The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-07
FIELD WORK AND ENDEAV0R
OF TIE CONGREG ATIONAL CHURCH
BUILDING SOCIETY.

Missionary charlottesville Work of the
Society Set Forth by Rev. George A
Hood of Boston at Dwight Place Church
Yesterday.
Yesterday morning and last evening
the Rev. George A. Hood of Boston,
New England field secretary of the
Congregational Church Building socie-
ty, spoke of the work of the
| society in the Dwight Place Congrega-
tional church. His morning text was, I
Chronicles, xxi, 10, "Arise, therefore,
and build We the sanctuary OF the Lord
God" He said that ever since God
built the tabernacle in the wilderness
all forms of the true religion must have
their churches, and, indeed, all false
religions must have their temples.
| Congregationalists are the only ones
| who have organized 200 churches, more
or less, and have built only 100 or more
per year.
Our young men developing the new
| towns are equipped with docks, ele-
vators, mills, machinery, and every
Improvement for doing their work six
days in the week; will they go to
church the first day in the week in an
| abandoned saloon or a dance hall, car
penter shop or the lift Of a livery
| stable? No; it makes them homesick;
| they have no respect for a church
| which cannot build and they cannot
afford s25 or $50 to help it build, The
| church, like any other fine of business,
needs an equipment to succeed. If we
can aid the young church to build. the
| new settlers will attend, and will give
so cents or 81 or 50 per week to make
| it self-supporting; and the future
character of the new town can be
| moulded by the churches of the Con-
gregational Home Missionary society
and of the American Missionary assoc
citation among the dark races.
| We aid them by three funds; the
grant fund, the loan fund, and the par
sonage loan fund; the money is paid
back to be used over and over, the
loans every five years, the grants ir-
regularly by contributions. Every
dollar is secured by first mortgage and
insurance policy, therefore there is nc
loss. The aid pays only last bills
therefore the missionary church will
be out of debt. The society has al
ways paid every dollar when due
therefore donors to the annuity fund
are sure of their annuity.
Why do they need help? Because 9
church building costs four or five
! fj,,o.oc "a ccin q I.xr'S A.
Il larry; where the Home Missionary So
ciety helps pay the minister economy
and success demand that the Church
Building society should be able to give
much larger aid on the building. Be
cause to convert open prairies or emp
ty woods into a town is hard for tht
first settlers: with farms and home:
mortgaged, interest and taxes high
shanties to live in, usually at first NJ
partitions, no plaster or paint, no eel
lar or well: snowdrifts inside when the,
are outside and food frozen solid in tn,
morning; the people cannot builc
churches without aid. But they Civ
wonderfully. A carpenter trying t
make a home for wife and two children
gave $175 out of 50 a day wages; la
borer earning $500 a year gayen SIS
and note for 800 more. A. ministe
living in a dug-out had saved none.
for a new roof, but afraid OF losing tn
new church for lack of Church Build
ing society money he gave his roo
money and kept an umbrella beside tn
bed in case of rain
A missionary church has it's frs
$ hope of success when it gets building
| and it cannot build without aid.
;. not aided the churches will die, or
! they live it will be only by continue
i aid from the Home Missionary society
y One home missionary superintendent
: said his churches would live only tw
years without building. Large mum
bers of our churches have died fror
this cause, and about $50 now ar
homeless and hopeless, for churc
: without a building is like an egg with
out a she'll the more 1t is brooded tn
= worse condition it is In. When
church dies 1t damages the moral flu
ture of the new town hnd loses tn
: Christian workers and money of tn
future
If we aid a church to build a revive
soon follows, and many eastern youn
, men are saved In this way in the ne'
town, new. life, new habits A Mime
sofa church took home missionary al
for thirteen years without sign G
success but when the Church Buildin
society gave it $500 to pay last bills o
a $1,000 church revival began wit
the dedication and fourteen young me
were converted.
Then comes self-support. One Min
nesota church expected every year fo
five years to throw offshome missionar
I aid; the sixth year it got $500 from tn
Church Building society on S4,0C
church, and has been self-supportin
ever since; good way to save HON
missionary money, but why couldn
the Church Building society have aid
ed that church five years before an
= saved $500 home missionary money