River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-04-26
RELIGIOUS WORKERS MEET.
EcumenicnI Conference on Foreign
Missions ~ Its Sessions
I'm New York.

New York, April 23.-With an ex-
president of the United States, Benja-
min Harrison. to bid them welcome,
there were gathered Saturday in Car
negie 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 oil
its kind ever held. Every branch of the
Christian church is represented TX
cept the Roman Catholic, the Greek
and that branch of the Christian
church known as the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel.
The great hall was completely filed
when ex-President Harrison began his
address of welcome. On the plat
form were many clergymen and
statesmen of world fame. Seated with
the great body of the delegates were
many workers from foreign lands
whose bright costumes added a dash
of color to the scene. EX-President
Harrison was given a great reception.
In his address he made this pointed
statement:
''The men who, like Paul. rave gone to
heather lands with the message: We seek
not yours but YOU nave been hindered
by those who coming after have reversed
the message. u and other corrupting
agencies come in with our boosted c%iviliza-
ton, 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
our children, have acquired the habits of
self-restraint? If we must nave 'consum-
ers. let us give them an innocent diet"
President McKinley's appearance on
the platform in the evening was hailed
by tremendous and long sustained
applause, to which the president re-
sponded by bowling repeatedly. He
made a short address of welcome on
behalf of the nation.
Gov. Roosevelt followed with a well
come on behalf of the state, and was
followed by Gen. Harrison, who re-
piled on behalf of the conference.
The foreign missionary work of the world
is conducted by seven great societies.
They are the Christian missionary society,
which represents the evangelical party in
the Church of England, and is almost as
large as the other six together; the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel, repre-
senting the Catholic party in the Church of
England, and which declined to attend the
conference; the London Missionary So
ciety of the Congregational church, the
American board of foreign missions, also
of the Congregational church; the Presby-
terrain board of foreign missions, the Mis-
sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal
church, and the American Baptist Mis-
sionary union.
The sessions of the council will last I'M
til May /, not including Sundays. On SUN
laws the delegates will be assigned to
churches in the five city boroughs and sub
urban towns to make addresses and preach
sermons in regard to their work.
New York, April "a. - The first bust
ness session of the ecumenical confer
ence on foreign missions began stimuli
~taneously at $3.50 o'clock Monday in
| Carnegie hall and the Contra Presby-
terrain church. Walter b. Sloan, secre-
tary of the inland mission of China, led
the devotional exercises in Carnegie
hall and Rev. James Cunningham, NJ.
A., of the Memorial Presbyterian
church of Wansworth, London, con
Quoted exercises at the Central Presby-
terrain church. At Carnegie hall Rev.
DIR. Augustus H. Strong, president of
tn" Rochester theological seminary,
delivered an address on the Authority
and Purpose of Foreign Missions"