750 THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S What is the matter with the men who used to be called “ the men of God ’’? Do our pulpiteers know what the men of this world think of their petty performances? Here is a comment from a reeent article in The Saturday Evening Post which speaks with no uncertain tone: “An obvious evidence of th e cu rren t sp iritual obfuscation in th e churches finds its Way weekly in to th e new spaper repo rts of m in isterial meetings. I f one were to judge religion by these g atherings of th e city clergy he would be surely justified in assum ing th a t th e m ajo r in terests of th e churches are such m a tte rs as th e u se of cigarettes, th e leng th of women’s sk irts, fashions in th e movies, Sunday baseball, local politics and th e m inu tiae of ecclesiastical mechanics. W ith th e whole ea rth in such agony as it has never before known; w ith v ast sp iritu al fer m entation and u n re st a world-wide condition; w ith th e very foundation of Chris tia n civilization imperiled; w ith a n ation steadily loosening its hold upon th e elem entáis of fa ith—th e sp iritu al shepherds of m ankind seem too busy w ith triv ial and ephem eral m a tte rs of individual ta ste and practice to give heed to th e deep and desperate needs of th e ir flocks.” T. C. H. THE MENACE OF THE MACHINE In the June number of this magazine we gave some statistics regarding the number of vacant churches in this country, which were not quite re liable, and we are taking this opportunity to correct the mistake and give more exact information. Our former statement was to the effect that there were probably twenty thousand vacant churches in this country, but after a more careful scrutiny of Dr. Carroll’s report, we present the following figures: ^ . Number of Number of Churches Denom ination Churches Ministers W ithout Ministers B aptist .......................................... 58,933 47,983. 10,950 Congregational ............................ 5,959 5,695 264 Christian ....................... 14,416 8,506 5,910 L u th eran .........................,............. 14,955 10,061 4,894 P resbyterian ..................... 15,844 14,309 1,535 Episcopal ......................... 7,993 5,806 2,187 Methodist ........... ......................... 63,645 42,426 . 21,219 United B rethren ............................ 3,923 2,098 1,825 Reformed ...........,......................... 2,721 2,286 435 Leaving Total Churches W ithout M inisters.......................................49,219 It will be seen that these figures do not include the smaller denomina tions and sects, many of whom are loyal to the Word of God and to the fundamentals of our faith. When it is remembered that a very large number of the ministers num bered in these statistics are retired, and that many others are not pastors of churches hut are engaged in other lines of Christian work, the figures become appalling. What Shall We Do? First of all,—face the facts. Look them straight in the face. If there are nearly fifty thousand vacant churches in this country, and there is abso lutely no prospect of filling the pulpits from graduates of the seminaries; and the ecclesiasts demand that only seminary men shall.be ordained for
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