Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-02-12
For The Monitor.
CHRISTIAN LABOR IN THE WEST.

Being solicited to write few words
for your columns, and having just re-
turned from tour through the West,
perhaps few words concerning the work
of the church there, may be acceptable.
The evangelical churches throughout the
entire west are active and earnest, and
particularly beyond the Mississippi, and
Missouri rivers are they doing a noble
work. The many false creeds with
which we have to contend in the East,
have not gained as strong hold in that
new country, as here Catholicism is
comparatively weak in Minnesota, Iowa,
Dacotah Territory and Nebraska Its
costly and magnificent churches and ca
thedrals, which are found in almost ev-
cry village and hamlet in New York,
and New England, are there much more
seldom seen. The evangelical churches
are well represented throughout that
widespread land The Congregational,
Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and
other churches are found in most of the
large towns and cities. The itinerant
system is admirably adapted to meet the
wants of that new and sparsely settled
country. Its aggressive and permeating
work is just calculated to answer the de-
mands Of society, in a religious sense
In all the large towns and cities, the
churches are doing a noble work. The
church edifces are built with taste and
elegance, while the congregations are
large, the sabbath schools, class and
prayer meetings we'll attended, and
lively interest constantly manifested in
those departments of christian labor In
many Of the western cities, we have seen
an earnestness and interest manifested
in sabbath school labors, in promoting
the interests of the church generally,
and particularly in its financial matters,
and the uery eaceIlent salaries paid the
preachers there, that we have never seen
in New England And not only in the
cities do we see this christian labor, but
by means of the circuit system, the gos-
pei is carried to new and remote colo
nies and settlements, on the frontiers,
which could not otherwise be reached.
A settlement may be too new and weak
to build church, and support preach
ing. but few such neighborhoods COM
bined, can easily give the needed sup
port, so in accordance with the worships
of our church polity, man is sent to
this community who takes a circuit of
many miles in extent, and by having
the preaching places for one Sabbath, in
a school house in one direction, for the
next in another direction, and for the
third, in still another course, he can cas-
lily reach those remote places, where the
sound Of the gospel would not otherwise
be heard, and by this means also his
support is easily secured. There is
much of this work being performed at
present in the far West. The material
work of the church is now being more
particularly carried forward. Here is a
society to be organized, there church
edifce to be erected, yonder another, so
the work is being rapidly extended in all
our Western conferences. The spirit of
energy, activity, and enterprise is seen
in all departments of labor in the west,
and it stamps itself upon all the wor-
ships and manifestations of society there,
and it is equally seen and felt in the Ia
bors and enterprises Of the church,
While all the churches there are doing
their great and noble work, still how
vast the field of labor yet to be occupied,
and thus kept from fanaticism and er-
ror. Truly ''the fields are white for the
harvest" but alas, too few the laborers
Heaven speed the day when the walls Of
Zion shall everywhere be built up in
beauty and strength, and when ''the sol
itary and waste places shall bud and
blossom as the rose.
LEILA I,YNDON
Barton, IT., Fe6. l, 1872.