The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1914-04-03

of considerable prominence, ad
dressed the Mems Christian and
Civic Association last Sunday
evening, the subject of his talk
being THE Rediscovery of
Christ" :" MI. Ward brought a
somewhat unusual message to
his audience and seeming to rea-
lize that it might appear so, said
that in speaking he wished to feel
free to present his thoughts in
his own way and that he thought
it was good sometimes for people
to hear the other side.
Getting together in communi-
ties in these days to consult on
vital problems relating to human
ity and to bettering human and
social relations isone of the prom
inent features in most advanced
localities. When the Pharisees
reproved Jesus and his disciples
for plucking ears of corn on the
sabbath to satisfy their hunger
as they we're walking through the
fields he replied that the sabbath
was made for man and not man
for the sabbath, and asked also
which one of them would not get
his OK out of the pit into which
it had happened to fall on the
sabbath. Now the great part of
humanity is in the ditch today
and it is only by combined effort
that it can be rescued.
The Bible is full of social mes
sages to the world and thus far
the world does not seem to have
grasped them. How strange it
is that after two thousand. years
christianity has not succeeded in
christianizing any of our civilized
nations. Conditions are more or
less appalling in all of them. Mil
lions are suffering fr.- IN the blight
of poverty, hundreds are on the
verge of starvation, women and
children are everywhere perish
ing in the struggle for existence.
Every morning an army of two
million children march forth to
their day of toll. The records of
the courts reveal injustice, graft,
corruption and vice. The heath
en- sacrifice of infants to the Nile
is not to be compared to the sac.
rifice of children on the altar of
greed in enlightened, civilized
countries. How is it that so
many evils exist in Christendom?
Obviously christianity has not
christianized. Is it christianity
that has failed or is it we who
have failed? We have preserved
our christianity through all the
ages indeed it seems to have
been too carefully preserved
we have not worn our religion.
Now the wonderful thing about
this christian religion of ours is
The fact that it cannot wear out.
the more it is used the more at
tractive, beautiful and lovable it
becomes. Why then has chris.
tianity not produced a greater
effect on life? The trouble lies
in the fact that it's great princi-
pies have not been properly ap-
piled to these evils. 1t has been
beautifully applied in private life
but has never been properly and
intelligently brought to bear up
on our great social problems, and
it is our duty to learn how to use
its principles intelligently in
combating the evils of the age.
We must discover how to estab.
lish christian government and
christian industry.
Christianity is religion for
social beings and their social re-
lations. A man marooned on a
deserted island could not pract.
ice christianity. He could not
love his neighbor as himself, he
could not feed the hungry or
clothe the naked for there would
oe no one whom he could help.