THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE.

NZ Truth, Issue 74, 17 November 1906, Page 5

THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE.

THEY CRY FOR BREAD AND ARE OFFERED A STONE.

A Clergyman's Frank Admission.

M I Have No Definite Plan to Submit."

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— For some years past my work has brought me into immediate contact with the workers of Australia and New Zealand, and the poorer class of people m 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 evinced m such questions. In New Zealand and Australian States I have .observed that the mild complaint of good, comfortable, easy-go-ing orthodoxy is that indifferentism is taking possession of the masses. This spirit of listlessness is regarded with even more apprehension than if it were one. of downright opposition ; for where the effect of aggressive hostility is generally to stimulate church life, that of cold, dumb, stony indtf-

ference which characterises the present age is to paralyse it. The {^eat problem which the church of the present age has to face is how to reach the people who dwell within the shadow of its own steeples. Every day this is becoming more difficult, and m all large centoes of civilisation PRONOUNCED ECCLESIASTICAL ANAEMIA is the prevailing condition, which grows worse instead of better. If this is to be cured there is abundant evidence that new methods will have to be adopted, and that ecclesiastical science, like every other, must keep step with the ' march of modern thought. Already orthodox preachers have begun to desert the old, beaten tracks of barren dogma, and to deal m their sermons with subjects affecting the social, physical, and political well-being of the people, and as a rule it is these, and these only, who d/raw the congregations. But this is not enough. Converting the pulpit into the platform m the way which has become fashionable with "popular preachers" suits those who go on Sundays m search of mental recreation, but with the great, toiling, suffering masses of mankind it makes little difference whether the preacher's sermon is about the "double procession" or the "joys of poverty." More than word' controversies is wanted from the popular church of the cen;tury: more, also, than formula and -ceremonial. Tt must identify itself with the human as well as the spiri-

tual life of the people— prove itself, m short, to be part and parcel of its whole being, not merely of its abstract end ideal side, as is now generally the case. In the earlier times the churches did this to a much greater extent than they do now. ECCLESIASTICAL INFLUENCE DOMINATED GOVERNMENTS, moulded such public opinion as there was to mould, and, generally speaking, shaped and directed all popular and national movements. But m all the more advanced countries of the world that time has gone by, and there is not the slightest evidence that it will ever return— nor is it desirable that it should. The church, .therefore, will have to get hold 6f

the people m some other way. It iriustf submit to the same great test which m this age all other institutions have to undergo— that or popular usefulness. By its work it must justify itself. The question is : Will it do this ? The answer can only be found i.i the amount of popular enthusiasm which it evokes and the amount of influence which, as the result of that enthusiasm, :!; is able to exercise upon the course of human affairs. The church, if it means to survive the chilling frosts of indifferentism, which m the cold, clear, intellectual atmosphere of this century it has to dread far more than the martyrs' pyres lit by the brutal, ignorant passion of early Christian days, must go to the people, not expect the people to come to it. And it must go with something more than empty dogma m its hands. ' Hitherto the churches have done little t 0 assist the people m unravelling any of those cruel social problems m the solution of which the whole mental energy of the world is employing itself. To the weary multitudes crying for bread

THEY OFFER STILL A STONE. The main drift o[ ecclesiastical teaching has been hitherto that it is the duty of everyone to be "content with the station of life m which it has pleased Providence to place him." To the millions of crushed and socially trampled unfortunates m the world, whose condition i? almost the negation of the existence of a beneficently guiding Pro' T 'lence, the complacent

cruelty of this doctrine is simply revolting, and it is no wonder that they have long ago ceased to listen to it. A high church dignitary has recently admitted that to millions of this class such a thing as a religion was m the present day impossible. Is it not a fact that m the coldness, and fat. callous, complacent conservatism which paralysed so much of the ordinary Christian life of the present century, the Salvation Army saw its opportunity ? I am aware that it is the fashion* to ridicule this organisation, and if from the orthodox churches it has received no real hostility, it has to thank them for very little encouragement. Nevertheless, much as 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 looked down upon it with either pitying toleration or impatient contempt. The question is : What can be done ? I have, at present, no definite plan to submit. I write for information. Freely will I admit the loving work some of the churches are doing, but it is infinitesimal compared with the huge institutions and the immense army of clergymen employed. In the cry. of the 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, and seek to adapt

the forms of organised spiritual life to the now intellectual, social, and political environment m which we find ourselves placed.— Yours, etc., CLERGYMAN. Auckland, Nov. 3, 1906.