Connecticut western news., 1893-05-04

kept. What Is true of the Baptist de- nomination is true of every other evan gelical denomination in this city.
 (3) The truth is, the city of today, the modern city, whether in the east or in the west, is seething hell, in which the manhood of the nation is daily being consumed. Materialism is rampant. The god of the city is the god of mammon, the god of power. More and more have the strong fallen into this fetich wor- ship. Their motto is, Money by all means, by any means, fair or foul" The hot breath of this scourge soon burns out the ideals, the faiths, the hopes and the love born into the heart of man un- der normal conditions. The sum total of the forces that affect life in our cities today is overwhelmingly against the de- velopment of a righteous character. The pressure of work is insane. Men are in . fever. They do not stop to think. Things high and holy and noble are brushed aside in the wild, mad scramble of the hard, modern business world. Men are driven to such an intense speed that the moral point of view is lost. The reaction from this results in dissipation rather than amusement.
 In the reaction from this debauchery of body and soul sane amusement seems almost an impossibility; hence the deg radiation of our amusements in the cities today. Our theaters wallow in filth. They pander to the gutter. They pander to the Bowery. They pander to the vi- cious in high society and in low society, and there is scarcely an exception. Gam bling is rampant and opens its thousand doors to allure the young and to abso- lutely destroy. In this horrible pressure of life the social evil is intensified. Wom- anhood in degradation becomes @ mod ern power for evil. Saloons have null tiplied not only in numbers, but in their power for evil, in their attractions, in the free table which they set, until it is next to impossible for a man with hon. est i---cntions in the lower walks of life to m modern city and keep out of thes, ..ell holes.
 VILE LITERATURE IN OUR CITIES.
 The reading matter which is provided for this population is of the most degrad- ed character. It is thrust under the nose of the passing crowd. It is nailed upon the bulletins in glaring colors. It is cir culated among the young and the foolish, the ignorant and the thoughtless, to bear its fruit of death from day to day.
 The influence in the higher circles of society is irrational, materialistic, and tends to destroy reverence, faith and the stability of home and home ideals. The people in our cities live in tenements, live in overcrowded novels in which dogs and hogs could not breed, and ex ist through many generations. It is sim- ply physical impossibility for rational manhood and womanhood to be born and reared in such houses, in such streets, and under such conditions as exist in our modern cities. This fact is shown in the deterioration of the working peo- pie of the cities.
 It was found recently in London by an investigation that the submerged tenth" of the population was not the ru- ral population which had come into Lon- don, but it was the population born in London under modern conditions. The countrymen who come in to fill the lower walks of life in our cities contain enough vigorous blood to fight their way over
 
 of the city. Official corruption grows apace in such life. In the midst of this the church is corrupted by the power of the rich and conservative and is asleep with its traditions.
 am not pessimist. do not believe in the triumph of evil have not drawn this dark picture because I am in de- spair, but we must face the facts. The city today is destroying the character and the manhood of the nation. The modern city as at present constituted does not produce men and women cap able of really fighting the battles of life seriously and to successful issue. The modern city cannot exist but for the blood that pours into it from our rural districts, and this blood is consumed from day to day in this fiery furnace of corrupt and corrupting life. You can not point out to me today in single great city of America solitary man born under the conditions of modern city life whose influence counts for any thing in this nations life today.
 Phillips Brooks was born in Boston, but he was born in Boston fifty years ago, and Boston was struggling coun- try village at that time as compared with the Boston of today. The modern city. as at present constituted, does not pro- duce men. It cannot produce men. If they are born within it, they cannot be reared to vigorous manhood. The forces that destroy character are overwhelming as compared with the forces that build character. The doors that open to de- struction are hundred to one that open for life. I do not believe that there has been enough manhood born and reared in our modern cities within the past gen. eration to save single one of them from hell for 24 hours, if that salvation de- pended upon the capacity of that man hood for organization, for direction, for production.
 DANGERS Uf THE MODERN CITY.
 I am not a pessimist, but facts are facts. I believe in the race, believe in its future-but what race? The modern city threatens the future of our nations life. The smoke and dust and fumes, dark and threatening, full of disease, and of sin, and of death, that rise today from these great centers of our life, form a dark cloud whose threatening storm must burst upon the nation with awful fury in the future. That which is worthy to live will live. Truth will tri- umph. God will reign supreme. The question is, Will you be in that triumph
 I believe that the hour is come in which Christian manhood in these rapidly de- yelopinp centers must take firm stand