The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-14
1SUNDAY TH0UGHTSD~
AONk
MORALSPM MANNERS
BY A CLERGYMAN.

INC IIcHCL call burning queSllOHS. Lib
is aptly called the epoch of transitions
Father Time, up there in the belfry, has
heard and needed Tennyson's invitation
to Ring out the old, ring in the lew"
Throughout Christendom the spirit OF
change is abroad. Doubt, dissatisfaction,
criticism prevail. Revolution is in the
air. The existing situation in church and
state is impeached. Formerly it was the
abuses that provoked attack. Today it is
the institutions per Sc. In social life a
new theory, socialism, which has as many
meanings as it has advocates, who, how
ever, all agree in demanding revolu-
ton, is making almost as rapid progress
in America as it is in Germany.
In education there is equal unrest.
Time hOnored canons are declared to be
outgrown. The age of tutelage is past we
are told. The world is twenty-one years
OF age. Education should do as Pestalozzi,
the great Swiss ~innovator, demanded. not
make men, but show them how to make
themselves. The world, it is contended,
means development, not accumulation.
And the old prominence" of Greek and
Latin is antiquated, so we are assured.
"Nrs. P~artington," said a friend, twas GO
ing to send her daughter tothe cemeterytO
learn the dead languages" Well, that is
the place for such a study, according to the
new school. The sciences and the modern
languages should replace the dead langu-
ages in the curriculum OF today.
When it comes to theology there is a
confusion OF tongues which discounts
Babel. To borrow a sentence from a
thoughtful German scholar, who in photo
graphing Germany also pictures the
United States: "Avowed godlessness has
as we'll as the lower, and the lower as
well as the upper classes. Myriads
live a life without God, without a
thought of eternity-a life wholly
sunk in the present. The lack Of author
ity, so characteristic of our day, is mani
tested in a religious point of view b. re-
jecting the very authority Of God. Con-
nected with this is the separation of null
titudes from the church, not, however,
without fault on the part of the church
itself. Church customs and affairs no
longer affect the mind as powerfully as
formerly. From their hearts and the
home the word of God has disappeared.
And where is compensation sought. for
what has been lost? Some seek it in es-
thelicism; others in natural science,
whose misunderstood or misunderstood
results are made a gospel (of dirt, as
Carlyle said others in politics and in
national affairs, while many, as il ship
wrecked, flee to the sand banks OF pessim-
ism"
That is one side of the religious out
look. On the other hand we find large
and elegant church edIfices adjoining the
costly corner lots of all our cities. In rid
ing through the country we are seldom
out of sight OF the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
over the magnitude of the subsidiary
activities of religion is sur prising. More
han two hundred millions of copies of re-
ligious perio ideals are published annually
in this country, while $4,000 900 are spent
every year in the gratuitOus distribution
of religious literature. The secular press,
too, has made itself a s~ounding-board to
echo the voice of leading preachers far
and wide. We have hundreds of theo-
logical schools. Most OF our institutions
OF higher education were founded and are
sustained by the religious public. The
cause of foreign missions collects $780,
600 annually, while for home missions we
spend every year more than Sl~5,000,000.
Another class of figures testify Just as
significantly. In the decade from 1870 to
1880, the increase in population was 81
per cent. Attic same time the increase
among the baptists, for instance, was 50
per cent, and among the eplscopalians 81
per cent.-twice as rapid as the increase
in population. Most hopeful of all. re-
ligion is fast coming down out of the clouds
TO dwell, as Christ did, among men. The
Christian public is more and more recog-
nizing the fact that ethical and humani-
tartan problems belong to Christianity,
and therefore, when religion calls for men
and money to do works of charity, the
response is increasingly hasty. The
Epistle of James, which Luther discred-
tied, is coming more and more into
fashion-the gospel OF works as the proof
OF faith.
What we need is the old truth in a new
application. Preachers and churches
must adjust themselves to this age, and
not borrow the law of the sixteenth GEN.
tury. Then let the fermentation go N.
Out of it shall come the bread OF life and
the wine of the spirit.
With regard to Germany, who can won
der at the increase there of socialism in
view OF facts like these: In Saxony, 1881
per cent. of the population have an in
come of less than 500 a year; and of this
number 40.49 per cent. are wretchedly poor,
having an income of Les than Sl25 per
annum The middle class embraces 23.47.
Even these have less than $500 a year.
Only O.6O possess over y, 400 per annum.
Compare with these German statistics
the figures which Gen. Booth gives in his
book, I'm Darkest England" concerning
the population OF the eastern district of
London. 1t numbers 100000; of whom
Il, 900 are inmates of work-houses or asy-
lums; II 900 are criminals and $4,000 are
not able to support themselves more than
hall of the time. Add to these $4,000
whose income is so small as to lea We them
miserably poor. Thus out Of a population
of 100000 there are 331 900 who are pau
pers or ON the verge of pauperism-more
than one-third OF the whole district. OF
course, the entire city does not present so
great a proportion of degradation. But
out OF the 100000 in London there are
$4,000 of the pauper or miserably poor
class.
This, it has been remarked, is what the
Christian civilization of 1000 years can
show. If we, in America, are not so poor
ly off, it is, perhaps, because We haven't
been so long at it. Give us time and we
may not be far behind. Indeed, already
in Naw Vork Citv fharo r Districts