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AM ER ICA Chooses Rebirth or Oblivion! by William Ward Ayer
A startling title; but ours is a tragic hour! We cele brate Patriot’s Day the first year of the seventh decade of our century with trepidation, because the evil possibilities of our industrial, lawless, morally permissive age stand defiant and menacing. En tangled in an Asian war which has become “ the jungle road to nowhere,” we find our President hero ically trying to extricate us from this tragedy. At home the blight of wide unrest plagues us: labor seethes, students riot, schools in many places are deep in racial strife. America’s home life, school life, church life, social life is radically changed. And now we face the ecological tragedy— pollution! Earth, water and air are dangerously contaminated. Greedy, wealth-producing procedures that threaten all life on this planet, which appears to be the only inhabitable one in our solar system, must be faced and elimi nated. Serious-minded scientists warn that without deep and disciplined change we may not survive the century. Shall we “ go out” with an atomic “ bang” or wither away with a whimper in a choking and starving environment? This is the most serious hour of history. We seem to see the soon fulfillment of God’s prophecy, and unless repentance and restitution take place, our na tion could become “ one with Nineveh and Tyre.” How could our nation, so nobly conceived and dedicated, reach such an impasse? Our nation was born and cradled in Christian godliness and integrity. We think of Pilgrim, Puritan, Quaker, Baptist, Pres byterian, and other God-fearing folk who sought “ a faith’s pure shrine.” But we forget that the American colonies existed a hundred and fifty-six years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 8
The moral and spiritual trend was downward dur ing the hundred and fifty years. When America be came involved in the Revolution, she had a two-fold battle to fight: first, against the tyranny of George III, ad second, against the atheism and degenerating im morality of the French Revolution. At the time of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, there was so much inner dissension among the delegates that it did not seem likely that the new-born Republic would survive, and without divine protection and leadership it could not have survived. America was truly born of God’s providence and leadership. An historian tells us that the latter part of the 18th century saw a low moral and spiritual sag in American life. The holy flame of faith and purity which had been kindled on the American continent by the founding fathers was all but quenched when our na tion was born. For twenty-five years preceding the formation of our Constitution the tide of godliness had receded, leaving mud-fiats of moral and political evil, similar to our own time everywhere throughout the nation. The greatest influence for ungodliness was sig nificantly the French Revolution. Voltaire had not only filled France with his irreligión but also had world wide influence as well. Bolingbroke was sowing down England with infidelity, and even Thomas Jefferson had come back from France temporarily contami nated. As in our day, drunkards filled the land. Sabbath desecration and social looseness viciously blighted the little nation, as it destroys our land today. The spirit of carnal indulgence, lasciviousnes, permeated THE KING’S BUSINESS
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