Omaha daily bee., 1896-03-04
RALLY FOR HOME MISSIONS
President 0leyi land Presided at Monster
Meeting in New York.
CARNEGIE MUSIC HALL WAS CROWDED
In Addition to the President. Rev. II.
Dewitt Taimngc md Others
Urged the Importance of
Home Mission Work.

NEW YORK, March 3.-One Of the most
important meetings held in recent years in
favor of the home mission movement Of the
Presbyterian church was that which took
place in Carnegie Music hall tonight. The
importance or the occasion was emphasized
by the appearance, as presiding officer Of the
meeting, Ct President Cleveland. Every avail
able spot in the hall was crowded, and an
overflow meeting was held in the lower hall.
The platform was crowded with prominent
ministers and laymen of the Presbyterian
church. When President Cleveland appeared
at o'clock, accompanied by Rev. Dr. John
Hall Of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
church, he was received with tumultuous
applause, the whole audience rising and wav-
ing handkerchiefs When the applause had
subsided Dr. Hall introduced President Cieve-
land as chairman of the meeting, whereupon
the applause was renewed again and again
When the cheering had subsidized Mr.. Cleve-
land said:
NOT A NEW INTEREST
privilege of participating in this conference
and of the opportunity thus afforded me of
testifying to the va.ue and usefulness of
the work undertaken by the Board of Home
Missions of the Presbyterian church. My
Interest with this subject and my familiar
lly WIN nome MISSIONARIES are not newly
acquired, They. early, came to me in the
surroundings of n Christian. Presbyterian
home and were stimulated by fathers
faithful labors in the cause.
But 1t is not only as your fellow citizens,
but as the chief executive of your govern
tirely certain that 1 serve well our entire
people, whose servant l am, when l here
testify to the benefit our country has re-
Ceived through holding missionary efforts
and when join you in an attempt to widen
and strengthen that effort.
sponsibilities which necessarily weigh upon
your chief executive can fail to appreciate
the Importance of religious teachings and
Christian endeavor in the newy settled por-
tions of our vast domain. 1t Is there where
hot and stubborn warfare between the
forces of good and evil is constantly invited.
in new settlement is never without its
vicious and criminal element Gambling
houses and dramshopS are frequently among
the first establishments in new COM
munity. 1t must also be confessed that re-
new and more primitive homes has a ten
dency among honest and respectable set
tiers to smother scruples and breed evil IN
difference to Chrstianizing and elevating
agencies.
1t seems to me if the Christian people of
which the Board of Home Missions has in
charge, and if they can be made to realize
its extreme Importance, the means to carry
forthcoming, and l hope such an unusual
interest may be aroused in behalf of the
U
ing is a part as will suggest to many here
tofore Indifferent that among the most com
forting of their possessions will be a. share
in the triumphs and achievements of home
missions.
JACKSON AND TALMAGE FOLLOW
After President Cleveland's address, a
prayer was offered by Rev. W. G. Roberts,
secretary Of, the board of home missions.
Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, superintendent
of missions ,for, Alaska followed. Rev. DR..
Jocl olSa of the mission work he had
done on the1banks of the Mississippi and Of
his work inoaAjafka. Referring particularly
to the objerr of the gathering this even
ing. he sabi.s Home missions reach the
prodigal; home missions care for and save
the lost and shelter the absent ones. Let
the word go forth that this great meeting
made a munifcent freewill Offering for the
Lord and tomorrow morning at the family
altars on the New England coast will be
heard the voice OF praise and Thanksgiving
that shall not cease until it has encircled
the globe
After DR.. jackson came Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage. pastor of the First Presbyterian
church, Washington, ID. c., who said VIC
torious Presbyterianism is in full bloom to-
night This will be an historical meeting
and far down the years it will be told that
in the commercial metropolis Of this nation
the man who has on him the highest honors
this world can give, and twice having re-
ceived the1e honors from the American
people, in this great mass meeting 1or Goa
and Righteousness, put down the grandeurs
of his office at the feet of Jesus. Germany
fer scholarship; England for manufacturing;
France for manners; Egypt for antiquities;
Italy for pictures; but American for God"
Great cities, so often mentioned as great
obstacles the centers of crime and the
reservoirs of all iniquities. are to lead in
the work of gospelizat'cn. From what place
did Christ send out his twelve apostles to
gospeze the world? From a city |
What place, more than any place, will by its
contributions of Christian men and women |
and means aid in this work of taking Amer |
lea Cor Cod? May the eternal God wake us |
up to the stupendous issue"
Rev. Charles l.. Thompson, chairman |
of the committee on home missions of the
Presbyterian missions of New York, spoke |
on Home Missions" |
The last speaker was Booker T. Washing |
ton, the controlling spirit of the great in
dustrial school for negroes at Tuskogee, |
Ala. The colpred orator made an earnest |
plea for missionary endeavor in the BLACK /
Belt" of the south He quoted statistics to |
show that during the past year each cclored |
child in this district had expended en- him
for education about 70 cents, as compared |
with the sl8 to $40 expended on the Massa- |