A Ten-Million Dollar Cathedral

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 110, 7 March 1893, Page 2

A Ten-Million Dollar Cathedral

• ,»•••. — -■■■•■•■• I " Broad bnm," a clever American . writer, dealing with, the proposal in New . .■ York to build a. ten-million dollar . cathedral} wisely says ;— " All of tha grand old cathedrals of Europe were' built in the mediaeval ages when the common people; .the laborers, the mechanics, the farmers, were awed by' superstition and ground down to the earth by the nobles and the priests ; it seemed* as it their very life-blood was taken to build those magnificent temples which ' have been the wonder of all aftertime. It is much discussed hore, whether in this intelligent age, there iff any need : for a ten million ohurch, and.whether the , advancement of Christ's kingdom upon earth would not be tetter conserved by expending the money for the. benefit of the poor- Ten millions of -dollars seems to be a vast sum for any kind of. a houso of worship. Does it conserve to the glory of God or the vanity of maii?— that is the question. When Jesus Christ was alive he rarely spoke in a temple, for in the temples he found only enemies. He never built a temple except thot he reared in the souls of men — a temple that time has not crumbled with age; that the <' tempest hath beat against in vain, i»ni \ that grows stronger and stronger as -the- ■" years roll by, and which shall continue to grow till the Archangel's trump shall proclaim that time is no more. In this city every morning ten to twenty thousand shivering mortals are turned out of our station houses lon* before daylight into the mi serable freezing streets. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them are vile^ dissolute drunken tramps and prostitutes, petty thieves, and ruffians of all degrees, who being destitute and homeless are driven to the police station for shelter from the storm; but besides these, there are hundreds or delicate women anil.' children who are there from no fault of their own, but sickness ani, misfortune . have stricken them down, and left them, starving and helpless. Oh, the horrbrof these terrible freezing moinincs, as they wander about the streets hungry i with every door closed against then). What would ten millions of dollars do for them? •■ '. '. ; ■';",'"'.-