The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], October 09, 1918, Page 3, Image 3

About The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931

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When they become naturalized, as they often
do very quickly, they are in the hands of wily
politicians, who swing their votes as they
please and always for the worst candidates.
They speak their own language and are nat
urally suspicious of the American. Hundreds
of newspapers are printed in foreign tongues
and spread ideas which are directly opposed to
sane and safe American views.
The swing of the pendulum is far and away
from our law-abiding and orderly democracy.
As is to be expected, fleeing from gross op
pression of the aristocracies and capitalists of
Europe, they have a hatred of all authority and
all who own property.
The destructive doctrines of anarchistic So
cialism find a fertile soil among these masses;
and plenty of orators to cultivate false and
dangerous views.
It is said that 80 per cent, of the leaders
among the Bolsheviki are men who have
learned their crude theories in America and
are telling the Russians that American democ
racy is a failure. The I. W. W. recruit is al
most entirely frcm these congested masses. This
is the menace to the body politic, carrying with
it danger both to Church and State, to peace
and righeousuess. These masses are here. They
will come in greater numbers when this war
ends. They will be found in .the South as well
as in the North and West, liut our menace
constitutes our opportunity.
Why has so little been done to make these
masses of people intelligent, well-regulated
Americans? The Church of God ought to awake
to this task in our very lap. Here in our home
land is a vast foreign population in the main
breaking away from Church restraints and
drifting out into infidelity.
If there is a gap between us, we can bridge
it with the gospel. We can insist 011 better
housing and sanitary conditions in our crowded
centers; and if they do not appreciate them
at once they will learn to do so.
If at first they imagine a bath tub is only
fitted to put the baby to bed in, they will
learn better soon. If the virtue of hot water
is misunderstood, as only a convenient way to
make tea, they will learn that hot water has
other and sanitary uses.
The cordial hand of Christian fellowship will
do much to make them feel that America is a
good home for all men.
The pubile school is the greatest solvent of
the hard crudities that have been dumped into
the American melting pot. We ought to stand
behind the public school. While it cannot be
sectarian in its teaching, nor do wo want it to
be, yet the Christian influence of every com
munity can see to it that men and women of
positive religious power are teaching. Here
in the public school is our opportunity to sow
the seeds of righteousness and authority, the
seed of an orderly and Christianized democ
racy.
The war will furnish a splendid opportunity
for making over this people. The discipline
of the army and its beneficent results will tell
on thousands of foreign born young men. Then,
too, the fine results and close fellowship of the
army will bring American and Italia Hand
others together, and the terms of contempt, so
common on our lips, will slip away as we real
ize the bravery and unselfishness of these men
of another race. No more will we speak of
"Dago" and "Hunk," and even "Chink" will
not be heard any more. They will rise into
more respectful treatment.
We must seize the opportunity or cower be
fore the menace. WhiehT A. A. L.
Contributed
THE DIVINE PAUPER.
By Rev. M. B. Lambdin.
Life abounds in wide variations and vivid
contrasts.
One man sits upon the throne of imperial
power, and lords it over the lives and happi
ness of millions with an autocratic sway. An
other possesses wealth so vast that it projects
itself beyond the cupidity of a Croesus, or the
avarice of a Midas. Others yet revel in luxury
and voluptuous delights undreamed of by an
Ahazuerus and unvisioned by a Lucullus.
Then, by way of contrast with these favored
few, the great majority of mankind wearily
trudge the hard path of earthly experience as
abject subject or helpless serf. Doomed to toil
and moil the faded years of their inconspicuous
lives pass away in the dead grind and struggle
of poverty, suffering and want.
And these wide contradistinctions among our
fellows are, in the main, largely beyond one's
choosing or control, or the persons happen to
be born to the purple or the jeans, to wealth or
to poverty, to exuberant surroundings or sor
did conditions.
To indulge in a far-fetched fancy, in a serious
vein for our purpose, if you will permit it, let
.us suppose that you and I had a prenatal, or
before birth, choice to determine what the char
acter and cast of our future earthly lot should
be. Don't you think that each one of us would
most certainly elect to be born in a palace,
to be clad in princely garb, to " fare sumptu
ously every day," and thus softly motor down
the primrose highway of life to its final end
ing, rather than to suffer its ragged and jagged
opposite? Sure. For this is the way of na
ture and of self.
Marvelous to tell, the wondrous story is far
beyond the widest range of the human mind
ever to have conceived it, but there was indeed
one Person, and one only, who actually did
have such an opportunity, and who made this
preadvcnt choice of a birth introduction into
this world. Not on the upper plain of ease
and pleasure, but the lower one of poverty,
shame and pain. And the One who made that
choice was not a mortal, not even an angel,
but the very Son of God Himself!
- Read the record, if j'ou will: "For ye know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
lie was rich ; yet, for j'our sakes lie became
poor, that ye, through His poverty, might be
rich." 2 Cor. 8:9.
Did you ever read of such a choice in all
the annals of the race, or in all the lore of
the ages? Think what must have been ?
The Superb Estate of the Son of God in
Paradise.
The graiulness of it all outreaches the ability
of mortal mind to visualize it in mental picture.
We can but glance at the mere fringes of
it, as it is preserved in the dazzling light of
the inspired word.
"Though he was rich." Before his earthly
incarnation Jesus Christ was "rich" in the pos
session of all the attributes of the Godhead.
In the exercise of his omnipotent power "all
things were made by him, and without him
was not anything made that was made." John
1 :3. The billions of burning suns, flashing
planets and glittering stars were created by
his august fiat. "Rich" in angelic homage,
exalted, holy and radiant angels and arch
angels, eherubins and seraphims, splendid and
etherial creatures, that outshine the brightness
of the ineritliau sun, veiled their faces, and
prostrated themselves in adoration before his
throne. "Rich," too, in unspeakable rapture
and felicity. "Rich" in the lordship and the
ownership of the wealth and treasure trove of
all the myriad worlds that track this bound
less universe.
All this, and more besides, that eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into
our hearts to conceive, was his to have, and
his to enjoy before the world was.
Give the freest flight to your imaginative
powers, then multiply it ten thousand times
ten thousand, over and over again, and vain
will it be for us to catch but a momentary
glance of the ravishing vision of the unspeak
able glory of the Eternal Son of God in Para
dise. "The half hath never been told," nor
hath the half ever been told of ?
The Deep Poverty of Jesus Christ in the World.
"Be became poor." Literally, "He became
pauperized. "
Earthly monarchs have lost their crowns and
exchanged a palace for a prison, the flatteries
of courtiers for the jeers of a rabble. But
what is this acute variation in outward circum
stance in comparison with the King of Glory,
who stepped down from the throne of heaven
to become "the man Christ Jesus"? "Who
being in the form of God made himself of no
reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of man."
Phil. 2:7.
? J' i
lie could not, of course, divest himself of
the divine essence, and abrogate the essential
properties and attributes of his Godhead. But
he did "empty" himself of the outward ac
cessories and visible display of them. This is
what we theologically call the "Kenosis." Thus
veiled in the fleshly garb of our humanity, sin
excepted, he made his advent into the world.
Born of a virgin out of wedlock to a hus
band, thus placing a "bar sinister" of public
suspicion and estimation across the escutcheon
of the legitimacy of his birth introduction into
this world. So "pauperized" that he first saw
the light of day in a stable, with his infant
form laid in a manger, possibly to the lowing
of oxen and the bleating of sheep.
"Pauperized" to a life of toil as the peasant
carpenter in an upland Galilean village of otY
color notoriety.
And when he went forth to that wondrous
ministry which has turned the world upside
down, and lifted the centuries oil' their rusted
hinges, while "the foxes had holes, and the
birds of the air had their nests, the Son of man
had nowhere to lay his head."
What a spectacle this, of the Almighty Cre
ator of the Universe, incognito in human flesh,
going up and down the land, homeless and
moneyless, as the pauper Preacher of Palestine !
And this "pauperism" was all voluntary on
his part. No rival thrust him from his eter
nal throne; stripped him of his divine roy
alty; and paralyzed the arm of his omnipo
tent power.
He himself "pauperized" himself, and why?
"For your sakes he became poor." Marvelous
"grace" was ?
The Divine Motive That Led the Son of God
to Exchange Heavenly Riches for
Earthly Poverty.
"That ye, through his poverty, might, he
rich." You and I have never come within a
thousand leagues of such self-eflfacement and
self-sacrifice for others.
Men have indeed given of their surplus
wealth in the real or ostensible relief of their
fellows. Have created and endowed massive