Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-06-07
For Sunday Reading
Ill Sorts Of Opinions
Social Service VS.. Spirituality.

The danger that cCnfronts American
professionalism, according to Dean
Smaller Mathews. president of the ied
eral council of the Churches or Christ
in America, is that It's churches ma"
become mere agents OF social service,
d statement described by the Episcopal
Recorder (Ref. Epis.. PHILADELPHIA as
a warning which comes With peculiar
force just now" Many people think
the sole business Of the church, Dean
Mathews maintains, Is TO push sociai
reform" and ii is not surprising tnsy
should think so, because social WORKERS
have found out that the church Is the
greatest force by which their ideais
can be put into operation. IRIS
"valuing" OF the church Is grateful to
those that labor in the vineyard, out
they are reminded at the same 'lh1e
that social service can not take the
place of Cod 1t is impossible 70
amuse people into consc!entiousness
and we read, picnics are not the
equivalents of prayer meetings, ana
Sunday school baseball leagues have
not yet developed into reyivais. II IS
natural. however that men should eX-
pect the church TO stand fer every
good cause" forgetting in their con-
seriousness of the social obligations OIL
christianity that "a church as an in
st:tution does not have The same field
Of responsibility as christian iDdivid-
uals' The latter. Professor Matthews
explains. may be organized into
variety of Institutions performing va
rious functions. and to these institu-
tons church leaders MAY delegate GER
tain duties, but not the duties OF
spiritual parentaga.
"A protestant church, VIC are told,
can not be an ethical orphan asylum;
il must be "a home in which souls are
born into ncWness Of life. True, the
church wants its ministers TO be alive
to the needs Of the hour in politics and
in Industrial REFORM and to deliver a
/ message from the pulpit heartily in
sympathy with our modern thinking.
Yet most Of all do Americans want TO
+, be assured Of God and immortality
! ard the worth of righteousness. so
/ that they would he defrauded If the
! d Weakening nf Professionalism we're 10
( mean simply a rcnascence OF ethics or
sort nf bescriptured positiV'sm.
/ When they ask for 1.-The bread of life
! they will not be satisfied with trea-
| tises on eugenics." which inspires the
/ Cumberland Presbyterian tNashNille)
to rejoice that men like Dean Mathews
are not only coming to realize. but are
| also speaking out their conviction, That
| when people 20 TO the house or God,
| they do not go merely for amusement
or entertainment, but because their
hearts long for God. even for the liv-
! ing Cod"
! Similarly the Canadian Churchman
| GEpis., TorontO) points out that in the
| !audabie enthusiasm for social service
there is grave danger Of the funda-
mental purpose OF christianity being
overlooked and in this connection 1t
cites the remark of writer SYM
pathetic with projects for social bet
terment, but who does not regard them
as the chief business Of the church:
You can not save the world by go
ing into ti-tuberculosis societies.
The needs of the age are not to be met
by the mere practicing Of good Samar'
itanism. Christ is a great recreator,
not reformer. The church Is not the
Jack Of -all-reforms. The church has
a function, and the first item in 1t is
to convict the world Of sin
That the function OF the church is
being distorted thru the emphasis laid
upon social service 10 also the belief
OF writer in The Advance Cont,
Chicago). who fears as Q result that
religion may be socialized instead OF
socialism being spiritualixed." He
breads that day should come when
the world shall see "in Jesus nothing
but ocial-settlernert worker" and in
the gospel merely q program OF So
cial service" Admitting that Jesus
i was interested in social problems, this
writer argues that they were not all
his mission. and concludes:
/ Humanity must not supersede re-
Iligion-social settlement must not dis
i place the church-human comfort must
not take the place Of Spiritual truth