Take off the Emergency Brake.
A friend of mine is learning to run an automobile, and is having a series of exciting and amusing experiences—the exciting not being always amusing, by any means.
The other day he took his best girl (his wife, I should explain) and started off for a ride. Everything went well till he stopped at a garage for a supply of the necessary gasoline, and, in order to hold the car on the little slope, applied the emergency brake. After the gasoline had been poured in and paid for, he started off again.
But the start was a poor one. Trouble developed at once. He crawled along. He turned out for a woman with a baby carriage, and the car stopped. Then it stopped on a little hillside. He started it up again, and it would not budge. He applied more power, and it thumped in a way that alarmed him considerably and his wife still more. At last he got it started uphill. It dragged itself to the top, gave a few sad pants, and then stopped again, utterly exhausted.
My friend examined the machine. Nothing seemed wrong. It had been going beautifully, and he did not want to go back to the garage for nothing. Besides, how could he get back there? He sat there and studied the matter, his studies being punctuated by sarcastic remarks from his best girl.
At last a happy thought occurred to him. He loosened the emergency brake, and off they flew on the wings of the wind—or of gasoline, which is quite as good.
The wonder is that the car had moved at all. Of course it would not have moved if the brake had been applied hard.
And the wonder is that a church or a society, or any other organization, will move at all under the pressure of the many emergency brakes that are continually applied to such institutions.
There are so many dear persons who are afraid the minister will run off into foolish notions.
There are so many who think the society is getting too headstrong.
There are so many who do not believe in newfangled ideas.
There are so many who do not like changes.
There are so many who are sure that something is going to be done wrongly.
There are so many who scent dangers.
And all these are applying the emergency brake, and applying it all the time and applying it good and hard.
Brothers, sisters, let up on it! An emergency brake is a good thing, but only in an emergency. Wait for the emergency. When it comes, pull the lever; but when it is not here, give the chauffeur and the engine a fair chance to prove what they can do.