six churches left on B street. What is to hinder any Christian member
of Calvary Church from working and fellowshiping with those churches,
if he cannot put in his service in the tenement district? None of these
churches are crowded; they will welcome the advent of more members. But
the main strength of the plan which I propose lies in the fact that if
it be done, it will be a live illustration of the eagerness of the
Church to reach and save men. The very sight of our church moving down
off from this street to the lower part of town will be an object lesson
to the people, and the Church will at once begin to mean something to
them. Once established there, we can work from it as a centre. The
distance ought to be no discouragement to any healthy person. There is
not a young woman in this church who is in the habit of dancing, who
does not make twice as many steps during an evening dancing party as
would be necessary to take her to the tenement district and back again.
Surely, any Christian church-member is as willing to endure fatigue, and
sacrifice, and to give as much time to help make men and women better,
as he is to have a good time himself. Think for a moment what this move
which I propose would mean to the life of this town, and to our Christian
growth. At present we go to church. We listen to a good choir, we go
home again, we have a pleasant Sunday-school, we are all comfortable and
well clothed here; we enjoy our services, we are not disturbed by the
sight of disagreeable or uncongenial people. But is that Christianity?
Where do the service and the self-denial and the working for men's souls
come in? Ah, my dear brothers and sisters, what is this church really
doing for the salvation of men in this place? Is it Christianity to
have a comfortable church and go to it once or twice a week to enjoy
nice music and listen to preaching, and then go home to a good dinner,
and that is about all? What have we sacrificed? What have we denied
ourselves? What have we done to show the poor or the sinful that we
care anything for their souls, or that Christianity is anything but a