The Portland daily press., 1880-10-20
THE OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Proceedings OF the First Days Session
Of the Cumberland Conference.

The Cumberland Conference of Congrega-
tional churches met at the ST. Lawrence street
church, theiRey. A FL. Wright pastor, yester-
day morning.
At O'Clock the exercises commenced with
prayer meeting led by Deacon Richard Abbot.
| The regular conference services commenced
| one hour later.
THE CONFERENCE.
The Conference was called to order by the
Rev. f. Southworth of Portland
The Rev. F. E. Clark of Portland was
chosen Moderator.
chosen Secretary.
The following committee on nominations
was named: The Rev. c. A. Dickinson. Dea-
con n Valentine of Deering, and Deacon
Elwell of Westbrook.
Itwas announced that the Rev. l. p. War
rem, d. D., would not be able to preach the
Conference sermon.
The churches were reported represented as
| follows:
Baldwin church--The pastor
| Sebago church-The pastor
| Cape Elizabeth church-The pastor Dele
| gates-G. IL. Hannaford, e. f. French.
Lgonia church-The pastor Deegates-I
Richards, Il. d. Evans.
Deerng church-The pastor. Delegate
| A. Valentine.
| First church-Falmouth. The pastor
Second church Falmouth. The pastor
Delegates-Samuel Bell, George o. Knight.
Gorham ehurch-The pastor. Delegate
j. P. Leavitt.
Portland Second Parish-The pastor. Dele
gates-Mr. Stephenson and Mr.. Hobbs. High
street.-The pastor. Bethel-The pastor. Del
eeates-J. Nj. Gould, L. r. R. harrington.
State street.-The pastor Delegates-W. S.
The pastor. Delegates-Charles Merrill, j. J.
| Gerrsh. West Chapel-The pastor. Dele
| gate-Clara Carleton. Plymouth church.
The pastor. Delegates-B. f. Whitney, Chas
| Delegates-C. G. Chapman, j. F. Jefferd.
Scarboro church-The pastor Delegates
Simon Libby, H. S. Jones.
Standish church-The pastor Delegates
Mrs. L. P. Crosby, Mrs. A. M. Lowell
Westbrook. (Saccarappa,) church-The pas
tor. Delegates-G. P. Libby, c. L.. Andrews.
Westbrook church-The pastor. Delegates
FL. Elwell L. Warren.
The conference took recess of ten minutes
On reassembling devotional exerc ses we're
conducted by the Rev. e. S.sTead, of Cumber-
land Mills.
The Rev. c.. A. Dickinson then preached
the semi-annual sermon, from III Col, VI l.
1--WE then as workers together with Him."
In the original Hebrew the word that is here
translated workers means co-laborers and
co-operatorS. Paul had been much concerned
in regard to the church that he had gathered
together at Corinth, and his appeal to them
was grand outbreak of a great soul, standing
on great spiritual height. The first thought
is, eve are workers." We have here pre-
sented the central thought of our religion-to
work To speak OF an idle Christian is about
as absurd as to speak of a stationary express
train. The Christ an religion offers field for
the highest effort. There are vineyards to be
cultivated, there are battles to be fought,
there are victories to be won. The Christian
life is upward, to that heaven where work
means rest, and rest means work.
Second, the thought is expressed that we
are workers together The Christian worker
is not a hermit, but worker with others.
Here is another instance of how the Christian
religion adapts itself to the wants of men, to
the social instincts, and the fact that men will
desire to work together was utilized by Christ |
and his disciples, who worked together in the |
highest sense, and his followers in the same |
spirit met to communicate with each other,
and with their divine and absent Lord, and |
from these meetings ca ne the Christian |
church.
Third, we are workers together with God. |
Would that we could grasp this idea and |
rise to the heightB " here Paul stood that we |
might realize how grand this life is. Our pur- |
suits become of the grandest importance to us |
when we remember that some great soul had |
been connected with it, Our work is shared |
with Christ and every part of our work is |
touched and frightened by this divine fellow |
ship. AS we do, OF leave undone any part of |
our duties. we honor or dishonor Him who is |
our co-laborer.
What is the aim of the Christian worker? |
The man with small object is selfish man. |
the man with divided object is tickle man. |
The man with no object is man at ALL He |
is the true man whose end is to attain to one |
great object. What is the Christians object? |
otxrotf <,,,A f l-.ka n.
himself and others Christ-like character |
The Christian must not work to escape hell, |
that would be seltishness, or to advance some |
denomination. No, he must aim to introduce |
the Christ LIE into the life OF man. He must |
take the human soul and work over it patient |
~ until 1t has taken on the likeness and been
filled with the spirit of Christ. He must use |
the church, the Sabbath school and all other |
means, but he must not allow these to absorb |
work. These thugs are to the great body of |
Christian workers what the branches are to the |
tree, but to be kept out of sight by the leaves |
How shall we Ill the midst of SO much di-
verslty OF character obtain the unity of action
that is a necessity? Here they all are in the
midst of our congregations. the doubling
Thomas. the busting Peter, the toiling Mar
tina ard the devout Mary, alservants of the
Lord, but how shall they work together?
Some believing mechanical sameness to be |
unity of action, have destroyed the spiril of |
unity, and others in the search for freedom of |
thought have destroyed the unity of action BY |
breaking away from the Bible itself A COM
mon unity of action may be found in the great
principles that have asource above and outside /
OF the common line of life. By viewing all
questions in the spirit of love. "a greater
commandment give unto you that you love
one anoJher.''
Christ's love if we would work together with
Him. We feel almost discouraged when
required to rise to such a love as His, but |
there stands the command, Love one another
nc hnxro lox,A
men as Christ loved, aided and helped. and |
when we have done this then will his life be
ours, and we shall work together with Christ
work in manner worthy of the companion
ship in which we labor and the immortal pow
ers given to u.s. May this our textithen be the
Gate Beautiful through which we shall pass
to the field of our work.
The question "What are the best methods of
church work for reaching non. church goers."
was taken up.
The Rev. f. e. Clark opened the discussion.
He did not believe in disparaging outside
work. The Y NJ. c. A. could render valuable
services He believed that at times wise
evangelical effort may be useful. That it
may be we'll to open halls, etc., at the same
time he would insist that the work can be
best done inside the churches. We must have
it go out little by little that there is something
inside the churches that non-church goers go
ought to hear. The second chapter of Acts can
help us perhaps. The people must hear some.
thing that they will understand. He believed
that the truth should be presented in greater
simplicity. Again the non-church goers should
be made to understand that they will hear some
thing of interest when they get to church.
The speaker feared that the pulpit has the
reputation for being prosey. He would have
the ministers study the art of being interesting
as they study the art of being true. When
the non-church goers find that the church
goers are interested they will become interes-
ted too. If the non-church goers of this city
would to the extent of their number crowd out
and fill the churches, the non-church goels
would not only be drawn to attend the church
but would be drawn to the church itself
Again the snon-church goer must be made to
understand that the church is ready to enter
new fields OF labor when new fields are opened
That the church is not bound by the tradi-
lions OF a hundred years. Finally how shall
the next generation of non-church goers be
reached? How many of the children of our
Sunday Schools are seen at the morning SER