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The Commoner
VOL. 22, NO. 0
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liouoo, learned what had boon dono to Joromiah.
Hit indignation was so great anil hid sympathy
bo strong that ho risked his own life to save tho
prophet. Ho went bof'oro tho king and brought
accusation against tho princes:
., "Thoso mon have dono ovil in all that they
havo dono to Joromiah tho prophet, Miom they
havo cast into tho dungeon; and ho is like to die
fdr hunger in tho placo where ho is; for there
is no moro bread in the city.
r.Tho king, possibly, Cooling yomo remorse be
cause of .hjs own cowardice , when faqed by ho
princes, toofc advaatqgo off thp opportunity of
fered and 'qutfyori'odjthe Ethiopian 4,0 take Jere
miah out of iho dudgeon, .The te,xtlthon de
scribes tho, klndnos of the eunuch as ho made
tho rescue, of th,o propllet as1 easy, a& possible,
furnishing Wm with ra'gkd gorvo'aa pads .under
Ills arms sp tha.t tho rop.es wpuld. po cut intp the
flosh as bo was liftod Up And in tjie day when
Jorusalom fell, tho Lord slnoldqd the Ethiopian
from tho sword, as Jeremiah had prophes'ed
whon ho sat in tho court of the prison following
his rescue from the miry dungeon.
Joromiah was a troublesome man to deal with.
He was not a diplomat. Ho paid no attention to
"senatorial courtesy." Ho spoke out at tho most
inoppprtuno times and said things that were aw
fully bmbarrassing to th6so in power But, what
was oven worse, there was no way to suppress
hm; Ho was not open to bribery, he could not
bo persuaded and ho was not afraid. Uncom
promising man!
In "Tarboll's Teachers' Guide" a story is told
of Chrysostom, who incurred the displeasure
of tho Emperor Arcadius by reproving him for
his sins. His offended majesty was unable to
find any punishment that seemed adequate.
One of his counsellors said, "Exile him."
"But," said tho emperor, "what good will that
do? Ho looks uport tho whole world as his
fatherland." 4
"Confiscate his .property," said another.
"Whom will tha,t harm?" said the emperor.
"Not ChryBOstom, but only tho poor to whom he
gives all that he has."
"Cast him into prison," said a third.
"What would be the use? He would glory in
his 'Chains."
"Well, then, kill him," the courtiers said.
"How would that help? It would only open the
gates of heayon to him."
Finally, one, wiser than the rest, proposed:
''We must try to make him sin. Chrysostom is
afraid of nothing but sin."
So it was with Jeremiah. He might; in his re
plies to his accusers, ha'vo used nearly all the
words of Paul: "For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea
ture, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God.."
Jeremiah gave Judah its last chance to repent,
but the rulers were worldly wise. They relied
upon- their own judgment and courte.d defeat.
Strange "that with such marvelous truths before
thorn and with such mighty prophets to advise
them they should have invitod the wrath of God
by rejecting tho constant warnings and continued
their inexcusable sins. And yet, those who sin
' today sin against greater light.
Those of tho present day have not only all tho
warnings of history, but they have to guide them
tho Light of the world Who became flesh and
dwelt among them Who not only shed His
blood for the sins of the world, but gave to man
a philosophy of life that fits into "every .human
need. Ho was not only crucified nineteen hun
dred years ago, but is crucified afresh by those
w.hp, for divers reasons, worship the base god,
self. .
Sin brings its own punishment. "Be not do- '
colyed; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap."
CONVERTED BY RADIO
. The first conversion by radio as far as re
ligious authorities in Charleston "know, was that
of Dr. John R. Koch, of 1049 Valley road
optometrist, who underwent the spiritual change
by which his soul turned to God from spiritual
indifference while listening to a talk of William
Jennings Bryan over radio. After the talk of
Mr, Bryan, tho optometrist who had been undor
. conviction, knelt in prayer Sand to make public
j record "hit the trail" at tho Billy Sunday meet-
j ing now being held here and yesterday at noon
at a gathering of business men gave personal
' testimony.
; "Before Billy Sunday came to Charleston I
put him down as . . a money-getter. God for-
: give mo for having such a thought. My conver
sion was due Uoa talk of William Jennings
Bryan on the radio and my first .public acknowl
edgement was hitting the trail; I feci it is tho
biggest thing I ever did."
Homer Rodehoaver, singing leader for Billy
Sunday, said last that he had known of souls
boing saved through hearing his phonograph but
that this was the first conversion by ".wireless
that ho had ovor heard of. "That is something
new," he said. "It opens up big possibilities.
Possibly an entire Billy Sunday sermon could be
carried to, the world by radio." West Virginia
Exchange'.' .
. - s
MR. BRYAN CHALLENGES DARWINISM .
During recent months the famous Christian
statesman,; William Jennings Bryan, has thrown
down the gauntlet to Darwinism. It is no half
way affair with him. In characteristic fashion
ho ha3 gone into the fight all over. All his pow
erful weapons are brought to bear his keen
logic, his sunny wit, his solid faith, his massive
eloquence. So clear is Mr. Bryan in his belief
that Darwinism is harmful to the church that he
is very earnest in the combat. But he is a mas
tor of the art of debate, and not for a single min
ute is he dull.
Besides numerous separate addresses, Mr.
Bryan has fully set forth his thought on this sub
ject in a series of lectures on the James Sprunt
Foundation at Union Theological Seminary in
Virginia. These lectures have just been pub
lished by the Fleming H. Revell Company, New
York, under the title of "In His Image" ($1.75).
They make fascinating reading, and they will
compel thousands to think.
Hero is a sample of the way Mr. Bryan
argues: "How does the evolutionist explain the
eye when he leaves God out? Here is the only
guess that I have seen if you find any others, I
shall be glad to know of them, as I am collect
ing guesses of the evolutionists. The evolution
ist guesses that there was a time when eyes wero
unknown that is a necessary part of, the hy
pothesis. And since the eye is a universal pos
session among living things, the evolutionist
guesses that it came into being not by design
or by act of God but just happened, and how
did it happen? I will give you the guess a
piece of pigment, or, as some say, a freckle ap
peared upon the skin of an animal that had no
eyea. This piece of pigment or .freckle converged
tho rays of the sun upon that spot and, when
the little animal felt the heat upon that spot, it
turned the spot to the sun to got more heat. The
increased heat irritated tho skin so -the evolu
tionists guess, and a nerve came there, and out
of the nerve came the eye! Can you beat it? But
this only accounts for one eye; there must have
been another piece of pigment or freckle soon
afterward, and in just the' right place in order
to give the animal two eyes."
Having started the idea, Mr. Bryan proceeds
to have fun with it thus:
"The evglutionist guesses himself away from
God, but he only makes matters wor.it,. How long
did the light waves have to play on the skin be
fore the eye came out? The evolutionist is very
deliberate; he is long on time. He would cer
tainly give the eye thousands of. years, if not
millions, in which to develop; but how could he
be sure that the light waves played all the time
in ome place or played in tho same place genera
tion after generation till tho development was
complete? And why did the light waves quit
playing when two eyes were perfected' Why
did they not keep on playing till there were eves
all over tho body? Why do they not play today
so that we may see eyes in process of develop
ment? And it the light waves created the eyes
why did they not create them strong enouch to
bear the light? Why dld-the light waves mal e
eyes and then eyelids to keep the light out of tho
eyes?"
Mr. Bryan must haye enioyed writing those
paragraphs, and no one can fail to chuckle as he
reads them. The author has equal fun with the
alleged process of making legs out of accidental
warts which are supposed to have aided the in
comotion of the primordial legless creature
equal fun with the ears, which evidently went
in to hear instead of out-and how lucky That
they happened to come in on opposite sdP S
the head instead of eater-cornered!
flQiThbi,ok d8 not by any taaM concern it
self wholly with evolution, Here are Zi
chapters on "The Bible," on "The Value o??h
Soul," on "The Deity of Christ,-oV 'The Chris
tian Principle of Peace," and the volume cIomb '
with a powerful discussion of "The Gondii?
of Effective Public Speech." Whether the S?
agrees with Mr. Bryan or not, he will be !2J
by the readable quality of thteng
end by finding 'himself in closer symnithv ,
his views-than ho was at tho beglfflgMj
tiann Endeavor World. ' Ulr,s
MR. BRYAN'S M3W BOOK "IN His LMAK"
(Reprinted from tho Religious-Bnnir-vni. ,'
sue . c.f tho Bookseller- and Stationer, April T I
My book, "In His Image" (Fleming H n
veil Company), presents a layman's defense nJ
orthodox Christianity. It deals with the exist
onco of God and the necessity for such a belief
not only as the foundation of the Christian's
faith Ijut as te foundation of civilization a
well. It treats, tho Bjhjle as the inspired Word of
God and offers proof of its divine origin
presents Christ as theSoacf God and Saviour of
the world conceive&.a,f the Holy Ghost, born of
the Virgin Mary, and,jtriumphant over the grave
It doala with tho origin of man as given in tho
Mosaic account of creation and submits objec
tions to parwinism.
Darwinism is treated as a guess which is not
only unsupported but tremendously harmful, as
shown by its effect on Darwin himself. Evolu
tion is disputed not ..because acceptance of it
necessarily and in every case leads to agnosti
cism or atheism butbecause so many are led
astray by it. Just as we quarantine against
smallpox, not because it kills all who take it but
because it kills a great many, so the teaching of
evolution is protested -against because of the in
jury that it actually does to so large a percent
age of those who adopt- it.
Some people do not; take their evolution seri
ously; they accept it formally without attempt
ing to harmonize their ideas of religion with it.
People differ also as o where evolution begins.
Some begin with animal life, some with plant .
life. Some speak, of, the nebular hypothesis a3
the beginning while some, go back to the elec
trons and bar the Almighty from activity for
further countless ages. Evolutionists also vary
in the extent to whicjh they carry their logic.
The materialistic evolutionist eliminates all tho
miracles and all the supernatural, while theistic
evolutionists accept some and .reject others, ac
cording to their whims. One writer admits tho
resurrection because, to his mind, it was useful
but rejects the virgin birth on the ground that
it was unnecessary. Others reject bath the vir
gin birth and the resurrection,, while still others,
try to reconcile both with evolution.
Tho basis of evolution is intellectual pride.
Evolution claims to bring all the processes of
nature within man's comprehension. Some feel
flattered by the. thought that they can know
everything; they build a throne high enough to
enable them to look down on the Bible.
I have tried to point out tho emptiness of tho
evolutionary philosophy and to contrast it with
the inspiring philosophy of Bible Christianity.
In answer to the contention that college pro
fessors can teach anything they please I reply
that the hand that writes the pay-check rules the
school. "-
Chapters five, six, seven, and eight apply
Christianity to life, to -business, and to govern
ment. In these lectures I have endeavored to
show the priceless value of Christ's teachings
as they have been woven into the fabric of civil
ization. As His blood can be traced through tho
years by its cleansing power, s"o His moral code
can be traced in all the important changes that
have taken place in the thought of the world
since His birth. Chapter Eight is built upon tho
prophecy contained in- the seventh verso of tho
ninth chapter of Isaiah-: "Of tho increase of
His government and peace there shall be no
end."
Chapter Nine, "The Spoken Word," is devoted
to the rules that govern effective public speak
ing andto the faith without which eloquence is
impossible.
The book "In His Imago" is not a theological
treatise, although it does not viodato orthodox
theology. It is a layman's appeal to lavmen. It
presents all the fundametal teachings concerning
God, tho, Bible, and Christ in language that can
be understood by all. In it, I pay in a small way,
the debt of gratitude which I owe to my parents,
to the Bible and to all that the Bible stands for.
I am especially anxious that the book shall.uo
read by students. W. J. BRYAN.
The administration has undertaken to securo
an -agreement from tho coal' mine operators tnai
they will not take advantage of tho gradually les
sening supply of soft coal to run up tho prices c n
the public next year. If it is successful in tmu
herculean task, let it extend its functions a lit
tle farther arid see that tho retailers do not grao
off the big profits they learned how to maw
uunug government control;
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