Self-Denial and Christianity
Of course it is not hard to get men to join a club when they are given cards, billiards, and cigars each evening, a monthly “smoker” social, at which are speeches from distinguished men, five dollars a week if ill, coal at lowest wholesale rate, a half dollar a member if a wife dies, and the family a dollar a member if the husband dies. This is the plan of a minister in New York to reach men; it only establishes a prosperous co-operative society. But this isn't Christianity. Men join this for purely selfish reasons; but self-denial is the very foundation of Christianity. The Christian gives himself and his all, and holds his possessions as a steward of God. The spirit of the world and of the natural man seeks to get. There is a vital difference.