The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-05-28
QUAINT PLACES OF WORSHIP.
Where Neither Dogma Nor Theology
Are Considered.
From the yet- YORK Star.

Did you ever realize how many curious
churches there are in and about New York
Why should there not bel lie, Us look at q
remarkable fact. There are at least !, 400, 00l
! population and 400 churches, which ar5
able, by several masses in the Catholic one
and two or three meetings in the Protestant
buildings to provide worship for about Co.,
600.
That leaves 500, 900 people without place
IN which 10 worship, If they are rellgiously
| Inclined. But the truth IS that tue Catho-
! nc and Protestant churches are not BY any
means the only centers Of RELIGIOUS thought
/ aud Of pVaYerful life. Outside of the two
| great denominations there are hundreds #
places Of worship where men and women of
/ 10 special denomination aud with no GU
riouS cares about dogmas and theology
| gather together and follow out their own
Ideas of divine service. Some Of these
churches are worthy Of an especial glance
as being of a sort peculiar or essentially for
| eign to New Y rk.
Take, for instance. Gospel Hall in West
fnlrty-tiftl street. 1t is one ofathe curious
outgrowths of religious life N the metropolis
| There, band OF men and women-apoS-
| toiic in the sense Of preaching Biblical truths
as they understand theIn-bandeG them
| selves together couple Of years ago. They
ONC lAO 1tlG5lauCC 10 AL cCtIeSAtSIlCdl au-
| thorlty. They acknowledge no head Of
heir church. Every Su day evening, rain
or shine, they preach and sing on Eighth and
Mint avenues, and after gathering the
crowd together conduct them to the big,
comfortable hall, anu, if possible, make
converts of them. The preachers aud sing
ers are laymen and women. They have no
pastor, and the religious element among
taem is largely composed of a Scotch Irish
xashi Twas IN, ,osrr III
tenements
Up near the Grand opera house, on
Eighth avenue, is the meeting place of the
Second AdventiSts They are not very
numerous In New York, but all the same
they have split up into two branches, one
that won't set date for the Judgment day,
but believes that it IS to come like thief
IN the night and the oJler that insists
upon making dates, and these Adventists
have to keep a movable date for judgment
day, which they have showed along five
years at a time ever since 1910 These
Second Adventis. IS are sincere and earnest
people. The leading one is a small shoe
dealer and another is carpenter. They use
Watts and Wesley's hymns, bat the walls
OF their meeting room up by the Grand
opera house and that Of the other section Of
the cnurch over by the Bible House are pla-
carded with colored charts explanatory Of
the meeting of The Beast with Seven
Horns" in Revelations and the beginning,
middle and end of human history.
.. pOsite tne west Of Gramarcy park, in a
qule5 and betting Il ighbOrhood on East
twentieth street, there is a modest little
brown structure No one unacquaintei
with it would imagine it was church. 1t
has neither splre nor cross nor outside
marks that would indicate it's ecclesiastical
character. Yet 1t is a church in a great
and good sense-it is house of real PRAYER.
for it is the meeting house of the Ortho-
dox Quakers Of Ne% York. Every Sunday
morning they hold their services at the
same hour as the fashionable churches. and
it is the old and time honored method of
worship which has prevailed among them
for generations. The elders of the congre-
CATION are IN the platform of the quaint
and poorly furnished church.
The women are on one side of the house
and the men on the other, After the elders
and the congregation are seated, on a Sun
DAY morning, most profound silence
reigns through the house. The shutting of an
uneasy foot across the matted floor or the
rusthng of paper is heard with startling
dstinctn6ss, while an involuntary cough
ech- es aud Te-echoes through the silent
chamber. Elders a people sit with folded
hands and solemn faces, sometimes fo-
many minutes. Then, without warning,
one of the elders kneels and tie congrega-
ton bow their heads while he offers UP a
prayer. Another silence follows, broken
finally by an elder reading a verse from the
scriptures, which he then proceeds TO ex-
pound.
1t is not such a sermon as one would ex-
pect to hear from the palpit of a city di-
vine. he INDUCES in no flights of fancy. no
bursts of eloquercS. but talks simply and
plainly. As he closes his book and takes
his seat, an old man in the body of the
church stands up aud delivers a half dozen
pitnv sentences with a quick, nervous into
nation, following the ideas OF the last
speaker. Then ensues another long silence
when one of the women elders, dressed in
her somber Quaker costume, knees at the
railing before her, and with quaveriug
voice, prays simply and earnestly. When
the soft, trembling voice ceases, the house is
still again until another elder arises and
| a nounces services for the coming week,
and then the meeting is ended.
There are scores of Other places of wor-
ship in New York of which the aver ge
| religionist Of the two great dehominat tons
never heard Outside of the city, witain
| its Dreciacts almost, there are also some
| that the great religious world never knows.
Take the church of the Latter Day Saints
as an instance. 1t holds its meetings
| across the big bridge in williamsburg for
the sake Of cheaper rent than can be found
in New York. 1t is maintained rather as a
Station for Mormons en- route from Europe
| to Salt Lake via Castle Garden than for
the local Mormons; and when some mis-
slonary elder or bishop has come hioher
| with a band OF converts, the lit lie third
| story bare ball contains quite presentabla
| gathering, 50 far as numbers are concerned,
mainly of rosy-cheeked, dowdyish, stupid.
| 10 king peasant girls and rather peculiar
| appearing men with hunted and uuhap ~
exlres,ion of face. lynn BOOKS are iii -
! tributed in which a hasty glance reveals
many OF the hymns familiar to all Pr tss-
| tants and few tlat are peculiar to Nom IN
lsu. There is preacher either tie ono
sestabli 'he in this church on the travelling
missionary Just arrived, but whoever it Is
his sermon Is apt to be a very ordinary dis
sertation on home.y trut OF a bumpti0us
aud boastiul presentation OF the strength
and future Dry of MJrmonlsm and tn
! futility of oppD-i Z is rogre.s. There are
| a few, very few, local wlrshipers, IN Ie
| than half of them W. -ua from New y n
scan them and wonder ii they are practicers
of p3lygany and are Inatrimonially a.
sorted on the principles laid down IN the
/ poultrykeepers' guide, tn re is 20 way to
| find out. They won't tell AID the police
and th- neighbors MT know. The q tire
service reveals nothing. You might ue in
a Methodist church for all you can dis
cover.
Across tho other river, in Jersey CITY, is
another little hall % which Broo ,lyniIes,
! New York rs and Jersey City FOLKS wend
heir ways on Sundays, because it is the