As to the programme of the Kingdom itself, these men who have heard
the great spiritual voice of Civilization in her rebirth, who have
toiled and listened through long and terrifying days that crowded out
of their lives the petty and superficial things, who have thrilled with
the uncovered cries of men for the answer to their heart questionings,
for the realization of their soul quests, will not return to be
contented within the ancient walls of ecclesiasticism and sectarian
differences. They, with the hundreds of thousands they have ministered
to, will strike mightily against the props of outgrown systems. With
the re-enforcements already promised from missionary lands, they will
save us from ourselves, and together we shall set Christ free in
His own temple. These who have seen the folly of a too long divided
command on the western front, and who have witnessed the wisdom of
a generalissimo there, will call for a United Army under the Divine
Generalissimo, to press forward on the spiritual front of the world.
One day I saw six men building a road from a military highway in
to a Y. M. C. A. supply warehouse. They were working in the rain,
breaking rock and standing ankle-deep in mud. Four of the six men were
preachers, preachers to large and distinguished congregations at home.
The combined salaries of the six amount to $30,000; one man, a Wall
Street broker, draws $12,000; divide $18,000 among the other five men!
In a first-line Y. M. C. A. division fifty-two secretaries were working
night and day, doing the work of one hundred and twenty-five men.
Twenty-eight of the fifty-two were preachers. Ah, but you say, how well
were they doing it? This very question was in my mind, and I asked the
divisional secretary to tell me how many of the twenty-eight he would
keep if he could secure the secretarial assistance he would consider
ideal. He went over his list carefully, and said, "Twelve." Rather
disquieting! I then asked him how many of the laymen he would retain
by the same test, and after quite as careful consideration he said,
"Ten," and added: "O, they are all great fellows. You have asked me an
efficiency question, and I have applied my ordinary business standards;
but some of these very men may prove to be _very_ efficient."
The two interesting items are these: twenty-eight out of fifty-two
secretaries in a zone where thirty-five secretaries are under
shell-fire daily, where the most desperate chances are daily taken
and the most menial and body-wearying tasks are daily done, were
_preachers_; and the preachers and the laymen stood side by side, and
were of the same stature when a business man's efficiency measurements
were applied to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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