The San Francisco call., 1904-03-27
THE LENTEN MEETINGS.

II AR back in the history of the set apart
r. portion of the year in which to give special at
tention to the great issues of life Whether it be
the Jewish Passover, the Mahometan Ramadan the
Christian Lent pause the busy occupations of the
people is evidence furnished by many under
divers forms of the religious idea, that feel the
need of ntrospecton and that serious examination of
their motives which lead to better living and the
cleaner discharge of their duties toward each other.
We believe that far has been found that
has idea OF power external to The
conception may be crude 1t may be dsfgured by super
sttiou 1t may be productive of nothing than
idol fetch, it may be refined to high and in
efabe abstraction, but its existence is universal. AS
this conception rises in refinement, rises in civiza-
ton. But he outgrows it, to feel the
need of belief in power greater than himself That
the final of righteousness. whether in the
individual in the state.
We speak of the ancens as pagan. But who can read
the orations of Cicero. which he called upon the great
Jove witness the integrity of his purpose and the pur
ity of his patriotism without feeling that the Roman
statesman sincere American Senator who
appeals to the higher power under different name9
Who doubt that the Roman found in his belief the
motive toward righteousness that the American
finds in the same belief under changed form?
The business men of San Francisco have made good
and proper of the Lenten season. by meeting daily
in the Chamber of Commerce. to listen to brief and
non-sectarian service and then consider in sober
mndedness the duties of the citizen his family his
neighbors, his country and his city In the range of
questions considered everything that relates the
sponsbity of in the social has been consid-
cred The addresses have been delivered by university
presidents labor leaders, cergymen, ursts and of
affairs.
There is growing complaint that do attend
church 1t is often said that this abstenton from the
formal observance of religion is evidence that they
drifting into condition of indifference the serious
hinpS ar theva
from the ethical impulse which gets its strength
from religion. These MONDAY meetings in Lent
negative the serious conclusions derived from the lapse
of the church going habit. Is it that
simply less interested in the fine distinctions between
forms of faith and the rivalry of creeds and under the
guidance Of learning respect great
and single idea that is the foundation and of them
all?
In these days. when the world rises in wrath against
those who matreat the Jews, and when the most de-
voted Christian dealists in Japan the defender of
the essentials of Christianity, and illustrating them in
the truthfuness of her statesmen and the discipline
her soldiers, may not conclude that less in
terested IN dogmatc religion because they more in
terested in that agreement of opinion which works
in righteousness of life and conduct?
Perhaps many of the busy who have given an
hour daily to the meetings in the Chamber regular
churchgoers but who shall say that they less inter
cstcd in all that the church teach for the benefit of
SN-NN'
customary single San Francisco city conspc-
uously Indifferent to serious things The religious da-
1ectcans have called this the wickedest city the
Union We who live here know how little these char
acterizatons deserved. We have a cosmopolitan
population, gathered from many countries and the far
islands of the sea- Here may be found Parsee and
Puritan, Jew and Gentle Buddhist and Confucian but
may claim with confidence that the quality of mercy
and justice faith and charity, is to them ALL
Our Christian citizens, nominal and professed, rightly
march at the head of this procession of many races but
they all have hands the life ne and are ready
sacrifice for what in its is the ideal
We doubt whether in any city in the world during
this Lenten have listened to more devoted
expounders of human duty, have felt keeny the
impulse toward all good. than here The addresses
might be printed in that every church could with
profit distribute its members, and point as evidence
that San Francisco takes the great and simple PRINCIPLES
of religion its guide to all individual and civic right
eousness.