The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-06-18
ANNUAL
ADDRESS
OF THE PRESIDENT
Of the Woman's Mission
ary Society
Of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.
MISS BELLE H. BENNETT.

Year after year, we come to these
Annual Missionary Meetings, sit to-
gether for few days in happy Chris
tan intercourse, and go back to oul
homes, better or worse, for the oppor.
tunity that has been given us.
In making, what is by courtesy
usually called the annual Address, >,
l have heretofore come before you
with brief record of the years work
"a short recital of the plans, methods
and achievements of the Society since
its organization, or asked you TO lift
up your eyes and look, for moment,
on the fields so long white to the har-
vest in the "regions beyond l." To-
night, / ask you, to consider, briefly
with ME, what profit there is to us, in
coming to these Annual Meetings
What ought we to get from them ?
What do we get from them? We
come up from our homes, our various
occupations and duties, some through
trials and difficulties, perhaps bearing
heavy burdens--not for recreation or
entertainment, though we may and
do get both-but as delegates to a
Missionary Meeting. Women, Sc
lected and chosen, as representatives
of the great missionary principle
which was Divinely manifested in the
incarnation of the Son of God.
Christ came into the world, to re-
deem the world, to save man from
sin. His words were, 81 will that all men
shall be saved" II, if be lifted up,
will draw all men to me. "Even as
the Father hath loved me, SO have l
loved you" Although an Hebrew
OF the Hebrews, and so far as the rec
ord shows, going but twice, during
His public ministry. outside the con-
fines of His native Palestine /; yet, His
was no narrow mission. He did not
come to any one people or nation
and in that final closing hour, His
earthly career fnished,as He stood in
the midst of His disciples having put
on his glorified body, "surely, never
man spake as this man." GAIL power
is given unto me, Go we into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every
creature, and 10, 1 am with you al
ways" We call this, now, "the great
commission"-the eleventh command
ment"-and you and /, my sisters and
are supposed to have in us
the spirit and the mind of this Christ.
A burning and consuming desire for
the salvation of the whole world. Is
this true? Every Christian must
have in her, some measure of the
spirit, else how can she
be of Christ? But the indifference,
the ignorance, the disobedience of the
Church concerning the great and vi
tai question of the evangelizatien of
the world is constant wonder and
reproach to us. Look at the history
of our own organization. A Church
with membership of one million
four hundred thousand-one million
of whom are women and girls.
us, well organized, well
equipped Woman's Missionary Socie-
ty-requiring only ten cents per
month as membership fee and asking
for meeting of one hour each month,
to be spent in prayer, praise and
study of the work. Yet, in the seven
teen years of its existence, only about
thirty-seven thousand women, who
teach and train the same number of
young people and children, have been
enrolled as members. In our own
Conference, with the
names of twenty thousand women
and girls on our church records
fewer than three thousand are enlist
ed in the work. And this is but
repetition of the history of the mission
ary cause in all denominations, ex-
,ept, perhaps, the Moravian. We
know, too, that this "little remnant"
e the working laity of the Church,
the power that makes for righteous
less"-and how often we comfort
ourselves with the precious words,
Fear not, little flock, it is your Faith
RS good pleasure to give you the |