The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-16
DR.. HALLS RETIREMENT
HIS REASONS FOR REsIGNING HIS
NEW YORK PASTORATE.
Too OId-Fashioned to Conform to the
"A Serious Social Problem.
Special to the indianapolis journal.

NEW YORK, Jan. 15.--Rev. DR.. John
Halls retirement from the ministry is not
due to differences in his church, for no
| differences exist there. The F'ifth-avenue
is the foremost church in its denomination
in America if not in the world. Both DR..
Hall and his session realized that it must be
kept so. It's membership is about three
thousand and its property is worth $1,000
900. DR.. Hall is an old-fashioned man.
Methods in church work have changed. DR..
Hall was willing to change also, but felt
he could not Pews have not rented as they
once did, and the young people of the church
have been drifting away. DR.. Hall has
quietly opposed Christian Endeavor and
similar young people movements. The eff
feet of this opposition, shown in his own
church, has been in large measure his own
retirement Dr. Hall will be asked to preach
until successor can be found and will be
given some voice in the selection of that
| successor. The latter must, however. be a
man known to be in active sympathy with
| the young people movements. 1t can be
| said with authority that no steps have yet
| been taken to secure successor. DR.. Hall
| announces that he hopes, with the oppor-
| tunity afforded by his retirement, to spend
| much time in future abroad. He will be re-
| tired on a comfortable annuity. His
| salary has been SIS 900 a,,year. He has had
besides parsonage worth $4,000 a year, and
his income from his writings, his lectures
and wedding fees have varied greatly,
| ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 a year. The
| fabulous salary often given out is mislead-
| ing in two ways. In the first, because he
| never received it. and second because he
has been most generous man and has
! given back to his church and to charitable
of 1fc irl0n
than almost any other clergyman in Ameri-
ca. He is president of the Presbyterian
Board of Home Missions, and as he has fire.
! quently expressed u desire to retire from
that position, it is probable that he will now
| do so, since he expects to be for a large
| part of his time absent from the country.
| Until year ago President Hall, of Union
| Theological Seminary, was pastor of the
| First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn.
| There he came in contact with a large num-
| Der of people, and was known as a student
of social science, as well as a warm friend
| Of young men and young women who spend
their days behind counters and over type
writer's. Not long since he gave the annual
address before one of the largest of Young
Women's Christian Associations. He spoke
| with so much plainness, and at the same
time with so much feeling on the subject
! of young women leaving homes in the coun-
| try and going to the large cities to study
art and almost everything else, that a call
| was made upon him at his hospitable nome,
| adjoining the famous seminary. This mat
| ter of bright young women of Illinois, OF
| Missouri, of Georgia-of almost every other
| State-coming to New York to study art,
he said lis a most serious one. 1t affects not
alone the young women themselves, but So
tciety in general, and as friend of both l
feel strongly upon the subject Art is an
irdescent dream when contemplated from
the standpoint taken by these young wom-
en-. There is bitter disappointment la
store for these young women.
"There are serious sides to this question of
the restessness of these young women who
think their home villages slow and that they
must leave them to come to the glow and
the glamour of the great city, For the rest
Iessness is growing. The study of art may
have been the original incentive, but it has,
in thousands of instances nowadays, come
to be only the excuse. Thousands of even
honest and conscientious girls fail and are
bound to fail There is no call for SO much
art. and it is by no means certain that they
could respond to the call did it exist. These
young women come on their own response
bility. They have passed no examination to
see whether they are qualified to study art
Failure is certain under such circumstances.
How many come from the villages CT the
Central West to New York every year? I
do not know. But their number must run
into thousands In single years in the past
hundreds have come under my notice, and
yet / was pastor Of but one congregation
out of one thousand in Greater New York
This movement not only brings suffering,
often intensest agony to these young Wom-
en-, but the movement, which seems to me
to be growing, threatens the destruction of
home life which is the salvation of the
country. What a pity that these young
women are infected with the idea that to be
married and to settle down to home life
in a small village is beneath them. AS
pastor of many years, acquainted with life
in q great city, with it's attractions and
their utter hollowness, with art demand and
art necessity, 1 urge young women every
where to remain in the village where God
has cast their lives, and to give many,
many, serious thoughts to matter so
grave as coming to a city"
Presbyterian missionaries who were re-
Gently sent to the Klondike by the home
board met with several adventures. They
carried with them large supplies of provi-
sions and implements with which they
might. If occasion demanded, erect their
own place of worship. At Skaguay they
were detained for some time, but went to
work at once to get a congregation to-
gether for religious services. They were
successful for some weeks, at the end of
which time way opened for them to pro-
coed to Dawson City. Starting on their
Journey with all requisites, as they thought,
they lost their way, and were saved
by what they regard as a direct act of
Providence When hope had well nigh fled
they were overtaken by a United States
surveying party. Taking fresh courage and
| new start they arrived at last at Dawson
| City. There they set to work with their
| own tools, and soon had a rude church,
with pleasant auditorium, and adjoining it
a hospital dispensary, for one of the mis-
| sionaries, DR.. G. A. McEwen, is physi-
| cian The other is Rev. S. Hall Young, an
| evangelist and a former Alaskan traveller.
| They built the church and dispensary
wholly by their own labor, and had
| SHIPPED in it only twice when it took fire
and burned. They lost little, however, in
the way of provisions, for these they had
taken the precaution to cache at safe dis
lance. They are now, by their own labor,
| rebuilding their house of worship, mean
while preaching and teaching as they have
opportunity and caring for the sick who APP
ply 10 them. They will press on beyond