The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-02-22

- aJ dancos We report
&C., sIsSELL one of these from
the text. righteousness Exalteth
Nation; But Sin is Reproach to any
People" proverbs xiv. 34,. The speak
er said
Many besides myself surely were as
tonished to read the following extract
from the Wall Street Journal under
the caption. What America Needs
what America needs more than rail
way extension and western irrigation.
and a bigger wheat crop. and a mer-
chant marine. and new navy, is
revival of piety. the kind father and
mother used to have-piety that count
ed it good business to stop for daily
family prayers before breakfast. right
In the middle of harvest; that quit field
work half hour earlier Thursday
night. so as to get the chores done and
60 to prayer meeting That's what we
need now to clean the country of filth.
Of graft. and of greed. petty and big.
of worship of fine houses and big
lands, and high Office and grand social
functions"
This reached the eye of Bishop Can.
dler, whose comment is so appropriate
that cannot do better than quote it
here
"This editor is right in calling us
back to more earnest forms of life than
all these things involved. He wants
religion in the home; he calls for lives
Of prayer; he insists that we need the
most earnest type of religion to save
the country from moral wreck. And
he is right But can we get that sort
of religion under the spur of the mo-
tive to which he appeals? Hardly.
1--WE cannot get revival of religion
by seeking revival of religion. No
where in Gods Word are men admon-
ished TO seek religion or to seek a re-
vival of religion They are always
urged to seek God All the revivals
of religion which have blessed the
world in the history of the past have
come when men have undertaken tC
seek God. None have ever come 9th
erwise. We cannot defy even reviva
Of religion. God must be the supreme
object of our love and desire.
"Men Called Preachers Have Explained
Away the Word Of God"
Herein Is our trouble-we have los
God Men called preachers have ex
planned away the Word Of God, max
ing it no longer sure word of proph
ecy, but an antique for the critics tt
analyze and discuss. The moral Law
has been lowered. The ten command
ments have been reckoned as a piec'
of Mosaic plagiarism applicable to tn
moral needs Of ancient nomads in tn
wilderness, but have no more than
qualified bearing on the life Of today
The Sermon on the Mount has beel
treated as An iridescent dream
"The Lordship of Jesus Christ ha
been denied. while treacherous com
pliments have been poured out upo
his name, as that of a great teache
and a noble martyr His teaching
have been defied or set aside whereve
they have stood in the way of a ran
pant worldliness or an insurgent ra
tionalism. The outcome of it all
that multiplied thousands have los
all knowledge of God in their soul.
To all intents and purposes God
dead to them. They take no accour
of His will in any Of their plans an
doings. but live as If there were n
God. They are atheists without tai
ing the trouble to declare formally til
atheism which they have inwardly a.
cepted.
1.-THE people must now be called
seek God He is a real, living Persol
and He will be found of those who sill
cerely seek Him. But He must /
sought as the supreme need of til
lives Of men He must be sought fC
His own sake. He will not be foun
Of men who seek Him simply to rem
dy bad commercial situation, or
cure social and political ills. He wi
not consent to be used as a sort {
celestial and omniscient chief-of-poli'
to help us suppress grating and stea
ing and RIGHTEOUSNESS.
ut is quite true that If all the pc
pie turned to God they would be tur
ed away from every evil thing. b
they will never turn to God until the
feel that the worst disaster in life
that one should fail to know our Hea
emily Father They must be made
feel the sorrowfulness Of the orpha
age of the soul until. like the prodig
of the parable. they begin to say eat
within himself. 4 will arise and go
my Father
I'VE have had already too great
disposition to try to use God for 6
sorts of social ameliorations. moral I
forms. and political renovations. 1t
time now we sought Him for Himse
alone. 1t is time we began to cry wi
the Psalmist. Whom have in heav,
but Thee. and there in none up