158 Concert of Prayer The Mormons. For Church Work at Home JANUARY, . The evangelization of the great West. APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, Our Missionaries. Results of the Year's Work. THE MORMONS. [August, system in one sense narrows the range of our Collegiate Institute, which has been, from the first, the leading school in Utah, but it leaves it still the best academy for higher school training, and the opening prospect of a Presbyterian college on a separate foundation in the near future Our Foreign Population. puts the Collegiate Institute in the welldefined and indispensable function of a Ligh-grade preparatory school. This renews and intensifies the demand for its larger equipment with all needed appliances, especially a new building, for which it has been waiting for years, including dormitory room to accommodate students from other parts of the Territory, in addition to the city pupils, which it can accommodate already. There is a great desire to have this building finished in order to the full opening of the school in September next. The foundation has already been erected at a cost of $3,000. We need $15,000 to complete the building. It would be a noble and timely benefaction if some rich and generous Presbyterian would at once complete this building, and, if he chooses, put his name upon it. With the most efficient corps of teachers and trustees which the Institute now has, nothing could check its effective and successful career, and no school in Utah could probably rival it. We do most earnestly hope that this may appeal to some friend of Christian education in the West, and move him to carry out this attractive enterprise. On the way to Portland the writer stopped over a day at Salt Lake City. Nearly four years had elapsed since his last visit, and thus there was a specially good chance to note and measure change and improvement and growth. Some gains were visible at once-the very large increase of the city's area, the splendid new Knutsford Hotel, the handsome new stone building in which the courts are to have much improved quarters, the large increase of paved streets, and the general evidence of thrift and stir. Then an examination revealed new and still more solid proofs of advance. In the four years past, the city's population has probably increased one-fourth, although we cannot find the exact figure claimed for it four years ago. A population of fifty-two thousand is claimed to day. There is no doubt a rapid increase still going on, and will continue. There has not been much movement for two years, but greater stir is now manifest. Salt Lake City is now a Gentile city. Americans hold municipal offices, control the schools, and have the upper hand generally. All this greatly increases the attraction to newcomers, who find now a bright and homelike American city, instead of a community shadowed and blighted by Mormonism. The new status of the public school We had a half-hour's pleasant talk with President Woodruff and Presidents Smith and Cannon, in the headquarters of Deseret, as the Mormons call their Territory. They were very courteous and pleasant in what they said about the recent visit of the delegates to the General Assembly, to whom they extended all possible courtesies. They are keen, bright men,-President Woodruff not seeming to feel in the least the weight of his eighty-four years. 1892.] North Dakota-Sabbath-schools. Westminster Church, formerly Camp Mission, holds on its way under the faithful care of the Rev. F. L. Arnold, and two new points have been recently occupied in other parts of the city, completing a quadrilateral of great importance and promise. In one of these last the Rev. Josiah McClain has already taken hold, than whom our Church has never had a better man in Utah. He was last at Nephi, and formerly at Ogden. The whole impression gained from our visit was to the effect that the wealth and resources of Utah have hardly begun to be developed, that Salt Lake City is to be one of the notable points in our country, and that our work there and throughout the Territory is of the utmost importance, and will repay any amount of pressure and expenditure. The faster we push our missionary and educational work the sooner will Utah be prepared for safe and wholesome statehood, and to take its place in the Union as one of the richest and noblest of the sisterhood. Letters. NORTH DAKOTA. W. I. REV. JOHN MARDY:-Towards the close of 1891, I was urged by Mr. Woods, our Synodical missionary, and others to start a service at Canton, a station of the Great Northern, six miles north of Crystal. At that time the West Park people would not consent to have their service removed and as I did not feel at liberty to interfere with the arrangements already made, I could reach Canton only by starting a fourth service which I undertook about the beginning of the year, and have since continued up to the present time, preaching at Hoople at 11 A. M., Crystal at 2 P. M., Lane's School-house at 4.30 P. M. and Canton 7.30 P. M. Since that time, the West Park people have consented to worship at Canton and all with one exception have asked letters of dis 159 mission from West Park, and united with the congregation organized at Canton, on the fourth day of March. There is the nucleus of a village there, containing two elevators, four stores, a blacksmith's shop, post-office, etc. We have subscriptions amounting to nearly $800 to erect a church and the work will begin immediately. Besides the Sabbath service I have organized three weekly prayer meetings which have been regularly conducted by myself during the last quarter, besides an occasional meeting in a distant part of the field. The prayer meetings all go from house to house and are very well attended. The sacrament of the Lord's supper was dispensed in Hoople, when there was added to our roll two by profession of faith and four by certificate. The weather was exceedingly severe and the attendance very poor. The communion was dispensed at Crystal also, when four were added by certificate. The severe weather spoiled our attendance here also. When Canton was organized two were added by profession and one has since come in by certificate, but the communion has not been dispensed in this field since I came. The very large area of country covered by the field makes pastorial visiting very difficult, and discouraging, as the pastor may travel 12 or 15 miles to see a family who are absent from home when he gets there. On this account I consider it better to organize prayer-meetings which go from house to house and visit as far as possible by a definite appointment when neighbors are invited in to take part in the service. SABBATH SCHOOLS. At I regret very much that on account of circumstances over which we have no control, it is almost impossible to have a Sabbath-school. Hoople where we have a church nearly all our people live so far away that we could not get them to come out for a school. At Crystal and Canton we have no building. We have the use of the Baptist Church in Crystal, but only for service. In Canton the service is held in a dwelling house and we hardly feel like asking 'he use of it for a school also. The attendance at Sabbath service improves as the weather grows mild. Our attendance in Crystal, the best village, has very greatly improved, and we are expecting the country people to turn out as the good weather returns. We are now agitating for the building of a Manse at Crystal, but nothing definite has been done. The field on the whole is in a very prosperous condition. One thing which is very greatly needed all over this large field is a lending library, by means of which we may do something to direct the reading of our people. There is a dearth of books, and every now and then some agent comes tramping through the country, leaving behind him an amount of heresy in the form of heretical books and tracts, which will take an enormous amount of work to counteract. UTAH. REV. E. N. MURPHY, Mt. Pleasant:-I enclose to you my quarterly report one month before the quarter ends. My family and I left Mt. Pleasant, Utah, our former field, May 12th, and arrived at this point yesterday, where we begin a new work. The 14th of June, it will be eight years since we began work in Mt. Pleasant, where we have been laboring during the years that have intervened. During that period we have received from the people of Mt. Pleasant, for church and school work, $3,700. One hundred and twenty-three members have been received into the church, 22 by letter, and 101 by profession of their faith in Christ. The work in Mt. Pleasant has been purely missionary work, and hence nearly all that have been received have at one time been MorDuring these years about sixty-five girls have been in training in the Girls' Home, many of whom are now useful women, serving the Master in different spheres in life. During this time the Girls' Home has been enlarged through the generosity of the ladies in our church at Titusville, Pa., and a handsome, new Academy has been erected by the generous gifts of the ladies of the Synod of New York, together with a gift of $1,500, given by the people of Mt. Pleasant, who gave as they were able. mons. [August, During the past quarter three members have been received into the church. We leave the church in a prosperous condition, and believe that our successor will find it to be a grand field for labor. The Academy has enrolled 150 students this year, and under the management and care of Prof. I N. Smith and his excellent assistants, Misses Miller and Buchanan, its prosperity is assured. Mt. Pleasant is the field where the Rev. Dr. McMillan, now an honored Secretary of the Home Mission Board, began his work in Utah. We take it that this is the place where he not only laid broad and deep foundations for future work in Mt. Pleasant, but also where he planned and prayed for a similar work in every other part of Utah. REV. CHAS. M. SHEPHERD, Springville:-This will be my report for the quarter ending to-day. All work has gone on without interruption. The average attendance for the quarter has been 45. The average of the morning service has been 48; yet one year ago a morning service was considered almost out of the question. A gratifying feature is the large proportion of children. The attendance during the Week of Prayer was the largest ever known here. Our prayer-meeting will average 25. The Sundayschool is larger than at any time since I came here. Our reports this year will show 40 per cent. more money raised on the field than last year. The truth has been heard with good attention, and some have been thoughtful. Undoubtedly the field needs evangelistic work; but we have been unable to arrange for that. We now plan to begin it next fall, in connection with several other neighboring fields. The population is growing. The following improvements are now regarded as certain: an ore sampler, a creamery, a fruit cannery, a large hotel, a railway station and eating house, four large business blocks, five or six smaller ones, and a large number of dwellings. A smelter is planned. But Mormonism is a long way from dead yet. Yesterday our leading citizen was taken to Salt Lake on a polygamy warrant, and there are many hidden cases for every one exposed. 1892.] Nevada-Montana-New Mexico. This is a fine commentary on the Statehood business and the amnesty petition. The man above mentioned has served one term in the penitentiary; has been convicted of a second offence, but released upon his oath to obey the law, and now this third trial, with a moral cer. tainty of conviction, is the sequel. NEVADA. REV. C. A. PORTER:-I have known Christians often to go anywhere from five to thirty miles for a dance in the worst of weather and spend their money at it but who could not go 2 miles to church or S. S nor give one cent toward any Christian cause. I have known a Synodical Missionary to work 6 days and nights and be paid $6 for it, and in the same school-house 2 "fiddlers" got $25 for one night's work. Among dancers, whether Christian or not, the church, the prayer meeting, the S. S., are things of very little importance and of no importance at all as compared with a dance. It is a fact, too, which I think few who have taken notice will deny that God's Spirit withdraws from a dancing Christian and the warmest Christian by it soon gets cold, careless, thoughtless and ready to fall into all kinds of sin. I have seen the seriousness of a revival work simply obliterated from the minds of young seekers by one or two dances In short I think it the worst evil we in the west have to contend with and after years of watching I am compelled to say that it has a worse influence than the saloon or the lottery or the prize fight, and if I had my choice I should much prefer any or all these to the dance, as being less conducive to wickedness, and less resisting to the Gospel. I write this weighing my words. MONTANA. REV. GEO. EDWARDS, Lewistown :-I am about to put Dan and True Boy to the buggy to drive to Philbrook, but will first report on my field of labor so that it will reach you by the 25th inst., according to postal received last evening. The enrollment in Sunday-school, this quarter has been over 100, with an average of nearly 70. 161 We have added 70 volumes to our Sunday-school library, and a week from next Sabbath I will distribute two or three dozen minion, gilt edge, leather-bound bibles and as many testaments, as a reward for regular attendance, according to an offer made three months ago. There are no Bibles for sale in this part of the world, and so I have taken this means to partially supply the need, and at the same time create an interest in Sunday-school work and attendance. There is an increased attendance at prayer meeting, several times as high as twenty or thirty. Three heads of families have been received into church membership by profession, two receiving the rite of baptism. I do not anticipate any difficulty in erecting a chapel on our church lot, during the coming season. The winter has been so mild that I have had no difficulty in keeping my appointments. Next month I hope to make the trip to Helena, to attend the meetings of Presbytery and Synod. NEW MEXICO. REV. JAS. A. MENAUL, Sup't:- I have just been in attendance on the meetings of the Presbytery of the Rio Grande. In many respects it was the most encouraging meeting that we have had since the organization of the Presbytery. I would like to give the Board some account of church work and school work during the past winter, but work on the field is demanding my presence; then the meetings of the Arizona Presbytery at Phoenix, and that of Santa Fe at Raton, demand my presence. So it is not in my power to prepare such a report of my work as I would like, and attend to my work on the field. The following buildings have been attended to during the past quarter: At Las Vegas, three rooms have been built, and a system of sewerage put in; at Pajarito, school room and teacher's room have been plastered; at Pena Blanca, a board floor has been put in school room and teacher's room; at Corrales, a new roof has been put on three rooms and a hall, the building occupied by the teacher; at Seama of Laguna, a new roof has been put on school room, and three rooms occupied by the teachers. The following buildings are in course of erection: La Luz, chapel and school; Los Valles, chapel and school; Aroyo Seco, school; painting the inside of the Raton school; sewerage at Santa Fe. I go to Santa Fe to night, expecting to find the sewer finished, and in addition to these, trips have been made to Zuni, Embudo, Taos, and many other places, to plan for other work that is about to be done. REV. J. D. HEWITT, D.D.:-We have just closed a very successful meeting of our Presbytery. In relation to the work of Home Missions, Presbytery has resolved unanimously and enthusiastically upon the following things: 1st. We will ask $500 less from the Board than last year. 2d. We will send $1000 more to the treasury of the Board than we did last year. 3d. We will continue from year to year to decrease our demands and increase our contributions until we send as much as we ask 4th. This is to be done in ten years or less. The Committee of Home Missions were in session for two days and two nights, doing nothing else than hearing applications, urging churches to increase their subscriptions and ministers to agree to take as little salary as possible. We put a number of churches under the care of neighboring ministers, with no demand upon the Board to help in the salary. Our demands will be more than $500 less than last year. We have adjusted these matters according to our best ability. In view of what we have done and what we propose to do, we ask you to let our "budget" go through with as little alteration as possible. [August, I send you a copy of our estimates as they passed Presbytery. Our object is to care for these churches at the lowest possible expense, and in such a way as to keep them alive and growing. We thought very seriously of asking the Board to commission a man for a number of these little fields, say eight of the most hopeful of them. Let the others be cared for by neighboring pastors, and thus cover our whole field. Let us know what you think of this last idea! MICHIGAN REV. R. L. WILLIAMS:-I herewith send you my report for the quarter ending April 1st. The month of January was a trying one for pastor and people. Usually the weather is very cold in these lake towns of Northern Michigan at this season of the year. But January was mild, but dark, damp and dismal. Many persons were attacked with la grippe, and many funerals, as high as four in one week and two on one Sabbath, I attended. I was kept very busy visiting the sick and sorrowing, and burying the dead, till I was attacked with the same disease and was absent two Sabbaths from my pulpit, but I supplied it by proxy, and was soon restored to health and labor. The spirit of worldliness has been humbled by the fire which burned our buildings and impres sed us with the instability of material things. We need this kind of discipline, Tammany may be wicked, but the wickedness of our City according to means and opportunities is just as wicked, and is more fecbly restrained by law and public sentiment. But we have good people and many in our Aux Sable and Oscoda-our little Sodom and Gomorrah. That is the reason we are not entirly burnt up. The oldest inhabitant" says we are a "Canaan" compared with the " wilderness" of 20 years ago. Certain it is that the discipline of financial depression is a blessing. There is now a disposition to think of the spiritual and the eternal. Very encouraging has been the pastoral work of the last two months. I have found a ready response to religious talk in their homes, and 12 or 15 will probably |