The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-10-11

rEws SHOULD BE FREE.

A New York Divine Not In Favor rof
Renting Church Pews.
1sv. VI 7. Rainsford. Rector Of st. 0eorrs's
Church. New York
To begin with. the church Is the
only society on earth whose bond OF
cohesion 10 or should be love for man
- man, the recognition that We
are all the children of God, the fact
for which the Incarnation stands. You
can't preach that doctrine in the pulpit and
recognize distinctions in the pews. We
must have some place besides the grave
where all men have equal rights. The
Roman Catholic church is right in that
respect. The beginning Of Professionalism
was right, for il brought out individuaiism,
put Protestantism is failure because il
mas developed into system of clubs for
man out-of-doors. The doctrine OF the
brotherhood Of man IL the life of the
church. The pew system which denies
this must go. Even If it be hard work to
get along without 1t, it must go, but as q
TACT the church can just as well be sup
ported by free-will offerings as by pew
rents. That u fact OF my. own expert
ence II IS nothing for rich man to give
$4,000 or s., 900 year to the church. He
doesn't feel it He doesn't smoke any
cheaper cigars for 1t, but IL is hard for him
to give up the sense of being stockholder
IN the church. And that cannot be. The
church must preach by concrete example
as well as by word OF mouth. and the free
and open church is the outward and visi-
bic sign OF an inward and spiritual grace"
What do you think of Bishop Hunt
lngt0n's recent paper advocating the
church's taking stand for the people in
the social problems of the day ~
= haven't seen it yet. I'm just from
the mountains. But Bishop Huntington
Is one OF the ablest men in our COM
munion, one who has kept silent until the
last years Of his life. A grand man. The
church take sides in the social problems?
Certainly. Why shouldn't it2 Isn't it the
only society that h organized to stand up
for the poor man? II Is nothing in the
world but this cursed pew system aad the
etockholding spirit which keeps 1t back.
The church is asleep. 90 to speak. No. it
is Lazarus bound with grave clothes and
the napkin about his head. But God has q
great work for it. He will say. Come
FORTH and what We took to be all inertia
will be instinct with life. The rock is ages
in forming, but God makes a mountain fit
in . minute. The church in the East is
doing something like what it should
among the poor. was permitted
last Easter to give the sacrament
into the hands of l.3S0 persons and
most of them were the hard
the gf1my hands OF the workers, tenement
house people. But out in the West-it
makes me sick at heart. The church is an
eddy in the tide. 1t is the place where the
soreheads of the denominations go when
they have q quarrel. 1t is place for the
would-be aristocrats. The stockholding
spirit is there and rules everything / was
sick at heart when visited the seminary
here. There were q few yonng men in
cassocks aping the priest before ever they
mo int <hn
library and showed with great pride whatf
Two tons and half of fathers! What did
the fathers know about New York and
Chicago? What do these young men
know about Chicago? The church is not
an old hen that has laid an egg centuries
ago and must cackle about it forever. No,
she is living organism to declare that
mankind are brothers and that Jesus
Christ forever ennobled and dignified
human flesh when He took it upon Him
and for US men and tor our salvation came
down from heaven"