The Mena weekly star., 1911-05-25
BAPTIST MINISTER
AFTER u. S. SENATE
THAT Once Respectable Organ Of
Government Says DIR. G : Card
ner az Baptist Convention = he
Touches on Dynamiiing Crime

jacksonville, Fla, May i9--Re-
ferring TO the United States Senate
as that once respectable organ Of
government in condemning the
seating Of Lorimer and discussing
other recent public events in Ian
guage equally vigorous, the Rev. c.
s. Gardner. d. d.. one Of the pro-
fessors IN The Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary. preached the
annual sermon before the Southern
Baptist Convention here yesterday.
DR.. Gardner declared that the fun
damental trouble was that an anti
Christian principle lies at the basis
OF economical and political enter
prises.
In his introduction. DR.. Gardner
declared the kingdom Of God was
an ideal system Of all personal re-
Iationships. eentering in the SUI
preme personality Of God. whose
one enterprise is the building up Of
an ideal system OF relations be-
t4reasa mon. r.arf4ei4a in aad thgessgh
their relation to God. ITO perfect
this organization. the principle Of
which Is love, Jesus lived, taught
and died" he said. Wherever the
relations Of men are not right. the
task Of the kingdom is 10 set them
right
"A majority Of the members or
the United states senate covered
that once respectable organ Or gov
eminent with infamy and the ma
Ition with shame. by voting to re-
eeiye into their official conradeship
a man who owed his selection to d
gr0ssness and baseness of political
corruption which all but prostrates
decent men with noralnausea. And
while the civilized world was stand
ing aghast at this manifestation Of
the deadly virus at work in the
veins of our political and economic
organism, our hearts were almost
frozen by the alleged revelation Of
a vast dynamiting conspiracy on
the part Of conspicuous labor lead
ers. Are not all these incidents vi
tally related2 The only convincing
evidence OF the truth OF such a con-
spiracy yet forthcoming is that ii
fits so logically into the situation;
seems the natural and inevitable
comrade Of other efforts to uphold
the fundamental saeredness Of
property rights as against human
life; the unbIushing effort OF COR
porations, by purchasing public
servants. to control the policy Of
the government in their own be-
half the desperate determination
|0f fnaddened labDgers TO Offset the
anarchy Of the bride with the an
archy OF the bomb--are they not all
|0f piece? And have these things
no intimate relation to the religious
problems OF our time? II is sin or
ganized into the most substantial
parts Of the social fabric, and God
i calling us iii this day to fight for
the eradication Of that SIM
The Social Evil.
In seathing terms. DR.. Gardner
condemned the prevalence and
public recognition Of the existence
Of the social evir in the cities Of
the country. The city is rightly
called the center Of our civiliza-
ton" he said. Now. usually you
find somewhere near the center OF
this center, a district consecrated
TO the heather gods of vice. So alb
solutely is that area given over to
the worship of Bacchus and Venus
and Astrate that you rarely find
Christian man who dares 10 chal-
lenge their supremacy in the name
OF Jesus Christ. Respectable homes
fly from this district, and the
churches follow in the fight. Thro
its terrible vortex unnumbered
thousands are sucked down TO the
lowest hell. But why is it there9
1t seems to accompany the city as
inevitably as mans shadow ac-
companies his body when he walks
in the sunshine, and its presence
debauches the entire life Of the city
and gives tone to its government.
The existence OF this phenomenon
IS an advertisement to the whole
world either that our Christianity
is unequal to the task Of social re-
demption, or that its remedial pow
er has never been thoroughly APP
9:ied."