under a profession of Christianity . The various religious bodies , re-enforced by the wealth and influence of these baptized worldlings , make a still higher bid for popularity and patronage . Splendid churches , embellished in the most extravagant manner , are erected on popular avenues . The worshipers array themselves in costly and fashionable attire . A high salary is paid for a talented minister to entertain and attract the people . His sermons must not touch popular sins , but be made smooth and pleasing for fashionable ears . Thus fashionable sinners are enrolled on the church records , and fashionable sins are concealed under a pretense of godliness .
Commenting on the present attitude of professed Christians toward the world , a leading secular journal says : " Insensibly the church has yielded to the spirit of the age , and adapted its forms of worship to modern wants ." " All things , indeed , that help to make religion attractive , the church now employs as its instruments ." And a writer in the New York Independent speaks thus concerning Methodism as it is : " The line of separation between the godly and the irreligious fades out into a kind of penumbra , and zealous men on both sides are toiling to obliterate all difference between their modes of action and enjoyment ." " The popularity of religion tends vastly to increase the number of those who would secure its benefits without squarely meeting its duties ."
Says Howard Crosby : " It is a matter of deep concern that we find Christ ' s church so little fulfilling the designs of its Lord . Just as the ancient Jews let a familiar intercourse with the idolatrous nations steal away their hearts from God , . . . so the church of Jesus now is , by its false partnerships with an unbelieving world , giving up the divine methods of its true life , and yielding itself to the pernicious , though often plausible , habits of a Christless society , using the arguments and reaching the conclusions which are foreign to the revelation of God , and directly antagonistic to all growth in grace ." -- The Healthy Christian : An Appeal to the Church , pages 141 , 142 .
In this tide of worldliness and pleasure seeking , self-denial and self-sacrifice for Christ ' s sake are almost wholly lost . " Some of the men and women now in active life in our churches were educated , when children , to make sacrifices in order to be able to give or do something for Christ ." But " if funds are wanted now , . . . nobody must be called on to give . Oh , no ! have a fair , tableau , mock trial , antiquarian supper , or something to eat--anything to amuse the people ." Governor Washburn of Wisconsin in his annual message , January 9 , 1873 , declared : " Some law seems to be required to break up the schools where gamblers are made . These are everywhere . Even the church ( unwittingly , no doubt ) is sometimes found doing the work of the devil . Gift concerts , gift enterprises and raffles , sometimes in aid of religious or charitable objects , but often for less worthy purposes , lotteries , prize packages , etc ., are all devices to obtain money without value received . Nothing is so demoralizing or intoxicating , particularly to the young , as the acquisition of money or property without labour . Respectable people engaging in these change enterprises , and easing their consciences with the reflection that the money is to go to a good object , it is not strange that
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