The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-06-17
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A STRONG DISCOURSE ENTITLED,
WHAT CHURCH OWES CHILDREN"
The Rev. Howard Melish Talks Whole
somely on the Promise of Zechariah
to His Discouraged COuntrymen -
Mans Thirst For Highteousness

somely on the Promise OF Zecharia l
to His Discouraged Countrymen =
Mans Thirst For Righteousness.
BROOKLYN, n. Y.-"What the Church
Owes the Children" was the subject of a
strong sermon preached by the Rev. How.
ard Meish, rector of the Church of the
Holy Trinity. A number OF requests fol-
ats publication have been received and it is
| herewith given. The text was from Xecha-
/ riah Wits: The streets of the city shall
be full OF boys and girls playing in the
! streets Thereof" Mr. Meish said:
| Zechariah gave this promise as a word of
encouragement to his discouraged country
men when on their return from their exile
they were trying in the face of enemies
and great obstacles to rebuild Jerusalem.
The time will surely come he babe them
believe, when the city shall stand once
more on Mount Zion n all its former
strength and spendor, blessed with that
greatest Of all life's MISREPRESENTATION
at play he streets of the city shall be
full of boys and girls playing in the streets
thereof."
One of the wonderful stories which cur
last census told was the phenomenal
growth of the American city. Briefly, the
story is this: While the population OF the
country in the nineteenth century was
multiplying itself fifteen times the popu-
lation of the cities and towns was multi
plying itself $50 times. Whereas the popu-
lation OF the farming community has been
multiplied by two in fifty years, chat of
cities has been multiplied by ten; IN 1900
one man in every twenty-five lived in
city. To-day it is one man in every three.
The tremendous concentration OF men,
women and children in our cities is one of
the most significant and startling facts of
our times.
The city is built! The prophets promise
has been fulhlled-the streets are full of
boys and girls. But what fulfillment!
They are playing in our streets because we
have built our cities IN such way that
there is no ether Place for them to play.
In our tenement districts especially the
houses stand so closely together that there
is scarcely space for light and air to enter
rooms, not to mention courts, back yards,
play grounds and small parks. Within
short walk of where we are to-day are
hundreds of families living in one or two
small rooms to a family, rooms often
gloomy at midday. OF course, the chill
dren are in the streets.
And what places the streets are for these
little ones! Look over the pages of our
papers day b. day with the children in
mind and you read the sad story of this
little child crushed by car, of that one
manned for life by some wagon. Go into
the Children's Court and see boys of
twelve and fourteen arrested for crimes
which would send men to the penltentlary
for long period of yeara. Between the
crowded tenements ard yhese injuries.
deaths and crimes. there is the relation OF
cause and effect. The ten9nents drive the
boys into the streets, and there they are
forbidden by the police and prevented by
traffic to play games which kept me and
my boy friends from going to the devil.
No! | don't mean that insinuation. The
good God won't let the devil have those
boys. They may become impertinent
on the cross, but conditions shaped them,
and God will give chem, III my heart OF
hearts. / believe, new chance TO become
like Him in tina, new city, Jerusalem,
which is not built by mems hands. And
yet true it is that in our cities boys who
are denied the healthy amusements of boy
life drift into the crap games and form
street gangs which terrify neighborhoods
and brutalize boys and turn the spirit of
mischief into the demon of crime. Jacob
Riis has told us that between the tenement
and the penitentiary lie has found beaten
path, Travelled by the feet of hundreds Of
our boys every year
1t is about this somewhat new and very
serious situation of the children OF our
streets that | want you to think with me
this morning.
IL Is OIltH SdlN, DIS al dkohiSh
the church assuming this responsibility, |
that the church's one mission is to preach |
the gospel, and | want to say at the start |
that the purpose of the church has never |
been more correctly defined. The gospel
is the message Of the good tidings that
God cares for men, that God is love. Once
let man accept that message and let 1t
sink into his soul that it becomes the prin-
ciple of his life, and even though he lives
in a badly ven Hated house in a crowded
district, surrounded by evil influences, yet
he will be a good citizen, son, father, hus-
band and friend. Yes, and once let a land
ord receive the gospel in his heart and he
will transform his tenemei4t into decent
abiding places if it {, 5 HIM half his IN
come. For the gospel of the Son OF God IS
The regeneratlng power IN the world winch
makes all things Aew. 10 preach 1t clear
y, with conservation and power, Is the SUI
creme. all important, never-to- be-forgotten
mission of the church of Christ.
But how S the gospel to be preached IN
our crowded cities to-day? it is as i'm
1ortant to know the way rs the destlna-
ion when one Is trying to reach definite
point in the world. Some men fancy that
he city needs nothing more than coun-
nv village-a preacher and bllilding-to
nave the gospel preached with power.
There was a famous test case OF that
preaching on the East Side in Manhattan.
A man of ability determined to preach the
gospel every Sunday and do nothing else,
believing that people would come as they
lid before the city became what it is to.
lay. After several years he gave up the
work as proved failure He was a john
he Baptist crying in the city wilderness,
,ut unlike Johns experience the people
lid not come out to listen to the voice.
And believe it is because they were wait
ne for the Christ. Not the voice in the
wilderness, but the man to go about doing
.ood, healing, strengthening, encouraging,
Inspiring. Sermons. services and prayer
meetings are preaching the gospel and do
God. Many Of us could not live without