Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-12-06
OLD-TIlNE RELIGION
BY. BISHOP w. A. GAMBLER

! sources for executing the goddess and heart
| less designs which eliminated at last in
world which has broken the heart Of man
kind and made the whole world to mourn.
And yet nothing seems to have been learned
from all this dreadful harvest of grief and
death. In this same foOlhardy forgetfulness
of God and disregard of His law by which
| these awful results have been brought to pass
| the nations continue. They seem to be OBJ
i sessed with insane selfishness, a crazy
worldliness, and mad Wickedness. And our
own nation is affected with the mania. The
| people out-Neroing Nero fiddle while the
world burns down. The mania for sports and
| pleasure-seeking, prevalent among us, IS
| world wide.
In recent letter to an American paper
the distinguished writer and scholar, DR.. W.
Fiddian Moulton, of England, discusses the
matter in vigorous style and with just con-
| demnation. He says:
Serious minded people can not fail to be
! disquieted by the appalling homage paid to
sport by the masses of the pOpulace today;
and the prize ring affords the worst of all
manifestations of it because of its sheer bru-
tality. No event in modern life obtains the
! publicity which is given to prize fight, and
nowhere are the money transactions more
| grossly out of proportion to the value given.
In Dempsey's recent fight the purse for each
of the combatants was at least six times the
salary of a prime minister, and the operation
of earnings CD lasted less than two minutes
| Only during the last few days Carpenter the
Frenchman and Beckett had another fight,
and drew over Il 900 spectators to see it.
Some of the seats were priced at five guineas,
and the whole thing was over in fifteen sec
onds. One feels no grain Of pity for those
who get so little for their outlay. 1t serves
| them right, and many of us feel that, what
ever may be thought as to the result, it is
wholly to the good that the disparity between
cost and value received should be allowed to
operate to the discredit Of the whole 1nstltu-
ton of the prize ring.
'"Then there was the shipping of Papyrus,
the derby winner, to the states, under cond1-
lions which betoken at every turn an alto
cether preposterous conception of the impor-
lance of a race horse. The boxer and the
race horse derive their Importance from the
same fact-their usefulness as a medium for
! the exercise of the betting passion on the part
of the British and American public. Ellml-
nate all financial consideration from the mat
| ter. and no one would have brought over an
English race horse to compete with American
horses. 1t is not sport, pure and simple, that
is at the back of racing and prize-fghting; 1t
is sheer gambling in the one, and mingled
gambling and brutality in the other that
gives them their vogue; and it is no good
| talking about stopping such practices by law
They can only be stopped by changing the dis
nositions of those who ask for them"
Between such excuses and political cohdl-
lions there is a direct connection. When the
neople are absorbed in sports they ignore
public interests and obligations, and become
heartless towards the most melancholy dis
| tresses of humanity. They become greedy OF
gain in order to crafty their lust for pleas
ure. And their rulers shape policies to &C
cord with the desires OF a pleasure-mad
! populace.
DR.. Moulton is right eminently correct,
when he says these perilous evils can only
be stopped by changing the dispositions OF
those who ask for Them" and that change
can be wrought by no power except the re-
eeneratiye force Of Christianity.
| Wherefore, it is clear that the supreme
! need of the world is a revival of religion, and
| in this return of the nation to God our coun-
| try ought to lead the way.
| While the echoes of our services or ma
tional thanksgiving are still lingering In the
Land. let the goodness of God lead our people
to repentance. Let our pagan pleasures and
| goddess selfshness be put away in the deepest
humiliation and the most pungent penltence.
Hereby. we may save ourselves and help TO
save all mankind.
A great revival in the United States, burn
! ing in holy flames from ocean to ocean,
would illumine the whole earth and warm
the heart of mankind with new life and love.
80 Lord, revive thy work in the midst Oh
| the years. in the midst of the years make
known; in wrath remember mercy (Ha-
| bakkuk HID