The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-06
which should spread through all the churches
and hasten the coming of the Kingdom.
ADDRESS OF REV. G. D. BARRoWs

lating humorous incident referring to the
relation of tho Board with the Home Mission
ary Society, and then continued as follows:
There are three points of special interets
in the papers that have been read here to- day.
One IL, that the missionary consciousness is
prerequisite to all Christlike service in its
broadest range. The philosophizing will con-
tinue as it has begun. 1t must preced the
application of, the bsliefin, or the performance
of any deed. A child will philssophize even
before his tiny hand can cleave the rock or
split the timber or before his thought can
grasp the great truth to which it is approach
ing. But in the internal life and being of the
child there comes at length consciousness of
what trnth is, Of what truth il determined in
its ewn nature to accomplish. And when l
heard that list read this morning and the
mighty outcome frsm those lives, felt that it
was only the missionary consciousness that
made that constellation glitter with its every
diadem as they have become the multiplied
Pleiades te-day of the Christian church.
And as heard that song sung this afternoon
l said to myself it is nothing but the Chris
tan missionary consciousness down deep in
the disciples soul. We can make that very
song only the echo Of that which has preceded
this meeting and the meetings that have re-
Gently been held, as it has become to us the
song of the church given to us from one of her
noble disciples
MY faith looks up to Thee
Thou lamb ef Calvary
Saviour divine"
Nothing but the missionary consciousness in
the soul can possibly give utterance to the
great truth that the Saviour of men in his low
ing power and in his personal presence stands
by the disciple and opens the way for his ad-
vance and seals the sacrifice of his life, if
need be with the harvest of Christian fruitage
Then there was another thing that struck
me in those papers as great truth. namely
the vantage ground given to the present gem
eeratien by the raising of the general average
of Christian disciplsship through the fidelity
OF those whe have preceded us. 1t is a law
Of heredity in e iucation or in business that
the boy who pushes bis way faithfully and
persistently forward to positions Of honor and
trust. has made it easier for every boy that is
studying in the schools behind him to reach
the acme Of his desire. The boy behind him
starts at an advantage which his ewn honesty
in raising the general average of real persist
ent manhood has established. And therefore
we say to-day that it has been the raising Of
the general average of the Christian disciple
ship and missionary spirit through the lives
and the labors of those who have preceded us
which becomes to us today the grand and
glorious legacy that we crave and which we
hold. Christ himself became incarnate-
what for? First OF all, to give the human
heart and the human race vantage ground
upsn which to start in the new life that they
SHOULD find in him. And in his life and suffer
ings and death. it was finally svinsed and
manifested that it was in order to bring the
fnality of his life which was inaugurated at
Bethlehem to a fitting elsse, that the thunder,
and the lightning, and the earthquake, should
quarry the very capstone that was to crown
the whole So we say to-day that the want
age ground is given te US by those whe have
preceded US; as the pset has said,
Shining table lands
To which God himself becomes beth moon and sum-"
But there was another tn ought brought out
by these papers which interested me especi-
ally and it was this: that our present oppor-
tunityis the re- oiling Of the hinges. These
two papers so completely Identified in
their mighty purpose that they come under
one renge. 1t is the re- oiling of the hinges
that is our heritage and our duty ts-day. He
who stood by and held the garments of those
who stoned Stephen little understood then
how Stephen himself was siling the hinges at
the gates of Damascus. He himself later
when he said 81 am now ready to be offered
have fought good fight; have kept the
faith, little understood in his life work that
he was oiling the hinges that were to open up
on the GENTLE race that the nations of the
earth might be converted unto Christ Xa-
vier, IN the sixteenth century, little under
stood though he understands it now, that he
in his martyrdom, in his sorrows and in his
solitude, in that moment when almost in the
very coldness of death he could say, "Lord,
have hope in thee; let menst be confounded
in eternity, he little understood that
he was oiling the hinges that were to
give to the race for whom he Iabored new
light and liberty through himself; and to- day
it is our blessed privilege to know that those
who have preceded us have told us this story
that we might begin again here and now to
do this work afresh, and this must be done by
the conservation Of our money, our wealth cur
| all-the conservation of men and women to this
work.
Mr.. President, / live on coast and in a
State whichsowes to the American Board it's
existence in the American Repablic to-day
(Applause) The whole Pacific coast owes its
fealty to, and its life in the American
Republic to-day, to the far-sighted devotion,
and conservation of personal purposes, and
love of all of the members of the American
Board. And, therefore, though the Rockies
separate us frem the Board here, though a
continent stretches between us, vet we love
it with love that is only nurtured by the
feeling that she is the very mother and pro-
tector of the vast empire that is reaching
down from the mountains out toward the
Golden Gate (Applause.) Therefore, we
say, Mr.. President, that in all that goes in
any measure to strengthen the interests and
lengthen the course of the American Board,
the Pacific Coast and the Atlantic will stand
as one and clasp hands across the continent
| in prayerful remembrance that nothing
shall interfere with the ongeing purpose of
the great principles that underlie this
organization. Indeed speak it low,
but speak it as l am about TO close
when the Board meets in San Francisco,
we will see to it, all of us thsre,-fsr there
are noble workers in the church there and
noble men in the ministry-that, by personal
interest and by substantial support for the
openings of the avenues of the Beard, ysu
shall receive grand welcome to our hearts
and our homes-just as many as will Cross
the continent. and we propose to make the
fares Sc lew that nobody can afford to stay
at heme.
And then there is this simple thought:
whe of us, we ge from this meeting, will
not say in our hearts, that the grandest pur-
pose and the nsblest desire is to follsw those
who have given of their substance and of
their life-fer whoms Not for man or for the
organizations of man but for Christ himself.
As some one has beautifully written,
''They faced the tyrsnts brandished steel,
he lions CORY name,
They bowed their necks cen death to feel,
Who follows in their train?
noble army-men and beys,
The matren and the maid
Around the Sayior's throne rejoice,
In robes of light arrayed;
They climbed the steep ascent of heaven