Los Angeles herald., 1905-11-27
SAYS WORLD IS
GROWING BETTER
REV. BENJAMIN FAY MILLS Is
OPTIMISTIC
Preacher Asks His Hearers to Look at
Both Sides Of the ouestlon--sees
Steady Advancement In
Worlds Work

Benjamin Fay Mills. the permanent
minister Of the Fellowship. spoke i'm
Blanchard hall yesterday morning ON
the topic rs the World Growing Bet
teri" He said in part:
"At the present hour some voices
tell us that the human race Is morally
retrograding. They point to political
corruption in nations and cities; to the
monotonous wckedness of frenzied
finance and the apparent low moral
commercial standards; to the slaughter
of Russian Jews and the lynching of
American negroes; to the brutality and
sensuality of our Christian amuse-
ments; to the arrogance and selfish
ness of capital and the ignorance and
violence of labor, and they say that
civilization is a veneer, the real man
is a brute; from the beast we came
and unto the beast shall we return.
This Is only one side of a true pic
ture. Those whom we most criticise
possess better characteristics. Russia
fights Japan through fear and greed,
but she also calls the worlds peace
parliament into existence; she slaugh-
ters Jews, but at the same time she
is in the travail of a new birth that
will make such infamy impossible in
the future.
England subdues the Beers, but she
is most magnanimous in the hour of
victory and honestly endeavors to pro-
mote the welfare of her conquered foes.
Sees Brighter Side
"The United States forgets her prin-
ciples in the conquest and subordin-
alton of the Filipino, but she tries to
educate and civilize and truly assist
those whom she has wronged.
"Multtudes of men have grown away
from the old standards of selfshness.
There are uncounted millions of whom
brutality is unthinkable. Our modern
ideal is not Caligula, but Christ.
'"The bad is growing better. The VIC
ious of today would not have been
counted vicious by the ancients. A
few centuries ago the majority of men
were slaves. Aristotle said that he
could not conceive of society with
out slaves. In 450 A. d. an English
father could legally sell his own chill
dren into slavery. In the almost con-
stant wars the men captives were
slaughtered, the children were en-
shaved and the women devoted to in
fanny. Nations used to fight for VEN
geance or greed, or the wild love or
strife. Now the motives for war are
| judged by the conscience of the world
and the aggressor is never justified
| by the Judgment of humanity war
| itself is universally condemned, except
by participants in a temporary con-
fict One resolute man. calling the
contestants to the bar of reason, can
compel settlement of the most SAN
culinary war of modern times.
"If crime seems to increase, the in
crease is not actual, but because we
now put into the catalogue or crimes
murderous deeds which our fathers
considered justifiable, or even virtuous
and commendable. In the fourteenth
century there were sixteen times as
many murders in Great Britain as
now.
I'm our more enlightened states chill
dren are not herded in the common jail,
nor are they permitted to be consloered
as criminals. We at least try by all
sorts of detention homes, industrial
schools, asylums and reformatories to
save young lives from blight and ruin.
Labor has not yet gained its full
share of the profits of industry, but
when the trade unionsts remember
that the Romans hanged 5000 men VINO
tried to organize laborers, ana tnat
5yen modern England killed and I'M
prisoned the labor leaders of two gener-
ations ago, they may take courage. The
kings of finance no longer ask the
poWer of life and death over their en-
ployes, but the privilege of keeping
yachts and entertaining monkeys.
1--WE are climbing a long hill and we
need to consider not how far we may
be from the top, but how far we have
climbed from the bottom.
mot the brutal, but the scientific,
artistic, constructive, philanthroplc
spirit is coming to be commanding in
modern consciousness.
"All the worlds great souls have be-
lieved in the progress and final eman-
cipation of the race. We should set our
faces for Individual and social progress.
IF, like Lincoln, we believe in the
growth of humanity toward perfection,
then we should also say, as he did, Die
when l may, want it said Of me by
those who know me best, that always
plucked thistle and planted flower
when thought a flower would grow.