Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-05-02
Ambassadors for God and Not Attorneys
for Special Interests
Bx BISHOP W. A. CANDLER,

There is disposition to use the
churches and pulpits of the land to adj.
vertise and advocate too many matters
of social reform and material reformation.
Some of the matters for which special
services and selected days are asked lie
very close to the proper work of the
preachers and the churches, while others
are quite remote from it. Fl
This tendency TO use the preachers and
churches for objects more or less alien
to their mission is a tribute TO the power
lof the pulpit and TO the influence of the
lchurch which refutes the talk of some
who are, perpetually talking of the wan
ing force of christianity Din our day. The
men and women back of all these move
ments for the promotion of which the
assistance of the Churches is sought
know where the best help for their
schemes can be found they are wise
but are the churches and preachers wise
in lending themselves to all sorts OF en-
terprises and in allowing themselves d.
verted so much from the supreme object
Of their existence?
Take for example the demands of this
sort which have been made upon the
churches during the month Of April which
closes today. The preachers were asked
to devote April End to the advocacy OF
International Arbitration. The Anti-Sa-
loon League laid claim to April 9Th. The
Tercentenary Celebration Of the King
james Version OF the Bible was set for
April o. and the Anti-Tuberculosis
League requested that April Soth be de-
voted to that interest. Now all these
things are good. Doubtless they meet the
hearty approval and cordial support OF
every preacher and good man in the
country They are important, and they
deserve the attention Of all good peo-
ple. But If each has received in April
the help IL hasaslxed, what has been done
during the month in the matter OF pro-
claiming the great and fundamental
truths of the gospel and in calling sinners
10 repentance? Is it best even for these
interests that the preaching of the gospel
should be intermitted for a whole month
Perhaps only one of these special re-
quests should have been needed by the
pulpit, viz; the Tercentenary Celebra-
ton Of the King James Version OF the
Scriptures, an occasion which can not
| recur but once in a century, and which
lies very close to the. work of proclaim
ing the saving truths of the gospel to
mankind The others should have been
served by meetings held at other hours
than the hours devoted to preaching and
worship.
Every year adds to the list some new
reform and some additional enterprise
of a philanthropic character. Is there not
danger that Worship may be impaired
and preaching perish from our land II
these calls upon the churches and the
preachers continue and multiply?
1t is not enough o. say in reply thas
all these things are christian in their
inspiration and aim.s So they are; but,
the religion from which they have
sprung, and upon which they must de-
pend, will be weakened if they are al
! lowed to displace the preaching OF the
word and the worship of God. The con-
duct of a christians business Is a re-
sgfous thing; thereby multitudes OF
GOOD men win the means to maintain
| christian enterprises and render service
to God but it does not follow that
commercial enterprises carried on by
GOOD men should. be championed in the
house of God on the day set apart Tor
dive worship. christianity gives rise
TO all sorts of humane movements; in
deed, the christian era in the world >
| history is conspicuously the age of hui
manity among men. Loring, Brace has
i shown this most clearly in his admtra-
! BILE work entitled "Gesta Christi,
history of humane progress in the earth.
Canon Freemantle in his eloquent Bamp-
ton Lecture, THE World AS the Subject
of Redemption" has brought tosview the
same great truth. But would the hui
name progress which Brace records and
Freemantle examines have come to pass
| if the preachers. and churches In all
ages had turned aside from preaching
the gospel to Z urging the humane
4 schemes to which their gospel gave
birth? Hardly This great harvest of
| humanitarianism has been produced by
opening the hearts of men to the light
fof the Sun of Righteousness which has
risen upon the earth with healing In
His beams Moreover, while christian
ity promotes bumanitarianism in all its
/ forms, it is vastly more than humapi-
tartan scheme. Great as are its 'tri-
umphs in the matter of such schemes
they are but sogneS of its hy-products.
Its chief function is to bring men back
to cod when they have wandered away
from the divine Father; and under Its
guidance men have found one another
as earthly brothers by returning to their
/ heavenly Father. An atheistic humanf-
tarianism, which ignores God and His
salvation, is rooted in a soil too thin
and dry to yield large fruitage. or to
1 maintain even itself unwithered for
| long. Many talk tripingly about their
creed being "the doctrine of doing good
and practicing the golden rule" But
! If they were as capaDIe of thinking pro-
formidable as they are addicted to talk
/
doing of good is dependent for it's per-
sistence on being good, and that without
true faith in Fod men are not good
permanently and do not good contin-
uously and consistently. Their social
ed creed--( sleezy creed of sentimen-
tai benevolence)- never has and never
/ can supply a reliable and unfalnag
source of charitable deeds and phlIan-
| thropic efforts. When, therefore, the
pulpit is emptied of sound doctrine. and
engaged only in the advocacy of reform
schemes and relief expeditions, the chief
spring of all those motives which lead
to the support of such enterprises Will
have been dried up. They can not sur
vive longer than the faith from which
| they spring. They flourish by the
flourishing of piety.. Herein is found
the reason for the haste win which the
reformers run for help to the preachers
and the churches; they know full well
/ am m YrYrTF ~Ol