Article April 10, 1902 Issue

What is the Matter with the Church?

The following editorial in a recent number of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is full of interesting food for thought and inquiry:—

Within a radius of ten blocks of the Eagle office there are twelve abandoned churches. In some instances the buildings are still standing, but are given over to other purposes. In one case, what was a "sacred edifice" is an auction store; in another, a bicycle rink; in another, a stable; in another, a tenement house, and so on. In half a dozen cases the buildings are standing idle, dilapidated, forlorn, neglected, with signs of "For Sale" upon them. The population in the same area is greater than it has been at any time in the history of the city. These facts are not set forth in any spirit of criticism. In so far as the abandoning of these points may indicate any decay of the power and influence of the church, they are to be deplored. It is but fair and candid to say that, in some cases, they do not indicate decay. In some localities there have been for years far too many churches—that is to say, far more than were ever needed to supply the religious needs of the population. In a few other instances, their abandonment has been due to changes of local condition for which the church is in no way responsible, and which rendered their removal a necessity.

When all allowance has been made, there still remains the fact that the churches are not as well attended or as well supported to-day as they have been in the past. This is admitted and regretted by clergy and laymen alike. The condition in the area instanced is not peculiar. It exists from Maine to Mexico, from Moscow to Marseilles. The church is rapidly coming face to face with a condition of things which has not confronted it for fifteen centuries. Looking broadly over the world the thing which impresses the observer is that the church seems to have in some strange way lost its motive power. Its organization is admirable, its membership is exemplary, its zeal is ardent, its devotion measured by its gifts of labor and money is boundless; but all the same it has well-nigh come to a standstill. No nation or people has been converted for a thousand years. When one contrasts this with the church's marvelous triumphs during its first six centuries it becomes all the more significant.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Christian Science not a Fad