Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-04-13
EXERCISES OF Tii
v. VI. q. A.
A Large Audience Present -Addresses
Delivered and Reports Presented,

. The anniversary exercises of the 1uun
Is Mems Christian association of this city wer
u held in the Baptist church, Friday evening. !
: very large audience was present. The plat
> form was occupied by the speakers, member
e of the clergy aud officers of the assoca
7. ton Music was furnished by the choir o
: the Baptist church, under the lcadershi
. of Mr. Nj. ID. Fuller, and the Amphio
IL male quartettc. The singing of the latte
was especially fine. After the opening ex
6 ercises, the reports of the president genera
j. secretary and treasurer of the association
4; were read. Rev. George A. Hail. secrctar,
A of the Young Mems Christian Association o
/. New York State, was then introduced, ant
c spoke, briefly, as follows:
Rev. MIR. Halls Address.
Mr.. President and friends of the Young
Mems Christian Association: Your Genera
, Secretary has referred to the organization o.
the first Young Mems Christian Association
in London in 1874 George Williams when
as but boy he entered dry goods house il
London and engaged upon the work incident
to his position, was moved in his heart ovcI
the condition of the young men about him.
lie induced several of them 20 join him in
his own room in reading the Word Of GOO
together. 1t was my pleasure, many years
ago, TO hear the story from his ownlips, and
10 learn how from this little seed Mr. vii.
liams has lived to see spreading over all
lands the institution Of which, by the grace
of God, he was the founder. Seven year:
after Mr., Williams founded his association
in London, associations were started, indie.
pcndently, in five different cities in this coun-
try and efforts were made to band young men
together 10 work exclusively for young men.
Until the close of the war, the wool OF these
associations was very varied. At the close
Of the war, in 1866, u company of gentlemen
representing the American ass Citations met
IN Albany in conference, but alter all Their
efforts they were able to find in the United
States and British Provinces but "a orgabizn-
lions. To-day our latest report, for 1888,
shows that there are moe than one thousand
associations on this continent. la every
and To day. and in every city, are found
| Young Mems Christian Associations. The
growth of these organizations has been mar
veuus. Where, in the Southern States, we had
| but three associations dt the close OF The war
we have $50 to-day. We lave more than 90
in the Western States and territories. AnJth-
er feature OF Gods blessing is the condition OF
| the finances OF our ASSOCIATIONS. We have
| today III this country more than four million
dollars invested IN property. The in, rnl-
tOnal committee received last year, for gen
eral association work, some $780, 900. In my
'Nh ,ihtt, NcN l'lh, '-l'p,oOV was uuutu
| IN property, and fivc new buildings were
erected. Another feature Of promise in our
work is the much greater favor In which
these societies stand with church and society
than at the time OF their inception. can
remember when the fathers and mothers and
The deacons Of the church shook their heads
when the Young Mems Christian association
was spoken OF for fear that they would in
tcrleic with the regular work Of the church
and church organizations. To-day, when
ever travel over the land, | find universal
Endorsement OF our work in church aud So
ciety. would like to give one or two rca-
,,t ,,, Wy Jo' ',us, o. - ".iss
b. cause we have come to understand, as we
did not at the outset, the relation OF thcsv
ass lciations to the churches OF the Lord
Jesus. | can remember when we thought
churches dull and slow in their work, aud
we would not Join with them because we
thought we could do better and faster work
by ourselves We thought that we were the
principal force at WORK, but we soon learned
that zoe amounted to very little. am glad
to say that all this las passed away. We
have come to understand that we are auXl- |
larry to the churches of the Lord Jesus. We |
belong to the church. The idea of our
society is TO feed and helm ,hr cnhrch |
The second reason why God has blessed |
us Is because we have realized tha, The
creat power of orr work i, in The usc
believe, as we have come to honor Gods |
idea now is thnt nm as.orio,ion is moi hardly