East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-04-15

AT the Vine Street Congregational
church in Cincinnati last Sunday, the
pastor, Herbert S. Bigelow. discussed
Mr.. Carhegie's reported utterances
concerning the duty of ministers. Mr..
Digelow said IN part:
Mr.. Carnegie is reported to have
said: "If the clergymen were to stick
closer to the business of the church.
and devote less time to somewhat wild
discussions OF questions which are
not intimately related to their work,
1t strikes me there would be better
results in the church"
The value of this advice depends
upon what Mr.. Carnegie considers
the business of the church. Some say
1t is to teach that all men fell in
Adam and that none has hope of
paradise, save he who believes that
Jesus was God, and that the vicarious
atonement wrought by his blood on
escaping hell.
Others say 1t is to teach that God
is a spirit; that there is something of
God in every man; that salvation con-
slsts in the growth Of intelligence and
love. the God in man becoming upper
most; that there is no better way to
find this salvation than to strive while
we are on the earth to love mercy
and to deal justly with our brothers.
Is II the province of Mr.. Carnegie
to say that this latter view is not re-
ligion? Has he a right to say that
the church which seeks to inculcate
T., Il. &c.
ness?
Polidcs-RellgiOn in Action.
A bishop, preaching to an audience
of slaves on the duty of forgiving
those who punished them unjustly
said; 'If you bear 1t patiently and
leave your cause in the hands of God,
He will reward you for it in heaven,
and the punishment you suffer un-
justly here shall turn to your exceed
ing great glory hereafter"
Was the bishop tending his busi-
ness?
"What is religion worth to n slave"
cried Beecher, "when the hand that
breaks to him the bread of COM
munion on Sunday, takes the price of
his blood and bones on Monday, and
bids him godspeed on his pilgrimage
from old Virginia tobacco fields to
the cotton plantations of Alabama ?"
Was Beecher indulging in wild dis
cussions of questions not intimately
related to his work? You may call
this bishop a pious man and Beecher
a politician. To me, these words of
the bishop are blasphemous while
Beecher's politics was religion in ac-
tion.
Monopoly Forever.
From the lips of the purest and no.
blest of men we have the divine in
junction TO pray and work for the.
coming of Gods kingdom on earth.
In that kingdom of justice and love
for which we are to hope and labor,
does Mr.. Carnegie think there will be
tariff laws and railroad rebates, and
private monopolies? Does that legis-
lation accord with the golden rule
which compels the American people
to pay more for the products of their
mines and factories than is paid in
foreign markets? In this kingdom of
heaven on earth will one man or a
lew bt per llhAAAth W iilNllppbllIt Allt
coal lands and the ore ranges and
amass fabulous fortunes while mil
lions are disinherted and live in pau
perism or on the verge of it? The
little white slaves in the cotton mills,
the children in the Chicago stock
yards who stand all day in watts of
blood, has religion no voice of hope
for them? If it is not the business
of the church to seek to improve their
earthly condition, then whose business
is it?
Shall we leave that work to the
politicians or to the millionaires? No
doubt there are people who prefer
a church which directs the thought to
n paradise in the skies, and makes no
effort to teach them the iniquity of
monopolies on earth.
The politicians for laws; the mill
lionaires for philanthropy; the church
for theology; and, monopoly forever;
that is a fine arrangement-for
some.