NON-CHURCHCOING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 9

NON-CHURCHCOING.

CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF SCOTLAND. . , "The' Obligations of the Christian Church to ■ the Non-Churchgoer" was the subject introduced by the Rev. J.A. Forson, Govan, at. the Conference of the Congregational "Onion of Scotland in Dunfermline. The fact, Mr. Forson said, had to be faced that so far as Church membership was concerned, the Churches wero not holding their own.-Non-churchgoing was found all oyer tho world. It was not a failing of any one class, but of all classes. Among the causes of -non-churchgoing there were, firstly, the industrial and social conditions ; and, secondly, the theological unrest that prevailed. He did not suggest that the Church ..should become political in the sense of the Church becoriiing tho megaphone ■. of a political party, but he asked if tho Church had actually nothing to say in regard to social evils. Hitherto the preaching had been far too one-sided. What was wanted was a little more of that moral note, of that social note, that was found in tho, teaching and preaching of- the Prophets. The Church itself was largely responsible for the non-church-going. It had lost its early passion— the -social passion that gave it birth. It was suggested by Mr. J. K. Smith, Dundee, that ministers would do a. great deal more good if they interested themselves in the,laud and other laws.

Sir William Robertson expressed the belief that too much was being made ot non-oliurchgoing, and he remarked that the function of the Church was to be a leaven in the' world —not to gather in everybody, but to' influence the people round about it, whether they were in it or not. It was denied by Mr. James Gillies, Glasgww, that the Church was appealing to the privileged classes, and he remarked that there wero working men in.Mr. Forson's own district who earned £5, £6, and £7, a week, and who never entered a church ' door. These men spent all their surplus cash upon their pet footballers.