The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1897-01-16
THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO
SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO
SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
The conditions of the present time are
causing the church to take stand on
one side or the other Of social questions,
and however loath it may be to declare
itself unequivooally the time is at hand
when it must fairly and squarely take
its position.
No other organization has such an
opportunity to be power in righting
wrongs. Every social question is at
heart religious question. A religion
which is good to die by is good to live
by, and the religion which does not en-
ter into the everyday work of man,
which does not impel him to live hon
estly, to deal fairly, to be just to his
fellows and to do his duty toward estab-
fishing justice in the land is out of place
in the church.
Applied Christianity should be
preached from the pulpit. 1t should
sound forth the duty of man to his fell
low men. The church ought to stand
for the oppressed and demand their de-
liverance.
No paddock on the pulpit! Let truth
be preached, and the application of it
made to the work of the six days in the
week when church members mingle
with each other and with the worlds
people in business and social relations
Religion, real religion, is no seventh
day affair. The masses are hungering
for the truth; for crusts of spiritual
comfort as we'll as for literal bread.
They feel the need of the God power
the sympathy of the Crucifed, the cheer
ing, inspiring word of the I Am.
Here and there we find ministers
alive to their opportunities and privi-
leges, and forth from their pulpit comes
the voice of warning and of entreaty
They "sound an alarm. They speak
truth "as one having authority and not
as the scribes. And believe that this
word of truth is even the "sickle"
which is being thrust i'm now, in
the "harvest time" of the gospel age,
dividing the wheat from the tares.
One duty of the church is to awaken
those who sleep among its members.
II know thy works, that thou art
neither cold nor hot. Iwould thou vert
cold or hot. So then, because thou art
lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, |
will spew thee out of my mouth. Be-
cause thou sayest, am rich and increas.
ed with goods and have need of nothing,
and knowest not that thou art wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked.
Rev. DR.. Rainsford Of New York
wrote this to religious paper: "The
infidelity really dangerous today and
lastingly hurtful is not the infidelity
that you find outside the Christian
church, but the infdelity you find with.
in it; the in6delity of those who, while
processing to believe in the Fatherhood
of God, deny the brotherhood of man.
While protesting to be filled with en-
thusiasm for the unseen God, they know
little Or nothing of enthusiasm for his
child"
1t is this infdelity in tho church
which has been recognized by the toll.
ing masses. They could be led to believe
in a practical Christianity. Theoretical
Christianity has no charms for them.
And so they go on struggling to change
the present unjust order of things. The
church owes God sacrifice in the cause
of truth. If it expects to reign with him,
it must also suffer with him. 1t must
stand for justice and for righteousness.
1t must preach love-love which is
the fulfilling Of the law. Men cannot be
fulfilling the law of love while grasping
everything possible from their fellow
men in a mad scramble for wealth.
Men cannot serve God and Mammon,
too, and they need to be told this fact
once in awhile, and the pulpit is the
place in which to tell it. The church
should be the mouthpiece of Gods de-
nunciations of sin as well as of his prom
Uses of pardon and salvation from sin
Its light is great, its claims greater,
and greater still is its great responsible,
ity in all the great questions affecting
the welfare and progress of the human
race. JOSEPHINE RAND.
CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS.
The session of the convention of char