The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-10-13
MANKATO PRESBY7ERY RAPS "TAMA"
JAMES WILSON WITH A RESOL U7ION;

! With the adoption Of resolution
protesting against "Tama" Jim Will
son. secretary of agriculture, occu-
plying the position of presiding Off
GER of the brewers meeting in Chi
cagO, and following devotional eXer-
cises, the Mankato presbytery in
session since late Monday afternoon,
adjourned at noon today.
Rev. L. l.. Smythe of the lie Sueur
church, led the devotional service
this morning, and at the close of
| this service the reports of the COM
mittees were acted upon. An over
ture from the general assembly was
read which asked for vote on the
proposition of holding general as
sembly biennially instead Of annual
| ly as is now the custom. This is
being considered by all the Presby-
| teries at the present time and is of
great Importance to that church.
The presbytery here voted to con-
tinue the general assemblies annu-
ally.
Budget System DISCUSSION.
The budget system of pledging
church support was discussed and
each church represented was asked
to report what had been done with
all of the churches were using it 10
some extent at least, although not
entirely. The churches using it find
it satisfactory way of getting the
church funds together.
The meeting of the presbytery
closed at noon today, and most Of
the attending ministers went direct
ly to Minneapolis from here and
will be in attendance at the synod,
the. state organization of the pres
bytery which will be in session az
the Bethlehem church until Satur
day.
Last Nights interesting Meeting.
The devotional service of the even
ing meeting was led by Rev. j. c.
Strand of Morgan. Following the
opening service Rev. Mr.. Ehrstein
of Redwood Falls gave a fifteen
minute talk on the Men and Religion
Forward Movement. He told some
startling facts, which surely made
all those who were present think.
He said that according to the re-
ligious census of 1907 there were 3O0,-
900 more women and girls who were
members of churches in the United
States than there were men. In the
largest cities of the country there
were three women to every man
working in the church. Then on the
other hand the penitentiaries have
tweIity-eight men to every woman.
The Men and Religion Forward
Movement has been started to try
If possible to change these cOndi-
tions.
Origin of Movement.
The movement was first thought
Of by a prominent banker of New
York, and International Sunday
school worker and several others.
Each man came to the meeting with
a plan for the organization and i'll
was found when the plans were in
troduced that each man had prac
tically the same ideas of the needs
and the methods of meeting them.
Mr.. Ehrstein spoke particularly of
the boy problem, which the move
ment hopes to do much with. He
spoke of the large percentage OF
boys and young men who are on
the streets and in theatres Sunday
nights, and of the harm done by
that habit.
Decline in Religious Interest.
At the close OF his talk DR.. Will
liam II. Harshaw of the Grace Pres
byterian church of Minneapolis was
introduced. He first spoke of the de-
cline in interest in religious work
in this country and foreign coun-
tries. At the present time there is
being held in Toronto, Canada, a
meeting of the MethOdists from all
over the world to see what can be
done to stop the decline in member
ship in their church. In the past
three years the Methodist church
has fallen off in numbers DR.. Ear-
shaw said that the Presbyterian
church has scarcely done better, hav-
ing in the past few years only a.
very small per cent of gain. In the
city of Minneapolis where there are
5000 members of the Presbyterian
churches, during the last year only
400 new members were taken in.
Most of them were from the Sunday
school and very few from outside of
the church. The church of Christ is
failing to advance and it was out of
that conviction that this new Men
and Religion Forward Movement was
born.
Criticisms of Movement.
There have been two severe
criticisms Of this movement, fear
that individual regeneration would
be Obscured and minimized and that
the whole movement was fathered
and fostered by Wall street. The
first would be impossible if the
plans of the organization are car.
ried out. The latter criticism has
been talked of and discussed in Ia
Dor circles and the labor unions
have assumed an antagOnistic atti
tude toward the work Tn answer