Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1899-11-16
Would Make Our
Religion Real

DR.. Minot j. Savage preached recent
ly in the Church of the Messiah, Park
avenue and Thirty-fourth street, New
York city The preacher said he want
ed to make religion as real to his hear
ers as their bank accounts, their
games of golf, their theaters. He said
| IL he did not believe religion to be far
more real than any of the things nam
ed he would neither ask his people to
go to church again nor would he him
self do so. He said in part:
believe that If II Is the people who
are not attending church as much as
| they used to, 1t is because the Church
has ceased to represent to them some
thing vital. something which they can
believe, something that they can love,
something that they can worship,
something which seems to them worthy
of their manhood and womanhood.
And If this be the case, instead of this
supposed decay of religion being a sign
of the decadence of human nature, 1t
means an uplift and advance of human
nature. 1t Is no disgrace for man
to outgrow partial and unworthy
view of things. no matter how much 1t
may have been reverenced in the past,
provided he goes on to the acceptance
and admiration of something that Is
better and finer.
People no longer believe that God
is an irresponsible despot they no lon
ger believe He is going to send to eter-
, nal pain any honest man, or any dis
. honest man, for that matter: they can
no longer hold such a conception OF
the Divine,
CHURCHES LOSING THEIR HOLD.
It is any wonder, then. If the state
ment is true, that the churches that
hold to ana still advocate these ideas
{ are losing their hold-not on the mass
es, perhaps, not OH the ignorant, moi
on the people who can be frightened
, but on the people who think and who
are brave and who dare-that 1t Is
from the very best classes of the COM
munity? 1t would seem strange to me
If these churches did not lose their
hold of this class of people.
| But right here is the danger. ! said
a Few moments ago that the Church
and its advocates, its priests, its min
, listers, have been for u long time accus.
toned to associate certain rights anc
, ceremonies and certain theological
q
make an impression upon people that
they and religion were one. And there
are thousands of people who do not
think and study enough, absorbed per-
| haps In their worldly affairs so that
they cannot, TO observe that this Is an
error.
1 Religion Is u relation in which man
stands to God. that is relation which
he can never escape, a relation which
he must always try to better.
want to believe, II may nationally
that there Is some purpose in the uni
/ verse, and that my life is "A part OF
some purpose.
And then az the end when | dream
| again, as did the other night, or when
that dream becomes real, and | am
: looking with the eyes OF expectancy
. out into the mist, conscious that ! am
dying, | want to believe II i can thai
, there is purpose even in that-that
r there is lee infinite and eternal, II
the universe, whose child | am, ant
: that can look into this mist, expect
n ant of face to meet and welcome ant
cheer me.
do not say yet that this is demon
strated truth. So | believe 1t to be; bu
II you leave the Specification an
Il meaning and heart and purpose an
,r power OF religion out OF life leave Go
= out of life, then this great hope wi
r fail, and we shall dread desolate eartl
a struggling against calamities as W
- may, with little hope, with no chez
W and feeling that life Is something pre-
la scented to us by a mysterious Powe
- but hardly worth the keeping.
er Have there been any suggestions tina
, even tend toward making religio
seem real thing? If there have bee
l. do not ask you to come and hear m
"A preach; | do not ask you to join thi
- church unless these things accord wit
1t your intellectual convictions and tn
:. promptings of your heart; but thin
| have right to ask you not to thin
le OF religion as temporary place of HI
~ man thought; that II Is passing ava.
~ | think | have right to ask you
IN consider carefully before you let an
=. and all other phases and interests I
human life absorb your attention, {
IN there Is no place in II for religion.
y. think have q right to ask you to fir
some place where you can work wit
sc your fellows in building up grande
&c nobler, deeper, higher Church that
70 to be built on the ruins Of the shak'
theologies OF the present time.