The church in the city

Contents

Chatteb Page

IXTRODUCTIOX 9

I. The CnrECH ix the M.^hket Place. . . 15

Introduction

If by its profound philosophy that monument of genius, piety, and erudition, "The City of God,'' was "the death warrant of ancient society,'' it was also, despite its mystic extravagances, the charter and vindication of the social purposes and program of Christianity. Nevertheless, the world yet awaits the fulfillment of the divine ideal in the production, through the agency of the people of God, of a society adapted to all the needs of man, a society that both permits and assists his complete development in the parts and qualities of his being.

Is this achievement possible of realization? Not if Rousseau was correct. "We are told," he says in treating the subject of civic religion, "that a nation of Christians would form the most perfect society conceivable. In this supposition I see only one great difficulty — that a society of true Christians would be no longer a society of men." Pessimism establishes its logic by definitions. Schopenhauer, for example, "asserts that speculation is for action, wisdom for life, and then sophistically argues that we should not expect a metaphysician to be a saint." Christianity cannot organize society if it is itself inhuman. But if the teachings of Jesus and the

INTKODUCTION

power which he imparts to his disciples, instead of making demigods or other abnormalities, produce characters of virtue joined with compassion, we may confidently expect that the result of the continued progress of Christianity will be the attainment of higher social values.

Who is able to study the modern city and its relation to the life of rural communities and of the nation without being seized with the conviction that the city is the focus of human need and opportunity, and that here the future of civilization is to be very largely determined? The growth of cities both in size and number has not only not been retarded by improved methods of communication and travel, but is being constantly accelerated. That this movement will cease seems unlikely, because, however attractive and healthful country residence may seem, certain necessities, solid advantages, and pleasures draw the masses toward the centers. But the crowding together of great populations into a contracted space brings to a head all the issues of their conduct and relationships. Samuel Johnson once exclaimed, ^The full tide of existence is at Charing Cross.'' That stream also rolls past Trinity's new cross, and it flows from town to town through all the Avenues, Strands, Broadways, and Main Streets of the world.

The modern city is a vast improvement over its prototypes and predecessors, but is nevertheless corrupt. It needs redemption, transforma,-

INTRODUCTION

tion and development, and that for this work the Church is fundamental I am evermore deeply impressed. The office of the Church is to promote religion, which is the creator of moral ideas and the foster mother of the principles of self-denial and sacrifice; for it is religion which empowers the mind to conquer the evil solicitations of depraved nature and of the outer world, and which expresses itself in movements for social amelioration, and in representative deeds of virtue and of valor. Phillips Brooks exhibited a keen sense of the vital place of the Church in the regeneration of the city when he said, "The Church is simply the ideal world. A perfect Church would be a perfect world." But the Church is as yet far from the perfection which it seeks. It has never been perfect. The saying is true that "The Church, even in apostolic days, was by no means immaculate. It was being saved, not wholly sanctified ; but its very essence and its inmost spirit was a life of brotherhood and of practical love upon this earth." The surest proof that the Church is still being saved is the fact that in the most recent years it is renewing its ancient devotion to mankind, and is undertaking with a rekindled zeal to translate into terms of human experience the social teachings of Jesus Christ. Doubtless it will be by this route that the Church will move toward the goal of perfectness.

"Know thyself" is as wise a law for organiza- 11

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tions as for individuals. The Church, conscious of its incompleteness, and therefore quick and powerful, looks out upon the world with comprehension and with holy intent : it should also look within upon its own life and operations. The Church needs to know the churches — what they are doing, and for what immediate as well as ultimate ends; what methods they pursue, and what movements are expressed in them; what agencies they possess and seek to attain in order to make their work effective. A complete scientific study and classification of churches has never been made. Perhaps the time for this is not yet ripe. Certainly, the present discussion is not offered as such an achievement, but as an introduction to some of the problems and issues involved in the relation of the Church to the life of the city. It will be understood that recognition of the supreme crisis of the city involves no disparagement of the important work of country churches and pastors. Indeed, attention is especially called to the fact that a competent view of the matter represents the Christian forces in rural districts as being engaged in constructive labors for the spiritual life of the town. While the severest contests of religion against irreligion and wickedness take place in city buildings and streets, preparations for the struggle are often made in quiet places of reserve and of power, and there also are produced the elements which reenforce and strengthen the

INTRODUCTION

armies of righteousness. Besides which, the country is a land of itself, a lovely land, which has its own life and problems that deserve and rightly receive appropriate separate consideration at the hands of specialists.

This book is the fruit of experience in five city parishes of widely different types, of observations made possible by proximity to other toilers and by travel, and of much reading and correspondence, in the course of which too many obligations have been incurred to permit of references. The thought of the writer is to offer to the knowledge of church life and labors some contribution which may prove to be suggestive and helpful to at least a portion of those persons who are engaged in the conquest of the city for itself and for Christ. As to the achievement of this purpose, all I would claim is the attempt. Feci quod potui.

Frederick DeLand Leete.

Chapter I The Church In The Market Place

The central city church is a standing protest against impiety and the devil of greed. Where highways meet, and throngs crowd and push; where human tigers lurk, and rush upon their prey, and man-spiders weave nets of lust, trapping the unwary and the luckless; where the good are too busy to feel the sense of brotherhood, and rich and poor alike struggle for perishable gain, the church tower is lifted as a symbol of warning, of remonstrance, and of allurement to paths of purity, justice, and peace.

The church at the center is an agent of righteousness. As the bell of the temple of God rings out over marts of trade its call to prayer, profane lips are suddenly hushed, and minds secularized by toil and care become conscious of something good and true in themselves, and in the life about them. When church doors open to pour upon the streets a throng of worshipers, a stream of influence sweeps through the city which is more cleansing in its effects than hydrants emptied upon its pavements, or a river's tide sweeping through its alleys.

The downtown church is a divine monitor: its gray walls speak of righteousness, its open doors of gospel welcomes, and its vaulted roof of heavenly love and protection. The conveyance of the dead, standing before the portals of the sanctuary, is a frequent preacher of mortality. The knowledge that a building dedicated to God stands on the street corner, or just down the block, and the sights and sounds which attend its presence in the vortex of the city's pride and shame, are a constant moral force, the more potent because subtle and pervasive.

It is vindication of Christian philanthropy to maintain centers of religious and ethical culture in the midst of great and needy populations. To be where temptations are fierce, where life is raw and red, where human nature is subjected to great strains, and character is swiftly made or broken, is to be in the focus of opportunity to serve and to save. Does the membership of the Church regard men? Is it to themselves rather than to theirs that it is devoted? Is its strength for weakness, its comfort for striving, its healing skill for souls in extremis? Then it will not withdraw its forces from business districts, from hotel and boarding-house neighborhoods, or from the slums. In each of these localities Christian intelligence and purpose will hold the ground, adapting institutions and methods to such conditions as may be developed. The surrender of strategic sites for central city church work is

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due, in part at least, to some form of selfishness ; to the cowardice which runs from perils, to the laziness which dreads to face new problems and duties, or to avarice and pride w^hich pursue and ape the rich at whatever loss of usefulness and of respect. The spectacle of prosperous residence wards being supplied with churches more and more costly, while the heart of the town is served by cheap and tawdry missions, or abandoned to ungodliness, is an omen of evil to any city, and seems to many, not without reason, to be a startling disproof of Christian professions. The well to do have a right to own and to use \ good houses of worship, but Christianity should never desert the common people- He who came i to seek and to save that which was lost has no I part in such betrayals of the common good.

The church in the market place is a triumph of courage over doubt, of faith over calculation, and of the spiritual over the material. Such a church is not an easy achievement : it must be born again when it is old, and the pangs of its second birth may be severe; its living is a daily dying and rising again ; its victories are not easy and bloodless, but are won on crimson battlefields. The more glorious, therefore, are its conquests ! And itself is glorious, for it proves that the spirit of Christ is still in the earth and that Christianity cannot be overwhelmed and smothered, even by the smoke of a city. To men of affairs, who believe in getting things done, the

THE CHUEOH IN THE CITY

live, pulsating central church appeals strongly: it begets confidence in religion and in its power to grapple with modern issues ; it proves that the soul has a might of its own which builds institutions and sustains them at all costs.

In civic matters the church in the midst of the business sections often has an influence beyond that of a score of uptown societies, however intelligent and prosperous they may be. The church in sight is naturally better known to the people and to political and social leaders; its ministers are more often quoted because accessible ; its views are usually sought and considered in crises, and even concerning comparatively trivial incidents of public interest. This fact of itself constitutes an opportunity of a high order, which the alert preacher will seize, and by which the wise and strong leader will be able to deeply affect the thinking and manners of the people.

Throughout every city where the Church is focally powerful, religious interest is well diffused and impressively manifested. If an exception to this statement can be found, it is certainly noteworthy. The force of the argument may, however, be turned about, to the effect that religious vitality is displayed in strengthening the centers. Would that this were the case, but as a general proposition such a putting of the matter is unhistorical. Keligious leaders and organizations have in some instances realized

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the imperative necessity of going to the assistance of downtown work with labors and resources which have given them new life and respectability. But the church was in the center before it was in the suburbs, and the tide which flows back to it is that which first went out from it, leaving it shallow and weak, and reducing the common level of moral and religious influence. In many cities it will require heroic sacrifices and generations of service before sources of religious energy once held by the Church can be recovered and former effectiveness regained. Fortunate indeed are the cities which do not need to redig wells which once were filled and overflowing.

Is Christianity winning its way to the ultimate complete conquest of the American city? Statistics upon their surface seem to bear out the claim frequently made that religious ideals and standards are steadily coming to a position of ascendency, and into control of the thought and customs of civic life. A closer study of the facts does not, however, fully confirm this favorable judgment. It is doubtless true that the proportion of church members to population has increased in the cities of the land as a whole. But it must be asked how much of this increased membership represents merely a transfer of names from country parishes to city church rolls. It must also be inquired. What part of this record is due to the retention of names representing people who are but nominally in the church and not closely related to its life? The answers to such questions as these might greatly affect the estimates made of city church growth, and would doubtless give concern to the thoughtful.

This much is vitally true : the city needs Jesus Christ ; and if he is to control the massed multitudes of the great municipalities, his Church must be found wherever men congregate, and especially where they are packed together most closely. The cross should shine in the sun over crowded thoroughfares, above the tides of traffic, in the midst of the strife and strain of selfish lust. The bell which calls to divine worship, and which in strictly residence neighborhoods may sometimes need to be suppressed, may effectively ring insistent, suggestive, inviting notes over warehouse and countingroom. From this place of vantage servants of God, ministers and laymen, may march upon tenement, shop, and factory. Here the hosts of the Mighty One may meet and conquer the hosts of iniquity and the forces of oppression. Here must and will be fought the battle of the ages ; not on broad plains or mountain slopes, not on desert or sea, but in streets of towns, in commercial exchanges, in rolling mills and slaughterhouses, in railroad yards and department stores, in skyscrapers, and in blocks of homes which never saw green grass. How can the church desert its field in the con-

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gested center? Its presence and opportunity stir all the poetry of one's nature. What a call to serve, what a challenge to fearless action, what a blood-red life to live, that of Christ's church in the town's great heart! The response to this vocation will fix the destinies of the Kingdom of God.

The central church should be preserved both for the work it is doing in its own distinctive field, and also because it is the gateway of the inner and better city. Every city dweller is familiar with the fact that the town is divided into inner and outer portions, though the outer city is within and the inner city is very largely without, in the home wards and suburbs. A resident of Xew York once remarked to a person who had commented on the doings of the nightrevellers of America's metropolis : ^'These people are largely visitors. Our own citizens are mostly plain folks who go to bed at reasonable hours, and conduct themselves with much decency."

The stranger and the newcomer dwell downtown, where the day is darkened with smoke, and where the night is turned into day; where distracting sounds and dazzling lights confuse the mind, and where temptations of every nature spread their nets openly or covertly. Every large town is a devourer, especially of young life, and of its better qualities. Possessed of a keen zest for pleasures and novelties, young men and women are impressed by whatever strong forces they encounter. If Christianity is sanely and powerfully represented in the heart of the town, if its work there is done by influential people operating an adequate and efficient plant, more than an equal opportunity exists of conserving the moral value of this too easily diverted but most hopeful and necessary element of society. Young people who come to the city from smaller towns and from the country do not ^^just naturally" want to go wrong. When they do this, in nineteen cases out of twenty it is because the strongest current which they met in the days when they were floating uncertainly on the tide of social life, and before their associations and habits had become fixed, was misleading and dangerous.

The most important needs of the outer and new city, which is downtown, are not fully supplied by auxiliary societies of Christian origin and spirit, like the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, settlements and missions. Valuable as are many of these adjuncts of ethical and religious culture, it is the Church itself which is required to stem the tide of immorality in the midst of dense populations, and to seize with a firm hand the youth who is beginning to be carried whither he knows not. The Church has beliefs, principles clear-cut, fellowship bonds and mutual obligations, a sense of duty rightfully demanded, a reputation intrusted to its members, and to be maintained.

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The Church furnishes mature thought and teaching, it exhibits developed and typical characters and examples of conduct, it provides sacraments of the most sacred nature and power. Whatever aids to goodness may be discovered, nothing can take the place of the Church of Christ as a maker and molder of wholesome personality.

The right kind of central church is a door into good society. This statement is to be taken as being true in every sense, except in the narrow and restricted meaning of the term society, which regards its values as being the exclusive attribute of the exceptionally prospered or of the self -elected. A good church admits to the society of the good. Many people w^ho are worth knowing, whose lives are pure, and whose association is profitable, are to be found in the membership of such a church, and while they may not be able to give much time and attention to newcomers, yet they are not unapproachable, or indifferent, as in the case of some members in churches of other types. The latest arrival is at once welcomed into useful activities. Sooner or later he makes his way into pleasant homes, the doors of which swing open to him, not so much for Avhat he is as for what he may become, which the church would like him to be. The value of this service is beyond question, since those who are subject to the limitations and discomforts, as well as to the positive perils of hotels and boarding houses, are profited immeasurably by being furnished an avenue of approach to men and women well worth knowing, and who can admit them to the inner city of respectability and of power.

It must, of course, be confessed that the above statements are in part idealistic and suggestive. But they are neither impractical nor unrelated to reality. It is an indisputable fact that, as a rule, downtown churches, even when they have many persons of wealth and of distinction in their membership, are more cordial and friendly than are many societies, at least, which occupy less cosmopolitan neighborhoods. Not all members of these churches open their hearts and their homes as hospitably or as frequently as might wisely be the case. It nevertheless remains true that successful churches at the center present to those who are drawn into them many opportunities to form desirable acquaintances, and so to finally make their way into social relations with good citizens. It may be said that, however advantageous this result may be to young and to new residents of the town, it is by no means an advantage to older citizens and to their families. Of course all social relations should be guarded with reasonable restrictions; they should be entered upon carefully and continued with consideration. But when has the good, new life coming to a town been found as dangerous to those with whom it became associated as city relationships, even in so-called best

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families, have sometimes proved to be to that life? The majority of instances of contamination through such intermingling of social factors have been referable to degenerate members of the older class.

The downtown church is an open sesame to social service. If suitably equipped, many deeds of helpfulness are performed by the church within its own walls, and here the recruits' drill in civic knowledge and usefulness is given to those who in a little time will be leaders in the good work of the community. Naturally, since institutions of philanthropy and of public betterment are near, members of central churches become easily related to their undertakings, as Avell as informed concerning them, and inspired by their ideals and achievements. Without doubt it will be found that a large proportion, if not the great majority, of effective social workers have at some time or other been associated with churches which by virtue of their very location have been brought into close connection with moral and economic problems, and with various attempts at their solution. Friendships of thought and of service, formed at such times, have proven to be of permanent value as well as of satisfaction.

"The Church," said Lacordaire, "was born crucified." If any part of Christendom retains more distinctively than do others the sacrificial character, it is the church which acts as a gateway to the inner life of a city, not only to its higher social and philanthropic circles, but to its religious life. It is one of the chief services of the downtown church that it saves and helps hundreds at the time of their greatest danger and need, and that when they have found themselves, and have secured a social foothold, it turns them over to other churches to bring to them resources and strength which otherwise might be, and which in many cases certainly would be, irretrievably lost. If in any city which contains a strong central church a canvass were made of the members of other branches of the same denomination, it would reveal a surprisingly large number of people in each organization who at one time or another worshiped with the parent society. This is one of the reasons why those denominational bodies are relatively strongest which retain their early sites, and which, even at pain of much effort and expense, maintain in such places well-equipped establishments. For the sake of its conservations, reclamations, and preparations for service elsewhere the central church should have the esteem and, if necessary, the protection and aid of the Christian public. It cannot keep all its members, and would not do so if it could, since many persons are better fitted both by nature and grace for other types of work than that which it is doing. Those laymen, however, who have the necessary qualities for the strenuous task of seizing and impressing

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with Christian purpose the incoming tides of population, and who are willing with their time and means to support this vital undertaking, should count the privilege one that is high and holy, approved of God and man.

In my vision there arose before me in the city the temple of God, whose walls were lofty and fair, inclosing outer and inner courts of praise and of loving deeds. And the Gate Beautiful of this temple was the portal where waited, not only the suppliant for alms, but a throng of curious youths pressing eagerly into the ways of life — fresh gold, to be minted with the image of Christ, and to enrich his kingdom with their treasures of love. And I saw, and behold, some remained to tend this gate, and as the doorkeepers of God's house to welcome others into its shelter and joy, but many went on into the temple, and gave themselves to its inner care and use, so that there w^as always an easy entrance for the stranger who was drawn from the vice of the city into the pure atmosphere of Christian companionship and of divine worship, and always there were householders and fellow citizens who dwelt together in mutual bonds of service and of love.

Chapter II Mother Churches

Growth is from the center outward. Without a nucleus nothing germinates or spreads. Every process of reproduction requires parent forms. Mother churches are the fecund sources of religious organizations and of their progressive development.

Very little observation is needed in order to disclose the progenitorial value of ancient and historic Christian foundations. Where the old Isites have been sacrificed the consequent loss of ancestral pride is usually attended by restricted denominational extension, for which, in a considerable measure, it is responsible. Another [effect of abandonment of the centers is loss of I organic coherence. Robbed of the sense of common origins, the consciousness of relationship between churches of the same creed and name is often greatly weakened or largely destroyed. Each society lives for itself, and the law of ecclesiastical effort in the community where this condition exists is a struggle for prosperity, not of the fittest, but of the strongest in material resources, and of the most selfish. The seeming

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success of some city churches is attained, not merely by accessions from the country and from the evangelistic successes of other communities, but by the surrender of their own former seats of power. Or they drain the lifeblood of other churches of the same community, w^hose memberships and means are sometimes reduced by unfair methods and at frightful cost to the kingdom of God. The angels of heaven must weep over these instances of piracy. Not disputing the fact that downtown churches are occasionally so badly located as to serve no useful function if preserved on original sites, it remains to be deplored that such churches are frequently given up to business, and their congregations disbanded, because another organization wishes the added strength of their property values, or the acquisition of a few wealthy members. In one case of this kind the society was composed of some three hundred and fifty members, with an even larger Bible school, and was situated in a part of the town where courage and Christian grace might have permanently secured and served an extended constituency. This church was sold, it was thought by many, merely to bring three or Jour leading men, who for various reasons easily imaginable were not unwilling, into the fellowship of a far stronger group. The property of the absorbed congregation was disposed of at great loss, and much, if not most of the membership was scattered whithersoever fancy listed. The rich church secured its ends^ but only eternity can reveal the full effects of this dismemberment of one of the branches of the body of Christ.

The mother church has a past, in which, however feeble its early beginnings may have been, and however great the crises and vicissitudes of its later experience, and, indeed, because of these very matters, it possesses a rich inheritance. The loyalty which inspires men to give and to serve roots itself deeply in the fertile soil of tradition and of memory. One reason why many new churches are woefully lacking in generosity and in consecration is that they have no basis of comparison and of incentive except in connection with other similar bodies. They are uninstructed by the labors and unimpelled by the self-denial of Christian forbears of their own organization. There is no splendid record of the character and achievement of such predecessors to be held up before them, and to which they may be led to feel that they must live up, even at the expenditure of much strength.

All churches cannot be expected to possess an ancient history, but without the preservation in vigor and in usefulness of its older organizations the church societies of the community as a whole are cut up from the roots of historic recollection and refreshment. Happy is the city which has strong old parent trees of moral fruitfulness, and of Christian shelter and grace, to which

MOTHEK CHUECHES

citizens point with pride, and from which not only those who dwell beneath them and those who come occasionally into their vicinity may receive good, but in which other and later Christian plantings may rejoice as proving the vitality and permanence of religious life and of its institutions.

If the reciprocal relations between the mother church and its offspring are normal and harmonious, all the children are conscious of possessing the same life, traceable to one original root and bringing them into a valuable sense of kinship. In the absence of living parents, family feeling is usually comparatively weak or nonexistent. All things considered, fraternal love is not as deep or useful as is that of a mother. It seems to be a fact, established by many observations, that a strong old central church is a unifying powder among organizations which have groAvn out of its life, which are fed from it, and which by its centripetal influences are bound to one another.