Connecticut western news., 1893-05-04
EVILS OF CITY LIFE.
< Dh. DIXON POINTS OUT THE GREAT
 9 DANGER OF TODAY.

Dh. DIXON POINTS OUT THE GREAT
 DANGER OF TODAY.
 FAs Cities Arc Absorbing the Manhood of
 4 Time For Righteous Indignation and .
 Flaming Sword.
 NEW YORK, April t6.--Rev. Thomas Dixon today delivered an impassioned permon on the gross materialism and de- structive tendencies of city life. His text was John ii, 15, "And he made Q soourge of cords and cast all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen, and h. poured out the changers money and overthrow their tables"
 This is . most remarkable scene In tho Mstory of the ministry of Christ. It is . scene in which we behold the indigna- ton of Jesus. So vigorous is this ex- pxession that the result is physical vio- lsnoe. To some minds of today such scsne in the life of Jesus is> an n'impossi- h4lity. They refuse to believe in such Christ, and these are the people who in- sst 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 g sword and deliberately makes . 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 fly. Jesus said, "I am the way"
 Whct doss thts scene ts the life of Jesus, directly in ths line of his ministry, teach .sse
 Certainly two things.
 First -There is an hour for Christianity to wisld the lash and use the knife. There is time, in other words, for all things There is time for gentleness and ten dsxness and love. There is time for wrath and indignation and for overturn- inG. There Is time to laugh, there Is time to weep; there Is time to sing, . time to pray, 8 time to fight. The music of life is not made on . single string. There are other clements than the gentle and the soothing, which enter into the essentials of a rounded, active hfe. It is 90 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 clements o& Hfe and the assertion of wrath and Indignation at. the proper time, all e e. vstton and happiness of mankind. as the introduction and maintenance of the gentler and swceter elements. No man can live . normal life in this world and do his duty, endowed even with modef- sts 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
 ATnR FOR RIGHTEOUS WRATH.
 So in the life of society there are times wAsn the community must rise in indig- nation and rid itself of pestilence. There gro times in the life of community in which the seeds of joy and of love and of gentleness can be sowed and cultivat- cd. But there are hours when, with flame and ax, those who have the good of soctety at heart must 20 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 |. preached. It is useless to say that in such an hour light will overcome dark ness. gentleness will overcome violence. Jesus Christ did not find 1t 50. His dis cdples would do we'll 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 thapeople.
 What could havessaved the church In th1 dayp of Martin Luther save the yio- lsnce which resulted in the Protestant establishment and in the puriication of tho 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. "1ndulgences,' said he, "are the most precious and sub limo of Gods gifts. This cross (pointing to the red cross) has as much efficacy as the cross of Jesus Christ. Draw near, and will give you letters duly sealed by which even the hns you shall hereaft- CT desire to commit shall all be forgiven you. would not exchange my privi- leges for those of St. Peter in heaven, for I have saved moro souls with my in dulgences than he with his sermons. There is no sin % great that the indul- gence cannot reach 1t. Let him only pay largely, and 1t shall be forgiven him. Even repentance is not indispensable.
 If any man doubts that this bs true statement of the preaching of duly &C., credited delegate from the highest Cath olic authority in his age. let him refer to tho words of Pope Adrian, successor 10 Leo X, crowned in 1522, when Ger many was ablaxe with Lutheranism. Through his legste the pope declared at the diet of Nuremberg, summoned to deal with Luther, that s'these, disorders had sprung from the sins of men, more especially from the sins of priests and pfelates. 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 ono is found who does right and is free