Evening star., 1924-05-22
CHURCH SEES PERIL
In wealth INCREASE
Easy Riches Have Smothered
Sense of Responsibility, Pres
6yterians Told.
COMPARED TO INFIDELITY
Return to Personal Stewardship,
Members Urged.
COMPARED TO INFIDELITY
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
SAN ANTONIO. Tex, May 22.-
Wealth has presented one of the
greatest obstacles in history to the
progress of the church, according to
a report of the stewardship commit
tee before the Sixty-fourth General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States, which brings it's
sessions to n close here today.
The committee. formed fourteen
years ago to organize and corelate
the work of the church, is composed
Of some of the ablest men in the
Southern Presbyterian Church, and
receives one of the largest appropri-
ations for any single work. The as
sembly yesterday voted to give 1t
$4,000 for. its expenses during the
coming yfar.
Effect of Modern Life.
The committees report as adopted
declares that the effect Of modern
| life, on the whole, is to deaden per-
| sonal responsibility"
In reference to the complaint of the
North X iangsu mission i'll CHINA that
; unorthodoX teachings We're being fol-
| lowed in the Nanking. Seminary, the
| committee having the ma tier in
charge recommended that the North
kiangsu mission be instructed to
meet at an early date to take up the
question anew and to consider
whether. in the interest of the truth
and of the influence of our church on
the seminary and of the whole mis-
Sionary enterprise in China. it would
rot be wise for the mission to retain
its connection with the seminary.
Needs Of Country Church.
-
sembly called "a country church as
led By Rev. II. W Mclaughlin of
Rappne. Va. He argued that special
stress be laid on the needs of the
country church because of its perilous
position and because the rural dis
trcts afford the best field for home
missionary work. 1t was the sense OF
the assembly that the work of the
next assembly should be outlined by
the program committee.
The position OF the Southern Pres
hyterian in the field OF foreign mis-
sionS was discussed and established
as the final important business to-
day.
The assembly will not be dissolved
as in former wears. but will be ad-
iourned and may meet at any time in
special session.
Next Years meeting will be held at
Lexington, Ky.
Report of Committee.
The report OF the stewardship COM
mittee said
our social. business and religious
contacts have become 50 multlpleN
and interTelated that insensibly to-
day men are interpreting their duty
by the standards of the group they
belong TO. Business men live in an
atmosphere of group contacts, group
insurance. group program. the mod
ern corporation has been defined as
u Tn q
sponSibility. UnconSciouSly this af-
fects the thinking of men as they
mea sure duty. The church adopts the
quota plan for beneficences and adds
by its own act to the tendency to
measure duty in the terms of what
others do.
Moreover, the, stewardship revival
offers the only solution 10 problem
that is giving all thinking people in
the church today very grave concern.
We refer 10 the rapid increase of
wealth in this country. At no time
in the history of the church has pro-
cumulating wealth and it's attendant
consequences. What do we witness
today"
Increase in Wealth.
"A most amazing situation. There
are thousands of means of accumu-
lating money today that did not even
exist in the days of our grandfathers.
In 1916 there We're only 124,375 people
who paid an income tax on incomes
between $4,000 and $4,000. In 1928,
just seven years later, there Were
I.I5S. 200. Just nine years. The per
capita wealth in this country in
creased from $500 in 1860 to about
$2,91S in 1923. From 1912 to 1929 per
capita wealth increased 40 per cent.
In 1928 there were 10000, 900, 900 dol
lars of life insurance written; savings
bank deposits were at the high water
mark of history as were bank de-
posits.
Manifold evidence could be sub
mitted that the church is getting rich.
Judged by the experience of history,
this results in ease, Indifference and
decadence. And so today We have
as perhaps the greatest single OBJ
stacle to the progress of the church
a condition within the church. name
ly. Indifference, an inevitable sequence
of modern conditions
"One hundred years ago or more