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This brought an indignant protest from Deacon Goodsole, who is a strong advocate of the free-pew system. "Never," said he, "with my consent. Any pew-rent is bad enough. Trafficking in the Gospel is abominable at best. It shuts out the poor. Worse than that, it shuts out the godless, the irreligious, the profane the very men we want to catch. The pew-rents are too high now. We must not raise them."
"Faix, and it's not meself that he scoulded at all, at all, but Misther Peter N and John L , an' he held them up as an example to the whole church. 'Peter N says he, 'you have not been inside this church before to-day for the last three months, and you have not paid your pew-rent for the last two years.
The days were over for Eastthorpe when a man like Mr. Furze could be denounced, a man who paid his pew-rent regularly, and contributed to the missionary societies. The days were over when any expostulations could be addressed to him, or any attempts made to bring him within the fold, and Mr. Jennings therefore called on him, and religion was not mentioned.
There could be no more melancholy exemplification of this than the spectacle of the Anglican and Catholic churches at the present time, one using the tragic stresses of war mainly for pew-rent touting, and the other paralysed by its Austrian and South German political connections from any clear utterance upon the moral issues of the war.
"I never gave any thing more than my regular subscription and pew-rent." "It is more than I can say, then. In presents of one kind and another and in money it never cost me less than from fifty to seventy-five dollars a year extra.
Gear has a pew for his family, and his pew-rent is always paid before it becomes due. The Deacon tells me confidentially, that Mr. Work does not think it prudent to preach against intemperance because Jim Wheaton always has wine on his table New Year's day. Mr.
"The people of Hilltown heartily approved of this plan, and several were anxious to help him. "Deacon Cowles had a four-year-old colt, raised on the farm, 'a real clever steady-goin' creetur, that he guessed he could spare might be turned in for pew-rent; and Si Olcott didn't care if he traded off his gray mare on the same conditions.
"I wish the pew-rent was in Jericho, and the pew, too!" was Miss Jennie's spirited answer. "I should think churches ought to be free, if nothing else is. It is a great religion, selling pews so high that poor people can't go to church. If I had thought I couldn't have a new dress I should have declined the invitation at once.
Look at it! Look at the extras gas, coals, washing bed linen, washing table linen, washing towels, kitchen fires, service, oil for three lamps, afternoon tea, and three shillings for sundries on the fourth page! What can sundries include? She hasn't skipped anything but pew-rent." My sister looked at the total, and buried her face in the pillows to smother a groan.
Nearly all the churches of the city are above Fourth street, and in some localities they crowd each other too greatly. A few are very wealthy and are well supported, but the majority are poor and struggling. Pew-rent is very high in New York, and only those who are well off can afford to have seats in a thriving church. Besides this, people seem to care little for churches in New York.
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