Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-11-29

/ The worship of self is such subtle
thing that men often fall into it when
they least suspect it.
A former generation was profoundly
moved with matters of personal expert
ence in religion, and many lost sight OF
every thing else but the saving of their
own souls. The religious people of the
present generation are in danger of go
ing to the opposite extreme, of making
nothing of their own salvation while
busying themselves increasingly about the
reformation of others. We hear much
talk of my mission, my life work I,
the sound of great unselflshness. but they
may cover, and often do cover. the most
perilous vanity and self-assertion.
What one conceives to be his mission
may easily acquire in his esteem GER
tain, tangible value. and become kind of
property in which his position and sue
cess is involved. He presses it with
eagerness because it's triumph enhances
his own Importance and it's failure brings
discredit upon him. He seeks to get
hold of other minds, not because he feels
disinterested concern for their we'll
being, but because re desires to acquire
dominion over souls. He aims at von-
quests for his own glory, although he
really believes that such benevolent as
simlation" will be for the good of those
whom he annexes to his cause. He falls
into a sort of proselytising pharisaism
like that of those whom Jesus condemn
ed when he said, "Ye compass sea and
land to make one proselyte, apd when he
is made We make him two fold more the
child of hell than yourselves. Doubt
less the -Pharisees, whom the Master thus
sharply denounced. felt that they were
beneiting and blessing the proselytes
whom they made; but they really occu-
pied selfish relation to the propagation
of the faith which they professed. and
they assumed airs of superiority in moral
character over those whom they prose-
lyted in no wise justified by the facts in
the case. They often went on their
missions to save better men than them
selves.
The same thing may be seen in our
own country. There are men and women
among us who make tours among what
they call "the poor" and 1.-The slums''
vainly imagining that they are doing re-
ligious work, when in truth they are
further from God than the unfortunate
people to WHOM they go. woman of
! society, having wearied herself with
the spectacles OF the playhouse and sur
feited herself with the inanities of
bridge parties" and the like, seeks to vary
her programme by doing some religious
work.; but can any one who knows any
thing of the meaning Of the New Tesla
ment imagine for a moment that she has
the smallest qualification for the mis-
sion" which she thus sets about? What
does she know of the law of self-sacrifice
and, ,the mind of Christ? Wherein is she
superior in piety to the poor people upon
whom she intrudes her superserviceable
and gratuitous attentions? They have the
vices of povertySclad in cheap garb, while
she has the vices of opulence robed in
costly apparel; but beneath raiment and
all outward appearance beat hearts equal
" estranged from God. II there be a
difference between the visitor and the
visited in point of pietyr it'd probably
in favour of the latter The visitor may
return from her, rounds and report to her
church circle all she has seen and
done; but she has not seen the poor's
deepest need, and If she had seen it she
could have done nothing to relieve the
desperate want. She has seen some of
the bodily suffering of the poor but not
their spiritual wants. Never suffering
herself, she fancies that suffering is the
worst possible thing In the universe, and
that, if bodies be warmed and fed, souls
may be left chilled and starved without
serious hurt. Why should she think
destitute? Her notion is that If the poor
were as well clothed, housed, and fed as
she is, they would need nothing more;
for II that did not gain for them en-
trance into the kingdom of heaven it
would at least admit them to society" I,
which is better than the kingdom Of
heaven. She goes about getting the poor
some clothes, substituting raiment for re-
ligion and costume for conversion. OF
course, she does not mean to make of the
poor such arch-angels as those who fill
her set; that grade of salvation by
clothes comes too high; she will make
such angels as half-worn clothes of last
seasons fashions can make. All this she
calls practical christianity"
Now, I happen to know that many Of
the poor resent this sort of thing, and
there would be little hope Of them if
they were so lost to self-respect that
they did not resent 1T. Whatever bodily
suffering may. abound among certain
classes, their heart-pains are az thousand
fold more poignant. They want broth
erly and ssterly recognition and SYM
pathy, and, above all, they want Gods