501
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
November 1930
ing, theater-going, etc. Were those times of reverence and restraint days of gloom? Are the present days of license and sport more happy? The young people of today have vastly greater opportunities for amusement than their fathers had. The bars are let down all too frequently. The fear of temporal loss and eternal judgment is not placed before them as it used to be. Are they, therefore, any better off than the guarded, secluded youth of a genera tion ago ? With those who have lived and observed during the past few decades, to ask such a question is to answer it. If any would like to see how happy young people can be when engaged in such serious ( ? ) business as prayer, study o f the Bible, and soul winning, let them Come and observe the hundreds of students of Biola and the thou sands of young people touched by the various evangelistic activities of the Institute. Thereisproper recognition among them of the need of wholesome recreation, but the young people themselves will testify that they no longer have any desire for the things that are called “ worldly amuse ments,” for they have found something infinitely better. The moral is: Let the church cease to attempt to vie or compete with the world in providing amusement, and let it provide the spiritual food and exercise which spontane ously bring the joy of the Lord. — o—: Religious Education Without God A CORRESPONDENT writes to the Editor o f Living Church some very earnest words of criticism o f mod ern religious educators. He states that they clamor for more scientific methods and expert teaching, but fail to give to the youth of today a knowledge of a God who is worthy of their love, worship, and filial obedience. In the modern religious educational program, says this writer, the little child is merely given “ some ideas about God as revealed in nature.” Then this immature child-mind is expected to “ evolve a god from his own individual, per sonal experience.” Proceeding, the writer says: The slogan of the modem religious educator is, “ See God through yourself.” The next step is inevitable, “ See God through yourself.’’ The final step is, “Each person his own God.” . . . This statement is, o f course, overdrawn, so far as individual Christian teachers are concerned, but it is not very much overdrawn so far as the underlying system and belief of modem religious education is con cerned. . . . How can a youth become enthusiastic about a Being concerning whom he. is taught nothing except the guesses and questionings of his own mind? Yet this is the foundation upon which modern religious education is based. A more severe indictment could hardly be imagined. That it is true to the.’facts isiwell known to intelligent and observing Christian educators. What is to be done about it? The writer quoted gives the following suggestion: Now. the Hero of the four Gospels is God. Incarnate God, yes. But none the less, God. Why can not the modern religious educator tell the youth he is instructing in the Christian religion about this Being, as He has revealed Himself personally, squarely, and without equivocation?
Speculations or Revelation—Which? Life o f Faith for September 10, 1930, pays its respects to the British Association of Scien- tists which recently gathered at Bristol, England. These learned men, as often happens, left the true realm of science and launched into the dis- l i l i cussion of a new philosophical theory about the beginnings of life. The secular press played it up with great scare headings about “ life in the earth’s dim in fancy,” etc. A prominent scientist talked about a micro scopic organism named the flagellate, “ from which the animal and vegetable kingdoms may have sprung.” Com menting on this, the Editor of the Life o f Faith says: While we have all respect for the addition to our knowledge in many fields brought about by scientific in vestigation, we must not overlook the fact that there are certain realms in which science can be very much at sea, and that when science finds itself in conflict with revela tion, we need have no reason to doubt or abandon the latter. . . . There was a time, we admit, when the prob ings of science into the unknown had a tendency to un settle the faith of certain weak believers, but that day, we believe, has passed, and we can now read the “conclusions” of our learned scientific men without a flutter. . . . When 1 we are reminded that certain things may have happened in the world’s infancy, and that the animal and the vegetable kingdoms may have had a common source, we need not be disturbed, for probabilities are not facts, and science at the best can only speak about the beginnings of things in terms of guarded hypotheses. *.. o--- The Problem of Amusements T HE Presbyterian Banner is concerned about our “ amusement mad age” and almost wonders whether it betokens the doom of our present civilization. We quote from its editorial statement: Ancient Rome went mad with its Colosseum and The ater, and its cry for “Bread and the Circus” was one cause ' that sent it to its doom. Our age may not as yet have caught up with Rome, but it is approaching its speed. “Amuse ment mad” describes it. . . . Churches are languishing, with new theaters going up, often crowded, with a waiting line outside. The moving and talking picture . . . draws an attendance of twelve million people daily, and about forty million see every film that is released. . . . Everywhere crowds, crowds, all on pleasure bent, craving excitement, ■ seeking for a new thrill. The people of this country are spending every year for amusements more than they pay for their schools and three times as much as they pay for their churches! . . . Is sport going to displace religion? We do not think so, but it is well to note early any such signs and symptoms. The saddest phase of the situation here pictured is that many churches are not only not resisting the dangerous tendency toward “ amusement mad” destruction, but are encouraging and directly aiding it. Not many years ago, abstinence from “worldly amusements” was a test of membership in large evangelical denominations. Chris tian families quite generally frowned upon cards, danc
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