The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-01-18
"AMER|CAN|1|S'
CRYING EVIL, SAYS
MONTCLA|R PASTOR
Through 1t VIZ Lose Best Things
of Life, Rev. ii. E. FOsdick
Believes.
TOO MUCH CONCENTRATION
ON THE SMALL THINGS
Tells Y. M. G. A. Members Com
mercial Pursuits of Today
Have Bad Effect.

! OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, over-en-
gagement too much concentration upon the
small things of life to the exclusion of the
larger things.
The above definition was given by
the Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, OF
Montclair, while addressing the Cen
trail Branch of the Y. M. C. A. yester-
day.
Calling "A~mericanitis' the great
American sim" the minister said:
I'm the hurry, strain and hustle of
our modern life we are losing most of
the good things. To p~reoccupation we
can safely charge the most of our
moral failures. 1t is said that the word
'poltroon' was made from a Greek
word descriptive of those men in
ancient times who cut off their thumbs
SO that they could be exempt from
carrying the spear.
We Lead Frittercd Lives.
1--WE have lots of moral %poltroons to-
day. men who are cutting off the good
things of life that they may enjoy the
SlI1dll LIllIlSS. we u iSdoiiS hfCH
with no divine horizon. We are losing
the best things of home life, the best
things in recreation and in intellectual
matters. We are leading frittered lives.
We are packing the field Of our lives
with small inhabitants.
81 am not one of the many who at
tack so many of our forms of amuse-
ment that make for happiness. Many
of our amusements are altogether too
good to be monopolized by the devil.
But where the pursuit of amusement is
carried so far that it narrows our
spiritual and intellectual horizon I be-
lieve it is time to cry stop
Small talk has too large a place in
our conversations. A certain amount
of small talk is a good thing, but every
one of us has learned to dodge the man
whom we call a bore because his mouth
Is filled with nothing but small talk.
Small arms are necessary adjuncts of a
soldiers equipment, but In times of
stress we like to hear the boom of the
big gun once in a while. We wonder
If some men have any heavy artillery
at all.
Commercial life as it exists today
crowds out of the life of the business
man those things which make him a
w~ell-rounded, broad-minded citizen In
rearly all pursuits of modern life the
spiritual side is suffering.
B~urrowing Like MoIes.
~ am not a pessimist, however. If
we stopped to find out how many really
bad men there are in the world | have
no doubt that we would all be sur
prised to find out how few of them
there are. For a multitude of things
enter nto badness as well as the de-
cision to do evil. / believe that there
are very few men who deliberately
choose to make evil their good.
True morality never rises to its
greatest height unless it is based on a
great faith in God. If we slight this
and dull the constituencies of IL con-
science we are apt to find some day
when we need our conscience to act
quickly and capably that its fneness
has gone. Many of u are burrowins
like moles in the dark with all the glory
of God around us, and yet we fail tc
rise into the light. We are losing OPP
portunities to do that good in the world
for which we were placed here by ar
all-Hise God. We fail to sec Il duty
to our brother man,"
r. T. Cotton will speak next Sunday
in the Central branch OF "The story
Of a Group of Modern Martyrs" The
Beasey sisters, violinists, will give 8
musical program.