Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1916-04-23

letters WniCn PUBIC SCnOOl prlnclpalS
and the social workers have written
to the parents OF whole cities, appeal
ing to them to keep their children
from the streets and to watch over
them more carefully. because multi
tudes of boys and girls from IL to
10 years of age are sneaking away
from the home to indulge the langors
and appetites of the flesh. until they
have become the servants of the baser
passions. Listen to the conversations
of college men and publicists when
they shake their heads and tell how
their age has gone crazy after ma
terialism and materialistic pleasures,
and you will begin to realize that
Judge Lindsey of Denver-the famous
judge of rhe juvenile court of that
city-is hardly beyond the truth when
he says. America is going back to
God. or America will go to the devil
in the next decade"
Honcycombcd With the Gangrcnc of
Selfishncss.
In times past of Christian expert
ence the main reason why men were
strong to do what they understood to
be right was their feeling that God
would mark their failure if they fell
short. They really believed in omnis-
cience, and made no artificial diff
erns do. how God can find time to
take account of men and women in
dividually. Under that compulsion
stout hearts went to the stake and
welcomed death rather than violate
their opinion of truth and right. I'm
der that compulsion men attempted
enterprises OF incredible and appar-
emily certain failure just because they
felt God expect I'd ii of them.
tury men who say in their heart
there is no God" or who would deny
a creator and governor of the uni
verse The present age is not atheis-
tic. We are not, comparatively
speaking. by little direct opposition
to revealed religion. Its moral teach
ing is respected: the sacred person OF
its founder is held in reverence; but
to feel the power in which the God
sense is dealing Immediately with
ones inner self is rare and becoming
more rare as the years go by. 1t is
no longer typical thought even FOR
Christians. The Creator has become
indeed "a God afar off"-a God as
sociated with inen and women by
vague, round about connections only
through laws and consequences And
1t is this condition of affairs that pre-
sents a stubborn obstacle in the way
of truth, and .he church will not
move on triumphantly until II man.
ages to get over this hindrance;
hindrance which is of too serious
nature to be allowed to pass without
some search for the reason OF 1t. And
honest Christian leaders everywhere
are asking whether there may not be
something to blame for it in the
terms in which Christianity has been
put before this generation.
or all the religions. christianity
alone is capable of satisfying the
needs of the human race; furnishing
power for the transformation of
character; meeting despair with sym
pathy, and the dread of future with
a living hope. And yet, strange as it
may seem. there are people who can
not understand how any question re-
lating to religion could have such an
effect as that psychological study
portrayed in Florence Barclays most
remarkable book "Out of the Abyss"
the plot of which centers about an in
Cident in which one Christian woman,
Spirit filled worker brought an ap-
paiently hopeless victim of the drink
| / abit into personal touch with the
| Divine Spirit; n story which Is not
only touching in the extreme, but of
pathetic importance. especially to
| those who are in any way interested in
| the deliVerance of a captive soul strug-
Cling in the snare of an overmaslering
physical desire.
The trouble with these doubling
Thomases is that they fail to realize
| a mighty factor in the case-a power
understood. not expressed-thatS all.
lave talked with men, the tumult
CT whose minds made me think of
the north coast waves as Robert Louis
Stevenson described them in all their
terror and power to wreck the frail
barks in which men voyage. And l
believe most firmly that when pledges
and promises have all been broken;
when punishments, suffcrings, shame
and degradation have utterly failed,
the power of the indwelling spirit Of
| God-in response to the cry or the
human soul-can snap the fetters in
moment and set the captive free
The stumbling block that lies big
| in the path of this argument is the
sickening, staggering truth of what a
certain lawyer. who was not an inf
del, but an Outspoken Christian OF
the evangelistic sort: man of brains
| who. when he was at his golden
height. was the elect and favorite
voice of nation on great and su-
rrcme occasions, said to me at the
close of one of my meetings held in
| the Peoples Temrle in Boston some
years ago.
81 have been and am now said he.
| "a regular attendant 6t church serv-
ices but how long l shall continue
to be counted among the faithful is
o problem. for I am sick and tired of
| listening Sunday after Sunday to plat
| itudes, evasions and glttering gener-
| ali'ies in sermons which are only the
shaking of the rags with which the
mental ministerial busting has been
done The church itself is n society
still honeycombed with the gam
creme of selfishness which Jesus came
| to cure. The world sees the ugliness
| Of unbrotherhood stitching out of this
body of Christ at every pore; and
honest Christiandom knows down
deep in its soul-although 1t may be
| humiliating to admit it-that its
purifying sores are the sores of Its
own unfaithfulness and not that of
its Lords life"
| Now 1t would be an easy matter,
but by no means Just. to cornerstone
ourselves upon the assumption that
this man-who had become so be-
wildered by this continual stdestep
ping of the pulpit uoon tho under
| lying principle or principles OF Chris
tianity-has simply got himself into
"a state of mind" that 1t would do
no good to reason with him, and