Article July 22, 1911 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from H. N. Brown, R. J. Campbell, Arthur W. Grose

[Rev. H. N. Brown in Christian Register.]

Very often the man of today does not expect anything whatever from spiritual sources. Quite as often, though he may believe in a divine spirit, he regards every attempt to increase its ministrations as being foolish, if not impious. One person may think that God will never interfere with the natural sequence of things, or send us help outside the established lines of law and causation. Another person may think that, since God knows best what is good for us, and is already perfectly disposed to supply our wants, it is no better than a kind of faithlessness in us to proffer Him our petitions. Altogether, the old motive, which has so long sustained the upbuilding of religious institutions, probably has been quite seriously weakened in the public mind. Naturally, this being the state of the case, they into whose keeping the church has now come are frequently found groping about for some other motive to which they can appeal, some other valid and vital purpose which the church can serve. They try, for instance, to find a use for it as a means of promoting social and civic righteousness, which use may, perhaps, give it a new excuse for being. Or they surround it with an atmosphere of esthetic and sentimental interest, which they fondly hope will feed its life and sustain its growth.

I simply wish to record my own profound conviction that these endeavors, in the end, will prove mostly futile. Religion will have to stand or fall, I think, with that primal motive out of which it came. If it can do for men what they have believed it to be doing throughout the past,—that is to say, serve as a means of connection between this present world and another, higher world beyond our sight,—then religion will live. If it cannot do this, religion will die; and it is of no use whatever to try to varnish it up with any kind of ethical or sociological gloss. Certainly there is no reason, the church having an assured foothold, why it should not help mankind in many ways. I utter no protest against that kind of church which serves the community in every good work to which it can put its hand But I say that nothing of this usefulness is likely to make up for the loss of its ancient function. It may mediate for man, in some fashion, between the seen and the unseen; and then, in addition to this, it may busy itself with all sorts of plans for social betterment. But it will have only a fading life if the attempt be made to substitute an interest in civic affairs for interest in the spiritual world, as the ground of its appeal for public support.

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