Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-02-14
GAMBLER

Moreover, the setting apart Of particular
Sundays for special appeals is quite objec--
tionable It interferes with the freedom OF
the pulpit and tends to enfeeble the dis
tinctly spiritual forces which support the
life of the churches
Most-of Sabbaths in the year shoHld-be
devoted by the preachers to calling sinners
TO remembrance and to delivering sermons di
rected to the edifying Of the body OF Christ.
Furthermore the churches are doing in
their own better way most of the really
proper things for which these outside bodies
make appeals.
A large majority of the hospitals in the
United States are owned and supported by
the churches Why should any self-cohsti-
tuted body responsible to neither church
nor state, seek to supervise these blessed
institutions and NEEDLE with their affairs?
| In like manner the churches own and
maintain a majority of the colleges and
universities of the country. What associa-
| ton of outsiders is competent to direct the
| proper management and support of these
| great enlightening enterprises. IF half the
educational associations OF America VAIN
their impairment and impracticable regula-
TONS were killed.. the cause: of education
would be promoted BY their meddlesome
supervision of teachers and conce1ted liking
| of what they call standards" they suppress
the wholesome individuality which should
characterize the work of instruction and
impair the freedom which is indispensable
| to the highest type of education our
schools are supervised too much for their
good.
The attempt of self-consttuted bodies to
supervise the domestic relations, such as
husband and wife, father and son, and set
apart special days on which preachers and
churches are called upon to carry out their
petty programs should be met with nothing
short of sharp rebuke.
The happiness of the homes of America
is best promoted by the preaching of the
| 4 .op +ba mi rift ri
of power" Religion is the foundation Of
the home, and in the homes where holy
| flames of devotion burn daily on family
! affairs there is found the most perfect rela-
TOMS of husbands and wives, and parents
and children. No special Sundays nor
sti1ted programs can be safely substituted
| for the preaching of the redeeming> grace
of God constantly to all the people. =
These program makers are generally dis
eased with the ailment which Henry Van
Dyke has called "publicomania, which
being interpreted means that they are at
| flicted with an inordinate desire to show
| themselves to the public They are fond
of being called experts" although they
are expert in nothing but ordering other
/ people to execute their visionary schemes
and ambitious plans.
| The churches need a deeper and richer
spiritual life for carrying on the work COM
mitted> to them by our Lord. Certainly
they cannot have this more fruitful life, if
| their pastors diSplace preaching the gospel
| in order to make room for advocating every
sort of special interest on particular days.
A wise, and successful pastor has re-
Gently written me letter in which he says,
''The spirituality of the church is not equal
to the demands which are being made upon
it, financially and otherwise" He is right,
and his words are especially pertinent to the
subject under discussion
The churches are overloaded and under
| nourished, which does not mean that they
! give too much; but that the multitude of
| things asked of them outrun very far the
! forces of life within them.
And this hurtful state of things has come
! to pass largely on account of the fact that
they have been made pack-horses to carry
burdens laid upon them by all sorts of
Societies" Leagues etc, which have
asked the pastors of the churches to use
less time and efforts in giving their people
the bread Of life and to spend more energy
in making them draw the vehicles of semi
secular bodies loaded with worldly wares
The value of the church's 1abors cannot be
made to exceed very long the vigor of it's
life.
Preachers and people have had forced on
them too many of all sorts Of Sundays and
all manner of appeals for special interests
1t is time the churches had rest from all
| these things to the end that they may be
edited, land walking in the fear of the
Lord and the comfort OF the Holy Ghost
may be multiplied" (Acts ix:31).