Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-08-17
DECAY OF RELIGION.
Some of the Causes as Seen From a Radical
E5 StandDOint.

whose nandS are pure, whose doctrines and
whose life
Coincident, give lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause
To the Editor of the Globe.
The Sunday sermons, with which from week
to week tho GLOBE has been favoring us,
are timely and pertinent, and while making
clearly manifest the deplorably low ebb to
which the religion of the DAY has fallen, do
not seem to touch the root of the subject
upon which they treat, and, with your per-
mission, will endeavor to point out to your
readers two conspicuous Inconsistencies in
the lives and teachings of the clergy, a con-
sideration of which am confident will large
ly account for the decay of true religion.
One OF the marked signs of this decay, the
lack of respect and reverence for the clergy
SO noticeable in these days, and which has
been much commented on in late years, may
be traced in great measure to feeling of
disapprobation, amounting in some cases
almost to disgust, which is generally enter
tanned towards the clergy on account of their
ried life, which, as class, they prominently
exhibit, most of them marrying early and
many of them often. The people of the
none the less profound, from fear of offend
ing, they rarely give it utterance,
that a man who processes to have
consecrated himself, his time, his talents and
his energies to the service of God, with an
eye single to His glory and the salvation of
souls, and to have "put on the whole armor
of God, wherewith to fight the good fight of
faith,' acts inconsistency with his sacred
profession by encumbering himself with
wife and the cares of family. They seem
to have warrant for this conviction in this
explicit declaration of an inspired writer,
that "He that is unmarried careth for the
things that belong to the Lord, how he may
please the Lord; but he that is married
careth for the things that are of the world,
how be may please his wife," The world IS
over ready to render the tribute of respect
AID honor to the virtuous mau, who, to pro-
vide and care for his aged parents in their
declining years, sacrifices his desire for social
and domestic comforts, and eschews the
pleasures of married life, to the end that he
may accomplish this flial and laudable pur-
pose. In the same manner the patriotic SOL
der and the patient scholar, who make SINH
lar sacrifices and practice like self abnega-
ton, the one through devotion to the service
of his country, and the other to literary pur-
suits, are alike respected and honored by
their fellow-me
This singular devotion, whenever ex-
hibited, whether by the son, the soldier or
the scholar, is respected and honored for the
reason that it gives the most undoubted evil
dence possible of earnest sincerity in a
praiseworthy purpose. That this respect
and honor is withheld from the clergy may
be accounted for from the fact that they do
not exhibit the same undoubted evidence of
earnest sincerity in their sacred calling. Pro-
Tossing, as previously stated, to have conse-
Grated themselves to the service of God and
the salvation of souls and to care only for
those things that belong to the Lord, how
they may please the Lord, they show by their
lives that they also care for the things that
are of the world, how they may please their
wives. Their practice is so directly the re-
verse of their profession, they are so evil
IDENTIFY endeavoring to serve two masters,
that, Notwithstanding they are commonly
treated with an outward seeming respect,
they are in fact not heartily honored or held
in any real reverence, and, as consequence,
their influence for good is weli-nigh de-
stroyed.
Another marked inconsistency of the
oargy is, that while they are preaching a
religion founded on belief in the super
natural, a belief in nothing less than that
stupendous miracle of the incarnation of
the Son of God, they are at the same time
continually undermining faith in their hear
ers, and planting the seeds of doubt in their
minds, by deprecating belief in the super
natural. Notwithstanding the feet that
ecclesiastical history throughout the centur-
les abounds in narratives of miracles per-
nd nv lroi oh{ I'D fo, %ko
faith and in answer to the prayers Ct His
saints-in the same manner Ito borrow an
illustration from distinguished living En-
glish writer, to whose writings am further
indebted as I proceed in this article.) that
secular history gives place in its pages to the
narrative of deeds of valor and acts of hero
ism and self-sacrifce- clergy of the
present day, as class, INCREASINGLY iterate
and reiterate the declaration that 'the age
of miracles is past" Can anything be more
illogical than that the preacher should ask
his hearers, as we does, to place faith in the
miracles recorded in the New Testament, on
evidence which has been handed down for
eighteen centuries, and at the same time
endeavor to impress upon their minds dis
belief in similar miracles, occurring in later
times, of which the evidence is in
every respect as positive and reliable
as that of those which are recorded
as having occurred in the apostolic age.
Is it not reasonable to believe that what Al
mighty God has once done as reward for
great faith and in answer to earnest prayer
He is likely to do under like conditions? Is
His ear deaf that He cannot hear, or His
hand shortened that He cannot save? What
wondrous change has taken place in the
last three centuries to sever the relations
which these same preachers tell US we must
believe did exist between Almighty God and
his faithful children in the first few CEN
turtles of the Christian era? Could the
clergy adopt q method of teaching more
surely calculated to result in doubt and in
fidelity than the one I have endeayored to
point out?
Instead of striving in their teachings to
cultivate and strengthen faith in their hear
ers, their aim seems to be to weaken and de.
stroy it. Our Savior said to the sick woman,
who, having come behind Him, had touched
the hem of His garment and been healed,
daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith
hath saved thee; go in peace" Had the
modern clergyman, lacking this living faith,
witnessed this miracle. can we believe, judg-
ing from the so-called religious teachings Of
the present day, that like his Savior he
would have commended this woman's faith ?
Have we not, on the contrary, good
reason to think that he would
have rallied against her for her
ignorance and superstition? And if that sa-
cred garment existed at this day and was
venerated, as it most certainly would be, bv
all true Christians, have we any warrant for
thinking that He would admire and COM
mend such veneration? Have we not, on the
contrary, good ground for believing that he
would endeavor to impale those faithful
people on the shafts of wit and ridicule, and
hold them up to the scorn and contempt of
his intelligent and cultured congregation as