Arizona republican., 1919-11-25

Christ" has not failed nor never can
fail 1t is not like a state or nation.
that depends upon wealth or numbers
for its prosperity and standing.
AS a nation we elect a president by
a vote of the majority, and in the same
manner all others who carry on the
work of government. We pass laws
to prohibit the manufacture and sale
of Intoxicating liquor, to build good
roads, to regulate many things in busi-
ness and even to set bounds in the
habits of living. But the church can
not act in this way. righteousness
can not be established by law. A COM
munity or a state could not become
christian by a vote of the majority.
About the year A. d. 1000 the Rus
slams adopted Christianity wholesale.
The king and his twelve sons, | think
that there were that many, were bap-
tized; then the army was baptized in
mass. and thus paganism was replaced
by the Christian religion. But that
was scarcely according to the teach
ings of the New Testament scriptures
Christianity is a personal affair. 1t
cannot be inherited, since each person
must choose Christ for himself. Saint
hood is not acquired in day; it is
matter OIL growth.
The Golden Rule in Practice
The church as an organization can
not jump in and settle the negro ques-
ton, the labor question, the high cost
of living and other problems that are
veXing the entire nation. The failure
TO settle these national ills must not be
laid at the door of the church as a
body. We must look elsewhere for
! hn
Washington industrial conference that
was recently held come to grief? 1t
was composed of three groups or dele
gations-capital, labor and the public.
Who brought the work of this confer
ence to naught? 1t was no individual
certainly not Samuel Gompers. In a
noteworthy speech just before the
bolt of the labor delegation, Mr..
Gompers said, Il have sung my swan
song in this conference" The real
cause of the failure as a certain writer
says, was class selfishness." Had all
the delegates in this meeting preached
and lived the words of Jesus in our
text, the conference would have pro-
! duced great results.
Why has the steel strike, from which
! the labor world expected so much good.
proved a great disappointment to the
workers? The failure has been largely
/ on account of following bad leadership.
The leader of the steel strike was Will
| liam u. Foster. He confessed to the
senate strike investigating committee
that ''he had never donned jumpers nor
worked one minute in a steel mill, that
he was an agitator by trade, and that
| at one time he had been among the
most radical leaders of the l. W. w.
organization" selfish leader is such
strike, however just labor's griev-
ances maybe, could not win.
What is Americas great need in set
| ting our many veXing problems
Among the forty million processing
| Christians in this country, we need
many more who will preach and live
the teachings of Jesus Christ. There
are soulless workers as well as soul
less corporations. We need more peo-
pie with conscience. Among both the
capitalist and the labor groups, are
many who have dropped God out of
their calculations. What a difference
| it would make in the business world if
all men kept in mind the thought:
Thou, God, seest me-" If every indi-
vidual Christian, and all moralists who
claim to be just as good or better,
would preach and live the golden rule
of Christ, we would soon have at least
a social millennium.