Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-06-02
The Responsibility
OF The Churches

\ / SUPPOSE that If any one were
to attempt to lay portion Of the re-
sponsibility for the ills, from which
American society is to-day suffering.
upon the Christian church, he would
int once be denounced as a RABBIT hater
Of religion, of the order of Voltaire
and lngersoll. And yet, in spite OF
the certainty of this denunciation, it
is just this indictment of RESPONSE
Ebility which l, as Christian minis
ter, would bring in all seriousness
against organized Christianity.
We are living to-day in an age of
sociai sin-an age which violates in
it's social laws, social habits and
social adjustments every moral and
spiritual precept of the religion of
Jesus Christ. Great evils are all
abroad-evils DID,. no doubt-evils
which have been pregnant, without
question, ever since men first came
together in social relationships
evils no worse to-day probably than
yesterday, but evils, nevertheless,
which are a disgrace and scandal in
society which calls itself Christian
the leadership of Jesus for something
in this year of our Lord, 1908-here
in this United States of America,
which once week sets apart a day
for public worship, which once year
summons all of its people to a day of
solemn Thanksgiving unto God for
4 the blessings richly showered upon
1.-THE land, and which annually cele-
brates its gladdest festival upon the
birthday Of the Nazarene-here,
say, do we find society which, in
| it general aspects at least, knows
little or nothing about the religion
which Jesus taught If I read my
Gospels Alright, I observe that Jesus
taught that religion laid upon the
souls of men but two commandments.
First, declared the Prophet of Nazar-
eth, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God, with all thy mind and all thy
heart and all thy soul and all thy
strength" and, as though this
categorical imperitive we're not
enough, he took, pains to emphasize
this teaching by the warning spoken
upon the Mount, "Thou canst not
serve God and Mammon." And yet,
If there Is any one thing supremely
characteristic of modern society it Is
not the love of God but the worship
of Mammon. More truly to-day
than in 1843, when Carlyle published
his Past and Present. is our sole wor-
ship that of material w.alth; and
J'more true is it of our America in the
I first decade>of the twentieth century
than of Carlyle's England in the fifth
decade of the nineteenth century,
that there is but lone thing in which
we are entirely in earnest max
ing of money!"
Well does Professor J. c.. Van
Dyke in his Money God, speak Of the
J United States as nation become
/ monomaniacal" 1t has made unto
ITSELF" he declares, "a golden image
which it falls down before and wor--
ships; it thinks and acts and legis-
lates for money only; it turns the
arts and sciences into machines for
gain; and drunk with its own power,
| it revels in gluttony and becomes
boastful of it's own selfishness, for
| gets the goodly heritage of it's his
tory, forgets its ideals and faiths and
beliefs and starts upon a career OF
greed and grasp
It is our worship Of Mammon that
has corrupted the government of
city, state and nation, crowding our
aldermanic boards with thieves,
CT eating in every state legislature a
third house, composed Of the lob
byists of the special interests, and
giving over seat after seat in our
national hall of Representatives and
Senate chamber to the highest bidder
at public auction. It Is our worship
of Mammon which has made business
piracy and transformed honest indus
try into brigandage, writing such his
tories as those Of the Standard Oil
Company, the Beef Trust and the
Metropolitan Street Railroad, and
surrendering America into the hands
of such men as Rockefeller, Harri-
man and Ryan. 1t is the worship OF
Mammon which has prostituted our
social standards and created an
American nobility of wealth. 1t Is
J the worship of Mammon which has
watered stock, adulterated foods,
granted and accepted rebates, be-
trayed insurance companies, built
rotten tenements, run single-track
railroads, and maintained saloons,
gambling dens and brothels. It is
the worship of Mammon which has
stripped our country Of its forests,
thrown our coal mines and oil de-
posits into the hands of private ex-
ploiters for their private enrichment
at public cost, degraded our -litera-
ture to the standard of best sell
ers," our art to the standard OF mag
azine Illustrations, our drama to the
standard of Klaw and Erlanger. our
colleges to the standard Of CONNER
cial schools. 1t is the worship of Nam
mon which has identified success
with wealth, happiness with mater
ial luxury, heroism with money-mak-
ing, patriotism with prosperity. Say
what we will, Mammon is the deity
whom we worship; for while we serve
God with all our anthems and all our
rituals and all our sermons and all
| our creeds in one day out Of seven,
we are serving Mammon on the 9th
or six days with all our mind and all
our heart and all our soul and all