Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-13

~ ~ O4) LldAC luc COunLy, Aidn AudaC
D9 the town. So runs the an
cient adage, and We have so
long accepted it as truth indisputable
that 1t may seem almost a sacrilege to
assert that this is only half truth at
best. God did start with Eden, but He
has promised to finish with a Holy
City. New Jerusalem. coming down out
Of heaven from God" and no student
of history can fail to discern not only
the tendency toward the establishment
Of great centers of population, but the
influence of these masses OF mankind
upon the currents Of civilization and
progress. There is a reason for the
city. Men have learned the value Of
time and cooperation too we'll ever to
think Of any better means of saving
the one and securing the other than by
living close together.
The evil of the situation lies not in
the fact Of the city, but In the sinful
ness of the average city; it is the
that is Americas peril. Along with the
growth of these great centers there have
sprung up means Of exploitation almost
innumerable; and men and women,
greedy Of gold and pleasure, have stoop-
ed to practices unnameable to secure
from their dupes the very money whose
possession is made possible by the adj
vantage Of the town. Jesus ''wept over
the city" Of His day, in spite Of the fact
well kept as any town the word has
ever known, for doubt and selfshness
were there. Isaiah grieved over lions
departure from wisdom and justice, the
growth Of Righteousness and the habit
Of bribery, and Jesus in his arraignment
of the sinful cities Of His day lays en-
phasis upon the fact that their sin lay
in the disregard Of Him and His mighty
works.
Two great Scriptures are given us to-
day; one in which the rapt prophet be-
means the sins Of his Jerusalem home, in
language that sounds very modern to us,
and the other where Jesus compares infa-
nous Sodom with the city Of His resi-
dence, to the advantage of the former.
From these Scriptures and from the topic
we gather three thoughts.
l. The Ancient City With Its Modern
Evils.-As we read Isaiah's wall over Jeru-
salem, there is BONE in upon our thought
the realization that the sins Of which he
speaks, as being a shame to Zion, are IN
both name and order those whose pres
ence most tends in this day to bring the
blush to the cheek OF iawan1ding ana
God-fearing citizens. 1t is still lust and
murder, weakness, bribery and injustice,
whose deteriorating influences are sapplng
the city'S strength.
II. The Modern City, With us ancient
Sins.-H the category of Jerusalems sins
and weaknesses sounds strangely modern
in our ears. how shall we regard the TACT
that Jesus, in His censure OF the cities
of His day. turned for comparison TO the
besotted and greedy cities of Sodom, tyre
and Sidon. except for the fact that while
men pass on and customs change. anu
nations rise and fall, the hearts OF men
are still the same. their appetites and pas
sions their pride ana ,oys o. of Cod have
varied little during all the tedious maacn
from the gates Of Eden to the present
hour? If we ask for an explanation %
Paups description OF Jesus as ne &c e1. a,
yesdilv be found in the fact that man 10
the same yesterday, today ana forever;
the same in his temptations. ms t,idis aau
MS triumphs. And we nna IA e aarh the
,e ola nroblem of personal righteous
ness as the basis of municipal motaH.y:
III The Decadent. City AmerlcA
peril.-The weakness THAI lhneres ~
our modern city life does no. spr iaf3
frorn the mere fact that we nave ie.'
The country behind us, nor is It the eI-
fact If mere numbers. but rather Goes
e. come from duty neglected anu Huu
forgotten in the Anxiety aDoue
and the turmoil of social sell -seeKihs'
We have forgotten that the Hrs' ~, 20
ton of wisdom is to teach the less IN
formed: that the first duty OF the alcn
10 to relieve the poor; that the hrst
hnrden of the strong IL to protect Inc
weak. God pity this land OF ours wnen
vice is legalised and those who hold
the reins Of power act as though they
were the agents Of the forces or evii
rather than of good. and when we nave
TO plead for the enactment OF laws pro-
tectine the children Of our cities
against those evils which sap the
strength OF nations and bring upon the
land which to1erates them moral
atrophy and divine wrath. That way
lies our peril
~. The Christian City: an Ideal and a
Possibility.-It should be ever remem-
bered that toward whatever goal Jesus
has pointed. we. His followers. should
direct our energies, and inasmuch as
He has called US unto holiness, in
thought and word and deed. and has
entered us as citizens OF the city that
is to be-" we should constantly seek
to make our present habitation as near
ideal as purity, faith and justice can
SO do. And for the task thus under
taken in His name, He will provide the
wisdom and the strength. If Ober-
ammergau can for over q hundred
years have neither murder. theft nor
outrage, existing without jail or
officer, because they live for Christ,
why may not we?