Ella And Stella
A young man goes to the clerk's office and secures a license to marry Ella. Next day he returns and asked the clerk to change Ella's name on his license to Stella so he could marry Stella. Clerk told him they could not do that, but told him they could destroy his license he got for Ella and prepare him a license to marry Stella for a dollar and a half also.
The young man starts to leave with his license for Ella, and says "I just don't see a dollar and half difference in them two sisters."
With that thought in mind let us consider the following: The First Christian Church organized the missionary society to preach the gospel and our institutional brethren organized the benevolent society to care for the needy.
The missionary society stands between the church and its work preaching the gospel. The benevolent society stands between the church and its work being done of caring for the needy. So, both organizations, sisters or not; I can't see a dollar and half difference in them. They are both just human institutions.
And that leaves somebody with the whole "total situation" with all its parts between the church and the work done.
It is the worst "situation" that I have see in "the last 25 years."