The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-11


 whom they found reclining against tree with blood streaming from several wounds in the upper part of his body. He was hurried back to Borden Springs and brought in tonight from Wellington.
 While no arrests have been made, the officers believe they know who did the shooting, and warrants are likely to be issued at once.
 In commenting on the affray tonight, United States Commissioner Randolph of this city stated that the attack could probably have been prevented and ar rests made had Deputy Edwards been empowered to employ a sufficient posse.
 
 through the motions of public meeting, whether there is anything particularly important to consider or not It is an interesting thing to me how the Ameri- can is born knowing how to conduct a. public meeting. I remember when I was a lad l belonged to an organization which at that time seemed to me very import ant, which was known as the Lightfoot Baseball club. Our clubroom was a cor ner, an unoccupied corner of the loft of my fathers barn, the part that the hay had not encroached upon, and I distinct ly remember how we used to conduct or derly meetings of the club in that corner of the loft. I had never seen a public meeting and do not believe any of the other lads with whom I was associated had ever seen public meeting but we somehow knew how to conduct one. We Knew how to make motions and second them; we knew that a motion could not nave more than two amendments offered at the same time and we knew the order in which amendments had to be put, the second amendment before the first How we knew it l don't know We were born that way, l suppose. But nothing very important happened at those meetings and l have been present at some church organization meetings at which nothing more important happened than happened with the Lightfoot Baseball club. And l remember distinctly that my delight and interest was in the meetings, not in what they were for; just the sense of belonging to an organization and doing something with the organization, it did not very much matter what Some churches are organized that way They are exceedingly active about nothing Now, why not lend that organizing in stinct, that acting instinct, to the real things that are happening in the commu- nifty, whether they have anything to do with the church or not?
 EARLY LIFE
 We look back to the time of the early settlements in this country and remember that in old New England the church and the school were the two sources of the life of the community. Everything cen- tered in them. Everything emanated from them. The school fed the church and the church ran the community It sometimes did not run it very literally, and l. for my part, would not wish to see any church run any community, but I do wish to see every church assist the community in which it is established to run itself, to show that the spirit of Christianity is the spirit of assistance, of counsel, of vitalization, of intense interest in everything that affects the lives of, men and women and children So that I am hoping that the outcome of these conferences, of all that we say and do about this very important matter, may be to remind the church that it is put into this world not only to serve the lndlvldCal soul, but to serve society also. Ana It has got to go to work on society Tn one sense with a greater sense of exi- gency Of the thing than in the case of the lndlvldual, because you have got to save society in this world, not in the next. l hope that our society is not going to exist in the next It needs amendment in several particulars, venture to say, and l hope that the society in the next world will be amended in these par ticulars-I will not mention them. But we have nothing to do with society in the next world. We may have some thing to do with the individual soul in the next world by getting it started straight for the next world, but we have got nothing to do with the organization of society in the next world We have got to save society so far as it is saved. by the 1nstrumentality of Christianity i'll this world. It is job, therefore, that you have got to undertake immediately and work at all the time
 LEGISLATION NOT CUREALL
 Legislation cannot save society; legis- lation can rectify society. The law that Will work is merely the summing up in legislative form of the moral judgment that the community has already reached. Law records how far society has got and there have got to be instrumentalties preceding the law that gets society up to that point where it will be ready to record. Try the experiment. Enact a law that is the moral judgment of a very small minority of the community, and it will not work. Most people will rot understand it and if they do under stand they will resent it and whether They understand it and resent it or not they Will not obey it. Law is record of achievement It is nor a process of ra- generation. Our wills have to be regen- erated and our purposes rectified before we are in position to enact laws that record those moral achievements. And that IS the business, primarily, it seems to me, of the Christian
 There are great many arguments about Christianity. There are a great many things which we spiritually asser,