Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-06-06
SUCCESSFUL YEARS WORK.
Congregational Home Missionary Society Has
Favorable Report Of Us Labors.

Congregational Home Missionary Society Has
Favorable Report Of It's Labors.
Saratoga, n Y, june 5.-Thc Congre-
gational Home Missionary Society confer
ence executive committee submitted
through Deacon Blessing, Brooklyn, its
report reviewing the work accomplished
during the past year. The treasurer's re-
port Was made by W. j. Rowland. 1t
showed the total receipts during the year
to be 1913, 303 disbursements, 1886, 107
q. q. Howard Of Burlington, VT. was
reelected president. Among the vice
presidents Is Nelson Dingley, Jr., Lewis
ton, Me. There were several addresses
Rev. Watson l.. Phillips, u. D., of New
Haven, said that there are five classes In
our population whose needs are peremp-
tory and cannot be disregarded. There
is ~ the vicious and criminal class who
live by charity and pilfering, and consti-
tute the dangerous, combustible element
at the bottom of society. Men are SO in
timately related, so interdependent, that
the hieh and the low, the rich and the
poor, tho fortunate and unfortunate so
perceptibly touch and affect each other,
that their interests lie enmeshed like the
warp and the wool in the web, and the
denial of single right or obligation Oh
the part OF one class brings weakness and
distress to all classes. The only safe ard
suficicnt principle for society IL the prin
ciple Of mutual helpfulne5s.
"Whatcver the fortunate classes possess
of time, money, skill, talent moral cul-
ture, they owe the world a percentage
upon; they must meet their obligation or
the future will cast out their NAMES as
unworthy This Is not charlty,a gratuity;
1t IL the payment OF debt they have re-
ceived from the past, they must enrich
the present and contribute to the future ;
unless room Is left for the free play Of this
principle no civilized society can exist.
1.-THE upper classes Of society are never
safe so long as there are moral CON-
bustibles in the lower. Want tempta-
ton, neglect, breed the forces, which,
given place and play at the bottom will
surely produce discomfort and disaster for
the top This Is the lesson of revolutions,
Instructions and communes. The lower
classes form the vulnerable point in our
social life, that point must be covered, pro-
tected, or all our other armor is In vain.
Now every agency that removes the causes
of discomfort, lessons temptation or i'm
proves mind or morals among these
classes by so much blesses and protects
society, makes property more safe, and
the whole round of LIES employments and
pleasures more profitable and enjoyable.
"2 The second class Is composed Of
that great multitude to be found in every
large community, sober, industrious, work
ing hard for low wages, filling the tene
ment houses, the hall bed rooms and back
attic chambers of cheap boarding houses
For the most part they have not very high
moral ideas; they are disposed to make
Sunday holiday, they seldom think Of
religious things, while few among them
are inclined to be religious but are held
In check by their environment
1.-The Protestant church. as at present
organized and managed, does not reach
the III to any great extent This is not a
popular confession to make, but it is a
necessary one. Our Catholic friends are
able to blend all classes in one great con-
gregation without distinction of wealth
Or social rank, to cause velvet and dia-
monds to kneel beside calico and faded
shawl without irritation on the part of
either. Professionalism has not learned the
ecret. Glass churches ought not to exist,
but they do, and. under our voluntary
system of support, they seem likely to
continue. High pew rent. the extrava-
CANT dress of many worshippcrs, the grow
ing aristocraoy of money are building bar
riers about the door of the Lords house.
over which tho humber classes will not
seek to climb.
And, since they will not come to the
church, the church must go to them, for
they must have the gospel. Mission
churches, Sunday schools, night schools
and industrial classes reading rooms and
pleasant places of resort and amusement
must be planted in the centers of these
populations until they perceive the spirit
of the Christ in his followers and under
stand that the church has come to stay
among them and make itself part of
their lives. Such work is not outside tho
province of this society.
"Of the other classes we have heard
more from tho representatives of the So
ciety. l shall not dwell upon them. They
are (3) the immigrant, many of them
coming with ideas antagonistic to our
own, bent upon working out their mis-
chievous theories Of liberty, and conceiv-
ing of this land as tho Eel Dorado of the
iudolent, the discontinued and the adven
turous; some of them bringing the faith,
the industry, tho high moral conceptions
of which great states are built, already in
love with our institutions aud ready to
bear a manful part in working out our
destiny. They must all be impressed with
the essentially Christian quality of our
civilization, and with the brotherly spirit
Of our churches"