The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-20
HR. DO. SHELTON'S ADDRESS
DELIVERED KEsTERDAYAT THE CHURCH or THE REDEEMER.


 ate, Who Gave Large sums of Money
 10 congregationaI Churches.
 One of the most interesting events during the thirty-seventh annual meet ing of the general conference of the Congregational churches of Connecticut in this city this week was the address delivered by Don o. Shelton, associate secretary of the Congregational Home Missionary society. Mir. Shelton's sub ject was America and the Kingdom" and he discussed it thoroughly:
 Mir. Shelton said in substance: It is well for us often to bring to mind fun damental lessons taught by the history of the beginnings of the Christian church. The men to whom our Lord committed the sublime task of building up His Kingdom were of an heroic type and had qualities of character worthy of the most patient and constant emula- ton on our part. The record of their attitude toward their aseended Lord and toward their felloW-men is interwoven with wise suggestion. They clearly saw that their chief function was world wide evangelization. They went forth to their task with buoyancy. fervor, and an abandon never surpassed. What made possible such lives as theirs? How did they come to be the kind of men they were? What was the method of their training? What was the motive of their action? Like null titudes in our time they were once with out deep interest in the progress of tne Kingdom of Christ. Once they were wholly without concern for the re- demption of their felloWmen. .g#
 The chief task of the present is to bring ourselves and the young people of America to the point reached by the Apostles, so that we and they, from an inner compulsion, must say: We can not but speak the things we have seen and heard. The early disciples were brought to this (1) because they had closely followed their Lord. Almost continually they were under the inf1u- ence of His mighty passion for the sal vation of mankind. Every day they saw His absorption in the fulfilling of His mission. (2) They received the un- equaled words He spoke. These were a living, energetic force within their hearts. Through them they came to < understand the scope and purpose of the coming of the Son of God unto the world. (3) They were led, to a large de- gree, at least, to look at each life from His point of view. They knew His at titude toward the shepherdless multi ltudes who pressed about Him; they had constant proofs of His compassion; rTss T, 1f ffN,. those whose inner life needed purif1ca- ton and adjustment.
 The Congregational churches of Amer lea have no greater task than the train- ing of leaders who will have a passion. for missions. There is absolutely noth- ing at the present moment of greater importance than the education of the young people of the churches regarding Z the need and opportunity for the exten- sion of the Kingdom Of God in Ameri- ca. Therefore, the mission study class should have a place in every Congrega- tional church. Such class under the leadership of one whose Christianity is of robust type. will bring forth large results. These classes, taking up alter nately courses of study in home and foreign missions, will be a means of steadily developing in Congregational young people an intelligent interest in missions.
 No more serious mistake can be made than to expect effects without causes We have no reason whatever to expect the progress of the Kingdom of God in America if we do not vigorously set about cu1tivating a deeper interest on the part of our young people.
 It is especially important that young men be enlisted in the home mission en- terprise. Probably no denomination has young men of greater possibilities than our own. Affiliated with our Con- gregationai churches throughout the country are thousands of superb Chris tian business men. Many are college and university graduates and occupy influential positions in the communities where they live Large numbers of them are unidentified in any vital way with the missionary work of the church. Why? Because their uneducated con- sciences permit them to delegate this work which Christ commanded all His disciples to do, to the excellent and godly women of the church. These young men utterly ignore their individ- ual responsibility in the matter and manifest an intermittent interest by an occasional contribution to the mission- ary societies. Even many of twenty five and thirty years of age are wholly out of touch with this most going and aggressive undertaking of the church. These men must be gotten hold of, in tered, quickened, inspired, enlisted.
 Why should not thousands of young business men who are rapidly acquir- ing wealth, take as deep an interest in missions and express their interest in as practical way as did the late Rich- ard Wells Foster, of Clinton, Mass. |? MT. Foster was a graduate of Harvard university in the class of 1900. He was only twenty-five years of age when he died. In his will, made three years be- fore his death, he bequeathed to the Congregational church at Clinton, Mass, five thousand dollars; to the Congregational Home Missionary socie- ty ten thousand dollars; to the Ameri- can board ten thousand dollars; to Har- ward university a large sum; and to a project for the benefit of the young men of his own city another large amount. He made the Congregational