The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- History
The fashionable churches, with the exception of Grace Church, are now
located high up town. They are large and handsome, and the
congregations are wealthy and exclusive. Forms are rigidly insisted
upon, and the reputation of the church for exclusiveness is so well
known that those in the humbler walks of life never dream of entering
its doors. They feel they would be unwelcomed, that nine tenths of the
congregation would consider them unfit to address their prayers to the
Great White Throne from so exclusive a place. The widow's mite would
cause the warden's face to glimmer with a well-bred smile of
contemptuous amazement, if laid in the midst of the crisp bank bills of
the collection; and Lazarus would lay a long time at the doors of these
churches, unless the police should remove him.
Riches and magnificence are seen on every side. The music is divine,
the service is performed to perfection, and the minister satisfies his
flock that they are all in the "narrow way," which his Master once
declared to be so difficult to the feet of the rich man. But that was
eighteen hundred years ago, and things have changed since then.
SAINT ALBAN'S.
St. Alban's Episcopal Chapel, in Forty-seventh street, near Lexington
Avenue, has of late attracted much attention as being the most advanced
in the ritualistic character of its services. A writer in Putnam's
Magazine, thus describes the manner in which the service is
"celebrated" in this Chapel.
One bright Sunday morning, not long ago, I visited the 'Church of St.
Alban.' It is situated in Forty-seventh street, near Lexington Avenue,
quite beyond the business portion of the city, and is rather a plain-
looking brick building, with a peaked roof, low, stained glass windows,
and a bell on the gable in front, surmounted by a cross. I arrived some
little time before the commencement of the services, and had an
opportunity to look about a little, and note the interior arrangements.
I found the church to be capable of holding about two hundred and fifty
worshippers, with plain wooden benches for seats on each side of a
central aisle, and every bench having an announcement posted upon it,
as follows.
The seats of this church are all FREE, on the following conditions, a
compliance with which is an obligation binding on each person occupying
a sitting:
'I. To behave as in the presence of ALMIGHTY GOD.
'II. Not to leave the church during service; remaining until the
clergy and choristers have retired.
'III. That each worshipper shall contribute, according to his ability,
to the collections, which are the only means of supporting the church.
The poor can give little, and are always welcome; but those who are
able to give should not be willing to occupy seats (which might be
availed of by others), without contributing their just share to the
expenses.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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