The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-05-14


peculiar mission, Is to look after and
care for the important interests of n
class In the community who, In all
probability win be utterly and entirely
neglected If this society does not care
for them, AS one of our missionaries
down in Missouri said some years ago,
the Sunday-School Union looks after
the castaways of the denominations;
and 1t is true. There are communities,
there are little localities scattered here
and there, in the mountains, in the
woods, along the prairies and in waste
places Of the land, where rhere is no
earthly prospect that there will ever be
church of Christ established. There
is no particular reason why the denom-
nations should seek for these wastes
and cultivate them and send missiopa-
ries to them. They are not what are
caled strategic points; there is no
prospect of ultimate growth there.
They will never become the nuclei for
advancing the objects and purposes of
the dennW.Gatlo h.v are Just in
those circumstances WhA,v it is Mkely
they VIII be entirely neSi Actea If some
great union institution, like the Anieri.
can Sunday-School Union. does no.
'noh after tfetn. Hence it Is that such
facts as these occur: / received a let
ter few weeks ago from q missionary
who had been connected with one of the
denominational societies for four years,
and said he, During all this four years
that l have been connected with this
denominational society, all the Sunday
schools that have been establishing
q hnA
ception of two or three. And that has
been so from necessity. The people
were so situated in the community,
there was such a variety of interests
and UNCONVENTIONAL affiliations that it
was not possible for school to be es-
tablshed of any one particular denom-
nation, and people had to come togeth-
er upon a union basis
Now during the last year our mis-
sionaries established 1,779 new Sunday
schools, in localities where these Sun
day-schools Oxford the only opportunity
OF religious worship. The only reli-
gious privileges the people have are
there. l,179 new Sunday schools, with
65,5OS teachers and scholars; 443 were
reorganized having declined, so that
made exactly 1922 schools set to work
during the year which closed on the list
of March last.
And then another object of our socie-
ty is this: Not only to plant Sunday
schools, but to endeavor to establish
them upon a permanent basis We do
this in two ways; by supplying them
with a competent Christian literature,
not of a UNCONVENTIONAL character, but
pure Christian literature, giving them
abundant material for the prosecution
of the study of the Bible, and giving
them also most excellent books to con-
stitute libraries for the school; and in
this way we tend to make the schools
permanent And to show you to what
an extent this has been done, there is an
item which 1 will just mention here,
that during the year just closed March
LIST, we gave aid to the extent of nearly
ten thousand dollars to needy schools
all over the land
Then another means adopted by the
society to secure permanency in these
established schools is that it is laid
upon these missionaries-it is one of
their first and most imperat tive duties
to look after the schools, to visit and
tablish them, but to cultivate them
And very frequently the visit of mis-
sionary is made when the school is on
the verge of encouragement; when
teachers and superintendent are dis
heartened. The missionary gives them
new heart and fresh courage. And to
show you to what an extent this has
been done, aid was given to existing
schools, in the year just closed on the
LIST of March last, S,496 times; nearly
$500 cases in which aid was given to
existing schools.
Now there are people, unintelligent
| people, people not sufficiently informed,
who either express the objection or find
| 1T growing up into their minds as sus-
| picion, that these schools established by
| the American Sunday-School Union are
very apt to die from not being suffi :
| GENTLY cared for But the point which
have just now mentioned to you
| meets that objection. Our missionaries
| are enjoined not only to establish
| schools but to constantly look after
| them and revisit them. In this way
| this great work is carried on
| I will not detain you by giving you
| any more of these incidents, except to
| ask you to notice this remarkable fact;
| that while 1t has been impossible to OBJ
| tain an exact statement of the results
| in the way of conversions, probable
| conversions mention, being made in the
reports only of numerous conversions
as the result of evangelistic efforts, or
of many souls brought in; and notwitl-
| standing the fact that only partial re-
ports have been made, yet the very
large number of 1887 hopeful CONVEX
sions have been reported as resulting
| from the work of these energetic and
faithful men.
| One other point will mention, and
then 1 will relieve your patience; and
| that is, that it is a matter of careful,
| conscientious concern with the mana
| gers of the society, and especially with
| the committee on missions, who are
more particularly charged with the Sc
| lection and superintendent of the mis-
| sionary work, to insist upon fidelity
and competency. If we find that a GER
tain missionary is not efficient, then we
| expect his superintendent of that dis
| trict to testify to us about it, and il we
| are not satisfied as to his ability or
fidelity he is removed from our roll Of
missionaries. The result is that we
have in our service (and the society
| does insist upon having none else,) a
body OF most remarkably faithful and