4 T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S of establishing a “ Christian order of industry.” The article says that Lord Robert Cecil presided and that many men, conspicuous in commercial and manufacturing industries in England, took part in the discussion, and that a governing council of fifty members was named to promote the aims promulgated. Among the speakers at the conference was Arnold S. Rowntree whose name, appearing on cakes of chocolate and tins of cocoa, is famous through out Great Britain. Mr. Rowntree urged as fundamental principles: “Industry must create and develop human fellowship. Any practices cal culated to destroy such fellowship are immoral. “ Every human Individual is of Intrinsic worth, and human labor cannot be considered a commodity. “ Industry must consider among its first charges the provision of an income sufficient to maintain in reasonable comfort all who engage in it; provision for special burdens to which those who engage in it may be subjected; provision fo? superannuation; provision for healthy conditions, development of personality, talents and self-expression.” Mr. Charles Smithson, another prominent business man, added the following: “ Receipt of an income from industry should carry with it responsibility for conditions and purpose of the industry. “ All natural resources and every natural privilege which owes its' worth to the labor or necessities of all should be held and utilized for the benefit of all.” It is evident that Great Britain is beginning to feel the pinch of the perils that threaten its perpetuity and is awakening to a consciousness that the mere carrying of the title of a Christian nation is not sufficient, but that a nation must ring true to its profession as well as the individual. There can be no doubt but that these business men were sane, sensible, practical business men; not preachers, not missionaries or theorists. It was not a religious gathering in the sense in which we use that term. These men recognized that the ideals of Christ must be realized in human life and in business life, if prosperity and peace are to be maintained. But they failed to realize that there must be something more than merely putting ideals into institutions. There must be the acknowledgment that the life of Christ must be a personal possession of the individual before there can be any real hope of a satisfactory change in the life of men. The conditions faced by the mother country are the same as those now faced by our own beloved land. We must not only have resolutions passed by assemblies, but we must have a resolute understanding of the great fact that men need the real God-given (in God’s ordained way) life of God and this can only be obtained through faith in the God-given Son of God. In order that this may be accomplished, there must be the return of men to God’s Word, as the only reliable authority, and the preaching and teaching of that Word. This is God’s ordained solution of all problems, be they social, political, industrial,—in the church or family; and there is the prom ised power of God accompanying His Word. His Word works today in shop and factory, in store and school, in society and the slums, anywhere and everywhere that His ambassadors carry it. Some of us have the joy of seeing and having the testimony to this fact every day. When will our Christian business men awake to the Consciousness of this fact, and dedicate their energy and their means to the carrying out of God’s program—the giving of the Gospel, which is the power of God, to
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