The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1889-05-16
CIIRISTIANITY'S LEVEN.
Is THE WORLD GROWING BET
TER OR WORSE?
THE LESSON OF A PARABLE.
Striking Comparisons and IlIustra-
tions that give Food for Reflection.


loltipaS anu uIttNI
sermon from Matthew xiii, 33. "The
Kingdom of Heaven is like unto lev
Ell, which woman took and hid in
three measures of meal, till the
whole was levened."
The Divine said: Every one Of
the thirty-two parallels in the Bible
teaches some important lesson, some
by illustration, some by argument,
some by prophecy and some by two
or all OF these methods. The para
bic we have to-day teaches by Illus
tration and prophecy. The
kingdom of Heaven lets down into
a dark, wicked and sin-ridden world
the means and plan of redemption
the christian leven, which, by its
ever-groWing, overwhelming, ever
spreading and ever-deepening divine
influence, is gradually permeating
bettcring and reforming every cOndi-
ton of society and will eventually
redeem every foot of Gods ter
ritory where humanity dwells. That
such would be the case was illustra
ted and prophesied by the Saviour
over one thousand eighteen hundred
and lightweight years ago by the
parable Of the meal and the leven.
The woman hid the leVen in three
measures of meal till the whole was
levened. Yes, the religion of Jesus
Christ-Heaven's leven is put into
this big mealy world till the whole
is levened--till sin and crime shall
cease-till every soul is redeemed
till, hallelujah! hallelujah! the II il
lennium is come. But say some, the
world is growing worse and worse.
[ deny it, deny it! Such state
ment comes from ignorance of what
the world was and a failure to COM
prehend the world as it is. Former
ly, people living in one locality knew
comparatively little of what was be-
ing done in other localities that were
near or even contiguous and almost
almost absolutely nothing of what
was going on in the world at dis
tance. The horizon of Information
was narrow-limited to the range Of
neighborhood gossip, except by
accidental communication at rare in
tervals. But how is it now? One
day a murder is committed in
New York, a bank president skips
from Chicago with the hard-earned
savings of his neighbors, an incendi-
ary puts fire to block i'm San Fran
cisco, an atrocious cruelty is commit
ted in London, this and all the other
crimes of the world are scOuped up
and presented to us in the next days
papers. We are appalled, at the ar
ray of crime and wonder if the
world is not going to ruin. Not SO
What we see is bird's-eye view of
the dark side of human affairs. Sup
pose these same papers had also pub
lishcd the thousands Of deeds of no.
bic charity, christian kindness and
heroic devotion to duty that were
performed during the same twenty
four hours throughout the world,
we would on the other hand have
been surprised and gratified at the
goodness of the world. But we are
not forced to rely on this point to
sustain our position. History fur
nished abundant evidence that the
world is growing better-that the
| Clll lSN Cii 10 iIlQh 11lS a. SllCut
but irresistible transformation OF
moral reform with the increasing
years "a reform that can not be
checked or tharwted till the wbele
human family is levened-is saved
The learned and eloquent divine
then proceeded to contrast the peo.
pie and IN orals that were with the peo.
YN1ntS nyI on-aIc thnt 1f,, nj
ed the Roman Empile with its gran.
deur and magnifcence, with its
more than Grecian progress in sci
ence, art, power and glory. Yet
this people had low moral standard
and no sense of christian charity and
rectitude. What did the Roman dc
with his five or ten thousand captives
of q single battle? Made them slaves
or butchered them like cattle accord
ing TO his own whims and caprices
What nation would dare act so by
its prisoners of war to-day? Such
conduct now would call down upor
!, its perpetrator the indignation, con-
demnation and vengeance of every
other nationality on the earth.
Again, for thousand years, from
the fifth to the sixteenth century
hundreds and thousands of people
were prosecuted, tortured in fire and
on rack as heretics by their own gov.
ernments because they would not
adopt the religious creed and worship
as did the party in power. What
government now would dare question
the right of any and every citizer
to the freedom of his own religion.
belief?
Again history tells us that during
the reign of King Henry the VII
, there we. e three thousand executions
!, each year in his domains. Today
/ under the good Queen Victoria, there
: there are less than one hundred. A
t that time, it is also said, that it wa
both popular and fashionable fo
gentlemen to indulge in profan,
swearing in the presence of ladies
Even Queen Elizabeth, one Of Eng
i: lands greatest and wisest rulers
= was, we are told, quite an adept il
cursing by rhythm before her cour-
tiers and they in turn We'd, as i
were, with her in the same scandel
Gus conduct in her presence. Wha
, man today, with the least self-re
J spect, would have so little deferenc
} for the softer half of our race as t
curse in a lady's presence? And TIN
time will soon come when no respec
| table man-when no gentleman viii
, be heard to utter an oath before 9th
| er Men in the everyday walks o
life. The poet Whittier, now near
ly ninety years of age, tells us tina