Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-03-20
W e g ! o M o. NJ "a,
T he CrGze for
BuLk1nesS, One of
The ChNrch'S
Dangers
BY BISHOP w. A. CANDLER.


The Technology of big business is
| being imported into matters of religion
| even. Contrary to the exhortation of
the scripture men are despising 1.-THE
day of small things" They are deifying
bulklness. A few days ago l read the
following passage in an article printed
in one of the religious papers of the
country:
THE day for little things has passed.
Little things have had their day and
must cease to be. Woe to little corpo-
rations, little schools, little churches,
little things of any sort. We are now
at a crisis in our history We have been
crying crises. emergencies, strategic
points, wonderful times till now that
they have actually come the world may
treat lightly the cry that announces the
reality.
Remember the story OF the boy who
cried, Wolf, wolf" The literature Of
the future will be cast in a different
mould The politics of the future will
be of different type. Social problems
will be viewed from a different angle.
Will the church -readjuSt itself to these
changing times, or will we go on doing
business on the same scale? If we go
on running our educational work in the
same moulds We might as we'll close
our institutionS/of Tearing and turn edu-
cational matters over to those who are
so determined to secularize education.
If we are going to do our worldwide
missionary work on the same old narrow
basis we might as we'll quit. The lit
tie sharp-shooting and guerilla attacks
we have made. on heathendom will serve
we'll as a beginning, but as a continued
policy it would be a farce.
THE time has come and now is when
those engaged in this work must do
what the great corporations in the bust
ness world have done-combine. If We
are going to carry on the revival work
as in the days of old we shall be doing
candlelight business when we ought
to be, running oil corporation for
lighting the world. The little sporadic,
unorganized revival work of former
years had its place. But it will not fit
in with these times. We must have
organization, combination, concerted &C
ton. cities must be attacked after the
most careful, painstaking, heavenly-ll-
lumined counsel, and all the powers on
earth and those available from heaven
brought to bear to save the city. The
Christian world must be so related, so
unified that great world-evlls can De
attacked all over the world.
The writer bawls for bigness as If he
had never read the teachings of the
Scripture that Not by might nor by
power, but by Gods Spirit are spir-
itual results achieved. The power of
God seems not to be a factor upon
which he would greatly depend. If he
can only get some sort of bulky ma
chine created.
The very nature Of the Kingdom for
bids that men be made christians by
overcoming their wills by force OF any
kind. It is quite possible for the
church itself to become too visible, and
thereby become worldly, initiating the
institutions, the ambitious. the power
and the show of the world. 1t is TO De
feared that such wordliness has al
ready insinuated itself into some
churches. There are multitudes or men
who indulge the idea that the world Is
somehow to be compelled to accept the
truth rather than tor be influenced oy
the truth. They wish to support re-
ugion by some other force than the
force of reason alone; but any such
idea is fallacious. Any form of compul-
sion whatever Is opposed to the spirit
of Christ and cannot possibly result
in the propagation OF christian lire OF
the promotion of christian character
The whole history of christianity tor-
bids the notion that a benign and ex-
tensive religious movement has ever
been. or can ever be, begun or advanc-
ed nv the methods of big business.
When the apostolic church was born
at Pentecost, it came into existence IN
the most inconspicuous manner. Inc
anostles were the plainest men and the
early Christians were utterly without
standing in the literary, social or politl-
cal world. In them was divine leaVen'
but il was literally hidden in the vast
masses Of Judianism and paganism sur
rounding it. It did not pervade that
mass by any process other imam ny us
own POTENTIAL nature.
In like manner the reformation N
tho DAVIS of Martin Luther was not
brought to pass by any instrumental
ties fashioned according to the forms
which men employ for bringing to pass
results AS peasant preachers proclaim
ed the gospel in the first century in
like manner the plainest and most I'M
worldly men wrought the reformation
Martin Luther. himself, was or humble
parentage, and relied on nothing but
the truth to win men TO the cause WHICH
he he'd espoused.
Again. in the eighteenth century the
Great religious movement under wesley
and his contemporaries was a purely
spirituaI movement and utterly, separa-
ted from worldly methods and mundane
forces. 1t began with plain people and
a. relied upon nothing but the power OF
the gospel preached in demonstration
of the Spirit to accomplish the high OBJ
iects which it achieved 1t did not be-
gin or progress by any methods AKIN 10
the processes of big business.
John Wesley himself was converted In
a very small meeting, in private room
on AIdersgate street in London, when a
plain Moravian preacher was reading
the preface to Martin Luthers Com
mentary on the Epistle to the Romans
That meeting was what the writer who
has been quoted, would have called n
little revival" but 1t nightly affected
the English-spealxing world, and it con-
tinues to Influence mankind to the Ut
termost parts of the earth. The world
is not the same it would have been If
John Wesley had not attended the 1t
tie meeting of the Moravians in Alders-
gate street
1t was a little incident that drew
Moses out of the bulrushes and sent him
into the palace of the Egyptian mon
arch: but mankind was being influenced
nightly that day when the princess dis
covered and rescued the Hebrew child
At last the decisive moments OF his
tory are not moments in which things
lit NI..A-