Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-09
srupRNr mrssror vEoRK.

Cily-YaIe DfvIR1sy students Assist
 ing.
 For several years past the work of city missions in New Haven has received valuable aid from the students of Yale university. The fact of increasing aid as we'll ss interest in this work on the part of university men in New Haven seems to call for some statement of both their past and present connection with it.
 Students in this and other colleges and seminaries have always, to greater or less extent, felt responsibility upon them in be- half of what is usually called mission work. The result has been that neighborhood meet- iDgs have been held in little communities re- mote from churches, either just outside of
 towns or cities where young men have been engaged in study or in localities within town and city limits where the need of such work
 was apparent. At New Haven many have
 engaged in mission Sunday school work, and in the city and vicinity there are at the pres ent time sev eral Sunday schools that are un- der the mans cement of students or dependent mostly upon student support.
 For a few years past there has been spec ial interest taken on the part of the mem- bers of the Yale Divinity school in this branch of home missionary work. In cons naction with the organization known as the ttNew Haven City missions" i" not only have neighborhood meetings been held in differ ent parts of the city and house toulouse wis., ting carried on in the vicinity of these meetings, but daily visitors have been on du- ty at the hospital for the help and comfort of the sick and dying, several thousand pa- pers, tracts, cards, etc., have been distribut- ed there or elsewhere, and large number of families without other pastoral care called upon for conversation, Bible reading or prayer. Good results have followed all these efforts in which the services of from twenty to thirty volunteer workers were each year
 included.
 For the last two years meetings have been held by the city missions not only in other
 parts of the city as heretofore, but also at their central rooms every evening of the week as well as on the Sabbath. The success of this enlargement of the work is due mainly to the generous help given by the students both of the seminary and of the college also. Under the leadership of MT. E.C. Webster of the seminary, graduate of Harvard 'S7, and Mir. ". L. Phelps of Yale 'S7, the secretary of the college Y. M. 0. A., 8 large force of student workers concentrated their efforts last winter at the Meadow street mission rooms. The fact that men like Stagg, Gill, Oorbin and others famous in college athletics were engaged in such work brought to the Sunday night meetings especially many who came perhaps to see, but who stayed to hear and even accepted the earnest invitation giv- en to go into the inquiry room where there were often as many as thirty or forty persons at one time engaged in conversation or prayer together.
 ing hardly large enough for the increasing attendance, the students of the academical department requested Rev. MT. Mosman, the superintendent of the city missions, to open another mission hall in some other part of the city for them, while the meetings at the ah0 he hA theological students and others as before. This was done, and from April 15, 1888, un- til the present time a large committe from the college have successfully carried on meetings at Washington Hall, No. 556 Grand avenue, near the railroad crossing. every Sun day evening except during the college vaca- ton.
 Another hall on the corner of Gofe and Sperry streets had been previously occupied for several years branch mission station, the expense for rent, etc., being met by the United church, and meeting held by Rev. Mr. Mosman and his assistants of. the City Missions. During the past summer MT. Nor rison Weimer, a student of the seminary, was engaged by tho City missions to visit from house to house, not only in that but in other portions of the upper part of the city. This work which was carried on in connec- tion with meetings held on Sunday and dur ing the week at the Goffe street hall resulted ill the finding of about 300 families without any church connection or Christian care. These families are not only being visited and I invited to mission meetings or to such | churches as they may prefer, but with the I return of the seminary students from their ! summer vacation an additional movement I has been made toward thorough work in l city evangelization in New Haven.
 For the ten principal wards of the city | (not including, for the present, Fair Haven and beyond) 40 students have volunteered to \ take each 8 section for careful visiting from I house to house. Ten thousand blanks have | been printed leach to represent separate ! family, the upper half containing space for l name, street and number, and the answers to Il three questions, wis.,: Membership in churches, attendance st church, or preference, \ if non-attendant. The object CT the first | question is to bring to the knowledge of churches of any denomination Christian peo- pie in the city who are members elsewhere, but perhaps have never been invited to join | churches here. The answers to tke second | question will inform every pastor In the II oity of any strangers who are attending his church, but may not yet be known personally to him. The preferences expressed in answer to the third question viii be communicated to each church nam ed, it being left with each of the pastors and their people to determine how best to reach those in this way made known to them. There is also included in the blanks an fn- quiry as to children from to 16 years of age not attending Sunday school, and sepa- rate blank is used for boarders, servants and individuals not in families. The lower half of each blank is duplicate to be filled out for the use of the pastors of the city.
 When the canvas Is complete the blanks of all the wards will be asserted and forwarded to pastors and churches. All families have ing no pastor and expressing no preference for any church will be assigned to missionary pastoral care and will be visited by Rev. MT. Mosman and invited to the meetings at Eng lish Hall, corner of Court and State streets (where the city missions now have their head quarters), or to either of the other two mis- sion halls that may be nearer to them.
 This branch of the city mission work is called the Yale seminary department and in- cludes members of each of the three classes. | Each ward has chairman and it's own dis | trict visitors, all of whom together constitute I 8 general committee of which the chairman IS | Mr. T. H. Root of the middle class and the secretary Mr. E E. Bradley of the junior class. The work has the approval of President Dwight of the college, with other members of the faculty of the college and seminary, as ! we'll as pastors of the churches, and Is deS signed neither to make unnecessary inquiry | in regard to the matters referred to nor to obtain merely mass of statistics, but to give expression to the kindly interest that is felt by those already included in our churches by membership or attendance in those who are not yet so connected, and to to bring about such relationship in one or both directions. It is to be hoped and expected that those who have so willing ly offered themselves for this much needed work will meet with a cordial response at the homes of our city, and that in this ss we'll as in other ways, much good will come from the efforts of those who are engaging in service for others while receiving their ed- ucation at New Haven.
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