Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/424

Rh corrupt, and will thence corrupt the atmosphere of society until the fresh and better life obtain power over the old leaven—the new church over the Old Brewery. A great movement exists in this direction at the present time. The church of Christ extends itself not merely to the soul, but is beginning to comprehend the whole human being; to develope itself in schools, in sanitory wardship, in every kind of institution which promotes the wholesome work of Christian love on earth, both for soul and body, repeating the words of the Lord to the leper: “I will; be thou clean!”

From the Old Brewery, and its horrible figures, we went to the Mission-house in the square directly opposite, and had a long conversation with the missionary, Mr. N., a man with a dark, resolute eye, and that faith in God which can remove mountains, and with somewhat of that faith also in himself which may tend to self-deception, and to the belief that more is done than is actually the case. Certain it is, however, that hasty conversions of sinners, long accustomed to the indulgence of besetting vices, are rare and not to be too much relied upon. Hypocrisy is also a scheme of the old serpent's.

In the middle of the square of the Five Points there is, as in many squares of New York, a little green inclosure of trees and bushes. It looks, however, dry and withered; no careful hands water the trees which attempt to put forth foliage; and on the fencing around it, hang rags to dry.

It has often struck me how chance or a mysterious foreknowledge which, without human consciousness, concerns itself with human affairs, gives symbolic, or, as it were, prophetic appellations to things, places, or persons who afterwards accomplish that which their appellations seem to have predestined them to. This I found to be the case with regard to the Five Points, the Old Brewery, and the prison which nearly abuts upon this region. The