The Shame of Protestantism.
By Editor
A CORRESPONDENT of the Chicago Telegraph thus speaks of his visit to the "Church of the Holy Family," a Catholic church of that city :— "I loitered about until the eight o'clock congregation had gone, and the half-past eight o'clock congregation came. It was the largest of the day. High Mass attracted what is commonly called a "fashionable" attendance. Many families came in their own carriages. There was quite a display of fine toilets. On the other hand, the poor were there, too; and the contrast thus presented can be seen nowhere but in the Catholic Church. The poor they have always with them; they do not go to hear Professor Swing; they cannot be detected in Grace Church on Wabash Avenue; they never mingle with the gorgeous deposits that are left by brilliant equipages at the door of Unity Church on Dearborn Avenue. The Protestant Church has driven the poor out by its coldness and its wealth. The Catholic Church welcomes them, puts them in its front pews, treats them with delicate consideration and thoughtful kindness, and when days of prosperity come they remember their early friends." No one can deny the statements here made. And who can read them without feelings of sadness? It is as unfortunate as it is true, that the spirit of caste—of personal admiration—has eaten out the vitality from the Protestant churches. It is not a process merely going on; it is a fact already accomplished. Too much comparative importance is attached to the conversion of a rich man; a poor man is worth as little on the church roll as on the bank book. We would not under-estimate the importance of money as a help to carry on the work of Christianity; but we do speak decidedly against the dependence which is placed upon it. God can bless the humble offerings of the poor, as he did the mites of the poor widow, to the accomplishment of great things. As a general thing the cause of God is best cared for by the poor. If any hold back from doing their share, they are quite often the ablest in the congregation. True, the rich build enormous churches in the large cities; but they are often the evidences of the pride of their founders; the courts of Mammon, where the poor are not permitted to come. Where the example of Christ is not followed, the Spirit of Christ will not remain. The second chapter of James is quite forgotten.