The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-07-14
THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR MOVE
MENT

Ihe great meeting OF lO,UUU ueleSdCeS
at Montreal, last week, attracted the at
tention of the civilized world. OF the
matters debatable we do not purpose
to speak OF the growrh of the
Christian Endeavor societies, the Gener-
al Secretary reported: Twelve years
ago the first society was organized in the
Williston church, Portland, Me. To-day
there are thousands of societies and
every society, if really entitled to the
name Christian Endeavor, emphasizes in
its constitution certain distinctive prin-
ciples which, under Gods guidance,
have made the Christian Endeavor move
ment what it is to day. We might
dwell, if time would permit, upon the
widening of our interest and internation-
al fellowship as we have followed Presi-
dent Clark around the world, and now
having an acquaintance none the less
real, though distinct with Endeavor-
ers in the islands of the Pacific, IN AUS
tralia, Japan, China, Syria, Iurkssy,
Spain, France, England, we can strlke
hands in a Mizpah circle that belts the
globe. cannot take your time to name
each State, territory and province, but
will content myself with mentioning the
five leaders among the States and prov
follows: New York State still leads with
20S5 societies; Pennsylvania is good
second with POPS; Illinois, third, with
1922; Ohio fourth. with 1776, and Iowa
fifth, with 1856. Massachusetts, and In
diana are not far behind however. Here
in Canada. all loyal to the Union Jack,
as we are to the Stars and Stripes, we
find 1922 societies. Ontario leads with
1912 societies; Nova Scotia has 1893; Que
hec, 1876; Manitoba. "a; and New Bruins
wick, 90, and so on through the Dominion.
The growth in the Southland has been
encouraging. Right royalty are The SO.
cieties rising in the Sunny South:
MARYLAND, Tennessee and Texas each
havesover 200 societies, and Georgia,
Florida, West Virginia and Arkansas
each have over 100, with Virginia and
North and South Carolina not far be-
| hind. But we must now turn our atten-
| ton to our brothers and sisters in for
| eipn lands and across the seas. Ii we
think -ur growth has been remarkable,
what can we say of the history OF the
movement? In England, with over 600
societies, Australia over 525, lndla,n, ,
Turkey, al (pOor, prosecuted Turkey
still has Al societies), New Zealand ~,
japan "a, Madagascar 32, Scotland ~,
Mexico tour neighbors), %, West Indies,
10. Africa 10, China 13, Ireland 10, France
o. Samoa2, Sandwich Islands 6, Bermuda
3, Brazil 2, Persia and Chill, Columbia,
Norway and Spain each l. In all nearly
a thousand societies in foreign lands,
making a grand total enrolment for the
wide, wide world of 26,2S4 local socie-
ties, with membership of 1871, ,O4O
The net gain in societies is the largest
ever made in the history of the move
ment. Net gain, say, for every Christ
ian EndeavOr society that has become an
Epworth League-aAd hundreds have
changed each year for the last three
years-has been stricken from the list
The net gain III number of local socie
ties in 1882 was 6; in 1888, 40; in 1884, 100
1885, 81; 1886, 597; 1887, 1,464; 1888, 2,
565; 1899, 1902; 1899, 3,34l; 1891, 1901:
1892, 1906; and 5,2T6 is the forward
step this year. In other words, more
societies have been organized since oul
New York convention than were organ
lied during seven years OF the society
early history. You will be Interested L
know that the model constitution ha'
been translated and is printed in the FOL
lowing languages: English, German
Swedish, Norwegiap, French, DANISH
Dutch, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese
Tamil, Telugu, Hindostande, Bengalee
Marathi, Arabic, Turkish, Bulgarian
Armenian and modern Greek. Thirt,
evangelical denominations are repre-
sented in our fellowship. We find tha
during the last year more than l5S,OOO o
our members have become church mem
bers. How much or how little our owl
individual work or that of the societ
has influenced this blessed result W
know not sufficiently happy and thank
full are we to know that these addition
to the number of SO many Thousand
have come from our membership"
The International convention of tn
Christian Endeavor societies will NEE
in Saratoga, N, Y, in 1895. Miss lsabe
NJ. Terrett, the delegate from the loca
union in that village, extended the invi
triton to the convention to meet in Sara
toga in 1894, but it had already promise
to 90 to Cleveland for its next conven
ton and also to San Francisco in 1888.