Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-11-28
THE PROBLEM OF THE PROBLEM-MAKERS
By BISHOP W. A. GAMBLER.

Inc AEc hDAOcsA AAA AAAC
land, and It is quite the fashion for them
to make problems OF all the conditions,
rural and urban. political and religious,
by which we are confronted In our day.
We are invited to consider the prob
lem OF the city slums and the problem
of the country church, the problem Of
immigration and the problem Of the
.'white-slave trade, the problem of pov-
erty and the problem of wealth, the prob.
lem of trades unions and the problem OF
trusts, the problem of peace and the
problem of war, problems Of education
and problems OF ignorance, problems OF
disease and problems OF health. We meet
conundrums in our waking and in our
sleeping moments, when we lie down and
when we rise up and when We walk in
the way.
All this problern-making has an encour-
aging side to 1t. 1t shows that there
are many minds interested in remedying
bad things and in making good things
better. BY so much as II is an indica-
ton Of unselnsh desire upon the part of
many to improve the condition OF the
world and make human life nobler and
happier, it is to be most heartily ap-
proved.
But may not the habit of hunting prob
lens become a morbid and harmful thing ?
May it not react on the mind like the
habit OF feeling their pulses and exam
lining their tongues affects hypochondri-
acs? To be always analyzing evils may
magnify them to the Imagination and
make them worse in fact.
In truth our age has no more problems
before 1t than other ages, which have
preceded II, have had The apostolic
church faced as many and great problems
In the hrst century as does the church
OF today. Scepticism, political corruption,
squalid want, arrogant wealth. heartless
oppression, helpless weakness, and every
other form of veil were on all sides when
the great Apostle to the Gentiles plunged
into the deep, dark heathenism Of the
Roman Empire and undertook to carry
the gospel to it's uttermost bounds. Mat
thew Arnold does not overstate the
case when he says.
ION that hard pagan world disgust
And secret loathing fell: 81.
Deep WEAKNESS and stated lust
Made human life a helf'.
So also Luther and the Reformers had
rather hard world to deal with. Tet-
zels and Leos and Charleses were not
friends TO grace or goodness.
Wesley and his contemporaries like
wise met perplexing conditions in their
day. Isaac Taylor says of that period
heathenism, or a state scarcely to be
distinguished from it,. In 1873 Archbish-
OBJ Seeker said, "An open and professed
disregard to religion is become, through
variety of unhappy causes. the distln-
gushing characteristic Of the present
age; this evil has grown to a great height
in the metropolis OF the nation: Is daily
spreading through every part Or 1T; and,
bad in itself as can be. must OF necessity
hrf- ~, all 9Th 4 Ind
hath already brought In such dissolute-
ness and contempt of principle in the
higher art OF the world; and such prof
hgate intemperance and fearlessness oil
committing crime in the lower, as must
II this torrent OF impiety stop not. be
come absolutely fatal. Such statements
could hardly be applied with justice to
our times. rt. fs4
In the dark ages which have gone be-
fore our age there were two classes of
men who did nothing to make matters
better, viz, the blind optimists who said
there was nothing very bad going on and
the blind pessimists VINO said things were
so bad nothing could be done to improve
them. Only the cody motorists (coin-
ing a word needed to describe a kind of
man more needed than the wordD did
what was required to relieve the evil
situations by which, they were confront
ed. s-
It Is quite possible for a man to dis
charge his sense OF obligation to his
times by Analysing acutely the bad con-
ditions of his day. This may explain
why we have now such a surplus OF
problem makers. Many relieve them
selves OF the burden OF hard work to
make the times better by stating strong
ly the puzzling evils of the day. Like
city doctors they do nothing more than
diagnose the patient and write a pre-
scription, leaving to others the COM
pounding and administering Of the med-
icine and the tedious nursing OF the
sick. We have many men in the pulpits
of fashionable churches who delight
themselves and their sentimental parish
toner's with charming declarations about
the poor, but who would refuse to serve
a congregation made up OF the poor
about whom they talk so glibly.
Now stating a problem is one thing
and getting down to detailed work for
its solution is quite another thing; and
nothing can be worse for q man than
to form the habit of stating problems
without doing any thing to solve them.
He drugs his conscience with a solution
he has done all he ought to do to re-
and analysed them.
It is noticeable also that most Of our
passionate problern-makers see no prob
lens except those which are in the out
ward conditions OF people; they never
discuss the spiritual problems within the