The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-21

] which, so far as one can learn, is en- tirely impotent to uplift or even control
 the moral life of it's members. In west
 ern Europe, where it's organization and machinery is most complete, 1t finds it. ! self antagonized bitterly by some peo- l ples, neglected by others, distrusted by
 more In America, where, at the begin
 nlns, 1t more completely and intimate " dominated the life of the people than
 anywhere else in history, it is coming
 to be more and more dlsregarded. It is
 not receiving either the service of the
 poor or the gifts of the rich. The
 workman is more devoted to his labor
 union and the capitalist gives his ben 1 etactions to the library, the university and the laboratory. One striking fea-
 ture of this phenomenon is altogether
 new. There have been in the past
 times of falling off as well, but they
 have been marked by concomitant
 decay of morals and a decline of the
 religious spirit. That is not the case
 to-day.
 Morality was never upon the whole
 60 manifest, and never was the real
 spirit of the Founder of Christianity so
 we'll comprehended or so generally diff
 fused. But the churches as organza-
 tions confess and lament that they are
 becoming less and less needed and val
 ued. He is optimistic who regards this as anything but a sinister omen for the future. For whatever one may say about the faults and folles of the church as an organization it is a plain fact of history that it has been the shell within which the kernel of Christian living has been transmitted from gene ration to generation. However harsh and repulsive it may have shown itself at times on the outside it has carried within it the seed which has sprung up continually in righteousness. Nor do we believe that what is sometimes called "the spirit of Christianity can exist for any great length of time with out an organized body to serve as special organ for it's expression It goes without saying, therefore, that the problem is one which ought to engage the attention of all who wish well to society," The tack is to ascertain what really is the cause or causes which pro duce the present phenomena, and to cure them. Of course, the churches themselves are most immediately con- cerned, and the public must wait for them to set their own house in order. | But it does not wait in an attitude of 
 Many of the causes alleged and dis | cussed thus far appear to be both shall | low and inconsistent One says the | falling away is due to the loosening and | lowering the standard of doctrine, that | it is evolution and the higher criticism | which are doing the mischief Another | insists that the loss of progress is due | to the too great rigidity and obscuran- tism of a church which refuses to ac- knowledge that the world does move l and to adjust itself to the worlds pro- yress. None of these explanations go leep enough. If the world fails to hear | he church it can only be because the | church has either lost or misstated it's | Human nature is the same | IS it was in the first century or the sixth. The apostolic message is the same in essence now that 1t was then. | if the church will clear it's own mind as Q what it has to say and will say it so hat every man may hear in his own ongue wherein he was born it will ind that the world was never better disposed to hear and to heed than just lere and now.-Brooklyn Eagle.