THE COMING POWER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1166, 29 June 1911, Page 9

THE COMING POWER.

THE CHUECH AND THE WORKING MAN. Tho Eev. S. Baring Gould conlributes a very trenchant article on "The Coming Power," and how it will regard the Church, to the "Guardian":— "Everywhere— 111 the coalfiolds, in the factories, in the potteries, in tho docks, behind the counters in shops—wherever there are men and women earning their living by tho sweat of their brow, there the clergy are to be found exercising their inttuenco for delinite belief anil religious life," ho writes. "Ali'eady, beyond question, the Church has begun, to a significant degree, to lay hold of this class. It has not, by any means, as yet got possession of it as a whole, any more than it got hold of the middle-class as a whole; but it has. introduced to it tho leaven of a new *Sfe; the prer«nce of which cannot be denied. It has had a desperately hard battle to fight against anti-Christian Socialism, Agnosticism, hostile Unbelief, against hatred of all that is pure and holy, but it is a bat.fle more hopeful of good results than ono waged against Worldliness, Indifference, Selfindulgence in high places. Tho future of tho Empire—of England—is in tho hands of the w.orking num. Ho has a vote as well os the squire, tho factory hand as well as his employer. Tho former, t"i" lnmd workers, vastly outnumber the capitalists. The future of tho Church ofEngland depends now, and will depend to an increasing degree, on the horny palms, ami into these the Church must commit her cause, will she, will she. It is the working man who will decide whether she will remain established; it is ho who will determine whether she is to he cast forth naked, disinherited; whether she is to be accorded full liberty to control her own actions, direct her own course, or whether she is to be further crippled and manacled. There must bo no blinking of facts. The power to decide lier future resides in the scarred bu't stout hands, and the work sot before the Church is 'to Christianise, to purify, to direct aright that class in which the power resides. Wo must use our opportunities and not. let them slide, or tho. opportunities will be taken away from such us have not had tho wit to grasp them." The "Church Times, wriling on the same problem, says:— _ "Let ik hasten to record the discarding by tho Church, largely in imitation of the Chapel,"of llio starchines-s of its evangelistic methods. The inspiring procession and service of Good Friday are an illustration of this. Starch and dignity are not tho same thing. If the. Church of England dies, it will not be of dignity, which implies grace, but of stiffness and awkwardness. And her priesthood is-aware of tkii,"-