The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1903-04-23
The Churches and the People.

count Of 1t being the largest Of the four
churches. During the services the Priest
made the remark that the revival being
carried on at the Congregational church
was a farce, and he did not wish for any
of his members to visit their services,
and at the same time saying his was the
ONLY and true church. But he never even
spoke about the present conditions oflife
ONLY to ridicule other churches. And SO
it is with all other ministers of the differ
ent churches. suppose there are a great
many reasons why the church to-day Is
not all that it should be to the masses,
reasons some of them too subtle and too
profound for the most of us to under
stand, but is it not possible to find at least
one likely cause in the character of the
men that the ministry attracts?
I don't mean that the clerge lack char
acter. I mean that they are the type of
men whose very training and taste and
natures place them apart from rather than
with the people. One man loving the
water goes to sea; a second with liking
for speculation drifts ultimately into
Wall street; third, caring more perhaps
for debate and power than for anything
else in the world, is fairly certain sooner
or later to be found in politics. So he
who places culture and peace and un-
worldiness above all things else in life is
naturally to be looked for in the church.
1t is every man according to his bent.
NV point is that the churchman's bent
too often isolates him from the masses
from the very people who are most IN
need of his counsel and friendship. 1t
has a strong tendency towards keeping
him from being democratic, in fact the
ecclesiastical body throughout the ages
has always been troubled by this tendency.
And because of this we see that many
churches to-day have left the center of
the city where the average man lives,
suffers, works, hopes, and despairs, and
have retreated not along the line of the
greatest need but along the line of the
least resistance to the outskirts of our
cities where the surroundings are fairer
and the struggle for existence little less
apparent. Culture and commonalty un-
fortunately rarely 60 hand in hand. The
man who likes books and retirement and
the aesthetic things of life is not often the
man who wants to get down among his
fellow-men and live with them, work
with them, and fight with them. Many
clergymen are deficient physically in
vitality just as many men who are not of
the clergy. They are nerveless and blood
less, interested mainly in what the closet
life affords. They shrink from publicity,
from strife, and from the details of the
commonplace. This is nothing either for
or against them; they are simply as God
made them. But these very characteris-
tics of theirs keep them from working
out with lower classes the social and in
dustrial difficulties that face them Many
other ministers by nature progressive are
so hedged about by the unwritten Gus,
toms of their particular congregations
that they are debarrred from being unduly
strenuous; it would be undecorous OF
them to urge thing vehemently. Still
others are restricted in their work by the
church articles which they have signed
Here you see are several reasons why
the pulpit is kept from being a factor to
be reckoned with in the causes that con
front men to-day. The church can never
be anything more than the men of which
it is made up. If they fail to keep in
touch with the everyday questions of the
people the church itself will fail to keep
in touch And I am inclined to believe
that the majority of ministers have failed
to keep in touch with the people, which
accounts largely for the truth which Pro
fessor Ladd, of Yale, recently uttered
when he said the ethical condition of the
church to-day is relatively low and nerve
less; and which accounts also for the
truth of the cynical remark certain un-
scrupulous party boss made years ago.
Politicians care nothing about the church
vote, but they respect the saloon vote, for
that goes solid.
The church because of its very nature
is calculated to be the greatest institution
in the land to guide and inspire man.
Why does it not then fulfill its function
Why does 1t persistently remain in the
background and allow men to be guided
and bossed by less desirable factors
Why does it not secularize its religion
more? I have 80 little patience with
those ministers who, Sunday after Sunday,
year in and year out, are satisfied to fall
back on the bible for text and frame a
dull discourse around it when texts by
hundreds in the very life about them are
crying out for discussion and solution.
Why, pray, is it wrong for clergyman
to speak strong and sharply of the things
of the time in which he lives? Christ did
it. He concerned Himself directly with
the social and political life of His day,
vet the modern churchman, His supposed
disciple, shuns all subjects that deal
with the current men and movements.
For myself, | feel that these are the very
things he is best fitted to interpret for
the people. Why should he not then
stand up and counsel his hearers con-
cerning what vitally affects them here
and now, rather than preach to them
about Old Testament doings or what the
hereafter may have in store for US? Let
him tell us how to live the present, and
the future We may well bell will take
care of itself.
Take DR.. Rainsford, Bishop Potter, and
Archbishop Ireland, and consider what
men of affairs and good citizens they are
in addition to being men of the cloth.
With other clergymen equally well
known they are always active and alert
in the cause of good-citzenship and right
living, and their efforts have yielded very
definite and very profitable results.
1t would be distinct gain for the in
fluence of the church if more ministers
followed their example. Professor Ladd's
criticism, which, strange to say, no
churchman of special distinction has seen
fit to contradict, would then perhaps be
partially shorn of its lamentable truth.
JOHN NJ. HUNTER.
Janesville, Wis, April II, 1908.
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