The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-05-28
ANY UNCHURCHED MASSES
GEORGE c. COCHRAN SAYS, HAVE
UNCHURCHED THEMSELVES.

George I. Cochran, a Minneapolis cd
llOr, delivered a very forcible lecture on
Light Beyond Our Light" at the Church
of the Good Shepherd last night. Mr..
Cochran said, in part:
We hear great deal In these DAYS
about the 'unchurched masses, and an
attempt is made TO convey the idea that
the Christian church has issued some for
NAL decree shutting the masses out Of
the house of God. 1t is also affirmed that
the developments of modern science have
swept away the foundations of the Chris
ttan religion; that Bible orthodoxy Is
dead as Julius Caesar; that geology has
been too strong for Moses; that Darwin
and Haeckel by their preachment of the
dogma of evolution have swept away the
fable of our descent from Adam and
Eve, and, with it. original sin and the
atoning sacrifice Of Jesus dying for the
sins OF the world swept away with it the
doctrine of mans responsibility to God,
remanding the Deity to the Plutonian
darkness of the realm where Aristotle
placed him, a god asleep and Indifferent
to the creation of which he is the aUthc,s.
Indeed, 1t is affirmed that modern sell
ence has made a clean sweep of any ne
Cesslty for a God or first cause, since it
processes to have discovered that the Gre
alton is simply matter Of mechanics and
that there is no God who can or will an
swer prayer.
There is no doubt that the great prog
ress Of this country in wealth; the rise Of
so many men from low estate by their
own industry and enterprise to positions
of Importance in the commercial, indus
trial and political world; the diversion TO
money making; the tendency to make the
acquisition OF wealth the test of stand
ing in a community; the preoccupation of
the parental forces, too Indifferent, too
selfish to perform the inevitable obliga-
ton of training children by precept and
example laid upon them by divine law
which they more and more ignore; the
disposition to look no further than the
content Of the things material for the
qualification Of the longing for happiness
there is no doubt that these have all
had a distinct tendency to dull the con-
science and mind to contemplation of
eternal realities.
There are others identified with the
working classes besides the people who
work in the factories and foundries. a
great mass of the working people of every
community are found in stores and offices,
and very many of these have TO work
much harder than the workmen who are
found in the foundries and factories. Ii
is not true that there has been a complete
collapse of faith among these. AS to the
unchurched masses. it may be said that
InST6 are no ruICuuICIlcu ildSSCo. IlC
masses unchurch themselves.
when Israel ceased to inquire of the
Lord to get guidance everything went
wrong with Israel I will be inquired
Of, says God. But we try to reconstruct
society without inquiring of God, and the
result is disastrous failure. Your labor
capital problem will not be solved by the
new theology Labor arrives at no solu-
ton of its troubles by violent outbreaks
against the employer and by trying To
dictate how the employer shall conduct
his own business The employer solves
not the problem BY shutting down his
works and refusing to confer with his
employees with view to friendly adjust
ment of differences and so throwing thou
sands of men out of employment. Labor
effects no solution by forciby preventing
men from working at wages which
strikers refuse to accept
This is progressive age, but human
nature is still preyed upon by sin. That
is the word 1t is distasteful to men. and
they would like to get rid Of it altogether
But they do not like Gods way of remov-
ing the disease.
"Just SO far as we retreat from Gods