Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-04
IN FAVOR OF HOME MISSIONS
President Cleveland Presided Over the Meeting and Delivered an Excellent Speech to
 an Immense Audience.


 New York, March 3.-The opening gun of a big home mission campaign was fired tonight at Carnegie music hall by the board of home missions of the Pres byterian church.
 The announcement that President Cleveland was to preside al the meeting was of itself sufficient to draw an im- mense audience to the hall. The doors were opened at 7:15 o'clock, but long be- fore that time the crowd began to gather. Five minutes after the doors were opened every seat in the immense hall was filled.
 The audience was a very enthusiastic one and the remarks of the various speakers were cheered to the echo The obect of the rally was to stir up public interest in the work of home missions and to raise funds for completing the payments on the new building of the society in Fifth avenue. The meeting to- night was the first of a series to be held all over the United States.
 It was exactly five minutes after o'clock when President Cleveland ap- peared on the platform. He was dressed in black frock coat and wore turned down collar and a black tie.
 The moment the president was seen the immense audience rose up and cheered wildly for few minutes. There was another burst of applause when the Rev. Dr. John Hall introduced Presi- dent Cleveland as the presiding officer of the meeting in a brief speech.
 Dr, Hall in introducing the president said My Christian Friends-We have with us here one who has been twice called by the voice of his fellow-ctizens to the highest official position in the United States. and one who has. under stand some happy family associations with our board of home missions. l have the pleasure, therefore, by the d- rection of the board of home missions, and l count it an honorable duty, to in- vite the president of the United States to preside over our present meeting"
 President Cleveland then came for ward. He was received very warmly, but the cheering was by no means bos terous. His remarks on the foreign mis- sionaries' sufferings were loudly cheered. He spoke as follows:
 "I desire to express my appreciation of the privilege of participa ting in this con- ference and of the opportunity thus af- forded me of testifying to the value and usefulness of the work undertaken by the board of home missions of the Presbyte- rian church.
 My interest Tn this subject and my fa- miliarity with home missionary efforts are not newly acquired. They early came to me in the surroundings of a Christian Presbyterian home and were stimulated by fathers faithful labors in the cause. My early impressions are not, however. the only basis of the testimony l give to- night in favor of home missions. As your fellow citizen, interested, l hope, in all things that deepen the religious senti- ment of our people and enlarge Christian influence, I fully realize the transcendent importance of this agency in it's operA. tion upon the hearts of men for the sal vation of their souls. The long roster of Iuh hppp a Qf righteousness through the instrumentali- ty of our missions are rich trophies of successful endeavor.
 But it is not only as your fellow citizen, but as the chief executive officer of your government that l desire to speak, for I am entirely certain that serve we'll our entire people, whose servant l am when I here testify to the benefit our country has received through home missionary effort, and when join you in an attempt to extend and strengthen that effort.
 No one charged with the duties and re- responsibilities which necessarily weigh upon your chief executive can fail to ap- preciate the importance of religious teaching and Christian endeavor in the newly settled portions of our vast do- main. It is there where hot and stub born warfare between the forces of good and evil is constantly invited. In these days the vanguard of occupa tion in new settlement Is never without its vi- cious and criminal element. Gambling houses and dram shops are frequently among the first establishments in new community. It must also be confessed that removal from old homes and old as- sociates to new and more primitive home has tendency among honest and respectable settlers to smother scruples and to breed toleratcn of evil and indlf- ference to Christianizing and eleyat.ng agencies. These conditions, if unchecked, fix upon the new community by their growth and expansion a character and disposition which, while dangerous to peace and order in the early stages Of set tlement, develop into badly regulat ed municipalities, corrupt and unsafe terri tories and undesirable states.
 These are serious considerations in a country where the people, good or bad, are its rulers, because the conditions to which I have referred would certainly menace within a circle constantly en- larging the safety and welfare of the en- tire body polite If we could not hope that churches and religious teachings would from the first be on the ground to oppose the evil influence that are apt to pervade the beginning of organized com munities.
 These churches and these religious teachings were never more needed than now on our distant frontiers where the process of forming new states is going on so rapidly and where new corners who are to be the citizens of new states are so rapidly gathering together
 For these iBstrumentalities at the out post of our population, so vitally impor- tant in the view of Christian men. as
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