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Note and Comment

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 17, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 29.

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Note and Comment

By Editor

Immoral Environment

A CONTRIBUTOR to the Lutheran Observer, in its issue of April 18, remarks:
"There is a species of morality now quite popular. It places the blame for immoral acts not on immoral character, but on immoral environment. The grafting policeman takes bribes because his salary is too small; the poor girl sells herself because she has not a living wage; and so on through all the sins of the decalogue. . . . This kind of immorality," the writer observes, "seems to have taken strong hold of many of our recent so-called scientific investigators, who perhaps do not realize that in fact it is only another form of that religion of humanity handed down to us from the French philosopher Comte and his school." The writer concludes: "Pleasant environment, good clothes, and plenty of food do not make men good."
The gospel of Jesus Christ seeks to save man where he is, nor does it stop to create environment before giving to him this salvation. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." That man in the darkness of heathen superstition, the one sunken in the lowest depths of moral degradation, has but to reach out after God and the hand of an infinite Saviour will be reached down to save. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." God can accomplish all things for the men and women who will place their wills on the side of his will, who will respond to his call, and yield themselves to the leadership of his divine spirit. Jesus Christ lived for thirty years in Nazareth, a place noted for its wickedness, a city with such a reputation that Nathanael questioned if any good thing could come out of it. That same divine power which enabled him in that unfavorable environment to live for God will enable men and women today, whatever may be their environment or social position or inheritance, to form characters of purity and holiness.
It is incumbent upon the believer that he turn away from the environment of sin in which his life has been cast, that he forsake the boon companions that have dragged him downward; but the church of God today mistakes its divine mission when it feels that the highest exercise of the gospel is a social service, the creation of conditions which will draw men back from the paths of sin. The tendency of much of the social service work being carried on by many churches today is to lead them to place their dependence upon these means and agencies, rather than upon the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the accomplishment of the salvation of those for whom they labor.