Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-10-03


very significant movement called THE
Men and Religion Forward Movement.
1t is said to be financed" by the most
prominent business men of the country,
including such men as Mr.. j. Pierpont
Morgan and Mr.. John, d. Rockefeller,
together with local financiers in every
place to which it may proceed. Its aims
are published as follows:
ITO help find the three million men
missing from participation in church
life. ~
To stimulate specialized work for
men and boys in every church on the
continent. ,.,v ,'
To win thousands of unconverted
men and boys to Christ and the
church. f-
To double the enrolment in Bible
study classes. sf-.1.s.
To reveal programmes of christian
service that will command the lives
OF the most efficient men of the two
nations Great Britain and thu Uni
ted States).
To continue emphasis upo1 the
great missionary appeal at home and
In the non-Christain world.
|, To exalt the, spiritual power of the
public worship of God
With these aims all good men viii
sympathize most warmly. There has
been a tendency for some time past to
make christian effort and life too effem-
| mate, and for this cause there has been
loss of a great multitude of men
from church services, Travelling in Mex
leo and Cuba one sees few men in the
churches except on some notable day;
and In recent years there has been
| ground to fear that similar indifferv
ence to christianity upon the part of
men was. becoming all too prevalent in
our country. This alarming drift from
the churches. especially in the cities,
has been in part due to the character
of the services held IN many churches.
The kind of music found in these
churches has been such as would interest
| amateur musicians from semlnaries for
girls, but which would never stir and in
|. spire strong men. The sermons have
been far too academic to grip men who
are struggling with the real problems of
life. In short, many of our churches
have been run as Sunday entertainment
| halls rather than. as 1places of worship.
AS entertainments they have been dis
tinctly amateurish. and quite inferior to
the diversions of the playhouse and the
,ball-feld. AS a mere entertainer
church must in the very nature of the
case be a poor thing. When Ii ceases to
be place where the voice of God speaks
to the hearts and consciences of men
IL begins to lose, it's hold upon men,
however 1t may retain the patronage of
certain classes of women
But the drift of men from the church
es has not been wholly the fault of the
churches. The greed for gain, which has
| prevailed so dreadfully for some years
past, has been sending men on railway
| journeys and into, office buildings on
Sundays, and carrying them away from
the services OF the sanctuary. Let any
one test this matter for himself by stop
ping on a Sunday morning near one of
| our modern office buildings; he will
hear the click of type-writing going on
as brisl1ly as on shy other day of the
week. although the window-shades may
be drawn in some rooms.
The automobile is. carrying thousands
into country excursions on Sunday.
These pleasures seekers are not at church
simply because they are lovers of pleas
ure more than lovers of God, and they
would not attend religious. services how
ever impressive and iblameless might be
the character of such services. They in
dulge a lot of can't phrases to excuse
their misuse"and proclamation. of the Sab
bath. talking rnuehyof being tired out
when Sunday comes. of the religious
worship found In communion with ma
ture', and other like twaddles >o
These and other causes have caused
the drift of men from the churches with
all the moral damage which has fol-
lowed from it. ht. 1s e9Y Sal
1t is encouraging therefore. to, see the
strongest men of commerce are taking
notice of the. enormity of the evil and
the extent Of the danger, and that they
are undertaking to counterfeit the drift
which has been drawing so many men
into lives of godlessness. These strong
men are not alarmed too soon nor too
much about the matter. II the men of
our country turn away from God and his
church the doom of the Republic Is
sealed, 1.-The wicked shall be turned
into hell and all the nations that forget
God" All history confirms the truth or
these solemn words from the Holy Scrip
lures. The God-forgetting nations have
always run quickly to ruin; and we can
not be more successful in that senseless
experiment than other nations have
been. 'ss
II is to be hoped that this '.Men and
Religion Forward Movement" will do
much good. But friendly interest in the
aims of the movement impel me TO say
that none of the nation-savihg REVEALS
of the past have come on this fashion.
The exodus from Egypt the revival in
the days of Hezekiah, the reformation
under the preaching of John the Bap-
fist, the vast evangelstic work by which
the APOSTLES turned the world UP side
down. the Lutheran Reforrna.4on, the
Wesleyan revival, and the religious
movement of International extent which
sprang up lin the6 days of Moody and
Sankey.-none of these mighty move
l.nentsN came by organizing campaign
p ana fashioniffg a new system of religious
machinery. Each and all of them. came
from one mans heart. or at most the