The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-07-19
HOT SHOT FOR
PRESBYTERIANS
Owen Jones Makes a
Sens ational Talk.
MINISTERS WERE ASTOUNDED
LOCAL PREACHERS CHARGED
WITH LACK Or INTEREST.
Rev. E. S. Chapman Wants the Sol
diers Encamped at Richmond
to Be Removed to the
Presidio.
MINISTER'S WERE ASTOUNDED
LOCAL PREACHERS CHARGED
WITH LACK Or INTEREST.

About a dozen Presbyterian ministers,
with surprise, annoyance and what next
expressions on their countenances, spent
& bad half hour yesterday morning lis
tening TO some warm expressions from
owen Jones, who addressed their weekly
meeting on The Attitude of Ministers on
the Sabbath Question"
Il have seen a few Sabbath conventions
on this coast" said Mr.. Jones at the out
set. I remember one about three years
ago, held in this city. 1t was State con-
vention, too 1t was well-advertised over
the land. There were from fifteen to
twenty present in the morning meeting
and in the afternoon four or five more.
The evening meeting was to be a public
one, and Mr.. RAIDER was TO speak, but
there were so few in attendance that he
became actually discouraged and did not
speak
Where were the others on such day?
They were gone for recreation to the
Cliff House or some other place after the
hard work of the previous Sunday
preaching 10 empty pews, for all will adj
init that is an exceedingly laborious and
fatiguing task, or they were busy prepar-
ing new sermons to preach to the few
handouts who would listen to them the
following Sunday.
Every such meeting convened in be-
half of the Sabbath is a complete failure
on the coast, and why? Simply because
the ministers take no special interest in
the subject. Il say if the ministers of
California and of San Francisco had done
their duty twenty years ago such GRIM
inals as Sontag and Evans would have
been impossible. The soil of the country
would not have produced them. The in
gradients necessary would not have been
found in the ground. The administrator
of a quiet Sabbath and the bracing and
purifying air of Sinai and the ten COM
mandments and above all the gospel of
Jesus Christ would have killed those GRIM
inals in the germ and Durrant would not
have grown here in San Francisco under
the very breath of your nostrils, into that
flower and ripeness of iniquity which
made him the blacklist criminal of the
4 am glad that in speaking this way
have good backing. I would hardly
OF presbyterian ministers. should be
afraid of them. But, happily, 1 need not
fear anything on this occasion; have the
general assembly al my back.
4 have been told that a pastor of the
leading Presbyterian church of San Fran
cisco often leaves the church after the
morning service and takes the car for the
boat, and takes the boat for the train and
then goes up to the country to get ready
for the duties of the Monday.
1t was only yesterday that the State
superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League,
Rev. z. S. Chapman, was lecturing in
Oakland. Possibly he was somewhere III
TINS city in the evening, as was often the
case. He seems to me to be lifting up the
ten commandments with one hand and
pulling them down with the other. He
puts his foot upon the fourth command
ment and calls upon all around him to
keep the Others
Rev. John Hemphiu was the first to at
tract the chatrman's attention and in an
swer to the above remarks said: "A most
terrible arraignment has been made and
the ministers have been held responsible
where the responsibility does not exist.
California has been the receiving point
of the f1otsam and jetsam of the world.
Foreigners have ideas antagonistic to our
own and we are not responsible for them.
! keep the Sabbath day myself and teach
my people to keep it. l am sorry our
brother permitted himself to make such
Rev. Samuel Logan Brengle addressed
the Methodist on Holiness" and DR..
Chapman made an address on the work.
ings of the Anti-Saloon League.
The Congregationalists held an eXcep-
tionally large meeting. Members of the
national council which convened and adj
1ourned at Portland, Or, were present.
Addresses were made by Samuel B. Capen
the National Council, Professor Strong of
Carleton College, T. A. Noble, moderator
OF the council, and DR.. w. A. Waterman.
The speakers told OF the work of the
council The principal points touched
upon was UNCONVENTIONAL loyalty, the fed
Grafton of churches, ministerial standing
and ministerial education.
Dr.. E. S. Chapman visited all the de-
nominatiOnal meetings and asked their
cooperation in having the soldiers en-
camped at Richmond removed to the Pre-
Chaplain Schlieman of the Twentieth
Arkansas Regiment told the Baptist min
listers about the work being done by him
in camp. He said he was endeavoring to
effect church organization and was meet
ing with success.
Rev. ]. B. Orr Of the Park Congrega-
tional Church has accepted a call to Santa