Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-10-20

them. mat TACT or itself proves now
small is the proportion of the whole
population that may be found in
church on any given Sunday
/ have observed another fact that is
indicative of the time in which we live.
Practically the Protestant churches in
and about Boston have only one SER
vice on each Sunday. The exceptions
are so few as to be noteworthy Most
of the churches are open more than
once on Sunday, usually three times;
but the second service Is devoted to the
Sunday school and the third to some
kind of young peoples meeting Probably
not one church in twenty has a regular
preaching service in the evening. AS
Il rule. therefore, those who would get
the best the churches have to give,
must attend in the morning. which
many persons are not able to do, how
ever DESTROYS they may be of church
opportunities.
Ny Investigations have not led
me to accept without question
the statement so often made.
that the bicycle, golf and the
Sunday newspaper are responsible
for the decreasing church attendance.
The fact is that non-church- going be
gan before either of these causes had
an existence in New England. They
may have accelerated n movement al
ready begun. but they certainly did
not give it its initiative. In my opin-
ion it is something else than golf, the
bicycle or the Sunday newspaper that
is the real cause of non-attendance up
on church. In the days when church
| 10, fhnr,.
! were games quite as popular as any at
the present time. while walking and
driving. and especially riding. had
| their claims quite equal to any the BIZ
cycle now offers The Sunday news
| paper is real competitor with the
! church as is the magazine and the Ii
brary Without doubt many persons
! prefer reading to listening. because 10
! them the one is intellectually more
profitable than the other. Some Of them
would 90 SO far as to claim that the
moral and spiritual profit is also
! greater.
This brings me to the phase Of my
| investigation that has for me the most
| interest. Church attendance is in it
| self symptomatic. and any study OF its
! conditions is Of value only as it leads
/ TO correct understanding of the
causes that control the religious life of
| the present time. Here | wish TO speak
with great caution and tentatively. I
| do not wish to dogmatize in the slight
/ est degree. Certain Impressions have
| come to me as the results of my in
vestigation. and these / give subject
| 10 revision and for what they are
worth. l am deeply impressed with
| the conviction, however. that in the
! churches themselves are 10 be found
| the real causes OF the failure in church
attendance. There is wide and pro-
| found chaSm between the intellectual
| life Of the present day and what is
taught in the churches. What men are
thinking (the questions they are really
concerned to have answered. receive
| almost no attention in the churches.
The want Of modernness is what has
most impressed me in large proper
ton of the sermons l have heard. The
pulpits are not in touch with the mod
ern world. and they ignore the essen
tial truths that are accepted by all
modern minded men today. Their
teachings are not fresh and vital or
marked with power, simply because
| they fail TO keep in touch with the in
tellectual life OF the present time.
have noticed many times that real
| ly progressive men in the pulpit get
large hearing, and that they get as
| many men as women 10 hear them. It
| is of little Importance what the demon
| nation with which they are connected.
| if they face the modern world with
| clear vision they have something TO
| say that calls men in large numbers
! into their congregation. In the more
| liberal denominations the absence Of
men is the most conspicuous, because
in such religious bodies the men are
radical in their opinions, and preach
! ing that is not radically modern fails
to interest them. 1t is not merely
critical and destructive preaching that
appeals to even the most radical men.
and nothing is more Improbable than
abuse of other denominations or at
lacks upon beliefs that are acceptable
to others.
The preaching I have heard has not
been dogmatic or sectarian. Distin-
gushing beliefs are for the most part
| ignored as are the harsher doctrines
Of the past Merely negative liberality
there is in great abundance in most
Of the pulpits. What is lacking is spr-
itual power, the ability to give a dom
mating moral motive. the capacity 10
bring the intellectual life of the time
to bear on the great problems Of life.
The appeal made from most Of the pull
pits does not strike home to the men
who listen. There is no open rejection
Of what is taught. but there is a mark
ed Indifference to it. Men listen to it
with apathy. rarely with eager inter
est ana conviction. There is every
where a vast agnosticism to be found !
that listens to what the preachers say
with the conviction that they are talk !
ing about that of which they have no |
first hand knowledge, that they are |
merely repeating old-time traditions. |
Few have consciously formulated such |
a criticism, but where men dare not |
even state it TO themselves the effect |
is that their interest in preaching |
grows smaller from year to year.
! do not wish to say that interest in |
the great religious questions is growing ]
less, but that the church does not an
swer them as it once did. The word !
of the pulpit is no longer accepted as |
final. The sermon carries as much |
weight as the preachers personality |