The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-09-30
THE CHURCH AND LABoRERs.

past is the one as to the principal causes
which operate against the general attend
ance of the laboring masses OF
the American people at the serv-
ices of the churches. Right here IN
st. Paul laudable movement has been
in progress for over a year to establish
closer bonds between the laboring popu-
Iation and the distinctively church-going
elements of society. The series Of pub
lie meetings that were held during the
past winter had the most healthful in
fiuence in that regard, and established
high measure of mutual sympathy and
respect between the pastors of the sever
al churches who took part in the move
ment and the laboring population.
The natural disposition of the poor and
heavily laden man is to seek the conso-
sedulously cultivated in recent times that
the churches are not in touch with the
feelings or aspirations of the man who
does physical toll for his living, and
that the great dividing line Of the pos
session or non-possession of wealth is as
clearly marked in the administration of
religion as it is In the life of the outside
world. This idea has been cultivated
chiefly by the friends of labor In the
Preachers Magazine recently an article
appeared, written by William Hunter,
somewhat prominently connected with
what is known as the labor move
ment, In which that gentleman seeks to
answer the query, why Workingmen
Do Not Go to Church" He asks the
question when the disposition began to
show itself among workingmen to stay
away from church. While expressing his
inability to locate the exact time, he de-
clares his belief that it was when men
of our class began to think for them
selves and to act on their own behalf"
Having thus disposed of the time when,
he proceeds to settle the way in which
they came to stay away; and he per-
forms the office in part in the following
sentences:
Now, according to workingmens ideas,
the most prominent fact brought out in
the teaching of Christ is Tine Divine
Brotherhood" But when the critical fac
ulty was awakened within them and they
began to think, it occurred to them that
A universal fathefhood' ought to in
volve "a universal brotherhood" and
this conviction settled upon their mind.
For The signs Of this brotherhood they
very naturally looked into the church,
where they had been taught to look up
70 Nf16 Ges f.lai1- No lnr 11x1I
in vain; instead, they found that caste
social, or class distinctions were just as
marked in the church as in the world;
that precisely the same CULTS separated
the classes one from another in the
church as out of it, and from that time
the sympathy of the working classes
with the church began to wane.
Were this the only explanation which
Mr.. Hunter had to advance in explana-
ton of the disposition of workingmen,
where it exists, to stay away from the
churches, his contribution to the litera-
ture of the subject could not be regarded
with any special degree OF favor by
those who look at the subject from a
different and perhaps a higher standpoint.
For most students of the great economic
subject of labor have long since com,,
to regard all such expressions as, the
''Fatherhood of God" and the Brother
hood Of Man." in connection with the dis
cussion Of social and economic subjects,
as mere shibboleths. But Mr.. Hunter
goes further in search for reasons and
he finally reaches the following conc,u-
sions:
But not small measure of responsible
ity must fall upon the men themselves.
OF the immense majority who do not go
to church., it may be said of one class
that they have become SO STEPPED in sin,
they are such absolute slaves to the
most degrading vices, they have given
themselves SO completely to the devil.
and they so glorv in their deprayity that
of all places in the world, the church
has the least attraction for them There
Is another class who seem to be carried
away in the mad whirling rush after
worldly pleasures So absorbed are they
III the pursuit of passing amusements
that they have not thought to spare
for anything else; not only their leisure
hours on the weekday, but Sunday as
Well. must be given to the qualification
OF their passion for play. There is still
a large class who are not slaves either
TO pleasure or vice, but who hold aloof
from the church-and why? Because they
have no consciousness of the need OF the
church, they are not sensible of any
spiritual need in themselves The church
has confined herself to the necessities Of
the soul, and this large class Of working
men have. gone right to the other ex-
treme, and concern themselves exclusive
ly with the needs Of the body.
The great underlying truth of this
entire subject is the one that workingmen
are themselves much more previously to
blame than the churches for their desar-
ton of their religion. Animalism is ever
great force in the lives of men. and in
those of no class might its inroads be
regarded as more likely to be great and
enduring than In those OF the workers
who. describing the spiritual forces OF
life, choose to lie down and rise up as
the beasts do and who look to no higher
end Of purpose than to gain a sufficiency
of the things that go to the maintenance
OF the purely animal existence
1t would be well indeed II the men Of
the labor movement whose words are
listened to, could be induced to remind
those Of their brethren who abstain from
going to church, and who throw the re-
sponsibility for their abstinence over on
the church. to look more deeply into their
own soul and find out whether they, not
the churches, IT Is that are responsible;
and whether their alienation from the In
fiuence of the church is not infinitely more
to their lasting discredit than 1t Is 10
the discredit Of the church.
HARIT OF APPLICATION.
A writer in the Atlantic Monthly for
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