The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-03
IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD
What the Church Folk Are Thinking About and Doing.
Religious News From Elsewhere

were sections or errond boys or day
Ia borers-We cannot tell; but it prob
ably would be his most scorching
STYLE. There are some of us who are
~old-fashioned enough to believe that
the land will never receive the spirit
uaI baptism for which mu1titudes are
praying until a good many churches
learn to treat their preachers decent
ly.
There is the. other side, of course.
which a minority Of the men in the
ministry need to consider; namely,
that theirs is a high calling of God,
and not a mere job Or a profession.
The minister who is forerer working
with his eye on a better call" and
on the record that he is. making in the
UNCONVENTIONAL year books; who joins
secret societies in order to furher his
ambitions; who schemes for ecclesias-
teal Meferment; who measures a
field by it's salary, and who, n short,
is constantly thinking of himself ra-
Their than of the lock of Christ-such
a one is outside of the Pauline CLASH
fication.
That is the sort of preacher they
can make in theological eminaries
and he will never once utter an I'M
| orthodox word. But preachers are not
made by schools; preachers are called
of God. 1t is because they are man
made preachers hat there are empty
churches. The ministry is in rather
poor repute in some quarters merely
because the visible samples are poor.
The world has not outgrown it's need
for preaching; given a true prophet
and shepherd, and the people will still
follow and honor him. There is Just
as much work and influence and CRATE
full affection awaiting the right kind
of pastor as ever there was.
Is a New Religion Coming.
The distinguished president-emeri-
tus of Harvard College was reported
by the newspapers a few days ago as
declaring that a new, twentieth cen
fury religion is coming, to take the
place Of this fi~rst-century faith which
transformed Thessa1onians and Corin-
thians and Athenians, and proved it's
power greater than the mighty Roman
Empire. This new religion is not to
come by authority or revelations; it
will "just grow" like Topsy and in
it's rare atmosphere mankind will lift
itself by it's own boot straps. There
will be no Christ in it, but it will be
a sort of monotheistic patriotism. It
Will have a surgeon but no heaven to
which his unsuccessful cases may go.
Under it men and women will not be
sinful beings needing redemption, but
free souls, intepenetrated with the di-
vine.
If one may have the temerity to take
issue with such a distinguished au-
thority and put in a plea for the old
fashioned gospel that made over these
heathen TheSSalOnians then it may be
suggested that this sort of evolution-
airy religion which is proposed does
not square comfortably with the facts
Of history. Had not Athens evolutedl
far? Some scholars look back upon
her hays as the golden age of human
ity. Why hasn't the evolution con-
tinued? Athens persisted like a rotten
apple. Some Of us who have seen evo-
luted man where the props of Christ
ian sentiment did not uphold him are
not enthusiastic over the Inherent di-
vinity of humanity. During the Span
ish Wal I was in camp at Chicka-
mauga with a Massachusetts regi-
ment; I need not say more.
If any man thinks the Pauline re-
ligion which v man, whose natural
drift is downWard-saves him from
himself and in spite of his environ
,nent-has become a back number
let him spend his book allowance for
a year in travel. Let him go to the
Kneeland Street Mission in Boston,
the Water Street Mission in New York,
the Galilee Mission in Philadelphia,
the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago,
or hundreds of Others, where slum
buns or college graduates, who have
gone utterly to the devil, are made
over into the new by the mysterioust
power Of Jesus Christ. Or let him
go today to Uganda or Fiji or Korea.
where, without the slow process of
evolution, men have taken on the New
Testament traits within a generation.
This great issue Of creedless, Christ
less, colorless, churchless religion, YER
sus the Church which has been maxi
ing history for twenty centuries, and
never go nightly as now, seems to be
Joined. It behooves the Sunday
schools to present a Saviour who can
still make men and women over even
as he did in Asia Minor.
New Rules for the New Way.
Christianity does not have to wait