Connecticut western news., 1893-05-04

uOpeu to uO, DuG COulu HSVeT nave sue ceeded in doing.
 "Not one of her own sons," said Arabi, "could have given Egypt the release from oppression and injustice and the good government which she now enjoys. All that have fought and struggled to attain is accomplished. In my blindness I was resisting the surest means of achieving my own aims. I was fighting for the liberation of my country. I am sorry now did so, and I am glad for my country's sake was defeated" So the men against whom Christianity wages its righteous war will in the end rejoice in their own defeat. Such war is waged against them not because we hate them, but because we love them.
 THE POLLUTION OF MODERN CITIES.
 So today the church of Christ in our centers of civic life is confronted with Just such crisis. The hour has come for the righteous indignation of the church of Jesus Christ in our great mod ern cities. It is the hour for righteous wrath and for the action-yes, the vio- lence of the Christ under the influence of that wrath. This is so.
 CD Because of the tremendous growth and importance of these great modern centers of life. The city is the heart of modern civilization. It is the key to the century. It is the key to the future. The past 30 years have seen the city grow to dominate the world. It has drained the life from the rural districts and concen- trated it at these nerve centers of the world. Here civilization has massed its numbers. The cities of the ancient world, before the fall of that ancient world, were insignificant in comparison with the giant cities of the close of the nineteenth century.
 Imperial Rome, mistress of the an- cient world, was pygmy beside Lon don, the capital of the modern world. And London of today is but faint prophecy of what will be the London of the close of the twentieth century, at the present rate of progress. Here in the city is concentrated the wealth of the na- tion, the wealth of the world. Money, and all the power of money, and all that money means to society, to com merce to politics, to the masses, to the race, are to be settled here. The infu- ence of the city is now absolutely su- preme as the governing power. The city governs our politics, state and na- tonal. The city governs the commerce of the world, national and international The city governs the formation of the social structure. It governs fashion; it rules literature; it controls the press; 1t makes the atmosphere which those who rule the nation breathe.
 (g) While the growth and importance of the city have been thus overwhelming and continuous to increase with incred- ible swiftness, it is precisely in the city that the failure of the church of Christ has been most pitiable. Taking the modern world as a whole, Christianity has made remarkable progress within the past quarter of century. In America Chris tianity has advanced with rapid strides, taking the country as a whole We have enrolled 90, 1000. 900 adherents in the United States. We have thousands of churches. We are building thousands of new ones every year. Church mem- bership has increased in larger propor- tion than the population. Christianity is triumphant all along the line, reckon ing things in their total.
 Our progress in the heathen world has been miraculous. Closed gates have opened wide. Nations have been baptiz- ed in day. The ports of the earth are now open to the Christian missionary, and their triumphs have been miraculous. But here our boast must end and our sorrow begin. This increase has been in the rural districts. It has been in the small towns. It has been in the country. In the cities we have not only failed to increase, but Christianity has perceptibly declined in its organic life within the past generation.
 HRATHENIsM IN OUR CITIES.
 A distinguished writer who has given years to the study of this subject de- clares that there are from three to six times as many churches for given pop ulation in the country as in the city and that in our great cities as we all too well know, there are vast populations nearly or quite destitute. The old Twentieth assembly district in New York had a population of 60,000, and there were three little Protestant churches. In the whole nation for every 60,000 people there are 120 evangelical churches. But there is one district in New York with 30, GOO souls in which there is one Protestant church. In the heart of Chicago there are 60,000 people, it is said, without a single church, either Protestant or Cath olic. In six assembly districts of New York there is population of 360, ,OO0 people, for which there are 31 Protestant churches and 3,018 saloons The whole country east of the Mississippi shows that there are as many churches as sa- looms, and yet for this population in New York, larger than the city of Cincinnati, there are 100 times as many saloons as churches. The First assembly district of New York in 1880 had A, ,OOO people, Protestant churches and 1,072 saloons -153 saloons for every church.
 Nor docs this failure of church life simply apply to Professionalism. Our Jew ish population has become atheistic and have deserted their synagogues by thou sands. At an Ingerson lecture one-half the audience will be found composed of Jews, and 1t is a remarkable fact that sometimes whole families will be found at these Sabbath entertainments over which the distinguished colonel presides. Roman Catholicism has not held it's own in our cities. In Roman Catholic popu- lation of nearly SO0,000 in the city of New York the number of the faithful is exceedingly small as compared with this tremendous total. The Catholic church does not hold one-half it's people who move from other nations and locate in