The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-23
THE WORK STILL GOING ON


Rev. Mr.. Hutchings and Rev. Mr.. Low
Tell at the Church of the Messiah o
Their Work and It's Progress-They
Are Missionaries of the Connection
Bible Society.
The Rev. Mr. Hutchings and the Rev
Mr.. Lowe, missionaries of the Connect
icut Bible society, addressed the congre
cation of the Church of the Messiah
yesterday morning on the work they
have done among the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
of New Haven during the last year. A:
is well known, these missionaries have
been doing valuable work in this field
for long time past, and the results ac'
complshed are most satisfactory. Theil
a tour among the different wards of the
city and of visiting each family person.
ally and finding out in the course Of
their visit the religion of the family
their convictions the non-church- goers
and their reason for staying away. The
visits made are without regard to de-
nomination, and members of every faith
are visited in the same manner.
The result of their visit and the names
of the persons who do not attend church
are then communicated to the pastor OF
priest of the parish in which the per-
sonal visit to the house, resulting in
bringing the shining ones back to the
fold again. And this is not ALL as the
Rev. Mr. Hutchings explained to his
hearers yesterday morning. Many con-
versions to the faith of Christ are made
by the missionaries themselves.
The result of this work, which has
been pursued with great regularity and
care for the last year and half has
been very gratifying to the pastors of
all the churches in the city and at the
same time has revealed a most alarm
ing as we'll as unthought-of state of
moral as we'll as spiritual depravity in
a great many families. This has been
most marked, though, in the small
country villages, where the Rev. Mr..
Hutchings has been doing a great deal
of good work. AS he said in his ad-
dress yesterday: THE most surprising
as well as deplorable state of affairs ex-
lists in number of these families. In
of I'll q ubOIa
family is a church member or is in the
least familiar with the doctrines of the
church. Some of this is due to hard
cider, and in number of these cases
the poor mother, her spirit broken by
years of trial, submits to the inevitable
and they sink deeper into the miro with
each ensuing year. Among these l have
found the most interesting work as we'll
as the most satisfactory results, and
somehow the fathers struggle to make
a new stand succeeds as soon as he
adopts the Christian faith anew.
I'm other families the state of stag
nation seems to have been the rule for
years. One case I remember most WV
idly. The family, numbering all Of
eighteen or twenty, occupied a very
unpretentious structure of three rooms,
and upon my first visit to them it was
with difficulty that I found my way
amongst them. The father of the fam
lily seemed indolent and it was impos-
sibIe to talk to him, so I confined my
words to the women folks, with whom
] reasoned long and earnestly and final
ly, after many visits, l succeeded in
bringing them to see the light. A hap
py day it was for that family when
they began to go to church again. There
the many children of the family had
not been attending school for years and
had grown up into an awkward, uned-
ucated manhood and also womanhood;
and I regret to say that cases of this
kind, where education is not rendered
compulsory, are much more numerous
in Connecticut then in Massa chusetts
But finally, to my great satisfaction,
the men of the family began to attend
church also, and a great change was
noticeable in the entire family, which,
by the way was one of the oldest in
New England, tracing, as I found out
later, their lineage back to the May
flower.
''In New Haven my work. while not
quite so exhaustive, was a great deal
more continuous and a surprising num-
Der of cases where the young of the
family did not attend church were
found In these cases the names and
facts of the matter were reported to the
priest or pastor of the parish to which
they belonged, and the results from this
system have been most satisfactory.
The Rev. Mr.. loves work has been
mostly confined to the italian popula-
ton of New Haven, which numbers, it
is thought about ten thousand, and in
numerous cases has resulted in their
more regular church attendance. Rev. |
Mr.. loves work is also greatly facili- |
tated by his easy manner of speaking
to them in their own language, and as
he expresses it: 1.-THE light in their |
faces when they hear stranger speak |
to them in their own tongue is wonder
full to see and they are thereafter very |
ready to converse with the stranger"
Continuing, he said: 1--WE should not |
regard the italian laborers as we do. |
They are our fellow beings and deserve /
more attention from us. So far my |
work among them has proved very sat T
and has resulted in an in
creased attendance at their churches.
| do not seek to convert them to Prot
astantism; in fact, if one asked me if I
wished him to turn Protestant, I would
saw No. retain your faith and he a