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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 79

"A Distinct Break" and Its Causes

"A Distinct Break" and Its Causes

I have never before seen a [unclear: table] statistics which gave such a [unclear: dist] break as do the two tables submittted [unclear: h] Mr. Carter regarding Sunday [unclear: Sch] scholars and membership of these [unclear: ei] Churches for the decade 1901-10, [unclear: and] behaves all concerned to institute [unclear: t] thorough and exhaustive [unclear: investiga] into the cause or causes which have [unclear: pa] duced such a lamentable result. [unclear: H] Carter himself attempts such an [unclear: int] gation, and after enquiring into the [unclear: s] fects before and after 1905-6 of such [unclear: m] merits as the Welsh revival, with [unclear: the] action which followed it, and the [unclear: th] gical controversy which raged round [unclear: th] utterances of the Rev. Mr. Campbell [unclear: t] rejects them as causes which [unclear: provide] adequate explanation, and he [unclear: arrives] the conclusion that it is in [unclear: some] associated with the great social and [unclear: p] tical uprising of the people as [unclear: manit] in the general election of 1906, [unclear: when] addition to the triumphant return to [unclear: P] liament of a Liberal Government, [unclear: th] appeared within the historic [unclear: walls] Westminster a compact Labour [unclear: Pr] page 5 [unclear: about] 50 strong. Confirmation of the foregoing theory is to be found in the fact that during the ten-year period under review there has been a marked development of such movements as the adult school, the P.S.A., and the Brotherhood and Sisterhood organisations, all of these societies having a distinctively social as well as religious side to their activities. All these facts tend to confirm my con[unclear: ition] that, rightly or wrongly, an im[unclear: pression] is growing in the minds of the [unclear: workers] that the Churches are in alliance [unclear: with] the holders of wealth and privilege. This impression ought to be combated by the Churches and removed if possible, The teaching of Jesus stands for justice and human brotherhood. The Father-food of God revealed by Jesus Christ im[unclear: plies] an impartial equality of opportunity [unclear: for] all the Father's children. That [unclear: equality] of opportunity is not available [unclear: to-day], and the Church must stand con[unclear: demned] if it takes no action to make it [unclear: a] reality.