628 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
erful that anything which would arouse his conscience will never unwisely escape the preacher's lips.
While these charges are doubtless true of a few so-called churches and of a very few preachers, yet we know scores and hundreds of men who would resign a pulpit at once where there was a command, either open or implied, to padlock their lips in the presentation of truth. It is culpable beyond ordinary cow- ardice for a preacher of righteousness to sell his conviction for gold, and such a man would be frowned out of the fellowship of the ministers of any community.
2. The ministry discusses themes which are stale and flat. They are not living issues.
This is thoroughly false to the genuine spirit of the church. The pulpit teaches preparation for this world's conflicts and temptations, as well as safety in a future world. These themes ought not to be stale and flat to the earnest man.
3. The ministry is not well enough informed on economic and social questions.
To this we plead guilty in part. Social science is a new study, and could not be found in the college curriculum ten or fifteen years ago. To have studied economics or ethics years ago is not now to be informed in sociology. To study the labor move- ment as the ordinary laboring man glances at it would be far from satisfactory.
4. The workingman is not welcome in the churches of the land.
This is a mistake on the part of wage-earners. Some churches may be icy toward him, but these are the isolated exception, not the rule.
5. The church is not aggressive enough in assisting the work- ingman to secure his rights.
Grant all the necessary exceptions to the rule, and deduct considerable for sluggishness in the performance of duty, and even then the fact remains that most of those who unselfishly are aiding the causes of humanity are Christian men, and a large proportion of these are ministers. In considering the causes dear to the wage-earner which are left unaided by the church,
