The Portland daily press., 1878-09-21
pot-pourri of orders. Compare it with the
severe simplicity of true art in the Baptist

p0tp0urrl OF OrQeTSs compare IL WIFI Tue
severe simplicity of true art in the Baptist
church,"
The congregation became individually dis
heartened. They forgot to join in the hymns
looking from dome to nave with critical eyes.
Besides, now the church was built, there
was no enthusiasm in raising money for it.
Subs criptions stopped, sewing circles tagged
in zeal. When the time came to pay the
semi-annual interest on the mortgage, it was
dead weight which they could scarcely lift.
When the time came for the second payment,
the next year, and indeed, all succeeding
years, the combined efforts Of the congrega-
ton have been needed to meet this obliga-
ton. They declare this spring that they
stagger under it. They give little or no mon
ey elsewhere, simply because this building,
like Aaron's serpent devours all other chart
ties. Domestic or foreign missions receive
but scant support from st. Marks their fund
for the poor is reduced to meagre pittance
Mr.. Supplee has almost ceased to try to
rouse them to works of benevolence and
mercy.
"My people," he says to other ministers,
care taxed as far as their strength will bear,
to be just. They cannot afford to be gener'
ous."
Meanwhile the contractor who holds the
mortgage has threatened again and again TO
foreclose. The man needs the money which
is justly his due. For the lack of it he was
forced last winter to limit bis work, and thus
from two to three hundred laborers were
thrown out OF employment. They cast black
looks at the stately pile as they 60 by and call
it gigantic swindle. But the members are
certain they built it to the glory of God, and
doubtless many of them were sincere in that
endeavor.
st. Matthew's congregation has had much
shorter and simpler history. 1t was in the
beginning a body of men and women who
gathered around young minister in the
poorer part of the city. George Patton was
from the country; an exceptionally clear
minded, downright young fellow. with natu-
raj quick, womanish tenderness towards all
the weak and helpless of Gods creatures.
Coming from the country, he was moved I'M
comfortably by the misery and vice which
met him at every turn on the crowded street.
The lad, like old Robert Barrow, thought he
heard voice bidding him to 60 out and COM
pei these people to come in. Many young
men hear such voice in the beginning of
their ministry, but in the routine of church
management, the dulling noises of their COM
monplace lives, it dies out and is almost for
gotten. How many clergymen leave their
regular Cheat" of church duties to visit
pawnbroker's neighborhood, or gin shop to
s'compel them to come in" But Patton,
uOW tudG uc 10 d Dcuts SIdy udllCu AudusucdIS
the voice as terrible and urgent as in his
early youth, commanding him to GO into
these highways and by ways. At first he
literally brought his congregation one by one,
to hear the message which he was hidden to
deliver; hiring a hall, and filling it with the
poor, the halt and the blind, whom he found
on week days. Rumors of the wonderful
force of his appeals began to circulate among
the wealthier classes of the town. Many
an from rto itu md
manned because they were warmed and fed.
Those who were thus warmed and fed, how
ever, were, as rule, supplemented, earn
est men and women like Patton himself. They
we're reused and touched as never before In
their lives, by his appeals to them, to help
each other, to help the poor about them, the
red man, the black man. the prisoners in
their county gaol, the heather Cinnamon by
the river.
"Must we carry all this load ?" they said.
"Are we our brothers keepers? This Patton
claims kindred with all the world"
They laughed and grumbled, but they went
next Sunday to his little hall. They began
as they listened to him to waken, to perceive
long, wide outlooks from their narrow lives,
unopened before. They began to find that
there were stretches of life. work, sympathies,
outside of their family cares, their shops,
their hobby of dress, art, books of society;
of God.
Presently they came to him, one by one,
each saying in his own way, "What can
do?"
George Patton always found something for
them to do. After year or two, the hall be-
coming crowded, they bought lot near their
working ground and built large church, sol
i'd and plain but inexpensive. There was
not an inharmOnious line; not tawdry tinge
0f color qh0nt IL D. huf dollar vUoo
on luxurious appointments. The congrega-
tion as whole was as wealthy as that of St.
Marks, although the majority of the mem
beers were poor. These members paid for the
church, and set aside an endowment fund to
sustain its current expenses from year to
year.
"Now we have that burden off our minds"
Mr.. Patton said to his flock; "you have here
church free to all, with money set aside to
warm, light. and keep it in repair. Whatev-
er money you have to give hereafter will go
straight to the work of preaching the gospel
or feeding the hungry"
A certain Judge Simms in the church, had
secret desire to see a rose window in the
church, similar to that in st. Marks, or a
little finer if possible.
II will pay for it, be said to Mr.. Patton,
81 enjoy beautiful things about me. God has |
made the flowers bloom and the birds sing. |
He meant us to cultivate the beautiful on |
earth to His glory"
eyes," said Mr.. Patton.
The next Sunday he set before his people |
the condition OF two or three miserable coal |
districts, where there was no church nor |
school,
Judge Simms met him coming out of
church. 81 will head the subscription to |
send a missionary there. The rose-window
can wait until January
But in January there was the story of the |
county gaols in the State to hear, of insane |
girls strapped to the floor or chained in cells.
and the Judges subscription did not 90 for |
stained glass. but Maid for their admission in. |
to an asylum.
In the spring there was a freshet which d. |
stroyed the houses of half the mill hands liy-
ing down by the river. and St. Matthew's |
church fed and clothed hundreds.
Ia the spring there was great citv burned |
to the ground, and thousands of poor wretches |
were Turned ont homeless. in tha antn,nn |