The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1906-07-11
PAGANIztNG NEW ENGLAND.
DR.. Crothers Of Cambridge, in an Ad-
dress in London, Puts Blame on
Secularism.

TIE Ri. Rev. Samuel NJ. Crothers,
Of Cambridge, Mass, has been the
subject OF much notice on account of
an address he delivered few days
ago at meetin of the British and
Foreign Unitarian Association. He
said:
american civilization has evolved
men from whom Americans turn back
afrighted. America does not keep
these men, however, they come to
England to spend their money.
The hardest thing in America is to
bring 10 a man the conviction of sin.
The Americans are unreasoning op-
timists. A preacher might stand at
the street corner and cry, Repent, re-
pent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is
at hand and the comment Of the
good-natured, prosperous citizen
would be, 81 guess that's all right. The
Kingdom of Heaven is coming sure
enough, and guess we're it. But if
enc urged on him that if he did not
repent the Kingdom Of Heaven would
not be at hand, he would only smile
and say, I'm all right. Let the other
fellow repent.''' ---.s.-
To believers in ecclesiasticism, he
said, America stood today as a hor-
rible example of the results OF secu-
larism. In New England there were
country communities that had re-
lapsed into paganism, and were stand
ing examples Of the futility of mere
little sectaran communities. That
region was q place where there stood
no one great church with sacred as
soeiations, only a few little meeting
houses, scarcely attended by the peo-
pie.
One of the serious problems in
American today was this growing pa
ganism of country communities. There
was no religious teaching, sectarian or
otherwise, IN American schools. and
religious people there had begun to
ask: care you not educating the new
generation of men Intellectually with
out educating them morally, making
them keen and quick to achieve, and
Aambitious, but not giving them the
%guidance they needed for true ciri-
zenship?' That was another Of the
great and terrible problems of Ameri-
can life.
A thoughtful American would admit
that their liberty, which had been
preached for generations, had pro-
duced lawlessness, and that material
ism was growing. Yet, while he ad-
mitte,1 the evils, he would say: .'Your
old remedies are absolutely ir1poss:
bic to US, The cry OF the Americans
of today is not LESS liberty but,
..More ordered liberty
America was now passing through
one of the greatest moral and religious
crises since. the great movement for
the abolition Of slavery. If American
politics were corrupt, the people were
not Indifferent to it, and those who
were working in the cause Of morals
and religion had a sense of fnal VIC
tory that lad not possessed them for
generations. The two most popular
preachers IN America were Andrew
Carnegie and Theodore Roosevelt.
They appealed to the masterful ele-
inert in young men. Carnegie had
said: Get rich, and the, bestow your
wealth for the good Of the communi-
ty.'' President Roosevelt had urged:
Give yourself to the public service,
disinterestedly, honestly
America needed generation Of
fearless men who could neither be
bribed nor threatened. Today the
United States were repenting that sin
OF materialism of which they had in
the past generation been guilty, and
were seeing the necessity for finer
and higher ideals.-Boston Herald.