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."(639)

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, tableaux, mock trial, antiquarian supper, or
something to eat--anything to amuse the people."

Governor Washburn, of Wisconsin, in his annual message, Jan. 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 labor. Respe