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General Research
The Richmond Christian Advocate
Contents, and Pages 5 to 6
August 27, 1936
THE RICHMOND CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE
Contents
| The Richmond Christian Advocate; 27 Aug 1936 |
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| Contents |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 |
>> THE ADVOCATE FORUM <<
FAVORITE OLD POEMS
I WALK BY FAITH
|
P. P. Bliss
I know not what awaits me, God kindly veils mine eyes, And o'er each step of my onward way He makes new scenes arise. And every joy He sends me comes A sweet and glad surprise. One step I see before me, 'Tis all I need to see, The light of heaven more brightly shines When earth's illusions flee, And sweetly through the silence comes His loving "follow me." So on I'll go not knowing, I would not if I might. I'd rather walk in the dark with God Than go alone in the light. I'd rather walk by faith with Him, Than go alone by sight. |
LABOR SUNDAY MESSAGE, 1936.
(Issued by the Executive Committee of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, through its Department of the Church and Social Service.)Requested to be read in the churches on Labor Sunday, September 6, 1936, or on the first available Sunday thereafter.
On a day in the spring of this year this wireles {sic} message came from London: "Edward VIII, after visiting the great new liner, 'Queen Mary', and the squalid Glasgow slums, turned to someone near and asked, 'How do you reconcile a world that has produced this mighty ship with the slums we have just visited?' "
That question has to do with more than an accidental contrast. It focuses the drastic interrogation which the Christian mind and heart must direct to our whole civilization now.
How can we reconcile a world which provides, on the one hand, luxury and freedom for the few, and a sordid, drag, and pinched existence for the many? For the Christian conscience there can be no reconciliation while these facts remain. We cannot merely look the other way. Rather, we must look straight at the harsh reality and never be at rest until we have set in motion redeeming social purposes which can change old facts to new ones, juster, fairer, and more kind.
Our danger today is that the discontent with social and economic evils which these recent tragic years have roused may try to satisfy itself with soft compromise. We are in danger of looking at the ship and forgetting the slums. As the first signs of industrial recovery begin to appear and men's energies launch out with a reviving boldness, we may think that we can leave behind us the dark record of the depression years. We may imagine that unemployment, poverty, the disintegration of families and the disillusionment of millions of people, old and young, will somehow take care of themselves. The ships of our economic fortunes
{column 2}
are on the high seas again, we think. Never mind the cost at which they were put there.
But this cost we must mind. It is intolerable to the Christian spirit that we should forget the human havoc which economic depression has caused, and which no haphazard business revival can possibly cure. Out of the crucible of these recent years, one iron purpose should be forged; namely, the will that nothing shall divert us from the continuing effort to find those necessary ways of readjustment -- whether through voluntary cooperative organizations, through taxation, or through other practicable social controls -- by which those who are now doomed to a cramped existence may be set free into larger life.
The Christian influence ought to bring to our contemporary world three things:
First, a Compassionate Heart.
Christian individuals and Christian churches must be sensitive to the need of all who suffer. We must not allow ourselves to forget, nor let the community forget, the men and women in industrial towns reduced to a bleak and almost hopeless existence through unemployment; the undernourished children in families where relief budgets are too small; the sweatshops and child labor in some industries; the wretchedness of those who live around the shafts of idle coal mines; the exploited, sharecroppers and homeless migrants in many of our agricultural areas; the Negroes denied equal justice; and all others upon whom the bitter pressure of unfair conditions falls. We are bound to remember that it was with such as these that our Master identified Himself when He said: "Inasmuch as ye did it not unto the least of these my brethren, ye did it not unto Me."
Second, a Courageous Mind.
The Christian conscience does not make us more nearly infallible than other men in technical details. It does not equip us to speak dogmatically on precise political or economic programs. But it ought to, and does, give a clarity of central judgment. It turns upon all questions the light of one supreme consideration. Because it believes that all men are the children of God, it believes that the only right ideal for any community is one in which there shall be freedom for all men to develop in thought and in action the best that is in their personalities. Therefore, the Christian spirit must stand like a flaming sword against all frightened attempts to bring upon America that shackling of human thought and that stifling of independent speech which lie like a dark shadow on those lands where dictatorship prevails. The teachers' oath bills introduced in many legislatures and passed by some, the "gag laws" introduced in Congress, the vicious assaults upon academic freedom, and ultimately upon academic honesty, the widespread denial of the right of labor to organize and bargain collectively, which have been launched by sinister influences under the mask of patriotism, are denials not only of political democracy, but of the Christian faith in the dignity of the human soul; and with them, therefore, the Christian Church can have no part nor lot.
Third, a Faith in the Will of Christ as the One and Only Way for Our World's Redemption..
In these immediate days when the conditions of our world have become so ominous we need the heroic confidence of this faith. There is too much bitterness between the nations. The conflicts of economic interest and the antagonisms between economic classes are turning away from patient reasonableness toward forcible repression on one side and violence on the other. Many today believe that our social unrest will lead to revolution, and that the old hatreds between the nations are leading inevitably to new war. But those who follow Christ will yield to no such impotent fatalism. In thought, in conversation, and in our influence on public policy, we must set forward
and persistently support these measures of cooperation and constructive service through which a better social order may be peaceably achieved. We must resist the policy af increased armaments and the growth of military control, and unflaggingly urge the participation of the United States in study and adjustment among the nations of those inequalities, political and economic, from which wars take their rise.
Christians should follow the pioneering example of those who, like Kagawa, make love the controlling principle to personal, economic, and international relationships. Such men may be hated, misunderstood, persecuted, executed even; but they can be the seed for the future. Though the pathway leads to a cross we remember that the cross is the sign not of defeat, but of final triumph.
WHO WROTE OUR HYMNS?
By Rev. H. H. Smith.
In addition to this list, which might be
greatly extended, we note laymen in walks of life as diverse as the
following who contributed to the making of our standard Hymnals:
An eminent physician, a social reformer, a distinguished editor, a
London book-seller, and a Danish teacher.If any Christian lack
breadth of spirit, let him study his Hymn Book and it shall be given
him. Glance through any standard Hymn Book and you will be struck
with the diversity of authorship of its hymns. "In the Cross of
Christ I Glory" was written by John Bowring, an eminent English
politician, foreign minister, statesman and literary man; "Jesus the
Very Thought of Thee" was composed {by} Bernard of Clairvaux, "an
eminent monk"; Bernard Barton, known as "the Quaker poet," gave us
"Lamp of Our Feet, Whereby We Trace"; Clement of Alexandria, a Church
father of the second century, wrote "Shepherd of Tender Youth"; "Take
the Name of Jesus With You" was composed by a Baptist woman; the
daughter of an English Dissenting minister wrote "How Blest the
Righteous When He Dies"; John Henry Newman, High Churchman, and later a
Roman Catholic cardinal, wrote "Lead Kindly Light"; John Blakewell, a
Wesleyan class leader, wrote "Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus"; Joseph
Addison, the poet, wrote "When All Thy Mercies, O My God"; a German
gave us "Of Him Who Did Salvation Bring"; John Hay, secretary of state
under President McKinley, wrote "Defend Us, Lord, From Every Ill"; an
Italian monk wrote "Near the Cross Was Mary Weeping"; Robert Grant, a
layman active in public and political life, wrote "The St{a}rry
Firmament on High" and five other hymns.
Bis{h}op Ken, of the Church of England, gave us the "Long Meter" Doxology; Sir Walter Scott wrote "The Day of Wrath, That Dreadful Day"; Unitarian clergymen gave us "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" and "God Bless Our Native Land"; Congregationalist clergymen are the authors of "My Faith Looks Up to Thee," "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone," and "Lead On, O King Eternal"; the poet Tennyson gave us "Strong Son of God, Immortal Love"; Count Zinzendorf, "the apostle of the United Brethren," wrote "Jesus, Thy Bloody and Righteousness"; a Methodist layman wrote "My Jesus, as Thou Wilt"; Thomas More, the noted Irish poet, wrote "Come, Ye Disconsolate"; John Cennick, a Methodist preacher of the eighteenth century, wrote "Children of the Heavenly King"; John Newton, the child of many prayers, the profligate youth, the wicked sailor boy, the contrite penitent, the happy Christian, the consecrated minister, the eminent divine, the sweet singer, wrote "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound," and twelve other hymns.
Robert Robinson, a Baptist minister, wrote "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"; Edward Perronet, an independent English clergyman and later a Methodist, is the author of "All Hail, the Power of Jesus' Name"; John Milton wrote "The Lord Will Come and Not Be Slow"; George Matheson, an honored minister of the Church of Scotland, wrote "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go"; Martin Luther gave us "A Mighty Fortress Is Our Lord"; Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, wrote "Fear Not, O Little Flock"; Cowper, the poet, wrote "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood," "O for a Closer Walk With God," and eight other hymns; Frederick W. Faber, High Churchman and later a Roman Catholic priest, wrote eleven of our hymns, among them, "Faith of Our Fathers! Living Still," and "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"; Charlotte Elliott, a member of
{column 2}
the Church of England, wrote "Just As I Am Without One Plea," and four other hymns; Fanny Crosby, a Methodist and prolific writer of Gospel Hymns, gave us "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine," and many other hymns.
Bis{h}op Ken, of the Church of England, gave us the "Long Meter" Doxology; Sir Walter Scott wrote "The Day of Wrath, That Dreadful Day"; Unitarian clergymen gave us "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" and "God Bless Our Native Land"; Congregationalist clergymen are the authors of "My Faith Looks Up to Thee," "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone," and "Lead On, O King Eternal"; the poet Tennyson gave us "Strong Son of God, Immortal Love"; Count Zinzendorf, "the apostle of the United Brethren," wrote "Jesus, Thy Bloody and Righteousness"; a Methodist layman wrote "My Jesus, as Thou Wilt"; Thomas More, the noted Irish poet, wrote "Come, Ye Disconsolate"; John Cennick, a Methodist preacher of the eighteenth century, wrote "Children of the Heavenly King"; John Newton, the child of many prayers, the profligate youth, the wicked sailor boy, the contrite penitent, the happy Christian, the consecrated minister, the eminent divine, the sweet singer, wrote "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound," and twelve other hymns.
Robert Robinson, a Baptist minister, wrote "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"; Edward Perronet, an independent English clergyman and later a Methodist, is the author of "All Hail, the Power of Jesus' Name"; John Milton wrote "The Lord Will Come and Not Be Slow"; George Matheson, an honored minister of the Church of Scotland, wrote "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go"; Martin Luther gave us "A Mighty Fortress Is Our Lord"; Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, wrote "Fear Not, O Little Flock"; Cowper, the poet, wrote "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood," "O for a Closer Walk With God," and eight other hymns; Frederick W. Faber, High Churchman and later a Roman Catholic priest, wrote eleven of our hymns, among them, "Faith of Our Fathers! Living Still," and "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"; Charlotte Elliott, a member of
{column 2}
the Church of England, wrote "Just As I Am Without One Plea," and four other hymns; Fanny Crosby, a Methodist and prolific writer of Gospel Hymns, gave us "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine," and many other hymns.
Charles Wesley, "the poet of Methodism," wrote more than six thousand hymns. The Methodist Hymnal contains one hundred and twenty-one from his pen, or about one-sixth of the total number in the Hymnal.
Isaac Watts, a Nonconformist minister of the seventeenth century, has been called "the father of English hymnody." Comparing Wesley and Watts, the author of the Meth{odist} Hymnal Annotated, says: "Watts' great theme was divine majesty, and no one approaches him in excellence upon this subject. Wesley's grandest theme was love -- the love of God -- and here he had no rival."
Among the great poets who contributed to our Hymnals, we note: Joseph Addison, John Milton, Alfred Tennyson, Thomas More, John Dryden, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sir Walter Scott, Sidney Lanier, William Cowper, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Rudyard Kipling.
A study of the great hymns of the ages, with special reference to their diverse authorship, would do much to bring all branches of the Church of Christ closer together for after such a study{,} who would dare claim that his particular Church has a monopoly of the Holy Spirit?
"BROADCASTING THE GOSPEL."
(For The Richmond Christian Advocate.)
By Mr. Raymond {M.} Hudson.
By Mr. Raymond {M.} Hudson.
(Mr. Hudson is a Methodist lawyer in Washington, D. C.)
A few years ago a m{a}n in
South Africa wrote b{ac}k that he felt so close to home when he heard
the broadcasting of a World Series game of ba{s}eball, {___ hole in paper} the C{___ hole in paper} of Washington on a Sabb{___ hole in paper} {___ hole in paper for remainder of line}
Now we give f{o}reign fields, as well as home land, a morning broadcast on how to mix cocktails with a{n}other in the evenings detailing all gambling results and exto{l}ling the various prize fighters with many intervening hours devoted to the gruesome details of some murder or kidnapping trial in a manner to make heroic the criminal life of accused and some witnesses.
But alas, there is very little Gospel broadcast, and it is all because Christians do not demand or require it.
The Christians always can, and do, control the Government, business methods and affairs of this country when they have a mind to do so, but for some five years, they have been off the job. It is time they were awakening and taking charge again.
Over such a broadcasting station some trained leader could give an hour's instruction in the Bible each day or so many days a week that would reach not only the South but also the North and West, and it could be so that it could reach all English-speaking people. From the same station or another station in Texas they could be broadcasting in Spanish that would reach all the people of Central and South America and on the same station there could be an hour of prayer each morning and evening calling all our people to join and calling the youth of Europe, Asia and Africa to join, in which we would mainly pray for the youth in those lands where there is so much oppression and so much stirring up and such yearning and looking to the future by the youth with little in sign for many of them but Communism.
This would be carrying the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Millions of those young people are oppressed, oppressed in their religious exercises and they do not know freedom therein.
Christ kept America hidden for fifteen centuries after His death and then He opened it up as a haven for His persecuted followers in Europe.
{end of page 6; article is probably continued but I do not have pages 7 - 8}
Now we give f{o}reign fields, as well as home land, a morning broadcast on how to mix cocktails with a{n}other in the evenings detailing all gambling results and exto{l}ling the various prize fighters with many intervening hours devoted to the gruesome details of some murder or kidnapping trial in a manner to make heroic the criminal life of accused and some witnesses.
But alas, there is very little Gospel broadcast, and it is all because Christians do not demand or require it.
The Christians always can, and do, control the Government, business methods and affairs of this country when they have a mind to do so, but for some five years, they have been off the job. It is time they were awakening and taking charge again.
Over such a broadcasting station some trained leader could give an hour's instruction in the Bible each day or so many days a week that would reach not only the South but also the North and West, and it could be so that it could reach all English-speaking people. From the same station or another station in Texas they could be broadcasting in Spanish that would reach all the people of Central and South America and on the same station there could be an hour of prayer each morning and evening calling all our people to join and calling the youth of Europe, Asia and Africa to join, in which we would mainly pray for the youth in those lands where there is so much oppression and so much stirring up and such yearning and looking to the future by the youth with little in sign for many of them but Communism.
This would be carrying the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Millions of those young people are oppressed, oppressed in their religious exercises and they do not know freedom therein.
Christ kept America hidden for fifteen centuries after His death and then He opened it up as a haven for His persecuted followers in Europe.
{end of page 6; article is probably continued but I do not have pages 7 - 8}
Submitted & transcribed by Susan Shields Sasek.
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