Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-04-24
World WIDE MISSIONS.
Auspicious Opening of the Great
Ecumenical Conference at
New York City.


New York City.
THIRD MEETING OF KIND EVER HELD.
Every Branch of Christian Church
Represented Except Roman Cath
"a Ollie and Greek Ex-President
Harrison Speaks President Nc
KinIey Gives National Welcome.
New York, April 20. - With an ex-
president of the United States, Benjamin
Harrison, to bid them welcome, there
were gathered Saturday in Carnegie
hall more than 1000 missionaries
from almost every quarter of the
globe. For ten years preparations
have been under way for this meeting.
known as the ecumenical conference
on foreign missions. 1t is the third of
lis kind ever held. Every branch of the
! Christian church is represented ex-
cept the Roman Catholic, the Greek
and that branch of The Christian
church known as the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel.
Harrison Speaks
The great hall was completely filled
when eX-President Harrison began his
address of welcome. On the plat
form were many clereymen and
statesmen of world fame. Seated with
the great body of the delegates We're
many workers from foreign lands
whose bright costumes added a dash
of color to the scene. Ex-President
Harrison was given a great reception.
I'm his address he made this pointed
statement:
z THE men who, like Paul, have gone to
heather lands with the message: we seek
not yours but YOU, have been hindered
by those who coming after have reversed
The message. Rum and other corrupting
agencies come in with our boosted civiliza-
Zion, and the feeble races wither before
The hot breath of the white mans vices.
THE great nations have combined to
suppress the slave trade, Is 1t too much
to ask that they shall combine to prevent
the sale of spirits to men who, less than
Dur children, have acquired the habits of
eelf-restraint? If we must have 'consunl-
ers let us give them an innocent diet"
4 In closing he said:
] "During the Atlantic campaign of our
civil war the marching and fighting had
been largely in the brush Sometimes in
an advance the commander of a regiment
Gould see more than half of his own
line, while the supports to his right and
left were wholly hidden. To him it
Eeemed as If his battalion was making an
unsupported assault. The extended line,
The reserve, We're matters of faith. But
pne day the advancing army broke sud-
denly from the brush into savannah
long, narrow natural meadow, and the
army was revealed. From the center, far
to the right and left, the distinctive corps,
division. brigade and regimental colors
appeared, and associated with each of
these was the one flag that made the army
pne. mighty spontaneous cheer burst |
from the whole line and every soldier
Heightened his grip upon his rifle and quick |
ened his step. What the savannah did for |
that army, this world conference of mis-
Sions should do for the church,
II Rev. Judson Smiths Address.
/ Following Gen. Harrison, Rev. JHd-
son Smith, ID. D., chairman of the gen
Welcomed the dele
gates. He said in part:
/ "Some of us who sat in the great confer
ence in Exeter hall II years ago said to
ourselves: This scene must be repeated,
Side of the sea- Accordingly, in January
1886, the representatives of the American |
Foreign missionary societies appointed |
Gonmittee to consider the eXpediency of |
Eonvening an ecumenical conference on
Foreign missions in this country within
the next four years. A year later, on re-
port of this committee, it was voted to
convene such conference in the city of
New York. in 1900, in the month of April,
and to invite every Protestant foreign
t.~..- !
ficipate. A year later the acceptance of
this invitation by the great majority of
societies was reported, and the work of
preparation was laid out in detail, as
signed to various committees in this coun-
TRY and in Great Britain, and has been
pressed with utmost diligence, vast labor,
Anceasing prayer and at no little cost of
time and resources, until to-day witnesses
the preparations complete, your presence
b joyous reality, and the conference which
Gloses one pregnant century of foreign
missionary history and opens a century
destined to far greater glory is here con-
yened.
/; 1--WE gather here to rehearse what God
has done in the century past, to marshal
anew our Christian forces, and to await
the call of God for the century to come
His purpose is plain; the field is open;
hhe march has begun; and it rests with us
what share we shall have in the glorious
toll and yet more glorious victory.
He is sounding forth the trumpet that
shall never call retreat
BE swift, my SOUL to answer Him, be
jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on"
Responses on behalf of the dele
gates We're made by Rev. r. Wardlaw
Nhompson. for the British delegations;
Drs. Merensky and Schrieber, of the
German delegation; Rev Joseph King,
of the Austrian delegation; and Rev,
Jacob Chamberlain, NJ. D., d. D., for
the missionaries generally. The rest
of this session was devoted to the re-
port of the general committee pre-
scented by Rev. S. L. Baldwin, ID. D.,
secretary of the committee. The
afternoon session was largely in
formal
/ The foreign missionary work of the
world is conducted by seven great So
rieties. They are the Christian mis-
sionary society, which represents the
evangelical party in the Church of
England, and is almost as large as the
spther six together; the Society for the
propagation of the Gospel, represent
ling the Catholic party in the Church of
England, and which declined to attend
ahe conference; the London Mission
ary society of the Congregational
church, the American board of foreign
emissions, also of the Congregational