The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-08-12
In the Religious World
A Politicians Biggest Blunder

| 10 much He made the politicians
stake OF cultivating the meaner.
ser side of human nature. and OF
ling 10 appeal to Its nobler senti-
hts. Jeroboam thought that an
sy. debased form Of religion would
e popular. and so he made pro
ION tor II. thus tempting the people
Nay from their allegiance 10 Je-
ovah.
Satan's Nearest Kin.
The best friend OF evil this side
- perdition, the man who IL nearest
N TO Satan himself. is the man
10 deliberately tempts people TO
wrong. Even the imagination OF
Milton or Dante has not devised
torment adequate 10 those diabol-
osl creatures who Intentionally lead
heir fellows astray. Yet the line
ii tempters did not end with Jero-
D@am. The pitiless publicity OF our
az has revealed whole classes Of
inen and women who seduce the I'M
xary into sin. The entire hideous
shite-slave traffic is made up Of
srch. So is the drug business. So.
in considerable degree. is the liquor
business. Publishers and purveyors
Of vile literature and pictures fall
into the same black classification
The cad big Logs who teach evil to
younger boys are apprentices to this
trade of Satan One shudders as he
cortemplates the variety and num-
DER ard might OF the forces who.
people into sin. Society cannot deal
too strongly with them now: and
they viii have TO reckon with a just
Judge hereafter.
Muddled minds may think that
history has been too hard on Jero-
beam, who was a practical man.
facing novel and 6inicult situation.
All that he did, say they. was TO
divert the stream OF religious devo-
ton from the old national shrine at
Jerusalem. and 10 make worship cas-
ier BIZ setting up two symbols of Je-
hovah, in the familiar form of the
Why not adapt the stern monothe-
ism OF Moses to the popular fash
ions of the day?
Very plausible. indeed. But aside
from the fast. happily uncompre-
hended by present-day western civil
ization- that along with this wor-
ship of the bull went idolatrous rites
OF vile RIGHTEOUSNESS. there remains
the tremendous truth that religious
ideals are the mother-matrix of all
other ideals. What a man thinks
about God determines that he will
think about everything else. To
corrupt religion il to pollute society
nest seriously. Jeroboam commit
ted the sins Of sins. in leading the
nation away from God. That was
political and moral offense, as well
as religious heresy. Some nations,
with tear-cleared vision, are now
seeing that the only thing that real
ly matters Ia mans relation to God.
"Ah. but expediency required this
concession" says Mr.. Worldly Wise
man. On the contrary. only deepest
religious devotion could have saved
the divided kingdom. II history has
taught any one lesson # Ia that IL
is never right to do wrong. As
George Eliot puts It. Nothing In the
world Is worth doing wrong for"
Our own young conntry's history Is
marred by the wrecked careers of
public men who preferred 10 be DO
licit rather than 10 be true. Our
great men are they who have dared
10 be loyal 10 their ideals and to
whatever the cost. Jeroboam be
queathed 20 posterity a name Of
odium. because he lacked the vision
and tho courage TO do right. in spite
OF consequences.