The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1879-09-17

W NAO etl4Nl wealthy ldllN, w LOl dc al O1O,
attend any but the churches on the ave-
nues and fashionable side streets; the
humber or second-class churches have no
rich or influential people to fall back on
in money crisis.
1t would be a great injustice to the
pastors of the wealthy churches and to
their hocks to say that they had not long
ago, twenty-five years since observed the
drift of things, and have aimed to meet it
by the establishment of mission chapels
and Sabbath Schools in the neglected
parts of the city which exist as pendants
of the parent churches, some Of which
have as many as three or four chapels and
Sabbath Schools, others one OF two. The
support of these pendants is literally very
literally provided for by the parent
churches Where there are chapels they
have been built by the parent church.
and a stated supply for preaching is en-
ployed, a committee Of session receives
converts at the chapel, these converts Join
the parent church but attend at the chap
els, and to this extent there is a separation
between rich and poor. Young people
from the parent church work in the mis-
sion Sabbath Schools, but they do not
attend the preaching service there, but
hasten back when school is over to hear
their own distinguished and edifying pas
tors The missionary or preacher In
charge of the mission chapel is in fact a
curate. and here comes trouble he knows
and we all know that his position is, far
as it goes, contrary to the claim of our
Church for a parity of the ministry-and
it Is running sore Only one of the
mission chapels, according to my recollec-
ton, has within the past twenty-five
years blossomed intoen organized church,
and this, after struggling and painful
life, has been disbanded by Presbytery
four or five years since. The experience
of this chapel in passing into church,
with it's unhappy fate has, think, con
frmed the pastors and sessions Of the pa
rent churches in determination to resist
the organization Of churches out of the
chapels. l am not prepared to question
their Judgment any more than ! could
the Judgment of wealthy and indulgent
father, who having maintained his son
from infancy up to twenty-five or thirty
years of age, declines to start him at that
period in life to make his own living,
without experience or business education.
The difficulties attending the matter of
reaching the masses through our Presby-
terian ministry, have eliminated in New
York from the circumstances of our large
population, butthese difficulties are latent,
/ if not germinal in regard to all communi-
ties open to the work of our Church.
1t is questionable whether in any of
the four Presbyterian churches in Rich
mond, the laborer at the Tredegar Works,
or the journeyman shoemaker, or the
striker at the blacksmith S anvil, would or
could be made to feel at home even if he
had money to pay pewrent Not having
the money the question is settled as to
their attendance at the Presbyterian
church. DR.. Alexander lays down the
proposition that there is no better evi-
dence that minister of the gospel is a
servant of the Messiah than that he
makes the poor the special object of his
ministry, and his position is incontestable
according to the work and words of our
Lord. 1t is certainly just as true, that
the best evidence that the Church is doing
its true work is that all its arrangements
tend to carrying its ministrations to the
poor. This must be prime object Social
/ distinction differences in worldly position,
and in money condition, are natural bars
to fulfilling this mission of the Church of
Christ. They do present serious obstacles.
1t is not pleasant to cleanly, we'll
dressed people, to sit alongside of toll
worn and ill-washed flesh, but it is sur
prising how these difficulties vanish when
the heart is fixed on the work of the
Lord. In the Moody and Sankey meet
/ ings here at Gilmore Garden some years
ago we had a striking proof of this. In
those meetings all classes, conditions, and
colors met, and sat side by side without
jostle or discomfort Social distinction
and difference in dress were all forgotten
In another letter, with your leave, [
shall endeavor to show by the work Of
some branches of the Christian Church
here in carrying the gospel to the poor
without a separation of classes, that q
plan is practicable.
Yours respectfully, MANHATTAN.
Letter from Powhatan County, Va.