The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-20
THE CITY MISSIONS WORK
REPORT OF PROGRESS DY REY
 THEODORE B. WILSON.
Financial Secretary of the Association Read at tho Annual Meeting sum day Evening.

day Evening.
 Report of progress was read by the financial secretary, T, B. Wilson at the annual meeting of the City Missions as sociation Sunday night as follows:
 I am pleased to be introduced by the minister with the largest parish in this city, the pastor of the unchurched, the pastor of the masses.
 Isuppose there is no question but that the City Missions represents the largest and most important effort to evangelize the masses which we are making in New Haven. presume that few would urge that the masses" are getting into the churches any more, as the years go by.
 We may as well stop theorizing and deal with the fact, the people-the much talked-about common people-are evil dently not going to push into our churches-they are not going to seek the church in order to be saved-the church must do the seeking and saving as it's Master did and on some far larg- CT scale than heretofore.
 have myself, when in the pastorate, funaed and fretted and belabored my peoples consciences because we were not doing something with this problem But almost any move we try to make seems to run up against the insupera- ble whether of prejudice or precedent or inertia.
 A pastor of one of our large city churches has recently spoken in this line-to the effect that it Is a reproach upon our churches that two agencies like the Y. M. c. A. and our Association have found their work growing so that two new buildings are going up, pro- jected and paid for chiefly by Christian people and within a half-mile radius of a dozen churches.
 I have in former time expressed pre- cisely the same views. But more re- gently have been led to enquire whether in adopting these means of work the aroused conscience of the church Is not pushing out on the line of the least resistence. In a word, I be- lieve the churches as such are not go- ing to reconstruct themselves and plunge into this work. In his recent book entitled Religious Movements for Social Betterment," Dr. Josiah Strong remarks that "The ordinary church would seem to exist primarily if not solely for purposes of worship which 1t offers at stated intervals. Its work, if 1t engages in any, has for it's imme diate object the increase of the number of it's worshippers of their edifcation. Its benevolences are, for the most part, to multiply the number of churches oI, y.it tal.'
 We have now 108000 people in New Haven While our churches have changed in their views of truth and in many of their customs, I take it that pr. Strongs description would apply equally as well to the church when we had 5000 as to that when we have 1OS,- GOO.
 But meantime countless special agen- cies have been brought into being to at- tack these problems with which our growing cities are confronting us. Among these is the City Mission of ours and other cities, which is to go like a "flying-wedge" (to borrow foot ball term) in among the masses with the churches lined up behind it and the pastors assisting it with strong in reference" l am sure the thing for us to do as churches is stop theorizing about what ought to be, to stop chastis- , ing ourselves because we cannot make 1 our old bottles serve for the new wine, but to credit the church with providing | these new and approved agencies to ac- complish what she would not leave un- done.
 And right here let us be glad that these agencies have been kept distinct ly Christian so that the church may be credited with what they do. President Bascom has remarked that "most of the social questions of the last hundred years have brought nearly as much dis credit as credit to religion" Some of the best social and benevolent efforts in our cities, like Hull House of Chicago are not credited to the church, because she did not originate them.
 Out of what is accomplished by or like ours the church de-
 EASY FOOD.