Morning journal and courier., 1891-06-09
semR FACTS ABOUT CHURCHES

Annual Meeting of the ~Congrega-
 tional CIub-Reports of Committees
 Statistics of Interest-PaPer by Dr.
 Phillips, Discussing the Remedy
 for Mendicancy.
 The annual meeting of the Congrega- tional club of New Haven was held in the Church of the Redeemer last night and
 was preceded by a supper at half-past
 six, served by the ladies of the church, at
 which number of invited guests were
 present, making total of about 130. At
 7:30 the business meeting was held
 in the body of the church. After singing
 and the reading of the minutes the execu-
 tive committee reported. They recorded
 the membership at 150 instead of 126 as
 the previous year. The committee also
 recommended the pruning of the club of
 members who do not attend or contribute
 to the prosperity of the club in any way
 of which there are large number. This
 report was followed by that of the treas urer. The necrologist, Rev MT. Squires, reported the death of only one member, Deacon Alfred Walker, in December, 1890. A long report from the outlook commit tee was read by MT. Park. It gave statis-
 tics which showed a steady increase in the past twenty years of Congregational inter ests in the state from IS to 39 per cent. The Methodist interests have also increased very rapidly, while the extra parish charit- able contributions of the Episcopalians in Connecticut have gone down 34 per cent, though the membership has increased over 50 per cent The, Baptist interests have increased about the same as the Congrega- Do1o 1r, %Ho ipfa ofc rNff fIa latter are decreasing quite rapidly at home, though spreading rapidly abroad and in missionary work-the exact reverse of the Episcopal. The committee declares very emphatically that. their church ought no longer to regard the Roman Catholic as an enemy, and that we ought to learn to take as good care of our children as they do of theirs Many answers to questions sent to parishioners regarding the services and church work were read, and especially 8 noticeable letter from Professor Ladd, and
 others from Dr. Munger, Dr. Lyman Ab-
 bolt of Brooklyn, NY, and Dr. Parker of
 Hartford.
 After the reading Dr. McLane objected
 to the report on the ground that the basis of the percentage was wrong, and the re- time for discussion.
 Rev. Watson Phillips, DID,; then read the paper of the evening, on the subject of
 Christianity and Dependent Populations,' D
 of which we append few words:
 "Jesus, as well as we, had to deal with
 dependent populations. When he met
 beggars he did not give them money-that
 would have taken away all it's social phi
 losophy. There is no record of Jesus giv- ing aims. Instead he took the beggar out
 of his condition of poverty; and that is just f~~xI.1 4 o<I~, l~ zs-- so much to relieve men of their present difficulties as to put them where they won't
 get into them again. The function of Christianity is to remove the disabilities of
 men. It is not !. question of philsnthropic
 relief, which is like pouring water through
 sieve which is ever growing larger; it is a question of removing the cause of beggary. The most prominent cause of beggary, in spite of the ravages of intemperance and thriftlessness, is lack of capacity of skilled labor, and so disability to get work. Unrestricted mar riage is very fruitful cause of beggary, | of dependent population. Orr business | principles, too, are by no means of unal- l loved blessing-especially the invention of | labor-saving machines and the division of labor. Our boys have few trades to go into now, in the old-fashioned sense. Farming, shoemaking and nearly all hand
 trades are now superseded by machine
 work. I am aware also of other consider
 ations. The rush and greed for wealth 1 now crushes humanity. There must be | something wrong where one man owns a
 hundred millions, and a hundred just escape starvation. Is not this plain dis that the final basis of judgment would be the care for the naked Is it not time that
 the church had something to say on these subjectss- not only something to say | but an example to set? For this is not a question of politics or economics-it is a l question which must be settled by the l churches and by the gospel"