The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-22

idea that has taken possession of us. oeginning, perhaps in some small sug- gestion from without. We are in part. az least, the product of such sugges- tons as come to us from our environ ment. The law is of far-reaching ssnincance and makes powerful ap- peal to the thoughtful for keeping aoout us and our children a pure at- mospnere, clean community. and for rsaoln8 only health-giving literature ror the Kind of suggestions that come 10 us Will largely determine our char acters. Cur daily papers are full of uetaiis about foul murders, many of l mem In glarinG headlines every ynching Is fully reported, and the | very ar Is charged with murder. Our own Advertiser Is notable exception .o the sensationalism of the press and s one or the cleanest of all the dailies, out they all feel under obligation to give the news, and the giving of the news fills the minds of all with sug- sestions of bloodshed. and when we iose our tempera, our first impulse Is | 10 act out the suggestion and kill our enemy so the publishing of crimes cuiation tends to produce more and more crimo.
 put where does 1t start? We must go pack of the increasing suggestions | toward these things to other causes that start the increase.
 shall VIC name the growing mate- riaiism of the age that puts the dollar | anove the man instead of the man the dollar? Of course. we see everywhere the power given by money by all. ''Ns"' | Many of our institutions are organ ized around the dollar. Here in america thera is an open field and a iee nsnt with equal outward chances | to all, yet there is growing up a sort or cast that lures thousands to lay aside every other consideration in the mad rush to be equal to the hest. Nothing Is sacred to those who make money their one object in life.
 And they soon forget that "a mans n man Tor a that" This underwriting or human life Is increased by the conn plexity Of our civilization which causes so many deaths by accident as to make the passing of soul little more than common place incident. Along with tnIs complexity has gone a social un- rest due to imperfect adjustment to the complete revolution in Commercial in- dustrial and social life caused bv the application of science to practical af- tairs. When we remember that in the memory or men now living there were no railroads, telegraphs, telephones. cotton gins. electric lights or motor power, etc.. we should not be surprised at shifting of values in all things including even life itself. Such a rev. olution in every practical item of so. ciety could not be borne without tray- all. Nor can 1t be denied that the churches have largely scattered their energies In works of philanthropy rather than concentrated them as of oId primarily on the personal salvation or the individual. This is terribly true of all our city churches. The one should be done without leaving the other undone.
 And the home, which is the unit of society. has become in thousands of cases. unreligious and immoral and in thousands more irreligious. and i'm moral.
 Our children are raised in the streets or by negro nurses, without parental care. instruction or discipline. Each one Is law unto himself. In stead of Children. obey your parents" our law Is Parents. obey your chill dren." Self f-command. self-controI. self-denfal, obedience. patience, faith In God and man are not so much as thought of or referred to in number less houses that are by courtesy called homes. to say nothing of numberless others where violence, uncleanness dishonesty. immortality are positively inculcated.
 But we are still in the region of ef- fleets rather than final causes. Why | are we so affected by industrialism and commercialism. Other ages have had as much. Why should frequency of tragic deaths make us think less of the human soul? Why are the churches less bent on individual salvation? Why this laxness in our home life?
 What, after all, is the bottom force in life. in society. in civilization? What determines our conduct in the home the church, in society, in business? What differences one age and people from another? One more from anoth- CT in character? There can be but one answer-religion. The Lord is therefore here. Has any change come over our religious conceptions? A generation ago a fight was on between biblical ana natural science. The two were supposed to be in irreconcilable con- fict. Neither had then learned what both now see-that there can be neith- CT agreement nor contradiction for the reason that they occupy different fields and eau never really meet. Having learned this, they are in closer touch with each other today than ever before But while this fight was going on, the methods of both were changing; a new scientific spirit was born soon to per wade every phase of research and in the field of religion to express old truths in new forms. Those at the front have passed through the storm incident to the change and the old Book lifted to a higher authority to them is forever invested the Word of God to man now. With new power the old truths strongly enriched are made to throb with new life But the unrest that has issued in peace to the few who were leaders has now reached the masses and they aware of some change but ignorant of its character or consequences. have begun to weaken in their sense of certainty our conglomer- ate population. This affects all their moral and religious conceptions, and So changes their feeling even about human life. The soul is to them no longer such an awful reality doomed to hopeless perdition in it's natural state, heir of God In endless glory only when redeemed by Christ. All this will come back as soon as the people learn that only good has come and only good can ever come of honest research. and that the Blessed Book that lighted the way to glory for the saints of every century will yet guide us and our chill dren safely forever. The restlessness that so disturbs and distresses Is only the bursting of the old wine skins be- nf fhA ~N,.ex t.a .E ANV