Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-04
FAITHS BATTLE
LIES in CITIES
MUST CONQUER OR FAIL IN
LARGE CENTERS
AVARIcE, CoVEToUsNEsS AND
OTHER VICES ARRAIGNED
DR.. Locke Begins Series of Sermons
on the Present Attitude of
Los Angeles Toward
Religion

First Methodist Episcopal church last
night began series of sermons on I'll
Christ Should Come to Los Angeles.
The series will close with a question
drawer. A great audience filled the
large church. Next Sunday night the
subject will be IF Christ Should Come
to Los Angeles Where Would He Be
Entertainment" His text last night was
Jesus came down to Capernaum, a
city of Galilee." Luke 5:31. DR.. Locke
said in part:
I'VE are rapidly coming to be a ma
ton of cities. In the United States
there are three cities with over a mil
lion inhabitants; six cities with over
five hundred thousand; twelve cities
with over three hundred thousand, and
thirty-two cities with over one hundred
thousand, four hundred cities with a
population of between fifty and fifteen
thousand, $50 with over ten thousand,
and more than seven hundred cities OF
5000 inhabitants. The great problems
and possibilities of our nation, there
fore, are to a large extent connected
with the cities.
Instead of living in the quiet re-
treats of Bethany or of Nazareth,
Jesus Christ preferred to dwell in
Capernaum, the largest city in northern
Syria. From the beginning of his min
istry Christ grappled with the serious
problems of the crowded centerS. The
apostles of Jesus made their homes in
the great cities-Peter in Babylon,
Mark in Alexandria, James in Jerusa-
lem, John in Ephesus and Luke in
Corinth. Paul made the cities the
arena of his splendid evangelism. An
tioch and Damascus and EpheSuS,
Athens and Corinth and Rome all heard
the matchlesS eloquence of this match
less man of the city of Tarsus.
christianity was founded for the
cities; if it fails in the city it fails
everywhere. But it cannot fail in the
cities if it is defended and propagated
with the earnestness and faith. of the
early promulgators. In truth there is
no such fruitful field for the gospel of
Jesus as in the crowded thoroughfares
and throbbing centers of city life.
There are the people with their con-
flictS, their griefs, their successes, their
temptations, their joys; and there is
evil in all its Ubiquitous and insidious
forms. Jesus Christ came to save men
from their sins, and if his representa-
tives are bold to plan and work for the
conquest of the cities for righteousness
modern Ninevehs will be transformed
as in the days of Jonah.
Would Cleanse Temples
eff Christ were to come in person
to this city as he went to Jerusalem
he would first cleanse the temples; he
would summarily drive out all those
who desecrate the courts of the Lord S
house. Those who have sought to
transform the church into a social club,
or literary circle, or commercial enter
prise, or mutual admiration society
would be driven out and properly de-
nounced as attempting to make the
Fathers house den of thieves
eff Christ should come to Los An
geles, how severely would he rebuke
all forms of vice, gambling and profan-
ity and prize fighting, impurity and
drunkenness and prof1igacy? The
comitants would be driven out. Avar-
ice and greed, with all their cruel and
devilish influence, would be hurled
down the steep places into the sea.
When / think Of the boys that are
being ruined, and of the girls that are
being debauched, and the throngs of
men and women that are being demon
lied and beStialiZed; when I know of
the sins at which so-called society
winks, and in which it largely partici-
pates; when [ remember the voracious
shylocks who feed on the pounds of
flesh, and think of the woes and priva-
lions which sin is everywhere inf1ict-
ing-I know that if Jesus were to come
to Los Angeles he would kindly but
severely rebuke a lethargic church and
a quiescent citizenship, and arouse men
and women everywhere against the vile
and vicious and cruel modern Saracens
that hold carnivaIs of vice in what
might be holy city.
DIR. Buckley says that not long ago
he addressed an audience of 800 in
the Sing Sing prison, in which were
two bankers, four physicians, five law
yerS, nine merchants and two clergy
men. The criminals were not low
browed ignorant men, but belonged to
the intelligent class.
Would Rebuke Covetousness
eff Christ should come to Los Angeles
he would severely rebuke the selfish
ness and covetousness of the prosper
Gus classes. The rule is that as indi-
viduals acquire money they become cor
respondingly disinterested in and I'M
sympathetic with the struggling
classes. They arrogate to themselves
personal superiority over their less
favored neighbors. Imperiousness
manlfests itself in voice, manner and
attire. They are impatient with pow
erty and irritated by the appeals for
aid. The measure of a mans obliga-
tons to his fellows is his larger possess
slons. talents and opportunities. The
rich fool in the parable Of Jesus. whose
fields brought forth bountifuIly and
who had no thought of needy humanity
about him, and who, just when he was
ready to take his ease, had to surrender
his life, is a plain lesson to richer fools
today who are sacrificing the real life
daily to lead lives of luxurious ease and
frivolity
1t is long time since Richard Rum
bold said: I never could believe that
Providence had sent a few men into
the world ready booted and spurred to
ride and millions ready saddled. and
bridled to be ridden This recalls En-
erson's truthful couplet:
Things are in the saddle
And ride mankind
Modern society is still far removed
from the ideals of Jesus Our age is
called Christian, but we are not far from
pagan as yet in many of the simple
principles of Christianity. 'Ye that are
strong ought to bear the infirmities
of the weak is a Christian imperative
which is obeyed less by the strong
than by those who are weaker! Sell
hshness is still our most colossal sin.
and it leads to vices and tragedies. If
Christ should come he would repeat
his question of the sermon on the
mount: why call We me Lord. Lord
and do not the things which / say?'
There are many of us who bear his
name and attend the services of his
church and call him Lordl Lord!'
but, alas! we do not the things which
he says. The low plane Of Christian
living and the inclination to carry as
little as possible Of the burden of 9TH
ers, or of the church itself, is Chris
tianity's greatest woe today. 1t is so
eminently respectable to be a church.
man that fha church hos MANY