St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-24
FOR LABOR and RELIGION
Some Things the Church Is Doing for
the Workers.
SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM.
An Address Before the Young Mems
Alliance Of Plymouth by Rev.
Josiah Strong, D. D.

The attendance at the meeting of the
Young Mems Alliance of Plymouth
Church. in conjunction with the Con-
church last evening, was very large,
every seat in the handsome edifice
being filled. Rev. Josiah Strong,
the speaker of the evening, was intro
duced by Rev. DR.. Burrell.
The speaker began his address by
touching upon the beauties and the
capabilities of the Twin Cities. We
are all believers in the Northwest and
look to it for future greatness. The
reverend gentleman dwelt at some
length upon the way our western bOun-
diaries had grown within the last
few years. He spoke of the size OF Da-
kOta, and said that if every person In
the world were placed in Dakota there
would only be fifteen persons to the
acre. But it is not to that portion OF
the Northwest which / refer. There
are four great conditions which de-
termine the greatness of country.
These conditions are race, religion, re-
sources and climate, We are all right
as regards all those things here. Here
we are predOminantly Protestant; In
the Southwest the country is Roman
Catholic. Our climate and resources
are also better than anywhere else In
the country.
The Anglo-Saxon race is religious
one and has profound reverence for
religion and law. The closing years OF
the nineteenth century are the fOrma-
tive years OF this great nation. The
first settler
DETERMINES FOR YEARS
to come what the character of the new
city shall be. There are radical differ
ences between Minneapolis and st.
Paul, and they will always exist. They
were begun when the cities were in
corporated, and they will always con
tinue. A big opportunity is open to
the Christian men and women of these
two cities, and it behOoveS you to seize
upon it now.
But there is another thing that en-
cages our attention, and this is the rest
lessness which is agitating the working
classes. Some think it danger
sign of increasing intelligence and
increasing light. With this increased
knowledge have come increased
wants, and which can only
be satisfied by increased means.
The mechanic sees many new things
and he wants them. Tine trouble now
is that knowledge is popularized
and distributed, while wealth is
increased and centralized. That is the
solution of the whole trouble. There is
mighty opportunity open to the church
of Christ to help settle the existing
troubles. What IS the church doing to
aid the 3O,OOO.OOO of our population
who never enter our churches? and
why is it that the poorer
classes of the mechanics don't
attend the same as the wealthy people?
My experience has shown me that few
laboring men go to any Protestant or
Catholic churches. The great question
now is how shall we reach the masses.
The church does not know the
true condition of the working classes.
and some churches, I am sorry to say,
don't care. A large proportion OF our
church members are inclined to think,
it seems to me, that poor man has no
right inside of church. Why,
l. know of one minister who
discouraged four working girls
from joining his congregation,
because he did not think they were arts
tocratic enough. Another did not think
there were any vacancies i'll the church
membership. Such churches deserve
to die, as they are best dead; then they
can do no harm.
This Indifference must be gotten rid
of before the masses can be got into
church. Then there should be per-
sonal contact between the church MEM
bers and the masses. You can save no
one by keeping away from him
all that is holy and good, for fear
he will contaminate it. Personal work
will do more toward bringing a man to
Christ than anything else and we should
remember this. Some think that we
hire minister to
DO ALL THE PRAYING
and work, but this is not the right
We have become used to doing an i'm
mense amount of work by machinery,
and perhaps for that reason we don't
try to save mems souls by hand. We
show our love when we give our
selves to help man to come to
Christ. To make success of
a church every member must join in
the work. Another thing which pre-
vents the masses from coming into the
church is lack of cooperation. By CO.
operating is the only way we
can succeed in any great work.
AS it is now our Christian generals
don't know each other. Even ministers
III OlC StthlO NlOJ cOAASoiIAS' Wv AiOo hiOW
each other. This is all wrong. With
out cooperation all work is useless, for
really nothing can be done unless
everyone works together. Sin
is rapidly becoming organized, for the
men engaged in gambling and rum sell
ing know that there is strength and
power in organization. The church of
Christ is the only thing not organized.
The speaker here gave an outline of
how he would have religious work con-
Quoted. He would have one supervisor
for each 100 persons, and for
these 100 persons there would be
ten or fifteen visitorS-each one
having separate territory. Each visi-
tor would call upon the family in his or
her district once or more every month.
This was the best plan to pursue. The
speaker did not think much of
the idea of competition between
the different denominations, as
it gave outsiders an idea that churches
are run much as are business houses,
each one striving for your patronage.
The address was well received by the
large audience. DR.. Strong illustrated
several points by laughable anecdotes,
which came in very nicely.
MINNEAPOLIS PERSONALS.
Mr.. and Mrs. F. II. Norton, of Duluth, are
o,,oStc ar tha Windsor