The Golden age. [volume], February 18, 1909, Page 4, Image 4

About The Golden age. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1920

Image provided by: Digital Library of Georgia, a project of GALILEO located at the University of Georgia Libraries

                
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Lhe Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS 3ORUN)
Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hgo Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OTTICES: LOWNDES BUILDING. ATLANTA. GA.
WILLI SUM 0. UPSHHW. - - - - Editor
MRS. G. E. LINDSEY - - Managing Editor
LEK G. SROUGHTON - - - Pulpit Editor
Prise: $2.00 a "fear
Ministers si.yo per Year.
in eases of fcrsitn address fifty cents should be added io eeber
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Entered -*J /it Fort Office tz Atlanta, Ga„
as secand'class matter.
J»
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JLliot and Friendship.
We give in full the following press dispatch about
one of America 's greatest
The “ Second Personage in men, in order to bring out
America” Declared Capa- the supreme thought in it.
hie of Being a Friend. Read it and see:
Chicago, 111., Feb. 11.
-—Charles W. Elliot, retiring presidentof Harvard,
last night at the annual dimn r of the Harvard Club
of Chicago, listened to a remarkable tribute to his
personal worth. It was uttered by Ambassador
Bryce, who said:
, “I have heard of a controversy in this country
as to who was the most eminent man in the United
States, and concerning this there has been a differ
ence of opinion, but I have never heard any con
troversy relating to the second greatest man in the
United States, and he is Chari 's W. Eliot, president
of Harvard University. He s been great because
of his wisdom, his courage, h sense of justice and
his friendship. I have known him for thirty-nine
years, and he is the best friend 1 ever knew.”
Profoundly moved, President Eliot said in reply:
“If I never do anything more in the world, I beg
you to remember that lam premely content with
what I have done, and that y u and other of Har
vard and elsewhere have by yo r appreciation given
me this content.”
It is indeed a beautiful thing when an otherwise
great man proves himself cap- die of being an in
dividual friend. Many promim nt men there be who
have humanijy on genera] te-ms and declare them
selves in speaking platitudes n •‘friendship,"’ but
who are too much absorbed hi the business of mak
ing platitudes to apply them 1 > anybody who really
loves and needs a friend. They talk like an arch
angel from the platform or with the pen, but when
you call at their office in hour.-1 and unselfish search
of the friendship they have proclaimed, they are
“exceedingly busy” and give you the vacant stare
and the “marble heart.” We are not growing pessi
mistic. We know there are many great men who
are capable of being “a friend” and this is written
- with the hope that President Eliot’s jeweled virtue
may multiply ap&ee among men of greatness and
renown.
The Golden Age for February 18, 1909.
Dr. Josiah Strong On Saving Lives and Souls
■ 111 .
——J
N the Atlanta Journal of February the
fifth is an article about Dr. Strong’s ex
pression on the subject of “Soul Sav
ing” and “Fife Saving.” These state
ments have been before the public for
several days and nobody has challenged
them, the presumption is, therefore, that
the statement is at least substantially
correct.
It will be recalled that immediately before the
statement appeared, Dr. Strong was in Atlanta at
tending a meeting of distinguished missionary work
ers who were here to discuss home missions espec
ially. It is much regretted that it was impossible
for us to attend that meeting. But this statement
appears in the column of “Hotel Gossip.” It does
not appear that these statements were uttered in the
meeting, but inasmuch as Dr. Strong was here for
the purpose of enlightening our people on home
missions, his sayings in hotel corridors are of neces
sity a part of his visit.
In this article Dr. Strong is represented as saying
that: The great end of Christian work is “life
saving, not soul-saving.” This may mean the saving
of life from the waste that sin works, not merely
saving it from death. With the efforts to better the
conditions of the needy, we are of course in the
closest sympathy, but this 'belittling of soul-saving
is in the highest degree pernicious. If that is to
be the basal principle of this “home mission con
ventioning” the less we have of it, the better. But
see these extracts:
“Dr. Josiah Strong, of New York, the great so
ciologist and writer of sociological books, believes
it is the bodies of men that need to be saved, not
the souls.
“Dr. Strong is in Atlanta in the interest of home
missionary work.
“In his opinion, the old idea of the church that
its great purpose must be to add to the census of
heaven is a misconception.
“He says that the quotation: ‘What profiteth a
man if he gain the whole world and lose his own
soul/ is translated wrongly. It should read: ‘What
profiteth a man if he gain the whole world and lose
his own life.’ It is life the church should strive to
save, he says, and not altogether souls.
“He believes that Christ came to earth, not to
save souls but to save lives.”
- * * « *
Dr. Strong, after a study of sociological conditions,
has come to the conclusion that the problem of civ
ilization is the problem of the cities.
* # * #
But the churches are inadequate, he believes, be
cause they think too much of a man’s soul and too
little of his body. He insists that the effort must
not be to raise the earth to heaven but to bring
heaven to earth. He believes that the solution of
the problem is the institutional church. The insti-
Get 'Ready to Come.
We cannot 100 strongly urge among our readers
The Gratest Bible Conference
in The South.
ence which we announced on our first page last
week. The time is March 12-22 and the intellectual
and spiritual “bill of fare” which will be spread
by Dr. Broughton at this great gathering will be
worth the journey of a. full thousand miles. For
ten years the Tabernacle Conference has brought to
Atlanta the best speakers of England and America
in the realm of religion and Bible study.
It will be ten days of mountain-peak experiences
while the multitudes sit at the feet of the Master
and the masters. It will give a lifetime of informa
tion and inspiration.
Get ready to come.
"Gambling Mothers. "
A few weeks ago The Golden Age had something
to say about gambling in so-called high life; now
comes an exchange with the following:
“ ‘Dungeoned in a prison in the middle West was
a young man chained to an iron bed, awaiting the
a wi d esp read “ma k -
ing ready” for at
tending the great Tab
ernacle Bible Confer-
tutional church is the church that is set up in the
midst of the slums and stands with its doors opeij
always, and provides, not merely a sermon, but a
bed ami something to eat. These churches are es
tablished in all the larger eastern and. western cities,
and Dr. Strong believes they will come south before
many years.
These extracts are sufficient to show the reason
for this article. As for the so-called mistransla
tion of the Lord’s words: “What will it profit a
man if he gain the whole world and lose his own
soul,” there is nothing in that. It is well known
that the Greek word translated “soul” is their word
for life also. There is a class of infidels who say
that the word in question never means soul, but only
life. They therefore deny the separate immortal ex
istence of the soul. It is not likely that Dr. Strong
is of that class, yet his remarks would place
him not far from them. It is well known
among Christian scholars that there are a
great many places in which the word may be
must be translated soul. The separate immortality
of the sou] is taught abundantly in the Bible, with
out being at all dependent on this doubtful word.
But there is no sort of reason for translating that
word “life” in this place, that would not just as
well require that it should be translated so every
where else. In that ease we should have no word at
all for the immortal part of us.
No, Dr. Strong is wrong. When our Lord on one
occasion received a report from the evangelists whom
He had sent out, to the effect that they had been
healing the sick and casting out devils, He said:
“Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the
spirits are subject unto you: but rather rejoice be
cause your names are written in heaven.” The great
work of the Lord and His church is the saving of
men unto eternal life, not unto the life that must,
in a few years at most, go out any way. The work
of the institutional church is doomed to failure if
it expends its force on body-saving. “These indeed
ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other
undone.” The example of Dr. Broughton in the
institutional church work at the Tabernacle, is dis
tinctly different from the theory of Dr. Strong. And
in this the great men in the world who know about
these things, agree with Dr. Broughton. Campbell
Morgan, F. B. Meyer, Samuel Chadwick, A. C..
Dixon and all the rest, whom the Tabernacle Bible
Conferences have brought to Atlanta, make it very
plain that soul-saving is the main thing. All the
other excellent things that are done are to enable
the church to save more souls. This was the Lord’s
plan and purpose. He reached men’s souls through
benefactions bestowed on their bodies. It is pitiable
that a great man like Dr. Strong should talk in
such away to a newspaper reporter. It is inex
pressably unfortunate that a great wrok like home
missions should be wounded in the house of its
friends in any such way.
day of execution. His mother, whom he had not
seen for years, came to the prison to take leave of
him. To the horror of the chaplain and even of
the jailer, he refused to have the interview. She
came to the door and pleaded with him. So far as
his shackles would allow, he turned his back upon
her, exclaiming:
“ ‘ “Go away.
“It was you that put the wine to my lips.
“ ‘ “It was you that taught me to gamble.
“It was drinking and gambling that brought
me here.” ’
‘Abnormal, indeed, was this treatment of a mo
ther. But amidst her sobs the unhappy woman con
fessed that the accusations were true.’
“Mother, was that you? From your present con
duct, will it perhaps be you some day? We wish
every mother would read the above incident and
then determine in her heart that never will she
give occasion to her boy to reproach her with his
ruin. Oh, mothers, mothers, never forget that the
best society in this world for you is the society of
your husband and children. Let your home be the
sphere of your sweetest pleasure, as it is of your
highest usefulness. Live for your children, and
some day you will live in your children.”