Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-20
APPLIED CHRISTIANITY

II n J.
! w priest of the Anglican church,
" with his confreres, set their faces
against the worldliness within that
communion early in the eighteenth CEN
fury the one great help for the decay
ing church was found to be the preach
! ing of the gospel to the people directly,
or what is termed street preaching.
Defying all authority of king and
bishop, as Luther earlier defied the
head of the Roman church, this band
of a few spiritually minded men gave
themselves to gaining the ear of the
common people. and so saved the
British nation from its viler self.
In the face of persecution from those
in authority, and personal violence
from those they sought to help; buff
feted by mobs of ruffians and hunted
from town to town, they persevered in
the courageous work, the results of
which forced the nation to a sense of
shame and rent the state church in all
parts of the land.
The indomitable will, wisdom and
perseverance of this handful Of godiy
men leavened the masses of the peo-
pie and led to a revival of true Chris
tianity, that has grown with the pass
ing years, and has signally blessed all
humanity. In civilization it brought a
sense of the presence of God in human
affairs and it sent apostles to the
heather to teach them the story or
Calvary.
nf
common people of England at the time
of Wesley's advent was pitiful.. Van
Dieman's Land and Botany bay were
the goals of thousands of lives, driven
TO crime in self-defense against the
ruling and brutal higher classes, and
the lash and the treadmill were the
common arguments of authority. The
ruling powers, another name for the
land owners and moneyed men made
right of might in the common cause OF
expressing the yeomanry, and Chris
tianity was in eclipse, as dark as LII
the days of the inquisition.
BY degrees, slowly, and over a tor
tuous road. the sweet altruistic les
sons of Scripture were sown in the
hearts of men, and true Christian lie
kept pace with advancing civilization
Millions of money have been expended
to give the Bible to all who would READ
If. and as a direct result of the early
street preaching of these real heroes
the people of the twentieth century are
saved from the fate of the goddess
civilization which befell Rome just be-
fore the dawn Of the Christian era.
In like manner the leaven of the
street preaching of spiritually minded
men has wrought in the crowded and
poisoned depths of all great cities of
America, resulting in bringing home
to all men lively sense Of RESPONSE
bility for others and keeping trimmed
and burning the one divine light IN
human life-unselhshness. The Golden
Rule has done for the race what sci
ence never can do. 1t has transformed
the wicked hearts and wills OF men
and women and has transmitted in
herent evil into lasting good.
Los Angeles has her full quota of
desperate lives, and the painful record
of our courts shows they are not all
in the so-caIled underworld. The rabid
itching for unearned wealth; the indie
cent foIlies of fast living; the soul
killing vices of inordinate apnetites;
the weakening and in many cases the
effacement of home ties and restraints
all tend to bring their victims 10 the
verge, and often over the line OF self
murder or insanity. The men who
knew them in the riotous day of their
downfall, ignore them in the day OF
humiliation and want, and they are
veritable pariahs to the people as
whole. Business men detest them;
wiser men despise them, and the orl-
GERS of the law mark them for certain
punishment
Nowhere in all the levels of human
society can such men look for help or
compassion, but to the man who SINKS
self and worldly pride in Christlike
service, and from the highways pro-
claims the fact that the SHINING one
may have hope and help to help HIM
self, if he will.
The men who are now preaching
the gospel of righteousness on our
streets are true apostles of the Naza-
rene, and no man may measure all the
good they are. doing, but all men VIII
wish for them the fullest measure OF
success in their self-imposed labors and
will hail their earnest concern for
weaker men as a living proof that the
gospel of Calvary does save men from
their lower selves.