Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-11
SAYS CITY PROBLEMS
ARE SPECIAL FACTORS
REV. C. C. PIERCE ADVANCES
POTENT POINTS
Declares Many People Are So En-
crossed In Getting Rich They
Do Not Find Time to
Live Properly


pastor of the Memorial church, began
the tenth year of his passionate by
preaching on the topic, 1.-THE City
Without q Church." taking for his
text the words a. saw no temple there
in" He said in part:
Nothing is more evident to those
who will take the trouble to think or
observe, it seems to me, than that the
modern city is presenting one of the
| largest and most insistent problems
with which the human race has ever
had to grapple. Every advancement
that the race has made has been be-
cause there were those who recognized
some great problem of human life or
human society and then went to work
to solve that problem.
almost suddenly among numerous
mighty problems with which we find
ourselves burdened, humanity is find
ing itself face to face with this tre-
mendous problem of the city. Mankind
began it's career in a garden, and the
present tendency seems to indicate that
it is to end in the city.
zone present great question which is
before us Is that of whether great
many things that make for the true ad-
vancement of the race is not in danger
of ending in tho city. While millions
have been flocking into our great cities
all over the world, and while people
have been struggling for wealth, fever
ishly seeking amusement, madly swing
ling in the wild whirl of society, fighting
| for the maintenance of life, and nave
occupied themselves with the innumer-
able details of life, we are awaking
to the consciousness that most of us
are SO busy getting rich, having good
time and making a living that we have
not found time to live.
Gets Vision of City Life
"Once in a while some one gets a
vision of the constantly excellerating
pace of modern city life and asks
where are we going, and how are we
coming out?'
Two forces congregate in every city,
The good and the bad. the high and the
low, the noble and the base: those who
would elevate mankind, and human So
ciety, and those who would destroy 1t
and drag 1t down to utter degradation
and ruin.
EVIL minded men would corrup and
destroy 1t. Noble souled people are DO
ing all in their power. or at least some
thing to direct and save 1t. Two classes
Of people would like to see Los Angeles
"A city without a church.
zone class would see Los Angeles
with no churches because they hate all
that the church stands for. Because
the church would exalt the home, train
the young in principles of morality and
honor, emphasize the desirability Of
noble character. and glorify the
higher. nobler. truer, deeper things or
life. They hate 1T because they stand
for something else. They hate 1t be-
cause they love the saloon, the brothel,
IA
place of low amusement, and because
they want no restraint placed upon
| their base desires.
"On the other hand there are those
who would see a city without church
in the sense identity intended by the
seer who gave us this vision. A city
in which there would be no longer a
temple because everything for which
the temple of old has stood has been
secured.
Church Is Means to an End
"True religion and a true life does
not consist in going to church, profess
sing some particular creed, observing
some set form of worship, and in sup
posing that there is only one place IN
which we can know God and his truth.
The true end OF life is to be attained
in life itself. The true end of civiliza-
ZION anu oil ICliBlOiA 10 W AiHA
ideal. This Is the true end OF the
church The church is a means to an
end, When the end is attained, the
means may be done away. We are a
long way from that time yet. While
MANY of the things for which the
church stood in the past are being in
corporated into our civic life, we have
only just begin the good work. While
many of the things which the church
alone did in the days of the past are
now being done as matter OF course
by all the people, there is a vast SER
vice yet that the church must per-
form. A..
"The only thing that will stem the
tide of lawlessness which is arising,
which will or can meet and amalga-
mate the millions of foreigners who are
fiocking into our cities from all the
lands of the EARTH and which viii
make of our growing cities desirable
places in which to live is to emphasize
those things, those high principles OF
truth and of life, for which the church
has always stood. He who plans a
church. he who establishes Sunday
school, he who stands by church al
ready at work, he who makes it pos
sible to Incorporate into the life OF the
individual or the race the exalted
truths contained in the Bible, is pa
triot of the highest order. financier OF
far reaching vision and a benefactor Of
the race"