The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-16
SERMON AT TABERNACLE
REV. j. CUMMING SMITH ON "CHRIS-
TIAN COMMERCIALISM."
Old Questions Recur and Ancient
Problems Face the People I'm Modern
Times-Encouraging Phase.

Il
! Commercialism." Mr.. Smith said:
THE old questions are ever recurring;
ancient problems face us in their modern
| guise. The street musician grinds out
few tunes at one corner, passes around the
hat. and moves to the next corner and
repeats the same melodies; then at the
third corner the same musical programme.
Before each age come dreams and difficult
ties that age dreams to be new and unpre-
cedented, but they are only the. old puzzles
| in a new mask. the old tunes at another
| corner.
Here were disciples that came like sea
bathers out Of the surf of the Old Tesla
ment. and still dripping with ideas of
finance, self-interest and real estate and
social luster or pre-eminence founded on
wealth. Beyond question the history of
the Jews put an emphasis on obedience to
God, crowned with every conceivable form
of material prosperity. Abraham, Job and
Joseph were types of that early ambition.
Their genius was commercialistic. Then
came Jesus, far on in that course of their
national development, and He preached
new idea of self-renunciation, self-abnega-
/ ton, Standardization. 1t new note
In their national symphony. 1t pierced
| through the crust Of external hctions to
|
ut probed the eternal and spiritual con-
ditions, put diamond In the light. and in
stantly the swift rays seek its very center
Jesus always struck at the heart of the
SEARCHING QUESTIONS.
He asked the magnetic young man sew
eral searching questions. and very cordial
answers came in response. Then Jesus
asked the young man to lay his thousand
| shekels the altar of sacrifice, and he
WINGED. Let us understand this demand.
1t not that Jesus would wiring his
wealth from the youth, but that Jesus
wanted those vaults to be baptized and
| consecrated to God. This was not an ex-
tortionate demand. Every shekel must be
| so managed as to be harmonious with the
divine ideas. The millionaire must apply
| conscience to his bank stock. This was
| the principle.
This passage has been ventilated to
| prove that Jesus was antagonistic to mil
| ionaires and even that Jesus was an early
| prophet of many modern theories of repu-
I diation OF the commercial instinct or ex-
| pansion.
Now, the policy of the divine Master
| was never nihilistic or iconoclastic. He
| simply claimed the world. All its forces
| were capable of divine redirection. Art,
trade, science social passions, national
! worldly delghts-all were seized and la
| beled as the natural property of God in the
development or spiritual kingdom. IL
| these forces were perverted, If talents were
| prostitutec, IL science went alien and art
| stopped to base work, If false schools SNUG
| gled in wrong wares without a due tax of
| thought-these were but unfortunate devel-
| opments or humorous growths of a princi-
| pie that was ordained to move in another
direction altogether. Even a good man
| may find himself on a car going north when
| he means to go south, but the conductor
| does not spring at his throat and choke him
to death because he is going the wrong
n he i'm in h. rfer1r
| This was in every known case the philo-
! sophical attitude of Jesus. He found forces
| on the wrong train. He did not, therefore,
| frown on those forces. He resurrected
MANY CHARACTERISTICS.
Each age has mapy connected char
| acteristics, but one two imperial over
| shadowing tendencies. At present the trend
Is commercalism. The world Is wild for
money and naturally the fever catches
everywhere. 1t regns In markets and
money chambers, but it overvaults these
| domains and intrudes into homes and
churches and social standards. 1t lays
siege to the pure skies even. How far is
this universal passion or epidemic justifi-
able? What are the principles to intro
duce into such sphere of absorbing in
| terests?
AS a church there is but one application
possible. We must, with the Master, sim
acquisition the higher idea that man was
| constructed not to be gold hunter, out
a god-lover; that the complete and ultimate
acter; that the idoiatry of wealth must
cease; that wealth is not an end, but
means toward an end: that a man may be
| resources; that a man may be poor as
| Socrates or Paul or Goldsmith, and yet
be Bank Of London or a diamond mine in
wealth, so far from being a curse, Is a
| curse only to the man who sells his soul as
a slave to its cruel chains; that the max
| ing Of money In a legitimate way is a
| course of education equal to a college and
| the munificent spirit that knows how to
spend wealth in an unselfish manner helps
a man to heaven and does not bar the
| way
Between Christ, therefore, and the tidal
| sweep of commercialism there is no neces-
| sary disagreement. Indeed, Christ claims
the genius Of trade and capitalism as a
force in the direction of true human
But He claims 1t all. am
more than a tither-I am a total-er, If you
will permit the word; not a ten-ther, but a
ten-tenther. Every dollar belongs ultimate
ly to God, who gave the talents and op-
portunity to make them. The owner is
but trustee or steward. He must distribute
science Illuminated by Christ's ideals No
! minute millinery rule can be affirmed, al
though profoundly respect many who
would yoke the church to such rules.
! doubt the rules, not the men who urge
them. The Old Testament situation was a
| hierarchy and the temple was a focal point
| of charities, and education and missions,
| and therefore the rules that obtained in
| a hierarchy cannot very well be transferred
| to republican system You can load
| horse down with such an amount of harness
| that the harness is greater than the bur-
| den to be drawn. You can cumber the
church with regimental commands and
| suffocate her spirituality. Let il suffice that
| a Christian is a distinct species he is a
| case of complete surrender and unlimited
| evacuation of himself and his entire out
Gods and he is but steward let that prin-
ciple of free self-giving be enthroned in
the church and her Golfers will overflow.
ENCOURAGING PHASE.
Let us look at very encouraging phase
| of present conditions. The very world
itself encourages altruism as we'll as indi-
vidualsm. The trend Of public opinion
enwreathes and immortalizes a magnate
who considers he is a debtor to the public,
through whom he was able to capture his
prizes. There is a rivalry among million
aires to raise monuments in the shape of
libraries. hospitals, negro schools. sana-
forums, trips round the world. churches
or temples. and what not. Sometimes the
donations are spontaneous and public-spir-
tied Sometimes they coerced by the
pressure of public opinion. A horse full of
mettle Is eager TO enter the shafts. A
tame, spawned horse enters reluctantly.
! Me-. fhcln both ind Crn fr.tA H.