The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-19
EIamps Professionalism for Flood
Of Folly and WOmen's In
decent Dress.
No SINCERITY IN PULPIT
Bible Only "a Bit Of Oriental
Poetry" and Faith "Only
Superstition"

this afternoon Cardinal O'Connell called
attention to what he called the deca del nee
OF the Protestant faith. the disregard OF
decency by women in regard to dress and
the present craze for new dances.
The Cardinal contrasted the growth Of
the Roman Catholic faith and the decline
OF all other creeds. lie also drew con-
trasts between Catholic and Protestant
women and took covert rap at DIR.
Charles W. Eliot on account OF the lat
ter's new religion"
The sermon was delivered at the union
Service of the Holy Name Society OF all
the parishes Of Boston. About 1000 men
were in the CONGREGATION Cardinal
OConnell said:
what spectacle to behold. this vast
Cathedral thronged with the hosts OF
Christian men NJ every walk OF life. OF
every nationality &c evely avocation
This is the true democracy which the
Christian faith alone can plant and nour-
Ssh.
Look abroad and behold the contrast
sfhe temples of other creeds are deserted
and forsaken. Every day We see new
proofs OF dlsintegration of sects and de-
nominations once numerous and infiuen-
tial.
"A mere handful sits In the chilly
churches which once housed fourishing
congregations. Millions are growing UP
without even an intelligent knowledge OF
God. of Christ. of religion. OF spiritual
life. The press the stage. the street. are
flooded with living proofs of a spiritual
dscadence which can bring only social
end national ruin
Common Decency Disrexnrded.
THE play. the magazine. the ballroom.
oil give evidence OF an ever increasing
Disregard of even the rudiments OF COM
mon decency Of dress. OF department. of
conversation and of conduct
Little by little the bars have been
lowered. letting out the few influences
which held society in restraint and letting
IN a very Hood OF folly. of insatiate greed
for amusement OF any and every kind.
until what even "A few years ago would
make decent women blush to see in
sthers has become so common that even
decent women now accept AS a matter OF
fact for themselves and their daughters
I'VE need be neither prude nor Puritan
TO see and to realize that something In
passing I'm the heart and the mind OF the
women to-day which is leaving them
hard and unwomanly. and that year by
year this transformation goes on until, II
1t continues, there will be neither home
nor family, nor normal womanly nature
left.
III this is the new woman. then God
spare US from any further developments
of an abnormal creature. Certainly this
IS not the Catholic woman who is true to
her faith and 10 not easily Influenced by
these modern fads OF a new paganisn
She has her standards and she stands by
them unchanged.
"And what in the last analysis. is the
cause OF all this moral degeneracy. evil
dent on all sides? Why. IL 10
simply the natural result of the decay
of even the external semblance OF Chris
tianity outside the Church. For fifty
years we have witnessed battle royal
against all these principals which held
together what was left OF Christianity
among those who had deserted the true
faith.
Pulpit Controlled by the Rich.
''The preacher was derided. his sermons
plucked TO pieces. the Bible was dissected
and torn page by page. until nothing but
the cloth cover il now left. The rich
controlled the pulpit and the sermon did
not attract the poor. and without the poor
there never can he a church.
The minister was paid starvation
wages TO preach sermons when extolled
the virtues of coal barons and steel kings
and oil emperors. Even royal salaries
cannot produce sincerity in a preacher
And no man could go on for long leav-
Ing out of his sermon the only thing his
soul longed to say--that Christ came 10
bring justice to tho suffering and that
riches are oftentimes the result OF in
justice to some one
80 the poor deserted these temples OF
cold respectable creed where the pews
were owned by stockholders and the pull
pit controlled by wealth.
without sincerity III the pulpit and
poor in the pews. there never has been.
there never can be any moral influence
In any church. And so no wonder to-
day they are empty. No wonder the few
sincere men doubtless in good faith. strug-
gling still 10 keep alive the little sparl,
of Christianity left in their CONGREGATIONS
are disheartened
But IL the Bible is nothing but n bit
81 oriental poetry, il faith IL only super
stition. II, as again anu again we have
been told by some of the ntellectuals
miracles and magic are all tho same. and
God is an electric current, then what
wonder that the churches are empty and
what wonder That men are few 10 think
any moic of God. or OF religion or OF
moral law,
1.-THE leaders OF this false and crude
intcllectualism have lost all that IL best
in life They have killed the heart in
men because they themselves have nc
heart.
what do they know OF real life-they
who have never for single day lived
among the poor, the laborer the strug-
elinc artisan--they whose whole existence
has been spent among chemical formulas
or In the prim scdateness OF n university
board meeting where an error in gram
mar il IA mortal sin, and where q soft
voice passes for conviction and princi-
pie
"Why, this is all sham How can men
who know nothing Of hearts, nothing OF
feeling. nothing OF the trials of poverty
Of Addiction, whose whole creed IL a con.
ceited notion of their own importance and
whose whole life liz sort Of flawess cy.
Gle. know anything OF real lie of real
need, moral aud spiritual IN fact what
Can they know OF real men,
The New Religion.
"If they would confne themselves 10
chemistry we should have some respec,
for their opinions. But when they invent
= ne" religion each year--a thing which
Is as old as error and has nothing OF re-.
ligon in it, they simply make themselve,
ridiculous
LET them all drop the fads and friiI,
81 u false social and moral stands I'd o
end of things. We are tired to death OF
only breed confusion. The world IN bcinf
talked to death with n new sociology ant
new religion and IA new system Of peda
at n1 Of ,,,,l,I