The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-04
His Interest in the Subject I'M
der Consideration.
Benefits that our Chief Executive
Relieves Have Been Received by
our Government Because of
Home Missionary Movements
and Religious Teachings-Never
More Needed than Now, Espec-
tally Upon the Frontier

most important meetings held In re-
cent years in favor of the home mis-
sion movement of the Presbyterian
church was that which took place in
Carnegie music hall tonight. The i'm
portance of the occasion was empha-
sized by the appearance, as presiding
officer of the meeting, of President
Cleveland. Every available 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 8 o'clock ac-
companied by Rev. DIR. John Hall of
the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church
he was received with
TUMULTUOUS APPLAUSE,
the whole audience rising and waving
handkerchiefs.
When the applause had subsidized DR..
! Hall introduced President Cleveland
as chairman of the meeting, whereupon
the applause was renewed again and
again. When the cheering had sub
| sided, Mr.. Cleveland said:
| Il desire to express my appreciation
of the privileges of participating in this
| conference and of the opportunity thus
afforded me of testifying to the values
and usefulness of the work undertaken
by the board of home missions of the
Presbyterian church.
My interest in this subject and my
familiarity with home missionary eff
fort are not newly acquired. They
early came to me in the surroundings
of Christian Presbyterian home, and
were stimulated by
FATHERS FAITHFUL LABORs
in the cause.
MY early impressions are not, how
ever. the only basis of the testimony
1 give tonight in favor of home mis-
sions. AS your fellow citizen, inter-
ested l hope in all things that deepen
the religious sentiment of our people
and enlarges Christian influence. 1
fully realize the transcendent impor-
lance of this agency in its operation
upon the hearts of men for the sal
walton of men. But it is as the chief
executive of your government that [
desire to speak, for 1 am entirely GER
tain that [ serve we'll our entire peo-
pie, whose servant 1 am, when l here
testify to the benefits our country has
received through home missionary eff
fort, and when I join you in an at
tempt to extend and strengthen that
effort.
mo one charged with the duties and
responsibilities which necessarily weigh
upon your chief executive can fail to
appreciate the Importance of religious
teachings and Christian endeavor in
the newly settled portions of our vast
domain. 1t is there where hot and
stubborn warfare between the forces
of good and evil is constantly invited.
In those days the vanguard of occupa-
ton in a new settlement is never with
out its vicious and criminal element.
Gambling houses and dram shops are
frequently among the first establish
ments in new community. It must
also be confessed that removal from
old homes and associations to new and
more primitive homes has tendency
among honest and respectable settlers
to smother scruples and
BREED EVILS
Indifferent to Outstanding and eIe-
waiting agencies These conditions, if
unchecked, fix upon the new commune
ty by their growth. and expansion a
character and disposition which, while
dangerous to peace and order in the
early stages of settlement, develop into
badly regulated municipalities, corrupt
and unsafe territories, and undesira-
BILE states. These are. serious consid-
erations in a country where the peo-
pie good or bad, are it's rulers, because
the conditions to which I would have
referred would certainly menace with
in a circle constantly enlarging the
safety and welfare of the entire body
polite, if we could not hope that
churches and religious teachings would
from the first be on the ground to OPP
pose the evil influences that are apt
to pervade the beginning of organized
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 |
citizens of new states are so rapidly |
gathering together.
IF we turn from the objects of home
labor to the situation of |
those actually toi1ing in distant fields |
for God and humanity and a purer, |
better citizenship, our sympathy with |
their work must be further quickened |
and our sense of duty to them and |
their cause actively stimulated
Mr.. Cleveland referred feelingly to |
the dangers that threaten American |
in foreign lands.
After President CIeveland's address
a prayer was offered by Rev. w. C.
secretary of the board of !
home missions.
Rev. DR.. Sheldon Jackson, superin-
tendent of missions for Alaska followed
Rev Jackson spoke of the mission he
had done on the banks of the Missis-
sippi and his work in Alaska. Refer
ring particularly to the
OBJECT OF THE GATHERING
this evening he said:
"A great crisis has arisen in our
church. Nothing less than a great ma
tional peril would have brought the