The New York herald., 1879-11-16
METHODIST CHURCH EXTENSION.
WEST AND SOUTH, AMONG FREEDMEN AND I'M

METHODIST CHURCH EXTENSION.
WEST AND SOUTH, AMONG FREEDMEN AND I'M
MIGRANTS.
When tho Methodist Missionary Committee adj
journed here last week the bishops and many of the
members went to Philadelphia to attend the anni-
versary of the Church Extension Society, which
held there last Thursday in Greene Street Metho-
dist Episcopal Church. Bishops Wiley. Haven and
Peck and Rev. Messrs. Loeber. Barnes. Kelly and
McCabe delivered addresses The report of the Cor
responding Secretary and Treasurer which was pre-
sented for ten months. showed the receipts gen.
eral account to be $6S.350 % and on loan
count S37, $50 10. This amount s313 80 in
of the receipts for the twelve months
preceding. The collections from conferences alone
in Of those of the last year by s29OS IL.
With the loan fund the society has saved hundreds
of feeble churches during the last ten years. and has
enabled many weak and struggling societies to COM
plete buildings which they had begun. The money.
sums OF 500 to $500. according to the necessi-
ties of each case, Is loaned without interest. but
made payable to the society in three or five years,
SO that II can go out again to aid other churches.
With the general fund the society builds an average
OF nearly two churches day for every working
day throughout the year. With an expenditure of
less than S5OO.OOo the society has already secured
1,2O0 churches i'll the South in which are gathered
every Sabbath more than 100000 Sunday scholars
and 100000 worshippers. And this indicates less
than nall what the Methodist Cnurch (Nortn) mas ac-
compshcd in the South since the war.
But the West is the great field for Church extern
sion. Within two years more than million of peo-
| pie have sought and found homes beyond the Mis-
| sissippi And this number does not include the
| heavy influx from Europe the exodus Of col
| ored people from the South. Everywhere, from
the Kio Grande the south to the Red River OF
the North. the people are making new homes. Rail-
roads penetrating the country and towns and
villages springins mp along those new thorough
fares while mining camps are transformed into
cities in single year. And to meet this increasing
want the Church at large is asked to contribute
special fund of $l000O0 to plant 400 new churches
the frontier. Three hundred destitute
gregatons already gathered await the reply.
The long night of financial gloom is gone and the
outlook for the future is encouraging. This work,
though not the same. goes hand in hand with the
work OF the Frecdmen's Aid Society in the South.
That society held its anniversary in Jersey City last
Tuesday evening and addressed by Drs. Curry
and Rust and Others Its aim is educational and it
builds schools, academies and colleges for the in
struction of colored youth of both sexes. many OF
whom afterward go forth as teachers and preachers
and missionaries among their own people. The
work which these two societies of Northern Meth
odists do, at great cost would not and could not
be done by the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
And yet the latter find fault with their Northern
frercs because they do it, There is room enough tor
both and for more without any trenching on the
Others work IL only each be actuated by the Divine
Spirit and their operations be characterized by
Christian courtesy and forbearsnce.