Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-12-06
A MEDITATION AFTER THANKSGIVING


TT HE day of annual Thanksgiving has just
passed. The American people have
much for which to be grateful to God
While dire distress has filled other lands,
peace and prosperity have prevailed through
out the United States. "He hath not dealt
so with any nation" (Psalms CXLVII:2O.)
Amidst Astounding mercies our people
should not forget that blessings bring duties
and gratitude to God. for His loving kind
nesses calls for better expression than mere
words. Songs of praise ought to issue in
praseful service.
And the American people have opportuni-
ties to glorify God by service to mankind
| such no other nation possesses. Their vast
material resources, which almost exceed com
putation, enable them to do whatever money
can do to meet the needs of mankind-and
consecrated money can do much to relieve
human distress and restitution. 1t carr feed
the hungry, clothe the naked, and relieve
other innumerable ills. And it is to the
credit of the American people that they have
expended many millions of dollars for, the
relief of the woes Of lands beyond the seas.
With promptness and generosity they gave
above ten millions of dollars to stricken
Japan when earthquake, fire and flood had
brought to the Japanese unprecedented disas-
ters. In what is called 1.-THE Near East"
American relief corps continue to labor, heal
ing the sick, feeding the poor, and nursing
pitiful groups of orphaned children.
But the sorest need of the bruised, broken
and distracted world of today can not be met
by money, Or the things which money can
buy It's deepest distress arises from its men,
tai darkness and moral disorder
If it were purged of it's animosities and
hatreds. cleansed of it's immortality and indo-
Iences and recovered from it's godinesses, its
restoration in the matters of material pros
perity and of international peace would be
speedy and permanent. But without spirit
ual renovation its physical and political ills
will continue notwithstanding all efforts,
however we'll intended, which may be made
to heal them
Treaties can not purify and pacify man
kind. They have no more value than the
moral dependability of those who sign them.
Like promissory notes, they are just as good
as their understand no better. The treaty
of Versailles, from which for a season the
world hoped much, has been treated already
as "a scrap of paper" by some of the sigma
tory powers.
The only force that can meet the need of
the tragic crisis of the present generation is
that of religious regeneration.
Some seventy years ago, when Chartlsm IN
England was threatening a revolution, and
the international conditions and contentious
which issued in the Crimean war were fer
menting Carlyle wrote these strong words;
I'm the days that are passing over us, even
fools are arrested to ask the meaning OF
them: few of the generations OF meu nave
seen more impressive days. Days of endless
calamity. disruption, dislocation, confusion
worse COMPOUNDED. :. 1t is not small nope
that will suffice us, the ruin being clearly
uniyersal.- There must be a new world II
there is to be a world at all. These days
of universal death must be days of universal
rebirth if the ruin is not to be total ana
final 1t is a time to make the dulIest man
consider whence he came and whittier he is
bound"
The words of the stern sage of Craigenput-
toch have been justified by the march OF
events since they were uttered. There was
no universal rebirth of the nations then, but
only partial and limited rebirths. By conse-
ouenceN have followed the appalling disasters
of the present day which have been dlmin-
ished and mitigated in exact proportion 10
the regenerative forces which operated within
comparatively narrow limits. The same old
international ambitions and antpathles have
prevailed. European statesmen, in utter
faithlessness, have continued to act on the
atheistic assumption that righteousness
among nations is impracticable, and that
wrong and deceit are the reliance of the dip
lomats Religion on the continent has de-
clined to ever lower and lower levels, ration
alism eating the heart out of it in central
Europe and ritualism suffocating it in south
ern and eastern Europe. The material pros
perity which has sprung from modern science
and invention has furnished the material re-