St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-01
A SHORT SERMON.

There is new church or two build
ing in ST. Paul, and during the past
year there have been considerable re-
vamping and enlargement of the old
structures. The city has not reached
its proper development in this direction
yet, however. We need a good many
new churches, and good deal more OF
the spirit which builds them. There
ought to be three or four handsome
churches along the line of Summit ave-
nue., covered with vines and sheltered
by trees, and the tower bells from high
places on Dayton's bluff ought to be an
swered merrily on Sunday mornings by
those Ginning on st. Anthony hill.
Churches are good things for any COM
munity. They should be slightly build
lngs, so that even the wayfaring man
who does not enter them will get a sug-
gestion of beauty from them and a
reason for local pride. The highest
types of modern architecture are eccle-
siaStical. In other sorts of struct-
ures the artist is hampered be-
cause he has to provide for the many
uses to which his building is to be put.
But a modern church is hardly more
complicatedthan an old Greek temple.
The clever architect can here produce
something in which what is beautiful
does not have to yield to what IS useful.
Handsome churches in neighborhood
put surrounding houses to shame If they
are built in bad taste. We need more
churches, then, to improve our domestic
architecture, if for nothing else.
If we had handsomer churches we
should have better preachers too. A
handsome church is an expensive thing
to build and an expensive thing to sup
port. 1t takes an able man to induce
people to give their money towards such
objects. There are some good preachers
in st. Paul and Minneapolis, and some
poor ones. There are some able ex-
ponents Of one point Of view, while
other points of view are presented either
not at all or very wearSomely, so that
their partisanS get no comfort. The
waste places in this region should be
filled. People go to church for all sorts
of reasons, but it is very hard for any
man to go to church at all and not get
some good out of it. The world has got
beyond the point where the method Of
the strongest and the loudeSt was the
method. We recognize now that, In
spite of dogmas and creeds, there is
plenty of room for individ uality. Sal
walton may mean something besides the
life of high ideals and of earnestness.
But it surely means that anyhow. And
religion may mean something beside sthe
thing which helps men to the life OF hlgn
ideals and of earnestness. But it surely
means that, anyhow. And as all sorts OF
different men are helped by all sorts OF
things to salvation in this sense, there
ought to be churches of all sorts where
men of various prejudices and educa-
lions can get satisfactory food for their
souls.
Perhaps this will be clearer by an
illustration. Some of us love the Catho-
lie service, with its mysticism and Its
pomp; and others are wooed to patience
and to courage, which are the virtues
most of us have use for, by the long
prayer and the text coldly dissected
and expounded after the method
of the Calvinists. The voice of
the singer and the sweet-toned
organ induce high thoughts in you,
but they may not in your neigh
Dor. HENRY WARD BEECHER, bold,
original, progressive, but always Chris
tan, or FELIX ADLER, agnoStic, analy-
tical, radical, hopeless, may carry the
torch which will light him on his way.
One man feels better if he worshipS
Christ in the midst Of the prosperous,
the comfortable and the well-dressed !;
but the hard-benched chapel brings an
other into closer communion with tn
God who was born in manger. Nc
one of us can afford to be too cock sure
about this sort of thing. Everybody has
need of salvation in the sense in which
we have defined it, and, therefore, OF
everything which makes for it.
All of this brings US back to the point
that more and better churches would
fill useful purpose if he had them.
And not only churches in the exact
meaning of the word, but all the other
instrumentalities which there are for
drawing men out of themselves and
away from their cares, their vanitles
and their petty selfishnesses. There Is
a loftier side to every human nature,
and when this is active in a
man, there is for him lesson
of the purest delight. Good preachers
orthodox or heterodoX awaken it, one
in one man and another in another. Ana
no community can be permanently grea'
without good preachers. Music and
books and the theater, and all the other
agencies which supply people with artl-
fetal experiences and broaden and
color their lives, are valuable in the
same direction. Each one OF these is
means towards salvation as powerful as
pravins and preaching. They appeal,
perhaps, to a different class OF peopse
from that which goes to church. Bu'
even the harlot and the thief and the
drunkard are worthy of salvation-that
is. worthy to taste the pleasures OF
aspiring to the life of high ideas and OF
earnestness. And the city must have
the things which will help everybody
| to this end if it is to nurture strong
race of men, This is not because SIN
will be much less if we have these
things in abundance, but because life
will be pleasanter and better worth the
living if it is spentin the midst of what
is bright and sweet. Churches and
J theaters and books and music are fairly
elassed by all men among the amenities
of existence which make it valuable.
\
VERY CONSERVATIVE.
The Presbyterian general assembly
o,,;nantlv nrudent and copServa