The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-07-23
Preaching and Practicing.

The following article taken from the New
York Herald is we'll adapted to other localities
as we'll as to New York City:
There are about three hundred ard fifty
churches in New York, with sittings for nearly
or quite three hundred thousand people, This
is very credible exhibit so far as architecture
that there is sufficient moral energy concentra-
ted in the churches to regulate public opinion
on all matters of social Importance, if it is
earnestly and properly used. But the Church
is asleep most of the time, and the world is
wide awake all the time. The churches make
believe in religion and the world really be-
lieyes in business. The consequence is that
the business force of the community is to the
moral force as ten to one. If the men Of
wealth and social position, who regularly at
tend divine worship and nod their sleepy
amens to every dull point Of the sermon, would
wake up and 60 to work, they would be backed
by the people who sit in the side pews or hide
in the gallery, and by their combined efforts
wo-thirds of the iniquity of this city could be
abolished before the summer solstice.
The criticism which the confessed man of
the world makes on the church-goers is at once
Just and sharp They are perfectly willing to
sit in the shade, under the elm trees in the
vineyard, but if there is any hard work to be
done the Lord must hire some one else. In
deed, they keep so very shady about their re-
ligion that it is not easy to find out il they
have any. They pray from their pews on
Sunday, and prey on their neighbors all the
rest of the week There is about as much
human nature in the Church as there is out of
it. People are very willing to listen and very
unwilling to act. It is one thing to shout
"Glory, halleujahp p' and quite another thing
to manufacture the raw material in ones busl-
ness 1t is easier to make long prayer than
an honest bargain.
Here is a matter we have looked at from the
standpoint of social economy many times, and
one doubts three hundred thousand church
going people can command votes enough and
political influence enough to shape this city
according to their own will, and yet they not
only fail to do it, but seem to be actually afraid
to undertake it. They groan about evil and
they pray for power to subdue it, and then,
instead of keeping on the watch for the an
swer, they regard it as a foregone conclusion
that they will get it, and anon fall to fighting
among themselves about the number of gallons
of water it takes to baptizc man properly, or
about the right Of a woman to preach in their
pulpits.
We once saw a big boy who had been sent in
to the pasture to drive the COWS home. There
were at least dozen cattle, any one of which
might have been cut up into three or four big
BOYS. They were entirely ignorant of their
power, however, which fact was the basis of
the boys courage, and its only basis. He
picked up huge stick, yelled with all his
might and rushed at them as though he were
about to annihilate every one Of them. They
demurely fell into line and marched with SOL
emn faces, as though they belonged to an op-
pressed race, towards the barnyard If those
COWS had turned on the big boy he would have
dropped his club and made tracks for the near
est fence. As it was, he was afraid of them,
and they were afraid of him; but he knew
their fear and they did not know his.
The churchcs-let lis not be irrevcrcnt-arc
like that herd of cows They grumblc all the
time at the world which, in the comparison,
is only small boy with big club, and DO not
dare to attack it, IF they would once lower
their horns and show fight there would be such
a scattering and such clambering over fences
as we have seldom seen.
Let the three hundred and fifty churches
recognize their power to control instead of
their right to squabblc, and make dead set at
one evil after another and we shall soon have
such clean city that half the politicians and
ring-masters will 60 West. Less clattcr and
more march is what.i is wanted just now.