The success of individuals, the success of communities, the success of nations, depends on these fundamentals,—integrity, faith, industry, brotherly kindness and an interest in the soul of man. To what do we owe these great fundamental qualities? Statistics show clearly that we owe them to religion. Yes, and to the old-fashioned religion of our forefathers. Moreover, I say this not as a churchman. I would give the same message if I were speaking to a group of bankers or a group of engineers. I was first brought into the Church through the Christian Endeavour Society, but I was really converted to the Bible teachings through a study of statistics.
To religion we owe our civilization and to the Church we owe our religion. All there is in the world to-day that is worth while comes from men filled with, and from groups actuated by, these fundamentals of integrity, faith, industry, brotherly love and those other factors which come only through God. The Church to-day deserves the credit for keeping these factors before the world. Hence, it is evident that the people of America have not the bankers to thank for their security and prosperity, but rather the preachers and the churches. To these men we are obligated for our growth and development.
X
Where the Church Falls Down
Become saturated with Christ’s principles, be clean and upright, coöperate with one another, have faith, serve, trust the Almighty for the results, and you will never have to worry about property. “If you will do these things, all of the others will be given to you.”
There are two groups of people who criticize the Church. First, there are those who claim great love for their fellow-men, but do not go to church because it is allied with the property interests of the community. I believe that to be the fundamental reason why the wage workers, labour leaders, socialists and radicals are not interested in the Church. They believe that the Church is too closely allied with property. I have been severely criticized myself for presenting the Church as a defender of property and as a means of making your home, your business and your securities safer. Such critics are perfectly conscientious and the Church suffers much because those people, in their love for humanity, are antagonistic to the Church.
The second group are those defenders of property who look upon the Church as impractical; who consider the Golden Rule as something all right for the minister to talk about on Sundays, but something useless to try to follow during the week. Those men criticize the Church for preaching love, for talking the Sermon on the Mount, and for being what they say is “impractical.” So the Church suffers to-day by having both of these groups stand off alone. Neither of them is interested in the Church, the most important organization in America. It is the Church which has created America, which has developed our schools, which has created our homes, which has built our cities, which has developed our industries, which has made our hospitals, charities, and which has done everything that is worth while in America.
Yet to-day, the Church is the most discarded industry of all, because it has not the coöperation of either of the above groups,—the radical group which claims to be interested only in humanity and not in property, and the propertied group which frankly says that it is primarily interested in property and not humanity. It seems that we should stop side-stepping this question. Instead we should face it squarely and answer both of these criticisms. My answer is as follows:
Jesus was not interested in property, per se. There is no question but that Jesus had no interest in property. These things which look so important to us,—houses, roads, taxation, buildings, fields, crops, foreign trade, ships,—it is very evident were insignificant to Jesus. When any of Jesus’ disciples came to Him to settle some property question, He pushed them aside and said He was too busy to consider it. I am sure that if Jesus were here to-day, He would tell us all that we are idiots for striving so to accumulate things—building ourselves bigger houses, getting bigger bank accounts and more automobiles. Hence, when the socialist or the radical or the labour leader complains to me, I frankly admit this fact. Without doubt the Church should emphasize that property of itself is of no value, and the only things worth while in life are happiness and the health and the freedom which come from living an upright, simple life.
On the other hand, and this point I wish to emphasize just as strongly, Jesus took the position throughout His teachings, that if His disciples would simply get saturated with His fundamentals, if they would be clean and upright, if they would coöperate with one another, if they would have faith to serve and trust the Almighty for the results, they would never have to worry about property. Property would take care of itself. Jesus emphasized, first, that they should not think of property; but He always closed His discourses by some such statement as this: “If you will do these things, all of the others will be given to you.”