EVANGELICAL WORK IN NEW YORK CITY.
By C. H. Edwards
THE work of evangelizing, or giving the Gospel message to the people of New York City, is a great undertaking. It is a great work for several reasons. First, because of the great number of people to be reached; Second, because of the varied nationalities; and— Third, because of the barriers placed by the onward march of improvements. It is almost impossible to grasp the vast number of people which help to make up the total of over four million. This is the number of people who permanently reside in this city. An illustration may help us to comprehend these figures. Imagine one man with a message to give to this people, and also imagine that all could understand one language. He rents a large and commodious hall, and begins to give the message. The first night he is encouraged by the presence of one thousand people. The following night another thousand come, and thus he continues with a different one thousand every night. As incredible as it may seem at first, he would consume about twelve years in giving New York one sermon. Were the following states completely depopulated New York could supply them with populations equal to their present ones: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Colorado, Montana, and Alaska. Stop and think that over one million of these people never step their feet inside of a church. They will not attend religious services; they can not therefore be reached through sermons or lectures. It is then evident that other methods besides preaching must be devised to reach them. Were these millions of people all English-speaking people it would be a mammoth task to reach them all, but let us remember that here we find every nationality in the civilized world. Every fourth man we meet is a Hebrew of the Hebrews. In other words, the Jews of this city equal the population of the state of Maine. Then we find the sturdy Germans who number over one and a quarter million. Eight hundred thousand of these must be taught in their mother tongue. The 350,000 Italians outnumber the population of their native capital, the city of Rome. The 130,000 rugged Scandinavians would more than populate any of the following cities: Paterson, N. J., Hartford, Conn., Denver, Colo., and Los Angeles, Cal. The colored people number nearly eighty thousand, a number which would populate each of a score of our American cities. We stand for a definite message which must reach every soul of this vast multitude. How is this work to be done? Surely not by preaching or by lectures. It must be done by men and women who with their hearts aglow with the message must hunt these people out, and by a house work bring to them the message of salvation. But here we are met with the barriers which come through modern improvement. Every device known to science is used to keep strangers from having access to the homes of the people. Every man is supposed to be a thief till he proves himself to be all right. Nearly every door is chained from the inside, so the worker can not expect to enter a home till he becomes acquainted with the family. He must gain the confidence of the people, and then he may labor for their salvation. In spite of all the obstacles in the way it is a fact that we can reach the people, and give them this glorious message. This is done by visiting every family, and presenting them gratuitously with a copy of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. This is done again and again. The people learn to have confidence in those who bring such a paper, and the result is that friends are made, and souls brought into the message. This work of reaching the families of this city will soon be finished. Already we can see movements on foot which certainly mean that our opportunity for work is now here, and that in the near future we must meet difficulties which are withheld to-day. That it cost much money to carry on such a campaign as suggested above is apparent to all, but it is the best plan we can devise after years of study and labor. The SIGNS ought to be in thousands of homes today, but we are unable to accomplish this great work for lack of means. Should any of our friends desire to aid us in this great work we assure them that the money will be used as sacredly and expeditiously as possible. We are planning to soon use a large edition of the SIGNS, and we invite our friends to help us in this great work. C. H. EDWARDS.
President Greater New York Conference.