The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-17
CHRISTIANITY" IS HENDRIX TOPIC IN SERMON ON SUNDAY.
Pastor of Highlands Method iSt Church Also Speaks on Reform Movement to
 Large Congregation

christianity and reform movements
 was the subject discussed by Dr. w. R. Hendrix. pastor of High
 lands Methodist church, at the morn ing service yesterday. The text was.
 "A good man out of the good treas , ure of his heart bringeth forth good
 things; and an evil man out of the
 evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things" Luke e:45.
 A large congregation was present and gave earnest attention while the difference between futile and super fieial reforms was set in contrast with the fruits of the Christian re- ligion as manifested In the economic and soc,al relations of a Christian community.
 These words of Jesus were ad- tessed to the Pharisees, q Jewish religious sect, characterized by It's zeal to reform others. In this ad- dress Jesus emphatically asserts that their program of reform Is oven worse than useless. 'Ye compass land and sea to make one proselyte. and
 when ye have made him he is mote
 the child of perdition than he was before. No man can be in his right senses and not know that as indi
 viduais we need program of ra- form eo-extensive with our earthly iifo. National and world progress can only be secured through a pro gram of healthful, effectual reforms,
 through which mankind Is ever
 leaving its low-vaulted past Jesus
 combatted the Pharisaic reformerH A.Ir Ial Sh ssz failed to improve the people In char acter and conduct. and defrauded the world out of its legitimate desire for moral progress.
 Modern Pharisaism and its pro-
 gram of reform are fairly set forth
 in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Earth's
 Holocaust The moral of the story is that the evil of the world lies deeper than its habits and customs
 When all the reformers had finished burning up what they regarded as evil. no essential evil had really
 perished.
 The Christian philosophy of re- form is happily epitomized in the story of the conversion of zacheus, the publican. Covetous, unjust even to the extent of employing falsehood to secure the goods of defensele ss people, this deservedly hated man went out to see Jesus. who ho was. He saw him and reacted to him as many others have done. As he started tc his house to entertain Jesus he found set up in his own soul a stano- ard Of criticism, that challenged him to face the course of his evil life. He found a sense of personal guilt for his own wrongs, without Jesus saying ono accusing word. He found also enough of moral purpose to make the radical changes of resti- tuition, and to take humanity in on the 50-50 basis as a partner In h;s
 righteous possessions. In one short day greedy, grating public of- f!cial has become on his own inltl- ative an honest and open handed cit ixen, while the case of a corrupt public official has been settled out of court in far better way than any Jericho court could have done. This is the reform that Jesns came to set up. It works down at the roots of evil practices, by that divine power which changes an evil, selfish heart into one that is pure and good. The once evil man pnr- sues goodness in public office with out league of voters keeping tab or his official acts. The fallacy of III tNSTy dke IN the us- fusion that evil men may be coerced into proper course by organized opinion. As long as Christianity op- crates as the instrument of truth. and the channel of a divine power regenerating human hearts. all forms of social evil fall back before it's triumphant advance. When 1t be- comes a huge police body, accepting as it's weapons of warfare public opinion. 1t soon loses its peerless position as a force in human affairs. No the evil from which the world is suffering is more than a match for the organized opinion of the church | membership in even the most moral nations.
 "The hope of the world for puri. fled and peaceful social life lies with the men and women who enter into the thought and spirit of Jesus Christ. and accept the task of moral self judgment which He came to set in the earth, even as the publican zaccheus accepted it in Jericho on a spring morning some nineteen hun dred years ago"