The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-18
WORK IN RURAL DISTRICTS
BY THE AJIERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL
 UNION.


 tricts-The Union's Special Field of La
 bor--A Wonderful Relief Work--An Ad-
 dress by Dr. Foster of Boston.
 The Rev. Addison P. Foster, D. D., of
 Boston, secretary for New England of
 the American Sunday School union,
 preached at the Grand avenue Congre-
 gational church yesterday in the ab-
 sence of the pastor. Rev. J. Lee Nit
 chell. In the morning the text was
 taken from Luke IA, 23, "Go out
 unto the highways and hedges and
 compel them to come in"
 The subject was '"The Problem of the | Rural Districts"
 | The speaker in opening referred to a
 remark that had been made at the con- vention of Christian Workers in Boston | to the effect that we ought to work not | less in circles but more in squares. Our churches work in a circle. With | the strong arms of love and faith they | seek to reach their immediate neigh l borhood. Our denominations work int q circle. They reach those of similar temperament and type of mind. But it
 Is good housekeeping to sweep out the
 corners, and this the American Sunday
 School union. working, as it does, for the retired rural districts, seeks to do.
 The rural districts have undergone
 great changes within twenty-five years.
 Only per cent. of our population lived
 in cities hundred years ago. Only
 per cent 50 years ago. Now 29 per cent.
 live in cities, and this is at the cost of
 the rural districts. The population has
 steadily flowed down into the cities, and the country is depleted. The strength of the country has sought the city. The vigorous rative stock of old en times has often been supplanted by a foreign element. It Is impossible to maintain the advantages in the country that once were found there. Church after church has closed till abandoned churches are now to be found all over the land in rural districts. Dr. Hillis of Chicago says there are LOGO of them in Iowa. Dr. VanVanks of St. Johns bury says there are 290 in Vermont. pr. A. J. Gordon of Boston has said there are 1000 in New England. But the American Sunday School union sends its missionaries, over 125 of them, to these retired rural neighborhoods, calling on families, organizing Sunday schools, distributing Christian literature, hold ing evangelistic meetings and so kind ling the gospel flames everywhere.
 For seventy years the country has been engaged in this work, spending latterly over $100,O00 a year, and now Af.cr iyf1o Ia of An .f1 1 year. It has called into existence 92, 700 Sunday schools and gathered A. 000,000 into these schools. Last year It had 11,000 conversions in it's schools.
 There are peculiar hindrances in work in the rural districts which the Ameri- can Sunday School union has a special fitness to overcome.
 We almost invariably find in the out districts state of dlscouragement, If | not of indifference. The movement of 1 population in these days Is to the dis | advantage of these rural districts. Pop | ulation is pouring into the cities, and | the country Is sorely depleted in con | sequence. The people in the country | feel this and are hopeless, and from | despair they pass over to indifference. But the Sunday school interests and | benefits their children, and so arouses them from their lethargy and gives them hope.
 Another difficulty is in the inaccessi- bility and poverty of the rural districts. It is impossible to'supply all these, little rural neighborhoods with churches and pastors. There is not money enough in the country to do this. But the Sunday school is always feasible. A place for the Sunday school is always to be found without cost, and for workers in the Sunday school there are almost always 70 be found few Christians in the ready to help,
 The cheapness of these Sunday school methods is something remarkable A support, including $100 for expenses and $100 for Sunday school supplies, is only $500. A Sunday school can be organized for not over 25, and every dollar given is sure to put ! child in Sunday school for full year. n no other form of Christian work does dollar bring results uniformly so arge
 There is a difficulty in rural work rom the presence of foreigners. These Ire hard to reach because of their diff erent language, their race peculiarities | md their religious prejudices. But the nion Sunday school overconles all these lifffculties. It interests the children vho speedily learn to speak English; hey take the story of the cross home o their parents, each in the tongue in which he was born. These foreign peo- les are greatly averse to denomination l influences. But the union Sunday l chool awakens no prejudices and is d. ways welcome. Great numbers of these oreign peoples are found in our Sunday l ( chools who would not come into any hing denominational.
 The most serious difficulty arises from he denominational prejudices in these ural neighborhoods. Such prejudices re these in peculiar strength and they { ften make any denominational effort impossible. A dozen families in somk ( orge of the hills represent at least half l S many denominations. No denomna- lon can find @ footing there, but the nion Sunday school is welcomed and a power.
 The American Sunday School union is terdenominational, working for the in- , erests of all the churches It leaves , ) the denominations all work which z