The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-27
A CITY's
The International Sunday-SchOOl Les
son for August 4, is ''The Close OF
Paul's Second Missionary Journey
COrinth.".A Acts 1S: 1-22... !. 49,.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

It should be required of every
preacher, editor and moral teacher in
a city that least once every few
months he make a quiet tour or all
phases Of city 1ife-through the ten
derloin," with it's, to him, shocking
amusements the variety theatres, the
dance halls, the Chinese restaurants,
the mill districts, the foreign qarters,
ratio clubs. For the first problem
OF our day is the problem Of the city;
and it cannot be solved by men who
have only a secondhand knowledge
of it, An open-eyed view of things
as they are is the first essential equip
ment of a reformer. Whoever would
improve the existing order must make
all his theories bend to the ascertain
ed facts.
Only of late is the Christian Church
awakening to the fact that this ire
mendous and increasing city problem
requires new methods and new men.
It is in vain that we endeavOr to meet
the e~xigencies Of this extraordinary
occasion by country church methods
of several generations ago. An, entire
new oOk of tactics needs to be writ
ten by the leaders Of the armies Of
righteousness. Fol the Church sim
ply must make good at urban centers.
If she fails there, she meets her Wa
terloo. The tide of emigration on the
part of metropolitan congregations
from the districts where there are the
most people,. simply these PEG.
pie are no longer of the old-fashioned
church-going type Of native-born
Americans, is an almost incredible
blunder. The apostolis Church bold
~ attacked the city problem. We
find Paul face to face with Corinth
49, III AloA = -Dlol Tho nh1rrob
of todoy cannon be behind the Church
of the first century.
The Wickedest City.
There has been more than a little
talk as to which city on this western
continent merits the unenviable dis
tinction Of being the wickedest. /
think l know, but to Mention names
would serve no good On
this point there may be dispute, but it
is generally conceded that in the world
at the time of the apostles, Corinth
held the palm for d~epravfty. It very
name had been changed into an ad-
~jective, and ito Co~rinthanize" meant
to debauch. With a mixed population
like ~present-day Port Said, and, like
the latter city, situated at a crossway
of commerce, Corinth extended hospi-
tality to all the vices Of all the people
of it's day. It was the commercial
and political capital of Greece, and
its games were famous, so that the
apostle who dwell in the midst of this
multiform life for a year and a half
more han once used the figure Of the
C%orinthian games to typify the
Christians Struggle with. evil.
Nothing is wholly bad. and when
ever one is tempted to utter a jere-
miad concerning a moern city it is
to be remembered that even in de-
PRAYED Corinth the Lord said, "I nave
much people in this city, Some per-
Sons go to a modern city and discover
only vice. Others go and find them
selves in touch with powerful and in
est elements In human life. Paul had
no difficulty in allying himself with a
community of fellow craftsmen-fOr
his problem, like that of many another
stranger going to a city, was the one
of self-support-and he discovered the
Jewish g as a light house of
the one true God amid all the heather
blackness that environed it.
The City a Playground.
Paul was a city man. Yet he never
became wholly Injured to the wick
edness and the emptiness of city life.
He was as greatly affected by the fri
volity Of his metropolis as by its
vices. The city is not only the work.
shop of the twentieth century, but also
its playground. Men and women go
to the city for a good time" How
empty and inane is much of the pleas
ure that IS PROVIDED Tor these resi-
dents and visitors every thoughtful OBJ
server has remarked. There are few
things more d~iscouraging than a
night spent on New York's Great
White Way" It is not only that peo-
pie are so often vulgar and wicked,
but also that they are frivolous and
unsatisfactory.
Our urban civilization has created
artificial standards which are vicious.
The told the other day
how a certain woman testified in court
this kind OF people easily find their
way into court-that her social stand
ing required her to wear at least three
different dresses a day, each costing
about $500. and that she never wore
the same dress twice! In the ace of