News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-05-15
LamoiIIe County Conference.

SnreWdneSS.
Lamoille County Conference.
The fiftieth Lamoille county con
.terence of Congregational churches
was held May 6and Z with the church
at Jacksonville, one of the youngest
and most enterprising of them.
The opening sermon by Rev. P. B.
Fisk, of Morrisville, was upon Luke
"a: 26, 81, and was a searching OF
the Old Testament for some of the
scriptures with which our Lord con-
WINGED those on the way to Emmaus
that ''the Christ ought on the one
hand to have suffered these things,
and on the other to have entered into
his glory"
Rev. Edwin Wheelock was chosen
moderator and Rev. W. L. Anderson
reelected scribe. The churches with
one exception were represented, a
number of them by full delegations,
and their reports of the work of the
past year cheering. Particular men
ton was made Of the Christian En-
deavor societies, which exist in all
| but three churches, and indeed, in
one of the three they seem to have
the work without the particular or
ganizatiOn.
Church Membership" was the gen
eral theme of the afternoon, and the
subdivisions were "Motive for join
ing a church to be expected in a can
didate," Rev. E. J. Ward; "What
should one joining a church expect
from the relation he sustains to it ?"
c. p. Jones; ''What should the church
expect from one joining it?'' Rev. Mr..
Fisk, in the absence of Dea. H. p.
Munson; What should the world
expect from the church and those
who join it?" Rev. W. L. Anderson.
In the evening Rev. l.. c. Kimball,
our valuable State evangelist"
gave a very moving address in rela-
ton to our home missionary prob
lem, which could hardly fail to con-
vince the people that it was not our
duty longer to put the foreign mis-
sionary cause ahead of the home
work. Miss Graves, of Waterbury,
late a missionary on the Bulgarian
field, read an interesting paper on
Bulgarian Customs"
On Wednesday the first paper was
on "The Christian Home" by Mrs.
J. w. Page, and this drew out one of
the heartiest discussions of the whole
session. elbow shall we develop an
active membership in our churches p"
was Il question well handled by DR..
W. ID. Buchanan, and the prayer ser
vice following, led by Miss SlaytOn,
of MOrrisville, was a demonstration
of the fact that in one way at least,
these churches have an active mem
bership. 1t was (if the expression
may be allowed) a model prayer
meeting.
Immediately after this service Dea.
Oscar Atwood read an essay on ''The
true attractive power of a church, -
which, with a text and delivered from
the pulpit at the time of public wOr-
ship, would have been easily mistaken
for good sermon. Rev W. l.. An
derson then gave an address on ''The
true prosperity of a church," which
was fitting close of a very interest
ing discussion on the general theme of
"The Church." and the final article
on " Bible study by Mrs. Howe nat
urally turned us to ''the Law and the
Testimony" again.
In the afternoon the ladies had the
audience room for missionary meet
ing, Miss Graves taking the leading
part in a way which was strongly
commended by all. Meanwhile the
gentlemen in the lectureroom attend
ed to the routine business as follows
The next conference is to be held with
the church at WolcOtt Rev. Mr..
Fisk, l.. III. Lewis and a brother from
WolcOtt whose name has been missed,
are the committee of arrangements;
Rev. Mr.. Ward is delegate to the
State convention from conference.
Rev. Mr.. Anderson alternate. A spe-
cial meeting of the Ministerial Asso-
citation was called and Rev Mr.. Fisk
chosen delegate to the above cOnven-
ton from this body.
The remainder of the hour was Civ
en- to a profitable discussion of the
question of church finance, led by
Brother Varnum, of Jacksonville,
whose work in this new and very con-
venient church building, and in bring
ing this young church to more than
double its subscription for the sup
port of gospel institutions entitled
him to be heard, In general he
claimed that the ministry could help
the committee more by refusing to
preach a single sermon if the salary
was not forthcoming.
Returning to the audience-roOm
Miss Anna Smile presented "The re-
latiOn of Y. p. s. c. E. to the Church
es, the moderator preached before
communion, the table was served by
Brethren Smith and Fisk, assisted by
two of the delegates who were also
deacons, and with mutual greeting
and joy the conference adjourned
The new church at Jacksonville |
has an elegant house of worship. free |
of debt. The members are united, |
and devoted, and are look
ing for a pastor, desiring a "whole
loaf" but willing to take half The
dinners were served in what used to |
be the church, and the bill of fare was
most ample and palatable. Every
thing was done quietly and well, and |
all the visitors left their blessing, and
took away memory full of enjoy
ment. F.