Article December 11, 1902 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from J. H. George, William M. Taylor, James M. Taylor, Frederic H. Hedge, J. H. Jowett

President W. H. P. Faunce of Brown University, who preached recently at the Central Congregational Church from the text "Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel," is reported by the Boston Herald as saying:—

The battlefields of to-day are not on the plains, but mainly in the great office buildings. We may weld the swords into plowshares, but the battle of the plowshares still proceeds. Every political problem has become an economic problem, and every economic problem is a moral problem.

"When we stand face to face with the great economic movement, there are three attitudes that a man may take. He may say, 'How am I concerned in this? It is one more fight between labor and capital, and I suppose the strongest will win, and I do not care.' That is the attitude of the parasite and the coward. Or a man might say: 'This new movement threatens me and my methods. It is a criticism on my friends, an attack on my property, and I resent it.' That attitude means insolence on one side and violence on the other. Or a man may say—and it is the province of the Church to teach every man that he should say— Where is God in this great struggle? What does divine righteousness demand? What does the real brotherhood of man imply? Do I act on the same principle in the church on Sunday morning and on Monday morning in the stock exchange? Are the Christian business men and the Christian workingmen of this country really laboring to make the kingdom of God come and nothing else?'

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