The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-06-08
"CHURCH and CHILDREN"
A Brilliant Sunday Discourse By Rev..
Howard Mslish.
The Promise Of zachariah to His Discouraged
Countrymeu.

BRooKLYS, N. Y.-"what the Church
Owes the Children" was the subject of a
strong sermon preached by the Rev. How
ard Melish, rector of the Church of the
Holy Trinity. A number of requests for
its publication have been received and it is
herewith given. The text was from Zecha.
riah Wits: "The streets of the city shall
isss BE- @ ttreS S boys faa Mr. ESb XIII bpaans .sa in the
Zechariah gave this promise as 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 badc 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 lifes benedictions-c children
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 our
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 l50 times Whereas the popu.
lation OF the farming community has been
multiplied by two IN fifty years, that 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 faces OF
our times.
The city is built, The prophets promise
has been fulilledAthe streets are iu,l OF
boys and girls. But what a fu,fimcnt!
They are paying in our streets Because we
have built our cities in such way that
there Is no other 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 Chldren's Court and see boys OF
twelve and fourteen arrested for crimes
which would send men to the penitentiary
for long period of years. Between the
crowded tenements and .hese INJURIES,
deaths and crimes. there is the relation OF
cause and effect. The tenements 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 insinuatlon. The
good God won't let the devil have those
boys. They may become impertinent
criminals, and die like the hardened thief
on the cross. but conditions shaped them,
and God will give hem, in my heart OF
hearts, | believe, a new chance to become
like Him in tina new city, Jerusalem
which Is not Duilt 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 nelghborhoods
and brutalize ooys 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.
1t is often said, as an argument against
the church assuming this responsibility,
that the churchs 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 r,en, that God is love. Once
let man accept that message and let 1T
sink into his soul that 1T becomes the prln-
ciple of his life, and even though he lives
in badly ven ilated house in crowded
district surrounded by evil influences, yet
he will be a good citizen, son, father, huss'
band and friend. Yes, and once let land
lord receive the gospel in his heart and he
will transform his tenemeiit into decent
abiding places ii it {. 5 him half his m
come. For the gospel of the Son of God 10
the regenerating power in the world which
makes all things new. To preach it clear
ly. with conservation and power, Is the su-
preme all important, never-to beforgotten
mission OF the church of Christ.
But how IS the gospel to be preached in
our crowded cities to-day? 1t is as i'm.
portant to know the way as the destina-
ton when one is trying to reach definite
point in the world. Some men fancy that
the city needs nothing more than coun-
try village-a preacher and buildng-to
have 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
did before the city became what 1T ID to-
day After several years he gave up the
work as proved failure. He was a John
the Baptist crying in the city wilderness,
but unlike Johns experience the people
did not come out to listen to the voice.
And believe it is because they were wait
ing for the Christ. Not the voice in the
wilderness but the man to go about dong
good, healing, strengthening, encouraging
inspiring. Sermons, services and prayer
meetings are preaching the gospel and DO
good Many OF US could not live without
them. But they do not monopoize preach
ing the gospel. Did Jesus do nothing but
Dreach and teach? The church needs to
the truth that life is impaired only through
a life. We are Chrst's body. May we
Drove il by going, as He went, into the
highways and back alleys, doing good,
bringing hope to the discouraged, lifting
up the fallen, taking little children into
our arms, and so assuring them as Christ
assured the world that love regns en-
throned above this world of pain, sorrow
and hardship. When the church Is a man
Hesitation OF Christ among men, as Jesus
was OF God, not merely by speaking and
sneing and communion, but by living
working, helping in the world the gospel
of Christ will be truly preached,
Let me specify. One man may stand in
a pulpit by telling of Gods love- give hope
10 some poor mother who is almost In de-
snair over .er boy. Another man, ami
mated by Gods love. may furnish a CLUB
room where young men may spend their
evenings apart from the dangers OF the sa'
loon, and by SO doing give hope TO the
mother whose boy goes there. Both prepeh
the gospel OF hope. one IN words ana the
other in deeds. A preacher gives strong
sermon against the saloon and his hearers
.ay ba ~ preachinq the gospel. A man