Omaha daily bee., 1896-08-21
RECORD OF THE JUNIOR UNIONS.
Report of the Secretary Makes nm
Encournging showing.

h'I'N w wv "NHt "h
Encouraging showing.
Prolonged applause followed DR.. Reds
address. Then the congregation again
arose and sang "Theo VIII l Love- from
psalm xviii.
Rev, w. l. Wishart Of Allegheny. the
secretary of the junior work, then read his
annua report. II follows:
After six years OF trial in the United
Presbyterian church, the value and impor-
oughly established. The time has been
long enough to witness some of the ripe
fruits of this form of endeavor, and from
every side comes testimony as TO the good
things, both in realization and In promise,
which are the direct result of this form
children During the last year, so far as
the secretary is able to Judge from reports
and other sources of information, the most
effective work has been done among the
juniors of any year since the work was
begun. The gain in number of new organ
izationS Is not so great as the year pre-
ceding, but there has been more thorough
ness OF organization, more system in the
work OF instruction, a clearer grasp of the
great aims of this form of Christian effort,
and a more aggressive effort to bring In
the children and hold them Within the
The reports this year are unfortunately
quite imperfect, and the showing the fig
ures make cannot, therefore, be as &C,
curate as we could wish. II was requested
by a committee OF the Ladies' Missionary
society this year that the Junior Mission
airy SOtltllpS Dt represented IN lnp con-
test for the Junior banner to be awarded
to the Presbyterial union showing the larg-
est nnual increase In membership of Junior
organizations. After conference with them
an arrangement has been made which we
trust will bind these two organizations
which are doing practically the same work
into a class and entirely harmonious rela-
tionship. But as this Is the first year the
general m ttempte to gather re-
ports from the Junior Missionary societies,
as might be expected, they are not fun
and do not, give an accurate showing, of
as n full report that line of work has al
ready been given the church by, the Junior
missionary secretary, We shall not deal
justice be done 1t.
The membership of our Junior unions
and Endeavor societies this year is re-
ported as $500, a gain of 1,5l2 over last
| year. The number of organizations re-
| ported is 249, as against 21 reported at
organizations. This is a good showing, but
not nearly 50 good as 1T ought to be, Is
has a Young Peoples society ave also
a Junior society? Is there. not enough of
forth on this, endeavor for the children?
Counting Junior unions and IIndeavor So
%cieties, and all the Junior Missionary so
are yet more than one-half the congre-
cations of the church which are without
any form or organization for training the
children in Christian life and service.
AIN EVENLY DISTRIBUTED.
The gain in organizations during the
past year has been pretty evenly dis
bytery still heads the list with the largest
number of organizations, reporting this
year eighteen, and New York and Phila-
delphia presbyteries stand second, having
| twelve each.
If we turn to the matter of contributions,
there has been quite a gain, the boys and
girls giving this year 50 762 as against 81, 1855
given last year.
giving is y Allegheny rS2SY the boys 81" and girls Of
that presbytery having raised $50. and
Monmouth presbytery comes second with
$s2s55,56 if We. look for the particular Or
ganization raising the most money, the
the same anne Unions that hath held them m last ST. year,
but this year the order Is reversed. n year
ago the Juniors of the First church, Allie
the year and the Juniors OF the Green
side Avenue church were second best. This
the front, having raised $3.50 during the
year. and the Juniors OF First Allegheny
some Junior organizatioa take the banner
from these two unions for liberal, giving?
VIII they be ailoW Mso to hold q TT their ind places tb iof
will carry away the palm from these earn
est Pennsylvania boys and girls? oo,
society this year has the largest member.
| ship. The Second Chicago stood first last
year, and the First Aurora came a close
parted from Chicago. These Windy city
youngsters have to step back and let the
union of the Fifth church. Allegheny.
stands first this year with a msmnership
comes second with 1856. and Aurora has
forged ahead of Second Chicago and holds
third place with 1872 members Second chi
cago coming fourth with 100, while the
Tenth church, Allegheny, has climbed over
the 100 mark and reports a memperslp Or
ia. We thus have five organizations with
a membership of over 100.
Did somebody ask what presbytery shows
the largest increase of membership l VIII
tell that Saturday morning.
All these figures suggest encouragement
They urge us forward. They do not show,
| they cannot show, the best results of the
Junior work, but we are sure that these
are so many and large that we may well
Join in thanking God for his blessing on
this work.
For the coming year we need to push
the work of organization. May we not eX-
pect that by another year the most, of the
Congregations in the church Will have a