St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-26
RELIGIOUS RASCALs.

The monOtony of the weekly prayer
meeting in one of st. Paul's most ortho-
doX churches was broken the other
night by the plain talk of a good brother
whose remarks were more wholesome
than palatable. The meeting had under
discussion the influences which tend
most to keep Worldlings out of the
church and which are the greatest OBJ
stacles to church progression. A promi-
nent layman had just closed an address
on the evil influences of the saloon
when the good brother above referred
to took the floor and stated that in his
opinion all the evil influences of the
world put together were not as much of
bar TO the progress of Christianity as
is the rascality that prevails among
church members. This was blunt state
ment to be made by church member to
congregation of church members, and
It's not surprising that it created sem
sation. But is it true? That is the
important question. If the layman
who is quoted is right in his opinion
that the rascalities of Individual church
members are the great obstacle to the
progress of church work, it is about
time that the churches were adopting
the winnOwing processes and were be-
ginning to separate the chatf from the
wheat. Whether the statement is true
or not it cannot be denied that the be-
lief is correct that the churches are dis
posed to wink at the shortcomings of
their members, and this fact is used by
large proportion of the worldlings as
an excuse for keeping out of the
churches. There are great many good
Sunday Christians in this world whose
religion is away below par on week
days. The class of protesting Chris
tlan is numerous who think that all the
duties of a church member are confined
to the four walls of the sanctuary.
Their everyday life is far from being
an eXemplification of the teachings of
Christianity. Perhaps they would be
just as bad. or worse, if they were not
church members. but then their conduct
would bring no reproach on the cause of
religion. 1t is a common habit with the
churches nowadays of adopting the
practices of the political parties, of con-
Goning the sins of their own members
and often of justifying their crooked
methods. Occasionally some poor church
member, who has neither friends nor
money to back him, goes astray, and
then the church authorities are swift to
make horrible example of him. But
how often does it occur that man of
wealth and high social standing is
drawn over the Goals on account
AF = -
matter to go into almost any
church congregation in the land
and pick out score of men who almost
every day of their lives deliberately,
and often maliciouSly violate some one of
the ten commandments, and yet no ac-
count is taken of it by the church
authorities. Their transgressions are
eondoned on the ground that their money
Dr. influence is needed for the support of
the church. These things are seen and
observed by the worldlings, who reason
that if such conduct is permissible in
church member then they have nothing
to hazard by staying outside of the
church doors. The force of example is
potent in this world. A bIameless life
is better sermon than can be preached
with lips.
And yet it is possible that the rascali-
ties of church members are exagger-
ated. The same amount of rascality
among worldlings would not attract at
tention. Thus we see that the force of
a PERSONS example is all in the position
he occupies. There is really more
purity i'll the churches than the world is
willing to give credit for. The great
body of protesting Christians who walk
humbly before God and stand upright
In the presence of their fellow men do
not attract public attention, because
they are simply performing what is ex-
pected of them. Yet the church member
whose life contradicts his professions
is singled out for special observation,
because he is recognized as wolf in
Sleeps clothing. Still, he can do more
harm to the cause of religion than can
be Offset by the good performed by the
ninety and nine who walk in the
straight and narrow way. In view of
this fact the good brother was right
after all, when he said the rascaIly