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THE DECLINE OF RELIGION AMONG MEN
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev . Len G. Broughton, D.D.
’ ' Stenographically reported for The Golden Age —Copy right applied for. s
TEXT: “And the people sat down to eat and
to drink, and rose up to play.” Exodus 32:6.
HE subject that I am going to talk
about tonight, is the decline of re
ligion among men. lam therefore,
speaking to men in the presence of
women; and next Sunday night I
am going to preach the complement
to this sermon, —the decline of re
ligion among women, —a sermon to
women in the presence of men. I
T
am going to try to deal as earnestly with it as
1 shall try to deal tonight with the problem
concerning men.
Before I begin to speak on this subject that
I have chosen, I want first, to review briefly the
history from which we get our text.
Moses, you will remember, had gone up on
Mount Sinai for the purpose of receiving the
Law. We are not told just how long Moses
stayed there, but he stayed long enough for
the people to get restless, and they went to
Aaron, who was left in charge to a great ex
tent, and made their complaints. Instead of
assuring them, and bringing them out, as lie
should have done, being an officer, Aaron join
ed in with them. Together, he and the people
made this golden calf, and after it was made,
we find the people offering thereupon offerings
and the like, carrying on a form of worship in
the presence of this golden calf with their
backs turned upon God. And then following
that, they sat down, as our text shows, ‘‘to eat
and drink; and rose up to play.”
Now, I do not know just what you think,
and I am not here tonight to speak to you what
you think, but to speak what I think. I think
that this is almost exactly a picture of the
Churches of this country today. Going through
a form of worship, just as little as they can
put up with, and then giving themselves to
eating and drinking and finally, to playing.
During the last year there has been promoted
a movement that is sweeping marvelously all
over this country, it is known as “the Men and
Religion Movement;” it has for its object
the quickening of religious interest and fer
vour among men who are already members of
the Church of Christ. It is not an evangelistic
movement, so much as it is a movement of re
ligious men who are already evangelized, and
in our churches. If I am able to interpret the
spirit of that movement, it is to arrest, com
bine, and direct the energies of the men of the
Churches in such away as to promote the in
terests of the Churches, and advance the King
dom of Christ.
Now this movement in certain sections of
the country where it has been tried, has work
ed marvels, if we are to rely upon reports, as
the Churches have relied upon evangelizing,
because the men of the Church have been dis
covered ; and when they are discovered, they
are brought into service, and that would rev
olutionize any Church. There is no Church in
this city that would not have a revolution if
its men could be interested and waked up. There
would indeed, be a revolution, a spiritual rev
olution the like of which this city and coun
try has never seen. I am glad that movement
is .making its way in our direction. It is now
planned to have it here in Atlanta during the
last two weeks of February. Some of our very
best business men and Christian men are at
the head of this movement. The president and
chairman of it is our brother J. 11. Eagan, one
of the very best men in this city or any other
city, a true, earnest Christian business man,
and I am looking forward with a great deal of
pleasure to the time when that movement will
reach our city, and a great deal more pleasure
the time when we shall see the Churches
of this city hitched on, especially with their
men.
But what does all this mean, this movement
among men? It means this. Firstly, it means
The Golden Age for February 15, 1912.
to declare that the men of our Churches today,
have something seriously the matter with their
religion.
Is that true? Some people say it is not true.
That there is nothing especially the matter;
they are mainly all right. They need a little
bit more religion, they say, but they are all
right. Now this movement among men means
to declare that somebody has conceived the
idea that something is radically wrong among
our men. Now is this true? I shall undertake
to say that it is true, more than true. . I say
that because, of the testimony that we hear
from the preachers the world over.
Go wherever you will, especially in this coun
try, and you will find that there is a wailing
of agony among the preachers, concerning the
lack of interest in spiritual matters on the part
of their men. Go throughout the city and talk
with our preachers, and they will tell you that
this is true. It is almost impossible to get any
representative number of men together, to take
any specially active part in any enterprise. I
say so because of my own experience. I have
traveled in the last few years about as much, if
not more than any other minister in this sec
tion of the country. I have mixed with all
sorts and conditions of preachers and Church
es, and I want to say to you that there is some
thing radically wrong with the men of our
Churches: that it is a rare thing to find a
Church actually gripping its men. The fact is,
I do not know one. Now the question natur
ally addresses itself to a man when he faces a
situation like that, —what is the proof of it?
I am here simply to deal with the facts, and
nothing more or less. In the first place, take
the prayer meeting of the Church. The prayer
meeting, if it is anything at all, is the pulse
of the Church. How about our men and their
attendance upon it? I am acquainted with a
pastor who has a Church of one thousand mem
bers; and I asked him one day how many at
tended his prayer meeting? He said, “less
than 75.” “How many men in that number ?” I
asked. ‘ ‘ For the main part they are women and
children,” he replied, “very few men.” Then
I asked, “How many officers make up your Of
ficial Board?” “Twenty” he replied. “How
many,” I asked, “of these attend prayer meet
ing anything like regularly?” He said, “I do
not remember that I have ever seen more than
four at most, generally one or two at a time.”
Now, my brethren, if the prayer meeting is
the pulse of the Church, are you surprised that
our Churches with prayer meetings of that
character, are dead spiritually? Are you sur
prised that pastors are discouraged beyond
hope? Put yourselves in the place of a pas
tor, you men. Put yourselves in our place. You
put us in our place: no man ever called him
self to a pulpit. Somebody put him there. You
put yourselves in our place. Roll upon your
selves the burden of responsibility for the spir
itual life of a great Church and congregation,
and realize that the prayer meeting is the pulse
of that life. That it is indicative of the heart
beat, the spiritual force and strength of the
Church and see if you can bear to look things
over and find that your men are not there; your
offcial board is not there; the men upon whom
you are to reply for aggressive forward move
ment, that they are not there. And then, af
ter effort upon effort has been made they are
still not there. How much would you feel like
undertaking a great enterprise for God? I
submit to the men who are members of the
Churches of the city, you ought to be ashamed
of yourselves to put a man in the pulpit and
thus fail to hold up his hands and give him en
couragement. There he is. Got hold of a great
enterprise. No hing like it. An enterprise for
God and man. He has got to get it going and
keep life in if While it goes, and you are not
there.
And then when he begins to fail, you are the
first to criticise things, and if you do not go to
him, you go to somebody else.
Take the Sunday School, it is the opportunity
of the Church. Seventy-five per cent of the peo
ple, come from the Sunday School that join the
Church; and yet not twenty-five per cent, of
the membership of the Church attend Sunday
School. Certainly not of the men. Where are
the men when we come to Sunday School?
Where were the majority of you this morning?
At home, with your feet cocked upon the man
telpiece, reading the newspaper.
Take attendance upon Church on Sunday.
Most men will go to Church on Sunday morn
ing if the weather is just middling. If it is a
little cold, then they stay at home. They
would not stay in from business on that ac
count. If it is a little hot, then they will not
go. They stay at home. If it is just medium,
not too hot, and not too cold, —they will go on
Sunday morning.
Then Sunday night they will loaf round else
where, instead of being at your own Church.
But the trouble of it is, the majority of men
in our community, and in all communities for
that matter, attend nobodys Church.
I always say to my men, you go where you
can get the best food. Take the matter of col
lections. Not fifty per cent, of the men of our
Churches give a red cent for the support of the
Gospel. They want to get the benefit of it,
they want the advantages, and other things
that come through the Church. They want the
preacher, to visit them when they are sick, and
pray with them when they are in trouble, and
preach to them when they want preaching but
oh my, they do not think that there is any obli
gation to support the Gospel. I looked out here
at those men when they passed the plates
around. It was hardly worth their going up and
down the aisles. I stood and looked, and there
was a whole bunch of people that did not give a
red cent, and did not seem to care a thing about
it, as if this thing here is not costing some
money! As if every Church did not cost mon
ey to keep up.
Who do you think pays for a thing like this
to run? Do you think it runs along on wind?
What right have you got to sponge upon some
body else’s liberality? Now, I tell you, I am
not going to hold back anything, I feel it in
my heart to say.
There is one thing that I praise the Lord God
for. I got it from my mother. Although she
was poor all her life, she always tried, to have
a little money in her pocket to give when she
went to Church. I have practiced that act from
my childhood until this present day. I have
borrowed money, and paid interest upon it, if
cnly to pay a part of it to the work of the
Church. I am not supposing that it is possible
for everyone to give. If you are honest you
can answer that for yourself. Deal fair with
God, and see if He does not deal fair with you.
But what is the cause of this condition?
There must be some reason for it. I think there
are three.
First, the general No-accountness of a lot of
men. There are a lot of men in this country
that are of no-account. No heart, no head, no
anything. Get them in the Church and that is
all that you can do. I would hate to be in that
class. God knows if I were in that class I would
try and get out of it. Just no account. It must
be an awful experience to remark that “lie is
of no account.” There is only a very small
number of men that you can count on.
I wonder how many of you men are to be
counted on to be at the Prayer meeting next
Wednesday night? If you do not turn over a
new leaf, the devil is going to get you.
Take any service in connection with the
Church and find the men there that you
can count on. I tell you they are jewels.
(Continued on Page 14.)