The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-20
CHURCH BUILDING.
Field Secretary of
Congregational
Society
TELLS OF ITS GRAND WORK.
Rev. George A. Wood Of
Boston Visits Wor-
cester.

! Yesterday morning, Rev. George A.
Hood of Boston, New England field
secretary of the Congregational Church
Building society, spoke of the work Of
the society in the Union Congregational
church, and in the evening at the I'm
manuel Congregational church
His text was 1 Chron., xxii:19-
Arise, therefore. and build We the
sanctuary of the Lord Cod" He said
that ever since God built the taber-
nacle 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 organize 200
churches more or less, and build only a
few more than 100 per year
Our young men developing the new
towns are equipped with docks, elevat-
ors, mills, machinery, and every i'm
proVement for doing their work six
days in the week; win they go to church
the first day of the week in an aban-
doned saloon, or dance hall, carpenter
shop, or the loft of a livery stable? No,
1t makes them homesick; they have no
respect for a church which cannot build
and they cannot afford $25 or 500 to help
1t build. The church, like any other line
of business needs an equipment to sue
coed. If we can aid the young church to
build, the new settlers Will attend, will
give 90 cents or 81 or 81 week to make
1t self-supporting and the future char
acter of the new town can thus be
moulded by the church. Thus the Con-
gregattonal Church Building society
helps the young churches of the Con-
gregational Home Missionary society,
and of the American Missionary asso-
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 irreg-
ularly by collections. Every dollar is Sc
cured by first mortgage and insurance
policy, therefore there is no loss. The
aid pays only last bills, therefore the
missionary church will be out of debt.
The society has always paid every dol
lar when due, therefore donors to the
annuity fund may be
SURE OF THEIR ANNUITY.
Why do they need help? Because a
church building costs four or five times
as much as the MISSIONARIES salary
Where the Home Missionary society
helps pay the minister, economy and
success demand that the Church Build
ing society should be able to
give much larger aid on the building
Because to convert open prairies or
empty woods into a town is hard for the
first settlers; with farms and homes
mortgaged, interest and taxes high
shanties to live in, usually at first nc
partitions, no plaster or paint, no eel
lar or well; snowdrifts inside when they
are outside, and food frozen solid il
the morning; the people cannot built
! churches without aid. But they give
: wonderfully. A carpenter trying to get
, home for wife and two children gave
3 SIS out of 81 a day wages; a laborel
5 earning $500 year gave $3.50 and note
s for 800 more. A minister living in {
/ dug-out had saved money. for a new
roof, but afraid of losing the new
= church for lack of Church Building so
= ciety aid, he gave his roof money anC
e kept an umbrella beside the bed in cas-,
/. of rain.
i A missionary church has no hope o
success till it gets a church building
and it cannot build without aid If no
e aided the churches will die, or if the,
= live it will only be by taking continued
S Home Missionary aid. One Home Mis-
f sionary superintendent said his church
i es would live only two years without
: building Large numbers of churche
: have died from this cause, for churcl
e without building is like an egg with
n out a shell, the more it is brooded tn
= worse condition it is in. When a churc
r dies it damages the moral future Of tn
new town and loses the Christian work
Y ers and
RICHES OF THE FUTURE
ii II we aid church to build, a revive
n soon follows and many eastern youn
tt men are saved in this way in the ne7
Ii town, new habits, new life. A Minnesot
e church took Home Missionary aid fo
a thirteen years without a sign Of sue
l. cess; but when the Church Building Sc
v. ciety gave it $500 to pay last bills on
$1,000 church, a revival began with til
dedication, and fourteen young me
were converted.
Then comes self-support. One Mime
4 sofa church expected every year fC
- five years to throw off Home Missionar
VI aid; the sixth year it had 5000 aid frol
v the Church Building society on a $40(
lgI church. and has been self-supportin
t. ever since. A good way to save HON
s, Missionary money; but why couldn't I'll
SIS Church Building society have aide
n that church five years before and save
SIS $500. Home Missionary money? FC
A. lack of money. In North Wisconsi
Id seven new churches were aided to bull
d. about the same time; in four years 81
lie of them were self-supporting.
no Often the Church Building society he
ne to cut down the application of churc
I'll forcing it to a hard struggle to pay VI
lie then the church must have more Hon
e. Missionary money the next year, b,
I'D cause they emptied their pockets on IL
o. building; and the extra expense to II
s. Home Missionary society proves to
at more than the amount the ChurC
Building society cut them down. TT
greatest trouble a home missionary hi
: is in the struggle to pay for churC
building when the Church Building 81
ciety aid him promptly and sufficient
s. Worry, overwork, sickness follow, al
y often he leaves, broken down.
G. Thus by prompt payment of bills, r.
al vival, and self-support, we see Thu
a. every $1,000 given to the Congregation
o. Church Building society will say
IN $1,000 to the Congregational Hon
" Missionary society in about three year
n At the monthly business meetings IL
ok society has to refuse from one-fourth
hi, two-thirds of the applications;
d should have nearly twice it's present il
d. come in order to help the Home Mi
sionary society do it's work with ecol
omy and efficiency