The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-14

advancement of the cause of religion are
 endeavoIing to get together nowadays
 the strife between the advocates of re-
 ligious education for children in the pub
 llc schools and those who feel that it is
 matter which must be entirely divorced
 from secular education is continually
 manifesting itself. Germany is not sat
 isfied with the ordinary methods of teach
 ing religion in the public schools. short time ago educational associations
 in Bremen and Hamburg asked for the
 exclusion of religious instruction from
 public education More recently a large conference of teachers belonging to the kingdom of Saxony assembled at Zwiek- au passed various resolutions protesting against formal religious teaching. It ap- pears that it is not a purely secular and
 non-religious education which the Saxon
 teachers desire They esteem that to be
 out of the question. Rather they Seek | for changes in the method of imparting
 religious knowledge. What surprises one
 most is the significant demand that the | church should have absolutely no over sight in elementary religious teachings. They say further that systematic or dog matic teaching in religious matters has
 
 pose to make religious instruction his | torical in character and contents, to
 make it's center the person of Christ and l to show the connection between religion
 and national history. For advanced
 classes they propose a course of Chris
 tian ethics based on the Ten Command l ments the Sermon on the Mount and
 Lords Prayer. For very young children, I in the first two years of school, they | propose that no religious instruction l should be given. Conservative ecclesias- l tical newspa pers speak of these proposi- tions as a revolution and not reforma- l ton, and condemn their purely national- | istic character and origin and anticipate | failure.
 1 Since We have been considering the mis- sionary movements of our own land so much of late it is interesting to note the | impressions of a German authority upon
 the subject. In speaking of the recent visit Of Pastor Richter to America the New York Churchman says: ''The mis- sionary societies of continental Europe are seeking to extend the international orga nixation they already enjoy through tine Bremen conference, so that it shall take in the societies of America Canada and, if possible. England In behalf of this noble conception of missionary CO., operation Pastor Richter well and wide l ly known as the author of the remarkable History of Protestant Missions in lndia,' came to this country shortly before
 Christmas, attended the Rochester Stu dent Volunteer Conference and has been doing successful work with the several boards of this country and of Canada. 1 In conversation which 1t was our priv
 iiege to have with Pastor Richter last
 week, he showed the keenest interest in all phases of the missionary awakening in, fS the fight for missions was the fight for tine future of America, which itself would be Christianfzed in carrying Christianity to others. Without this missionary spirit 1 he felt our churches were themselves in danger from the untaugnr rnasses The | church in Germany had its perils also, but l they were different An international
 committee would help to better acquaint-
 ance with the inner life of eacn. It
 would also enable weak societies to make | more effective protest when wronged by | governments in heather lands; it would | furnisa an effective mouthpiece for those 1 engaged in protecting natives from the
 evils of interruptions exploitauon as in l the Congo. To the coming conference at | Edinburgh he felt that the missions of Lutheran source had an important con- tribution to make. Their work, as could be seen especially in the Transvaal and on the east coast of India, had been to
 build up Christian communith life.
 Missionary interest in Germany he
 said. was not as general or as strong as
 he had found it in America and in Eng land but he felt it was more homogen- eous concentrated and thoroughly or ga anized, and that it's workers were, as rule, ntore thoroughly trained. If Amer ica would develop her type of missionary activity as consistently as Germany had
 developed her type, America would lead the world
 | Under the French separation law large
 number of the clergy were to receive gradually diminishing pensions, 1t being provided that at the expiration of four years, beginning with 1906, the pensions should cease. This law affects all of the | clergy under 5 years of age. 1t is cal culated, therefore. that the French church starts of the new year with a loss of | over $l,50o,00o of income. A system of | voluntary contributions has already been | started by the church to maintain public worship and to meet incidental expenses. | The associations which undertake this duty have no legal status because the law recognizes the associations des
 Cultes, which the Pope declined to allow. | These informal parochial associations send the money through the cure to the
 bishop of the diocese.
 In addition there is an interdiocesan
 sustentation fund, presided over by four or five of the archbishops of richer dio-
 ceses. who assign to the proper dioceses funds sufficient to maintain the services
 of the church. The money at the dispos- | al of this centrak organization is, 1t is said, several million francs. and this is
 applied entirely to the clerical salaries. The French cure. 1t may be noted, is content to live on about $200 a year. No cases have been reported of the closing of churches because of the inability of
 the priest to live upon his income. All of the parish churches have become the property of the commune, and So far the local bodies have shown themselves per fectly willing to allow them to be used by church members. Public worship has
 been given up In but four or five build ings. In the cities and towns the munich
 panties have also shown themselves gen erous in voting sums to maintain church l fabrics and the risk of secularization seems only to affect churches situated | in very poor communities
 | The voting of money for this purpose by local bodies is forbidden by the sepa- | ration law. but M. Briand has shown | himself extremely liberal fin Interpreting this clause of the act In a test case he
 decided that the commune might vote tine money, provided tho expenditure was not for the maintenance, hut for the l preservation of the edifice Moreover, he | has issued administrative regulations which tend to make the secularization | of d church building a rather long pro- cess It can only be done after attempts have been made to keep it open by volun- | tary subscriptions. It is commented on that all the churches that have been sec- uarized are situated in two departments Yenne and Seine ct Marne.