Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-20
LENTEN SPEAKER HITS
CRAZE FOR GOLD; CALLS
FOR REIGN OF SPIRIT
DR.. F. K. Fretz Denounces I'M
perialism and Demands Re-
turn to Life of Culture
and Religion
POINTS TO OLD WORLD

warning that Americans must give
up their craze for gold and pleasure IL
they hope to escape destruction was is
sued today by the Rev Or. f. X Fretz
of Easton, Pa, in stirring Lenten sermon
in Old St Johns Lutheran Church, Race
street, below 9Th.
Doctor Fretz denounced the statement
of certain prominent labor leaders who
have said that the church in the first
century was nothing more than labor
movement.
He asserted that Jesus was not a mere
labor reformer, and that Paul was not
walking delegate. lie declared that
better wage would not hasten the saliva
tion of the age. He censured young Amer
lean women Of rich families who trade
their wealth for worthless titles" He
declared that America was drunken with
prosperity.
imperialism" said Doctor Frct2, "s
the perpetual tempter of the young and
the strong. 1t Is making thousands of
graves for nations in the Old World,
drunken with the wine of power The
wealth and glory Of nations were offered
Jesus. Gold is the serpent tempter that
bewtches men in our day.
"A,s a people we are drunken with pros
perity. We try to test education by its
earning power. We estimate citizens and
cities by their wealth. Titled knights
come from across the seas and lay worth
less coronets at the feet of American
maldens whose fathers have climbed the
ladder of success and the coronet goes
to the highes. bidder. Multtudes of young
men and women refuse the duty of home
making because, they say, they cannot
afford Il. We have laid aside the Deca-
logue, with its Thou Shalt Nots.' and have
pronounced Christianity impractical for
the business world because it will not pay
the highest dividends.
This Is our mountain of temptation.
We have forsworn books and culture and
have given up the old-fashioned idea of
worship on the Lords day as of chief
Importance and our whole theory of life
is expressed in the words will it pay%
Christ answers the question What
shall 1t profit man If he gains the whole
world and loses his own soul? In this
materialistc age IL is the duty of the
church to call mon back to God. We
must give up our craze after materialism
and pleasure. At times we are almost
compelled to think Judge Lindsey. of
Denver is correct when he says, Amer
lea is going back to God, or America
will go to the devil within this genera
ton VIII you help this generation back
to God?"
In refuting the claims of certain labor
unionists that the church was intended
to be purely labor movement, Doctor
FretZ, said
1.-THE industrial puzzle is on all our
tongues. Amid the clamor for wages and
hours and the rights of the workingman,
there is a party loudly condemnnE the
church IS useless and apostate because
she does not become labor union This
party makes the false statement that the
Church in the first century was nothing
more than n labor movement The pres.
nrOhlnn1 of broad and hIlttpr Is all
there is to their existence. Instead of full
filling her mission by giving to men the
bread of life, the Church should reduce
the high cost of living. But Jesus was
not mere labor rcformer. His Church
is not an industrial movement nor the
mere arbitrator of an economic problem
Paul was more than n walking delegate
among Nero's slaves. 'rhe first tempta-
ton of Jesus was that he should make
His church and His Messiahship an indus
trial revolution and turn stones into
bread"