The other movement, as we have said, was instituted among a similar population and for the same purpose. It was intended to evangelize the community in the district where it was made. Several benevolent gentlemen united and purchased ground, and erected a church. It was simple and cheap, but neatly carpeted and cushioned, and in every way attractive. Sunday-school rooms were connected with the building. Another lot adjacent was purchased, and the whole was neatly enclosed. On this lot was erected a small but pleasant parsonage. A church was organized and a number of respectable families, a portion of those very benevolent persons who had projected and accomplished the work, became the office-bearers and trustees of the congregation. Thus situated, it was not difficult to procure a young man of high promise to take the pastoral charge. At a salary of nine hundred dollars, and the use of the parsonage, he entered upon his work. He was surrounded with lay assistants on whom he could depend. Their interests were identified with his. No reasonable persons would think themselves dishonored in being members of such a church, when thus appointed. Yet the object was to act upon the population with which they were surrounded. For this purpose all their arrangements were made. Their best pews, accommodating six persons, were rented at twelve dollars per annum. All the sittings were rented at the same price, namely, fifty cents per quarter, or two dollars a year. The only preference was that those who first applied had the first selection. Such a movement would of course attract to itself first the most respectable class of people in the neighborhood; those who were already pious, or at least, under the influence of church-going habits. Those who were next below them in the scale of social importance came next. The Sanctuary was so scemly in its structure and appointments, the pastor so well furnished and edifying in his services, and the primordial nucleus of the congregation so respectable, and so imbued with the humane, the philanthropic, the Christian sentiments which gave character to the enterprise, that the whole community regarded it with favor. The consequence was that not one year elapsed before every sitting was taken, and a regular income of more than fifteen hundred dollars was secured from the congregation itself. And yet this was as truly, in its bear

ings and results, a mission-church as the one before described. It was not called a church for the poor; it was not an eleemosynary establishment; it carried with it no alms-house associations. On the contrary, every poor family that connected itself with the congregation was consciously advanced in its social position. Those who prospered in the world did not become ashamed of their church relations, and seek such as were more respectable. The pastor's influence was continually increased; the power of the congregation was augmented every year. The children, from Sunday-school pupils became teachers. Some of them rose to places of influence; some entered the sacred office.

We admit that there are circumstances and localities where such an effort cannot be successfully made. We allow that something must be done by the supply-method. But in a great city there are abundant advantages for prosecuting the work of evangelizing our neglected population by the building and sustentation of churches on the better plan described; and until that work is done the chief prominence ought to be given to this species of effort. It is obvious at the first glance that the advantages of one system are greatly superior to those of the other. But we must institute a careful comparison of the tendencies and results, each with each, if we would comprehend the whole subject.

In that method by which a whole congregation is supplied with the Gospel as poor mendicants are supplied with bread, an unhappy sense of dependence is fostered. While the Gospel itself tends to elevate them, this mode of supplying instruction at the expense of others exercises a depressing influence. A single gratuitous message of grace, or a number of mercy-calls breathed out from a Christian friend, would exert no such influence. The building of a Sanctuary and dedicating it to the honor of Christ, do not place the worshippers in an aspect of undesirable dependence. But the moment it becomes a system for continually supplying want at the expense of others, the mendicancy is so palpable that no mind that possesses noble aspirations will long submit to it, and those whose sentiments. are already little raised by self-respect will become still more depressed. The other mode of action tends to elevate every

poor family that comes within the sweep of its influence. On this account it has the double advantage of bringing the poor more readily within the reach of the means of grace and of influencing them more powerfully. When secular and sacred motives concur to lead a man to a right course of conduct, the advantage is obvious. In the homely but expressive language of an unlettered Christian, "Adam and Grace together will do twice as much as Grace alone." This is especially so when, as in this case, there is nothing strictly mercenary in the secular motive. A man that desires to rise among his fellows is, other things being equal, a better and more hopeful man than one who would be willing to be ranked among the lowest of his species. Hence one is more readily attracted to the sanctuary by this self-supporting method not only, but he is also more easily impressed when there. The same influences act on the pastor and his coadjutors. On the eleemosynary plan the pastor accumulates very little influence. If the members of his flock become a little advanced in intelligence and respectability they are almost certain to leave him. If some of the children of his charge grow to be hopeful, they learn to seek more advantageous church relations. The church or mission station becomes a mere caravanserai, where passing multitudes repose for a short season and give place to others. This influence, so depressing on the pastor, exercises a similar sway over his lay assistants. Connected with other churches, they are destitute of everything like a home-interest in the field of their labors. They go forth to it as to a prison or an asylum for orphans. A heavenly sympathy, it is true, moves them; but there is not that vital energy and that mingling of social delights with the pastor and the people that there would be if the church were their church, the pastor their pastor, and the people the very multitude with whom they were accustomed to go to the house of God in company. On the contrary, in the self-sustaining method there is a continuous growth of influence. A part, at least, of the most valuable families and individuals remain and impart a portion of their own growing prosperity to the congregation. The pastor's assistants belong to the church, and the church belongs to them. The associations of the sacred place, the progress of the congregation and its prospective great

ness, stimulate pastor and people in a manner analogous to the growth of a commercial establishment where a constant augmentation of capital, credit, knowledge and business facilities. inspire all the partners and employés with courage and energy.

This better method is also the cheapest. On the plan of supplying the poor, twenty thousand two hundred and fifteen dollars were disbursed by the hands of charity, in interest on the cost of the house and salaries during a period of ten years. Then the whole was swept away, save the moral effect that had been produced on the minds and hearts of the poor. On the independent and self-sustaining plan the larger sum of thirty thousand dollars was expended at first, but after ten years the sanctuary, the parsonage, the organized church and Sunday-school were all in existence. The good which had been achieved directly was greater. A larger number of poor families had been reached. In the work of elevation they had been carried to a higher point, and those who had received the greatest benefit were moulded into a compact and efficient organism, which promised to perpetuate its power for a hundred years.

true.

To all this it is objected that the scheme of reaching the unevangelized masses by such a process is impracticable, and that our own Church is not as well adapted to the work as some other denominations. A gentleman of great wealth in one of our cities is reported to have donated a large sum for the purpose of securing the erection of ten Methodist churches, as being better adapted to influence the poor than our own. That the Methodist Church has acted with more vigor in respect to this class of our population than the Presbyterian, is most We thank God for the zeal that has animated them. We ought to humble ourselves for our own delinquency in this regard. But we have more power than even they possess to perform this work. It ought not to be considered invidious if we say that our clergy are more highly educated, that they have more power in the simple work of inculcating truth, and as much of the consistency and life of true piety. The idea that higher qualifications, as it respects learning and thinkingpower, can be dispensed with to advantage if there be fervor and earnest exhortation in their place, especially in the work of benefiting the ignorant, is a great mistake. In no congre

gation do a clearly thought-out discourse and a cultivated eloquence operate to greater advantage than among the poor.

The great reason why many of our churches among the poor in our great cities have had such small success, has been observable in the financial embarrassment in which they have been involved. Their struggles with pecuniary difficulties have repelled prosperous families. They have gone elsewhere lest they should involve themselves in an expense which they regarded themselves as unable to meet. The pastor was not sustained. Another charge, furnishing the support which he needed, called him away. The church for the poor is left to seek a pastor who is in less demand. Everything connected with the interests of the congregation deteriorates, and the whole movement recedes with a silent power that can no more be resisted than the ebbing of the ocean. But that the Presbyterian Church can succeed in this work is obvious from the fact that it has succeeded when circumstances have occurred that have called forth a few individuals to make such a complete and satisfactory effort as we have described.

There are two other objections, however, which it is more difficult to remove. One has respect to the raising of funds, and the other to the difficulty of securing the necessary lay agency. The habit of our church, it is true, is somewhat established in regard to the mode of seeking the spiritual well-being of the unevangelized poor in a great city. We attempt something in connection with our Sunday schools. But our chief reliance is on the supply-method. We aid the tract distribution; we join with other denominations in supporting religious services in hired rooms, and occasionally attempt to establish a mission station and supply it with the ministry of the word and teachers to instruct poor children. Now it is objected that a heavy burden is laid upon the benevolent to sustain the movement recommended in the place of this sort of effort, and the means cannot be commanded for prosecuting a course of action that demands so much greater outlay to commence it. But it should be remembered that there is money enough in the Church and benevolence enough to do this work, if wise men can be induced to look at the subject in such a light as to secure a clear conviction that it ought to be done. The Church has made