Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-05-09
H1Qhest Christian
Efficiency of
Character
BIZ Bishop w. 4. Gambler

bad end is far from desirable. A burg
lars tools may be efficient for robbery,
but they are surely not admirable
things; and they are less admirable in
proportion as they are more efficient.
If the object of life were drunken
ness. the most efficient thing in tie
world be the most effective intoxicant
that men could concoct; and if ncsn-
tiousness were life's end, the most Sc
ducing arts of the libertine would make
and measure human efficiency.
In like manner if the aim of life is
getting gain, the highest efficiency will
be attained in the most inventive and in
dustrious greed. Perhaps it is skill III
acquiring worldly goods to which most
men refer when they use the overworked
word efficiency" But such efficiency
may be the most clumsy inefficiency in
accomplishing some nobler end. A heavy
bag of gold, or even a strong desire for
it, may make a man very inefficient in
running the Christian race in life.
1t is important, therefore, for men to
determine what is the true end of life,
If they would reach sound conclusions
concerning human efficiency. If the OBJ
iect of life on earth is obtaining god
likeness, the highest efficiency is foun
was quite right who said $50 long as
ones personal character is not solid and
permeated through end through by the
grace of God, there can be little guar
antee of a sustained efficiency"
The seat of power is in personality,
and the source of strength in personality
is in character. What a man is goes
further than what he says or does.
Considered as a mere man, Jesus has
,,a1ff he,
has ever influenced mankind Jean Paul
Richter said to him: Being the hottest
among the mighty and the mightlest
among the holy, with his pierced hands
he has lifted the gates of empires off
| their hinges, turned the tides of the
centuries and still rules the world" But
Jesus was the further possible removed
in his earthly ministry from the meth
DDS and manners of fussy, modern re-
| formers, who in Superserviceable ac-
tivity run to and fro throughout the
whole earth, crying in strident tones,
| efficiency! Efficiency" He wrote not a
Ia ne; he organized no complicated sys-
| tenn of machinery for uplifting the
world; called no conventions, and gath
| cred no statistics on the submerged
multitudes in the slums of the great
cities of the times in which he lived.
Nevertheless, he brought life and light
to lost world. He was more than any
thing he ever said or did, and his lofty
nature is the source of his vast and en-
during influence When he commission
ed his few followers to go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every
| creature, he declared that his presence
with them and in them would be the as.
| surance of their efficiency in promoting
his kingdom. And such has been the
case. The most efficient men in the
church have been the hottest.
And so it, must ever be. Men and wom-
en- cannot make themselves efficient fol
the service of God by running from
conference to conference and convention
to convention, taking notes upon the ad
| dresses Of this glib talker and the dis
courses of that bright speaker. We have
| among us multitudes of so-called
christian workers" of this type, but
they are an inefficient lot There is a
gutteral gasping in their speech which
bespeaks spiritual exhaustion. Nobody
| takes knowledge of them that they have
been with Jesus and nobody can fail to
take knowledge of the fact that these
unfortunates have runs themselves out of
breath attending thea conventions of
some movement or the assemblies of
some society" or Association"
American Christianity dwells too lit
tie in closets of secret prayer and runs
too much to convocations for public per-
| formances. By consequence many among
us e afflicted with pious ricketts,, and
claim st. Vitus as their patron saint.
They know nothing of the efficiency of
lofty holiness in repOse.
There is a great lesson in efficiency
which these mistaken men and women
reed to learn from an incident in the life
of Jesus. On one occasion the twelve
apostles returned in great exultation
from a mission upon which the Master
had sent them, and in feverish pride re-
ported to him. 1.-THE devils are subject
to u.s.. Jesus did not question the re-
port of their efficiency in casting out
devils; on the contrary, he acknowledged
It's correctness and said: 81 saw satan
as lightning fall from heaven" But he
added: "Rejoice not that the devils are
subject to you, but that your names are
written in heaven" Thus he taught both
! them and US that what man is out
ranks in Importance what he does, and
that in character, rather than in excit-
ed activity, is to be found the highest
Christian efficiency.
| When we have learned thoroughly this
great lesson more men and women will
devote themselves to holy living and
service in private and fewer will waste
their energies on the consuming ambl,
| tions which burn them up in public as
seInblies. The Christian home will then
. resume it's place of supremacy in the
Christian church. and the noisy conven-
| ton will he relegated to the subordinate
place to which it belongs.
| No man has ever had a greater move
rlent" to inaugurate than had Jesus, but
he did not strive and cry in he streets.
! When one who lived with him in closest
/ intimacy undertook to put in one brief
statement, the story of his life, he said
of him. He went about doing good"
| He was never fussy and never hurried.
/ He had time to heal outcast lepers, to
give sight to blind beggers, and to take
/ little children in his arms and bless
! them. On the night before he was cruel
fled. with perfect foreknowledge of what
awaited him, he took time for the men,
| ial service of washing the feet of his
! peasant apostles. How sublime was his
serene character! How divine! How
efficient!
Observation-Disclosures