Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-27
SERMONS ARE FLUNG BACK
FROM VACANT PEWS
Associate Pastor Blight Of the Fellow
ship Deals With Problem In Out
spoken Terms-DootrIne De-
Tenders Mlsquoted


world you may find towns without
walls, without letters, without kings,
without coins, without schools, without
theaters; but q town without q temple
of prayer no one ever saw In our own
country today you may traverse the
deserts of Idaho, or penetrate the
mountain Businesses of Carolina, or
travel over the long, rolling pralries of
Texas, and in every hamlet stands the
church from whose steeple sounds forth
the call to prayer; and when you read
the statistics Of church membership
and glibly speak of millions and mil
lions, one may be justified in believing
that the church, that religion, is safe.
but there is another side to the
question, and closer investigation will
reveal an altogether different state of
affairs.
People Deserving Churches
mot only are the people deserting the
churches, but the very doctrines Of the
church are being assailed.
Last summer the most influential
gathering of orthodox ministers in New
York was a conference for the purpose
of devising ways and means to defend
the Bible from the attacks of the
higher criticism.
"Call the roll of your leaders In any
department of progressive thought and
you are reading list of heretics of
men who have been compelled to leave
the church for conscience sake.
THE old doctrines are being dis
credited and their defenders mistrusted.
'"The people are drifting away from
the churches and the cry goes up from
nearly every orthodox pulpit: Where
are the masses? Where are the peo-
ple? Our pews are empty. With mock
irg echoes our sermons are flung back
to us from vacant churches. Ichabod'
the glory has departed-is written
over our Institutions; ard were it not
for the tainted contributions from
tainted men our churches would be
bankrupt.
Church Stood Still
THE reason for this deplorable con-
dition is not far to seek. While the
world has moved on, the church has
stood still; and not only stood still but
in her folly has tried to stem the rising
tide of progress. But even as the in
| coming bllows catch up the derelict
and fling it scornfully upon the shore,
so the tide of the worlds progress has
caught up the church upon it's heaving
| bosom, and the church that fails to
respond to the rudder of the newer
| thought Is tossed derisively upon the
sands, high and dry, while the tide of
| progress sweeps on.
1--WE have discarded the old astron-
omy and pushed out the limits of the
universe to infinity. We have thrown
aside the old geology, and today from
| the rocky pages of the book beneath
our feet we are spelling out the fas-
cinating story of the development of
| the earth. Our botany Is no longer a
mere classification of leaves and roots
/ and tendrs with ambiguous Latin
names, but the plants and flowers
breathe and think and work in wonder
! full life phenomena beneath the eyes of
the delighted observers.
The old idea of special creation has
| been relegated to the limbo of exploded
| theories, and in it's place we behold the
orderly, progressive procession of crea-
tion from the whirling fire mist to the
| holy aspirations welling up in the heart
| of man.
The economic treatises of the last
century are obsolete. The histories of
| the past are being rewritten. Dust and
| cobwebs cover the law books of the last
| generation.
Everywhere you feel the divine inn
pulse onward and upward. Even as the
master scribbled the word larger on
the crude canvas of the pupil, so the
| great God has written the word larger
on the thoughts the motives, the insti-
tutions of the times; and in answer we
are bursting the bonds of the past and
reaching forward to the glorious future.
I'm every direction we are growing,
growing, growing. Are we also out
growing religion?
Yes, thank God, we are outgrowing
the religions of the past. We are out
| growing the religion of Journalism.
True religion dies when 1t becomes
formal.
True religion is, and must ever be,
spontaneous, and outpouring of the
| soul
Journalism means hypocrisy. The
repeating of words and shibboleths
when they have lost vital meaning,
the observance of forms, the wearing
OF badges, when beneath the respecta BILE
orthodox surface beats a heart full of
| Scepticism and iniquity.
/ Journalism was the only sin that
reused the soul of the gentle Nazarene
to wrath. For the sinful woman, de-
filed and outcast, he had words of pity.
For the grinding tax collector he had
words of comradeship. For the de-
splsed alien he had warm words of
brotherly greeting. For the thief on the
cross in his wretchednes and shame he
had words of promise and hope.
But for the respectable Pharisee,
/ tilC WCll uIcSo0Q dIQ W6ll
| hypocrites professors of religion and
despoilers of the poor, making long
prayers in the public places but with
hearts corrupt and cruel-for these he
had words of vitriolic denunciation
"There was a time when church MEM
bership threw a covering of silence
over the sins of the business man. We
levied a fine upon the wrongdoer in
the shape of a contribution to a phil
anthrophy or a missionary cause; for
which considera tion we overlooked his
shortcomings.
To-day the employer who suueezes
his employees or who uses his ability to
organize a trust by which he grinds the
faces of the needy is arraigned at the
bar of public opinion and condemned,
even though he endows university or
builds hospital.
Hypoerltes Are Exeerated
To-day the hypocrite is held up to
ridicule and scorn and execration, and
his church membership only adds to his
disgrace A great hatred OF shams and
shoddies In business. in politics, In re-
ligion is sweeping over the land, and
the religion OF Journalism, OF hyprocrisy,
Is dead never to be resurrected
"The religion OF dogma Is passing.
I'VE have seen the foolishness OF try