July 1927
416
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
This artistic bit of flower gardening in the Boston public gardens testifies to the s k i l l of the c i t y ’s landscape gardeners a n d to their patriotism as well. We reproduce it in honor of In dependence D a y, July 4 th.
HERBERT PHOTO
chaste, not because He is too emasculated to feel the pull of passion, but because that passion has been sublimated into something which includes the soul. He is emanci pated from slavery to luxury and ease; to Him comfort matters little one way or the other. He is the incarnation of, humility, not because He is too ignorant to be proud, but because He is infinitely too wise. It can hardly be expected that he should be the chosen God of an adoles cent civilization intent upon the hungry search for super ficiality.” Then—what will the end of these things be? The law of the harvest is—“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The most popular of all proposals for regenerating the race i s : “More education, more training; drill them to competency!” Yet biology teaches most certainly that education and training do not “get into the blood.” Writing in McNaught’s Monthly for January, S. K. Humphrey says: “Biology points out that the only way to start our racial values on the up-grade is to get more children per family from the superior stocks than from ,the little brained. But what a contract! This involves a complete reversal of our present distribution of child-bearing; a regulation of parenthood for very considerable portions of the population at both ends of the intelligence scale. Could anything more impossible be proposed ?” Thus, many of the world’s thinkers are being driven to see that they are coming up against a stone wall. It may take the second coming of Christ to awaken this new civilization to the fact that it is hell-bound, in spite of all its culture. In the meantime, there are still many who have learned from the histories of past civilizations that the only hope of men is the old message of “Christ cruci fied, unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:23). Martin Luther preached this Christ to slumbering Europe, and Europe awoke from the dead. Amid all his defences of the divine sovereignty, Calvin never ignored
it is wearing the new dress of some peculiar philosophies and methods. Mr. Bell points out that there never was a time when so many people had so much money. As a new-rich culture, he believes “we are making the same two characteristic blunders that the newly rich always make. First, that the mere possession of wealth is an index of a man’s worth. Second, that with his means a man can buy for himself happiness. These mistakes commonly seem folly to an old-rich man, one who was born to prop erty, whose father was bred with it. He knows that merely because he or his friends have it they may not be worth i t ; and he has learned through experience that hap piness cannot be purchased, but is an illusive something not for sale.” Mr. Bell concludes that the 20th century is sacrificing itself to goods and appetite and comfort and conceit, and that, as long as it continues to do so, as long as these seem satisfying ends to its new, crude and suddenly wealthy citizens, it is unlikely that any more subtle religion can make much headway—in fact, the world is taking exactly the course which the prophets of old foresaw. We believe he has rightly characterized the day in which we live. What means Jesus Christ to this so-called “new civilization” ? He is an enigma to the moment unless he can be dressed up in modern terms and presented as “a go-getter” or a “country clubber.” Hence the Mod ernist preacher with his attempts to keep up with this popular swim, by remaking Jesus into the image of “mod ern” man. But there is no power in any such message to either teach or enforce purity, or to banish even the gross est of lusts which lead men into the pit. Mr. Bell has insight enough to see that it is futile to try to adapt Jesus to this present order of things. If men will not adopt the Christ of the Scriptures, it is useless to try to adapt Him. “Jesus is the antithesis of all that in our day seems of most worth,” says Mr. Bell. “Christ is poor when we would be rich, not because He is too weak to gain wealth, but because His strength is needed elsewhere. He is
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker