The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-20
The Modern Church.

Every little while some incident arises
IN connection with the religious activi-
ties of the time whichstarts up chorus
of protest at the asserted decadence of
spirituality in the modern church. The
tenor of this protest is that modern
Christianity is losing its essence in
fondness for forms and ceremonies,
that most people nowadays go TO
church less in the love and fear of God
and for their souls benefit and more
because it is a conventional and high
ly respectable thing to do than used to
be true in the past, ere material pro-
gress had resulted in the accumula-
tion of great wealth, with it's higher
standards Of personal luxury and it's
dulling of the moral perceptions. The
inference is that the men and women
of this generation are in the main, a
pack of hypocrites and that virtue in
vital sense must be regarded as a
thing necessitating for the greater
part the employment of the past tense.
We are in the midst of such a pro-
test at this time. So slight a thing as
the resignation of Rev. John Hall
from the pastorate of the Fifth avenue
Presbyterian church in New York city,
brought about, it is said, by the dis
closure of a feeling in that congrega-
tion of restlessness because the vener-
able minister in his style and subject
matter clung to the ways of twenty or
thirty years ago instead of bring
ing both "up to date" has sufiiced
TO cause a ripple of discussion
which bids fair. before it is
stilled, to traverse the entire sur
face of the religious and secular press,
calling out once more the familiar ac-
cusations, which If not soon refuted
may eventually gain credence through
sheer pertinacity of repetition.
1t is natural 10 exalt the past at the
expense Of the present. The habit OBJ
tains in many directions. We see it
exemplined in politics, in the prevail
ence of the claim, unwarranted by evi-
dence, that the quality of our states
manship is deteriorating. We see it in
literary and dramatic judgments; ac-
cording to which the present is invar-
ial ly the famine time, while just back
q little way was the period of plenty.
70 encounter the same rule of criti-
cism in affairs of religion is not, there
fore, surprising; but we recommend to
all who may be inclined to accredit this
depreciation of the present that they
make careful study of the past from
the evidence which was contemporary;
to note how the religious teachers of
old called their hearers a generation
OF vipers," and scourged and fayed
them for the scantiness Of their faith
and to observe finally how at any an
terror time the same habit of rosy ret.
respect, of surrounding the past with
halo, is indicated in the literature OF
that time.
Philosophy teaches that the condi-
tions of people must be estimated
in in,laccordance with the standards of
that people prevailing at the time OF
review. 1t is unfair TO apply the stan
dards of a generation ago 10 the diff
ferent conditions OF today. Let 1t be
conceded that church worship upon the
whole is more elegant at this period
than in the cruder eras of foundation.
building; has there been q day since
the establishment Of the Christian re.
ligion when there was wider and deep.
er and fuller recognition of human
brotherhood as evidenced in far-reach-
ing ministrations of practical charity
and benevolence than there Is today!
We must remember that the churches
have not gained faster i'm the style
and comfort Of their material equip
mn.ent and appointments than have the
people who worship in them. The poor
est man in Scranton probably fares
better every day in the year thnn did