Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-09-05
CHURCH AND LABOR
Unvenerated Church
Is Great Danger of
Christian Society
Religious Writer Declares Insti-
tuition Is Fast Losing Sc
rious Respect.

The sorest spot in the malady af-
ncting Christian society in our land
today, says an editorial writer in the
Christian Work and Evangelist, is
the lack of veneration for the church.
Neither as an idea nor as an insti-
tuition is the Christian church an OBJ
| ject of veneration in our churches.
scarcely, perhaps, an object of re-
spect or serious regard Quoting
Canon Peile in one of his hampton
| lectures, the writer asserts that "the
next few years will decide whether
it (the church, is to shrink into
pietistic sect or spread and develop
until it is actually the people viewed
in its relation to God"
The pass to which the church is
brought is due to the fact, the writer
thinks, that I'VE have largely lost
the vision of that corporate and
catholic witness to the Lord Jesus
Christ for which in all ages of Chris
| tan history the church has stood.
He also says:
1--WE have only to call to. mind
what lofty views the Reformers had
to understand, again, some OF their
magnificent achievements. 1t is
/
told us, that Catholicism is essential
lily a doctrine of the church; Calvin
ism Is essentially a doctrine of God
Yet this same great authority, speak
ing of Calvin elsewhere, affirms. lie
was resolved, so far as he had power,
to make the church what 1t had not
been, but what 1t ought to bean in
stitution organized for the creation
of a moral mankind And the whole
MI e Of a
was but the wonderful and varied eff
feet of which the cause was this
lofty ideal of the Church of Christ
in the soul and mind of that great
reformer We have only to refer to
the oxford movement to see mod
ern instance of this high ideal of the
church largely inspiring a great re-
ligious revival Can it really be
otherwise? Is not the thought of the
church central to Christianity? And
have we not come perilously near
shifting the focal centre of our
Christian faith from the church to
the brotherhood or the adult school
or the Christian Endeavor Society,
or even the worshiping congrega-
ton? 1t may be that we shall need
very much to reconstruct our doc
trine of the church, but some sound
doctrine of the church there must be
If Christianity is to come to her own
in our modern world"
A lofty ideal of the church will
naturally make more effective the
claim OF the church upon the young
er generation. 1t is estimated that
we have ten million adolescents in
this country to whom the qualities
of nobility, heroism, self-saerlfice
for which the church stands, are es-
pecially appealing. The writer asks;
"Is the ideal of the church. OF
which we have been speaking, being
presented at all effectively to these
who are the English people of to-
morrow? If not, why not? 1t is
estimated that fully seen millions OF
these young people have actually
passed through the Sunday schools
, connected with the churches during
, some years of their life. 1t is not
, the fact, then, that we have never had
, them in our hands for training and
for influencing for discipleship. Yet
we are told that something like 80
per cent. of all those who enter the
Sunday schools are finally lost to the
churches. Why this terrible leakage?
Are we satisfied that this loss IS in
evitable? Why should it be? Why
should We not train the children in
the Sunday school, using, wherever
| possible, the newest, the most APP
proved methods of teaching and of
organization, SO that the vast ma
jority of them shall naturally pass
on into the church? Should we hear
: SO much of arrested progress and de-
clining membership among our
churches il we were seriously at
tempting this great task?
1.-THE writer believes that these
questions are being earnestly asked
by many in our churches, by many
in our own beloved church. Is not
one of the answers to them the one
we have already suggested? We do
not retain the Sunday school chill
dren for the church, we do not win
other young people into it. because
we have yet to regain a true ideal
of and inspiration from the church.
We must at all costs regain this
ideal and revive this inspiration. We
must, then, begin, without delay, to
teach our children in the Sunday
schools, and the young people with
| out them, what the church of Christ
. really means, and how it claims their
whole life and their instant service.
There are three chief lines, it is
pointed out, along which we shall
Shave to travel in giving such instruc-
ton.
First. we must teach them what
truths our own particular communion
of the church of Christ has been
formed to witness to and to serve by.
We shall tell them of the great
heritage which has come down to
them from holy men of old in our
own church. Secondly, we shall surely
tell them that our church, beloved
above all Others to us, as it must be.
is only one part of the great catholic
witness to Christ in the earth We
shall tell them wisely and inspiringly
of that holy church throughout all
the world which doth acknowledge
Him. We shall also be careful to
tell them that eight hundred millions
of our fellow creatures have never
!, yet effectively heard of that Christ
nor His witness. This will be our
setting forth of the great missionary
problem, with its inspiring claim upon
young lives and hearts.
'And lastly, we shall tell them of
the church as AN institution or
, ganized for the creation of a moral
mankind here in our own land. We
shall get our young people to study.
, systematically and prayerfully, those
serious social questions the existence
of which is daily denying the witness
of the church to gospel of the
fatherhood of God and the brother-