River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-02-20
Was She to be Commended ?

/ A religious newspaper lately went into
pious ecstacies over a young girl who,
| though compelled to earn her living by
hard work at machine sewing, yet con-
rived by dint of denying herself all bat
the barest necessaries of life,to contribute
quite literally to a fund for the erection
of a church edifce. The periodical
aforesaid praised the girl most lavisEly
and held her up as an example worthy of
imitation.
I question whether she ought not to
be severely censured for such a course Of
conduct. Girls who support themselves
by taking in sewing do not fare at all
sumptuously If they have work all the
year round (Which is of rare occurrence)
and when they expena Ill their meagre
earnings on themselves. To say OF a girl
of this class that she confines her expen-
ditures to bare necessities means that
she lives on bread and tea, goes without
proper under-ciothing, and denies herself
the comfortable wrap which she needs TO
protect her from cold and storms. She
moreover leaves herself without any re-
serve fund, and when work is slack, or
when it stops altogether, how is she to
subsists If sickness overtakes her she is
compelled to go to the hospital and
add one more TO the host who, through
ignorance, vice and Incidence have be-
come burdens On the public, Burdens
which you, my thrifty frienAs, are taxed
to support. 1t is the self-respecting, self
denying and frugal in the community
who are taxed for the maintenance OF
hospitals, prisons and alms-houses. Has
any one a right to increase the pauper
class or to recommend measures which
will land those who adopt them in
eleemosynary institutions? Besides being
burden the poor girl will not have the
care and attention she would receive at a
private house. She will be very much at
the mercy of doctors and nurses, who are
not always the most humane Of people
Most likely she will be experimental on
by half-fledged physieisns and subjected
to treatment which, although perfectly
legitimate, cannot fail 70 be extremely
distastelul to q woman, however low in
the scale of refinement she may be. And
the object of all this self-sacrifice is what2
To clothe the naked or feed the starving?
No, it is that a certain congregation mag
have fine building in which to hold its
ScINlGe. anu tlieu tDCY nave inc
tfrontery to call this giving to he Lord"
Where IN the Bible is it comm 4nded or
ven intimated that costly churches are
necessity or that they are particularly
desirable; and where is the chapter and
verse wherein we are eDjoined to reduce
ourselves to abject poverty in order
that the Temple Ct the Lord" may be
beautifed2 "Giving to the Lord" in
deed It's vanity and pride and not
which dedicates piles of
marble and stone that cost from fifty
thousand to one million dollars to the
service ofGod.
Christ could be content with supper
rooms but we of this century must have
our marble tronted buildings finished
with stained-glass windows, costly altar.
pieces aAd expensive uphclstry. We
count it, too, as thing worthy of all
that the poor should starve
their bodies and their minds IN order
that our church edifces may be artistical-
ly frescoed aud provided with ali the
modern requirements of elegant worship.
Giving to the Lord'' It's rank bias
phemY to say that.