The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-04-01
who had been in the field for more tina,

VIII udu pecu III the uelu IOr more IMAM
thirty years.
Mr.. Bell expressed grateful acknowl-
edgment on behalf of the missionaries
for the lovely repast the ladies had fur
nished. He paid high compliment to
the work of the missionaries and declar-
| ed that all that he said came from the
very bottom of his heart. Incidentally he
told an enecdote of minister who was
reproving his little boy, when the lat
ter looked up and said, "Papa, do you
really mean what you say, or are you
only preaching?" His eulogies of the
good that had been accomplished by the
missionaries, Mr.. Bell said, were not
mere preaching. He meant every word
that he said. For years and years he had
observed the effect of the missionary
work in the small towns. He knew
of no force that made for so much good.
The power of the missionary largely de-
pended upon his own personality. The
missionary by the force of his own per-
sonality had been known to induce
family after family to lift their hearts
up to God, and take their place in the
church and the Sunday school. The
most powerful uplifting force in modern
life was Christian home Next to that
came the American Union Sunday school.
DR.. Cowgirl was called upon to express
his deep appreciation of the helping hand
that the American Sunday School Union
was extending to assist that growth of
Sunday schools in all parts of the coun-
try. The Union was a mighty force that
was helping to build up the kingdom of
Jesus Christ upon the earth
President Cooper said that childhood
was the time of life during which the
missionary and the Sunday school could
do the greatest amount of good to each
individual and through him in later years
vast good could be accomplished for
others. The mind of the child was like
a sensitive plate. Impressions could be
made upon it readily, and with ease,
yet these impressions, once made, were
practically indelible.
Mr.. Gran laid particular stress on
the vast benefit that could be wrought |
and is being wrought for the community |
as a whole by the work of the Sunday |
school missionary among the rural COM
munities. The cities had to have their |
populations continually recruited from
the country. Were it not for the steady |
migration from the country to the big |
cities, these big cities could not continue |
to exist. They would die off. By work
ing with the Sunday schools in the coun-
try the character of immigrants that the |
cities received from the country would |
continually improve. Thus not only the |
rural but also the urban people could be |
vastly benefited religiously and morally |
by the missionary work in the country. |
The work of the missionary in the coun-
try was quiet, transformations and MOTTO |
ed only by very few at time. Yet the
country missionary could rest assured
that if few others appreciated his work, !
certainly God appreciated it and would
bestow the full reward in time upon the
worker. The country missionary pos
sessed the richest field of work that
could be found in the United States.
Mr. Fisher spoke of the great need
that there was for the missionary in
countless rural communities of this
country. The work that was waiting for !
the missionary was vast indeed. In the |
Minnesota valley he said there was many |
a rural settlement where the gospel had |
never yet been preached. He had seen |
settlement after settlement where the |
people were never in the habit of going |
to church. He spoke of one particular in |
stance of Sunday school being organic
ed in community supported largely |
through the employment furnished by a |
saw mill. The Sunday school met with
pronounced success and such was the in
terest In religious work thereby created
in the community that three months
after the Sunday school was established,
a church was instituted. Here was typ
ical example of what the American
Sunday School Union could do and was
doing.
Mr.. Robinson spoke of the advent of
Union missionary in a community where
there was scarcely any thought of re-
ligion at all and where the saloons were
kept running open seven days in the
week. The proposition of the establish I
ment of the Sunday school created great
interest but few of the people had any
of what it really was. One /
If the saloonkeepers himself furnished s
he hall for the first meeting and before
he meeting opened passed beer around t