Year: 1872

! The SuDlolneQ extracts are from the
address of DR.. Cyrus Dickson, de-
livered before the General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church, held in
Detroit, and published in full in the
New York Evangelist. They give an
interesting sketch of the general
features of the Home Mission field.


Mr.. MODERATOR, FATHERS AND
BRETHREN Il should not detain you
with any further remarks upon the
Board of Home Missions, its interests,
progress and difficulties, if 1 did not
| believe your hearts were greatly in
| terested in it, and felt the importance
of it on your time and attention. Now
I greatly rejoice that our Assembly
has taken ground promptly to 'recOg-
niZe our missionary work as our great
work, for at the last Assembly, in
1871, she directed that this day be
devoted exclusively to thegreat matter
of Home Missions, and tomorrow to
the great work of Foreign Missions,
as the great work of our Church. But
my object is to show you that the
work of Home Missions has first in
view the salvation of this land, and, !,
through its salvation, the salvation of
the world.


Now the Importance of this land is
seen in the wonderful developments
of Gods providence in recent years.
! 1t was for a long timea continent very
little understood except along the
coasts. In our day, since many of US
have been born into the world, God
has introduced the wonderful systems
of transportation and the commune
eating of intelligence. There is no
longer any part of our land far
away" No longer are men tout
siders" 10 fellows. They are one great
family, and this wonderful dispensa-
ton has opened upthe entire continent
to the hopes and fears of the people of
God.


When we cross the Mississippi river
we come to the great and wonderful
State of Iowa. 1 believe I was the
first white man that ever preached in
the State of Iowa. 1 know 1 paid a
dollar to get across the river and
preach, and dollar to get back again,
at the place where Davenport now is.
If there was man who ever preached
there before me, it was old father
Cowles. Think of it. The State of
Iowa, with a million of people, having
grown as a giant, and that within the
memory of my ministerial life, and 1
am not yet so old that my head
is white. Laughter. And what
wrought this great thing ? The
thing that changed the whole charac-
ter of Iowa was the bill of Mr.. Doug
lass, securing the Illinois Central
Railroad by the donation of lands.
The people have learned that it is a
wise policy to secure great improve
ments by the donation of waste places.
The railroad has changed Iowa from
the wilderness and solitary place of
the West, and made it blossom like
the rose. And we rejoice in the
opinion that when the next census is
taken you will find two millions of
active, energetic people living in her
bosom, and she is able to sustain a
population Of five millions more when
thoroughly peopled.


Now crossing the Missouri river,
which at one time seemed the boun-
Diary of our land, we come to Omaha,
which in 1860 had no people at all.
When the census was then taken, had
there been people there, there were
officers ready to do the work. The
Lord knows there are men enough
desiring of11ces If there is anything to
do. Who does not know there would
have been five hundred men ready to
count five hundred people, if there
had been that many at that time in
NTofar arrr 11r n f-
State, in ten years, Notwithstanding
the dangers and destructiveness of the
war and the Indian troubles, fomented
still in 1870, on the first day of June,
there were 122, 900 in the State of
Nebraska; and if they increase in
the same ratio, in the year 1880 there
will be over J, 800, 900 in the State.
That is, as many as were in the whole
English part of our country at the
commencement of the Revolution.


will now turn to Kansas. 1t is
sufficient to say that it now has a
population equal to the State of New
York in 1s4O. It will soon be larger
than the Empire State of New York.
Can the human mind conceive of sUch
progress, and in any way can the
importance of it be exaggerated by
human thought or speech? 1t is like
the dream of the Arab with the lamp
that could turn anything to what he
wished. 1t is the thousand and first
night of the dream, instead of the
thousandth of the Arabian Tales.


Pass on into the Territory of Wy
oming, an immense, great territory,
some of the land apparently good for
nothing now-but unquestionably
with wealth rolled up in its bosom.
Its minerals and resources still undis-
covered, will, in the end, call for the
waters Of sweetness and life to come
to the habitation Of men. But look
all along the Pacific Railroad upon its
towns and valleys. I myself saw,
last summer, 5000 head of cattle in
Wyoming. What was Abraham with
his cattle on a thousand hills COM
pared with this? +?


Now when you pass over out ofthis
Territory you come to the great range
of the Rocky Mountains, through
which you pass into the great Valley
of Utah, There you find 100, 900
Mormons and 5000 Gentle. These
Gentiles are called so because they do
uOG D6lOuR 10 lI6 ldltu VI luC NUT
mons, and are men such as youand
/. Laughter. lThey have been largely
induced to go into the Territory, on
account of the wonderful discovery of
gold, (which is said 70 be the case,
though 1 did not see it, and the silver
in wonderful abundance, and lead and
iron, and bismutb, and almost every
thing in the catalogue. and tin like
the tin of Cornwall. Here. then, in
the heart of the continent, these
people need the Gospel. Men will go
where gold is found, and God often
employs gold for the population of
continents. For in our lost world,
gold is a weie hitter power than godli-
ness, and they will 60 for it. Laugh
ter. They hare gone for it. This
people must be evangelical. 1t is an
immense territory. It will maintain |
millions of people in the end. Its
valleys run up and down the Rocky |
Mountains for hundreds of miles, and |
furnish fine pasture and grass, espe-
cially adapted to the raising of sheep. /


Now when you cross these noun |
tains, you come into Nevada with its
silver. My attention was called by q |
fellow-passenger in the cars to the |
silver sparkling in the sand. I'd.


And then over in California and |
Oregon and Washington-how large |
do Won think that LITTLE renion or i