Why Do Not People Attend Church?
By Editor
THIS question was the subject of discussion lately, at the Ministerial Union of Detroit, Mich. A paper was read upon which the Toledo Blade of November 19 makes the following just remarks. They are good reading for all who name the name of Christ, and especially so for the popular pulpit. Our reverend friend in Detroit says that one great reason why children and young people do not attend regular church service is that they are not taken there by their parents; that the latter are absentees from the sanctuary, and the force of example keeps the children from attending. To our mind, the same reasons operate with the children as with the adult population of our cities. And we will give his views as to these reasons:— "One barrier to the common people is the expensively furnished interior of our churches. Many will regard this as a very empty and foolish objection, but careful examination will find it full of truth. Men and women who live on rag-carpet floors, or on floors with no carpets, can only be reached by places of worship somewhat on a level with their home life. Again, the church has too much the character of a dress parade. I am not entering upon the question of dress in general; it may be as right and proper to dress in ermine and silk as in calico; but in the temple of God, where all classes of people are supposed to meet, there should be a leveling of dress, so that the poor man and woman would not appear in such embarrassing contrast. "But I come to the monster evil, the one great barricade over which the common people will not climb, and could not if they would. I refer to the pew-renting system. The pews in the church which I serve are all rented, so I am not reflecting on any church or on any individual. But I speak of a system which has grown up with us and around us, which furnishes, perhaps, the supreme hindrance to our common people. Though it is not intended, it is a premium given to rich and well-to-do people to go to church with an assurance that when they get there they will be found in good company; and, on the other hand, it is a forcible invitation for the masses to remain at home until they can rent a pew. It is no more possible for the laboring classes to attend church under this system of monopoly than it would be for them to rent boxes at the theater. But we say the poor people would be welcome. On the surface that is true; but when you put the knife of examination into it, it is as much like the truth as the tallow candle is like the sun. How long would this welcome be extended to these new-comers by pewholders crowded out of their pews?" With all due deference to our Detroit ministerial friend, we do not think that he goes to the root of the matter. All the points that he makes are good, and all have their bearing on the non-attendance of the masses upon the services of the churches; but they are as nothing compared with the one fact that the people are utterly indifferent to religion. They care nothing about it. The affairs of the present engross them, and those of the future, beyond this life, are not considered. The struggle for existence, providing for the physical wants of themselves and their families, take up their time and attention. They are not, as a rule, antagonistic to religion or to the church; their attitude is one of utter and complete indifference thereto. And one great barrier to the arousing of an interest is the fact that they can see no marked difference between the lives of professed Christians, as a rule, and their own lives. The difference may exist, but it is not visible to them. They see all around them church members who are far from fulfilling their ideal of what a Christian should be; they see a business man, for instance, who will take an unfair advantage when it will result in his pecuniary benefit; they see persons who are professed Christians exhibiting malice, anger, and uncharitableness; they see them grasping and penurious, grinding the faces of the poor; they note in them practices at variance with the faith they profess; and they see no difference in the lives of these persons for at least six days in the week from the lives of the mass of people not claiming to be Christians, and who do not attend the churches. The inevitable inference is that Christians join the church for social advantage, or for other motives other than those that should actuate them. They look on church people collectively as somewhat hypocritical, and this view drives them away. Now, what is the remedy? What means can be taken to bring the people into the churches, or the children into the Sunday-schools? To our mind, there is but one; to rouse the masses to a recognition of the importance of religion. They must awaken to the mighty interests they are neglecting; they must be made to realize that the eternal welfare of their souls is being imperiled. Our ministers must cease to be mere pulpiteers. Like the mighty Founder of the religion they profess, they must go out and seek the lost. If the people will not go to them, they must go to the people, visit them in their homes, rouse them, and waken in their minds the desire to know more of religion. And the burden must not fall alone on the ministers. Every man and woman who claims the Christian name must help in this work; first, by casting out of their own lives all that is impure or at variance with the sublime faith which they profess, that they may not cause their brethren to err; second, by aiding in the work of arousing all around them to the supreme importance of a religious life. Let all Christians purify their own lives, that they may stand as living exemplars of the faith they profess, and then let pews and pulpit join to bring all within the fold.