The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-07
nan and speakers had chairs to the

man and speakers had chairs to the
front.
The session opened at 71O o'clock
with q praise and devotional service
led by Rev. G. L. Aldrich, of the Grace
Reformed Episcopal church. Wyoming
avenue. Chairman Roads. after calling
on the choir for a song, announced Cap
tain w. A. May, president of the board
of trade, who delivered the address or
welcome. Captain May said:
CAPTAIN MAYS ADDRESS.
Fellow Christians: l am glad to look
into your eyes tonight. to forget for a
while the turmoil and whirl OF work, TO
get, in. touch with soults animated by
other and nobler things. l am glad to
welcome you to our city, city we con-
slider the best place In the state, except
the one from each one of you comes.
There are no dregs in our cup OF well
come either; the wine flows over no lees.
1t was not necessary, when preparing Tor
your coming, for any one to say, I'VE shall
have strangers here. see that the cellar
door is well looked after and the back door
locked" No one that know has had to
go, or felt impelled to go to the chief
magistrate of the city and ask, in order
40 protect themselves, that special officers
be chosen because you were coming. In
fact, there were many things we did not
have to do, which, in n sense might re-
fleet upon the character of our guests.
because we knew you wer coming. All
We had to do was to welcome you wlth-
out u reservation, knowing well that you
were here only for your good and the ad-
vancement to the best of this city ana
vicinity.
/ am especially glad to welcome you at
this time. The state of the country, the
condition of business and of secular ar
fairs are not of the best. We are anxious.
We are concerned; there Is feeling or uii-
certainty with all men; there Is u pessic
mistic cast, If you please, on the face OF
the country. l was in Il lawyers ONCE
the other day, and. talking over certain
occurrences, he said .'the world Is get
ting worse;" and looking at 1t from our
standardization the standpoint OF STRIFE
for self, for a gain of position ana weaith
and the advancement OF meterlal interests
it did seem that everything was wrohs'
but when ! come here and see the repre-.
sentatives of thousands, who are ilied
with other thoughts. other ideas. who have
In view the bettering of others, ana ths
betterng i'm the truest sense. coming
miles to further the cause of the Master,
TO spread His spirit so that the mercenary.
selfish, all pervading spirit of the world
may be ncutralized. see that there - an-
other spirit abroad and find. as did Elijah
of old. that there are thousands who FOL
low the Lord God of Israel.
COMING TO DO GOOD.
You are coming here to do uL ,'opa D"-
cause we shall feel your enthus,asn,
shall see your desire for the pro,n0;ion
of that spirit of our Master which 70: Its
self: and. catching your carnestNss "a
enthusiasm we also shall forget tn ever
lasting strife for position, for advance
ment, for only the temporal things OF life,
and will turn towards those things whlch
mean much more, give us much better en-
isctence here and give us Immortality af-
ter we are gone. Absorbed in business we
at last think too much OF self. we magnify
the huck. the exterior. the individual,
and forget the everlasting, the universal.
The individual really amounts to moth
ing. Among millions what do the suffer-
1ngs, the triumphs, the prosecutions. the
elevations of one amount to. so Tar as
the mass Is concerned? He is but one, and
in the ages upon ages of men and women
one is nothing If wrapped up in himself. 1t
is only when he goes outside or hlmse!i,
is animated by spirit foreign to self, is
great purpose that he rises above nothing
ness and becomes great. If by any act he
can in the slightest degree affect the final
result in the betterng of the world for
Chrst's sake he becomes a moving power,
and it was well that he lived. 81 count my
sufferings as nothing If by that means |
may at least save one, was the lofty
ideal of the great Saint Paul; and in that
ideal was his greatness. Without that his
tolls, his sufferings and trials would nave
been simply the same as the tolls ana sur
ferings and trials of thousands and thou
sands of others: but with that in view ne
became power to lift men up. to spread
the doctrines of Christ and influence the
world forever
In the spirit of Christ believe you have
come to our city, to help better us, the
state and yourself-nOt for what money
you could make. what social position you
could win, that political preferment might
be yours, but because you might do some
good and help some one else. i therefore
welcome you as men mpelled by lifty mo-
tives, void of all seltishness, filled with love
and Christlikeness, which II Is a relief to
see, which fills one with hope and JOY and
content and chases away the fears We
have had. as the clouds fly away before
the morning sun.
He.was given a rousing applause and
the Chautauqua salute, waving OF
handkerchiefs.
MR.. ROADS RESPONSE.
Chairman Roads, who made the re-
sponse, prefaced his remarks with a
reference to the empty seats, which he
said bespoke hard times and not any
lack of interest in the convention on
the part of the Endeavorers. He spoke
as follows:
I am glad that in responding to Scran-
tons welcome in genuine Christian fellow
snip to the hosts of Pennsylvania Chris
tian Endeavorers / am able to do so from
my large acquaintance with your delight
ed guests. l have seen these workers in
their own churches. Some of them in
small numbers In scattered country COM
munities meeting under great difficulties
of distance and weather, as well as others
In the town and city societies where other
obstacles are equally great, but the socie-
ties larger and blessed by the fellowship
of great unions.
Pennsylvania Endeavorers have back
bone for righteousness like their own AL
leghanies; they have the fruitfulness in all
spiritual graces of their unrivaled farms
and gardens; they are true as the steel
so abundantly produced from her mines;
and warm in sincere affection as the an
thracite fire IN her furnaces: From q care
hriS ttny, Sn1n NV
fields In other states | believe with all
confidence that we have in Pennsylva-
mia the most fertile field for Christian En-
deavor extension and perfecting to be
fairly begun to cultivate it. Our four
thousand societies may be doubled and
every society become filled with mis-
sionary, Christian citizenship. and evan
gelistic enthusiasm. I have made very
careful survey by the United States Sen
sus of the church in 1890 of the number
of churches accessible to us in the state
and am fully within the truth in what l
have said In addition to the number now
In existence the increase of churches by
new organizations and new buildings is
from three to five hundred annually.
Continuing. therefore, our present en-
thusiastic effort without paid organizer
In the field and without entering a single
church uninvited, We can easily exceed
one thousand new societies for years to
come.
FAVORABLE TO MOVEMENT.
The religious character of PENNSYLVANIA
Is favorable to Christian Endeavor The
Scotch Presbyterian is everywhere, though
most numerous about PittSburg, the Bap-
fists and Methodists are large factors, and
with the Evangelical church and the Unit
ed Brethren In the fertile farming regions
and In the large towns and cities, and the
Friends In the East, the Lutherans and
Reformed next, and an influential sprin-
king OF Moravians. Church of God, and
Reformed Episcopalians, we have as the
result a well-rounded and earnest gem
eral Christian character. Here Is a larger
land of steady habits, where the noun
tains are picturesque as in Switzerland
and produce the same ardent patriotism,
where the mines are rich as COlorado's or
CalifOrna's and produce the same yipor-
GUS enthusiasm, where the farms are