Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-08-27
H;eh Paid C1ergyn,en Preach
To Embty Pe,us in Old London

Iabors Of the week predispose- people
who are not specially i'm earnest TO
avoid the least add tional tax on their
intellectual or nervous .orga,;hzation;
therefore they, abstain from sunday
worship.
Another reason may be found in the
preachers and preaching of today. The
remuneration offered to the average
minister is SO meager. and the prizes OF
the remaining professions or OF com
merclal life are 80 great. that the sons
OF the better-class families are at
tracted in other directions. Thus min
listers who have not been able TO afford
the advantages OF thorough education
are hardly competent to hold their own
amid the increasing intellectual adj
vance Of our age. Perhaps too, the old
heart -searching, devotional and con-
verting note Is too much lost sight OF.
II may be also that preachers are too
apt TO discuss present day topics to the
exclusion of those vast and innate Is
sues that must perforce demand and
hold unusual attention.
SPIRIT OF UNCERTAINTY.
1--WE may also blame the vast and in
creasIng place covered by the news
naper and serial which afford the
mental pabulum that was once OBJ
tanned solely from the pulpit. Pes~
hans also tho terrible increase In
stained and polluted literature as many
as 900 polluting books are now In circu-
lation. one OF which has attained one
| million copies is eating the morals OF
| the community and indisposing the
| readers for religious exercises. Tho
| shirt of uncertainty about the basis
/ OF the religious life and the exaggerated
idea OF the destructive effects OF modern
| criticism may account for some or the
| strange religious apathy
| "Of course, there is much moro
| religion in the world than Is represent
ed by the church attendances; and
| some OF this has been anenated by
| our unhappy discussions or rigorous
| ana dead Journalism. But that the
hunger Of the human soul for God Will
finally re-assert itself have no doubt
The venerable william Sinclair.
| archdeacon OF London and canon of
| st. PauPs cathedral, gave me a very
| practical explanation for the decay Of
| Sunday worship in London.
| AT the present moment, he said
"onIy rs per cent of the population Of
| London attend any place of Worship
Ten per cent Of this attendance repre-
| SCENTS the Church OF England and the
remaining eight per cent is made ur
Of Roman Catholics, non-conformisti
and Jews.
Il have no means Of knowing whetht
or the proportional attendance Is equal-
| ~ low In the provinces III iidAN liuNN
IL NAV be higher; nevertheless IN
complaint is equally general.
DECAY or SUNDAY WORSHIP.
s'The decay Of Sunday worship hal
come about in the following way: II
: | the mid Victorian era the average Eng
! ishman had three pillars for his ri
ueion--the Bible, sunday and IN
weekly sermon. The tractartan mov1
ment, which began about the SAM
y ! time. undermined his feeling for sun
% day by teaching him that II he attend
=, cd early celebration he might do as 4
I liked the rest NJ the day. This SAM
d movement dethroned the weekly SCI
@ mon by teaching him that Il WASH
n worth speaking Of in comparison VIII
d the efficiency of prayer
k Lastly the third pillar has been n
j. moved by the broad church party WI
- have greatly shaken the authority
e the Holy Scriptures by throwi1
% doubts on their veracity and compoi
X ton. When professors question whetI
i 81 we have the actual words OF Chrl
Il I'm the gospels. the Bible is no lone1
r considered. in the ordinary sense,
l. splred.
l. lone of the results from these thru
l :