The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-09
THE PROPER WAY
 ID COMBAT EVIL
The Rev. SlatOn Breaches at
 Fountain Heights
THE CAUSES OF EVIL
How Modern Humanity Takes the Wrong Attitude Toward Evil. Only Cure Is to Overcome
 It With Good

What is a reasonable attitude toward evil? Such was the theme of an en- Tightening sermon preached yesterday morning at the Foutain Heights Method ist church by the pastor, the Rev S. T Slaton.
 In the course of the sermon all forms of evil were outlined and the proper att titude toward sin was defined with ve- hemence by the pastor, who waxed elo- quent at the danger of tolerance of sin The text of the sermon was from Ro- mans, xii;21, Be not overcome with evil. but overcome evil with good" Dr. Sla- ton said in part;
 ''Dishonesty at the neighborhood gro- cery store, unlxndness to ones playniates In a game fearful accidents from fire, bread and famine, taking that which does not belong to you murdering a companion on the brilliantly lighted streets of cos mopolitan clty-al bear unquestioned evi- dence of the presence of evil in human society.
 Evil comes as the results of disobe- dience to the laws of humanity's we'll be ing. Whatever motive may lie at the
 
 ing the path of human welfare.
 Not Question of Proof
 'Ths quetsion which faces the world is not the matter of proof, for this is fully demonstrated by the course of human events going on around us every day, such as the misery of thousands of people who live in the dark dungeons of rickety and germ infested flats. so that their alleged Christian owners may roll about in auto mobiles and live in palaces and more or less riotous living on the rents and insuf- ficient living wages given to the unfortu- nate poor.
 "The real question is what shall be the public's attitude toward evil7 From the days when the old patriarch Job sat on the ash heap and scraped his emaciateG body with a potsherd. men have come face to face with the tragedy of human suffering and the evils of human life. the presence of which leads men and women to seek relief in opiates. drugs and an- odynes, alcohol and the various forms of intoxication so that for a few hours at least they dream and forget their troubles caused by the evil which Is paramount in this world Millions rush into the tenn porary pleasures of vice and intoxication; they are willing to forseo the future well fare Of life in order to be rid now of the grind and monotony of life's round. That is a very weak attitude toward evil-to admit it's existence and in disappointment go out and get drunk. thus creating further evil
 
 Another attitude toward evil Is the way some men and women speculate their way through the problem of sin in human society They move about in life, related to nothing In particular with the thoughts that if the old moorings are broken. there are no standards of dealing with this great question. That is an attitude of in- difference and selhshness and should not be tolerated in this Christian world.
 Faulty Attitude
 .The attitude of overcoming evil with evil is faulty to an extreme. The prisons of today filled with their miserable in mates, do not right the wrongs against society they may have committed-rather let us say the state adds injury to the crime of the individual by locking thou sands of human beings up m dingy cells and no one gets any benefit from it. The man who has been injured gets no benefit from the fact that he knows that the man who injured him is in jail for life. except in possible cases of mean satis- faction. The state gets nothing from the nrisoner-in the first place, she loses a useful citizen in some line of endeavor- and again she has to pay for his keep while in jail The incarceration does not reform-in fact, it makes for worse. as the convict forever feels at war with the authorities. Therefore. if must be ap-