October 1928
583
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
I’d rather be o f Adam’s race And know for sure without disputes From whence I came and who I am, Than one o f Darwin’s evolutes. I’d rather be his fallen son With privileges to recruit Than risen son from monks and skunks And then be nothing but an evolute! * * * “ If babies weren’t going out of fash ion,” says the Los Angeles Times, “it would be only a matter o f time until every home would' have a built-in spanker.’^?, * * * “Up to the age o f 40,” Henry Ford said recently, “a manis in training— every man is. He is assembling the tools with which to work.” * * * A man said, some time ag o: “ I love humanity but I do not like people.” It was said o f Rousseau" that he combined love o f all mankind in general with a hatred o f all mankind in particular. Christianity teaches love to the individual. Our Lord had compassion on multitudes and taught men one by one. Ministers should beware o f “pulpit passion” when not accompanied by the passion to deal with men one by one, * * * Says The Churchman : “ The letters which Compose the word ^Presbyterian might be rearranged as ‘Best in prayer,’ or another might use them to spell ‘Priest near by.’ Some wretch turned ‘Congregationalist’ into ‘Got a scant religion.’ ” * * * The data gathered by Dr. Charles Stelzle a year ago indicate that 87 per cent o f the adult population o f the cities of the country believe the fundamental teachings o f Christianity, and 77 per cent o f them are members o f the church. * * * At the Congregational conference in Chicago Dr. Malcolm Dana said:. “ It is not true that country people are intensely religious and inveterate church-goers. As a result o f four years’ study of rural con ditions, we find that- only one-fifth of country people go to church. There are 101,000 town and country churches in America. Two-fifths of them are standing still or losing ground. There are 38,000 rural churches, or 42 per cent of all, which have no pastors.” * * ♦ According to Century Magazine : “ Sixty per cent of all Protestant churches made not a single convert in 1927. And in the same year Will Durant’s publishers sold nearly 200,000 copies o f his ‘Story of Philosophy.’ It seems that Americans would rather know the definition and his tory of God than praise him in His tem- ples.”
Evangelical Messenger discusses a rap idly spreading disease called “Morbus Sabbaticus,” which attacks the patient suddenly every Sunday. No symptoms are felt on Saturday night; the patient sleeps well, wakes feeling well; eats a hearty breakfast; but about church time the attackcomes on and continues until services are over for the morning. * * * There were in the United States 223 lodges o f The American Theosophical Society in 1926, with 7,448 members, as compared with 157 lodges and 5,097 mem bers reported in 1916. * * * Many valuable drugs may be very dan gerous when administered by unskilled persons. “There are branches o f learning that have like unfavorable possibilities,” says The Biblical Review. “Few people comprehend the requirements for satis factory and safe research in certain fields; the fascination o f a subject may blind one to many o f the facts concern ing it ;• the very technical language some people use so glibly they do not always . understand. Psychology has a great host of dabbling disciples who follow it afar o ff,; intellectually. Naturally , they are easily led astray by the behavioristic type o f leader, so that faith suffers. Yet psy chology is not necessarily hostile to the Christian faith.” * * * ‘ According to figures furnished by the motion-picture industry o f the United States for the year 1926, the box-office re-
ceipts amounted to more than $600,000,- 000,” says an exchange. “According to figures compiled by church statisticians, the entire contributions to the Protestant churches o f America, for all purposes, in cluding foreign missions, were a little over $500,000,000. In other words, the mo tion-picture business received $100,000,000 more cash from the American public than all the Protestant churches put together.” * * * Department o f Commerce data show 252 active Pentecostal Holiness churches with 8,096 members in 1926. Ten years ago there were 192 churches with 5,353 members. The average membership per church is 32. * * * Will Rogers, humorist, who reported for many daily papers the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, had considerable to say about preachers who were called upon to open the session with prayer, and who read their prayers. Some have accused Rogers of being im pious, However,"’ we "have been some what impressed by the comment o f Harry Carr, Los Angeles news writer, who said: “ To my mind it was the preachers who were shockingly sacrilegious. Reading a stump speech from a piece of paper and calling it prayer would seem to be about the final depth o f hypocrisy, not to speak of one reverend gentleman who favored heaven with some red-hot election bul letins. Strange to say, the impropriety o f these ‘prayers’ was so bitterly resented in the press gallery, that mahy corres pondents refused to take their seats until they had been delivered. ‘Delivered” is right 1” * * * Eighty-three German neurologists and insanity specialists recently sent out an urgent call not to take Christian teaching from the young people in the public schools o f Germany. Their plea is as fol low s: “In the present lamentable struggle of political parties over the schools, attempts are being made, in a folly - truly irre sponsible, to shake the foundations of Christianity. ^ We . . . . earnestly warn a g a i n s t allowing the ' belief in Christ, even in the least degree, to lapse in the hearts o f our youth, since it is this that is the real anchor in the storms in our times. The Christian reli gion is now, and will remain, the philoso phy, the ethic, the socialism.” * * * A Los Angeles newspaper correspon dent, in an interview with one o f Krishna- murti’s staff, was told of an amusing perplexity that confronted this “ world- teacher.” America is too easy. Amer icans gleefully and enthusiastically accept him—or anybody else—as the last o f the prophets— a new Messiah—or anything else he likes. W e question nothing, but we just greet him with a whoop and a
Lincoln W a s Right "Oh, no, at least not now," said Lincoln once. “I f I were to try to read, much less to answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how—the very best / , can; and I intend to keep on doing so until the end. I f the end brings. me out all right, what is said, against me won’t amount to anything. I f the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." We are reminded o f an inscription on the town house o f Zittau: “Bene facere et male audire regnum e st" “ To do good and hear evil spoken o f you is kingly."
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