The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-07
TAKE CHURCH ID
 WORKING MAN." !"
 DECLARES STELZLE
Stop Preaching About the Jebusites and AmaIekites
 and Isrealites"
"NO TRADES UNIONS
 MEANS SOCIALISM"
Men and Religion Campaign in Full Swing-All Experts Have Ar rived-Institute and Union
 Meetings Held Last Night

r1ved-lnStItuteS ana tUmOn
 Meetings Held Last Night
 On account of the inability of pr. R A. Waite to arrive in the city before this etternoon the Rev. Sickle conducted the meeting at the Majestic theatre yestcf- day noon. addressing a crowd of even greater proportions than the day before Dr, Sickle took "The Church and the Labor Movement as a subject and brought out his argument in his usual forceful way, calling on the church to change to suit the new regime. Tt Is not a question of getting the working man into the church" said pr. Stelzie. tut 1t is more a matter of getting the church to the working man"
 Dr. Sickle was reared insthe tenements cn the East Side, in New York city. His life was tiie life of the poorer tenement people. with the hardships and mismor- tunes that fall to their lot. When he be- came old enough MT. Stelzle secured work in a machine shop as a machinist. It was while working at this trade that to became interested in the social prob lem through the medium of the Young Mems Christian association. He entered the service as preacher, and to use his own language: i've been there and l know what I'm talking about. When sec a poor laboring man I don't say can give him sympathy; I say l can match his story"
 Institutes Held
 The institutes were held last evening from 6:30 till 7.30 at the First Methodist and the First Presbyterian churches. All of the experts were in town and Rev. w E. Bieder Yolf, Rev. R. A. Waite and F. S. Goodman spoke on different subjects at the Methodist church. while pr. Stelzle, II. F. LaEamme and A. M Brunner were at the First Presbyterian. At o'clock a grand union meeting of all of the dis trlcts was held at the First Methodist church, at which all ot the seven experts gave short talks.
 In his address on the church and the labor movement, at the Majestic theatre yesterday, the Rev. Stelzle said "One day a company of men questioned the message and the mission of Jesus, and they asked him for a sign, a miracle, whereby these might be verified. But in stead of performing another miracle | Jesus SpOkc tneSt NtTy HlSlllcd0l WOloSi | can ye not discern the signs of the | times? There are many employers of | labor in our country who are being de- | oeiyed in the hope that the labor ques- | tion can be settled through the extermi- ration of the trades union, and they arc bending every energy toward wiping out trade uniollism, raising immense sums Of money for this purpose. But the trades union is not the labor question. To wipe out the trades union actually means the success of socialism, and this is proving to be the experience in practically every industrial center throughout the country. The recent election returns indicate that this is true"
 w. read great deal these days about the church saving the masses. Inis is indeed very important ques- tion for our consideration, but some day the masses will help save the church. Without a moral and spiritual vision the people are bound to perish but without the rugged strength that comes with and through the common people the church is going to fail. There is much religion in the labor move ment and so much social spirit in the church that some day it will become a question as to whether the church will capture the labor movement or Wheth- CT the labor movement will capture the church.
 Honor Jesus Christ
 "The great mass of working men uni versally honor Jesus Christ as their friend and leader, and most of them believe in his divinity. In my lectures in the different cities the mass of working men invariably cheer when ever l mention the name of Jesus Christ as their leader.
 After all, the labor question is fun damentally moral and religious problem. In the end there will be many answers to the social problem but all of them will be religious. His torians prophesied it; the best labor leaders are coming to recognize 1t; the social reform measures which the work fng man is reading about today indi- cate it. Working men arc today re- spending to the appeal of the church in this country as they have rarely done at any time in the history of the labor movement I make this state ment not from local experience but from an experience that is as wide IS America.
 "On account of these things the church is already supreme in the mat ter of capturing the labor movement for these things are fundamental. How eyer, the vision of the church has been too narrow. When we have thought of | tEe great mass outside the church and when we consider methods whereby we might reach them, we think and plan merely for an evangelistic campaign. | No amount of eyangelfstic work en- gagged in for the purpose of reaching 1 the masses can ever take the place of some other things that the church must do # 1t would capture-the labor move ment for Christ. What are these things | that the laboring man must find in the church if he Is to be permanent | ly attracted to it?
 1 First of all, he must find absolute sincerity In the church Betrayed so often by those who have posed SIS his friend, and made to believe that all l business is a trick of which he is the victim, the average working man has come to be suspicious of every moVe- ment which pretends to be in his in- tercst. Jesus did not heal the sick in order that they might come to hear him preach but because he had com passion on them and because they need ed healing.''
 More Democracy
 Second, the working man must find in the church greater democracy. There $ nothing that he resents quite so quickly as the spirit of patronage or paternalism, He is familiar with the spirit of demo- cracy in his lodge, in his labor union and in the saloon. where a single cent piece laid on the bar will place him upon an equality with any other man in the place without any apology He must find the same spirit or democracy in the church If he is to be permanently attracted to it.
 The church must preach a clearer social message. When a young man goes to the average theological seminary .o study for the ministry he studies about inc Social life of ffa Jera oiitoc <,< r.s,,-