THE CHURCH'S FAILURE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17063, 16 August 1917, Page 3

THE CHURCH'S FAILURE.

LAYMAN'S PLAIN TALK TO THE

CLEJttGY

(From the "Glasgow Weekly Herald")

The other day. I had occasion to travel by train between two important cities. I had tl.e compartment all to myself for about one-half of the journey, but on the train stopping at a small town a clergyman got into the -compartment/ and at the next station, a few miles further ion, my fellowtraveller was joined by two Brothers of the Cloth. After taking a glance in my direc- j tion, an animated conversation was \ soon engaged in, and ag it was by no j means in subdued tones I could not help hearing all that was said, and especially as, I quickly gathered, it was not in the least of a private nature, I made not the slightest simulation that 1 was not listening to or uninterested! in what was being discussed. j I gathere.l at once that the three be-' longed to a dissenting Church, and were together going to the city at which our train journey terminated j to attend a meeting of their particular ] Presbytery, at which meeting, besides such subjects as a vacancy*in a certain church and a dispute regarding another, the main item on the agenda was as to what mijrht be done to increase church attpndance and interest in church work. The conversation was' most interesting, and the views were freely expressed. One of the clergymen in particular, a fine type of man and a very good conversationalist, expressed himself very fully on the general apathy of tbp public as regards church matters. He explained his view that there were many counter-attrac-tions, pome of t.hem evil and some of them that could not lie classed as such, tb^t were- all tending to draw away attendance and interest from the churches. COUNTER-ATTRACTIONS. He instanced Sunday newspapers, whi^i were purchased on Sunday mornins: by many mon, who read them instp^d of eoinc to church, causing *not only their own absence, but in many instances that of their wives and famil-

|ies as well. Ec also mentioned public j parks and tramway facilities, the lat- ! ter enabling the working classes particularly to go far out into the country to visit their friends and relatives instead of goin gto 'church, adding that he often thought in this connection very like a suigeon must feel when operating on a patient for some trouble, being filled with fear tl.at in putting 1 perhaps the ftomach right he was injjuritig the heart, and public parks and j tramway facilities, blessings as they are : from a health point of view, perhaps lin so benefiting us injured our souls. | Another of the clergymen mentioned places of amusement, which had developed much in recent years, such as picture houses, pointing out that although these were not as a rule open on Sundays, and if they were it was "n the afternoons and for charitable purposes, yet their influence during the week was not in many cases very good. The pictures shown were deteriorating, and had fallen far in tone from the I earlier days, when' educative subjects | were often exhibited. He did not go | bhe length of saying that picture houses were actually demoralising, admitting that he attended them frequently himr self, but he emphasised that they certainly interfered with the attendance at prayer meetings and fellowship meetings ?.nd engendered frivolousne^s, and Ihe believed were to some extent the I cause of the paucity of Sunday school I teachers and Bible dass members.

By this time, I confess I was itching to be drawn into the conversation, but ■—' to thp_ moment J. hadno catise other than to sit as an openly interested listener. My opportunity," however, came when one of the clergymen said to his? friend vrhn had just spoken. "Yon have a big responsibility in this connection : -you with your shares in that pictvro house," and, turning round, he nodded to me, savin a;, "Had him that time, hadn't I?" I. of course, acquiesced at once, adding that if we nrobed matters a little deener we misht find he luid shnres in a'distillery a^ well.

From that time T was co-opted into the little ciHe. and I ventured to tell my new-found friends th-at I had been Tmich interested in their little discussion. It seemed to me that the matter under consideration was the old dialectic society debate, "Ts th° Church losing its hold on the neonle?" and m\ opinion -was emphatically "Yes," and if I

might risk an opinion to experts, on the principle that the onlooker sees most of the game, I might add that I had a firm and clear conviction as to the cause of the unsatisfactory state of affairs. It was a cause that they had never mentioned, and I helieve they had never even thought of, and yet I was convinced that it is the one great primary cause. THE LAYMAN'S INDICTMENT. The three seemed most interested that I should have such a clear opinion on the matter, and asked me almost in one voice what, in my opinion, was the primary cause. I told them, "The Church itself." Immediately each of the three, showed juit exactly their characteristics. They were, all three, rather nice men, ,and represented at least the average type of minister. Two of them seemed just a little Dit offended, but the third showed at once that j he was a born debater and really a thinker, and, drawing me closer, asked me how .*■ arrived at my view. I explained that nothing could last and succeed that vras not ba.red on sincerity and truth.

The most rough and ready illiterate rule-of-thumb country-builder, who never had a contract for anything beyond a one-storey dwelling or a stable, knew that unless he built his walls perpendicular the building would not stand. The most ignorant gardener did not plant a tree upside down, and the engineer or factory owner who had an idea to improve a machine or its output knew that his( only hope was to pay strict attention to the fixed laws of nature. It was futile to count on water running up a hill, or a weight lumping from the floor to the ceiling, or the reversal of the seasons.

All progress, all improvement, aU hope of success must be based on fixed laws and worker! out in sincerity and truth. Thf>t is inst where the Church has failed; it lacks "mi!.it.OT»t bonp-t'' " the very quality it should possess 'r\ a sunerlntive degree. The Light of the World Himself was' not the nnmbvr»amby indivir'nal mnn'- nersons: portray Him to be. He said Himself, "T camf> not to send ?:>ep.ce but n sword." Tf the Church linrl been doing its cfutv for the last, few hundred years, of our 1' -ffieuHies and evils would have been solved.

Tn"ik of it, there are something like 30,000 ministers of religion in this country—i.e., one to every 1500 of the population, say .400 men, 400 women, and /O0 children. Had the true Gospel been preached all these years fearle«s'ly, unhesitatingly, and unswervingly, surely each sincere clergyman with such a comparatively small frock might have educated up his • congregation in the things that realy matter. WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? I asked my friends what : they really were, and answered the question myself by saying that they were the local branch representatives of the Great Teacher Himself. I a-sked them to imagine what Jesus would do if He came down to earth to-day, and occupied then- pi*^it. Would He preach a sermon touching on present-day weaknesses, and perhaps be just on the point of saying something about the drink traffic and draw Himself up with the thought "I must steer clear of that subject as Mr. So-and-So, the big distiller, puts a sovereign in the plate every Sunday"; and again, thinking of the conditions in which many of the poorer classes live, when about to touch on the housing question, would He again draw Himself up, remembering that the most insanitary dwellings 'a. the neighbourhood belong to the local firm of coalmasters, a deceased partner of which had given thousands to the church funds. Again, could you imagine Him going to the Sunday 'School and frightening the lives out of ilttlechildren by telling them of the wrath of God, and the fear of God and eternal damnation? I know that from my earliest days, from my mother's knee I had a delightful conception of Jesus! ' How sweet the name of Jesus sounds,' and such-like thought were impressed on my young mind—but God! I had a horror of the very name until I was a full-grown man. My early conception of Him gained in the Church was a cr«« s between a Hun and a taskmaster. lh.e Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sees that a man is suitably punished for ill-treating 3, horse. I have known a magistrate sentence a man to imprisonment fnr throwing a cat, which had stolen his breakfast, into a furnace of molten iron. The sensible man thinks that the punishment given !>y the earthly lawgiver was

just and yet clergymen will preach that the Loving Father of all will sentence His own misguided children to eternal agony for their misdeeds. v _ If the Church would preach the true Gospel of " God is Good" and " Good is bod, and t-iat God and good are synonymous terms, and that in Him there is no variableness nor shadow -i: turning, that there are no errors in the great eternal Plan, and that all things work together for the final good of man; that in all things there is only one course; that the only Avay to attain happiness in this life is to seek first to be strictly in harmony with the fixed laws of the. universe, the churchss would . oon be full to overflowing. There would be a plethora of Church workers, and the spires of our chapels would | truly point to where they got their life j and inspiration.

STERILISING DOGMA. My friends, I am glad to say, agreed very largely with me, arid I found that their real views were very similar to my own, but they confessed to me that while the better type of clergymen today preached a much broader religion than was commcn in the churches .11 a generation 3^o, there was much that they Relieved they dare not give expression to in the pulpit owing to the Church dogmas. I sympathised with them greatly on this point, and assured, them that I did not blame them as individual ministers any more than I blamed the individual German soldier For marching; throgh Belgium. Both were simply doing what they were told, and in both cases it was the 7< High Heid Yins" with whom the primary responsibility rested.

This, it seems, is a sore point with many clergymen, wL., feel keenly that the Church has not advanced in its theories and thrown aside false beliefs that are now admitted to be untenable. I had confirmation from them also of a point I had long felt as a great weakness in the Church — namely, the general management. The ablest ministers do not get the leading positions. It is all a case of wire-pulling and influence generally. Why! the Church is not managed with the intelligence of an ordinary business concern. There is admittedly in most cases the occasional misuse of a director's influence, but, broadly speaking, in a bank, for instance, a youth enters the service and perhaps he attains the position of chief clerk at a branch. If he shows any promise he is perhaps given a small branch 1 o- e ncy and if he proves a failure he remains there, but if a success, he is promoted and ultimately may become general manager of the bank. Even the management of the Church as a body is worked in diametric opposition to universal law.

Our general conversation afterwards was increasingly interesting. My friends knew that there was nothing personal in my remarks as I knew nothing of them, had never seen tfcsm before until we met that da,y, they agreed with me that the responsibility of the High Court calendar with its case after case of murder, manslaughter, etc., all directly traceable to drinkthe crowding of the lunatic: asylums' due +.0 thn same cause: the existence of Whitecharcel and Coweaddens; the evik of the West End of London! and all bio; cities rightly rests nrimariiy on the Church, r.nd that which was intended to ho a beacon of goodness in the knd and the pointer to ail that is true and beautiful must be ranked as one of the biggf^t failures trith which our country is afflicted.