dcrau002320001.wav / Creighton Lacy - "A Social Creed in Poetry and Practice" (January 23, 1966) / Duke Digital Repository

(slow piano music)

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Preacher

Those of you who were in the congregation

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last Sunday were reminded or informed

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that 1966 marks the bicentennial of Methodism in America.

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Without any collusion or even knowledge

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of Chaplain Wilkinson's sermon,

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I had planned to make my own modest contribution

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to that anniversary

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in the tribute to one of the most influential,

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but least known Christian statesman of the past century.

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If any of you recognize the name of Frank Mason North,

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it is probably as the author of the hymn,

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which we have just finished singing,

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"Where across the crowded ways of life,

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"where sound the cries of race and clan,

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"above the noise of selfish strife,

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we hear Thy I voice, O son of man."

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Born in exactly mid century 1850,

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North was in some respects a typical Victorian Clergyman.

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After graduating from Wesleyan University,

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he worked for less than a year in his father's business

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before deciding that he must be

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about his heavenly Father's business.

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For nearly 20 years, he served Methodist pastorates

1:40

in New York city and its suburbs.

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If there was any one theme underlying all of his preaching,

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it was man's active partnership with God.

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In sharp distinction to Calvin's Doctrine of Election,

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North affirmed his Wesleyan-Arminian conviction

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that salvation is conditional

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upon the believer's response and responsibility

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as a free moral agent.

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God calls but he does not coerce.

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In the realm of personal ethics,

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most of you would consider Frank Mason North

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hopelessly square.

2:21

He knew that pace boards with red and black symbols

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are not sinful in themselves,

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but he believed that card playing could lead

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to many forms of evil.

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Convinced that most playwrights

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and actors led immoral lives,

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he regarded the theater as a center of corruption.

2:37

Dancing, he referred to as midnight gymnastics

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or agility at the expense of intellect.

2:45

Attributing a large proportion of poverty

2:50

and crime to liquor,

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he declared that major responsibility

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for drunkenness in society

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rests on those who themselves never get drunk,

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but that quote,

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"Every drop that goes into the system

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drives just that much true manhood out." end quote.

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Maybe he was right.

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His favorite sermon text in this area seemed to be,

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"If meet make my brother to offend

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"I will eat no flesh."

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His favorite illustration,

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"The mountaineer who is skillful

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"leaps across dangerous chasms,

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"tempted others into fatal attempt at imitation."

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Such an ethical criterion deserves more attention

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than it receives today.

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In other respects, however,

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Frank Mason north was 50 years ahead of his time.

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Few Christian leaders during the first two decades

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of this century,

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pioneered more decisively in more varied activities.

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If three solid points can turn a biography into a sermon,

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I shall have no difficulty this morning.

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For North stood at the height of his career

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on the frontiers of the social gospel

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of the missionary enterprise and of the ecumenical movement.

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Let me review for you very briefly,

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some of these positions and the faith

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which undergirded them.

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In 1892, Frank Mason North became secretary

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of the New York City Church Extension

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and Missionary Society.

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This agency existed and still exist

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to initiate, supervise and coordinate

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the numerous inner city projects

4:30

of the world's largest metropolis.

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The famous Church of All Nations

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was founded during this period

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and separate congregations were organized

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from most of the diverse ethnic

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or linguistic immigrant groups.

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Germans, Italians, Russians, Poles, Chinese, Japanese.

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Problems of crime and vice of political corruption

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and economic exploitation multiplied rapidly

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as commerce and industrialization accelerated.

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in 1904, in his house Oregon, the Christian City,

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North speculated about the probable effects

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of the new subway, which could transport passengers

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from 125th Street to Brooklyn Bridge

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in 20 to 25 minutes.

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He did not envision the chaos created

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when it might cease to transport its millions of passengers.

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In haunts of wretchedness and need

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across shadowed thresholds,

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dark with fears and grief and greed,

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Frank Mason North walked the city streets,

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a tall dignified man with a Prince Albert coat

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and a heart of compassion as large as the parish he served.

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Through his editorial columns

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and half a dozen church magazines

5:46

from the platforms of Carnegie Hall

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or Union Square, in countless pulpits,

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North pled for a recognition of Christian responsibility,

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amid urban needs.

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As early as 1892, 15 years before Walter Rauschenbusch

5:59

published his first influential book,

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Frank Mason North deplored the fact that quote,

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"There are people who do not perceive

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"that God is at work in the secular world

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"as truly as he is in the religious." end quote.

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Is the Christian he asked repeatedly

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to rejoice in the growing light of the suburbs

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while the shadows deepen

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and lengthen upon the heart of the city.

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No wonder it has been said that Harvey Cox's concern

6:30

for The Secular City today

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is merely a return to the insights

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and the sensitivity of the early social gospel.

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Surprisingly enough, North had very seldom preached

6:43

on the social application of Christianity

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during his pastoral ministry.

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In 1891 however, he published "In Zion's Herald.",

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a Methodist periodical, one of the most important writings

6:55

in the entire social gospel movement.

6:58

A series of four articles on socialism and Christianity.

7:01

Pointing to a number of parallels between these two faiths,

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North acknowledged the dangers

7:10

and limitations of socialism

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restricted by its concern for one world instead of two.

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But he insisted that its best ideals

7:19

were those of true Christianity.

7:21

That the church was guilty of propagating

7:24

the fundamental misconception that the gospel is quote,

7:26

"A divine contrivance for redeeming man

7:31

"from this present world rather than in it.

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"The half-truth that Christ came to rescue the individual,

7:38

"not to reform society." end quote.

7:42

15 years later, Frank Mason North joined

7:47

with half a dozen younger colleagues

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to organize the Methodist Federation for Social Service,

7:51

an agency which more recently

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has drawn controversial attack,

7:57

but which initially earned the overwhelming

8:00

though unofficial support of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

8:02

The following year 1908,

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members of the federation including North,

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composed the 10 point bill of rights for labor,

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which was adopted by the Methodist General Conference

8:15

as its social creed.

8:18

Six months after that,

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Frank Mason North took this statement,

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incorporated it into a stirring theological treatise

8:25

on Christian social responsibility

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and presented it to the first meeting

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of the Federal Council of Churches

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as a report on the churches and modern industry.

8:35

"They are North Larger Formulation"

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officially adopted became the social creed of the churches,

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a milestone in American Christianity.

8:46

What distinguishes the social creed

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in spite of later distortions by friends

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and critics alike,

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is it's unequivocal affirmation

8:56

of the supreme authority of Jesus Christ.

8:58

Not merely to reform society,

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but to save it.

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As the preamble asserts,

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"The church becomes worthless for its higher purpose

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"when it deals with conditions

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"and forgets character,

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"relieves misery and ignores sin,

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"pleads for justice and undervalues forgiveness."

9:20

But the reason for this concern,

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North made abundantly clear the nature

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and purpose of the gospel itself.

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"The church does not lay foundations of a social order."

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he declared, "It discloses them

9:35

"they are already laid.

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"Nothing that concerns human life

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"can be alien to the church of Christ." end quote.

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Thus for 20 years,

9:49

Frank Mason North moved among the panelists immigrants

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and the wealthy philanthropists of New York City.

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By his challenge to christian justice and compassion,

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by his personal character and commitment,

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he not only attracted large donations

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for the work of the city society,

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but he persuaded prominent citizens

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to visit the rescue missions,

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to kneel in prayer with the so-called Bowery Bums,

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to talk with union leaders and Tammany politicians.

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After exactly two decades in this position,

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North was elected by the Methodist General Conference

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as one of three corresponding secretaries

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in the board of foreign missions.

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Frank Mason North's pioneer vision shown as brightly

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through his missionary administration,

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as it head in the inner city

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though he was already in his sixties.

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His belief in Christian responsibility

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for world service and evangelism

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rested again on his Wesleyan Theology.

10:47

"Men should be the instruments for saving men.",

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he declared, "In fact, man is the sole medium

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"by which the gospel can come to unsaved humanity."

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In language which strikingly anticipates

11:03

present day mission theology,

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he asserted in a youthful sermon back in 1881,

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"The church is a mission,

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"a far more dynamic concept than simply the church

11:14

"has a mission."

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In fact, North went on to proclaim this mission

11:19

as an essential element

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in any genuinely religious experience.

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"The call to tell the glad tidings," he said,

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"is as surely a part of personal salvation

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"as is the forgiveness of sins."

11:35

As Jonah discovered long long ago,

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the summons to mission is inescapable.

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The only question a faithful Christian need consider

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is where or how.

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Those of you who are familiar

11:49

with contemporary mission writing

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in the pages of motive of D.T.Niles,

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will recognize how forward-looking

11:55

such insights must have been 85 years ago.

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Even more remarkable,

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North's concern for the mission of the church

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was not based on any narrow 19th century pietism.

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His entire life and thought

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found its purpose and power

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in a personal experience of Jesus Christ.

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But this was an eternal and living Christ

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as relevant to the present and the future as to the past.

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There is no time here to discuss North's calm,

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reasonable acceptance of evolution, biblical criticism,

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and other controversial views,

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which were rocking many segments of the Christian community.

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Though some of these issues appeared

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at that time even more shocking

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than the socialism of Christianity.

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Significantly, Frank Mason North

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confronted the world mission of the church

12:49

from a new theological frontier

12:52

in his attitude toward non-Christian religions.

12:54

Most 19th century missionaries had responded

12:58

to Christ's call with a clear conviction

13:01

that all those individuals of every nation,

13:04

race and creed who did not consciously

13:06

and openly accept the gospel,

13:10

presumably expressed in baptism and church membership

13:12

were doomed to eternal punishment.

13:16

Even today, when we try to fathom the mysteries

13:19

of salvation, many of us are perplexed

13:22

by the seeming contradiction

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between inclusive love and exclusive judgment

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in the Christian gospel.

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North did not presume to offer logical answers,

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but he did have clear theological beliefs.

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One of these in regard to non-Christians

13:42

was that God will not condemn them

13:45

because they do not believe in truths they have never heard.

13:48

Expressing the hope that such exceptions

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need not be made in a Christian land,

13:55

he took the still more radical position that quote,

13:58

"I care not whether they are in the church or not,

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"God requires of us only according to our light." end quote.

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In other words, the conditions for Christian salvation

14:11

are always a conjunction of opportunity and responsibility.

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Incidentally in this connection,

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North did not hesitate to link

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with the poor degraded heathen,

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the man of prejudice habits of thought and life,

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both standing equally in need of redeeming grace.

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The mission of the church therefore,

14:36

is not to take Christ to the man of superstition,

14:38

whether that superstition be rooted in ignorance or bigotry

14:42

for Christ is already there already,

14:46

already Lord of all nations and all cultures.

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The missionary is called to witness in deed

14:52

as well as word,

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to that Christian presence in the world.

14:57

To take this modern theology of mission one step further,

15:00

one might say the Christian is called

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to be that presence of Christ,

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that love made manifest.

15:09

In China Town, in South African ghettos

15:11

or among Hindu burning gods.

15:15

North would have rejoiced as some of us did at the news

15:18

that the Choir of Christ Methodist Church in New Delhi

15:21

sung Christian hymns,

15:25

while the body of prime minister Shastri

15:26

lay in state last week.

15:28

This was a unique but meaningful kind of Christian presence.

15:31

"The work of the gospel is one."

15:37

he told his parishioners, "Whether at out doors

15:39

"or at the (mumbles)

15:42

"it is not more true that missions need us

15:44

"than that we need missions."

15:47

The third arena of Frank Mason North statesmanship

15:53

was the Ecumenical Movement.

15:56

As early as the 1890s,

15:58

North had been active in interdenominational federations

16:00

with such noted church men as Washington Gladden

16:04

and Josiah Strong, he was one of the founders in 1894

16:07

of the Open and Institutional Church League.

16:12

The open referred to their effort

16:15

to abolish the pure rem system

16:17

as inefficient, undemocratic and unChristian.

16:20

The institutional indicated and attempt

16:25

to utilize church buildings during the week

16:27

for social, recreational and educational programs

16:30

of many kinds.

16:34

Out of this league and other local and national federations

16:36

came the planning for a Federal Council

16:40

of the Churches of Christ in America,

16:42

inaugurated in 1908.

16:45

As North put it in one of his council reports quote,

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"We waive no right or privilege,

16:51

"we break with no sound tradition,

16:54

"we surrender no precious heritage,

16:57

"but the church has but one inalienable right,

17:01

"the right of finding Christ in the world of today

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"and interpreting him in all his sacrificial

17:08

"and triumphant power to that world.

17:11

"It is not in their history, their traditions,

17:15

their formula, that the churches of Christ can be one.

17:18

"It is alone in Christ himself." end quote.

17:22

During the first quadrant AM of the council,

17:28

Frank Mason North served as chairman

17:30

of the Commission on the Churches

17:33

and Social Service.

17:34

From 1912 to 1916,

17:36

he was chairman of the executive committee.

17:39

And in 1916, as the war clouds spread

17:41

from Europe to the United States,

17:45

he was elected president of the council,

17:47

for a crucial four year term.

17:49

Although the churches rallied

17:52

more enthusiastically around the war effort

17:53

in 1917 than they have in recent years,

17:56

North's was always the voice of restraint,

17:59

of sympathy for the foe, of hope for world brotherhood

18:02

and world organization beyond the horrors of war.

18:07

Very shortly after the armistice,

18:12

Frank Mason North journey to Europe

18:13

on a multiple mission

18:15

to survey opportunities for expanded Methodist work,

18:17

to inspire and coordinate relief and rehabilitation programs

18:21

and to deliver to the Versailles Peace Conference,

18:26

the federal council of churches appeal

18:29

for a league of free nations as the political expression

18:31

of the kingdom of God on earth.

18:36

In all the practical details of war time responsibility,

18:40

North kept constantly in mind, the ecumenical dream.

18:44

The underlying question quote,

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"whether the inheritance of the splendid,

18:51

"but narrow conscience of our fathers

18:53

"necessarily creates for us a proper barrier

18:56

"between ourselves and Christians of another name,

19:00

"whether after all the essentials in which we are all one,

19:03

"if they are really set on fire,

19:07

"may not burn the barriers away

19:10

"and give us a common life in the fellowship

19:12

of our Lord Jesus Christ." end quote.

19:15

Two days before his 70th birthday,

19:20

Frank Mason North turned over the presidency

19:23

of the Federal Council of Churches

19:25

to another ecumenical statesman, Robert Spear.

19:28

In his valedictory, North offered this assurance

19:32

to those who feared or doubted the Federal Council,

19:35

"The good of all must come not by the negation,

19:39

"but by the affirmation of the values of each.

19:44

"It is a worthy aim equally appropriate

19:48

"for the ecumenical movement today."

19:51

For four years more, North continued to direct

19:55

the Methodist Board of Missions

19:58

and retained an advisory capacity still longer.

19:59

In the last decade before his death in 1935

20:03

at the age of 85,

20:06

he taught missions of Drew University,

20:08

began a history of Methodist missions

20:11

and continued to serve actively

20:13

on various boards and agencies.

20:15

In his 83rd year, he presented to The Federal Council,

20:18

a revised social creative.

20:21

This committee report included

20:24

among progressive new provisions

20:26

just prior to Franklin Roosevelt's new deal,

20:28

freedom to dispense birth control information,

20:33

recognition of broader grounds for divorce,

20:36

wider and fairer distribution of wealth,

20:40

social insurance and social control of the economic process.

20:44

What message does Frank Mason North have for us

20:52

30 years after his death?

20:55

He was not a systematic theologian

20:57

though he had conscious and conscientious reasons

20:59

for avoiding dogmatic controversy.

21:02

First, that beyond the simple faith in Christ,

21:05

which is basic to salvation,

21:08

God's ways are mysteries

21:10

which man cannot presume to fathom.

21:12

Second, that man's freedom of thought

21:15

and responsibility of action are essential to true religion.

21:18

Third, the theological speculation and debate

21:23

may divert Christians from their central purpose

21:27

of active service and neighbor love.

21:30

Nevertheless, the basic tenant of North's faith

21:35

was human freedom to choose or to reject,

21:38

to give or to get, to follow or to disobey.

21:41

For Frank Mason North, Jesus could not be merely historical

21:46

or merely an ideal.

21:51

"We need to feel that Christ is this morning

21:53

"an actual being." he said,

21:56

"A personality as truly as you and I are

21:58

"that he thinks, feels, perceives.

22:01

"With this kind of a living Lord,

22:05

"man could and should cooperate,

22:07

"but are never compelled.

22:09

"He could not save us without our consent."

22:13

North asserted strongly, "But he could die for us

22:16

"and by that death prove to us the Father's love.

22:20

"Yet our stubbornness denial or rejection

22:26

cannot change the reality of God and his love."

22:29

To the death of God Theologian North would probably say,

22:34

as he did in 1879, "Walk, if you choose in your own shadow,

22:37

"hide yourselves, you cannot hide the sun.

22:43

"Burrow into your rocky caves, the sun is no less shining.

22:47

"Hurry into your idle temples

22:52

"and peer through the stained windows of your superstition

22:53

"and yet the sun is risen."

22:57

On one hand Frank Mason North believed firmly

23:02

in justification by faith.

23:05

He was equally convinced that faith without works is dead.

23:08

"Conversions, which still leave man liars, cheats, covetous,

23:14

"worldly minded are not counted in the kingdom of God."

23:19

he declared.

23:23

Nor did he see any need for an opposition

23:24

between faith and reason.

23:26

"We need a Christian revival of natural religion."

23:28

he suggested early in his ministry.

23:32

So certain was he that God's power

23:34

and purpose extended to all mankind

23:36

that he insisted quote, "Christ is the savior

23:39

"of all who are saved, whether they have ever heard of him

23:43

"in this life or not.

23:48

"It is in the nature of God to deal with every soul,

23:50

"both righteously and the mercifully." end quote.

23:54

Repeatedly at every stage in his career,

24:00

North rejected any conflict between science and religion,

24:03

often ridiculing those who feared

24:07

and avoided scientific hypotheses,

24:09

he maintained that science could explain the how of nature,

24:11

but not the why,

24:16

the laws, but not the cause.

24:18

One cannot leave the thought of Frank Mason North

24:23

without coming back to the social gospel

24:25

though he is himself seldom, if ever used that term.

24:28

He believed thoroughly that the church has an obligation

24:32

to make moral judgments in society

24:35

and to inspire its members to responsible citizenship.

24:38

"It is neither socialism nor paternalism,"

24:43

he wrote in 1898, "for the Christian body

24:46

"to demand of government just provision

24:50

"for the physical and social welfare of the people

24:53

"whom in God's name, it governs."

24:57

In one of his most powerful addresses,

25:01

he declared that the mission of Jesus was quote,

25:03

"Not the satisfaction of the outrage justice of God,

25:07

"not to select from humanity some the chosen spirits

25:12

"for a new Commonwealth at the skies,

25:15

"not do upbuild upon the earth an institution

25:19

"to conserve his true,

25:22

"but a mission to humanity, to establish a kingdom of God

25:25

"that is, the reign of God in human hearts

25:31

"and so in human life and institutions." end quote.

25:34

If that is the true meaning of salvation,

25:40

it is therefore the Christian mission in the world.

25:43

Through this mission, Frank Mason North gave himself

25:48

through a long lifetime.

25:51

In his pastoral ministry, in his work in urban slums

25:53

and settlement houses, in directing the world outreach

25:56

of the church

25:59

and strengthening the bonds of Christian unity.

26:01

It may be an oversimplification,

26:04

but it is not inaccurate to say that,

26:07

while older Rauschenbusch

26:10

taught the social gospel in Rochester Seminary,

26:11

while Washington Gladden preached it in Columbus, Ohio,

26:15

Frank Mason North practiced it on the sidewalks of New York.

26:19

But it is safe to predict that when all of his social

26:25

and institutional and ecumenical achievements are forgotten,

26:28

Christians of many races and creeds

26:32

will be singing the greatest of North's poems

26:35

appropriately entitled "A Prayer for the Multitudes."

26:38

For in that hymn, which we have sung this morning

26:43

lies the central affirmation of his faith

26:46

and perhaps of yours and mine.

26:49

That behind our human concern for wretchedness and need,

26:53

for famish souls and burden toil,

26:58

stands the compassion of the son of God,

27:01

who is also son of man.

27:04

The cup of water is not enough

27:08

unless it helps man to see his grace,

27:11

the welfare programs, the civil rights,

27:16

the ministries of teaching and healing

27:19

all are essential expressions of Christ's mission.

27:22

But we fail in our task if through them,

27:28

we do not help these multitudes

27:32

to see the sweet compassion of his face.

27:35

Let us pray.

27:41

Oh master from the mountain side,

27:49

make haste to heal these hearts of pain,

27:51

among these restless throngs abide,

27:54

oh, tread the city's streets again,

27:58

till sons of men shall learn Thy love

28:01

and follow where Thy feet have trod

28:04

till glorious from Thy Heaven above

28:08

shall come the city of our God,

28:11

may grace, mercy, and peace guide all that you do and are

28:16

now and forever more.

28:22

(congregation singing)

28:30

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