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it Is Time To Try Religion

The Body Politic Was Never So III

No one needs to be informed that the world is sick

as a whole as well as in its every part. It has a veritable

complication of diseases, economically, politically, intel-

lectually, morally, religiously.

Such a diagnosis has been made by thousands of

specialists, competent to judge; such a diagnosis could be

made by you and by me from the daily reports of symp-

toms which come to our notice in the newspapers.

There is no question about the correctness of the

diagnosis. The question of supreme importance is “are

the ills of the world curable; and if so, by what treat-

ment are they to be cured?’' Even as a last resort, follow-

ing the use of practically every other remedy, one would

think the multitudes v/ould “try religion”.

Economists of the highest rank, captains of industry,

presidents of big railway systems, heads of chain-stores,

men skilled in agriculture, officers of Farm Board Organ-

izations—all have been called into Conferences in the hope
of obtaining a remedy for the ills of that portion of the

world known as the United States of America.

International Conferences

The League of Nations, representing most of the

powers of the world, is in session during many months of

the year. Problems with which this august body deals

are the material health problems of the various countries

which form the League. Select men, who understand the

body politic of their respective lands meet at Geneva for



IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION

a solution of their financial difficulties, but usually with

little result. Self interests inspire the petitions of the

little powers; self interests inspire the dictation of the

big powers. There is a great lack of mutual confidence;

there is a suspicion of ulterior motives.

Very recently the President of the United States in-

duced England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and

Japan to meet in conference with representatives of the

United States for the purpose of considering Germany's

case, as a means of reviving business throughout the

world generally. Everywhere this gesture of President

Hoover was praised, and it was believed that the begin-

ning of the end of the business depression was at hand.

The Conference was held
;
the Conference ended

;
the Pre-

sident’s recommendation was accepted in principle; but

this medicine hardly acted even as a stimulant. There

have been numerous ‘^disarmament” Conferences held

during the last ten years without success. New ones will

be proposed in the hope that national treasuries will not

go bankrupt if money can be diverted from armaments

to business recovery.

Of course, none of these Conferences is opened with

prayer
;
none of their personnel realizes how helpless are

all human efforts if the God of nations does not cooperate.

A Bird’s-Eye Survey of the World Today

Even a cursory survey of every country in the

world, and therefore of the world at large, would disclose

the greatest unrest, poverty, suffering, and crime. Where

people are not hungry because of lack of employment,

they are, in most countries of the world, victims of apos-

tles of disorder, or their freedom is stolen away from

them by a dictatorship rule.



IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION 5

In England the Labor Government has been given

a second trial after the Liberal and Conservative Govern-

ments were unable to furnish jobs for the unemployed.

The unemployment dole is a heavy drain on the national

treasury and calls for a constant increase of taxes. The

country’s ablest statesmen are much worried. This

is more or less true of some other countries.

Germany’s population is divided among thirty poli-

tical parties, whose leaders keep the country in constant

turmoil, and whose representatives in the Reichstag will

not pull together for a united people. Several millions

have had no steady employment for years.

Sweden and Norway have had serious labor trouble

recently.

In Austria, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia,

Roumania, there are not only the poverty and unemploy-

ment which exist in many countries, but utter dissatisfac-

tion, on the part of large groups of people, with the boun-

dary lines established by the Versailles Treaty. They

\vould not be happy even under better material conditions.

Spain has exiled its king after a taste of dictator-

ship, and its political agitators have gone to the other

extreme of demanding a Socialist regime.

The people of Portugal are ready for revolution at

any time.

In Italy there is seeming outward prosperity, but

nearly all the people, possessed of culture and self-respect,

feel the slavery which is being imposed on them by the

withdrawal of all liberty—of association, of the press, of
speech.

Russia’s one per cent still governs the ninety-nine

per cent with an iron hand, shipping the products of the

sweat of the brow of its victims all over the world, and



6 IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION

paying its agents everywhere outside of Russia to stir

up strife.

China has recently been divided politically as be-

tween north and south. Communism is provoking other-

wise quiet people to all sorts of v/orks of destruction.

Japan is having trouble with Korea.

Turkey is suffering from worse depression than it

has had for many years.

The people of Egypt are kept in subjection by force.

India’s vast population has been stirred up towards

rebellion.

Even in the Holy Land the Christians and Mohamme-

dans are having their difficulties with the Zionists.

The greatest unrest exists in Mexico, Central Ame-

rica and in most of the countries of South America.

What Remedies Have Been Tried?

Economic measures, diplomatic measures, frequent

changes of governments, dictatorships, new loans, new

forms of taxation, each has been tried in turn without

any noticeable improvement in the patient.

Education has been tried. In fact a few years ago

when there was more peace it was predicted that educa-

tion would not only cure all the present-day ills of society,

but would prevent nev/ ills. But we have had the anomal-

ous situation that the more education has been pursued

and extended the more aggravated has become the dis-

ease.

A New York banker told the writer recently that he
had been connected with a big financial institution for

forty years; that he had gone through several so-called

panics, but that he had never witnessed a situation such



IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION 7

as that in which the world finds itself today. He declared

that in our own country* big banks are overflowing with

money, but are making no money; that big industry is

operating at a loss; that the railroads are barely meet-

ing expenses; that the giants of finance are bewildered;

that the prophecies made from time to time have all

proven false ; that there is nothing to do but to wait for

better times which must com.e ultimately unless the whole

fabric of civilization collapses.

Ever^Thing has been tried except national prayer.

The Lord Is Waiting for An Improvement

In Morals

While statesmen may not be able to lead the world

out of financial distress
;
while the individual may not be

able to build up his own business, people are competent,

with the grace of God, which is always at hand, to im-

prove their own morals, which is a greater thing in the

eyes of God and a more important thing to each individual

concerned.

But the moral standards of the age have been at-

tacked, and their overthrow is openly advocated with the

connivance and even encouragement of governments. In

nearly every Christian country in the world the birth

rate has fallen fifty per cent within a decade, which

means that many millions of lives were snuffed out at

their beginning or prevented by a deliberate frustration

of the natural law. Wholesale murder calls for punish-

ment.

May not the Lord, Who alone can bring peace and

prosperity to nations, be waiting for the world to return

to the observance of His Commandments, for individuals



8 IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION

to ‘‘seek first the Kingdom of God'' before He will “add

the other things"? It were well if the rulers of nations

and all their subjects should commit to memory the sec-

ond Psalm of David, which has a greater application to-

day, because of the greater number of rulers in the world,

than it had in his day, when the number was compara-

tively small.

“Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised

vain things?

“The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes

met together, against the Lord, and against His Christ.

“Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast

away their yoke from us.

“He that dwelleth in Heaven shall laugh at them
;
and

the Lord shall deride them.

“Then shall He speak to them in His anger, and trou-

ble them in His rage.

“‘But I am appointed king by Him over Sion, His

holy mountain, preaching His Commandment.

“The Lord hath said to me: Thou art my son, this

day have I begotten thee.

“Ask of Me and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy

inheritance, and the utmost parts of- the earth for thy

possession.

“Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and shalt

break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

“And now, 0 ye kings, understand: receive instruc-

tion; you that judge the earth.

“Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto Him

with trembling.

“Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be

angry, and you perish from the just way.



IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION 9

“When His wrath shall be kindled in a short time,

blessed are all they that trust in Him.”

On the other hand the Lord’s attitude towards those

who do His will is well expressed in the very first Psalm

of the Royal Prophet, as follows:

“Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the

counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners,

nor sat in the chair of pestilence.

“But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his

law he shall meditate day and night.

“And he shall be like a tree which is planted near

the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in

due season. And his leaf shall not fall off
;
and all what-

soever he shall do shall prosper.

“Not so the wicked, not so
; but like the dust, which

the wund driveth from the face of the earth.

“Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judg-

ment: nor sinners in the council of the just.

“For the Lord knoweth the way of the just; and the
way of the wicked shall perish.”

Why Has Religion Such Little Influence?

A decline in morals is always accompanied by a
weakening of religious influence. Religion then repre-

sents a constant rebuke to the lives of the people.

Of course, people cannot get away from religion al-

together, but they can do what the Israelites did under

the very eyes of God. They can leave the true God and

make gods of their own, usually gods “created according
to their own image and likeness,” gods who will be easy
on them, who will not dictate, but obey. Religion is often
turned into anti-religion, which is propagated with a re-



10 IT IS TIME TO TE^Y RELIGION

ligious zeal and intensity worthy of apostles of the true

faith. Communism, in this sense, is a religion
;
Socialism,

in this sense, is a religion; Humanism, in this sense, is

a religion; worship of the state, in this sense, is a re-

ligion; over-emphasized nationalism, in this sense, is a

religion.

But every substitute for the very definite revealed

religion of Jesus Christ, every state policy which is at

variance with the standards of justice and morality

taught by this religion, is a defiance of the God of the

Heavens which calls for venegeance, rather than for

mercy, on a world which has brought on its own trouble.

In some countries the religion of Christ is officially

persecuted by the civil powers, not because it is a hind-

rance to material prosperity or to the best interests of the

citizenry, but because its conscience would be forced to

criticize and rebuke and oppose the immoral measures

which the civil powers would enforce. Think of govern-

ments going so far as to forbid the instruction of chil-

dren in Christian principles, to make the practice of reli-

gion almost impossible by curtailing the number of

clergy. Think of governments refusing to punish those

who murder ministers of religion in cold blood, who set

fire to religious institutions. Yet that is what is going on

at the present time in this enlightened twentieth century.

Traitors Within the Christian Ranks

The Church of Christ is commissioned to preach the

Gospel to every creature and to insist “in season and out

of season’’ on the observance of the Almighty’s code of

laws governing the conduct of man.

Religious organizations which separated from the

historical Church four centuries ago, together with their



IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION 11

many subdivisions and their more modern offshoots, have

withdrawn their loyalty from the Teacher from Heaven,

and transferred it to the people whom they are supposed

to lead and guide. They have become followers instead

of leaders. Unable to enforce the eternal standards of

morality, they have surrendered to the demands of those

who insist on their repudiation. Most of the Protestant

religious organizations in the United States, and particu-

larly all those of large membership, are affiliated with

the “‘Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in Ame-

rica,” which has gone on record as favoring what Holy

Scripture represents as “a detestable thing,” what nature

itself severely condemns. Crimes of various sorts, di-

vorce and birth control, which offend against God’s law,

are condoned, vrhile things less evil, and even things neith-

er moral nor immioral in themselves, are condemned vehe-

mently by various sects.

Like the worldly-minded laity, thousands of clergy-

men representing all but two or three Protestant organiz-

ations, measure the good or evil of hum.an acts by tem-

poral considerations.

Take the one subject of Birth Control. He who is mo-

tivated by the dictates of faith, whether he be clergjunan

or lay person, will think of parenthood as a blessing to

those who give as well as to the one who receives life

here, because of life everlasting in prospect. Children

may occasion inconveniences, hardships, worry, expense;

but is bliss eternal, to which every child is destined, not

worth the sacrifice? Good people are shocked when they

hear that religion advocates selfishness, comfort, ease,

and even self-indulgence rather than disinterested self-

sacrifice, or the exercise of those virtues which made

mothers glorious in the history of all nations. Most par-

ents slave and save in order to leave their children a tern-



12 IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION

poral competence. On the same principle, they should, if

they have faith, be ambitious to place an eternal fortune

within reach of many.

Waiting for the Nations to Come to

Their Senses

He, to Whose Son “all the nations were g*iven as an

inheritance,” Who ordered all nations to “observe all

things whatsoever the Church was commanded to teach,”

within Whose power it is to bless or withhold blessing,

is likely waiting for His children to recognize their help-

lessness and His indispensability.

Anyone, who reads history at the foot of the lamp of

faith, must needs observe that no nation which has ever

persecuted God’s Church, which has ever officially sanc-

tioned immorality, has enjoyed more than a temporary

prosperity. History is principally a record of one civil

ruler undoing what his predecessor had done. Per-

secution by one ruler has always been followed by strenu-

ous efforts on the part of his successor to make peace

with the Church; or vice versa Concordats, which fol-

lowed in the wake of earlier disagreements, were broken

by the civil power after a generation or two. Nations of

old which combated the eternal moral standards, as many

are doing today, are only a memory now.

In our own country, the Church and the civil power

have never yet come into conflict; but we have here in

America large groups of followers of practically every

agency which is attacking religion in other countries, or

which is directing its forces against the traditional Chris-

tan standards of morality.

Three ‘times during a single year the head of the



IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION 13

Catholic Church has spoken to the people of all nations in

the name of Him Whose place he holds as Vicar. He has

pointed out the great ills amid which the next generation

must live unless religion becomes a vital part of the edu-

cation of youth. He has indicated that society and Chris-

tian civilization must disintegrate unless its component

units, the families, remained ‘‘joined together” and unless

the primary end of marriage be respected. He has pointed

out the economic ills from which society is bound to suffer

unless social justice be the basis on w^hich the relations of

capital and labor will be determined. Through the latest

modern means of communication, the radio, the voice of

the Holy Father has reached the uttermost parts of the

world, but it has not been sufficiently heeded, because the

world has not yet decided to try religion.

Christ Himself had trouble with Caiaphas, and with

Herod, and with Pilate. Therefore, we are not surprised

that the Pope has trouble with Mussolini, or that his le-

gates have been opposed by civic rulers elsewhere.

In the past, when economic depression or pestilence

or some other evil challenged the power of civic rulers, it

was customary for them to call on the people to take part

in public prayer or to proclaim a fast. This was done

even by Presidents of the United States. But proud and

agnostic rulers of to-day have not thought of that, or if

they have thought of it they have not had the courage to

recommend it.

How Easy to Arouse Universal Prayer!

It would be a thousand times easier to-day than at

any time in the past to arouse all people of the world to

fast and pray simultaneously. If the recommendation

emanated from the President of the United States, the



14 IT IS TIME TO TRY RELIGION

head of every nation in Europe and of Asia and of South

Amercia, and of the world for that matter, could have

the information in fifteen minutes. Every one of these

in turn could, through the newspapers published on the

same day and through radio broadcasts, acquaint all their

subjects with the proposal that the world get down on its

knees, acknowledge its incompetency to extricate itself

from its ills, whether economic or moral, humbly implore

the assistance of Heaven, and resolve to have an open

mind for proper religious guidance and direction in the

future.

Catholics constitute by far the largest Christian or-

ganization in the world
;
their religion is the only inter-

national one
;
their religion has the most powerful official

prayer in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Yet even Cath-

olics do not pray unitedly, do not pray seriously. Even

Catholics, who know the divine law better than do mem-

bers of other religious groups; who have had their con-

sciences formed in accordance with the Savior’s teaching

;

who, by their example, should be “the light of the world,”

are following instead of leading the uninstructed, the in-

different, the irreligious. They allow their Church to be

publicly maligned without protest; they behold their

brethren in other countries persecuted, without any ex-

hibition of sympathy
;
they are “neither cold nor hot.” and

therefore are not a pleasing spectacle in the eyes of their

God, Who has done more for them than for others.

MORAL to Catholics: Let there be consistency be-
tween your belief and practice. “Be instant in prayer”;

live morally; live religiously; “seek first the Kingdom of

God” as the surest way to have “other things added unto

you.”

MORAL to Others: Try religion; investigate the
claims of the oldest Christian faith.