THE MINISTER AS A TEACHER— Malcolm Taylor Circulation Office: 6140 Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago. Editor ial and Advertising Office: 931 Tribune Building, New York City Copyright 2020. Archives of the Episcopal Church / DFMS. Permission required for reuse and publication. Page Two T HE WITNESS August 10, 1933 Copyright 2020. Archives of the Episcopal Church / DFMS. Permission required for reuse and publication. Editor Associate Editors Irving P. Johnson HP TJT TT TT T T " X T X T Q C Frank E. W ilson Managing Editor _|_ J ¿ j \ \ 1 1 Bernard Iddings Bell William B. Spofford John Rathbone Oliver Literary Editor National Paper of the Episcopal Church C. Russell Moodey Gardiner M. Day Irwin St. J. Tucker Vol. XVII. No. 50 AUGUST 10, 1933 Five Cents a Copy THE WITNESS is published weekly by the Episcopal Church Publishing Company, 6140 Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. The subscription price is $2.00 a year ; in bundles o f ten or more for sale at the church, the paper selling at five cents, we bill quarterly at three cents a copy. Entered as Second Class Matter April 3, 1919, at the postoffice at Chicago, Illinois, under act of March 3, 1879. M u s i n g s o f a L o w -B r o w An Editorial by BISHOP JOHNSON W O N D E R just how much difference there is be­ H A T is the value of the Church. It does not I tween the fundamentalists evaluating science and T cause you to perspire with emotion one minute and the scientists evaluating religion. When one recalls then to shiver with the cold the next. W e read articles William Jennings Bryan striving to give a scientific ex­ telling us that the Church is slipping. It is curious. planation of Genesis, one is-also reminded of Clarence I have been in the ministry for over forty years and I Darrow trying to give spiritual values to the Sermon have never known such a warm response to religion as on the Mount. Science has done great things for us there is today. It is true that some forms of religion but when it has done all it seems to be an unprofitable are slipping. This includes both the icy zones of ’purely servant, for in making the privileged more comfortable intellectual religion and the tropical zones of highly it has deprived the unprivileged of any joy in living. emotional religion. But that does not mean that the It is true that some people blame the Church for this Church is slipping. That depends upon, your definition disaster, yet we have been told for many years that re­ of the Church. If you mean that nebulous vapor ligion is on the wane. If this is true then surely the which surrounds the Church I would say that the fog Church is not responsible for the debacle in which we is lifting. I f you mean that icy sediment which is the find ourselves. The past generation has seen the deposit of religion I would say that it is melting. If supremacy of educators, diplomats and financiers who you mean that historic institution which exists between have told us rather haughtily that wisdom would die the fog and the ice I would say that it is going strong. with them. A t any rate if religion has anything to do Unquestionably there has been some desertion of the with the plight of the world it is the lack of it, not the Church by the intellectual group, but they are nothing failure of it, that is to blame. if not vocal, and they make more noise in going out People have a rather childish idea of what the of the Church than ordinary folks do, in coming in. Church should do, as though the Church were a magi­ However, they compose a very small percentage of the cal instrument which will operate without human co­ population and curiously enough that period in the his­ operation. Men stay away from the Church and then tory of the Church when it had a minimum of intel­ complain that the Church is not virile. Men withhold lectuals it had a maximum of power. I refer to' the their money and then complain because the Church is first three centuries. It .was during this period that not more bountiful. Men try out every substitute for Celsus attacked the Church because it did not appeal the Church and then complain that it is not more to scholars. The marvel is th at, the morons should potent. have survived and the scholars should have passed into This is no new thing. Pharaoh told the children of oblivion. Israel to make bricks without staw and then punished them for their failure to deliver. Men criticize the S a matter of fact the vital things in life do not Church because it does not purify politics but they cen­ A . come from laboratories or lecture rooms.. They sure the Church even more if it enters the political belong to a different area. Devoted mothers, winsome arena. The intellectuals are upset because they cannot children, conscientious servants and loyal friends are produce a Church which is both scientific and sympa­ far more important than captains of industry, heads of thetic ; that is as cold as a laboratory and as warm as a colleges or masters of relativity. fireside. It is like an effort to enjoy the Arctics and It is these things that the Church can produce when the Tropics at the same time. There is an advantage in and where it is adequately manned and sufficiently sup­ the temperate zone. It has all the blessings of the ported by a group of ordinary people who hunger for other zones without their extremes. righteousness and thirst for God. I believe this be- Copyright 2020. Archives of the Episcopal Church / DFMS. Permission required for reuse and publication. Page Four T H E WITNESS August 10, 1933 cause it is the result of my experience. I have been your soul. Yet it is a fact that enough eminent scien­ privileged for many years to visit many parishes, to' be tists are devout Christians tO' remove the stigma that entêrtained in many homes, and to' watch many fam­ might otherwise attach to my mental status. ilies grow up. I have also' been more or less familiar So if one were to face the facts about religion one with collegiate atmospheres and I can testify that there might conclude, first, that certain kinds of religion are is a winsomeness in Christian homes that is quite f or­ slipping but that the Church has not been seriously eign to academic circles. Possibly it is because I have a affected. Second, that a very large number of intel­ greater love for people than I have a curiosity about lectuals are without faith, but that this has been true things. in every age since the days of Celsus. Third, that O'f course the academic group think that I have abdi­ where the Church can enlist a sufficient number of red- cated my reason in order to gratify my superstitions, blooded, men who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and while I think that the mechanistic yardstick which Savior, that there one finds the kind of atmosphere modern educators apply to life is most uninteresting. which some of us are seeking, quite apart from the I don’t see any fun in a world where the letters after prospect that we may receive a harp and a crown some­ your name are of more consequence than the poetry in time hereafter. T h e M i n i s t e r a s a T e a c h e r By MALCOLM TAYLOR ESUS was known and addressed as a teacher. His With this situation in mind some eight years ago> the J teaching comprises a large part of the gospel rec­ Commission on the Ministry of the National Council ord. It was his chief reliance in his work. His Church called together representatives of our theological has always been a teaching Church and on the effi­ schools for a conference on the place given to religious ciency of its teaching its growth and achievements have education in their work and possible improvement. largely depended. To be able to teach is one of the The conference revealed how little was being done. No first and most essential qualifications of a minister. school was giving adequate preparation. The schools Are our ministers today well equipped for this task, admitted the lack of instruction in religious education, both as they may be required to be teachers and as they but pleaded the pressure of other subjects, the limited may have to train and direct others in the educational time and the difficulty of securing competent teachers. work of the Church ? Such equipment requires a Since then, partly because of this conference, consid­ knowledge of what should be taught, of the methods erable progress has been made. The writer has re­ by which it may be imparted, of the laws that govern ceived reports from the several schools as to their the growing mind and of the principles that underlie present requirements and courses and he has compared character education. More especially is this true of these with those of eight years ago. The result is en­ the teaching of children and in no sphere of a minis­ couraging and the schools are to be commended for ter’s work have there been greater changes in outlook the progress made.