The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1921-06-02
TIME IS RIPE
FOR BIG MOVE
DR.. L. E. Lovejoy Makes
Stirring Address at Park
Avenue Church.
TELLS OF CENTENARY

GIVE will now receive the usual of
fering' is as far as some pastors and
churches ever get in the great modern
program of winning a distracted world
to health, happiness and Cod" said DR..
Luther E. Lovejoy Of Chicago, General
Stewardship Secretary of the Commit
tee on Conservation and Advance, at
the Park Avenue M. E. church on Sun
day morning. Had America respond
ed with the usual offering four years
ago, when President Wilson called for
sons, daughters and contributions, we
should now be the abject servants of
an arrogant war lord 1t was the un-
paralleled offering Of unanimous clti-
zenship which saved civilization, and
only new and unusual citizenship of
the Christian Discipleship will save the
world.
Tells of Centenary Movement.
"The remarkable Centenary achieve
ment of the Methodist church was
made possible only by the principle of
Christian Stewardship. This principle
suggests, among other things, that ev-
cry Christian set aside definite pro-
portion of his income, usually not less
than tenth. for benevolent purposes,
including the local church and its for
elgn and home missionary enterprises.
Then Centenary offering of $106,60
600 totalled seven times the former
average annual giving to benevolent
causes, and it is believed that at least
forty per cent of this offering was due
less to the great financial drive than to
the silent influence of Christian Stew
ardship. One New England pastor re-
ports that his Sunday school collec-
tions have increased from an average
OF one cent to an average of twenty-five
cents per scholar. While another min
lister reports the benevolent offerings
Of his church multiplied ten-fold.
Should Give a Tenth.
IF every Methodist, were giving a
tenth of his income to the church, we
should have for religious purposes at
least five times the amount we have
today America alone owns quarter
OF the worlds wealth. Government re-
ports show that Methodist people re-
celve an annual income of at least ST.
oO0,OO0,O0O. tenth of this would pro-
vide five times as much as we give to
religion, and ten times more than we
pay to the Centenary.
Be nice little boy, and don't for
get your penny for Sunday school was
the regular parental injunction on Sun
day mornings seventy-fve years ago;
when the country was new and pennies
were scarce and precious. The same
advice is still the old standby in the
land of millionaires, limousines. silks
and seal-skins, while many rich farm
ers and merchant princes are contribut
ing little more to the starving world
than their pioneer grandfathers gave
IN the days of struggle and poverty
Less than postage stamp day is the
average Methodist contribution to the
redemption Of the world.
"Penny-and-Nickle" Not Enough
Penny -and-nickle will never solve
the battling and heart breaking prob
lens OF our age. We are living in a
crime-crazed world, world heavy with
heartaches and betrayals, Of moral
groupings and spiritual poverty, and un-
til Christian men are willing to take
God into their finance, into their mon
ey getting, saving, spending and giving
We cannot hope to do more than mere
ly play at our task.
Two hundred and fifty thousand
Ilthing Stewards have been enrolled by
the Stewardship Department in a lit
tie more than two years and it is our
purpose to carry on the work of in
struction and enrolment until the
Stewardship principle has become the
unanimous practice of the church"