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THE K I N G ’S BUS I NE S S
Clothing which was sent from Amer ica to Jews in Poland was seized by the Catholics and distributed among them selves to the exclusion of Jews. The New York Jewish Committee has sent in a protest. MENACE OF MATERIALISM The following timely words are from the pen of Dr. F. B. Meyer of England: It cannot be questioned that the world is in the throes of revolution— a revolu tion more radical than that which cul minated in the taking of the Bastille. The menace of our time is due to Materialism. In its acutest form we have to face this problem of problems. Thirty years before the War, Germany began to sow the seeds of her materialis tic philosophy. Here in Britain, her system of morals and economics was re garded rather as matter for discussion and debate, than of serious menace to the settled order of the world. Few, if any, realized that Germany was sowing dragon teeth, and that the world would have to reap the harvest, of which Knl- tur was the seed. But in the years immediately preced ing the War, as a Nation, we were be coming infested by the same spirit; i.e., we were disposed to eliminate the spiri tual and eternal factors, and to estimate all things by the standards of earthly success. Then the world-War broke out, and became a clash of Ideals. In a mag nificent outburst of Idealism our young manhood forsook mart and forge, and flocked to enroll themselves under the flag. The War was to end war! The rights of the weak and defenceless were to be maintained! The boast that Might gave Right had to be challenged and for ever silenced! A tribunal must be erect ed for the adjudication of national dis putes! Finally the Golden Age would dawn! Alas! We have been mistaken! The whole world seems possessed with the crave for gain. The soaring prices, the endless strikes for higher pay, the pro
fiteering vampire sucking the national blood, and the extravagance of the new- made rich— all are symptomatic of the recrudescence of Materialism. We find the East menaced by Bolshevism, Vienna by starvation, Germany by revolution; America hesitates, and the provisions of the Peace Treaty must be revised. There are signs in sun and moon and stars; upon the earth, distress of na tions; men’s hearts are failing for fear, and for expectation of the things that may be coming on the world. For the .powers of the heavens are being shaken. We looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but be hold a cry. Thank Heaven, there is no need for pessimism. But we must repair the rift in the lute and stay decay at the heart of the pitted fruit. It becomes us to watch the symptoms, and arrest an aemic conditions, whilst they are in the incipient stage. REAL PHILANTHROPY Is it not strange that when the Church loses her vision of Calvary she turns to social service? That is what she is doing today. She is ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whenever the world turns away from Calvary, the only thing it can do is to put on bandages; but ah, you may bandage the wound (and you ought to, I am not against philanthropy for a moment, not against bandaging the wounds. God give us more people who can wrap up a scar and pour in balm against the awful things that happen in men’s bodies), but I would rather today be blind, hearing gone, laid on a pillow to starve, rather than to possess a per fect body and have no God and no Christ, and to go out into outer dark ness. The greatest philanthropist on earth is the man or the woman who dares to go and tell the good news of salvation to dying men.-—Paul Rader.
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