The pastor of the M. E. Church at Idaho Springs, Col., last fall called a meeting to organize a club in the interest of good reading. “When the people came together some friends of the Chautauqua Idea were found; three or four of them had been regular or local members of the C. L. S. C., and it was decided that we form a branch of that great home college. We have a membership of about twenty. We frequently have a half-dozen visitors, but we do not consider our meetings public; they have been very interesting, and the interest is unabated. We have adopted various methods of examination on the required reading, but none seem to us so good as that of giving to each person present a written question; this being by him answered is then discussed by any person who so desires. We strive to be informal, and since we have become acquainted, are able to express ourselves on the subjects being discussed better than at first. Since the first of January we have recruited by taking in some desirable local members, thereby filling the places of those who have dropped out of the ranks by the pressure of other business. We can see the good effects of our circle on our little town in many ways already. With one or two exceptions we belong to the class of 1887; at the end of April, in our first year, we report ourselves as making good progress.”
C. L. S. C. TESTIMONY.
Massachusetts.—I want to say for the encouragement of any who urge objections to the C. L. S. C. course, that I took it up to please my wife, but ’twas but a short time before I was earnestly reading and studying to please myself. It seemed quite an undertaking, but, though we are forty years old, and have four children, we have found time to keep abreast of the work as carried on by the Circle. We (myself and wife) are of the class of ’86, and began reading together, but the next year, ’83, there was a circle formed, and we joined. You would only have to glance into our sitting room to-night to learn that we are disciples firm and true in this course and its kindred branches; my wife and myself reading French History, two older children at the other end of the room reading the Home College Series, while the two youngest (seven and ten) are reading the course of the C. Y. F. R. U., and the benefits, the blessings and the pleasure we gain from all of this can never be counted in time. We are enthusiastic over the C. L. S. C., because we can see and feel some of its benefits already. We know the forty minutes a day pays better interest than any similar time spent in any secular business. We know its value can not be computed by any known tables. We recommend it to everybody, and we feel ’twill grow here among us. It is succeeding everywhere, it must succeed, and must produce good results, for “We study the Word and the Works of God.”
Massachusetts.—I am quite an invalid, so I take the reading slowly and in small doses, but I can not begin to tell the good it has done me.
New Jersey.—Life seems to me to have been lifted on a higher plane since my association with the C. L. S. C. I know I am a better wife, I love my Christian work better, I am better acquainted with the Master, and as the intellect is cultivated, the soul is pushed out into greater depths and heights and breadths.