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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
November, 1933
her inability to act righteously alone. They who no longer act righteously act lawlessly. Lawlessness has been the one outstanding feature of the closing hours o f every human society that has plunged on into final judgment, since Adam and Eve led the way. Prophetically describing the closing days of our dispensation of grace, the Master said expressly: “ Iniquity [margin, lawlessness] shall abound” (Matt. 24:12). And when the Antichrist him self comes, his coming will be the revelation o f " that Law less one” (2 Thess. 2 :8, margin). Dictators, having little or no regard for existing laws, are therefore themselves lawless. The spirit o f the present rulers o f America to ward the fundamental law of their own nation is not alto gether wholesome. The Eighteenth Amendment is still within the Constitution o f the United States. Only the lawless trample it. The National Recovery Act itself con tains some provisions which are certainly questionable, in the light o f their constitutionality. The whole tendency of our governors seems to be in the direction o f adroitly ignoring this fundamental law, whenever it gets in the way o f their feet. It is not reassuring, to say the least. Even as we write, the morning paper comes, and we read: New York, Oct. 5 (A .P .)—The first liquor advertise ment addressed to the public since prohibition, was run in newspapers here today by Park & Tilford, and after it had appeared officers of the company sat down and waited for trouble. “ It was a violation of the law to run advertising,” said C. M. Storm, who prepared the advertisement. “ The law expressly forbids the advertising o f intoxicating liquors. But we took the matter up with government of ficials here and they agreed to the advertisement ! ; They said they are going to let the bars down.” Now no one expects liquor dealers to be anything else than lawless. They are known o f old to have less respect for law than any other group o f men on earth. But when we read of “ government officials” openly agreeing to join them in deliberate lawlessness, we cannot but wonder what is to be expected of the mass of the people themselves. The sun o f Gentile dominion will soon set in turbulent seas, foaming in wrath, and the waves thereof are red ! It is an old story: When men, or when nations, bow out the living God, and, Eve-like, attempt to “ go it alone” in their natural strength, they only succeed in miring in selfishness and greed, lawlessness and corruption, misery and death. The human failure which is so evident every where in the world— the human failure which is compelling the world’s greatest “ government of the people, by the people, and for the people” to abdicate the throne— is not a failure due to the defects of a monetary system, nor the iniquities o f a political system, nor the “ curse ,of the ma chine,” nor the result o f an overproduction, nor to an over supply o f babies— no! The world’s troubles are due to bad bankers, rather than bad banking; bad investors, rather than bad investments; bad politicians, rather than bad politics; bad citizenry, rather than bad legislation. No form o f government can succeed when its citizenry is cor rupt and lawless at heart. Mark it well! The N. R. A. is here because lawless ness and corruption are here. Like every other war, the World War was followed by a let down in individual morality. Even the churches, leavened with modernism and losing therefore their saltness, have been too indif ferent or too impotent to lift a hand to stay the onward rush o f demoralizing forces. I f the masses were not self- seeking, lustful, lawless, godless, and morally corrupt, no N. R. A. drive would have been needed to compel some sort o f decent and necessary compliance to the Golden Rule— that irrepealable standard for righteous relations among all the sons o f men. Doubtless, the leaders of the
N. R. A . themselves at this moment still believe that the great captains o f industry should not be chosen by the ballot. But we believe that unless somehow the privately chosen captains can be made to understand “ the words of the Preacher . . . the profit o f the earth is for all” (Eccl. 1 :1 ; 5 :9 ), and that love for one’s fellow man does not mean love to strangle him— if they cannot be made to understand that, then the political socialization o f industry has come to stay! A capitalistic society in America, we predict, will not be tolerated longer unless its prosperity is broadly shared. The N. R. A is surely a revelation o f the appalling in difference o f present-day tnankind to the things o f the Spirit— the irrepressible drift to the things of the flesh, for it is corruption, and nothing else, which paves the way for dictators and seats them upon their thrones. The evidence o f our corruption looms up everywhere. The elite o f our modernistic religious world have just closed a world’s parliament o f religions-—-“ The Fellowship o f the Faiths,” they called it— in Chicago. Toward its close, they sat and listened to a speaker on their program glorifying “ nudism” as a religion, and declaring that such a religion would rescue men from “ their evil thoughts” ! (Our mis sionaries in Africa can testify as to the effectual working to that end!) The foul, sickening stench which arises from lurid piles o f excrements from rotted hearts and brains, piled high at almost every business corner and devoured by young and old alike, tells no uncertain story. Some call it “ obscene literature.’ p “ Obscene” it is, but “ literature” it is not. The day’s record o f war, murder, suicide, gangsterism, inhu manity, libertinism, marital infidelities, obscenities in word and picture, the glorification of female nakedness, scorn and contempt for old-fashioned virtues, moral gangrene scavengered from the gutters, slums-Syes, and also from the palaces, where society wades deep today in cesspools o f infamy-Hmakes one sicken and wonder how the days of Noah could have been more vile. The masses revel in dirty d irt! Moral chaos, then anarchy, then dictatorship! It is an old, old path! The N. R. A. movement, in so far as it aims to recover to every man that inalienable right that is his—a decent job at an honest wage— should have the support o f all good men. But while to this end we give our government our prayerful support, let us not deceive ourselves into believ ing that the N. R. A. movement, as it is now organized and conducted, is going to prove a cure-all for our national ills. N. R. A.— “ National Recovery Act” ! But—^‘ recov ery”— o f what? Is not the inspiring thought o f the vast mass— recovery o f “ a job,’’ “ good wages,” “ a full dinner- pail,”— in short, material prosperity ? God help the Ameri can people and their rulers if bathtubs and full stomachs are all they are seeking to recover! “ He that loveth silver shall not he satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abun dance with increase: this also is vanity” (Eccl. 5 :10 ). No man-devised Recovery Act will ever afford our depressed race any measure of permanent relief until that Recovery Act acts to send men to their knees for the recovery of the good will of the “ Most High” who still “ ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Dan. 4 :25 ). Scoff at it as worldly wise men may; the rule o f the incarnate God still holds good : “ Seek ye first the kingdom o f God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6 :33 ). In the realm o f faith, then, and not in the realm o f the mart, must America find her way out. You might as well try to lift a wrecked 100-ton locomotive out o f a mountain gorge with a druggist’s corkscrew, as to try to lift America out o f her bog with a mere N. R. A . Spiritual dynamics rather than corkscrew mechanics are the greatest need o f a
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