The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-04-23
IS RELIGION DYING
DIR. PHILLIPS CONSIDERS TIME-
 LY SUBJECT.

LlIe-SrttlcS Generallze From AOU
 Few Facts-Church Has Swept Be-
 yond Thcm-Evidence That Christian
 Religion is Not Dying.
 St. Matthew K, 17: "Neither do men put new wine into old wine-skins; else the skins burst, and the wine is spilled and the. skins perish; but they put new wine into fresh wine-skins and both are preserved. T5
 It is well now and then to see our selves as others-some others-see us
 Our attention has just now been call ed to the morning theme by an article in one of the most popular and widely read of the cheap exposure magazines which purports to be an account of the New York state religious conference, in Rochester, and the national conference of churches on federation in New York city, but is chiefly characterized by a flippant and contemptuous treatment of the churches and the clergy and tll- disguised sneers at the doctrines and ideas the Christian world holds most sacred It declares that Christian peo- pie are living in the twentieth century but thinking in the eighteenth; accuses ministers of being either behind the times or dishonest, praises what it calls the 'big church" composed of the peo- ple who stay at home Sunday morning and read the papers, and defends the dogma that business men must play the game as it is being played atirT1- ing that they are compelled to do many things they do not wish to do, but, In that regard, are in the same case as the clergy who are forced to say and do many things they do not wish to please the people and keep the machine running smoothly. But the Warmest approval is reserved for a discredited Episcopal clergyman, under charges In his own diocese, who asserts that we are standing at the deathbed of a ! great religion, and that the doctrine of the existence of God, the immortality of the soul. the future accountability are without ethical value" because some men who are most orthodox re- specting them are very unorthodox in their business methods.
 Such an article would be unworthy of mention here if it were not symto- maltic of the contempt with which churches and clergy are treated by a certain class of writers and periodicals just now enjoying wide vogue and sow ing doubt and discomfort among the people They assume and attempt to prove that the Christian church has l lost the confidence and allegiance of everyone, except the ministers who use it simply as a means of livelihood and do not dare tell the truth, The writer in question cites the case of a barber who, seeing a clergyman passing, re marked He is a fine fellow, but I would be ashamed to get my living in that way)" the hypocrites who seek tu hide their crookedness under their au- thodoxy; the belated people who never think but receive every thing by pre- scription, and the selfish and supefsti- ttious people whose chief concern is the salvation of their own small souls It is little wonder the people do not go 1 to church, The classes who most read these ucubrations are the very classes who imagine they have a grievance against society and the church, those who fail to see the real set of the tide and are caught by it's foam, and those seeking a salve for their con- science in view of their loose lives and neglect of religious obligations. If that is the sort of food being handed out to them, and they are mistaking for bread, one cannot wonder that they are anti pathetic if not antagonistic toward Christian worship and institutions. What do you think; are we standing l at the deathbed of great religion? Are the doctrines of the existence of God, l the immortality of the soul, and future l accountability without ethical value? Let us admit all we can, There is some ground for the inquiry, Here is New port and New York society, with it's feeble imitators In other cities, spend 1 ing it's time in fetes and bridge whist, prancing over Europe in seach of titles | ACA Ate- he1NaAlCAnB lNbfNthAVpS Ol tilG needs of the under world here is the attitude of the great captains of indus | try, the leaders of commercial entr- priss, toward tn practical application of | Christian ethics to business methods; | hee is the indifference of many church l members to covenant obligations, who l ''grumble over pulpit tax and pew | minute sermon make church attend | anee matter of personal convenience 1 and no longer obey conscience when ii | conflicts with good form You cannot | paint the picture too black! These peo- pie are religious, they are arthodox they all believe in the existence of God
 and pray Lord, be merciful to us mis-
 erable offenders they Hook for a glo. rious resurrection and a blessed i'm
 mortality they believe that each mar
 shall give account of himself to God | You cannot paint the picture too black If the modern church is to be discredit
 ed at any point, it is for it's failure tc
 make its dogmas authoritative and op.
 erative in daily life and in business
 and political affairs-orthodox in creed
 unorthodoX in conduct! Let us admit
 that and have done with it, But, ha,
 the church survived no betrayals o-
 that sort in the past? Is there no oth.
 CT picture in the gallery of moderr
 church life? How large a proportion O
 the great Christian community do these
 people constitute?
 First of all I offer A word of nerson-