The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-06-06
BY s. DEXTER HAMILTON.
From Munsey's Magazine for May.

/ DA o. OhAAnn hAuALAON.
|
From M1nsey's Magazine for Nay.
When the history of any institution
becomes more important than is
present activities, it is safe to say
that its work in the world is done.
As long as the two mutually support
and grace each other, the past lend
ing a venerable dignity to the present
and the present continuing the dis
tinctions of the past, the combination
is one that commands the highest
reverence.
Not every one is willing to allow
this blended glory to New York's
Trinity Church. Some affect to be-
lieve, perhaps do believe, that it is
chiefly interesting as a landmark
that its burning in I776, and the fact
that Washington retired to its chapel
of St. Paul for prayers after his inau-
guration ceremony, are among its
most modern claims to renown. To
others, Trinity Church means Trini-
ty Corporation, rich and powerful
organization owning lands and long
leases of lands; renting out tene-
ments conducting mastery suits
against pretenders to its riches; an
organization not always too scrupu-
lous, in the view of such persons,
in the management of its proper
ties, having the real estate owners
passion for income rather than the
zealot's enthusiasm for charity. 1t
is among such as these that are found
those credulous souls who seize upon
and spread, perhaps even originate,
reports to the effect that the Easter
flowers at Trinity cost twenty thous-
and dollars.
Again, there are those so bound up
in the present work of the famous
church that the perspective of its past
is lost upon them. These are those
who teach in its sewing schools, who
visit the sick in its hospitals, its poor
gymnasiums or instruct them in the
arts of carpentry and iron-work, who
rescue sailors from the waterside perils
that beset Jack ashore, who teach
English to foreigners, who save the
poverty stricken dead from nameless
graves, who brighten poor homes with
Aowers-those who busy themselves,
in short, with all the complex and
manifold missions which charity in
cludes in great city.
There is something to be said in
favor of each Of these views. Trinity
is the pre-eminent church of the Prot
estant Episcopal faith in the New
World. Its history is the most digni-
fed and interesting. It's holdings are
the most valuable, and as business
corporation it is conducted with the
greatest executive ability. 1t is
wide-reaching philanthropic center.
Historically it is not less interesting,
though the tales of it are less grim,
than any of the old Congregational
churches of New England, where
"the shortest way with disenters"
and with witches was once topic of
great religious Importance.
TRINITY, MOTHER OF CHURCHES.
1t is the mother of churches. Up
and down New York and throughout
the State steeples rise and bells ring
that would have had no existence but
for the early munifcence of this old
foundation. From the days when
cage, pillory, and whipping post
stood before the City Hall, and the
first square little church edifce was
planned, the days when the Bishop of
London, DR.. Henry Compton, was
made its nominal rector by King Will
liam III, through the line of bewig-
ged and powdered clergymen, Tories
and Wings, down to the Rev. DIR.
Morgan Dix, Trinity has been not
only the richest church of its denom-
ination in the American metropolis,
but the most generous.
Its early gifts read quantity enough
now. 1t began its career as a giver
in I745 by presenting the church at
Rye with cloth for altar, pulpit, and
desk. In 1897, when Paine's cage
of Reason" was popular, the vestry
of Trinity distributed two hundred
copies of the "Antidote to Deism."
In I77I it contributed five hundred
dollars toward a public market. In
1865 it gave two lots to the city for
ferry to Paulus Hook, now Jersey
City. To Kings College, later Col
umbia University, it made grant of
land between Murray and Barclay
streets, extending from Church street
to the North River, a grant valued al
four hundred thousand dollars. In
1898 it gave money and lots to ST.
Marks; between 1904 and 1871 il
put Grace Church upon its feet with
gift of twenty-five lots. In 1872 il
presented thirty-three lots to St.
Georges. Both of these famous New
York churches began their careers a:
chapels of Trinity.
The parish now contains nine
churches Trinity itself, the dignifet
building set in seeming incongruity al
the head of the busiest, the most ma
terial and worldly street on earth
St. Paul's, little farther up Broad
way; St. Johns on Varick street
surrounded by warehouses and tene
ments Trinity Chapel, on Twenty
Fifth street near Broadway St. Chry
sostom's Chapel, at Seventh avenue
and Thirty-Ninth street, in the mids
of colored district; St. Augustine
Chapel, on Houston street between