The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-04-23
SUNDAY SCHOOL SOCIETY
THE ANNUAL MEETING WAs HEED
 IN BOSTON YESTERDAY.

A Special Meeting Will be Held In This
 City Next June-Receipts of the Mission
 ary Department-Reports Received From the Missionaries.
 y Boston, Mass, April 21.--The annual
 meeting of the Congregational Sunday
 School and Publishing society was held
 to-day. The society will hold a special
 meeting in New Haven, in connection
 with the seyentieth anniversary of the
 Home Missionary society, June 2d-4th.
 To-day the siXty-fourth annual report { of the board of directors was presented
 by the secretary, the Rev. George M. \ Boynton, D. D. The substance of it
 was as follows
 Thirtyfour superintendents and mis-
 sionaries have represented us in the
 various fields east, west and south;
 twenty-six of these have been in this service all the year, the others for var1-
 ous shorter periods.
 In the prosecution of their work they have. travelled four hundred and tWen- | ty-five thousand miles and made sixty five hundred addresses
 The spirit of these men is exemplihed in the words, with which one Of them sends monthly report:
 It is rough, hot, dusty riding among the sage brush, rocks and alkali plains; but the ranchmen do it to hunt up their lost cattle and sheep. Why should not l?
 Five hundred and sixty-six Sunday i4 I, niza1 6Ilrinp inc year. nearly one hundred more than the year before California in it's two districts leads with S7, Oregon follows with "A, Washington reports Az Mime sota 31, Wisconsin 29, and seven other states from 20 to 22 each; 1850 different schools have been aided, with 3,50l grants of lesson helps and papers. Here is the story of Sunday school superintendent without a complete Bi- ble:
 My first stop was at -, an isolated settlement of ranchers who struggle with the rocks for living. Here a faithful few are rallying about "our Sunday school'' I spent the night with the superintendent, after speak, ing to the people in the schoolhouse. and he had many curious questions to ask me about Old Testament history. The reason of this curiosity was, as it ]. transpired, that he had no Old Testa- ment. It is no great wonder, thought I, as marked the rags which did duty as bedclothes and saw a ten-year- old boy shuffling around in his fathers < boots like clumsy cockerel. Here was this faithful Methodist" Christian experimenting our Sunday school, and actually too poor to afford a complete X copy of the Word of God!
 K Through the kindness of the Ameri- can Bible society we are enabled to supply such wants through our super intendents and missionaries. One report says:
 \ Sixteen series of special evangelistic meetings have been held, as result of which at least one hundred and seven ty-five persons have been added to Congregational churches.
 Another says of a series of services in a needy and churchless field: More than sixty decidedly expressed their purpose to live a Christian life, and about, thirty that I know of have l given their names to unite in a Congre- l gationa1 church there.
 A I had planned an expedition to cul- minate at famous mining camp. Just few days before starting I re-
 ceived word from the acting postmas- ter that there were only five families and a few bachelors left and indeed before got within thirty miles of the place the last woman had left. A difficulty arises often in~regard to the use of the public schoolhouse, which is in most cases the only place where a Sunday school can be held. These are often in the hands of an ire ligious and sometimes an infidel school committee, who decline to give the ne cessary permission. Or, what Is hard CT to overcome, Roman Catholic com- mitteeman refuses absolutely, especial ' ly since the A. P. A. movement has ex- / cited their opposition to Professionalism. The work prospers. A thousand places otherwise without any religious influence of any kind testify to this.
 About three hundred and fifty Sun day school institutes are reported as ' having been held. The home depart ment has also been successfully ex- tended in all parts of our land. Those of foreign birth or parentage have not been neglected. During this last year we have had German and a | Swedish missionary in the field. A su- perintendent in the northwest writes: The fact that nine of these schools are among the Swedish people suggests | the growing opportunity along that line It has been estimated that about one- third of our population is of Scan- | dinavian origin. This will tell greatly ' to the benefit of our northwest, if the young are trained after the best Amer fican standard.
 Our superintendent in Southern Cali | fornia has so far familiarized himself with the form of Spanish spoken by the Mexican population as to obtain ready access to their homes and hearts. We have during the year continued - to help the papers published for the es- pecial benefit of those to whom our / language is as yet unfamiliar. The German, Norwegian, Swedish, French and Italian papers have each of them needed our aid for their continuance, and we have not withdrawn it. About 1,26S mission Sunday schools are reported as under their care by our superintendents in twenty-six states. Of these 1064 are in places where there ! is no other Christian work of any kind. Of the remaining 204 schools about