Show UNITY HALL SERVICES Discourse by Rev Adalbert L Hudson Yesterday Morning RELATION BETWEEN PHILANTHROPY PHILAN-THROPY AND BELIGION Aim of the New Philanthrophy is to Correct the Evil While Believing the Suffering Which Results From It Where Charity Fails Rev Adelbert L Hudson spoke yesterday yester-day morning at Unity hal upon Philanthropy Phil-anthropy and Religion He said that modern philanthropy is the direct out growth of modern life Methods of social reform are merely so many manifestations manifesta-tions of the moral life of the time Soci ology is not a fixed science I is undergoing under-going the gradual process of evolution The social organization Is not an arti ficial scheme devised by the brain of man the old notion ot a social compact com-pact adopted at the beginning of civilization civil-ization by men who gatnered on a great plain for that purpose is as unreal and icirendary as tne oriental story of the Garden of Eden Social compacts there nave been no doubt without number j but they have come about as the gradual i grad-ual result of ages of the adjustment of human lives to one another Drought together 1 to-gether under the constant necessity of recognizing reciprocal rights and duties So it comes about that philanthropy is progressive in its methods and takes from time to time the type ot the n wand w-and larger thought of the duty and destiny des-tiny of man I is no longer left to the I I accident of individual sentiment or ca j I price I has become a part of the rational ration-al study of the time Schools of hiher education everywhere are coming to recosnize the necessity of a chair or department de-partment devoted to the Intelligent study of philanthropy Newspapers periodicals and magazines are taking up the discussion while pulpits pul-pits and plutiorms are contributing their share to the common fund of public thought upon the subject Amid this agitation and discussion has grown uptime up-time new philanthropy I has sprung up out of a belief in the essential dignity of human life But along with it has grown a social unrest which might easily mislead The discontent of our time seems to suggest that conditions are worse than they have ever been before In fact they are bettor than they have ever been before But men are no longer content as in the past to bo mere beasts of burden or at the best mere serfs They demand more and the growing ideals of the time stimulate and sanction the demand de-mand The social discontent Is a sign ot healthy life I is like the tingling pain that follows the return of the warm life blood Into a frozen membrane But the revolutionary socialist like the young surgeon who would put everything to the knife sees the existing discontent and demands the entire destruction of our present social order Socialism urges against the use of charity char-ity first that i Is an Imperfect remedy in that it onlv films the ulcerous place without correcting the evil second that it proceeds upon a wrong theory In assuming as-suming to give charity instead of granting grant-ing justice third thatit impedes reform I by helping to make evil conditions endurable I en-durable Each of these criticisms is In a I measure just But the aim of thJ new philanthropy Is to correct the evil whim i I alleviating the present suffering which results from it I recognizes that true charity stands for thrift and that all charity Is bad which tends to make men unthrifty This has been the evil of much of the charity of the past I has cultivated hypocrisy and mendicancy on time ono hand and selfsrighteous pharlsa Ism on the other Thus it has been in I many instances an injury both to giver and receiver Much of church charity has boon of this pernicious sort What Is required in administration of charity is wiso thought and intelligent methods as well as a kind heart and a liberal spirit I follows that the best directed charity must in a measure he Institutional Systematic Sys-tematic organization Investigation and administration are necessary In aiding such charitable enterprises as the Young Ladies Aid society the free kindergarten kinder-garten the Orphans Home and other local institutions there can be no danger of misapplied effort But unsystematic and indiscriminate charity either by churches or Individuals is apt to be harmful rather than beneficial Often it happens that one who engages in charitable char-itable work with warm and generous enthusiasm en-thusiasm becomes discouraged and cynical cyn-ical because of the hypocrisv and deceit they find The way of escape is not to abandon charity but to direct our efforts ef-forts more wisely The real problem of modern philan thorpy is to get rid of the conditions which make charity necessary The best sort of charity is that which helps a man to help himself I recognizes the worth of the individual life The old charity treated man as a fallen creature to be saved by the grace of thc church O the priesthood The new philanthropy recognizes recog-nizes man as ascending in the gradual process of evolution from lower to higher conditions I is the outgrowth of the new and larger thought of the province of religion Not what we believe about the attributes of God hut what we do for the betterment of man has come to be rc beterment the real essence of religious relig-ious activity Instead of expecting to be saved through belief in old dogmas men have come to seek salvation by developing I develop-ing a better social order by fostering what is best in the possibilities of human I lifeBut In the emphasis we place on practical I prac-tical philanthropy lies I serious danger I Is the danger of forgetting the source from which philanthropy derives its motive mo-tive power In order to meet the deeper I demands of humanity tho church must be something more than a mere workshop I work-shop of good deeds Jt should be this hut unless i is something more it will soon lose vitality and power The motive mo-tive for philanthropy is deeper than philanthropy always anthropy A wise humaiiitarlanism is ways the fruit of a rational Idealism and without the root the fruit would quickly wither In turning the stream of religion into the field of practical need we must not forget the source from which that stream is drawn u L In tho words ot one or our auieat social writers The larger thought of God the sentiment of worship the religious impulse im-pulse these are not something apart from the practical problems and needs of the time They are the lofty source from which the whole stream of modern philanthropy I phil-anthropy is i drawn Let that source run dry and the stream will shrink Lower this Ideal and the current will lose its headway Divert the churches from their spiritual alms and the thirst of the time will not be satisfied What this busy ago most needs in its philanthropy is a constant con-stant renewal of spiritual courage ana this is a force which descends from above upon hearts which wait on God lenrt In the Oquirrh and Wasatch mountains are the sources of those irrigating streams which mAke fertile the soil of our wlleh beautiful valley The ditches and trenches branching from these streams have transformed a desert into orchards farms and gardens But as each year the use of the water is extended the need becomes be-comes greater of protecting and preserving preserv-ing the sources of supply More and more each year the streams of human love and sympathy are being turned into fields of practical need But the more this work of social irrigation goes on the more essential it becomes that In the high places of experience this water of life shall he abundantly collected collect-ed and securely stored High up upon the mountains of religious idealism the church of God in all its varied branches affords the source to supply the streams ot philanthropy whict flow clown upon the plains of practical living The thirsty fields wait for the streams of service which descend from these heights of inspiration in-spiration And the streams come down to them singing as they fiow I come that these might have life and that they mighth have it more abundantly |