State of Religion in Europe.
At a late ministers' meeting in St. Louis, Dr. Goodell talked upon the state of religion in Europe. He said: "Europe is a vast university, where human life has reached its highest in learning and art. As to its religious condition, there are two views: First, the outside view, and, second, the inner view, which finds a hidden but real power, a true life of faith. According to the outside view, religion seems dead. The Sabbath 'has gone by the board.' It is no longer a day of religious observance. The sanctuaries are being thinly attended, especially among State churches. At the morning service in many places there is only the preacher, the clerk, the singers, and a few others. No evening service is attempted. The day is spent in feasting, riding, and theater-going. The splendor of a European Sabbath is very attractive to worldly people, and many who believe in something better are drawn into the current. "I was once in a meeting at Geneva where eighteen ministers had come together for consultation in regard to the evils of Sabbath desecration. On the table were twenty kinds of wine, and in the afternoon they all went out riding, and it was the Sabbath too. That meeting did not check the evil. In Scotland whisky is a great enemy of the day. At a hotel the proprietor would not allow anybody even to whistle, and yet all through the sacred hours of the day a steady line of men filed up to his bar and drank and drank. They are drinking the day to death everywhere. "The Bible is a rejected book. Religious training in the family is neglected. Non-chastity is very prevalent in Italy, and in Paris it is said more children are born out of wedlock than in it. Skepticism is open and outspoken; in France many Catholic priests are pronounced infidels, but keep on going through the forms, because there is occupation and maintenance in it, and because they think it good for society. But it ought to be said here that in Wales it is claimed ninety-six per cent. of the population go to church, and in Scotland fifty per cent."