ss, both physically and moral.

"If there is a part of this town which needs lifting up and cleaning and
healing and inspiring by the presence of the Church of Christ, it is
right there where there is no church. The people on B street and for six
or eight blocks each side know the gospel. They have large numbers of
books and papers and much Christian literature. They have been taught
the Bible truths; they are familiar with them. Of what value is it then
to continue to support on this short street, so near together, seven
churches of as many different denominations which have for their members
the respectable, moral people of the town? I do not mean to say that the
well-to-do, respectable people do not need the influence of the church
and the preaching of the gospel. But they can get these privileges
without such a fearful waste of material and power. If we had only three
or four churches on this street they would be enough. We are wasting
our Christianity with the present arrangement. We are giving the rich
and the educated and well-to-do people seven times as much church as we
are giving the poor, the ignorant, and the struggling workers in the
tenement district. There is no question, there can be no question, that
all this is wrong. It is opposed to every principle that Christ
advocated. And in the face of these plain facts, which no one can
dispute, there is a duty before these churches on this street which
cannot be evaded without denying the very purpose of a church. It is
that duty which I am now going to urge upon this Calvary Church.

"It has been said by some of the ministers and members of the churches
that we might combine in an effort and build a large and commodious
mission in the tenement district. But that, to my mind, would not settle
the problem at all, as it should be settled. It is an easy and a lazy
thing for church-members to put their hands in their pockets and say to
a few other church-members, 'We will help build a mission, if you will
run it after it is up; we will attend our church up-town here, while the
mission is worked for the poor people down there.' That is not what will
meet the needs of the situation. What that part of Milton needs is the
Church of Christ in its members--the whole Church, on the largest
possible scale. What I am now going to propose, therefore, is something
which I believe Christ would advocate, if not in the exact manner I
shall explain, at least in the same spirit."