p. 8 | IF by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 36.

IF

By W. N. G.

COMMENTING on the late C. E. Convention, the New York Voice of July 15 says:— “So far the Christian Endeavor movement has escaped the reaction which generally has followed such a marvelous and rapid growth in other organizations. Numerically it continues to be the greatest thing in modern religious activity. Meeting a growing demand for less division and more union on the part of Christians, it has more than met the ardent expectations of its most ardent admirers. If it can steer clear of the rock on which moral organizations wreck their usefulness, and that pride in the mere power of numbers, its future days may be its best days in advancing the cause of Christ’s kingdom in the world.”

To this we might add, if it would “steer clear” of that “rock,” it will have to cut loose from that class of would-be leaders who are attempting to allure it from the Christian field into the political pool. Its fast-growing numbers are already a tempting morsel to that class of religio-political agitators who think to gain political vantage through the pretext of “advancing the cause of Christ’s kingdom in the world.”

The “power of numbers” is a dangerous religious element, and is a power which, controlled by human agency, invariably wrecks the cause to which it is attached. A resort to political power is ever and always a dependence on the power of numbers, and if the Christian Endeavor Society allows itself to be led into the political arena as a means of furthering any political purpose, it must thereby inevitably make shipwreck of Christian usefulness.

W. N. G.