THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13325, 3 November 1906, Page 8

THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE.

Sir.— some years past my work lias brought mo into immediate contact with the I workers of Australia and New Zealand and ( the poorer class of people in our cities and larger towns, and I have noted certain facts ' " which, impel me to write you on the above subject, knowing the interest you have evinc- ' ed' in such questions. • ' In Now Zealand and the Australian States I?' I have observed that the,, mild complaint of good, comfortable, easy-going orthodoxy is a that indifferentism is taking possession of th© masses. This spirit of listlessness is re- r garded with even more apprehension than if I' it were one of downright; opposition; for ; where the effect of aggressive hostility is | generally to stimulate. Church life. that, of l cold, dumb, stony indifference, which char-1' acterises the present age, is tc paralyse it. t'v - The great problem which the hurch of the j present ago has to face is how to reach the? . people who dwell within the shadow of its own steeples. Every day this is becoming j - more difficult, and in all large centres of eivi--lisation pronounced ecclesiastical anasmii £ is the prevailing condition, which grows ■ worse instead of better. If this is to be eurp'l there is abundant evidence that new methods will have to be adopted, jnd.tV- ecclesiasti- \ cal science, like every otuer, must keep step : with the march of model's' thought. Already orthodox preachers have begun to desert the . old, beaten tracks of . barren, dogma, and to ' deal in their sermons with subjects affecting the social, physical, and political well-being : of the people, and as a rule it is theses and these only, who draw the congregations. But this is not enough. Converting the pulpit - into Iho platform in the way which has be- * come fashionable with "popular preachers" , suits those, who go on Sundays in search of mental recreation, but with the great, toil-; ing, suffering masses of mankind it makes little difference whether the preacher's sermon is about the " double profusion" or the , .■ "joys of poverty." More than word contro- * , versies is wanted from the popular Church of the century; moro, also, thru formal ami > ceremonial. It must identify it self with th» human as well as the spiritual life of the people;—prove. itself, in short, tc Ik> part and if parcel of its whole being, not merely of its abstract and ideal sido, as is .now generally the case. In the earlier -times the Ohrelies did this to a much greater extent than they do now. Ecclesiastical influence dominated Govern- - meats, moulded such public opinion as there ii; II was to mould, and, generally speaking, shap- jif'i ed anil ' directed all popular and national I/;;* movements. But in all the more advanced countries of the world that time has gone' by, and there is . not the slightest evidence that it will over return, nor,. is it desirable; ; that it should. The Church, therefore, will have to 'get hold of the people in some other way. It must submit lo the same great test which in this ago all other institutions have to undergo, that of popular usefulness. By its works if, must justify itself. The. 1 qucs- /" tion is: Will it do this'/ The answer can .y; only be found'in the amount of popular en- V* thusiasm which it evokes, and the amount of ,11 influence which, '.as the result of that enthusiasm, it it able to exercise upon the course of human affairs. The. Church, if it means to. - survive the chilling frosts of indifferentism, which is the . cold, clear, intellectual atmosphere of this century, has to dread far more tha.; the martyrs' pyres, lit by < the brutal, ignorant passion of early Christian deya. it must go to the people, not expect the people to come f. .'j, to it. And it must go with something more - than empty dogma in its hands'.. Hitherto? r the Churches have done little to assist the < f * people in unravelling any of those cruel sochl |f| problems, in the solution of which the whole j' mental energy, of the world is employing it- j self. To the weary multitudes crying for : - bread they offer still a stone. • e The main drift of ecclesiastical teaching \ ' has'; hitherto been that it is the duty of p everyone to be "content with the station of >"; life in which it has pleased Providence •to ||j| place him." To the millions of crushed and j. socially trampled unfortunates in the, world, ;S|i whose condition is almost the negation of ; the existence, of a beneficently guiding Pro-i If! vidence, the complacent cruelty of this doc- M trine is simply revolting, and it is'no wonder | that they have long ai>o ceased to listen to i if. A high Church dignitary has recently, g? admitted that to millions of this class such | a thing as religion was in the present day [ impossible. Is it not a fact that in the cold- p: ness, and' fat, callous, complacent conservatism which paralysed so much of the ordi- j nary Christian life of the present century, the Salvation Army saw its opportunity? £ ; am aware that it is the fashion to ridicule 'f'. . this organisation, and if from th" orthodox py! Churches it has received no r?,ail hostility, it I has to thank them for very little entourage* p| ment. Nevertheless, much us we disapprove of its methods, it has shown the world that it understood the circumstances of its own times much more thoroughly than many of ; the high-toned conventional institutions which have locked down upon it with either ■ pitying toleration or impatient contempt. ; 'Ilie question is: What can be done? 1 \) have, at present, 110 defir to plan to .submit. , I write for information. re sly will I ad- '} mit the loving work some of the Churches a'o doing, but, it is infinitesimal compared with f tho huge, institutions and the immense army j of clergymen employed, In the cry of th*> | Church to the working class, "Come and help us," can be heard the wail of past failure. Let us frankly admit the fundamental, inevitable change, ami • seek to adapt the forms of organised spiritual life to the new intellectual, .social, and political en- 4 vironment in which we find ourselves placed CIJEKGTMAX.