The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-18
RELIGION AND MORALITY.

REtlUlON AND MORALITY.
The decline in church going is gen
orally taken by religious writer's to
mean corresponding decline in char
acter and morals. If this were inevi-
table or even generally the case the
question of church going would become
, matter of vital concern not alone to
the churches. but to the people at large
But although Christianity is admitted
II an ethical force, among the greatest,
perhaps, in the world today, it is not
/ so clear that rejection of its claims
always implies rejection of thu moral
obligations which lie enshriuad in its
! dogmas. Professor Goodwin Smith has
declared that were Christianity To be
finally repudiated the world would ex-
/ perience a bad quarter of an hour.
| Nevertheless, this is his opinion of the
! final result:
Whatever turn may ultimately be
/ taken by our convictions about here
after, society viii uphold by law or So
, cial influence rules necessary to its own
| security and convenience here. X may
even uphold them more vigorously. per-
haps cruelty, if it is convinced that the
present life is all. The natural affec-
tons. parental, conjugal and social,
viii also retain their force
! So, also, Prof. Morris Jastrow, of the
/ University of Pennsylvania, in his book
just issued, The Study of Religion, =
! declares that though the bond between
religion and morality is very close. re-
ligion and ethics are really two
streams having an Independent source,
| but flowing toward each other until
they unite and eventually become one.
| For this reason, he says it is possible
to conceive of religions that do not
| foster morality. And, of course, it fol-
lows from this that men may reject
the dogmatic setting of religion while
at the same time strenuously holding
to the neral law which has become i'm
plicated in it.
As to the views of these distinguish
ed men it may be said that they are
! merely abstract opiniins entitled to no
credence in the face of the widely held
| belief to the contrary Yet 1t VIII be
admitted by candid Christians that in
| every community there are men no
Elonger Christians whose moral charac-
| ter compares favorably with that Of
the best church members. Many SUCH
nom Christians, indeed, are actively
identified with movements for the bet
! terment of the race, and their zeal for
| righteousness appears to be in no re-
| spect less than that of their Christian
brethren, with whom oftentimes they
| are working in close harmony The
| existence of such men is matter of
common knowledge, and even the most
I y,
/ for whatever reason, reject Christian
/ ity continue to acknowledge the obll-
| cations of morality.
| AS to the case of those who cease to
| be church goerS, some interesting facts
are brought out by clergyman of a
western city who has gathered statiS-
tics about those who have dropped
away from the local churches during
! the last ten years. He finds that out of
619 adults now living who have ceased
to go ts church during that period 239
were originally poor church members,
ranging all the way from notorious evil
livers to Indifferent worldlings. Since
these 239 have formally withdrawn
from the church their moral condition
has in noWiSe changed, except that
few of them are somewhat more open
in their defiance of the moral law. OF
the remaining 440, eighteen have de-
Perforated morally since they left the
church. Nearly all of them, it is de
clared, are persons of unusually weak
character. easily led by temptation to
do wrong, and one of them confessed
that while he was a member of the
church he was kept from evil courses
not by his belief in Christianity. but
by the desire not to seem recreant to
the faith he profesSed. SiXty-three per-
sons have apparently led better HNeS
since they left the church. though the
change has not been at all marked,
nd Of SjXtV-fhTap declares
that he is a better man now because
he, wants to show his church friends
that unbelief does not imply immoral
ity. The remaining $50 of the 6fg back
sliders are morally pretty much the
same as they We're before. Ihey con-
tinue to be reputable citizens. ana are
impelled by the same motives of self
interest touched occasionally by unset
fish impulses. that appeared to govern
them when they We're members OF the
church.
Ii would. perhaps, be too much to
assume that the results of this par
ticular census would be true of the
goers of other communities.
There may have been special circum-
stances in the city where ii was taken
that tended to make the result favora !
BILE as TO the non-church goers; for
favorable it certainly is. 1t is desira-
Bile therefore. that some such inVeStt-
ga ton be made in other communities, |
as only in this way can the question {
b. finally decided whether a rejection
of the teachings of religion does or does I
not result in moral deterioration; and (
it would be better if it We're made by /
men representing the church. as in that
case religious men would have no /,
reason to question its fairness.-New |
York Tribune.
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