The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1908. CHRISTIANITY IN THE CHURCHES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2094, 21 January 1908, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1908. CHRISTIANITY IN THE CHURCHES.

Americans are nothing il not orb gitiiil, and the characteristic is fully represented in their newspapers. Hence it is not- remarkable that the Editor of the ‘‘Ladies’ Home Journal,” in search of something ires’ll for its readers, recently commissioned a lady to visit numbers of churches in the principal cities, with a view to ascertaining the* reception that 11 waits a stranger in these places of worship. Tile .article is significantly headed with the Biblical quotation, “I was a stranger and ye took me in,” and the result of the inquiries provided- a sad commentary on the degradation of. Christianity, as exhibited in ill my of the leading churches in the United States. In the' majority of cases the visitor Found that she was simply ignored, anti instead of being made to feel that she had entered a tabernacle, where all were joined in a mutual bond of love and! consideration for others, she' found) the atmospherechilling- in the extreme. Giving her experience in one of 23 churches she visited iu Philadelphia, she

says:—

An Usher Found' Me a Place in one of the rear pews at the Spring Gulden Methodist Episcopal -Church. At the close of the service there was a -sort of jubilee, every one greeting every one else. I went to- the centre -aisle and watched the progress of the minister from the pulpit to the rear-centre door, where, according to the church bulletin, lie comes tlie opportunity of greeting members and visitors. _ He went from side to side of'the aisle, shaking hands. 1 thought it would 1 be impossible for him to miss me, hut ho did. He shook hands with a. young lady in the pew in front of me, then before ■lie could reach me darted, across the aisle and on to the door, where lie shook hands with: scores. Two ladies stopped directly by my side, one of them half-way in my pew. They talked to each other, hut did not look at me nor speak to me. I was in the full light, yet no one seemed to ho aware of my presence. Soon _ the minister came back aiul was right by my side as a young man asked 1 him the subject of his next Sunila- evening’?, talk. I. waited patientl- for some one to show some signs of the cordiality for which Philadelphia is famous, -but I had to give lip and leave without a word from a perron there.

However, there were exceptions, and an experience at Charleston is noted thus:

A Smiling Usher at .the Circular Congregational Church said: “Shall 1 show you to a seat, ma’am?” He took me to the fourth pew from the front- on the left side of fife right aisle. An elderly lady smiled and offered me a palm leaf fan with a “Good Morning.” When I left I lingered a moment outside, and a second elderly lady came to me. “Are you a stranger?” she asked. “Won’t you come this evening? We have a Sunday school, then.” This was my farewell, and I felt good over my first visit to church in Charleston,

Finally, she sums up the position thus: —

1 had now visyted exactly one hundred and fifty churches, fifty-four eight in New York and Brooklyn; twenty-four in Boston; eleven -in Cleveland; eleven in Chicago; ten in St. Louis; nine in Cincinnati; eleven in Charleston ; thirteen in Richmond; and twenty-three in Philadelphia. My editors now said, “Enough,” and I felt so, too. For, if I was a sadder woman, at least I was a wiser one. The sum total- of my experience was, to me at least, not a pleasant one. Drone hundred- and fifty churches, thirteen pastors had spoken to me, and only seven voluntarily! Not a single minister had- come and greeted the stranger first. In every case I waited until tho congregation passed out,

I was left to find my own seat in sixi v-iiiiic churches. And in the one hundred and fifty elmrehos, lilty-four persons in all had .spoken a word to me, ,iml that only in thirty-one elmrC has 1 '

lu one hundred and nineteen churches 1 had been practically ignored 1

With that I had to ho content as tlio work of weeks and months to find a warm and welcome stmt eanni'whero for “a stranger .in the church”! The experience was a novel and interesting one, liuL the result was certainly disappointing, and one can only hope that u similar test in the Dominion would produce a very different rcs’Pt.