St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1909-11-17
Gre at Mems Meeting.
About 400 Men Attended the Union Service
of the Brotherhoods at North Church
Sunday Evening.

Probably the largest gathering of men
for a religious service in the history of
st. Johnsbury greeted Frank Dyer of
Chicago, general secretary of the congre-
gational brotherhoods of America, when
he spoke at the North church Sunday
evening. 1t was a union meeting of the
local brotherhoods and nearly 400 men
were present. Principal M. g. Benedict
of the Academy presided and in the pull
pit with him besides the speaker were,
Walter c. Rodliff, head of the Methodist
brotherhood, and c. c. Moulton, head
of the Advent church brotherhood. The
singing was lead by male chorus of IA
voices composed OF the male quartet of
Grace church and the North church and
the male singers CT the South, Universal
list, and Baptist churches.
Mr.. Dyer is an interesting speaker and
has his facts marshalled in a very effect
tive manner He first expressed his
pleasure at the decline of the denomina-
tional ideas that meeting of the various
brotherhoods like this one indicated and
described the brotherhood idea. The
brotherhood idea is the logical develop
ment of the last century. First the wo-
men OF the church organized for mission
ary and home work, then the children
were organized in the Sunday school fol-
lowed by the reorganization of the young
people of the church into societies and
unions. This left the men as the only
unorganzed force and now logically
enough they are being organized. Some
of the statements he made were that
there were three women to every man
among the regular attendants of church.
es and in the congregational church
there were two women to every male
member of the church. To show the in
activity of men in real church work he
stated that rs per cent of the male lay
men of the church might be shot and the
contribution for missions, the male
teachers i'll the Sunday school and the
attendance of men at the evening ser
vices would not be diminished in the
least at next Sundays services. He
closed his address by giving the message
of the late Gen. o. o. Howard to the
brotherhoods OF America, Forward,
march"
Union Women's Meeting.
The union women's meeting was held
at the First Baptist church Sunday eve
ming and was addressed by the pastor,
Rev. F. S. Tolman. There was an at
tendance of about 150 the church being
filled, The choir rendered several selec-
tions. Mr.. Tolman's subject was
%Robbed," and he took his text from
Luke TO- 80. He emphasized the differ
ent types of people who are being robbed
as follows: Men are robbed of their
manhood through loahng on street cor
ners; of their companionship with boys
through drink; of their happy domestic
surroundings through uncongenial wives,
poor cooking, and wives who are not as
particular about their appearance after
marriage as before Women are robbed
of their homes by other interests, such
as clubs, cards. excessive social func-
| tions; children are robbed of parental
affection, shown by lack of constant at
tention which boys and girls ought to
receive from their parents; lack of disci-
pline as shown by the general laWless-
ness of boys and girls in company and
by the lack of religious instruction as
shown by the few children who know
their Sunday school lessons, and by the
fact that too many of them drift out
from the church and religious influences
at very early age. Boys are robbed of
cleanliness and purity in character and
ideals by the lack ofinterest of their par
ents and by the general influence OF COM
panions in school; by the street corners.
and cigarettes. Girls>are robbed of their
girlhood by the spirit of the times that
makes them want to become grown be-
fore they are at all prepared by exper-
ience or training; by excessive nervous
strain. and oftentimes excessive school
work in addition to late hours and So
cial demands; and both boys and girls by
spending too much time on the streets
when their parents have no idea where
they are.
He closed with an appeal to the women,
recognizing their better fitness and adap-
liability, broader sympathy, larger natu-
raj resources, stronger intuition, than
men have, by which they can aid others
toward the recovery of better manhood
and womanhood. He gave as a motto
"Our husbands, sons and daughters for
God and righteousness, live or die, sink
or swim, survive or perish" He asked
them to make special effort to realize
this motto to win over the thousands
who have been robbed Of the best that
| life has.