Words of Warning

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 11, 1909

OBSERVERS of conditions in the great city centers are frequently calling attention to the multiplying problems and dangers presented. Are not these the conditions that call for us to work earnestly to spread the leaven of truth through the cities while yet there is time? At the recent national convention of the Disciple Church, held in Pittsburg, Mr. Earle Wilfley, of St. Louis, said of the problem of the cities:—

In the great cities the church is said to be in retreat. The temples of worship follow the pocketbooks of the biggest givers. Costly pews are paid for, but unoccupied, by men who prefer to go a-motoring; an elect and gilded membership takes its religion by proxy or by the methods of absent treatment. Whether this is true or not, the masses seem to think that on the doors of the churches of the rich they see the sign hung out: “The Common People Need Not Apply.”

There is a rumble of uprising revolution which threatens to disrupt society and engulf nations. Unrest possesses the breast of the earth. The cries in the course of street and the low mutterings in the hovels are ominous. Crime is on the increase, more kinds of crime and more of almost every kind. Plenty streams from the castles, and poverty crouches in the hovels; the vulgar extravagances of the rich, grown fat on ill-gotten gains, disturb the faith of those who live in huts and dine on crusts. Harken to the protests of the toiling millions. Listen to the cry of defrauded childhood, dishonored womanhood, and debauched manhood. They are curses, not loud but deep, but they will prevail.