The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-23
SPOKE AT DIVINITY SCHOOL
INTER ESIING ADDRESS BY REV.
 GEORGIA. HOOD OE BOSTON.

Heis tho New England Field Secretary
 of the Congregational Church Bnild-
 ing Society ana Gave s0mo Interesting q
 Accounts of Missionary Work.
 Last evening, the 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 Yale Divinity School.
 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. Congrega-
 tionalists are the only ones who orga- nize 200 churches, more or less, and
 build only few more than 100 per year.
 Our young men developing the new
 towns are equipped with docks, eleva-
 tors, mills, machinery, and every 1m- provement for doing their work six days of the week: will they go to church the first day of the week in an abandoned
 saloon, or dance hall, carpenter shop, or the loft of livery stable? Mo- it makes them homesick; they have no re- spect for church which cannot build, and they cannot afford s25 or $50 to help it build. The church, like any other line of business needs an equip ment to succeed. If we can aid the
 1.,,t a+t 1oyc will attend. will give 50 cents or s1 or $2 per week to make it self-supporting; and the future character of that town can be moulded by the church. Thus the Congregational Church Building So- cety helps the young churches of the Congregational Home Missionary Socie- ty, and of the American Missionary As sociation 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 irregularly by collections. Every dollar is secured 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 Socie- ty' has always paid every dollar when due, therefore donors to the annuity fund may be sure of their annuity.
 Why do they need help? Because the church building costs four of five times as much as the missionary's salary. Where the Home Missionary Society helps to 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 town hard for the first settlers; with farms and homes mortgaged, in- terest and taxes high, shanties to live in, usually at first no partitions, no plaster or paint, no cellar or well; snowdrifts. inside when they are out side, ana food frozen solid in the morn ing, the people cannot build churches without aid. But they give wonderful ly A carpenter trying to get home for wife and two children gave $115, out of $2, as day wages; laborer earning s4oO year gave $150 and a note for $100 more. A minister living in dug out had saved money for new roof, but afraid of losing the new church for lack of aid from the Church Building Society, he gave his roof money and kept an umbrella beside the bed in case of rain.
 A missionary church has no hope of success till it gets a church building and 1t cannot build without aid. If not aided the churches will die, or if they live 1t will be only by taking continued Home Missionary aid. One Home Mis- sionary superintendent said his church. es would live only two years without building. Large numbers of churches have died from this cause, for church without building is like an egg with out a shell, the more 1t is brooded the worse condition it is in. When church dies, it damages the moral future of the new town and loses the Christian work CTS and riches of the future.
 If we aid church to build, revival soon follows and many Eeastern young | men are saved in this way in the new town new life, new habits. A Mime sota church took Home Missionary aid | for thirteen years without sign or suc- cess; but when the Church Building So- ciety gsve it $50O to pay laet bills on a $1, 500 church, revival began with the dedication, and fourteen young men were COHTeTCSO.
 Then comes self-eupport One Mime sota church expected every year for five years to throw off Home Missionary aid; the sixth year it had $500 aid from the Church Building Society on S4.000 church. and has been self-supporting ever since. A good way to save Home Missionary money; but why couldn't the Church Building Society have aided that church five years before and saved I1 ,5OO Home Missionary money? For lack of money. Tn North Wisconsin seven new churches were aided to build about the same time; iu four years six 3f them were self-supporting.
 Often the Church Building Society has to cut down the applications of a ,hurch, forcing 1t to hard struggle to ,ay up; then the church must have nore Home Missionary aid the next year, because they emptied their pock- it's on the building! and the extra ex- ,ense to the Home Missionary Society proves to be more than the amount the Shurch Building Society cuts them Town. The greatest trouble home mis- ionary has Is in the struggle to pay Or building when the Church Build- ng Society cannot aid him promptly md sufficiently. Worry, overwork, ;o,,raSs follow and often he leaves |