The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-19

l insist on the special character of the or | ganization of each district, only requir ing that they make the visitation re | quired, using the blanks provided by tn federation, and to report to it. Eaci house is to be visited and certain ques' tions asked that will give as far as pos sible the religious status of the family while the visitor himself is to realize | that he is bringing to the home the sym pathy and Christly spirit that should
 leave it's beneficial impress behind. Let
 us know that this is to be a continuou! | service; it is not a spasmOdic effort t( find where the family lives and whether they are Protestant, Jews or Catholic but to endeavor to bring every family outside of the church influence inside tha
 church influence, and to persist until ev- cry family in that district is reached
 You may say that it is a large work
 &c., but what are the churches for if not
 to reach out with this gospel of the Son
 of God and to bring men under it's be-
 neficent sway. Every individual church
 has been thinking too much of denomi-
 nation rather than the kingdom. We
 feel that now the time has come wher
 the churches must stand side by side
 and the people be made to feel that the
 church is their best friend and this spir-
 it and purpose should express itself in
 the broad, tender and faithful fellowship
 of Christian love, and we believe that it
 will succeed, because we have prepared
 blanks with questions to be answered
 similar to those of the Connecticut Bi-
 +c
 gathered and sifted carefully and tabu-
 lated and then handed out to the ind-
 vidual church or pastor to whom the family belongs. On the back side or this
 slip you will find printed for the special
 Introduction of the visitor: "Our pur- pose is not primarily to build up individ- ual churches or denominations, but to enlarge the kingdom of God; to discover
 those families and persons not now reached by the churches and to bring them under the influence and care of the church they may prefer. We are not simply gathering statistics: we are stri- wing to show the real spirit of the mod ern church through loving ministry to the social and moral needs of men in His name and for His sake" We want them to know that they are to go in the name of the churches, and thus going. every visitor is going forth in the Lords name. I say we believe we shall succeed, for we believe that the time of putting up fences between denomina- tions is passed and sectional differences no longer have force, and that the church can do a common work in a con- mon way. If we accomplish nothing else than the bringing of the churches closer together and to feel that we are one body, doing one work. it will pay for all the expense and time and labor put into it.
 At the close of Dr. Phillips address Rev. w. H. Burgwin of the Summerfeld church. made an address, in the course of which he said that he had found about fifty per cent. of the people in this district are not found in the church Yet special efforts had been made to reach them. He saw four classes in the community of this character There are families whose heads were brought up in non-church-going families. Another class were composed of foreigners, many of whom spoke the English language in- differently and were staying away from church until they could understand 1t better, but who in the meantime, neg lected and being neglected, got into am indifferent state of mind toward the church. Then there is another class of young married people, newcomers and slow to form acquaintances. Perhaps they are unequally yoked; it may be one p,,nf n,,t and they compromise by not going any, where to church. Another class are composed of operatives in Winchester's factory It is a patent fact that many of the men in our manufactories are get ting farther and farther away from the church. Now it is our duty to make all of these feel that the churches do have in them and need them. and also that they cannot get along without the church. He advocated a kind of church letter sent out in the name of all the pastors, and also the Sunday school su- perintendents, extending the hand of welcome to these people.
 The Rev. Francis H. Hill of the A. M. F. Zion, also spoke in the same vein, strongly emphasizing the federation work. Before the meeting closed an ap- peal was made to begin work immediate ly in a part of the third district, and some dozen or more volunteered to take certain sections and visit within the next month every house in them under the auspices of the federation and in the spirit and purpose of it's work.
 The Rev. A. M Hall, of the Taylor church, offered the closing prayer.