The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-09

do so. they accompanied Him to the ship.
 And we are concerned now with the very last words of his address It is more blessed to give than to receive" :" The peculiar and interesting thing about that saying is that it is the only unwritten saying of our Lord in the New Testament not preserved for us in the Gospels.
 St. Paul uses it as though it were well known. Just think of the beautiful say ings Jesus musthave uttered which were necer recorded. We are reminded of the worlds loss in this direction by the sayings of the text which, almost by accident. as it were. was rescued from obseurity. But enough for this saying as it stands in its connection.
 I have taken these words as suggest ing the subject. 'The Essence of Churchgoing. Periodically we are treated to a discussion in the church papers. and not alone in the church pa- pers but in the secular press as well, to the subject. Why people do not go to church. and especially Why young men do not go to church, I will say frankly that I have long since ceased to regard discussion of that subject as Of any great consequence. simply because when the discussion is ended you are right where you were when you began. I have my own idea in re- gard to the matter, however. I certain ly do not believe that you can put your finger on any one thing and say positively that that is what keeps peo- pie away from church. It may contrib ute to that result, of course, but that lit is the only thing certainly doubted. There are a good many things working together which produce the result de- plored by all devout people. In the con sideration of this matter, it mus not be forgotten. and if we do forget it our consideration of it is altogether imper- feet; that this is not a spiritual age; that it is on the contrary grossly ma terial age. Men are not to any great extent interested in spiritual things. They do not feel the need of religion. Of course am speaking of men in gen. eral. There are those who do feel the need of religion, and there always will be- And they are the ones who are
 maintaining and will maintain the churches and their work. It seems to me that for the answer to the question Why do the people, and young men in
 particular, not go to church?' you must go back to the fact that this is d gross 1 ly material age. Specific reasons may be assigned, but they are subordinate to that general reason. If men really i felt the need of religion, it would not l be a question of straining every effort 1 to keep this and that church alive, but lit would be a question of supplying lenough churches to meet the demand, | just as it is a question in large centers of population of supplying school ac- lcommodations for the rapidly increas- ! ing number of children. In this whole matter of church going it is absolutely necessary to take into account present lday conditions, However much we may
 dislike to make the admission, yet
 make it we must, that everything to-
 day initiates against church going. Il I is harder for people to go to church to-day than it was in earlier days.
 am not saying that this ought to be the case, but as matter of fact it is. There
 are innumerable attractions and dis
 fractions now which our fathers knew nothing about. There are demands
 made upon our time and strengtf
 which are peculiarly modern. Taking
 it all in all, am inclined to think tha those who do go to church to-day de
 serve more credit for doing so than dit our fathers on the simple ground that