Omaha daily bee., 1894-01-14
SEVEN DAY OPEN CHURCH
Writer in the December Unitarian Tells Why
il is Desired.
TO COUNTERFEIT EVIL ATTRACTIONS
Young Mems Christian Association Affairs
-Masons Aid tho city Misslon-wecik
OF Prayer in Omnha-In tho
city Puipits.

The December Unitarian contains n very
interesting article from the pen OF Helen
Il. jenkins Of Detroit, entitled SHOULD
Churches BE Closed Six Days in the Week.
While the ideas presented arc not strictly
new, they are clothed with unusual force
ana earucstncss. Miss Jenkins says: do
churches serve the purpose for which thcy
were crcatcul Is a question often asked by
church people themselves and by philan-
thropic people outside the churches. Arc
they reaching the souls Tint need salvation
DO they touch the great mass Of people in
humble lifel DO they reach out for tho
thousands OF young men in our cities who
arc strollinR into pathways of gildcd SIM
'ln the city Of Detroit, on Il fashionable
avenue, there are ten churches, some Of
them miracles of art, costing large sums Of
money-one Of them S20O,OO0, it Is said.
They are used one day In the week aud
closed the other six days. On Sundays they
receive within their doors crowds OF hand
somely dressed people, good people who
enjoy n good sermon. On six days of the
week these handsome edihces are closed,
unused, useless, except as specimens of
architecture. A young man or woman roam
ing the streets OF the city, fruitlessly search
sng for a situation, discouraged, homesick,
without money and without friends, on the
brink of despair, might reasonably exclaim
before one of these dark churches: If this
is Gods house why does he not look out upon
me in my despair and give me one ray Of
hope and comforJP
ION this avenue are brilliantly lighted,
elegantly appointed saloons, enticing young
men all the six days to enter their cheerful
precincts. There they find music, light,
freedom, amusement, sociability, and the
wine cup, and not far distant another gllded
palace of perdition. What are the churches
doing to reach the souls that are being
drawn into these brilliant vestibuLes of hellR
why should not churches offer attractions
OF the nature OF safe amuSements, delightful
resting places, social homes TO young men in
families and away from all home
inttuences! Is a church too sacred
a building to have somewhere be-
meath its roof a billiard room,
a bowling alley, ii reading room, well lighted
and warm, a conversation room, where young
men could meet their friends ana have a
pleasant chat? Could there not be commit
tees or earnest young people (such as may be
found In every church, who would superin-
tend such rooms, arrange q program of music
for one evening, a discussion for another,
lectures for others, and leave one to be de-
voted to innocent games and social CONVERSE
ton, something after the manner of Toynbee
halle Or even If a committee had to be paid
" Vi I INlUCS bElb ItSu " JIG Il oSI lOuo
difficulty. Better a plain church and a per-
manent fund for this kind of work than a
costly church, wrapped in silence and sane
tilted exclusiveness.
II would have at these evenings no talk
on dogmatic religion, no PROSECUTING, but
cheerful sympathy and encouragement, with
an upward tendency, u home atmosphere as
seductive as the mos. brilliant saloon. Such
an open home in a church would attract
many young men who would otherwise seek
the variety theater, the saloon and the
gilded parlors of the demi-monde. There
might stroll in some of the proletariate,
some without polished manners but is it not
these the church needs to reach2 1t is n re-
proach to our civilization that it has given
over to vice so many avenues to the heart of
youth.
ga shrewd deacon in the early days said:
Why let the devil have all the good tunes9'
And we may well ask today: Why surren-
der to saloons, low theaters, and vice the at
fractions of light and music and gayety1
Our great cities are filed with the youths
who are to be the men of the future, and it
behooves the church 30 assist in finding a
way to save them to themselves and to the
community. Costly churches standing in
silent grandeur have less power for saliva
ton than noble and pleasant companionship,
and that sympathy which reaches out to
find a brother, and draws him into paths
that lead to the higher life"