The demands for a better trained ministry and membership in the churches
are being strongly emphasized by such statements of what the community
expects of them as Dr. Howard A. Kelly of the Johns Hopkins University
medical faculty recently made in an address at the annual meeting of the
New York Probation and Protective Association. In giving his consent to
print some of his remarks, he writes, with special reference to his
efforts against the social evil:
“I feel as though my own work in this field were to bring the churches
together for neighborhood social interests. If we do not get the
churches actively to work, I believe all the social developments of
the last thirty years are destined to failure. I fully believe that a
few strong men, say five or six in a city like Baltimore, can
effectively put persistent effort into the work of amalgamating our
churches for the expression of the Christian life in the active
service of their fellow men.”
In his address in New York, after stoutly combating, from his
professional and public points of view, the policy of segregating vice,
he declared that the social work of the church is indispensable to
progress, and that it is the duty and the opportunity of the church to
fulfil the need in this direction. He spoke substantially as follows:
“The most effective of all agencies in breaking down the strongholds
of vice and in building up the national character is the church. For
some reason unknown and unfathomable, some of my associates in this
beneficent work who don’t go to church fight shy of discussing any
enlistment of the churches everywhere. Not a few who have never had
any personal interests in the church even stand ready to declare, with
a distinguished head of our public libraries, that the church
represents the largest outlay of capital for the smallest return in
interest the world has ever seen.
“The utility of the church in the social field is best defended
perhaps by citing an investigation of over 1000 social workers of all
kinds showing that over 90 per cent are church people, and I venture
confidently to affirm that if the inspiration of the church direct and
indirect is taken away from our various social movements, they will
die outright in short order. I can furthermore now aver what I could
not have said twenty years ago, of a group of splendid humanitarian
workers who have no church affiliations, that this indefatigable but
weary band has at last come to realize that unless the church comes to
the front and does her duty this great purifying work will never be
done.
“The difficulty has been that our churches have been too much
afflicted with myopia, seeing little beyond the confines of their own
four walls. They have also one and all slipped into the easy ways of
formalism, and worse still, the laity have thrust the burden of their
religious obligations onto the shoulders of a groaning, overladen
clergy, trusting to discharge their own personal responsibilities on a
cash basis by check. I am sure that the clergy are well aware that
there is much to be desired in the social relations of the church to
the community and I believe no set of men will show themselves more
ready to advance on new lines if they can see that the movement is
really a spiritual one and that a large service can thus be
inaugurated.
“There are many reasons why the churches must be depended upon as the
backbone of any morals movement:
They are ideally distributed among the people.
They have the intelligence and the means.
They have a source of continuous inspiration needed in dealing with
chronic distressing problems.
They alone can guarantee perpetuity of effort.
“In utilizing the church, the minister must be the organizer and
leader of his people. A new relationship between pastor and layman
will ensue, and laymen, once drawn into a local work, will soon branch
out into all forms of civic work for the weal of the community. Again,
the churches possess the community buildings so much needed. The only
other similar institution capable of a similar co-operation on a large
scale is the public school which, while valuable and necessary in this
movement, has not the independence and lacks the great inspiration.
“What, then, is the specific program for the church? First, of all,
she must not abate but rather increase her dependence upon God. She
must never yield to temptation to abandon the one really valuable
quality she possesses by relegating to the background the living
fountains of inspiration she holds in God’s word, for a mere mundane
horizontal social Gospel which makes a religion of the human
activities which are but its appropriate outward expression. First a
glance upward, then outward to God for the life, and to the human
arena for the sphere in which the life must be manifested. This does
not hinder but quickens the impulse to effective service.
“The profounder my faith, the more am I able to work in affectionate
association and harmony with the many who do not see eye to eye with
me here on earth; I cannot, however, continue to work with any who
demand as the price of their help that I shall stifle all outward
expression of my faith. He who walks in the light must sing of the
light lest the light he has shall fade into darkness, and he too shall
be left to flounder along the dead level of merely human self-guided
impulses.
_A PRAYER FOR EFFICIENCY_
_O God, as to an earthly father, we bring thee each our yearning
confession of failure to realize to the full the powers thou hast
given us as laborers in thy kingdom on earth. May we learn through
this, our mutual prayer, to be charitable to one another’s
shortcoming. Teach us, by love if it may be, by bitter rebellion, if
it must be, that our prayer may be answered only as we are firm to
lend a hand in mutual aid and sympathy to the less fortunate. Let each
in strength supply his neighbors’ weakness, and build up in him the
efficiency which is his birthright._
_Thus, in humility of heart, we pray for justice to our overstrained
and blighted brothers who never catch up, who grind their lives into
sieves of despair and deficit, each grist the harder because there is
less of life to spare. Think upon the handicapped in body and in soul,
for whose backwardness we are jointly responsible through our
inefficiency. May we give them health and leisure and knowledge and so
joy and inspiration so that, restored to themselves, they may in free
good will repay them a hundredfold, in deeds of brotherly gratitude
and justice to others, for thy sake._
_And chiefly we pray for those in whom we have put our trust; that
their strength may be equal to the temptations of the power we have
given them from thee. May they realise that not their own gain, but
social justice, must measure the efficiency of their efforts. Bring
home to their minds and hearts the far-reaching power, for evil and
for good, of industry and government, of church and press; let them
remember vividly the remote effects of indifference and negligence in
the web of modern life._
_May the getters of gold give justice to its producers; may its
earners have charity toward its spenders; may the givers of gold be
gifted with wisdom and courage; and may all social workers feel the
weight of an especial responsibility; that the surplus wealth of which
they are guardians may be husbanded for its true purposes and not be
betrayed, nor delayed, nor wasted in their hands; that thou mayst have
gratitude in turn toward all, for thy children’s sake. Thus may thy
kingdom grow on earth into fuller and more abundant life for each and
all.—AMEN._
“The church must be a great, perennial fountain of spiritual and moral
energy to the whole people in all the avenues of human interests. She
must realize her obligation to champion the cause of the oppressed,
whatever the cause and whoever the oppressor, whether in her fold or
out of it. She must watch to prevent the rich from grinding the faces
of the poor. She must when necessary provide for every legitimate
desire of the people. If politics are corrupt, then she must enter
aggressively into the field of politics, only for purity and not for
party. She must fight all saloons and organize neighborhood opposition
to their continuance, but provide too for some form of social life to
replace them.
“The rich churches most be big sisters to the poor, providing means
and sending talented workers wherever they are needed. If the church
needs money for neighborhood enterprise, let her lop off her choirs
and stained glass windows and bells, expensive altars, and put the
money saved into human lives. She must discourage all extravagances
which give the poor just cause for bitterness and arouse envy and set
up unworthy standards. Let the church make a map of neighborhood
conditions. This will serve as an object lesson and as a basis for
action. In weekly classes she should then study such social problems
as:
Social teachings in the Bible.
Tuberculosis in our city.
Prostitution.
Housing the poor.
Amusements.
Wages paid in department stores and factories.
Near town places of recreation.
Hotels, saloons and rathskellers.
The laws of city and state affecting social questions.
Our prison system—what help have the men?
Our various relief agencies—how far do they co-operate?”
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