p. 14 | WHOM CAN YOU TRUST? by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 28, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 46.

WHOM CAN YOU TRUST?

By Editor

THE president of a great bank in Philadelphia squandered millions, the trusted treasurer of a great university squandered thousands. There seems to be an impoverishment of moral stamina. It is easy to say, "It is in the air," but as a matter of fact it is in the heart. When large sums of money are accessible, and large opportunities for speculation are present, then temptation reaches its highest point. It is generally understood by students of psychology that man can not stand in his own strength.

The moral tone of society gradually runs down. The vision of God, the apprehension of eternal justice—in short, all those braces and moral supports of human character fall out of place, and when the wind of temptation begins to blow, the pelting storm of allurements and enticements beats upon the character, the human house falls, and great is the fall of it. If a man kneels down daily before God and asks for the right feelings, the right spirit, the right ideals, the right temper, he is less liable to wander from the path of duty.

Men are good toward their fellow men a long time after they forget God. They do not intend to do wrong. They simply forget God. They are too weak to stand alone. This is not fatalism, but human experience. It is evident, more and more evident, that this country needs a great revival of religion. Business men will find that a system of industrialism can not stand alone. Men must have time to read the Bible, say their prayers, meditate upon what is right. They must feel a higher fellowship. The sense of God's presence must be the habitual condition of life.

We are not framing an excuse for wrong-doers, but the situation compels us to say that society does not take itself seriously. It is devoted to accumulations. It has no time, no provision for solemn and serious reflection. It has no adequate place for sacraments of life. Great, strong men go down with a tremendous crash, carrying down with them companions in business, churches, endowments, and eleemosynary institutions. This condition of society can not be changed by a city ordinance, nor yet by a legislature. The fact is, man's heart is weak. He can not stand in his own strength. God only can make and keep a man honest. The primal consciousness of moral distinction and the sense of God in the soul are one and the same. To be conscious of integrity, inward purity, is to be conscious of God.

We are not competent to say that there is no honest agnosticism. That might be too strong. This much we can say: We can not know God apart from honesty, purity, and moral conceptions. It is in these personal attributes that we know Him. Our contention is this: If we would have an honest industrialism, we must have religious conditions. God must be allowed to deal with the heart. The industrial world must intensify conscience, must personalize business. Men can not go into the wheat pit and rob and steal in an impersonal way without weakening the moral restraints of the whole fabric of society. The sense of the reality of sin and wrong is drowned in the volume and excitement of business. The blind excuse that it is not religion, but "business," is wholly inadequate. The church of Jesus Christ can prove, and will prove, the omnipotence, the deity, of Jesus Christ by a great revival of religion. What do bank presidents, university treasurers, and all the business men need? —They need a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The Chronicle says: "It is useless to moralize on occurrences, nor, perhaps, can they be wholly prevented by any general laws. If we come to deal effectively with financial institutions, there is but one real safeguard, and that is publicity, which bankers abhor." That is well enough so far as it goes, as an auxiliary, but, primarily, the question is not one of methods. It is a question of character. There is a business side to religions. Men of high character, high impulses, sustained uprightness, make the best business men. It is worth while to consider that moral power is more valuable than money power. Moral values have suffered, while money values have appreciated. Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco need a new conscience, a new heart. Reformers may theorize as they will, nothing in human experience has been discovered which will take the place of the sense of God in the soul. —California Christian Advocate.