Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-08-31
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED
pREGA
81. 1871
JUST A SERMONETTE.

When Thoreau said man sits as
many risks as he runs he expressed
profound truth. The danger of
stagnating, of rusting in idleness-
however, you choose to express the
thought-may be greater than any
prospective peril from keeping in mo-
ton. When some one called attention
to the number of wrecks of the dirt
trains when the Panama canal was
being built. the chief engineer replied:
"Well, anyway, that is a sign the dirt
is moving He could have avoided
having collisions by moving no dirt
Stop any going concern, and there
will be no further liability of loss
But neither is there any further pos
sibility of gain. When a man gets
too old to accept new idea. or to
amend the charter of his life, or to
embark on fresh ventures in business,
he has written his own epitaph. A
poet has thus expressed it:
"Give me man who on this lifes
rough sea
Loves to have his sails filled with
lusty wind"
Life is not a state of being-it is
process of doing. 1t consists of pro-
gross.
This morning, congregations of more
or less size, will attend church
in many thousands of communities
throughout the United States. Songs
will be sung, prayers offered and SER
mons preached, and at least ninety
nine per cent of the people will go
away from the churches with possibly
some impressions of things they
ehouldn't do but with no inspiration
to do things for the betterment of
humanity. One of the great mis-
takes of the church and of the home
is in stressing the "Thou- shalt-nots."
If we learn to do good, We shall
largely cease to do evil.
4 Can the church best convert men
by assisting to improve them by means
of better sanitation. proper housing,
adequate wages and better school SER
vice for their children? Or shall the
church confine its work to fighting
the wrongs, real or fancied, which
exist in every community?
No one who has taken the pains to
find the fact, will deny that the great
body of wage-earners are cold toward
the church, because it does not much
concern itself with their question of
bread and butter. The wage-earners
do not deny that the church is gen.
erous with its hospitals, missions and
other philanthropies. But these peo-
pie are not primarily interested in
charity They say they are perfectly
able to pay for their own bed and
board and doctors bills. il given fair
opportunity to earn a fair wage. They
say, and with a color of truth, that
the church concerns itself more with
charity than with the prevention of
poverty.
The charge against the early Chris
tians was that they turned the world
That is the business of the church.
When the church begins to make it's
first concern the keeping of things
as they are, it gives up its commission
as a church and takes out license as
a club.
A church must be stirring things
up. 1t must be making things over.
1t cannot live by standing and keep
ing things from retrograding.
Also there should be a clearer
understanding of the doctrine of
vicarious atonement. Jesus didn't die
to atone for anything for which We
can make our own atonement. Let
our preachers grip that fact and their
messages win be different.