West Port Experiment

Chalmers’ parish mission theory made its way to the U.S. during his career and in the decades after his death in 1847. I had heard about such city missions inspired by the “territorial” method; and of course, I knew about his enthusiastic supporter of the West Port experiment, the New York philanthropist James Lenox. With a little free time, I did some poking around online and found one example: the Lebanon Chapel. Below is an 1878 report from that mission effort in the heart of New York City.

It bears all the marks of a convinced Chalmersian. We see the distinct and underscored prioritization of saving souls, above all efforts to ameliorate outward poverty. And there is also an absence of the individualistic-leaning and pietistic sort of American Christianity, but the old confessionally Reformed version that prizes the Visible (or as Kuyper eventually put it, the “Institutional”) Church with its outward and ordinary means of grace. Here’s a quote that could very easily have been written by the “Arch-Parson” himself:

The principle applied in prosecuting the above work is this: The gospel is the best remedy for the sins of adults, and the best prevention of sins in children. The Bible before souls unsaved is the source of order, prosperity, and peace. Coupling belief and relief matters is the source of confusion, hypocrisy, and strife. The union of spiritual and temporal relief is the marplot of mission work. “Church doles” have not only manufactured but slain regiments of paupers. They have helped to enrich those blighting Goliaths met with in mission work-the publican, the pawnbroker, and the policy dealer. Give the poor the gospel, and command the respect of men. God’s poor will find the hidden manna. They will not suffer. Let heroic treatment, not emollient, prevail, and no doubt mission work in New York will rise to the level at least of mission work among the Fiji. The people need manhood and womanhood, springing from knowledge and practice of God’s truth, more than they need bread. Scotland’s great Chalmers says that it is a moral impossibility to Christianize and aliment the people with one and the same machinery. Therefore the work should command the best to help save the worst.

Also signature Chalmers is an analysis of the socio-political, ethnic, and religious demographics of the district and the various voluntary societies adjunct to the spiritual ministry of preaching and district visitation. And especially striking to me is the author’s explanation of the language barrier. They clearly didn’t let it intimidate them; and instead, they creatively adapted in the interests of retaining a single, unified congregation:

There is but one church , though preaching in two languages: on Sabbath morning in German, for the benefit of those members who cannot understand English; in the evening in English, at which are present many hearers, who are the children of German parents who attend the morning service. . . . The services are partly in English and partly in German, while the hymn-singing is in both languages at the same time. These features of a church are not common, and to one engaged in lifting souls to God out of every tongue and tribe and nation, they are most suggestive, interesting, and solemn.

I feel somewhat gratified, having argued essentially for the same inclusive program already; and now my appetite is whetted to find more of such American “parish missions.”