Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-04-05
Why Some Young Men
Drift Away f5 r.: Church
BY Bishop
Udrren II.
Gambler

1 force may go hand in hand, that strong
faith grasp and strong mental grasp may
| co-exist."
In some of the colleges of the country
there has been all sorts of unchristian
| and improbable rationalizing; neverthe-
| less there has been a steady advance OF
evangelical piety among the educated
young men of the colleges. Wholesome
teachers have had more influence over
the body of students than professors given
TO sensational folly, although they have
been less noisy. 1t is not to be expected
that they would make as much news;
normal living is not newsy. One hundred
thousand people rising in Atlanta this
morning and eating their breakfasts in d
quiet and sensible way make no news
for the reporter, but one crank announc-
ing that today he will begin to fast forty
days and forty nights would furnish the
re porters material for columns of copy.
So one professor in a college who at
tacks christian truth attracts an amount
of attention which hundreds Of sensible
and sound men neither receive nor wish
to receive Likewise a few noisy young
fellows who renounce the church and
treat with contempt the religion OF their
fathers and mothers seem much more
numerous and important than they really
are. To magnify their departure above
and to encourage some others to follow
them. The boys who are just coming into
young manhood should be informed that
these Grant and shallow creatures are
not the most or the best of the young
men of the country. There are others
very many others, who are far more ad-
nirable and manly.
1t has fallen to my lot to have taught
large number of young men while I was
Il IN, inna Nx.nr I have
followed with affectionate solcitude my
"old boys" With few exceptions most
of them are religious, and they are active
" engaged in the work of their churches.
Those who have wrought most successful
Nv since they went forth into the work
of life have been men of pronounced
religious convictions. Only few of the
whole number have been ungodly and inn
moral and every one who has made a
failure in life has been of this class.
Let any one who has lived in Atlanta
long enough to remember the history Of
the community for twenty-five years past
be asked what has become of the god
less and immoral young men who were
beginning life in this city at that time,
and the answer given by such an one will
be that these hayward young men have
been failures in business. and have dis
appointed their friends and grieved their
families. The young men of that period
who have come to anything in life were
then found in the Sunday Schools and
churches. And this record of the past is
the prophecy of the future. The gay and
goddess young fellows of today in Atlanta
are going to be the failures and wrecks
of tomorrow. They look upon the churches
now with indifference, if not with con-
tempt but twenty years from now not
few of them will have to rely for what
ever good they will then have left to
them upon the christian sentiments of pa
thence. forbearance, and charity which the
churches promote. The men who really
love these Absalons, and who only will
lament them in the end, are not their
present evil counsellors, but the devout
Davids whose hearts they break by their
SINS
Despising the church of God and neg
lecting it's services may seem to this
cIaes of young men quite the proper po-
sition for a young man of strength to as
sumo; but If they wish to ascertain the
doom to which they are driving, let them
hunt I'D the bloated and blasted men of
the city today who took this position
twenty-five years ago. The leading mer-
chants and professional men of the pres
ent time were founu in the pews OF the
churches at that time while the wrecked
men about us now were deriding them
with scorn the christianity which they
professed. by their fruits We shall know
them" The seeds of that sowing period
have had time enough to show what sort
of harvests spring from them, and there
is no Disgusting the results.
Let the young men of the present time
face the facts The way of safety and
success is not the path of godlessness.
1t never has been and never can be.
Let none who are disposed to wander
away from the churches put the blame
upon any but themselves. The fault Is
not with the churches nor with the
preachers, though they be never so imper-
feet. The purity of the churches, which
is a living reproof of sin, and the fdel-
ity of the ministry, which is constant
rebuke of wrong-doing, more frequently
send men away from them than do their
imperfections and shortcomings. Let
any young man who is inclined to turn
away from them ask himself the question,
what have / been doing that makes
such associations so distasteful to me?'
In most cases he will find that he is de-
parting from the church because he has
already departed from right living. The
men most disposed to oppose religion are
they whose conduct religion condemns
They fight most fiercely that which fights
them.
1t is quite time that all concerned put
the blame for the absence of certain
classes of young men from church upon
them who are most blameworthy in the
matter,-these young men themselves.
The too prevalent disposition to accuse
the church as the author of all this way
wardness is not justified by the facts.
The sight of one who has been going all
the galCs.'' standing wnen he goes no fur
Their, and pointing at the church while
he whines, you made me do it," is a
sorry spectacle deserving the scorn OF
ayarv manly soul