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Show RELIGION WITH FEWER CHURCHES. Protestant Pa3tor Says Church. Work at Home 13 Hampered by Controversy. (Literary Digest.) A Xew York pastor announces his conviction that there would be more religion in the United States if there were fewer churches and clergymen. clergy-men. Dealing Avith the statistics of the Protestant churches only, and proceeding on the assumption (which he explains later) that there should bo not more than one pastor to every thousand parishioners, parish-ioners, he finds a surplusage of between 10,000 and 24,000 clergymen. And he claims that the ministry minis-try and the church would be- better off if these, "were but of the pastoral harness in this country." The pastor here quoted is the Rev. John Woodruff Conklin . (Reformed Church in America), who explains ex-plains his contention in The Homiletic Review for Xovembcr. He points out, moreover, that while the home field is suffering from "this, oversupply of what Ave call the 'means of grace,' " the foreign mission field is crippled by opposite conditions. Church work at home, he says, is hampered by controAersy, rivalry and waste "and the greatest great-est of these is. waste." The cause he finds in the presence of too many workers in the field. 3 lis point of view is made clearer by liis enumeration of "some of the-fruits of present conditions,", 'whi'ch are: ' ' '. " - "1. Dihcouragiugly small numbers of hearers in most churches especially at the second service. "2. Difficulty of doing solid, systematic , pro- j gressive teaching and training, because of the j pressure of compotitiA-e attractions. j "';. Consequent shallowness of parishioners, who are naturally induced to cultivate itching ears and cynical spirits. "4. Loss of proper ministerial standing because i of cheap salaries and cheap devices for drawing recruits and preventing desertions. "V. Xeedless multiplication of buildings- and salaried workers pastors, sextons, and musicians. "6. Excessive expenditure in many chnrches for these purposes as also for organs, windows, and other decorations, because of the grinding pressure of rivalry. "7. The use of umvorthy methods to get money to "'run' the church under such conditions. "S. The cramping of vision and sympathy in regard to needs and fruits of the Gospel among 1 people out of siaht. "These e-ils are the chief causes of pessimism and mourninsj- in the religious press and in minis-I minis-I terial associations. They Aanish to a very eon-,, j siderable extent Avhcn the parish is not too small ! for normal existence and healthy groAVth.' j The present conditions, he goes on to say. are I "brought into more awful relief Avheu placed along-I along-I side of the destitution among the larger part of j the world's people." We read: v I "The foreign missionaries plead for a material j-increase of their numbers. The Bombay Conference, Confer-ence, voted to appeal for a quadrupling of the force in India. Xow consider these ten thousand j men vhom Ave could so Avell spare. If they Avere i sent out a foreign missionaries OA'ery mission ! from the United States could have its force of or-j or-j dained men multiplied not only by four, but by j I seven. Only about fourteen hundred such men are j new in the service from our American churches. Just with our unnecded crumbs -we could supply I the missions beyond their fondest dreams." The J money saved in the closing of the parasitic churches here Avould go far toward supporting the transferred ministers. .Looked at from this point I of A'iew. the matter assumes colossal importance. The vision of waste 'on one side and emptiness on ! the other is stunning. One can not picture or i characterize it fairly without laying himself open to the charge of fanaticism or lunacy. 3'nough men and money to supply the heathen world properly, prop-erly, Ayith the chance to. take Christ's yoke and learn of Him, are wasted, not only in Avar and rum and theatres, but in religion, in the management manage-ment of the forces of the Church of God." Mr. Conklin sees in our overchurched commun-ties commun-ties another argument in favor of church union : '. |