The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-26

The day long ago foretold by the Saviour.
when men should be lovers of pleasure more
than lovers Of God, has come But it came
stealthily and as thief in the night The
coming of this worldly spirit was not noticed
until it had taken possession of almost the en-
tire Christian Church and had 30 far negatived
the Sabbath and weekday instruction of the
clergy that they were overwhelmed with the
gigantic proportions of the evil that confronted
them. And now that they have seen and
measured its strength they know not what to
do with it. 1t is not alone the SINNERS in
Zion who are guilty, but elders, stewards,
trustees and class leaders or officials by what
ever name they may be known. II pastor
breaches to the young against dancing he is,
as an eminent minister in this city remarked
few days ago, "wasting his ammunition
on too small game, The children dance
because their parents encourage them
both by precept and example If the
clergy speak against billiards they denounce
what many Christian man has in his house,
and what he believes to be an innocent amuse-
ment So also of cards and dice and back
CANNON, and q host of other social games
and amusements. And yet the prayer meet
ing is neglected for the billiard table, the
theatre or the opera. The sacred concert
in the theatre has more attractions than the
sacred songs of the sanctuary, whether sung
by quartet or choir. The churches, in fact.
are almost deserted on the Sabbath and the
theatres are crowded nightly. The progress
Of the Gospel is impeded by these influences
wherever they exist. The clergy are divided
on the relative degrees of moral guilt or limo
cence Of these several forms of pleasure and
pastime, and hence they fear to get into o
snarl, not only with their congregations, but
with one another. And still they are ex-
tremely anxious by some means or other, to
overcome this worldly spirit in their churches
and congregations But how to do it they
know not
During the past eight or ten weeks this
matter has been greatly agitated by the pastors
of the different denominations in this city in
series of prayer and conference meetings.
Some of them hardly hoped for or expected to
make any impression by preaching, exhorta-
ton or pastoral visitation, SO profoundly
rooted is the spirit of worldliness among
their people. Nor, indeed, need they expect
to succeed in unseating it and tearing it up
until they lay the axe at the root of the tree
and make radical change in the basis
of their church management A purely ma
terial basis now controls their affairs. The
great truths of the Gospel enter into the
management as secondary consideration.
A quarter of million dollars is not an unusual
sum to expend upon single church in any Of
our large cities, and not unfrequently nearly
twice that amount is paid or promised there
for. In looking for locations it is well known
that church trustees have always in view the
material and not the spiritual side of this
question before them. "Where can we find q
good site, favorable location ?" is the in
quiry-not with the view Of doing the most
good or Of reaching the most people, but Of
reaching the wealthiest and most respectable
people, whether few or many. They there
fore leave the downtown mechanics and go
to the uptown merchants. But though they
generally obtain good prices for downtown
church property, their extravaganza in build
ing up town leaves many of the fashionable
churches deeply in debt and with heavy mort
cages resting on them. To own or occupy
q pew in such churches o man must pay
the price of nice, well-stocked farm in the
country.
But even in the selection of minister the
material basis of the churches crops out every
where. It is not by the number of converts
whom he has brought to Jesus that he is
measured, but by the number of hearers
that he can attract by his eloquence or
his oratory. And the amount of his salary
is based on his eloquence, and not on his
piety or purity. Hence there is growing
tendency in the minds Of the masses, and es-
pecially among the rising generation, to look
upon ministers as they look upon physicians,
lawyers, artists, musicians or other profess
sional men. They follow the business of
preaching because there is money and
position in it. It is the minister's
business they say, to preach, and he
the extent of the argument. They 60 to hear
an eloquent sermon as they would to listen to
lecture or political speech, to look at
painting or to hear lawyer plead in court.
But they come away as they went-uncon-
verted and unimpressed And too frequently
the ministers themselves take this view of
their own calling and 'the one thing
needfur' with too many of them is their
salaries, monthly or quarterly, when they are
due 1t then becomes question Of dollars
and cents between the pulpits and the pews.
If the minister breaches against the worldi-
ness of the churches, whether it be manifested
in theatre-going or in dancing, he is likely to
set some pew-holders against him and, per-
chance, thereby cause falling of in his re-
ce;nts. and. on the other hand, the SHINING