St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-11
How the Cause of the Workingman Can
be Advanced by the Christian
Church.
The Present Situation Regarding Site
for the Exposition National
League Meeting.
some Sound Sense From Roger Vail
on the Irish Questionable
Coming Week.
Admiral Dot Talks EntertafnfngIyo of
Dwarfs- Before the
Grand Jury.
CHRISTIANITY AND LABOR:
Rev. ScudderTeIIs What the Church
Can DO For WOrkingmen.


al the First Congregational church, East
side. The subject of the lecture was
Labor and Christianity. or What the Church
ran do for the Worklngman. The text was
Isaiah 56:7 mine house shall be called an
house for all people"
Gods love is universal 1t knows no
favortism and is no respecter of persons.
Our God is not the God of any class in So
ciety or any sect in religion: his house is for
rich and poor alike, the place for all people
Selfshness, pride and bigotry have built
barriers about the church, but these must
be demolished if Gods house is
to reach the masses. Many work
ingmen attend the sanctuary but
many more do not. Why are not more
of them to be found there? Some do not
believe in Christianity, some stay away
from mere habit, some are simply Indifferent
and will not take the trouble to go. But
there are weightier reasons. Many stay
away because they are too tired. They
have worked ten hours every day and six
days in the week, and when Sunday comes
they feel as if il were about time TO take a
rest. Sunday morning many a workingman
wakes up about the time other people are
going to church. By the time he has rested
sufficiently, eaten his breakfast and dressed
himself it is u o'clock. Penned up six
days in dusty mill or dingy mandatory,
you will find him Sunday afternoon under
the blue sky and getting a smell Of fresh
air. He has no time for recreation in the
week and very little inclination.
After long days work the
sweetest recreation he knows is
to get to bed and go to sleep. Sunday night
he visits his friends, reads the GLOBE and
enjoys his family. His life is such tread
mill existence that he Grams all he can into
Sunday, and therefore has very little time
to devote to the sanctuary, Now, then,
ministerial Seeding for nOn-attendance
upon church, and storming against turning
the Lords day into holiday, seems TO do
no particular good. The masses keep on
just the same. Perhaps the church would
do better to alter its tactics a bit, and see
how wOrkingmen would act, if by her CO.
operation a half holiday could be secured
every Saturday, and the daily ten hours
labor reduced to eight. WOrkingmen would
respect the church by such a movement,
and reciprocate the courtesy by an increased
attendance upon the house of God. In
many cases two hours less work On the
week day would mean two hours of public
worship on Sunday. There is nothing i'm
this world like practical religion and the
right way of going to work to secure a
result. Give the wOrkingman more
time and he will give the church more
attention. One reason why some working
men cannot go to church is the simple rea-
son that they cannot be i'm two places at the
same time While their employer, perhaps.
is praisng God in church, they are sweat
ing at the mill or on the railroad construc-
ton hard at work and obliged to work or
lose their place.
Again. many regard the church as the
rich mans luxury; a sort of religious tally
no coach for the moneyed classes to ride in
and take the air. With a quick-witted
preacher at one end to hold the reins. and a
footman or two at the other end in the
shape of a choir to blow the horns. these
light-hearted people go bowling along to
glory at an eXhilirating pace and in the
most approved style. The workingman
cannot afford to pay the fare on such an
expensive, aristOcratic vehicle. and settles
down to the conviction that if he goes TO
glory he must foot it alone. He is too
proud TO accept his praise and preaching
for nothing, and hence he stays away A
single pew-rent would eat up two months
wages, and he concludes ne had better put
his money into oatmeal and potatoes. The
Bible says the rich and poor used to meet
together to worship God, who is the maker
of them all, but it is not so now. a-days in
many of our large metropolitan.
aristocratic churches. The poor man is
frozen ont. Workingmen will never go TO
church in large bodies until capital is willing
to sit in the same pew and sing out of the
same hymn book; until the poor mans
penny is as much respected as the rich mans
pocketful; until money lines are Oblterated
and all men meet on common footing. The
prettiest name for church is the People S
Church" and the best motto over the door
way, Come and Welcomes" the best kind
Of a pew is a free pew, or one for which a
man can pay just what he can afford and
no more. If you don't scrutinize a work
ingman's clothes nor try to ascertain his
bank account, and meet him in the house of
God with 'HOw do you do?'and give him
warm grip of the hand, he will say '"rhe
atmosphere in this church suits me, and he
will come to church"
Some workingmen have a grudge against
the church and will not attend its services
because they think it is in league with cap
ital and SympathlZeS and uphOldS il in its
conflict with labor. This spirit is strong in
Europe, especially in Germany, and not a
little of it has crept into America. The
.hurch is regarded as a sort of spiritual
police force, employed by capital to restrain
,he workingman and persuade him to re-
main contented with his lot. Hence in
some places tine anti-church feeling is very
bitter.
This is the opinion of many a working
nan. Is it correct one? As a general
mle in America, / think not. Some few
:lergymen may sympathiZe with capital
and be opposed to labor reforms. but my
candid opinion is they are remarkably few.
There are Others however, who inwardly
rejoice over every advance made i'm the in
tereStS of labor, but are very careful how
they ventilate their sentiments, They are
afraid of offending some rich parishioner
and so they keep still. But even such men
are exceptional. The plain matter of fact
is the majority of them know so little about
labor problems that they feel themselves
incompetent to preach on such topics. They
never have given the subject sufficient at
tentiOn. There is such thing as division
of knowledge, as well as division of labor.
The main reason why more is not said in
our pulpts on labor questions is because
comparatively little is known concerning
them; Il mean, OF course, in a practical
way.
And right here i want to vindicate the
church at large from this accusation that it
is opposed to the interests of labor. This
is not so. if / know any thing about the
churches in America and the animus of eX-
listing Christianity. The church is waking
up as never before to the importance of
labor reform. and setting herself squarely
on the side of justice. find that rich men
even in our churches are sound on many of
these questions which make for the i'm
provement of the workingman. Laboring-
men have more sympathy than they imag-
ine and when they talk against Christianity
they talk against their best friend. Chris
tianity freed the slave, helped break up the
serfdom of the middle ages, and is now in
terested in seeing that the laborer receive,