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Rev. Dowling's Lecture

Rev. Dowling's Lecture image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
March
Year
1891
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A large audience assembled Sunday night at University Hall to listen to the Rev. M. P. Dowling, president of Detroit College, who spoke at some length upon, "Is the Present Social Condition an Indictment against Christianity ? " His treatment of the subject was clear and masterly. We give a few of the main features below : The present condition of society is by many thought to be an indictment against Christianity. The name of God is used in every qjhase of life'with little or no reverence, and there are few who have anything but worldly desire. Nations war over a bit of land hardly large enough to serve as a burying place for the killed. Squalid misery abounds everywhere. The poor have nothing to look forward to, and are oppressed. Lust and licentiousness run riot in all the large cities ; murder and rapiƱe are frightfully frequent, and there is nothing but enmity and distrust between the laborer and capitalist. What is the solution of this gigantic social problem? The communist and socialist have each presented a remedy, but both are equally defective. The Salvation Army, under the leadership of General Booth has done good work among certain classes, but the solution lies in none of these. The inequalities of the social order cannot be blotted out, for they are the results of original sin. Man's spiritual and moral well-being must first be attended to, for they are the very roots of prosperity. Just as Christianity in the past has been the great law of progress and reform, so must it in the present give peace to the modern