The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-04-05

the needs of men really are, undertake
to tell them what, in the opinion OF
the churches, the needs are, and then
complain because men do not agree
with them. They refuse TO accept man
as he is, and build upwards on that
basis, but make up a statement or be-
lief about his nature and build up on
that uncertain foundation.
/ As men and women become educat-
ed, and read, and study, they find less
need Of the churches, owing TO this
incorrect theory, and, therefore, fail
to attend them.
There is an excellent illustration OF
the failure of the churches to grasp
the problems of modern life, in the
present condition of the Prohibition
question. For that question involves
the moral, the religious and the social
life Of millions OF human beings The
churches talk about, but do not tackle
ir. 1t is no longer question OF talk,
but of work
The man who refuses TO attend the
Church says to it; here you are at the
beginning Of the Twentieth Century.
and cannot agree on the way of solv-
ing one of the momentous problems
of the age. You fail to see that the
remedy for this evil lies in readiusting
the social forces, of changing condi-
lions. You ought to present to me, and
all other men an approved way of re-
moving the curse, but you do not.
II you cannot agree on a plan of cam
paign against these legions of" the
Devil, what 'use do 1 have for your
Here is the intelligent view which
Bishop Potter, an admirable leader in
the Protestant Episcopal Church, takes
of the situation in a letter to Dr. Abb
bolt:
1t is the old situation-as old as the
religion of Jesus Christ-with the
Scribes and Pharisees on the one hand,
the Sadducees on the other, and, over
against them, the Truth.
No more perfect reproduction of the
first named has appeared in our day
genus, arrogant, denunciatory, ignor-
Mt INSCRIPTIONS and untruthful; hold
ing one meagre fragment of the truth
to their eyes, and denying great and
fundamental facts in human nature, in
their foolish and futile endeavor to
remedy the perversion of human in
stinets by extirpating them; true
children of the medieval systems of
monastic asceticism, which they would
fain substitute for the freedom of a re-
generated manhood. The grotesque
hypocrisy of the prohibition system.
from Maine to Kansas is a sufficient
commentary upon their theories Mean
time, the endeavorS of wiser men and
women to better the conditiOn-the
homes, the domestic life, the recrea-
tions-of their less favored brethren go
of these, fit successors of
those TO whom Jesus said: ''Woe I'M
to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypo-
critics, for We bind heavy burdens upon
mems shoulders, and grievous to be
borne, and ye yourselves will not
touch them with the tips of your fing-
ers!''
And over against them, as of old. are
the modern SadduceeS, critical, indif-
ferent, apathetic. The discussions of
tnoSe VINO are not agreed as to the
problems of intemperance and it's cure
are entertaining and amusing to these
and no more
Yet let me not do them Injustice
What | have said has it's considerable
and inspiring qualifications; and men
Of wealth and intelligence, who had
dismissed the saloon" uues-
ton, and all that it involves, as equally
hopeless and inSoluble, have in recent
years, and in some conspicuous in
stances which 1 need not recall, Crap
pied with the larger problems of the
housing and lettering of wage earners
in all the various aspects in which
those various problems present them
selves: and have done noble and gem
erous things along the line of wiser
and more brotherly consideration for
their fellow men,
But the whole movement is as yet in
its infancy, and waits for guidance. en-
lighJenment and, above all. co-ordina-
ton. AS yet we have been but fumbl-
ing with social problems, whether in
this country or elsewhere, unable or
apparently to recognize
that the radical changes in our indus
trial and social conditions which have