USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > London Grove > Two hundredth anniversary of the founding of London Grove Meeting by the Society of Friends at London Grove, Pennsylvania, tenth month third, 1914 > Part 4
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The World's Need
There is another circle which is so large that it includes the
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Rural Problem and the Social Task and has a wide territory out- side of these. It is the World's need of the Religion of Jesus.
Closer and closer are the nations of the earth being drawn together. Distances and separations are being obliterated by steam and electricity. More and more powerful is becoming the influence of one people upon another. The literature and science of one is becoming the literature and science of all. As the works of the sages and scholars which were once known by only the members of the teacher's own race are becoming common property, they are being tested by the ideals of the world and that which best meets the demands of the people will be given the high place in the temple of thought. Not only are we influenced by that which is good and true, but also by that which is barbarous, materialistic and demoralizing. There is a world-leveling process taking place and either we will Christianize the others or the powerful non- Christian nations will heathenize us. We rise or fall together. All the obligations that rest upon us to make Christianity a living reality in our rural sections and in our social and industrial rela- tions apply with equal force to the non-Christian nations. In fact the greater need makes stronger and more binding the duty.
This world-wide mission may seem to some an impossible task and so it is if we work by human strength alone. But as General Armstrong once asked at a conference at Lake Mohonk, "What are Christians in the world for but to achieve the impossible by the help of God?" We cannot, however, rely upon the help of God, unless we are willing to work in his way. Can we expect power to meet the world's need and power to respond to the world's call, if we continue to waste our funds ard our energies by sectarian divisions and duplications? Our work in the non-Christian nations is to bring to them spiritual ideals and holy motives that will transform their personal lives. We should make clear to them by word and example the principles of society that were taught by Jesus. We should help them to, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness." To meet this God- given duty we do not need what is peculiar to any denomination, but we require what is common to all Christian bodies. In "Chris- tianity and the Nations," Robert Speer writes, "The great evils of the world are the elementary moral evils of impurity, inequality. and hopelessness. The world does not know the character of God,
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and therefore it is unclean; the world does not know the love of God, and therefore men are not brothers; the world does not know the life of God, and therefore men despair alike of the present and of the future. And these three things: the character of God, and the love of God, and the life of God, are not the things on which we dis- agree. They constitute the great fundamental and elementary things in Christianity, and it is for these and not for any of the points about which we are at variance that the world primarily calls. It wants Christ, and that is all."
Not only are these needs such as appeal to what is common to all Christian churches, but the difficulties are such that the power of the united churches is required to make the work effective. In the non-Christian lands there are many different races and they represent all stages of civilization, from the lowest to the highest. Christianity must be conveyed to them in many languages and dialects. Trying climatic conditions must be endured. Race- hatred, tribal and national prejudices, barbaric customs, and intel- lectual peculiarities must be met. These difficulties do not excuse us from heeding Africa's cry for healing, China's call for Christian civilization, and India's need of the regenerating power of Christ, but they bid us unite our forces that we may accomplish the task. "The magnitude of the missionary enterprise," writes Robert Speer, "the difficulties, and the urgency of the task forbid all waste and inefficiency and demand unity."
This demand for union is felt much stronger on the foreign field than at home. The knowledge that they are but few and that their field of labour embraces so many, makes them desire the sup- port of one another. There are many signs of progress toward such union in these lands of missionary toil. In some measure the churches have desisted from importing denominational titles into these fields. Many of the denominations have accepted the princi- ple of territorial division so that much of the waste of over-lapping and the greater hindrance of sectarian rivalry has ceased. Each year the missionary stations emphasize union through their peti- tions on the Day of Prayer. Central bodies, made up of repre- sentatives of the various denominations, are nourishing co-opera- tion and fraternity in India, the Philippine Islands, Japan, West- ern China and in other important countries. In China there is a central federation which is definitely working for one, undivided
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Christian church for this great empire. In India the Presbyterian bodies have already united. In Japan the Episcopal churches of Great Britain and America have united. In this same country the Methodist bodies have become organically one and for twenty- five years this has been true of the combined Presbyterian and Reformed bodies.
In many places we have ceased to duplicate our educational and medical work. Native workers are trained, not in separate denominational institutions, but in the same central college and the sick are cared for in non-sectarian hospitals. Increased efficiency has followed this union spirit. We are doing a work of importance to individuals, nations and the world. "In my judg- ment," said Sir Augustus Rivers Thompson, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, "Christian missionaries have done more real and lasting good to the people of India than all other agencies combined. They have been the salt of the country and the true saviours of the empire." In speaking of the social significance of missionary work, Robert Speer writes, "It was the missionary movement that checked the annihilating traffic in liquor in Africa and the South Seas, and stopped the slave trade. What success in the anti-opium campaign has been attained, said Mr. Wong at the reception given to the members of the International Opium Commission in Shang- hai on February 3, 1909, was largely due to missionaries." It has made it possible for the natives to respect the Occident by giving them a different conception of Western civilization than that con- veyed by travelers, tradesmen and sailors. It has opposed the caste system with the principles of brotherhood and has stopped widow-burning in India and foot-binding in China.
These things we have done by emphasizing the elementary teachings of Christ, the fundamental things which we hold in com- mon, but what we have not done is far greater than all our accomplishments. We are now facing individualism and material- ism and barbarism in America and Europe as well as in the Orient, and a united church is needed to meet successfully these conditions.
I want to say in closing, that the churches today are not talking about what they must give up in order to hasten this hoped- for union. We are now looking at the subject from another point
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of view. We are asking ourselves seriously, "What am I able to give and what is my denomination able to contribute to the solu- tion of the problem that faces all Christian people? Are we able to add any vital force or spiritual power that will enable the united church to use the opportunity and meet the need with which it is confronted? If my denomination has such a gift to bring, let it make that contribution gladly." The united church of the future will be built on the basis, not of the things that we give up, but on the basis of the things we are able to give.
It has been a privilege to present this most important subject to this attentive and interested audience. I trust God will use these words and make them good seed that will grow and bear a mighty harvest, not only in this community, but in all the places represented by this vast assembly.
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The Place of the Church in the Community By DR. O. EDWARD JANNEY, Baltimore
T HE church, or what has stood for the church, as one of the expressions of religion has, until recent times, constituted the center of community, tribal and national interest.
The separation of church and state, while it opened the way for democracy in the state, and liberty of conscience in the indi- vidual, lessened for the time being the influence of the church by destroying its temporal power. No longer supported by the state, the church, in this country at least, has had to battle for its exist- ence, its only help from the state coming from the non-taxation of its property.
The church has had to make its appeal on other than tem- poral grounds; and if it is to make an advance in popular estima- tion, or even to hold its own, it must, like every other institution, show a reason for its existence, and wherein it is useful to man- kind. By this test it must stand or fall.
Let us then for a brief period consider the benefit that the church or meeting confers upon the community, and peradventure we may come to see wherein its value lies, and the reasons why the church should receive our enthusiastic support.
It must be considered, however, that the church is not an ideal institution. It is human as well as divine, and partakes of human frailties. A church is not a collection of saints; it is only a group of ordinary people striving together to help each other to live worthy lives.
I would like here to quote from an address that was made by Henry W. Wilbur, and which almost providentially, I might say, came into my hands, which bears on this point-an address which was prepared for a similar occasion as the present. I am glad to present this, more especially in view of the fact that Henry Wilbur would have been here, to take his place as one of the speakers, except for his sudden death.
Henry Wilbur says:
"I believe that the time has come when wherever we have a meeting-house or church we should make that a center of the best and completest religious and spiritual, social and intellectual life
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possible. In fact, every hungry soul in any community should know that he can get a certain degree of satisfaction by simply knocking at the wicker gate which stands at the outer portal of our Temple, and which should never be locked. Now, that is not say- ing that we should take everybody in in a minute, and put them on a pedestal in five minutes, and give them a commission to teach and preach before the day is done-it is not saying anything of the sort. A religious body, however, should be a home for people who are tired-not physically tired, but those who are morally and spiritually tired. I believe that the crying evil of our time is spiritual isolation. So many people are living all to themselves spiritually."
"We are hunting for the great Thing; let us hunt together, and enjoy the thing which we get by virtue of that fellowship, better than we would if the fellowship did not exist."
"The late Hugh Miller Thompson, a bishop of the Episcopal Church, said some very excellent things. He laid down the propo- sition that the church was the place for sinners, and for that reason he held that the church should take in sinners. That it was not necessary for a man to become a full-fledged saint before he could become a member of the communion which went to make up the church. There is a great deal of truth in that, for in the divine economy the veriest sinner that walks the road, at some point and in some way, is able to help the veriest saint that walks the road. When we understand the fact that we are absolutely necessary to each other, that no man and no woman has run the full gamut of human experience, and that every man and every woman may con- tribute to some other man or woman what he or she needs, we understand the deep philosophy which links us as men and women together in this common interest, and ought to link us together in a common fellowship. Therefore I believe that the church should become the religious home of people long before they become full- fledged members. People get the spirit that is in us by contact with us, quite as much and a good deal more certainly than they will get it by having it pumped into them from the outside. There is nothing in the world so teachable and so helpful as the teaching of human fellowship-the heart contact of communion with a com- monality of interest. It keeps us together, and makes us under- stand each other the better."
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The church makes mistakes, and commits its sins of com- mission and omission. So long as it follows the Divine leading its influence is uplifting; but it has not always done so. Hence criti- cism and desertion. But it must never be forgotten that it has an element of divinity, which, if followed, leads aright.
The first and greatest service that a church can perform in a community in which it is located, is to create ideals and to keep them alive. These ideals are economic, social, educational, polit- ical and ethical.
It may seem to some a low ideal that the church should aim to make men prosperous in business. But wait a moment. What are the qualities that the church teaches in the individual? Hon- esty, truthfulness, sobriety, industry; and yet these are the very qualities that make a man prosperous in business. And therefore, when a man becomes a religious man, he necessarily, if he practices what he believes, becomes a better business man. Indeed, the church cannot live, or a meeting cannot live, without money. It has to have a certain amount to support its efforts. And, there- fore, the community which is more prosperous will give more money to the church, or the meeting, and will, therefore, put that meeting in a position to do better work. Its members must be self-sustaining and church sustaining. The farmer who, by the application of right principles, increases the value of his farm and its products, is a distinct and definite asset to the community ; and, therefore, the first duty of the church is to make its members better farmers, better merchants, better doctors, better house- keepers, better teachers. The ideal of business, now, that we are urging, is not that a man may gain wealth for himself or his family, so much as it is that by his business he helps the community; that he should conduct his business in such a way that the community is benefited by his being in it and conducting his business within the limits of that idea of community betterment.
The next service for the church to perform is to teach its mem- bers not to live for themselves alone, but that they have social obli- gations to their neighbors, of whatever religious fold.
Therefore, it would seem to be the duty of the church not simply to preach the simple Gospel, as some hold, but to preach the whole Gospel of Christ, which includes the application of the text: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." For the church
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of Jesus Christ is, or ought to be, a religious democracy, in which rich and poor, wise and otherwise, should mingle and learn from one another. Therefore, the church might well make opportunities for community gatherings at Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or the 4th of July, when the church and the school and the grange (if it is in a country community), the Y. M. C. A. (if in a town) and the women's club should all mingle together and unite in com- munity service. And they should all meet and mingle on a footing of equality, and come to learn what it means to be a neighbor. I will venture to assert, without much fear of contradiction, that there are some who sit here in this audience who have never passed over the threshold of the houses of some of their near neighbors, or, at least, who have not any social relations with some of their neigh- bors. This in a Christian community certainly ought not to be. God is our Father; we are all brothers, even nearer than neighbors; and so an important influence that the church should exert in the community is to encourage many forms of neighborhood gatherings, with programs suited to all ages and all grades of development, with the definite purpose of presenting community interests and welfare.
Quite in line with this effort is the influence the church may exert in the reduction of intemperance, impurity and kindred evils. The same statement is true of other community evils. The ministry and the church hesitate to speak openly and to enter into active work against social vice, which ruins young men and maidens, and takes them away from the paths of virtue.
Whatever else the church may be, it is pre-eminently the guardian of virtue and, to perform its proper mission, must protect the young by the removal of sources of temptation and by affording in the wisest way the instruction requisite to protect them from moral and physical wrongdoing.
There is one text in the Bible which commends certain persons who have visited those who were sick and in prison: "I was sick and in prison; and ye visited me." Here is a social duty of the church which is largely neglected. The church has a care, or should have a care, over the prisons in the neighborhood of the community, over the almshouse, over those institutions where the poor and the wretched and miserable are associated. Just lately, some of us had an opportunity in the conference at Saratoga to visit
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a wonderful prison, where the prisoners were treated like human beings; and, as we looked at those prisoners, we could not help but think that there was no difference between those who were con- victed and a great many people outside prison walls. There, that prison has no walls. The guards are not armed. The prisoners are treated like human beings, and they respond to it. I think that the church has a duty in this matter.
What shall we say as to any duty the church has toward the creation and maintenance of political ideals? "Oh, yes," you say; "you must not allow any political discussion in the church;" and I will agree that such a rule is wise as to party politics; but that the church should teach the principles of statesmanship and good gov- ernment is without question; for the very existence of the church and the liberty it is to enjoy, depend on the quality of statecraft to which it is subjected. Therefore, among the first and most impor- tant offices of the church to the community is the teaching of those political ideals which look to the abolition of graft, of machine politics, and the establishment of those lofty ideals in government which we admire in Washington and Lincoln, not to speak of some living at the present day, the realization of which will insure ? future of material welfare for our people and the moral leadership of the world.
Since no community can advance in material or, spiritual well- being without education, it remains for the church to see to it that the schools are sufficiently numerous, properly equipped and sup- plied with efficient teachers; and this duty must be delicately per- formed, since our people are jealous of the interference of the church in school matters. But in so far as the three requisites mentioned above go, it would seem to be a community duty for the church to take knowledge of existing conditions and aim to make them fit the need.
But, after all, the chief value of the church to the community is in the encouragement of the religious life of the people. For this the church was organized and commissioned; and to this end chiefly does it exist. It has been said, rather flippantly, perhaps, that it doesn't matter what one believes so that he does right. But how can one do right without an ideal? How can the mariner reach his desired haven without chart or knowledge of navigation ? In the East the rug-maker sits before his frame and slowly works 4
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in his lovely colors, with the pattern in his mind. So, before the religious life can be lived there must be a pattern in the mind. The pattern or ideal is very slowly formed. It begins at the mother's knee; it develops with the increase of mental power. Many influ- ences enter into it: the chance remark, the story heard, the printed page, the expression on loved faces, the example of those about us, the spoken word, the effects wrought by the Sabbath School and the church. Underneath all this and giving cohesion and character to it all, is the silent, direct teaching of Him who dwells within us, and whose temples we are.
In a very real sense the church has been the conservator as it is the teacher of divine truth. Its special mission is to bring to men a knowledge of God, and to persuade them to obey His will. To convince men that of themselves they can do nothing, but by obedi- ence to this spirit revealed in them they can overcome the world; that through such obedience men shall have power to resist tempta- tion and build up that strong and stalwart and earnest character which constitutes the true wealth and glory of every well ordered community.
Such, in brief, is the place of the church in the community-a place that no other institution can fill. The church has not by any means fulfilled its great mission; it has often failed to get the glo- rious vision of its vast usefulness; but it is opening its great and loving heart, yearning over mankind burdened with sorrows and sufferings; and it not only points the way to the consolation which the soul needs, but it stands in the forefront of those ordained by God for the regeneration of the world and the bringing of God's Kingdom as a real condition on the earth.
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Rhymes of Marlborough Street By ELLEN PYLE, London Grove
I tried to put an idyl into prose And pattern after old Theocritus;
For he who dares to cope with Poet Hayes Is sure to meet defeat inglorious.
But rhymes would come and jingle in my ears No odds how dry the facts or old the dates; So tho 'tis not an idyl nor a poem, It sings true tales that history relates.
Once on a time a hundred years ago. Soon after Westtown Boarding School began,
There came a family here from Erin's Isle And down the Street road, drove a double span.
Of noble blood was this man Henry Cox ;* His lands in Ireland large, but full of debt, And so he came and lived here as a Friend, Until his liabilities were met.
'A large, good featured, well bred gentleman,- When first he came, his crops were scant and poor, For Irish ways he used on Chester's soil Tho Marlborough's climate differed from his moor.
Of wonderful intelligence was he, Eccentric, yes, but also very true;
And tho his neighbors often felt distrust, Yet none could e'er assail the things he'd do.
His fourteen children all were plainly dressed, Were strictly taught the principles of Fox; And tho his wife had never joined the sect, She really loved to make the Quaker frocks.
*Henry Hamilton Cox came first to York Co., and moved to East Marlborough, Chester Co., in 1813.
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In those days everybody went to church, No autos tempted men to flee away, So Henry piled his family in a cart And came to meeting every Sabbath day.
On driving near the step, the story goes, His habit was to lift the tail-board out And dump his load of children on the ground Like young potatoes rolling all about.
In meeting he was often known to preach, But never was "acknowledged" as we say; "He's too aristocratic," neighbors said, And from uncultured men he held away.
The young folks bothered not with blood and class; They had their harvest days and husking bees, And Dave had known Ruth King, scarce seven weeks, When he was down before her on his knees.
Now Ruth was winsome, wise and hard to please, Altho she loved young David Cox, she was not yet for sale; And so she put him off a month or two- The female of this species is less foolish than the male.
Fair Arabell, and Katharine so 'tis told Were both in love with Chester County boys, But mother Cox was with ambition filled And dreamed of titled men and luxury's toys.
So Isaac Pennock left Miss Katharine, He heaved a sigh and soon forgot his woe, And ere another year had passed away He had become a city maiden's beau.
Great sadness fell once on the Irish home When Richard Cox, the father's hope and pride, While riding forth one winter's icy morn Fell from his horse and merely spoke and died.
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The sympathy of Friends and neighbors all So touched the father in this deep distress That while before he'd stood apart and cold, Now came the tears that he could not suppress.
The hand clasp of the farmers now became To him a source of solace day by day, He understood at last these hearts of gold, The barriers of class had slipped away.
Next spring his thoughts were turned toward Ireland's shore For word had come th' estates had gained and grown, So after twenty years on Penn's good soil He took his family back to Dublin town.
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