342 RELIGIOUS AGENCIES 



is the great need of a more efficient and productive use of these organi- 

 zations for Christian work. If all of these 190,000 Christian churches 

 were thoroughly alive, the power which would exist in the communi- 

 ties where they stand would be simply irresistible. Nearly, if not 

 quite, one third of the people of this country are communicants in 

 Christian churches, and fully two thirds of them are on the rolls 

 of Christian churches either as communicants or more or less closely 

 attached adherents. But in most of the local churches a large 

 proportion 1 of the communicants are not much more than nominal 

 members, and many of the adherents are hardly touched by the in- 

 fluence of the church. It would seem that the great problem of the 

 local church lies right here, in its own parish. To arouse and quicken 

 and invigorate its own membership, to strengthen and vitalize the 

 bond that should unite to its fellowship the families now so slightly 

 related to it, this is the task set before it. What the agriculturalists 

 call intensive culture rather than extensive culture, - - the patient 

 and thorough care of small areas rather than a superficial husbandry 

 of large possessions, is surely indicated as the sound policy for all 

 these churches. If all those forty-seven millions of people, old 

 and young, who are now enumerated among the adherents of our 

 Christian churches could become Christians indeed, disciples of the 

 Nazarene, filled with his spirit, living his life, what a change would 

 pass upon the face of our society; how quickly the Kingdom of God 

 would come with power, not only to this nation, but to all the nations 

 of the earth. These churches are not by any means to neglect or 

 disregard the work that lies beyond their own bounds ; it is in doing 

 this work that their own life will be developed; what I mean is only 

 this, that they are often more anxious to add to their nominal mem- 

 bership than to develop a genuine Christian life among those who 

 are alread} 7 on their rolls; while the most effectual way of increasing 

 the power and influence of the local church is by improving the 

 quality of its membership. 



The critical question is, after all, whether these manifold religious 

 agencies, now in operation in the United States, understand their 

 business. Have they a definite idea of what they are in the world 

 for, or what they are trying to do, and are they working intelli- 

 gently toward the attainment of this end? It is not at all certain 

 that their answers to this question would be clear or uniform. One 

 hundred years ago there would have been more distinctness and 

 more unanimity in the replies. There was then, in the minds of 

 most men, a tolerably definite notion of the mission of the church. 

 It was a somewhat inadequate notion; it was mainly concerned about 

 the salvation of the individual. The business of the church was 

 simply getting people from earth to heaven. It had very little con- 

 cern for anything else. That notion has been considerably modified; 



