The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-04-20
EVILS OF CITY LIFE.
DR.. DIXON POINTS OUT THE GREAT
DANGER OF TODAY.

A Time For Righteous Indignation and a
Flaming sword.
NEW YORK, April 16.-Rev. Thomas
Dixon today delivered an impassioned
sermon on the gross materialism and de-
structive tendencies of city life. His
text was John ii, IS, "And he made a
scourge Of cords and cast all out of the
temple, both the sheep and the oxen, and
he poured out the changers money and
overthrow their tables"
This is a most remarkable scene in the
history Of the ministry Of Christ. It is a
scene in which we behold the indigna-
ton of Jesus So vigorous is this ex-
preston that the result is physical vio-
lence. To some minds of today such a
scene in the life Of Jesus is an impossi-
bility. They refuse to believe in such o
Christ, and these are the people who i'm
sist that they have the last word from
Christ to the world. The trouble is that
they have looked only at one aspect Of
the life of Jesus. He Is gentle, he
is loving, he is tender, he weeps, and
yet he brings sword and deliberately
makes q scourge of cords and with phys
ical violence drives from the temple those
who were desecrating his Fathers
house and with physical violence over
turns their tables. Christ is Christian
ity. Jesus said, 81 am the way"
What does This scene in the life of Jesus,
directly in the line Of his ministry, teach
usp
Certainly two things.
First-Thereisa isan hour for Christianity
to WELD the lash and use the knife. There
is time, in other words, for all things.
There is time for gentleness and ten
derness and love. There is a time for
wrath and Indignation and for overturn-
ing. There is a time to laugh, there is a
time to weep; there is time to sing,
q time to pray, time to fight. The
music Of life is not made on n single
string. There are other elements than
the gentle and the soothing, which enter
into the essentials of a rounded, active
life. 1t is so in the individual, in socie-
ty and in the church.
In the life Of every man there are times
for tenderness and love; there are times
for the assertion of the sterner elements
of life and the assertion of wrath and
indignation at the proper time, all as es-
sential to the worlds welfare, to the sal
walton and happiness of mankind, as the
introduction and maintenance of the
gentler and sweeter elements. No man
can live a normal life in this world and
do his duty, endowed even with moder-
ate talents, without being confronted
with hours in which the soul must rise
in all the power of righteous Indignation
and assert in all their elemental power
the original forces even of anger and Of
war.
A TINE FOR RIGHTEOUS WRATH.
So in the life of society there are times
when the community must rise in indig-
nation and rid itself of pestilence There
are times in the life of a community in
which the seeds of joy and of love and
of gentleness can be sowed and cultivat-
ed. But there are hours when, with
fame and ak, those who have the good
Of society at heart must go forth and
burn and strike down and remove if the
people are to be saved from contagion
and death So in the history of the
church there are hours in which the gos-
pei of joy and Of peace and of loving
kindness is preached and should be
preached, and there are other hours in
which the wrath and indignation of
purity and truth and Christ must be
preached. 1t is useless to say that in
such an hour light will overcome dark
ness, gentleness will overcome violence.
Jesus Christ did not find it so. His dis
ciples would do Well to follow him.
There have been hours in almost every
century of the history of the church in
which there was absolute call for right
eous wrath, and when only such forces
were adequate to the salvation of the
church and of the people.
/ What could have saved the church in
the days of Martin Luther save the vio-
lence which resulted in the Protestant
establishment and in the purifcation of
the Catholic church? There could be no
compromise with the corruptions that
had grown up within the body of Roman
Catholicism. Tetzel, the chief exponent
of the doctrine of indulgences, preached
in the ear of Luther. "Indulgences,'
said he, care the most precious and sub
lime of Gods gifts. This cross (pointing
to the red cross uaS as much efficacy as
the cross of Jesus Christ. Draw near,
and will give you letters duly sealed
by which even the sins you shall hereaft-
er desire to commit shall all be forgiven
you. would not exchange my privi-
leges for those of st. Peter in heaven,
for l have saveu more souls with my in
dulgences than he with his sermons.
There is no sin SO great that the indul-
gence cannot reach it. Let him only pay
largely, and it shall be forgiven him.
Even repentance is not indispensable"
If any man doubts that this be true
statement of the preaching of duly ac-
credited delegate from the highest Cath
Olic authority in his age, let him refer
to the words Of Pope Adrian, successor
to Leo X, crowned in 1929, when Ger
many was ablaze with Lutheranism.
Through his legate the pope declared at
the diet Of Nuremberg, summoned to
deal with Luther, that "these disorders
had sprung from the sins of men, more
especially from the sins of priests and
prelates. Even in the holy chair" said
he, "many horrible crimes have been
committed. The contagious disease,
spreading from the head TO the members,
from the pope to lesser prelates, has
spread far and wide, SO that scarcely any
one is found who does right and is free
from infection" Confronted with such
situation, can any sane man maintain
Snat it was tue duty q Martin Luther to
remain quiet and to preach the simple
gospel of love and of gentepess and Of
good feeling TO friends and enemies in
side the church and outside? No; there