Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-16
PEWS SHOULD Be FREE.
4 New York Divine Is Opposed to the
System Of Renting Pews.
He Says It Keeps the Poor From At
tending Church-ft Shuts Them
Out.
A Strong And Earnest Plea For q
Change of the Entire System.

The Rev. w T. Rainsford. rector of st.
George 5, New York, stopped at the Grand
Pacific motel recently en- route home from
a long vacation in the mountains. to which
his doctor had ordered him. Mr. Rains
ford is one of these Dig muscular Chris
tlans, who are dead III earnest and who ex-
cite enthusiasm in their listeners so that
man wants to shout ''Hooray!" about
every four sentences. Mr.. Rainsford has
a hearty hatred for the pew system in
churches.
''To begin with, :" said he, 1.-The church
is the only society on earth whose bond OF
cohesion is or should be love for man, the
| recognition that we are all the children of
God, the fact for which the Incarnation
stands. You can preach that doctrine in
the pulpit and recognize distinctions In
the pews. We must have some place be-
sides the grave where men have equal
rights The Roman Catholic Church is
right in that respect. The beginning OF
! Professionalism was right for it brought out
| individualism. but Professionalism is fail
ure because it has developed into system
of clubs for religious purposes. 1t has
driven the poor man out-of-doors. The
| doctrine of the brotherhood of man is the
| life of the church. The pew system which
denies this must 90. Even if it be hard
work to get along without it it must 90,
| but as fact the church can just as we'll be
supported by the free-will offerings as by
pew rents. This is a fact of my own ex-
perience. 1t is nothing to get rich man
to give $4,000 or $4,000 a year to the
church. He doesn't feel it. He doesn t
smoke cheaper cigars for it, but it is hard
for him to give up the sense of being a
| stakeholder In the church. And that can
not be. The church must preach by con-
crete example as well as by word of mouth,
and the free and open church is the out
ward and visible sign of an inward and
spiritual grace"
"What do you think of Bishop Harring-
ton S recent paper advocating the church S
taking stand for the people in the social
problems of the day."
II haven't seen it yet. I'm just from
the mountains. But Bishop Harrington is
! one of the ablest men in our communion,
one who has kept silence until the last
years of his life. A grand man. The
church take sides in the social problems
Certainly Why shouldn't it? Isn't ii
the only socitey chat isEorganized to stand
up for the poor man? 1t is nothing in
the world but this cursed pew system and
the stockholding spirit which keeps it
back. The church is asleep, so to speak
| No, it is Lazarus bound with grave clothes
and the napkin about his head. But God
has great work for it. He will say
| Come forth and what we took to be al
| inertia will be instinct with life. The
rock is ages in forming but God makes q
mountain fit IN a minute. The church il
the east is doing something like what il
should among the poor. | was permitted
last Easter to give the sacrament into the
the hands of $3.50 persons and most OF
them were the hard and grimy hands OF
the workers, tenament 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 de-
nominations go when they have quarrel
! 1t is the place for the wood-be aristocrats
The stock holding spirit is there and rules
everything. [ was sick at heart when
visited the seminary here. There were d
| few young men in cassocks aping the
priest before ever they were priested. They
| took me into the library and showed with
great pride what? Two tons and half
of fathers What did the fathers know
about New York or Chicago? What dc
those 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 a living organ
ism to declare that mankind are brothers
and that Jesus Christ forever ennobled
and dignifed human flesh when He took il
upon Him and for us men and for our sal
! walton came down from heaven"