The Blasphemy of the Ages
By Editor
"The Blasphemy of the Ages."—That is what the Sacramento Union calls the application of the term Christian to the present civilization. It declares that our civilization, stripped of fair seeming, is still that of the wolf rationalized, instead of that of the sons of God Christianized. Jesus taught a civilization founded upon purity of heart and human fraternity. In His name we are striving to maintain a civilization founded upon race antipathies, international jealousies, industrial and commercial spoliation. And we insist upon calling that civilization Christian! "It is the blasphemy of the ages relieved of its enormity only by individual and associated efforts here and there to make things better than they are." And all this is true. Yet we are bound to believe that many who make the saddest failures are trying to make the world better. But they are taking the wrong way to do it. There is no other way but God's way; no way to make men Christian but to be "born again," "born from above." Calling a man Christian will not make him one. Calling the nation or civilization Christian will not make them Christian. The object of Jesus Christ, in life, death, and teaching was not to civilize the world. The object of His followers should not be to civilize the world. To evangelize, to regenerate, to save men from sin is the object of Christ and Christianity. Civilizing is incidental; and nothing in all the world will civilize so rapidly, so effectively as Christianity. The civilization of to-day is the only type possible among unregenerate men.