The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-26

Presiding and Practising.
There are about three hundred and fifty
churches in New York, with sittings for nearly
or quite three hundred thousand people.
This is very creditable exhibit 80 far as
architecture is concerned. It shows con-
clusively enough that there is sufficient moral
energy concentrated in the churches to regu-
late 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 believes in business. The
consequence is that the business force of the
community is to the moral force as ten to one.
II the men of wealth and social position, who
regularly attend divine worship and nod their
sleepy amens to every dull point of the SER
mon, would wake up and go 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 two-thirds of the iniquity of
this city could be abolished before the summer
solstice.
The criticism which the confessed man of
~
once just and sharp. They are perfectly will
ing 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.
Indeed, they keep SO very shady about their
religion that it is not easy to find out if they
have any, They pray from their pews on Sun
day 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 un-
willing to act. 1t is one thing to shout
"Glory, hallelujah l" and quite another thing
to manufacture the raw material in ones
business. 1t is easier to make long prayer
than an honest bargain.
Here is matter which we have looked at
from the standpoint Of social economy many
times and never yet found any satisfactory
solution. No one doubts that three hundred
thousand church-going people can COM
mand 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 answer, they regard it as
foregone conclusion that they will get it,
and anon fall to fighting among themselves
about the number of gallons of water it takes
to bartize man properly, or about the right
of q woman to preach in their pulpits.
We once saw a big boy who had been sent
into 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 solemn faces, as though they belonged to
an oppressed race towards the barnyard. If
those cows had turned on the big boy he
would have dropped his club and made
tracks for the nearest 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 churches us not be irreverent-are
like that herd Of cows They grumble 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
scattering and such a 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 squabble, 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 go West Less clatter
and more march are what is wanted just now.