The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-02
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE
Or. Hendrir on Christian Culture

for Methodist histories. Then there is another reason for this mfsunderstand-
 ing. Churches like individuals are too
 prone to travel the way of least fe-
 sistence. To the short-sighted among
 us 1t has semed easier to leave the
 state the task of educating our people
 while the church gives itself to the
 ministry of the word. If this cam
 paign does no more than discover to
 Methodists their forgotten history in
 the realm of education, it will have
 been Q great success. No indeed; this
 educational movement is not a new
 departure to Methodists. We are the children of the prophets;' an apostolic ancestry has bequeathed to us a noble
 educational heritage. In these south ern states, prior to the Civil war, we
 had projected worthy and promising system of schools, which went down
 in the economic prostration which fol- lowed. The new south has arrived so far as our industry and commerce are concerned, but our Christian education al institutions that have survived, are
 languishing and ready to die. Not un-
 til an adequately equipped system of church schools take their place, will
 our southern Methodism have finished
 her reconstruction period.
 Now for your last question as to tho timeliness of the movement, let me say that in spite of the temporary finan-
 cial confusion from which all nations are suffering, the time is at hand when
 all the weightier considerations of pub lie welfare demand this action at our
 hands. If we had no higher aims than permanent material prosperity for
 our people, the best possible invest ment which our country can make is In
 the Christian education of the growing O. i1y, fhA e-fep Tr r.f a
 armistice, unchristian i'll will has cost
 America more money than all the churches are asking to establish Chris tian leadership for our people, Who will tabulate the cost in money of the industrial strife in our nation for the last two years: a strife born of class hatred and constituencies profiteering.
 Highly paid laborers have sulked on the job, lowering production of the necessi- ties of life, and from ignorance and prejudice afflicted themselves and their children to damage those whom they dislike. Money to provide the machin- cry has been at our hand all the time,
 and laborers enough to put on vast programme of production were availa- ble. A depleted world was waiting for our output, but an unchristian temper
 of suspicion and i'll will has kept many
 of our mills idle, and entailed an
 enormous burden of suffering upon an
 unoffending public. Material expan- sion is halting for the lack of that
 mutual comprehension and mutual goodwill, which the Christian religion never fails to produce, when the Cos
 pei of Jesus Christ has been faithfully taught by men who were adequately furnished for this transcending task.
 Dark as the present conditions are,
 they are not nearly so bad as those confronting Wesley, and over which he
 and his co-laborers triumphed Put
 ting it on the low plane of financial returns, the time is at hand to build the institutions which alone can build
 the temper in men which creates and preserves material prosperity. Some shallow critics of the Christian religion
 have called it a kind of fire insurance to protect us against the flames of the next world. But it is only the sober
 truth to declare that it is valid and effectual insurance against those fiery passions which cost this world more
 money than all it's educational ana
 philanthropic organizations.
 NO, it is not a convenient season for us to do this great work Dr.
 Hendrix said Many of our best and
 most unselfish Methodists will have the pain of disappointment. because they are not now able to respond 10 this worthy call. They have always and everywhere gone to the limit or their means in giving to the support of religious work; but many more will see for the first time a great chance
 to do the liberal thing for their church and country Jesus did not walt for a convenient season to make his advent among men, but came when the urgent need and the golden opportunity joined hands to call him. Things were not
 ready for him, in that place and op-
 portunity had been prepared. A manager cradled him, and for a dying bed an
 uplifted cross had to serve. At un- | imagined inconvenience to himself he
 came because we needed him. It's
 enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his | Lord"