The Penn's Grove record., 1904-01-29

preached Sunday morning on CONNER
ciallsm." He took his text from St. Luke
Kills: Mans life consistent not in the
abundance of the things which be pos
~sesses."
DR.. Alsop said:
/ heard lately from a brilliant speaker
an address on ''Commercialism." 70 the
surprise of all, it was a panegyric rather
than a diatribe. His argument was that
commercial, that is, business activity, the
industrial epoch in which we live and
whose push we feel, engenders certain USE
ful and even moral qualities, such as thrift,
underlying all accumulations of capital:
truth telling, which is essential to success
full trading; trust, without which the vast
credit system of the day could not exist;
the sense of responsibility shown in the
honesty of the great army of clerks and
place holders, among whom breaches of
trust, defaults and the like are compare
lively rare, the percentage of the honest
being surprisingly high. At the same time
our Civil War and the Boer Wa have
shown that the commercial spirit did not
e~xtinguish heroism and liberality. Wit
ness the gifts of rich men to education and
i charities.
Now that is all true, and yet there is a
bad favor about the word commercialism.
1t has another cannotation. Is it not a
matter of emphasis? Jesus says, "Seek We
first the kingdom of God" He says again,
w hat viii q man give IN eAcudu8c lOE his
hfe!Y What are men exchanging their life,
with all it's possibilities of symmetrical de-
velopment, for? What are they seeking
first! Is it not too largely material sue
cess? st. Paul says: Having food and
raiment We have enough" The feeling of
to-day scorns such moderation. A modest
competence is nowadays nothing accounted
of: To make a living is not enough; to
achieve comfort for self and family is a
sn.all thing; men aim and toll and struggle
for more dazzling prizes-a success that
makes a noise and is talked Of; that gilt
tiers and dazzles the eye.
This is commercialism as l understand
it,, the measuring Of success by the stand.
ard of the market place, the sinking of
{ other aims in the eager rush after gain.
There are high things possible for man.
Culture of body, mind, growth IN moral
and spiritual attachments, expansion in
faculty and usefulness. There are magni6-
cent careers open to him IN science, in art,
in literature, in philanthropic service.
Over against all these stands the spirit of
the age and cries follow me. Tit ideal IS a
man who turns everything to god that he
touches; a man who gets and holds and
then goes on to get more and hold more.
Two conversations lately overheard illus
trate the point. DR.. Rainsford, of st.
Georges Church, walking down a New
York avenue, overheard the talk of three
"a A2aA la = AACtA 0&AOLS AAAAAAs A4O0A
ing upon the cleaning equ'pages and spien-
did dresses fitting by, one said to another:
Il tell you, boys, it is money that goes in
this town, is it not?" The belief that it is
money that goes-the feeling that it is
money that ought to go-are evidences OF
an almost universal sentiment.
who is building that magnificent
house" said one to another. ooh, that is
to be the residence Of so and so. He used
to be a poor Baptist preacher, but Rookie
Teller found out that he had business abil-
ity, and / tell you he did not leave him
long a Baptist preacher. He took him
into the Standard Oil Company, and now
see what a success he has achieved" There
speaks eommercialism. There is the voice
of the ideal which has almost hypnotized
our generation.
Agassiz's splendid reply to the lecture
bureau, 81 have no time to make money"
sounds like a piece of insanity. Gordon's
refusal to accept reward from the Chinese
Emperor for his help in the Tai Ping re-
bellion sounds like a piece of Quixotism.
The simple life" as lived by Thoreau in
the woods, as pictured by Wagner, sums
only an idyllic dream. The pursuit OF
learning for Earnings sake, the service of
man with no itch for reward, the quiet,
transformations sacrifice of personal interest
for the good of others, these are repu-
dated as folly. The maddening crowds
4BAODlS btL1lC 10 WudC uldhcS AIoCil uCdIQ.
1t draws like the song of the siren. Like
the suction of a vast maelstrom, it seizes
men and draws them IN. By and by, diz.
zied by the fierce whirl, they forget the
high things and are content to be simply
money-makers. That is what l understand
by commercialism the thrusting into the
front place of merely material success. ii
is a corruption of the spirit in which life is
livid. 1t is a low, wrong motive. 1t brings
in and holds before the soul a false stand.
ard of value. 1t m~isconceives what is the
real success of life. 1t subordinates the
man TO his possessions. It is a radical cor
ruption of the ideal-an absolute ~reversa'
OF what our text says. Commercialism de
clares and persuades that mans life does
consist in the abundance of the things
which he possesses. Therefore, it urges
let him love supremely those things; let
him aim at them, follow after them, sink
his very life in them. Let him for them
forego, if needs be, mental culture, artistic
development, moral elevation, spiritual ac'
tivity and all that goes to make a full de-
veloped manhood. Quench, if necessary,
all lofty aspirations. Get things, gather
them about you, enthrone yourself on and
among them. Let atrophy seize every
other faculty so your faculty for getting
and getting on grows stronger.
Let me give an Illustration or two,
There is a story of a man who was so eager
y hCCp SAFE u NClJ PACClOuo luluS l3db liz
took it with hin into a closet, set his can.
die on the floor and then diligently nailed
fast the door, only to find, as his candle
fickered out, that he had shut himself in
with his treasure. Nailed and encoffined
in his own strong box. Here is another:
l read some time ago of a young man, who,
upon. graduation from college, found him.
self the possessor of $50, 900 a year. He had
health, strength, education, position
Choices lay open before him. He, might &c
in for political life, for philanthropic serv.
ice, or college settlement work. He might
become a student and a patron of art, OF
literature. He might throw himself into
the civic life of his day, In any of a dozen
ways he might find his life by losing it in
the service Of man and Of God. But alas!
he was dazzled by the ideal of the age,
Ambitious to turn his one million into
many, to win the power or notoriety vast
wealth can bring, he flung himself into a
banking house. All the beautiful opportu-
mites that invited him he forewent simply
and only that he might increase his pie-a
pile which was already sufficiently large
Grant him all the success he coveted, what
would be the end? A dwarfed man. with
an immense pile heaped up around him. A
life practically sunk and lost in the abund
ance of the things which he possessed.
As | said, then, a moment ago, CONNER
clalism is found IN a wrong emphasis
Wealth is good fairly won and nobly used
1t is not money, but the love of money
that is the root of all evil. Business Ii
good, is good and necessary, in
dustrialism is good and brings forth q
goodly progeny of virtues; zeal, activity
Perseverance, cleverness in affairs, are al
praiseworthy. Material success is desir
able. seThe blessing Of the Lord it maketf
rich" Yes, but to put these things first
to rush after them so eagerly as to forgei
other and higher things, in a word, to sinh
in them ones life with its possibilities O
growth and beauty and usefulness, that il
to have caught the spirit of the CONNER
cialism Of the day and the age.
Who can look abroad without seeing
how this spirit tends to invade and ever
to dominate every sphere of human activ
ity. We read OF commerciaiism in politics
in art, in literature, in education, in the so
cial world, even in religion, and though w
may not have a distinct definition ready
we have a fairly clear idea of what Ii
meant. The place holder in nation or city
or State whose main thought is what hs
can make and rot what be can do; the art
list who listens not to the voice Of his ideals
but to the bids of the market, and paint.
or carves simply for the money to be got