ARTICLE VIII.-THE HOME HEATHEN, AND HOW TO REACH THEM.

Report of the Committee on Home Evangelization, presented to the General Association of Connecticut, convened at Rockville, on the third Tuesday in June, 1860.

THE document, the title of which is given above, treats in a specific way, as pertaining to the state of Connecticut, of a subject of universal and widely felt importance to the Christian church and ministry. It is in this specific manner that the subject can, in this day, be treated to the best advantage. Vague talk about general facts and principles, and platform exhortations about duty to our unbelieving neighbors, have been not without their use, but that use seems to have been pretty well fulfilled. The public mind of the church has been effectually aroused to the consideration of the exigencies of "the home-field," and is pretty well convinced that something ought to be done. The questions remaining are, What is to be done, and How to do it. And these questions need to be answered in particular and in the concrete.

We accordingly take the subject stated at the head of this Article, and propose to discuss it in a plain and practical way, as it comes before us in the above-named document of the General Association of Connecticut; being sure that we cannot reach the practical questions pertaining to the general subject in any other way so well.

The "Report of the Committee on Home Evangelization,” which is contained in an octavo pamphlet of ninety-six pages, gives the results of a minute, and approximately complete inquiry into the religious condition of the people of the state of Connecticut.

That such an inquiry should be a novelty, is a strange fact, and one not at all honorable to the zeal and conduct of the various religious bodies that concern themselves with the wel

fare of the state. But it is a fact. With a General Association of pastors, whose parishes cover the entire territory of the state, and with a Home Missionary Society that acknowledges the receipt of "ample means for aiding our decaying churches, and establishing others, whenever the gathering of population around new centers demands their organization,”* there has hitherto been no exact and detailed information concerning the religious condition of the people of the state. The census of the population has been taken, numerically, by trades, by colors, by nations, by ages; the state has been districted and canvassed for purposes of education and electioneering; the soil has been mapped and explored with reference to its capabilities, mineralogical, agricultural and commercial; and yet there has been no careful inquiry with reference to religious condition, and to a thorough and efficient work of evangelization,—a work of which (in the language of the General Association in 1849) the "basis" must be a knowledge of the "facts."

The reproach of this neglect lies at the door of the Congregational denomination. They occupy the entire surface of the state, having one church or more in every town,t and a system of ministerial Associations which divide the territory into definite districts. No other organization of Christians in Connecticut has the means of prosecuting such a work. The Baptists are numerous, and, in a measure, powerful, in the eastern part of the state, but too feeble for any general work in the western counties. The Episcopalians are compara. tively strong as we approach the New York boundary line, and in many places have shown a systematic energy worthy of praise and imitation; but in the counties east of the Connecticut river, they are a feeble folk. In one county, Tolland, they boast but a single church,-in Hebron, seat of the protomartyr Peters. The Methodists are more evenly distributed than either of these denominations, and have a more available

*Home Missionary Report, published with Minutes of General Association of 1856.

The exceptions to this are only apparent.

working force; but in any attempt to district the state for a thorough exploration, would be compelled by the sparseness of their churches to declare great tracts of country to be "in partibus Puritanorum." The most that can be expected of these denominations, with their present strength, is that each should prosecute its denominational work, and give account of it. Unable to shoulder and carry on a system of evangelization for the whole people,* they do well (according to their light) when they pitch upon the best places for their new churches, and reckon their usefulness, not by the extent of territory redeemed from darkness, but by the number of accessions to their congregations and communions. The abili ty, and the duty, thoroughly to search out and fully to supply, the religious wants of the people of Connecticut, rests with the churches and pastors of the Congregational order.

And what have they done towards the fulfillment of this duty?

Until now, nothing. The General Association have met annually, for a century and a half, to consult for the good of the churches, and of the people. During the latter part of this period, they have published a pamphlet of denominational statistics. This is all very well in its way, but it is not in the way of our present argument. It is what the other denominations do; and, after it has been done on all hands, it furnishes the opportunity of marking progress or retrogression, from year to year, and the opportunity of invidious comparisons between sects; but it is a miserable reliance for knowing the religious condition of the population. It gives us the state of the churches. What we are after, is, the state

* We are speaking here merely of the inability which results from lack of num bers. In other qualifications,—in a spirit of Christian enterprise,-in wise fore thought and well-directed liberality,-in the apprehension of the prime duty of Christian churches to the soil which they occupy,-some of the denominations above mentioned have proved themselves to excel. The Episcopalians, in particular, deserve great honor in these respects. Of their methods of systematic labor we have already spoken with praise. The traditions of parochial organization which they derive by inheritance from a state-church give them great advantages for the business.

of the people, outside of the churches as well as inside; but particularly outside.

The General Association listen also, annually, to a "Narrative of the State of Religion," prepared at the meeting by a Committee;-which is to the effect that the churches have enjoyed a high degree of external prosperity, during the year; that there have been revivals in such and such churches; and that while we have a great deal to be thankful for, yet, on the other hand, we have great cause for humiliation and repentance; that the cause of temperance is advancing, (or retrograding, as the case may be;) that there have been a halfdozen new meeting-houses built, and three or four new churches organized; that we are reminded of the brevity of human life by five or six deaths in the ministry; that the reports from corresponding bodies are very gratifying, and their representatives very welcome; all of which is respectfully submitted. The "Narrative," although rarely a lively composition, is supposed to be a very good thing to have in the General Association, and may possibly be of use, for some purpose or other, but not for the one which we are now considering. What we want, is a Narrative of the state of Irreligion.

But the General Association sits also in the capacity of "The Missionary Society of Connecticut, Auxiliary to the American Home Missionary Society." Its business, in this capacity, as defined in the Constitution of the Society, is 'to coöperate with the American Home Missionary Society in building up the waste places of Connecticut, and in sending the gospel to the destitute, and assisting feeble congregations in other and more destitute portions of the United States, according to the provisions of the eighth article of the constitution of the parent society, with such stipulations as shall secure to this society the control of the raising and application of funds, the selection and appointment of missionaries, and the general designation of their fields of labor; the said stipulations to be mutually agreed upon by the directors of the Society, and the Executive Committee of the American Home Missionary Society."

It is in the operations of this Society, then, that we may

naturally suppose these things to be cared for. The Society being established to build up the waste places, we infer that there are such desolations, and that the directors have all necessary or useful information regarding them; that as an incident to their main work, they are accustomed, from time to time, as need may be, to institute systematic inquiry, such as may bring to light opportunities of doing good, and give security against any very extensive neglect; that while giving due attention to the less difficult business of aiding feeble churches in paying their annual expenses, they devote special care to regions of country, and masses of population, that do not seem to be acknowledged as in the field of any particular church; that thus, in one form or another, they are able to give a pretty complete account of the religious condition of the whole population-its needs and capabilities.

It may be that the Directors of this Society have had some such means and method of effectually fulfilling their trust; but if so, they have been remarkably still about it. It is only for a few years past, that the Reports of this Society have been printed with the minutes of the General Association; and by referring to such of them as we have been able to lay our hands upon, we have not succeeded in finding that the Society has undertaken to do anything but act upon the peti tions of needy churches, send one thousand dollars a year to the Rhode Island Domestic Missionary Society, and then pass over their surplus revenue to the treasury of the American Home Missionary Society. The principle seems to have been adhered to with the most conscientious scrupulosity,-to give only to those who come to the door to beg. The thought that benefactions are often best bestowed on those who dislike to ask them, and the principle, so specially obvious and important in the conduct of such a charity, that the most extreme and urgent need is that in which there is no sense of want, and no desire for relief,--have not been suffered to disturb the established practice. There are, in some of the reports, indications of a consistency which may be thought excessive. The final extinction of a feeble church which had depended on the Society's benefactions for the support of its existence, is