The Portland daily press., 1895-06-07
THE OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
Yesterdays Session Was Devoted to
Home Missions.

Home Missions.
Rev. Washington :Choate Talks About
Utah aid Polygamy-Rev. Mr. Clark
Thinks the People Do Not Give Enough
Other Addresses.
Saratoga, N. Y, June GA today S
session of the Congregational Home
Missionary society the subject of mission
airy work in Utah and other states in the
Southwest was the topic of discussion.
Rev. Washington Choate, d. D.,
national secretary, said that there are less
than 10000 enrolled church members
(outside of the church of the Latter Day
Saints), and of this 10000 more than
three -fifths, or 6, 900 within the Roman
Catholic fold--to face and meet the a1a, 9ot
of the Mormon church; disunited hand
full to oppose mighty host PERFECTLY or
ganized, PROFESSIONALLY obedient to lead
ers, trained to submission and to action,
according to the word of their higher
powers; in short, an evangelical
Protestant Christian force of butts, 800 to
t1h QSC bllC eilli SOaNCINId1A
gospel through that life born and reared
under the delusion of the Mormon faith |
Congregationalism has no inferior
position, though it counts but tenss orr
gained churches. II
: Even if the cancer of polygamy seem to
have been eradicated, Mormonisna as a
religious system still dominates. making
imperative the most powerful and ,.vigorf
Gus of patriotic and Christian agencies I'd
guide and inspire the new life that begins
with statehood. tn 4 81
Utah pleads today for that enlargement
OF the missionary force, and missionary
funds which shall enable her to multiply
church, and mission all over her vast
territory, not only in populous centers,
where the GENTLE force is strong in civic
and social power, but in the hundreds of
Mormon communities. ir
Touching Utah at its southeastern cor
ner is our fourth largest territorial
division-New Mexico.
OF mixed Mexican and Indian blood
speaking the Spanish language to the ex-
clusion of the English even in courts and
Legislature until recently, this great body
of our southwestern people, 100, 600 in
New Mexico, 200, GOO in Texas, and nearly
another 100, 900 in Arizona and Southern
California, inheriting another .civiliza
ton, ignorant, debased superstitiops, are
ton that is a reproach to American
Christianity.
Thirteen, denominations are sending
their missionaries across the border into
Old Mexico, to carry the gospel of Chris
tan manhood and wo1nanhood to this
same nationality in a foreign field. '2@ The
frontier of 1.-The Southwest, is simply. a
section. 81. Old Mexico brought into tn e
bounds of the United States. ~ "a
And in all this volume of -life-these
100000 Spanish Mexican citizens, Congre-
,gationalis1n has planted but. three
churches, with mission work at two
associated points
vice this society finds itself able to put
but $1,000 year. A sister denomination
annually invests there $780, 600 in educa-
tion and S25, 900 in church work. declaring
it to be the most fruitful and gratifying
of all the work of their missionary
boards. slsS L 9TH
Today Texas is outranked by New
York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio
alone and in each of those States Con,
gregationalism is a Inolding force, aver:
aging but little less than $50 churches.
Today the appropriation for the esrab-
fishing Of Congregational Christianity in
Texas-the equivalent of four New Engt
]ands-is a meagre sum of less than 5000
The open doors are there in scores. Ten
Of her larger cities are asking for the
church whose central idea shaped New
England. eEc s1ol
Houston, Galveston, San Antonio,
Austin, Texarkana Beaumont, Waco
Fort Worth, Gainesville are pleading for
Congregational churches Thirty towns
of from 1000 to 5000 Inhabitants are open
to the planting of a church of the Con
gregational order. Not "open' in that
we could crowd into an already well
churched community, but towns to, a
large degree painfully destitute of
Christian privileges. IT
Thirty thousand dollars asked for the
state whose areasis fourfo1d all New Eng
land that her little group of thirteen
missionaries might be increased few
fold. Massachusetts, with 200, o004 less
population, with her splendid Congrega-
tional force of nearly 800 churches, with
all her magnificent equipment of educa-
tional and religious institutions requires
So 900 a year to do her missionary work
within her own bounds and force of 12e
men.
Rev. Joseph B. Clark, D. D. of New
York, formerly secretary of the Massachu-
setts home missionary society, in Boston,
said:
For four years past our superintendent
at the front have been required to show
an annual estimate of the least amount