Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-10
Sundays Sermon Today

] pockets OF one man with the fingers OF
their hand will without hesitation, pick
the pockets OF so,oo0.eo0 people with the
fingers OF their monopoly or commercial
advantage. Men In whose hands the
virtue Of your wife or daughter would
be as safe as in your own. but who Will
every year drive hundreds OF cases
OF virtue over the line into vice by
the pressure OF starvation wages which
they pay. Men who viii gladly draw
their check for $4,000 and sive It TO a
children's hospital and see nothing ridicu-
luus In the fact that the $4,000 for the
children's hospital came out Of $4,000
made from a system of child labor which
brushes more children in one year than
the hospital will heal IN 10. In other
words, this idea has produced a type of
| man in America who seems TO be very
religious in his private life. but exactly
the opposite in his public life.
"By this idea OF religion, we have pro-
| duced a type of man who will be true
| to his wife and his marriage vows, but
| will go out and graft In politics. We
have a type of man who will not sell you
| poison while you are looking at him, but
will sell adulterated food that will kill
people 1000 miles away. II religion don't
make you sell good goods, II Isn't worth
three whoops this side Of hell L say.
| don't give a snap OF my finger for what
a mans private life is IL his public life
Is rotten. I don't give a rap how pious
you look on Sunday II you look like the
devil on Monday.
Somebody needs to say II so loudly
that it can be heard around the world
that Christianity is a religion not only
for the private life OF a man, but n re-
llglon to be translated into every nook
and corner of his life, public as well as
private haven't much respect for
mans religion as II walks down the car
peted aiale of n cathedral II he fails to
niyad IA
counter.
Running away from the world in or
der to be good makes morality negative
The idea In running away from the world
Is, of course, to get away from the bad
things and from temptations. and whom
ever man adopts that policy Invariably
his whole life is spent in the attempt to
be not bad Now. OF course, there must
be a negative side to morality. man
can never be the man he ought to be un-
less he does not do certain things, but,
after all, that is only half of morality.
You have seen men whose whole re-
lglon was summed up in decalogue OF
don'ts and whose whole effort seemed
to be to curb the life of the world.
Morality Ia positive as we'll as mega
tive, and when a man has succeeded In
not doing the bad things of life he has
won but the first half of the battle. To
that negative side he must add great
positive side.
1T is significant that Jesus said Thou
shalt oftener than he said Thou shalt
not ] think He did that because He
knew that the best way TO avoid doing
bad things was to be everlastingly busy
doing good things. Every now and then
I hear somebody say, I tried to- be good,
but / could not l haven't much. SYM
pathy with that type. for know that In
nine cases out Of ten the man hasn't tried
II. .I.y rt.I nat IN
be bad and trying to be not bad Is about
the most difficult and dlscouragins job In
the world 1t is just like trying to be not
extravagant or not anything II you ever
tried to be not extravagant, you know
how hard a thing 1t is.
II heard OF a man the other day who
solved the problem of extravagance and
economy In the only sensible way. His
wife was overspendtng the family income,
something had to be done. He knew II
would do no good to give her curtain
lecture on economy. 1t would simply
bring on another one of those domestic
explosions whose names are legion. In
stead of that he came into the room with
a smile and said, Mary I saw Baldwin
grand piano in tho store this afternoon
which think we ought to have. Bundle
up the kids and we'll go down this eve
ming and look 1t over The wife nearly
tainted. she did not know whether John
was SICK or BeltlnB TenSlOn, OF WndI was !
the matter with him. But she and the |
children went. The man demonstrated |
the piano and John said, Send 1t up |
They bought II, like many of you buy |
your things, on the instalment plan. Up |
TO that time John had not limited economy,
but Mary of her own accord said, John,
IL we ever pay for this piano we will have
to be a little more economical in our
spending John smiled and said, all |
right The wife began to figure out this
place and that place where savings could |
be made and those savings were made
and by the time the Baldwin grand was
paid for the entire family had got the
habit Of economy and did not break away
from it after the piano was paid for. You
see he understood the negative Is never
the best side on which to approach q
and there Is a Baldwin grand
in religion as there is in cconom-
les, and the man who becomes wrapped
up in the job of being and doing big
and positively good things need never
worry very much about avoiding the bad
things that Will come as a byproduct of
his battle for goodness
Running away from the world in order
to be good is not Christian. OF course, I
know that the adjective Christian is
rather a tricky adjective to use before
the average American audience; there are
so many notions and ideas about Chris
tianity that you are never quite sure that
a crowd knows what you mean when you
say Christian; but ! assume that that is
which is most like Jesus, and
certainly II there ever was a person who
did not run away from the world in order
to be good it was Jesus. He mingled
freely and frankly with the rough and
tumble OF everyday life. He rubbed
elbows with all sorts and conditions OF
men. He did It so freely that religious
high brows OF the day criticised him Sc
verely; they called him a giutton, a
wine bibber and a friend of publieans
and sinners.
Now We use the phrase The Friend OF
Publleans and Sinners in our sermons
today as a high compliment to Jesus,
and rightly So But We ought TO remem-