STATED MEETINGS. - Fourth Tuesdays in January, April, and October, and

STATED MEETINGS.-Second Tuesdays in March, June, September, and December.

Rev. James H. Childs, Northbridge, scribe.

REV. HENRY A. HAZEN.

This General Association has met four times in Worcester, in 1808, 1827, 1847, and 1879; and the General Conference met here in 1865; making, with the present session, six of our State meetings here in ninety years, a larger number than in any other city, except Boston; and Boston must reckon its accessions of Dorchester and Roxbury, to make up the same number. Probably we shall come to this fair city more frequently in future. The great increase in the size of this body limits the number of places which can receive and comfortably care for it. Early sessions were held in Hardwick, Washington, Hatfield, Windsor; but such rural communities can no longer bid us. There is loss as well as gain in our growth. The first two sessions were held in Northampton in 1802 and 1803. It is not too soon to ask if Northampton will receive us in 1902, for a Centennial commemoration.

The rules of this Association, our only constitution, were adopted at the first meeting in this city, and no modifications since have changed them, for substance of doctrine.

Since our last meeting, has occurred the death of Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, and his successor in the office first and for so many years held and magnified by him, may fitly recall him to your thoughts to-day. Not that I can attempt, in the brief limits of this report, any general review of his life. But it is due to ourselves that we refresh our memories, and quicken our devotion by a restatement of what he has done as an officer of this Association.

Fifty years ago, the Congregational churches were in a condition which gave too much ground for the "rope of sand" taunt, not unfrequently heard. They were a collection of units, knowing little of one another, and without organization. Their pastors had naturally formed the habit of occasional meetings for friendship and fellowship, and Associations had thus grown up. Gradually these ministers began to enliven their minutes with lists of the names of their churches; then some bold innovator proposed to add the membership, a step of progress which our English friends have not yet ventured upon, though their conservatism starts a smile with us. Then were added the male and female membership, and later, the additions and removals. But the requests for these meagre reports being purely personal, and having no voice of the churches behind them, were received often with indifference, and occasionally with a mild resentment; and summaries of such reports as did come in were too incomplete to have much value.

That was substantially the condition of matters when Alonzo H. Quint appeared in this Association, as a young delegate from Jamaica Plain

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forty-two years ago, and the transformation which these years have wrought is, we shall all agree, due more largely to him than to any other single man. In saying this we are not to forget that the conditions were ripe or soon came to maturity, favoring the great progress which has been made; or that other men recognized these conditions and wrought with great effect to the same ends. No one man could have secured this progress if he had not found a multitude of kindred responsive spirits, men who were alive to the new conditions and calls, and who joined hands in intelligent working to the same ends. In Illinois M. K. Whittlesey had been elected secretary in 1852, and only laid down his work last year, and in Connecticut William H. Moore is still at the front, in his ripe age, doing the work which he began forty years ago. In Massachusetts were such men as Joseph S. Clark, who did us a great service in his History" of our churches, as well as in laying the foundations of our Congregational Library; Christopher Cushing and Increase N. Tarbox; Isaac P. Langworthy, to whom our debt is so immeasurable, as he built himself into our Congregational House and Library, and Henry M. Dexter, whose labors were second to those of no man in the broadening and deepening of our Congregational life, statistically and historically, as well as in his Congregationalist life work.

86

With these conditions and coadjutors the real genius and greatness of Alonzo H. Quint are to be seen in his recognition of the opportunity, and the skill with which he used it. With measureless tact and persistency he pursued his work until the demonstration was complete, that the“rope of sand" theory, as applied to Congregational churches, if it ever had a semblance of truth, had it no longer; that fellowship could be organized, as truly as government; and that such organization, resting on the solid foundations of Christian love and common sense, was safe and useful, not only for the churches of Mendon Conference, but for Massachusetts, for the United States, and for the round earth. The International Council which met in London in 1891, and comes to Boston in 1899, was the natural fruitage of his life work, and would have been impossible without the prior organizations in our various States, and the union of these in the National Council to which his labors so largely contributed.

It was a great and special felicity of this Association that it recognized this young man, and the work for which he was fitted, that it installed him in a new office, created for the occasion, the first time, so far as I know, that a statistical secretary had ever been appointed by any body; and that it stood by him in his labors until our chaos had given place to order, and our statistics had gained wide recognition as a model in other States and other denominations.

A comparison of the Congregational Year-Book of to-day with the Massachusetts Minutes of fifty years ago affords a fair measure of Dr. Quint's work for our churches. But Dr. Quint was a great secretary, because he was much more a broad-minded, sagacious, far-seeing man, loyal to the core, to Christ and his Gospel, and rejoicing to preach that word, and make it mighty in the lives of men. He went to the war in the enthusiasm of his young manhood, and the testimony of officers and men is emphatic of the wise, courageous, and sympathetic service he gave them. He

might have been with us in the strength of a ripe age to-day, but for the seeds of weakness and disease sown in that army service.

And in his later years, we may remind ourselves how important a place he has filled, as the councillor of all the churches. Questions of order and method, of peace and duty, have come to him from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and he has met them with a breadth of knowledge, a keenness of insight, a familiarity with precedent and history, and with a devotion, above all, to the peace and prosperity of Christ's Kingdom, which have been of priceless value. As a corporate member of the American Board, the value and significance of his service is best understood by those nearest the heart of its counsels.

The reports from the Conferences this year gained a little in time, and more in quality and completeness, over any previous year. Thanks to the diligence and fidelity of the various secretaries, the Massachusetts table was ready to go to the printer on the last day of February. Five reported in January: Mendon, on the 5th, and Hampshire East, Woburn, and Worcester, North and South, 18-21. Eleven were received in the first half of February: Hampshire, Brookfield, Middlesex North, Berkshire South, Pilgrim, Suffolk North and West, Taunton, Old Colony, Worcester, and Middlesex South. The others came after February 15: Essex South, Suffolk South, Hampden, Essex North, Franklin, Barnstable, Andover, Berkshire North, and Norfolk. It ought to be said of the fine Hampden report, that it was made in print, causing a week or two of delay.

More than ever before, reporters have acted on the principle that a complete report was more important than an early one, and the fulness of the returns has been a great comfort to the secretary.

It is full time for the churches to recognize and act upon the doctrine that December, and not January, is the month in which all the time necessary for gathering items and making out their annual report should be taken, so that it can be returned promptly in January, and every Conference report be completed in that mouth.

The year has added six churches to our roll, and our whole number is now 593; 274 of these churches have installed pastors, and 241 have pastors not installed. There are 280 installed pastors, and 226 pastors not installed. The membership is 111,223, of whom 35,331 are males. The gain of the year is 1,044. The additions were 6,432, of whom 3,382 were on confession of faith. The removals were 5,353, of whom by death, 1,848. The baptisms were, 1,633 adults and 1,616 infants.

The benevolent contributions were $658,551, an average of $5.92 per member, and a falling off from last year of $37,710, or a little more than 30 cents per member. The home expenditures reach a total of $1,587,443, about $14.30 cents per member, and an increase of $46,668.

In closing this report, I may properly add a word in anticipation of the Second International Council. It is practically assured that this great assembly will be held in Boston in the summer of 1899. The exact date is to be fixed by the choice and convenience of our English guests. We owe them the same courtesy accorded to us in 1891. Massachusetts, as well as Boston, is honored by the fact that the place of this Council is accorded to us by unanimous acclaim. Our hospitality will be put to test by the reception which we give to such a body of delegates from every land, and this Association will be called upon to take its share in the good work. This Council is sure to become, as the first has become, historic, and signifies much to us, and to the entire country. Our prayers should go up to the Master of Assemblies that he may help us shape and use it for his glory and the progress of his kingdom in the world.

WILLIAM A. PAINE, Treasurer, in account with the GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES OF MASSACHUSETTS,

FOR THE YEAR ENDING MAY 10, 1897.

$2,189 48

By Samuel B. Forbes, treasurer National Congregational Council "Alfred Mudge & Son, printing manuals

"F. B. Makepeace, expenses committee on literature

"J. D. Kingsbury, expenses committee on work of the churches "F. J. Marsh, expenses

46 amount due from Barnstable Conference, 1896 account

793 81 99.00 500 00

70 15

1455

13 50

the Essex South Conference, 1896 account

profit and loss, Taunton Conference, French Church of Fall River.

"cash on hand, May 10, 1897

Worcester South Conference, Douglass Church

5 25

10 39

19 16

38 82

17 22

40 00

2.91

62

4,063 05

$7,877 91

There is also due the General Association from the Old Colony Conference, for the year 1895, $16.38.

WM. A. PAINE, Treas.

This certifies that we have audited the accounts of Wm. A. Paine, Treasurer of the General Association of Massachusetts for the year ending May 10, 1897, and find them accurately cast and properly vouched. The balance in the treasury per statement of the Beacon Trust Company is $4,063.05.

The auditors of the General Association of Massachusetts recommend as the assessment for the year 1897 the sum of three and one half cents for each church member.

H. N. ACKERMAN,

Auditors.

BOSTON, May 13, 1897.

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THOMAS TODD,