The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-22
But Asks His Hearers What They Are Doing To Help
 The Cause
OPTIMISM IS TOO OF TEN
 SALVE FOR CONS SCIENCE
Can See Signs of Deeeneracy in Anglo Saxon Stock in Spite of the Fact That the World is Growing
 Better.

pr. Jenkin Lloyd Jones of Chicago, one of the most famous preachers in Ameri ca, as well as noted lecturer and author, addressed a large audience at the l Temple Emanuel last night and again clinched his many friendships while de- lighting everyone who heard him. His subject was, ''The World is Crow ing Better" and though he voiced broad optimism Dr. Jones made it plain that every man must do his part. His | message to Birmingham breathed the spirit of his whole address: "I am glad to be with you again, to see the evidences of your splendid progress and the marks of your wonderful growth, but it all may prove to your grief and sorrow unless there goes along with it the rearing of the intangible city, the city of God the walls of which are laid in righteousness and rectitude."
 Dr. Jones developed his subject along two lines. "On the one hand" he said, "I believe in the bounty of nature, the integrity of the soul. I believe in prog ress. I would fain insist that there is
 
 | infrequently l am charged with an over hopefulness. The word optimism is used almost as term of reproach I am ac- cused of too much dreamngs@avf being 1 blinded by ideals. of forgetting or ig- noring things as they are.
 "on the other hand, I have been ac- cused of taking too gloomy views of things, of being an uncomfortable preach CT, of scolding too much in the pulpit.
 Harmony in Both Attitudes.
 "Now in all fairness I think I must plead guilty to the soft impeachment of both sides. So, not to parry the criticism let me try to discover if possible, not only the reconciliation but the essential harmony and the fundamental identity of the two attitudes"
 Then Dr. Jones took up the theory of evolution to illustrate the progress of the world toward the higher, "The climb of life out of the sea ooze up through the mollusk, quadruped bird, monkey and man has been an unbroken march and that march is unfinished, the goal is not yet reached. From the rude sacrifice on the rough altar stones of primitive man, up through the cosmc alterations pl 0oClhc anu lllc tliliCdl sweep Ol EfneF- son I see the unbroken stairway upon which the soul has climbed upward and the end is not yet for,
 Sometimes gleams upon our sight,
 Through present wrong. the eternal right And step by step. since time began
 We see the steady gain of man.
 "As I think of this procession of life, I realize that the swing of the comets is in league with the warnings of the prophet, that the God of Power persists in his potency until see him as a God of Love-"
 Here Dr. Jones changed his line of argument "But he who feeds on this optimism without studying deeper into it's methods and realizing the price of the grind and the conditions that yield the grist Is feeding on opiates and not food. And the more he trusts, like the victim of cocaine. the more pathetic grows his contentment, the more diotic his joy and impotent his faith. 'Degeneracy is as real a law of nature as progress. The fact that the world is growing better is no evidence that you and I are growing better. The fact that somewhere life is winning it's way upward is no evidence that our homes or our city, or our country is in a hopeful con- dition. Nations have been crowded to the wall by an over-confidence while cities have gone down in death and dis grace. There is nothing in the laws of nature that will save Chicago from the |. grewsome fate of it's prototypes, the great boom cities of history, Babylon, Tyre, Memphis, Alexandria and Corinth
 Much of the misery of the world is due to the belief that nature will somehow make an exception in our favor Bad men think they can trick a complex law, but varying law would be the destruc- tion of the universe. But the Fool Killer which is the universe of God, with relentless hand writes his record on every face. There is no gallantry in na- ture that prevents the vices of women, the penalties of tight facing, idleness, dis sipation, foolish eating, silly ambitions. from writing their records on women's faces.
 The Fool Killers Work.
 ''rhe world is growing better some where, but not necessarily through the Anglo Saxon stock, which already shows unmistakable signs of degeneracy, upon whose brow the Fool Killer has already put the mark of Cain" He illustrated this by the inefficiency of the English army in the Boer war "Who dare say that the United States at the present time throbs with holier inspirations, is led by more prophetic voices, stirred by high CT impulses and cheered in the struggle of life by more humane enthusiasms than in the days when freedom and not pros- perity was the rallying cry at the hust- ings?" He compared the statesmen of today with those of yesterday, reviewed the mighty extension of railroads mines mills banks, parks automobiles, and then wondered with anxious heart, whether all this is evidence that we are better off, whether there is more home fidelity more innocent sleep for childhood more | healthy shelter by the fireside than in the | simpler days when thrift helped interpret luxury and abstinence waited on appe- tite.
 Underworld is growing better, but that | does not follow that the man who rides | in an automobile has better appetite, sleeps better, thinks more, loves deeper, helps the world more than when in sim -plier days he walked or rode street cars | fo r; Nait ;t