sacred hours of the Sabbath, and, saddest of all, knowing no better.
There were no gospel services, nor Sunday-schools, for there was no
place to hold them.

"While I have spent much time in visiting the five towns of this
neglected field, I selected one place as a center for extra effort,
and here I commenced a series of gospel meetings. The result is a
church of seventeen members and a Sunday-school of fifty scholars.
As all these towns are dreadfully cursed with saloons, we are trying
to create a temperance sentiment. Fifty have already signed the pledge,
among them some of the worst drunkards in the town. Forty-five children
have joined the 'Children's Band' and are trying to keep their lives
clean. We have bought half an acre of ground, whereon to build a
church and parsonage. Work is already commenced in good faith."

* * * * *

"With the opening and development of the hard coal mines of
Pennsylvania in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, a
large migration of Welsh miners began to arrive in the state. They
were Protestants and fervently religious. Immediately the organization
of religious life began. In 1831 different denominational elements
gathered together and began Sunday-school and church life in Carbondale,
Pa. The Congregational Church there has been a steady factor of
religious life ever since, first among the Welsh exclusively, but
later among all classes.

"In similar manner churches were organized all over the anthracite
district. To-day fully two-thirds of the churches of the Congregational
faith in the state are of Welsh origin, and barring a few in agricultural