The Portland daily press., 1896-04-23
AUBURN TO PORTLAND.
Thirteenth Annual Pilgrimage Per-
feet Success.

By the Portland Association-Bright
Occasion.
The Auburn Y M. c. A. came here
last evening to pay fraternal visit to
the Portland association. The run was
made from Auburn to Portland in one
hour. The party and ladies went direot-
ly to the hall, where a banquet was
served in the large room above. Presl-
dent Payson presided, and the divine
blessing was invoked by Rev. W. ..
Ayres
After the banquet President Payson
raped to order and said:
This comes to me much in the nature
of surprise. returned home this after
noon and the first thing I knew about
this was when I was told that the MEM
hers Of the Auburn association would be
here this evening. Under such ciroum-
stances I will not tire you by trying to
make a speech, but will introduce one
whose wit and eloquence will do justice
to the occasion. Rev. e. r. Purdy.
Rev. Mr.. Purdy was received with
loud applause, and said:
Our president seems to think that be-
cause he has just returned from a visit to
a section of the country where it is hot
ter than it is here, he ought to be ex.
cused from speaking, but I told him he
ought to be thoroughly ready to know
when to stop, to be done you see. Now
if 1 was obliged to oonf1ne myself to one
word, and think you would be glad to
limit me to about that it would be
Welcome" but an occasion like this
Is an inspiration, and the thought that
inspires us is the glory of Christian man
hood, that is the central thought, then
glory, the inspiration of the Young
Mems Christian Association.
There is glory in youth that is appre-
oiated even by the old men. At religi-
GUS conference an aged minister said /:
"Put only young men on the committee.
1 am tired Of the old men, But that is
not our feeling, for no one appreciates
more highly the value Of the services,
the counsel the wise Christian leader
ship of the old men, but we help them
to keep young, and they try hard to be
young, some of them very successfully.
Now I am not saying that we are not
all young. 1t is possibl that some OF
you from Auburn like some of US here in
Portland are finding your brain growing
young, that is if you have any brain left.
Laughter.) But never mind, we will
help you to keep young. I had rather
have ten old young men than one young
old man. (Laughter.)
And with my words of welcome, and
say welcome heartily, I add one more
thought-manhood. and a still bet
ter Thought, Christian manhood. There
is no manhood SO real and SO true as
that which is consecrnted to Christ.
Then I welcome you here as fellow
workers in great cause. Two boys were
together, and one said: "Will. can
reach up further than you CAM" but the
other replied, Eyes, but I can go down
as far as you can."
Now We can all go down together until
we rest on the bed rock of our salvation,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And in this riyally in goodwork and in
good results we are but fellow 1aborers.
/ hope you have at least one thousand
members as we shall soon have, for we
have hustling president and a hustling
secretary. (Applause.)
And at this time when we talk some
and ministers preach much of Christian
unity, that is when they are saying
"Thsre ought not to be but one church,
come to us. (Great laughter,) it is
pleasant to think as we have a right to
do that. We have true Christian unity
here, members of many churches uniting
in this fraternal meeting with single
the name of Christ. But 1 forgot that
Secretary Garland said the speeches must
be brief. daughter and APPLAUSE
President Hora CO c. Day of the Au-
burn association replied to the address of
welcome. President Day said:
am glad that Secretary Garland said
that we must make brief speeches. He
said so to me and I wondered why. 1t
may be he thought I would be SO long
indeed, but can safely promise to be
very brief.
I confess that when you came to Au-
burn l had then no thought of our max
ing this return visit. l only thought of
the pleasure of that occasion, but fully
appreciate the value of this exchange of
fraternal visits. The fact is that life is
with too many of us trife monotinous,
that we are too apt to say and do the
same things, and we need something of
this kind to bring us out of ourselves and
| together. This will be another bright CO.
oasion to look backward to.
And fully appreciate the value of fra
ternal societies. We have in Auburn
many orders and societies. like the Ma
sonic order, the Odd Fellows, the Golden
Eagles and others, all good. all valuable
and all doing much needed work, but
can but believe that the noblest, and
the best fraternal association is this
which binds men together in I'll Q name
and in the spirit of Christ (Applause.)
And now | must remember that we