Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-08-29

|
will make great or, for that mat
ter, moderate sacrifices, to this
end. The truth is, that what
ever the abstract ideals of peo-
pies may be, material interests,
questions of national security
and racial integrity have today
exactly the value which they
have always expressed. The
| proof is in the experience of the
| Americans in Paris, who based
trary notion"
on yet in Europe, and China and
| Japan are at strife about the Shan
tung province, Japan trying to grab,
without reason or Justice, all she
can, and>China trying to rescue what
she believes rightfQlly belongs to
movement to resist the unrighteous-
ness encroachment of Japan upon
that unhappy country.
In addition to all these 1ntefna-
tional contentious, a war of classes
prevails in all lands. In our own
for strife the most cause for graft
tude to God and brotherly kindness
among men, there is restlessness,
strikes, lockouts, and inexcuable dis
quietude.
What does all this mean? When
men were yearning for peace and
crying "eace! Peace" why should
begin to raise ecries of discord and
hostility? 1t Yimply means that
selfishness still prevails in a sinful
world, and that selfish world cannot
be a peaceful world. Mr.. Simonds
put his finger on the root of all the
international contentious when he
says, "The truth is, that whatever
the abstract ideals of people may be,
materials interests, questions of ma
tional security and racial integrity
they have always possessed" A
similar statement may be made con-
corning the industrial and CONNER
cial and social strife prevailing in
each Of the nations. Men love power
just as they have always loved it.
on because each class wants all it
can get and prefers strife to the
denial of its demands. One agitator
at least has gone so far as to inti-
civilization unless its exorbitant de-
mands are allowed. On all sides,
men and women are crying for their
rights and forgetting their duties.
In the meantime we have any
number Of pretentious reformers try
ing to pacify the world by schemes
of reconstruction which when ana
ing more than complicated devices
to establish some sort of equilibrium
between the various and conflicting
manifestations of self1shnesS in the
earth. But none Of these devices will,
or can, avail to accomplish the ends
desired. The world cannot find peace
until it first finds purity; men must
be converted to God before they will
live amicably with their fellowmen
What is needed is a worldwide
41Jr r. fhra11O1 fo 90
and faith. This is beginning to dawn
dimly on some leading minds. For
example, the editor of the Hilbert
journal, in a recent address, reaches
the conclusion that the problems Of
humanity have outgrown it's wits,
and that "the bare statement of them
is enough to reduce the boldest mind
to despair" With reference to the
solution Of these problems he says:
Had we nothing but the wis
dom of this world to guide, us,
as it comes through the reason
trines of economists, and the
speeches of statesmen, and the
literature of reform, then the
difficulty of it all would be over
whelming, and it might we'll seem
that the great interests of man
kind would remain forever the
plaything of capricious forces,
| uncontrolled and uncomfortable
| by the wits of man. But there is
another wisdom far removed
from all this, the wisdom of ma
ture in her calmest and hottest
moods, the wisdom of the loyal
heart, the flame of love that
glows in simple souls; and it is
precisely when we come to the
great world-problems, with their
immense entanglements, that we
are thrown back on these .ele-
| mental forces and find in them
the clue to our problems and
the business of our lives.
There. as I conceive It; lies
bring men back to the great SIM
p1icities; to make common cause
with the mother truths; to rein
state them as the guiding mo-
tives of human life.
| Civilization has become an
immense ENHANCEMENT, a great
Gordian knot, in which ten thou
sand conflicting interests have
got tied up into complication
| dom cannot unravel. We are all
, living deeply entangled life,
and I believe a moment is COM
ing when the sense of entangle-
rfent will throw us back on the
great simplicities and on the
! mother truths, and we shall find
salvation in them and in them
alone. I see no hope for these
! things save in the sword of the
! spirit which is the word of God.
There is a knot to be cut
through; and an elemental force
is demanded to deal the sunder-
ing stroke"
| Continuing he says further along
in his address:
81 do not know how any man
can look upon the world in which
we are now living without in
stantly coming to the conclusion
/ that it stands in need of some
masterful saving power 1t is a
rescue that is needed, rather than
a mere reform. There has been
shipwreck, a catastrophe;
things have got out of hand; and
there is state of horrible con-
fusion"
DR.. Jacks is right; what is needed
j is "a rescue rather than a mere re-
\ FORM" and to accomplish this rescue
"a mastery saving power" is re-
quired.
Where shall we look to find such "a
masterful saving power" if not to
the gospel of Christ which is "the
power of God unto salvation unto
every one that believeth." This, and
2 this alone, is the hope of our restless
j md strifetorn world.
\ For nearly fifty years Christen-
q lom has been, to a greater or less
of materialistic philosophy, which
has taught men to depend upon en-
l. vironment and heredity for personal
h and social development. God has
been ruled out of his world, and the
blind and impersonal forces of ma
!. ture have been relied on to evolve
~ Ill needed good for the human race. in