The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-12
LENT BEGINS WEDNESDAY
OBSERVANCE TO BE MORE GENERAL
THAN EVER BEFORE.
Johns Hopkins University Professor
ship Declined by Rev. DIR. Van Dyke
General Church News.


The special feature OF the observance will
be the extent TO which all Protestant
bodies will take part. In this innovation,
which has been coming on for several years,
Baptists and Congregationalists Will lead.
A very large proportion OF churches Of
these denominations will take some notice
of the season. A good many Will keep holy
week by having services every evening. and
also on Good Friday and practically all will
have elaborate services at Easter. Meth
odists and Presbyterians will observe the
season to some extent, but less widely than
others. Marked changes are taking place in
the forms Of service. and also in the extent
20 which the traditional church year, be-
ginning at Advent and continuing to Trim
ity, is taught to Sunday-school children.
The opening week Of the year in January
was this year observed as a week of prayer
by SO few churches IS to make it almost
true to say that, an institution in the
religious world, the Evangelical Alliances
week Of prayer had passed away. In it's
place the week Immediately preceding
Easter Sunday will be observed very gener-
ally, and this In churches In Western as
well as Eastern cities.
Philadelphia, which Is popularity known
as a slow city, leads in many things. For
weekday services for business men during
Lent These services are held in down.
town Episcopal churches, beginning at about
1910 and lasting half an hour Great care
is taken that they never exceed the time
named. Addresses are made by prominent
clergy and laity. Hundreds of men attend
them every day during the whole forty days
OF the season. One service was found not
to be enough, and now a second one is held
in another church. Through the influence
of the Brotherhood OF ST Andrew these
noon services are to be held during the COM
ing Lent in larger number of cities than
ever before. From New England west to
the Mississippi 1t would be easier to name
he cities where they will not than where
they are planned to be held. The custom is
growing to such an extent that other than
Episcopal churches are adopting it.
It is no secret that the real reason why
the Rev. DR.. Henry Van Dyke, pastor of
the Brick Church, in New York. declined
the professorship in Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity at the last moment. and after he had
resigned his pastorate, was the position of
Presbyterianism in New York at the pres
ent moment. Leading Presbyterian laymen
in that city told him that 1t was not a mat
ter of personal preference, or of doing the
most good in the long run, but that 1t was
a matter of helping the Presbyterian de-
nomination, not alone in his own city, but
throughout the country, which at this time
could very iii afford a change 1t is under
stood that the conditions referred to are
those obtaining In the Fifth-avenue Presby-
terrain Church, where things are not too
harmonious; those obtaining in the Madison
square Church. where the Rev. DR.. Charles
H Parkhurst is no longer the power he
once was and those obtaining in other parts
OF the city, with four large congregations
pastorless. There are indications of inn
provemsnt, 1t is said, and the Rev. DR.. Van
Dyke was told that he must not check
them. The whole denomination is held TO be
affected by the decision.
nh 1or,oeh v,o.ofo Il, Avoorico apd sava
those making fer the interior decoration of
St. Paurs Cathedral, London. the largest
in the world. is being made for the Wade
memorial in Cleveland. The panels alone
contain GO square feet, and the cost of the
mausoleum in which the mosaic is to be
placed Is to be $150O00 The work, apart
from the honor to the city possessing it, is
held to be q marked incentive to religious
art in America, which had already reached
the standard of that art in Europe in all
things, and in some surpassed them. The
subject of the mosaic, by Wilson and exc
that is followed by the Christian. Seven
sturdy oarsmen propel a boat that is piloted
by Time and hold aloft emblems bearing
the standards of the patron saints or Eng
land in St. George, of France in st. Denis.
Of Spain in st. James, etc. The bow and
stern Of the boat are not seen, typifytng
the life that comes from and goes to the
unknown. The mosaic is full of symbology,
and IS decorative and not pictorial; Com
10 represent American Christian art, and
will afterward be exhibited in Cleveland be-
fore being placed In the Wade mausoleum.
The Baptist Home Mission and the Publ
cation Societies, which have been at logger
heads for some time over division Of their
work, have met and agreed on future ac-
ton, and the danger of another Baptist
congress, similar to the famous one over
the Bible question, has been averted. The
trouble arose over the charge that the Pub
ncation Society was exceeding its preroga-
tives as an agent Of the Baptist denomina-
ton in sending out missionaries; At the
conference Ii is understood that the Publ
cation Society practically admitted this
TO be the fact. but said that 1t had been the
result Of growth, and not any intention to
trespass upon a field peculiarly that of the
Home Mission Society. The sending of DR..
Tiaz to Clba and 70 Mexico was a case in
point, and the equipping of the famous
chapel cars was another case. The expla-
nation was made that the chapel cars were
originally intended for colportage, not for
evangelical work. and it was agreed that
no more should be built. and that converts
from them should be referred to mission
aries of the Home Mission Society for bap-
tism. The purposes of the respective So
cieties have been newly defined, and will
undoubtedly be approved by the denomina-
ton at the May anniversaries in San Fran
cisco.
Gen. Thomas ]. Morgan, secretary of the
American Baptist Home Mission Society.
y
will be accompanied by Mrs. Morgan, and
goes partly for rest and partly TO examine
the educational and religious conditions
there. The general missionary of the Pap
lists North, the Rev. II. +. Mccormick, has
already arrived at San Juan and begun
work. General Morgan WILL in company
with him, make a tour of the island From
Ponce General and Mrs. Morgan expect to
so to Guantanamo and Santiago, in both of
which places Baptist churches are already
established, and where the general mission
ary.. the Rev. II. r. Mosely, is already at
work. A trip viii be made into the interior
Of eastern Cuba. Baptsts are leading in
evangelical work in both of these fields,
and are TO be asked to do more on the re-
turn Of General Morgan, with definite
knowledge of the wants of the fields.
The tour which General and Mrs Balling-
ton Booth are now making through the
country has for one Of its objects the hold
Ing OF conferences with pastors in the large
cities IN an endeavor TO arrange with them
a plan of cooperation by which the Volun-
teers are to take large share in future
evangelical work. 1t is the desire of the
Volunteers to be made the organization
through which churches shall do home mis-
sion WrnrL