The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-07-07
an eloquent and enthusiastic annual
address. He said in part:

been the best in our history; there have
been more going and growing, more
advance and increase than in any other
year. The conventions have been
larger and more stimulating; the de-
nominational drift has been more de-
cidedly than ever toward our interde-
nominational movement, the growth in
foreign lands has never been so en-
couraging; the thoughts of the Quiet
Hour Of personal communion with God
has taken hold of the society with
blessed grasp that will never be re-
Taxed; our horizon has been expanded
to take in our responsibility for peace
on earth and good will to man as never
before. There is still ROOM however,
on our Peace Memorial, let me remind
you, for hundreds of thousands of sig
natures.
During the past year more has been
done for the prisoner and the sailor
than ever before. All honor to the no.
BILE Endeavorers who have devoted
their lives so unselfshly to this Christ,
like service. May their zeal inspire us
all to the same heroic endeavor Oh.
Endeavorers hear the Lord say, I was
in prison and yet We visited me. I was
on the sea and We did not forget me.
1 was in the camp or the hospital and
We remembered me; inasmuch as We did
1T unto me one of the least of these my
brethren,
Il trust that neither you nor I will
ever cOnfound motion with progress.
There is an activity within this action.
Our adoption of new plans and new
methods of work does not mean that
we adopt every new fad that some en-
thusiast would force upon US. I have
been implored, during the past year.
to urge the Endeavorers to form So
cieties of descendants of e-holders
to ameliorate the condition of the ne
gro; to father many political schemes
for the ushering in of the millennium by
which sometimes. incidentally, my COR
respondents will be elected to a fat
Office. I have been asked to indorse tho
widest of wildcat schemes to evangel-
ize the world, or to revolutionize So
ciety. We will beware of the visionary
and of the political trickster, whatever
moral reform he blazons on his BAN
ners, as we'll as Of the selfish schemer
who still brings his Ratchet to our
grindstone.
Il do not forget, either, that no
amount of progress, of strenuous &C
tivity, of earnest zeal, can satisfy some
carping critics. I do not forget that,
in spite of our best efforts, every thin
evening service. every depleted Sunday
school. every empty missionary treas
ury, is by some laid at the door of the
Christian Endeavor Society. Some peo-
pie are still utterly oblivious of the
facts which exhausted statistics have
proved that the active members of the
Christian Endeayor Society attend the
Sunday evening service and the mid
week prayer meeting in the proportion
of two to one of the older members Of
the church, that the gifts to denomina-
tional missions, home and foreign, from
all young people have largely increased
within the last ten years; and, better
than all. that in three of the great de-
nominations that have most heartily
welcomed Christian Endeavor the ac-
cessiOns to the church on confession Of
faith have been more than doubled
within the same decade. Let these sta
tfstics, until they are disproved, for
ever silence the fault-inders who lay
every temporary or local decadence in
religious life at the door of the Chris
tan Endeavor Society and are forever
calling upon it to remedy evils for
which the whole church is responsible
But we will not let visionary fanatics
or carping critics keep us from true
progress-from real going and growing
We have not yet attained. We are not
yet full grown. There are new steps
to be taken, new advances to be made.
You will, in each society and local
union, decide what advance steps are
most important for you to take; how
you can best go and grow; but let me
suggest some methods which I think
are of very wide applications; some
steps which I think that God and the
times demand.
'.First-Almost every State. Province
and Territory affords the opportunity OF
larger numerical growth. There re-
mains yet much land to be possessed
There are schoolhouse districts, isolated
communities even single families, re
mote from others. where the simple
principles of Christian Endeavor could
be applied with vast advantage to the
spiritual life and growth of all con-
cerned
There are many UNCONVENTIONAL So
cieties that would come into our fell
lowship if only they understood that
we seek no control and demand no
money or allegiance. but only ask their
brotherhood, that we all may be one.'
The trend is distinctly and decidedly
toward our fnterdenominational fellow.
ship in all denominations but enc. and
information wisely distributed among
n q G ND oh Of
pose and method of Christian Endeayor
would still more largely increase this
tendency. Let them know that with
out withdrawing from their own de-
nominational organization they can be
Christian Endeavorers and enjoy our
fellowship.
Il recommend most earnestly that all
State and local union officers give this
matter their careful attention. The
United Society furnishes literature that
will help them. Let Secretaries ot
unions give more effort to this matter
than to the gathering of voluminous
statistics 1t is more important to use
our steam in driving the wheels than
In blowing the whistle.
.Second-See that the younger en-
deavorers go and grow. That is mat
ter of vast Importance. Ours must
never cease to be a young peoples So
ciety however many older people are
connected with it. There ought to be
twice as many Junior societies, and ten
times as many intermediate societies
as there are. 1t should be the business
of us older Endeavorers to see that
every boy and girl between Z and 20
in our church is reached by endeavor
methods. Some of us shall / speak
bluntly?l are growing too lnnr-winded