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January 1928
T h e
K i n g ' s
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the upper hand. It is about time parents got back to Prov. 13 :24. Perhaps Paul S. Rees puts his finger on the pulse of the situation when he tells of a speaker in a large denominational gathering, who re cently made an experiment. At a certain service those present were divided into two groups, the older people remaining up stairs, while the young people were gath ered downstairs. For the most part those assembled above were the fathers and mothers of those making up the group below. They were parents who were lamenting, they said, the want of spiritual interest, the increasing worldliness, in their children. But mark this. When an inquiry was made among these selfsame parents to determine how far family wor ship was a practice, it was found that only ten per cent of the homes represented held to the family altar. Ninety per cent Of the young people downstairs came from homes where day in and day out no altar of fer vent prayer was reared, no fire of devo tion and faith kindled.
is true in California holds true in many other states. Twenty years ago the Sal vation Army “Rescue Homes,” as they were then called, sheltered women from the red-light districts, or those rescued from the back rooms of saloons and from the police-courts. At the present time the same homes, which have doubled in num ber, shelter—whom do you think? School girls. Many of them might be called school children, who have been obliged to leave their desks in school to go to these institutions. Forty-two per cent, nearly one-half of the unmarried mothers who go to these homes, are school girls, their average age being sixteen years. That fact suggests the large number of these girls who must be under sixteen. These girls, according to a report in The War Cry, have been carefully inter viewed during the past two years, and in a majority of cases the- girl admits that automobile rides were the cause of her downfall. This is the “unspanked generation,” and it is no wonder flaming, youth-is getting
crime, as evidenced by admissions to state prisons, is growing, faster than the popu lation of the United States. Complete re turns from thirty-one states, covering fifty-eight of a total of ninety-nine state prisons and reformatories, list 27,018 new prisoners received by these institutions in 1926 as compared with 21,054 in 1923, the first prison census year, or an increase of 28.3 per cent. There were 34.1 prisoners per 100,000 population jailed last year as against 27.9 in 1923. The records of the California Bureau of Criminal Identification show a steady increase in juvenile delinquency for three years. The increase in delinquency among young girls is particularly marked, the number being doubled during that period. A state official says that joyriders, “pet- ters,” “cuddlers,” etc., were reported for 85 per cent of the automobiles stolen in California last year. “Lovelorn- swains, light of pocketbook, but long on nerve,” said Snook, “appropriated 18,115 auto mobiles during the year, in order that flaming youth might have its fling.” What
The Name Above A ll Names B y R ev . B ob S huler Trinity Methodist Church, Los Angeles '
f KNOW a name worthy of the adoration of every heart that beats true. It is the name of the great est Teacher that ever came the way of the world’s philosophers. He taught as never man had taught, as never man will teach, as never mere man can teach. He taught a philosophy of life and the tile soil than any lessons of life and living that have ever come from the world’s wisest. He taught a man how to love his brother. He taught a man how to identify his brother. He taught a man how to love his friend. He taught a man how to love his enemy. He taught a man how to love his God and every crea ture that his God had pronounced good. This mighty Teacher taught men the highway of a mighty sacrifice. Those who have learned of Him and from Him will not throttle their nation and undermine its constitution, merely that they may satisfy their thirst or appease a fleeting desire. Such men as know this Teacher of the ages are ever ready to lay down their own that the greatest good to their fellow man may come. It was this Teacher who flung into the heart of man the challenge of his brother’s need. He smiled and announced the glorious truism. It was from His lips that all mankind came to know that every man who is of God is his brother’s keeper. It was this Teacher who called the warrior, who would not dishonor the, sword he unsheathes to battle against those agencies and institutions that prey upon the weak and defenseless. My, what a Teacher ! Oh, how this tottering world needs to know the lessons that have come from out His heart! And this was the Teacher who lived what He taught. No pretense came from His lips. No boastings were His. He opened not His mouth to laud Himself. He lived.
He lived so gloriously that even those who have sought to discredit His name have never dared deny His genuine ness. He lived so loud, though He opened not His mouth in His defense, that the echo of His life has never ceased, nor will the last day of time fail to hear its clear acclaim. It is my purpose to announce the name of the One who taught and lived, the One who taught not one great truth that He did not carry into practical application, the One whose lessons, though the mightiest that the world has ever known, were not more mighty than His daily walk. And yet I must pronounce one final truth before I pen His name. ' Had He not taught the matchless lessons that men stand in awe before, had He not lived the perfect life that all mankind admires, He would have brought the way of this old world its only abiding hope. For it was not His teachings and it was not His life that point to Him today as mankind’s greatest friend. It was the sacrifice He made. It was His dying on a tree. It was the load He staggered under as He climbed Golgotha. ; It was the fact that on His shoulders and His heart my sins reposed. It was.the victorious manner of His taking off, the while all hell shuddered. It was His victory over death that men might never die. It was His conquest of sin that you and I might live forevermore. Destroy the Sermon on the Mount and yet, there stands Calvary. Wipe out the record of His life, and yet, all men will see that form hanging in the storm, while the earthquake shook Mt. Golgotha. He died and paid thè debt. This is the message that can never die concerning him. Oh, matchless name ! Oh, mighty conqueror!... Oh, Savior of a lost and ruined world! For lo, his name is Jesus.
living of it that goes deeper and roots itself into more fer
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