The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-31
THE BAPTIST MISSIONARIES
INTERESTING ADDRESS AT THE
 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.

Rev. Robert c. Seymour, Missionary and
 Bible Secretary of the American Baptist
 Publication Society, Tells of the Work
 They Are Doing-a4O,00O Copies of the
 Scriptures Sold and Given Away.
 Before large audience at the First Baptist church yesterday morning Rev. Robert G, Seymour, D. D., missionary and Bible secretary of the American Baptist Publication society of Philadel- phia, made an interesting address on the work that has been and is being done by the society. He said in part: 'Thave just come from the finest book store in the world, that of the society with which I am identified. The build- ing which we now occupy has arisen out of the ashes of the former one which was destroyed by fire in Febru- ary, 1896. The new building is twelve stories high and worth millions of dol lars"
 Here the speaker told how the first building grew out of hunt. He said: 'In 1924 Samuel Cornelius and a friend Noah Davis, were conversing on the street in Washington. It was a very hot day. Cornelius was wearing an old | fashioned bell crown hat and when he | took it off to wipe his fevered brow sev- eral tracts fell from it. Davis remark ed that a more suitable place could be found for keeping the tracts than in a hat.'
 At present. said the speaker, i've have beside the main building in Phila- l delphia, six branch houses located in Boston, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, Tex, and Atlanta, Ga. These publishing houses have thus far turn I ed out over 800, ,O00, 900 books and period icals, which is a sample of the influence they have on denominational life. | Thirty-eight million copies are printed | annually and the quality is equal to the quantity. No better books to be found | anywhere. We have just issued book | by President Strong of Rochester, N. Y, entitled "The Theology of the Great Poets" that is as fine a piece of work as can anywhere be found. We publish 1 Baptist literature. for yBaptfsts. All the profits of the business go to support | and carry on the missionary work of l the society. The society is conducted l by the best business men of the Baptist | denomination of Philadelphia on sound business principals and is not in the | hands of a corporation. Last year we l sold and gave away over 240,000 copies l of the scriptures, which is an average of over TOO copies for every working day | of the year. We print the finest and yet the cheapest Bibles in the country. l "The press is great engine of power; it is not nearly as effective as the hu- l man voice. Life coming into contact l with life is what is needed. Going l from house to house and coming in con- 1 tact with the people is one of the lines | of our proclaiming work. We have 100 | corporators and missionary engaged and during the past year they visited 1 1861, 200 homes. Diaz, the apostle of 1 Cuba, is doing a wonderful work in Mexico. Besides being preacher he is a physician and ministers to the wants of the body as well as to the spiritual ! WdUlS dUO III lHlS SptCleS Ol WOIh ut has had marked success. The proclaim 1 ing work is also assisted by four chapel ! cars. These cars are provided with 100 l seats and so arranged that the mission ! aries can live right in the car. Each 1 car costs $10,o00 per year. Thus far the railroads have handled these cars free of charge. We ihave one in Arkansas l one in Texas, one in Oregon, and one in l Minnesota. A fifth one is now being
 built with funds furnished by the la | dies of the Baptist denomination. A sixth will be built by the young men of l the church. These cars are hauled ur
 on the side track of some small town in the states in which they run, and the people are invited to attend the ser
 vices. The cars remain in the place
 long enough to get the people interest
 ed and start Sunday school and a church. Two colporters wagons are now
 in operation, one in Utah and one ir
 Michigan. These wagons visit towns
 where the railroads do not strike. We are constantly planting new Sunday
 schools and the prime factor of oul | movement is to get hold of the boy and | girl of the present. Reading of the
 scriptures is practically abandoned ir
 our public schools and everything is hustle and hustle at the homes so thai
 the religious education of the young people is being sadly neglected. Ever the sermons are limited to half an hour Our young people must get their in
 structions in the Sunday school. Tht
 child mind must be moulded into tn. right way from the beginning. Ther, are at present 23,000000 young people
 between the ages of and 12 years il
 this country to-day and only 10000, ,0O
 of these are in the Sunday schools w
 have already established 10000 Sunday
 schools in the west, northwest ant
 south. One fault with our Sunday
 schools is that the teachers lack tn, aptness of teaching. They don't know how to adapt themselves. We have ir