Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1891-03-29
UNCONTROLLED MILLIONS

UNCHURCHED MILLIONS
1t is not generally recognized, as it
should be, that the large majority of
our people are unchurched. Accord
ing to the last census the population
of the states is 100000. The de-
nominations claim, according to the
New York Independent, 21,757, III.
These claims are without doubt ex-
cesSiye, as Roman Catholics, for
instance, claim every one once bap-
tiled into their church and put the
figure at S,277 ,O39. The rate at which
the secular increases over the church
population is then very large indeed
According to the statistics furnished
by late Arena the time is not
far distant when only a small fraction
of people will go to church. Whether
this state Of things is regretable or
not remains to be decided by future
events. People cease to go to church
because the compelling force is lack
ing, and something of greater import
ance takes its place. Says one writer:
1.-THE old arks Of the supernatural
seem to be drifting into a new world
so much more vast, real, true and
necessary than the old world i'm which
they were built that they seem like
ante-diluyian curiOsities which it will
not pay to repair, and are, therefore,
often regretfully left, but left never
theless, to the natural and disinte-
grative chemistry of time"
This state of affairs has grown out
of general feeling that the old creeds
are not surely true; that the astrOno-
my Of Copernicus and evolution of
Darwin have wrought a change in
affairs. In short, to quote the Arena
again, "the old three-story house Of
heaven, earth and hell have vanished
away and with it the absoluteneSs of
creeds. Thus the modern mind has
gradually given up the general belief
in the supernatural and the intellec-
tual masses Of the people are left out
side Of the churches. Emerson once
said: "The cure for false theology is
mother wit" Even the churches do
not escape this influence. The Pres
byterians are revising their old iron
bound creed. Beecher's successor
knows nothing of hell and even Cardi-
nal Gibbons realizes the evolution of
modern thought. In America there
is great wave toward the secular
church, for men are very fond of
meeting in conference.
Goethe once said;
Who science has and art
Also has religion;
Who neither of them has,
Let him have religion.
All this is well summed up by the
Arena, which says: For a personal
God we have the sum of law, activity
and power" Christ becomes ideal
humanity while the historical Jesus
vanishes only to reappear as an ideal
Of the best in human nature. In
place of heaven in the skies, the I'M
churched millions dream of the tri-
umph of the human race-a heaven
on earth. He'll is represented by the
evils and miseries of existence and the
remOrse, and OblOquy and reproach of
evil-doing have taken its place. The
Holy Ghost, that dreaded individual,
to sin against whom meant to die for
ever, is the soul Of man reaching out
to his brother soul for strength and
betterment.
Calvin was right when he said: "The
beliefs and wishes of man cannot
change the laws of God or of nature
here or hereafter" Even if the "un-
churched millions" would worship
God under the roof of a temple there
is not room for them. But man does
not need building made by hands to
lead him toward the blessed light of
an over-reaching benevolence and
kindness. The religion of the family
Of the household is the true religion
of the future.