The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-04-21
THE PROBLEM OF OUR CITIES.
Sermon Delivered Yesterday at Chestnut
Street by Rev. ID. NJ Pratt.

| chestnut Street church. Inere was
| large attendance. Rev. Matt s. Hughes,
pastor, presided Rev. Mr.. Perkins of
the Firt Parish read the scriptures, DR..
Dalton OF st. Stephens offered prayer,
Rev. Messrs, KERN of the Church of the
Messiah and Ayres of the First Baptist,
read the hymns which were admirably
rendered by the choir. Rev. Dwight NJ.
Pratt of Williston church then delivered
this sermon:
Luke 1922. And Jesus went through our the
CUES ana villages, teaching and Journeylng 10
| Jerusalem.
The Lord Jesus lived and labored in
cities. The largest towns were unceas-
ingly the center of His operations. ''His
own city, was Caperneum. He commits
siohed his disciples to go from city to
city, and to begin the process of the
world sAredemption at jerusalem. Paul
caught the Jstatesmanlike wisdom of his
divine Master and struck out for the cap
ital cities of the Orient. Antioch and
Ephesus, TarsNs and Thessalonica,
Casarea and Corinth, Athens and Rome,
were the sphere of his activities. His
finger was on the pulse of the ancient
world. The currents of commerce, the
trend of thought, the movement OF en-
pire were studied and utilized by this
prince of apostles, this father of evange-
lists. Paul was a philosopher and for
the very reason also a prophet. With
Christ he saw along the course of coming
history, and directed it's movements with
a cl md hal fa1+
part of the world today.
l. The problem of the citiess the prob
lem of Christianity. Cities are the foci
of civilization and it's radiating centers
as well. AS the great inland basin
catches the waters that flow from every
rill, rivulet and river, until it be-
comes reservoir of the sur
rounding region-a lake or sea of
vast dimensions and power: so the city
is the centre into which pours the life Of
the country, until it possesses the purity
of the mountain spring and the slime of
the mighty river. Cities are at the same
time the capitals of Christianity and the
cesspools of crime. They are the concen-
trated life s.of nations. The ordinary
rays of sunlight become flame of con-
Stunning power as they converge in the
little sunglass, and the life of the modern
world assumes an unnatural intensity as
it converges at its great civil and COM
mercial capitals. Cities stand for civi
lization. They ultimately become syn
Chaldea; Ninevah, Assyria; Alexandria,
Egypt; Antioch, Syria. Athens stood
for the intellect, and Corinth, the COM
merce of Greece. The empire of the
Caesars had no name but Rome.
Modern history witnesses the same
Capitalization of populations and power.
Constantinople is Turkey; Berlin, Ger
many; Paris, France; London, the Brit
ish empire. Within the last % years the
growth of cities has revolutionized the
commerce and character of this western
world. The youngest voter here
can remember when the country
counterbalanced the city. The corrupt
ion of New York was regulated by the
rural righteousness of the outlying
state. Now the state is lost in the city,
Chicago is Illinois; and Cincinnati, st.
Louis, and New Orleans the Mississippi
Valley. The destiny of America hence
forth is determined by the character of
her cities. One-fourth of her entire pop
ulation resides in cities of over $4,000 in
habitants. Brains and money gravitate
to the metropolis as waters seek their
own level. The intensest forces of civ
i9n are here: the purest virtue, the
vilest vice, the most aggressive Christian
NY, the Doiuest crime. Here, electricity
the symbol of modern energy and illum-
nation, runs it's mightiest engines and
throws it's intensest light.
The growth of cities may be abnormal,
it may result in congestion, and in the
arrangement of the whole complex sys-
tenn of national life, yet it is the law of
history, and whether good or bad it's
problems must be met.
I am an optimist. believe in the ulti-
mate supremacy of righteousness: in the
ultimate triumph of the Redeemer's
kingdom. But an optimist is a fool if
able to see actual conditions
| and look danger intelligently and square
ly in the face. He must have philoso-
ply that authorizes hope in the midst of
despair, and gospel that saves in the
midst of corruption. He must hold ac-
tual conditions in one hand and the rem
edy in the other, and with the heroism of
self-sacrifice, ii need be, bring the two
together. Unless he does this his Opt
mism is stupidity. Hope, not based on
actual or possible redemption, is folly.
This leads to the second point in our
argument.
Ill. The redemption of cities is the
hope of our land.
Chicago, in the sternest fight it ever
had with machine politics, the brothel
and the saloon, has just been defeated by
| a majority of 10000. 1t was a phenome-
nal victory for every form of protected
vice. In view of the coming internation-
al exposition, and in view Of the fact al
| so that for the next six months Chicago
would be the spectacle OF the entire
| world, the intelligence and virtue of the
| city summoned themselves with tremen-
| dous energy to the conflict. The result
proves that the bar of the saloon rules
the board of trade, the hovel the palace,
the slums the sanctuary. The stability
| of government, the safety of com
merce, the perpetuity of righteousness
demand the redemption of the masses.
Language on this theme has become
stereotyped and tame. While the
church has talked and theorized about
the masses and has dabbled in reform, the
| devil has worked, and the glory of sue
cess is largely on his side.
Brooklyn used to be called the city of
churches. But her churches have not
j IL.