THE CHURCHES FROM THE WORLD'S STAND-POINT.
A late Boston secular paper makes some plain statements about the evils which are making fearful inroads upon the popular churches of the day. We make the following extracts:— But there are some nuisances in religion which deserve exposure, and the time is ripe to set them forth. One is the dishonesty of churches or religious societies. It would not be difficult to count up a great number of these organizations which are so deeply in debt that they fight the devil with the left hand, while they ward off the sheriff with the right. They cannot advance with their spiritual work, because debt paralyzes the life of the church and drives off newcomers. They dare not make a show of hands, or, rather, their deacons don't want to, because they know that the outside world has its unmistakable judgment on such shams, whether they have the cloak of religion, or are labeled with their proper names. This is the dishonesty of the thing. The society has built a fine edifice on promises, on the talents of a popular preacher, on anything but the basis which, in the world, meets one's rent and pays the grocer's bill; and, though Mr. Kimball's facility in paying these debts may be very soothing to the minister and the people who have incurred them, the dishonesty is wide-spread; “the offense”—we had almost said the crime—is rank, “it smells to heaven;” it has caused a profound revolt in the consciences of honest business men from the existing societies, which are willing to tax the future to pay for unnecessary indulgence in fine churches or fancy preaching. Better worship in a barn, and have an honest gospel for the multitude, than to build the elegant church and make it the resort of the wealthy, because only a certain class can submit to the expense. The demon of religious debt is one of the forms of Antichrist, and nothing will sink any institution quicker, be it religious or otherwise. The difficulty is that the traditional position in which the ministers have stood to their people is changed or reversed. Once they were looked up to and respected for the sake of their office; now the office is too much sunk out of sight, and very largely it is the personality of the man, his good points, as the jockeys say of their horses, which are most discussed. The lawyer, the merchant, the man of the world, expect hard knocks, and give and receive them. But the minister belongs to a persuasion which calls itself the grand army of peace and good will. He is told, if he is smitten on the one cheek, to turn the other for a second blow. The world does not tolerate fighting parsons. The man and the office go together, but, if you vilify the man or impair the confidence of the community in his personal character, the office has no value. It is very nearly this which the religious portion of the community are doing at the present day with their ministers. They are up for discussion at Sunday dinner-tables, at club houses, at sewing societies, and the one, be he Christian or not, who can say the sharpest or funniest thing about a given preacher, is reckoned the best fellow. There are men prominent in the parishes of most religious sects, who feel that they own the minister, very much as they own their houses, and to whom the minister, especially if he be a poor man, as this class of men generally are, stands much in the same relation. These men, whose private characters are not to be inquired into, are numerous in the official positions, because the societies want their money to pay current bills. The expenses of the church are beyond what is healthy, and, when fairs and all the accompaniments of this species of social gambling will not fill the treasury, these wealthy sinners are asked to foot the bills. It is this patronage which has its price, and, from what we hear on every side, the price is the usefulness of ministers as physicians to thousands of men. The preacher becomes the clever moralist, and says smooth things when he cannot speak the truth without being thrust out of his position as the penalty for his honesty. The sap is thus taken out of him for most of the useful purposes of a minister, and he longs for a new parish. The people who have impaired his usefulness charge upon the pastor the inefficiency which they have done very much to produce, and minister and people are often equally restless without understanding the reason. This state of things has permeated every circle of religious people. We are in the midst of it to-day. It is confessed on all sides that there is a visible decline in church-going. One of the reasons for it is, that, when pastors are uncertain of their position, they cannot labor for the permanent religious interests of the community. Another is, that religious persons are not generally at work to win people to the Christian life when they are trying to get rid of a minister. Another is, that the spectacle of religious scandal in these societies gives the impression, in too many cases, that professedly Christian people do not act from any higher motives than those who make no pretensions to piety. The whole thing is unspeakably bad, and until our religious societies are financially sound, and are faithful and honest in their relations to the men consecrated to serve them, we can have little hope that the morals of the community are to be much improved.