The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-06-22


- a., r.;,v fuIl Of rural enthus1asins'
r., =. .-a fools enough to believe IN the
,.,ssil,ilities ~ saving men ana ""' 'Hs'.
Thsx ...st into one Of thesse iceuoAsS AAI
,,-s.rh for n few months, until the Nss.
.-,a--,vx IN their bones Is chilled. anu
So -, they try tn get the people In. They
-. rx.s,l,-ss They make desperate
r., l,,,, th,, ,is>Sr brethren sit down on
the,n and they ar. sutothered 10 death
TI,.re are fewer Methofiists IN New
VII Now tan there were 70 years ago
a,s ve, A stirring Methodist evangelist
Las h,Asn packntg great thessier fuii OF
,.-ople during the past lew months anu
"a. dear old ,aosstsacks are clanorlh ioE
his head ia charger. lhey say u" =
disturbing the cusnic dust that mas set-
,la1 on their churches. They say that
he il drawing away their constituency,
and they are going TO make motion 10
cas-, him out of the synagogue A man
RAISED by church where there Was
GREAT excitement the other day. lie
asked If a revival WAS IN progress. Inc
sexton said no; they were trying her-
etc. We have life of n certain sort. 1T
Is expended IN hunting out the heretics
and crucifying them aud letting the
world 20 TO the devil.
THE THIRTEEN REASONS.
Some of these men are scared TO death'
ROT because they are weak and craven.
hut because they are human. They have
the ID reasons for not DONG many
things they want To do--a wife and IL
children. They are anxious 10 please
the pews. and they initiate the great
preacher of the sixteenth century. a
fellow wrcte 10 me some time ago to
recommend him TO church looking for
a preacher and begged me TO write him
in advance the day the commsttee would
come to hear him preach that he might
be on the lockout for strangers in the
pews. Many of our preachers are afraid
of the power of criticism. 1t is hard TO
be cursed, to be lied about, to be misrep-
resented and slandered by the tradition
al forces that maintain things as they
are and by blackguard press that Is
ever ready to take up any cry against a
minister of Christ.
And, alas. some of these men are
worked To death. The work to be done
in modern city church cannot be done
by one man. Whatever our fathers may
have done, the man who stands at the
head of church in a modern city and
attempts of himself to master its work
has undertaken the impossible. 1t can
not be done. The only churches in the
city Of New York-the Episcopal and the
Roman Catholic-that have made any
progress have been the churches in
which the number of workers in a given
parish have been adequate to the work
to be accomplished. There are churches
in this city that require 10 men in the
capacity of associates and assistants. in
which solitary little Protestant preach
er stands up and hammers away until
they carry him off to the cemetery and
bury his little WORKOUT body, ,or else
they take him to the insane asylum or to
some sanitarium, where he has the lux
ur, of an invalid's life and poverty and
suffering for his portion.
TIE BROADWAY CABLE.
1t is time for our churches to wake to
the fact of their failure and to adapt
themselves TO the changed conditions of
modern city life. We do not need any
more ecclesiastical tombs buildings.
The people do not want them. They will
not go into them after they are built
They are useless baggage. We need
buildings adapted to catch men. We
need sacred secular buildings. We need
gospel cars to preach to railroad men be-
meath the sheds. We need TO lay our
hands on the ways of travel. We need
q preach through the press and to con-
'ert the modern press to Jesus Christ
20 preach to the press and through the
press. The time has come for us to be
all things to all men, if by all means we
may save some, and not be afraid of
making sensation; to be wise as SER
penis, to make friends of the mammon
of unrighteousness-that is, to use COM |
mon sense, to be alive, to do the work |
IF the Master in living ways.
Whenever the church determines to |
10 its work it will be done. The power
S at hand, if we will but utilize it. IT
s not a question of the loss of power: it
s the refusal of the Christian to use the
power. A little child exploded the mine
lnder Hell Gate and cleared the channel
'f rocks that had defied navigation for
centuries. The little child simply pressed
he button that connected the electric
current with the hidden battery. The
christian has simply to touch the cleo
nc current Of the Spirit Of the Most
high God, and the hieden mines deem
Town in the human soul will be ex-
'loded; the hidden rocks that have oh
tructed our progress in society thronob
he centuries of the past will be cleared.
ONE of them in an instant.
A little child with her tiny hand start
d the great cable on Broadway and sent
ne cars spinning over their track. The
MID simply opened the steam valve. and
ne steam did the work. The Christian
as simply to lay his hand-as a Chris
lan-on the world, and the Spirit of
roo VIII do the work. The trouble with
5 simply Is that we have not come in 9
Ital contact with the world.