Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-16
RELIGIOUS NOTES
AND COMMENTS

II skyscraper Office building Is 'indig-
enous as 1t were, to Notwithstanding
progress why not skyscraper church!
asks the Architects and Builders journal.
AS modern enterprise in the material world
often requires enormous plants for natural
development, why should not theology, In
keeping pace with the progress and de-
mands of the times, be extensively housed
also?
John D. Rockefeller, chief exponent OF
| big things in this age, has pondered these
questions and answered them IN the al
| firmative. He Is arranging to build In
Cleveland, Ohio, the biggest church In the
world Announcement of his intention has
just been made by the Rev. DIR. Charles
A. Eaton, pastor Of the Euclid Avenue Bap-
fist Church of that city. where Mr.. Rock
efeller began his remarkable career and
where he first engaged in church work
1t is said that Mr.. Rockefeller will donate
$1O,OOO,OOO toward carrying out ms plans,
including the erection of the building ana
the endowment of the work to be carried
out there. A great family house for the In
dividual rather than a family church the
new structure is to be. Modern metropoi-
itan ideas and land limitations require that
1t shoot far up into the air in order to
provide room for the many branches OF &C.
clesastical undertaking to be housed there.
Present plans contemplate an immense
structure every foot of the floor space to
be used for church purposes The nearest
approach to this in the world will be the
new Broadway Tabernacle in New YORK,
which is to mount ten stories in the air.
The relations between the church and the
workinsman have been called into prom
hence by the setting apart OF sunday sep
tcmber 3, for sermons on the LABOR question
from Presbyterian pulpits throughout the
country. The Presbyterian Church, North,
is the first denomination in this country to
make rapprochement between the churches
and the wage-earnerS distinct and Or
ganiZed part of its work. This was done
when the Presbyterian Board of Home Mis-
sions created new department, called the
department of church and labor, with the
Rev. Charles Stelzle at the head. When
asked recently by a representative or the
New York Church Economist (undenomlna-
tionaD If the attitude OF organized LABOR
toward the church could be defined, MI.
Stelzle replied that "a very wide obserYa-
ton, covering all parts of the country, In
GLIDING such extreme sections as the Colo
rada mining regions, convinced him that the
working man was feeling more kindly to-
ward the church than was the case few
years ago." He made the statement that
organized labor is more hostile at present
toward the Roman Catholic Church than
toward the Protestant churches by rea-
son of the recent attitude on social Ques-
lions taken by Rome.
George Perry Morris, writing in the Bos-
ton Transcript of the work done in this d.
rection by the Presbyterian Church. says:
THE Presbyterian Church has shown very
marked craftsmanship by giving this work
its present status and in selecting MT.
Stelzle as secretary. By order Of the last
general assembly, each presbyterial home
missionary committee Is instructed to ap-
point a subcommittee for the purpose OF
ma king a systematic study of the entire
labor problem in their respective localities;
| these committees are ordered to cooperate
with the workingman's department of the
Board of Home Missions, Of which Mr..
alzla ic ha la
tablish in connection with the Presbyterian
ism of every city In America board Of ex-
perts who may be able to inform the
churches with respect to the aims of Or
ganized labor and to inform the working
men concerning the mission of the church.
He and the church he serves realize the
power Of the printing press and the pam
phlet in proganda work, and how II Is be-
ing used against religion b those who are
secularsts and opposed to any religious So
luton of the social problem. Consequently
he has prepared a literature or propaganda
for his cause.
'.Realizing the value OF the pledge system
of enlisting workers in reform movements
and the tactical value of having working
men for his assistants In the work he Is
trying to do, he has drafted a pledge in
which the pledger promises to make an
earnest effort to win workingmen for Christ
and the church.
plans devised by Mr.. Stelzle, and one which
has been working long enough to prove It's
worth, is that which already has brought
so many clergymen into trades union meet
| ngS as delegates from ministers aSSocia-
| tons or presbyteries and has brought repre-
sentatives of trades unions into the minis
| ters' associations in a like capacity. These
| delegates have all privileges save that of
voting. They cooperate in bringing about
municipal reform and eradication Of social
| evils. and they establish cordial relations
! between the institutions they represent.
This plan is in operation now in about
| fifty cities"
! Special interest in the problems of labor
| has been manifested within the year by
| the Protestant Episcopal and by the Con-
grega tionalist churches in this country,
| while in England, the same writer states,
| the most conspicuous progress along the
same lines rests with the Methoddsts.
| Inquiry may be made into the fact that
| more than three-fifths of the members Of
| the Young Mems Christian Association are
| not members of any church. This condition
| has attracted the attention of number Of
| the ministerial and active lay members of
| the different denominations, and they see
| in the figures given In the annual state
| ment of the association itself reason for
concern.
They declare there is some fundamental
cause for such condition. and they would
know whether the association ministers
more to the spiritual needs Of the individual
| than the church and in what respect the
Christian denominations are lacking that
| they fall to attract such large percentage
| of persons who are avowedly Of the Chris
| TAM faith.
The subject has not heretofore received
| the earnest attention that II IL now at
| tracing, because the figures have not been
| so large as Is shown by the latest report
| of the association. In addition. the mat
| ter has been given greater publicity through
an editorial in the Standard. the official
publication Of the Baptist denomination. In
! substance this editorial says:
1.-THE year book just issued by the Y. M.
| c. A. gives some figures which may rightly
start Inquiry from those interested in the
| progress and work OF the church. The .628
| associations In North America have men,
bership of SS1 .9e2. Out of this paeznbership
| It Il affirmed that more than three-fifths
| Of the number are not connected with
| churches. This means that at least 10000
| with and nominally related to a Christian
| organization are yet for some reason un-
| willing to enter Into fellowship with the
church. These oannot be associats mem