Christian Nation Vol. 18 1893 - Rparchives.org

-y •""-'Q0:^?^T\ti5.6s!l tlte Wor)A,ar\(^ prx^&vcK.tK^ ^o&]5)^l to^v^ry er^^t^r^?:[Communications pertaining to •missions will be I them. The tendency appears to be in confirmationof that idea. " Resist the beginnings ofaddressed to F. M. Foster, 305 West 1%th si.. New IYork.^evil," by witnessing for the Inspired Songs.More and more we cease to wonder that the It appears that in New York City, the movingof churches up-town is a question that willchurches have so little influence on the masses.The other day the following placard was noticedon the front of Asbury M. B church, Newnot down. In the March number MissionaryTork: "Pleasant Sunday (Sabbath) EveningFor Workingmen, at 6 30 P. M., BeginningWith Half Hour Concert. All Welcome."In the Thirty-fourth street Reformed churchthe sermon is enlivened and illustrated withstereoptican views. In other churches theprincipal part of the service is that renderedby the choir, whose members are too often irreligiouspeople. The devil hunches the worldin the side and says, "See!" In some revivalservices, people who would resent anythingwhich looked toward questioning their religion,employ the services of full bands which clangand bang—not to drive the devil away, as tbeheathen do ; but to bring the Holy Ghost in,or, to bring people to the Holy Ghost. Weare not sure but that the heathen are the moresensible of the two. At all events, it is astrange way to get God and the people together,and a moment's consideration oaght to convioceany oa6 that, however it may tickle men audmake them feel that they have at last solvedthe problem, "How to Bring Men to God," itmust be looked upon by that holy andjust Onewith disapprobation ; if not, abhorrence. " AndI, if I be lif ied up, will draw all men unto me,"is God's method, and when a church findsitselfa failure by that method, the sooner itcloses its doors the better.Ohristian people should set their faces againstsuch prostitution of the services of God'shouse, and should resolutely oppose practiceswhich are dishonoring to God as they are contraryto His revealed will. "The Second commandmentforbiddeth, The worshiping of Godby images, or any other way not appointed inhis word." All efforts to k^ep the church ofGod pure is good ap'' ' sion work. Andthose whose ^ien bubbles up,and -'>r8hip and pureerence, are initappears too uncertain'•e worship.•^^ravesty onwould bebeen sacn.It isIW genithoutCHEISTIAN NATION. Volume 18.Review ofthe World, Dr. Edward Judson hssa stirring article, in wbich he uses the followinglanguage : "A church that pulls out of theslums in order to secure a moie favorable andcongenial environment is like a hard-pressedostrich, that hides its head in the sand from ilspursuers. Such a policy is in violation of thefundamental principles of the Gospel. Suchchurches cease to be essentially Christian.They are pagan forms of social crystalization,with a thin gilded veneer of Ohristianity.They have Christ's religion with the bottomfallen out. They spend oceans of money insatisfying Iheir own pious £?en8ibilities withfine preaching, exquisite music and solemn architecture,and yet wonder that they make noconverts. They do not touch social sores, anddo little or nothing to change for the betterthe character of the city in which we live.They are splendid illustrations of pious, refinedselifishness. The world sees through it all andturns infidel." The minister of a church which pursues thispolicy may meet •^ith swift-footed success. Attbe eud of a year or two the pastor may bemade glad by seeing before him a large audience,and the church officers will have no uglydeficit to wrestle with. But the very swiftnessof your success awakens your misgivings. You ,begin to be suspicious of so speedy a victory.Tou proceed to analyze the audience tbat youhave gathered, and you discover that it is madeup of individuals who were good churcu-goingpeople before. You explore the ecclesiasticalpedigree of those who fill your pews, and youfind that they are registered. You have onlysucceeded in getting a handful here, and ahandful there, from this church and from that.There is no production of new material. It isa mere sleight-of-hand performance. Tou havereally made no impression on the great nonchurch-goingmasses. The acute pleasure youexperience in seeing so many people in yourchurch is a good deal mitigated by the thoughtthat another minister, here and there, is correspondinglydepressed by observing their absencefrom his. Many a so-called successfulchurch is built up at the expense of a score offeebler ecclesiastical growths. Is there in thisany real gain to the cause of Christ in theworld? It is the duty of the churcb, then, notto turn itself into a travelling show, but tostick to its field provided humanity is therejno matter bow degraded and unresponsive."The above forcible words strongly tend toencourage thoi-e of us who are pastors of downtownchurches, and which expect to stay solong as there are officers and soldiers of theCross to " Hue up " and face the enemy. NewTork City is largnly given over to workers ofiniquity and to Sitan, because the churcheshave pursued a wrong policy the last one hundredyears. If no down-town church had everbeen pulled down, there would have been noslums. The slums are there because the religiousinfluences went away. The churchesmoved np-town, and the devil took possession.And the same wiil be true where the same.policy is pursued in whatever city.But it is said the people moved away and thechurch had to. Tbis is true so far as the peopleare concerned ; but the conclusion is false.Those churches ought to have been maintainedby the denomination or Presbytery. Theirmaintenance is a niatter of such vital importanceto the public weal, that the city, if in rightrelations to God, should help. At all eventsthey should have been sustained. In no otherway can the slum element of our cities be keptdown. The cburch that scampers oflf up-townwill gather in, bus-, will get no reward for simplyhousing themaelves, and displaying theembellishments cf r(-ligion. Churches up-townshould be new churches, from ort^anization up.We live in days when there is oo time for congregationsto go to the rear to rally round theflag, wbile their fellows are left to grapple withthe additional forces of the enemy wbich immediarelytake the position which they forsook.But when members have moved to other portionsof the ciiy, tbe enfeebled congregatioDi>unless sustained, must move or die ; sometimesboth. The solution of the down-town churchproblem, and which is exciting no little interestamong the best people, would appear to thewriter to be : First. Leave every church in itsoriginal fieldundisturbed. Second. • When itbecomes enfeebled by removals sustain it asyou would any Gospel work.. Third. Occupynew grouud with new organizations. If othermethod b-^ followed, such as forsaking a Seldbodily, the union of two or more congrega.tions, which is but another way to forsake afield, not only wiil the slums spread, butthedenominations will lose their aggiessive spiritj:will be speedily put on the defensive, and, byand by, may become extinct. If a general incommand of armies would pursue the methodsof New Tork churches as exemplified duringthe last one hundred years, he would, in sixmonths,4)e dismissed from the service.A Christian who does nothing for the spreadof the Gospel is to be likened to the Dead Sea,ever receiving fresh water, but never givingout. He should be like the sea of Galilee,which receives a Jordan, and pours forth «^greater Jordan to refresh and beautify, ^country.