Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-12-13
OLD-TIlNE RELIGION
BY BISHOP W. 4. GAMBLER

ceases to be good in any sense of the
term.
"City ring government is modern adap-
tation of the old 'despotism idea, incul- |
Gated by the 'tyrants of ancient Greece, !
applied by the arstocratic oligarchies of
medieval Italy.
"They know like MussoIini, that people |
ordinarily are interested, not in what they |
render to government, but in what they |
get out of it. If the voters get good streets, |
attractive parks, convenient transportation |
prdc-tickling public, buildings, good water, |
a city that has the seeming of booming
progress and opulence in which they may
share-they are usually content, and worry
not about the source of the blessings, nor
scan too cautiously the tax bills they pay.
And, too, taxpayers are not usually voting
majority. Tammany works on that prlncl-
pie, and gets away with it, year after year,
only rarely becoming fat-headed and futile
and suffering defeat"
While these conditions threaten the CIV
ilizatiOn Of the world, men who have eyes to
see and voices to speak the truth are needed
to proclaim with renewed power the old and
indispensable doctrine that man shall not
live by bread alone"
This divine teaching is fundamental to
the welfare of men and nations Without
its recognition they perish Materialism suf-
locates their moral life.
Man is more than a mere animal, and
life is more than luxures with which to
indulge physical appetites and serve ma
teral ends.
In our country, in which there is not
found the desoation and restitution preva
lent throughout the Continent of Europe,
this truth, which Moses spoke and Christ
repeated with divine authority and emphasis,
needs to be preached with compelling force.
Our people are imperiling their patirimony
of liberty and good government by their
riOtOus living Law is set aside under the
70 ton +O
indulgence. Multiplied thousands have come
to believe, and to act on the belief, that
nothing is sacred that stands between them
and their self-gratiicatiOns. Homes may be
pulled down ruthlessly, and laws nullifed
with impunity. The Sabbath is prOfaned and
the week days polluted by the mad pur-
suit Of pleasure. Educational institutions,
maintained at great cost, are perverted from
the high ends Of culture to the base uses of
| games Churches even are invaded by stroll
ing fun-malers and goddess players in order
to make diversions for faithless pleasure
lovers.
This evil way leads to speedy destruc-
ton. 1t ends at Vast in the overthrow of
free government and the corruption of re-
| ligiOn.
When Israel sat down to eat and drink
and rose up to play, the Hebrew people fell
into Wretched idOlatry and gross immortality.
exodus XXXii:6.) Then it was they made
the golden calf and worshiped it, land sacri-
| IlCtHl JucIGuulO % all nations JndC nave
run to ruin have persisted by suicidal acts of
| seIf-corruption. Not one has died by any
hand but its own.
From such a doom nothing can save the
American Republic but unfeigned repentance
and an humble return to God.
False prophets may delude them with
| speclous IeclamatiOns about pessimism and
| optimism. That brood like vultures, has al
! ways clrcled above the heads of decadent ma
! lions who were approaching death.
These are they who fOndly cry, God is in
his heaven; all is we'll with his world" God
! was i'll his heaven when the flood was com
! Ing and the antediluvian Optimists were de-
| riding Noah as a pessimist. God was in
| his heavens when the sinners of Sodom
| Knocked righteous Lot. Because God was in
! his heaven the flood came and the fire fell.
| Because God is in his heaven overwhelming
! judgments fall on sinful men who defy Him
and wicked nations who forget Him.
The righteous God in heaven will not per
NIT sin to run riotously in the earth forever.
All his holy power is engaged to cure or
destroy it.
Solomon, the Wisest of men, uttered words
! which we will do well to heed: Because
| sentence against an evil work is not executed
| speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of
| men is fully set in\them to do evil Though
! a~slnner do evil hundred times, vet surely
| | know that it shall be we'll with them that
| fear God which fear before Him; but it
I snail not be well with the wicked neither
! shall he prOIOng his days. which are shad-
! oW, because he feareth not before God. -
(Ecclesiastes yiii:11-12D