The times., 1901-05-13
HUMAN NEEDS AND HELPS.
Religion Must Maintain True Bal
nnce Between Them.


| eminent Jewish priest and philanthropist,
who is here in attendance at the National
| Conference OF Charities and Correction,
| addressed a large audience at the First
Congregational Church yesterday morn
ing on the subject, The Application of
| Religion to the Social Problem" He said:
Perhaps no thought was ever more
| greatly misunderstood than the phrase
which fel from the Masters lips My
kingdom is not of this world This does
| not mean that the care of the body and
| of social affairs should be left to secular
provision. His kingdom was, indeed, not
of this world-a world that when he
| called his people to repentance they first
| grasped the sceptre, and violence pre-
vailed everywhere. But Jesus, with the
sound optimism of the Jewish prophets
announced that this state of violence was
| only transtory, and in the roundness OF
time would give place to the Kingdom OF
love, and make earth paradise.
And in this no agency is more needed
than the ministry of religion Every
form of religion is directed upward to
| spiritual things, and the contemplation
of the almighty throne Every religion
| is also directed manward. What the re-
| ligious man is himself- and what Shall be
his relations to his fellow-man are of vital
| Importance.
Religion has been compared to the
rain As it rises to heaven, 1t falls again
to earth, where it ministers to the earth
| So religion, lifting it's regard heavenward,
gathers a power in the contemplation OF
God that increases its value in minister
! ing to fellow-man.
THE conviction is deepening with every
revolving year that religion must make
itself in the councils, factor in the work
of fighting sin, of redeeming the sufferer,
and of lifting UP man.
THE Jews religion teaches him that
he is made in the image of his Creator.
| The Christian has added to this convic-
tion a belief that he is the brother of
divinity. The consciousness of the dig
nifty of man is the basis of all the duties
he. owes to his fellow-men. Religion alone
supplies the proper motive
The materialist says that man is woven
of dust, and is under the law that sweeps
again into dust all that is dust. He reads
in the flowers and in the stars that only
the fittest may survive. He says that
under this law man lives out the measure
of his years. Materialism is readily rec
ogniZed as egoism, tricked out in the
finery of words and high-sounding phi
losophy.
The economist will urge charity upon
all members of society to adjust the bal
ance of his bookkeeping. He says it is
cheaper to help the needy than not to
help him. This theory of a social rela-
ton is certainly upon a higher level than
| the cynical egoisrn of the materialist. But
suppose that it should appear to the
economist that it was not wiser to assist
the needy than to refuse him? Suppose
that it should appear TO him that it We're
economically preferable for him to suffer?
Where would charity be then? Where
would we stand?
No, religion supplies alone the motive
for the adjustment Of social relations. the
aid of the needy, the alienation of the
sufferer. Jew and Christian remembers
his divine origin, and what he is every
man is.
Poverty is opposed to the proper de-
velopment of that sentiment of humanity
Poverty crushes down the soul beneath it,
stamps out the dignity of manhood, and
is not to be tolerated. Every human body
is temple unto God. every human soul
shrine every human mind an open book,
TO be written with the experiences of life
TO be a man, as the old rabbis had
ii, was to be partner of God IN the
creation. And certainly the work of MAX
ing man into men is not yet completed.
- ne materialistic philosopher exalts his
philanthropy by doing out money What
money is an equivalent for true phiian-
thropy. Money is often d bargain with
our consciences. Money is often only the
ransom for our liberty to be selfish.
The economist bases his charity upon
the law of supply and demand. Religion
Whispers IN our ears that men are wanted,
not money; sympathy, not cost. One that
wishes to save men must be a man him
zFE fr.If l.
human sympathies.
The difference between those who are
helpless and those who can be helped is
marked. On the one side there is per-
sOnality, a belief in their own dignity.
and on the other side, the dark absence
of character.
Religion not only supplies the motive,
but sets the method, sending through So
ciety the subtle sense of responsibility
we are the children of our pasts You
cannot look for flower in a swamp. You
viii not find a lily a dunghill You
would not look for highest womanhood in
the Sums. What do these acts tell US?
Conditions may be factors. but they
are not final. Who was responsible for
conditions? Who was responsible for the
inflrmitles of heredity? Religion tells the
rich man that he is responsible for his
wealth, the wise man for his wisdom,
the state for social conditions and cir
cumstanceS. The laws of responsibility
make each man the steward Of society
GO as one who not only has some
thing TO give, but something to receive
Fight physical filth, and the battle against
moral infirmity is half won. 1t is not true
that philanthropy resolves itself into a
question Of supplying bread and butter,
a bed, roof. Modern philanthropy brings
the spirit of human dignity
Give men a social life on higher
plane and ss9 out Of Loo viii gladly en-
brace 1t. Give them beauty, arts. music.
books and you have won the battle over
darkness, the devil and brutalization
Am / my brothers keeper? Did the
prophets, did Jesus. ask that question?
No; they died for their fellow-rnen. Re
hSion brings me to know that / am re-
sDOusible for my feIlouy-r,,ar,