Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-06-20
BY BISHOP WARREN A. cANDLER

BY BISHOP WARREN A. CANDLER.
1.-THE most conservatively managed
bank in the city of ---." So reads
the advertisement of a Leading bank III
certain Georgia city.
Whether the advertisement does, or
does not, conform to the facts, it is not
necessary to say. But ii points to
fact which none will deny. That fact
is that when their money is involved men
demand that conservative methods and
well settled principles shall be observed.
1t is to this wise disposition that the
banks advertisement is designed to APP
peal
But there are more precious things
than money, and it is pertinent to in
quire why men who wish conservatism
in banking, desire radicalism in religion
and government. 1t can not be that
banking is so much older than religion
and government that it's principles are
better known, or more certainly settled.
The earliest bank in Europe of which
We have any record was that Venice.
which was opened in III. But Chris
tianity was in Europe long before that
time, and centuries before that date the
Romans had a well-ordered government.
the principles of which are incorporated
in all modern codes. It's is quite pos
antedating those financial institutions
were the faith of Abraham, the religion
of the Hebrews, and the laws of Moses.
Nothing is more clear than the funda-
mental principles of the Christian relig-
ion, and it is impossible to amend them
without impairing them. In like man
ner the fundamental principles of good
government are easy of comprehension
and of universal application; for they
rest on the immutable foundations of
right and justice.
When our forefathers fled from Eu-
rope to make their home in the wilds of
the new world, they understood all this,
and acted upon it constantly. They came
into a strange continent, and took up
life amid unprecedented conditions.
But not for one moment did they dream
of renouncing their old faith, or repu-
dating the we'll established principles
of government to which they and their
ancestors had been accustomed. On the
contrary, they fled to the wilderness
that they might preserve their religion
and perpetuate good government, far
from the coercions of corrupt courts and
the expressions of tyrannical rulers
They worshipped the God of their faith
ers-the God of Abraham. Isaac and
Jacob-and they embodied in their po
litical constitutions and codes the prin-
ciples of the Magma Charter, the Bill
of Rights and the Habeas Corpus Bill
those venerable documents of constitu-
tional liberty which their British ances-
tors had revered and defended.
But the case is far different now. We
have come to a time when many men
seem to think that conservation in re-
ligion and government is a crime, and
that radicalism alone is wise or virtuous.
And as if radicalism were not already
far too rampant, certain persons who
assume to be public teachers, exhort the
people to become with all haste still
more revolutionary.
Such teachings are the rawlings of the
widest folly, and they lead to the di-
rect disasters and the most remediless
destruction.
The great spirits, who have done most
to cure the worlds ills and redeem man
kind from ruin, have been conservatives.
1t is not irreverent to say that Christ
Himself was a great Conservative. He
did not repudiate the teachings of God s
lawgivers and prophets who had spoken
the truth before he appeared in the
earth. The keynote of his teaching is
heard in the words of the Sermon on tfTe
Mount, the Magma Charter of the King
dom of Heaven: Think not that l am
come to destroy the law, or the prophets
1 am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verify 1 say unto you, till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one little shall
in no wise pass from the law until all be
fulfilled" (Matthew V, II and 49, He
derided not the Mosaic law as an anti
quated and obsolete thing, but did rather
say to Moses, "If We believe not his
writings, how shall We believe my
words?" (John V, 40 And again,
Search the Scriptures for in them we
think We have eternal life: and they
are they which testify of me-" John v,
39) How different these words of the
Saviour from the corrosive criticisms of
the Hebrew Scriptures put forth by
some modern purblind rationalists, who,
vain of their little learning, affect omnis-
cience and undertake to revise the di-
vine revelation.
Following the example of their Lord,
the Apostles also were great Conserva-
tives In all their recorded ministra-
tions we find that they harked back to
the oracles of God which had been COM
mitted to the hands of their Hebrew an
cestors This habit is most marked III
the Gentiles, not infrequently appealed
to the Hebrew Scriptures when preach
ing to Gentle congregations. And
Luther, Knox, and Wesley were all
Conservatives. They never pretended to
claim that they had a new set of relig
ious principles to offer the world; but
they constantly asserted that their
teachings were ancient truth. They
were not innovators but renovators; not