Enterprise
Business Principles in Religion, Illustrated by the Working of the Salvation Army
I am to speak this afternoon on the adoption and carrying out of common-sense business principles in religion, and to illustrate this by the operations of the Salvation Army.
First, let us look for a moment at the aim, the purpose, of all business operations, and, in fact, of all effort amongst men. What is the end? It is patent, of course, at first sight, that the end is gain in some form or other. Everybody labours, uses means, exercises their talents, uses their opportunities, to acquire something which they could not otherwise acquire. Nobody dreams of making labour the end, but only the means to the end. It is not enough for business men that an establishment is kept up, that the men are kept employed, that the books or the goods are in order, the routine of business kept going. Every such establishment has an eye to the result—the profit accruing to the owners. Profit is the end which men propose to themselves in every department of business or labour; and nobody imagines that they are going on toiling, and keeping business machinery going without reaping adequate profit as the result.
Nobody quarrels with business men for seeking to do a large business, so that they do it legitimately. I should not. I don’t mind how much business a man does, if he does it righteously and for the kingdom of God—especially if he sends the Salvation Army a slice of the profits!
Now, why should we not adopt the same principle in religion? that is, Why should we not look for and labour with a view to results? We believe that we have as much right to expect success in spiritual things as men of the world have in temporal things. God has shown us that it is just as rational to expect spiritual results from the use of certain spiritual power exercised through certain measures or agents, as it is to expect a good harvest when the husbandman ploughs, harrows, and sows at the right time and in the right way. The farmer could not reap a harvest without the sunshine, the shower, and the blessing of God; but he gets that in conjunction with his own effort. On the other hand, all the sunshine and shower and blessing in the world would not bring him a harvest if he sat at home in idleness. We believe that there are laws in the spiritual kingdom as unerring in their operation, and as certain in their results, as any physical laws; and that if we conform ourselves to those laws, and act upon them, we may be as certain of a good harvest morally as the husbandman can be naturally. In other words, we believe we shall reap according as we sow; and we contend that the history and the success of the Salvation Army prove it.
We cannot see why religious establishments should be kept going without reference to the results, any more than temporal establishments. We do not think that religious teachers or people should be content with maintaining an existence—with just operating upon the same number of people from year’s end to year’s end, without making any appreciable aggression on the territory of the enemy outside. We believe that all rational measures, all the measures which men use with respect to this world, if they are lawful and good, may be transferred by the sanctification of the motive, by the transposition of aim, to the kingdom of God. That by transferring the kingdom into the place of self, we may use every good and lawful measure for its extension; yea, that we are bound to do it. The necessities of the case, as I think I abundantly showed last week, demand that we should.
I don’t want to make any reflections, but everybody knows that the Christians of this generation do not act, as a rule, on this principle; I am afraid we may safely say, in the great majority of instances they lose the end in the means. They rest in the labour, without looking for adequate profits—that continual increase and everlasting aggression which is evidently contemplated and provided for in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We of the Salvation Army have to some extent learnt wisdom by the failures of others; and believing that we have a right to calculate on results, we are determined to use all lawful means and to put forth all possible effort in order to secure them!
God has shown us that, in order to this end, we must have definite plans of operation, reliable agencies, and plenty of hard work.
Men act on these lines with respect to the affairs of this world. When they want to excavate a tunnel, make a railway, lay a telegraph cable, they don’t talk about it for generations in a vague sentimental way, but lay their plans and set to work to accomplish the thing. If any business man were to talk and act as many Christians do, he would be set down as having a screw loose. Some of you may have had some experience of what I mean, you may have known a young man full of vague notions of how he is going to get rich. He is going to make a fortune. He is quite sure he can accomplish it. He looks upon that which his neighbours have been struggling for all their lives as an already accomplished fact. He sees none of the difficulties. He has grand notions of how it is to be done. A wise business man says to him, “That is not the way. You will have to begin at the bottom of the ladder and climb slowly. You will not do it by building castles in your airy brain. You will have to set to work. You will have to concentrate your mind and form a definite idea of what you are going to do, and how you are going to do it.”
Thousands are just like that young man with respect to religious affairs. I often say: “Oh! God help us to be definite, help us to recognise common sense in religion, as we do in other things; for it is wonderful what a deal of vapouring and vagueness there is in religious matters.” You hear it in people’s talk. They get up prayer-meetings sometimes, and they say, “We are going to influence the city.” How are they going to do it? They have no more idea than that young man has how he is going to get rich. They have no plans, no organized schemes. They have simply a vague notion that they are going to do something. They pray, perhaps, as Christians have been doing for generations, but do not work, and consequently it all comes to the ground, because that is not God’s way. He commands His people to work, suffer, and, if need be, die; but they must preach His Gospel to every creature, whether it can be done conveniently, easily, genteelly, or not. It is to be done.
We must give up sentimentalizing. Sentimentalizing is of no more use in religion than in business, and we must set to real practical common-sense scheming and downright hard work. If ever the Gospel is to make headway against the rush of evil passions, worldly ambition, and devilish animosity, it must be by determined, deadly warfare, conducted with at least as much care, sagacity, and persistency as men bestow on earthly enterprises for gain or glory.
Does any one object, that this is reducing religion to mere machinery. I answer, Oh no, it is only providing a machinery through which the Spirit of Christ can operate. It is only reducing sentiment to practice. God prescribed the machinery under the old dispensation; but Jesus Christ and His apostles left us free as air as to modes and measures, that we may provide that kind of organization most suited to the necessities of the age. There is not a bit of “redtapeism” in the whole of the New Testament. God does not care about the forms or modes, so that we have the living spirit in them; and all forms are but corpses when the spirit has gone out of them.
Nevertheless we must have forms and methods; and the more intelligently planned and the more wisely adapted, the better they will succeed. Haphazard, fitful, unorganized, unreliable action fails everywhere, no matter how good the cause in which it is engaged. You never trust to this kind of action in business. If you want to accomplish anything, you call your heads of departments together and plan how it is to be done; you set the best man to the best post, and make him responsible for carrying out your plans. That is the only sensible and rational way to get anything done. Well might the Saviour say, “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” I wonder how long that will remain true. I wonder when the children of light will rise up and say, “Is this a necessity? Are we born to the heritage of fools? Are we forced to keep holding back on the chariot car of progress? Must we always be in the back-ground? Can we not learn wisdom from the children of this world; and if this glorious Gospel is what we all profess to believe it, can we not put forth more thought, and more effort, and more care, to bring it to bear upon men? Will Christians never rise up to emulate the wisdom of this world, and act on common-sense business principles in pushing the Gospel on the attention of mankind? If we find that the masses will not look at a bill with sermons on it,—as they won’t, because sermons or religion is the last thing they want to hear about,—why should we not attract their attention by some novel or startling announcement, so that the terms be innocent. What does it signify that they are strange and unconventional? Look at the sagacity of worldly men in advertising; think of the size and cost of their bills. Why do they go to such expense and trouble? Because they know that, in the rush and drive of this age, little unostentatious notices will not be looked at. Why should we be content with such for our Master’s business? If we find that processions and music will draw the people together better than any other means to listen to our message, why should we not use them? Who so worthy of a banner as our King? and to whom does all the music of earth and heaven belong, if not to Him? I contend that the devil has no right to a single note; and we will have it all away from him yet. We find that music not only draws the people, but it begets friendly feeling and secures attention from the very lowest and worst. We have numbers in our ranks to-day who were enticed out of the public-house by our music and processions. Does it signify how we get hold of such men as laid the dynamite in the Government offices, if we do get hold of them? Does it signify by what novel and extraordinary methods we get hold of the drunkards, wife-beaters, cut-throats, burglars, and murderers, so that we do get them? Here, as we saw last week, are vast masses of the people living in positive heathenism and crime, unreached and uninfluenced by any civilizing and saving agencies; is it not wiser to go down to them by such means as they can appreciate, than to let them seethe and rot in their degradation?
We believe, nay, we know, that a real living Gospel is still the power of God to the salvation of such people, for time and eternity. The Salvation Army has thousands of people in its ranks who have been picked up from the lowest depths of social and moral degradation, now good fathers and mothers, good husbands and wives, and good citizens.
Having positive demonstration of such results, why should we be accused of ambition or fanaticism because we are burning with anxiety to press the Gospel on the attention of all men? Why should it be kept in the back-ground? If indeed it can reclaim and regenerate mankind, and if it does restore peace and good-will amongst men, why should we not use every available means to thrust it on them? Why should we not try to inspire every saved one, high or low, with an all-absorbing passion to preach it to every creature? Why should we not cry aloud in the highways and hedges, to the sin-stricken, fallen, and evil-possessed multitudes, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”? Why should we not secure every building possible to us where the people can be got to listen, and where they can be dealt with more closely about their souls? Why? I cannot see any rational reason, any philosophical reason, or any Scriptural reason why this should not be done; but all reasons, and all interests, human and divine, seem to me imperatively to demand it.
Think of the state of the people, and then say whether any red-tapeism, or conventionalism, or fastidiousness ought to be allowed to bar our way to their ears and their hearts. I often think how the higher classes will curse their fastidiousness and indifference when their mansions are burning about their ears! How they will wish then that they had helped the Salvation Army! I can honestly say that I have suffered more from the obtuseness and inertness of professedly Christian men as to the pressing needs of the people, than from all the slander, persecution, toil, and anxiety that this movement has brought upon me; and yet only God knows how great these have been. But I can bear all this easier than the maudlin half-and-half view of the situation which leads these men to say, “Why attempt so much?” “You are going too fast.” “What will this grow to?” I say, I don’t care what it grows to, so that it grows in holiness and devotion as it grows in size; and as to the future, God must look after that. I don’t see that much has been done for the great mass of the people by the catering of past generations for the future! I think some of the huge forms and cumbrous organizations handed down to us, only hamper good and true men! Our work is, “to serve our generation according to the will of God,” and leave Him to look after the next! And so to our going too fast; what can they mean when there are millions in our own land yet in positive heathenism? If God has shown us a way of reaching them (which all admit now), how can we go too fast in carrying it out? Why should
Enterprise
be shut out of religion any more than of business? A man’s idea in business is, not to get through with as little as he can do; but to do all he can. If anybody were to say to an enterprising man, “You are getting on very nicely, making a comfortable living; if I were you, I would let well alone, I would not open branch establishments or enlarge my connection, but rest and be thankful.” Would he not answer, “My dear fellow, I have a lot of capital lying idle, do you suppose I am going to keep it so? No, no, I am going to do all the business I can lawfully, and make as much money as is possible to me.” And nobody would blame him; even high-standing Christians would not condemn him. And yet, because we import this spirit of enterprise into the propagation of the kingdom of God, these very Christians are down upon us, charging us with being ambitious, extravagant, and I don’t know what else. We believe that the only reason why the work of God does not mightily grow and prevail, is because so few people make it their business to grow it. We believe that if there is anything worth being energetic and enthusiastic about, it is salvation. We believe the same power which has within a few years reached and regenerated thousands of the very worst classes of our population, can regenerate millions more, if we can only get near enough to them to make them feel its force. Then, who has any right to accuse us of personal ambition or senseless fanaticism because we are trying to do it? I turn round on our accusers and say, Where is your zeal for the Lord, that you will not put forth as much effort or display as much enterprise in pushing the kingdom of God as you do in pushing your own business, or as the men of the world do in promoting their schemes for their own gain or glory?
The Salvation Army owes its success, next to the presence of the Spirit of God, to this spirit of enterprise. People say it is the spirit of the leader runs through the whole Army; well, be it so. It is God’s order that like begets like; and there is a sense in which the spirit of the man, as well as the Spirit of God, infuses itself into the spiritual progeny. Thank God! He saw it was time some human go and energy and fire was brought to bear on His affairs, and so He provided Himself with a man, as He always has done, and filled him with His spirit. We labour incessantly to put this spirit of enterprise into our officers, who, it must be remembered, are already, as a rule, truly spiritual and devoted men and women. Every address they hear at the Training Homes, every illustration and story, is used to show them that they will reap exactly as they sow. They are told that it is useless to expect God to own and bless them if they are idle or negligent, if they don’t attend to the open-air work and do their visitation, hold up and pray with their people; in short, if they are not good soldiers of Christ, warring a good warfare, and enduring all needful hardness thereto. They are taught, on the other hand, that while they are faithful and true, fully consecrated to God, they need fear nothing in earth or hell, but may boldly march into the strongholds of the enemy, always being sure that He is with them, even to the ends of the earth!
If God raises up men and women and so fills them with His love that they cheerfully leave all and embrace lives of toil and self-sacrifice, in order to save these millions who are yet without God and without hope, can we possibly be too fast in opening their way to reach them? Would to God that we could put down two red-hot Salvation officers amidst every thousand of these neglected masses, the world over; we should soon see the dawn of a brighter day! Then, why should we not aim at it, and why should you not help us to do it? Are you sure that the fortunes you are hoarding for your children will ever come into their possession? What, if these neglected multitudes should rise up and assert themselves, what will become of your houses and land then?
But further, we think that the same enterprise which actuates business men with respect to their buildings should be incorporated into religion. What care and sagacity is exercised as to the situation and suitability of business premises? What contrivance to economize space, and do the largest amount of work in the smallest room. This is thought to be wise and prudent, and so it is; but think of the numbers of great religious buildings all over the land shut up in sepulchral darkness five days per week, and many of them six, a vestry or schoolroom being sufficient to accommodate all who think it worth while publicly to worship God, or to seek the salvation of men, once a week! Buildings which cost from one to thirty thousand pounds each!!
Who would ever suppose that these buildings represented a religion which demands that the service of God shall be the first great business of life, and the drawing of the people to Him the next, every day of every week, all the days of our lives? Here again the children of this world show the superiority of their wisdom to promote their ends, by opening the theatres, dancing hells, tap-rooms, and gin palaces every day, and making them attractive every night by flaring gas, music, and other attractions. We believe that God’s buildings ought to be open every night, and every innocent means used to draw the people into them. Thank God, we can get the people; as a rule, we have large congregations on week nights, and crowds shut out on Sunday nights. Why should we not appropriate every place we can get hold of to soul-saving purposes? At any rate, we are determined on doing so, and this is the reason for our loan scheme, which has been so criticized in certain quarters. I will give you an illustration of its necessity and working. The treasurer of a corps, worshipping perhaps in a stable or an old factory, for any kind of a place has to serve for the Salvation Army if it can be made safe and whitewashed into common decency; this treasurer writes: “We can buy the Circus for £1,500, and we think we can raise £300 in the town if you can lend us the remainder; it would make a grand place for our work, and we could fill it inside and out!” Our plan hitherto has been to borrow seven or eight hundred from a building society, paying 6 or 7 per cent., and make up the deficiency from the Parent Fund. Now we know that this is perfectly safe, because the corps will be abundantly able to pay back in rent, not only the interest, but the loan itself; and when the loan is paid off, we borrow on this building again and buy another. Now, what is there wrong in that? Are there not mortgages on half the chapel property in the land? And if we can borrow from our friends instead of from building societies at 5 per cent., thus paying them better interest than they are getting elsewhere, and thus making their capital serve the interests of the work of God, what is there wrong in that? Would any one of our criticizers refuse to serve their own interests by such means if they needed it? Alas! I wish they were all as clear and straight in all their schemes as we are in this! However, we shall go on taking all that comes, leaving those who help us to speak for our integrity. We have had several loans in this way for years; and it has been a great joy to the lenders to know that their money was helping the work of seeking and saving the lost. We don’t ask strangers to help, or anybody who has not perfect confidence in the Salvation Army and in the integrity of its leaders. Of one thing I am quite sure, nobody will regret having helped us, either on their dying beds or at the judgment bar.