Daily Kennebec journal., 1900-06-13
WATERVILLE.
kENNEBEc cONGREGATIONALIs1s.
The 77th Annual Conference Opens in This
City, Tuesday.

The nth annual conference of the
CongregatiOnalist churches of Kenne-
bee county opened in the Temple Street
Congregationalist church, at 1890 Tues
day forenoon. There was a good at
tendance and the church was prettily
decorated with cut flowers and potted
plants. The session opened with de-
votional service lead by the moderator
of the conference, Rev. A. l.. Struthers
of South Gardiner. The service was
made up chiefly of prayer and praise
and was helpful and a good opening for
the conference.
At the close Of the devotional exer-
Cises the following officers were ap-
pointed: Nominations, Rev. r. =. Will
liams, WinslOW; Rev. S. a. Apraham
Litchfield Corner: Judge j. NJ. Larra-
bee. Gardiner; resolutions, Rev. Nor
man Mckinnon. Augusta; Rev. r. r.
Morson. Winthrop; Deacon Charles
Capen. South Gardiner.
Rev. E. l.. Marsh of Waterville. then
submitted report Of the committee
on the matter Of holding a semi-annual
meeting in the future. He was Of the
opinion that the meeting had better
be omitted. There are at the present
SO many conventions and meetings of
the various branches Cf the church that
there is danger of dividing the interest
and the effort. The pastors are con-
stan ~ being called upon to take part
in the program of some of these meet
ings, 50 that at times in the year their
time is largely taken up with work of
this kind He believed that it would
be better to have one conference, dur
ing the year. and to use every possible
means to make it a success than to
have the interest divided. He had
written letters to all the pastors OF
the churches in the conference and had
asked them to place the question be-
fore their congregations and to get
their opinions. He thought that the
general opinion would be in favor of
abolishing the semi-annual meeting.
hearty address of welcome to the
conference was then delivered by Rev
f. l.. Marsh and responded to in a few
well chosen remarks by the moderator,
Rev A. L. Struthers Of South Gardi
ner. This closed the forenoon session
The afternoon session was opened at
2 o'clock with a devotional service, as
the morning session had been, and was
lead by Rev. S. a. Apraham of Litch-
field Corner. who, by the way. is an
Armenian and is very popular with
the other pastors in the conference.
This service was inspiring and very
helpful. The principal feature of the
afternoon was the symposium on the
subject: THE Comparative Value in
Developing Stable Christian Character
and Church Loyalty of the Boys Br
gade, the Sunday School. the Y. T. S.
S. c. F., the Revival and the Instruc-
ton Glass"
Papers were read on each of the five
subjects mentioned. The first was the
"Y. p. s. c. E." by Miss Marietta
Parshley Of Gardiner. Miss Parshley
was unable to he present at the con-
ference and the paper written by her
was read by Judge Larrabee. 1t was
carefully prepared discussion of the
subject and was very interesting.
THE Boys Brigade" was discussed by
Rev. J. X. Boardman of Portland. He
gave a short account of his experience
with a brigade in Hallowell. He said
that the value of a brigade depended
on the boys and what was meant by
permancy in character building. In
Halowell they had secured 80 boys
who could not be reached in any other
way. The plan was to make the work
supplementary to the Sunday School
The brigade has two essential features
the military drill and discipline and the
spiritual work among the boys There
had been special classes in the Sunday
School for the boys of the brigade and
prayer meetings for them. The latter
had been a failure. There had been
drill master and weekly drills with an
occasional exhibition drill. The things
most essential for the work he believ-
ed to be first, some warm hearted
friend. of boys who posse SIS little mill
tary knowledge. Second. a committee
of men and women who still have n
lasting and constant interest in the
brigade and who can give it a strong
backing Third, some professed Chris
tian boys in the brigade. Fourth. that
the spiritual element should predomi-
nate.
The Sunday School, was discussed
by Rev. A. l.. Struthers Of South Gar
diner He began by saying that he be-
fbaf thprp was NOT pna church