Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-09-21


! NN7 OST encouraging to all Chris
/ lNvHI tian workers is this discourse of
/ AoO DR.. Talmage while denying the
1 accuracy of statistics which represent
! Sunday audiences as diminishing; text,
| Hebrews Y, %, Not forsaking the as
sembling of ourselves together"
1 Startling statements have been made
in many of the pupits and in some of
| the religious newspapers. 1t is heard
/ over and over again that church attend
| ance in America is in decadence. | deny
the statements by presenting some hard
| ia, =. No one will dispute the fact that
/ there are more churches in America than
4 ever before, one denomination averaging
two new churches every day Of the year.
The law of demand and supply is as in
! eXorable in the kingdom OF God as 1t Is
in the world. More churches supplied
argues more church privileges demanded,
] More banks, more bankers; more fac
| tories. more manufacturers; more ships,
more importers: more churches, more at
| tendants
In all our cities within n few years
churches have been built large enough to
/ swallow up two or three Of the old time
| churches. | cannot understand with what
| Kind of arithmetic and slate pencil a man
1 calculates when he comes to the conClu-
sion that church attendance in America is
| in decadence Take the aggregate of the
| number of people who enter the house of
/ God now and compare it with the aggre-
i gate Of the people who entered the house
| of God twenty-five years ago, and the
| present attendance is four to one. The
| 70 /, iluV aY NJ
i ing depressing That man who presents
the opposite statistics must have been
most unfortunate in his church acquaint-
ance.
You are not to argue adversely because
here and there a church is depleted.
/ Churches have their day. Sometimes
| merchandise will entirely occupy a neigh
borhood and crowd out the churches and
families ordinarily attendant upon them.
i Sometimes a church persheS through IN
| ternecinc strife But there are no facts
| to overthrow the statement that | have
made in regard to the increasing attend
| ancc upon the house of God. Now, | am
ready TO admit, as every intelligent man
| will admit. that there are churches which
/ have been depleted. and it is high time
that a sermon be preached for the benefit
OF young men who are just entering the
4 gospel ministry and for the warning Of
prosperous churches as to what are the
/ causes of decline in any case. If mer-
4 chandise crowd out church, that cannot
/ be helped, but under all other circum-
5 stances decadence in church attendance
is the fault either of the church or Of the
pastor.
Use OF Modern Methods.
Churches are often cleared Of their an
| diences by the attempt to transplant the
modes of the past into the pres nj. The
modes and methods of fifty years ago are
no more appropriate for to-day than the
modes and methods of to-day will be APP
propriate for fifty years hence. DIR. Kirk,
DIR. McElroy DIR. Mason. DIR. De Witt,
DIR. Nermilyeu and hundreds OF other
men just as good as they were never
lacked audiences, because they were
abreast of the time in which they lived.
People will not be Interested in what we
say unless We understand the spirit of
the day in which we live. All the woe
! begonish statistics are given by those
who are trying in our time to work with
the Wornout machinery Of the past times.
Such men might just as well throw the
/ furnaces out OF our church Easements
and substitute the foot stoves which our
grandmothers used 10 carry with them 10
| meeting. and throw ont our organs and
our comets and take the old-fashioued
tuning fork, striking it on the knee and
then lifting it to the ear to catch the
pitch Of the hymn, and might as well
throw out our modern piat forms ana mod
! ern paiDits and substitute the WlucglaSs