St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-18
THE GREAT CHURCH PROBLEM.

In addition TO the BEECHER and Tall
MAGE sermons and a most entertaining dis
course by Rev. CLAY MAcCAULY on the
drama, the GLOBES pulpit this morning
contains an account Of novel, yet most
interesting meeting at Plymouth church in
this city last evening. 1t sounds like libel
on primitive Christianity to say that the
Christian church of to-day is engaged
in struggle to interest poor people i'm
its work. And yet that is what it
is doing. Somehow or other the
church has drifted away from its primitive
conditions when the son of an humble car
penter, accompanied by dozen of still
more humble fishermen picked up along the
shores Of Galilee, established a system of
religion, the fundamental principle Of
which was that its gospel was to be without
money and without price. 1t does seem
strange that a church, which was estab-
lished by the laboring classes of Judea,
should have so far drifted from its ancient
mooTings that to-day il is the means
of drawing the social lines whereby
the wOTkingman is excluded from its
walls, and it has become the
sanctuary for those who wear fine linen and
fare sumptuously every day. In the olden
time LAZARUS was a typical Christian,
while DIVES was the infdel Now it is
DIVES who rests in ABRAHAM's bosom.
while LAZARUS has TO cool his parched
tongue as best he can. This may be too
morbid a view to take of the perversion
which the Christian church has suffered.
yet that it is partially true is testified to
NV "a vhn
seeking to get Christianity back TO first
principles. DIR. DANA, the pastor of Ply
mouth church in this city, who seems
to be inspired with the zeal of
the early apostles hit upon the expedient of
bringing the poorer classes of the commun-
ity and the weather. church members into
personal contact with view of coming TO
an understanding whereby the barriers
which now exist may be broken down, the
caste lines oblitered and the gospel be
made as much the property of one as the
other. The result of this experiment is
detailed in the GLOBES report of the
Plymouth meeting last night There is a
great deal in what was said in that meeting
which is well worth the study and consid-
Grafton of churchman and agnostic alike.
The whole story is told in single sentence.
The trouble lies in the failure of the
church people to observe the golden
rule. They have not done unto others as
they would have had others do unto them
ii placed in like circumstances. The man
who is down in the world wants to hear the
word of kindness and to feel the touch of
sympathy. He wants to feel that his fell
bowman is his brother. If there isn't much
religion in humanity there ought to be a
good deal of humanity in religion. A bas-
ket full of bread and meat is a better Cos
pei to hungry man than all the theology
that was ever constructed. The religion of
the old prophet, which protracted the cruise
Of oil and the handful of meal for the
widows benefit during the extended famine
is worth more to humanity than all the
church towers and minarets that
ever graced Christendom. That religion
which puts $4,000 in church edifice,
while men and women and children are dy-
ing of want and starvation within sound of
the church bells, is hollow mockery of the
religion which CHRIST established. When
congregations pay pastors SO, 900 a year
for dressing up old sermons while bare
footed boys and girls are sweeping the snow
from the church doors for shilling a day,
it is not to be expected that the common
people will become enthused over such a
religious system. They do not want to join
such congregations. They prefer to do
as the multitude at Jerusalem did.
go out upon the mountain side
and listen to the earnest sym
pathetic words of the preacher who remem-
bered their physical needs as well as the
spiritual, and allowed none to go away
hungry. If the Christian church expects
to make conquest of the world, it will
only be done by going back to the simpler
and more practical methods of apostolic
times. The problem with the Christian
world to-day is not SO much of how to get
the common people into the church as it is
how to get the church down into the by
ways and hedges among the common peo-
pie.