The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-10-28

BOstOn-Hts Recent Tour Abroad
 Some Aspects of Religious Life in
 Europe.
 The meeting of the New Haven Con- gregational club last evening at Pilgrim church on East Grand avenue, was a great success. Over 200 partook of the | excellent supper served by the ladies 1 of the church under the direction of the Ladies' Aid society, of which Mrs. George c. Black is president Mrs. guest table. Other ladies in charge of tables were Mrs. Edgar Allen, Mrs. 1 Linsley, Mrs. Charles E. Bray, Mrs. Lu- zerne Ludington, Mrs. Willett Kellogg, Mrs. William Granniss, Mrs. Horace Beebe, Mrs. Allen Huntley, Mrs. George c. Bradley, Mrs. Alvord, Miss Jerome, Mrs. John Parker, Mrs. F. B. Rowe Mrs. c. B. Rowe, Mrs. J. Clog stone, Mrs. Alexander r. Irvine, Mrs. Walter Buck. Mrs. E H. Barnes. Mrs. R. G. Davis, Mrs. Marcus Hemingway, Mrs. Frank Mallory, Mrs. Henry w. l Russell.
 | A large congregation at 8 o'clock list ened to the highly interesting address by Rev. Francis E. Clark, D. D.. Father | Endeavor Clark of Boston, on Lands of the Midday Moon." After giving the more descriptive portion of his address he spoke of religious life in Europe, as l follows:
 l Church life in the old world and the new cannot be strictly compared or | contracted since the conditions on diff ferent sides of the Atlantic are so un- like as to make close comparisons fruit less. Nevertheless the study of religious conditions on both side of the sea is an intensely interesting one.
 Nearest akin to the great non-litur- giCal denominations of America are the non-confornlist, or, as they prefer to call | themselves, the Free Churches of Great Britain. They have all come from com mon stock, have similar traditions and like mission to perform.
 The great Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational and Baptist families on both sides of the ocean are like sea-di- Vided sections of the same household. All of them have much in common, making union in the future between them all closer than ever has been known in the past within the range of easy possibilities.
 But in members of the same house. hold, even where they are striking fam fly resemblances, there are also differ ences of features, ton and accent; and especially do few generations of living apart in widely separated climes pro- duce those indivdualties.
 'The points of contact between de- on different sides of the water. While the Presbyterians and Congregational ists affiliate more in America than any two denominations, the ministers and church members going back and forth between the two with much freedom, in England where Presbyterians are com paratively few, the Baptists and Con- gregationalists seem the most sisterly of denominations. There are not a few union churches like the great Union chapel of Manchester, to which the fa- nous Alexander McLaren has minister ed so long, which is made up in nearly equal members, if I am not mistaken, of Baptists and Congregationalists; thought the senior pastor, Dr. McLa- ren, and his able assistant, Mir. Roberts are both Baptists.
 "So, too Christ church, Westminster Bridge Road, of London, famous for its succession of great ministers, Rowland . Hill, Newman Hill and now, perhaps the greatest of them all, G. B Meyer, is practically a Congregational church with a Baptist pastor and a liturgical service. There can be little
 
 conformists are more evangelistis, ii not more evangelical, than their breth- - ren in America. The best results o1 higher scholarship are known and ac. cepted quite as thoroughly on the east ern as the western side of the Atlantic : but the transition stage is passed ant left further behind in Great Britain and there has been a larger return tC evangelical thought and evangelistica , methods in the old world.
 : This is certainly true in the Congre ,. gational church and I believe in others | as well, and several well known Eng fish ministers with whom I talked seemed little less shocked at the lati tudinarian views and indifferentism t' which they considered the essentials o
 
 in America,
 ''In church buildings, too, that on tn whole, our Sunday schools are bette than theirs, and in many creature com 5 forts of this sort, the American churches are decidedly in the lead. believe, too, that on the whole our Sun day schools are better than theirs. 2 Tn Great Britain the singing in tn 5 churches is undoubtedly better thai ! with us. Certainly this is true of tn l Congregational singing and there i 5 very little of any other kind in the olC 5 country. It is more general, mor r hearty, more expressive. Every on seems to sing and people are not so ab !, surdly dependent upon notes in singin: . common tunes as with us.
 ''The young peoples work, think, i = quite as prosperous in America in mos denominations as in Great Britain !, Much as some of us dislike the ritualis |. tic, Romanizing tendency of the higl ] church party, we must admit that the, ], have had, and doubtless still have thei g full share of the saints of the eartl l among their number; that they car for the poor with devotion and work ii s the sums with unfailing heroism ant = that many of them seem to find in thei forms and ceremonies, their candle and their crucifixes and even in wha ie, at their .p1i1lipo or1