The ALASKA
SOV'R'DOVGH
Vol. I. No. 6 Douglas, Alaska, Tuesday, October 10, 1911 10c a Copy
ALASKA GODLESS, CHURCHES JOKES
Here is a now theory as to what ails
Alaska.
The editor of the Sourdough is one
of those in the eomparitively small
number, who love Alaska, who expects
it to be his final home. He recognizes
however, that the majority of the read
ers of the Sourdough are here only to
grab the dollar and to go.
This may be the last sermon which
will be printed in the Sourdough, and
then again it may not. The Sourdough
will always have space for the man
who has an earnest theory of how to
make Alaska “home,” whether it is
written by a preacher or not.
There are sermons and sermons. The
editor of the Sourdough long since lost
the church going habit, but oecassionlv
sermons are preached which are alive.
This is one of them. It was preached
by Rev. G. N. Edwards a week ago
last Sunday night after two years of
effort to build up a enurch in Douglas,
and after he made up his mind to go
out. However many of the readers of
the Sourdough will ee with this*
preacher, nearly all of them will find
it mighty interesting reading.
In spite of Alaska’s attractions,
everyone knows that the country does
not hold its population. The census
returns show something of a decrease
in most towns, and while Douglas Is
land more than maintains its numbers,
there is a constant change of people
who compose its population. Few feel
that they have found a home in Alas
ka. It will do for a while, ’till one ac
cumulates sufficient for a home or an
enterprise somewhere else—but there
are few who work to establish them
selves and to build up the communities
they live in. Alaska is largely a coun
try of transients, and this has no little
to do with its peculiar governmental
problems. Yet there is no place which
offers so good a chance for a working
man to make more than a living the
year round than Treadwell. There is
no lack of modern conveniences and
comforts, and while the climate is a
drawback to some, it does not “pun
ish” the people as does that of many
of the Northern states.
And yet Douglas Island is not a
place of permanent homes. There are
things lacking which you had at home
somewhere else. I have seen it stated
latev lthat there is a real eonneetion
in agricultural communities between the
condition of their churches and the
prosperity and permanence of the pop
ulation. The communities which neg
lect thei’’ church or have none, do not
take root and beeonie socially develop
ed. . I believe the same is true of many
places in Alaska, especially of our own
The churches in Alaska are usually
taken as jokes or abandoned as use
less. They are not looked upon as es
sential to the growth or welfare of the
community. Instances have been
known where the ehurelies have been
objected to by the public because like
ly to interfere with the financial suc
cess of some saloon. By their indif
ference the majority of the people say
“We have no use for the church.” In
very few places, none that x know of,
have the churches come to be self sup
porting in these thirty years of settle
ment. Instead most of them are de
pendent on the mission boards as ever,
and their membership has in but few
cases increased at all. It is commonly
said that the churches have not flour
ished because the community has not,
but in cases where the community
holds its own but the church does not,
this cannot be true. The mere possess
ion of a population and some conven
iences dot's not make a thriving town
of homes. The community needs a
heart. It needs to satisfy the hearts
of the people. There must be some sat
isfaction in living which work and food
and sleep do not give. Neither can the
lodge or the club give it. Man cannot
live in Alaska without the life of God
any more than he can elsewhere. I
make bold to say that the retarded
growth of Alaska towns and the shift
ing character of its population, even
where prosperity reigns are due to the
failure to make the church a home for
the religious and social life of the eom
munity—no man can put God out of his
life and not suffer. No man ean
thrust religion in the back ground and
not suffer by it. Witness the decline
of France which more than keeps pace
with the warfare against religion. If
the churches are abandoned, something
so essential is taken away from a man
or a community there is bound to be
signs of deterioration or arrested
growth. Men cannot live by bread
alone. He was made in the image of
God that he might learn the character
of his maker. But he will never ful
fill his possibilities unless he seeks
first the kingdom of God. The word
of God stands sure, “If thou shall for
get the Lord thy God, and walk after
other Go's, ye shall .urely perish.”
There s no wr:<er that has drawn
the portrait of ! iska so true as Rob
ert W. Service. The forces of nature
and the f re s of man meet and battle
in its pages. And what do you find!
A somber spectre stalks abroad, and
nearly rrr o >em is a story of death,
not merely death from cold and starva
tion but death of body and soul through,
sin unrestrained and full grown. I?
is the nemesis of the Godless life which
pursues every man that violates the*
eternal law of righteousness.
The things which men need most in
Alaska are the things of spirit. The*
temptations are so rampant nothing
can save a man but moral backbone.
Where he is cut off from the restrain
ing influence of settled society and the
safeguards of home, he needs far more
than ever to held fust to his spiritual
inheritance, rouse himself to lay hold
on God and keep alive his conscience.
When a man is freezing to death he
sinks into most entrancing slumber un
less kept from the fatal sleep by sheer
will power, or the vigorous measures
Copper River and Northwestern R. R. Bridge Across Miles Glacier.