Article June 29, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Louis G. Hoeck, R. F. Horton

[Advance.]

The desire to prevent waste in religious work is one of the good signs of the times. The get-together movements ought to prevent needless competition and to distribute the efforts of the denominations in a way to establish the kingdom of God rather than to further ecclesiastical ambition.

But there is another kind of wast in religion which is far greater than that of putting too many churches in one town. The prophet Isaiah expressed it when he rebuked Israel for false practices and cried, "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not?" These pungent questions are directed against those who spend themselves on religion in a way that means no satisfactory return. It is neither bigotry nor want of charity to say that of all the religion of the ages, its practices, worship, ceremonies, sacrifices, costly provisions and appointments, beliefs and teachings, the greater part has been worthless or worse. Generations have cried to heaven in a voice that brought no answer; myriads of worshipers have come to altars and laid their sacrifices upon them only to see them turned into flames, smoke, and ashes. They accomplished no purpose but to deceive those who offered them. Other millions have cut off comforts and joys and shut their lives within the narrow bounds of austerity and poverty, with no good to man or God. And all generations have seen multitudes of men and women flocking after teachers who taught them only falsehood, and leaders who had no purpose but to make personal gain of them. Against all this kind of religion the verdict must be pronounced that it did not pay. Moreover, it gives rise to the feeling that in no other sphere or experience of life do human beings do such absurd, foolish, and unprofitable things as in religion.

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