St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1913-05-07

not be paid. but to which it is i'm
possible to pay no attention. This
is not theory, this is fact. A state
ment was made in my hearing only
this last week that 1t would be hard
to find 100 families in this town
who were absolute teetotalers and
in whose houses there never was IL
ouor. Please notice I say that this
was made in my hearing and sew
eral of those in my presence endors-
ed it. | cannot think it is true, but,
even should it be untrue, it is OBJ
vious wrong that such a statement
can even find credence here.
A Low Moral Tone
Here is another. / dislike to
mention it, but distasteful as it is,
it is not as distasteful as it is dan
gerous. You cannot go on the
streets at night here without be-
ing conscious that there is among
a certain element in this town low
moral tone. If you question this,
go to the Jail and ask Mr.. Worthen
on what charges most of the in
mates are held. If you question it,
go to the police here and ask what
they can tell you. / have heard a
story of what took place here this
very winter which is a matter of
common knowledge, which I have
never heard equalled in any city.
New York with all it's evil has moth
ing worse to tell than this story.
Read even the papers here and
while decency requires that much
which you can pick up in the courts
or on the street be withheld from
the columns of The Caledonian or
The Republican, nevertheless there
is quite enough there to show that
things are in bad state. Is there
any question about this? Is 1T not
rather that those who do not know
about it have lived in such a way
that news of this has not reached
them. May we not have buried our
heads in the sand ostrich fashion
and imagined that what we did not
want to see was nonresident be-
cause we did not see it, These
conditions are certainly serious
enough, so serious that it is possible
they even ultimately affect the
name of the town abroad.
No Action by the Church
But what is the church doing to
offset this? Nothingl The men who
sell liquor are not in our number.
Those who sell themselves do not
darken our doors, nor do they come
to listen if we try to take the Cos
pei to them at the end of a long
pole in the form of tracts or relig-
ious literature. The only time
they hear minister's voice is when
they attend a funeral. The men
who drink do not go to church be-
cause they do not want to, and if
they do go are they apt to be set
on fire by what they hear?
If the men and women in the
Jail this morning were sitting in
the church here, would they be help
ed by our services? Does the church
have any influence on these? See
the ratio of church attendance to
the population. The church we
will not say is failing, but we must
say is not accomplishing any
thing. The church seems helpless.
They will not come.
A Terrible Indifference
But more terrible is the indiffer-
ence. The church does not seem to
care. And they very certainly do
not care for the church. There is
absolute indifference on both sides.
What per cent of the men who daily
pass the church on their way to
and from work ever enter a church
door? How much are we concerned!
The salesman who travels with a
! line of goods changes his line if he
cannot sell. We have been unchang-
| ing in our methods in the church,
preaching to people in the same
manner that we have been for 1000
years and the people are Indifferent
to the church And the church be-
| ing Indifferent to the people, they
do not seem very greatly to care. So
! the thing goes on, we content and
they content, we with services of
say $50 in the morning and so at
night, prayer meetings of 40 or so.
And membership of 285! The scale
works at the foot of the hill are
making engagements because of
| the new business, but the church of
Jesus Christ at the top of the hill is
at a standstill Why? Well, because
we are Indifferent to the mass. And
the mass is Indifferent to the
church. Let them come, we say,
let them come and show an in
terest. And what do they say? Let
them come and show an interest.
And that is the secret of it all. Let
them come and snow an interest.
While we talk about the masses
we can never hope to help them.
Christ did not say neighbors but
neighbor, and the question is not
who are your neighbors, but who is
your neighbor. In other words,
come down from the general to the
particular. This is where the whole
trouble has lain. The anxiety OF
the church, if she has had any, has
been for the mass. The indifference
of the mass has been for the church.
But how change this? The individ-
ual in the church may care for this
or that man in the mass and the
man will respond. But how will
the man know of the interest of
such a one. That is the whole bur-
den of this parable. The priest and
the Levite were no doubt as patri-
otto Jews concerned over the con-
ditions in Judea, but they did not
sDdiufdr4o1c Tho crnnd Ga