Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-07-10

u Itul IIlJILLI III IN.
Tee Need Of Industrial Regeneration
Explained by Rev. S. ?. Grummett.
IN HIS SERMON AT THE WESLEY
M. E. CHURCH LAST NIGHT.
EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYERS
SHOULD COOPERATE FOR
THEIR MUTUAL GOOD-RELA-
TIONS ONE SHOULD BEAR TO
THE OTHER-SOME APPROPRl-
ATE ILLUSTRATIONS.
At the Wesley Nj. E. Church last
evening, the pastor. the Rev. S. p.
Crummett, delivered a very thoughtful
sermon on THE Need of An Industrial
Regeneration" He chose his text from
PHILIPPIANS ii. 4: Look not every man
On his W things, but every man also
OF the things of Others" The reverend
speaker said the old idea was a strug-
gle for the power of mi man over
many. God came to declare that hu
mainly is a brotherhood. This is the
central thought in the sermon on the
Mount, voiced in the Golden Rule. I'm
fortunately the world accepts this doc
trine in theory. but not in practice.
There is necessity for an awakening
in the church to a realization of the
fact that it must control the conduct of
men in social and industrial lines, if it
is TO meet the needs of humanity for
which it was designed.
Continuing along this line of thought.
the Rev. Mr.. Crummett said:
There is a sense in which almost every
man is looking on the things of others.
The man with a small capital is looking on
the things of those with large capital and
wishing that somehow he might come into
POSSESSION of the other mans business.
On the other hand the men and firms with
gigantic and monstrous capital are contin-
ually looking on the men of small capital
and seeking some way by which they may
come into possession of all the smaller
firms and establishments, swallow them
up, and become lord of all, such as the
Standard Oil Co. and the National Sugar
Trust. The great Jay Gould in his day
looked on the railroads with the same COW
etous eye, and many times so laid his
plans, and as men say, worked his cards,
that the stock of the company was made
to decline and its business fall off, when
he would purchase the same. There is IN
ove~r-abundance of that kind of looking on
the things of others.
The same thing may be seen In the pro-
LESSONS of life. Let a man, or a woman
either, come into a prominent and lucra-
tive position, and at once there are a
score of persons looking with hungry eyes
for his place. Many times WI find this
spirit among the preachers of the gospel
even. Let some brother come into a prom
inent place and at once many more are
looking with envious eyes upon him and
his place. There is entirely too small a
view taken by us as many times in our
ministry.
What the text means is to look on both
sides of every contract and compact of
society in this life. First, what can 1 af-
ford to pay and yet live? Second, what
can the other man afford to receive and
sun NC a man anu NJ q SldNC- IL II Ia 10
out when looking thus on both sides that
either must suffer, then the business
should either be abandoned or both sides
agree TO share in the burdens. No en-
ployer in a brotherhood should be content
to receive dividends either large or small
while his employees are suffering want in
their homes. The regenerated" man
should be known by thus looking on both
sides in every industrial enterprise of life.
This would create a confidence between
the employe and his employer that would
go a long way toward settling many of
the vexed questions of to-day between
capital and labor. There should never be
any fight between the two for they are so
closely married that neither can suffer
without a corresponding suffering of the
other.
Capital is dead without the confidence
and support of labor. and on the other
hand labor is helpless without the conf
denoe of capital. How this country would
blossom into peace and prosperity If we
had this real regeneration in the industrial
life about us. 1t must be begun and cham
pioned, too, by the Christian men of cap
ital and the Christian men of muscle.
Christian capitalists must not accept the
plans of operation hat are planned with
regard for ethics, as the head of the sugar
trust says: Ethics! ! don't know any
thing of that. 1t is business / am talking
about" Such men have no moral sense,
and hould not be followed by regenerated
men. / am reminded Of an incident that
came TO my knowledge a few years since
in reference TO a preacher who was In the
business OF taking out insurance policies
on persons who were almost dead, and he
agreeing to pay the premiums and receive
the profits. He was demonstrated with by
a brother minister. and he only laughed,
and said: "Oh, well, business is business
and religion is something else"
l knew a man in the old Volcano oil field
who was the employer OF several men. He
was a member of the NJ. e. church. He
was everywhere regarded as an exemplary
man, but none knew his real Christlike
nature and character SO well as his en-
ployes. One man who had toiled as a
laborer all his life said to me one day:
Il have worked for many men who were
members of church, but I never worked
for a Christian until since l rave been
working for this man. 1t is seen not only
in the treatment Of his men, but the re-
gard he has for his horses !
| pray God to hasten the time when men
of the church shall everywhere be known
in the money world and by the labor world
for the reason that they have been regen-
nra4ad ~ r1fc-ra- -