Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-05-14

glorlfy submission and remuneration belong to
the class least called on to practice these virtues;
those who extol a homeless Lord command fair
homes where their children gather in peace about
them, while the landless and homeless have wan
dered far from Him, and are seeking strange new
guides"
Can any one Of us deny that there is sad truth
IN these statements, which are made, not only in
an earnest manner, but are also worded in a SYM
pathetic understanding of what the Christianity
of the Master was intended to be? What per-
sonal interest can the miners of Colorado have in
religion, when the men who have imposed upon
them ihtolerable conditions are known to be
among the so-called Church pillars and when
too many Christian people are glad to fawn upon
them and almost worship them because they have
wealth in their unclean hands? 1t is no more
necessary to think of the golden calf of Old Tes-
lament history to comprehend what the worship
of Mammon means. What a distorted idea of
religion is given the children Of the south and
their parents, when the former have to work all
night in the cotton mills which are owned and con-
trolled by some of the oldest families of New Eng
land, that have been known for generations for
their clurch-going proclivities and their gift to
religious and benevolent enterprises! For it is
an ~intuitive perception in human nature that the
Master emphasized when He said: "By their
fruits ye shall know them"
Even in our everyday social life, similar con-
ditions confront us. Said a servant in a well-to-
do New England household to the writer some
years ago:
"My employers are God-fearing people; they
believe in church going. They often talk Of the
brotherhood of man, and Of fellowship. But they
never think that we need to go to church. On
Sunday, we stay at home and work while they
enjoy church-going, and expect us to have every
thing ready for them when they come home, or
we catch it. AS to being brotherly, it would be
an insult that would result in our discharge, If
We should hint that we are made of the same clay
as they are. Is it not true, after all, that this re-
ligious business is but a fad for the rich only.
There is nothing in it for us. Atleast, they don't
think there is"
These are facts; the writer knows they are
hard of solution. But they exist; and the people
who claim to be servants of the Master, are not
ready to be servants Of each other, as the Master
they worship taught them to be.
Yet, in spite Of this discrepancy between
theory and practice, Miss Scudder does not feel
as some do, that religion is dying out. She says:
"For over a century critics have been am
nouncing that Christianity was at the point of
death; but never was it more alive
This is proved by the mention Of certain
forces, in both the Protestant and the Roman
Catholic churches, that show the inherent activ-
tiles of Christian work.
But she is not satisfied with this, and sees
much more to be done:
What is the opportunity, what the summons,
afforded in the dramatic transformation of Christ
ianity from a religion of slaves to a religion of
masters? The greatest we could ask. It is the
chance to demonstrate, with a unique cogency,
that Christianity is no mere natural product, but
a supernatural power. We can rout for all time
the economic determinist. We can prove, as Euek
en- says, once more, that reality has q depth be-
yond the natural man.
Then the writer gives us the keynote of Christ
ianity, not only for a certain class Of its follow
ers, but for all:
ssBut let us see the powerful, for a change,
abjjuring their power; the rich, giving poverty
more than lip-homage and patronage the happy,
deliberately choosing to suffer with the age-long
runger of the dispossessed, till they win the
blessing Of them that mourn. Show us a corpor-
ate Christianity, which involves social sacrifice
Oh a large scale. If you show that, You can bid
us believe III anything, even IN baptismal regen
Grafton.
III 60 NJ onf fhn Loot words ,rbioT, rafore ~ ~