don't know a potato vine from a cabbage plant, nor an oak tree from a willow, and birds-well, they don't know a robin from a jay bird. How pleased they are when they are told. about birds and animal life and about the trees and plants and their usefulness. It means so much to get out and enjoy God's great open, with all the beautiful things in it. Our outings are becoming popular, and many of the adult members of the church and their friends are joining us and learning with the children. We have our problems one especially in Sunday work. The mills do not shut down, they go on forever; it would seem that they had discovered perpetual motion. What this means to a church membership made up of church workers cannot be appreciated until it is before one. On this account our Sunday morning services have a very small attendance. It is not only the man who Α' works in the mill who is unable to come to church, but the wife must have dinner on time and cannot be present. In spite of all, however, Puritan Church has a very fair membership. The midweek services are well attended and much appreciated. During Lent this service had a larger audience than the Sunday morning services. Easter week meetings were held every night except Saturday. We had record crowds and eighteen members came into our fellowship on Sunday as a result. Generally speaking, there is a feeling of satisfaction and an upward look for better things in the future. Puritan Church fills a large place in the hearts of many of our people, who in the stress and strain of every-day life find it a place of rest and inspiration. It stands for the enlargement of the work of the Kingdom on the South Side of the big steel city. THE SLOVAK WAY By Rev. Andrew Gavlik, Duquesne, Pa. T the annual meeting of this church we found that all bills had been paid, and that there was a balance in the treasury. The church willingly voted $200 more on the pastor's salary, making it $1,400. Our apportionment this year is $850, and the pledges so far returned show considerable increase over last season. At Christmas one of our young men was asked how many envelopes he needed. He answered, "Not one," and putting his hand into his pocket he handed me fifty-two dollars in cash, a dollar for each Sunday. If all our young men would do that, they would practically pay the amount pledged by the whole. church. Another encouraging and interesting incident is worth relating. Recently at Braddock I made some re marks on the Christian Endeavor subject for that Sunday "What Does Our Pledge Require?" After the meeting a lady came to me and handed me a fifty dollar bill. I inquired what it was for. She said, "It is one of my pledges for your church at Duquesne." She told me. that when that church was in process of erection, nineteen years ago, she had promised to give twentyfive dollars, but had not done so. She said the matter had often troubled her, and that after listening to the remarks on the Christian Endeavor topic, she had decided to pay it, and to give twice as much for interest. This was certainly a very pleasant surprise for the pastor and workers of the Duquesne church. It showed very conclusively that the truth is all powerful and that even after many years the heart and conscience will yield to it. Matured Conditional Gifts (12 months) $26,750.00. Last year same period $40,900.00 THE RECORD OF THE YEAR The fiscal year of the National Home Missionary Society closes March 31st. The above comparisons are based on the average of five years. If the figures of the preceding year were used, the increase in "Net Available for National Work" would be $24,289, and the decrease in legacies, $44,508, or a net loss of $20,229. The loss in legacies is distributed over several years through the Legacy Equalization Fund; so that the increase in receipts from the living was available for meeting in part the increased cost of living. This was a gain of approximately ten per cent in current income from all sources over the receipts of normal years, while the cost of living has risen seventythree per cent according to Government statistics. The consequences of this discrepancy have been, first, the lessening of work by between two hundred and three hundred home missionaries (including Constituent States); and second, the laying of heavier burdens on those who remain. The decrease in March is particularly disconcerting. We hope it does not indicate any disposition to withhold from regular contributions any part of what goes into the Congregational World Movement.. The Congregational Home Missionary Society has three main sources of income. Legacies furnish approximately forty seven per cent. Income from investments amount to fifteen per cent. Contributions from churches, societies and individuals afford substantially thirty eight per cent. For all but eighteen states the treasurer of The Congregational Home Missionary Society receives and expends these contributions. In those eighteen states, affiliated organizations administer home missionary work in co-operation with The Congregational Home Missionary Society. Each of these organizations forwards a percentage of its undesignated receipts to the national treasury. To each of these the national treasury forwards a percentage of undesignated contributions from each state respectively. The percentages to the Congregational Home Missionary Society in the various states are as follows: California (North), 122; California (South), 5; Connecticut, 50; Illinois, 25; Iowa, 25: Kansas, 5; Maine, 10; Massachusetts, 331/3: Michigan, 15; Minnesota, 5; Missouri 5; Nebraska, 72; New Hampshire, 47, New York, 10; Ohio, 13; Rhode Island, 20; Vermont. 28; Washington, 3; Wisconsin, 10. THE CONGREGATIONAL We hear good news of the growing enthusiasm of the churches regarding the Congregational Forward Movement. The Survey just published, showing the imperative needs of our missionary and educational work, at home and on foreign fields, leaves no doubt as to our duty. If we sincerely pray "Thy Kingdom Come" we must redouble our efforts and our gifts. Our Finnish church in Brooklyn has long been hindered by having no house of its own. It has found temporary shelter by renting quarters. In the summer it has worshipped in the open air. Now at last it has purchased an excellent church building which the Norwegians were giving up because it is too remote from their constituency. Our Finnish brethren feel like wilderness wanderers who have reached the Promised Land. We are always especially glad to lend a hand to a church at the gateway of a college campus. It touches the young life of the country. It may fill the minds of thousands with Christian ideals and principles. At Champaign, Illinois, our church is within a block or two of the State University with its thousands of students. We are co-operating with the churches of the state and the local church in securing an adequate building equipment for this great joint work for the community and university. At the March meeting the Executive Committee voted a parsonage loan to the Brooklyn Hills church of Greater New York, to be the home of Rev. Thomas Williams. This is the fourth time within six months we have had to come to the rescue of pastors in the Metropolis where housing conditions make it almost impossible to find rentals. We cannot leave ministers out upon the street in these troublous times. Twenty-seven applications for parsonage oans, from twenty states north and south, have been on our docket this winter. They carry an appeal which goes to the heart. They call for $34,000. Gladly would we help provide good houses for the wives and children of these pastors if we had the money. Nearly fifty years ago a church was organized. It was in a good community, and there were good and loyal people in the membership. They were not wealthy, and had but a modest meeting-house. Thinking the salary of a live aggressive pastor was too much to raise, they employed a retired minister of another denomination to supply the pulpit Sunday mornings, but there was no energetic leadership. The church ran down, and was on the point of disbanding. Along came a devoted, resolute, vigorous minister, bent on making the Kingdom of Heaven a reality, and with business sense enough to command the respect and following of bankers, merchants and lawyers. The church began to be thronged. With our aid the building was made beautiful. They needed a parsonage, and got it with our assistance. Now the church must have an adequate house of worship for its larger work. They are calling on us again for the helping hand. EVOLUTION OF A FRONTIER CHURCH By Rev. J. Cowman, Rockland, Idaho. (The Christian Endeavor Societies of our churches have sent us the money to help complete many churches. In Rockland, Idaho, is one of these "Christian Endeavor churches," and the young people will be glad to read this story of the development of the religious life of this frontier community. We have recently helped to provide a good parsonage for this pastor.) 66 in N the beginning" for all things must have a beginning-life was very primitive in this part of Idaho. The religious life of Rockland Valley began about forty years ago, when the Mormons began to drift from their Zion and great stronghold in Utah. The country was under the dominion of the red men then. The Bannocks, Snakes and Blackfoot Indians claimed this as their country and many is the tale that can be told by the old cattlemen of the Indian raids and mas sacres. A FRONTIER CHURCH Just a few miles from us where Rock Creek empties into the Snake River is a place called Massacre Rock. A rough rocky place it is, where the road which was then called the "Oregon Trail" winds through a narrow defile. Great rocks stood up on end in all shapes and sizes on either side of the road. This was an ideal place for the Indians to waylay travelers, and once a whole wagon train was caught in this place and all murdered. Only one man escaped. Until a few years ago the irons of the wagons could still be seen sticking up out of the sand where the Indians had piled up the wreckage and burned it. It was under such conditions as these that the Mormons formed a colony here and lived close together |