iW ENGLAND /lETHODISM

EDITED BY

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NEW ENGLA METHODISM

THE STORY OF THE NEW ENGLAND CONVENTION OF METHODIST MEN

HELD IN TREMONT TEMPLE BOSTON, MASS.

NOVEMBER 11-13, 1914

EDITED BY E. C. E. DORION

THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI

Copyright, 1915, by E. C. E. DOMON

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Boston University School of Theology Library

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE CONVENTION AND NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

PAGE

Editorial Foreword 5

The Keynote Message.

Bishop John W. Hamilton . 9

The Convention Messages 14

I. NEW ENGLAND METHODISM, CREDITOR AND DEBTOR Methodism's Debt to New England.

Rev. Edgar Blake, D.D 21

New England's Debt to Methodism.

Bishop Edwin H. Hughes 25

II. THE JESSE LEE CELEBRATION How Methodism Came to New England.

Bishop John W. Hamilton 32

The Fathers.

Bishop William Eraser McDowell 35

III. METHODISM AND HER EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM The State and the Church in American Education.

Rev. Thomas Nicholson, LL.D 41

American Methodism's Educational Opportunities and Achieve- ments.

Bishop Francis J. McConnell 44

IV. METHODISM AND THE NATION The American Conquest.

Rev. Ward Fi.att, D.D 48

The Challenge of the City.

Bishop Luther B. Wilson 51

A Saloonless America in 1920.

Dr. Joseph H. Crooker 54

National Problems and Methodists.

Chancellor Franklin Hamilton 56

The Uplift of a Race.

Bishop Wilbue P. Thirkield 59

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS

V. METHODISM'S WORLD PARISH Our New Opportunity in Europe. page

President L. H, Murlin 61

The World Task and Opportunity.

Dr. W. F. Oldham 63

VI. NEW ENGLAND METHODISM'S RESPONSIBILITY

The Support of Conference Claimants in New England.

Rev. J. B. Hingeley, D.D 69

New England Methodism and Community Service.

Professor H. F. Ward 72

New England Methodism and the Spirit op. Wesley.

Dean L. J. Birney 75

THE SURVEY

Genesis and Purpose of the Survey 79

Sources of Information 79

The Growth of Methodism 80

Our Relation to Other Denominational Forces in New Eng- land 85

Ministers' Salaries 95

New England Methodism and Her Sunday Schools 98

New England Methodism and Her Students 104

The World in New England 108

New England Methodism and World Christianization 119

New England Methodism and Community Christianization. ... 123

Church Efficiency and Evangelism 133

ACTUALIZING THE PROGRAM

The Policy 147

Resolutions 147

Making a Community Survey.

Rev. H. J. Burgstahler 147

Methodism's Minimum Goal and How to Reach It,

Bishop Theodore S. Henderson 149

THE CONVENTION AND NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

Editoeial Foeewoed

The New England Convention of Methodist Men was born out of a conviction that the time was ripe for the Methodism of this part of the country to face its task in a broad and compre- hensive manner that would be at once in harmony with the genius of the denomination and with the spirit which characterizes the age in which we live. And it was this twofold purpose that gave to the gathering its distinctiveness and made it unique among religious events.

Basic to the program was a scientific study of the whole field, a survey of the immigrant, industrial, educational, social, and religious conditions that confront the Christian Church in the six New England States. It was upon the finding of these investigations that the discussions were based, and it was with these in mind that the policy of the convention was adopted — for this gathering was also noteworthy in that it had an objec- tive, namely, gearing the local church to a program of work that should result in the maximum of efficiency in helping advance the interests of the kingdom of Christ.

It will be noticed that we start with the New England church as the unit in all our discussions. In this, we believe, lay the secret of the convention as an efi^ective agency in helping to bring about new conditions of work. The New England church must be fully awakened to its responsibility, if it is to meet the obligations that must devolve upon it as an integral part of the great world movements. The Christianization of the planet starts in Jerusalem and proceeds to all Judea and Samaria, and finally takes in the uttermost parts of the earth m its sweep. New England must be a witness within its own

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borders, must know its own resources, if it is to play to the full its part in the great program of American and world-wide evangelization.

There was need of just such a gathering as this. New England Methodism has hardly been fully appreciated in recent years, either at home or abroad. At home a note of discouragement has been sounded, which, taken up in other parts of the country, has resulted in a feeling that New England's day has gone by, and that little is to be expected from it now. Such an attitude is disastrous. And it is doubly unfortunate when it is errone- ously assumed. While it is true that New England has changed in the type of population in the last fifty years, that many of the best of the old stock have moved to other sections, and their places have been taken by those who were born under other skies; while it is true that the rural sections are offering con- stantly increasing problems and the cities are baffling the very best; while it is true that Methodism received a cold welcome among these hills and valleys, and social recognition was given it grudgingly — while all this is true, it is likewise a fact that Methodism in New England has nothing over which to be downhearted. New England Methodism needed to be told this emphatically, and so did the rest of the church. This is prob- ably the best thing that comes out of the convention.

The survey reveals that we have made great gains as the years have come and gone. We have gained in wealth, in numbers, in educational and social prestige, in resources of men and of power. Meanwhile, though the New England States have changed, they have not ceased to be an inviting and important field for Methodism. Notwithstanding the large increase in the number of foreign born in the last half century. New Eng- land has more nominal Protestants to-day than it ever has had. And here is the opportunity and the responsibility that rests upon Methodism, as is distinctly indicated by the survey. The menace to New England is not the foreigner; it is the degenerate Protestant, who has gone to seed religiously, and has forgotten the God and the church of his fathers. He is to be

THE CONVENTION 7

found in every community, from the Canadian line to the New York border. He must be reached.

The convention indicates some very definite work that con- fronts New England Methodism:

It must develop its resources of men and means. Too few of our men are doing distinctively religious work ; too little of our resources is available.

It must relate itself to the community life more intimately. The church, particularly in the small places, must become the center of thought and effort, projecting itself into eveiything that makes for the uplift and enlightenment of the people.

It must meet the city problem in all its intensity. The very best thought must be given to a comprehensive program, involv- ing in some cases radical readjustment, and in all cases a use of all possible resources to meet the demands of these centers of population.

It must face the question of the foreign born. A broad pro- gram such as Protestant Christianity has not at the present time, is needed here, in ministering to the complex population of New England. We are hardly touching this problem, much as we appear to be doing. There is overlapping with other denominations at some points, and neglect at others. In the face of the large foreign population here, as revealed by the survey, it must be admitted that little is being done by our- selves or by any other church. The world is in New England, and must be ministered to intelligently and comprehensively.

It must strike hands even more than it does at present with other denominations, in caring for much of New England. The federation movement must be developed. Eural New England can never be evangelized by a policy of denominational rivalry.

It must awaken more than ever to its responsibility toward the youth, to provide adequately for the religious and educa- tional training of the girls and boys of this section of the country.

It must catch a new vision of national and world-wide obli-

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gation in the realization of a program that includes all races in its scope.

And through it all there must be emphasis upon the spiritual mission of the church. It is a striking revelation that is made by the survey of the small number of men who are really employed in the spiritual work of the church. It is well to have men pay the running expenses of the institution, stand by it in the community, attend its services, and be loyal to it in a general way; but the greatest need just now is to har- ness the unused spiritual power in these men to an adequate program that will make for the conquest of New England for Christ. This was the final objective of the convention. Unless it is realized in some manner, the gathering will have been held in vain.

The present volume is more than a report of the convention. Its object is to give not only the best thought of that gathering, but also the plans whereby, as Methodists, we may carry into effect its program and purpose, and actualize its vision. Thus will come to pass a stronger home church, a church more potent in the community, reaching out for the careless, nominal Prot- estant and the foreigner, more effective in its relation to nation- wide and world-wide evangelization, and fired with the spiritual zeal and fervor of the fathers. Thus, and only thus, will the New England Methodism of to-day be worthy of its noble for- bears who, in sacrifice, toil, and devotion, laid the foundations upon which we build to-day.

This, then, is the message that comes out of the New England Convention of Methodist Men — gratitude for the giants who toiled faithfully in other days, realization of the problems, opportunities, responsibilities, and resources of to-day, and con- fidence that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, intelligent and concentrated efforts will win mighty victories. New Eng- land Methodism, as a result of its convention, faces the problem with its loins well girded and its heart stout for the contest, for it has the courage born of the conviction of resources adequate for its task.

THE KEYNOTE MESSAGE

Bishop John W. Hamilton

The Methodists long ago ceased to be a curiosity. The Meth- odist movement is no longer eccentric in the faith and life of the Christian Church. It was not themselves but the age in which the Wesleys appeared that made them eccentric. The people and the age had gone to sleep in the daytime: John Wesley had gone about to arouse them with his preaching and Charles Wesley to serenade them with his hymns and spiritual songs. They were called eccentric; ridiculed with nicknames, and "no orator can measure in effect with him who can give good nicknames." A good nickname is adhesive and "Meth- odist" stuck to the members of the Oxford Club just as "Chris- tian" stuck to the disciples at Antioch and "Lutheran" to the followers of the German reformer. But "methods are masters of masters," and Methodism and Methodists have mastered their masters.

Eccentricity is often nothing more than the anticipation and measure of reform and progress: it is the content of the future. Wherever it has the genius of ability, integrity, and moral courage it cannot be restrained. It is the spirit and letter of the age which must change. Wlien there are no eccentricities in an age, virtues lapse and men of the first quality disappear; the monotony of the commonplace rules.

England in the eighteenth century was one long monotony of godless revelry, religious apostasy, and carnival of crime. The state had substituted for the Ten Commandments a hun- dred more, and petit larceny was made a capital offense. The Newgate calendar was read like the published lists of the tax collectors. In such a case there was nothing pending except the inevitable repetition of the French Eevolution. The civil authorities had reached their extremity: it was God's oppor- tunity. There is no recovery for the dissolute state as for the dissolute man except by the way of the Christian teacher and

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Christian Church. The powers that be are ordained of God and must be guided and controlled by him.

In due time, therefore, God sent forth his sons John and Charles Wesley first to recover and reinstate the church, and then, and not till then, to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. They having turned many to righteousness made Eng- land over again and set themselves in the heavens as certainly as

One Star alone of all the train Can fix the wandering sinner's eye.

Methodism was not a new doctrine or a new life, but to England then it was both. It was Christianity repeated in earnest. It began like Christianity at its beginning. It was revolution of both church and state, but it announced neither that of the one nor that of the other. Both were left to follow in its path, just as cause leads to effect. Its business was with all men, but always by the way of the one man. And it approached him always confident that he was in need of its coming. There was nothing in its doctrine or life which could be resented except by the gainsaying man and world. There is nothing to be said by any- one against pure and undefiled religion and against a good man. Herein lies Methodism, and the closer we keep to its original spirit and aim, the less dispute there can be with its claim, and the more effective and permanent will be its mission. All its aspiration and endeavor in the beginning was to be not an organ- ization but a movement, a quickening, a renewal and revival — to make bad men good and good men better : to spread scriptural holiness over all the earth. With this only in view there was nothing preposterous, offensive, immodest in the motto of Mr. Wesley: "The world is my parish." It was of necessity his parish. The whole world had need then, as it has need now, of this ministry, and a great truth must possess the entire world, and if it be a great truth it will sooner or later have the entire world for its parish, for no truth can exist long in this world which does not conquer and conquer ever3rwhere.

Who, then, were the Methodists and what was Methodism?

THE KEYNOTE MESSAGE 11

Even a quickening can have definition. Let Mr. Wesley speak for himself and for all of us. We have carried his definition of what he called his "United Society" in our book of Discipline for more than a hundred years, and we have no desire to change it now: "A company of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, . . . and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation."

There was but one condition of membership stipulated, "A desire to flee from the wrath to come, and be saved from their sins."

And to all his preachers he said, "You have nothing to do but to save souls: therefore spend and be spent in this work." This is Methodism at its best, and at its business.

When we are slothful in business we take excursions into the byways and hedges of the second probation, documentary hypoth- esis, double Isaiahs, date of Daniel, and nebular speculations concerning unsolved problems of evolution and impracticable philosophies, or in taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus. We have never found in these excursions what the prophet called "burning fire shut up in the bones," and they have no tendency toward a harmony of fellow- ship or indeed any bringing together of believers. They have rather cast fire into the sanctuary.

Mr. Wesley's platform of fraternity and federation was "If thy heart is as my heart, give me thy hand." When we have followed his example we ha,ve found friends in every Christian communion, and we have lengthened our own cords and strength- ened our own stakes. It is good business besides being the Lord's will and prayer for Methodists to be peculiarly catholic and charitable toward other communions.

The Methodists have always had to keep near the Scriptures, to keep themselves out of trouble, and to make their ministers a flame of fire; for it was the Lord that gave the word; great was the company of those that published it. We have not been BO solicitous for the re-statements as re-vivals.

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The Methodists have had their enemies as well as their friends. Ridicule and persecution, which thought themselves to be and intended to be enemies, however, only proved to be outside friends, while conversion and cohesion have kept them all friends inside.

With the halo of such history about it this Convention is called for business purposes : it is not only to eulogize and emu- late the fathers who have been worthy of all praise and imita- tions ; it is not alone to recall for inspiration past achievements ; it is not simply to take measurements over the chest, around the waist, and across the shoulders to discover responsibility ; neither is it like the General Conference to enact legislation, or the Gen- eral Committees to make appropriations. It is a Conference to devise ways and means for setting all our vast machinery with improved methods in up-to-date motion, that we may keep abreast of world movements, and meet something of the meas- ure of our obligations in the light of our privileges and oppor- tunities. The sun is already far in the sky, and it must go down to the youngest of us very soon. We never went this way before ; we shall never go this way again; it is therefore this most important now which should determine what we are here for, and what we should do for the great world that is to come after us, and so much of whose destiny is in our making.

There is, lying down here in our harbor, one illustration of what it is easy to do. There is a long line of splendid ships, among them some of the largest, costliest, most luxuriously equipped of any in all the world, and there are others like you and me, a very good average, but all chained to the bottom, with no movement whatever except the swinging and turning which are given them by the world's tides. Not one of them has the daring to move outside the three-mile limit. The world needs them, we need them, but we can't even buy them — there they all are wearing out doing nothing, "painted ships upon the painted ocean." How easy it is to imitate them ! We can come up here just as easily; we can pay our money to the hotels and restaurants in the city, go home and tell them how Boston has

THE KEYNOTE MESSAGE 13

changed since we were here last, what a big thing we saw in Tremont Temple and on Boston Common — what a junket we had three days long at our own expense here in the New Eng- land capital. We can go home after it all and forget it all — join the tides round and about us, and sit there until they wear us out. Shall we thus join the everywhere frivolous world — except that part of it in the Eastern Hemisphere, which is fixing the climax of the frowning world?

No, sisters, brothers. I entreat you, I exhort you : shall I not persuade you to find here some unspectacled outlook on this ripened world, some propulsory inspiration compelling you to go into it with aspirations heated with love, and keep you there with imstinted and tireless devotion until your work is done ?

I pray devoutly that we may go home after these holy hours of inspiration and consecration are gone over us to put on our working clothes, take down the scythe and sickle, go into the fields, and go over them until there is not a straw standing or ungathered in our respective possessions. To change the figure, let us go down the harbor, borrow, as we can't buy those empty idle ships, bring them to the open piers, gather all the waiting passengers who are longing to go back to their homes, dare every danger of enemies and storms outside and make the other shore, if we can only get there with riddled ships and mortal bodies scarred all over. If we go down in the attempt there is One who holds the hollow of the seas in his hands, and he has promised that the sea shall give up its dead.

THE CONVENTION MESSAGES

With over two thousand persons in attendance, the New England Convention of Methodist Men opened its sessions Wednesday morning, November 11, at 9 o'clock, with an hour of intercession conducted by Bishop Earl Cranston, the senior bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was followed by the keynote message delivered by Bishop John W. Hamilton, resident bishop of Boston and honorary president of the conven- tion, whose deliverance appears on preceding pages. At the close of this address President L. H. Murlin, of Boston Uni- versity, was introduced as the presiding chairman of the gather- ing.

The plans of the Convention provided for stereopticon pre- sentations of the results of the survey of New England before each section of the program, so that the addresses were specifi- cally related to the field. Throughout the three days a remark- ably high grade of platform work was maintained. The speak- ers had been selected with care, themes having been assigned to men who were known to be in a position to give the results of special investigation. We wish it were possible to give in full the many splendid messages. But the desire to bring this volume within reach of as large a number as possible necessitates some very decided limits as to available space. It has been decided, in view of this, to pursue the following plan :

1. To publish the results of the survey in full. These data are of such importance that we feel that the entire church should have them in its possession in a complete form.

2. To give extended abstracts of those addresses which were especially related to New England. The purpose of the Con- vention was to rally the New England Church to more aggres- sive work.

3. To limit to outline statements the excellent addresses

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THE CONVENTION MESSAGES 15

which discussed general conditions. The speakers themselves and the readers of this volume will understand this necessity, we are very certain.

4. To give plans whereby an intensive survey may be made in every community, and suggestions for actualizing the program, that the convention may have definite results.

The Addeess of Welcome

Ex-Gov. John L. Bates, son of a Methodist parsonage, bade the members of the Convention welcome to Boston. "Welcome to Boston," he said, "the city of the Puritans, where they once hanged the Quakers, nailed up the Baptist churches, and put the Methodists out on the Common; but so wonderfully changed that now there can find a safe asylum here every shade of religious belief that has ever been known in the history of man- kind." After referring to the revolutionary associations of the city, he spoke of Charles Wesley's visit, when in 1736 he preached in King's Chapel and wrote to his brother John that he had found the people very hospitable. The preaching of George Whitefield and the coming of Jesse Lee were mentioned as part of the history of the city. "This is a spot," he said, "for inspiration for Methodist men."

Two related themes were then discussed: "Methodism's Debt to New England," by Dr. Edgar Blake, corresponding secretary of the Board of Sunday Schools, and "New England's Debt to Methodism," by Bishop Edwin H. Hughes. These addresses are to be found on later pages.

Methodism and Other Religious Forces

One of the most striking features of the Convention was the discussion of the relation of Methodism to the other religious forces of New England. Distinguished representatives from som.e of these bodies had been selected to speak for their denominations. Dr. 0. P. Gifford, of Brookline, represented the Baptist Church; Dr. H, A. Bridgman, editor of The Congrega- tionalist, the Congregational Church, and Bishop S. G. Babcock,

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the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. J. Campbell White, of New York, secretary of the Laymen's Missionary Movement, discussed the federation movement under the head, "Present- Day Cooperation among Christian Communions." These mes- sages were marked by brilliancy. Christian brotherliness, and sympathy, and the expression of a desire to cooperate one with another for the advancement of the kingdom.

"The relation of the Methodists to the Baptists and all other denominations," said Dr. Gifford, "is simply that of allies in a common struggle against the triple alliance of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Let us share one another's secrets, bear one another's burdens, rejoice in one another's victories, and believe enough in God to trust one another."

"If," said Dr. Bridgman, "we in New England are to escape the fate of some Western State, where as in a single common- wealth a thousand churches can be found with closed doors simply because they went to seed, we should combine in many cities, towns, and hamlets competing organizations. We ought not to be fifty years in New England overcoming waste and competition in our Christian churches. My practical suggestion is that we study our field together, thus going at the problem not destructively, but constructively."

"This is no time," said Bishop Babcock, "for quibbling. This is no time for making exclusive claims. The whole church of Jesus Christ should have its face set forward and move forward heart to heart and soul to soul to promote and carry forward the great cause of righteousness in this world. The Protestant Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church are in sympathetic relations and in glorious fellowship in missionary work here in New England. If ever you visit Westminster Abbey see that splendid monument to Charles and John Wesley, near that of Dr. Watts, the Congregational poet and preacher. May these in that place truly typify the relations of all religious bodies toward one another in the years to come."

"The task confronting us," said Mr. White, "is so colossal that no one communion is inclined to claim the privilege of under-

THE CONVENTION MESSAGES 17

taking it all by itself. As you go back to your communities remember you are not simply to help the Methodist Church, but you are also, as ministers of the kingdom of Christ, to help all forces of Christ to touch, influence, and organize all resources to help bring in the kingdom of God in New England and the wide world. This is the greatest Convention of men ever held in New England, and you have the possibility of changing the whole type of aggressive Christianity in this part of the nation."

The American Conquest

A threefold consideration of the American conquest took place at the afternoon session of Wednesday. Dr. Ward Piatt, of Philadelphia, one of the corresponding secretaries of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, discussed the question from a nation-wide standpoint.

Dr. Piatt was followed by Bishop Naphtali Luccock, of Helena, Montana, who spoke on "The Frontier,'* and said that "one of the great conquests of Methodism has been the taking possession of the wilderness. It was providentially called into existence in part for this very work. Stephen Douglas once said in the United States Senate: 'The Methodist preacher with his saddlebags carried civilization through the West.' What we are trying to do on the frontier is to finish the work you began here on the Atlantic Coast more than a century ago."

"The City" was the theme assigned to Bishop Luther B. Wilson, of New York, who followed Bishop Luccock. Abstracts of the addresses of Dr. Piatt and Bishop Wilson appear on other pages.

Dr. E. J. Helms, superintendent of Morgan Memorial, Boston, conducted a very impressive demonstration of the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church among the non-English-speaking races in New England. The data concerning this work are given in detail in the survey.

One of the most effective agencies of Methodism in New England is Morgan Memorial. Its manifold activities were pre-

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sented in moving picture films by Rev. W. M. Gilbert, the assist- ant pastor of the institution. These vividly portrayed what is being done in social, industrial, educational, and religious lines, both at the plant in Boston and in South Athol.

President L. H. Murlin, of Boston University, spoke on "Our New Opportunity in Europe," at the Wednesday evening service. He was followed by Prof. Harry F. Ward, who discussed "New England Methodism and Community Service," and Dean L. J, Bimey, of the School of Theology, whose theme was "New England Methodism and the Spirit of Wesley." Dr. J. B. Hingeley, corresponding secretary of the Board of Conference Claimants, discussed, on Thursday morning, "The Relation of the Church to Her Ministry," making a survey of the New England situation. All four of these addresses are abstracted on other pages.

The Youth of Methodism

Dr. Thomas Nicholson, corresponding secretary of the Board of Education, an abstract of whose address also appears on later pages, spoke on "New England Methodism and Her Students." He was followed by Mr. W. E. Doughty, educational secretary of the Laymen's Missionary Movement, who discussed "The Cap- ture and Training of Youth." Mr. Doughty made a plea for missionary education among the young people, for, he said, "nothing less than a study of the world relations of Christianity can give young people an adequate intellectual mastery of life and preparation for service."

The Jesse Lee Demonstration"

A demonstration took place on Boston Common Thursday afternoon, commemorating the preaching of the first sermon in this part of New England one hundred and twenty-four years before. A large number gathered where stood the old elm, beneath which Jesse Lee, in 1790, preached his first sermon in Boston. An address was delivered in behalf of the city by Hon. E. J. Slattery. Hon. Grafton D. Gushing, lieutenant-governor

THE CONVENTION MESSAGES 19

elect, spoke on "Christian Citizenship." An original poem on Jesse Lee was read by Prof. Robert F. Allen. An interesting historical relic was exhibited by Dr. Dillon Bronson, superin- tendent of Boston District — the cup used by Jesse Lee in admin- istering communion for the first time in New England, at East Greenwich, E. I. Bishops Hamilton and McDowell delivered addresses which are published elsewhere.

Methodism and National Problems

National problems were discussed Thursday evening. Dr. J. H. Crooker, of Boston, author of "Shall I Drink?" spoke on "A Saloonless America in 1920"; Bishop W. P. Thirkield, of New Orleans, discussed the Negro question, under the head "The Uplift of a Race"; Bishop F. J. McConnell, of Denver, Colo., spoke on "American Methodism's Educational Opportu- nities and Achievements," and Chancellor Franklin Hamilton, of the American University, on "National Problems and Meth- odists.''

The Wokld Task

The closing morning of the Convention was devoted to a consideration of the world task of Methodism. Dr. W. F. Old- ham, one of the corresponding secretaries of the Board of Foreign Missions, assisted by missionaries, reviewed many of the mission fields. These were stirring addresses that told of the responsibilities before the church in these lands. Then Dr. S. Earl Taylor, another of the corresponding secretaries, took the Convention "Aroimd the World with a Stereopticon" — a veritable revelation of what Christianity is doing the world over, and of what yet needs to be done. Dr. E. R. Fulkerson, of Japan; Dr. Harry F. Rowe, of China; Dr. M. A. Rader, of the Philippines; Bishop J. W. Robinson and Dr. L. E. Linzell, of India; Dr. John W. Butler, of Mexico; and Dr. James M. Taylor, of South America, were the missionaries who spoke under the direction of Dr. Oldham.

During the afternoon the various Annual Conferences of New

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England held sectional meetings to discuss the policy of the Convention. This had been preceded by a conference of the district superintendents and executive committee to make arrangements for a follow-up campaign planned for the last three weeks in January, 1915.

Men and the Church

Dr. W. S. Bovard, secretary of the Methodist Brotherhood, spoke on "A Man's Work," at the closing session Friday eve- ning. He dwelt upon the relation of men to the church. He was followed by Judge C. C. Stanley, of Wichita, Kansas, who vividly told the story of the inception and development of the Wichita movement. Through this movement, which in a word, is simply lay activity for spiritual purposes, no less than twelve thousand had been won to Christ at the time of his address. Bands of consecrated laymen go out, ten or twelve in a band, tell the story of their conversion, and work to win others. Bishop Theodore S. Henderson closed the Convention in an address in which he called upon men to agree to take names given them by their pastors and work for the conversion of men. The plan suggested by the Commission on Evangelism, of which Bishop Henderson is president, appears elsewhere.

The Convention closed with a service of consecration.

I. NEW ENGLAND METHODISM, CREDITOR AND DEBTOR

Methodism's Debt to New England Eev, Edgae Blake, D.D.

New England was the last settled section of America to be entered by the Methodist itinerant. Nearly a quarter of a century elapsed after Philip Embury preached his first sermon in New York before Jesse Lee preached his first sermon on Boston Common, New England was not only the last section to be invaded; it was the least hospitable. The itinerant was opposed, persecuted, and ridiculed; yet with undaunted faith and courage he pushed forward with his message and his methods, and the Methodism of our day is the outcome.

Measured by wealth and numbers New England has been the least prolific section of American Methodism. But suc- cess is not to be Judged by one's possessions. It is not what one secures for himself, but what he contributes to others that determines the measure of his usefulness. Measured by this standard New England Methodism has little to fear in compar- ison with other sections of the church.

It is my task to speak to you of the contribution which New England has made to the church at large. In doing this I shall include in my survey not only the contributions of New England men but of New England institutions as well.

New England Methodism has been especially rich in construc- tive leadership. Joshua Soule, who drafted the first constitu- tion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a son of Maine by birth; Elijah Hedding, the John Marshall of Methodism, who interpreted the constitution and gave form as well as substance to that document, was a son of Massachusetts by adoption.

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Thus the two men who more than any others created the organic law of the Methodist Episcopal Church were sons of New England.

American Methodism very soon saw the value of the printed page. As early as 1789, what is now The Methodist Book Con- cern was established on a borrowed capital of six hundred dollars. In a century and a quarter its assets have increased to nearly six million dollars. It has outridden every storm, outdistanced every competitor, and is to-day the largest reli- gious publishing house in the world. Its history is one of the outstanding glories of Methodist achievement. New England had no small part in laying the foundations of The Methodist Book Concern. John Dickins, who started the book business, was followed by Ezekiel Cooper, a New England presiding elder. When Cooper became the agent of the new concern its assets consisted of only four thousand dollars, including unpaid accounts, with liabilities of more than three thousand dollars against it. After eight years of service Cooper left the Book Concern with an unimpaired credit and with a capital of forty- five thousand dollars. In 1820, Nathan Bangs, a son of Ver- mont, became the head of the enterprise. At that time the Book Concern was without a premise, a press, a bindery, or a newspaper of its own. After eight years Bangs left it in posses- sion of all of these, and with more than four hundred and fifty thousand dollars of assets. While we must accord John Dickins the distinction of having started the Book Concern, the men who laid the foundations that made its remarkable development possible, Ezekiel Cooper and Nathan Bangs, were both of them New Englanders.

The first Methodist religious weekly ever published in the world was published in Boston by New England Methodists. For ninety-one years Zion's Herald has pursued its way, free, fearless, and independent, the most influential journal in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and never was it truer to its tradi- tions, never was its influence more potent and powerful upon the thought and life of the church than under the present editorial

CEEDITOE AND DEBTOR 23

leadership of that ablest of the older journalists, Charles Park- hurst, and that most brilliant and versatile of the younger journalists, Charles Dorion.

But New England's interest in our Methodist periodical literature is not limited to New England enterprises. The Christian Advocate and the Methodist Review were both of them founded by a New Englander, Nathan Bangs. In fact Nathan Bangs is generally conceded to be the founder of the periodical literature of Methodism. The man who for more than a generation has made his name a household word in Meth- odist homes as the editor of The Christian Advocate, James M. Buckley, began his ministry in New Hampshire.

In the field of education New England has also exercised a remarkable influence in its leadership. The first secondary school of the church was established at Newmarket, New Hampshire, in 1818. Later this school was removed to Massa- chusetts, and is now known as Wilbraham Academy. New England is the birthplace of our oldest and greatest college, Wesleyan University. It was Nathan Bangs who, in 1820, secured the passage of a resolution by the General Conference urging that all of our Annual Conferences establish literary institutions within their borders, and from that action, taken on the initiative of a New Englander, the educational system of the Methodist Episcopal Church has grown. Time would fail me to speak of the educational leaders produced by New England institutions. Sufiice it for me to say as a single illus- tration, that Wesleyan University has produced a college presi- dent for every one of its eighty-four years of splendid history. Out of the nine presidents and acting presidents of North- western University, the largest Methodist university in the world, seven of them have been sons of Wesleyan.

Theological education is very largely the gift of New England to the church. It was Nathan Bangs who, in 1816, secured the passage of a resolution by the General Conference requiring the bishops to prepare a course of study for the younger min- isters of the church, and thus inaugurated a movement for a

24 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

trained ministry. In 1847 the first theological school of the Methodist Church was established at Concord, New Hampshire, by John Dempster. After Dempster had done his work at Con- cord he moved to Evanston and there laid the foundations of Garrett Biblical Institute. Among the members of the first faculty of that institution Charles P. Kidder, Henry Bannister, and John Dempster were sons of New England by birth or adoption.

But New England leadership has not been confined to intel- lectual pursuits alone. The first Methodist paper published in the interest of missions was published by Isaac Hill and edited by Martin Enter, at Concord, New Hampshire, in 1817. The first society for the promotion of domestic missions was organ- ized at Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1819. The first society for the promotion of foreign missions was organized at Boston in 1831. The founder of the Missionary Society, the man who wrote its first constitution, who prepared its first appeal to the church, and who for sixteen years served as its secretary without pay, was that brilliant New Englander, Nathan Bangs. The founder of Methodist missions in Africa was Melville B. Cox; in South America, Justin Spaulding; in India and Mexico, William Butler. The first appeal that was ever issued to the church in behalf of China was issued by the Missionary Lyceum of Wes- leyan University in 1835. Thus the men who founded, or inspired the founding of Methodism in every major foreign mission field are sons of New England by birth or adoption. Isaac Owens, who laid the foundations of Methodism on the California coast; Jesse Lee, who established Methodism in the Pacific Northwest; and William Case, the father of Canadian Methodism, were New Englanders every one. It was in the city of Boston forty-five years ago that a handful of resolute and daring women, having a vision of the needs of the world's womanhood, organized the Woman's Foreign Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a society that for eifective organ- ization, economical administration, and efficiency of service is without a parallel in the church.

CEEDITOR AND DEBTOR 25

And now we come to lesser matters. Take the episcopacy: seventy-one men have been elected Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church; eleven of these were New Englanders by birth; four others were New Englanders by adoption, and nine had their training in New England institutions. Twenty-four out of the seventy-one bishops were sons of New England by birth, adoption, or training. And now listen to this interesting fact: three men have declined the episcopacy, one has resigned from it, and one who might have had it refused it, and all five of them, Soule, Fiske, Day, Hamline, and Buckley, were New Englanders. If there is any other section of Methodism that has manifested such self-sacrifice, its sacrifice is not a matter of record.

But what of the present? If you name the five leading edu- cational institutions of the church, outside of New England, Northwestern, Syracuse, Ohio Wesleyan, De Pauw, and Goucher College, all of them are presided over by men who are sons of New England by birth or training. The same may be said of six out of the fifteen official editors of the church; of eight out of the twenty connectional secretaries, and of eight out of the twenty-one effective bishops. New England soil may be sterile, her farms rocky, her hillsides bleak, her output poor, but as yet New England has never failed in her crop of men.

New England's Debt to Methodism

Bishop Edwin H. Hughes

It is never quite pleasant to remind people of their debts. The consolations in this instance are threefold. The speaker is not a collector, but simply a remembrancer. The creditors and debtors are much the same persons and are not likely to be provoked when they themselves present a bill to themselves. The other side of the account, which is supposed to make some fair offset and to prevent utter bankruptcy, has already been

26 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

made out by an expert accountant. It is good and just that we should have a ledger with two pages, one showing Methodism's Debt to New England and the other showing New England's Debt to Methodism. The second page of that ledger is now opened and we proceed to make some entries to justify the claim that Methodism has been a producer, even from the stubborn soil of New England.

If New England owes our denomination any real debts, those debts have been created by the features of our life that are more or less distinctly Methodistic. There was small need to intro- duce here a church that was a replica of another church already established in this section. The numerical reason for our com- ing to New England was far less than the numerical reason for olir remaining. The actually unchurched are far more now than they were then, while those who, though formally churches, are in need of a vital and personal religion are doubtless more numerous than even before Methodism entered New England in the sure conviction that New England needed her message and her life. By the working out of those convictions and serv- ices that are the common property of all Christian people, Methodism has done her part in building these commonwealths.

We may say that Methodism has served New England by put- ting over against provincialism an effective and wide connec- tionalism ; by routing a false idea of God, an idea which seemed more anxious to save his power than to save his love; by pro- claiming that God was not willing that any should perish and that, therefore, Jesus Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man; and by presenting to men the gospel of a con- scious salvation that would give the strange warming of heart and would overcome false reserve and spiritual uncertainty.

The first of these matters puts us on delicate ground. Those early New Englanders may not have especially relished the coming of a missionary from far Virginia, but the itinerant wheel whirled him over the distances and started him on his vast circuit. The system that sent him here has, with but minor changes, been at work over since. It has seemed like a

CREDITOR AND DEBTOR ^7

huge loom stretched across a continent while official hands thrust the shuttles back and forth. For more than a hundred years that peculiar system has related New England to the religious life of the republic. Now any section that has been blessed with a history of singular glory tends to come to something of separateness. If any portion of our nation has had valid reason for a splendid provincialism, that portion is New Eng- land. She has had that bond of the soil that comes from family lines extending down over many proud years. She has kept even a distinct pronunciation, not to say, dialect, so that her people are quickly known by their speech. It would have been easy for New England to develop into a New England, set off by itself in one corner of the New America.

But the Methodist loom for more than a hundred years has thrust New England threads to other sections and foreign threads into her own woof and warp. It began by sending a Virginian; and it still continues to send in everybody from everywhere. We need not recite the names, since they would make a veritable catalogue.

If the itinerant system has operated to scatter New England men with their solid influence all over the land, it has likewise operated to bring hither fresh tides of life from lake and gulf and Western ocean. Other sections will gladly confess their debt to you and will bless the connectionalism that sent them some of your worthiest, while you will be generals enough to grant that this same connectionalism has sent you scores of good and useful men who fitted so finely into your life and work that directly experience marks were well-nigh mistaken for birthmarks !

But the debt of New England to Methodism attaches to some- thing more significant than to her form of government. For that we have claimed no magic except workableness. Even to this day no man can make himself more quickly unpopular than by attempting to prove that John Wesley was ever ordained by a bishop of the Greek Church! Our claim is far higher than that — that he was ordained by God Almighty and that his ere-

28 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

dentials were written by the divine hand. And those credentials have marked across their face a commission to preach a God of impartial and universal love. A New England theologian of another school has said that the Calvinistic theology has passed away, and that no theology has come to take its place. He declares that theologically we are very much in the position that the world would have been in scientifically, if the Ptolemaic astronomy had been banished and the Copernican astronomy had not arrived. One can scarcely refrain from taking advan- tage of the illustration. So let it be said that the Ptolemaic theology has gone and that the Copernican theology has come. The Ptolemaic theology said that night and winter came to the soul because the sun turned away his face. The Copernican theology declares that the Sun of righteousness shines ever and that night and winter come to the soul because man turns his face away from the shining of God. If any man now cares to assert otherwise, we shall deem him an anachronism and shall leave him rather sadly in the company of his questionable God. But such an assertion is now kept chiefly for private debate and is held in the confines of a closet creed. It is doubtful if a minister could hold a pulpit of any denomination in New England if he were to proclaim the ancient theories of election and the reprobation.

But those were the current theories when Methodism began her work in New England. It is not our province or pur- pose to lay the ghosts of the past, but it is only justice that we give credit to the men and the church that defied those ghosts when they were holding their frightful monarchy over New England minds. Doubtless the world still waits for a final theology; yet the historian who writes the record of the making of the final theology will give glorious mention to Asbury and Lee and to their dauntless followers in the old New England who insisted that we must have at least a moral God.

The gospel of free grace and free will led naturally to a vigor- ous doctrine of conversion. The two things belonged together. The Arminian is shut up to the gospel of redeeming God. Grace

CREDITOR AND DEBTOR 09

is not free if it is not free to any petitioning soul at any time. The will is not free if its working is bounded by times and seasons. Hence the note of immediacy came into Methodist preaching. It fairly throbbed when Wesley got into the full swing of his own gospel. The roadsides of England were as good working places for the divine grace as the roadside of Damascus. Our preachers felt the same way about the road- sides of New England. The saving Lord was here.

It was for this gospel and for the manifestations that accom- panied its proclamation that the cultured Wesley was driven from the churches of England; and it was this gospel that pushed Jesse Lee over his long journey on horseback and made the crowd on the Common stare with amazement. That gospel has now worked itself into very polite literature. As we have pointed out often, William James gave it a large place in his Varieties of Religious Experience, giving more heed to the spec- tacular than Methodism herself ever gave. Harold Begbie has put the actual facts of that gospel into the romantic history of real souls. Theoretically that gospel has conquered. The man who will declare that God will not save willing and beseeching men this very moment keeps his practical atheism for private use. New England owes many forms of debt to Methodism. But the biggest and best entry to be made in our statement of account is that our church did actually under God convert her people from their sins. If the experience of conversion, like our doctrine of free will and free grace and a God waiting to pardon, has become the possession of our common Christian- ity, then the debt that New England owes to our church is only enhanced and no religious arithmetic can compute its meaning.

This doctrine of conversion and of the witness of the Spirit made for a warmth of religious experience. If men share the forgiving love of God, men have a common joy. If anything will break down reserve and make for brotherhood, it is this type of religious life. Consequently, Methodism has ever been distinguished for her democracy. In all our history the rich

30 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the conspicuous and the obscure, have met at our altars. Because the poor and the ignorant and the obscure are in the world's majority, they have been in our majority. Some of them we trained until we made them governors and presidents. But, whether they reached eminence or not, we tried to keep our gospel true to a warm democracy. In answer to our appeal we have gathered into our communion some of the bluest blood in New England ! and also some of the reddest blood ! We have insisted that our mis- sion is to all classes in order that all classes may be united in Christ.

God sent us here just after New England had broken loose from the political dogma of the divine right of kings, even as we ourselves had broken loose from the religious dogma of the divine right of priests. The colonists in general did not begin their struggle with the idea of making a separate republic, but God thrust them out. The Methodists in general did not begin their movement with the idea of making a separate church, but God thrust them out. The two movements had much in com- mon. Had early colonists and early Methodists but known it, they were really partners in a drama of democracy, having both a political and a religious side. If those philosophers be correct who claim that only the thrilling democracy of the Wesleyan revival saved England from the bloody Eevolution that laid France in waste and terror, we may claim, at the least, that the warmth of Methodism has done its part in fusing the classes of New England society, and in preserving that unity of the spirit which is the bond of peace.

And now it has been impossible in this brief allotment of time to go into details or to touch many important phases of our contribution to New England life. If our reasons for living and working here have been modified, they have not been ban- ished. New England still needs a connectionalism which will aid her in absorbing large foreign populations. She still needs the gospel of free will and of free grace, as over against extreme theories of heredity and environment. She stiU needs to be

CREDITOE AND DEBTOR 31

told that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins and that he will save men now. She still needs the warmth of Methodist life lest spiritual winter and false religious reserve shall chill her into death. The need of New England Method- ism, if she is to work out her mission still more gloriously, is just simply — mgee Methodism.

II. THE JESSE LEE CELEBRATION

How Methodism Came to New England

Bishop John W. Hamilton

This is no ordinary occasion. Very remarkable memories cluster about this gathering to-day, and none more significant than those which have been recalled through the very interest- ing, cordial welcome that comes from the mayor of the munici- pality. For, little as we like to recall it, it cannot be forgotten that the only welcome which was accorded to the first maker of our history here was that which was given by the city of Boston itself. Not a church door was opened within this city to receive the messenger of the cross who came to preach the gospel. Indeed, his very first entrance within these six New England States was resented. When he was turned from one church into another and then into the open field, and finally was refused liberty to speak under an apple tree by the side of the road, he betook himself to the middle of the highway, and was therefore the first "middle-of-the-roader." Thus Meth- odism came into New England by the right of eminent domain !

The Methodists, like the migratory birds that come and go from the South, during the first fifty years came in here only to stay a little while and then go away. Charles Wesley, the first of the "Holy Club," in 1736 — two churches are yet stand- ing in which he preached; George Whitefield in 1740; and so important was his coming that the governor of this common- wealth sent his own son and a large deputation representing the churches and the State down toward Newport several miles on the way, to receive him and escort him here as a great ambassador. And after a tipne on this same wide open and many another he made his great reputation in New England.

32

THE JESSE LEE CELEBEATION 33

After him came the others : First the English soldiers who were Wesleyan Methodists; then came the missionaries that Mr. Wesley sent over. Mr. Boardman came on from New York, where he and Mr. Pilmoor had landed, and established an organization here which, I am sorry to say, with all its members disappeared, and we have no record of it. After him came William Black from Nova Scotia. Then, Freeborn (and high- born) Garrettson. And finally, the man who was come to stay. He made sure that he should get here, because he rode two horses in coming ! He was a man of powerful frame, of fine presence, and of "serene but shrewd countenance." When he would wear one horse to weariness he would turn to the other, which he led with him; and he came into this city leading one and riding the other ! When he came there were some few scattered Methodists still here, immigrants from the South and descendants from the first society formed in the city. They received him into their homes, but not a church door, as I have said, was opened to him. A young man by the name of Joseph Snelling interested one or two others to bring out from one of the homes in Boston a kitchen table, and that served as the pulpit for the preacher. It is appropriate that we should find another here to-day, but I believe it is a carpenter's bench. Very good, it is all the more appropriate, for that honors and com- memorates the First Preacher. This itinerant was not only a good preacher, but was a great singer, and when he took his place in the midst of the passing people, and began to sing

: Blow ye the trumpet, blow!

The gladly solemn sound Let all the nations know,

To earth's remotest bound, The year of jubilee is cornel

he had not sung through that hymn before the first four persons who stopped to hear him had increased to three thousand people who stood around him. Then he began a sermon on faith. As an illustration "he took occasion to observe that he who professed repentance without faith was like a man row-

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ing in a boat in troubled waters with one oar. *Tliis man/ said he, *must go over on one side and then on the other, but never right ahead/ On which an old sailor, one of the audience, said pretty audibly, 'Why, then, don't he scull ?' "

Now, the history of that occasion is made important certainly not by the humble circumstances, or even by the eloquence of the preacher of that hour, but by what has followed in all the history of this great church since. Boston Methodists were then so humble and so little known that they were not equal to the keeping of a correct record. I had the distinguished honor, when I was pastor of the First Church in this city, to observe the first celebration of that event, in the year 1875. Dr. Warren, who is present to-day, was present on that occasion to offer prayer. I was a young man with a very limited reputa- tion, and I had difficulty to get speakers for the occasion. One of our most prominent ministers declined to come to the meet- ing, because he said I did not know the correctness of the date on which I was calling the brethren together. He referred me to the standard histories of the church. I told him in reply that I knew all about that, but the standard histories of the church were wrong on that point. I said, "There is a file of newspapers that have come down from that day to this hour over here in the Historical Society. If you will go there you will find that in the first issue of one of these papers after the sermon was preached there is a report of the exercises here under this tree." That of course settled the matter, and has settled this date for the writers of all histories since.

This present tree was not then here. There was a tree here that was the patriarch of the Common. At that time, in con- nection with the memorial service, I presented an old engraving that I found in the Public Library, which gave this Common without a single other tree in it ; it was "the old elm" that stood here. At the time of our anniversary it was monarch of all the rest. Its history antedates the history of Boston. When the old tree blew down, I remember distinctly, there was a sprout that came up from the root of the old one, and they endeavored

THE JESSE LEE CELEBEATION 35

to preserve it. The old tree blew down Tuesday evening, Feb- ruary 15, 1876. A little brochure that I had printed on the occasion of the exercises here the year before had in it a history of that old tree. Some one went to the Public Library, took out the little brochure, and published my little history of the tree in almost every daily paper of the United States. Then every- one, mainly Methodists, rushed in here to take a souvenir. But the mayor of the city, always interested in us as well as in the tree, sent the police and gave guard to it. It was cut up into pieces grea+ and small. A large arm chair was made from one of the branches, which is somewhere now — in the City Hall, I think. A duplicate from the same branch was made at the instance of Doctor Mallalieu, and was presented to the bishop of the church for the episcopal residence. It is now in my house.

The Eev. Jesse Lee, who preached here on that historic occa- sion, became one of the eminent men of the church and country. He was then only about thirty years old. He later was chaplain to the Congress of the United States. He came within one vote of being a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. But above and beyond all this, his distinction is as a Methodist circuit rider.

I have only one word more : Let us come here again and again, and keep this spot a sacred shrine for all Methodists who shall eome here to renew their youth.

AU hail the holy men of old;

Their faith our souls inspire, And millions more with truth as bold

To set men's hearts on fire.

The Fathers Bishop William Eraser McDowell

It is a rather serious thing to have ancestors. It is a great deal more serious not to have any. I am thinking how much better ofE we are than Jesse Lee was when he came here. He had

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no Methodist history behind him in New England, and not very much anywhere else. And now we stand here with a magnificent heritage of history; a history that makes us very proud, even though it is a solemn thing to have this kind of ancestry, for we are obliged to live up to the reputation of that old itinerant. It would be a mighty sight worse for us if we did not have that itinerant in our history, for constantly he shames all our ordi- nary practices, and makes us blush because of all our low ideals.

Hark back a moment to those fathers. They were not very many in number. They were not very well known. I presume they were not very rich. They had no vast ecclesiasticism behind them. They simply came to demonstrate what could be done in the world with a maximum of personality and a minimum of material resources. If now, as you hark back, you take account of stock, you can tell pretty accurately in these half dozen words just about all that they had: They had an experience of the grace of God in their hearts. They had a message of the love of God for the world. They had a burning zeal to tell that mes- sage and recite that experience. They carried with them the spirit that makes men immortal. An experience, a message, a zeal, a spirit! The Methodism of those first days had these four things. These four qualities made that Methodism imperial. Whenever the Methodism of any other day loses these qualities or any of them, Methodism becomes a feeble and shameful thing. If we have no experience we are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. If we have no message we cannot touch the heart. And if our zeal is no longer on fire; if, in other words, the Word of God is shut up in our bones without any danger of creating a conflagration, we can go where we will with perfect safety to the community ! And if we have not the spirit of apostle and prophet, then heaven save us and the world !

Now, these were our fathers. If I were going to take a text, I should take it from the language of Thomas Arnold of Eugby. When he was lecturing on modern history he said : *^e are not superior to our fathers. And we are monstrously inferior to them unless we are superior to them."

THE JESSE LEE CELEBEATION 37

There are two uses that may be made of ancestors. You may make anchors out of them, and you may fasten your boat by these anchors and keep it in a place of safety. If you do, you become a rank traditionalist. Or, if you do not want to make an anchor out of your ancestry, you can make an inspiration of it. It may be, to change the figure again, a stake to hold you fast, or it may be a breeze to impel you onward. And our ancestry will not have its best effect upon us unless we yield to the inspiration that comes from it to drive us forward over all lands and all seas.

There is another use that may be made of ancestors; and that is to furnish a kind of perpetual example in the literal and detailed and mechanical and nonessential. Now, there is some- thing right fine and sentimental about our standing on this work- bench. But the great thing is not to stand on a workbench, even though Jesse Lee did stand on a kitchen table, which I suppose was a workbench in those days. The great thing is not for a Methodist preacher to stand much anywhere. The great thing is that he shall get a sufficient elevation so that he can look into the eyes of men and tell them that priceless story. It may be a workbench, it may be a temple, it may be a stump by the wayside, or it may be a pulpit in a stately cathedral, it may be in the open air or in a magnificent church. . . . The essential thing is that we shall stand and speak forth the words of life in God's name. The vital thing is to remember the changed conditions and the unchanged human nature.

I was reading the other day some of Francis Asbury's expe- riences. I was getting just a little bit depressed because so many preachers felt that the Lord called them exclusively into Chicago and exclusively out of the country. And I was in quite a mood about these evil times upon which we have fallen. Now, when you get into that mood it is a very good thing to read a little bit of history. Nothing will so surely cure pessimism as history ! Mr. Asbury wrote in his Journal that he had great diflSculty in inducing the preachers to leave the cities along the coast ! Changed conditions, but perpetual human nature !

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Changed environment but unchanging manhood! "We do not dress quite as Jesse Lee dressed. We did not come to town quite as Jesse Lee came to town, riding two horses alternately. But we find, wherever we go, that perpetual human nature which through the ages remains pretty much the same. And here, on this spot, as illustrating best of all what we can do with our fathers and what use we can make of them, I repeat what the daughter of Hugh Price Hughes said of her wonderful father: "He recovered for his church its ancient passion for the souls of men ; he set that passion in the stream of modern life." There are those who have the ancient passion for the souls of men, who have no sympathy or patience with the stream of modern life. There are those who are profoundly sympathetic with all modern movements, who have lost the church's ancient passion for the souls of men. Shades of Jesse Lee, shades of George Whitefield, shades of all those who gave our church its start, we stand here to-day recalling these holy memories, praying that the ancient passion for the souls of men may fall upon us and may be set once more in the stream of modern life !

For we are obliged to enlarge our definitions if we are to keep them. So said one of the wisest educators of New England. When those pioneers came in talking about redemption and salvation, they meant the salvation of the individual man. And we must mean that. But you cannot fulfill your mission to-day if you are talking on the basis of strict individualism. The notion of redemption must not be less individual. But the sons of God must live together according to Christ. And not only the individual son of God ; but the sons of God must live together as nations according to Christ, in order to fulfill the true theory of redemption. I suppose anybody who would now argue the doctrine of individual salvation as containing the whole truth would be promptly regarded as a back number, as arguing a dead issue. For to-day we are confronted with the test whether the Eedeemer of the souls of men is able to redeem the relations of men. And as sons of our fathers, we have not only to preach that message of redemption which they preached with such

THE JESSE LEE CELEBRATION 39

pungency and power; we have to preach the message of redemp- tion that will sanctify the life of the individual and the life of the nations so that the kingdom of God may come. Wendell Phillips once said : "I love inexpressibly these streets of Boston, over which my mother led my baby feet. God helping me, I will make these streets too clean and pure for the footsteps of a slave." It is for us to say, '*We love inexpressibly these streets of Boston, and all streets, God helping us, we will make them too pure for the footsteps of a drunkard or of the maker of a drunkard, or of a harlot or of the maker of the harlot, or of any of those who hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain."

John Wesley was of the opinion that our impulse would last just about one hundred and fifty years, and that then we should need a new quickening of our motives in order to save us from becoming an ecclesiasticism. That new motive to-day is not found in the abandonment of the doctrine of individual redemption, but is found in the acceptance of this larger redemp- tion. My brethren, it would be easy to talk simple platitudes — and fruitless. There is a good deal of talk about modem doubt. And some of the talk about modern doubt seems to me to be altogether astray and to have gone wide of the mark. It seems to me that the most dangerous and the most deadly skepticism that is afloat this afternoon is this skepticism that consciously or unconsciously questions the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ to be not only the Saviour of those who are easy to save but the Saviour of the whole wide world. It is easy for us to-day to see trouble. It is not quite so easy for us to see God. Jesse Lee made men see God. Our fathers were not always quite sure that God was kind; they were always sure that God was om- nipotent. We have recovered the truth that God is kind; and have in part lost the truth that God is omnipotent.

But war does not blow God off his throne! Jesus Christ tasted death for every man, for the New Englander, and for every foreigner that has come to New England, Greek and bar- barian, Scythian, bondman, freeman. Jesus Christ has tasted death for every nation ; for New England, and old England, and

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France, and Belgium, and Germany, and Eussia, and the nations of the earth. And here under Jesse Lee's tree, or under the descendant of it, we, the descendants of Jesse Lee speaking Methodistically, lift again the doctrine of a perfectly sufficient gospel. We recover that ancient passion and set it in the stream of modern life. One day in the far-off time a young prophet saw an old prophet slip out of his sight and cried out, "Let a double portion of thy spirit fall upon me." And when the old prophet was gone, the young prophet took the old prophet's mantle. I asked Dr. Warren a moment ago if that mantle was a sheep skin, and he rather thought it was. And with this old- time sheepskin that young prophet smote the waters that they parted before the sons of God. Spirit of our fathers, fall upon us, so that with any kind of sheepskin we can smite the rivers in front of us and go forward to cover all lands with the glory, the power, and the beauty of the gospel of our adorable Eedeemer.

III. METHODISM AND HER EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

The State and the Church in American Education

Eev. Thomas Nicholson^ LL.D.

We are working out in the United States what the speaker believes is destined to be the greatest system of public educa- tion the world has yet seen. That system is far from perfected. It still has many, and some grave defects. But it is rapidly com- ing to high efficiency, and it will be perfected by the genius of a great free, intelligent, and patriotic people.

What seems to the speaker to be the gravest defect is the fail- ure up to this time to find a way for the proper conservation of the indispensable religious element in education. Our nation is, most properly, committed to the absolute separation of church and state. I hope we shall never recede from that position. There must be freedom of conscience in worship and no com- pulsion in religion. That is the divine plan, and in this parti- cular the American plan is parallel with the divine plan. But we have not solved the problem of how, on the basis of freedom and intelligent appreciation of intrinsic worth, we may secure the proper recognition of religion in our great system of educa- tion.

Education, wherever one gets it, is the chief formative force in a man's development. To omit religion from the training of our youth is to insert the germ which will result in the lingering death of the church and which will, I believe, lead to national deterioration.

How are we to secure it? In the brief time allotted, I can merely hint at the outline of a survey. First, we have the public schools. And it seems to me that the preservation of the basal

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43 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

independence of the public school system in America is of prime importance. The freedom of thought; the sense of personal responsibility inherent in true citizenship ; the perfecting of the child's attitude toward society, toward government, and toward religion; the peculiar character of American ideals, the great breadth of American liberty, and many other such things are presented to the child in our public school system in a way which is superb.

But what are we to do for the religious training of the child in the public schools? It seems to me if we use the avenues of approach properly we are pretty well provided for. First, there is the home, and there should never be any diminution of the emphasis upon the responsibility of the home for the religious training of the child before the age of ten years. What we need this hour more than we need almost anything else in this coimtry is a genuine revival of parental interest in the imper- ative importance of the religious welfare of the child.

Then there is the Sunday School. The efforts in our day to perfect that organization and introduce the graded system of lessons, to provide competent and trained teachers, and to give the children an adequate comprehension of the Bible in modern fashion is one of the commanding movements of our day and should be carried to completion.

Then there is quite general approval in this country of employing in the public school only teachers of proved Chris- tian character. The communities are almost none in which a man of loose habits or avowed non-Christian character would be tolerated at the head of the public schools. Again, there are ever-growing efforts to supplement all this by some positive moral and religious teaching in the schools. Experiments of great significance have been made, notably in several of the Central Western States. If we use all these, we are pretty well provided for in the public school age.

Pass to secondary education and we begin to face the larger problem. The child is away from home. With the growing complexity of our national life, the lessening influence of the

HER EDUCATIONAL PEOGRAM 43

home on the young people in the "teens," the ever-increasing absence of the father from the home, to say nothing of the ruin- ous breaking up of hundreds of homes, I am convinced that the church should maintain a reasonable number of these secondary schools and adequately equip them. The main reason such schools have not succeeded in recent years as well as formerly is that we have been constantly apologizing for their existence.

But the serious problem comes in the college age. Then the student is away from home. He is in the period of natural stress and storm. In the midst of the college career young people are intelligently facing and trying to decide not only life habits but the problems of life work and life ideals. They are making the transition from children obedient to their parents to self-directing men and women. Who their advisers are is of transcending importance.

Whatever may be said of the religious problems of the elemen- tary school age, and in larger measure of the high school age, we hazard nothing in saying that the problems of the college career are of the most crucial character and importance.

Look at the facts elicited by the committee investigating the religious condition of students in New England and see the magnitude of this problem. Will the church sit idly by and tolerate this growing indifference of students to vital religion? Will Methodism be satisfied with the merely formal attention that is being given to the most tremendous problems of life and of destiny in many of the larger universities?

I call your attention to a recognition of the need of critical constructive and cooperative work on the part of the church in fostering the religious life of students in all institutions of higher learning everywhere. Just how we shall approach the problem of the care of Methodist young people in non-Methodist institutions is one of the commanding questions of the hour and cannot here be discussed. That we should attend to it is per- fectly clear. But when we have done our best, let no one imagine for a moment that we have lessened in any degree the demand, the vital urgency for attention to the adequate equip-

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ment of our own denominational colleges. We have come upon a new day for the denominational college. Its vital necessity to the future as to the past is becoming every day more apparent. We need such emphasis as only the Christian college can give on questions of attitude toward religion, of atmosphere and en- vironment positively Christian.

Then the church college stands to-day as it has always stood, not for an educational method based chiefly on the German ideal in which the professor is more a scholar and an investi- gator than a teacher, but upon the ideal that the teacher is the school.

The religious motive, the religious impulse is the great motive and impulse to higher education. The very perpetuity of your State institutions, the highest success of your semisecular insti- tutions, depends upon the perpetuation of religion and the insti- tutions under religious auspices. They act and react. The more prosperous are our church schools, the more definitely religious men will public sentiment demand in the chairs of State insti- tutions. The more prosperous church schools, the more Chris- tian teachers we shall have in our public schools, for a very large percentage of the graduates of our church schools constantly become Christian teachers in our public schools. The more prosperous the church schools and the influences they perpetuate in the republic, the more prosperous the State institutions. The better we understand each other the better we shall see that we are two supplementary engines of power without which the Ship of State cannot go forward as it should.

American Methodism's Educational Opportunities and Achievements

Bishop Francis J. McConnell

Perhaps the greatest educational achievement of Methodism in the broad sense of the word is the work that it has done toward making piety intelligent. The Methodist Church began

HER EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 45

with a revival that had a great deal of enthusiasm. It swept men's hearts and burned down into the depths. One of the marks of wisdom in John Wesley was that from the beginning he tried to hold the enthusiasm to the right channels, and preached from the start that it would not do to have a spirit heated with zeal and a head lacking in knowledge.

One great need before our church to-day is to continue that work of John Wesley. We must lay to our hearts this matter of searching for a trained ministry — not a ministry lacking in piety, but one that knows how to make piety work intelligently.

It is one function of the Methodist Church to make piety intelligent, and you can't do that with an unintelligent min- istry. But there is another perhaps more important thing. It is a function of any church to try to make intelligence pious. That is the other side. And I have not any time to discuss detailed schemes. But there are certain broad movements in the educa- tional world that need to be kept upon a religious basis. Take this world of law that they talk about; we need to be taught that these natural forces are divine. John Wesley never got himself thought through on that point. He was so busy that he did not take time for it. So he left a gap between the super- natural and the natural. That has been pretty much broken down; but there is need to do more in that line. The man in our church who had more than any other to do with that was Borden P. Bowne. Entire sanctification in these days consists not so much in the possession of a magic experience as in the willingness to sanctify everything we can get our hands on, to use the laws of nature and of society and of psychology and everything else to promote the kingdom of God.

In the next place, we can do something in these days to make science human. That is a very important matter. Some men think that their scientific instruction is a luxury in itself. When we get into the skies perhaps it will be so; but here we have to use science for a Christian purpose. All Christian people demand of all schools that they make their buildings and their discussions to serve the cause of humanity.

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Also we need as a church in all our talk about educational matters to make the social movement spiritual. The most important thing coming on in this world to-day in society is the movement toward social truth. And there is no reason why this movement should not be Christianized and filled with the spirit of God throughout.

Then there is another phase that you and I may be more responsible for than we think. We are not preaching, as we ought to, the futility of force. Things do not stay settled when they are settled by force. When the strong arm that held the lid down is removed an explosion takes place. We must insist that there shall be rational means found for settling a matter. You may say, "Why don't you practice in the Colorado trouble what you are saying now?" I do. I have talked with the miners and told them to quit their violence; and I have told the coal operators to quit it on their side too. Let us try if we can find some Christian solution of their problems. If the church does not do something to conduct and train and control this movement there is going to be trouble.

We need to keep the democratic note sounding in our country. Matthew Arnold made a statement once concerning Abraham Lincoln, and one concerning the Methodists. He said that the public sentiment of the United States was not very high. And he declared that that is partly because there are so many Meth- odists in the United States. He said that you cannot have public sentiment very high when there are so many people fol- lowers of a man like Wesley, who had but a third or fourth-rate mind ! And he said concerning Lincoln that he lacked distinc- tion. The fact that Lincoln lacked distinction was his strength ; and our commonness is our strength also. There is a certain democratic something about us that makes us very strong. Thank the Lord we have only a few millionaires ! We represent the great mass of the common people; and in our hands, in the preaching to this mass, lies the possible solution, provided we keep our intelligence and piety together and work the thing out on that basis.

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If you take a little sanctified common sense, and put intelli- gence and piety together, you have a way of stripping an inferior mind of a lot of illusions. The aim of all education and of all church institutions is to give men a vision of truth. I believe in Methodist institutions and in the Methodist spirit of educa- tion for every man you can reach, for the sake of getting intelli- gence and piety together, to give men in a large and a real sense the vision of God.

IV. METHODISM AND THE NATION

The American Conquest

Rev. Ward Platt^ D.D,

The American Conquest will be a conquest by righteousness. A mailed fist, a blood and iron conquest, will hold only so long as bolts and bars and brute force hold. The nation is best fortified against invasion which has the good will of its neigh- bors. Navies and armies are symptoms of suspicion. National stability is conditioned on right ideas dominating an intelligent commonwealth. We have reached a goal in world history when any form or fraction of government antagonistic to the com- mon welfare faces its day of judgment. The task set to the United States of America is the transforming of all manner of ideals and peoples under heaven into a democracy of the Prince of Peace.

Is it not time that new legislation gave to the Home Board power of initiative and more direction in Home Missionary advance? Should not the Home Board nominate workers for strategic city and rural situations? Will not this encourage abler men to enter these fields which now lack suflSciently responsible and continuous oversight? Methodism is without a comprehensive plan for its city, rural, or frontier fields other than such adjustments as the general plan of itinerancy permits. This means we are without provision for enlisting Home Mis- sionary recruits as such. The Home Board cannot direct the efforts of Home Missionaries. No specific provision is made for the support of a Home Missionary, either in the form of traveling expenses to his field in the United States proper, for return if he is sick, for a furlough, or for any contingency which may arise in a mission field as distinguished from a reg-

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ular pastorate. Yet he is expected to exist on a slender stipend in surroundings calling for heroic fortitude. Should a man desire preparation as a City Missionary specialist there is no standard of preparation, no adequate school where he may pre- pare, and no assurance that he may find a field of work when prepared.

A sister denominational Home Board has established fellow- ships which rank with the best in the schools of that church. This means at least a year abroad in the habitat of the people among whom he is to labor. It means on his return a specific field open to him and a consecutive life investment in which he is directly backed by the resources of a great Board. Star men have enlisted and are already in leadership in important centers.

After all, will not the ultimate program of city redemption be interdenominational? I do not mean union — but first a statesmanlike program accepted by all, and then the general place or part which is to be undertaken by each denomination, all unitedly working to a common end. The growing coopera- tive spirit of Protestantism promises well for such a future.

What has been said of the city applies generally to the rural church. The country church years ago reflected the spirit and progress of its day. Now too often it is out of touch with its times. A new generation, a new clientage, the beginnings of a changed rural life all call for readjustment in the rural church. Where it should lead it is mostly not in the race. The natural material background of the country church is the Agricultural College. That, more than any other institution, embodies the outward elements native to a countryside community.

To insure the best men for such service, the Home Board should be able to give a backing of necessary support until a progressive, rural parish may develop resources for self-support. The possibilities for the rural church are so ample as to challenge the best in any preacher. His program may include work among various nationalities as extensive, with a corps of workers as capable as that of the city church. In any case there is no rea- son why a rural pastor of equal ability should not receive a

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support which will give him the same freedom and net income as if he were in a city pulpit.

The New England unit presents needs and opportunities char- acteristically distinct from every other part of the country. As a result of conferences and investigations there, we believe the hour is ripe for a decisive forward movement throughout the New England unit. This means money. The various units covering the United States are each so burdened with present, pressing Home Missionary situations, that to increase the mis- sionary appropriation of one unit at the expense of the others is impossible. The plan for that increase is by units, for example — as the money for a New England advance can come from nowhere but New England itself. The office, after con- sultation with District Superintendents there, is prepared to advise the General Committee to conserve as much of such an increase as may be necessary for New England itself. The office at Philadelphia will be found associated with New England leaders concerning constructive plans and operations for help- ing our Methodism more than ever to fulfill her important mis- sion there.

This involves rural churches no less than towns and cities. Since the last General Conference we have given increased atten- tion to the rural situation generally. "We have been urged to undertake rural Church Extension work. Our work must deal with fundamentals and stand the test of time, otherwise a great church would be dishonored and people would lose their faith in our Home Conquest. Meanwhile, we are in constant coopera- tive touch through pastoral support and aid in church building with probably twice the rural churches of any other denomina- tion. Our plan is, first, not to fail in essentials and in addition to promote improvements which have proved really such. A Board which helps to build at least one rural church per day and provides part of the support for at least three thousand rural pastors throughout the three hundred and sixty-five days, is certainly somewhat in touch with that situation.

But again, the rural church of one region is not that of

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another. In the constructive rural church program for New England we have a very different proposition than elsewhere. No cut and dried academic method will answer. We must meet the need as it appears. If New England is ready for this advance, you will find your Home Board on the field alert and responsive.

The Challenge of the City

Bishop Luther B. Wilson

The city represents the best, just as it represents the worst. There is no humanitarian ideal that is not represented in the city. There is no conception of human sanctity that is not represented there. There is no burning idealism that looks toward the realization of God's own purpose as the dream bound to come true at last, that is not discoverable in the city. But with the best there is the worst also, as you and I well know. And in that city where the best is and where the worst also is, there are so many barriers between the best and the worst, and there are so many manacles that fetter the best as it seeks to uplift the worst, that we stand appalled at the mere mention of such a theme as this. I will not burden you with statistics. I want that we shall be thinking of the city that you and I know, the city that is familiar to us, the city perhaps where we live and where we are transacting the common business of life. And I ask you, men of New England, men of America to-day, what about that city that you know?

I want to ask you as to the childhood of that city. It is one of the sad facts of these modern times that in the home condi- tions are greatly changed. I suppose that there was a time when the altar of prayer was in many of the homes that you knew, per- haps in a large proportion of those homes. But I doubt if it is so to-day. I also doubt if the child life of the city that you know best is under the religious education of the churches. I know perfectly well that in many of the cities represented here this afternoon there is no such vital training in morals and reli- gion in the school as must be demanded if our citizenship shall

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be a moral citizenship. What is your community doing for the child life? You are there, you are influencing public thought. What is the community doing? What is the church doing? What is the school doing ?

New England that stamped its impress upon the civilization of this land had a book written in its heart. It was a New England sturdy and Puritanic, that had not only its outlook upon the visible but its outlook upon the invisible ; that rejoiced in freedom of conscience and thought, but rejoiced also in those bonds of devotion that fettered the individual life to the eternal throne of God. New England never could have played its part, in the old days, and New England never could have thrilled this land as it did in the days of the '60s, if conscience and faith had not had their appropriate place in the thought life, in the heart life, and in the visible demonstration of heart and mind, as those elements so magnificently did find expression. You cannot have youth cultured in conscience and faith, simply as a happening. You are not going to see childhood and youth brought into that relation to God and to one another, and into the sense of splendid responsibility to the age in which they live, by any mere happening. If the childhood and youth of New England shall really be trained, it will be trained and it can be trained only because you men recognize your responsibility in respect of that great task.

You looked at those charts this afternoon which indicate how large a proportion of the citizenship of New England is foreign born or the offspring of foreign-born parents. What are you doing with the foreigner that is within your gates? We speak of our cities as the melting pot in which these heterogeneous elements are to be blended, and out of which shall come that unity in citizenship, that learning, that uplift in faith and con- science, that shall be the glory of the America yet to come. And yet we are not in all seriousness addressing ourselves really to this great task of converting the material that has come into that which has the character really needed for American citizen- ship.

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You must grasp the city if you are to safeguard the morality of our land. You must grasp Boston city, you must grasp these cities of New England; or morality, as it has its dwelling place and as it breathes the purer, freer atmosphere in the hamlet and the rural sections, shall find its purpose utterly frustrated by the morals of the city. It is a tremendous task that is before us, this addressing ourselves to the task of changing the social life, the intellectual life, the moral life, the religious life of the city.

Now, it can never be done without a distinct sacrifice upon the part of the ministers of Jesus Christ, I think that the time has come when there must be a dedication of ministerial effort as distinctly to that evangelizing problem of the city as there is a distinct dedication of self to the great missionary problems across the sea. That is to say, men of splendid intellectual power, men of the greatest personal vigor and force, must be satisfied to live in the conditions that are not lovely and are not in themselves inspirational, and suffer the hardships and sacri- fices of those places in the great cities, if these great cities shall be captured and held for Jesus Christ.

But the laity also must make its sacrifice. No man who has made his fortune in the city of Boston and has gone out to live in the suburbs of Boston or somewhere else in New England has the right to vacate his place, leaving all the moral responsi- bilities upon those whom he leaves there, leaving the great burden of moral liability upon them, and simply withdrawing as a representative of morality and spirituality. I say, the time has come, men of New England, when no one of you has the right to do it ! You have not the right to do it ! You are walk- ing off from your task. You are turning your back upon the place that perhaps gave you spiritual birth; you are leaving it weaker than when you entered it. And sometimes it has hap- pened, and it happens too frequently in these days, that men do so turn their backs upon high privilege and responsibility, and leave the task for those whose backs are already bowed under the burden, and who are utterly unable to grapple with the problems that their day and civilization present to them. You

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cannot do it ! You must not do it ! I have been hearing about mission fields. And there is the glamour of the mission field before me this afternoon. And the unloveliness of the heathen world seems somehow to be disguised in the loveliness of Him who is its Lord and our Lord. But I say to you, men of New England, to-day, that there is no mission field under the sun greater in its obligation upon us than the mission field furnished by the great cities of your own land. And I want to say to you when you purpose and toil and sacrifice, I would beg you, lift up your eyes and look upon the lands afar; but I would plead with you that when you have looked upon those lands afar you might also have not only keen vision, but the vision, through eyes wet with the tears of emotion and purpose, of this land; and, in particular, of these great cities of your homeland.

A Saloonless America in 1920

De. Joseph H. Crookek

The most vital question before our nation is this: "What are the Christian men of America going to do about the saloon? What are the men of Methodism going to do about it? Shall we admit that a Christian Church, equipped with the Cross of Christ, is less effective than a saloon stocked with beer and whisky? Shall we admit that a divinity school, training men to proclaim the gospel of Jesus, is powerless, while a brewery that merely appeals to appetite is omnipotent ? Shall we admit that the men who stand in pulpits are no match in influence upon American life for those who stand behind saloon bars? Shall we admit that the half million Christian men at work in Sunday schools have less authority over the youth of America than those who are engaged in the liquor business? Shall we admit that the ten million Christian voters in our nation are so weak that they cannot put an end to the greatest enemy of American civilization ?

No ! We cannot for a moment make any such admissions.

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This would mean practical atheism: confession that evil is stronger than good ; that appetite is mightier than God's grace ; that Christianity fails when brought face to face with a great human problem. We cannot accept any such proposition. The existence of the saloon is, indeed, an impeachment of the Chris- tian Church: proof that there are too many merely nominal Christians in the world. The growth of the liquor trade does show that too many Christian men have too long been indifferent to this evil ; that many church members have not been sufficiently loyal to Christ. They have not taken Jesus with them into the polling booth.

But the day is at hand when all good people must realize that in this war upon drink there can be no neutrals among the friends of God. Neutrality toward the saloon is sin against the Holy Spirit and ruin to our brother man.

No saloons in our fair land in 1920? That would mark a glorious advance of mankind; the beginning of a new era in the destiny of America, We could then dismiss half our police- men, shut up half our jails, stop building prisons and asylums for some years. Taxes would be lower, travel safer; diseases would lessen and the average length of life would increase. Every schoolroom would have more pupils; every factory more efficient workmen ; every church larger congregations.

No saloons in 1920? Every charity worker would then have fewer burdens. Every doctor would cure many more of his patients and in shorter time. Every employer of labor would have less vexation and greater prosperity. Political methods would everywhere improve. The ballot would have a new sanc- tity and a greater effectiveness. Legislative bodies would be freed from many corrupting influences. And the pictorial pro- fanities on the billboards, now ablaze with false and vicious liquor advertisements, would vanish.

No saloons in 1920? Then this awful waste of human life will stop and the area of wholesome leisure for the cultivation of the things of the Spirit will rapidly expand. Then tears in a million eyes and sorrows in a million hearts will cease, and a

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great tidal wave of smiles will spread over our land like a day- spring from on high. Then the mothers in a million homes will rejoice, because the chief enemy of their boys will no longer exist to tempt them to evil ways.

Is not all this worth while ? Is there anjdhing better that the sons of God can do? Has the Christian Church any other task so important and so imperative? Has the American citizen any greater obligation? Where else does Christ command with a clearer voice? Where a greater need for "Applied Chris- tianity" than here? Churchmen of America, to you the call to battle comes. By your loyalty to Christ, especially as you stand at the ballot box, the victory shall be won !

National Problems and Methodists

Chancelloe Franklin Hamilton

Why the difference between Europe with demoniac daughter, War, and America where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars ? Across the sea they have builded on the super- man's conquest through unmoral brute force. We believe that the meek shall inherit the earth; that human relations shall be determined by mercy, love, good will. "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Christians ought to strive, not for a place in the sun despite any "mere scrap of paper," but to do justly though empires vanish. "Mailed fists" smack of gorillas. The gospel of crushing by a "divine-right" king befits devotees of some tribal god who smiles on all carnage. And so, what the Holy Spirit dreams for this land — fair reaches of justice, high banners and streaming glories of idealism, prophetic revelations of truth, ministrations to humanity, mys- teries of divine onsweeping — all that Love can compass — ^now, in radiant pageantry, is transpiring.

Europe's embattled toilers paying their dread toll of the brave are a martyrs' beadroU for the prayer :

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I know a land that is sunk in shame,

Of hearts that faint and tire, But I know a Name, a Name, a Name

That will set that land on fire.

Thus believing we are resistless. We are true revolutionists. We are against everything, everybody who is against our Christ. This world shall not pass under control of the sword. We are Fifth Monarchy men. Over against all principalities, poten- tates, and powers we will enthrone, in the world's last empire. King Jesus.

Early Methodist preachers in the land were original path- finders of empire for this better country. Over their trails blazed wide and fair, this nation "tamed the savage continent, peopled the solitude, gathered wealth untold, waxed potent, imposing, redoubtable, until now she stands at the gate of a majestic future, summoned by divine voices to a destiny grander and brighter than we can conceive." With a practice of govern- ment that lays hold on the deepest things in the soul of man, America has a humanitarian patriotism born of the Spirit, and an outlook that, as Lloyd-George says, "gives us to see the great, everlasting things that matter for a nation, the towering peaks of honor, duty, patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to heaven."

But ours now is the greater promise. Our parish, indeed, is the world. For this country, called to be savior of nations, centers a new civilization. The world is being Americanized and Wesleyanized. Compass, then, a sense of internationalism, a world vision. Think and plan in terms of continents and worlds. Attain true world-feeling, consciousness of common kin- ship and of the new world life devoted to universal achievement and creative contribution to the common welfare. For this our Lord prayed. For this the world waits. This can make earth the home of a real brotherhood. The world will find healing at the touch of American character.

Who is the King? What are his precepts? Alliances, other

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than of the whole human family as such, are a crime against humanity. Woe to the enterprise, woe to the man who trans- gresses the Christ-dream for mankind, "that they all may be one, as thou. Father, art in me and I am in thee." Withered will be the hand that stays that dream !

But once get this new vision of the race as one, and brawls within the human family will be outlawed in all their hideous- ness. Once get this Christ-consciousness of humanity ordered and organized as one, and swords which are quivering for a vision of death will be curved back into cycles for harvests that shall bring the statelier Eden back to man. On old John Barleycorn we will concentrate hate, strategy, guns. On some first Tuesday, after some first Monday, in some month of November, we will come back from a national election bring- ing with us the shrapnel-riddled, lyddite-choked, bayoneted corpse of the Liquor Traffic and lay it down at the feet of our Lord.

We have not lost the conquering tread. We are companioned by the Eternal. In mystic, millennial light, as John saw him, he forever is Conqueror. These signs, red and lowering, foul weather, are his Aurora, Morning Glow. By this sign he is calling us to be his angels, messengers of the morning. He bids us build his throne, inaugurate the reign of the Prince of Peace, until these briers and thorns which have been tearing and rending humanity shall be changed to "everlasting gardens where seraphs walk and angels are the wardens."

He calls us to live the life and spread the fire which he flung on earth until this old battle-scarred, tear-wet, blood-drenched, ghost-haunted world shall be lifted into a "land of sunshine and of song, musical with the sound of many waters, flowing with gladsome rivulets to cheer and refresh the children of men," shall be lifted to the starry paths of the King, lifted to him, Strong Son of God, Immortal Love which moves the sun and the other stars.

The glory of the present is to make the future free. We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

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Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me! I want a ship that's westward bound to plow the rolhng sea. To the Blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars, Where the air is full of sunhght and the flag is full of stars.

The Uplift of a Race

Bishop Wilbuk P. Thirkield

The sooner we realize that the Negro is here to stay, and quit talking about the Negro as a problem, and treat him as a man and a brother, the better it will be for the kingdom of God and for our republic. We treat him as a black man, and charge up to him all his delinquencies as a black man. Others sin, and we charge their weaknesses up merely to the delinquencies of humanity. Let us realize that we are face to face not with a black problem, but with simply the human problem, the problem of ten million people, the majority of whom are in weak- ness and poverty and ignorance because of conditions over which largely they have had no control.

The Negro has the genuine elements of American citizenship. First, in his fidelity to trust. Then, he is American in his training. Slavery was a strange school of training. We think of the Negro making the most remarkable progress of any race in the history of the world, surpassing the Russian serf both in intellectual achievement and in the gaining of property. But let us remember that the Negro has had an education taking him back two hundred and fifty years in the strange, hard school of slavery; and there, instead of being crushed, he learned and lived. He got, in the first place, ideas of law and order. He got the power of sustained work, in this strange school. Under freedom the Negro has helped to bring up the cotton crop to 15,000,000 bales a year. The Negro race has accumulated 20,000,000 acres of land, as large as the whole State of South Carolina.

And in this school of slavery he got the Christian religion. After living with the Negro, after being with him in his class-

60 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

room and schoolroom and revivals, and all that, can I doubt the reality of the religion of the Negro while religion is a reality to me ? He shows it by his sacrifice, building out of his poverty 38,000 churches at a cost of more than $50,000,000.

Here is the Negro; here his character and achievement. Yet what is your attitude toward him? It is too often indicated, and that of your children, by the terms of reproach that I hear upon your streets. When I hear those words, in this land made up of all races, which must be either a composite nation or a segregation of races, those terms "Sheeny," "Dago," "Nigger," my heart sinks within me, men thus damning whole races merely because of disrespect for the delinquencies of a few. God help us, in this land made up of all races, to treat them as brothers and as neighbors in Jesus Christ. 0 men and women, let us get the old-time spirit of humanity that lived here in the days of the Abolitionists ! Why this discrimination and this spirit here ? We have failed, in the first place, to realize the bigness of the problem. In the second place, we expect too much of a destitute race. Kipling sings glibly about clapping a slave on his back, and lo ! he becomes a man. That may be good poetry, but it is poor sociology. Carlyle rightly says that you cannot form a race by merely giving them the name of free men. Character is not a thing to be conferred on any race, but to be achieved and wrought out by the very genius of a man. We have expected too much of the education of the Negro. We have failed to distinguish between the education of an individual and the equipment of a race.

V. METHODISM'S WORLD PARISH

Our New Opportunity in Europe Pkesident L. H. Murlin

The attitude assumed toward life's experiences, whether good or evil, determines character. Even that which is evil may work beneficent results, not because it is evil, but in spite of it.

The civilized world is immeasurably disgraced and distressed by this most needless, most unjustifiable war, a war which is more devastating than any other the world has ever known. We are face to face with the most far-reaching catastrophe in the his- tory of the race since that first one in the Garden of Eden. But in spite of the inexcusable wickedness and the unutterable folly of this war, it is not without valuable lessons for humanity; had we, as a race, been less stupid, the lesson would have been learned without this appalling calamity.

Eirst of all, this war has completely exploded the doctrine of "armament in the interests of peace." To be in a state of "pre- paredness for war," even though under the guise of preserving peace, is to advertise that we still live in the age of fear and hate, of suspicion and distrust; and that we are not just clear in our own conscience as to the righteousness of our cause. Out of this appalling war experience we may learn to supplant the epigram "In time of peace prepare for war," which is expressive of a barbarous age, with a new epigram, "In time of peace prepare for peace," which is expressive of Christian civil- ization. We have made some advance. Nations used to be proud of their wars. Every nation engaged in this war is ashamed of it.

The second lesson that we may learn from this terrible war is the failure of a civilization based on Krupp gun efficiency,

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dreadnought superiority, and submarine dexterity. Much is said about "the breakdown of civilization," and the phrase is warranted. But it is not the breakdown of a modem democratic civilization, based on good will and a careful regard for the rights of all men; it is the breakdown of a civilization based upon jealousy and suspicion, fear and hate, greed and lust; a civilization defended and supported by governments whose sole end, under the direction of a selfish, proud, and arrogant aristoc- racy, has been industrial efficiency, commercial supremacy, and military superiority, designed in turn, to support and protect that selfish, proud, and arrogant aristocracy. It is the break- down of a civilization whose universities and colleges long ago turned from a spiritual to a material philosophy. It is the breakdown of a civilization whose educational system emphasized class distinctions, exalted aristocracies, and regarded the "infe- rior classes" as "cannon fodder^' for time of war, and in time of peace, serfs to support them in their luxury, as efficient means to further their personal ambition, to satisfy their lust for power. A civilization based on such false standards of human justice and human rights is an anachronism and must break down to make room for that which is more in keeping with the age.

The third lesson we may learn from this war is the failure of political Christianity, and the utter inadequacy of a dead, pagan Christ. Christianity has not failed; it has not been tried. Christ has ever been crucified afresh by Czar, and Kaiser, and King; Christ has even been crucified by Bishop and Pope who have crowned such Czars, Kaisers, and Kings in the name of Jesus Christ and who themselves have been willing instruments in the hands of these greedy, lustful, and selfish powers; and these powers have ever, even so late as this twentieth century, exploited smaller nations in the name of the adorable and infinite Trinity.

The crumbling of these old civilizations will open to us new and unlooked for opportimities in Europe. Our poor brothers of the warring nations will soon become exhausted in this carnival of blood. Then a new sense of the invisible but eternal

METHODISM'S WOELD PARISH 63

realities will insistently press for recognition. There is fast coming to the people of these nations a passionate longing for the real, vital, loving, spiritual Christ.

And here is our opportunity. How can we help? We must, first of all, be better Christians. I make no charge against Amer- ican Christianity. It is not what our Greater Leader would have it, nor what we desire it to be; nevertheless, it is the best type of Christianity the world has ever known. The social order is more nearly Christianized now than at any time since the won- derful possibility came to the human race. But our Christ expects still better things of us; this only means that we are capable of better things; he expects our best to-day which will not be our best to-morrow ; and this is our great glory, he knows our possibilities are far beyond our loftiest dreams.

In this great babel of foreign peoples crowding in upon our New England, we have our greatest opportunity to aid and help the Europe across the seas. Europe is among our next-door neighbors, and sits within the very shadow of our churches. The ever-living, never-failing Christ summed up the whole pas- sion of his life in those final words, when he gave us our com- mission, "Ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem" (this is at home, our owti community, among our own neighbors) "and in all Judaea and Samaria" (next-door neighbors, Cuba, Porto Eico, Mexico) "and unto the uttermost parts of the earth" (Europe, Asia, and Africa).

The World Task and Opportunity

De. W. E. Oldham

Foreign" missions as the world task of our church, outside of our national borders, is not a self-imposed obligation, or the outcome of ill-regulated enthusiasm which forgets the vast tasks nearer at hand. It is rather the necessary outcome of the very spirit of genius of our holy religion. To neglect a world that lies in darkness, to fail to minister to its famishing need, would

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mean not only the neglect of needy fields abroad but would result immediately in such a crippling of our energies and such a dying of our enthusiasms and passion for service, as would inevitably constrict our efforts at home. We cannot lose the Christ of the world and yet hope to keep the Christ of America. His seamless robe refuses to be divided into portions anywhere. His church, like her Master, must love and serve the whole of humanity, if she would bring effective aid to any part of it. The world task must be undertaken as much for America's sake as for the sake of the world. We go to the last man before we can wholly find the man next to us. Any bar that would hinder the outermost movement will presently arrest our innermost reach. "There is that scattereth and yet increas- eth," for it is the very law of Christ that that which is with- holden "tendeth not to profit." But foreign missions is not only a world task, it is the response to a "world opportunity." If Christ is necessary to the world — in some poor blind way the world at heart is conscious of this need. It knows him not by name. It has not read the wonderful Book that tells of his life and doings. Feebly it has glimpsed his sacrificial death, and but dimly, if at all, it recognizes his universal presence, but the heart of it cries out without words for deliverance from moral confusion and pardon from guilt that lies heavy upon its soul, and these things he, and he only, by his atoning sacrifice and the gift of the Holy Spirit who reveals him, is able to aff'ord.

Around me on this platform are living witnesses who come from the ends of the earth to voice the cry of the heathen world and to tell us from personal contact and observation of the opportunity that abounds in the lands from which they come for the winning of men and nations to Jesus Christ our Lord. Dr. Fulkerson is here from Japan telling us of the grow- ing eagerness of that stirring people, who in recent days have covered so much ground of modern progress, to find not only the outer aspects of modern civilization but that deeper spiritual life out of which alone real permanent civilizations and char- acter grow.

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c.

In China war conditions all about her are forcing the various parties of China into a closer union, and the life of the nation is being purged of much self-seeking and waywardness. China is aroused and is desperately in earnest to find solid founda- tions for that new day to which she has come. She has moved more in the past ten years than Japan has ever moved in twenty. Perhaps the greatest landslide of great populations toward Chris- tian ideals that the world has seen is now going on in China. Opportunity is here spelled in capital letters.

Korea regains her enthusiasm and larger congregations are now gathering in Korean churches than even before the entrance of Japan. The old-time enthusiasm is rekindled. Spiritual fervor runs high. Again it would seem not improbable that a nation is to be born in a brief day.

Dr. Harry P. Rowe is here from the faculty of Nanking Uni- versity, bringing word of the Union College Movements whereby Protestant Christianity is establishing in four great centers of the Chinese republic, model universities which are already mold- ing the leadership for the new Chinese life and setting the pattern for Chinese public education.

Dr. Rader brings us from the Philippines an amazing story of the missionary work of our government, which, ten thousand miles from Washington, is putting a whole people to school, teaching eight millions the beauties of sanitation, public hygiene, road and railroad building, and all manner of social and eco- nomic reforms, but above all is breathing into this far-away brown people a new spirit of intelligent endeavor for the better- ment of life. Here, he declares, is an American laboratory around which gather the peoples of Asia to observe the outcomes of an attempt to impregnate with American ideas and ideals an x\siatic people. Here, more perhaps than anywhere in the half Catholicized world, Methodism has found its largest vic- tories, gathering a following of tens of thousands of members and adherents in a few brief years.

India stands before you in the person of L. E. Linzell, the effective district superintendent of Baroda, who presents to you

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thp- youth of that land pleading for opportunity for education and uplift. Bishop J. W. Eobinson has also recently been here ^f^ to tell us the pathetic story of the "closed door" in India. A door closed not by the attitude of the people or by any lack of access to the millions, particularly of the depressed castes of India, but closed by our own inability to answer very clamant needs. He told us of some forty thousand baptisms last year in India, and we rejoiced with him in his tale of the victories of the gospel, but, alas ! when that tale was followed by his recount- ing the story of how from the actual returns of the district superintendents he had in his possession the tabulated lists of over one hundred and fifty thousand persons eager to become Christians in hundreds of separated villages, to whom he was obliged to say, "We cannot send you either teachers or preachers," and then explained that in these areas the humblest of the pastors was trying to care for from ten to thirty villages apiece, and that our straitened treasury prevented any further taking on of inquirers or even of candidates for baptism, our hearts were saddened. What a scene he pictured !

Nor have we the opportunity to hear from the wide island fields of Malaysia where a handful of missionaries thrust out among the wildest surroundings are holding the lines for a future advance upon some seventy million of people in nature's wonderland, where tropic beauties dazzle the eye and missionary opportunity beckons on every hand.

Nor is there a voice to set before you the staggering task, the commanding call, the boundless opportunity, of evangeliz- ing dark Africa. In this vast, sad land is set the theater for perhaps the greatest religious drama that modern history unfolds. Here Christianity meets both the crudest conditions of uncivilized and fear-ridden men and the terrible oppositions of the stoutest foe that Christianity encounters — Islam. In North Africa a Mohammedan population shot through with modern ideas derived from Europe, threatened by the ration- alism of France and Italy, hampered by the un-Godliness of nominal Christians screened by distance from the public opinion

METHODISM'S WOELD PARISH

of their own lands, is responding to the touch of a little han^ of picked men and women who, in the name of their Lord, a endeavoring to recover these ancient seats of Christianity to the dominion of the Cross. In Central and Southern Africa, at points remote from civilization, difficult of access, dangerous in climate, beset by difficulties innumerable, your missionaries are endeavoring to heal the open sore of this great continent which must come to a recovery of its darkness. Then prac- tically a new world will be added to the possessions of mankind. A great prize is Africa, and the winning of it calls for nobler plans than we have yet been able to make.

And now I present to you New England's favorite missionary son, John W. Butler. Hear him tell of poor distracted Mexico and how impossible the coming of settled peace and any fixed new order in which the plain people of the republic shall come to better things except as gospel principles shall become the com- mon possession of peon and patrician alike.

South America! What a land! What a task! What an opportunity ! Great republics rivaling the United States in territory and resources and easily comparing with us in the vast possibilities of the future; linked with us, too, in perma- nent points of international influence and prosperity. What is there of great task and what our opportunity? Is it not that the nascent civilizations shall be penetrated with gospel ideals? Can republics be built securely except on gospel foundations? On this platform is Dr. James M. Taylor, a missionary and evangelist, who tells you of his personal experience in calling men and women to a direct surrender to Jesus Christ during his recent tour of the South American Continent. He tells of hundreds of men and women who were savingly converted. When South America shall be evangelized and come into the fellowship of the gospel with North America, then these two great continents joined together by the Panama Canal will be the great apostle of God for the evangelization of the world. When that time comes there will be born into human history a force more powerful than Europe has ever known, not for war

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but for peace and for the development of the highest ideals through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a program ! I will not call it a task. The task is swallowed up in the oppor- tunity.

VI.

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM'S RESPONSIBILITY

The Support of Conference Claimants in New England

KeV. J. B. HiNGELEY, D.D,

In making a survey of New England in reference to the sup- port furnished for Eetired Preachers, I desire to say that I have confined my survey to the six New England States, which include the East Maine, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New England, and New England Southern Conferences, and also those parts of the New York East, Troy, East German, and Eastern Swedish Conferences that lie in New England. The 1914 record is as follows :

CONrERENCE	Total Claims 1914	Total Paid 1914	Shortage 1914	Appor- tionment for 1915	Discip- linary Annuity Rate	Annuity Rate Paid 1914	Increase in Amount Paid 1908-1914
	$ 25,000 22,000 6,000 12,000 12,000 8,000	$ 16,600 12,200 5,200 8,000 6,200 5,100	$ 8,400—34% 9,800— 44%o 800—13% 4,000— 33%c 5,800— 48%c 2,900-36%,	$ 12,000 5,000 3,200 3,000 2,500 2,500	$ 16,00 14 00 11 66 12 25 13 00 10 00	S 8 00— 50% 7 00— 50%, 8 Ifr- 70% 4 90— 40% 6 00— 46% 3 00— 30%,	$ 7 400
New England Southern ....	5,700 1 500
Maine	3 300
	2 300
Vennont	1,600
Total	85,000	53,300	31,700— 37%o	42,200	12 80	6 17— 48%	21,800
Conn., part N. Y. East Conn, and Mass., part Troy . New England, part E. Ger.. . New England, part E. Swed. .	$ 14,000 4,500 1,200 600 85,000	$ 10,000 3,700 850 600 53,300	$ 4,000—28% 800—18% 350—29%	S 8,000 2,000 250 350 42,200	$ 17 00 12 50 13 70 10 00 (Total) 76 91	S 11 50— 68% 7 20— 57— 3 66— 24%, 10 00—100%, (Total) 37 06	S 2,000 800 130 330
Others	31,700-37%	21 800
AU New England	$ 105,300	$ 68,450	$ 36,850^0%	S 53,000	$ 13 00	$ 6 90— 30%	S 25,060

The meaning of this survey as applied to the New England Conferences is this: that the total amount of money necessary to pay the total obligations of the cliurches toward the Eetired Preachers is $105,000. Of this amount $68,000 is provided by

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the present assets, consisting of direct contributions from the churches, and dividends from the Book Concern, -the Board of Conference Claimants, the Chartered Fund and interest on investments held by the Annual Conferences or Preachers' Aid Societies of Annual Conferences, leaving a shortage of $37,000, or forty per cent. Putting that in a positive way it is this : that the legal claims for the care of the retired ministers, the widows and orphan children of deceased ministers within the New England area are paid at a rate of sixty cents on the dollar — a condition which is unendurable to a thinking layman.

A most unfortunate condition exists because of the failure of the preachers to stand by their brethren who are in the retired ranks in the matter of apportionments. An apportionment is an asking. It is the duty of the Annual Conference to ask of the pastoral charges the amount to be paid to the aged preachers. It is an easy matter to determine what the claim is. The prin- ciple that it is the duty of the laity to support the entire ministry is firmly established, and yet we find a strange lapse on the part of the ministry who fix the apportionment for them. Meth- odist preachers have been standing between the laymen's purse and the laymen's duty and have been asking them to pay for the claimants a less amount than the legal claim requires.

The value of the dollar promised by the law of the church to

the retired ministers as paid in the several Conferences or

fractional Conferences in New England is as follows :

Conferences Cents

New Hampshire 52

New England Southern 56

Vermont 64

New England 66

Maine 67

East German 71

New York East 72

Troy 82

East Maine 87

Eastern Swedish 100

Some increase was made in all these Conferences for next year and East Maine will be a "hundred cents on the dollar" Confer- ence. Who will be the next ? What is the way out ?

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First, give the people the information as to the situation. We are not merely seeking to provide for certain men who are to-day retired, but are seeking to secure money enough to provide a dependable pension, worth one hundred cents on the dollar, for every minister in Methodism, the pension to date from the day he is retired, and for the widows and orphans of Methodism, the pension to date from the decease of their husbands and fathers.

The plea to pity the poor old preacher is out of date and must be put out of sight. The day of harrowing tales of superan- nuated ministers has already passed for Methodists. It now remains to collect the money to insure the fulfillment of the pledges made to the retired preacher, pledges as binding as those made to the active ministry.

Second, ask for the full apportionment. Let the preachers and the Conferences get out of the way of the laymen and quit deceiving them by saying, "You are doing well,'' when they are not meeting the obligations. The apportionments should be suflBcient to cover the total deficiencies, which will involve a very considerable increase in all the New England Conferences, but in my judgment it is the best step toward the 1915 Cam- paign. For what motive is there for a campaign under the present circumstances if the amount to be asked of the laymen is something not to be determined as an obligation, but depend- ing on the good-natured asking of the Annual Conference ? It is certainly good nature gone to seed when, realizing the obligation toward their aged brethren, the preachers of the pastoral charges ask for less than is needed; and it is good nature misapplied when we ask for ourselves a hundred-cent dollar, and for our aged brother a sixty-cent dollar.

Third, the permanent way out is hy a large increase of per- manent investments. The basis of the Campaign is entirely changed when we start with a sufficient apportionment. After that has been done every dollar added to Permanent Investments reduces the amount that is necessary to be raised every year on the pastoral charges to meet the claims. So the Campaign becomes not merely a Campaign to assist the aged preachers.

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but a Campaign to enable the laity of the church to fulfill their obligations to the aged ministry. The shortage last year was $37,000, which represents five per cent on three quarters of a million dollars. The Campaign for 1915 as related to New England is that the several New England Conferences should add to their Permanent Investments $750,000 in addi- tion to the amomits held at the present time.

The New England Conference needs an addition of $200,000 to meet present claims and provide for the natural increase, as based on last year's report. The East Maine Conference needs an addition of $50,000 ; the Maine Conference needs an addition of $100,000, the New Hampshire Conference needs an addition of $150,000; the Vermont Conference needs an addition of $75,000. The fractional parts of the New England Conferences need an addition of $200,000.

New England Methodism and Community Service

Professok H. F. Ward

Methodism faces the tasks of the modern community with a twofold impulse. Ahead of us are foes our fathers never faced and tasks they never saw. Behind us is the driving force of our traditions and our history. Our slogan has been that every church should become the servant of the community. Evangel- ism and social service ! — the two methods through which Meth- odism has always expressed the love of God ! When she ceases to do the one her right hand will lose its cunning; and when she abates the other, her tongue will cleave to the roof of her mouth.

What types of community does New England Methodism face ? There was historically a typical New England community. It scarcely exists here now. It was built around the old town meeting, a democratic community life of folk between whom there was no great economic or class distinction. That typical American community went through the middle West clear to the western coast. You can find some of those commimities

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in the middle West and far West; but they are getting fewer. While you have here to face with your Methodism every type of community urban and suburban, small town and large town, you are getting again a prevailing New England type, but one utterly different from the old type which we faced in the early days. It is a cosmopolitan community. And it is a community that is split, not simply by these racial differences but by eco- nomic differences and class distinctions.

What type of work shall we develop to meet this type of com- munity ? First, it must be work conceived in the pioneer spirit, that will do many things not written in the Discipline, that will be careful of preserving all that needs to be preserved of the past ... all in spirit, and most in method; but will not hesi- tate to make the method to fit the condition. But the method for the new type of community must not be simply worked out by certain men in certain communities, it must possess the administration. The whole administration of the area must be imbued with the pioneer spirit which puts the community as the goal, and not simply the ecclesiastical system. For no ecclesi- astical type of Christianity will meet the needs of this cosmo- politan community developing in your midst. These folks have had enough of it in Europe, and they will not have it here any more than they would have it there.

And no purely intellectual type of Christianity will meet the great, deep needs of these cosmopolitan industrial and rural communities. For a purely intellectual type of Christianity is proving itself morally bankrupt in Europe to-day. In the face of a demonstration like that, the only Christianity which will reach these cosmopolitan working populations of ours is a warm, fraternal, democratic type of Christianity which will use the organization with all its efficiency, and will use the intellect with all its power, but will make them both servants of the love of God to do his will in the community life.

I want very briefly to point out the contribution that Meth- odism ought to make, not simply in practical method but in spirit, to the local community as it undertakes to meet its

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needs. First, Methodism by virtue of her history because we are Methodists, will insist that the work of the community shall be done for the poor and the unfortunate with a proper system and the great warm spirit of brotherhood; that it shall not be the condescending philanthropy of the superior to the inferior, but the brotherly putting of strength and prosperity behind weakness and worse. That type of work was found in the old Methodist class meeting, which joined together systematic, practical work, and a warm, fervent brotherliness, having on the one hand the rigor of a perfect mechanical system and on the other hand power of emotionalism.

What else shall we contribute as our communities face that other great problem of the waste of child life ? In every one of your communities child life is being wasted and destroyed by three forces — bad housing, bad amusements, bad industries. How is the church and how is Methodism going to help that community to stop that weakening and waste of child life?

First of all, do we realize that our old methods of teaching free grace have a distinct economic interpretation? That just as every one of those children has a right to the eternal salva- tion of Jesus Christ so every one of them has a right to a proper opportunity for healthy and strong development in this present world — not simply life everlasting in the world to come, but one hundredfold more in this present life ? We must insist that not the last or least of these immigrant children can be destroyed in health or deadened in spirit by bad housing or overcrowding. We must make a fight against bad amusements.

What shall we do for industry, these Methodist forces of ours ? Improved conditions? Yes. But we must do two things more. We must insist that the unjust industrial situations of our community shall be faced with an open mind. When men parade through your streets because they rebel against an unjust wage, and raise the cry, "No God, no master," the repressive hand of the law is no adequate answer. The only adequate answer is to show them a different kind of God — one who is a great Father to them, who is a suffering Servant to them, and so

METHODISM'S KESPONSIBILITY 75

will become a great Kedeemer to them. And that God cannot be shown them unless men will face the whole question on both sides, and with an open mind.

What else do we demand? We demand that in addition to the light of the open mind there shall be the heart that beats for the application of brotherhood. Eor only so can men decide what is just. And some men will have to pay the price. The great test of Christianity is going to be this, whether our laymen in the industrial and commercial world will recognize their obli- gation to follow the Christ and join, sometimes, the noble army of martyrs, and sacrifice something, in order to try and discover what is just in the industrial world, and then work it out.

Have you forgotten what they did to Wendell Phillips in Boston ? Cannot you see him going up and down these streets, lonely in his old age? When he spoke for the labor group, Boston isolated him! If the day has come when wealth and culture are going to turn aside from those who associate with the despised and downtrodden groups at the bottom, and say, "This man consorts with publicans and sinners," pray God that Methodism may be content to share such fellowship with her Master. If the time is going to come when they who have been driven from the temple because of injustice shall take their stand before the seat of justice and try to subvert it by raising the plea, "This man speaketh against Caesar," then pray God more fervently that men may be given to Methodism, in the pul- pit and in the pew, who will follow their Master past that judg- ment seat, and up to that hill where against the darkening sky the cross stands. And then, from such men, as Calvary is lived over again in their lives, redemption and peace will come to this sin-stricken and strife-torn world.

New England Methodism and the Spirit of Wesley

Dean L. J. Birnet

"The world is my parish" was first the motto of the most tremendous individual in the religious world of his time. To-

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day it is the slogan of one of the most powerful religious forces of all time. Ear more truly than ever the first great Methodist could say it from the heart of Old England, can the humblest Methodist now say it from the heart of New England. With but one race about him he looked across oceans and peaks to every race and said, "The world is my parish." To-day with every race about us we look across the world and see one great family. Here we have in a radius of two hundred miles from the Hub all the elements that go to make not only a fascinating world problem, but likewise a commanding world opportunity. What we need for the fulfillment of our great opportunities and equally great obligations is neither more nor better ministers; more nor better laymen; more nor better churches; more nor cleaner money; an ampler nor more sympathetic environment. In all these we are vastly better equipped than was John Wesley as he went forth into that semipagan atmosphere and literally transformed England and started a new and higher type of Anglo-Saxon civilization. What we do preeminently need, it seems to me, is an injection into our veins of the spirit of John Wesley in some very definite particulars.

1. We need more of that Wesleyan insight which discerned the purely instrumental nature of the church and all its institu- tions, to see as he did so clearly that the church is here as a means and never as an end, and that it must be an effective means, and only a means, or it surrenders its claim to exist. Why had Methodism a right to come here at all? Because she was needed here to do some things that no other church was doing, and teach some things that no other church was effect- ively teaching; and her glory was that she was interested far more in getting these things done than she was in herself. She smote hip and thigh an aristocratic god who autocratically chose to save or damn whom he would irrespective of character — and more than any other one influence she gave New England a democratic God who chooses to save all who will quit their sin and come unto him by faith. She brought a flexibility, a practical serviceability, a note of human interest into the theol-

METHODISM'S EESPONSIBILITY 77

ogy and church life of New England which was new — and now that her lines have gone out through all the earth, and she has won an enviable place in the church life of the world, she is in danger of losing the passion and spirit that justified her birth in Old England, and her emigration to New England, and which alone can justify the claim that the world is her parish.

There is a tendency in our New England temper to do things in a certain way for no other earthly reason than that it has always been done that way — and oppose another plan for no other reason than that it has never been done that way. That spirit of conservatism is splendid ballast for the ship of the church, but there is no ballast that will equal cargo, and the ship of the church was built for cargo. To petrify a method into an. idol, and bow down to it is little holier than to worship Baal. It tends to petrify the whole life and spirit of the church. When Wesley found a method that was not producing results in life he never petrified it — he pulverized it, and without asking consent of tradition. We need to feel more as he felt that there is nothing sacred in method or custom or in the church as an organization except as they produce results in life that are sacred. We need more of the Wesleyan spirit of courageous and independent adaptability to conditions and needs and times, that the church may be kept an instrument and not an end.

2. We need a more persistent and imperative emphasis upon the deeply spiritual note which was ever dominant in his work. He was the most intensely and effectively practical man in the history of Methodism. The physical, the social, the industrial, the intellectual needs of the people all came within his plans and tasks. But through all these he not only taught the highest spiritual interpretation of the Christian life, but he lived in his own soul the most deeply vital Christian life. Now that com- bination of the practical and the spiritual is a fine art, but he was master of it. And I think I do not err in insight when I urge that that emphasis is one thing New England needs, and needs deeply. For the greatest thing God did with her yester- day is the greatest thing he wants to do with her to-day and

78 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

to-morrow, and that is to spread vital Godliness abroad in the land, as the only leaven that will ever leaven the lump of human society.

3. New England needs a baptism of Wesleyan individualism ; less reliance upon the formal, organized, instituted means of reaching the supreme end, and a vastly more universal impact of soul upon soul. One of the most informing and rewarding discoveries in the study of the life and work of Wesley is the amazing extent to which he used the force of personality in that vast movement of regeneration. Methodism was created with the idea of the personal touch as the very genius of her method. The class was made the primary unit of her organization that he might extend the power of personal contact like an intricate network through which the spirit of the supreme personality could flow.

We need no other one thing more to-day in this great New England parish than a universal revival in pulpit and pew of Wesley's passion for the individual. The conquest of the world is simply a conquest of persons, therefore in method it must be in the last analysis a personal conquest. The soldier on foot meeting the soldier on foot has been the deciding factor in yonder titanic struggle between the kingdoms of this world. The very genius of Christianity makes that forever true in the mightier struggle to bring the kingdom of God. WTioever listens with open heart and ready will, and Christ-filled spirit, waiting for God's word of command, in this great task of reach- ing the multitudes, will hear him say as he said of old, "Go thou near, and join thyself to this chariot" — where one life needed the help of another life. Thus only can we bring back to God a wandering world.

THE SURVEY

Prepared by Rev. H. J. Burgstahler under the general direction of Prop. Harry F. Ward, Department of Social Service, Boston University School of Theology.

Genesis and Purpose of the Survey

The Convention leaders insisted from the start that the New England Convention must be unique in that it would base its entire program upon the findings of a scientific survey of New England Methodism. Accordingly, the survey was begun shortly after the Convention Headquarters were established.

The primal purpose of the survey was to gather accurate data concerning the condition of New England Methodism in the following fields:

1. Development During the Last Century.

2. Interchurch Relationships.

3. Immigrant Work.

4. Young People's Work.

5. Student Life.

6. Ministers' Salaries.

7. World Christianization.

8. Community Christianization

9. Church Efficiency. 10. EvangeUsm.

Sources of Information

To accomplish this the following sources of information were used :

1. Questionnaire reports from local pastors. Of these we had 637, or

69% of all possible reports.

2. Special questionnaire reports from the district superintendents.

3. Special questiormaire reports from 17 college and universities.

4. Church Minutes and Year Books of various denominations.

5. United States Census reports, and innumerable other reports. '

6. Nine special workers on the field.

7. Much valuable information and many suggestions from Methodism's

leaders.

79

No.	Pastoral
Min-	Responsi-
isters	bility
21	277 members
82	136
*	* i
397	115
560	149
606	114
823	103
928	104
902	122
895	130
884	129
903	137

80 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

The Growth of Methodism

MEMBEESHIP AND MINISTRY

Year Mem-

bership

1800 5,829

1810 11,220

1823 21,106

1833 45,915

1843 83,975

1853 69,325

1863 84,779

1873 97,125

1883 110,515

1893 116,556

1903 114,506

1913 123,587

These figures are for the six New England Conferences after such were organized.

No piece of work in connection with the survey was more diffi- cult than this one. I have tried to be accurate. I have worked these figures over and over myself. I have called in assistance to check up my work. Dr. 0. S. Baketel, editor of the General Minutes, has given me valuable assistance. Despite all this work and great care I would not want to state dogmatically that they were accurate to the unit. Membership figures are most uncertain, especially when periods of years are considered. No two statisticians compute alike. Their bases of computation cjiffer. For instance, some combine nonresident with resident members, some separate them, and some add the same column of figures difi'erently. The above figures, I believe, are as nearly correct as they can be from membership reports. They certainly suggest general tendencies.

Some will want to know the reason for the great gain between 1833 and 1843, and then the unusual loss afterward. The Millerite excitement between 1833 and 1843 caused the great increase. In 1833 the Rev. Mr. Miller began to prophecy that the world was to come to an end in 1843. A remarkable revival ensued, and thousands were admitted into the church. But

* Figures not given in reports.

THE SUEVEY 81

1843 came and went and the world was still intact. Then came the great reaction, and the membership rolls suiJered loss. Dr. Daniel Dorchester, the statistician of the convention of 1866, explains the decline as follows : "Prom 1840 to 1850 was a period of unusual trial in our ecclesiastical history. The causes were these: The reaction and deadness which followed the Millerite excitement, the losses by the Wesleyan secession, and the violent controversies connected with the secession of the church, and filling our religious newspapers for several years." During the last hundred years we can honestly say that we have gained 1,100 members a year, and during the last forty years we have made a gain of 1,000 a year.

MEMBERSHIP GAIN FOR ALL NEW ENGLAND

The above figures include only the Conferences actually in New England. No effort has been made to calculate in the above table the numerical strength of all Methodists in all New England, The entire New Haven District and some of the New New York District of the New York East Conference, a sub- stantial part of Burlington District, some of the Troy District of the Troy Conference, and also a little in New York Con- ference are in New England territory. Besides this we have work with the different nationalities. Dr. Baketel gave me these figures in a letter, a portion of which I quote as follows: "The membership of the six New England Conferences, 124,451. Burlington District, 4,845. From the New York East Confer- ence, 26,160. From New York Conference, 1,321. This makes a total of the English-speaking work in the six new England States, 156,777. Add to this the colored work, 175; German, 519; Swedish, 2,585; Portuguese, 82; French, 144; Italian, 1,050; Norwegian-Danish, 106; Scandinavian, 36; making a total Methodist Episcopal membership in the six New England States at the present time of 161,474."

On this basis the growth is as follows: 1870—110,424 1890—143,536 1914—161,474* A gain of 1,160 yearly.

' Dr. Baketel's figures.

82 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

GROWTH IN MINISTERS

The above figures show a gradual increase in ministers up to 1875; since then they have fluctuated. There has been a loss of 25 ministers in the last forty years. In view of the constantly increasing number of churches no satisfactory explanation of this loss has yet been given.

PROFIT® loss ?

BETWEEN IBra-1913

WE GAINED 27462NENBERS WE LOST 25 NINISTERS

Increase In Pastoral Responsibility

IB73 /^^^iTfvX 1913

101 SOULS 137 SOULS

INCREASE IN PASTORAL RESPONSIBILITY

The above figures are suggestive as to increase in pastoral responsibility. In 1833 the pastor had 115 people to care for.

THE SUEVEY 83

In 1913 he had 137, or 20 per cent more. Besides this the aver- age minister has a multitude of community responsibilities which figures can never indicate. There is still much duplica- tion of effort and lack of intensive specialized work in the min- istry.

Property Growth Probable Value of Churches and Parsonages

No. Probable No. Probable

Churches Value Parsonages Value

1873 791 $7,180,655 442 $888,775

1883 927 7,074,893 530 966,510

1893 990 8,359,529 589 1,229,675

1903 1,036 9,354,712 673 1,535,931

1913 1,061 11,001,250 732 2,006,375

By adding probable value of churches and parsonages we have the following comparative study :

1873 $7,969,430

1903 10,890,643

1913 13,007,625

Total gain last forty years, $5,038,195.

It may be of interest to many to know the property standing to-day of each of the six Conferences. It is as follows :

1914

No. Churches

New England 259

New England Southern. . 202

New Hampshire 132

Vermont 145

Maine 641

East Maine 177

1,061

Besides this we have other property throughout New England, according to the reports of the various district superintendents.

Value	Parsonages	Value
$5,379,625	180	$776,200
2,261,050	146	385,475
1,021,300	102	223,900
705,250	109	202,250
865,700	92	210,600
768,325	103 732	207,950
$11,001,250	$2,006,375

84 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

PROPERTY GROWTH

IB73-I9I3 CHURCHES A^ PARSONAGES. IB73 1903 1913

~^yy-T7

mm^

iio.B9o,B43\debt pl3i)07B?5

DEBT

,954^39 xv^- ^ . jmm^.

OTHER PROPERTY

City missions 62,ooo

DEACONESS 6ia500

CAMP-MEETIN& 192.700

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS Z.983.373

HOSPITALS 97.500

HOME FOR &IRLS 5.00O

WOMAN^ HOME MISS. SOC. 6aOOO

OTHERS M 24.002

TOTAL ♦5,143.6^5

GRAND TOTAL ALL PROPERTY- 190

418.150,700

Summary of Property Valuation:

Churches and Parsonages $13,007,625

Other Property 5,143,075

Grand Total All Property $18,150,700

It is also interesting to note the increase in debt:

1903 $954,869

1913 1,740,279

Increase, $785,410

This increase is slight compared with the property increase.

THE SUEVEY 85

Educational Growth

	Institu-	Instruc-			Endow-
	tions	tors	Students	Property	ment
1866*. . .	13	113	3,368	$672,261	$
1900	9	261	2,757	666,076	2,584,795
1913....	9	230	3,405	2,983,373	3,346,318

The decrease of instructors is owing to the fact that the faculty of the Massachusetts College of Agriculture and of the New England Conservatory of Music at one time counted as part of Boston University are no longer so counted. 'J'hey were never a real part of Boston University save through exchange relationships.

Epwoeth League Gkowth

No facts are available for the membership of the Epworth

League until 1909. In 1908 the General Conference ordered

Epworth League figures printed. The following comparison

shows an unfortunate decline in Epworth League membership :

Seniors Juniors

1909 27,902 14,117

1912 28,271 11,183

1914 26,336 9,905

Decrease 556 4,212

Sunday Schools

Officers

No. and Scholars Schools Teachers

1873 954 13,721 98,737

1883 1,081 15,468 110,812

1893 1,127 17,160 133,685

1903 1,149 16,789 118,298

1908 1,116 16,173 115,420

1914 1,111 16,363 127,555

Our Relation to Other Denominational Forces in New England

No survey of New England Methodism would be complete unless we weighed ourselves in the balance with our sister denominations. How do we rank with these denominations?

* From 1866 Convention Report.

86

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

I have made comparisons with the three other leading Protestant denominations: Baptist, Congregational, and Protestant Epis- copal. These figures have been taken from the authorized sources of each denomination. The Methodist figures are accord- ing to State boundary lines as are the figures of the other denominations. It was no small task to get these. They are accurate save for the slight discrepancy owing to overlapping on State boundary lines, which would be found in other denomina- tional reports as well. These membership figures are for 1914, the population figures for 1910, the last United States Census report.

COMPARATIVE DENOMINATIONAL STRENGTH

NEW ENGLAND 1914

Congreijational Baptist

RANK

I. 2.

Methodist Episcopal

3. 4.

THE SUKVEY

87

COMPARATIVE DENOMINATIONAL STRENGTH

CX)NNECTICUT 1914.

Congregational Episcopal

RANK

I. 2.

Methodist Baptist

3. 4.

88 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

COMPARATIVE DENONINATIONAL STRENGTH

MAINE 1914

RANK

Baptist I. Methodist 3.

Congreoational S> Episcopal 4.

THE SURVEY 89

COMPARATIVE DENOMINATIONAL STRENGTH

NEW HAMPSHIRE 1914

Methodist ' ^

43Z.624

RANK

Congregational I. Methodist 2. Boinist 3. Episcopal 4.

90

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

COMPARATIVE DENOMINATIONAL STRENGTH

MASSACHUSETTS 1914

POPUL

Congregational Baptist

•3-043,3*6

RANK

I.

2.

Hethodjet Episcopal

3. 4.

THE SURVEY

91

COMPARATIVE DENOMINATIONAL STRENGTH

VERMONT 1914-

kQ)a ^J^'st /'*<<fct,

350.373

RANK

Congregationsl I. Methodist 2.

Baptiot Episcopal

3. 4.

92 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

COMPARATIVE DENOMINATIONAL STRENGTH

RHODE ISLAND 1914

RANK

BBptist I. Congregational 3.

Episcopal 2. Methodist A,

THE SUEVEY 93

Church Federation

One of the most important interchurch movements to-day is the effort to avoid overlapping of churches, and the federation of local churches where the community is overchurched. Each of the six New England States has State Federation of Churches for this purpose. The secretaries of the various State federations are as follows:

Connecticut, Prof. William North Rice, Middletown, Conn. Maine, Prof. AKred William Anthony, Lewiston, Me. Massachusetts, Rev. E. T. Root, 53 Mount Vernon St., Boston. New Hampshire, Rev. Thomas H. Story, Concord, N. H. Rhode Island, Rev. W. W. Deckard, 109 Walsh St., Providence. Vermont, Rev. A. P. Pratt, Bellows Falls, Vt.

Practical Cooperation

Of 38 Federated Churches reported

We participate in 20

Congregationalists 28

Baptists 21

Of 417 Churches reporting

161, or 38.6%,

Are Cooperating

In Local Church Federations for

Community Improvement.

256, or 61.3%,

Have No Federation.

WHY NOT?

A decade ago the aoove chart would have been impossible. To-day, however, when we realize the waste for the kingdom because of duplication of effort we ought materially to change the above facts. Why should not all communities with two or more churches at least have local federations?

Are the Small Towns

Overchurched?

175 Towns vmder 1,100 report

3fi3 Churches

or

Nearly 3 to Each Town

or

' • ■ " • 1 Church to Every

975 People

or

About 55 Families.

94

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN NEW ENGLAND

FlfrURES OF 1906

o^iii^.

BOAT r<C^

'^^o^ges

•934,2*''

^73 85^

EVERY METHODIST OUGHT TO WIN 3 OTHERS FOR CHRIST

THE SUEVEY 95

One church to every 275 people would not be out of propor- tion to religious needs if they were all church members. Accord- ing to the last religious census of 1906, however, not 50 per cent belong to the churches. This fact reduces this number to at least 138 for each church. Count out children, and only a small number of adults are left to carry on the titanic work of sav- ing the world, and often the efforts of these very workers are neutralized through friction and competition in God's house- hold of churches. Conservation and concentration of Chris- tian energy, and increase of church efficiency can be greatly improved through cooperation and federation.

OuE Eesponsibility In New England Having compared our denominational strength it is emi- nently proper and decidedly imperative in closing this study that we recognize our denominational responsibility. The study appearing on the previous page was worked out from the United States Eeligious Census report of 1906. The Protestant membership includes all Protestants. Granting that the Eoman Catholics should get a proportional number of the unchurched, they should win on the basis of 1906 membership, 2,025,067; the Protestants, 973,834; the Methodists, 165,551. On this basis every Methodist ought to win one or two for Christ. If, however, we were to grant the Catholics nothing, as some con- tend, every Methodist ought to win at least three others fo^" Christ. "The fields truly are white, ready for harvest"; let us all be devoted reapers.

Ministers' Salaries

In the section on the growth of Methodism we have indicated the increase of nearly twenty per cent in pastoral responsibility since 1833. Mention has also been made of the fact that you cannot measure the responsibility of the minister by the number of church members on his church roll. As a rule the heaviest tax upon the minister's strength comes through services required by the general community needs. The minister of to-day must

96 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

be a community leader, broad minded, progressive, and aggres- sive. The age insists that he be a good preacher, an efficient pastor, a true leader of men. For these lofty requirements the minister must be well equipped. He must dress acceptably, for he is a leader; he must attend many assemblies, for service and the deepening of his spiritual life ; he must travel for vision and culture; he must read extensively for intellectual impetus and resourcefulness. The high requirements on the part of the public make necessary heavy expenditures for adequate equipment. In the light of the minister's needs compare the fol- lowing studies on ministers' salary :

How We Pay Our Ministers All New England— 1914

Total Salaried Ministers 836

Average Cash Salary $804.72

Average House Rent 168 . 90

Average Total Salary 973.62

56% of all Ministers

get less than the average

Salary of each Conference.

How We Pay Our Ministers

New England Conference

Total Salaried Ministers 232

Average Cash Salary $1,037.28

Average House Rent 268. 12

Average Total Salary 1,305.40

98 get more than total Salary. 134, or 57%, get less than total Salary.

How We Pay Our Ministers

1914

New England Southern Conference

Total Salaried Ministers 169

Average Cash Salary $831.08

Average House Rent 152 . 42

Total Average Salary 983 . 50

71 get more than total Salary. 80, or 52%, get less than total Salary.

THE SUEVEY 97

How We Pay Our Ministers Maine Conference — 1914

Total Salaried Ministers 97

Average Cash Salary $708.54

Average House Rent 131 .36

Average Total Salary 839.90

45 get more than total Salary. 52, or 54%, get less than total Salary.

How We Pat Our Ministers New Hampshire Conference — 1914 '■

Total Salaried Ministers 113

Average Cash Salary $697.25

Average House Rent 138.30

Average Total Salary 835 . 55

48 get more than total Salary. 64, or 57%, get less than total Salary.

How Wb Pat Our Ministers East Maine Conference

Total Salaried Ministers 115

Average Cash Salary $648.86

Average House Rent 89. 16

Average Total Salary 738.02

46 get more than total Salary. 69, or 60%, get less than total Salary.

How We Pat Our Ministers Vermont Conference — 1914

Total Salaried Ministers Ill

Average Cash Salary $633.42

Average House Rent 124.22

Average Total Salary 757.64

48 get more than total Salary. 63, or 57%, get less than total Salary.

In this study we have been careful to include only salaried ministers. In each case the average total salary includes house

98 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

rent. It is highly important in reading the concluding sen- tences of these charts, that we remember that whereas 56 per cent of all ministers get less than the average, many of these get considerably less.

Is this salary of the minister adequate for a professional man of high responsibility? Men who have given our standards of living a careful study contend that $700 ought to be the minimum living wage for the average laboring man of family. The committee on minimum salaries for ministers of the New England Conference made the following report: "We propose the following resolution: that this Conference recom- mends most strongly to all our churches that they adopt as the minimum salary to be paid men who are members of the Con- ference: For churches in the smaller towns and country, $850 cash and house and, wherever possible, the use of at least one acre of land for a garden ; this amount to be increased as rapidly as possible to $1,000 cash. Eor churches in the cities and larger towns, $1,000 cash and house."

The average cash salary for the Maine, East Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont Conferences is $672. When we remember that 57 per cent do not get this salary we begin to realize that our ministers with their heavy responsibilities are really underpaid. Yet there never was, and never will be a strike by preachers. They bear their burdens, and make their sacrifice without complaint — yes, cheerfully. Every church therefore should strive to do unto the minister as he needs to be done by for his highest possible efficiency.

New England Methodism and Her Sunday Schools

Eefekence has already been made to our Sunday school growth during the last century, also to the decline since 1893. The following charts tell this story through the reproduction of vital statistics:

THE SUEVEY

99

5liND/^Y SCHOOL GROWTH

I87J-I9K

/nn ^:i p 03 0^ ^

l^oooo

llO 000

llOOO 0

J 0$t d 0

	/	/236iS'
	/	\		/
	/ iimi.	'	ll^-i,^^	VS^ia

/ilSSf

TOTAL DECREASE SINCE 1833 6,130

CAN YOU EXPLAIN TH15 CHARTS

100

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

LOSS

SUNMY SCHOOLTEACHERS

1695-I9n

13,72 I

16 73 '63 '93 '03 'oS i9l^

1700

16,363 1600

1300

DECREASE 797 SINCE 1893

"FEW ARE THE REAPERS"

		^leo
			^,769	iSjJ^J"''^
	^is:^ee

THE SUKVEY

101

FEWER Sl/NMY SCHOOLS

STUDY FOR I87J-/5/4

jQTS '61 '93 't5 '6B 9t^

954

)I50

loSt

ief»

DECREASE 38-SINCEI903 "SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TOCOHE UNTO ME'

102 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

The upward and downward movements of the first two charts run parallel. This is to be expected. The third does not. This is singular. The number of Sunday schools kept steadily increasing for ten years after the enrollment began to drop, and then after it began to increase again in 1908 the schools continue to decrease. This last fact is unusually strange as reports show that the number of churches are steadily increas- ing. Dr. Edgar Blake, Secretary of our Board of Sunday Schools, accounts for this last change by the depleted population in rural sections.

It is not, however, the anomalies in institutional development or decline which concerns us most. It is rather that we make a satisfactory explanation for the tremendous falling off when we should have been steadily gaining. The population was steadily increasing. The need for Christian nurture was just as insistent. The institutional power of the Sunday school ought to have been greater after a century of experience and progress. Everything seemed to favor growth rather than decline. Why this depreciation?

Dr. Thomas Nicholson, Secretary of our Board of Education, says it was owing to a change in leadership and departmental administration. Under Bishop Vincent the Sunday schools constantly grew. But in 1892 the Board of Sunday Schools and the Board of Education were consolidated and the leaders of the various departments changed. Under this combined admin- istration both the educational and Sunday school work declined. In 1908 the two were again separated and put under distinct leadership. Both departments have made steady gains ever since. Despite the gains we have made during the last five years, we have still 6,130 less scholars, 797 less teachers, and 38 less schools. From now on we must march doublequick to make up for lost time and to meet the religious needs of thousands of our New England children who are now without proper religious training.

THE SUKVEY

103

Our Sunday Schools 673 Churches report:

■ Conference	No. Report- ing	Enroll- ment	Average Attend- ance	Per- centage
New England	184 118 51 94 60 66	38,256 18,612 7,804 8,630 8,526 10,108	21,161 9,099 4,228 4,291 4,292 4,202	55
New England Southern New Hampshire	54 54
Vermont	49
Maine	50
East Maine	41
Total	573	91,936	47,273 6? -ttW!^	51

Aee We Eeaching All?

Fifty-one per cent of our pupils, the average attendance.. Compare this per centage in our Sunday schools with our public schools. If such a condition obtained in the public schools we should become alarmed, in fact we would not tolerate it. Shall we be less anxious about the attendance at the choicest of God's training schools ?

HAVE YOU A GRADED SYSTEM?

609 Churches report:

200, or 33%,

Graded.

230, or 38%,

Not Graded.

179, or 29%,

Graded in Part.

HAVE YOU SEPARATE CLASSROOMS?

582 Churches report: 129 report separate rooms. 223 report separate rooms in part. 230, or 40%, report iVo'separate classrooms.

104 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

Confused Effort is Bad

The foregoing two charts apply to Sunday school equipment. The graded system seems to be coming into use pretty generally. It ought to be adopted by many others. The answers to the question, "Have you separate classrooms?" do not show up nearly as well. Good teaching cannot be done amidst confusion. Concentration is possible only when the class is by itself. When only thirty minutes are given to religious instruction intensive work ought to be done. For this separate classrooms are neces- sary.

HAVE YOU A TEACHER'S TRAINING CLASS?

608 Churches report:

94 Churches report — Yes.

614 Churches report — No.

Only 12% have Training Classes.

Untrained Teachers Our Weakest Point The weakest point in our Sunday schools is our teaching force. At the Luncheon Conference of New England leaders to work out the policy of follow up work, three great weaknesses were pointed out in Sunday school work: 1. Teachers without peda- gogical training. 2. Teachers unschooled in the Bible. 3. Teachers without evangelistic passion. All of these weaknesses can be remedied through a properly conducted teacher's train- ing class. All we need for the training classes are the follow- ing: 1. Willingness to devote the necessary time and attention to the class. 2. A faithful and qualified teacher for the class. The minister ought to make the best teacher. All the present Sunday school teachers, and all possible Sunday school teachers should constitute the class.

New England Methodism and Her Students

No survey of New England Methodism would be complete which did not include a careful and comprehensive study of her resources in students. Eecognizing this fact, three question- naires were sent to each college or university community of New England — one to the dean or president, one to the Young Men's or Young Women's Christian Association, and one to the

THE SUKVEY 105

Methodist pastor of the recognized college church. Where there was any uncertainty as to which Methodist church occupied this position, as in Boston, questionnaires were sent to each such possible student church. Only colleges or universities were studied. We received responses from 17 such institutions altogether, 15 of which were non-Methodist.

Methodist Students in Non-Methodist Institutions of Learning

1. Boston Technology 70 9. Radcliffe 15

2. Jackson 4 ' 10. Yale 130

3. WiUiams 19 11. Colby 40

4. Bates 50 12. WeUesley 137

5. University of Maine 144 13, Tufts 2

6. Bowdoin 35 14. Harvard 97

7. Mount Holyoke 95 15. Smith 110

8. Brown 60 '

This chart suggests a large number of Methodist students in non-Methodist institutions. It does not suggest all. For instance, the Harvard figures include only those in the College of Liberal Arts. No religious census is made by the professional or graduate schools. Hence, considering Harvard's large grad- uate and professional schools it would not be far amiss if we should estimate at least 300 Methodist students at Harvard. Wherever there is no religious census made for any department of a university, we lack the figures for that department. There are at least 1,500 Methodist students in the non-Methodist insti- tutions of New England. The following chart indicates our entire student constituency. This constituency in itself would be large enough to command the services of several specially trained student pastors.

Methodist Students in Methodist Institutions of Learning

Boston University 500

Wesleyan University 455

Total reported 955

In Non-Methodist Institutions 1,008

Total reported in all institutions 1,963

Besides 344 with Methodist preference.

106 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

Do Methodist Students Contribttte to the Chukch?

I. By Joining Permanently.

73, or 3.7%, belong to the local church.

93, or 4.7%, belong tentatively.

8.4% affiliate in some way.

II. By Attending.

254, or 13%, attend regularly.

31, or 15.6%, attend occasionally.

Can the Student Afford to Neglect Church?

The striking lesson of this chart is the small number of stu- dents that support the local church through either affiliation or attendance. Many of those who belong to the local church reside in the college community. This fact makes the nonresident membership exceedingly small. Is there any reason why the college student away from home should not take his letter with him as he does everything else he possesses ? Most students never return to their homes for permanent residence. Certainly, such students ought to join the local college churches immediately. Those who expect to return to their homes should join tentatively. Every local college should have a system affording tentative stu- dent membership.

The small number that attend the local church either regu- larly or occasionally is an arraignment of both the student and the local church. The college student is often fickle in estimat- ing his religious responsibility and supercritical in his attitude toward the church. He is not infrequently individualistic. He demands a church service adapted to his likes and forgets that there are others whose desires differ from his. He forgets, too, that it is "more blessed to give than to receive," and that his chief relationship to the church should be one of service.

The church is not less deserving of censure. Its eyes have often been blind to the student's needs, and its ears deaf to the summons to serve the student. Not infrequently has her voice failed to sound a note which would grip the student's attention. No investment of time or money coidd be better spent than for the religious culture of her students, Methodism's leaders of to-morrow,

THE SUEVEY 107

The chart below points fingers of censure at the student for his failure to serve humanity through the medium of the church. Some one has suggested that the chart was "too pessimistic." I had nothing but the cold facts from which to make my de- ductions. However, were we to grant just double the percentage at work we would still have a small minority engaged in church activities.

The Student Contribtjtion to the Church Out of 1,963 Students 97, or 5%, work in the Ep worth League. 70, or 3.5%, work in the Sunday School. 11, or .5%, ia Missionary Education, 15, or .7%, in Church Services. 22, or 1.1%, in Recreation Programs.

3, or .1%, in Social Service. 34, or 1.7%, in Music. 7, or. .3%, in Personal Evangelism.

students — TO-MORROW's LEADERS must HELP LEAD

the church to-day.

What the Local Methodist Church Does for the Students 17 Institutions 13 report Bible classes. 4 report evangelism. 1 reports life's work campaign. 1 reports directs in service. 8 report provide recreation.

can the church do more?

The student's life is one of self-examination and oDservation. What potential possibilities does he possess? What service do his inherent qualities best fit him for? What profession shall he follow? He wants to answer these questions correctly for he realizes that his destiny may hang on his decision. These and many other questions are now presenting themselves for satis- factory answers. He is now eager for counsel? He is open to conviction. This is the church's chance. Now life's work campaigns should be instituted. These should be personal, studied, and deeply sympathetic.

108 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

One church says it directs in service. Is this adequate? Every church should open avenues through which the student can express himself in religious service, and then he should be carefully directed in that service. If the minister or a capable, respected layman has won the confidence of the student and made him his personal friend, God only knows the limitations of the student's devotion to the cause of humanity, and the extent of his personal sacrifice for that cause.

The two ensuing charts require no comment, save that these criticisms and suggestions have been taken directly from the reports received. A very large proportion of the correspondents suggested far more regular and better pastoral attention. The students are eager to welcome qualified pastoral tutelage. Criticisms from Reports

1. Overadvertising distracts students.

2. Students are church tramps.

3. Colleges non-reUgious.

4. Pastors fail to cooperate with Y. M. C. A.

5. Pastoral inattention and incapacity.

6. Students unfaithful.

Suggestions from Reports

1. More regular, intensive pastoral work.

2. Temporary membership system.

3. Notify college pastor when Methodist student enters coUege.

4. Give student definite church work.

5. Preach a modern theology and vital religion.

6. Appoint strong ministers who appreciate the student.

The World in New England

Amekica has been called the "Melting Pot" of the world and rightly so. And there are few if any sections of America where there is a larger per centage of immigrants than in New Eng- land. There are many who cannot go to foreign fields to do missionary work, though they are willing to be sent. Such can find foreign peoples from all over the world here in New Eng- land with whom to invest their lives.

THE SURVEY

109

OUR FIELD

or RESPONSIBILITY Sn. I MH I GRANT

NLW ENGLAND

110 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

^CHALLENGEOFTHEINNIGRANT.

NEW ENGLAND. TOTAL POPULATION 1910- 6.552,661

OF FOREIGN EXTRACTION -

3^67 095 OS 59^

NATIVE BORN BUT FOREIGN OR. MIXED PARENTAGE.

Are Our Plans Adequate ?

THE SUEVEY

111

112

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

oo ro

^-i	"■"vjO
LO	VQ
a\:	rr)
N	ro

ON a\

LO oO

I

CD	1		l_uJ
	( 3		CY-
CX		m
n c::> n		1 -i_j X > c9
	-zz	:>"i
	03	OJ	^
			<;_J?
	1 ...1	1 1 1	1 1 1

THE SURVEY

113

-v''

/ POP. l^iO, i J 742,371. '-

r-OrOREIGN EXTRACTION, fV 245';088 OR 3 5 % . j FOREIGN BORN, 110,133 or 14.8 %. i FOREIGN & MIXED PARENTA&E,

'I34,955o.l8.27o.

114

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

I

POP. 1910,542,^10.1

FOREIGN EXTRACTIOri,' ;

572,671 OR 68 %. ; rOREIGM BORN,

176,025 OR 32.8% FOREItNAnoMIXLD PAREMTAGL , I94;646 OR 55.9 °4

I ^_

/~

RHODE ISLAND

THE SURVEY

115

POP. 1^10- 430,&72.

FOREIGN EXTRACTIOfiV-.. \99,675 0^ 46.3 Y i FOREIGM BORN , %,558 OR 22.4- V,

fOREICMsMIXED PARENTAGE^''' 103,117 0,23.9'XJ

116

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

POP. 1910 - 35 5,956

FOREIG.N EXTRKCTlOn, 124,916 0^35 7o.

rOREl&H BORti, 49,861 orUX

FOREIGN ^ MIXED

PARENTAGcE,, 75,055o^2l.iy.

VERMONT

THE SURVEY 117

The United States Census makes three classifications of immigrants :

1. Foreign bom.

2. Native born of foreign parents.

3. Mixed parents.

I have totaled all foreign extraction that we might know what percentage of our total population is immigrant. Then I have classified separately the "foreign born" and as a third class the "native born of foreign born or mixed parentage."

That this section has been rightly named "The "World in New England" is substantiated by the following chart showing the actual nationalities in New England. The concluding state- ment "50 report, 19 others" means that 50 churches report 19 other nationalities not mentioned above.

The World in New England Number of

Churches Nationality

Reporting '

67 French in their community

97 ItaUans

65 Poles

31 Jews

22 Greek

18 Finns

46 Scandinavians

17 Armenians

29 Portuguese

22 Irish

15 Germans

12 Scotch

60 report 19 others. "All Are One in Christ Jesus."

The district superintendents were sent separate questionnaires to cover the district work, the correct report of which only they could give. The following chart was made from these reports :

118

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

Immigrant Work Done Report by District Superintendents Pieces

Nationality Lithuanians. . . Armenians ....

Greeks

Syrians

Turks

Pieces of Work

Nationality of Work

Italians 4

Chinese 2

Norwegians 3

Danes 3

French 3

Germans 4

The preceding chart tells about distinctive work for immi- grants. The following chart informs us as to what work is being done for immigrants by the local churches. Is there any good reason why the 50 per cent now doing nothing for the immi- grant in their community should be excused? The church must not forget to minister to all.

How Churches Help the Immigrant 252 Report immigrants. 106, or 42%, Assist them. 38 Personal work. 15 Special service 17 Children in Sunday School- 7 Money.

4 Special workers.

5 Support special worF, . "Ye Do It Unto Me."

District Superintendents Recommend Much More Extensive Work for Immigrants OP THE Following Nationalities Jews. Portuguese.

Germans. Norwegians.

Italians Armenians.

Poles. Syrians.

Danes. French.

Swedes. Turks.

Greeks.

in these lines;

evangelistic, educational, institutional. personal work.

THE SUEVEY 119

These recommendations are made by the leaders of our church who know New England. Here is an opportunity for home mis- sionary agencies.

The immigrant of to-day will be the citizen of to-morrow. What kind of a citizen he will be depends upon the sources from which he gets his education in American citizenship. Many an immigrant has become a bad citizen because he received this instruction in the grog shop, or from some agency no less com- mendable. This is most deplorable. It is vicious to American standards of morality. The church is the moral dynamo of the community. It should provide, supervise, or arrange for proper instruction for this foreigner anxious to become ac- quainted with the principles of American democracy. As the church thus ministers to the immigrant she ministers to her nation — but also to herself. Instruction in citizenship provides a point of contact through which the church may infuse the principles of Jesus Christ. Many a stranger to American life and to Christ has been led to noble citizenship and a genuine fellowship with his Master through citizenship classes. The fol- lowing chart is one which ought to impel every church in New England to do its best for the new American.

HAVE YOU CITIZENSHIP CLASSES?

OUT OF 637 REPORTS

ONLY S2

CHURCH AND COMMUNITY CLASSES

WERE REPORTED.

WHO IS TO INSTRUCT

OUR IMMIGRANTS

IN CITIZENSHIP?

New England Methodism and World' Christianization

One of the objectives of the Policy and Continuation program is, "Increase in benevolence offerings, the apportionments in full as a minimum, and the goal 'As much for others as for our- selves.' " Just how well we are at present reaching the goal

120 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

established here we can ascertain by a careful examination oi the following charts.

How We Give Study for All New England — 1914

Total Ministerial Support $877,878.00

Average per Appointment 918 . 28

Total Benevolences 300,901 .00

Average per Appointment 326.71

$1.00 FOR YOU. $3.00 FOR ME.

How We Give East Maine Conference

Total Ministerial Support $94,490.00

Average per Appointment 674 . 92

Total Benevolences 12,249.00

Average per Appointment 93. 60

$1.00 FOR YOU. $7.00 FOR ME.

How We Give Study for Maine Conference — 1914

Total Ministerial Support $88,766.00

Average per Appointment 788 . 64

Total Benevolences 21,478.00

Average per Appointment 188 . 40

$1.00 FOR YOU. $4.00 FOR ME.

How We Give Study for Vermont — 1914

Total Ministerial Support $84,098.00

Average per Appointment 683 . 72

Total Benevolences 24,493.00

Average per Appointment 202 . 04

$1.00 FOR YOU. $3.50 FOR ME.

How We Give

Study for New England Southern

Total Ministerial Support $181,159.00

Average per Appointment 943 . 53

Total Benevolences 60,137.00

Average per Appointment 326.83

$1.00 FOR YOU. . $3.00 FOR MB.

THE SUEVEY 121

How We Givb '

Stvdy for New Hampshire — 1914

Total Ministerial Support $102,911 .00

Average per Appointment 740.36

Total Benevolences 32,152.00

Average per Appointment 239 ,94

$1.00 FOR YOU. $3.00 FOR ME.

How We Give New England Conference — 1914

Total Ministerial Support $326,472.00

Average per Appointment 1,316 . 41

Total Benevolences 150,122.00

Average per Appointment 633 . 42

$1.00 FOR YOU. $2.00 FOR ME.

I have arranged these charts in the ascending order "for others," for the purpose of encouragement. The New England Conference is coming nearest to the goal.

There may be a question as to the method employed in this study. We have compared the total Benevolences with the total ministerial support, i. e., for pastor, district superintendent. Bishops and Conference Claimants. I am informed that it is customary to compare benevolence gifts with all local expend- itures, such as current expenses, upkeep of buildings and new construction, besides total ministerial support. Of course if that had been done in this study the proportion for ourselves would have been very much higher.

You may ask why we made comparisons by appointments rather than by members. We did this for several reasons, one of which was that we might not blame faithful resident mem- bers for the delinquencies of nonresident members. Another was to emphasize the local church rather than the unit in the church. However, for those who are interested in knowing how much the average member gave for benevolences the following fact is pertinent: Excluding nonresident members, $2.80 per member. Including nonresident members $2.41 per member.

122 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

MissioNAET Education

"Our knowledge of Missions is a measure of our Christian attainment." — H. C. Mabie. "The reason why so many churches accomplish so little for the world's evangelization is because they have no adequate plan and because they have not enlisted the leadership of men combining business sense and missionary spirit." — John E. Mott.

With these two Christian leaders' statements in mind let us study the following charts of conditions as they exist in our churches.

Have You Mission Classes? 180 say "Yes." Average enrollment, 13.6%.

398, or 69%, have no classes. missionary zeal comes through education.

Methods of Educating Church in Missions

431 say	Preaching.
160 say	Literature.
116 say	Classes.
26 say	Special Speaker.
16 have	No Methods.
67 do not report.

In this chart there is of course duplication as some churches used several methods.

MissiONABT Education — Men at Work

'' "' Churches Doing

Conference Report- Male Personal Per

ing Members EvangeUsm Cent

New England 153 8,938 162 1.8

New England Southern 109 3,699 65 1.4

New Hampshire 43 1,556 15 1

Vermont 68 2,323 68 3

Maine 54 1,804 115 6.3

East Maine 60 1,347 9 .6

487 19.667 434 2.3 IS this adequate?

THE SURVEY 133

New England Methodism and Community Christianization

A MiNiMTJM Community Program I. Efficiency in Relief Work.

Avoid All Duplication of Effort. Place a Friendly Visitor in Every Needy Home. Demand the Highest Efficiency in Local Institutions and Co- operate to Secure It. II. Moral Protection of Childhood.

Prohibit Street Trading and Night Work. Eliminate the Liquor Traffic and Organized Vice. Supervise Commercialized Amusements. Provide Constructive Recreation. III. Improvement of Industrial Conditions. One Day's Rest in Seven. A Minimum Wage. Shorter Hours for Women.

In light of the above program submitted by Prof. Harry F. Ward, Methodism's Social Service Secretary, let ns carefully estimate the following reports of our own churches:

Eliminate the Liquor Traffic and Organized Vice fighting the saloon

159 Churches report 2,754 Saloons

in their communities,

or 17 Saloons per Church.

441 Churches report No Saloons.

Weapons in Use: 104 use Anti-Saloon League.

38 "	Special Meetings.
68 "	Temperance Sermons.
85 "	Ballot.
29 "	Petitions and Pledges.
31 J'	Personal.
36 "	W. C. T. U.

159 churches report 17 saloons per church. This means Meth- odist churches. Of course, there are many other churches of other denominations, but each Methodist church must help fight 17 saloons.

124 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

Fighting Vice

21 Churches report Definite Attack in Vice

by Church and Communitv.

METHODS used:

Personal Work.

Federation.

Civic League.

Preaching Purity,

Law Enforcement.

What About Sex Instruction?

home. school.

Serving the Community Through Community Service Programs

Moral Reform | o?ganized°At^aKSmorality.

66 report j^ Educating PubUc Sentiment.

Tji-i .1 f Nurses and Associated Charities.

Q« n? ^'^^ J Special Workers and Societies. renS ^^^^^ ^^^^ Clothing,

report [ Personal Work.

(Lectures. Night Classes. Entertainment. t Vacation School

Recreation /AK'™"

This chart tells us how the churches are now trying to serve

the conununity — a splendid study in method. Ought there not

to be more churches engaged in these kinds of community

service ?

Assisting the Delinquent:

"I Was in Prison"

60, or 8%, of the Churches are

Aiding

Juvenile DeUnquents

and

Discharged Prisoners

through

1. Personal Work.

2. Securing Employment.

3. Sunday School.

i. Money and Food, Clothing.

the neglected first offender becomes the habitual criminal.

THE SUEYEY 125

"Yb Visited Me" 210 Churches report 101 Churches Visit Hospitals. 67 " " Poor Houses.

24 " " Jails.

60 " " PubUc Institutions.

303, or 59%, report no Visits. They Provide Religious Services. Personal Evangelism. Flowers, Comfort, Good Cheer. -

"59 per cent report no visits." Of course, not all of these 59 per cent are in the vicinity of such institutions, and could make no calls if they wanted to.

Eelief Wokk:

"Inasmtjch!" Out of 637 reports 205, or 30%, report a poor fund. 70 Leave its Administration to the Pastor or Treasurer. 13 to a Committee. 103 Report No System. 214 Churches are Spending for Relief Work f 15,384, or $73 Each.

The Discipline calls for a definite poor fund in every church. Apparently not all churches find it convenient to follow discip- linary instructions. Certainly, no church should fail to have a special committee to administer such poor funds as it collects. Every church should be businesslike.

Eeceeation :

Who Guides the Spirit of Youth? 476 Churches report in their communities 613 Dance Halls. 197 Theaters. 533 Picture Shows. 1,193 Pool Rooms. Many of these run six nights per week, of 637 Churches reporting 17 report Provision for Athletics. 19 " Club Amusement. 13 " Socials. 16 " Entertainment and Socials.

126

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

SALOOIV POOL ROOM

OPEfV

WHflTS dom

WHERE CAN VQUNG PEOPLE GO ?

OPE/y eOR7 /YI&HT5 PER WEEK.

129 orG5.4^ theatres 330 OR 62 % PICTURE SHOWS 993 OR 83.2% POOL^OOm

56 OR I IV. CHURCHES /^REOPEN 6or7/V1GHT5 PER WEEK 139 OR 2 If, n .. .. 4I^I^HTS PER WEEK

2 SCHOOLS ARE 0?E\^ 6 .. ...

I SCHOOLS .. ., 5NIGHT3

3 .. 0PE[14niGHT5p»Wt[K

DANCES THEflTRfS

LI&HT

SCHOOL DARK

270 OPEM NOm&HTS

THE SUEYEY 127

This chart suggests the large number of commercialized amusement places. Compare this with the small number of churches providing amusement or recreation. If the commer- cialized recreations were wholesome the church would be under no obligation to furnish such recreation save for its own end. Under present conditions, however, the church must do one of two things, either insist on pure, constructive commercialized recreation, or else provide some kind of recreation itself. The young will have recreation, where will they get it? It is for the church to answer this question honestly.

Compare here the large proportion of commercialized amuse- ment places that are open 6 or 7 nights a week with the propor- tion of churches that are open from 4 to 7 nights. Then notice the very small number of school buildings that are open 4 or 5 nights, also the large number that are never open save for spe- cial occasions.

Why should not the school buildings and churches be open for use for our young people ? The school building is dark, the church is locked when the young man or woman wants recrea- tion, but not so with commercialized amusements. Their doors are open and their buildings light and inviting. We can begin to conserve our youth for true manhood and womanhood by utilizing available public buildings for healthy recreation.

The Working World The first chart following is the result of a special study worked out by Eev. R. E, Scully, of South Walpole. One of the church's greatest opportunities to-day is to infuse the spirit of Jesus Christ into both employer and employee, and to convince both classes that she stands impartially for social righteousness. What some of our churches are doing in this field can be gathered from the second following chart:

138

NEW ENGLAND METHODISK

THE CHALLENGE OF LABOR

IN ATOWH OF 5400

Average Salary Corapared With Average Wage.

WAGE

^525,18^36^

SaLA-KV |.|4-83.:2B

I3SW0RK MORE THAN TEN HOURS A DAY

15% WORK SEVEN DAYS A WEEK

MINIMUM LIVING STANDARD FDR FAMILY — »I3.50

Only 47/^ Get It

II3.SO

THE SUEVEY 139

The Workinq World Out of 637 Churches, 39, or 6%, try- To Interest the Industrial Wage Earner or Farmer by:

1. Grange.

2. Special Services.

3. Personal Work.

4. Lectures.

5. Socials.

6. Garden Contests.

7. Men's Classes.

Why should not every church have a definite community pro- gram through which it could interest all classes of people in the Christ who must be made Lord of all life, industrial, recreational, professional, domestic, educational, and religious? To accom- plish this, intelligent knowledge of present social conditions is necessary. There are few if any agencies which better supply this information than do "Social Service Classes." What pro- portion of our churches have such classes can be ascertained from the following chart.

Have Yotj Social Service Classes?

509 Churches report,

61 report classes.

Average Enrollment, 15.

448, or 88%,

Have NO Classes.

Matt. 25. 31-46.

COMMUNITY STUDIES The Church Builds the Rural Community

BY

Stimulating Better Farming.

Securing Schools Efficiently Adapted to Country Life.

Developing Social Life and Recreation as Forces for Moral Development.

Improving Living Conditions and Removing Poverty of Life.

Advocating Improved Means of Communication and Transportation.

Unifying Religious Forces in Federated Action.

A number of special investigators made vital contributions to the Survey through special studies. These were:

130 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

1. Francis Taylor, Wakefield, Mass.

2. William Shaw, Montpelier, N. H.

3. T. A. Conrad, Ashburnham, N. H.

4. R. E, Scully, South Walpole, Mass.

5. J. N. Geisler, Tolland, Conn.

6. Edward C. Strout, Nashua, N. H.

7. Arthur H. Withee, Old Mystic, Conn.

8. K. R. Thompson, East Weymouth, Mass.

9. A. A. Pittman, Essex, Mass.

Parts of some of these special studies were sho^vii at the con- vention, such as the following:

Why a Community of 1,600 Is Decadent

1. Decreasing Population.

9J^% in 5 years.

2. Decreasing Industries.

a. Centralization of Industry.

b. Lack of Initiative.

3. Depleted Farms.

a. Summer Residents. ^ ■ b. Indolence.

c. Farms not kept up.

4. Extreme Conservatism,

Why Young People Leave a Community of 1,600

1. No Stimulus to Leadership.

2. No Economic Attraction.

a. No Industries.

b. Agriculture on Decrease.

c. Property Owned by Few.

3. Inadequate Social Facilities.

a. In Home.

b. Group Life.

c. In Community Recreation.

4. Proximity to City.

Social Life in a Community of 1,600

1. Lack of Community Center.

a. Playgrounds.

b. Organized Play.

2. Lack of Constructive Recreation.

a. Physical — as Athletics.

b. Intellectual — as Literary and Music.

3. Home Life Unattractive.

a. Lack of Modern Conveniences.

b. No Effort to Provide Recreation.

THE SUEVEY

131

Religious Conditions in a Community op 1,600

15% belong to Churches. 20% attend Church. Because of

1. Pastoral Inattention.

2. Pastor's Failure in Community Leadership.

3. Indifferent Laymen.

These four charts suggest conditions many of which are pre- valent in other communities. They have not been made in the spirit of criticism, but rather to suggest needed community improvements. Here is the church's opportunity as well as her responsibility. She must minister to all phases of community as well as individual life. If farms are not kept up, the rural community is out of tune with God, and it is the church's mis- sion to tune the community with God by stimulating God-like farming. So with every department of life.

The Survey recommends that every pastor make a similar study of his community. It is concise, definite, concrete, and businesslike. If it is thoroughly prepared it will often win the attention and support of community leaders.

Field	Agencies at Work	Urgent Needs |
CsoLD Welpabe.	Churches. Boys' Clubs. Girls' Clubs. Library.	For Southern Section of Town. 1. Manual Training in School. 2. 7 and 8 Grades in School. 3. Apparatus on Playgrounds. 4. Kindergarten and Library. 5. Hall for Boys' and Girls' Work. For All Sections. 1. Curfew. 2. Purchase of Land for Future Parks.
Chabitids.	Overseers of Poor. Lend a Hand Club. Women's Cluba. Visiting Nurse Association. G. A. R. Women's Relief Corps. Churches. Fraternal Orders.	Friendly Visiting. Money.

132

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

Field	Agencies at Work	Urgent Needs
Health AND HonsiNQ.	Board of Health. Department of Public Service. Visiting Nurse Association.	School Nurse. Public Lectures on Hygiene. Hospital. Clean Up of Some Tenements. More Rigid Inspection of Home". Drainage of Some Ponds.
Labor.	Trade Unioua.	One Day's Rest in Seven. Minimum Living Wage. More Factories. Industrial Efficiency. Work for Unemployed. Shorter Day in Stores.
Prisoner.	Suspended Sentence. Truant School.	New Lock-up in Center.
Civics.	Board of Trade. Men's Club. Improvement Federation.	Suppress Illegal Liquor Selling. Closing of Open Sunday Stores. Watchful Eye on Dancers. Progressive Voters. Law Enforcing Officials. Better Streets and Roads.

A Town of Five Hundred

Child Welfare.	Two Churches. One School. W.C.T.U. Young Men's Association.	Law Enforcement on Liquor Traffic. Social Center and Library.
Charity.	Two Churches Doing Little Indi- vidual Relief. Two Sunday Schools Doing Little.	Cooperative Plan of Relief. Solve Transportation Problem. Friendly Visiting.
Health.	Health Officer ^\ of Time. Only a Blind Physician Within Three Miles.	Sewerage System. City Water. Sanitation Inspection.
Labor.	No Movement.	Shorter Day in Stores. Better Wages to Laborers.
Cmca.	No Agencies at Work.	Civic Organization. Progressive Officials. Progressive Voters.

THE SUEVEY

133

The Survey also recommends the two following charts as it does the two above. On the credit side put all community assets for the building of character. On the debit side all agencies which may mar or tend to destroy character.

The Child in Account with

Cr. One Church. One Sunday School. Town Library. One Grammar School. One High School. Epworth League. Church Library.

Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls. Field Days. Woods and Lake. School Playground. Skating, Baseball, etc.

The Child in Account with

Cr. 3 Churches. 3 Sunday Schools. 1 Grammar School.

1 Academy.

2 Young People's Societies. Lecture Course. Orchestra and Chorus. Academy Athletics. Public Library. Playground.

Lake and Woods. Boy Scouts and Clubs. Knights of King Arthur.

A Community of 500 Dr. Sunday Work and Pleasure. Speeding Automobiles. Adult Smokers. Tonic.

Siunmer Resort. Dancing (largely segregated) . Profanity. Immorality. Intemperance.

A Community of 900 Dr.

1 Pool Room.

2 Dance HaUs. 4 Blind Tigers.

1 Immoral House. Much Sunday Work. Sunday Amusements. Profanity. Moving Pictures.

2 Inns and 1 Club. With Federal License. Drunkenness.

Cliurch EflBciency and Evangelism

It is never pleasant to look uncomplimentary facts straight in the face. Such facts, however, are a great stimulus to the fair-minded, conscientious man. They arouse him to action. They put steel into his will. He determines to better conditions.

134 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

And when we have 160,000 Methodist people making such resolutions some of the following facts will become a danger signal for the future. However, by no means all the facts are uncomplimentary.

Results

Six New England Conferences

Membership in 1903, 114,506

Membership in 1913, 123,587

Gain, 9,081

Average per year, 908

Gain, 1913-1914, 754, or 6%

Average Year Gain, 7.8%

This chart considers only the six New England Conferences. We have confined ourselves to these six Conferences because of the difficulty in getting accurate facts from the partial districts of other Conferences in our New England territory.

This chart shows a loss in membership over the average yearly gain of the past ten years. Last year our gain was 6 per cent against 7.8 per cent, the average yearly gain during the last ten years. The credit for the gain, however, falls to two Con- ferences, as the following indicates:

Loss OR Gain, 1913-1914

Lost Gained

New England Southern 128

East Maine 327

Maine 65

New Hampshire 20

Vermont 193

New England 1,101

540 1,294

Total gain, 754

It is worthy to notice, however, that whereas we gained 754 full members and probationers, we gained also 2,060 nonresident members, which makes an actual net loss of 1,306 in actual resi- dent membership. Eight in this connection it is in place to mention the large number of nonresident members.

THE SUEVEY 135

Nonresident Members 17,283 or 14%

WHERE DO THESE COUNT?

The Survey recommends that these nonresident members be followed with a letter urging them to join the church of the community in which they now reside, and another letter sent to the pastor of that church urging him to get into immediate per- sonal touch with these nonresident members.

10% Increase for Every Church Total Churches Reporting, 430

Showing Gains 292, or 68%

Standing StiU 102, or 23.7%

Showing Loss 36, or 8.3%

This chart covers all churches of all sizes, whereas the chart below distinguishes between churches over a hundred members and those under a hundred members. The reason for thus classifying the churches was that we might ascertain whether the weaker churches really produce smaller proportional results. If they do, and the facts bear out such an assumption, it would seem that wherever two small churches might be federated that ought to be done for the added advantage in building the king- dom of God. There are of course many other reasons why the smaller church accomplishes fewer visible results.

10% Increase for Every Church

Churches Over 100

219 reporting

Showmg Gains 170, or 77.6%

Standing Still 36, or 16.4%

Showing Loss 13, or 6. %

Churches Under 100 211 reporting

Showing Gains 122, or 57.8%

Standing StiU 66, or 31.2%

Showing Loss 23, or 11. %

THIS IS suggestive!

136

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

ARE OUR CHURCHES FUU?

CHURCHES REPORTING 62B

Average Seating Capacity

lieoibership %% Of Seating Cipacit/. Morning Attendance &l% Of Membership. Evenif^ Attendance 46% Of Membership.

Average

Mfmbershlp AVERAGE

.aI;- p.m.

AN EVENING SERVICE

Is This Yours?

This is one of the most important charts of our entire study. Note carefully the figures of this chart, and think (1) of the waste in building space which is not occupied; (3) of the small percentage of the membership that attends the evening service. Why should not the evening service be made so attractive to the unchurched people of the community that they will fill up the empty space?

THE SUEYEY 137

The Product in Leaders 637 churches reported producing in 10 years

Ministers 219

Foreign Missionaries 37

Deaconesses 101

Nurses 301

Social Service Workers Ill

City Mission Workers 49

Others 162

IT TAKES BUT

J^7 MEMBERS EACH 1S8

10 YEARS MEMBERS

TO PRODUCE USES

ONE MINISTER

The test of the virility of the church lies in its ability to pro- duce its leaders. Methodism has prided herself in being able to provide adequate leadership for her own church, and then spare some for sister churches which were not so fertile. According to this chart New England provides just a little over one out of every three ministers that she uses.

Perhaps the reason why some churches stand still, or lose ground, and are unproductive of ministers and other Christian leaders is because many of the male members of the church are not actively engaged in Christian work. Unless every male member is at work the church's efficiency is not at its highest.

Lay Evangelism

' Churches Male

Conference Reporting Members

New England 153 8,938

New England Southern 109 3,699

New Hampshire 43 1,556

Vermont 68 2,323

Maine 54 1,804

East Maine 60 1,347

Total 487 19,667 878 4.5

Doing
Personal	Per
Evan-	Cent
gelism
373	4
147	4
77	5
88	4
135	7
58	4

138

NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

How Long Will It Take Us ?

The above table is a detailed report of laymen engaged in evangelism for the six Conferences. The percentage of men active in evangelism here is a little higher than in the study for all Nevr England. Why cannot every "Philip find a Nathanael" and go on record as a lay evangelist? Let us profit by the Wichita movement. The following chart covers the entire New England area :

DO OUR NEN WORK?

\^^^^

IN .

Church Societies 31 f*

fVrsonal Evangelism

3% .

Miss. Edueation

^4361

WhERE DO YDU COUNT?

Methodism has ever sounded a distinct evangelistic note. Without it she would not have become the mighty religious organization that she is. To-day genuine evangelistic passion

THE SURVEY

139

THE PROBLEM

507 CHURCHES REPORTING

IN CHURCH I IM DIFFERENCE

LACKOFVISIOM YOUMG PEOPLE

IN THE COMMUNITY AMUSEMENT

LIQUOR

FOREIGNERS LACKofEMPLOYMENT

DE-POPULKTIOH

SftBBATH DESECRATION

WILL THESE

PROBLEMS BE

HERE WHEN THIS MAN WAKES UP?

140^' NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

is n^less imperative. What particular methods to employ in evangelfstic - effort no one dare arbitrarily dictate. But every Christian man with the Christ passion for souls has a right to insist that every church have some one method or combina- tion of methods which produces results. What methods some of our churches employ the following chart tells:

Methods of Evangelism

Number of Preachers Reporting 568

No Report 69

Doing Personal Work 258

Special Services 199

Outside Evangelist 60

Other Methods Used

Special Lay Workers 945, or 4.5%

Gospel Teams 15

Decision Day 28

The New England Problems and Eesponsibilitt The final question of our questionnaire asks for the chief prob- lems of the church and community. The chief problems re- ported are found in the chart on page 139. They rank in impor- tance according to their position of the chart. Indifference is the most stupendous problem. With every man acting, "Onward, Christian soldiers ! Marching as to war," many of our present problems will be a thing of history.

Methods Used in Meeting These Problems

1. Interesting Services.

2. Providing Wholesome Recreation and Social Life.

3. Educating Pubhc Sentiment.

4. Preaching Vital Gospel.

5. Fighting ImmoraUty.

6. Making Church the Social Center.

7. Organizing La5Tnen into Working Forces.

8. Federation.

9. Advertising.

10. Personal EvangeUsm.

Now having considered methods, it is eminently fitting that we should close with our Eesponsibility. The following studies were worked out from the Religious Census of 1906 reports. These reports were used because they are the latest complete reports. Our responsibility is no less to-day.

THE SUEVEY

OUR RESPONSIMUTir IH NASSACHUSEnS

FIGURES OF 1906

f^

METHODIQM'S

-TASK

59,702

14-%

Responsibilitij In

Unchurched Population 426.448

EVERY METHODIST OUGHT TO WIN Z OTHERS FOR CHRIST

143 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

OUR RESPONSIMLmriS NAME

FIGURES FOR 1906

Ti^ ijMBprltestent

Responsibility In Unchurched Population 226,680

EVERY METHODIST OUGHT TO WIN 3 OTHERS TO CHRIST

THE SURVEY 143

OUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONNECTICUT

FIGURES FOR 1906

fle9pon9JbilitD In Unchurched Population 96^20

EVERY METHODIST OUGHT TO WIN I OTHER FOR CHRIST

144 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

(MM KSPONSMUmVEMMir

FIGURES FOR 1906

flesponsibilitij In Unchurched Population 88 J 67

EVERT NETHOMSr

OUGHT TO WIN 2 OTHERS TO CHRIST

THE SUEVEY 145

OUR RESPONSIMUTY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

FIGURE9 FOR 1906

i&B'wSM^

Responsibilitii In

Unchurched Population 81,706

EVERY METHODIST 0U6HT TO WIN 2 OTHERS

FOR CHRIST

146 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

OUR RESPOMSIBILITY FOR RHODE ISLAND

FIGURES FOR 1906

f^L^Spr^nt

proi

Responsibility In

Unchurched Pbpulation 54,613

EVERY METHODIST OUGHT TO WIN I OTHER FOR CHRIST

ACTUALIZING THE PROGRAM

The Policy

Adopted by the Convention Friday Evening

1. Organized personal evangelism — every member with a definite task.

2. A program of community service — something accomplished in com- munity betterment each year.

3. Increase in benevolence offerings, the apportiormient in full as the minimum, and the goal "As much for others as for ourselves."

4. An effective program in each church for the whole life of young people from their recreations to their hfe-work.

5. Sunday school efficiency.

6. Aggressive and sympathetic work for our immigrant population.

7. The Bible, a Methodist Hymnal, a Methodist paper, and a family altar in every home.

Resolutions

The Convention placed itself on record relative to the great movements of to-day, and declared itself emphatically concerning some of the evils that curse society. In a series of strong resolutions it sounded a clear note on Sabbath observance, temperance, peace, social service, steward- ship, federation, and education, called upon our district superintendents to make an intimate study of the whole non-EngUsh-speaking question, with an eye to a constructive and comprehensive program for this type of work, indorsed the campaign for a $5,000,000 fund for Conference Claim- ants, and sounded the slogan, "A Methodist paper in every home."

Making a Community Survey

EeV. H. J. BUKGSTAHLER

The Survey of New England Methodism will have been in vain unless each local church of New England profits by its findings and recommendations. Many churches are anxious to improve local conditions but are at a loss to know how to proceed. For this reason the following suggestions are submitted:

1. Study your entire community. Your church cannot min- ister intelligently unless it is intimately acquainted with the conditions of the community. Get the facts down in black and white. Never take things for granted. Never rely on opinions.

147

148 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

Many churches think they know their community, but unless they have made a careful survey of the community they have only general knowledge which is of little real value.

Now you ask what shall we know about the community ? The best answer to this is given by a pamphlet entitled "What Every Church Should Know About Its Community." This pamphlet was prepared by the Methodist Federation for Social Service and is used by various denominations. Send five cents in stamps to The Methodist Federation for Social Service, 2512 Park Place, Evanston, 111.

The survey recommends the following in addition to that asked by the pamphlet :

1. Make a complete religious census of the entire com- munity to discover how many people belong to the churches of the community.

2. How many people belong to churches outside of the com- munity.

3. How many are members of no church but have a distinct church preference.

4. How many do not belong to any church and have no preference.

5. How many and what children attend no Sunday school. Who is to make this survey? If the community has several

churches, as most communities have, it is well to have all churches work together in the gathering of these facts. Get the most intelligent and fair-minded leaders of each church. Give them careful instructions as to how they should proceed. Have two go together in the canvass. Give these two one distinct sec- tion or piece of work to do. Then carefully supervise them in their work. If there is a survey expert in the community put the direction of the survey in his hands.

When the Survey has been made each church should know the following facts in detail: I. 1. Church Strength.

2. Church Needs.

3. Church Opportunities and Possibilities.

ACTUALIZING THE PROGEAM 149

II. 1. Community Assets.

2. Community Liabilities.

3. Community Needs and Possibilities.

Constituency Roll

When the survey has been completed the church will be in a position to make a careful constituency roll. This roll should consist of the names of the following people :

1. All people in the community who belong to a Methodist church outside of the community.

2. All people who report Methodist preference.

3. All parents or guardians of Sunday school scholars who do not belong to the church.

4. All occasional visitors to the church or young people's services.

5. All unchurched people in the community.

To get these into the kingdom of God is the church's business. To do this every layman should be a lay evangelist. The pastor can spend time to no better advantage than training his laymen in methods of lay evangelism. A strong field organization of lay workers is of great assistance to the pastor. It effects system, definiteness, and produces remarkable results.

Methodism's Minimum Goal and How to Reach It

Bishop Theodoee S. Hendekson

evekt chaege peoducing an annual minimum net gain of ten pee cent in full membership, secueed theough an

OPEN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ChEIST AS PERSONAL SaVIOUE AND

LoED. This should be the immediate and minimum evangelistic goal for Methodism.

THE VALUE OF A DEFINITE PEOGEAM

Inefficiency is due largely to indefiniteness. Definiteness in spiritual experience is necessary to spiritual effectiveness. Noth- ing can be real in the spiritual life until it is definite. It is

150 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

equally true with efficiency in service for Christ. A deiinitely outlined program, definitely stated to the church, is not only valuable, but indispensable to Christian efficiency. It would awaken and alarm many a minister if he were to ask the individ- ual members of the Quarterly Conference what the local church of which he is pastor is trying to accomplish. The indefinite replies would appall him. This is a plea that every pastor in Methodism present to his Quarterly Conference a definite pro- gram of activity for the entire Conference year, so that every member of the church will know precisely what the local leaders are endeavoring to accomplish, and what is to be the definite product without which they ought not to be satisfied. That is what every efficient church does in financial activities; wliy not be as definite in spiritual activities? It is at this point that we fail to accomplish largest results. A definite program similar to the one here outlined will insure the following definite results :

First, It will reveal to the membership the size and nature of our stupendous task for Christ, which is to capture the entire unsaved constituency of the local church for Christ.

Second, It will guarantee the spiritual leadership of the Quar- terly Conference, which is the largest unused spiritual asset in Methodism.

Third, It will secure the cooperation of the church member- ship by providing them with a task definitely assigned by the pastor and the Quarterly Conference.

Fourth, It will compel those who attempt this task to test definite, intercessory prayer for definite results in a daringly definite fashion.

Fifth, It will lead the pastor and his Quarterly Conference to adopt continuously every efficient method to win the unsaved to Christ and build them into the church.

THE POWEE OF A DEFINITE GOAL

Methodism ought not to be content with her increase in mem- bership during the past three quadrenniums. An annual gain never more than 2.7 per cent, and down in one year below 1 per

ACTUALIZING THE PROGEAM 151

cent of the full membership, should by no means Justify pride of achievement in the Methodist Episcopal Church, With 14,538 ministers in the effective relation; with a membership, including probationers, of 3,775,791; with a Sunday school army of 384,629 officers and teachers, and 3,992,907 scholars, of which, according to the Episcopal Address at the last General Conference, two thirds are not members of our church; with an investment of almost two hundred and fifty millions of dollars in church property and equipment; the returns of a 2 or 3 per cent gain are inadequate.

But some one asks, ''Why set a limit of 10 per cent in the annual net gain?" We do not set a limit; we suggest 10 per cent as a minimum goal. It is not a limit at all. The following figures have been tabulated for the net gain of Methodism since 1900:

Increase Per Cent

1901 23,351 .008

1902 48,061 .016

1903 31,623 .01

1904 38,203 .012

1905 78,171 .025

1906 86,232 .027

1907 72,751 .022

1908 . 72,309 .021

1909 65,022 .019

1910 63,741 .018

1911 32,116 .009

1912 64,190 .018

During this period no one has raised the issue that we were attempting to limit God. Is Methodism content with this per- centage gain? Does it take any less consecration and courage to gain 155,115 in 1913 than it does to gain 32,116 in 1911? If it takes no less spirituality to produce the larger gain, then at least 122,999 more people have been won to Christ and the church in 1913, and this result is worth praying for and toiling to secure. The net gain of Methodism in 1913 was 155,115, and from statistics now available it is estimated that in 1914 the

152 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

gain will go beyond 170,000. Would it mean that Methodism had less spiritual power if she should gain in the next year 350,- 000, a net gain of 10 per cent, than in the year 1913, in which she gained 155,115, or 4,2 per cent? The 10 per cent goal does not blanket responsibility; it locates it,

THE CONSTITUENCY KOLL FUNDAMENTAL

The peril of every Christian worker is to overlook the oppor- tunity immediately at hand and search for the distant duty instead of the nearby obligation. Our church and Sunday school records furnish us with an undiscovered, or, at best, unused evangelistic opportunity. A complete constituency roll should be made on the basis of the church and Sunday school records, as follows:

1. All unconverted husbands of wives who are members.

2. All unconverted wives of husbands who are members.

3. All unconverted children of members.

4. All unconverted parents of Children in Sunday school.

5. All unattached persons or families who are contributors, occasional attendants, or who are known to be unidentified with another church in the community.

This constituency roll must be made complete, as careless or incomplete work in making it will defeat the success of the pro- gram. A few scattered names picked up here and there will not answer the purpose. A pastor should take the complete church record and carefully tabulate the names of all unconverted per- sons represented by each household, and every such person con- stitutes a part of the legitimate unsaved constituency of Meth- odism, unless they definitely express a preference for some other church. Even then we should definitely endeavor to win them to Christ and recommend them to join the church of their choice, A haphazard, incomplete constituency roll will defeat a con- quering evangelistic program. Precisely the same plan should be followed with the complete Sunday school record as with the church record. Otherwise our choicest field of evangelistic endeavor is overlooked. Not only the Sunday school member-

ACTUALIZING THE PEOGRAM

153

ship but the Sunday school constituency should be tabulated. It will astound the pastor by its size ; it will challenge him with its unrivaled opportunity.

For the benefit of those not having a method of securing a roll it is suggested that a simple card should be used in the fol- lowing form:

Street

Between-

No.-

Floor

Name	State in Life	Relation to Church

In order to define clearly both state in life and relationship to the church, the following notation has been used, or any other notation can be used that will definitely define the religious status of the people. For example, use for state in life: M — married; W — widow or widower; S — single, over twelve; C — child under twelve. For the column on church relationship: M — full member; P — probationer; SS — member of Sunday school not member of church; 0 — member of no church, indi- cating a person not a Christian; X — member of another de- nomination; L — member of another Methodist church, indicat- ing a church letter to be secured. If a more detailed card system for tabulating the unsaved constituency is desired, the pastor or layman may write Rev. F. C. Potter, Cornish, Me., who has developed an efficient and complete card system for this purpose.

154 NEW EKGLAKD METHODISM

THE UNUSED SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP OF THE QUARTERLY CONFERENCE

When the constituency roll has been made, the district super- intendent or the pastor should call the Quarterly Conference together for consultation on the spiritual work of the church. In this Quarterly Conference is to be presented the constituency roll and the members of the Quarterly Conference brought face to face with the stupendous task of winning that unconverted constituency to Christ. Every member of the Quarterly Con- ference may be asked how many names he will take, for the pur- pose of calling on such persons immediately and asking them to give their hearts to God. Lack of definiteness as to people to be visited will be fatal. The call made is not to be social or financial or general, but with one specific purpose; of asking the person to become a Christian. The invitation extended is not to come to church, not to come to hear the pastor preach, not to join one of the organizations ; these invitations may follow later, but the one definite invitation is to come to Christ. Our ofiicial laymen must face their individual obligations of winning men to Christ before we can expect any real revival in the church.

In scores of places where pastors have claimed that laymen would not undertake this definite task of winning definite people to Christ, the writer has tested it with our official laymen, and with the regular membership, both men and women; and in every place there has been a gratifying response to the proposal. The definite proposal is that a definite name, or names, of unsaved people, with their addresses, are to be furnished by the pastor to the Christian worker with the request for a definite report. It is suggested that a minimum of one and a maximum of five names be given to each lay member, and that such lay member place these individuals upon his personal prayer list and then visit them individually, with the definite request that they surrender their lives to Jesus Christ.

After the Quarterly Conference has faced its definite task in

ACTUALIZING THE PEOGKAM 155

the constituency roll, and particular tasks in soul-winning have been assigned to the oflBciary of the church, then the pastor may proceed to secure volunteers from the church membership and congregation who will be willing to undertake similar tasks. Our people need to be taught that a few church leaders have no monopoly on the joy of leading others to Christ; that it is the birthright of every child of God, without respect to position or training. It was so in the beginning; it is so now. Here again it is seen that unless the pastor will provide definite tasks for definite people, he will not succeed in securing the coopera- tion of his people in individual work for individuals. In order to keep a record of those willing to cooperate with him, the pastor may use the following card :

REASONABLE SERVICE Because I believe that Methodism can meet the call for a ten-per- cent ADVANCE IN MEMBERSHIP;

Because I believe a membership campaign would be a great spirit- ual ASSET FOR MY OWN CHURCH;

Because I believe every Christian is entitled to know the joy of

HAVING won another TO Christ; Because I believe every friend of Christ will undertake this

WORK IF A definite TASK IS SET— AN ACTUAL NAME AND ADDRESS GIVEN.

Desiring to do this, as well as to see it done, I agree to secure

FROM MY PASTOR A LIST OF NAMES OF PERSONS WHOM I MAY LEAD

TO Christ, and I agree to begin work at once.

(These cards may be secured at cost from Eev. J. 0. Eandall, Secretary of the Commission on Evangelism, 530 Heed Build- ing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.)

DIKECT PUBLIC EVANGELISM

Without question Methodism has lost in many places the use of the direct public evangelistic appeal in the regular services

156 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

of the church for immediate and open acknowledgment of Christ. The churches in which such an appeal is heard with any regularity, followed by an opportunity for people to express their determination to accept Christ and unite with the church, are the exceptions, and not the rule. Methodism still believes that the gospel of Christ can save the least man, the lost man, and the last man in every community. Her gospel is not only for childhood, but for mature-minded men and women. She still believes in the necessity of conversion, in the reality of con- version, and in the immediate conversion of adult men and women; and the plea is here made for the restoration of that direct method of evangelistic appeal that will give men and women the opportunity publicly to accept of Christ, with the expectation on the part of the minister that there will be a response to that invitation on the part of those not in saved rela- tions with Jesus Christ. A plea is here registered for the restoration to Methodism of the public evangelistic plea at least once every Sunday in every Methodist pulpit. Such a uniform procedure will do much to restore evangelistic confidence in the regular ministry and laity of Methodism, which is fast waning, if not completely lost in many churches. If the plan of the constituency roll is carried out faithfully and definite soul-win- ning tasks assigned to definite people, such a plan will provide a definite people to hear the gospel on Sunday, and a definite opportunity in some form should be given for all such and others to declare openly their purpose to obey and serve Jesus Christ.

THE PKOTRACTED MEETING

The protracted meeting is not out of date or antiquated. There is need for it now in modern Methodism. With such a personal work program as is outlined in the making of the con- stituency roU and the responsibility of winning the unsaved to Christ divided among the Quarterly Conference and the work- ing membership; with a weekly public evangelistic appeal from the pastor, giving opportunity for those who are being visited by the membership openly to begin the Christian life, so that

ACTUALIZING THE PEOGRAM 157

when such unconverted people come to the church on Sunday they will have an opportunity to declare for Christ without embarrassment, but without any apology for the pastor doing the unusual thing in the regular services of the church; such a personal work program, followed by such a public evangelistic program, will compel the church to have a protracted meeting. It ought not to be omitted. It is invaluable. It commands the attention of the membership and constituency of the church to the main business of the Christian Church ; it becomes a rallying center for the weak and hesitant church member; it provides a favorable atmosphere in which to approach people about their relations to Christ; it fosters deep spiritual concern on the part of the followers of Christ for the unsaved; and by its repeated appeals impresses the unsaved people with the primary claims of Christ on their lives. In most stations or single churches the protracted meeting should be held for at least one month, which- ever month is most favorable for largest results. On country circuits the time best adapted to community conditions should be selected.

To all the churches of Methodism the following evangelistic program is suggested for all-the-teae-kound evangelism :

1. Eveey-Dat Evangelism^ or personal evangelism; as out- lined in the plan of reaching the unsaved constituency of Meth- odism on the basis of the constituency roll.

2. Eveey-Week Evangelism^ or perpetual evangelism, as outlined in the weekly public appeal for the unsaved publicly to accept Christ.

3. Eveey-Yeae Evangelism^ or protracted evangelism; giving a definite period, preferably one full month each year, to a protracted meeting.

No church can do the most effective evangelistic work that confines itself to any one of the three above-named methods. All three methods are essential to a standard evangelistic church. They supplement each other; they demand each other for high- est efficiency. Methodism would go forward with an amazing advance if they were universally adopted.

158 NEW ENGLAND METHODISM

CONVENTION OFFICIALS

Honorary President Bishop John W. Hamilton

Presiding Chairman Peesident L. H, Muelin

Chairman General Committee Eev. J. I. Baetholomew, D.D.

Secretary General Committee W. S. Dillon

Executive Committee

Eev. E. C. E. Doeion^ D.D., Chairman.

F. P. LucE^ Secretary.

C. E. Magee, Treasurer.

Eev. Dillon Beonson, D.D.

Eev. a, J. CouLTAs, D.D.

Eev. L. a. Nies, D.D.

Howaed a. Beewee.

Eev. John Lowe Foet, D.D., Executive Secretary,

H. B. Dickson, General Secretary.

Eev. Feed B. Fishee, D.D., Secretary Laymen's Missionary

Movement, Cooperative Secretary. Eev. a, J. CouLTAS, D.D., Chairman Committee on Eesolutions. Peof. H. F. Ward, General Director of Survey. Eev. H. J. BuEGSTAHLEE, In Charge of Survey.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY

1 17n D1D7D SfiT7

DORION New England Methodism