Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-02-24
ALLIANCE WORK.
The FIRST of DR.. Frank Rus
sells Lectures.
THE UNREAOHBD," TEE TOPIC


An Interesting Practical Discourse as the
Result of "A Careful Special study of the
Relations of the Churches and the In
reached Classes-Ths Remainder of the
Meetings Under DR.. Russell's Leaee rship.
The first of the meetings in the in
terests OF the Evangelical Alliance
work in this city under the leader
ship of Rev. Frank Russell, d. D.. of
New York, was held last evening in
the Christian church. with a large
audience present. DR.. Russell spoke
eloquently on the subject. The I'm
reached" In substance he said:
In discussing the religious condi-
ton of the community. there are
only two classes before Us. There
are no high or low. no learned or ig
norant. there are only those VINO are
unreached Of the gospel living with
out its hope and mainly in PRAY erless
homes, and the church people who
have the gospel and are trying to
realize it in their lives.
The Unreached.
First-The unreached, the most ap-
palling feature of this class is their
utter separation from us; we cata-
logue their children with our own for
the public school. seeking that they
may be filled by a common education
for common American citizenship; in
commercial relations we desire to
trade with all classes: in political re-
lations we are chasing after every
possible voter that he NAV vote with
our party; but when that day comes
but once in seven that cmpI ashes
our religious life. the chasm opens
and the unreachcd GO their way with
out the gospel, while we 90 10 the
churches of Christ for our songs and
worship and instruction.
| Another severe feature which de-
mands our attention is their great
numbers; the unreached out count us
and out vote US. Still in this matter
we have great encouragement. In
| 1900 We had one nominal mem Der of
q nominal church OF Christ to every
IA of the population: in 1859 We had
one to every seven; in 1870 one to
every six; in 1880 We had one to
every five; in 1890 we had one to al
most every four. In 1895 when Tim
othy Dwight became president OF
Yale. there were but 10 students.
only two of them were processing
christians, among these 10 there
were two organizations, each OF them
named Tom Payne society; things
have changed since then and vast
| ". for the better. still not over
10 or Is per cent OF the Young
men of our land are members OF
Christian churches; there are over 65
per cent of the college men Of our
land that are members OF the Chris
tian churches: with one nominal
| member OF q nominal church of
Christ we have three who are not.
! this one is set with his class OF three
to bring them into the kingdom l.
he so charged with responsi hilitv
and with evangelistic efficiencF that
he will probably succeed? In L OF
our largest cities it i not one in
three, but one in - or Il. enough
for everyone to have goodly bible
class. Is this average one likely to
succeed in bringing the IS or II into
the kingdom?
In 1890 it took more than Il
church members on the average.
throughout our land. 4 straight l.
months to win another; that Kind OF
warfare must surely be unsatisf. Glory
to everyone OF us.
When we look ut this unreached
mass with something like an analy-
sis we find between 20 and 81 per
cent of them on the average. who
| should be in our church pews imme-
diately; they would come for the ask
ing and n little opening OF the way;
| they are accustomed, or once were,
to prayer-meeting ways. to Sunday
school instruction, and, likely. to the
communion of the church.
| Reasons Tor Lapsins-
The doctor spoke at some length
on the reasons for lapsing, holding
that Satan could do more by putting
straw in the way than pastor
could do with crow bar; some be-
cause of domestic relations became
Indifferent, others claiming that il
cost too much to contribute t. the
support of the church, and still others
Indifferent and stolid A. far Is re-
ligion is concerned. He treated OF
the forces of evil; spoke of organized
forces whose avowed purpose was to
tear down and prevent the work of
the church in the community Our
forefathers laid three great fInda
mental rocks at the base OF our gov.
eminent on which they expected W,
would rear the uperstructure. One