The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-28
The CHURCHES AND The WORLD.

IL
Restarfck. canon Macintosh and the
local clergy, as well as by energetic
Iayrnen, suggests a few thoughts on
the modern relations between the
churches and the world In the early
mart of IN. Christian Era, the world
was understood as the antithesis TO the
Kingdom of Cod and as in close ALI
ance with the flesh and the devil.
. Since. however, Christianity has be
come a vital force in civilization, the
meaning of the term has acquired
: modified construction and, in the Twen-
4ieth Century, "the world may be ap-
positeIy compared to a net, enclosing
is great number of fishes. some good
and some bad. The line of demarcatlon
between society as a whole and Chris
: tianitv in it's broad sense has become
U shadowy and faint, and now both
rneasurably belong to and are moor
/ porated with each other.
still the churches give a great deal
+ of advice to the world and the world in
T it's turn may give some useful advice
lt to the churches. AS living power
= :, operating through individuals and
n through organized society, excluding 1or
n the moment life beyond mortality, ana
,e limiting the matter to earthly influence
s. and results. Christianity has been 10
= great extent denuded of technlcahtes-
8 Formal theology has been relegated 10
n . secondary place, and hair-splitting
V dognas are no longer the chief points
in the diffusion of religion. The en-
o nlied. without ignoring varieties that
lo are treated as essential and that rest
s. upon the unitfes of thought and move
y rnent in all Christian denominations
= 10 the educational and proselytizing ele-
0. ment in the uplifting of the human
a race. There was time when an ardent
a. priest nailed to column hundred ana
five nropositions which he was prepar-
al tn defend: with the sword |
and the tongue, against all disputants,
II old and young But, in this age, these
o. propositions would remain unread and |
would have no more effect upon the |
g multitude than the laws of Caligula |
ne promulgated from an invisible heighth |
n had rpon the mass of the Roman peo- |
pie.
st. James, in his epistle, not ques-
tionins the necessity for faith declared |
r in substance that it had no real exist |
ence until proved by works, and that it |
was useless to sentimentalize over pow
4 erty or suffering without giving prac-
teal relief. This is the pivotal fact |
in the religious progress of modern |
times The perfunctory discharge of
formalized obligations, the rigid OBJ |
'e servance of rites and ceremonies al |
re though not disregarded, has ceased TO
re be the ultimate purpose of Christian
III or religious organizations. Indeed
Is severity in these directions, unaccom- |
panied by the gentleness that springs |
from the unsteriIized and unossified |
human heart, as exemplified in SYM |
VI patty and in philanthropy, is the chief |
- cause of any antagonism to Christian
ds ity that still, in ever contracting de-
VI gree, exists among men. The extraor-
binary movement of the two Wesleys
- and of Fletcher in the eighteenth CEN
" fury out of which Methodism has
8 grown to such vast proportions, was
lie not a detection from the Anglican |
~
d, ism. good in itself, but worthless, if |
re inert and cold. The Salvation Army |
ns which has overspfead the earth, and |
has reached disease, suffering, want, |
< vice and even crime, in their deepest |
Z recesses. and has proved a most effec- |
ig tive handmade to the churches, is es-
sentialIy founded upon the doctrines OF
~ St James, and its mighty power for |
good depends, not so much upon what |
al it says, as both upon what it does and
the manner in which it is done Its
M central proposition is that there is |
. neither man nor woman, so degraded, |
\ or so ignorant and brutalized, as to be
incapable of reformation and purihca- !
ton, and TO these and to poverty it APP |
peals, with full hands at the door or on
the street. The organization, of which |
the late Dwight L. Moody the't
oil strong representative, had very little |
theory but a great deal of practice. |
u Today. many of the aristocrats and
other people of England. in the fore
VI most social and business ranks, carry
u the simpIicities of Christ and His gen !
ma tie spirit into the lowest dens with
tai which London and other large cities
tal abound, and having ministered to hui
in, man necessities and restored human
| bodies to a capacity for learning and
appreciation, draw human souls into
a the Christian fold. In a terse phrase. /
the inductive system of work is the
: method. in the Twentieth Century, of