SIGNS OF THE TIMES SEEN AT THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION.
By J. C. Bartholf
TO ANY ONE at all conversant with the teachings of God's Word, attendance at a world's convention of the Society of Christian Endeavor will reveal many convincing evidences of the nearness of the end of this dispensation and the soon coming of our blessed Lord. Not only do the utterances of different prominent speakers confirm and emphasize the fulfilment of prophecy as shown in the prevailing political and social unrest, but also in the coldness and indifferentism everywhere so manifest in the popular churches of the day. The mind of the intelligent Bible student can scarcely refrain from reverting to the prophetic utterance of Isaiah, which reads: "Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy;" when he listens to sentiments such as these at the Christian Endeavor Convention recently held at Detroit, Mich., expressed by Rev. Cornelius Brett, D. D., of Jersey City, N. J., when he said:— I believe that one of the things the future has in store is a federation of churches; not a union, but a federation. There will come to be great gatherings of Christian people in convention, at which all shades of Christian thought will be represented. Speaking of Pharisaism in the church, Canon J. B. Richardson, of London, Ontario, very truthfully said:— A prevalent disorder in the church is the carelessness of many people, that sort of Pharisaism which leads them to think they are no worse than their neighbors—although none would boast of being any better. This spirit of don't care leads to that other condition of mind when people go to their churches, not because they wish to pray, but because it is the proper thing, or because they wish to hear good singing or enjoy a sermon. In a very able and heart-searching sermon, Rev. Dr. Charles E. Jefferson, of New York City, thus truthfully but severely set forth the conditions very generally obtaining in the church life of the day:— What do ye more than others, Christian men and women of America? What do ye for others? Are you not the same as those to whom Jesus first addressed those stirring words? Do you not wish good returned for good and favor returned for favor? How many young men come from small towns to our great cities and live in dreary boarding houses and lodgings. Tell me, men, how often have you invited those young men to your homes and tables, to cheer them and help them in their struggles. And you, Christian women, how often have you invited young girls and women, who are struggling for their daily bread, to your homes to arouse them from the sickness of soul and the weariness they have fallen into? O, the world is so hard, so cruel, so greedy, so grasping and they, sensitive, delicate women like yourselves, who are weary from the acres of brick and stone all around them, battle in it alone, and you do nothing to help them. Shame on you, men and women who, when the social year is over, can remember no one invited to your feasts and fetes who is below you in station, who does not belong to your set. Even the most degraded woman who flaunts her fineries in the face of her associates, is as good as you in this, for she invites only those who will invite her, and who can return her favor with favor. What do we more than she? Most of the men in this congregation have employees under them. How do you treat them? As so many hands who only contribute to your prosperity, or as human, breathing, feeling people? How often do you give them a word of praise, even when deserved? The human heart does so love a word of commendation now and then. I do not take any interest in contributions to foreign missions given by men who treat their employees like machines of iron or steel. I tell you, there is a fierce muttering in the hearts of men which seems ominous to students of history. There is not the feeling there should be between employer and employee, and the thing the church must do to-day is to sweeten the feeling between labor and capital. And you, Christian women! What is your attitude towards your servants? What kind of bed do they sleep on? What kind of room do they live in, and do you ever talk to them about their intellectual condition, or don't you think they have any? Or are your servants cases like those of a girl in Massachusetts who, when she lay dying, said to my wife, "My mistress is a very good woman. She is interested in many foreign and local charities and is an untiring worker in the cause of the church, but in all the seven years I have worked for her, she has never said aught but words of reproof to me." Think of that! Would your servants say the same? What do ye more than others? What is your attitude towards the church? Do you limit your devotion to the hours it is customary to worship in our churches? Do you buy your church pews as you would chairs at an opera? The truth of the position taken by Dr. Jefferson was fully sustained by Mr. Robert E. Speer, a prominent official of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, who, among other things, said:— One-half of the earth has views of the other half. One-half cares not for the other half. Never was there more hypocritical talk going the rounds, about loving one another, than there is to-day. Prof. Graham Taylor, of Chicago, who has for fifteen years voluntarily lived in the slums of that city, for the purpose of bringing to their wretched life the light and blessings of Christ's Gospel, evidently came to the Endeavor Convention with a burdened heart and a distinct message, as these thrilling words clearly indicate:— There is a great deal more talk about religion than there is religion itself. If there be not a new note struck, if we do not fill the old words with new meaning, the world will not long believe. After fifteen years among the working classes, I can say that there is no antipathy among them against real religion, but I can not express to you their antipathy to the church. There is an almost impassable gulf between them, that only the brotherhood of Christ can bridge. But one touch of the brotherhood of Christ will put to flight years of antipathy. There is more religion in solution everywhere than there is precipitated in any church institution. In all my experience, even in the depths of underground Chicago, Christ's name I found above every other name, and I have heard but two men attack His character or His purpose. We need to test the consecration within by the need of it without. In the struggle between the everlasting right and the never-ending wrong, the need of the hour is new consecration. We need a new oath of allegiance to the King and to His kingdom, and yet that new consecration is as old as religion itself. Consecration is tested by taking part with the common cause of common men. Christ's separation to God meant His union with men. Ours is a religion of relationship. The old theologian who said that to be religious meant to think only of Christ and yourself, gave utterance to the most anti-Christian thought that was ever written. Christianity means relationship. Are we ready to fully believe that the Gospel is the thing to live by, not merely something to have faith in? If so, how do we reconcile the killing of the Filipinos? Can we say, "Blessed are the merciful," when in business life everywhere it is a case of crowding or be crowded to the wall? Can we say, "Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you," when business is conducted, for example, as it is in the Chicago wheat pit? Can a man love his neighbor as himself and not be ruined in his business? We must either lower the idea of Jesus or raise the idea of practise. I say, Sink with the flag at the masthead rather than float on any bottom with the flag at half-mast. You would be surprised to learn as I have how much the common people know about these things. The poor man is more wide-awake than you think, more than many ministers in the pulpit. The cross must be more than an ornament on the church spires or a charm for our watch-chains. Are you holding on to a little class-life when the great mass-life calls you? Instead of singing, "Throw Out the Life-line," are you willing to live where the life-line is slimy and you stand in mud up to your waist? Are you willing to live in the neighborhood where you can do the most good, where you can raise up those about you by your example of living? How do you compare with that standard of consecration? You'll be dead? Yes, but only hidden with Christ in God. When one considers political, social, and economic conditions, the side-lights thrown thereon by leading speakers at the Endeavor Convention reveal how fully current events are fulfilling the predictions of God's Word. Among other things Dr. Jefferson, of New York, well said:— You have all heard of the Peace Congress. The peace problem is the greatest problem of the century. Peace! What peace has Europe at present? It has a debt of $200,000,000,000, and yet it is now spending more money for war-ships and for the army than ever before. There is no peace. Wars are the curse of the world. The century opened with the wars of Napoleon, that most infernal robber the world ever knew. Between the battle of Amiens and the defeat of Waterloo was born the present labor unrest, that blind Samson who will some day trample upon those who have oppressed it. Ætna will some day explode. Some people wonder why there are so many Nihilists. As to me, I am amazed that Europe has not been blown sky high long before this. Therefore, Christian men and women, do all in your power to keep down navy and army. Let Bismarcks, Von Moltkes, and Napoleons, robbers and murderers all of them, occupy themselves on war, but you do as that great Master counseled, "Love your enemies." We are living in the greatest of centuries. With such tremendous powers in our hands it does not seem possible for us to be lost. Now that it seems that God means us to be a leader of nations and races, it looks as if the republic could not go down. But Greece fell; Rome fell. The present is no guarantee of the future. God's wrath fell upon these people. God has said that sin is a reproach to any nation; that those who forget Him shall be punished. There is danger that America may forget God. One man says we need a new industrial system, another says we need socialism, another says we need a new system of taxation, another urges a new political party, others say larger markets, others more education. These are all superficial. What this nation6needs is more manhood, the manhood of the Carpenter of Nazareth. God give us manly men, men whom the spoils of politics will not buy, men who will not be ruled by selfishness. What are we going to do with the liquor traffic, the traffic that is worse than the combined ravages of pestilence and war? New legislation! It is not new legislation we want, but a great outpouring of the Spirit that will crush the liquor traffic. How are we going to bridge the social chasms in the life of our cities?—Let us have the spirit of the Man who ate with publicans and sinners. What shall we do with the great corporations that devour the small ones? Law is not enough. What we need is love. What shall we do with militarism, one of the blackest demons that ever came out of the pit? They are sick of militarism across the sea, but there are men and women in America to whom the song of battle is sweet. Militarism is insanity; we can't beat it down with argument. Read the life of the Man who rode—not on a horse, for it represented war—but on the animal that stood for industry and patience. The Prince of Peace told us to beat the swords into plowshares. What shall we do with skepticism? We are surrounded by Theosophy, Esoteric Buddhism, Mormonism, and other strange teachings. Let us go to Him who represents truth itself. We have law enough, intellect enough—no nation ever had more. We have knowledge. Our boys and girls outstrip the Solons. We know a thousand things Plato and Socrates never dreamt of. We have all these, but what we need is a higher, diviner, sweeter type of manhood. America's great redemption, her one salvation, is love of and obedience to the Man who died on Calvary, Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Another speaker, Rev. Dr. Boyd, of St. Louis, thus graphically set forth the industrial conditions now obtaining in the United States:— If a man should go through this country with his ears shut and his eyes open, he would see so many evidences of prosperity that he would have no fear of the country's future; but if a man should go through the country with his eyes shut and his ears open, he would hear so many cries from so many different directions that he would have fears that the country is about to fall. The problems are legion. Much more of a similar nature might be quoted from speeches and addresses delivered at Detroit, to show that the signs of the end are multiplying all about us. May these things lead us all to greater diligence in the study of God's holy Word, to greater faithfulness in performing the duties therein plainly enjoined, and to greater loyalty to our soon-coming King and Saviour, Jesus Christ the Righteous, "the Chiefest among ten thousand," the One "altogether lovely." J. C. BARTHOLF.