Arizona republican., 1908-08-31

reveals itself more prominently; the firm lips curve away from the well-set teeth and the keen gray eyes hold one
 with the tensity of their expression.
 As he moves about the slender figure
 reveals the well-knit proportions of
 the man of athletic habit. There is a
 dynamic force behind the utterances
 that makes them strike home. There
 is something Rooseveltian about the
 set and action of the jaw as it cuts
 off the words. It is easy to understand his casual mention of the fact he has been a storm center" during his pull
 pit career. Though a preacher of the
 gospel of peace, Dr. Aked Is man of strenuous thought and with the courage of his convictions as it shown by his ministerial record.
 "The question of the decreasing membership and waning influence of religion-the churches-is not de- nominational question:" continued Mn Aked. Tt is not a national question. It is a question as wide as Christian ity itself Conditions in America are. broadly speaking, the same as in Eng land and in England as in the rest of Europe. l NdD Sct llit hllltlthNC A'A this country since I first visited the United States, fifteen years ago. The danger is not from direct attack on religion. The denial of belief, that is, atheism, has spent its force. What the churches have to fear is. more in sidious danger-indifferen He feels that he can do without it If you ask him whether he believes in God, in the existence of an infinite power su- perior to man the chances are that he will say yes But questions of dogma, distinctions of creed, do not interest him and he refuses to concern himself about them. He has made up his mind that he can get along with out religion-that is religion as it has been expounded to him. But that does not mean necessarily that-he is ire ligious.
 Tt seems to me that this indifference is more pronounced in America than in England. just as orthodoxy is more strictly defined and more unyielding over here. And where there is indif- ference to the church I can form no other conclusion than that the church itself is to blame. Yet the need of re- ligion never has Heen greater Tn any age or country than in this country and in the day we live in. Churches exist ard preachers are maintained Co re- mind men and nations Of the eternal laws they must obey and the eternal love in which they may rest. And in the United States they may vet be needed as the mainstay of social order. Either the churches have got to live up to the task of keeping the soul of the nation alive or they will perish"
 Do you think that members of the generally agree with your views?"
 "The facts speak for themselves. Statistics gathered by Dr. Josiah
 Strong show that the gain of the churches in membership in proportion to the gain in population is steadily and rapidly falling off. In the past twenty years it is less than half what it was in the preceding twenty. The trouble is that to6~nuch of our relig-
 ion, both as it is preached and as it
 is practiced lacks life. The attitude of a vast number of persons toward it is like that of the New York banker who said to a certain preacher at the con- clusion of his sermon: This is the first time I ever knew the religion had anything to do with living. l thought it had to do only with dying and go- ing to he'll"