The laity lack much consecration. The things of this world and the
desire for them press more heavily upon their minds than the extension
of God's cause. Their Christian consciousness is not trained, hence
their sense of duty is not high. They depend too much on spasms of
effort and frequent appeals to the emotions in the performance of duty.
Their idea of the gospel is too confined to hearing sermons on Sunday.
Their gospel does not touch the many interests of life. Their virtues
are not concrete. Holiness, purity, love, truth, beauty, justice,
goodness are metaphysical abstractions. Too much self-centred and
self-seeking, they make little or no sacrifice for others. Many
self-supporting churches do not shelter weaker ones and have no thought
for the heathen. There are churches that are fortunate in having in
their official boards men of culture, piety, and business experience,
but these are virtues very rarely found in the same men. Business
methods are often low in churches because of the difficulty of finding
strictly business men among the laity. In the erection of churches the
spirit of ostentation rather than worship is dominant. The immorality of
debt not being known, churches are very often built without regard to
the financial inability of the people, and deceive by suggesting rich
parishioners when the people are very poor and live from hand to mouth.
Many disruptions between pastors and churches could have been avoided
were church finances not kept in a confused state. Pastor's salaries and
other church obligations are not raised and met in a systematic way, but
are left to appeals to the feelings of the people whose ethical sense
has not been cultivated. We have thus enumerated among the defects of
the laity, worldliness, untrained Christian consciousness, restricted
meaning of the gospel, the non-concreteness of the Christian virtues,
and the lack of a missionary spirit and of business methods.