The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-12
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

If you missed the state training con
 ference of the interchureh world move
 ment which on Wednesday and Thursday you let chance pass to hear some
 mighty interesting and inspirational ad-
 dresses and talks. So go today
 I tried in my Thursday morning story
 about it to set out in a general way ths
 purpose of the great movement. how it was born out of prayer, planted on the bed rock of scripture and led by the
 Holy Spirit with the sole view of mob ilizing Protestant forces of America into
 cooperative effort along civic, social and religious lines.
 Today I wish to go more into detail in l regard to the manner the movement
 proposes to enter the opening doors of 1 opportunity which have come to the United States through the world war and
 make the church answer the cry for
 help which comes to it at home and
 abroad, for it cannot shut it's eyes to the
 sorrow and grief which pleads for as-
 engagement and call itself Christian with
 out bending every effort to give mental, moral and material aid.
 The naked fact stares those who name
 the name of Christ in the face, that in spite of the signing of the armistice,
 more people will die from war causes this
 winter than any one year of the war.
 The glad facts cry out louder than any
 Dantean pen could write them, the sim
 pie picture makes a painting of Dore
 seem underdrawn. Only Christianity can light up the dark places with a ray of nope.
 l Art, philosophy, science and commerce
 may lend helping hand, but without the rligion of the lowly Nazarene are inn potent to bring order out of the chaos
 into which German kultur has plunged
 mankind. Every other religion faiis. | Christianity, as embodied in varied sec- 1 tarianism, cannot tackle the task with
 any hope of success, but Christianity
 purified by tne flame of heroic war has
 power to lift churches into a higher and
 hoier fellowship. It is upon this belief
 that the interchurch world movement en-
 ters the fight against sin, sickness and woe.
 i It plants itself upon the promises of God. believing that Christians need fear
 no foe in front of them if King Elm
 manuel is their leader. It is not founded l in the wisdom of men, but in faith in God, that it win raise up leaders in this hour of Christian opportunity, yet mo-
 ment of peril There are foes within 1 elf-efficiency, relaxed discipline, selfish ness, divided counsels. There are ene-
 mics without. ignorance, prejudice. racial and social. social injustice, corrupt forms l of Christianity and non Christian re- igion.
 ] Christ cannot be confined Christianity I is world religion. A formal non
 missionary church will die Commercial | ized Christianity is not sufficient The
 missionary abroad whose soul is not | on fire with divine heartburn for the
 lost may be an advance drummer blazing
 the way for the trade that is sure to I
 ment finds it's field in the indisputable
 fact that obligations to God and human
 ity cannot be paid in dollas alone. It re-
 alzes and emphasizes that the men and
 women who go forth under it's influ-s 1 ence do so in the sign of and spirit of
 the cross Christ and He alone can save
 the world
 | One of it's prime objects is to enthrone Christ in the home life of America as
 the best way of meeting the problem
 of the foreigner in our midst, as we'll As
 redeeming the spiritual love of our own
 people. The next step is the Christian
 izing of the community life, meaning by
 the community the area in which peop-
 pie live under the same laws and reg
 ulations and have common interests and
 common destiny This community life
 can be concrete so Christian ideals and
 standards may be interpreted and ap-
 piled, with the ultimate objective, Christ for every life and all
 | Striving for this ideal there is hope that
 the present social unrest which is deep seated and profoundly related to the l future of humanity may find it's happy l solution in the teachings of the sermon 1 on the mount. The place of the church l in this unrest is not primarily negative, but positive. 1t is it's sacred duty to ex- | ert it's utmost power in behalf of the well | fare of the people. It has a place of its own in the social cooperation. It must not fail in it's message of helpfulness to fthe masses who toll any more than in it's 1 teachings to the well to do employing classes The world has right to de-
 mand that it does it's part to bring cap ital and labor into a closer and more | fraternal relation
 | We all know that one of America s most difficult social question is one of the races, for there are Il, ,0Go,000 negroes in the United States, and it has long since ceased to be southern. but is a national problem. We must learn that we must lift the negro up or he will pull us down. Injustice to him is destructive to both white and black. Those who de- scrt to violence will find no friend in the interchurch world movement, for it takes the position that only in cooperating with him in his struggles for fife and opportunity. only by friendiiness and fair dealing will the two races arrive at propef solution based on applied Chris | tian principles, Then it takes Up the question of social hygiene, and here is the danger sDor