Sharp County record., 1878-04-26

Sproule? There was the great Italian"
etc., etc.
"The color was very nice, but what
mongrel architecture was thisP 1t was
perfect pot-pourri of orders. Com
pare it with the severe simplicity Of true
art in the Baptist Church" etc.
The congregation became individually
disheartened. They forgot to join in the
hymns, looking about from dome TO
nave with critical eyes.
Besides, now that the church was
built, there was no enthusiasm IN ralS-
ing money for it. Subscriptions stopped,
sewing circles, fairs, charade parties,
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 load
was well nigh intOlerable. In the next
year, and, indeed, all succeeding years,
the combined efforts of the congrega-
ton have been needed to meet this obli-
cation. They declare this spring that
they stagger under it. They give little
or no moTey elsewhere, simply because
this building, like Aaron's serpent, de-
YOURS all other charities. Domestic or
foreign missions receive but scant sup
port from St. Marks; their fund for the
poor is reduced to meager pittance.
Mr.. Supplee has almost ceased to try to
rouse them to works Of beneyOlence or
mercy.
"My people, he says to other minis
ters, "are taxed as far as their strength
will bear, to be just; they can not afford
to be generous.
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 his work, and thus two or 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 that they built it to the glory
of God, and, doubtless, many of them
were sincere in that endeavor.
St. Matthew's congregation has had a
much shorter and simpler history. 1t
was in the beginning a body of men and
women who gathe~ ed around young
minister in the poorer part of the city.
George Patton was from the country; an
exceptionally clear-minded, downright
young fellow, with a natural, quick,
womanish tenderness toward all the
weak and helpless of Gods creatures.
Coming from the country, he was moved
uncontrollably by the misery and vice
which met him at every turn on the
crowded streets. The lad, like old
Robert Barrow, thought he heard voice
bidding him 60 out and compel those
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 commonplace lives, it
dies out and is almost forgotten. How
many clergymen, leave their regular
"beat' Of church duties to visit jail,
a pawnbroker's neighborhood. a gin
shop, to compel them to come in?"
But Patton, now that he is bent, gray
headed man, hears the voice as terrible
and urgent as in his early youth, COM
manding him to 90 into these highways
and byways. At first, he literally
brought his congregation, one by one,
to hear the message which he was bid
den to deliver; hiring ball 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 weather.
classes of the town. Many came to hear
him from curiosity and remained be-
cause they were warmed and fed. Those
who were thus warmed and fed, hoWev-
er, were, as a rule, Simpleminded, earn
est men and women, like Patton himself.
They were reused and touched as never
before in their lives, by his appeals to
them to help each other, to hep the
poor about them, the red men, the black
men, the prisoners in their county jail,
the heather Cinnamon by the river.
"Must we carry all this load?" they
said. "Are we are brothers. keepers?"
This patron claims kindred with all
the world"
They laughed and grumbled, but they
went next Sunday to the little hall.
They began as they listened to him to
waken, to perceive long, wide outloOks
from their narrow lives, unopened be-
fore. They began tofnd 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 | do?"
George Patton always found some
thing for them to do. After a year or
two. the hall beeOminU crowded, theV