THE GREAT CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR MOVEMENT.
By H. F. Phelps
Just at this time the great religious conventions are calling forth considerable comment. This is especially so of the Christian Endeavorers. Great expectations are entertained of this organization of the flower and pride of America, upon whom the hopes of the future depend. But are these great organizations to become political, and thus religio-political? Are they organizing for a political purpose? While hope is high with reference to the future in the minds of many as to the possibilities for good in religious and moral reforms that are centered in this body of young people, there are others, who are accustomed to look beneath the surface, and who usually think deeply, who express fear regarding the outcome. It must be conceded that, as to the greater part of these young people, they are unaccustomed to deep and earnest thought as to logical results in any given course, or to wrestle with the great questions of the day, but, upon the whole, are actuated by the inspiration of the movement, and are following their leaders. The conclusion is at once logical that if these leaders are actuated by right motives, if they are thoroughly unselfish in their desires and designs, and if they are thoroughly acquainted with and recognize the underlying principle of all reforms—that of the equal rights of all men, and the individuality of all men—the very principle for which Christ and his apostles and the reformers contended; if they clearly recognize the fact that, as Herbert Spencer says, “every man has the right to do whatsoever he wills provided that in the doing thereof he infringes not the equal right of any other man”—then it may be that these leaders can lead these tens of thousands forward to the accomplishment of many good works. But if, on the contrary, they themselves are not standing upon solid ground, or are actuated by selfish motives—motives that are prompted by a blind adherence to some ism—if they have reached the conclusion that their own methods and opinions are right and that all others are wrong, and that all these wrongs are to be righted according to their policy; if they forget that it is not possible for any moral reforms to be carried forward successfully except by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that this power is only to be manifested in and through the preaching of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that Christians are not authorized to seek the aid of any other power in their work except that of the Spirit of God—then it is that this nation and the world have cause to fear, rather than to rejoice, in the possible outcome of the movement. It is evident that they intend to become a factor in politics—a possible political organization—and to make their influence felt at the ballot box. If, then, as they now claim that their movement is in favor of religion, they are to become religio-political in their methods, what guarantee does the world have that they will not do as all other religio-political organizations have done in the past? How do we know but that they may become the very image of the despotism of the past in the enforcement of religious enactments? Mr. Charles A. Dana, the keen-sighted New York editor, sees danger ahead, and speaks concerning it. He says in the New York Sun of July 15:— “The speakers at the convention of fifty thousand Christian Endeavor delegates at Boston have given great prominence to the subject of ‘good citizenship;’ and their references to the services which the societies throughout the union should render toward the purification and elevation of politics, have excited much enthusiasm at all meetings. It is evident that a desire, if not a settled purpose, to make the organization a distinct political power has taken possession of many of its prominent members. “We regret to see it, and are heartily sorry; . . . for the moral and religious purposes of the organization are worthy of encouragement and praise; and if the disposition to use its machinery for their accomplishment by political means shall be continued, they will be defeated, and politics will be disturbed by bitter religious strife. “The Christian Endeavor enterprise as a moral enterprise is wholesome and beneficial; as a political movement it would be a curse to the country.” The United States Senate Committee Report of 1829, Hon. R. M. Johnson as chairman, said:— “Extensive religious combinations to effect a political object are, in the opinion of the committee, always dangerous. . . . All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequence.”