Speaking For Christian Ideals


To all that be in Rome . . . called to be saints.--Rom. 1: 7.

Saints in Rome--in pagan Rome! Some in the very household of Nero, the most profligate of the Caesars. In the midst of the foul and sensual atmosphere that prevailed there, they lived for the glory of Christ and kept their souls clean and spotless.

Some while ago I read in a London paper an interview in which a young English women expressed her opinion about the present world and ideals. “My view of things,” she said, “is that I have been born into a cock-eyed world. The world in which I live appears to glorify a code of behavior that would have been relished by Jack the Ripper. As I view it, my age is as barbaric, as uncivilized, and as crude as any other age condemned by history. Where there is progress there is also the desire to fight and conquer other men and other lands. Idealists have battered their brains out trying to prove that men love each other and love peace; but there is no place in This Brave New World for idealists. Ideals cannot live in this mad-dog age. The ideals of honor, of righteousness, of peace, are out for this cock-eyed world in which we live today.”

Well, what can we say? We cannot deny that the world has gone pretty much cock-eyed. Everywhere we hear the growls and barks of the mad-dogs of crime, revolution, and war. We have to confess that, even in ordinary business and social life, the prevailing codes, if not barbaric, are none too civilized. And yet I cannot, will not, subscribe to the cynical view that ideals are out for our time.

Certainly ideals are not out for Christian men and women. If saints lived in the pagan world of Nero, saints can live in our world today, in spite of all its paganism. And they do! Multitudes of people, by faith and divine grace, are living up to the highest ideals, and seeking to build them in the world around them.

"The Lord giveth the word: they that publish the tidings are a great host. Kings of armies flee, they flee" (Ps. 68: 11-12)--flee before the missioners of the ideal! "O let me ne'er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong. God is the Ruler yet . . . The battle is not done, Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heav'n be one" (Hymn).