T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
July 193.0
333
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Editorial Gomment
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Ex-President Coolidge on Civilization and t Religion [-PRESIDENT Coolidge has more than once in recent years expressed his concern for our pres ent civilization. As a keen student of the prob lems that confront civilized society, he can speak intelligently and his words carry weight. It would be quite possible to differ with him in his choice of expressions, but all who love the truth will agree with him in his striking the note of warning which appears in his recent communication to the Christian Herald with reference to the celebration of the 1900th anniversary o f Pentecost. His statement follows: Of course I appreciate the great importance o f the celebra tion which is proposed for the eighth day of June. I have tried to point out a great many times and in a great many different ways the fundamental importance o f religion in sustaining our present civilization and government. The whole fabric o f society rests upon it. If the Christian Herald can do anything to awaken the people to the importance of this principle, it will serve a most useful purpose. I do not see any method o f improving our social and economic relations except through the teachings of religion. In fact, it is my belief that we have gone as far as we can in progress and reform until we have a more general accept ance of the truths of religion. If these are permitted to slip away from us the progress and reform which we have already accom plished will vanish with them. It is for these reasons that I hope your efforts will meet with success. — 6— The Rise and Fall of Nations T HERE are pessimists and pessimists. Sometimes it is assumed that all fundamentalists, at least all funda mentalists of the premillenarian type, are hopelessly pes simistic, unable to see any good anywhere in the present civilization. Their gloomy forebodings are often answered with sarcasm and abuse. But now and again a pessimist of a conservative type speaks in other circles with a note so commanding that it obtains attention. Such, for in stance, is the statement of Dr. M. V. O ’ Shea which was made some time ago to a meeting of the National Educa tional Association, and which is reported in the Sierra Educational News by George G. Bush, Superintendent of Schools, South Pasadena, California. The statement follows: Dr. M. V. O’Shea painted a gloomy picture o f the future of the United States unless something fairly drastic is done to check the highly emotional and excessively stimulating character of the amusements of boys and girls today. He showed how nations once capable, powerful, and stable, have passed out of the picture completely or are in a state of decay today because the younger generations have not been kept plastic, teachable, or docile enough to become possessed of the knowledge and skill o f their forbears. Children even in the graded schools have become blase, sophisticated and resistant to intellectual growth. Only the highly emotional things enlist their attention, and school is becoming dull and uninteresting. Our whole program of out-of-school life, he said, is tense, exciting, and over-stimu lative with the result that children become callous to the appeal of unemotional, intellectual achievement.
History shows that a deterioration o f civilization inevitably follows such conditions among the younger generations. Since the home is not keeping emotion under control, the school must play an increasingly larger role in keeping the young away from the allurements o f the world. Prof. O ’ Shea uses language that is familiar in religious circles but sounds strange when connected with the work of the public school. Has it ever really been expected that our public school system would save the children “ from the allurements of the world” ? By what process or means is it to be accomplished ? How can they even begin to meet the situation when they are forbidden to teach religion ? The civilization of yesterday was built upon an author itative Bible, honored in the home, studied in the schools, accepted as a divine standard upon which a stable society could be built. But the Bible has lost its place of preem inence. Radicalism of every sort abounds, while society seeks in vain for some other standard or authority upon which to build. If, then, society must return to build upon the Word of God, there must be increasing emphasis upon the teach ing of the Word. Schools which make the English Bible the heart and center of the curriculum and which train competent teachers of the Bible must be more effectively strengthened and more adequately supported. Perhaps some of God’s stewards who are coming to realize that much of the modern educational program, however useful it may be for vocational and professional training, is sub versive of true morals, will also recognize that in the Bible Institute there is found an agency which God can use and is using not merely for the help of a few individuals, but for the stabilizing of society. Poisoning the Fountains of Praise Mr. Hugh Munro, writing in the Biblical Review, has given a most remarkable historical survey of the hymnology of the Church. It is of great value from many angles, but particularly in that it shows that the praise of the Church through its hymns has always had a great doctrinal note. Without variation from the first, the themes o f the songs have been the holy, triune God, the incarnate virgin-born Son of God, the vicarious, suf fering Son of God on Calvary, the glorious, risen Christ, the ascended, interceding Lord, the Christ coming again in power and great glory, etc. O f course there have been throughout the history of the Church those who have at tempted at times to introduce discordant notes, but they have met with little or only temporary success. As Mr. Munro says, quoting the late Dr. James Orr, it has always proved impossible to keep the body o f the Church for any length of time away from faithfulness to the central facts of Christianity. A subjective type of Gospel has never been long attractive. That the Church is at the present time threatened with the poisoning of the fountain o f its service o f praise is — o —
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