USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Minutes of the annual meeting Congregational Churches of Massachusetts 1906 > Part 9
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If I mistake not, this very principle is one that our brethren of these other bodies beholding, rejoice in. Precisely for this immediate responsi- bility to God do they desire us still to continue to stand. In this, our most cherished principle, they see the guarantee of their freedom. They fear the fetters of no imposing conscience from those who have paid for their own liberty so great a pricc.
This principle has found among us distinctive expression in the region of formulated belief. We have been free to use our minds for the clarify- ing of faith. Our creeds and declarations may be as numerous as our churches, and within the local church there may be, and usually are, as many varieties of doctrine as there are members. . We are getting to do more than tolerate that state of affairs. We like it. It does us good, tending to keep us humble, and making our minds more alert. Within our own precincts we are beginning to learn what would have checked the too numerous brood of sectarianism long ago. that those who think alike do not need each other in their search for truth so much as those who differ in their thinking.
With such a development of our inmost principle, can there be any formulated statement on which we with others can agree? Surprising and significant answer has come in the Declaration of Faith submitted as the basis of this proposed union. One is tempted to speak in terms that may sound extravagant. These are meant to be sober and considerate. That
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document impresses me as one of the most remarkable for its purpose that has appeared in the history of the Christian church. It is compre- hensive, catholic, inclusive; it exalts experience and emphasizes faith, declaring the centers of power on which faith depends; it contains not a single phrase savoring of the doginatism that would prescribe belief or erect it above faith, yet it is positive and spiritually constructive; providing for historic continuity, it holds with the past, and recognizing the pro- gressive character of revelation, it steps reverently forth into the future, accepting responsibility for present leadership; and it avoids all divisive affirmations, not through skill of adroit phrasing, but frankly, by keeping close to fundamentals of faith. Beside these qualities is the new note, affirming that " men of the Christian faith exist for the service of man, . . . in the maintenance of human freedom, in the deliverance of all those that are oppressed, in the enforcement of civic justice, and in the rebuke of all unrighteousness." How welcome to the ethical sense and how consonant with the earnest spirit of. our age! Is not this declaration of faith the open gateway through which we may pass into this larger fellow- ship, bearing aloft the banner of intellectual freedom, with joy in our hearts and reverent hallelujahs on our lips?
We must not, however, glory overmuch in our strength. Probably no denomination has the defect of its qualities so manifestly as do we. We have loved independence and have brought it perilously near to isolation. We have stood on our individual rights, being jealous when there was no occasion for it, and, seemingly, at times, have almost feared that we might come to be of use to each other through closer organization. We have kept the word " fellowship " in our dictionary, affirming it to be one of two coordinate principles, yet we all know that it has not represented an active, tangible fellowship. We have taken counsel with others of our brethren, especially when we have chosen new ministers, yet all the time we have proposed to do about as we pleased.
Against this excessive individualism there is a rising tide of dissatis- faction. Signs of it abound. Men are getting together in order to do more and better work. In Michigan and Wisconsin definite movements attest this feeling. It is pervading the West, weak churches especially feeling the need of help through closer relation to those that are strong, and here in our own state changes of polity are being earnestly discussed. Our inherited sense of individual responsibility has been born into an age of efficiency through organization, and practically this is a new birth. The individual does not become less by cooperation with his neighbor, does not relinquish his own convictions by listening to another, does not act less wisely by moving on the pathway marked out as the resultant of forces which many personalities supply.
The laymen of our churches are keen and eager to see the methods of practical efficiency applied to the common work of the churches. They feel that the logic of facts is back of such a proposal as this one now before
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us. They also want the comrade touch of shoulder to shoulder in the company rank, the strategic power of the well-placed battalion and the force of the regiment. They want something that shall render available the power of the mass, and at the same time give effectiveness to the unit through his place in the larger whole. It is at least reasonable to consider whether closer association with these other bodies may not supply some- thing of this manifest need. They have something that we do not have and we need something that as yet we have not attained. To attempt to become organically related to four hundred thousand of our brethren is in itself a stimulus of no mean order. Through this gateway, then, in humble acknowledgment of our weakness, we may pass into this larger fellowship, under the spur of a genuine desire for greater efficiency.
The significance of this union, should it come to pass, will vary in dif- ferent states and communities. Its local problems will not be the same, nor will its gains be identical throughout the country. One thing, how- ever, it will be, -an object lesson in the recovery of Christianity toward the unity that alone is the goal of the Master's plea. The abiding im- pulse is to find out more of the catholic mind of Christ. Somewhere there is a basis for union, even in the character of God, and this must be the foundation of a purer Christianity than the church has yet realized. May I bid you, representatives of this Association, take back to these churches of Massachusetts the conviction that we are ready to see what God will yet do, that we stand willing in the day of his power, with our principles affirmed and our prejudices denied, willing to be led, will- ing to act, willing to move out, if may be, into a wider fellowship and a more abounding service.
THE RELATION OF THE COLLEGE TO THE TRAIN- ING OF THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE
MISS MARY E. WOOLLEY, MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE
A recent definition of a college as " a monastery mitigated by football " may be interpreted as a clever characterization of the attitude of some individuals in some institutions. To go from jest to earnest and under- stand it as an epigram embodying a general truth is hitting wide of the mark. The college is not an exclusive organization aiming toward a selfish end, whether athletic or cultural. The changes are rung upon education as a preparation for service, and that thought is built into the very foundations of the American college. The petition to the General Assembly of Connecticut in 1701 for a charter for Yale College, that a " Collegiate School might be erected in this colony, wherein Youth should be instructed in all Parts of Learning to qualify them for Publick Employ- ments in Church and Civil State," is simply an expression of the general
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thought, which in one form and another is wrought into our institutions of higher learning. This spirit was never more strikingly illustrated than in the tinie of the Civil War when the ranks of the bravest and most devoted were recruited from the faculty and students of our men's colleges; and as loyal and self-sacrificing service came from the institutions for women. Within the last month we have had a wonderful object lesson in the two great universities on the Pacific coast; in the one, of calmness, courage, presence of mind in the face of overwhelming disaster; in the other, of self-sacrifice, consideration of others, and skilled service which only the trained mind and hand could give. Not only the spirit of help- fulness, but its effective expression is what the country has learned to expect from the college in time of emergency. But it is not alone in days of war and calamity that it has a right to look for this help; those times, thank God, are exceptional - it is in meeting the everyday demands that there is really the greatest need. With all the horror of war, its terrible waste and destruction, there has been one redeeming feature in its appeal to the heroic in men and women. Meanness, self-interest, the petty and frivolous do not flourish in those times; they are burned away as the stubble is consumed in the path of a great fire. But the heroic qualities are as sorely needed in the "everyday life" of the country. We are reminded that so-called " exposures " are sometimes dictated by the love of a sensation, rather than by a genuine zeal for reform. Yet an honest, fair-minded student of conditions in the country to-day cannot deny the existence of great evils, social, industrial, and political, and the fact that the public conscience is not yet the sensitive organ which it should be. Some consciences are born acute, as was evidently the case in the time of our Puritan forefathers; some have acuteness thrust upon them, as occa- sionally happens to-day; but the great majority acquire acuteness. That is, the conscience is a legitimate object of training, and it is as distinct a function of education as is the training of the intellect. The " public conscience " is a synthesis of individual consciences; it is not an abstract something affording an edifying subject for discussion on the platform or in the periodical. It is easy to write orations on public sentiment as the all- powerful social lever, but the practical question is, How is this public senti- ment to be created, the public conscience to be trained? Even so far as the college is concerned, what is practicable within its sphere of influence? It must be adınitted at the outset that the college cannot assume all the responsibility, that its influence is limited to a few years, and those coming not at the most susceptible time of the student's life. Home and school have a greater opportunity, and upon the mother in the home and the teacher in the elementary schools rests the heaviest responsibility, with the corresponding privilege. But even if the college does not have the first or the longest continued chance, it has an exceptionally good one. There is the choice of the best material among our youth, the most able intellectually, the most earnest and high minded. The college has the
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best with which to work, - how shall it mold and shape that which is put into its hands?
There are four goals toward which it must aim. They may not be reached directly, but they should always be in sight, and the academic ball should be guided as definitely toward them as if the contest were athletic, instead of moral and spiritual. The first goal may be called ethical insight. That there can be no development of a public conscience without it is obvious, and yet there is great need in just this direction, not only among those who have had little opportunity for ethical training, but even within the ranks of those to whom much has been given and from whom much should be required. There is often a curious lack of clearness in distinguishing wrong from right. Self-interest becomes paramount, and a man who would not think of condoning the theft of another man's purse does not hesitate to steal his entire business, if it can be done by any means that will stop within the limits of the law or without the risk of detection. We need to-day the clearness of vision of the Hebrew prophet no less than his courage; to hear with the ears of Amos the voice of God, " Yea, though ye offer me burnt offerings and your nicat offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. . . . But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." The very first lesson in this training of the public conscience is in the ability to sce, and the college fails of its mission unless it opens the eyes of its students to the difference between right and wrong. Nor is this purely a class-room function. Precept must be reinforced by ex- ample, if the teaching is to have any influence upon the taught. Students have a very genuine contempt for that which lacks the ring of the true metal, and in ethics, as in religion, the college must practice what it preaches. It is useless to attempt to teach honor in business and practice the condoning of dishonor.
This ethical insight must include a sense of the value of law and reverence for it. Disregard of the authority of law is a very real menace to the national life to-day, whether that disregard takes the form of violence in industrial strife or race conflict, illegality in corporation or license in academic institutions.
Second, the training of the public conscience implies the development of a sense of personal responsibility for the public welfare. Academic discussions amount to very little, if they stop with the discussion. A man who in time of war simply writes articles and makes speeches criticising the way in which other men fight is not considered a very valiant defender of his country. Neither the indifferent observer nor the caustic critic is the one who can be depended upon to remedy social, industrial, and political evils, but rather the man who takes his place in the ranks and his part in the battle. Such an attitude does not imply obstinacy, unjust criticism of others, or self-sufficiency; it means ratlier the power of seeing another's point of view, of appreciating his good points,
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and of forgetfulness of self in the cause. It denotes something more than half-hearted interest. I am often reminded in this connection of a story told by the wife of a Congregational minister in New York, who was at a certain football game between Phillips-Andover and Phillips-Exeter. Near her sat an old couple from the country, rustic in manner, in dress, in speech, but so absorbed in the game that they forgot everything save the career of that momentous ball, and when the game reached the crisis, the old man nudged his companion excitedly and exclaimed, " Mariar, be ye prayin'? "
It is the spirit of personal devotion to the cause that the college should strive to arouse in the men and the women who go out from it the feeling that upon them as individuals rests the responsibility of the common welfare. Selfishness is the root of all evil, and members of our educated and so most highly privileged classes, who think only of their own interests, the making of money, the gaining of position, the provision of a com- fortable, pleasurable existence for themselves and for those nearest to them, are unworthy of the privileges which have been theirs. There are splendid proofs to-day that the college men and women are alive to their responsibility, are ranging themselves, often at a great personal incon- venience and loss, on the side of purity in politics, honor and integrity in business, and justice and brotherhood in social relations. This morning's paper tells what one university man thinks of his responsibility for the public welfare. In connection with his gift of thirty thousand dollars for a new settlement house in New Haven, Conn., Professor Farnam says, " My reasons for making this offer are that I have long felt the need in New Haven of a visible, concrete center of good citizenship. There is nothing that stands emphatically for good citizenship. This means many things. It means cleaner streets, more sanitary conditions; it means a place from which good influences can be brought to bear upon growing boys; it means a center where men can obtain knowledge of the character of our government and of the responsibilities of citizenship, and where the newcomers will learn not only something of the history and resources of our own town, but where they may also learn of other parts of the country. In a city like New Haven a settlement should also be an outpost of the university; a place from which university influences can be diffused, but also a place through which university men can learn more of their fellow citizens than can be obtained by books." Those of us who have peculiar ties of affection for Brown University are proud of the part which one of her Alumni has had this year in turning a search light upon corporation corruption, and of the work of another in lifting the politics of his own state from the mire. These are only illustrations of the men and women, more in number than we realize in these days when the harvest is so plenti- ful that the workers seem pitifully few, who are seeing as clearly as in the days of Isaiah the divine vision, are hearing the divine call, and are answer- ing fearlessly, " Here am I; send me."
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The training of the public conscience calls for ethical insight, the sense of personal responsibility, and, perhaps, even more, the courage of one's convictions. The American world is honoring this week a man who possessed this quality in a preeminent degree. One paper, in its appre- ciation of Carl Schurz, granting his "rare intellectual gifts " and his " power as an orator," says that they " might all have gone for nought had not they clothed a conscientious judgment and inner purpose which nothing could shake." Courage is a quality that in man or woman makes a powerful appeal to others. It is heroic, but - it is not easy! Being true to one's convictions is not difficult to teach in the college class room; it is difficult to practice in the world outside. We are loath to admit it and cling to our fictions as tenaciously as the small boy of four years who prided himself in his bravery. Suddenly meeting a strange dog in a vacant lot near his home he unceremoniously fled to the house, but when questioned whether he was afraid, answered, " No; I just thought it was a good time to see how fast I could run." It is easier to improve the opportunity to see how fast we can run, but it is not playing the part of a man in the world. The development of this quality tries the mettle of a college, for the test in the world outside is sharp and hard to resist. A graduate of one of our New England colleges, a man holding prominent and honorable position in his own state, said to me a few years after graduation, " I had high ideals in college of the supreme value of honor and integrity, but I tell you, when you get outside and see that the real power is money, it's pretty hard to hold to your ideals," - " pretty hard to hold to ideals." There is no one of us who cannot second that state- ment front our own experience.
There is a quality which is a coworker with courage and which may be called " staying power." As a people we are righteously indignant, just as we are hero worshippers, by spurts! . We might well learn from our English cousins a certain bull-dog tenacity, which holds on until the reform is accomplished, the evil overthrown completely, not in part. We let go too soon, belong too often to the class of those who did run well, but, alas, could not keep it up until the goal was in sight.
Ethical insight, a sense of personal responsibility, the courage of one's convictions, together with a staying power which will not let the thing well begun be ill finished, - all these enter into the training which the college must give, but these are clinched, made fast and secure, by Chris- tian idealisin. A man whom not only Worcester, but the entire country has learned to respect and honor, says of the solution of labor difficulties: " The introduction of the spirit of conciliation; the recognition of the right of agreement, so that the details relating to the conditions of employment can be fixed by a positive contract; the readiness to arbitrate when all other means have been exhausted; the recognition of the fact that the workingman is seeking something beyond his arbitrary living wage, - all these influences are the result of a living spirit in men, which must come
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from religious precepts, if at all. We call them the ethics of industry, but ethics without religion is always feeble in the power to affect results." " Truly, there must be a conscience which is above and outside of ethical considerations to lead men to right action." The religion of Christ offers the solution not only of industrial problems, but of all others which enter into the life of humanity. The ethical insight of the Master gave to the world the teaching, " Except your righteousness shall exceed the right- eousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of Heaven." His sense of personal responsibility for the common welfare and his test of relationship, put into words by the great Apostle, was " In honor preferring one another "; the courage of his convictions was shown in his righteous condemnation of those who had made the Father's house a den of thieves. No ideal of what may be accomplished for the welfare of the nation is too lofty for realization by those who work in his strength for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven among men.
THE METHOD AND THE MAN REV. CLARENCE F. SWIFT, FALL RIVER
We come now to the closing minutes of our sessions, sessions filled with all sorts and conditions of interests; and our attention is summoned to a question of comparative values, of relative worth. Is it the method or the man that counts? organization or personality? system or the soul? machinery or people? We are to try to clarify our vision of values, rectify our sense of proportion, be sure that things are drawn for us in true per- spective. We are to remind ourselves that the one thing that counts, finally, for any gathering like this, is personality; that this alone is of absolute value; that people, men and women, hold the place of suprenie importance. In every organization which deals with the moral and religious, personality is the object of all endeavor and the secret of all successful working.
This is a truth, as old as character itself, yet ever made new to the suc- ceeding generations with their new needs.
It would seem as if Congregationalists might be spared this injunction. " We have the Pilgrims to our father, and have never been in bondage " to any system, or form, or mechanism. It is grandly true that we, least of all, have been in peril of letting any method or device of man lead us away from the sense of suprenie importance given to the life, the spirit, the personality. But as one has followed through this program, along with the inspiring sermon and addresses, and the deep devotion of the moments of worship, the impression is left of a great emphasis - inevi- table, it is truc, and needful - upon committees for this and that and the
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other interest, till one is reminded of the statement that the nineteenth century was a century of organization, when every concern of earth was referred to God and a committee. We have been busy with motions and amendments and resolves and what not. And this year, in particular, we have been giving unusual attention to the simple Pilgrim machine, to see if it may not go a little faster and bring forth larger results. We have oiled sonie places where there was friction, readjusted a wheel or two, and have been induced to add a new invention (new to us) to its primitive simplicity. All this is done wisely, so many of us think, though " some doubted." 'Time alone will tell.
And even to us, the sons of the Pilgrims, comes with new force the questions, " What is it all for? " and " What will make it work?" There is but the one answer for both questions. The thing of supreme worth is personality. It is not method, but man, that is important; not system, but soul; not organization, but people. Personality is the justifying goal of all our endeavor, the secret of all successful working.
In the universe at large, so far as we can read God's mind in planning and sustaining it, personality is at the center. God's absorbing purpose seems to be that there shall be good men and women in the world. I know that sometimes, in thinking of the greatness of the spheres and the littleness of man, one agrees with the surprise of the Psalmist, " When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is mian, that thou art mindful of him?" But the deeper thought follows, " Thou hast made him but little lower than God," " thou madest him to have dominion." Man, the personality, is not an incident in the age-long process, like the fins of the fish and the upright posture of the body; man, the personality, is the ultimate goal. Personal, human experiences are the only real drama of the universe, for which all the rest is stage setting and orchestral prelude.
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