Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-26
SERMON|ZE ON
EMPTY CHURCHES
Father Vaughan Declares That
People Must Be PraC-
ticaI in Religion
CONDITIONS ARE ATTACKED
Holds That the Love of Folly and
Amusements Cause Neg
-, Ieet of Duty
CONDITIONS ARE ATTACKED

LONDON, Aug. 25.--, y y forceful an'
striking sermon, dealing wA~i 'tte 99D ~,
ject of empty churches and y s-HiiSia q,
sports, was delivered by Father BE-
nard Vaughan at st. Peters RoInan
Catholic church, NARROW, last Sunday
morning.
Father Vaughan said the burning
question in the religious world today
seemed to be this: Why are oul
churches empty? 1t was a question
that thousands of people are Offering
to solve, and the press had opened lts
columns, inviting explanation OF this
disastrous state of things in a lano
which once observed the Sabbath sc
strictly. With some little anxiety he
had been reading what his country
men offered as their explanation oi
the empty church. The reasons given
were poor and beggarly ones, excuses
rather than explanations and reasons
One set of writers told them that serV-
ices were stale, the music fiat and the
sermons Improbable. Another set oi
writer's reminded them that the goli
course and the cricket field, the motor
drive and the steam river trip Offered
such strong inducements to the peo'
pie to- keep away from church thai
they turned their backs upon its doors
1t was painful and shocking to reac
these explanations as to the rea
cause OF the irreligion of the day
Today, more especially than in any
previous period in the history of life
men were being drawn away from Goo
through the senses. 1t was through
the senses that they must bring then
back to God. They must assemble az
members OIL that mystical body, Sc
lg IL ,lNT,p- airrlN
be vitalized, inspired, actuated and
dominated by one and the same Chris
tian life. He would tell them why the
people of England did not go tC
church.
PLAYING AT RELIGION
They were playing at religion; they
were not in dead earnest about re-
ligion. They did not really believe il
a personal God who demanded of then
a life worthy of a Christian calling
They failed to remember that a day
was not long hence when they would
be rung up by the Master ana told tC
give an account of their stewardship
They people of England were not 60
ing to church because they did no
see what there was to go for. If they
were a thoroughly believing people
they would be practical IN tnelr relt
gion-for they were pre- -eminently {
practical people. Then the golf ball
the cricket bat, the motor, the steam
boat, the launch, the entertainments
the amusements, the expeditions, th
river, the mountain and the road Nigh
offer ten thousand times greater at
fractions than they actually did, anC
those attractions would fail to draf
a man from his church when he fell
it Is his dlltV to go,
There was the same reason for the
empty church as for the empty cradle
We were become a material people
loving frivolity, folly and amusementS
before duties. What England was suf-
fering from was apostasy from God
We were a compromising people, who
would not tell their countrymen their
faults. If from every pulpit in the
land there went forth the cry, Come
back to Christ" instead of "Come back
to the land" there might yet once
again be hope for this dear land. 1t
was with a nationa as with an in
dividual, If the nation abandoned the
worship of God, if it's churches were
empty, it's souls would be empty and
heaven would be empty and hell would
be full of his countrymen.
In conclusion, he said that though
he recognized Sunday as a day OF
worship, he also remembered that 1t
was a day of recreation. 1t was a day
for the entertainment both of the body
and the soul. He was no Sabbatarian,
believing in long, dreary, disastrous
looking countenances. He wished a
man. when Sunday came round, if he
went alone, to go to church and to go
forth and show that service of God
had made him better neighbor. a bet
ter father, a better child, a better
citizen