The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-07
MONEY AND RELIGION


 The Kingdom of God is not to be built with gold and silver. It Is a spiritual king dom, and Is to be built of the things of the spirit. It will have Love as it's foundation, and Work it's enduring fabric, and Faith as it's glittering pinnacle. The strength of it will be the strength of soul which it's cit 1zens manifest, and the beauty of it will be their lives, recreated in the image of their King The life of it will be the life that we pour into it, and the measure of it's greatness will be our whole-hearted de- votion. All of this is eternally true, and when the Kingdom of God becomes less than these, it shall become less than God intended.
 If this is so, why the continual call for money? We hear it in the churches until some of us become disgusted. We have drives for every imaginable purpose; for missions, for hospitals, and religious edu- cation. Every large church enterprise seems an unsuitable monster whose food is money, and into it we are asked to pour our treas ure. The more the church grows and strengthens, the louder becomes this call Increasing congregations call for larger buildings; growing church schools for more commodious quarters. Money spent on growth demands more money to meet the needs of that growth, and the call seems intending. The congregations grow dis couraged and say the church is mercenary The minister becomes weary with the end less round of askings, and seeks the solution of financial questions with which his train ing has not fitted him to grapple. At church conventions money holds the center of the stage and forces into the background things which seem more spiritual"
 But what is money? I say without hesi- tation that money is Love, and Work and Faith-these very things with which the Kingdom is to be built. If you are a worker in a cotton mill, and make $10 week, when you draw your wage on Sat urday night, you hold a week of your very life in the hollow of your hand Into that $10 your love, and your faith and your strength have been put. You have poured a week of your life into the machinery of our modern industrial life, and your life and strength have been changed into money. Now the Kingdom of God needs your love and strength out in China or Japan. It needs your love and strength in meeting the problems of home. It needs your love in ministering to the wayward and the lost and your strength in building the material fabric of schools and houses of worship. And you cannot give these things directly, for you are chained to the desk or loom. You cannot spend your love in China, nor lay the bricks or stones in rising temple of God And so the church asks you for money. Why? In order that through your money your love and strength may be made effec- tive-just where God has need of them If you give dollar to God, you have given more thang silver. You have given one-tenth of the love and strength and faith which went into the moneys making. You pu. your life into the mills of men and your life is changed into money. You pour your money into the mills of God, and your money is changed back into life.
 And when the missionary speaks of God, it is you, in the mills who are speaking When the distant servant of God is laboring, it is your tired, worn-out hand which is do- ing the deed of love.
 MIDDLETON S. FAREWELL