The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-08-20
In the Religious World
What the Church Folk Are Thinking About and Doing

When the young king came to the
throne he found the nation In a
sorry state Of decline. The worship
Of Jehovah had been largely super.
seeded by the idolatries OF the sur.
rounding nations, with their appeal
10 the sensual nature OF man. An
appalling state OF depravity had
been reached, one so far below our
modern conceptions OF religion that
only those with knowledge of.
say, the baser side OF Hinduism can
understand it, War and its contracts
and compromises had brought into
judah all the denominations Of the
surrounding nations. Pure religion
and immortality cannot coexist.
side by side; and the true worship
OF Jehovah was engulfed by this
flood OF depravity. No modern re-
former ever faces conditions so bad
as those met by young King Asa.
The Reformer's Mission.
Left to itself, society says and
slumps. When men do as they
please, they commonly please to do
wrong. Throughout the centuries,
the great social corrective has been |
the prophet and the reformer. some
times both Offices being united in |
one man. A world without these |
idealists would be hopeless indeed |
Consider how far judah had deter |
iorated from the great days OF Da- |
vid and Solomon! Nobody be he |
the greatest OF kings. can establish |
a social order that will endure per.
manently; but he can transmit TO |
his sons the impulse and the pur.
pose and the vision TO maintain life |
at high levels.
This "gleam" had been passed on |
to Asa. Where there is no vision,
the people perish; and without the |
diyiner conceptions Of life which |
burn in noble breasts this old world |
would soon perish OF its own rotten
ness. Always these reformers are |
derided by their own generation,
Just as practical" men today sheer |
at the prophets who proclaim a com. |
ing day Of inevitable social Justice, |
Of peace on earth, and OF world |
brotherhood. The administrators In |
Asa's court gave him scant encour.
agement in his reforms. They knew |
human nature; by which they |
meant that they understood the |
baser side OF people. Nobody truly |
knows human nature who does not |
clearly perceive its capacity for |
idealism. Judah for time rose
to Asa's lofty expectations for II. |
even as the peoples at war TO-
day have shown a heroism, a self. |
sacrifice. a devotion to great OBJ |
jectives which year ago the cyni- !
cal observer never suspected.
A wise reformer enlists the high |
est motives that can possibly be at, |
tached to his cause. SO Asa. be- |
cause he himself was primarily a |
spiritually minded young man. made |
his appeal TO judah on a. religious |
basis. He rallied the people to the |
God or their fathers. All the force |
OF the covenants which had been
made with Jehovah by Solomon and |
David and Moses and Jacob and
Abraham was directed TO the re. !
enforcement OF the new movement.
Let II be said over and over again. |
that true reform cannot come on
any other basis. Not prudence, not |
prosperity. not enjoyment not self. !
interest, IL an adequate foundation |
for change In the social order. |
Only religion. which transforms the |
heart OF man. can make over the |
world in which man lives. That n
Why Billy Sunday campaign does
more 10 clear mp community than |
a political reform movement.
The Man with a Hammer.
Some things have 10 be smashed, |
In any true reform. That II where a
certain type OF mind balks: II would |
cover the old idols with floral |
vreaths. and draw curtain before
the temple debauchery, and provide |