The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-11-02
SATURDAY. NOV. 2.
EDITORIAL.

lHE S6SSlOu Vi tu6
From Gloucester G n raj Convention
to Merlden' which is reported this
week was the silver jubilee of the organ
ization of the Universalist Church of
America. Twenty five years have passed
since the adoption of the present Con-
stitution and Laws of Organization at
the great Gloucester Centennial in 1870.
The notable anniversary was made the
subject of an address on Thursday
evening, at the Meriden session, review
ing the progress of the Church and its
work during the twenty five years. Hon.
Henry B. Metcalf, of Rhode Island, was
the speaker assigned to this duty, which
he discharged in an admirable manner.
The address. entitled From Gloucester
to Meriden," will appear in full in our
next issue. We commend the address
in advance to those who would know
something of the results achieved and
the obstacles overcome by the organized
Universalist Church doing the quarter
of century which ended at Meriden
last week.
500
NEXT Sunday Nov.
Next Sunday for 3. All Souls Day, is
Japan the appropriate time
specified for the offerings in our churches
in behalf of the Japan Mission. The
call is made by the Board of Trustees
and the facts and figures connected with
this enterprise of the Church have been
placed before the Universalist public in
official form. 1t remains for the churches
of the denomination to make response
to this call in such manner that the
Trustees and friends of the Mission may
have the assurance of practical co-opera-
ton and sympathy The substantial
reasons for the support and maintenance
of the Mission have been set forth in our
columns from variety of standpoints.
The duty remains for the churches to
rally to the support of the Church in
the enterprise. We confidently expect
prompt, generous and encouraging re-
spouse. Announce the japan offering,
pastors, and receive the offerings of the
people. Large or small these offerings
will be acceptable and will prove that
churches are obedient and loyal to the
Convention in this particular enterprise.
SOS
OUR columns are given
The Convention up almost entirely this
Report week to the Meriden
Convention. The Report of the Board
of Trustees we print in full. Whoever
wishes to understand what the Univer-
salist Church has been doing for the
last two years will need to consult this
document. They will find in it the
record of an expanding and enlarging
church, actively engaged in the Home
and Foreign Missionary Work, and eager
to assume new responsibilities in the
line of Christian work when the means
are placed at its disposal. The regular
report of the Meriden meeting gives
faithful outline of the interesting pro-
ceedings, and touch and go" glance
at the public services. The Occasional
Sermon, by Rev. DIR. Mason, of Buffalo,
is printed on the second page. Consid-
ering the distance from Chicago to Meri-
den and the fact that the Convention
only closed on Friday noon of last week,
THE UNIvERsALIsT congratulates it's
readers that it is able to give the entire
proceedings of this important National
Convention in the issue which is now
before the public.
NO&
DURING recent visit
Pastoral Circuits n a Presbyterian
Needeu' meeting a writer in
the Cumberland Presbyterian heard an
intelligent ruling elder, while tearfully
pleading for the grouping of his own
country congregations with others into
the pastorate, say in substance: 1--WE are
longing for pastoral care. Our preacher
lives twenty miles away. and though he
breaches for us once a month on Sunday
morning. he leaves for home the same
afternoon; and we have no pastor to
visit our sick, pray in our homes, or bury
our dead. Group our churches, breth-
rem, and let us baye pastor to live and
labor among US" That presbytery
needed the appeal and pastor is now
living among the people whose need was
thus represented. We have many Uni
yersalist congregations also suffering
for the regular pastorate. The grouping
of the churches in contiguous districts
where the friends are not strong enough
in any one place to support pastor is
one Of the pressing needs Of the hour.
The Pastoral Circuit plan should be