The Newtown bee., 1909-11-12
The NeWtoWn Bee.
SAYS CHURCH IS TOO C0MPLI.
 GATED. Rev W. A. Beardsley. of St Thomas New Haven, Makes Charges in
 His Sermon.
CHRIST OUTSIDE THE DOOR.
Church of To-day Too Worldly and Material. Sadly Needing Apos-
 tolic Simplicity.
Newtown, Friday, Nov i2, 1909.

Epheslans 5:32; q speak concern. ing Christ and the Church."
 That is my texr, but strictly speak ing l shall not use 1t as q text, but simply as q declaration of my pur- pose. l intend to speak of Christ and the church, and of some other things perhaps, relating to Christ and the church, however. l shall probably speak more of the church than of Christ, for my subject is What Ails the Church?' But then you cant get my answer 10 that question without having something to say of Christ; indeed, l am not sure that it will be possible to get any adequate answer without say ing great deal about Him.
 Now, perhaps, there is no question being asked more often today, not only by its enemies but by its friends, than this, what is the matter with the church?' Of course they are asking it in a different spirit. Its enemies are asking it with a view to confound and belittle it, whereas its friends are asking it with a view to finding an answer which shall be really helpful towards the correction of it's faults. Whatever the church may be in theory, it is in practice a very human affair and from the na- ture of things is bound to be. But you see men contrast it as it is with what it is in theory, and the result is not favorable to the church as it is. There is always this disadvan- tage in making great claims: you must either live up to them, or fail ing to do so suffer the consequences. We declare the church to be divine, divinely instituted, divinely organ ized, divinely inspired, and l am not for a moment suggesting that it is not all that, but you see what all that entails. If in itsprogress through history it's human characteristics are manifestly pre-eminent men grow critical, and if the time arrives when it's human characteristics practically obscure the divine, then they begin to ask what is the matter with the church?" Now there is no doubt that something is the matter, but let me hasten to add that there is no occasion for panic, and I am bound to say that there seems to be some reason for caution such as that, for there are not wanting signs that even among the clergy there exists a pan icky feeling which is certainly dis quieting. The courage and confi- dence of leaders are necessary to in spirit the host. In Gods name, let none of us give any comfort to the enemy by seeming to be on the run. But if there is no doubt that some thing is the matter with the church, there is also no doubt that all the fault is not with the church, and that he who is so quick to ask what is the matter with the church?' ought to be just as quick to ask, in justice to himself and the church and to all concerned, what is the matter with mel" for there is certainly something the matter You cant conceive of the church apart from the individuals who compose it. And moreover, the individuals who might compose it and ought to compose it but who remain outside of it, have after all some responsibility in the matter. I don't believe we ought ever to allow anyone to ask the ques- tion, what ails the church?" with. out turning the searchlight right back on him to see if he is what he should be, to see if he is doing what he should do to make the church what it should be.
 But now having made the admis sion that there is something wrong with the church, it is only fair, think, before proceeding to bear wit ness to the fact that the church was never more active than it is today never more alive to the demands made upon it, never responding bet ter to the missionary call, never en gagged in more diversified interests never looked to and used more b! benevolent and philanthropic insti tutions for their futherance, never richer in conventions and synods, etc
 Whatever else may be said of thu church it certainly cannot be accused of inaction. But yet withal there ii something wrong somewhere. Per haps it's activity is misplaced. Per haps its nervous energy gives it thu appearance of doing more than i really is. There is an activity tha is nothing but fussiness, you know and it doesn't deceive anyone fo
 long. I don't mean to say that thu church's activity is nothing bu
 fussiness, though am not anxious
 to be called upon to prove that som , of it is anything more than that.
 Now believe that the trouble lie deep, and that no superficial enthusi asm can ever produce the desire, condition. There will be many an swers to the question, what ails tn ,, church?" but they will not all b of equal value. l have been inter ested in the answers to this question
 by prominent representatives of som
 of the religious bodies, which hay , recently been printed in one of tn
 magazines. Of especial interest wa
 the answer of the man who is com = monly spoken of as a certain ric
 mans pastor. He says, "The neares
 most important single reform to b
 attempted by the religious people c , his country is to double the salary c 5 every preacher upon the continent g The churches get just as goodpreach ing as they are entitled to for th
 money they pay. They are serve o+ p