The Alaska citizen., 1916-06-05
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HOW JESUS ASSAULTED EVIL

unto one ot the least ot these, my brethren. ye have done 1t unto me Matt. 25 40.
 In the great world in which w. live progress IS thing oi degrees. In laws. tolls, liberty. as well d3 grains 1t Is "Ilrst the blade then the ear. then the full corn i'll the ear" The speed Of yesterday Is slowness today, just as the house of the fathers has become hut. The modern historian looks back ward through twenty centuries made glorious by the influence Of Jesus. During His lifetime Jesus assaulted all forms of evil and His disciples have carried on the warfare. Just aa Lincoln round an opportunity m the woes of the slaves, as Gari- baldi found his chance in the grey oDs injustice fastened upon five mil lion Italian peasants; as Gladstone Was called to great task, through the butChery of the helpless Ar menians, so Jesus lived in an era of inhumanity toward man and or ganized d spiritual crusade agains' every form of evil and crime that blackened the ancient world
 l. Jesus began his career by an assault against cruelty. The world of His day had intellect without heart, genius without sympathy. Tn" reign of that Caesar under whose Iule Jesus was born was reign ot greed and blood He ruled over countless slaves. who, nconstant fear of death. were finally slau&h- tered for that wicked mans plea surt The cities of the Nile felt free 10 strap their infants upon boards 10 dwarf their growth, 'or duutnutlye figures would be mor" acceptable al the court as pages. Victorious in battle. the soldiers led then captiYea home with wires through their tongues. Julius Ca" sar slew half million men in his wars of conquest, and later fell by the cruel blade. \ capital that could build a Coliseum holding TO- GOO spectators could enthrone an emperor that brought to their death more than l0 900 gladiators. It is true that Augustus finally limited the number Of gladiators that could be slain in one day 10 l20, but the people called this an act of unkind- ness to the audience. It was time when slaves were chained to post on d bitter cold night of winter; when women irritated at the maid. thrust the hairpn into her flesh, when Padenius ordered 400 slaves to be slain that he might be sure 10 apprehend the one who had broken a choice vase. It was an age of infanticide. of the neglecting of the sick. of bloody games, of cruel hondmen when Jesus said. as He identified Himself with every child exposed in the marketplace, "lna3- much as ye did il unto the least Of these, ye have done 1t unto me. Calling before Him the merclleSs taller, the cruel soldiers, the wicked emperor, He pronounced this jude ment upon them: Woe unto hin! who offends one of My little ones; it were better for him that mill stone were hanged around his meek and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea These words sounded like the coming of sudden doom upon the guilty populace.
 II. Jesus continued His career with an assault against vice. The words, Sodom and Gomorrah. as pronounced Dy Jesus against His times, made the city, used as il- mstrations of such, vices, infamous. Not only many of the people prac, ticed certain crimes and vices but worshipped the passions that were behind them. Today our museums have saved 10 us bones of mon sters of the early ages, that lived and wrought their common destruc- ton, so there is preserved 10 Us all the wickedness and depravity in the words of Sodom and Gomorrah as Jesus saw them in His day. Un- fortunate is that city whose crimes are such that they can be compared to those ancient cities of moral filth and corruption. Some modernS have lost faith in progress and are greatly distressed by the outcry and turmoil against modern vices, but the uproar comes not so much from new evils, aS from new public conscience-the new intellect anl moral development under the guid- ance of Christianity. Vice has grown less and sensitiveness has grown more With God thousand years are as one day. The excava- tions of Pompeii tell us in words that cannot be understood that Je- sus' assault on ancient vice has been successful. Our earth has journeyed leagues from the malodorous swamps where monsters of evil drew their slimy lengths.
 III Jesus made a powerful as a nf