Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1904 — ASKS INSURANCE BY CHURCHES. [ARTICLE]

ASKS INSURANCE BY CHURCHES.

Michigan Minister Points a Way to Keep Up Membership. The Rev. W. H. B. I.'rch nt the annual meeting of the Michigan council of the Brotherhood of St. Paul, which has just closed its session in Detroit, surprised his audience by advocating a system of benefit insurance for the churches. He said: “It will be a great day for methodirm and for her church societies when a system of benefit insurance is allied to her work of salvation. present competition is too great. Members are lost to the church every day simply because they join fraternal and secret societies for the insurance features and, becoming attached to the lodge work with its services and rituals, gradually fall away from their allegiance to the church. Everywhere the organizers of our societies go they have cast into their teeth that there is no benefit feature to tjie church organizations' and they find it superhuman work to show the average man wherein lies the benefit of spiritual gain unless there is an element of material gain to help along.”