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THE LEAVEN
BY W. H. MOI
It is u question of diagnosis. Beyond doubt
there is a systematic disorder, but it is not
quite clear as to whether it is appendicitis or
growing pains. Whether serious or otherwise,
the fact remains that Christianity and civilization
have incurred the habit of running
counter to each other, in one degree or another,
and in consequence a disease-condition
obtains. Although in the time of the fathers
the light was not always bright, it was not the
case then as now, when the language of the
pulpit has to be translated, and the language
that deals with every-day Christian doctrines
is ambiguous. If, of old, one had said that
such terms as "grace" or "justification" were
meaningless to him, sacrilege could not have
been worse; but now, not only does Owen Wis
ter make Ins characters m his novel, Bady
Baltimore," talk of giving up religion, and
Professor Fislier talk about the advisability
of closing the churches, but in all earnestness
people inquire as to what is meant by "sin,"
and puzzle over the definition of "pardon" and
"spirit." If the atmosphere in novels and
newspapers is not altogether too often antiChristian,
it is not fully Christian. We know
what to expect in Henry James, George Meredith,
and Bernard Shaw, and we take up the
"new" books uncertain as to whether they are
not cut on the same bias. In society we are uncertain
as to whether we shall hear religion
named with a sneer, a slur, or- in indifference.
We smile at the story ot Franklin reading the
Book of Ruth to a Parisian company who received
it as a charming and original pastoral,
but we are inured to puzzled expressions on
the faces of his colleagues in Congress when
Senator Martin speaks of "inquiry meetings."
We are never sure when introduced to
a stranger, as to whether he has a like or dislike
for religion, and in sending our boys and
girls to college, we have to canvass the question
as to whether the faith of our fathers is
not mere convention there. The Christian
creed is harmonized with civilization less "and
less, instead of more and more, or more or less.
Why is this? What is the reason? Aggassiz
would have said if he had found in the
Merrimac shells peculiar to the Mississippi,
that they were also peculiar to the New England
stream; but if he had found there those
which he knew to have their habitat solely in
tne Amazon, ne would nave maintained tnat
although it might seem unaccountable, the
Amazon must have flowed into the Merrimac.
Does it follow that modern civilization, faulty
toward Christianity, has been subject to malign
influences? If we answer glibly, "0,
yes!" the question at once advances as to the
source. From whence is such a powerful influence?
It is a burning question, and?we
beg it, and do not attempt answer. It is to
be questioned as to whetfier it would be profi
table to pursue it. It may be that as lucid an
answer as we can contrive to elicit will be
parallel to that which greeted the question in
the French assembly as to why the municipalities
in some districts in France refuse to repair
the churches or to Dermit the Roman Cat.h
olics to do so. "It is said," so ran the answer,
"it is said that the planet Mars exerts
a powerful influence on the earth."
"'Explanation?'" as Roscoe Conkling exclaimed
in the face of Mr. Blaine's question.
" 'Explanation?' Humph! The fact remains.
That is enough. You do not doubt it, cannot
deny it. There it is! Ask, rather, what is to
be done with it? Or, better, tell us what?you
' R II S fi V T fi R I A N OF TH.fi 8 0
IN A LUMP
R8B, M. D.
?propose?to?do?with it!"
It is doubtful whether the questiou will stay
dismissed, but if we concede it for convenience,
we cannot, on the other hand, get rid of
the corrollary question. We >agree that?explicably
or inexplicably?Christianity and civ
uization have the habit of running counter to
each other. Then, cui bono? What of it?
What if they do? What do we propose to do
about it? We are speaking more particularly
of the case as in this country. What will be
the effect, the effect not on our children, but
on our neighbor, on our relationship to evidence
of love for him?
"I dunno," said the squire in the story,
when asked to buy a peacock, "sence I got
them beauty roosters, my neighbor Jim's shanghais
have ben crowing banty style, and's
likely's not his ducks'11 git struttin' same's
that there peacock."
Dr. Edward A. Steiuer challenges the
churches of the United States to take advant
age of their opportunity of evangelizing the
immigrants, so that as they return to their native
countries they may, in turn, evangelize
them. He instances, very justly, the Italians
as procuring this retlex influence, and names
the thousands that return every year to homeland,
carrying impressions of our country and
its Christianity and civilization, and thus becoming
missionaries indeed. He points out
some of the effects; for instance, the prevalence
of American neckties in an Italian village
after Tony returns from America and
sets tlie style. Uver against this may be cited
the fact that the emigrant, back from America,
with the Gospel in his heart and hand, approves
himself a Christian missionary, and is
instrumental in doing actual and excellent
work in converting his friends, establishing
missions and churches, and strengthening
those already established.
T f nAW nhricf iunifv u v-? <1 nivili r#o i O t?A /^io
> ) mv ii) v/??i *?* ? vj uuvt tiTiiuaiuuu die Uik"?"
posed toward one another as has been outlined,
what, pray, will be the analysis of the
"Americanizing" of Italy? What will this
sort of leaven do in the lump? To be specific,
we may inquire as to the effect on that present
effort for reform which goes by the name
of Modernism. If Italians come here, as so
many thousands do, out of harmony with Romanism?and,
by the way, largely out of harmony
because of Modernism,?and after conmUK
?... nu-In*.'~_.'i? ?j ? ?
mui rr i til UU1 lylll JOliailliy ill 1U C 1 V I U/.il IIUII, rtS"
turn to Italy, what about their effect on that
reform, or aspiration for reform, or a purer
form, of religion?
This revolutionary movement which consists
in the antagonism between hide-bound
conservatism and progressiveness, is susceptible
to influence of this character.
flpOP(7P Tvrrpll enva- "Rw a \fnflnrniot f
mean a churchman, of any sort, who believes
in the possibility of a synthesis between the
essential truth of his religion and the essential
truth of modernity."
What are our returned immigrants doing with
or for that modernity and its essential truth?
What is "Americanism" effecting in that vague
unrest which has been well described as
"the purest expression of the present relrig
ious conscience T"
In point of fact these recently from our
shores are modernists. Dr. Luzzi says:?
"Whoever has the least shadow of a doubt
concerning the most insignificant part of the
religious edifice of Roman Catholicism, is already
a modernist." Thus qualified, it stands
9
> 0 T H [April 2, 1913
them in hand to be caraful. They stand with
the best who bear the name in demanding the
abolition of compulsory celibacy for the clergy,
in the broadest clerical education, in spreading
the Gosnel and inakinn it the manual of
all believers, in abandonment of the liturgy in .
a language not understood by the people, in
administering the Holy Communion in Biblical
integrity with the bread and cup to the people,
and in freedom from bondage to Rome.
Who can see better the reason for this revolutionary
movement called Modernism than he
who returning from this country has clear on
his retina the condition into which the Roman
Catholicism has fallen ? They return to
find so many of the clergy living immorally
and thus forming one of the most dangerous
centers of moral infection. They find superstition
as generous as ever in its grip on the
soul, with thousands declaring that they have
no religion, with the Latin Church rich, haughty,
worldly and powerful, with a Protestant influence
that grows constantly and furnishes
spiritual nourishment to the cultured and
thoughtful Italian modernists, and with the
zealous and popular priests preaching evangelical
sermons and in agreement with broad
views from the modernist dies.
Whnt wnr.Hhr tlinn tliof Otn i rrro r? f -ma
.. ..M? ?? J V?m Vlij V11UV tnu giuigiauu 11"
turning from the United States is indicted at *
Rome as a modernist! It makes little or no
difference whether he returns as an avowed
Protestant or as having had his Romanism
made more liberal in contact with American
Catholicism. In either case he comes under
the indictment, and to it he pleads guilty. Who,
more than he, asks to have done away with
v**v i iuivutvua wA. iuc pvpc UUlll^ II priS*
oner? He has a propensity for asking questions,
such questions as, If marriage is a sacrament
for the laity why not for the priest?
Why should veneration for the saints replace
Divine worship? Why is there a famine of
the printed Word of God in Italy? What is
the sense of intelligent people cherishing so
much nonsense and so many errors, and pronouncing
them catholic?
But, going out from the United States with
their Christianity in admixture with the miry
clay, are these emigrants, these modernists
hand-made in America, calculated to be of signal
advantage to the cause of Modernism, to
the new Italy? Dr. Luzzi tells us that an influential
modernist layman told him on the eve
of his recent visit to the United States, to tell
us that above all else Modernism is meant to
prepare a new' Italian conscience, the real
Christian conscience of the land. The emigrant,
back from this country, sympathizes beyond
question with this aim and purpose; but
is he calculated to engage in the preparation
of the new conscience?
It all depends upon the answer to that question
of diagnosis. If he goes back to his native
soil disordered with spiritual appendicitis,
he is in poor stead to assist in consciencemaking.
If his disorder is however growing
pains, the chances are in favor of his gaining
full growth and against his being stunted. But,
really, should there be growing pains? Ours
the fault that there are. And then, what about
appendectomy? Ours the fault if it is appendicitis,
and ours the duty to have the operation
before the emigrant-modernist returns.
The fact remains that we can advantage Italy,
and other European neighbors, if we settle
that diagnosis, and then apply specific treatment.
Hartford, Conn.
We must secularize saintahip by sanctifying
the secular life.?P. Carnegie Simpson.
>