The Modern Drift Shall We Not Face the Facts and Note the Fruitage of Christless Philosophies? By DON O. SHELTON New York City
H i indicating some of the omi nous signs of the times we do not overlook or underestimate the things in our civilization which are true and honest and just and pure. The salt of thg earth is still here. Everywhere throughout our land the lives of Christian men and women are bringing forth the fruits of righteous ness. All such are the light of the world. All sucli are preservers from hopeless decay of our civilization. While endeavoring to keep clearly in mind all that is encouraging in the life of our time, we turn to some of the outstanding tendencies of our age which are a call to prayer, a spur to faith and a powerful incentive to exalt and to teach the Bible: Deserted church prayer-meetings in great numbers of our American churches indicate a state of unbelief. Every prayerless church is a menace. Such churches, hy their evident lack of faith, are helping to blight the nation. The luxury of our age is notorious. Our country spends $22,000,000,000 yearly for luxuries. One billion is spent by Americans on cigarettes alone, and the director of the Savings De partment of the United States Treasury states that American women expend $750,000,000 a year for cosmetics. The lack of respect and reverence for women is another alarming sign of the times. This is so pronounced as to have led a leading college president to make it the subject of an earnest plea to, college men; The presence, of, violence in our daily life shows a lack of regard for the law
of God and of man. The daily stories of crime in our New York papers indi cate a moral depravity that outclasses the history of many of the most notori ous freebooters and highwaymen of the past. Jewelry stores on prominent avenues in New York have been plun dered at mid-day. Street cars within the city have been held up and passen gers robbed. Bank officials have been murdered during business hours. Dishonesty and treachery in business life lead men in high places to doubt whether there is such a thing as honesty in the larger part of the so-called big business of the nation. The recent building trades scandals in New York have revealed a pillaging of the people that indicates astounding selfishness and moral depravity. This revelation has resulted in the application of the criminal law to unnumbered builders, contractors and building supply houses. Among those who organized this colos sal system of public brigandage, thus gaining despotic control of the building industry of the world’s greatest city, several are now serving prison sen- tenfces. Special state legislation is now being demanded for the regulation of what is undoubtedly one of the most iniquitous proceedings in big business that the world has known. The wide-spread misuse and desecra tion of the Lord’s day is another sinis ter indication of the drift in our mod ern civilization. On Sundays in nearly all of our American cities we now have wide open theatres and moving picture shows giving exhibitions that are iden tical with the usual and frequently nau-
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