New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-09

FIN Pho EnIstlc OF ST. James-namely, ITO WISH
"the fotberIess and widows In their affiiction'
"ond to koep himself unspotted from the world
In tho on,nIou of most persons who have no
theological hobby to maintain, the Pro-Cathedrai
people have the best OF the argument n''nop
Potter Is in Europe; but he mas eViuehh! "i'
his work in charge OF men VINO KNOW no" "
carry ont and explain his ideas III Is his al"
TO do in the Pro-Cathedral In Stahtoh-st tne
same sort of work which Is to be done by the
splendid Cathedral on Morningslde Helgh's'
This is a practical age, and when people are
asked TO contribute millions OF dollars ior Il
great temple of worship they naturally ask
what practical good will result from such an
expenditure To answer that question, among
other things was the aim of the Bishop III estap-
fishing the Pro-Cathedral on the lower East
Side The Cathedral that Is to be Will be none
nile of architecture: its services will be charac-
terzcd by splendor, dignity and beauty; the
noblcst music and the greatest preachers IN the
Church will be heard In it, But In the opinion
If the Risbop. all this would not Justify the cree
ton of Cathedral in these last days or the
nineteenth century Its true function must DE
TO lift up fallen humanity, to insure salvatIoh
for men and women, not only in the next world
but in the present world. 1t must do on n large
scale. and, If possible, far more effectively, ex-
actly the same kind Of work which this little
ritualistic organ contcmptuousy declares to be
mere philanthropy, and not religion. The an
swer TO THE Arrow" quoted St Jamess def-
milton of religion; it might have gone further
and quoted the passage from ISAIAH which the
Saviour applied to Himself: 'The spirit OF the
Lord Is upon Me, because He hath anonted Me
"to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent
"AIe TO heal the broken hearted, to preach de-
'liverance to the captives, and recovering OF
sight to the blind to set at liberty them that
"are bruised" "This day. said the Founder or
Christianity, "is this Scripture fulfilled IN your
ears" Such was Christ's conception Of religion,
and so long as His followers honestly ana ear
nestly try TO carry it ont they can afford to dis
regard those who sheer at them as phllanthro-
pists. If the Church had exhibited more of such
philanthropy in the darker ages OF its history
when its members burned and butchered each
other in disputes over abstruse questions or theo-
logical opinion, the world to-day would be bet
ter and purer and swceter than 1t is.
This attack on the Pro-Cathedral is made by
the organ Of an extreme Ritualstic Church.
But we should do the Ritualists grave in1us-
tce were we to assume that their views are
fairly represented by it. For many years the
Anglican Ritualsts have been'doing in the vilest
slums Of London just the sort Of work that the
Prof. Cathedral is criticised for doing here. Men
and women gently reared in homes of culture
and refinement have given up wealth. honors,
friends and position, and have gone, not for n
month or a year, but for life, into the lowest
haunts of ignorance. vice and crime to educate
TO reform and to elevate lost men and women.
The same thing was true Of that noble-hearted
Ritualst, Father Hall, now Bishop Hail. or YER
mont who for seventeen years labored among
the ignorant and depraved Of Boston, and who,
Ritualist though he was. counted 1t privilege
70 be numbered among the friends Of Phillips
| Brooks If the words OF "The Arrow reflect
the attitude of the Church Of st. Mary the Nir-
gin. it has no right to claim knship with those
whose noblest and best work has been the lift
ing ~ of the fallen and the lost.