title: What is the matter with the church?
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(A « yG*K?h; . <£, ■■?> .‘.-S'* • $ 0 ^ vx > *- /V '■T.'i* C>’ a> , v. • * -V'’ x> < •. s . i ♦ _ O v 1 * m <^x (V 0 * <j A> O * 1 ^ * * ,xn_ , ^ /-^ o ®__ * ♦ O Ay » «N * J^ru/V^h >y y • rf5^Vxw r O - ^ * V>» 4*^ ^ 9 %b A * -srsxww - ^ ;. ^ % *. 0 » O r oK • 4 O * < o > * ° S *• o 0 <*• «.** ci, „o A° ^ ® " ° <V ) ^ V » ~ * <*v jv « CyingS 4 rS^ A v * (K\ Sk A, * • ^pfev ^ -<*v vi»v * <& ^ ' .6* ^ >S*^L?'' \* -•• A' *- / •‘^41*' °o ^ • / 1 4 O o -a? -a. ♦^uvcvs^ * v f 0 ' .. <> '*- »’' <** -4. v 'LL nL'» ■?■ V V %_,■}? :mA. , tf. N ^° •'j. * /\ -^* . ^' ’ a 0 %. *.;•• .0’ ,JV-, **> A* •WS’ ^ A< : V4 v ^ ^ oV WHAT IS THE MATTER WITHtheCHURCH? BY FREDERICK STANLEY ROOT THE Mbbey press PUBLISHERS 114 FIFTH AVENUE Condon NEW YORK Montreal Library of Congress Two Copies Received DEC 5 1900 No $ 7 .:.?}.? ./..3L?r SECOND COPY Oeilvored to ORDER DIVISION DEC 22 1900 Copyright, igoo, by THE Bbbe*> ipress in the United States and Great Britain V All Rights Reserved. FOREWORD. In his book on the “Intellectual Life,” Philip Gilbert Hamerton remarks: “I do not look upon an opponent as an enemy to be repelled, but as a torch-bearer to be welcomed for any light he may bring.” The chief desire of the author is that the many or the few who may turn these pages will accord to him a patient hearing in the Court of Reason, even though persuaded that some of the counts in his Indictment do not hold against the Modern Church. In this spirit only will the pro¬ found utterance of Gilbert Hamerton fulfil its mission in leading the mind to dispassionate com¬ parison of opposing views. Truth is not found in the shadow of crossing swords but in high- minded and calm debate between those who cher¬ ish with equal fervor the end sought, yet differ¬ ing as to methods for achieving that end. The author has but one purpose, which is to help all good men and true in a zealous and faithful effort to build the Church into the glorious like- Foreword. ness of her Founder. To all such he extends the greetings of fraternity. It is a courtesy herewith gratefully acknowl¬ edged that the author is permitted by the New York Evening Post, the Outlook, the Christian Register, of Boston, and the New York World, to republish, with some essential changes, the large amount of matter originally printed in the columns of these journals. Certain chapters in this volume appeared serially in the Evening Post. Frederick Stanley Root. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. Frederick Stanley Root was born in 1853 , in New Haven, Conn.; educated at a military school; graduated in Law at Yale, 18yd, and in Divinity at Yale, 1879. He was pastor of High Street Congregational Church, Auburn, Me., and afterwards pastor of Park Church, Hartford, Conn., a church memorable for the long and ex¬ alted service of Horace Bushnell in the pastor¬ ate. He is now General Secretary of the American Social Science Association and editor of “Social Science Journal.” Mr. Root also pursued special studies in sociology at Harvard. He has published (( Old School Days at Callen¬ der,” astory, and also several short stories; and has contributed on literary, sociological, and religious topics to the “Independent,” “Outlook,” “Con- gregationalist,” “Churchman,” “New York Tri¬ bune,” and is an occasional editorial writer for other New York journals. Present place of residence, New York City. v CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE Wanted: A Society for the Decrease of the Ministry . n CHAPTER II The Capture of the Church by Commer¬ cialism . 23 CHAPTER III. Some Practical Results of Commercialism, 31 CHAPTER IV. Is the Church Losing Ground?. 40 vii Contents. PAGE CHAPTER V. The Relation Which New Theology Sus¬ tains to Existing Church Conditions. 49 CHAPTER VI. The Obtuseness of the Church to Changed Conditions . 58 CHAPTER VII. The Responsibility of Divinity Schools for Existing Church Conditions. 68 CHAPTER VIII. The Wage-Earner’s Opinion of Existing Church Conditions.. 77 CHAPTER IX. Modern Church Life Developed by Mutual¬ ism, not Socialism. 86 viii Contents. PAGE CHAPTER X. Light on the Horizon. 96 CHAPTER XI. Some Characteristics of the New Move¬ ment in Theology. 106 CHAPTER XII. Christianity in Its Relation to the Idle Rich and the Idle Poor. 118 CHAPTER XIII. Practical Christianity. 134 CHAPTER XIV. The Relation of Music to Worship. 154 CHAPTER XV. A Symposium. 170 IX WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE CHURCH? CHAPTER I. wanted: a society for the decrease of the MINISTRY. I wish to avow at the very outset of this chap¬ ter that my aim is to discourage young men from entering the Christian ministry at the present juncture of affairs in the Protestant body, except under conditions which will be specifically named. Of late there has been much discussion here and there relative to the increasing difficulty of plac¬ ing men trained to the gospel ministry, but in no case has it been the privilege of the writer to read a thoroughgoing, dispassionate, clear-headed sum¬ ming up of the causes which make the caption of U What is the Matte* with the Church^ this article a perfectly defensible thesis. The very constitution and temper of venerable semi¬ nary professors and supporters of societies for as¬ sisting young men into the ministry forbid that common-sense view of existing conditions in the church which, when fully realized, deter bright young men from the study of theology. The fact is, confirmed by abundant testimony and by the reluctant admissions of men who are inter¬ ested to maintain the contrary, there never was a time when a bright, clean, self-respecting, tal¬ ented, and absolutely fearless young man under¬ took a greater personal risk in committing him¬ self to the restless sea of ministerial supply and demand. It would require a book in place of a chapter to demonstrate this; but if ever a fact is more easily demonstrable the writer will hail it with acclamation! The initial note in the discussion of the problem is most significant. I refer to the all-pervasive restlessness and discontent, the ill-concealed dis¬ gust with present churchly conditions, the deep underlying anxiety for prospective bread and butter, the ominous foreboding for the future which one finds reflected in the private confi¬ dences of so many ministers now holding pastor¬ ates. A prominent officer of a missionary society \2 Wanted: A Society. is reported to have said that in all his visitations among the clergy of a certain state, he had failed to discover a single incumbent who did not wish to make a change. I have in my possession a let¬ ter from a successful and honored pastor in New England, for fifteen years in one parish, but now desirous of change for weighty reasons, and who writes me: “It makes one sick of the whole business to see the scramble for place.” Not long ago an able and useful clergyman, whose ser¬ mons are in print in a notable publication, finding it desirable to resign his pastorate, deliberately turned his attention to the study of law rather than enter upon a fierce, degrading, heart-break¬ ing competition for another pulpit. And it was a shrewd observer in Boston, one who knows thoroughly the inside of the situation, who wrote recently to a ministerial friend, “Stick to your pulpit at any hazard! I never knew such awful times in the ministry as now.” “Stick at any hazard.” That is precisely what hundreds of clergymen are doing, able, upright men, and capa¬ ble of rendering admirable service, but over¬ worked or not happily married to their parishes. And they linger on because another field does not open, and because they fully realize that, once churchless, as the distinguished Dr. X. said to the \Z What is the Mattel* with the Church? writer, “it is almost impossible to secure another parish.” The very fact that such advice is given by one whose business it is to feel the pulse of the ministerial market, may well excite apprehension in clerical circles. And of such testimony the writer could furnish a dismal sufficiency. But what is the key to such a state of affairs in the Christian church? That many pastors are happily at work is not denied. Yet why are hun¬ dreds more in a state of mental unrest and anxiety? The answer goes straight to the heart of the problem. The key to the difficulty is found in the fact that there are too many min¬ isters—not for useful unsalaried work, but for available vacant churches. This is especially true of certain denominations. It is measurably true of all. If recollection does not play me false, Dr. Barrows some years ago conclusively showed in a remarkable paper that there are thousands of unnecessary clergymen and more thousands of unnecessary churches. The ranks are overcrowded, and will continue to be over¬ crowded as long as the present wretched system of ecclesiastical business management endures. A certain Congregational church in Connecticut, with by no means an inviting future, received not less than 250 applications, scattered all the way U Wanted: A Society, from Maine to California. And such ratio is more than a thrice-told tale. The guarded and reluctant admissions of religious weeklies rein¬ force this statement. For example, the Boston Congregationalist plainly declared that in cer¬ tain sections of the country the supply exceeds the demand, and quoted, disapprovingly to be sure, the remark of a home-mission secretary, that “our seminaries next autumn ought to refuse to take any new men.” The gravity of the situa¬ tion is quite apparent without further argument when the officer of a society which has hitherto clamored unceasingly for men low-salaried and hard-worked, calls a halt on the line of supply. And the result of overcrowding lowers manhood, cheapens the profession, shortens terms of pas¬ toral tenure, encourages fickleness on the part of the churches, and reduces to veriest commercial¬ ism the barterings between candidates and churches. Indeed, the commercial basis of modern church life is one of the most discourag¬ ing tendencies of our time. Now it will not do to urge the customary pleas in extenuation of such conditions. It is urged, for instance, that seminary students find little difficulty in obtaining places upon graduation. This we may accept as a fairly correct statement, 15 What is the Matter with the Church? and for the following reasons: As a rule such graduates are unmarried, and they can well afford to be content with a meagre salary for the sake of a position somewhere. Moreover, the craze for neophytes in the ministry is a marked feature of all denominational life. But with multiplying years value often diminishes. The real pinch of ministerial tenure comes with the first gray hairs, and not long ago a writer in a certain religious journal contended that the age of forty—a period when, according to Mr. Beecher, a man has fairly learned to employ skilfully the tools of his pro¬ fession—establishes the clerical dead-line. This may be a somewhat rash assertion, but if one will take the trouble to note the ages of men ‘‘called’* to various churches, I venture to say there will be comparatively few beyond the age of fifty. Truly this may be the fault of the men themselves. They may have ceased to grow mentally, and are possibly indifferent to fresh methods of parish development. But we are fac¬ ing a condition, not a theory; and the condition is that the young fellow just out of the Divinity School, although placed at first, is extremely likely to remain unplaced in middle life, if for any reason he resigns one charge without an¬ other in prospect; and this with a grown-up \6 Wanted: A Society* family dependent on his salary. The woods are full of the unemployed. A contributor to the Evangelist states the truth with chilling frank¬ ness when he says: “Congregations are unwill¬ ing to call a preacher who is up in years because they dislike to freeze him out in his old age and there is no other way of getting rid of him.” Therefore, the usual seminary plea that its students find a parish fails of pertinency when urged as an argument against the growing and widespread conviction that the ministry is over¬ crowded. Is it strange that the note of alarm is being raised in the midst of all the sentimental gush about the crying need of clergymen? But we are told again that the pressure is great¬ est in New England and New York, and that the unholy scramble is chiefly for the more desirable pulpits. There are relatively as many applicants for an obscure, poorly salaried parish as for a prominent field. Even if this were not so, the undue pres¬ sure in the quarters named establishes nothing favorable in regard to the general situation. If educational societies that make an easy way into the ministry have raised up hundreds of men who are determined to settle East or nowhere, so much the worse for a system that encourages S7 What is the Matter with the Church? the cultivation of a spirit quite the reverse of the spirit inculcated in the Pauline maxim, that the good soldier of Christ “must endure hardness.” Moreover, who will vouch for a state in the Union where the hue and cry after vacant pulpits is not formidably resonant? Who will name a pastorless church, East or West, that is not be¬ sieged ? The seminary professor will probably contend that the Websterian doctrine of “room higher up” is applicable to the situation described. Then let him at once put into practice the suggestion of the Congregationalist, expressed in the fol¬ lowing editorial words: “One source of relief in this ministerial problem must come from greater discrimination on the part of the seminaries. The desire to have large classes sometimes leads to the admission of men who would better be doing something else than preparing for the Christian ministry. Our seminaries surely have their share of responsibility in helping to abate the distress now arising from an overcrowded min¬ istry.” Exactly so. If financial aid in the form of Educational Society gratuities must be given, let the recipients be picked men of exceptional calibre. Such a policy would depopulate the ranks of ministerial candidates with an execution *8 Wanted: A Society* little sort of frightful. And let also the semi¬ naries imitate Harvard Divinity School, which makes the cost of a theological education, in the matter of tuition, precisely the same as in the academical department. The whole seminary and Educational Society assumption that be¬ cause men are grievously needed in the ministry they must therefore be encouraged by gratuities is absurdly wide of the mark in the light of pres¬ ent facts. In theory, the ministry is a fair and inviting field to able and consecrated young men. That theory, under such conditions as are easily con¬ ceived and with a sufficient number of brainy and devoted recruits to fill the gaps made by death and debility, is wholly tenable. Under existing conditions the experience of hundreds who set sail upon the ocean of ministerial opportunity, only to return to port in middle life sadly battered and torn, repels the assumption. The remorse¬ less competition for places; the wire-pulling and pipe-laying merely to get a hearing in a vacant pulpit; the chance of being set aside in the full vigor of maturity; the alarming growth of short¬ term pastorates; the fact that men of decided ability sometimes wait four years for employ¬ ment ; the reluctant conviction that influence and \9 What is the Matter with the Church? a “pull” will do for a man in the ministry pre¬ cisely what such factors will accomplish in poli¬ tics—all these considerations are powerful make¬ weights in turning the attention of high-minded young men to other pursuits. Is it any wonder that out of a class of 275 at Yale—the educa¬ tional stronghold of New England Congrega¬ tionalism—only five study theology? The bane¬ ful conditions which underlie much of our modern church life already begin to tell as deter¬ rent forces, and the “Society for the Decrease of the Ministry” in the next few years will have its work promoted and encouraged by an increasing dearth of theological students. The chief con¬ cern of the writer is to exhibit unflinchingly the actual status of the clergy, the unhappy position in which so many worthy ministers find them¬ selves for reasons just now urged. And the bur¬ den of any reply must logically involve a sweep¬ ing denial of the premises upon which these con¬ clusions are founded. The writer would be grateful indeed if a more optimistic view of the ministry could be vindicated. But something more than sentiment and religious tradition will be required to dispose of the cold and repellent facts already adduced. It may be said, as the final word from the 20 Wanted: A Society* writer’s point of view, that the young man now contemplating the ministry as his life-work ought, in justice to himself, to consider thor¬ oughly three questions: (1) Am I willing to face such momentous and disheartening possibilities for the sake of preaching the gospel just as long as God permits? (2) Is it right for me to marry and bring into the world a family when, according to the doc¬ trine of present ministerial chances, I may be stranded at fifty, with scarcely a hope of reen¬ trance upon my work ? (3) Am I ready to preach wherever a church is needed, for a time without pay or social privi¬ leges or advantages, in preference to accepting a call to some old hulk of an organization, politely named a Christian church, but which ought de¬ cently to die, having outlived its usefulness, and only endures because a few wealthy families pay the bills? The celibacy of the clergy, unless there be independent means of support, and the capacity to meet cheerfully great personal hardship, are two prime qualifications of mininsterial candida¬ ture in the present distressing state of the minis¬ terial market. When conditions improve—if they ever do—one may return to the traditional 2\ What is the Matter with the Church? view of the clerical profession, and include mar¬ riage as a relation to be safely entered into with¬ out confronting a most appalling state of affairs when middle-life is spent! 22 The Church and Commercialism, CHAPTER II. THE CAPTURE OF THE CHURCH BY COMMER¬ CIALISM. In this chapter the writer proposes to establish the existence of conditions in the church of to¬ day whose ominous and menacing nature justi¬ fies the boldest utterance, conditions that still fur¬ ther emphasize the gist of his earlier thesis that men should be turned from the ministry rather than induced to enter it, unless, indeed, theologi¬ cal neophytes are imbued with the martyr-spirit that does not flinch under the startling inter¬ rogatory of the Rev. Dr. Watson—“Should Old Ministers be Shot?” And in this general survey one or more points must be broadly stated in general terms as basic material for what follows. On every lip to-day, where broad philosophi¬ cal interpretation of church life flashes intelligent message to the brain, there trembles the question, “What is the matter with the church?” It is not a new cry. Both Erasmus and Sir Thomas 23 What is the Matter with the Church? More in their time declared that “without a root and branch alteration of the forces and ten¬ dencies making from the heart of the church, catastrophe is not far off.” But that cry in the present is stupendously reenforced by such pre¬ dominance of the material over the spiritual in church relations as to warrant the assumption that the capture of the church by commercial¬ ism is now the supreme cause of its gasping, hand-to-mouth spiritual existence. And the im¬ pending “castastrophe” is not that of the wild torrent, sweeping all to sudden ruin, but rathe 1 * the action of a slow, malignant poison chilling the blood, while the bloom of apparent health yet lingers on the cheek of the victim. President Hadley, of Yale, once said in a Forum article: “It is easier to preach ideals than to look facts squarely in the face.” Even so. And the facts which result from this con¬ quest, as I shall explain in my next chapter, are so contrary to the primal instinct and purpose of the church of the living God as to weaken its power, cheapen its prerogative, jeopardize its in¬ fluence, and banish the spirit of Jesus from its councils. What sadder spectacle could be wit¬ nessed in the light of history? And, definitely, by commercialism is meant 24 The Church and Commercialism, this: It is the privilege of the church to rise above the prevailing note of its environment. This is the only sane condition of all progress. In the days of Luther that environment was one of ex¬ treme and far-reaching corruption. So testifies Sir Thomas More, a devout Catholic. But the church rose above it! In the Wesleyan period, the church struggled to breathe in an atmosphere of vast indifiference and sloth. But the church rose above it! To-day, the note of its environ¬ ment is a species of industrialism, which, as King Lear said of the boisterous night, “pities nei¬ ther wise men nor fools,” forcing the weakest to the wall, ringing the changes upon money as the “be-all and end-all” of existence, gauging human merit by its gold-winning capacity, precipitating into literature what the Saturday Review terms the “cash author,” painting for the vulgar rich man in daub and splash what he pays for by the yard. So this industrialism grinds under the “iron heel of necessity,” to quote Ricardo, the fairest and sweetest flowers of ethereal life and hope. Does the church rise above such environ¬ ment ? In some instances we must answer yes; in the main current of its endeavors, no. With the great majority of churches, at least of Protestant 25 What is the Matter with the Church? faith, the financial question is ever uppermost. And if the chief end of man is to “glorify God,” as the old catechism hath it, the chief end of thousands of churches is to meet a culpable ex¬ travagance in expenditure, so as to turn the year with a three-thousand-dollar “crack quartet” paid to date, even though the heavenly record- book of sinners saved writes not a soul to the credit account. And if one notes carefully the methods of churches, especially those of the fash¬ ionable type, one must quickly discern that the plate-glass-show-window-brown-stone-front as¬ pect of things is always foremost. This necessi¬ tates also what is popularly known as a “hustler” in the pulpit, if the vulgarism may be pardoned, in order that high-priced pews may be filled to meet the bills. According to the Rev. Dr. Faunce, who ought to know, modern church¬ goers “admire the hustler more than the Prophet,” and the “rub-a-dub-dub” style of pul¬ pit oratory, to borrow a phrase from Webster, that “smites the sins of the Egyptians four thou¬ sand years ago, or the immoralities of Paris four thousand miles away,” is vastly more palatable than fearless exposure of the worldliness of the sleek and sleepy hearer in the pew. Felix Adler said recently, “Our whole society 26 The Church and Commercialism. is infiltrated with the money-getting idea.” The church is capable of soaring above this incubus. Does it ? How can it when pastor and committee are too often involved in the “vicious circle” of ideas relative to the maintenance of a position in the competitive church race, where lavish and un¬ wise expenditure perpetuates debt, and debt locks fast the immortal truths of the spiritual life in the iron jaws of a commercial church necessity? Why again? Because commercialism, utterly destitute of spiritual conceptions, and, in its place, rightfully obedient to a natural law of pro¬ cedure, as certainly as the procession of the plan¬ ets, usurps the sphere which should be devoted to Christly ideals, and controls the measures and methods of the church by a foreign and alien law wholly opposed to the teaching of its Head. Pre¬ cisely how this law works will be seen later. Sufficient now to establish the thesis, referring proofs to the orderly sequence of these chapters. Now it will not answer to affirm that the church of the present is doing much for humanity in the aggregate. That the sum of her activities is a potent factor in the world’s progress is conceded. But it is not alone a question of how much — it is a question of how much commensurate with her vast wealth, her vast constituency, her vast 27 What is the Mattel* with the Church? tradition, and the’ vast body of the Christian consciousness of the centuries. An equally as¬ tonishing fund of resources in business, thor¬ oughly utilized, could make every wilderness to blossom as the rose, enlarge every fortune to ten¬ fold dimensions, and lift every industrial enter¬ prise to heights of colossal amplitude. A giant, because of his strength, might do many deeds of helpfulness to the weak; but if a giant exerted only a tithe of his potential strength because he chose to pamper and overfeed his body, his altru¬ ism would be only a small draft on the bank of his resources! Why, then, does the church, with comparative feebleness of effort, distribute her historic beneficence in rills when her power should be raised to the exhaustless energy of an ocean tide? To-day opportunity stands at the door of the church like a courier ready to be off on heavenly mission. To-day the world is waiting as never before, with almost panting expectancy, the un¬ folding of that consummate flower and fruit of all civilization that endures, the pure religion of Jesus whose vine was planted in the fertile fields of Palestine in the long ago. To-day, as never before, man is studied both in his individuality and in his relations, and not merely as a unit or 28 The Church and Commercialism, pivot in some dry-as-dust economic scheme. To¬ day, the conception of fraternity—which, as Frederick Maurice said, cannot exist “without the conception of a common Father”—is growing stronger outside the church, and barely holding its own within the church. Why does the church so feebly responds to voices calling her importu¬ nately to higher motive and more unselfish en¬ deavor? Is it because commercialism has made of her cohorts a species of “bourgeoise aristoc¬ racy”? Is it because her vigor falters with the growth of her wealth, and the palsy of indiffer¬ ence seizes upon her vital forces through the chilling of her heart and life? These are questions that must be bravely met. Here and there a solitary pulpit flings back a courageous challenge to such dominant commer¬ cialism. But, as a rule, the traditional defender of the church as it is goes ofif on erratic tangent and pipes upon his wheezy reed the plaint of false doctrine as responsible for prevailing condi¬ tions, or sighs lugubriously through his instru¬ ment that “mere worldlings” in church member¬ ship, forsaking the prayer-meeting for the theatre, undermine the citadel of faith! Such pipings are but the wasted breath from feeble lungs. The causes of churchly decline are deeper, dead- 29 What is the Matter with the Church? her, darker. They inhere in the very bones of that dry-rot of arid commercialism which unless overcome writes “Ichabod” upon the walls of the church. Froude declared, “In my day the knotty prob¬ lems of theology are evaded.” Froude would not say this were he living now. He might say the problem of the comparative failure of the church to live up to the unequalled grandeur of her opportunity is met by dissertations on the errors of Unitarians, the necessity of pounds and shillings to keep the ark of Jehovah from toppling over, the need of emotional revivals, and the aw¬ ful contingency that must be faced if some “Boss” Platt of finance should take offence at pungent pleaching, and leave a ghastly, staring hole of deficit in the bottomless well of lavish churchly expenditure. And in saying this the reincar¬ nated Froude would wing his shaft in painful proximity to the bull’s-eye of the target! And keen observers of our time, unbiased enough to see things as they are, and not as they are popu¬ larly supposed to be, are not disinclined to this opinion. In future chapters some apparently un¬ related facts may be charged home to this source. 30 Results of Commercialism* CHAPTER III. SOME PRACTICAL RESULTS OF COMMERCIALISM. In a previous chapter the writer sought to estab¬ lish the fact of commercialism as a persistently dominating influence in the church life of to-day. This commercialism was described as “bar sinis¬ ter” to all the high and holy ends the church is capable of achieving. It now remains to point out in this and succeeding essays some specific consequences flowing from such absorption. A_nd the first inevitable result is to perpetuate church organizations which should have died long ago, although it must be admitted that the interment would be difficult, since nature provides for the burial of everything under heaven but a dead church! A distinguished and courageous orthodox minister caustically observed a few years since, “We all know personally many churches that are social, financial, and religious impertinences.” Riotous indulgence in the forlorn mazes of statis- 3 \ What is the Mattel* with the Church? tics brings excusable shuddering to the average reader; but a single fact may be urged as signifi¬ cant. In the one hundred thousand churches of five denominations, according to this authority, twenty-five thousand are wholly unnecessary. Therefore they may truly be termed “imperti¬ nences.” Why, then, are they kept alive ? Sim¬ ply because the principle of combination , now the advancing note of the business world, is entirely subordinate to the principle of competition in the religious field. And the strange feature is, that business men who readily combine to avoid loss in commercial relations, insist on the competitive principle applied to church relations. And the reason is that pride of appearances, honeycombing society with reckless expenditure, whose end is bankruptcy, carried over into the church, prefers an empty hulk concealing a handful of worship¬ pers, selected, to a people’s church, gregarious and democratic, where enthusiasm burns and the manifold godly labors abound. And this because a stronger Jew or Gentile congregation will oc¬ cupy that particular corner if the empty hulk “gives up the ghost,” and one star additional, albeit a waning star, is forced from the diadem of denominational pride! In other words, the dis¬ tinct commercial principle, “what your rival wants 32 Results of Commercialism, he must not have,” holds a congregation of fos¬ silized money-bags to the hulk lest some other body, numerically more affluent, do where this particular assemblage dies! This may be Chris¬ tianity, but to the unprejudiced mind it looks sus¬ piciously like senile church dementia. And the “hulk church”—whose name is legion—is one of the most depressing signs of the survival of the ecclesiastically unfit. Now from this corollary proceeds another re¬ sult which may be called deputized salvation, ac¬ complished by means of the branch store church, since we are mixing commercialism and religion. If the empty shell of a once prosperous church is left high and dry in the unfashionable down-town quarter, what means are taken to revivify its spent forces ? Will the methods of work and organiza¬ tion be altered to meet new conditions, as in St. George’s under Dr. Rainsford’s democratic and skilful leadership? Rarely. The church of this type changes its spots as sparingly as the leopard. It votes to move up town, flings out the bait of a costly structure placarded “debt,” and possibly close by some other marble structure on the down grade, bids for a famous pulpit “hummer,” as a trustee once phrased it, and throws a sop to con¬ science by raising the homely walls of a mission 33 What is the Matter with the Church? chapel! People have not gone from those regions; they have come and are coming faster. And people in fustian jackets are as susceptible to heart-to-heart talks and pleading earnestness of genuine brotherhood of soul as when Jesus taught. But to avoid the upper millstone of browsing west side goats and the lower millstone of swarming tenements, that church plumps itself where shekels are most likely to flow into its coffers. And the chapel, the branch store of the main enterprise, is left to show that gospel by deputy is still conceded. When police stations are built they are located at strategic points. Even Tammany, vile, but rarely stupid, avoids congesting its station-house depots of supply for impecunious braves. It re¬ mains for churches in great cities to pursue a policy of congestion. Jesus said, “Go, go to highways and hedges, to fields white for harvest.” He did not say, “Keep out of the wet of adverse commercial conditions for large pew rentals by running up town for shelter!” The present drift of well-to-do church life adopts a commercial principle of personal ease and comfort. The divine law is one of concentration of effort by diffusion of opportunities. It has regard mainly for the spot where the light of the divine truth 34 Results of Commercialism. is most needed. The church of the first Chris¬ tian century, conducted on the plan of a vast amount of church life in large cities to-day, would have broken the heart of St. Paul, stirred the rage of impetuous St. Peter, and forced indignant pro¬ test even from the gentle lips of St. John. But this is not the worst of commercialism at the heart of the church. It also cheapens and de¬ moralizes the clergy. The writer holds in high regard his brother ministers. He appreciates their position, and is the recipient of their con¬ fidences, which often reveal a soul-bitterness little dreamed of by congregations. But it is as cer¬ tain as anything can be that the clergy must be¬ come a class of moral giants in order success¬ fully to cope with the ignominious and depressing commercial environment that slows and chills the once divinely rich, warm currents of churchly function. Upon every side the clergyman hears “policy and caution” emphasized as the conditions of his tenure. Is he told in the seminary to be as bold as Isaiah, as fearless as Jeremiah, as out¬ spoken as John the Baptist? The writer never heard these admonitions in a three years’ course. It is the same old story everywhere of the in¬ evitable deficit, the inevitable wealthy few who make it up, the inevitable need of not offending 35 What is the Matter with the Church? those who keep the ship afloat. Most men, even of superb integrity of purpose, must possess the iron strength of Savonarola to resist the pressure, and under the self-delusion of “policy and cau¬ tion” lips are locked on questions of social and industrial reform, where the gospel message is clear as crystal, because commercial and not spiritual values warp the church from the plain pathway of practical righteousness. This may be pessimistic; it may be disturbing; but, with exceptions which he notes, it is the average man’s summary of existing conditions. And if the utterance be treasonable, as most utterances are when opposed to tradition, such treason gains support from many a secular unbiased news¬ paper column, as witness these words from a re¬ cent issue of the Evening Post: “The churches have a terrible responsibility in this matter (that of recognizing or tolerating political corruption¬ ists). Who does not remember Presbyterians co¬ quetting with Jay Gould? What Protestant church in this city would refuse a present of $50,000 from Platt? What Catholic church would turn on Croker?” And, it may be added, how many clergymen would dare insist that any political corruptionist should be expelled from membership, or that no seminaries of which they 36 Results of Commercialism, are trustees should receive a dollar won by bribes and railway wrecking, or that no church which they serve as pastor should receive at communion a worshipper known to have built his fortune on the blood and bones of men he has ruined, with¬ out a restoration fourfold as a proof of penitence ? Verily, if a certain type of a dominant commer¬ cialism is permitted to draw the water of life through the foul and encrusted tubes of its own profligacy, what of the future of the church of God? Say what we will, a flexible morality, predi¬ cated of the church, is worse than the “scarlet woman” at her heels. To grant that she may tolerate for one instant a double standard is to sign the death-warrant of her usefulness. Expediency is the rock on which too often the conscience of the church has been wrecked. It is the duty of the church to answer the question what is ethical and true and just in the light of 37 What is the Matter with the Church? the teaching of its Founder; it has no more right to inquire what is expedient when moral problems press for solution than it has to post a ribbon of stock quotations at the portals of the sanctuary. And if the ethics of the New Testament, in the germ, are not broad enough to cover every phase of human effort, from that included in the maxim ot Louis Blanc, “Every morally legitimate busi¬ ness is tested in proportion as it performs a social service,” to the development of what George Saintsbury calls “erotimania” in literature, then the ethical teaching of Jesus fails of that com¬ pleteness inseparable from the world-conception of His divine authority. Orthodox defence and heterdox tinkering are but incidents in the sweep of truth. Theology conforms to no organic law of survival. But ethics, spiritualized by Christly inspiration, constitute the one unvarying stream of tendency on which men must launch the bark of self-hood. Now, commercialism at the heart of the church renders the method of the organization distinctly unethical. This, in turn, elevates the doctrine of expediency to a “bad eminence. ,, And the result is that Churchianity—not Christianity—is again on trial, and at a period when the church 38 i Results of Commercialism. should have vindicated triumphantly and over¬ whelmingly its holy and benign mission. Whether the church is actually declining must be left for further consideration. 3 ? What is the Matter with the Church? CHAPTER IV. IS THE CHURCH LOSING GROUND? In two preceding chapters of this series the writer endeavored to show, first, that the church, broadly speaking, has been captured by com¬ mercialism ; and, second, that the results of such conquest are most disastrous to pulpit and pew. A natural inference from the foregoing would be that the church is losing ground in the commu¬ nity. That inference he accepts without hesitation as well founded. But at the very beginning of the discussion let us dismiss the merely statistical aspect of the case as of slight importance. The easiest of all argumentative prey is the man who opens his debate by exclaiming with a flourish, “Statistics show!” Show what? Generally what the disputant has pre-determined in his own mind as the truth of the matter. Montaigne said of words, “Words are vascular; cut them and they will bleed.” Statistics never bleed! They dry up and wither under the blows of the battle- 40 The Church Losing Ground door and shuttlecock game which contestants play with their significance. 