St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-03-28

majority of church members. l believe
l speak within bounds when l say that
not one in ten has any such interest.
Their names are on the book, they at
tend the congregation when convenient.
they pay something toward the support
of the church, perhaps they help III the
sOclalS, but they never think or laying
broad plans for the development OF the
Christian life of people or helping to
carry them out if they are laid. How
many members of congregations meetto
talk over the relation of the church to
the community? ask what needs TO be
done, and how it can best be done to
help the people of the parish inside and
outside of the church to better social,
material and religious condition? in
what other society, located for definite
work, would intelligent members be so
Indifferent. Though for many years in
church work, L DO not remember many
instances in which business men have
deliberately planned for the
Elevation of the Parish,
extending the church life through the
general interests of the people. 1t has
been done to some extent, but by few.
and principally by the ministers and the
women. Done by small minority, and
the great mass has done nothing, except
with poor success, fear at that.
"Christlan people should be united in
church fellowship for the purpose of
helping each other in the development
of broad and sweet lives and characters,
and also to plan and work, and sacrifice
to instruct and lift the unsaYed around
them.
Another cause of weakness in the
church is found in the fact that the
management of the church is too much
in the hands of unprincipled men.
Throughout theIdrumming up process of
some evangeliStS and the ambition of
some pastors to swell the list of men,
bership, and make a large showing at
the church assemblies, and through
laymen who have been anxious
to increase the financial strength,
multitudes have been brought into the
church without conversion, and they
try to run it on worldly methods. Men
who are not honest in business nor pure
in social life dictate methods for the
church and influence authorities, and,
if pastors dissent they may step down
and out. L am sorry to say that in some
instances ministers yield to them. The
learned pate ducks to the golden fool
Zone of the Saddest pictures l have
seen for many day was in last weeks
Judge, where the minister is de-
nOuncing wealth. and asking for $4,000
to pay Off the church mortgage; where
he is auctiOning off his peWs to the high
est bidder. starting with 5000; where
the sign is suggested as an appr0pri-
ate ornamentatlon for
Fashionable Church
door, and where the pastor, with his
finger OH the sermon he is preparing for
Sunday morning, has turned part way
around i'll bis chair to see the report
that is coming from the telegraph COW
eriug stock specGlations. And in an
other part of the picture, Rev. Dir.
Sycophant is bowling very lowly to
railroad wrecker who has broken up
hundreds Of homes, but gives $4,000 to
the church. L could weep over that
picture, not because it crlticses the
church, but because the church so much
deserves 1T. Samson yielded to the
hands OF the PhilistineS; the Son of
God is smitten in the house of his pro-
feSsed friends.
There are many other points of
weakness. L can only mention few.
such as a lack of spirituality and home
religion.
''In closing this DISCOURSE wish to say
of the church. with all thy faults [
love thee STILL and to declare that, in
my belief it is the strongest, most i'm
pOrtant. most influential organization
for moral and spiritual purposes in ex-
istence. The pulpitS have able men;
the pews are occupied by the very best
OF people, who are giving time, strength
and money for the good of others.
Within the church are the strong men
and women OF this country. pure and
noble. Here, too, are resources mex
haustible; money, buildings, schools,
CONGREGATIONS. youth i'll Sunday schools,
leagues and endeayOrS, and divine ener-
gleS for use in her mission.
The church is the tOriorn hope of
this world. Should she die, the sun
would go out of our moral sky. And
because she has such resources and is
so much needed, she is the more culpa-
bic for not arising and shaking herself
from the bands of her neck. And she
will yet do this. Samson shall again
get strength and pull down the temple
of the PhiliStneS. The life shall slough
off this dead matter, and Christian peo-
pie yet, | hope, rescue the flag from the
enemy"