The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-29
SIMILAR ONLY IN NAME
PLYMOUTH CHURCH NOT LIKE IT
WAS IN BEECHER'S DAYS.
It's Methods and Surroundings Have
Church News and Mission Notes.
.pecial to the Indianapolis Journal.

Special to the indianapolis Journal
NEW YORK, Jan. 2S.-While it bears the
old name the Plymouth Church, to which
the Rev. Dr. Newell Dwight Hills. of Chi
cago, has been called, is not the Plymouth
Church which Henry Ward Beecher left.
The one-time neighborhood of splendid
homes surrounding it is giving place to
boarding for those who can pay from me-
dunn to extravagant prices per week. Ply
mouths income is therefore not what it once
was. 1t was $3S, 900 last year. a sum far eX-
ceeded by scores of less famous congrega-
tions. Lyman Abbott is charged by his crit
les with fostering, and hence producing an
intellectual rather than a spiritual church,
and yet he has been able, out of total
membership of 1,S00 to secure $50 persons
who are actually engaged in some form of
church effort apart from mere money-giv-
ing. This is a record which few of his crit
les can show. These more than half thou
sand workers help to maintain two chapels
or branches, for the new Plymouth is a
missionary congregation, as the old one un-
der Mr.. Beecher never was. Those who may
so TO criticise the dramatic character which
Plymouth has always affected, and which
under the Rev. DR.. Hills, must now remain
to admire the almost innumerable activities
through which this church, changed TO suit
the times, comes into living contact with
the people, not the people who flock to it,
because stopping over Sunday in the city,
but the people around about it who have a
right to look to it for spiritual ministrations.
One who knows the inside of the pro-
posed return of the Rev. DR.. Thomas c.
Hall to Chicago to succeed the Rev. DR..
Newell Dwight Hills, who has gone to
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn says that it is
by no means certain that the Central
Church will call him, and it is even more
uncertain that he would accept If he were
called. When the son of the late DR.. John
Hall quilted the Fourth Church on account
of i'll health, there was fraction of its
membership that wanted him to return
when his health was restored. The larger
number did not, and so he did not return.
Now that contingent from the Fourth
Church has guaranteed a considerable part
of the income of the proposed neW Central
Church, on condition that DR.. Thomas G..
Hall be called. Whether the Central will
conclude to accept the offer or not is not
known, because no decision has been ar
rived at. DR.. Thomas G. Hall has become
a professor in Union Seminary, place hav-
ing been made for him after a good deal of
effort to raise the chair endowment. He
may not leave even if called The same
authority says there is nothing whatever in
the published talk Of calling President Bar
rows, of Oberlin, or DR.. Gunsaulus, of the
Armour Institute.
For their jubilee year the Disciples of
Christ are seeking 100000 conversions during
1899. Upon the matter a good deal of dis
cussion is going on among their leaders.
Were they to attain their object their gain
would be 10 per cent, gain not equaled by
any religious body in many years under or
binary conditions. Disciples gained last
year 31a per cent Only Baptists. Methodists
and Roman Catholics exceeded 100000 gain
last year, but their percentages were only
), 3 and 212, respectively. Disciples are lay
ing the fault for slow growth in the. past
upon pastors, people, financial conditions
and all sorts of causes. They are also
bringing forward remedies in great numbers
year.
The American Sunday School Union has
been joined by the Sunday school societies
of practically all of the leading religious
bodies in an endeavor to cover the island of
Porto Rico with undenominadonal Sunday
schools The union which has its head
quarters in Philadelphia, is undenomina-
t tlonal; and has been the pioneer in the
out the West and Southwest.
that has any considerable work among In
dams, or has ever had, has joined in the
petition just sent to Congress protesting
against Cardinal Gibbonss movement for
the reopening of the Indian question in it's
relation to schools. The American Bap-
fist, the American Missionary the Congre-
gational Home, the American Board, the
Episcopal Domestic and Foreign, the Meth
odist Missionary the Presbyterian Home
and the Reformed Church Domestic socie-
ties have signed the protest. These socie-
ties not only d1SapproVe OF the naming of
a congressional inquiry committee, but they
ask that the general government now adopt
a definite permanent and uniform principle
in accord with the spirit of the United States
Constitution for advancing education among
the Indians on the basis OF the American free
common school system, in order that here
after there may be no departure from the
American principle OF keeping separate and
distinct the functions of church and state.
Business men who are Interested in for
eign missions have under contemplation the
sending of one of their number around the
world for the purpose of making a study
of the condition of missions, and reporting
direct to them. They want to find out how
many mission stations are run on business
principles and how many are not. They
make no charges of incompetency. They
merely think it possible that Christian peo-
pie of this country are giving money to
mission stations LndI OuShC 10 maintain
themselves after all these years of outside
aid. The business men represent every de-
nomination, and their appOntee will start
early this spring, if it be decided to send
him.
From every State, but more particularly
from California, Arizona, New Mexico,
Texas. and others where there has long
been contact with Spanish-speaking people,
applications are going by the hundreds
from preachers and lay workers to the mis-
demanding
pointment as missionaries to serve in Cuba
and Porto Rico One secretary, whose So
ciety represents one of the largest denomi-