The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-30
WHY'S or OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
DYsO0MTORTs THE PEwLEss MAN
HAS TO ENDURE.

~ Nv US
Reasons fsr Net Hiring Q Pew m New Ysrx
Compliant ef Too Many Demands on
Pscketbeeks-Up 10 Date Preacher
Not ssciable Enough for some.
"A good deal 10 aid these days about
people not going TO church and about
how 20 get them 10 20 30 church, aud moth
inK whatever 10 ssd about the reasons
some people nave for staying away from
church, remarked the family man. 1T
wouldn't be . bad idea, I think, 70 give
the other side Of the story"
what In your reasoni was asked.
Have 20 stan too long waiting for q
seat. OF late We have given up trying 10
attend any church which has a live preacher
and good music.
Baptist. Congregational. Presbyterian;
E~piscopslian, it's all the same. One must
stand, az q rule, until after the service be-
gins. being jostled and stepped on by other
persons who sweep by and up the sisles
into tho best pews.
We used to try to get there early.
and found We had only h longer to stand.
Then we went later and were sent from
downstairs TO the gallery, and in one case
from n side Of the gallery to the other.
although the church wasn't half allied.
That was the worst Of IL, always finding
the church practically empty and having to
gaze at long rows Of empty pews.
ooh, yes. I know what you are going
to say-that the pews are rented and must
be held for the owners till after the service
has beer begun, and that II I want to 10
sure Of a seat I ought TO hire n
"No, / won't rent . pew, or half Q pew,
or one sitting even; first, because I can't
afford IL, and next because I dom believe
in IL. Probably IL I had a pew l would be
lust as Indifferent as most ~pewholders are
to the standees, so I don't intend to give
myself the chance.
Take the Christian Science churches
for example. The same persons 60 Sum-
day after Sunday to two services and ait
In any chair they can get and seem glad Of
the chance. They dom rent pews and
sittIngs in those churches; neither do the
exercises include a sermon or specially
rood music. 1 went once and was bored
almost to d~eath-and yet Christian Science
churches are filed to the doors"
1--we stopped going 70 church because
every time 1 did go I caught cold" put In Q
listener. Il would not be comfortable Ia
my own parlor IL the front door was opened
and shut and the parlor door opened and
shut every second or two, and that is how
1t 10 in most churches.
ANY one sitting at the aisle end Of a pew
literally gets II in the neck every time the
church door opens, and for a couple OF days
afterward he feels all banged up-at least,
that is what happened to me. The theatres
and opera houses know better than 10 have
the outer street doors within a few feet Of
the auditorium"
i used to 20 to church regularly when Q
girl, but 1 rave dropped OF OF late because
IL costs too muoh,- remarked a woman.
AT the church / attend they make a spe-
cialty of little envelopes, which are handed
or mailed to every mcmber OF the con-
greg alton every other week or so. No
one escapes.
I'm one set Of envelopes one ls asked to
put a certain sum every week for foreign
missions, say. The next set sollcits con-
trib utions for homo missions. The tract
society, church extension, the poor OF the
church, disabled ministers and half a dozen
other worthy objects are all represented
by a set Of envelopes. 'r"
Those envelopes used TO get on my
nerves. I would tuck them away In Q
and saw them Ifelt guilty.
mo one ever dunned me or asked what
I did with the envelopes, but all the same
/ felt guilty when 1 didn't put something 10
church, no end Of appeals from the Woman's
Aid Society, Christmas offerings, Easter
offerings and pew rent, besides a lot moro
collections for individual cases needing
assistance.
The needs OF suffering humanity were
kept 30 before me thatI felt like apologizing
whenever l appeared at church IN q ne~
gown or hat. 30 the winter / went West
I gave up my sitting and have not taken
another.
sBut there 10 my cousin and his wife,
b are church members and used 10 go TO
church three times q day in their homs
town, and who now scarcely ever 90 TO
church. With them IL 10 certainly not .
question of straitened circumstances.
The cousin was found in his library smoks
ing an after dinner cigar.
you. ought to be at Sunday school, 70"
marked the visitor.
aOur Sunday school meets in the morn
ing" he returned with a bland smile.
HYou go then, perhaps
well, / can't say that I do. served
my time though as a Sunday school teacher
before I came to New York"
And You don't go to church now.
well, l pay for part OF a pew In Blank
church and we sit in il once in a while, bus
really i must confess we have gotten INTO
the habit Of staying at home Sunday morns
ings and going visiting in the evenings
Itba WOnoer your minister oocsh So
after you"
-Ah, that's just 10. / dom believe the
minister knows or cares whether we are
in M places or not, and besides he is one O.!
the new fashioned ministers who don't cal
on their congregation. His assistant gets
around n a year of an afternoon usuallyi
when no one is at home.
when we first came to New York ws
attended church regularly. and the minister
then in charge, and he had no assistants
made q point Of calling on every memher
OF the congregation, sometimes dropping
in at the place Of business of men whom no
did not meet at the church or NJ their hons
when he made an afternoon call.
That made us feel quite at home in his
church. But he left, and his successor,
who is q very fine man, introduced many
new features, among them IN assistantI
and after a preliminary round OF calls a.
railroad speed, he relegsted all calls, eIceps
those on the sick and dying. TO his assistants
a worthy man enough. but who cannot take
the pastors place in the affections Of tns
people Of the church.
After that i began 20 lose interest. hiter
the morning service the minister holds
reception in front OF the pulpit and says
he will be glad to greet any In the congre-
CATION, but there isn't much satisfactionl
| WoNWfa1 alonw In linz for n woaWa hannahnkot