THE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
18
A n Estranged Age By F. W. Krummacher, (Chaplain to the King of Prussia)
Ah, whilst regarding all this, who does not perceive, that we are in .a similar situation with Jericho, and that our springs are also poisoned. What remains, when looking at the foaming waters of modern journals and periodicals, in which these springs pour out their waters through the land, than the complaint of the inhabitants of the city of palms, “The water is naught, and the ground barren?” An evil and poisonous mildew lies upon the languishing plantation of the rising generation amongst us. The in most kernel is rotten, the root is gnawed. They are a bold and obstinate race, destitute of childlikeness, and, for the most part, initiated, even in their infancy, into all the mysteries of abomination and ungodliness; in the sight of whom it no longer occurs to any one that of such is the kingdom of heaven— a race who are strangers to every thing like filial obedience, modest subjection, and tender respects for parents and superiors; who mock at the kind ness with which we would glaflly lead and direct them, and rise in rebellious defiance against severity. Yes, they are, in general, a race who no longer regard any thing as-sacred, of as enjoining respect, or commanding reverence. In the lower classes, they are base, vulgar, and licentious; in the higher, morally unnerved, entirely pervaded by deceit, and full of intolerable and absurdly haughty presumption. God be merciful in that period for which this generation is ripening. Brethren, the foundations of the antichristian kingdom are laid; they are deposited in the hearts of our children. The man of sin need only shake the tree of the nations and his disciples will fall, like ripe fruit, into his lap and his arms. The fig .tree putteth forth leaves; ^the summer is at hand. The Lord'have mercy upon us, and prevent the approaching destruction. (The above in an English translation from the German which was published in 1840 by Joseph Whetham of Phila delphia. the monkey tree of Theosophy, or look for rest under the spreading branches of Christian Science, or Spiritism, or New Thought, or Materialism, or Liberalism, or Modernism, with their enticing foliage and inviting shade, their sym metrical form, their easy stages of ascent from the lower to the higher branches. But there are thorns and spines everywhere, and their seeming attractiveness is as false as the m iiage of the desert. Yet the thorns are very real, and they are sharp, and when once ensnared by them escape is welLnigh impossible. Do not experiment with these theological monkey trees; but come and rest under the shade of the tree of life that is planted hy the river of waters, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Come to the tree upon which the Son of Man was crucified, and there you will find rest for your soul. You will learn, too, that there are no thorns there, except the thorns that crowned His head; and no cruel spines there, except the nails that pierced His hands and feet. There only is healing and peace and safety and rest.
We wait in the present day, for a spiritual renewal of the miracle. performed at Jericho, we long for it; we en treat it. Ah, our springs are also stagnant, polluted, poisoned, and foam out fatal streams which threaten moral destruction, not merely to a city and country, but to a world. What springs are they? X mean the dominant mode of thinking of an age estranged from God; the moral and political principles, which, like evil leaven, have begun to pervade the mass of the people; and already influence the sentiments and mode of acting of many thousands. I niean intellectual attainments, which in dreadful estrange ment from all that is Divine, seek to embrace along with the narrow -limits of the material world, the whole uni verse of existing things. I mean the arts and sciences, which have scoffingly bid adieu to their original destiny of being intimations of a future world, in order to devote their colors or tones to all that is mean and base, and to envelope sin in radiance and splendor. I refer to those poets, whose wit is inflamed by Hell, whost inspiration is animal passion, and in whom a bold mockery at all moral and social decorum occupies the place of talent and genius. I refer to a theology, which speaks “of -its own” even as does the father of lies, and which, like him, only negatives; and though clothed in an angel’s garb, only watches, like a faithful servant, over the in terests of Lucifer in the Church. I refer to a philosophy, whose object is decidedly to expel the God of gods from, His seat, and to annul the difference between the creation, and Him whose fiat called it into being; and of a policy, which with incomparable absurdity and impiety, scoffs at the constitution which the King of kings has given to the world, and seeks to install man, that handful of dust, into the honour of the monarch of the world, and to elevate the arbitrary will of a sinful worm to be the only valid law, the Thora of the people. While on a recent visit to the Pacific coast I was much interested in a peculiar variety of tree, found in the botani cal gardens and elsewhere; beautiful for color and foliage and symmetry, with far spreading branches coming down almost to the ground, and the upper foliage forming a per fect cone of dark green. I was told that this tree is com monly known as the “monkey tree,” though no doubt it has an appropriate Latin name of botanical fitness. Why a monkey tree? Because no living animal, not even a monkey, would ever dare to climb the tree. He could find no resting place for his hands or feet, but sharp spines everywhere, on trunk and limb and branch. Even the monkeys know better than to meddle with the monkey tree; though its shade looks inviting for rest, and though its low hanging branches, so close together, seem exactly adapted to the climbing instinct. As we walk through our modern theological gardens we find several varieties of the monkey tree; each quite at tractive at a little distance, and giving an assurance of quiet and rest, of ease and security. Many seek cover under
gâ» a4» 34» TREES AND MONKEY TREES T. T. Holloway
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