The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-04

at the beginning of the century the re- ligious sentiment in many of the small towns was practically dead. In some
 so-called churches the Lords supper
 had not been administered for ten or
 twenty years. Now the church had
 been built up and the church life was
 strengthened until in every town there
 was healthy, strong organization.
 New Hampshire's work was in the
 small towns almost exclusively, for
 nearly every town in the state was very small. The movement to the cities was not deteriorating, if the church infly- ence was taken.
 With the singing of hymn the morn ing service closed.
 THE WOMEN'S MEETING. The Women's meeting in recognition of the fourteenth anniversary of the Women's Department was held at 10:90
 a. m. at Center church, and for the | first time it was, by free and willing l concession, untrammelled by the con- trol of man. Mrs. H. $. CasWell, secre- tary of the department, presided. She said that these Women's Homeland l missions represent every state and ter ritory in the Union except little Dela-
 ware, which has no Congregational church, and Alaska, where one will be | started before long. The Women's or l ganization is auxiliary to the five na- l tional societies.
 This yearwe have given to them $10i,- | 507.96, of which $5S, .31 has been con- l tributed to the Congregational Home
 Missionary society. This is $10,G00 more 1 than we gave to her last year In ten | years we have contributed $7I7, ,S60 49 to l home missions.
 | While congratulating ourselves over | the $104000 given this year, we must 1 remember that this is just 26 cents | apiece for the 100000 women of the l Congregational churches. Is this the l measure of our love?
 | During this year of continued busi-
 ness depression the call has been loud
 and incessant for the home missionary boxes, so generously supplied by our | ladies' societies. In addition to the ex-
 tra $1O,OOO they have ministered to the
 personal wants of missionaries by the l gift of barrels, boxes, etc, to the num- Der of S55, sent by 57 more working cir l cles than took part last year. These
 were valued at $66,00S.42.
 Mrs. H. S Heinzelman of Indiana
 spoke in carefully chosen language and
 8 strong foreign accent, slowly, that
 she might be understood, giving a desp- l ly interesting account of work in Chi
 cago. She told of becoming dissatisfied
 with the Lutheran church she attended ! because of a lack of spirituality in the l services. She became connected with d
 Congregational Sunday school where
 for five years she officiated as teach CT, where she married and removed to
 another part of Chicago.
 My husbands congregation was at l first very small one, and his church situated in place that is almost en-
 tirely settled by German Lutherans.
 They have a prejudice against every l thing that is connected with the name Lutheran" except the beer; they
 drink it, whatever name it has. I do
 not mean to blame the laymen; they
 are taught that way; nor do I want to
 say one word against the great Ger
 man reformer, Luther.
 The German Lutherans are supposed | to be Christians, when they pay their i contribution, visit the church to and 1 fro, especially on festival days; have 1 their children baptized and confirmed; i; 1 but they are not born again; they work | on Sundays, and even prefer this holy l day to have their picnics.
 | The German mother as a rule, is l known as a good housekeeper and l rather a hard working woman devot- | ing all her time to her home and chill
 dren, teaching them to sing and pray, | to knit and sew, and to obey strictly,
 telling them stories, while she is sew | ing and mending, and our church is
 greatly obliged to the mothers in our
 'Woman's Society," They helped US l in every possible way, though our con l gregation consisted of the poorer class | of people
 | We know a great many cases in | which the head of family of six and seven earns but $1 a day, and now he l is willing to contribute a small share l to the monthly collection, and their children would not come to Sunday
 school without a penny, and that means much with many children, but small wages.
 The speaker told of many blessings that had attended the work and told of
 her organizing a Junior Y. P. S. c. F.. Society,"" It was the first German one in Chicago, and had the enjoyment to enroll thirty-two little workers. The offerings that some of our little lIn- deavorers brought to their weekly prayer meetings I encouraged them to
 give to sick and still poorer children
 and widows.
 We do not see any difference now
 man Endeavorers; the latter like very much to sing their gospel hymns, are
 ready to lead prayer and I always
 noticed the blessing of my junior so- ciety in their individual homes; father and mother are fond of hearing their chilren sing these songs, and so they did not object any more, as they did first, when we made use of these beau- tiful gospel hymns for church service. This year was the first one in which
 we could have revival meetings. The term was fixed for eight days, the church was crowded every night, and our congregation showed such an in terest that we agreed to prolong these meetings for one week. All were under
 the impression that a great unity of feeling prevailed, and let us ask the Lord to-day that He may pour out His blessings in a rich measure also upon the German Congregational work, extending it from frosty Canada to the
 sunny Gulf, and from the Atlantic to +I, Do,