The Labor enquirer., 1886-03-20
SOUP AND SALVATION.
The Chicago Missien VIII Run An
Alms-House ON the Preiit-
Making Plan.

monthly at what was once the Adelpnl
theater, Chicago. now mission. The
managers are those who deal with effects.
They takela tramp and fill him with
soup and rllgious fervor. When the
soup is sdigested the fervor is gone and
the tramp is himself again. They claim
no process that will max him self
reliant man with permanent job at 3
good salary. They claim as one of their
objects ito make tramps industrious" " as
though that were a remedy for hard
times. The main remedy is to impart q
state of mind in the unfortunate tramp,
so that he concludes he is a very dear
friend of very virtuous man who died
a martyr's death some 1858 years ago,
who exists now only as he is conjured
up by mental excitement. This, with
the soup and bed for 10 cents, is the
whole science of salvation.
This science has been taught for MANY
years (minus the soup and bed). The
result is not satisfactory to the teachers
and seems to be as follows: Those re-
duced to applying for the soup are ment-
ally unable to absorb the spiritual. and
are not permanently benefited !; while
those who have plenty of soup and other
food, do not feel the need of the spiritual
feast. Hence falling off in numbers,
as confessed by the Mission Worker:
"Do we need more and better
churches? We may, but whoever visits
any of our large cities'will conclude that
congregations, not churches, are the
greatest need. + .-G
:"Our churches are not half filed
Zion may we'll mourn that so few came
to her feasts. ,...
'"Our greatest need is pietv, deep,
high-toned, uniform plety.' We need
more earnest, fiery heart-religion."
The Worker also contains confession
important in statistics from the cele,
brated T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.:
FWho are the masses? The very great
majority. The people who do not be-
long to this class are the exception.
What understand by the eIword masses,
is the most of folks 1t is settled fact
that the great majority of people in our
cities and country do not come under re-
ligiors influence. There are $4,000 per-
sons in Edinburgh who receive not the
gospel there are 100000 in Glasgow
who come not under Christian influence
there are 100000 in the CITY of BROOKLYN
who are not touched by the churches
there are at least 100000 or 100000 peo-
pie in the city of New York who are no
more interested in the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ than If they had never
heard of church. And the growing
question of the day is, How shall we
bring these people in contact with the
great heart of Christ?
"We talk about large churches and
large audiences. The largest audiences
are not in the churches they are in the
temples of sin. The tears of unutterable
woe are their baptism; the blood OF
crushed hearts is the wine of theirawful
sacrament; blaspL emies their litany
the groans of lost world the organ dirge
of their worship. A vast multitude out
side the kingdom of God are untouched.
We do not come within 5000 miles of
of reaching them"
The scattered ranks are reinforced as
foll0ws:
LESS than two months ago a thief
stood up in the meeting and shouted,
Mr.. Kirkland. this religion is no good.
Why don't Jesus save me? 1 tell you
it's no good. There is no God.' Then
raising his hand to heaven he continued 1,
Now, if there's God in heaven l want
Him to kill me right here and prove
that He lives. DEFY Him; kill me now
if you canp
prayer was then offered for him, and
all present requested to look for the
answer. The man did not again attend
the meetings uLtll the evening of Janu-
ary 81. When the testim" MES were
called for on that evening, he was one of
the first to arise and declare that che
was saved and on the Lords side"
The Mission wants $4,000 to convert
the old Adelphi theater into 10-cent
lodging house, Perhaps the manage
ment would like to work on the basis
adopted by the very first church, organ
lied ~ the apostles, in which all men,
bers sold their possessions and paid the
price into the common fund but as all
the converts have nothing to sell, the
appeal is m de to business men," con-
yerted or otherwise.
"We want also coffee house where
this class of men can / g accommodated
and kept out of the saloons. Our plan
is such that the coffee house and lodging
house will yield sufficient profit to run
the Gospel Mission without soliciting
dollar from outside"
Profit from trampsl May the apostles
forgive these faithful ones corrupted oy
worldly usage.
The tramp will continre to aecost
pedestrians and solicit the requisite dime
for lodging, but it will now 90 to the
mission instead of Toms lodging house" I"
an ungodly institution, around the cor