The San Francisco call., 1896-03-04

here testify to the benefit our country has
received through home missionary effort
and when l join you in an attempt TO ex-
tend and strengthen that effort.
"No one charged with the duties and re-
sponsiblities which necessarily weigh
upon your chief executive can fail to ap-
preciate the Importance of religious teach
ing and Christian endeavor in the newly
settled portions of our vast domain. 1t IS
there where hot and stubborn warfare be-
tween the forces of good and evil is con-
stantly invited. In these sections the van
guard of the occupation III new settle
ment is never without its vicious and Grim
inal element. Gambling houses and dram
shops are frequently among the first estab-
lishments in a new community. 1t must
also be confessed that removal from old
homes and associations to new and more
primitive home has a tendency among
honest and respecta bic settlers to smother
scruples and to breed toleratIon OF evil
and indifference to Christianizing and ele-
waiting agencies.
1.-THE conditions if unchecked and un-
corrected fix upon the new community by
their growth and expansion a character
which, while dangerous to peace and order
in their early stages OF settlement, de-
veiops into badly regulated municipal
ties, corrupt and unsafe territories and
undesirable States These are serious con-
siderations in a country where The people,
good or bad, are its rulers, because the
conditions to which | have referred would
certainly menace within a section con-
stantly enlarging the safety and welfare
of the entire body polite. Ii We could
now hope that churches ana religious
teaching would from the first be on the
ground to oppose the evil influences that
are apt to prevade the beginning OF or
ganized communities. These churches
and this religious teaching were never
more needed than now on our distant
frontiers, where the process of forming
new States is going on so rapidly, and
where newcomers who are to be the citi-
zens of new States are so rapidly gather
ing together.
"For these instrumentalities at the out
posts of our population so vitally impor-
tant in the view of Christian men as well
as patriotic citizens we must depend to
very great extent on home missionary ex-
ertion. How can we excuse ourselves If
we permit this exertion to languish for
lack OF proper support. If We turn from
the objects OF home missionary labor 10
the situation of those actually tolling in
distant fields for God and humanity and
purer, better citizenship, our sympathy
with their work must be further quickened
ann our sense of duty to them and their
cause actively stimulated. These are the
men and women who have left home and
the association of friends under the direc-
sion OF orFaniZed mission boards to teach
Christianity in sparselv settled sections
and to organize churches where none e1-
ist, enduring discomfort, hardships, pow
erty and danger for the sake of cause to
which, in very comfortable and inexpen-
sive way, we profess to be attached. These
are our soldiers at the front, fighting our
battles, and we W ho stay at home cannot
escape the duty of providing for them and
fe-enforcing them in every way if we are
to continue them in our service.
"0ur hearts have recently been pro-
foundly stirred by the dangers that
threaten the devoted men and women
who have gone from among US to preach
and teach Christianity in foreign land
Our sympathy with them and those with
whom they labor and suffer is made more
painful because the arm of complete re-
lief has not thus far been able to reach
them. Our missionary impulse should be
large enough and strong enough for both.
while we will no. turn away from
them nor allow encouragement to destroy
activity in their behalf let US not forget
the missionaries in our own land who
need our aid, to whom we owe duty and
who can be reached.
sit seems TO me that if the Christian
people of our land estimate at its real
value the work which the Board OF Home
Missions has in charge, and if they can be
made to realize its extreme importance,
the means to carry on and extend this
work will be easily forthcoming, and l
hope that such an unusual interest may
be aroused in behalf OF the cause by the
movement Of WHICH this meeting is part
as will suggest to many heretofore in
different that among the most comforting
OF their possessions will be share in the
trium phs and achievements of home mis-
sions.'
When the President had concluded Rev.
William G. Roberts, DID,, offered prayer.
Then Rev. Sheldon Jackson, DID,, super
intendent of missions for Alaska, made an
eloquent address. President Cleveland
then introduced the Rev. DR.. Talmage,
who received great ovation. He said:
''Our glorious Presbyterianism is in full
bloom tonight. This will be a historical
meeting and far down the years it will be
told in the commercial metropolis of this
Nation that the man who has on him the
highest honors this world can give, and
twice received these honors from the
American people, in-this great mass-meet-
ing Tor God and righteousness put down the
grandeurs of his Office at the feet of Jesus
Christ; and If they know in heaven what
is done on earth, then amid the rejoicings
before the throne is the gladness of one of
the early ardent friends of home N ission,
the consecrated pastor, Mr.. Cleveland,
once of Caldwell, n. j., but now among
the great cloud of witnesses bending over
this triumphal scene"
The Rev. Charles L. Thompson was the
next speaker and at the conclusion of his
address the ushers took up the collection.
after which President Cleveland intro
duced Booker t. Washington, principal of
Tuskogee Institute, Alabama, as the last
speaker