The Newtown bee., 1898-09-02
LOCAL AFFAIRS.
''IE DARKEST [NEWl ENGLAND AND TIE
WAY OUT"
MISSIONARY WORK TO BE DONE RIGHT
AT OUR OWN DOORS. THE HARDEST
PARISH IN THE STATE

PARISH IN THE STATE
A good audience gathered in the Con-
gregational church last Sunday evening
to hear Miss Mcffatt relate her expe-
riences in home missionary work in New
England. The only pity is that the
church was not filled; such speaker
deserves the largest audiences that ever
gather wherever she goes. She has
a commanding presence, her hear
ers miss lot word, her de-
scriptions sparkle with many q
bright aside. She portrsys li'o as she
finds it; and because the de cIiption is
recognized to be so true, it awakens the
keenest interest.
Miss Nj tfatt 10 of work that had been
done in out-ofway districts in New Eng
land, where people through lack of con-
tact with the outside world had vegetated,
pre- iudices, ard become utterly warped
and twisted in their conception of the
church and its relation to them. For
decades, Miss MUffatt said, the church
had been sending missionaries out all
over the world and giving Of it's best ia
the settlement of this land. 1t was
startling discovery that was made when
it was found that New England needed
missionaries itself, when it was said that
in one of the New England states two
thirds of the population were on-church-
going, that boys and girls were coming
10 the years Of maturity to whom Sun
day school was unknown, that in multi
tudes of homes no Bible could be found.
A remedy was suggested in sending
theological students 60 these out-of-the-
way places during the summer vaca-
tions, but inexperienced young men
could not get hold of the people. A
member of the home missionary society's
board was laughed aC when he suggest
ed try ing young women as missionaries :;
but when he offered to pay the salary of
TWO young women who should make the
experiment, it was a clincher that could
hardly be resisted.
Miss Nj ffatt wildly narrated her ar
rival at small railroad station at 8
o'clock at night. When she was trying
TO find some one or some one was trying
lind her in the dark, she had learned that
The surest way to accomplish it was to
stand still. Soon a lanterns CLEAN ap-
peared through the gloom, aud voice
was heard, "Is that you Miss MUffatt?'
It was the pastor of the small church
near by. When he had gone short dis
rance to attend to some errand, his little
girl put in her query, Are you the Miss
Muffet that sat on her tuffet p NO"
replied the one whose name had been
slightly twisted. And didn't big spider
sit down beside you?" mo-" again.
The dreamer Of dreams and seer of vis-
ions seemed quite disappointed to think
that the fancies Of her earlier years
were not to assume real shape in at
least one particular. New England
ministers company always ex-
cepted-have pleasing way of taking
short cuts, and Miss Moffatt was escorted
to the parsonage By going down the
railroad embankment over ash-heaps,
stumbling on in the darkness. 81 believe
that l have the hardest parish in the
state, ,''was the minister's introduction of
bimself and work. II have about given
up vi iting in the outlying districts and
inviting the people to come to church
[ meet with no response" "What dc
you consider your worst district?" Miss
Moffatt asked. She was told Of one up
on the mountains, where there wal
| actuslIy only one who made any preten
sions to being a Christian, she gooC
old soul, worth all the rest put together
so the minister said. To that distric
was where Miss Moffatt wanted to go
| This good old soul, this solitary Chris
riap, said she could "eat" the two mis-
sionaries, and if no one else would do so
she would "sleep 'em", too. She di
"sleep 'em'' by cleaning out the butter,
and putting bed therein, which mad
room for dressing SO limited that one ha
TO stay. in bed while the other aIrs9ge
her toilet. Here is an example of th
| cOrQlal r6cSpGlon ludt was cASCAuS1
A woman came out from one house wit
a child in her arms. 81 know who 20
be-" she exclaimed. "You be the mi
sionaries who were coming here. Idon
| want to have anything to do with yo
I have lived in this house since WI
born, and my mother lived here befo
me, and my grandmother before he
We have gotten along without missio
aries SO far and we don't want you now
After this warm greeting Miss Mofft
Ii asked this woman to attend her meetiI
,e "You won't get anybody q IRE, ,"she s
swered; and yet at the meeting she u
there and sat right up on the front sc
and two nights afterwards she arose
apologize ippublic for her rudene
1t was Mist Moffatt's pleasure, so
weeks later, to sit on the platform of
church of this pastor who had 'the hs
- est parish in the state" and see many
these people from the district VIII
there had been but the solitary Christ
received into the fold. This is onl
sample of work that has been done
over New England.