The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-02-18
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF
OREGON,

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clergyman on the Northern Pacific
Coast, including Northern California,
Oregon and Washington Territory.
Lewiston, idaho, is close to the eastern
boundary of Washington Territory.
Rev. Lee Fairchild presides over an &C
tive and influential Universalist church
at that point-theisolitary brother who
bears our flag in that wide extent of
country from Oakland, CAL, to Alaska
on the North. The country is dotted
with young cities. Four great lines of
railways now compete for eastern bust
ness. A boom of immigration has al
ready begun. New towns are planted.
The older towns are full Of people to
their attics. A plenty of farms are now
valued at fifty dollars an acre in Ore
gon. One hundred, two and three and
even four hundred dollars an acre are
the prices already set upon good fruit
lands in Northern California.
This whole line of coast is bound to
be peopled and thickly so. 1t will be
strewn with eastern capital and eastern
families at very rapid rate during the
next decade.
AS might be expected, we have scat
tered families Of Universalist believers
throughout this wide and hopeful land.
A portion of these take our publica-
tions and still maintain warm inter-
est in the affairs of our church. But
far more of them in the days of their
pioneer hardships, dropped our circu-
lating literature. They have become
absorbed in the material affairs of life,
in the rearing Of families, in the i'm
provement of farms, securing a home
stead, and so on, till their early relig-
ious activity has been forgotten. They
have become half-and-half Universal
lists, and the larger half is the dead
half. Another class of people have lit
lently thought themselves out of popu-
lar existing beliefs, and have unknow-
ing!y come to our standards of opinion
little surmising that they are Univer-
salists in sentiment. And not a few
Universalists, with the religious senti-
ment too strong to be quenched, are
active and even leading workers in other
religious bodies. Now all of these
classes, besides our share in the great
unchurched world, are ready to be
gathered into our fold. And each class,
almost everywhere, is larger than the
other classes suspect. Hence the OBJ
stacles to success are less than are ap-
pretended. Parishes could be organ
lied forthwith at Albany Salem, at East
Portland, Eugene City and at numerous
places throughout Oregon and Wash
ington Territory. 1t only wants a
leader in the work-a man with
zeal to take bundle of our liter
ture as an excuse for a call, and go
from door to door and enter into relig-
ious conversation and inquiry as to
those who sympathize with our faith.
Invite the people to our meetings, ex-
plain our views, gather at once the
waiting and the willing into church or
parish organizations, set the faithful at
work, and the results would be a sur
prise to those older believers who
thought they knew all about the relig-
ious condition Of affairs in their own
town.
Now who is ambitious to become the
spiritual pioneer and bishop of this in
wiling fieldp What an opportunity to
build as an apostle buildeth and to re-
joice in ones work How sacred
would be the reward and remembrance
Of such labor compared to a soft pull
pit and the watering of well-planted
vine which another had established
Our General Convention cannot do all
things, but no doubt our General Con-
vention would lend it's fostering aid to
any valiant brother who would give
himself to this important field. Our
Convention already holds the deed of a
valuable church lot in the heart of the
city of Albany, the gift of single lay
man; and Of course the Convention will
be wise to foster its own interests at
the proper time. We are glad to write
word for Oregon. The right man
need have no fears of an income. Let
him do the work and do it we'll, and
his reward is sure, temporal and spirit
ual. We could name men in the full
vigor of their years who could cover
themselves with everlasting remem-
brance in the bishoprie of Oregon. He
who lives to do good, unselfishly, to
his kind and within the instrumental
ties of our church, let him cast his eyes
over the vast prospective multitudes of
churchless people who will soon inhab-
it the Northern Pacific Coast, and con-
slider his opportunity, for it is great.
And consider his reward, for it is i'm
mortal. A. A. THAYER.
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