The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-07-09

iority of the people know very little
about churches and care very little
about churches, yet these people make
humanity, they are the world-lt is by
them this age will be judged in the
DAYS to come-then, sirs, is it not time
hat the thinking Christianity of the
world throws this high churchism to
the dogs and join hands and hearts
with all agencies of good9
The longer we trust to a false theol-
opv the further we drift from the truth.
The longer we teach such stuff the fur
Their the great heart of humanity-seek-
ing for truth, wandeFs away. There
ia no attraction in shams. Give the
world the energy and money and time
and talents that are spent to strengthen
churchism and put them to work in
behalf of humanity and Christianity,
and the results will be tenfold better.
I think l know something of the hui
man heart. I think I can read a few
chapters in the book of human nature,
and as l do I am astonished at the way
the world will submit to certain impo-
sitions. 1t is difficult to start all kinds
of revolutions. And they are never
started until persecution ceases to be q
virtue, and they never start from the
high born and the titled a~ristocrate,
but they start deep down in the hearts
of lowly minds, inspired by angels of
truth, and they, by touching kindred
ties and awakening quenched fires in
other souls, spread on until the broth
erhood of man seems the greatest thing
on earth. Truth preached 81 al to
touch the divine in man never fails to
win it's point. We need a sympathiz
ing Christianity to-day. There is not
a criminal, be he ever 30 depraved, but
in whose heart somewhere there is a
tender spot, an oasis of beauty and
love, a. longing to do right. We-need
a Christianity that will find this lost
germ of love and bring it to light and
save a soul. This high churchism
cares more for the clothes a person
wears and the size of his bank account
than it does for his character or his
destiny.
The pulpit and the press of this age
don't near meet the requirements that
true Christianity expects from this
age. The world is crying for a refor-
nation in church ethics. A writer in
the New York Herald says:
1.-The pulpits talk of brotherly kind
ness on Sunday morning, and the pews
nod assent, but for six days in the
week neither pulpit nor pew will go
out of it's way to lend a hand to the
tempted or to rescue the degraded.
People who are really good, tender
hearted, sympathetic, will sit at a 8
in their comfortable chairs, possibly
sigh "God pity the poor this bitter
night" thank the Lord that they are
themselves warm and go to bed with
an undisturbed conscience.
Let us find an illustration. Here is
a young girl in straitened circum-
stances. She is practically alone in
the world, and the world has already
crushed the buoyan3y and hopefulness
out of her heart. What is her life
worth, either to herself or to any one
else7 she asks tearfully. Who cares
whether she remains virtuous or be-
comes vicious9 She watches the more
favored ones, who are evidently sur
rounded by all that wealth a pur-
chase, but not even a look of pity or
sympathy is bestowed on her. She is
starving, and there is nc fuel in the
CRATE. How the heavens lower, how
her bosom heaves with anguish-friend-
less, alone, helpless! What shall she
do9 SILVER in rags and keep her soul
pure3 Go hungry in a world a single
.crurnb of whose surplus would give her
conGentment9 If che parts with honor,
she car have plenty. The temptation
to surrender grows stronger as the
freezing cold deepens, and at last,
rather thsp~perish for food, she makes
the desperate plunge. All is over for
her from that moment. She is outcast,
and recovery is impossible. Women
treat her with scorn and men pass her
by with a leer.
But how does God Almighty look on
that spectacle of ruin2 And if the dear
Christ were here, how would he bear
Himself toward this trembling. pre-
clous soul, which would gladly have
lived IN honesty, but was driven to
to wrong doing for the sake of bread
to eatS He would take His whip of
knotted cords and lash both pulpit and
pew. His Woe unto you, Scribes
and Pharisees. " would rosO,,n5 n-o,