The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-11-22
numbered to correspond with the ques-
tions as given above:-


or aspiration.
2 The absence of any serious regard for
the Church shown by their elders.
g. l hardly know; Il depends SO mucn l. no, on
cerning which the question is asked. IN
my neighborhood and among my people
should say the chief enemy Is pure world
illness and selfish love of pleasure.
T. Some of my members say yes. IL
takes courage and strong faith in God.
But they have trusted and not been con-
s. Work for the salvation of individual
souls; and vigorous and clear testimony,
line upon line, again sin.
6. Give them work to Go Tor Chrlst-
work which they can recognize as useful
and worth while doing.
Perhaps the most serious drawback to
the answers as collection is that they are
nearly all written from the church stand
point In other words. the non-church
goers, whose views should be the most
interesting in view of the nature of the
questions, have hardly been heard from
at ALL Whether this was due to fault
of selection in sending out the circular of
inquiry or to reluctance of the irreligious
to discuss their own Indifference cannot
be ascertained, the list of names being
held in confidence. 1t is a pleasant fea-
ture of the collection that only one
anything like a tone of discourtesy This
Mr.. Wick charitably excuses as a joke.
The reader can judge for himself, the card
being as follows
l. Because they know the Church is a
humbug.
2. Religion.
3. Religion.
A. Certainly not. The bigger the Chris
tian the bigger the humhug.
lose oil icri.a a O sell
and introduce brains into the church.
g. Nothing. The Church is becoming a
dead letter. It is dying out like the be-
lief in witchcraft. Today the strength of
the church is the sentiment of women and
the ignorance of children, which are prac-
tically synonymous.
This remarkable production is signed
businessman" The other extreme is
represented by a voice from the Y NJ.
C. A, whose communication is too long
to be reprinted in full He accounts for
the Indifference of business men towards
the Church by saying that this is an age
of skepticism and unbelief. He blames
Christian Science and .sthe blasphemous
teachings of Theosophy.' He thinks we
need more religion in our business and
more business in our religion Chow
sonorous emptiness always Isl, and he
would lessen the amount of vice and
crime by preaching repentance Qeavily
underscored) and presenting Jesus Christ
as the Saviour from sin and it's gull" "
He would get the young men into the
churches by keeping ''in close touch with
them,'' and he adds that 1.-The strongest
churches in the land are those which have
the largest number of young men in Y NJ.
c. A." Other answers given by him are
2. The school of vice, to wit: Low moral
condition of club life obscene character
of theatricals; Indulgence of passion, con-
sequent upon rotten condition of so-called
society resultant from above.
3. Undoubtedly the liquor traffic, from
which springs most of the other current
evils.
The clubs and saloons catch it hot and
heavy in this correspondence, especially
the clubs.
A writer whose business is not specified
puts in few words, an answer repeatedly
given to the first question. He accounts
for the Indifference of businessmen of good
life by "a feeling that the Church has no
help to offer them'' This writer thinks
that the crowding of people in flats and
tenements and the defective training of
most girls in those matters which affect
the happiness of the home" are the
mending the development of "the social
side of church life, also the educational" !"
he expresses an idea which figures in a
vast number of answers to Question No. g.
He adds, however. this
In preaching, take up the questions
which are pressing for solution in the
minds of the young men.
In view of the setting-out which the
clubs get, as mentioned above, the fire.
quency of the suggestion to turn the
churches into clubs-often stated in these
very words-is curious and amusing Not
infrequently the man who answers ques-
ton No. most emphatically by an attack
on the clubs is the very man who is most
eager in his answer to No. 6, to see the
churches or their annexes open six nights
week for the recreation of young and
old
One disappointing feature of the cor
respondence has been alluded to. An
other is the number of writer's who an
swer all the questions without saying
anything. An example or two of absolute
vacuity may be given. A paper which
Mr.. Wick labels zone of the leading eler-
gynen of the world gives these an
swers:-
5. Preach more truth and practice more
religion.
6. Go after them and make the churches
more home to these young men.
The presence of any meaning IN such an.
answer is not much harder to detect than
in the following reply by an insurance
man. also to question No. o.
Mingle with them, learn their thought
and govern yourself accordingly.
On the other hand, some Of the writers
have evidently given thought to the ques-
tions, and answers of value are the result.
To the first question one man answers
am not sure they do. If so, it is natu-
raj. Church members are equally indif-
ferent towards them.
Another insurance man thus answers
the same question:
Not because they doubt the good in
fluence of the church in the community
or that they themselves would be bene-
flied by regular attendance; but they have
by degrees become engrossed in worldly
cares and the habit of non-churchgoing
has grown.
A third writer, a publisher, has this
SUGGESTION
The spread of unbelief the spirit of the
age is wholly practical and has little
sympathy with anything that is mystical.
The publishers to Nos. 2 and are also
worth quoting in full
O. The belief that if a man only e'gets
there the means he has used and the
path he has trodden to achieve his sue