A Christless civilization is always and everywhere a curse
rather than a blessing. From the Garden of Eden down, the
fall of man has resulted from ``the increase of knowledge and
of power unaccompanied by reverence.... No evolution
is stable which neglects the moral factor or seeks to shake
itself free from the eternal duties of obedience and of faith.
. . . The Song of Lamech echoes from a remote antiquity
the savage truth that `the first results of civilization are to
equip hatred and render revenge more deadly, . . . a
savage exultation in the fresh power of vengeance which all the
novel instruments have placed in their inventor's hands.' ''[31]


[31] The Rev. Dr. George Adam Smith, D. D., ``Yale Lectures,'' pp. 95-97.


What is civilization without the gospel? The essential elements
of our civilization are the fruits of Christianity, and the
tree cannot be transplanted without its roots. Can a railroad
or a plow convert a man? They can add to his material comfort;
they can enlarge the opportunities of the gospel, but are
they the gospel itself? What does civilization without Christianity
mean? It means the lust of the European and American
soldiers which is rotting the native Hawaiians, the European and
American liquor which is debauching the Africans, the opium
which is enervating the Chinese, 6,000 tons a year coming from
India at a profit of $32,000,000 to the English Government.[32]