made secondary or dis
guised. Its place was first. It's "banner
on the outward WALL" Not always did
Christ receive right treatment at the
hands Of his missionaries. He was not
always unveiled in his endearing quail
ties to them. and much that could have
been done failed to be done. 1t need
not be the same now.
If it be urged that these people will
not sacrifice their freedom in order to
take the yoke OF religion. it is to be an
swered that it is needless to send them
missionaries to tell them they are right
as they are.