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THE PLATT LAKE CHAPEL

A Typical Preaching Place in the Larger Parish

The Eden church planned to erect a new building in the summer of 1914, in the form of a comfortable chapel with basement rooms for social purposes. Early in the spring of 1913 the farmers set apart a certain portion of their land, the products of which should be given for a chapel fund. About fifteen farmers entered into this arrangement, the children also setting hens and cultivating garden patches for the same purpose. On Thanksgiving night of that year they had a special service at the schoolhouse to bring in the returns. A neat model of a church was made for the occasion and placed on the desk, and after an interesting program the people filed past the desk and dropped into the model church the proceeds of their summer’s toil. It was found to contain more than two hundred and fifty dollars—a good starter for the new building. Though the resources of the community are limited, they are all working together with such industry and enthusiasm that it is probable that they will soon have a pleasant and convenient church home.

At North Crystal where there is a flourishing Sunday-school and where the services are held in a private home, the people are working hard to build a little chapel. Here too the resorters, who have their cottages along the shore of Crystal Lake, are very helpful. In the summer the meetings are held under the trees, and large crowds come together to hear the gospel and to join in the songs. The Ladies’ Aid Society is working hard and considerable progress has been made in collecting a chapel fund. Poverty of resources can hardly prevent the accomplishment of such an enterprise when all the people unite in the effort so heartily and with such a willingness to make sacrifices for the desired end. The church at Benzonia has also been building an addition to its house of worship, adding one hundred sittings and numerous rooms for the accommodation of the Sunday-school and social work. One would have been considered rash indeed who should have prophesied beforehand that in two years in this community of limited resources so large a sum could be raised for the purpose of providing accommodations for the worship of God and for community and social work.

If the amount of money that people are willing to give for religious purposes is an index of their interest in the Kingdom, one must conclude that there has been a very significant revival in that respect throughout the Larger Parish. More means for carrying on the work are now in sight than any one would have supposed it possible to raise three years ago.

The salaries paid the pastor and his two assistants are two and a half times as much as was paid to the pastor alone before the wider work was undertaken. This, however, is made possible only through the help of the Home Missionary Society. The contributions for home and foreign missions have more than doubled during this period, and the number of contributors has increased more than twofold. If there was any hesitation about undertaking the wider work on account of the increased financial obligation involved, experience has shown that it was unnecessary. More than twice as much money is raised on the whole field now than was the case before the wider work began, and it comes with just as little effort. Nobody now objects to the work on financial grounds. It has paid for itself in every way.

This experience leads me to believe that on almost every field there are resources sufficient for carrying on all the work that needs to be done there, if only they can be reached, and I am also convinced that an active, aggressive program will be much more successful in developing the resources than a timid and conservative effort can ever be.

In order to promote unity and fellowship throughout the whole parish, occasional meetings designed to bring all the people together are held with very good results. Two or three times during the year all the services in the various points are omitted and the people come together on the beautiful campus on the Benzonia hilltop and spend the day in worship and in social intercourse. The services are held in the shade of the great beech and maple trees that crown the summit of the hill. There is a large choir and orchestra to lead the music, some noted speaker from abroad preaches the sermon, and the congregation of four or five hundred is as devout and attentive as can be found in any church building. At the close of the service they assemble in groups to eat the lunch which they have brought, the coffee being furnished by the Benzonia people, and they spend two hours in delightful social intercourse, many old friends and neighbors meeting there who might not otherwise see each other for years. In the afternoon a platform meeting is held with a number of speakers, and as the sun is sinking low in the west the people disperse and go quietly to their homes, with a larger outlook, a quickened community consciousness, and a fuller appreciation of the work of the Larger Parish. Last year we had on one Sabbath “Larger Parish Sunday School Rally.” Posters announcing the meeting had been previously circulated. All the ten schools of the parish assembled, holding in the morning such a service as I have described, having dinner together, and in the afternoon occurred the Children’s Day services, with exercises by the various schools and an address by John E. Gunckel, the famous Toledo newsboy man. These Larger Parish rallies have proved to be a valuable feature of the work and are anticipated with pleasure by all the people.