Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

(TTMTPi i a "i? SONDAY 1mm I StRMoN -] Subject: Tin Message of Cluist to' C upital. Brooklyn, X. Y.?Speaking at tlie | Irving Square Presbyterian Church on the theme. "The Message of Christ - / ? 1 ~ t ?T W* Uorulnr XO ViipJUU, lilt; i. ?? iiviiuw. son, pastor, took as his text Matthew 7:12, "Therefore, all things whatso-1 ever ye would that men should do to you. do ye even so to them.'' Ho said: Labor and capital. The great correlated facts of the economic life of to-day. as throughout all ages they ! have been, are labor and capital. But though they are correlated, capI Ital is of secondary importance. In a simple society labor is central. In f a complex society labor and capital may with reason be allowed to pos- j Etss an almost equal position of importance in the economic system. ! Bur. no matter how influential and how powerful capital may jecome it can never usurp the central, primal, fundamental, ultimate position o? j tabor in the economic affairs of man. The economic tendency of to-day I C upon the side of capital is toward j centralization, toward combination, toward concentration. With this tendency toward centralization we have the spectacle of immense corporations gifted with a chartered power at the hands of a sovereign people. And these corporations are engaged, many of them, in the exercise of this j power in endeavors to control th*i i output of the necessities of life; direct and govern the markets of the world, and dictate prices for the ' necessaries of life without due re- I gard to fairness or to the universal laws, very largely, of supply and demand. There- are good and there are evil results ;o i>e expected and to be found in it::: economic trend of our day. I The dangers of this economic ten- j dency so far as capital is concerned are many fold; and the first danger is, that in the centralization of wealth and the increase of capital beyond ! the bounds of safety. \vt- shall have j two different and distinct classes in j the social life of our iand. The dau- i ger is, that, with a society in which ; there shnll b*\ in effect, but two j classes of men. we shall have a re- ; turn, in an economic way, to the un- j healthy conditions of the feudal re- ; si me. The danger is that, upon the j one hand, we shall have the ein- j plover, on the other hand, the ens- i ploye; 0:1 the one hand, the men of j money and. on the other, the salaried, j The danger is that, on the one hand, i we shall hava a class of independent j wealthy men and, on the other, a ; mass of dependent retainers; on the j one hand, the wealth holders and, on the other, the wage workers. The second danger is from cor- ; porate concentration. By virtue of j Governmental enactment? a corporation, though composed oi personal;- : ties, is itself an impersonality before ; the law. The sense of individual rc- J spoasibility is lessened and men are ' released, by the lav; itself, from that lively sense ci personal duty wnica i.s incumbent and felt upon the pan or" I the individual man with a personal relation to tlie law ana to trade. Men : become the engineers of a busv mechanism. Humanity is lost in the machinery cf commercial life. Another danger ci the economic tendency on the part of capital to-day J is that, by virtue of its immense pow- J ers. it. shall grow up as a State within ; a State. "With the numberless and j increasing ramifications and alliances ; of our larger corporations there has \ grown up an alarming situation, j Take, for instance, the most noted corporation in the land. However j valuable the public services of this corporation may have been; however . important its conlributions to soci- I ety, as a leader in the march of trade, j may be admitted to be; however! much we may praise it for the many j wiaiv.ii it ^ j cannot escape the fact that it stands ( to-day, as do many other corpora- ( tions, as a danger to the public welfare and as a possible enemy to the | common weal. The ramifications, the ! business alliances, the political coali-1 tions of this one corporation flr<? ?<> j diverse, so .Nation wide, so stunon- \ clous as to be almost past belief. All j this is wise from the standpoint of a j pure commercial life. ThereisnotMn?: j inherently wrong in such a condition ! of affairs if the correlative power! which it brings be exercised with an j eye single toward the light of righteousness. But if ever this enormous ; influence and capacity for good or for , ill should become vested in the hands of unscrupulous men the danger to j our civil liberty would be very real, j If, in the course of time, the power j of such corporations should become i the property of unjust and ungodly i men, whose creed should be selfishness and whose commercial aim should be directed toward the satis- ! faction of unbridled self-interest, im- j mediate and intense iniquity would, of sequence, result. The danger to these American people lies not in the strength of military force: not in an unselfish imperialism which strives for the amelioration of the peoples of the islands of the sea; but. in the unholy use oi dishonest power by immoral and conscienceless men of | wealth. Then will be realized the Tiro'iheev of the Strife within the State. Then v.-ill conic the test at capital, ma'!" arrogant with wealth, iu the lists against the Governmental authority. It does not necessarily follow, whatever may b? our fears, that combination por so is evil. Combination is a natural and a logical result of! tne conditions under which we live. Anything, whatever its name, which ! lightens labor, enlarges efficiency, and increases the impetus of commercial life, is of value to humanity at large, i Impersonality before the law is not in itself an unmitigated evil if so lie the men who manage corporations do not forget humanity and God. Combinations and corporations are beneficial so lori; as they are ?ood. it also does i:o* follow, necessary, that the possession of j;rcat: wealth j is a crinie. Wealth is a sin only when ! it is unrighteously acquired or inhumanly expended and used. The man who becomes rich in righteousness is an honor to the Commonwealth. The man who spends his substar.ro i:i a decent way with dii<* regard for the public p:ood is a credit to the State. I'ui. bud men whose wealth is tiie result of malicious i depredations upon the public, ant' | whose moneys are expended in un-j clean ways, are public: criminals and disgraces to humanity, it also does not follow necessarily that a system of corporate combination destroys individuality. It may destroy to some ' A ; J | j ?! BY Tr\? RLV4 U - x ' : ; * ' I RA W- .HENDERSON, \ "HE PAMOOS' DIVINEi' j I<:;lciil tli" money making capacity of ' the individual: but to destroy a man's j ability to exercise his financial in- i I siinct is Dot to destroy the mac. In- j dividuality is not a matter so much fit' money as of mind, heart, and soul. And any system which permits men to enjoy a larger opportunity for the nf < ! >..;v intoiit .'.t-.10 I moral and spiritual capacities, and whicli | enables humanity to realize in a ; larger fashion the fulness of human ! personality upon every side, must be j valuabletomankiud. Righteouscora- I Hnation will afford opportunity for | ! all the faculties. The individualism i of to-day is an insult, in the last an- j alysis, to personalities who are made i in the image of Almighty God. | About all that it. emphasizes is our capacity and desire to make morey. And however valuable money may be and however much we may all need It, this is tbe eternal truth of God, that that system which emphasizes this side of man's nature almost to tbe stultifying of his mental, [ ethical and spiritual characteristics is a thing of sin. The message of Christ, to capital. I And what is this gospel? If I under- J i stand tbe truth of God unto men of j ! wealth as it has been revealed unto ' us in Jesus Christ our Lord, it is this. /jM that money is a trust; that wealth a talent: that the possession of traordinarv ability for financial suc-^* fess and commercial leadership is a l H gu t of God compelling inescapable j I duties upon those so blessed and en- In forcing tremeudous obligations. A |B man's money is to be used not unto ,B coticrnniin.1 n? t tr cnlfiuh /^osiroc iH but for the pood* of all. Men ;:re not 10 lie treated as slaves. They are not to bo considered as machines. Bearin? in mind the admonition of our Lord, "Whatsoever ye would that men .should do unto yon. do ye even so to them." our men of financial and commercial prominence should remember that even the humblest man j is ;i personality and not a mechanism: that even a laborer is a child of j the living Cod. If there are any men j who should have patience, forbear- ; a::ee, charity, loving kindness, ten- ' derness, compassion with and for the men who toil, they are the men who i:i the providence of God are supremely endowed with tiie fulness j and the fatness of the good things of j life. It is the business, as, under Cod. it should be the happiness, of our men of means and of commercial prominence to study the comfort, to enhance the joy, to foster the education. to assist the moral and spiritual uplift ment of the man who is working for a wage. Their delight It slionld be. as it Is their duty, to lighten labor aad to increase wages to the utmost limit that '.he economic conditions which are existent will allow. They should see that the toiler has free hours, sufficient and often n-ough not only for rest, but also for honest recreation. Men do not ask Tor aims, they simply desire a chance j and an opportunity to do something more than exist?to live. In the darkest days of African boiMtoj there were no worse, tho^y^^Ve | were different, conditions, ' which characterize the inhumanJ^Kte slavery that is a feature of theWconomic system of to-day. Multitudes ui jut'ii eK?s out ijul ;i Dare ana, at i>.jst, ii miserable existence, as the I'ruit of Jionest, laborious and oftentime dangerous, toil; while those who pay their wages live in splendor, affluence, and, many times, in supercilious and arrogant indifference to ' thy needs of nun. The message of Christ to the man of wealth is a call for selfishness, s?lf-sacrifice and honest philanthropy. The pre:;t need of capital to-day is an instillation in its heart of the prin- J ciples and the personality.- ~C?fTno < character and the convictions of ; Jesus Christ. We cannot iiope; for a souna e.cenvsf 01 commercial an- i thority: v,o cannot, wisely and pen sifoly, ixjiect a true development of | our commercial lil'e without the pres- ! ciico of His truth as tin guiding and j controlling factor in the hearts and j the mii:il? and the souls of our men of wealth. Filled with the spirit of Christ they v.-ill love men; ar.d loviur men, wo shall have no fear. A Mistake Frequently Made. Frolesscr I. Erouardel in an adrtrvss 0*1 the measures adopted by different nations for the prevention of consumption, calls attention to a mistake made in the different countries by ministers who have the charge of the financial department of the State. He says they like to calculate the sum the State gets from 1 the duty on alcohol, hut they should i 1 d "duct from It the cost to the comj munity of the family of the ruined | drunkard, his degenerate, infirm, j scrofulous and enilentic children, who ; must have shelter. This invasion of j alcoholism ought to be regarded by ; J everyone as a i>i:blic danger, and this j I principle, the truth of which is i..contestable. should be inculcated into the mas?."?, that the future <>f t!ie ; world will bo in the hands of the I temperate. i The Ever-I'rcscnt Sanctuary, i Wherever you are. there is the ! place of prayer. You hav? to tako ! no pilgrimage to a faraway : hrine, j neither have you to risk tin* penuisI slon of any piiest. to enf r the sacred preeiucts. The veil w is rent in tlie I hour of our Lord's dying, and you have access through Him. at all times, to the secret place of the Most iirli. You may come to that mercy seat for confession in the hour of i your sin, for worship at all times, and 1 for iutercc-saiou 0.1 every occasion of ti'cd. More Welcome Than Money. The pas* is written, the future is beyond our control, but to-day is i ours, and is an opportunity to be stow a gift which will be more we! , come tuan ruy wnun money can pur chase. Tskto should hi* no fiuessj work concerning affection; "make it ! jilaiu." "write it large." Silence is golden when it. represses hitter v.ords or ignorant comment, hut it sinks like lead into the heart which has a right to expect tender and trustful utterances.?Christian Advocate. Kesponse to Prayer. There is no true prayer without some response. Invisible wires from heaven to earth are ever vibrating with divine blessings, and when prayer touches them the electric stream of love enters the soul.? Isewman Hall. i 1 , , .