Evening star., 1940-08-24

around, has been its flagrant f1out-
ing of old Christian standards Of
conduct and of personal response
bility. do as you please" express
yourself" has been the accepted
rule of conduct. The four RS of a
truly civilized life-Reticence, Re-
finement, Reverence and Religion
have been thrown into the discard.
Flamboyant selfishness has had the
right of way. The Ten Command
ments have openly been scorned as
"out of date" Chastity has been
considered no longer sacred and
binding in the lives of myraids.
Plain honesty has been conspicu-
ously lacking in high business cir
cles. A lie is considered a social
convenience. The Sabbath day has
been widely and rapidly secularized.
Intemperance and divorce have be-
come fairly fashionable. Pleasure
has been made the chief end OF
men-and women. Carcass-coddling
is more common than concern one S
soul. Honor and the sanctlty OF
the pledged word have largely dis
appeared from the relations be-
tween many nations. Public wor-
ship has declined or become per-
functory. Verify, we have been
giving the devil his due, and deny
ing God his due.
Since the writing of Kipling's S
"Recessional" there has been no
poet or prophet to call our times
back to basic loyalty to God. Our
ears seem to be dulled to an aware
ness of national SHINING. Yet sin
is at the root of all of our evils
today. The word sin itself is out
of fashion; but the fact of sin is
awesomely operative. This present
lesson upon sin, its consequences
and its cure, is timely beyond all
estimate. For unless the world be-
comes newly awake to the awfulness
of sin. and turns to confession and
repentance. we may expect no resto-
ration at the hands of an overrullng
Providence.
For heather heart that puts her
trust.
In reeking tube and iron shard-
All valient dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to
guard;
For frantic boast and foolish word
Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!'
This 51st Psalm had its origin
in Davids Infamous sin with
Bathsheba. He had caused the death
Of her husband, brave and noble
Uriah. and had taken her to wife,
his companion in adultry. The in
cident is the sort of thing that
modern gossip columnists treat
lightly, as a phase of night club life.
Not so with Scripture. The horror
of man and God at such violations
of the sanctitv of life and of divine
law was we'll expressed by the
Prophet Nathan. who, standing be-
fore the king, pictured Daylds sin
in the parable of the one eve lamb.
David, not seeing himself in the
picture. burst out in indignation,
only to be brought low by the fear
less prophets Thou art the mani"
To make us moderns all conscious
of our sin. and of its Nervousness, is
the function of prophets who would
wear Nathan's mantle. Oh, for
words to awaken sinful hearts as
David was awakened! What the
king, freshly sin-consciouS and sim
loathing, thought of himself is por-
trayed in the two penitential psalms
which are our assigned lesson text.
Loose ideas of sin flow from loose
ideas about God. To think of God
as has for a generation been the
vogue in some quarters, as an i'm
personal, amorphous, gelatinous
Being Of indiscriminate benevolence
who stands for nothing imperative
in human life. is, of course, to rob
sin of its character as something
evil and dreadful. If it doesn't
mater to God how men behave,