Part 14 (1/2)

Our ideal for America is summed up in this--that it may increasingly become the kingdom of G.o.d. What do we mean by ”kingdom”? St Paul says ”the kingdom is righteousness and peace and joy” which being interpreted might read, the kingdom--Christ's rule on earth--will bring to all the Father's children the opportunity of knowing Him and His saving love expressed through Jesus Christ; it will mean the transforming of human society so that ignorance, greed, disease and injustice shall be overthrown; so that ”the bitter cry of the children” shall no longer be drowned by the whir of the wheels of industry; so that the sisterhood of women shall be established and that through the dominance of righteousness men shall cease to invoke war and strife, and, released from crus.h.i.+ng burdens, into life and labor shall come joy and an increasing sense of spiritual values.

Another source of power is to know the factors that enter into our problem and the facts of our undertaking. That we may intelligently synthesize the influences that bear powerfully upon the church as it seeks to meet its present day task, apprehend the effect of these influences upon the religious ideals and thought of our young people, and realize the atmosphere which Home Missions must permeate with its saving faith, we must take account of the moulding thought-life of our day.

It is always difficult to separate the apparent from the underlying and more subtle causes and influences. Within the outer and more obvious is usually hidden an inner current of thought and movement that must be sought and realized in order that the whole content may be obtained. Until quite recently--and we are still feeling its effects--the tendency of our time strongly emphasized material accomplishments. The world has been ”intently and almost exclusively occupied with subduing natural forces and material matter to humanity's growing physical and mental needs.” Thus have been given us the wonders of scientific triumph which make possible the civilization of our day.

In America, especially, material development has appeared to receive an exalted value and place. We have become familiar with the charge made against us by Europe of being a nation of materialists.

The transforming of a continent from a wilderness to a land of homes and highly organized industry in the brief s.p.a.ce of three centuries; the marvelous and rapid development of the vast material resources of our land; the hastening here of eager recruits from other lands, pa.s.sionately seeking and needing material betterment, have magnified in this country the feverish acquisition of material wealth and accentuated the hard, calculating business spirit; and has seemed to place undue value upon the worth of material success and the things of which it is made.

John Burroughs from his quiet vantage point of observation says--”The present civilization arms us with the forces of earth, air and water, while it weakens our hold upon the sources of personal power.

”It gives us great intellectual riches but it deadens our finer spiritual faculties, our clear conception of the higher values of life. Where there is no vision, no intuitive perception of the great fundamental truths of the inner spiritual life, the best and the highest must perish.”

Before seeking to discover the hidden ethical motives and forces that animate and elevate our national life, let us consider the very real effect of the apparent predominance of the materialistic upon our college students.

Our young people are exposed not only to the pressure of the materialistic atmosphere which throbs and beats about us all, but they must also meet the same force from a different and very direct contact in their cla.s.srooms at college, and in the universities.

Few of us realize the difficult adjustment of mental and spiritual outlook young people of Christian training must face as they enter college and university, or the shock to their Christian faith received through the contact with rationalistic and materialistic philosophy.

The professors presenting these subjects speak from a large experience and wide information to those of limited experience and immature thought, who are unable to give a mental margin for faith and all that it implies; though this wider understanding may lie in the mind of the lecturer mitigating his personal view point, it is not presented to the student.

Without intention often, and because the subject lies in the realm of speculative thought, the presentation apparently leaves no room for faith or for those vital qualities which lie beyond the realm of reason and deduction and can be apprehended only through spiritual perception, and which are infinitely precious because they const.i.tute the soul life. Here is found the source of those finer feelings and impulses--love, faith, reverence and the response to the Divine.

Of greatest value in the promotion of the spiritual life among the students taking these subjects, is the fact that the later philosophers, of whom William James, Josiah Royce and Henri Bergson are prominent, give place to the spiritual and to the power and inspiration of the unseen. [Footnote: The following, which appeared in the Outlook of March, 1915, though recording a special occasion at one university, is true in showing the tendency which obtains in varying degrees at many others:

”To understand the significance of this religious awakening at Yale (February, 1915), there is needed a brief explanation of the genesis of this 'new evangelism' of the second decade of the twentieth century, which is transforming our colleges, and which makes it natural and normal for students to desire a period set apart for special meetings each year when they can 'come across,'

as they put it.

”The teaching of Professor William James, of Harvard, showed how useless it was to get men to listen to appeals if they were not energized to act on them. This gave a scientific basis for registered decisions.

As soon as John R. Mott and G. Sherwood Eddy dared act on this the results were so remarkable that the conservatives no longer opposed it.”]

Very wisely must the Christian influence of the home and the church be exerted during this period so as not to seem or wish to limit the freedom of thought and research, yet at the same time to hold the eager, questioning young life true to the highest and best, that with the development of the mental life may go also a deepening and widening of the spiritual.

Home Missions, too, must be watchful and efficient in its att.i.tude toward the student body and recent graduates, that it may offer the special presentation of its scope and appeal, and the concrete objects of interest to which the students may contribute service best fitted to meet their peculiar requirements.

With the superficial dominance of the materialistic in our civilization has come also a marked relaxation of standards in social and religious life.

Into both have crept a lenience toward tendencies that are vicious and destructive. In social life certain dances, amus.e.m.e.nts, styles of dressing, have been tolerated even by Christian women, that savor only of the lowest and most vulgar practices and places.

As we desire the triumph of what Home Missions stands for, our influence as Christian women should be exerted powerfully to maintain standards in these matters that will be helpful rather than hurtful to the ideals and Christian development of our young people. We can not escape a heavy responsibility along these lines.

The relaxation of standards in religious matters invites the growth among people of Christian up-bringing of the many modern forms of ancient non-Christian faiths which are gaining wide acceptance in our land. Mormonism, Theosophy, Bahaism, New Thought and other cults because of their apparent intellectuality, mysticism and spirituality appeal to hundreds and thousands of women who do not think deeply, and who are carried away by the seeming depth and power of the appeal of these new faiths.

If devotees declined to accept the literature furnished by these organizations for their delusion and would go to the libraries and ascertain for themselves the origin, beliefs and accomplishments of these religions and their ancient prototypes as they flourished in India, Persia, Arabia, they would learn the facts as to the faith to which they are giving their allegiance.

A sample of the destructive teaching to which many indifferent, thoughtless and curious people are exposed was furnished to the writer at a crowded Theosophist meeting in New York City where one of their lecturers spoke on the theme of sin.

With many variations and much eloquence he said in brief, ”There is no such thing as sin. The doctrine of vicarious atonement is ridiculous. There was nothing sublime in Calvary. Many an unknown miner has done all that Calvary suggests in giving life to save others. Those whom we term sinful, sensual or criminal are simply _young_ souls which have not evoluted far enough. When they have pa.s.sed through the seven or more incarnations they will have attained beauty and perfection of character.”

Some of the leaflets and literature distributed were dangerous in their suggestiveness. This was one meeting only, and hundreds of the same order were held throughout our land that day. What of the need of the pure standards and ideals of which Home Missions is the exponent!