The Portland daily press., 1896-01-10
THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
The Report of the Years Work of the Con-
gregationa1 Society.

Boston, Jan. 9.,-Tbe work Of the Con-
gregational Sunday School and Publish
ing Society for 1895, Rev. George H.
Boynton, d. D., secretary, was the su b.
ject OF report made public this after
non. This society is engaged in doing
pioneer work in the 1nexplored and IN
evangelical parts Of the land The work
lies largely in new settlements in the
newer States; along the railroad lines
whore there is possibility of develop
ing churches of some strength, and in the
remoter hamle is where the need is equal
ly great and the prospect less promising.
During the year its superinte ndenis ami
missionaries have organized about 80
schools, more than ten each week of
the whole year They have been in all
sorts of places; in the mining camps of
Colorado and Montana; on the prairies
OF the great Northwest, and along the
borders OF the desert country, as well as
on the shores OF the Pacific ocean. They
have got among settlements of all kinds;
among the Indian encampments; among
the Spanish Mexican people of Southern
California, and in settlements OF people
of adozen different origins over the western
land. The conditions during the past
season in the West have been different
from those Of previous years, and yet
the poverty and need have been as great
II the suffering has been somewhat re-
lieved. After two or three seasons of no
crops, or only half crops, when starva-
tion stared the people in the face, there
has been year when the crop has been
too good and when the large amount
produced, together with the management
of spectators. has reduced the price of
grain, SO that it hardly pays to cart it to
the railroads, and when potatoes are not
worth the digging except to eat. This
has kept the people poor, though fed, and
they have needed the aid which D,ust
come from the older coast to enable
them to have even the simplest religious
privileges This society gives aid to over
1900 schools. without which they could
not be kept open, and without which in
many cases there would be no religious
influence, or gathering on the Lord g
day. They have organized 70 schools in
the one State of Oregan; nearly so in
California; about 40 in Washington, and
10 in the sparsely settled Idaho. They
have also been in the South, reaching
out as far as Palm Beach in Florida,
where new organization was made q
little while ago. This work is not con-
fined to frontier regions alone, but even
- OuA OAtOA SiuiOS low OIfSdulZtblOuH
have been made where the need was
great. Even in Boston, Chicago. Wash
ington and Brooklyn, schools have been
organized with the aid of this society
during the past year, while larger West
ern cities like Minneapolis, Lansing,
Mich, and Denver, Col, as we'll as the
larger cities on the Western coast, have
furnished new starting points for prom
ising work. Some of this work rapidly
develops, and solf supporting churches
grow out of it within few months. In
other cases these require aid from the
other societies of the denomination dur
ing longer or shorter period of helpless
ness"
Dr.. Boynton says that if Congregation
alists and Americans understood the
great difference that it makes in good
order, the comfort of the home and ali
the things which go to make the con-
ditions favorable to, morality and good or
der, they would realize that the work
done by this and similar organizations
pays one hundred fold