The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-11-14
In the Religious World

j DcSI Iei1SlOuS vi
The other side of Ezra's character
came out when the question of asking
for q guard arose. He had represent
ed Jehovah as the ruler of nations,
able to lift up and to cast down. His
fine sense of the fitness of things, and
his zeal for the honor of Jehovah,
would not permit him to ask for an
escort from the king. He took all
! proper precautions, and then trusted
the Lord.
A Reform Gone Wrong.
It seemed but a little time before
that the main body of exiles had en-
tered Jerusalem with mingled grief
and jubi1atiOn; the sound OF rejoicing
over the laying of he foundations or
the temple seemed still to be linger-
ing in the air. The ecStacy of that
occasion was fairly delirious, but 10.
Ezra finds little trace of it all. There
has been a huge slump somewhere.
Dreams have given way to "practical'
measures. A tragedy had slowly been
enacted like unto that witnessed in
our own times, when a young ma
who might have become a great poet,
a great preacher. or a great reformer,
deteriorates into q mere millionaire.
Jerusalem had insured its prosperity
at the cost of its message.
Is there any worse calamity IN lie
than to lose ones "gleam?' Thou
sands of high-souied yonug men and
women are thus gradually becoming
blind and deaf to the ideals which
had once been as life itself to hem.
They have perhaps mastered fortune,
but they have lost their souls lOftiest
possession. Even SO these returned
Jews had found it good business to
make alliances with the heather.
What a descent from the first SINGER
1ty of their purposes lei they had
refused help from their contaminated
brethren in building. AS i; SO often
the case with the practical man.
his short-sightedness leads him to
steps which really defeat his purpose.
Had these Jews canned a larger no
rizon, they would have recalled that
they were voluntarily adopting h
method which an ancient Assyrian
que had used to destroy the ma
uonal integrity OF the Jews. They
were taking heather wives and thus
losing their identity as a nation.
The tendency to conform to ones
environment and associates is as COM
mon q temptation as mortal meets.
Worldliness always sits seductively at
the door of the church, and usually
she is invited inside. 3 ye not con-
formed, but be ye transformer is the
word for all chosen people. Some one
says that the church is in the world,
which is her privileges; but when the
world gets into the church, that is her
peril.
Cleaning Up h Town.
An evangelist has come to town
Why is this? Did we not have an
vival necessary? Alas, and alas, sc
it is: There are few churches or COM
munities that do not need frequent
reviving. Jerusalem. which within
the memory OF living men had wit
messed a great religious celebration.
was now screly In need OF another
spiritual experience.
She was in such bad case that 1t
took all the courage OF this man OF
books to meet the emergency. Ezra
had a grip upon the law. That was
his characteristic. He was not tho
sort of evangelist who's stock in
trade Is sentimental stories and shop
worn pious ~phraseology. Emotional
appeals would not do Tor Jerusalem,
SO Ezra laid down the law. the stern
and immovable law OF Jehovah which
the lapsed city was violating.
Sugar or Salt?
Some folk can see why piety does
not atone for la~wleSSneSS. CoateSville
attempted to justify herself in the eye
OF the world by pointing to her
said. prove it by co%nvicting the GRIM
inals in your midst" But Gainesville
had not religion enough for that. In
this extraordinarily perverted and
dangerous separation between reli-
giousness and loyalty to law lies a
oCGp u VI Jul IllOoS1 llI1lCS L IL
Jews observed their temple ritual, out
they kept heather wives. Ezra I'M
derstood that his mission was not to
be sugar. to make himself agreeable
to people, but to be salt, to purify and
preserve society. So he drove the ter
rors Of the law into their conscious
ness until something like an epidemic
of fear and remorse seized them. His
note vas borrowed by Sam Jones, who
was forever urging people to quit
your meannesS."
The sentimenta1ist would say that
Ezra'S demand that these Jews should
relinquish their wives involved a hard
ship. So it did. Likewise it is al
ways a hardship when the thief is de-
prIved OF his income. It is a worse
hardship, however. to his family when
he is sent to Jail. Whoever said that
the wage Of sin should be anything
else than hard? To break the law al
a brings trouble; and often trou-
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