Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-05-17

spirit which can alone accomplish
sweeping results in this day and gen.
Grafton. His answer to his suggested
question as to what is needed, runs as
follows.
Personally | do not believe that
the more thoughtful people Of any;
community will be really moved by
religious teaching which ignores, as
completely as these evangelists are
doing, the whole modern point OF
view of theology. the well-establsheG
results OF recent Biblical scholarship
and the present emphasis on social
service as the main expression Of re.
ligious life.
I'm all the sermons and addresses to
which | listened land | attended ev.
cry meeting in our distritt-mldnigh
meeting theatre services, and ally, |
never heard a single sentence indlcat.
ing that they were conscious OF the
fact that mass Of social injustice
, lies heavy upon the hearts Of Gods
people, that processing Christians
share In the responsibility for certain
inequalities so glazing as to be cruel,
or that the Increasing application Of
the principles Of the Sermon on the
Mount to industrial conditions Is one
Of the most imperative duties at the
present time.
mo one expected that the evaneglists
would enter upon any sort OF social
fFnn ll htt thnrn ffran -
give a whole afternoon to the consid.
Grafton of the exceeding sinfulness OF
family game of whist or OF a com.
pany of young people dancing together,
there was time to argue the spiritual
ineffectiveness' of the man who does
not believe that Moses wrote the Pen.
tateuch or who doubts the single au.
thorship Of the book of Isaiah, but
the note of social responsibility was
never once struck in my hearing. Such
n distribution of time and interest
seemed to many like titling mint,
anies and cummin, to the omission of
the weighter matters cf justice and
mercy.
81 believe in in genuine evangelism,
but the quick.rising sort has some.
times made itself unduly conspicuous
and has filed the minds OF many people
with the vain idea that Christian
character could be made in large guam.
titles to order and off-hand; and this
has tended to postpone their atten-
ton to that which Is imperative, II we
are to win permanent victories, the
! Christian nurture of the children, the
| educational influence of wholesome
church life and the personal and pas
toral evangelism which ought never to
sleep
III | can gather any lesson then
from my own observations during the
last three weeks and from the kind
ly, serious comments OF numbers Of
Christian men In Oakland. II Is this.
1t Is not for us TO idly exult that tho
unchurched masses of the city have
been profoundly influenced by this
dramatic movement for they have
scarcely been touched at all. It is not
for us to sadly mourn that the great
ends we have In view cannot be COM
passed by money and posters, by huge
combinations OF churches and over.
flowing congregations, by stirring
singers and the fervent appeals of
those who are strangers In the con-.
munity.
1T is rather for us to here highly
resolve that an evangelism which Is
of the people, by the people and for
the people; an evangelism which
grounds its confidence, humanity
speaking, not in glazing advertising
or elaborate machinery or abnormal
emotionalism, but in the spiritual
contagion Of many devoted hearts; ar
evangelism which declares the real
content Of the Gospel by uniformly
defining the act of coming to Christ
In terms of personal and social evan
gelism, reasoned and ethical, spiritual