"Nor is it intended in these few pages to canvass the question as to the necessity or the expediency, etc., of what is called the up-town removal of so many of the churches (in all 36), first from the lower, and now from the central section of the city. All that can be done is to note the following facts, and leave others to draw their own inference as to their practical effects.
"1. In every instance of such church removal, it has originated in the change of residence of a few of the wealthier families of said church: this, of course, was followed by a diminution of the means of support to the said church. Hence the plea of necessity for its removal; and, making no provision to retain the old church for missionary purposes, the effect has been to scatter by far the larger portion both of the church members and of the congregation to the four winds. For,
"2. The old church property having been sold, the new location has been selected with a sole view to the accommodation of these families of wealth, who left it for an up-town palatial residence, and a costly church edifice has been erected (often largely beyond their means) compatible with their tastes. The result of this has been,
3. To place the privileges of the church beyond the reach of the mediocre and lower classes. And this has led to an ignoring of that divinely appointed law of God, "the rich and the poor meet together, the Lord being the maker of them all" (Prov. xxiii. 12). Hence the origin of caste in the churches. Money has been erected into the standard of personal respectability, by which every man is measured; and hence a courting of the favor of the rich, and a despising of the poor.
"Thus the way is prepared to account for the paucity of attendance at many of these larger and wealthier churches. A consciousness of self-respect operates largely to deter those who might otherwise repair to them. They shrink from an encounter, whether right or wrong, from that invidiousness to which the above principle of the measurement of personal respectability subjects them; and taking human nature as it is, it cannot be otherwise. Hence, finding themselves thus "cut off" from the privileges of the churches, and that by the act of the churches themselves, [{383}] they relapse into a state of absolute "neglect of the great salvation. " [Footnote 57]
[Footnote 57: How this is possible in the case of those who have received the gift of infallible perseverance, it is difficult to see, unless the "elect" are chiefly found among the élite of society.]
"And when there is taken into the account the neglect of these wealthier churches to make provision for the populations in those sections of the city formerly occupied by them, there is furnished an explanation of the vast disparity between the number of churches compared with the immense population as a whole, which remain unprovided for.
"True, in order to escape the imputation of neglecting 'the poor of this world' altogether, some of the wealthier churches have established missionary Sabbath schools outside of their own congregations. The principal denominations--the Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, Reformed Dutch Church, and Presbyterians, are also doing something in the way of supporting missionary chapels for the poor; but none of them are making provisions for them in a manner or to an extent at all commensurate either with their duty or their means.
"Take, in illustration, a view of the amount of missionary work being done in this city by the large and wealthy presbytery of New York. True, the Brick church; the Fifth avenue church, corner Twenty-first street; the Fifth avenue church, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets; the Presbyterian church in University place, corner Tenth street, and perhaps one or two others, each support, independently of drawing upon the funds raised for domestic missions, a mission Sabbath school and chapel. But out of the moneys contributed annually by the churches connected with the presbytery, amounting to from $12,000 to $15,000, there are only two regularly organized missionary churches connected with that body. These are the German mission church in Monroe street, comer of Montgomery, and the African mission church in the Seventh avenue, each supported at an expense of $600 per annum. Nor are the ecclesiastical judicatories of other churches doing much better.
"Is this, then, the way to 'continue in God's goodness?' Writing on this subject, so long ago as 1847, the Rev. Dr. Hodge, the oldest professor occupying a chair in the Princeton Theological Seminary, and the learned and able editor of 'The Princeton Review,' had used his pen in refuting the statement of those in the Presbyterian Church who affirm that 'we have already more preachers than we know what to do with,' etc.; and having disposed of that matter, he passes to the subject of the difference in the mode of sustaining and extending the gospel in and by the Presbyterian Church. In reference to the policy adopted by said church to this end, he says:
"'Our system, which requires the minister to rely for his support on the people to whom he preaches, has had the following inevitable results: 1. In our cities we have no churches to which the poor can freely go and feel themselves at home. No doubt, in many of our city congregations there are places in the galleries in which the poor may find seats free of charge; but, as a general thing, the churches are private property. They belong to those who build them, or who purchase or rent the pews after they are built. They are intended and adapted for the cultivated and thriving classes of the community. There may be exceptions to this remark, but we are speaking of a general fact. The mass of the people in our cities are excluded from our churches. The Presbyterian Church is practically, in such places, the church for the upper classes (we do not mean the worldly and the fashionable) of society." And to this Dr. Hodge adds, as the result of the working of 'our system,' the following:
[{384}]
"'The Presbyterian Church IS NOT A CHURCH FOR THE POOR. She has precluded herself from that high vocation by adopting the principle that the support of the minister must be derived from the people to whom he preaches. If therefore, the people are too few, too sparse, too poor, to sustain a minister, or too ignorant or wicked to appreciate the gospel, THEY MUST GO WITHOUT IT.'"
Thus far the author of the tract and Dr. Hodge. The statements of the latter are indorsed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. A Baptist clergyman, writing in the "Memorial Papers," a work which was suppressed after publication, says: "The Church has no conversions and no hold on the masses. The most successful church building is that which excludes the poor by necessity." [Footnote 58]
[Footnote 58: A high price will be paid at this office for a copy of "The Memorial Papers.">[
We do not cite these statements in order to make a point against Protestantism from the admissions of its advocates, or to exult over these admissions. We respect our anonymous friend, and the learned and accomplished Princeton divine, for their candor, honesty, and zeal for the religious instruction of the poor. We have nothing in view except an exposition of the real state of things in New York, and are anxious to arrive at facts. Allowing for all errors and exaggerations, and with a perfect willingness to admit everything which can be said to extenuate the evil, we must admit the palpable, undeniable fact, that some hundreds of thousands of our population are either unprovided with the opportunity of attending any form of worship and religious instruction, or are indifferent to the subject. Sunday is to them a mere holiday from work (to many not even that), to be spent in recreation and amusement, if not in something positively bad.
It appears especially that the lower section of the city has been almost entirely given up by Protestants. [Footnote 59] There is one very notable and very honorable exception, however, in Trinity church, which has always been the best managed ecclesiastical corporation of all the Protestant religious institutions in our country.
[Footnote 59: That is, except as a missionary ground.]
The educational and eleemosynary institutions of New York are on a colossal scale. We will not go into extensive details on this subject, as our topic is properly the religion of the city. It is estimated that there are 144,000 children in New York, of whom 104000 are at school, [Footnote 60] and 40,000 growing up without instruction. The poverty, wretchedness, and indifference of parents is more to blame for the condition of that portion not at school, than the want of accommodation.
Hospitals, refuges, asylums of all kinds, abound in the city; as well as dispensaries where medical assistance and medicine can be obtained by the poor gratuitously. There is, beside, a gigantic system of domestic relief and outdoor charity under the direction of the municipal authorities. The number of individuals relieved in various ways during the year by these public charities is about 57,000; 30,000 receive gratuitous medical attendance from the dispensaries. For education, $1,000,000 a year is expended by the city, and for public charity, $700,000. The collections made for local purposes of benevolence are estimated at $500,000, and the other collections made in Protesant churches at $500,000 more. The ecclesiastical expenses of maintaining the various churches are estimated at $1,000,000. The great Protestant societies whose headquarters are in New York, receive about $2,700,000 annually. $6,000,000 were distributed among the families of soldiers during the late war. Beside these rough estimates of the vast sums expended by great public organizations, there is no counting the amount of individual contributions, often on a large scale, to colleges, etc., and the sums expended in benevolent works by private societies or individuals.