The herald., 1897-11-29
CHURCH'S SIN
A Story Of Christianity's
Cold Shoulder
REAR PEWs FOR THE POOR
THE REMARKABLY EXPERIENCE
OF PASTOR CHALMERS
His Reception When Disguised as a
Poor Man-Ufges the Pious to
Como OF Their Perch

6ne linens. IneSe are tHe QusStiolS
that, for some time past, have caused
the Rev. Andrew Chalmers. pastor of
the Dunham avenue Christian church,
Cleveland, O., many sleepless nights
The more he pondered over it, the more
troubled he was over the thought that
a religion, born and nGrtured among
the meek and lowly, should have become
so far above the reach of the rank and
file of humanity as to make 1t impossible
for a poorly dressed man to enter one
of our modern churches without calling
an amount of attention to himself that,
to put it mildly, is very embarrassing.
DR.. Chalmers decided to put the mat
ter to a practical test and settle to his
own satisfaction the length, breadth
and height Of poor mans welcome
from the ushers and congregation of
fashionable religious establishment.
Doffing his clerical garb, DR.. Chalmers
assumed the clothing Of an ordinary son
Of toll, and thus disguised he visited one
Of Clevelapd's leading churches. His
experiences he reserved for a modest
little sermon delivered to his Durham
avenue flock. But 1t was not to be i'll
the nature Of things that Dr. Chalmers
action should pass unnoticed After he
had preached the sermon he found him
self overwhelmed with correspondence,
some writer's criticising his action.
others congratulating him. He replied
to each of them briefly and modestly.
Many Of his friends urged him to still
further agitate the question of high
toned versus humble religion, but he
declined to do so. He has at last con-
sented, however, to tell in detail the
story Of his very interesting experiences
while on his tour in the guise of poor
man, and his signed statement follows:
III this article will be construed as
afraying the poor against the churches
more than they already are, it will not
represent me and will be worse than
wasted. I did not make this visit to
further divorce the vorkingman from
the church. I made it to see If the con-
ditioAs noted in the second chapter of
James were really true, and if so, to put
the churches, my own church especially,
to a process of self-examination, which
would be helpful to the church and
would prevent our being 'respecters of
persons in our assemblies.
II was sick, some in body and much
in soul, because felt that the churches
did not have compassion on the multi
tude, because they tainted and were
schattered abroad as sheep having no
shepherd Matt ix:36. felt this in my
work. was so sick that my physician
told me could not preach on Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon felt better and
told my wife that was going to see how
far the churches believed on Jesus Christ
and whether or not they believed on him
in respect to the ones with the gold ring
and the gay apparel I would have
preferred to attend my own church and
see how my own congregation welcomed
the stranger and poor man in poor
clothes, but knew could not do that
without being recognized.
II dressed myself in clothes better
than the average man who works on the
street at 81 or $1.25 per day can afford.
The clothes were not ragged. They were
not dirty. They were not the clothes
that man would work in on the street.
They were such as he might possibly
have for Sunday wear. 1 went to one
of the representative churches in the
city of Cleveland / do not think this
church 1 visited is more to be blamed
for what followed than the rest of us.
] am dealing with a condition. The
church I visited pays the pastor $4,000 to
$4,000 a year. I think there was on the
bulletin board on the outside of the
church, in connection with the an
nouncement of the regular weekly ser
vices, the usual sign: All Welcome.
/ soon found that this sign was much
tIrn 1,a 1;r Ic 10 f,,1G1 1n6
I found it was one thing to place on the
bulletin board on the outside of the
church the advertisement of welcome,
and quite another thing to have that
welcome written in the very heart of the
church people. l determined that night
that we in our church would either take
down that sign All Welcome or make
those welcome who came.
II went in during the playing of the
voluntary on the grand pipe organ and
when the worshippers We're entering.
! stood in the aisle and looked down
while group after group OF fashionably
dressed worshippers in their gay ap-
parep were shown by the dude ushers
to the best seats in the church. / stood
there so long that l began to be en-
barrassed and had to recall to myself
again and again who 1 was and why l
was there to insure my continuing to
remain under such trying circumstances.
l tried to put myself in the working
mans place for the evening and yet I
had to remind myself that 1 was not
workingman and that I had better
clothes at home before I could be will
ing to carry it out. almost felt tempted
to tell who I really was to get recogni-
iion, but I refrained.
when the men with the silk hats and
those in fashionable attire had been
given seats down in front, and around
me, and almost over me, an off ..ous
usher, evidently feeling that was cum
bering the ground, pointed out to me
the last seat in the house. He had to
bring me back a considerable distance
to give me the seat, for had advanced
some way down the aisle to see if might
get recognition. I was not told in so
many words that I Wa, rot wanted
There was no one at the door with
club to knock me down and drag me
out because OF my impertinence at COM
ing to the church of Jesus Chrict, the
carpenter of Nazareth, III the clothes Of
carpenter. l felt that if Jesus had