The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-04-11

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They were reused and touched as neve
before in their lives, by his appeals Il
them to help each other, to hep thu
poor about them, the red men, the blacl
men, the prisoners in their county Jail
the heather Cinnamon by the river.
"Must we carry all this load?" the
said. "Are we are brothers keepers?'
This patron claims " kindred with al
the world"
They laughed and grumbled, but they
went next Sunday to the little hall
They began as they listened to him tc
waken, to perceive long, wide outlook:
from their narrow lives, unopened be
fore. They began to find that there were
stretches of life, work, sympathies, out
side of their family cares, their shops,
their hobby of dress, art, books or soci
ETY.; life and work and sympathy which
took hold of God.
Presently they came to him, one by
one, each saying in his own way,
"What can do2''
George Patton always found some
thing for them to do. After year or
two, the hall becoming crowded, they
bought lot near their working ground
and built large church, solid and plain
but inexpensive. There was not an inhar-
moniOus line; not tawdry tinge of col
or about it; but not dollar was spent
on luxurious appointments. The con-
/ gregation as a whole was as wealthy as
that of st. Marks, although the MAORI
ty of the members 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 a church free to all,
with money set aside to warm, light and
keep it in repair. Whatever money
you have to give hereafter will go
straight to the work of preaching the
Gospel or, feeding the hungry"
4 certain Judge Simms, in the church,
had secret desire to see a rose window
in the church similar to that in st.
Marks, or little finer if possible.
81 will pay for it," he 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 INC peduIhuL Ou Oe'A VI W h'o
glory"
EYES," said Mr.. Patton.
TIE next Sunday ne Set before his
people the condition of two or three
miserable coal districts, where there was
no church nor school.
Judge Sinn1s met him coming out of
church, 81 will head the subscriptions
to send a missionary there. The rose
window can wait until January"
But in January there was the story of
the county jails in the State to hear, of
insane girls strapped to the floor or
chained in cells, and the Judges sub
scription did not go to stained glass,
but paid for their admission to an asy-
lum. ,.
In the sprins, there was a, treshet
which destroyed the houses of naif the
mill-hands living down by the river, and
St. Matthew's Church fed and clothed
hundreds.
In the spring, there was great city
burned to the ground, and thousands of
poor wretches were turned out home
less. In the autumn, came the story of
famine in another country. st. Mat
thew's was always ready with its helps,
the Judge always ready with his sub
scription.
The rose window is not yet ordered.
81 wanted to put it there" the Judge
said in his last illness. SIT was favor
tie fancy of mine. thought the Lord
would be glad 70 see His temple glori-
Gus. But there were always so many
hungry to feed and the naked to clothe!
| intended to devise money to it in my
will, but l have endowed, instead, beds
in our Children's Hospital and Orphans
Home think the sight of the little
children there, well cared for, happy,
learning to be Christian men and
women, will be fairer in His eyes than
any pretty mixture of colored glass"
The Judge had the reputation among
St. Marks people of being ga good,
well meaning man, but with no capa-
bility of high emotional feeling, or the
devotion which grows out of the Guilt
walton of aesthetic sensibilities.
The Judge heard this opinion, and
looked bewildered.
"Maybe so," he said. "But | did
what | could"
He is gone, now, where the opinion of
St. Marks or st. Matthew's will have
little weight.
St. Matthew'S Church is old, and is
undeniably very plain compared to 9th
ers possessed of as large resources. The
young people this spring are anxious to
put in costly windows, new organ,
velvet carpeting, etc., and to hire
oo4oJ oopronO onI boSco for tho choir
But Mr.. Patton has opened a new mis-
sion chapel and workingman's club
room, and is now contriving an assotia-
ton by means of which unemployed la
borers will be helped to buy land in the
waste districts of the State and to col
onize there. The church, he says, ought
to set an example as to the proper out
lay of money. No honest man, with
the times as hard as they are now, if he
is in debt to his poorer neighbor, is 60
ing to treat himself to fine furniture in
his house, or even to noble music.
"But st. Matthew's is not in debtP"
cried his hearers. "We do not owe a
dollarln
"My friends" said the old man, 1--WE
are in debt as long as there is human
being on the earth poorer IN body and
soul than we. We owe him education,
civilization, the Gospel-that help, in
short, which is to make a man of him
instead of brute. Until we have met
this great and terrible obligation which
rests upon US, every dollar spent in lux
ury in our place of worship is simply
defrauding our creditors. Beauty is
help to devotion, Ell? Oh, children, the
sight of single man whom we have
helped out of misery and vice to a clean,
honest life, is better help to devotion
than all the red glass or velvet carpet
ing in the city,"
But Mr.. Patton, by most people, is
looked upon as an extremist in his views.
So St. Marks and St. Matthew's
work, each in its own way, for the hon.
or of their Master. Each is a type of a
large class of churches throughout this
country.-RebeccG Harding DaUiS, in
Sunday afternoon for april.