The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-05-01
SAL SAALL00 0NS, PICTURE
H0USES-BEATEN
Some Facts and Figures Which Don't
Seem SO But Are Real, DoIed
Out in Spicy
Sermon.
WILLIAMS HAS PROOFS
Fs REGARDED AS cH1MERA
Church Properties That Do Little,
More Valuable by Four Times
Than Amusement Inns,
Says Preacher.

In his sermon yesterday morning,
the Rev G. G. Williams said among
other things that 1t was time we meas
ured up forces In manner calculat- |
ed to inspire confidence rather than
to create mistrust. We were in tn.
habit of taking views of wrong which
needed at least the correction by the
recollection that there were other
forces at work, and that with meas
ure of success.
The church was not failure, and
it was not in any sense either dying
Or inert.
On fair Sunday the average at.
tendance at the churches runs fsoEi
$500 to 1000. This is lagre num-
Der of people to gather together TOR
any purpose whatever. If the Same
proportion Is kept up Throughout the
country, there would be neariy thirty
million people gathered for SOME ex-
preston of their religion. Can VIC
get any other cause which wo lid bring
together such large number Is
there any movement in ciyics or con
omics or which affect the social and
FIaliticaI life which would bring these
people together in such numbers
week after week, to the same places
with the same surroundings, and with
the expectation Of hearing somophase
of the same subject treated.
We are often told about the num-
Der of people who crowd the moving
picture shows on Sunday evenings,
but the number In the churches Is
| greater. Suppose that many CT the
agencies which are branded as iclcl'g-
ious or as against the highest moral
| life of the people. But thee are not
half as many people in the moving pic
ture shows on Sunday as are found in
the churches. If we measure the de-
votion of the people to their religion,
and over against that set soma OF Tic
| statements that are often made, we
/ should be surprised to find that tn !,
large balance was in favor of the
4 churches.
There are thirty-eight esaloons i'll
Keokuk. we are sometimes told that
4 BuGlT dlSSl InoA tlctl. VI
the churches. But is it? In church
property in this city we have invested
nearly three-quarters of million dol
lars This would not include the val
ne of the lots on which they stand.
In saloons there is not an invest
ment of two hundred thousand. Some
of them, indeed most of them. are
1 little better than shacks, and they are
barely worth valuing.
These are some of the things that
we can see for ourselves. Ii we go
! further, there are agencies which we
cannot afford to ignore In our. Sum
day school there are gathered over
two thousand children each Sabbath,
and there are over three hundred
consecrated workers who cheefully
give their time, and themselves to. the
work of helping and uplifting the chill
dren. When one comes to think Tor
a moment, there is no comparison be
tween the forces that make for right
eousness and those which make for
sin and wrong doing. II is time we
4 recognized that the note of pessimisn
does not help anything. and that an
insistence that we are not fighting a
losing battle should come uppermost
refuse to believe that the church Is
marching to defeat, and that we are
in danger of losing religion in any
sense. If We want to do away with
wrong, let us cease to exploit it, and
declare that greater Is he that is in US
than he that is in them We have not
set our faces towards the setting, but
towards the rising sun. There ars
many people who cannot see the prog
ress, and who are too anxious to bring
the facts uppermost which carry ir
them wall of pessinaism Let us
face facts, and we shall be more hope
full, and do more for humanity