The Washington herald., 1911-02-13

Rev. DIR. John Halls church, has Sc
cured a pastor in Rev. DR.. J. II. Jewett,
until now pastor of Carrs Lane Con-
ISregatiOnal Church, Birmingham. Eng
land. 1t has been without a pastor for
more than a year, since the resignation
| of Rev. DIR. J. Ross Stevenson, late OF
Chicago. and now pastor of Presby
terian church in Baltimore. The public
lof America, whether Christian or not, is
interested in the reason why this English
! minister is chosen.
! Said a member Of the Fifth Avenue
session the other day: Our church in
Fifth avenue was built to mold the con-
! gregatiOn that the Rev. DR.. John Hall
was able to gather. 1t is so large that
the ordinary minister, although excellent
and godly, cannot spiritually care for all
who fill it. That is, he cannot minister
! to so many on the usual lines. Failure
to do so, spells failure as q pastor, not
from his fault. but from the fault of the
building. Our only plan. so long as we
have the auditorium we have, is to find
a man who can minister on other lines,
viz. who is a pulpiteer and who under
takes to be no more than that Our need
was, and is, peculiar We found the
/ only man We thought able to meet il.
! We were compelled to md such a man
or face failure. or great danger OF fail
urc"
big" Churches Carry Burdens.
Men who have borne the responsibility
of making a success of religious work
in big church say they are not building
any more such churches if they can help
! themselves Within the year two at
tempts at building big churches in two
big cities have failed not for lack of
money but because of conditions con-
fronting the Fifth Avenue Church, New
York. 1t is not, however. extraordinarily
large, such. for example. the first
SpurgeOn erected IN London, which seated |
5,0O0. The Fifth Avenue Church seats |
about 5000 possibly not more than !
900 comfortably. The salary promised !
the new pastor is $lS.0C0 year, which !
includes a home.
1t is said. however. that he will decline |
to receive so large a sum, said to be the |
largest, with possibly one exception, |
paid to any minister in the world. The |
church is, even in it's reputed weakened !
condition, far larger than ever it was |
under the Rev. DIR. John Hall; larger at |
any rate in its gifts, and it has been |
such while without a pastor. 1t gives |
upward of $4,000 a year. only about |
$4,000 of which it spends at the Fifth |
avenue corner
n.
gives thousands of dollars to work in !
home and foreign mission fields; one of |
the greatest reservoirs of financial |
strength in the whole world devoted to !
Christian propaganda. And in spite of |
its difficulties with its large buildings. !
its reports show it to be larger in gifts |
than ever before. The prediction is made |
that its new pastor will become in Amer |
lea what he was in England, foremost |
pulpiteer. II |
Building on Earlier Foundations. |
The celebration of the fiftieth an
niversary of foreign missionary effort |
by the women of America, and its |
prominence because of the big con-
ventions now holding and to be held,
bring forward a score of women of
advanced ages and long memories to
say that work by women of America
for foreign missions previous to the
year 1860 was by no means the small
thing that some have imagined. AS
early as 1902 and 1904 Congregational
and Baptist women of Boston, New
York, and Philadelphia cO-operated,
and as early as 1921 women's societies
to the number of $50 were cooperating
with the American board. Less than
twenty years later. and fully a quar-
ter of a century earlier than the date
now celebrated, nearly 700 societies
were helping the board in it's foreign
work.
Immediately following the civil war
women found themselves, trained by
work for soldiers. idle because the SOL
diers had returned to their homes. MIS-
sions, including foreign missions, came
in to give work to trained but Others
wise idle hands. Hence, the develop
ment a little less than half a century
In WI IryH |
being celebrated. Some women are
to statements of those now
prominent in the conventions, not to
criticise sheir glowing addresses but
to set things right, and to
say that from 1900 onward to 1860
splendid foundations for what has fol-
lowed were laid. Ii
Women Propose FOlIow-up Plan.
Women who are especially interested in
missions at home are now to have |:
following the jubilee series of
by women identified with
missions in foreign lands. Those women
are leaders in home missions societies of
Baptist, Congregational. Disciples of
Christ. Lutheran Methodist, Presbyte-
rian, United Presbyterian, and Reformed
and they are already assured
the cooperation of the Federal Council,
IN official body having 100000 members !
IN it, and the Home Missions Council,
made up of the official home mission r
societies. a
Instead Of the series of conventions,
such as has been held by the women
who work for foreign missions, these |
home missions leaders among women i
propose a series of educational institutes,
that shall study The local problem of each
;ity, and the duty of each city and its
district to the general work. No date
mas yet been set for the beginning of 4
he campaign.
immigration Problems Helped. Z
Home mission agencies are now at
work with Immigration Commissioner C
at the New York station, try !
ng to simplify and make more effective
religious work among incoming foreign I I
ers. When the present commissioner
,ame in he thought he found about c
lightly people waiting to come into touch
nth immigrants, and all representing re-
igious interests. He counted this great 6
lumber far too many, and it is said that +,
re contemplated putting an end to the
,areers of practically all of them. In A
showed, however. that most S
If these represent nationalities, while
ome came from clearinghouse. The
lumber of representatives of religious
work was about a dozen, and some OF
hese were necessary because of different
anguages. 1t is the purpose Of the com II
"a l., Ill