April, 1934
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universal death, because the very moment that law was sus pended, every inhabitant o f the globe would fly off into space to an instant and certain death. A man could not be chained to the earth, so resistless would be the power that would hurl him from this planet. Gravitation is rather hard on the eggs that fall from our hands, but very neces sary for the folks who like to stay upon the earth. A recent report from the'Smithsonian Institution tells o f the startling discovery o f how close we live to instant destruction, because o f our dependence upon a proper bal
if divine authority were removed, the nature o f man is so inherently corrupt that every law in our courts would collapse; every protective standard would disappear; every trace o f moral decency would vanish; and we should be plunged into a moral desolation. W e S hould P erish S piritually W e have not sounded the depth o f our desolation until we have seen what loss this world would sustain spiritually if God chose to leave us alone. There would he
ance in the ozonic la y e r s n ea r t h e stratosphere. In the upper rea ch e s o f this stratosphere is a wall o f ozone gas w h ich is sp read through a consider able space. I f com pressed for meas urement, th is gas would be found to be only one-eighth o f an inch thick. The report states : “ I t is astonishing and even terrifying to contemplate the narrow margin o f safety on which our lives thus depend. Were this trifling quantity o f atmos pheric o z o n e r e moved, we should all perish. I f it were ten tim e s greater, we could not live. Rickets would pre vail universally.” If man is to continue to live, God cannot leave him alone. W e S hould P er ish M orally We are at pres ent in the grip o f a
no ch u r ch ... God would be compelled to remove His Holy S p ir it fr om th e ch u r ch , and this withdrawal w ou ld automatically d is franchise the spir itu a lity o f t h e church and render it only an ecclesiasti cal institution with out divine signifi cance. ; In th is event; there would not be the voice o f right eousness pounding into the ears o f a w a yw a rd world", nor prophets seeing the future as God sees it and warning a careless age; nor comfort in hours of g r ie f; nor encour- : agement in days of d e p r e s s i o n ; nor hymns to nourish our faith; nor any o f the only food which satisfies the human soul. But this picture o f spiritual desola tion is more than an . imagination. The
“T his I s M y F ather ’ s W orld ”
violent wave o f crime. Why are we in constant terror o f the criminal ? The answer is that evil lies at the bottom o f human nature. And when the world has less o f God, it has more o f crime. When the world-forsakes its churches, it fills its prisons and hospitals and asylums. When the world closes its Bibles, it opèns a record o f crime and sor row which is appalling. What we know as civilization is a veneer. It is doubt ful whether civilization has actually arrived. The Prince o f Wales when asked, “ What is your idea o f civilization ?” replied, “ It is a good idèa. Somebody ought to start it.” The moral nature o f the universal man is a base disposition which is held in leash by the customs, standards, and laws o f society. It invariably results that when these restraints are ignored, man reverts to his original nature. Where do we get such standards as these ? Some may say that their source is tradition, social science, and experi ence, But every high standard which governs life, so as to insure decency and safety, comes from God’s laws, chiefly through the Ten Commandments. -These com mandments form the basis o f our social, moral, and civil life. I f God should leave us alone, He would necessarily withdraw His authority from these commandments. And
time is coming when this conception will be an actual fact,- The time is coming when the restraining influence o f the Holy Spirit will be removed at the up-gathering o f the church, and men and evil will be left to an unhindered oper ation o f passion and iniquity. There would be no altar o f prayer. God must close His ear to every prayer if He leaves us alone. And in this ' case the world would become a universal wailing wall at which we should pound our heads and implore a heedless heaven to hear our cry. Where would' the sinner go with his sin, and the suf ferer go with his pain, and the sorrowing go with their grief, if God were to leave us alone? There would be no Bible. God must remove His author ity from the Bible if He should leave us alone. This Book is God’s voice among us— His own message committed to. print. What a desolation a Bible-less world would b e ! How could we comfort the dying without the Twenty-third Psalm or the fourteenth chapter o f John ? How could we bury the dead without the eleventh chapter o f John or the fifteenth chapter o f First Corinthians or the fourth chapter o f First Thessalonians ? How could we meet the sinner [Continued on page 142]
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