The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-08-07
TIE yonrnrrELD MEETINGS.


 THE yoRTHFIELD MEETINGS.
 Mr. Moody.s Great:work-The New Audi
 toriam-Beginning of Twelfth conven-
 tion.
 Northfieid. Mass. Aug. 5.-rhe twelfth annual general conference of Christian workers. Northfield. Mass. under D. l.. Moody, began the evening of August l. This year's conference is noted chiefly on account of the new Northfield audi torium. Think of 1t! A magnificent public hall seating over twenty-five hundred persons and costing over six ty thousands dollars. out here on these Northneid hills. which some ten years ago were comparatively unknown, and scarcely a thousand people in a radius of several miles.
 When one goes over these buildings both for the young womens' school and those connected with the Mt Her man school for young men. some four miles down the river 1t seems like a modern miracle. l we'll remember the very beginning of these schools. The summer of 1878 after Mir. Moody had had his series of evangelistic meetings through New England. including New Haven, he was driving over the noun tains in the immediate vicinity of Northfeld. which by the way, Is on the northern line of Massachusetts at precisely the point where 1t is touch- ed by the dividing line between Yer mont and New Hampshire. In one of the impoverished farmhouses or moun- tain cabins, MT. Moody found in one of these drives an intelligent family and among It's members were some bright girls. They were without even the ru- ailments of education. The great world outside was practically a sealed book to them. Opportunity beyond that of learning to read and write was simply impossible. His heart was touched. and he immediately set to work to see what could be done With him to think is to act, and that very summer the foundation of what was known as Recitation hall was laid. He converted his own house just across the street
 
 secured by flooring the upper part of the long woodshed in the rear and con meeting with the house, and partition ing it into small rooms. This served for something over a year, and in 1880, the beginning of the conferences. East hall, beautiful building costing fifty thou sand dollars. was dedicated. This year also witnessed the beginning of the Boys school with the gift of twenty five thousand dollars that MT. Camp made at the time of this conference. Other buildings have since followed; Stone hall, Talcott library, Betsey Moody cottage and other buildings, so that all together the seminary build ings with land are valued at over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. AL most an equal amount has been spent upon the. buildings of Mt. Hermon school, so that the entire property of these two schools is valued not far from three-quarters of million dol lars. Some three hundred women are in the Young Ladies' school and an equal number of men in the Mt Her man school One hundred dollars is the annual expense for students, in cluding board and tuition. New Ha- ven has the honor of sending the first student to the school for young men! This was Willie J. Tonkin, who entered the school irf 1881 and who was connec- ted with our English hall Sunday school.
 Mt. Herman school has seven hum dred and fifty acres of land connected with 1t, and the Young Ladies' semin- ary has two hundred and fifty acres, making a total of about one thousand acres and some forty buildings. Some seventeen hundred young women have passed through the girls school and sixteen Hundred young men through the boys school. New Haven is partic- ularly interested in the Mt. Herman on account Of its having been founded and named by Hiram Camp. who con- tributed altogether about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
 But started to tell you of the con- ference. However. it has not got very far along and the above may well serve as an introduction, and I take great pleasure in writing it as have been familiar with every step of this great work, having visited Northfeld for the first time in 1879, and having an invita- tion from MT. Moody to be present at the laying of the foundation of Recita- tion hall and afterwards hearing from his own lips the story of the beginning of the schools. took the first boy to the school, and went over the farm and had part in the dedicatory prayers when MT. Camp and MT. Moody first visited 1t after Its purchase in 1ssO I have seen call the buildings one after another erected until Northfield has be- come transformed so that one would hardly recognize 1t as the place of a few years since. Mir. Moody is practical if anything. He could not possibly permit these great buildings to be unoccupied during the sunlNer vacation. Hence these great conferences beginning first with ; the August conference and then fol- lowed in later years with the students gathering from colleges throughout the world in June and still later by a con- ference for young women from schools and colleges in July. Besides this he has a Bible Training school for young women sat. the large and beautiful Ho- tel Northfleld during the winter, 50 that these buildings, are used practical ly continuously through the three hun dred and sixty-five days of the year. Mir. Moody was in one of his happiest frames of mind Thursday evening, for he war rejoicinsr in tha ono,,inr of tha