548
September 1927
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
“I dreamed a dream last Christmas eve, Of a people whose god was make-believe; A dream of an old faith sunk to a guess, And a Christian church and people and press Who believed they believed it, more or less.” ♦ * * “A Christianity minus the divinity of Christ, minus the Resurrection, minus, the Atonement,” says Dr. J. D. Jones, “will not float at all; it will sink beyond hope of salvage.” • * * * The Toledo Blade says: “Scientists are doing a great work, telling us many startling things we have to believe be cause we do not know enough to con tradict them.” * * * Out of the “Pepper Box” of the Pitts burgh Gazette Times, comes this: “Un easy agnostics get most of their' joy out of ridiculing contented’ Christians.” * * * It’s queer you girls don’t wake up to what the fashion rulers are doing to you. First they order you to shear your tresses, and now they have decreed that wigs must be worn. You can now buy back your hair at a fancy price. * * “The threat of future wars, multiplied in ferocity and destructiveness by the infinity of modern knowledge, plainly places before humanity the alternative of the destruction of the human race, or the destruction of war.”—Dr. Milton W. Brown. * * * In World’s Work for May, the atheists were given a chance to broadcast—and here is one of the statements: “There is no single helpful thing that the church does that a body of Freethink ers cannot do.” That’s fine—but, gentlemen—the world is still waiting to see a body of Free thinkers do something constructive. When we see atheists on fire to uplift humanity, we shall have our first reason to put some stock in their talk. ♦ * * Christian churches in Japan have won a victory for religious freedom in the de feat of the Religious Control Bill by the Peers in the Japanese Parliament. This Bill undertook to set forth the qualifica tions of religious teachers, which is re garded as the prerogative of the Church, rather than the State. Foreign mission aries took no part in the campaign, but the Japanese Christian churches com bined with the Buddhists in standing for religious liberty. ♦ * * The Baptist Bible Union of North America held its fifth annual meeting in Chicago recently. Dr. T. T. Shields, of Toronto, was re-elected president: The Union has taken over the property of Des Moines University at Des Moines; Iowa. It is said that $40,000 was pledged during the meetings of the Union toward the initial $50,000 which is required as the
first payment on the purchase price of the property. . * * * Commenting on the faults of Chris tians, a recent writer condemns the Christian faith because of these many fallible and sinful professors of religion, and uses the old maxim that “No chain is stronger than its weakest link.” “It is quite true,” says The Watchman- Examiner, that “weak links do weaken the strength of a chain; but the forty-seventh proposition of Euclid is not discredited by the blunders of any number of school boys who fail sadly in their attempts to demonstrate it.” * * * A new Fundamentalist group seems to have sprung up to be known as “The Na tional Fundamentalist Association.” This was formed recently in Kentucky. Its President is Dr. Andrew Johnson, and Secretary, Dr. W. E. Harrison. Its ob-
ject is to form a" more perfect union of the evangelical forces of the various churches ; to establish the rising genera tion in the orthodox faith of the fathers ; to provide for an intense campaign against modernism; to promote the causé and cardinapidoctrines of historic Christian ity ; and to secure effective legislation in the different states against the teaching of evolution as a scientific fact in tax- supported schools. * * * Here is the latest proposal for attaining the long-looked-for “universal brother- . hood of man” : George Winter Mitchell in The North American Review says : “The yellow races, at first under the he gemony of Japan and later under the leadership of the Chinese, will overrun Europe. Even if the future should see a universal disarmament, it can only be a question of .time until the Mongoloids have established themselves all over Europe by means of peaceful penetration. The last stand of the-whites will be made in the Americas, but it will be only a last stand, for the yellow races will then have time in the jaws of a vice. In the mean time, the brown races, amalgamating with the blacks, will begin the subjugation of the yellow race in the same manner as the yellow race overcame the white. So slow will the process be that the brown-black race, gradually changing both in color and other physical characteristics, will have time to adjust itself to northern climatic conditions, and the whole world will fin ally be of one race and one color. Then and not till then can there be a universal brotherhood of man and a lasting peace.” * * * Russia is now thé most drunken coun try in Europe, and, according to Profes sor Bekhtereff, the Russian authority on alcoholism, drink is undermining the phys ical and moral strength of the people. Every year the number of habitual drunk ards increases, and in Petrograd alone the militia dealt with 21,048 cases in 1925, and 94,791 cases in 1926. * * * The decrease in Sunday school attend ance in England is causing great concern. It is calculated that there are now about 1,666,000 fewer scholars in S u n d a y schools than there were 20 years ago. In the Church of England the decline last year was 18,418 ; in the Church of Scot land last year 14 Sunday schools closed, and the number of scholars declined by 493 ; in the Congregational Church the decline during the last 10 years was 156,- 324 scholars and 13,423 teachers. In the early days of Sunday schools, about 150 years ago, teachers were paid, and it is # now urged in some quarters that this practice should be reverted to. By this means, it is claimed, trained day-school teachers would be obtained, and others of experience would be attracted to give lec tures on practical affairs with a religious basis. The real cause, however, may prob ably be found in the decline of spirituality and old-fashioned Bible teaching and Gospel appeal.
The Psychologist He takes the saints to pieces, And labels all the parts, He tabulates the secrets Of loyal loving hearts. He probes their selfless passion, And shows exactly why The martyr goes out singing, To suffer and to die. The beatific vision That brings them to their knees He smilingly reduces , To infant phantasies. The Freudian unconscious Quite easily explains The splendor of their sorrows, The pageant of their pains.' The manifold temptations, Wherewith the flesh can vex The saintly soul, are samples Of CEdipus complex. The subtle sex perversion, His eagle glance can tell, That makes their joyous heaven, The horror of their hell. His reasoning is perfect, His proofs as plain as paint, He has but one small weakness, He cannot make a saint. —“Woodbine Willie.”
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