) 
 
 V? 
 
 
 CENTENNIAL 
 
 ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT 
 SOCIETY 
 
 MAY EIGHTEENTH 
 NINETEEN TWENTY^FIVE 
 HOTEL BILTMORE 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
\ 
 
Centennial Anniversary 
 
 of the 
 
 American Tract Society 
 
 
 May i8,1925 
 Hotel Biltmore 
 New York City 
 

 f • . 
 
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 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 
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 https://archive.org/details/centennialanniveOOamer 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 When plans were being made for the Centennial celebra¬ 
 tion of the American Tract Society three facts were carefully 
 considered. The Society now enjoys, as for a century, an 
 intimate and friendly relation with the great national reli¬ 
 gious and philanthropic organizations. It has a great host of 
 friends especially those who are aiding the work or being 
 helped by it. Further, the Society is stronger today than for 
 a third of a century and its future assured and exceedingly- 
 promising. 
 
 Because of these considerations it was decided to enter¬ 
 tain representatives of the various religious organizations 
 and other friends of the Society at a reception and banquet, 
 and that the Centennial celebration should be in the nature 
 of a Jubilee for the enjoyment of good fellowship and without 
 solicitation of funds. 
 
 To this end the spacious and beautiful ball-room and the 
 adjoining parlors of the Hotel Biltmore were secured for this 
 occasion. The ball-room was tastefully decorated with flowers, 
 flags and bunting. The dinner and the service rendered by 
 the hotel were in keeping with the reputation of this famous 
 hostelry. The Gloria Trumpeters rendered delightful and 
 inspiring musie throughout the evening. Mr. William Phillips 
 Hall, president of the Society, presided, and there were two 
 hundred and fifty guests present. The addresses w'ere forceful 
 and eloquent. 
 
 That those present may preserve a souvenir of the cele¬ 
 bration, and the host of friends unable to be present may 
 enjoy the addresses of the evening though absent, the follow¬ 
 ing report has been prepared. 
 
BANQUET HELD AT THE HOTEL BILTMORE, MAY 18, 1925 
 
Centennial Celebration 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 MONDAY EVENING 
 May 18, 1925 
 
 The Centennial Assembly and Banquet of the American Tract 
 Society came to order at 7:15 o’clock, Mr. William Phillips Hall, 
 President of the Society, presiding. 
 
 DR. DAVID G. WYLIE INVOKED GOD’S BLESSING 
 UPON THE ASSEMBLED GUESTS 
 
 President Hall; We have gathered here this evening to cele¬ 
 brate the one hundredth anniversary of the American Tract 
 Society. This Society was organized in Vlay, 1825 “to diffuse a 
 knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of sinners, 
 and to promote the interest of vital godliness and sound morality 
 by the circulation of religious tracts calculated to receive the 
 approbation of all evangelical Christians.” 
 
 During the one hundred years just past, the Society has pub¬ 
 lished Christian literature in one hundred and seventy-eight 
 different languages and dialects. It has distributed leaflets, tracts, 
 pamphlets, volumes and periodicals through its various agencies 
 to the number of 815,699,200. 
 
 It has given away twm and three-quarter millions of dollars’ 
 worth of Christian literature. Over five and one-half billion pages 
 of tracts have been distributed gratuitously but with discrimina¬ 
 tion. 
 
6 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 For all those facts we praise God and take courage. But 
 there are a number of things of immediate interest to us on this 
 occasion, and, in speaking of them, we will have to touch on the 
 high spots only. 
 
 Something over fifty years ago, there was a lady who gave a 
 special fund to establish an income from which we could purchase 
 and present to each member of the Graduating Class at West 
 Point a copy of the Word of God each year, and for over fifty 
 years the American Tract Society, with the interest derived from 
 that money and other funds, has presented each and every mem¬ 
 ber of the Graduating Classes at West Point a copy of the Bible. 
 We have not been partial, for we inquire of the Chaplain as 
 to what particular version the cadet desires to receive. Some 
 of them prefer the King James’ or Revised Version; the Roman 
 Catholics prefer the Douay Version, and we give them what they 
 specify; and that work has been going on for from fifty-two to 
 fifty-three years. There have been a number of friends who have 
 joined with the original donor. We have one with us here this 
 evening w'ho has given to this particular cause. 
 
 Now of late the Lord has moved the heart of one of His hand¬ 
 maidens to advise us that she has decided to give to the American 
 Tract Society, for the glory of God and in loving memory of her 
 father and mother, an amount of money sufficient to present each 
 and every member of the Graduating Classes with a copy of the 
 Word of God as long as she lives. In other words, at least $600 
 a year and maybe more, and that she has provided in her will, the 
 sum of $12,000 more, the income to be used for the same purpose in 
 perpetuity. That lady’s name is Miss Annie Miller. God bless 
 her! (Applause) I can’t conceive of any more truly Christian or 
 patriotic act than that, and I hope you will join with me in prais¬ 
 ing God for this gift which He has gained to His cause and His 
 kingdom for those young men who graduate from the United States 
 Military Academy at West Point. 
 
 Let me also add this, about another matter that may be spoken 
 of appropriately in this connection. You all recall a great figure, 
 on the pages of American History—General Ulysses S. Grant. 
 You remember that his last days on earth were spent at Mount 
 McGregor, where his life ebbed away, while he bravely dictated 
 his “Memoirs” that his wife and those dependent on him might 
 have some means of support after he had passed hence. I may 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 7 
 
 say that sometime prior to his last illness, General Grant had 
 united with the Metropolitan Temple Methodist Episcopal 
 Church here in New York, the church of which Dr. Cadman, who 
 is to speak here tonight, afterward became pastor. 
 
 General Grant was a Christian and pre-eminently a man of 
 prayer, apparently very few people know that. Some years ago 
 I met a young man whose father had been a member of General 
 Grant s staff during the Civil War, and he said his father had told 
 him that General Grant was a man of prayer; that in the midst of 
 great battles he would go into his tent and plead with God for 
 wisdom and direction. 
 
 Upon telling this to Col. Franklin P. Sellers, Religious Editor 
 of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle,” he said, “That is true. When 
 General Frederick Grant was at Governor’s Island, I attended a 
 dinner at which he was present and he said, ”My father was a 
 man of profound faith in God and sought heavenly wisdom and 
 guidance from God through prayer.” We thank God for all that 
 beautiful story, but here is something which follows that has to do 
 with the American Tract Society. As a matter of fact, just after 
 the death of General U. S. Grant, our Executive Secretary, Dr. 
 Edwin Noah Hardy, visited the house at Mount McGregor in 
 which the great General spent his last days on earth. He looked 
 over the belongings of General Grant and noticed on the table 
 where he used to sit and read, a black book like this I hold in my 
 hand, called Daily Light on the Daily Path.” He opened it and it 
 opened to a page that evidently was frequently read by the Gen¬ 
 eral, and it begins as follows: 
 
 As thy days so shall thy strength be. And he said unto me, 
 My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect 
 in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my 
 infirmities, that the jjower of Christ may rest upon me. There¬ 
 fore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in 
 persecution, in distresses for Christ’s sake, for wdien I am weak, 
 then I am strong. I can do all things through Christ wdio strength- 
 eneth me!” 
 
 Those are the words our great General spiritually fed upon 
 from the Word of God through a book published by the American 
 Tract Society. We thank God we w'ere able to contribute that 
 to his comfort and cheer. (Applause) 
 
8 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 I might speak of other things but time fails. The floor belongs 
 to Mr. Bryan. It gives me great pleasure, not to introduce Mr. 
 Bryan, for he needs no introduction. Every true Christian man 
 and woman loves William Jennings Bryan for his devotion to our 
 Blessed Lord. (Applause) I delight in his deep spiritual interest 
 and devotion to the cause of the King and His Kingdom. I first 
 met him at the International Convention of Christian Endeavor 
 in St. Paul in 1909. I had charge of the Evangelistic Meetings of 
 that Convention. Mr. Bryan was our speaker the first day, and 
 on that occasion I met him for the first time. He said to me, 
 “What shall I speak upon?” I said, “Something evangelistic.” 
 He spoke on the theme “Why be a Christian?” an address that has 
 since immortalized itself. That is one thing I hope the American 
 Tract Society, with Mr. Bryan’s approval, will after a time put in 
 tract form and distribute throughout the length and breadth of 
 the land. I distinctly remember that service. I remember how 
 Mr. Bryan pleaded with that audience, and then how at the end 
 of the address, about one hundred men and women surrendered 
 to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and that was the result of 
 the message from the heart and lips of our beloved brother. 
 
 I know you will be pleased to listen to him. (Applause) 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 
 
 Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I have had many sur¬ 
 prises in my life, but I think that this was about as complete a 
 surprise as I have ever had. I had promised to come down to 
 speak tonight at Carnegie Hall at the invitation of Brother Pat¬ 
 terson, and then I promised to go over to Brooklyn and speak at 
 noon on the invitation of Brother Carter, and then I received an 
 invitation to come to dinner here, and I just supposed that a few 
 of the men were going to meet and we would have just a nice little 
 time before going to the hall. You can imagine my surprise when 
 Brother Patterson came dressed in his tuxedo, and I was just 
 ready to go over dressed as I was to speak tonight. I want you to 
 know I have a tuxedo. (Laughter) That is a good deal more 
 important than wearing one. I find if people know you have one 
 you don’t have to wear it. It is not having one that hurts. I 
 would have had mine on if I had known you were going to come 
 dressed in tuxedos, for I don’t like to speak in tuxedos unless it is 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 9 
 
 somewhere where everybody wears them, and I just supposed this 
 was an evangelistic meeting, and I was afraid I couldn t evange¬ 
 lize with a tuxedo on. (Laughter) But it is pleasant to find the 
 men and the women too, only it makes me lonesome to be at a 
 dinner where there are women for I like to have my wife with me 
 where there are women and my family is better represented when 
 both halves are present than when there is just one. 
 
 The American Tract Society is one of a great number of things 
 I am interested in. I find my interests are growing and anything 
 that is connected with the welfare of society can count me in on it, 
 and religion is the greatest thing that is connected with the welfare 
 of society. I am spending an increasing amount of time talking 
 on religious subjects and I am doing it for two reasons. In the 
 first place, it is the greatest subject that there is, and I want to 
 end my life with the biggest theme; I don’t want to run down and 
 have a sort of an anti-climax at the end of my life, and if I did not 
 believe that religion was the greatest thing in the world I would 
 not spend so much time on it. The other is that if you talk on 
 religious subjects and can only reach one person, you haven’t 
 talked in vain. I began in politics and I found no matter how good 
 your proposition was, unless you get a majority to agree with you 
 you couldn’t carry it out. It is astonishing how hard it is to get a 
 majority to agree with you. (Laughter) But when you talk on a 
 religious theme, if you can only help one single person, it is time 
 well spent. In the distribution of tracts, think of the number of 
 tracts which have been distributed by this Society. Think of the 
 number of hearts to which you have gained admittance with 
 religious association, and then think what it is to convert one 
 single human being. 
 
 We will not know until we get on the other side what this 
 Society has done, for it cannot collect statistics. The work that it 
 has done in this way is so difficult to follow up. But I remember 
 hearing a man speaking for the Y. M. C. A. and heard him say, 
 “If all the money expended on buildings and running expenses has 
 resulted in saving but one young man, it would be money well 
 spent,” and when he was through a man came up who was rather 
 of an economical turn of mind, and said, “Don’t you think that is 
 an extravagant statement to say that the saving of one boy would 
 be worth that much money.^” The man said, “No, not if it were 
 my boy.” 
 
10 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 All we have to do is to apply that to some one who is dear to us, 
 and then we know that one human soul outweighs in value all the 
 money that it ever cost to reach a soul. For man is just a link in a 
 chain that is almost endless, and when you save one soul, that 
 soul’s influence goes out to the next generation, and we can’t 
 tell how far the influence extends or how many come under its 
 spell. I think we over-estimate what the mind can do and under¬ 
 estimate the achievements of the heart. 
 
 Take the telegraph system. It is a wonderful thing and we 
 can hardly express our feeling of wonder when we think that one 
 can stand by the side of a telegraph instrument and by means of 
 the electric current speak to people ten thousand miles away. It 
 seems almost impossible, and yet we know it is true. 
 
 But the achievements of the heart are more wonderful still 
 for one who can put into operation a great movement for the 
 benefit of the race, or becomes a partner in an organization that 
 does set on foot any great movement that goes on in increasing 
 influence, his heart will talk to hearts that will beat ten thousand 
 years after all our hearts are still, and that is more wonderful. 
 When we think what it means to an individual to have his life 
 changed and what it means to a society to have its life changed, we 
 can’t estimate what this Tract Society has done. 
 
 I remember reading in the Review of Reviews a few years ago 
 of something of a great revival that took place in Wales, and it was 
 said to have commenced in a little prayer meeting. In that 
 prayer meeting a little girl arose and when there had been some 
 hesitation about speaking, she said, “If no one else will speak, I 
 want to say I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart,’’ and there was 
 something in her trembling voice that touched the hearts of those 
 about her and they arose to speak, and from that prayer meeting 
 there did go out this influence that spread over Wales and changed 
 the lives of tens of thousands, and changed the conduct of com¬ 
 munities. If a little girl with a trembling voice can start a revival 
 that will bring to the foot of the cross thousands of people and 
 through those thousands go on through all the countless ages yet 
 to come with that influence undiminished, aye even increased— 
 if that can be done by a little girl in a little timid speech, then 
 how will you estimate the mighty influence that has been set on 
 foot by this Tract Society in one hundred years Who will meas- 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 11 
 
 ure what its influence has been in shaping the destiny of our 
 nation and its influence abroad affecting the destiny of the world? 
 
 In traveling around the world Mrs. Bryan and I decided to 
 visit a missionary station. I mention it to show how little you 
 know when you start out what you are going to do. We thought 
 we would like to see a missionary station at work. On the way 
 across the ocean there were thirty-two missionaries on the boat 
 and they all invited us to stop at the missionary stations and we 
 spent our time in Asia going from one station to another, and 
 when we got there we had become acquainted with missionary 
 stations everywhere, and this was the thought that came to us: 
 that although our trumpet isn’t heard around the world, it is true 
 that before the sun goes down on one center of religious influence 
 established by American money, it rises upon another, and the 
 influence of the Christian people of the United States is felt around 
 the world. (Applause) And when the world is redeemed as it one 
 day will be by these widening circles until they meet, our nation 
 is going to have a large share of the credit, and no one can tell 
 how many of the missionaries who have gone out to carry the 
 gospel to those who sit in darkness have had their first thoughts 
 awakened and their first ambitions stirred by literature that has 
 been put into their hands by this great Society. 
 
 I am glad to be here tonight to share in the rejoicing that we 
 ought to crown such an anniversary with, and I join in the prayers 
 of these good people that its success in the next one hundred years 
 will be much greater than in the last one hundred, and that a 
 thousand years from now it will be in the very vigorous prime of 
 its life, still carrying the gospel all over the world and to every¬ 
 body, and helping to fulfill the promise that was given us after 
 Christ arose from the dead and just before he ascended when He 
 commanded that we should make disciples of all people every¬ 
 where, and promised he would be with us even until the end of the 
 world. 
 
 He has been with this Tract Society, and I have no doubt His 
 blessing will rest upon it in the splendid work it is doing and will do. 
 
 I thank you for the opportunity to be with you. (Applause) 
 
 . . . “Faith of our Fathers” was sung at this point . . . 
 
12 
 
 CENTENNIAI. CELEBRATION 
 
 President Hall: Mr. Bryan’s address brings to mind the 
 fact that from the day of the martyred McKinley, down through 
 the days of the activity of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wil¬ 
 son, all were Honorary Vice-Presidents, as is also Mr. Bryan, of 
 the American Tract Society—in fact, for a number of years past, 
 with but two exceptions, all of the Presidents of the United States 
 have sustained that relationship to the Society. I am happy that 
 Mr. Bryan could be with us here this evening and give us this truly 
 Christian and splendid address on the vital interests of the King¬ 
 dom of our Saviour, and speak as he has spoken so graciously and 
 praiseworthily of the Tract Society. We all love him as a brother 
 in Christ and may God bless him for his address here tonight and 
 the spirit he has shown, the spirit of our Lord and Master, which 
 I thank God may be reckoned ours also. (Apiilause) 
 
 (“America” was sung at this point.) 
 
 President Hall: Among the sweetest memories of past days 
 is the memory of a friendship that was very dear to your presiding 
 officer here tonight, and equally dear, I believe, to the man who is 
 to follow and address us. That is the memory of Dwight L. 
 Moody, that great man of God, who although but a humble lay¬ 
 man arose under God through the sheer force of his great and 
 extraordinary character and ability, to an amazing eminence in 
 the field of religious leadership. I have wondered whether, when 
 the roll is taken up there of those who led multitudes to accept 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, the 
 same Dwight L. Moody or Charles H. Spurgeon would stand fore¬ 
 most. They were great laymen, for neither was an ordained 
 clergyman. But Moody’s ministry was marvelous, magnetic, 
 with the spirit of Jesus Christ. Moody’s heart was great and 
 noble and true to his Lord and Master and to His cause. Moody 
 loved men even though they differed with him, and he always 
 recognized true brethren in Christ and loved them. 
 
 In the early days of his ministry I loved him for what he was 
 and did for Christ. In the later days of that ministry, I knew much 
 of him and at last he and I became intimate friends. In 1899 I was 
 conducting an evangelistic mission in New York with Robert 
 Stuart MacArthur, now in heaven. When I was permitted to 
 organize the tent movement, which has since spread throughout 
 the country, we wrote Mr. Moody and told him that we were going 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 13 
 
 to inaugurate and carry on the movement in a tent at the corner 
 of Broadway and 57th Street, and we were anxious to have him 
 with us. He wrote back, “I will help you” and he came down and 
 made good his word. 
 
 One evening while talking together, he mentioned my dear 
 friend at my right. Doctor Cadman. He said in part, “Hall, I 
 want you to love him as I do. I see a great future for him. I 
 believe he is going to rise to great eminence in the Kingdom and 
 work of Christ, and I want you to always pray for him.” I have 
 been praying for Samuel Parkes Cadman ever since. God bless him. 
 
 We are proud to have him wdth us tonight. He is the President 
 of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, most 
 worthily elected to that high office, and w^e shall be delighted to 
 hear the message he has to give. 
 
 We’also have with us Dr. Frank Mason North, that man of 
 God who has immortalized himself not only in his missionary work 
 and written articles, but in that hymn “Where Cross the Crowded 
 Ways of Life” that we all delight to sing, and that is filled with 
 the spirit not only of true poetry, but of our blessed Master as 
 well. God bless Dr. North! It is a rare occasion and company 
 we have here tonight to celebrate the one hundredth birthday of 
 our Society. 
 
 Here is Dr. Cadman, a son of a Wesleyan Methodist. I have 
 been a Methodist for forty-four years myself, although born in the 
 Presbyterian fold and raised on the old Westminster Confession 
 and catechism, and I have never gotten away from it, but I have 
 been a Methodist for forty-four years, and it was as a Methodist 
 I first met him. We wdio are Methodists, we wdio are Dutch 
 Reformed, we who are Baptists, w^e who are Lutherans, we who 
 are Congregationalists, and w^e who are members of every branch 
 of the Evangelical Church, are one in spirit and in the work of the 
 American Tract Society. 
 
 We meet here tonight to hear a message from a man who to a 
 jjre-eminent degree represents the spirit of Christian unity and 
 stands for a United Church of Christ, and I pray God the time 
 may come when in the full sense of our Saviour’s last recorded 
 prayer and in answer to it, all of God’s people may be truly one, 
 visibly as well as invisibly, in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 
 
 Dr. Cadman! 
 
 (The company arose and applauded.) 
 
14 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. S. PARKES CADMAN, D.D., 
 
 My dear Mr. Hall and Mrs. Hall, Fellow Guests and Brethren: 
 I am somewhat embarrassed by the characteristic generosity of 
 this introduction by my old comrade of many years, Mr. Hall. 
 I was wishing while giving it that Mrs. Cadman could have been 
 here to know what a prize she secured in the matrimonial basket. 
 (Laughter) My honored predecessor in the uncrowned pontificate 
 of the Protestant churches. Dr. North, will bear me out when I 
 say that any man who inherits the honors which he enjoyed and 
 deserved long before me need not be reminded he must bear them 
 modestly. (Laughter) There are those around me who should be 
 kept in a due state of discipline. I rather enjoy a supremacy 
 which has not the responsibility of office, and an infallibility 
 which never has to be exercised. 
 
 It gives me very great pleasure to be here in response to the 
 courteous and welcome invitation of President Hall to congratu¬ 
 late this honored Society on its Centennial Anniversary. There 
 are certain spots where we leave the theological razors at the 
 door. I think that could be practiced to great advantage to the 
 Kingdom of God. I should not think it even timely or in any 
 way beseeming to discuss anything here which is of a debatable 
 character. Indeed, I am the most orthodox person in this room, 
 for I come from direct Evangelical heritage through Wesley 
 himself, and was born in the parish in which John Fletcher, of 
 holy memory, was the minister. My grandmother told me her 
 mother entertained him at tea when tea was very much dearer 
 than it is now. (Laughter) And I am still a member of the church 
 which I joined as a boy at fifteen years of age. I get my class 
 tickets every Quarter, with a hint that the money for them is due; 
 and I always send the money, Mr. President. (Laughter) If you 
 want to see a Pharisee of the Pharisees, look at me. If you are an 
 orthodox person, I do not think you will have to direct your gaze 
 even to some of these astounding specimens seated around me this 
 evening. 
 
 It has been said by our President with overflowing grace and 
 meaning unction, that we are one in the life of our Blessed Lord. 
 After all, one is reminded, is he not, as he hears of these mighty 
 champions of the church to whom Mr. Hall has referred, that the 
 center of Faith has never been a creed or a book, but a Person 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 15 
 
 and a Life. Nor could we do a safer or better thing in this day of 
 tumultuous excitement than gather here in a serene atmosphere 
 of things concerning which we all agree because we have received 
 them with the verification of a personal experience. Our contact 
 with the Divine Master is so real, so daily and so vital that it is the 
 secret of our strength and our fellowship. If we are to hope for 
 a growing, healthy, progressive federation of our various Protestant 
 churches, it will not come, as you know, through edicts issued from 
 authorities. It will only come as the common life of our one Lord 
 brings us together. 
 
 The Tract Society has perhaps the most honorable geneology 
 of any Society that could be celebrated. For in some respects it 
 is the prototype of the Bible. And this is the year, Mr. President, 
 when we celebrate the memory of one greater even than Spurgeon 
 or Moody, to whom reference has been made. The glorious Wil¬ 
 liam Tyndale is also commemorated; he died on the soil of the 
 Lowlands the death of a martyr, witnessing for that Bible which 
 has been the fountain of our illumination and strength both in 
 Church and State, since it was made free to all the people in their 
 own tongues. Tyndale not only translated the Scriptures, follow¬ 
 ing Wycliff, and doing the work more completely and single- 
 handed; he not only sacrificed with gladness his life to crown his 
 work; he also imparted to the English Bible we revere, that pe¬ 
 culiar majesty of style which no modern rendition has been able 
 to approach within a million leagues. If you find in the version of 
 1611 Jacobean prose at its height, without any grandiloquence 
 or weakness, you can trace that prose to the influence of William 
 Tyndale. He said he would make the Bible as familiar and 
 beloved to the plowman in the field and to the cottager in his hut 
 and to the child coming fresh from his play as it was to the princes 
 of his day. In fact, the Bible may be considered as a bundle of 
 tracts which Tyndale rendered into incomparable English. And 
 the first great Tract Society was that which issued these Scrip¬ 
 tures from time to time. 
 
 In following up with your own Tract Society, also Great 
 Britain s, and those of other nations, you have m a real sense 
 imitated the worthy example of those who first circulated the 
 Holy Scriptures. From beginning to ending, apart from any 
 theological prejudice, the Books of the Bible are independent 
 documents; glorious pamphlets ablaze with divine light and 
 
16 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 power. Genesis, the Book of beginnings; Exodus with its story 
 of the crossing of the Red Sea; Leviticus, and its liturgies; Numbers 
 with its statistics; Deuteronomy and its accounts of wanderings 
 in the wilderness or of the giving of the Law; Joshua, whose 
 monumental sword conquered Palestine; Judges, the iron age of 
 Israel; Ruth, with its exquisite love story; Samuel, Kings, with 
 the tragedy of Saul; the triumph of David, afterwards dimmed by 
 fleshly lust, and then cleansed by a penitence that better became 
 him than his deeds of war, are tracts that have revolutionized 
 civilization and can do so again. Then that Confessional we call 
 the Psalter, followed by the literature of Hebrew wisdom, not 
 without its potency today; and after these, the Prophets, an 
 immortal chorus; the dusky splendor of Ezekiel’s vision; Jeremiah, 
 the oratorio of hope in desolation; the sturdy manhood of Daniel; 
 the theophanies of Isaiah; the four great Gospels, each being one 
 view, incomplete because the life they portrayed could never be 
 encompassed by a thousand Gospels; and after these the Epistles! 
 Was it not wise you should follow such an illustrious model 
 Where is there such a literature as this? Whether it be viewed 
 from the literary, the moral, or the spiritual side, it is unsurpassed 
 and incomparable. To be able to say that we have trod in the path 
 of this selection of tracts is to place our Society upon a very lasting 
 foundation. 
 
 f 
 
 Moreover, as you know, there are in.the lives of men today 
 many things with which this Tract Society finds correspondence. 
 After all, we must, as Mr. Hall knows from his experience as an 
 evangelist and a business m&n who has tried to make religion a part 
 of his daily practice, connect our beliefs with environment. In 
 fact, if I may name Spencer here, he said that life was correspond¬ 
 ence with environment, and that when we cease to correspond with 
 our environment, we cease to live. That explains some churches 
 you and I know. They fail to correspond with environment. 
 
 My first memory of life is that of my father, a Methodist lay 
 preacher, taking a bundle of tracts from door to door, passing in 
 one and receiving the one left the week before, and thus by change 
 making them do all-day work. Those tracts were read when the 
 minds of the people were unoccupied by any other learning. I 
 rather think that today’s unlimited printing has its sinister side. 
 After you have been flooded with the yellow journals and similar 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 17 
 
 products in the magazines and fugitive literature of our day, what 
 room is there for the great truths the Tract Society sets forth 
 and which the Bible still more majestically proclaims? 
 
 When the Bible first came into the lives of our fathers, it was 
 hailed just as keenly as any new planet swimming in the sky by an 
 astronomer. There was no rival literature, no poetry save 
 Chaucer’s, no fiction, no philosophy except in a few scattered 
 translations. So the Supreme Book came to them, and the music 
 of its noble English left emotion in the heart and stamped itself 
 upon the memory. It came to minds which were hungry for 
 truth because they had not received any spiritual food. Its great 
 verities came with thrilling force because the people were not 
 satiated and incapable of appreciation, nor saturated in the vulgar 
 things which destroy reverence and paralyze many of the greater 
 functions of the soul. That was why, when a Reader stood in old 
 St. Paul’s Cathedral in the reign of Henry VIII, fifteen years after 
 Henry had burned every Bible he could put his hand on, that 
 official read the Bible in the hearing of the English people for five 
 hours in the crowMed church. After he sat down, exhausted, 
 w’omen threw their confections in the pulpit and implored him to 
 go on. “It shall come to pass in that day that I wall send a famine 
 on the people,’’ said the Lord. I sometimes think if w^e were not so 
 busy with useless and superfluous matter, what St. Paul calls 
 “Saving truths” would have a larger and more effective oppor¬ 
 tunity. 
 
 I am confirmed in this opinion by the conclusion of a great 
 thinker wdio stated that one-half men know^ is entirely useless, 
 and could be discarded tomorrow to the benefit of everybody 
 concerned. When we think of the little w^e know, that sounds like 
 a rash statement; yet is there not truth in it? How is it, I ask in all 
 seriousness, that today, when we have separated ourselves as a 
 nation from the public teaching of the Bible in our system of 
 public education because of our religious differences—thus robbing 
 our children of their sacred heritage—that we are incapable of 
 breeding adequate leadership for State or Church? 
 
 We sometimes speak of the period when the Tract Society 
 first came into existence as being in most respects a despicable one. 
 The historian seldom mentions it without rebuke. As a century, 
 it was disreputable and sordid. Yet it produced men and wmmen 
 
18 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 whose like we cannot produce. Out of the Serbonian bog there 
 grew up some very stately cedars in God’s garden. One might as 
 well look for orchids around the North Pole as expect to find such 
 great men and women in the Eighteenth Century. Nevertheless, 
 Wesley was a capable man, the noblest Protestant who has ever 
 lived, said a great German. And when a German says that about 
 an Englishman, it deserves consideration. Augustine Birrell said 
 Wesley lived nearer to the heart of that century, which included 
 Washington and Pitt, than any other man. It also gave us Samuel 
 Johnson, James Madison, John Marshall, Alexander Hamilton, 
 and Edmund Burke. Where are their equals now.^ There shall 
 be that which increaseth knowledge but addeth nothing to wisdom. 
 There shall be men in whose right hand the truth shall be, and 
 they will not know it. It might be well, in all this modern rushing 
 to and fro, seeking some new thing to discover, to anchor upon 
 those great and fundamental things for which your Society lives, 
 must live, and shall have increasing power in the years to come. 
 (Applause) 
 
 When everything is said and done, there is a certain crying 
 need for the work of this Society, couched upon the finest possible 
 lines, because we are not gaining, as it seems to me, in the depth 
 and significance of religious life. We criticize our Roman Cath¬ 
 olic brethren; it would be well for us to study the Thirteenth Cen¬ 
 tury and see how they got results. About thirty years ago a 
 simple Erench girl was born in a peasant community, and today 
 she has three million devotees because of her practice of the 
 religious life. She left a few tracts, which are now circulated 
 throughout France and thirty other countries. She was unlettered, 
 but she was filled with the Spirit; a type of Christian we have nearly 
 lost because of the encroachments of rationalizing processes to 
 which we surrender province after province of mysticism and 
 inspiration. In that same spirit. Dr. North wrote his great hymn. 
 All great hymns have been written and all great visions have 
 triumphed in it. The imagination, in its creative functions, moved 
 upon by the Spirit of God—that is real religion. It creates its 
 own theology, as it did in St. Paul, in St. Augustine, in Luther, in 
 Calvin, and in Wesley; and it must do so again, for no generation 
 can create a living theology for the next generation. It has to 
 come out of the beatines of one’s own heart blood and felt 
 experiences. 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 19 
 
 Nothing is so difficult as a tract. Nobody lias been able to re¬ 
 produce the Bible in any part. Many are able to amend and criti¬ 
 cize and conjecture about it, but they are not able to add anything 
 to it. With all our splendid epochs of literature since the last of 
 these Semitics wrote, no one has entered their class, a statement 
 which I think will be generally admitted. If you want to know 
 what it costs to write a successful tract, try to do it. I confess I 
 cannot. I may do the “bow-wow” style, but when it comes to 
 writing a tract, I am helpless, and there are others in the same 
 condition whom I shall not name. It is hard to compress much in 
 little, as Lord Oxford does. To say “multum in parvo”—much in 
 little—to utter the all-conquering word that never jumps the 
 track, and goes from start to finish direct as a trusty blade, is a 
 notable achievement. We know men who write orations. The less 
 some know, the better orators they are. But when it comes to cold 
 print, to put behind the arguments the pulsating emotions that 
 get results is the art of writing. We shall be glad if those who can 
 achieve this will volunteer their services for the next tract. 
 
 Again, there are the limitations of language. I was glad to note 
 in the report of your work for the last one hundred years that 
 recently we have included the Spanish language—a Spanish 
 periodical and several books. I do not know Spanish, so I speak 
 with the enthusiasm of ignorance; but I know enough to know that 
 it is a language capable of height and depth, prolific of beautiful 
 words, the stateliest of all the Latin languages, although little 
 known to us. I am happy to learn we have gone out into these 
 linguistic fields on all sides. 
 
 I have said enough to show you I am one with you in this vital 
 business, and I shall do anything I can to aid the Society. You 
 are no longer young in the matter of mere time, or as we count 
 years in this dear land of ours. Yet the American Tract Society 
 renews its youth. May it go on, and widen out, and gather to 
 itself all beneficial contributions, applying the wisdom of God in 
 its interpretation of His boundless grace in Jesus Christ toward all 
 men. We should have tracts that present the philosophic side of 
 Christianity. We ought to have tracts which enlarge upon the strik¬ 
 ing phases of the Christian Church before her division in the 
 Sixteenth Century, showing to our people, what few realize, that all 
 the preceding company of Saints and Prophets and Schoolmen belong 
 
20 
 
 CENTENNIAI. CELEBRATION 
 
 tons as Protestants. We have a common heritage in the movements 
 of Christianity which redeemed Europe from barbarism and built 
 her cathedrals and universities. Let us get behind the next move¬ 
 ment. The Thirteenth Century believed that as God is the Father 
 of men, so is the church their Mother. There will be no salvation 
 in any political system until the Church is honored by people, and 
 is worthy of their recognition and trust. I thank you. (Applause) 
 
 “The Church’s One Foundation” was sung at this point. 
 
 President Hall: I am sure I voice the thought and feeling 
 of every person in this room when I say we thank God for your 
 presence. Dr. Cadman, and your message. 
 
 We have with us here tonight a number of friends who have for 
 many years been identified with the work of the American Tract 
 Society, who have been interested in it, who have self-sacrificingly 
 cooperated in its activities, and who are devotedly engaged in 
 those activities today, and wFo are also identified with other 
 branches of Christian life and service. Among those present, we 
 have the honored presence of the President of the American Bible 
 Society, my dear friend and your dear friend, E. Francis Hyde. 
 I am going to ask Mr. Hyde if he will give us a few words on this 
 
 occasion. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. E. FRANCIS HYDE 
 
 President Hall, the American Bible Society is very happy to 
 greet the American Tract Society on this occasion of its celebra¬ 
 tion of one hundred years of service. Those words, “one hundred 
 years,” sound very sonorous to me, very roaring and rounding. 
 One hundred years! Yet they don’t quite make the effect on me, 
 those wmrds, as the effect wdiich President Hall made on me wdien 
 he read in his first address, the account of what the American 
 Tract Society had done in those one hundred years. He said in 
 his first remarks that from 1825 to 1925 the American Tract 
 Society had sent out eight hundred and fifteen millions of tracts 
 and parts of scriptures and so on, to the world which needs that 
 kind of literature. That made much more of an impression on 
 me than the fact that it was one hundred years that the Society 
 had been doing it. 
 
 That last century of ours is a great century—that century which 
 the American Tract Society has lived—1825 to 1925. All the great 
 
AIMERICAN TRAC T SOCIETY 
 
 21 
 
 things of spiritual progress seem largely to have eome in that one 
 hundred years. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave His message nineteen 
 hundred years ago. He said, “Go into the world and preach the 
 gospel to every ereature.” But that was nineteen hundred years 
 ago. A large part of the work of the nineteen hundred years—we 
 read of in the scriptures as being commanded by our Lord - 
 has been done in the last one hundred years' or a little more. 
 
 Take the American Tract Society with its one hundred years; 
 take the great missionary societies, it has only been a little over 
 one hundred years since they went to preach the gospel to every 
 creature. Take the American Bible Society; it is only one hundred 
 and ten years old and in that time it has sent out seven hundred 
 millions of Bibles and parts of the Bible. Take the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society. In a little over one hundred years it has 
 with the American Bible Society, translated the Bible or parts in 
 seven hundred and seventy different languages and dialects. 
 
 Last year we celebrated in the American Bible Society, the first 
 whole translation of the Bible in the Chinese language by Mission¬ 
 ary Morrison. We had there the edition, the first whole translation 
 of the Bible in the Chinese language. That was just one hundred 
 years ago last year. 
 
 Think what a century this one hundred years has been that the 
 American Tract Society has been working. 
 
 Then it occurs to me that we ought not to forget those other 
 ageneies that have been working for the Kingdom of God, not one 
 hundred years old, but within the one hundred years. Think of the 
 millions of young men belonging to the Y.M.C.A., not one hundred 
 years, but nearly. Think of the millions of young women who 
 belong to the Y.W.C.A. Think of the millions of young people 
 that have joined the Society of Christian Endeavor all over this 
 country and throughout the world. There are three great organiza¬ 
 tions that have carried the gospel of Christ all over the world, in 
 addition to the great organizations which have lived one hundred 
 years or more. It makes me think “like a mighty army goes the 
 Church of God,” and that army is composed of a great many large 
 corps d’armes, and the Traet Society is one of the biggest of those 
 corps d’armes. It has been going forward one hundred years and 
 may it go on many hundred years more. (Applause) 
 
22 
 
 CENTENNIAL CEI>EBRATION 
 
 President Hall: We have already mentioned the name of 
 one who is present with us, whose presence we delight in, and 
 whom our hearts welcome. I am going to ask our dearly beloved 
 brother and friend for many years, mentioned by myself and Dr. 
 Cadman particularly in respect to his great ministry in the foreign 
 missionary cause. Dr. Frank Mason North, former President of 
 the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, to speak to 
 us. 
 
 ADDRESS OF DR. FRANK MASON NORTH 
 
 Mr. President, I never suspected you would do this sort of 
 thing to me after all these years of our friendship and among people 
 who know so well how limited in the way of resources for unex¬ 
 pected and extemporaneous oratory I am, to which my friend. 
 Dr. Cadman has referred. It is a great pleasure to have reassur¬ 
 ance to one’s flagging spirits, to one’s broken energies as one con¬ 
 fronts the great problems of life, problems of work in other lands, 
 and in this land, and particularly at this time when we are so 
 frequently told in print and in speech that we are a decadent folk 
 and losing our grip, and that even now, when we are among our 
 best friends, the church hears, “Why the church.^’’ I do not know 
 whether you are in that place or not—“Why the church?’’ At 
 this age, nineteen hundred years, why the church? It is reassur¬ 
 ing, is it not, to have such a brilliant genius as Dr. Cadman, tell 
 us that we are after all doing a little bit in the way of making the 
 world better; that in spite of our hesitancy and failure, we are at 
 least publishing tracts and circulating the Bible and preaching a 
 great gospel in untold numbers of languages and bringing men 
 everywhere throughout the world out of their darkness and out 
 of their degradation into the beauty and sweetness and the glory 
 of a living faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Really it is reassuring to stop long enough in the midst of this 
 great humming city to remind ourselves that God is moving greatly 
 in this world of ours, not only along the paths that we have our¬ 
 selves sketched for Him, not only within the boundaries we our¬ 
 selves have thought wise to fix for His powers, not always in just 
 the kind of associations that we have thought He would like to keep 
 in the world, but moving greatly forward and taking into His love 
 and into His fellowship through Jesus Christ, His Son, and by the 
 
AMERICAN TRACT S OCIETY 
 
 23 
 
 power of His Holy Spirit this great generation of ours and pre¬ 
 paring for a great work in the generation that is to come. 
 
 Beloved friends, I did not know I should be asked to say this 
 word or any word tonight. It was farthest from my thought that 
 I should, but I take the blessed opportunity that comes to me from 
 time to time to try to say to others what I say to myself, “God 
 lives, Christ has not lost His power, the cross on which He died is 
 the cross of sacrifice and inaugurated a brilliant, splendid move¬ 
 ment throughout the world, and the old Book is full of the revela¬ 
 tion of God for the saving of men, and everywhere it is sent, and 
 everywhere its truths are put into your tracts and into the great 
 business of the circulation of the truth through the spirit of men 
 and to the word of men.” 
 
 There is a great movement throughout all the institutions and 
 throughout all the concerns of men that tell of the presence of the 
 immanent God and of the power of His son who died to save the 
 world. Personally, I am glad to know that we have this Society 
 and other societies and the churches and the great movements 
 among the young women and the remembrances of these things 
 that have been done and the hopes for the things that are to be 
 done. Let us be brave, let us be humble, tolerant of one another, 
 let us recognize the realities in each others’ views of the truth, but 
 believing in Jesus Christ, and through Him do well the task that 
 God has set for us. 
 
 May I say a word about a tract.? I think it was not published 
 by the American Tract Society, but there was a time when I was 
 about fifteen years old, when I had begun to feel the movement of life 
 about me and within me, when I felt somehow there was something 
 that I needed in my own heart, and someone put into my hand a 
 little tract. I don’t know that any of you ever saw it. I owe to it 
 much of my life, much of my spirit and my work and my knowledge 
 of God and my confidence in Jesus Christ. What was its name, its 
 title.? “The Living Christ.” Just that—“The Living Christ.” 
 
 Not the dead Christ, not the Christ of reverence, not the Christ 
 of nineteen hundred years ago, dead, buried, and forgotten, but 
 the living Christ. It told me I could walk with Him, companion 
 with Him, trust Him, consult Him, depend upon Him, and that 
 He was the most vital and real power and person in the life I was 
 
'24 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 living, and I could have Him for myself, and I took Him for 
 myself as a living Christ. A living Christ! 
 
 I pray that millions of such little messages will go out to the 
 waiting hearts of the youths, and the waiting and wearied hearts 
 of those who are older, to bring the reality of the blessed faith in 
 Jesus Christ. (Applause) 
 
 President Hall: We are delighted to have this splendid 
 testimony from our beloved brother. 
 
 I am going to call upon another dear friend and associate of 
 ours in the work of the Society from the city of Boston: Reverend 
 Robert Watson, minister of the First Presbyterian Church, of the 
 Hub City, who is here with us tonight. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. ROBERT WATSON, D.D. 
 
 Mr. President and friends: It is not necessary in this presence 
 and after the addresses of this evening, that I should add anything 
 to what has been said. 
 
 We serve a great Christ with a great gospel. Our only shame is 
 that we do not serve Him with greater capacity and consecration. 
 
 Having the opportunity, however, Mr. President, to say just a 
 word may I add this: Tonight as I sat here, my mind ran over the 
 history of this great Society, and I thought of the men who made 
 this Society what it has been, and the men who have made it what 
 it is today. So I feel very thankful tonight, sir, for the men who 
 have given their lives to it and have gone to their eternal reward, 
 and I feel very grateful tonight for the men whose lives are still 
 spared and are being vested in this great work. The President of 
 this Society, William Phillips Hall; the \ ice-President, Dr. David 
 Janies Burrell, who was not able to be here; Dr. David G. Wylie, 
 who led us in the invocation because Dr. Burrell was not present; 
 Dr. Edwin Noah Hardy, one of the secretaries. Dr. William H. 
 Matthews, the Secretary of the Society—to all of whom we owe 
 so much for its present vital life. 
 
 Thank God for men who are still working capably, conscien¬ 
 tiously, and constructively in the spirit of Jesus Christ and those 
 
 that have gone before. (Applause) 
 
 The Gloria Trumpeters played a selection at this point. 
 
AISIERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 25 
 
 President Hall: Now, dear friends, I want to speak in re¬ 
 gard to the life and service of one who really perhaps would prefer 
 that I should not speak a word along that line; but for a great 
 many years in the history of our country, we have had one devoted 
 hand-maiden of the Lord in this country who has given her heart 
 and her life to advancing the Lingdom of our Lord and Sa\ iour, 
 Jesus Christ, along both spiritual and material lines, in the hearts 
 and lives of multitudes of our fellow citizens and people throughout 
 the nation. We would recall the fact that during the Spanish- 
 American War, she ministered to the boys in the navy; of her 
 noble work for them which took definite and concrete form in that 
 beautiful building of the Naval Branch of the Y.M.C.A. in Brook¬ 
 lyn; and of her constant ministry in their behalf in other ways, all 
 of which made the name of “our Helen” beloved by millions. In 
 later years, she has given herself very largely to the support and 
 forwarding of the interest of Christian education and such work 
 as is carried on by the American Tract Society. She has contributed 
 to the printing of tracts in various foreign languages, those tracts 
 being made up of extracts of the living written Word of God. 
 She has been doing a great amount of work. She is one of the Hon¬ 
 orary Vice-Presidents of the Society. We are honored in our 
 association with her. I don’t know whether she will care to speak, 
 but I wish to say that in the name of our Lord we delight to honor 
 and have associated with us in this great cause Mrs. Finley J. 
 Shepard. 
 
 The members arose and ajiplauded. 
 
 ADDRESS BY MRS. FINLEY J. SHEPARD 
 
 Mr. President, I am deeply touched by these kindly words 
 which I fear are not at all deserved, for my work has been poor 
 and small and weak compared with what the rest of you have 
 done. 
 
 May I say one word? Have any of you ever tried to find the 
 sermons of a minister ancestor? That is what I have been trying 
 to do of late, to find the sermons of an ancestor who came from 
 England may years ago, and was a clergyman in Concord, Vlassa- 
 chusetts, for twenty-five years, being the founder of the church 
 there. He lived three hundred years ago. If any of you can tell 
 me how to find the sermons of Reverend Peter Buckley, I shall be 
 very grateful. He also was called “the thundering preacher.” 
 
26 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 The other ancestor was the Reverend Samuel Wakeman. I found 
 three sermons this morning and decided he also might well have 
 been called “the thundering preacher” because of the way he 
 grappled with the consciences of his parishioners. 
 
 Now if I am seeking this three hundred years after my ancestors 
 have gone to know what they stood for, how much more will your 
 descendants or your collateral descendants some day be trying to 
 find what you have stood for and what message you have given, 
 and whether you have stood faithfully by our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ and by the word of God. (Applause) 
 
 President Hall: Among those most devoted and interested 
 in the work, is Mr. S. B. Chapin. May we have a word of greeting 
 from him? 
 
 Mr. S. B. Chapin: The hour is so late and you have heard 
 so many good speeches that I will not say anything. (Applause) 
 
 President Hall : And may our good friend. Dr. Carter, of the 
 New York Bible Society, have a word for us? 
 
 Dr. Carter: The New York Bible Society is very glad to be 
 represented here and extend congratulations and good wishes to 
 the xCmerican Tract Society. The representatives of the American 
 Tract Society and the representatives of the New York Bible 
 Society have been working together for a long time and we feel 
 we are in very close cooperation. 
 
 I have been connected with the New York Bible Society for 
 eighteen years, and at that time, eighteen years ago, there was a 
 Commissioner at Ellis Island, Commissioner Watchhorn, who was 
 the man who began to make the improvements that have been 
 carried on at Ellis Island, and I think we are fortunate in having 
 Commissioner Watchhorn here tonight. He commended the great 
 work of tract and Bible distribution that has been carried on jointly 
 by the American Tract and New York Bible Societies for the immi¬ 
 grants as they land. 
 
 It is interesting to recognize the fact that this last year the 
 eight hundredth translation of the Bible has been reached. (Ap¬ 
 plause) 
 
 President Hall: And now may we have the great pleasure 
 of receiving a message from Commissioner Watchhorn? We should 
 be delighted to have a word from you, sir. 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 27 
 
 Commissioner Watchhorn: Mr. President, it surely is a great 
 surprise to me to be ealled on to say a word at the American Tract 
 Society. I regret very much that Doctor Burrell is absent. One 
 of the reasons why I dropped in here tonight was to see him. 
 Another reason was that I wanted to hear my friend, Doctor 
 Cadman, and my other friend, Doctor North, and to hear how the 
 wonderful Society was getting along. 
 
 I have not been able to tell you what a joy it was to me to 
 cooperate with Dr. Carter when he first came to Ellis Island to 
 introduce this great work, because unfortunately, about seven 
 weeks ago, I was thrown into unexpected competition with one of 
 Mr. Ford’s cars, and I have only just gotten out of a hospital, and 
 am not able to stand very long, and certainly not capable of ex¬ 
 pressing myself as I should like to do on this occasion. 
 
 I thank you very, very much. I am delighted to know that the 
 Ameriean Tract Society is progressing and has prospered so well. 
 No one knows better than I what a wonderful Society it is, what a 
 w’onderful work it is doing and has done, and I rejoice as Doctor 
 Cadman does, when the Tract Society’s representatives came when 
 we were boys on the other side. If you can only keep up your 
 good work and keep such a spirit alive and such accomplishments 
 daily arrived at, you will have a great reward, each and every one 
 of you, as individuals and as a Society. 
 
 Thank you very much. (Applause) 
 
 President Hall; And now in conclusion, we have had a most 
 blessed time here tonight I think we all agree. We have enjoyed 
 the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and we rejoice indeed 
 over the warm gracious testimonies that have been given by many 
 to the good work of this old Society under God, and now we are 
 going forward into our two hundredth year and are looking forward 
 to a period of great usefulness. We must increase the facilities 
 and output of the American Tract Society. Its work will be more 
 vital, more important, more essentially necessary to the onward 
 march of the Church of Christ in coming days than in all the past. 
 
 WT have provided every one here tonight with the copy of the 
 splendid report of our General Secretary, Dr. Matthews. We 
 have here represented also the Executive Secretaryship in our 
 friend and associate. Dr. Hardy, who, with Dr. Matthews, is 
 
28 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 giving the American Tract Society with those associated with 
 them, the most efficient, business-like, energetic and vitally suc¬ 
 cessful administration that I have ever known it to possess within 
 the period of my knowledge of its affairs. God bless them! So 
 far as the members of the Board of Managers are concerned and 
 the members of the Executive Committee and its constituent com¬ 
 mittees, the Publication Committee, the Distribution Committee, 
 and all the other committees, they are all likewise doing their part 
 and contributing toward the onward work of the Society for the 
 dissemination of the knowledge of our blessed Lord according to 
 the teachings of His book, the Bible. 
 
 iVe rejoice in this Anniversary Meeting which we have had 
 together. We have had occasion to praise and thank God as we 
 listened to testimonies coiping from the heart as well as the head. 
 We rejoice in the burning messages of Doctor Cadman, and Doctor 
 North, and all of the others inclucfing that Christly address of our 
 dear brother in Christ, Mr. Bryan. By the way, before he went 
 out I got a promise from him of a number of tracts that we can use 
 and distribute by hundreds of thousands throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land. (Applause) 
 
 We stated there was to be no solicitation of funds tonight, 
 and there is to be none, but I suggest that you all ask the dear 
 Lord to show you how you may cooperate with these noble people 
 associated together here tonight, in the work of the American 
 Tract Society, and then may you proceed as His gracious Spirit 
 may lead you. 
 
 In conclusion I am going to ask our good friend and active 
 member on the Executive Committee, Dr. David G. Wylie, to 
 lead us in a word of closing prayer and dismiss us. 
 
 Dr. Wylie: We thank Thee, O Lord, for this memorable 
 occasion, for the addresses, suggestive and stimulating and in¬ 
 spiring that have been delivered. Once more we thank Thee for 
 the past and trust Thee for the future. We rejoice that our God 
 controls the wisdom of the world and the wealth of the world. 
 We come seeking and looking for Thy blessing and Thy benedic¬ 
 tion. Defend us by Thy almighty power through the night, 
 conduct us safely through the journey of life, and bring us at last 
 to our Father’s house. 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 29 
 
 And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of 
 God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us and abide 
 with us forever. Amen. 
 
 President Hall; And now before we adjourn. Dr. Mylie has 
 a motion. 
 
 Dr. Wylie; Mr. President, I am sure we all unite in this 
 consensus of opinion that this has been a memorable occasion. 
 President Hall, you have transformed this hall into a university 
 by gathering together a brilliant group of speakers. I would like 
 to thank every speaker, but especially I wish to move that we give 
 a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Bryan and Doctor Cadman. 
 
 The motion was seconded. 
 
 President Hall; Those in favor respond by saying “aye”; 
 contrary “no”. Thank you. It is a vote. 
 
 The session is now dismissed. May God be with you. 
 
 The meeting adjourned at 10;30 o’clock. 
 
 Adjournment. 
 
PRESIDENT 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT 
 
 William Phillips Hall 
 
 Her. David James Burrell, D.D. 
 
 GENERAL SECRETARY 
 
 Rev. William Henry Matthews, D.D 
 
 EXECUTIVE SECRETARY 
 
 Rev. Edwin Noah Hardy, Pk.D, 
 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 31 
 
 OFFICERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 President 
 
 WILLIAM PHILLIPS HALL 
 
 Vice-President 
 
 DAVID JAMES BURRELI>, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Honorary Vice-Presidents 
 
 H. A. Stimson, N. Y. 
 
 J. DeWitt, N. J. 
 
 F. L. Patton, Bermuda 
 J. B. Remensnyder, N. Y. 
 D. P. Fullerton, Mo. 
 Francis E. Clark, Mass. 
 John McNaugher, Pa. 
 
 W. L. McEwan, Pa. 
 Augustus W. Benedict, Mo. 
 D. S. Kennedy, Pa. 
 
 W. M. Anderson, Texas 
 W, W. Moore, Va. 
 
 H. K. Walker, Cal. 
 
 Henry E. Cobb, N. Y. 
 James L. Barton, Mass. 
 Charles A. Eaton, N. Y. 
 
 J. A. Ingham, N. J. 
 
 Charles E. Hughes, D. C. 
 Joseph F. Berry, Pa. 
 
 S. H. Woodrow, Mass. 
 George C. Peck, Md. 
 Robert L. Rudolph, Pa. 
 William J, Bryan, Fla. 
 James Wood, N. Y. 
 
 Simeon E. Baldwin, Conn. 
 Howard Elliott, N. Y. 
 Luther B. Wilson, N. Y. 
 
 John Timothy Stone, Ill. 
 
 Harry V. Bonner, N. Y. 
 Charles S. Whitman, N. Y. 
 
 J. Ackerman Cole, N. Y. 
 
 J. Ross Stevenson, N. J. 
 Cortland Myers, Calif. 
 
 Carl E. Milliken, Me. 
 
 John R. Mott, N. Y. 
 
 Robert Johnston, Canada 
 Josephus Daniels, N. C. 
 
 John A. Marquis, N. Y, 
 
 A. Z. Conrad, Mass. 
 
 E. Francis Hyde, N. Y. 
 
 Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, N. J. 
 Mrs. Finley J. Shepard, N. Y. 
 Mrs. E. E. Olcott, N. Y. 
 
 Mrs. William Borden, N. Y. 
 Charles F. Darlington, N. Y. 
 Robert Dick Wilson, N. J. 
 Floyd W. Tomkins, Pa. 
 
 Ernest M. Stires, N. Y. 
 
 Emory W. Hunt, Pa. 
 
 Roger W. Babson, Mass. 
 August Heckscher, N. Y. 
 Wilbert W. White, N. Y. 
 
 S. Parkes Cadman, N. Y. 
 James M. Gray, Ill. 
 
 General Secretary 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY MATTHEWS, D.D. 
 
 Executive Secretary and Recording Secretary 
 REV. EDWIN NOAH HARDY, PH.D. 
 
 Assistant Treasurer 
 ARTHUR W. COBBETT 
 
 # 
 
32 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 MANAGERS 
 
 Howard Payson Wilds, N. Y. 
 Roderick Terry, R. I. 
 
 David G. Wylie, N. Y. 
 
 J. Humpstone, N. Y. 
 
 A. G. Lawson, N. Y. 
 
 James D. Steele, N. J. 
 
 I. H. Hoyt, Conn. 
 
 W. D. Buchanan, N. Y. 
 
 F. M. Goodchild, N. Y. 
 
 Lewis B. Gawtry, N. Y. 
 
 F. Clare Baldwin, N. J. 
 
 Charles Carroll Albertson, N. Y. 
 John E. Lloyd, N. Y. 
 
 Edgar Tilton, N. Y. 
 
 J. R. Mackay, N. Y. 
 
 William L. Amerman, N. Y. 
 William H. Kephart, N. Y. 
 Alexander S. Lyman, N. Y. 
 
 William K. Gilchrist, N. Y. 
 Arthur F. Warren, N. Y. 
 Charles H. Zehnder, N. Y. 
 George Caleb Moor, N. Y. 
 John F. Chalmers, Conn. 
 Thomas W. Davidson, N. Y. 
 John H. Strong, N. Y. 
 
 James P. Lytle, N. Y. 
 
 Otto F. Bartholow, N. Y. 
 Hans P. Freece, N. Y. 
 
 James Palmer, N. Y. 
 
 Thomas H. McKenzie, N. Y. 
 Harold Paul Sloan, N. Y. 
 Robert Russell, N. Y, 
 
 Joseph Frederick Berg, N. Y 
 Curtis Lee Laws, N. Y. 
 Howard B. Gross, N. Y. 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 Publishing Committee 
 
 David James Burrell David G. Wylie 
 
 Frederick H. Knubel Newell Dwight Hillis 
 
 Robert M. Kurtz Finis S. Idleman 
 
 Distributing Committee 
 
 Silas F, Hallock Robert Scott Inglis 
 
 Isaac W. Gowen Edgar Franklin Romig 
 
 Robert Watson Frank A. Hosmer 
 
 Finance Committee 
 
 S. B. Chapin 
 Carlton E. Hunt 
 J. Frederick Talcott 
 
 Auditors 
 
 LOOMIS, SUFFERN and FERNALD 
 Counsel 
 
 WILLIAM H. VAN STEENBERGH 
 
 William Phillips Hall 
 Philip S. Suffern 
 S. V. V. Huntington