The age-herald., 1901-11-18
Sermon of the Rev. 1. D. Steele
 at Cumberland Church
CRIME AND POPULATION
Wickedness Not on the Increase When the Growing Population Is Con- sldered-More Church Mem
 bers Than Ever Before.

worse! The text was "Watchman What of the Night?" Isah a-11. pr. Steele Faid in part:
 This text put into every day language would be what are the signs of the times? Is the world growing better or worse? This question IS asked with much eaInestness by many at the present day. Startling statements have been made fl om the platform and from the press. We have all heard of the lost power of Christianity aAd the backward turn of the wheels of civilization.
 "The Atlantic Monthly a few years ago had an article in 1t which declared collapse of the best civilization was undoubtedly at hand.
 Must Go to the Past.
 ''In order to tell whether one is getting richer or poorer you must know his past and present financial condition. To tell moral character you must Fnows his past and present. So we must know something of the pest and present condition of the world to understand which way 1t Is go- ing We all know that slavery was once almost universal; we know also that at this age 1t is cleared from the civilized world. We know that brutal combats to the death characterized the Old Roman world in the days of its greatest glory. These have been dead so long they live only in history. Let us lcok at faith and morals for two hundreds years. The year seventeen hundred opened as a pe- riod in England, void of feith and soul. It reached its misty noon under George II. Puritans were buried and Methodists unborn. Bishop Butler said at that time religion was treated as a fiction and not as a reality. Chancellor Kent said QI75): Tn my younger days there were very few professional men but what were in- fdels,' Bishop Mead of Virginia in 1900, said: Scarcely young man of any cult ure is to be found who believes Chris tianity.'
 Colleges Full of Unbelief.
 College life among young men was full of unbelief. When Dr. Dwight took charge of Yale College in 1795 only four or five students were church members. The seniors were outspoken unbelievers. Princeton was no better William and Mary College was regarded as a hotbed of unbelief. In fifteen years there were about five million copies of infidel works sold in Europe and America. It was pre- dicted that Christianity would not live two generations. It Is the stedfass opin- ion of some today that all the brain and college influence has repudiated the virtues and charms of Christianity. They believe morals and spirituality are on the down grade. Let us see. About one nine colleges and universities in America and three thousand students. Today there are about five hundred and thirty colleges with over hund1 ed thousand students. Seventy-nine per cent. of these students are educated in colleges owned and conducted by Christian people, The schools when asked to state the religious students, one hundred and ten colleges reported, that AS per cent of their stu dents were men and women of Christian character.
 Out of fourteen hundred graduates of Harvard only one claimed to be a skeptic and one an agnostic.
 More Purity Than Ever Before.
 "The highest type of men and women are those of the purest hsarts and brightest and greatest thoughts. The state and the church are doing mere to- day for the making of manhood and morals than ever was done before We need some one now to write an article on Why the young men are leaving the church of God and going to the bad?' There are more pure, noble, young men today than the morld ever saw before.
 "As we look at crime we always see a, Gaik picture. It is not a pleasant sight, Our government has no trustworthy re- coids made concerning criminals which extend back far enough to get facts in crime In England hundred years ago about one person out of 700 was convicted of crime each year. The record of the last ten years shows one conviction a. year for every 5000 people It is also true one man in twenty was a began. the last records show one in thirty-sevep is a beggar.
 w hol IL ID Sdiu that crime IS on the incI ease in America, we must remember the population is on the increase, and it's percentage of increase is far greater than the same increase of crime. Nearly half of the recor ded criminals are of for eien extraction.
 Lynching a Crime.
 "Lynching is one of the great violent crimes of our nation and cannot be con demned too strongly But one of the great papers has shown that lynching made its worst record in 1892, and 1t has steadily decreased since that year.
 If I am not in error the world is on a forward move and not a backward step.
 Some phases of the world are dark and are deeply to be regretted. One dark spot is from the best information that can be had, the divorce dusiness has greatly increased to the shame of all good people. It deserves the serIcus at- tention of all home lovers. This is one of our great dangers.
 The world has not left the Kingdom of Christ. In the beginning of last cen tuIy only one person out of fifteen in America was a church member, the last estimate Is one out of four is a Christian. In the first thousand years of the Chris tian era 1t is estimated there were fifty million Christians, 1t Is now estimat d there are five hundred millions Church membership has grown three times as fast as tEe population.
 Tt Is estimated that Christian peon,e have given more of their means and more of their time to educate and Christianize the world in the last ono huDdrad ueorc