The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-10

eD'At NutiftiJ uiOiits buts uutl 1Ou
do, 1 insist that the message given OF
God with the messenger back Of Ii has a.
right to go into any any department OF
human life and clean IL out.
Ecclesiastical esclusiveness has been n
curse TO Christian progress and has stood
I'm the way OF practical Christianity for
centuries. The idea that the church is a
thing by itself, an institution set apart
from the world, something having no real,
su5stantial relation TO human life and
human affairs, something which men and
women Join because they want TO be
saved and go to heaven; this wrethched
idea that the church has no larger func-
ton I'm society than TO support the minister
and keep up the pra ger meeting; this mar.
row conception OF what the Christian life
Is. On how IL shrivels up the presence of
that Serm on on the Mount, which lays
down the broad and simple principles on
which the social, moral and religious life
OF the community In 10 he built
Let us bring this question home to our
w church life.
What is the religious problem which
confontrs US? Is II simply tn get men
''saved" as we call II and have them join
the church. or is IL something vastly
broader and deeper7 1t is not theory
but a startling condition that faces us.
A careful student oil the religious life of
New England might we'll ask the question
rs there not something radically wrong
wi h the methods of church work which
produces no larger results7 Why is 1t that
the church is separated as IL is from the
soci | and industI ial life cf the commu-
nifty? Why is 1t that the great majority
of the young people are DOT Of vital ioucn
with the life of the church, when al the
warm blood OF their youthful enthusiasm
should be pouring through her veinsY
Why Is II that the men who are leaders in
other departments Of life are not within
the church with The influence OF their ex-
nFa \ a A.al elA n. 81 AkaN. .aA ~
Why is 1t that year after year there is the
same monotonous, desrairing, almost
hopeless struggle-God's cause moving
on broken wing while every other interest
leaps with a noundf
Why Is its 1t Is because our conception
OF what the Christian life In and o we
begin IT is wretchedly blind and narrow.
II Is because we have choked down church.
life until II breathes in only one cart OF
our heing. II Is because we have convert
ed the most glorious Institution known
to this I'D world into a kind OF spiritual
life-saving station. 1t is because Instead
OF revealing 10 the world a life we have
offered II only a salvation.
About every six weeks some mooth-
tongued essa list comes out with an article
in one OF our magaz mes telling US, WITH
the calmest and most impudent self as
surance, that the world has tried Christ
ian ~ and found il u failure.
1t is a lie! 1t Is utterly false!
The world has never tried Christianity.
No single community. has ever given il a
lair trial. Let the people of the town of
Cranston for 10 months live by the prin-
CT les of the Sermon on the Mount, and
we should have "faradise Regained." 1t
is not manly-ir is cowardly to condemn
the religion of Jesus until we have given
IL a fair rial.
To go back to our ~question-how is this
thing to be accomplished? How are we
QrnfnI IN a NIL hn fngnal ~ (fhnfas hnWa
IN our own midst; in other words, what
is the religious problem which faces the
church here At the ~beginning OF the year
1896! We said that bigotry and selfish
ness brought the curse OF disaster pom
Jerusalem. We said that this same spirit
was trying to crush the life out of Christ
ianity today, and 1t Is SO.
The community shuts itself up TO its
own Interests and its own life. Ii gives up
trying to keep in touch with the world be-
yond. Then comes individual isola-
lion; the family shuts itself away from
the life OF the nifty. The churc h
wuich is or should DC the center Of the
social life, bringing PEOPLE into sympathy
with one another, for the same reason
loses its hold on the family. Lie grows
all the while more dry, base and selfish.
You are familiar with what | am describ-
ing; you have seen people grow narrow
and selfish under the influence OF this
wre ched localism. IL is not a case of ac-
tual w~ickedness; l was about to say it
Is worse.
You remember the touching story of
Enoch Arden, cast upon a lone isle, oblig-
ed to live by himself shu away from the
world about him. You remember also
that = hen ths sailors found him he was
changed almost teyond recognition SIS a
man. He had even lost control Of his own
native speech. The same story l. being
told in hundred of lives all about us to-
al " Mon and woman ore nllnw inu fhppn-
selves to be shut ava from other lives.
Their souls are Becoming cramCed and
narrow under he influence Of this iso a
ton; they are even losing the power OF
speech, the natural speech of love ana
smrathy. This, my friends, is the most
common end the most pitifui spectacle OF
human life. This seltlshne.s which is I'll
the time pushing a mans life back uron
himself and away from other lives. This
Is the hell spoken of in the New TIE Ia
ment-"And they shall go away into outer
darkness"
Where else can they go9 Take cut of a
mans life his love for other men, his sym
rathy for those who need him, his inter
est in the life of the world about him,
and you have taken ell the light out of
his soul, and left him in darkness. The
pit, the bottom!ess pit, spoken Of in the
Re. elat'On Is the PIT OF d mans selfish
ness. lie is sinking down, down INTO
hims II, farther and farther from God.
The tlack walls of the nury0w, isolated
81 life close about him and one day a /
cold wave of horroc sweeps over his soul
a he r allies with n shudder that he
cares onls for himself, h S own interests.
his own life. that he has lost ell his love
and sypmathy for the struggling men
and woI en- about him. ifers he stands
as lone a. Byron Cam with the black
monument OF his selhs ness behind him,
looking away MO the dark sbyss, unlit
by a single ray OF love, while bea ing up
through tie bitterness of his wasted lie
comes the echo OF the old words al witch
ne laughed before. but which lac undei-
stands at last: ''They shall go aNay into
cutter d rkncys.h
My f~riegds. il seems TO me that we
must see what the " rk of this church
Will be in the future.
We must crash under our feet every psr-
ticle of bigotry or We
must broaden ana deepen our church life;
we must insist on giving il a larger place
in toe life Of the community.
We must some way, any way. and in
every WaV. rll the lie Of this Mace with