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 Conference 
 
 New York, JANUARY \ \ 
 
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 PRELIMINARY 
 
 Ecumenical Conference 
 
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 on Foreign Missions 
 
 Bpril 2l—flDa? l 
 1900 
 
 WILLETTS PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
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 https://archive.org/details/alldaymeetingforOOecum 
 
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 PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT* 
 
 On Jan. 11 the friends of the Ecumenical Conference on 
 Foreign Missions held an all-day meeting in New York to 
 take counsel of one another as to its truest aims and the 
 impression most to be sought for from such a conference. 
 The forenoon, without previous design on the part of any¬ 
 one, was entirely devotional. The afternoon was more 
 largely given to an interchange of views and suggestions 
 as to the ways to secure the best results. In the evening a 
 public meeting was held, with a large number of invited 
 guests present from the churches of New York and vicinity, 
 addressed by eminent speakers. The effect of the day’s meet¬ 
 ings was such that the Executive Committee deems it wise 
 to ask the friends of Missions, as generally as possible, to 
 hold similar all-day meetings in other places, in which all 
 the churches should cooperate. This is asked not merely 
 to awaken wider interest, but as a part of the whole move¬ 
 ment which the conference represents. 
 
 It is supposed that all who have been delegated as mem¬ 
 bers of the conference will especially feel their share in the 
 responsibility for its success, not only during the days of 
 the conference, but in what precedes and follows. For, 
 great as the occasion may be, it must be regarded as an 
 essential part of a larger movement, to which it gives im¬ 
 pulse and direction. 
 
 It is with this in view that the committee solicits your 
 active service in securing all-day meetings in your city, 
 through a committee from the several churches. 
 
 All that was uttered in prayer or remark was without 
 any thought at the time to its publication. It has been 
 thought advisable to let the record of the meeting go out at 
 once with very little change, hoping that its vitality will 
 make up for its lack in literary form; so that those who 
 are preparing for, or writing or speaking in behalf of, the 
 conference may get into the center of its spirit and purpose. 
 
 Ecumenical Conference Committee, 
 
 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, 
 
 3 
 
MORNING SESSION—ASSEMBLY HALL. 
 
 REV. H. N. COBB, D. D., Chairman: 
 
 It is proposed to spend the first half hour or so in 
 prayer and conference in respect to the work which lies be¬ 
 fore us, in regard to which more definite statements will be 
 made later. This half hour or more is for simple prayer, 
 and it has seemed to me that in connection with it, and in 
 preparation for it, we could not more profitably turn our at¬ 
 tention to any other portion of Scripture than to our Lord’s 
 high priestly prayer recorded for us in the 17th chapter of 
 the Gospel of John. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 O Lord, our Gracious Saviour, in whose name we gather 
 here this morning, and whose work we are endeavoring to 
 do, and whose presence we thus desire, and on the blessing 
 of whose Holy Spirit we depend, we thank Thee with glad 
 and grateful hearts for this Thy supplication which Thou 
 didst offer, when Thou wast about to depart from earth, for 
 Thy disciples who should believe on Thee through their 
 word. We rejoice for all that this petition contains for us 
 all; for all the high and holy thoughts, purposes, duties, 
 privileges, aspirations and hopes which it presents to us. 
 We pray that we may take hold upon something in it this 
 morning which shall have a new meaning for us, and which 
 shall fit us better for the work in which we are engaged. 
 Give us a deeper sense of the preciousness of that life eter¬ 
 nal of which no sinner on earth is worthy, but which every 
 sinner on earth may find in the knowledge of God, the 
 Father, and of Jesus Christ, His Son. Help us to feel that 
 we are sent into the world as Thou wast sent, for the ac¬ 
 complishment of the purpose which brought Thee hither. 
 Help us to feel the need of sanctification through the truth, 
 and of being kept by the power of God through faith unto 
 salvation. Help us to appreciate the privilege of carrying 
 this message of life and light and salvation to the ends of 
 the earth, and help us, O Lord, to sympathize more and more 
 perfectly with Thee in th^ prayer which Thou didst offer, 
 that we and all Thy disciples everywhere may have the 
 unity of the Spirit not only, but that we may show a united 
 front to the forces of evil with which it is necessary to con¬ 
 tend in seeking to build up Thy kingdom in the world, and 
 that we may so prove to the world that Thou wast sent of 
 the Father, and that we have indeed received Thee into our 
 hearts, and that Thy Spirit rules and reigns within us. 
 
 Give us a new vision of the glory which is Thine at the 
 right hand of God and of the glory Thou art getting to Thy¬ 
 self by the salvation of souls through Thy precious blood 
 and the eternal Spirit of our God, and cheer us by the hope 
 of that final consummation, when we and all the multitude 
 of Thy redeemed out of every kindred and nation and tribe 
 and tongue shall see Thee in Thy glory as Thou art, and 
 shall be enabled to praise and serve Thee as we ought. 
 
 4 
 
Be with us in this hour of service and in the hours that 
 we shall spend together. Indite our thoughts and our 
 words, and may Thy Spirit rule in every word and in every 
 thought, for Thine own Name’s sake. Amen. 
 
 PRAYER: 
 
 . , i ..... 
 
 REV. S. L» BALDWIN, D. D.: 
 
 Our Father, we continue before Thee in praise and sup¬ 
 plication. Our hearts are full of praise and thanksgiving 
 this morning as we consider the great gathering of Thy peo¬ 
 ple which is to occur by and by in this city, and we reflect 
 how much there is to give thanks to Thee for connected 
 with that gathering. We look back over the century which 
 is soon to close and remember that at its beginning there 
 was just the feeble beginning of Protestant missions in the 
 world, and we recall with joy all the way by which Thou 
 hast led Thy children during these years of the century, so 
 that to-day, in all the great lands of the earth, the work is 
 firmly rooted, thousands of souls are being converted, 
 churches are being built, self-supporting work established in 
 many regions, and many thousands of joyous souls testify¬ 
 ing from a personal experience that Jesus hath appeared on 
 earth to forgive sins. 
 
 We rejoice before Thee in all this progress of Thy work, 
 and we rejoice especially that Thy Spirit hath been so great¬ 
 ly poured out within these late years, so that on many of 
 the mission fields there are wonderful demonstrations of His 
 presence and power—demonstrations from which we here in 
 the church at home may learn very much to cheer and en¬ 
 courage our hearts, and inspire us to greater diligence and 
 to greater nearness to Thee, seeking for the same power of 
 Thy Holy Spirit which many of the recent converts from 
 heathenism are now so richly enjoying. 
 
 We thank Thee, too, for the great progress that has been 
 made in answer to the prayer of Thy son to which we have 
 just listened once more—that prayer for the unity of His 
 people. We thank Thee that in these days all Christian 
 hearts are coming so much closer to each other, and those 
 things which were once magnified in denominational pe¬ 
 culiarities are disappearing, and we realize that we have one 
 great work to do for God, and we must be one army of the 
 living God in prosecuting it. We pray Thee that these evi¬ 
 dent tokens of Thy presence may continue and may increase 
 with greater power, and especially that the Ecumenical 
 Conference may be a time in which there shall be great 
 progress in these directions, in which all hearts shall flow 
 together, and, with sanctified common sense, Thy people 
 may plan together to do His work, to take the whole world 
 for the Lord Jesus Christ, and to take it speedily. We do 
 thank Thee that there are evidences of accelerated power in 
 Thy church as we go forward into this work, and may we 
 be enabled to come within the range of this blessed prayer of 
 
 5 
 
our Divine Redeemer, so that we may all be one in Him, as 
 He is one in Thee. 
 
 Heavenly Father, guide us in all the thoughts and in all 
 the prayer of this hour, and make it a time of great bless- 
 ing to us here, and a time of great blessing in preparation 
 for the Conference that is to be. We ask it for Jesus’ sake. 
 Amen. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 REV. O. U. WHITFORD, D. D.s 
 
 We thank Thee, gracious Father, for Jesus Christ, our 
 Saviour. We thank Thee for the great salvation that He has 
 brought to men. We thank Thee for what He is to us, in 
 wisdom, in joy, in strength, in love, in every-day life, and in 
 the work of the Gospel. We pray, O Lord, that Thou wilt 
 give unto us a deeper interest in the salvation of souls. 
 Roll upon us the burden of souls at home and abroad; we 
 pray that Thou wilt bless all missionary societies that are 
 engaged in world-wide evangelization. Wilt Thou remem¬ 
 ber this day the missionaries of the Cross in the foreign 
 fields? Bless them in their endeavors, in the obstacles that 
 they have to overcome. Wilt Thou give them strength and 
 success? Wilt Thou encourage their hearts in the ingather¬ 
 ing of many souls into Thy kingdom, and we pray that Thou 
 wilt bind all these societies together in the unity of the 
 Spirit and in unity of earnestness and endeavor to capture 
 the world for Jesus Christ. Wilt Thou bless the coming 
 Conference as its members shall come up from the different 
 fields and from the different countries? May they come in 
 the spirit of the Master, in the love of the wonderful re¬ 
 demption which Christ hath brought to men. May they 
 come together in unity of heart, purpose and spirit, and 
 wilt Thou increase the interest and inspiration of that meet¬ 
 ing? 
 
 Bless this preparatory meeting to-day. Bless all of our 
 hearts. Fill our hearts, we pray Thee, with more love for 
 Christ, more love to men, more love for the world. Take 
 out of us selfishness, out of our hearts anything that will 
 hinder us in having success in conquering the world for 
 Christ, our King and our Lord. Bless all the preparations 
 that are being made. Give unto us wisdom and farsighted¬ 
 ness, so that everything shall be done that shall give success 
 and a glorious result to the coming Conference. We ask it 
 all in Jesus’ name. Amen. 
 
 REV. E. M. BLISS, D. D.s 
 
 My thoughts have gone this morning to the many who 
 are before the throne. One and another come up before my 
 mind, and I cannot but feel that, as we gather here and pray 
 for this blessing, as we plan for this work, we have the co¬ 
 working of that great multitude of witnesses who have gone 
 before us, where they are seeing so much clearer than we 
 can see, knowing as we know not, sharing with the Master 
 
 6 
 
the blessing of the completeness of the work. And then 
 that Master! For the last few days my thoughts have been 
 turning to Paul’s words written from the prison at Rome to 
 the Philippians. He gathered up all his past success and 
 counted it as nothing that he might know Christ and the 
 power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffer¬ 
 ings —the fellowship that should bring him into the closest 
 relations with those for whom he worked, the power of the 
 resurrection that should give him the might that burst the 
 bands of death, and overcome all that was evil, and assured 
 the victory of faith! Oh, we need to look beyond, to feel 
 that we are working not in any strength of to-day, not in 
 any wisdom of the moment, but that we have the strength 
 of the Almighty and the wisdom of God if we will open our 
 hearts to Him that we may receive. 
 
 MR. W. H. GRANT: 
 
 There is one thing I have no doubt that we shall all 
 agree on with respect to this Conference, and that is what 
 we are met here at this early hour for—that we want God 
 in it; we want His illuminating power in it; we want His 
 control in it. We have evidence that He is in it. We can¬ 
 not believe that such a Conference can be brought about at 
 all without having God in it. But we want Him in it in 
 power. We want a demonstration that He is in it. We 
 want to realize among ourselves that the Conference will be 
 a total failure unless God is in it in fullness. The impres¬ 
 sion I have gotten many times from reading the first Epistle 
 of John was just that thought—that God was in it, and that 
 God was in John. God had been, through His Son, right in 
 the midst of the disciples. They had felt His life right close 
 to them, handled it with their hands, seen it with their eyes, 
 heard it with their ears. It was a great reality to each one 
 of them. And just after John says that, he makes that won¬ 
 derful declaration that God is light, that in Him is no dark¬ 
 ness at all. “If we say we have fellowship with Him, and 
 walk in darkness, we do not the truth,” but that if we do 
 walk in the light as He is in the light, “we have fellowship 
 one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us 
 from all sin.” That takes the cloud away from our eyes and 
 off our hearts, and brings us close together in holy com¬ 
 munion. 
 
 Now, I think that we want to make this the central 
 thought of our prayers, that we want God in this Confer¬ 
 ence; that we want Him to manifest Himself all through it, 
 so that it may be full of life—full of spiritual life and 
 power, and not fall flat because it is wholly the work of 
 man. Those of us who have been most interested in the ar¬ 
 rangements feel perfectly helpless in the matter unless the 
 church takes it up and prays over it, and we have sent out a 
 letter asking the church to pray for it. We have sent that 
 letter practically to the ends of the earth calling for prayer 
 
 7 
 
for this Conference. We have sent out another letter to the 
 missionaries all over the world, asking them to enlist the 
 native churches in prayer for this Conference, and yet we 
 want to realize what we have for them to do right here 
 among ourselves. We have been too busy with details to 
 take a general survey, and we have been too busy to have 
 that prayer, that holy communion one with another and 
 with God that will enable us to make it the kind of a Con¬ 
 ference He wants. I hope that the others here will take up 
 the thought of the Holy Spirit in this Conference, and that 
 each from his own experience, each from his own stand¬ 
 point, shall say something, shall lead in prayer, shall help 
 in one way or another, so that we may be enlivened in this 
 place. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 REV. J. TAYLOR HAMILTON, D. D.s 
 
 O Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Thou great Head of the 
 Church, bestow upon each one of us here present Thy bless¬ 
 ing this morning, this very hour. Renew in our hearts the 
 comfortable assurance that we are Thine, and that Thou 
 dost condescend to use even such as we are with all our 
 frailties and defects and sins. Cause us to be fully per¬ 
 suaded that Thy will is manifested toward us day by day, as 
 Thou dost lead and guide us in the details of the ordinary 
 duties Thou hast imposed upon us. May the joy of the Lord 
 be our strength, personally and individually, and as we are 
 now met to confer together. Help us to see back of business 
 details which concern this Conference, to see behind all 
 those duties which rest upon us in connection with the 
 spread of Thy kingdom at home and abroad, not dead facts, 
 but Thine own presence, urging us on, giving us wisdom 
 that is not our own, and pledging ultimate success in ac¬ 
 cordance with Thy promise, “All power is given unto Me in 
 heaven and earth, and lo! I am with you always.” Give us 
 faith to believe in this success and in Thy divine overruling, 
 even where we seem to fail, and so help us to place ourselves 
 in Thy hands in connection with this movement for which 
 we are planning. So enable all who have an interest in the 
 coming of Thine own great person and sovereignty and 
 power that wherever they are stationed, in isolated places, 
 often laboring amid discouragement and difficulty, Thy 
 felt presence in the Spirit may encourage them. Pour out 
 upon Thy waiting church the spirit of earnest intercession 
 that is moulded and guided by Thee. We do not know what 
 Thy will is with this work that is encouraging our thought 
 and sympathy. Give us faith to believe that Thou dost in¬ 
 tend to use it mightily that the time may be hastened when 
 Thy will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. We 
 would lay hold of Thy promise that “if any man lack wis¬ 
 dom, he may ask of Thee, who giveth to all men liberally.” 
 Bestow upon us the wisdom that we need for this and for all 
 other discussion. We would feel that Thou wilt so help each 
 
 8 
 
one of us that we may do just what Thou dost require, ac¬ 
 complish Thy purpose, and at last be received into Thy 
 presence where there is fullness of joy. Amen. 
 
 REV. WILSON PHRASER, D. B.: 
 
 Dear Brethren: I am for one very much impressed 
 with the solemnity of this hour and with the circumstances 
 under which we meet, this first meeting held for a confer¬ 
 ence in connection with the Council to which we are looking 
 forward. How important it is that we should realize the 
 possibilities of that Conference! I think we ought to antici¬ 
 pate and look forward to and hope and expect that it shall 
 be a great event in the Church of Christ, in connection es¬ 
 pecially with God’s work in the world, the coming, or the 
 bringing in of His kingdom. The Church has held confer¬ 
 ences or councils in the centuries that are past, and we have 
 had one or two in recent years of these councils in connec¬ 
 tion with the work of foreign missions, and they have been 
 great and blessed occasions; but, dear brethren, shall we not 
 rise far higher? Have we not a right to look for and expect 
 something far more to come out of this Council than has 
 come out of any Council that was ever held in the history of 
 the Church? Nov/, am I too enthusiastic when I express 
 such a wish, such an expectation, such a hope? Of course, 
 it won’t depend upon us. We have recognized the fact to¬ 
 day. Attention has been called to our dependence upon God, 
 His Holy Spirit, His guidance from first to last, and oh, how 
 earnestly my heart desires that God’s Spirit may here, at 
 this first meeting, manifest itself to each and every one. 
 But the thought of responsibility presses upon me in con¬ 
 nection with the guidance in this matter and the waking up 
 of the Church to a proper expectation and appreciation of 
 what we are looking forward to. The passage was read 
 with regard to the unity of God’s children. Why, I hope to 
 see in this Council an illustration to the world of the unity 
 of Christendom such as has never been given in any of the 
 centuries before. We have had blessed meetings in connec¬ 
 tion with the Week of Prayer here, illustrating the unity of 
 God’s people, but never have I seen hearts flow together ap¬ 
 parently as I have seen in connection with our dear mis¬ 
 sionaries in Japan or in Shanghai or in Chefoo or elsewhere, 
 the brethren coming together of all denominations there, 
 feeling their need of each other’s help, and their hearts flow¬ 
 ing together in their intense interest in their work. I want 
 to see that on an enlarged scale in connection with this 
 great Conference before us, and let us feel the responsibility 
 resting upon us in this meeting as the beginning of that 
 which is to wake up within the Church, because God works 
 by means; and throughout the Church a spirit of expecta¬ 
 tion of great things. “Expect great things from God, and 
 undertake great things for God” is an expression with which 
 we are very familiar. It is a very proper thought, it seems 
 
 9 
 
to me, at its very outset. May God, from first to last, guide 
 and direct that the results of this Conference shall be 
 blessev unto every church in the homeland, bringing a 
 blessing to all who are privileged to have any part, and 
 bringing a blessing in this last year of the dying century, 
 bringing a blessing such as the Church at large has never 
 known in connection with the onward movement of the in¬ 
 terests of our blessed Saviour’s kingdom. 
 
 REV. A. T. PIERSON, D. D.: 
 
 I would like to give two verses from a passage which 
 has made more impression upon my mind than any words 
 within the compass of the Scripture in connection with such 
 meetings as this. Matthew, the eighteenth chapter, nine¬ 
 teenth and twentieth verses: “If two of you shall agree on 
 earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be 
 done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I 
 in the midst of them.” 
 
 The double thought I want to call your attention to is 
 the peculiar meaning of the word “agree,” and the force of 
 the word “for” in the twentieth verse. The word agree, in the 
 Greek, as you will all remember, is “symphonize.” It does 
 not refer to an agreement which we make among ourselves, 
 but it is the agreement which the Spirit causes among us. 
 
 A symphony is a musical chord. It depends upon two 
 things—that the keys of an instrument shall be in tune 
 with each other, and that they shall be touched by a master 
 hand. And that is the force of the word for. “For where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I 
 in the midst of them,” producing this agreement, this sym¬ 
 phony. 
 
 It is a marvellous conception. Most of us have been ac¬ 
 customed to think of this as an artificial agreement. You 
 say to me, and I say to you, “Let us pray about a certain 
 thing.” That is an artificial agreement. But when the 
 Spirit moves on you and on me, and lays his hand upon us, 
 as you lay your hand upon a well-tuned instrument, the keys 
 are brought into a chord, producing a symphony. When 
 Jesus Christ is in the midst of us, touches your mind and 
 some one else’s heart to pray for the same thing, there is a 
 musical symphony. 
 
 In years agone, I do not think anything has produced a 
 greater effect upon me in connection with these matters 
 than my studies of the eighteenth century. You will re¬ 
 member that at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 from 1700 to 1750, there was a most awful state of things, 
 in Great Britain and in America, too, in the churches. 
 Deism in the pulpits; sensuality and formality and secular- , 
 ism in the pews, until Christian men, and men of deep 
 spirituality said that religion seemed to be idle. When I 
 went into the Lincoln College in Oxford, and stood in the 
 
 io 
 
very room where John Wesley and the Holy Club Men— 
 Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, Mr. Corcoran—met, I felt 
 as if I was in the most solemn place I had almost ever 
 touched on earth. Out of those conferences between a few 
 men that felt the awful decay of religion in Great Britain, 
 and out of Jonathan Edwards’ prayers in Northampton and 
 the appeal in 1747 for a visible union of believing children 
 of God all over the world, for a speedy diffusion of the Spirit 
 on the whole habitable world, you see nearly contemporan¬ 
 eous from 1734 to 1744, in Northampton and Oxford, a John 
 Wesley there and a Jonathan Edwards here—they were the 
 fountains, under God, of the revivals of the last half of the 
 last century. Humanly speaking, they were the fountains. 
 They were the channels at least of God’s Spirit. In read¬ 
 ing in Finney’s life about his wonderful work in Western 
 New York, he attributes it to two men—not to his preaching, 
 remember—Ethan Nash and Abraham Cleary, one of them 
 a consumptive, lying in bed. He would draw a little table 
 to his side, writing in his journal day by day, “My heart has 
 been moved to pray for Utica, for Syracuse, for Binghamton, 
 for Rochester, for Rome,” and Finney, after his death, got 
 hold of this memorandum book and found that in the precise 
 order of the burden laid upon that man’s heart was the or¬ 
 der of blessing poured out in his ministry in those places, 
 and among others he found a memorandum about Ceylon, 
 and looking into the records of the American Board, he 
 found that at that time that he was praying on his sick-bed, 
 they had a great revival in Ceylon. Dr. Scofield, Mr. 
 Moody’s pastor, was telling us, in Dr. Nixon’s church, of this 
 very fact in connection with a common, unlettered man, 
 who -was moved so to pray about the awful lethargy and 
 apathy in the town in which he lived. In the middle of the 
 night a man came and rapped at the door ,, and he looked so 
 wild that he thought he was going to be shot, but his visitor 
 proved to be a plain farmer from the country. He came in 
 and got down on his knees and began to weep and pray and 
 confess his sins. He had been a formal, nominal Christian, 
 and together they besought God for that town, and they had 
 scarcely ceased praying when they received news of a mar¬ 
 vellous outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that town, and it 
 taught me a tremendous lesson on this matter of prayer. 
 
 There is a motor that is slumbering unused in the 
 Church of God. It is the motor of Prayer. We talk about 
 praying, but the fact is, and I make my solemn confession 
 here as I made it among the ministers of Brooklyn yester¬ 
 day, God has shown me the duty and privilege of prayer and 
 I have not used it. I know very little about prayer, especial¬ 
 ly about intercession, and I feel condemned before God that 
 I know so much about what prayer is in theory and so little 
 about it in practice, and to-day I laid everything aside at 
 the busiest time of my life, because I wanted to do what I 
 could to strengthen my heart and the hearts of my brethren 
 in this tremendous matter. 
 
 ii 
 
I tell you, beloved, that wisdom and power and might 
 and grace and strength, and everything else, depend, in this 
 coming Conference, upon the measure of the fervency and 
 faith of our own prayer, and if we take hold upon God, there 
 is nothing but will be adjusted and rectified in con¬ 
 formity with His holy will. To think that a few men in 
 Oxford College could transform English spiritual life, and 
 one man in Northampton could do the same thing in 
 America! We have all read about Mr. Edwards’ sermon in 
 Enfield upon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” read 
 every word of it, and people got up and held fast to the pil¬ 
 lars of the meeting-house because they felt their feet sliding 
 into hell, but we do not know that the night before that ser¬ 
 mon was delivered the officers of that church spent in 
 prayer for the power of God to rest on him the next day. I 
 say again, the greatest motor on earth is like a motive 
 power down in the cellar of a building that is not geared 
 onto machinery, and there is nothing, in my judgment, that 
 God means that we should learn more than that Christ is in 
 the midst of two or three. It is not a matter of large num¬ 
 bers: and that where He is. He is the master musician, and 
 all we have to do is to put the keys of the instrument in 
 tune with each other and in tune with God, and then let the 
 Lord Jesus lay the hands that were pierced for us on the 
 keys of the instrument, and produce the divine symphony 
 there. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 Oh, Almighty God, we thank Thee that concerning the 
 work of Thy hands, we may command; not simply ask, but 
 claim. This thing is too big for us; we cannot manage it; 
 it is a stupendous undertaking. It requires more than all 
 human wisdom combined to make arrangements for this 
 Conference, to project its programme, to determine those 
 who shall take part in it audibly; to prepare for its various 
 meetings. It requires something far beyond us to deter¬ 
 mine who shall come to it and shall contribute by their pres¬ 
 ence, their prayers, their sympathies, their counsel to what 
 is done and said, to what is determined, and what shall be 
 the final outcome. Thou canst lay Thy hand upon some one 
 that may be chosen to come here, but would bring no bless¬ 
 ing, and Thou canst detain such and prevent their coming. 
 Or Thou canst peculiarly anoint, with the power of the 
 Spirit, those that are appointed to come, so that they shall 
 come, not in their own might, not in their own wisdom, but 
 in the power of God. Even the things that seem to be un¬ 
 toward and disastrous, disappointing, discouraging, Thou 
 canst take out of the way, or turn to the glory of Thy Name. 
 
 And now, our Heavenly Father, we beseech that what¬ 
 ever else takes place here this morning, there may be the 
 most thorough prostration of heart before God, the most 
 absolute humiliation; that we may see how far our divine 
 knowledge has been above our practice, how far our concep- 
 
 12 
 
tions have been beyond our expectation, how far our in¬ 
 struction has outrun our actual practical contact with Thee. 
 Oh, our God, we beseech Thee, bring to naught any of our 
 thoughts which are not according to Thy thoughts, and now 
 grant that we may be like a musical instrument that is open 
 to the touch of God, that is in tune with the divine purpose, 
 the keys of which are in sympathy with each other and pre¬ 
 pared for God to use us in this symphony of prayer, that be¬ 
 cause Christ is in the midst and touches our hearts with His 
 own divine power, we respond to the divine will, and our 
 will is lost in the will of God. 
 
 Now, if we have had any thought that we could guide 
 this Conference, or that we could contribute anything to the 
 wisdom of these counsels, we pray Thee that we may aban¬ 
 don all our self-complacency and self-conceit, and that we 
 may come before Thee this morning, and maintain this atti¬ 
 tude throughout the day and the weeks and months that are 
 to follow; that we may come before Thee in absolute renun¬ 
 ciation of all dependence upon anything but God, that it may 
 seem first best to the Holy Ghost, and then to us, what shall 
 be done and what shall be planned; and we beseech Thee, 
 Lord, that Thou wilt so cover us with Thy presence as that 
 we may gc forth from this place to-day with the deep and 
 abiding consciousness that we have met God, that our hearts 
 have been moulded together before the Shekinah flame, 
 that we have been taught what God would have us to do, and 
 that we have simply sought to follow as the Spirit leads, 
 and as the pillar of cloud went before Israel to search out 
 the place where the tents should be pitched, we pray that 
 the Spirit of God may distinctly go before us to search out 
 the place of our rest, the modes of our activity and the 
 paths in which we walk. 
 
 Now, Lord, unite our hearts in prayer, in holy counsel, 
 in holy subjection to the word and will of God, and may this 
 be a wonderful meeting that shall be the forecast of un¬ 
 speakable blessing throughout this great Conference, and 
 shall assure an issue, an ultimate' issue, that shall be to the 
 glory of God and the salvation of men and the quickening 
 of everything that is most according to the will of God, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 REV. STANLEY WHITE: 
 
 It seems to me that one of the most tremendous perils 
 that face those who enter into this kind of work is the peril 
 of getting caught in the multitudinous details of it, and in 
 thinking that a great machinery is able to accomplish a 
 great work for God. I believe that that is one of the perils 
 of our present time. We have forgotten, largely, I mean, 
 not in connection with this Conference, but in connection 
 with religious work generally, too many of us have forgot¬ 
 ten the privilege of communion with the most high God. 
 People say this is not a religious age. I somehow cannot 
 
 13 
 
agree with that. I may he wrong, hut it seems to me that 
 there never was a time when there was so much activity 
 that should be recognized as religious activity; never a time 
 when religious desire was more translated into practical 
 work; never a time when there were so many conferences; 
 never a time when there were so many meetings. And yet, 
 strangely enough, the curious fact is that right along with 
 all this energy there seems to be a dearth of interest in the 
 matter of attendance upon service, on the meditative side of 
 our religious life, upon communion with God. Men seem to 
 have changed the emphasis. Now I believe that there is 
 nothing that we need to lay such stress upon, not only in all 
 our work, but at this particular time, when we are planning 
 a great Conference, than that those who are interested in it 
 should have anew the vision of God and of Jesus Christ. 
 Personally, my enthusiasm for the work of foreign mis¬ 
 sions begins when I look into the face of Jesus Christ. Un¬ 
 til I can realize His relation to myself, until I see the beauty 
 of His character, until I am fairly filled with a knowledge 
 of the Master, I have no enthusiasm to go and tell other peo¬ 
 ple about Him. I am interested in the world and in men’s 
 sufferings and needs, but I must be more interested, and 
 first I must be* interested in the One through whom their 
 souls are saved, and my one thought as I have been sitting 
 here is that I wish the emphasis at this Conference might be 
 put on the spiritual communion with God, so that we shall 
 have first the vision of Christ and know what we are talking, 
 about, and know what the main aim of that Conference is, to 
 get it down to a distinct point, that what we are trying to do 
 is to tell others about that Christ who is so precious to us, 
 upholding Him and communing with Him. We shall be able 
 then to enter into the details of the plan of the work and do 
 a practical kind of work, having been touched by the Spirit 
 of God. The various agencies and various work that is done, 
 it seems to me, will fall into its proper place. Let us pray 
 continually for having the vision of Christ. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we find ourselves 
 continually, as we go about Thy work here in the world, 
 caught in all the details of the work, forgetting the time of 
 our spiritual communion with Thee, forgetting to keep our 
 hearts tender and our thoughts on Thee and Thy truth, and 
 we ask that Thou wilt pardon us, and that Thou wouldst 
 help us to see that the real, essential thing that we are try¬ 
 ing to do is simply to tell men of One who has been very 
 precious to us. The work is very simple in its motive, and 
 oh, wilt Thou clarify our vision, wilt Thou help us to keep 
 our hearts pure so that we shall see God, and, seeing Him, 
 tell of Him to others, and may there be a deep spiritual 
 experience coming to us all in these coming weeks as we 
 shall study of Thy work and think of Thy work, and may it 
 be a great power because more men have beheld the face of 
 Christ. 
 
 14 
 
Hear us in this our prayer, and accept us and the 
 service which we shall render, through Jesus Christ, our Re¬ 
 deemer. Amen. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 MR. MOiRNAY WILLIAMS: 
 
 0 Thou, our Father, and the Father of our Lord and 
 Saviour, Jesus Christ, we would come to Thee in the courage 
 of His prayer, knowing that we are Thine because we are 
 Christ’s, knowing that all His are Thine, and Thine are His; 
 knowing that He has prayed for us that our faith also fail 
 not. O Lord, by the power of that prayer of our Saviour’s 
 for us, make us strong for service. If there be that in us, 
 and, O Lord, we know that there is, which is not in accord¬ 
 ance with Thy will, if there be impure human motives and 
 self-love, and ambition, if there be anything that Thy pure 
 eyes cannot look upon, we pray Thee that Thou wilt burn 
 it out with the fire of Thine own most divine love. And, 
 O Lord, we pray now for this great city where this Confer¬ 
 ence is to be held, nominally a Christian city, bearing the 
 name of Christ, and its great multitudes going into His 
 temples, and yet so far from Thee. O Lord, visit us not, 
 we pray Thee, for our sins. We have been lukewarm, we 
 have been neither cold nor hot, but Thou, O God, send us 
 not away. Renew in us, we pray Thee, the Spirit. Grant 
 unto us further evidence of Thy presence with us. Pre¬ 
 pare us that, as this great Conference gathers, our hearts 
 may be attuned and in harmony with the great will and 
 purpose of God which ever’moves serenely on. Teach us, 
 O Lord, how we can miniser to those who have ministered 
 to others that indeed it may be an interconnection from 
 heart to heart of the purpose and will of God moving in 
 each, that we may see more clearly what our duty is for the 
 men and women immediately about us, and what our duty 
 is for those in the very utmost corners of the earth. Grant 
 unto us, we pray Thee, that we may know the power of 
 Jesus Christ in us; that in all our plans He may direct; 
 that in all our thoughts He may control; that in all our 
 emotions the love of Him and the praise of Him may domi¬ 
 nate every other thought, and then we know that whether 
 men say it is a success or it is a failure, the outcome is Thine 
 and the glory shall be Thine forever. Amen. 
 
 REV. GEORGE W. CHAMBERLAIN, D. D.: 
 
 The peril spoken of by a previous speaker is a real one— 
 the peril of becoming absorbed by the machinery. One of 
 the most remarkable scenes that ever occurred in this city, 
 one that attracted the attention of heaven if not of men, 
 occurred in a carriage crossing the city, between a native 
 African and a native American. The American invited this 
 hoy to go with him, intending to show him the great build¬ 
 ings. But finally the African turned to him and said, “It 
 will be well to pray in a carriage?” “Yes,” the American 
 
 15 
 
replied; “I have had communion with God many a time in 
 a carriage.” “Then,” said the African, “let us pray.” Put¬ 
 ting his hand upon the American he turned him around 
 upon his knees and said. “I came from Africa to ask) this 
 man to tell me about Thee, and he is telling me about the 
 buildings. I don’t want to know about the buildings. I 
 want to know about Thee. Teach him to tell me about Thee, 
 about Thy Spirit.” The American, narrating this, said, “I 
 have had the hands of Bishops put upon me, but I never had 
 such grace come upon me as I had from the hand of that 
 African.” He was sent out to a university in Indiana to be 
 educated, for he could not speak English very well. Every 
 student that came into his room he would ask to read a 
 chapter from the Bible. One time he asked a young man to 
 read a chapter from the Bible, and the young man said, “I 
 don’t believe in that book. I am not a Christian.” The 
 African said, “What! Your Father speak to you and you not 
 know him? I pray for you.” And down on his knees he 
 went to pray, and that American was converted. The Af¬ 
 rican was a heathen intending to prepare himself to go back 
 and preach to his own tribe, but the Lord made him a 
 brother to Americans, and took him up to heaven. 
 
 Right in the midst of this Conference that is gathered 
 here, coming from foreign lands, unwilling to attract the 
 eye of a stranger, if we can only have the singleness of 
 view of that African, we will get a blessing that will take 
 us to the ends of the earth in person or in sympathy, and 
 we will see a work of God completed, which is the only work 
 that can satisfy. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of 
 all mercies, Lord of all comfort, we bless Thee for the gift 
 of Thy Son. We thank Thee, O Thou eternal Son of God, 
 that Thou didst take upon Thee flesh and dwell among us, 
 full of grace and truth. When Thou didst carry Thy devo¬ 
 tion through all the contradiction of sinners to the bitter 
 end, and was apparently defeated, buried out of sight, that 
 then Thou didst show Thyself as Thou art, the eternal Son 
 of God, quickened by the Spirit, manifesting Thy power 
 over the last enemy, and ascending on high, a Prince and 
 a Saviour to give gifts. Give us, we pray Thee, the remis¬ 
 sion of all our sins as Thy children; repentance for all our 
 lethargy and slowness of heart to believe all that is spoken 
 of Thee in Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms and the 
 Gospels. Help us, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we 
 pray, to be in entire sympathy with Thee, moved by the 
 same Spirit which moved Thee to leave the glory which. 
 Thou hadst with the Father from before the time that the 
 earth was, to go forth as Thou didst go forth. Give us the 
 same humility which abased Thee, which led Thee to be 
 born of a virgin, not in a palace but among the beasts of 
 
 16 
 
the stall. Give us such humility, we pray, that we will b© 
 ready to go down to the lost by the power of the Spirit. We 
 thank Thee for the gift of the Holy Ghost. We thank Thee 
 that it has been given, that we need not pray that Thou 
 wouldst give what Thou hast already given. O Lord, 
 open our hearts to receive the gift in the fullness thereof, 
 Conference may be in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so 
 that, exalted at Thy right hand, we may come down to the 
 that, filled with the Spirit, we may have fellowship with 
 Thee and so with one another; that our conversation, our 
 work with the power of God upon us to accomplish more 
 than we have ever yet dreamed of accomplishing, to go 
 forth in the power of Thy Spirit, having the very dynamite 
 of God in us for the exploding of all the cities walled up 
 to heaven, for the destruction of all giants that oppose 
 Thy way to the possession of the whole world. 
 
 O Lord, we confess our sins, and we have been willing 
 to send in spies of the land and rely upon human testimony 
 rather than Thine, and we implore Thee to help us to over¬ 
 come this, and to drop out of sight both the minority and 
 majority reports that come up, and give us wholly to fol¬ 
 low Thee implicitly, because Thou hast said, and we expect 
 the fulfillment of that promise, ‘‘Lo, I am with you all the 
 days, even to the end.” May this be the help of our Con¬ 
 ference to-day and to-morrow and all the days, until they 
 shall gather in this city from all portions of the earth, and 
 O Lord may it be a Pentecost indeed, a time of blessing 
 that in this great city Thy voice may be heard and under¬ 
 stood by all peoples and air tongues who are gathered, and 
 be an occasion of sending forth, as never before, among all 
 the nations the feet of them that shall publish glad tidings 
 of great joy. 
 
 We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 REV. A. C. DIXON, D. D.: 
 
 What has stirred me most is the fourth chapter of the 
 Acts: “When they had prayed, the place was shaken,” 
 and you know that seven things followed their praying. The 
 place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy 
 Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness, and 
 the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and 
 one soul, neither said any of them that aught of the things 
 which he possessed was his own, but they had all things 
 in common, and with great fear gave the Apostles witness 
 of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and great 
 grace was upon them all. Everything that was needed came 
 when they prayed, and it has occurred to me that we might 
 magnify the speaking in this Conference to come to much. 
 There has been enough good preaching in New York to 
 shake it, if good preaching could do it. When they prayed 
 the city was shaken, and God works not in answer so much 
 to our speaking to men as.our speaking to Him. I have 
 
 1 7 
 
thought of the four-fold unity on the Day of Pentecost. 
 This is just a continuation of that. They were all together 
 in one place. That was a unity of place. Then there was a 
 unity of purpose: they were of one accord. Then there was 
 a unity of experience: they were all filled with the Holy 
 Ghost. And a unity of action: they all spake. And you 
 notice they all came together to pray, and while they were 
 there together, the Holy Spirit came upon the whole com¬ 
 pany and then the tongues of fire. He first came as the 
 rushing, mighty wind, and then the tongues of fire, and isn’t 
 it true in all God’s workings that He comes upon the as¬ 
 sembly, and it is through the assembly praying together 
 that the tongue of fire is coming upon the people? The dif¬ 
 ference between Christians, it seems to me, is one of full¬ 
 ness and power, and when we get full of God’s Holy Spirit 
 in answer to prayer, there will be the tongue of fire upon 
 each one of us. 
 
 I heard an eloquent sermon some time ago. It was 
 great in thought and finished in rhetoric, but I could not 
 help feeling that it was empty. There was something hol¬ 
 low about it. There was not fullness of power, and I prayed, 
 “0 God, give us the fullness of Thy Spirit,” and if we can 
 all just get together, not a great crowd, perhaps, but a 
 people together on their faces before God, then this city 
 and this world can be shaken by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 O God, our Father, may we sing “God is able.” May we 
 believe that He is suflicient to all things. We know that He 
 is all powerful, but Jesus, the all-powerful God, was able to 
 do no mighty works because of their unbelief. He stood 
 there helpless, as there was no channel through which he 
 could work. 0 God, help us to enable Thee by our faith. 
 Give us such faith in the Holy Spirit that we can believe 
 He is powerful enough to shake New York through this 
 Conference, through the prayers of His people who shall 
 come together and be of one accord and continue in prayer 
 and supplication until the blessing shall come. 
 
 Father, we thank Thee for the Spirit of evangelism 
 among the people. We thank Thee for the prayer meeting 
 of the ministers in Brooklyn yesterday. We thank Thee for 
 the desire to preach the Gospel to every creature, and wilt 
 Thou give us such a tidal wave of revival that all opposition 
 to God shall be swept away, and Jesus Christ shall reign in 
 our hearts, in our churches, in our plans, in our lives. May 
 we utilize all the influences for God—money, and social posi¬ 
 tion, and organization. But, Father, may we not trust in 
 Influence, may we trust in God! Give us power rather than 
 influence, and if we have to sacrifice influence for the sake 
 of power, may we be willing to do it, for we remember that 
 our Saviour made himself of no reputation, but He had the 
 power of God. Keep us in touch with God. May we be in 
 right relation with God. If there is anything in our hearts 
 
 18 
 
that keeps us from having fellowship with God, wilt Thou 
 remove it and help us to walk with Him in this Conference, 
 not striving to induce Him to walk with us. May we be 
 completely abandoned to the Holy Spirit as Philip was when 
 he went into Samaria to preach, and work was found for 
 him in the desert place, and so wherever the Spirit guides* 
 may we go under Thy control, and may those in charge of 
 this Conference be guided by Thee. And wilt Thou plan 
 through them and speak through them and pray with those 
 who pray with groanings that cannot be uttered. Give us, 
 our Father, the power of God, and may we do His work in 
 His way to His glory ever, with His power, for Jesus’ sake. 
 Amen. 
 
 REV. A. B. LEONARD, D. D.: 
 
 In all that has been uttered in speech and prayer con¬ 
 cerning the importance of the presence and help of the 
 Holy Spirit in this Conference I believe. But some of us 
 that have been engaged for more than two years in plan¬ 
 ning for it, praying constantly that it may be made a suc¬ 
 cess, realize, I think, in some measure that there is some 
 value attached to the organization of this Conference. I 
 suppose that when the programme shall be published that 
 it will not please everybody. I apprehend that a good many 
 in reading it will think that there are men on that ought 
 to be off, and men off that ought to be on. But I think the 
 effort has been sincere and God-fearing to plan in the very 
 best possible way. That mistakes have been made and will 
 be made I suppose may be conceded, but it requires a good 
 deal of work, a good deal of toil to organize such a Confer¬ 
 ence. I confess that I had no idea of its magnitude when 
 the work was commenced, but it has grown upon me won¬ 
 derfully as the months and years have gone by, and now 
 we come to a little more than three months of the time 
 when this great Conference must convene. I think the work 
 will get along without me somehow, but I have an anxiety 
 about it. I cannot help that. I think about it by day and 
 sometimes by night, and wonder what the outcome will be. 
 If something can be done—I think the Lord will have to 
 use some machinery somehow in relation to this—if some¬ 
 thing can be done whereby the ministers, God’s ministers— 
 they are God’s ministers—-can be aroused to the importance 
 of this Conference, its far-reaching results, so that the 
 churches of this city will be stirred and take an interest in 
 it, I doubt not it will be in a large measure a success. But, 
 as we are getting so near the time when the Conference 
 must convene, I really feel some anxiety—a good deal of 
 anxiety—about the effect it will have upon the city of New 
 York itself. And I raise the question now whether we are 
 doing as much as we ought to do to stir up the churches 
 and get them to understand something about the magnitude 
 of this work we have undertaken. It seems to me nothing 
 
 19 
 
so important is likely to transpire upon this footstool for 
 the Kingdom of God as this Conference in the closing days 
 of the month of April. I say again, I believe in prayer and 
 the absolute necessity of the presence of the Holy Ghost, but 
 somehow the machinery must he organized and it must be 
 worked, and this must be accomplished very largely through 
 human agencies. I utter these words for the purpose, if 
 possible, of enlisting more earnestly those that are here 
 this morning in the attempt to impress the churches—the 
 ministers and churches—of New York with the greatness 
 of this Conference, its importance to the kingdom of God in 
 this world. Let us pray. 
 
 O God, help us to feel our utter, our absolute depend¬ 
 ence upon Thee. Of ourselves we can do nothing, but if we 
 are willing to be used by Thee, Thou canst accomplish even 
 great things through such weak instruments as we are. 
 We humbly and devoutly look to Thee. We pray for Thy 
 presence and help. Unless Thou shalt help us, all our ef¬ 
 forts will be unavailing, and we shall be mortified and con¬ 
 fused and confounded before the world; but if Thou shalt 
 help us, if we are pleasing Thee in attempting to hold this 
 Conference, if it is for Thy glory and not for the glory of 
 any denomination, not for the glory of individuals, but if 
 it be for Thy glory, for the glory of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, 
 our Lord, if this be our single purpose and aim, we may 
 believe that Thou wilt, through this instrumentality, build 
 up Thy kingdom in the earth, enlarge its borders and in 
 the dim and distant future bring even multiplied millions 
 into Thy kingdom, lifting this world up out of its sin and 
 shame and misery into the fellowship of God. 
 
 Hear us, we beg, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 
 
 REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D. D.: 
 
 I am assured that all those who have been members 
 of the different committees connected with this Ecumenical 
 Council, all those who are present that are on those com¬ 
 mittees, must feel that it is good for us, perhaps I may say 
 for us especially, to be here this morning where I think 
 there are evidences of the presence of God’s Spirit. As has 
 been suggested by Dr. Leonard, we have been at work for 
 many months upon the details of preparation. We have 
 not undertaken that work, I am sure, wholly in our own 
 wisdom. Everything has been done with prayer. But if I 
 may be allowed such an expression, there is prayer, and 
 prayer, two quite different things in the promise of outcome, 
 and in the realization of power, and I am sure that it is of 
 great consequence to us to have met, this morning, some 
 who are not in these committees, and to take witness of 
 the fact that God’s Spirit is working in the hearts of Chris¬ 
 tians round about us toward the same end. And as I sat 
 here and listened to the prayers and joined in them, and to 
 the suggestions that have been made, the thought came 
 
 20 
 
over me, What a pity it is that all the members of all the 
 committees could not be here, and, carrying out that idea, 
 what a pity that every man that has been asked or shall be 
 asked to prepare any paper, or prepare any address for the 
 coming Conference could not be here! We have felt our 
 littleness in the committees. We have felt, as has been ex¬ 
 pressed here, our utter inability to cope with such an en¬ 
 terprise as this, for it is not merely the impression that 
 shall be made during those ten days and upon, those who 
 are to meet upon that occasion, but it is setting a keynote, 
 so to speak, for the next decade. It is taking the whole 
 interest of the cause of redemption, at home and abroad, 
 upon our hearts, and if, when we have done that, we shall 
 find that we have not been in touch with this supernatural 
 power of God’s grace, and men shall rather look upon our 
 failure and say, “Aha!” why it is a terrible disaster, and 
 harm even may have been done. Then comes in the thought 
 of the resource of prayer and intercession. We cannot here 
 this morning reach the minds and hearts of all those who 
 shall be writing and preparing in these coming months, 
 and preparing the hearts of all who shall come, even though 
 they may not take public part, but God can do that and 
 there is the unspeakable advantage of having the privilege 
 of intercession and asking that God will touch the heart of 
 every one who perhaps may this very day be writing or 
 preparing, and that the idea of the power of God and the 
 supreme object of Christ’s kingdom may fill all hearts. 
 That is the idea that is to possess us here, and not this 
 morning only, I trust, but in all the intervening weeks be¬ 
 fore the Conference shall be held. And I was thinking, 
 why may there not be just such meetings as this in every 
 city, at least the larger places, and widening out from them, 
 why may there not be a suggestion, an impulse, not ours 
 but God’s, that every church shall have a special season 
 of prayer between November and the Conference, one at 
 least in which the greatness of this undertaking, if you 
 please, the hazard of it, and certainly the possibilities of it, 
 for good to suffering manhood and a blind, sinful world, 
 may be taken up and not only discussed, but borne up by 
 earnest hearts before God’s throne of grace. Is it too much 
 to hope that out of this meeting may go, along the line 
 of the prayers that have been offered and the practical sug¬ 
 gestions that have been made, results so that the prayer 
 and the planning and the acting and the devising may all 
 be united in one under the direction of God’s Spirit to the 
 Glory of His name, and to the furtherance of His king¬ 
 dom. 
 
 RBV. J. T. GRACEY, D. D.s 
 
 I am aware that we have some difficulties to cope with 
 in the inauguration of and the conduct of this coming Con¬ 
 ference that are unprecendented. The two or three Con- 
 
 21 
 
ferences—the Liverpool and the Mildmay and the London— 
 that have preceded this, have had, in some respects, easy 
 conditions compared with ours. Bring Maine down and put 
 it alongside of Pennsylvania and New York, and crowd 
 thirty millions of people into it, and you will see how com¬ 
 paratively that will lessen the degree of moving the masses 
 of people. But we have sixty or seventy millions of people 
 scattered over this immense territory. London for the 
 other conferences had as its center two missionaries to one 
 of what we have in the United States. It is the heart of 
 the Christian world, easy of access to Continental people, 
 just as easy of access for us as this is for them. I have 
 queried how it is possible to educate the people of the 
 United States as to the giving of the lines to be laid down, 
 to say nothing about the results to be thought of in this 
 Conference. I recognize what Dr. Leonard says about the 
 importance of having New York thoroughly aroused and 
 stirred. Now I do want to say as a matter of encourage¬ 
 ment that while you sit here in New York and think of New 
 York, there is, thank God, a great initial movement in the 
 heart of the Protestant churches over this land toward 
 this coming Conference. That is one thing to encourage us. 
 I am an optimist. You must make all the discount as I go 
 on. Then I have seen what has been done, although with 
 a very large preparation, in moving masses of these people 
 over the United States. There is a great, broad Christian 
 Church in this land that is moved, and moved in a way that 
 you do not observe, about the coming of the Kingdom of 
 God, and God is out here in these churches. God has been 
 kindling these missionary interests, and while we have got 
 the peculiar problem of trying to hold the first great World’s 
 Missionary Conference here, I do not think it is necessary— 
 unless it is necessary to stir ourselves to a little more cau¬ 
 tion and a little more energy in some way or other—I do 
 not think it is quite good just now to take any counsel of 
 our fears. There is a mighty note of triumph in this world, 
 brethren. God is moving all over this world. God is moving 
 leagues on leagues, and leagues on leagues ahead of the 
 Christian Church. He is away out yonder calling us to 
 bring the colors up. It is God’s work. I have been trying 
 to get this good brother here to lead in prayer, but he is a 
 little hard of hearing. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 REV. ANDREW LONGACRE, D. D.: 
 
 O ascended Lord Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, 
 Thou didst not lay upon Thy church the duty of going out 
 into all the world without assuring Thy disciples that all 
 power was given to Thee, and that Thou wouldst go with 
 them even unto the end of the world. Grant us, we pray 
 Thee, in all our work done for Thee, in all that 
 we offer or attempt to do, grant us to trust in 
 
 22 
 
Thy perpetual presence, to have confidence in Thy suffi¬ 
 cient power. Leave us never to imagine that Thou dost 
 forsake us. Leave us never to doubt Thy presence and 
 Thy continued help. We confess that there is no good in 
 us. We have never had a good thought or a longing for the 
 advance of Thy kingdom that Thou didst not give us. Thou 
 beginnest the work in us, O blessed Lord. Give us un¬ 
 ceasing trust that Thou who beginnest it will carry it for¬ 
 ward in us and by us. Thou hast taught us to pray “Thy 
 kingdom come.” Thou hast laid the burden of it on our 
 hearts here in this world. Help us to know that Thou art 
 with us in every step taken. We are very conscious of our 
 own defective judgment. We know how many mistakes we 
 have made. We do not expect to avoid them, but Thou art 
 mightier than our mistakes. We are very poor instruments 
 for Thee to use, but Thou art a master workman, and Thou 
 canst use even little and poor instruments. So we cast 
 ourselves upon Thee in this step that we are taking for Thy 
 glory and for the more rapid advance of Thy kingdom, 
 and we pray Thee be with us. O Lord, stir our hearts as 
 they should be stirred for the right doing of the work, and 
 give us, we pray Thee, the grace which we can no more 
 make in ourselves than that faith in Thee without which 
 it is impossible to please Thee, without which we need not 
 try to ask even for wisdom. Oh, quicken in us the trust 
 in Thee, and take away the clouds from our eyes, the blind¬ 
 ness that may hinder our perception of Thee, our sight of 
 Thee, and give us a great confidence in Thee. We trust 
 Thee for our own salvation. We thank Thee, O Lord, that 
 Thou hast begun a work in us which keeps us always trust¬ 
 ing in Thee for our daily work. Give us grace to trust Thee 
 for all Thou givest us to do. We pray Thee, our, Father, 
 to be with us in all our meetings, guide every word that 
 shall be spoken, cheer and comfort and animate the hearts 
 of Thy children, and we beseech Thee in this great work 
 we are undertaking for Thee, direct its progress, turn the 
 hearts of the people to it, stir Thy children in this great 
 city and in the land, and turn the hearts of Thy children 
 in the wide world to it that there may come with it and 
 from it the greatest possible blessing. 
 
 We ask these things for the sakie of Jesus, our Lord. 
 Amen. 
 
 REV. PAUL DE SOHWEINITZ, D. D.: 
 
 There is one thought which is coming to me which I 
 would like to voice. I think it is very unfortunate that we 
 make it appear as though the Spirit of the Lord and the 
 Spirit’s work were in opposition to organization and ma¬ 
 chinery, or make the brethren feel who have to look after 
 all these component details as if that were not essentially 
 the Spirit’s work. I think we all recognize that a Confer¬ 
 ence of this character cannot accomplish its purpose with- 
 
 23 
 
out the most careful attention to the most minute details, 
 that so much does depend upon the arrangement of the 
 programme and the selection of the speakers and the topics 
 and the themes and the plans and all the arrangements, that 
 without the greatest care in all these particulars its pur¬ 
 pose will not be attained, and I think we want to remember 
 that the Spirit of the Lord, in addition to all His other 
 attributes, is a Spirit of counsel and wisdom and under¬ 
 standing. And I, for my part, would like the brethren 
 who have undertaken this mighty task to feel and to realize 
 in their hearts that all this apparently external work is 
 the product of the Spirit, directing them and leading them 
 to accomplish the purpose which He has in view through 
 all this, and I believe that our Lord, to whom we have been 
 praying this morning so earnestly and fervently, will hear 
 our prayers and that He will manifest Himself as a Spirit 
 of Wisdom in the completion of the arrangements, so that 
 all shall work smoothly to the honor of His glory and the 
 furthering of His kingdom. 
 
 REV. H. N. COBB, D. D, (Cliaimuiau) i 
 
 I perhaps ought to apologize to those who are here in 
 not having attempted at all to give direction to this meet¬ 
 ing. There was a sort of plan for it, that it should begin 
 with half an hour or so of devotional exercises, and that 
 then the purpose of it should be stated and the suggestions 
 of the brethren who were here and who have kindly ac¬ 
 cepted the invitation of the Executive Committee to come 
 here, should be invited to speak upon any part of the pro¬ 
 gramme which is in preparation, any part of the work of the 
 Conference on which they might be led to speak. But if 
 I wished for any evidence myself that the Spirit of God is 
 here, and has been leading and guiding in this meeting, 
 it would be from this fact, that the meeting itself has taken 
 the direction that it has. If I had made the statement 
 which I had in mind to make in regard to the work 
 which has already been done by the Executive Committee 
 and the Programme Committee and the associated commit¬ 
 tees, the statement in regard to the underlying principles 
 which have governed the preparation of the programme and 
 what they considered to be the chief features of that pro¬ 
 gramme, I should have somewhat of necessity brought in last 
 what this meeting has made first, and I think that we have 
 taken it in the right order. We have taken the fundamental 
 thing and the indispensable first, and that is, the power of 
 the Holy Spirit given in answer to prayer, that symphony 
 of prayer of which Dr. Pierson has spoken. And I am sure 
 I can speak for the members of the Executive Committee 
 who are here this morning and of the other committees 
 that while we feel, and I think we have reason to feel, that 
 we have not been altogether without the guidance of the 
 Holy Spirit heretofore, we have honestly and earnestly 
 
 24 
 
sought that guidance; yet I think we may say that we shall 
 address ourselves to the work of organization and arrange¬ 
 ment—arrangement of topics, arrangement of meetings, se¬ 
 lection of speakers and those who shall make addresses, 
 and so forth—with a firmer and deeper conviction that we 
 shall be, even as we have not been before, under the direc¬ 
 tion of the Spirit of God in answer to the prayers that have 
 been offered here and the prayers that shall be offered 
 hereafter, for the perfection of this organization which is, 
 as has been said, absolutely necessary to secure the success 
 of the Conference; that all these arrangements and all this 
 organization shall be under the distinct leadership and the 
 distinct control and vivified by the distinct power of the 
 Holy Spirit as we have not apprehended that before. And 
 I agree with all those who have said that if we do not have 
 that power, if we are not so guided, and if, under the influ¬ 
 ence of that Spirit, we do not apprehend Christ as the cen¬ 
 ter, and His glory the object of all this work that we are 
 undertaking, our Conference, whatever the world may think 
 about it, or whatever the Church may think about it, will 
 be a failure. Brethren, I do not believe it is going to 
 be a failure. I believe it is going to be a success, and a suc¬ 
 cess in the very best sense. 
 
 The Executive Committee and the other committees 
 are charged with the responsibility of making and perfect¬ 
 ing, so far as possible, the organization which is indis¬ 
 pensable for the execution of so important and great a work. 
 The Committee has invited to meet with us the brethren 
 who are so kindly here this morning and others who I 
 hope will be here this afternoon, and it has been done with 
 this view—the invitation has been given and these meet¬ 
 ings have been appointed with this view. We do not arro¬ 
 gate to ourselves the possession of all the wisdom that can 
 be profitably employed in the preparation of the programme 
 and the other arrangements of the Conference, and it has 
 been borne in upon us, if I may say so, that there are many 
 others outside of all the committees, and who cannot be 
 on committees by reason of their other engagements or the 
 distance at which they reside from a given centre, but 
 whose experience, whose knowledge of the subject, whose 
 interest in the subject, whose long attention given to it, 
 would be of infinite value to us if we could only get pos¬ 
 session of it. In the meeting this afternoon which will be 
 convened at half-past two, while I trust the spiritual in¬ 
 fluence and impression will not be less than it has been 
 this morning, even greater, if God will, deeper, profounder 
 if possible, yet I trust that attention may be given to the 
 practical parts of the programme and the other work of the 
 Conference. & 
 
 The Executive Committee and the Programme Commit¬ 
 tee wish to have suggestions in regard to these matters. 
 If, so far as the brethren know what has been done, they 
 
 25 
 
have any criticisms to make we shall be glad to hear them, 
 we shall be glad to be instructed, we shall be glad to have 
 all the light that we can get from all sympathetic sources 
 whatsoever, and then we shall, relying upon your prayers 
 and the Spirit of God, seek to make use of the suggestions 
 and the criticisms that you may make for the perfecting 
 of the programme in the time to come. 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION—ASSEMBLY HALL. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 REV. WILSON PHRANER, D. D.s 
 
 Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we rejoice in 
 Thee as our God and our Father, the Author of our being, 
 and the source to us of all light and life and blessing. 
 We recognize our dependence upon Thee, our unworthi¬ 
 ness in Thy sight, our helplessness aside from Thine own 
 help. O God, look upon us, Thy servants, assembled in 
 these relations at this time. Thou knowest what is in 
 our minds and in our hearts. Thou knowest, O Lord, the 
 great responsibilities which are upon us as representing 
 Thy Church in the gathering to which we are looking for¬ 
 ward with Thy servants in this city. We do most humbly, 
 O God, from this beginning of our assembling ourselves to¬ 
 gether, desire to put ourselves under the divine guidance, 
 praying that the Holy Spirit may lead us and direct us in 
 all that is said, in all that is done, in all that is planned 
 and in all that is achieved, that all may be in accordance 
 with Thy holy will and for the interest and promotion of 
 the welfare of Thy kingdom. 
 
 O Lord, we thank Thee that Thou dost make us labor¬ 
 ers together with Thyself in the execution of Thine own 
 great purposes of love and mercy toward our fallen world 
 and sinful race. We recognize the dignity in this call of God 
 to be laborers together with Him. We thank Thee that 
 our lives may be conformed to Thy holy will. We thank Thee 
 that we may accept Thy will as our will, and live from day 
 to day seeking to just do what God would have us do, and 
 to leave undone the things which He would have us leave 
 undone. In connection with this great gathering of Thy 
 people to which we are looking forward, do we pray, O 
 Father, that Thy blessing may rest upon these churches, 
 that it may be for the great advancement of Thy kingdom 
 in the world that Thy people may come together in the 
 spirit of the blessed Master, in the spirit of unity, in the 
 spirit of harmony, in the spirit of love one to another, and 
 that further, as the result of this gathering of Thy peo¬ 
 ple, there may go forth to all lands and throughout all 
 the world a new influence and power of the Gospel of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 26 
 
REV. S. Li. BALDWIN, D. D.: 
 
 It is designed that the special subject of the meeting 
 this afternoon shall be, what ought we to expect and what 
 Is it possible to secure from the Ecumenical Conference. 
 That may, of course, include some consideration of what 
 possible dangers may be foreseen and avoided, so as to 
 make the Conference the greatest possible success. It is 
 purposed that there shall be some explanation of what 
 has already been done, the state of progress that the work 
 is now in with a view to informing those who are pres¬ 
 ent, and also to drawing out any remarks or suggestions 
 that they may have to offer that will be beneficial to the 
 Committee in their further work, and, as Dr. Cobb said 
 this morning, any criticisms that any feel in their hearts 
 to make, the Committees will be glad to have, so as to get 
 all the light possible in carrying on the work they have 
 to do between this and the time of the Conference. Now 
 while these subjects are specially announced, we do de¬ 
 sire that the meeting shall continue just as it was this 
 morning. I think we all felt that it was, under the leader¬ 
 ship of the Holy Spirit, and I have seldom been in a meet- 
 ing of greater blessing. 
 
 W 7 . H. GRANT: 
 
 Perhaps I might say just a few words as to what I 
 conceive to be the object of our meeting, together in this 
 way to-day. Those of you who are away from New York, 
 and those of you that are here right in the midst of things, 
 will equally realize that we need to come together to get 
 into closer sympathy with the main movement. There 
 cannot be a great many main purposes in the coming con¬ 
 ference that we can hold clearly in our minds, and we 
 want to put our force, our united force, into those things 
 upon which we, practically, all agree. We can leave other 
 things to come up incidentally, while we put our thought 
 
 and effort on the general movement. 
 
 Now, the great object, first of all, of our coming here 
 to-day is to get on a mountain top from which we may 
 take in the main issues together at the same time and 
 place. If you have had the experience of going to visit a 
 mission station and coming home and reporting on that 
 station, you have probably found that forty-five per cent, 
 discount has been taken off of most of your report. It is 
 largely because the other people have not seen the thing. 
 If you should successively go to the same mission station 
 and then come together, you would agree, perhaps, on sev¬ 
 enty-five per cent, of your individual impressions; but if 
 you went together and saw the same things at the same 
 time vou would agree on about ninety-five per cent, of your 
 tapressions. Now, this same thing is true with regard to 
 the matters of this Conference. It is impossible for us to 
 spend the days and weeks together that intervene between 
 
 27 
 
now and April 21st in surveying this whole field. But it 
 will be a great help that we have come together once to 
 look over the whole field and get the light of God’s spirit 
 upon it. We do not have any confusion in our minds about 
 the order of things in this room, because we all have the 
 same light on them, and we all can see where everything is. 
 
 Now, we have some distinct purposes in this Confer¬ 
 ence. No one can labor for it earnestly and not have some 
 objective in view. There are several things of great im¬ 
 portance in this movement. I desire, myself, light on the 
 condition of the Church. I do not know the condition of 
 the public mind toward what we are going to present them. 
 I do not exactly know what should be the difference be¬ 
 tween this Conference and those that have preceded it. I 
 have corresponded with men on both sides of the Atlantic, 
 and have learned what I could concerning the Conference 
 in London of 1888, but we want to get especially, from the 
 men of experience, who are here to-day, who have a broad 
 view of the whole subject, their thought concerning it. 
 
 There may be some great features in the outcome of 
 this Conference, perhaps unexpected to us, and yet we 
 ought to look for God to do something more this year than 
 He did twelve years ago through the instrumentalities 
 then, and I think if we let Him work, something will come 
 to pass. Perhaps some of the things that I have in mind 
 will seem of comparatively little importance to others. I 
 should like to see as an outcome of this Conference, a com¬ 
 mission, as worthy of our respect as the Commission that 
 met in Holland to discuss the peace of the world; perhaps 
 a committee composed largely of laymen who would go 
 around the world and make the same kind of careful in¬ 
 vestigation and report, that they would on any other en¬ 
 terprise. If we should have such a body of men from 
 Great Britain and the United States, they would see things 
 that would be of immense help to this whole movement. 
 There are many things that exist, because we are individu¬ 
 ally too feeble to move them out of the present ruts in 
 which they are. That does not mean a. general criticism 
 of the Boards. The Boards have grown up under certain 
 conditions, and they are to a large extent helpless; but 
 any such united gathering as we are to have in New York 
 ought to result in some united movement throughout the 
 world. People are looking for it. I believe we could cram 
 New York with laymen if they felt this thing meant busi¬ 
 ness, and I am sure it would echo in every missionary’s 
 heart throughout the world, if it meant business. 
 
 I recently read an article in the Philadelphia Saturday 
 Evening Post by one of the great organizers of industrial 
 trusts, on “Combinations of Capital.” His argument would 
 
 apply just as well to the business of missions as to any 
 other. 
 
 We have had this morning the suggestion of what 
 
 28 
 
prayer ought to mean in this movement. Prayer has, to a 
 considerable extent, dropped out of the movement, and 
 ought to be restored as central to it. 
 
 There is one conception that seems to me to be cen¬ 
 tral and out of which a great deal grows and develops. 
 It may be summed up in “Consider the lilies of the field, 
 how they grow.” It is a divine life that none but God can 
 implant in the human heart, and to which He has given a 
 life and development of its own, and we must work in con¬ 
 formity with the lines of that development if we want to 
 work with God. Many of our operations are just as though 
 the life were not there, and were not sustained by God. 
 We are anxious about it, and we superadd to it many 
 things that deter it, and we do not always help it in the 
 right way. I think this idea, if fully carried out, will 
 touch every department of our work. 
 
 A great many of the letters I have received from the 
 field indicate a fear that we will undertake to discuss too 
 many details. It has come about in the course of the year 
 that instead of discussing quite so many topics we have 
 come to see more clearly the topics that are fundamental, 
 so that we are now preparing the Conference on the lines 
 of the great principles that will operate through the whole 
 movement. 
 
 REIV. JOHN HENRY BARROWS, D. D.i 
 
 It is not often that I hear people talk of missions when 
 I find myself agreeing with all that I hear. This morn¬ 
 ing and this afternoon I have had that joy and privilege. 
 
 I am anticipating great results from this World’s Con¬ 
 ference of Missions, and I rejoice that the Conference is to 
 be held in what will be the leading nation of the twentieth 
 century, and in what will, no doubt, be the leading city of 
 America. 
 
 I have been asked to say a word as to some of the 
 causes why the interest in foreign missions in our country 
 is not so strong as it used to be. I think pastors are re¬ 
 sponsible to a certain extent. You know when the pastor’s 
 heart is on fire with zeal for foreign missions and his mind 
 is filled with facts about it, his people become in time en¬ 
 thusiastic. Another reason why there is skepticism with 
 regard to the wisdom and the success of the world-wide 
 evangelism is the feeling on the part of so many that 
 Chrsitianity, after all, has nothing supremely important to 
 give to the peoples that are cherishing the faiths of Moham¬ 
 med and Confucius, and who have been trained in what are 
 called the great and venerable philosophies of India. Very 
 frequently, we know, the globe trotters, and sometimes 
 American naval officers, bring back the report that they 
 discover nothing to praise, and much to criticise, in our 
 missionaries in the Oriental lands. I should like to put to 
 these critics a few questions. Some of them are the most 
 
 29 
 
credulous people in the world. I remember that a young 
 woman in a fashionable home in Chicago said to a friend of 
 mine, as if what she were saying could not be doubted for a 
 minute: “Isn’t it a pity that the missionaries wrought such 
 a disastrous work in Japan? Wherever a mission is opened 
 the Japanese find it necessary to open a prison,” &c., &c., 
 and all sorts of stuff that she believed with a credulity, it 
 seems to me, surpassing that of the uninformed millions of 
 India. I would like to say to these critics: “Please consult 
 the reports of those who have the opportunity of knowing 
 the truth. Learn what the great statesmen of India have 
 said about missions. One, the Governor-General of Bengal, 
 three years ago said, that he was not only the friend of 
 Christian missions, but was looking forward to the time 
 when millions would be pressing into the kingdom of 
 heaven. Even some of the non-Christian social reformers of 
 India are coming to realize the utter impossibility of lift¬ 
 ing the Hindu millions out of the measureless depths of 
 moral rottenness without the power of a biblical Christian¬ 
 ity. If you wish to find the high examples of benevolence, 
 you must look to Christianity and not to heathenism. 
 
 I would like to ask critics such questions as these: Will 
 you please tell me what missionaries you came to know T per¬ 
 sonally and to know so well that you would pronounce an 
 accurate judgment about them and their work? And what 
 kind of mission work do you find ineffective and harmful? 
 Do you disapprove of the translation of the Bible, the print¬ 
 ing of Christian literature in the vernacular, the work of 
 the dispensary, the work of the hospital, the Christian 
 preaching in the bazaars? If you never came to know one 
 missionary personally, where did you get these contemptu¬ 
 ous opinions that you are flinging around? 
 
 I have seen enough of Christian evangelism in the Ori¬ 
 ent to fill me with joyful hope. I consider the outlook to 
 be magnificently promising, and I have seen, sir, enough of 
 the practical workings of Buddhism, Brahminism and Con¬ 
 fucianism, to crystalize into adamantine firmness my be¬ 
 lief in, and strong conviction of, the importance of laying 
 the sure foundations of a national morality, and of brighten¬ 
 ing earth with the sure promise of a blessed immortality. 
 
 I believe that the three great evangelizers of the Orient 
 are these: Gospel truth, scientific truth, to help break down 
 superstition, and justice, even-handed justice with kindness, 
 and in some respects, perhaps, the greatest of these is kind¬ 
 ness. A missionary told me that the Hindu spirit had not 
 been accustomed to that love which is magic and potent. 
 Christian missions do not lose any part of the present, and 
 permanent, influence by allowing love, that love which finds 
 experssion in cordiality and courtesy, in the habit and tem¬ 
 per of true brotherliness, which is quick to see the good in 
 persons and systems which they have come to supplant, to 
 suffuse and penetrate all their activities. 
 
 30 
 
And then I believe the Christian herald and toiler in the 
 Orient should always carry a distinctly Christian message 
 and one centering in Jesus Christ, in whom all that is dis¬ 
 tinctive and most glorious in our faith is summed up. He 
 who goes to the Orient to air his doubts had better remain 
 at home, away from a paganism whose horrors and super¬ 
 stitions ought to arouse the whole of Christendom. Speak¬ 
 ing the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but with the 
 love that is quick to separate things that are trivial from 
 things that are primary, the Church will magnify the power 
 of its glorious destiny, and when our Christian missions in 
 the Orient are backed up by a united and prayerful and 
 devoted and consecrated Church at home, still new glorfes 
 and triumphs will be added to the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. I believe we are on the epoch of the greatest of mis¬ 
 sionary revivals, and I believe that America is to be in the 
 forefront of the missionary work of the twentieth century. 
 You and I have been trying to make some impression on the 
 American people with regard to their responsibilities to the 
 Orient, but how feeble the impression of our words com¬ 
 pared with what God in the last year has most gloriously 
 wrought. Two years ago our eyes were fastened on the 
 West Indies, upon the brave insurgents, and we were think¬ 
 ing of brothers right there, and suddenly a shot was fired 
 on the other side of the world, nine thousand miles away, 
 and thanks to the thunder and the lightning of that shot, 
 which came to us beneath the seas, old Concord and Lex¬ 
 ington was repeated, and our thoughts summoned across 
 the ocean. God spoke and it was done, and henceforth the 
 destinies of the greatest of the Republics are linked invisi¬ 
 bly with the material and moral forces of more than 800,000,- 
 000 human beings on the other side of the world. The great 
 event of the twentieth century, so soon to dawn, will be the 
 uplifting and uniting of Asia, and the great battle of the 
 twentieth century will be between Anglo-Saxon civilization 
 on the one side, and the barbarism of Asia on the other, 
 where womanhood is always and everywhere degraded, 
 where idolatry and impurity and dishonesty are almost 
 universal, and where the popular mind has not been ex¬ 
 panded and uplifted by Christianity. 
 
 REV. DAVID J. BURRELL, D. D.: 
 
 There is one thing in which the Universal Church of 
 Jesus Christ is interested, and there is one thing in which 
 it ought to be interested ten thousand times more than it is, 
 and if every point that is brought up in this Conference is 
 made to converge in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 “Go ye, evangelize,” until the Church shall be stirred every¬ 
 where clear around the horizon to a vital apprehension of 
 the fact that Jesus Christ meant “Go and evangelize,” this 
 Conference will do a tremendous amount of work. If we 
 stop short of that, if we discuss anything without making 
 
 3i 
 
it converge upon the evangel, we will waste the time and 
 the energy of the Conference in large measure. We are in 
 Expectation Corner, here, it seems. I have just come in on 
 the train, and entered here to find the word “expectation’' 
 confronting me. You said we were to declare what our ex¬ 
 pectations were as to the Conference. I suppose that we 
 shall go too far if we expect, brethren, that the Lord is go¬ 
 ing to convert the world or we are going to convert the 
 world through the Conference now r to come. But one thing 
 God does expect of us and of every minister of Jesus Christ, 
 whether he is in holy orders or not, and that is that we 
 shall do what He told us to do, to go, according to the full 
 measure of our ability, and when we take hold of the mat¬ 
 ter and occupy strategic points and put the book accounts 
 where they ought to be and attend to our particular busi¬ 
 ness, I am not afraid but the Lord will attend to His. There 
 is such a thing in natural history as catastrophism, and the 
 history of a century is covered in a day, and so there is in 
 common history. The Reformation was an upheaval of that 
 sort. I believe that when we who are to be in this Con¬ 
 ference, and all the rest of God’s people on earth understand 
 that Jesus Christ meant Go, and when we persist in and do 
 the one thing He told us to do, and that is “Go and 
 evangelize,’’ I think there will be some such upheaval as 
 that, and we will see God convert the world rapidly, but 
 never, brethren, until the Church is stimulated to do what 
 He told the Universal Church to do, to get up and go 
 everywhere and tell souls the good news of the redemption 
 which is through Jesus Christ. It is not for nothing that 
 I have said these words. I believe this Conference has a 
 tremendous thing that it can do, and that it ought to do. The 
 one thing it ought to do is to stimulate the Universal Church 
 not along ten thousand lines of detail, but along one great 
 king’s thoroughfare that leads to the triumph of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 REV. C. C. OREEOAN, D. D.: 
 
 I for one am very grateful to Dr. Burrell for his re¬ 
 marks. If we had come here to-day to simply pour words of 
 praise on our splendid Committee of Arrangements and 
 Committee on Programme, what advantage would we have 
 from our meeting? Dr. Burrell has put the thing straight as 
 a rifle ball. I should not have said it in the same words, 
 but the simple fact is that the conference, to be a success, 
 must have nothing dry in it. There is a conference com¬ 
 posed of secretaries and officers that has met here success¬ 
 fully for seven years, but if a programme similar to that 
 should be carried out, the meetings would fall dead after the 
 first session. Why? Because we are specialists who gather at 
 that conference, and we are intensely interested in every 
 single thing that comes before us, and we are perfectly will¬ 
 ing to sit for two and a half or three hours and talk about 
 
 32 
 
things that would not interest nine-tenths of the average 
 membership of the churches of New York and Brooklyn, 
 who are about as pious here perhaps as they are in Chicago 
 and elsewhere. If they came once, they would not come a 
 second time. We are here to-day to talk frankly. We are 
 all in good spirit. We have not, any of us, a thought in 
 our minds of saying anything not in sympathy with what 
 Dr. Pierson has so aptly and eloquently said this morning. 
 I suppose this Committee has studied the question as to who 
 the great writers are to be, who are to appear on the pro¬ 
 gramme. But may I just throw in a little suggestion here? 
 Some of the great meetings held in this country have had 
 some of their sessions absolutely killed by having a great 
 shcolar, or a great writer, undertake to do what he and 
 the committee ought to have known he could not do, name¬ 
 ly, speak to two or three or four thousand people, simply 
 because he had not voice enough, and leaving the impression 
 that he was about as stupid a man as ever stood on a plat¬ 
 form. There are those two things, then. First, what will 
 be best for the great public gatherings, and second, what 
 is best where specialists come together? 
 
 What I want to emphasize above all else is this: That 
 if this great World’s Missionary Conference is a brilliant 
 success, it is not going to be simply because Dr. Pierson and 
 Dr. Gracey and Dr. Barrows, and these other experts that 
 really do not need this Conference, be interested in missions, 
 I can scarcely imagine their being interested a particle 
 more at the close of the Conference than now; they are go¬ 
 ing to be gratified at the success of the meetings; they are 
 interested now up to the measure of their ability—it is not 
 what a handful of us enjoy; the point is what will arouse 
 those nine-tenths of our churches here in America who do 
 not care for foreign missions and whenever a pastor dares 
 to announce that some one is going to speak on foreign mis¬ 
 sions, conveniently vacate their pews. We should somehow 
 make the Conference such a brilliant success, especially 
 those great meetings held in Carnegie Hall, by having men 
 of true ability and something of oratorical gift, that when 
 people come they will not only be instructed, but inspired, 
 and date their conversion to foreign missions from that 
 time. 
 
 REV. WILSON PHRANER, D. D.j 
 
 I would like to add my testimony to the Conference in 
 London. So far from its being dull, it was one of the most 
 inspiring meetings that it was ever my privilege to attend. 
 The papers were limited to twenty minutes. I do not know 
 what the Committee propose to do in that regard. 
 Speeches were limited to five minutes. You cannot 
 have a very dull meeting under those circumstances. A 
 man that cannot make his point in five minutes had better 
 keep still. One other practical suggestion I would like to 
 
 33 
 
emphasize. It was hinted at by what Dr. Ellinwood said 
 this morning. The waking up of an interest in all the 
 churches, by having some special day of preparation im¬ 
 ploring God’s blessing upon this Conference, and even 
 through my own church organization I wish there might 
 be some one in every Presbytery to bring this Conference 
 before it as one from which great results are to he 
 expected, urging pastors to go home to their people, and 
 have a day of prayer. Perhaps it would be wise for the 
 Committee to name some particular day in which the Church 
 all over this land should be asked to pray for the success 
 of this great meeting. 
 
 MORN AY WILLIAMS, ESQ.: 
 
 I want to make this suggestion-as to the presiding offi¬ 
 cers of these meetings. It seems to me that the selection of 
 those officers and the qualities looked to in their selection 
 are quite as important as the qualities of speakers. I believe 
 that generally in a religious meeting, the amount of prepa¬ 
 ration given by the man who has the office of presiding is 
 perhaps the most signal element in the conduct of the meet¬ 
 ing. And it seems to me that in selecting these men two 
 or three qualities in the men should be held in mind. I 
 have no doubt it will be so by the Committee having it in 
 charge. 
 
 That they should be men not selected so much for 
 illustrious names as for their real interest in the subject 
 in hand, and for their belief that they and the meeting are 
 under the Divine guidance. They should be men who are 
 not desirous to make addresses themselves, and have suffi¬ 
 cient firmness and acquaintance with the methods of con¬ 
 ducting such a meeting to confine the speakers, either the 
 appointed writers of papers or the voluntary speakers, 
 within the limits. The man who has the firmness and the 
 self-restraint not to speak himself at any length is the 
 right man to preside. 
 
 MIS'S MARY M. PATRICK, Ph.D., Constantinople: 
 
 I wish to say only a few words not at all in the form 
 of criticism but simply a suggestion. It seems to me that 
 the secret of success in making any programme is to select 
 as the subjects of the different addresses the strongest points 
 in connection with the general subject and, therefore, the 
 subject of Higher Education as a mission force should have 
 a very important place on the programme, as I think it is 
 self-evident that higher education will be the strongest 
 Christianizing force of the new century. 
 
 MRS. GUEICK, Spain: 
 
 The thought of preparation in the minds of the people 
 of this country has been brought before us. Theire is also 
 the thought of the preparation in the minds and hearts 
 
 34 
 
of the thousands upon thousands in heathen and nominally 
 Christian lands who will hear of this Conference and their 
 interest in it will follow every meeting of the Conference. 
 It seems to me that we should keep this in mind. On 
 this programme I do not see why every country might not 
 On this program I do not see why every country might not 
 be named. I know full well that our Christians in Spain 
 will think they are left out if the word “Spanish” does 
 not appear somewhere on the main programme. They will 
 wait for word from the Conference. A rdsume might be pre¬ 
 pared which will go out to all the mission stations, not tKe 
 large, two volume book, but something which will give 
 Christian pastors and teachers and those in High Schools 
 and educational institutions, who read English, the benefit 
 and blessing which is sure to flow out not only on New York 
 City and our land ,but to all the nations of the earth. 
 
 MRS. MOSES SMITH: 
 
 I count it one of the privileges of my journey that I 
 am able to be here this afternoon. We are very much in¬ 
 terested in this Conference and have been thinking and 
 talking and praying about it and feeling that we did not 
 known enough about the plans, about the details, to pray 
 intelligently. Yesterday there was an afternoon meeting 
 of three hours, composed of the ladies of the different de¬ 
 nominations of the city. The principal subject of prayer 
 was the Conference. Now, as to preparation. If it can be 
 the preparation of the Holy Spirit, if these Committees 
 are simply looking unto God, asking that the Spirit shall be 
 the One that directs, the outcome of the Conference can¬ 
 not be questioned. Having been a member of the London 
 Conference, I want to add my testimony to the great power 
 of those meetings. To my surprise we ladies were able 
 to attend three sessions a day, and did not have nervous 
 prostration. There was something in the uplift, in the 
 power of these meetings that seemed to keep us from physi¬ 
 cal fatigue. 
 
 MR. CHARLES M. JESUP: 
 
 An idea has come to me since sitting here, purely in 
 the way of a suggestion for the general work of this Con¬ 
 ference, and that is with special reference to the children. 
 Have they been asked, will they be asked, to co-operate with 
 the work of the various committees in seeing to it that 
 the Conferences themselves are made successful from a finan¬ 
 cial standpoint? I know that in almost every church there 
 is a Junior Mission Band. I know from actual fact that 
 they have contributed largely to the foreign mission 
 funds of the Boards, and it seems to me that if k the little 
 ones were told through the pastors that they can pull their 
 pound, too, and can help make this Conference a success, 
 that it will tell for coming generations. They will never 
 
 35 
 
forget it. We must build for the future, not alone for the 
 present. Other Ecumenical Conferences are coming, each 
 one, indeed, with the blessing of His presence and power, 
 and the children, must see that the strongest point in mis¬ 
 sion work is, first, the baptism of God, and then individ¬ 
 ual effort. 
 
 MR. GRANT: 
 
 I want to try to make a little better understood, maybe, 
 the character of the meetings of the Conference as they 
 are planned, and the kind of meetings that we shall have in 
 the morning in the main hall. Carnegie Hall will prac¬ 
 tically seat within the circle of those that will be considered 
 regular members of the Conference, about 2,500, and there 
 is no other hall in the city appropriate, that we could get, 
 that would accommodate any more. You may pack some¬ 
 thing over 3,000 in Carnegie Hall, but you may count within 
 the circle of the Conference 2,500. Now there have been al¬ 
 ready assigned something over a thousand of those seats 
 through the various Boards to their delegates, and a cer¬ 
 tain amount has been reserved for invited guests or honor¬ 
 ary members by the Executive Committee, the rest of the 
 room being allowed for all the missionaries that come. 
 
 There will be a large amount of time allowed in the 
 morning sessions for discussion, and prompt and vigorous 
 part will be taken by many speakers from all over the 
 United States and from the foreign lands. In the after¬ 
 noons, the sessions will be divided up into sectional meet¬ 
 ings, and having expanded itself into many churches, the 
 audience from New York and vicinity may be much larger. 
 There will also be a large number of people who come here 
 not as delegates but to get all they can out of the Confer¬ 
 ence. 
 
 Then in the evening, in Carnegie Hall there will be a se¬ 
 ries of great meetings, and on some of the evenings meetings 
 in Brooklyn and overflow meetings near Carnegie Hall. I 
 suppose that most of those not delegates will have to be 
 satisfied by one great meeting in Carnegie Hall. But the 
 speakers of the morning sessions can be heard in the 
 churches on Sundays, and in other meetings throughout the 
 city. That is the general lay-out of the programme. 
 
 I might say for the satisfaction of all who have spoken 
 of the too great detail of the programme, that a large num¬ 
 ber of topics have dropped out since we began. They have 
 gradually been shaken out till the points that remain are 
 more simple and primary, and I think you need have no 
 fear that there will be such a multiplicity of detail, that 
 what is said in every session converge to a few main points. 
 
 MR. JOHN R. MOTT: 
 
 I have been much impressed by the points which have 
 been emphasized in the morning and afternoon sessions 
 as to how we may get the most out of this great Confer- 
 
 36 
 
ence—both, the emphatic points of a positive character and 
 also the points of a negative character, the various dangers 
 and perils to be avoided. It seems to me that all-day meeting 
 has been absolutely invaluable to all of us who are working 
 upon any or all of the Committees. I have had occasion 
 to have conversation with some of the different men and 
 this has been the general impression. I am constrained 
 at this time to add a few words with reference to ex¬ 
 pectations concerning this Conference, and I am led to 
 speak upon this point a few moments by what Dr. War- 
 neck said to me in my interview in Germany a few months 
 ago. I spoke to him a little over a year ago when I was 
 there, and this time I had a more extended conversation 
 with him. He said: “You are going to repeat in America 
 the London Conference.” He said it was an inspiring 
 occasion, that it gave an impulse to individuals, and in that 
 sense doubtless has done good. “It was disappointing to 
 many of us,” he continued, “in not leading to improvement 
 in methods and to changes which we had a right to expect.” 
 It has an important bearing on one or two things. It seems to 
 me that not only those on the Continent, but more especially 
 those from Great Britain, and still more, those from North 
 America, may have a right to expect very large things 
 from this gathering. Are we not agreed that it will be 
 a disappointment if this great Conference does not give at 
 least these four great results: 
 
 First, to make a necessary, a wise and a great enlarge¬ 
 ment of the missionary operations at the front? Has not 
 the time come, is not the need sufficient and urgent for a 
 wise and great—I use the word “great” carefully—enlarge¬ 
 ment of the missionary operations, and therefore of the 
 number of properly equipped men sent to the front, and all 
 the means to send them there, to keep them there without 
 straining the policy of the various organizations? Haven’t 
 we a right to expect this? Is there anything, from the 
 point of view of the world or of the Church of God, which 
 does not give us warrant for such an expectation? 
 
 Second. Is it not perfectly justifiable to expect that 
 this Conference shall mark the beginning of a much greater 
 efficiency in the work which is now in operation both at 
 home and abroad? This is Dr. Warneck’s principal point. 
 He believes that there is great need of improvement in the 
 methods of organization. He said: “We need no more or¬ 
 ganizations.” We all agree to that. “But we need a more 
 careful co-ordination of organizations, and what might be 
 more truly called a science of missions, and it will be a keen 
 disappointment to me,” he says, “if this Conference does not 
 mark progress in this vital direction.” 
 
 Third. It would seem that there is great need that this 
 Conference shall mark the beginning of a more real, there¬ 
 fore a more vital unity among the various missionary forces 
 
 37 
 
of the world; and her© let me allude to the point that I be¬ 
 gan with that the Continent is looking with critical eyes 
 upon the Anglo-Saxon methods due to misunderstanding. 
 I hope this Conference, among other things, will tend to es¬ 
 tablish confidence in the minds of the leaders of the Con¬ 
 tinental Societies. 
 
 Fourth. Then, growing out of these three expectations, 
 is that other one which is the objective of all this work, that 
 the Conference might mark the beginning of a far more 
 fruitful period in the life of the missionary enterprises. It 
 will be the essential and inevitable result of these other 
 things. Some one might at once object and say, “This Con¬ 
 ference is not a deliberative body. Can we grapple with 
 these questions that have a bearing on the enlargement of 
 the force and the increase of the efficiency and the promo¬ 
 tion of actual unity? Can we do such things?” To my 
 mind, we can do it much more effectively than if we were a 
 deliberative body. 
 
 If a number of our Committee, men of influence could be 
 left so free during those days that they would have nothing 
 else to do but, under the influence of the Spirit of God, to 
 help work toward this great objective, might we not expect 
 a large fruitage? 
 
 The old Williams Haystack Constitution had this 
 clause in it: “To establish in the person of its members a 
 mission or missions to the heathen”—it would seem to me 
 that this Conference ought to have before it all the while 
 that objective, that it is a failure if it does not establish in 
 the person of a large multitude more missions to the heath¬ 
 en, properly co-ordinated, and that will gather up at once 
 into themselves the best experience of the last 100 years. 
 
 DR. BALDWIN": 
 
 When Bishop McCabe was Secretary he sometimes 
 chafed because some things could not be done under the 
 Constitution. And he said: “Let’s get up a new Constitu¬ 
 tion.” And I said: “Very well, proceed; you go ahead and 
 I’ll do the writing.” So he started. The first clause was: 
 ‘‘Article First. Whatever ought to be done can be done.” 
 And I wrote that down, and I said to him: “Why, Chap¬ 
 lain, it seems to me you don’t need any other article in that 
 Constitution.” Well, he said, he guessed not; that would do. 
 And that was our new Constitution for the Missionary So¬ 
 ciety, and I hope the Committees will be able to see, as the 
 matter progresses, that whatever ought to be done can be 
 done, and take a little liberty accordingly. 
 
 RBIV. PAUL DE SCHWEINITZ: 
 
 May I ask whether time will be given in the discussions 
 of the Conference to the subject of methods, if I may say so, 
 of aiding the native churches in that transition period 
 which has been reached by some, so that they may soon 
 
 38 
 
reach self-support in men and means? With us, at least, the 
 problem is acute in more fields than one, and if light can be 
 thrown upon this subject, I think an important gain will 
 have been achieved. 
 
 DR. BALDWIN: 
 
 It is intended that that, among other things, shall come 
 out in the sectional meetings. 
 
 REV. J. T. GOUCHEB, D. D., Baltimore: 
 
 We thank Thee, our Father, that as we meet together to 
 consult concerning the influences that may reach out tow¬ 
 ard the world to lift it closer to Thyself, that we know we 
 are in harmony with Thy purpose, we are but answering the 
 call of Thy Spirit to be laborers together with Thee; that 
 our coming together is not to advertise our fitness for the 
 work, but to confess our need of special preparation, and we 
 come here this afternoon asking Thee, our Father, that 
 Thou wilt give us more of Thy Spirit, that Thou wilt clarify 
 our vision, that Thou wilt give us a richer impulse toward 
 humanity, that Thou wilt enable us to confer together that 
 we may have the added wisdom which comes from the va¬ 
 ried experiences of those that are here; that we may hav® 
 the guidance of Thy Spirit, that we may wisely plan so that 
 that chief purpose may indeed be according to Thy purpose, 
 and its outcome to Thy glory. We pray Thee for the special 
 manifestation of Thy Spirit not only in this company, but to 
 abide in our individual hearts. We pray that Thou wilt pre¬ 
 side not only over these deliberations, but wherever a Com¬ 
 mittee convenes, that Thou wilt be there to give direction to 
 the thought that the outcome may be to Thy purpose. 
 Wherever one who hath heard the call to be Thy servant 
 thinks upon the world’s redemption, that Thou wilt guide 
 his thought aright; that Thou wilt bring to him such a de¬ 
 sire to know the facts not only of that which has been ac¬ 
 complished, but the difficulties which have confronted the at¬ 
 tempt; that we may gather experience, that we may gather 
 knowledge, that we may widen the application, that we may 
 be made efficient. And we pray Thee, Father, that Thou 
 wilt grant that as this great Convention is to have such a 
 wide reaching influence, that it may be deep in the thought 
 and sympathy of those in all parts of the world, that the 
 prayers may come up from all lands, from all branches of 
 the Church, from every mission field, from every organiza¬ 
 tion that has as its object the extension of Thy kingdom. 
 Oh, may it fill the hearts of Thy people that it may not be in 
 vain, but that the opportunity may be of Thy appointment 
 and occupied according to Thy purpose; and as the dele¬ 
 gates come together, we pray Thee, grant as they tread the 
 continents and the seas they may have converse one with 
 another, and may bring the fire so that the world’s attention 
 may be arrested to the fact that there is a Conference con- 
 
 39 i 
 
cerning divine things that has as its purpose a broadening 
 sympathy to gather in all the world to the fold of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. And we pray Thee grant that the outcome 
 may be a quickening of interest, a deepening of sympathy, 
 a broadening of vision, a unification of effort, a bringing men 
 to Thee through a consciousness of the magnitude of the 
 work and the helplessness of the workers, so that there 
 shall be a looking to Thee for guidance and power. That 
 the delegates may be quickened and strengthened and carry 
 with them the power of the Holy Ghost, rekindle on the 
 altars of their hearts a burning and consuming flame. And 
 let the reflex influence on this land be quickening and 
 broadening and deepening, and, we pray Thee, grant that 
 from next April there may date a new era in the extension 
 of missions that, as the present has been a century of ex¬ 
 periment and endeavor, the future may be a century of ac¬ 
 complishment, to the glory of God and the uplifting of hu¬ 
 manity. We ask it for Jesus’ sake. Amen . 
 
 EVENING SESSION—ASSEMBLY HALL. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 DR. A. S. LLOYD j 
 
 The Lord’s Prayer.—Almighty God, who hast made of 
 one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the 
 whole earth, grant unto all men everywhere that they may 
 seek after Thee and find Thee. Bring the nations under 
 Thy feet and add the heathen to Thine inheritance, and 
 hasten the time when Thou shalt accomplish the number of 
 Thine elect and establish Thy kingdom, and to these Thy 
 servants into whose heart Thou hast put it that they may 
 take counsel together for the building up of Thy kingdom, 
 grant unto them by the Holy Ghost that they may have 
 the spirit of wisdom and of power and a right mind, that 
 they may do all things for the building up of Thy king¬ 
 dom and for the glorifying of Thy holy name and for the 
 welfare of Thy church, all of which we ask through Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord. Amen. 
 
 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and 
 
 the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore. 
 Amen. 
 
 HO'JT. SETH LOW, Chairman! 
 
 This meeting has been called for the purpose of telling 
 about, and awakening interest in the proposed Ecumenical 
 Conference of Foreign Missions which is to be held in this 
 city, in the month of April. At a time of such abounding 
 prosperity, at a time when man is so greatly increasing his 
 knowledge of natural law, and by that knowledge extending 
 his dominion over nature, surely there is nothing that 
 Christian people can do which is more timely than to bear 
 
 40 
 
witness to the eternal truth that the things that are seen 
 are temporal, and it is only the things which are not seen 
 which are eternal. In the last part of this century, also, 
 Christian people have been called upon to reshape to a great 
 extent all of their thoughts of God, at least so far as they 
 bear upon His operations in the visible universe. It seems 
 to me like the time when Copernicus lived, and made men 
 believe for the first time that the earth went round the sun, 
 instead of thinking as they had thought, that the sun went 
 round the earth. Men had believed a falsehood that seemed 
 to be true for many centuries. When they came to realize 
 the truth, for a long time it shook their faith in things 
 that had seemed to them everlastingly true. Just so in our 
 day with the progress of the doctrine of evolution, and with 
 the growing faith in the doctrine not as a demonstrated 
 body of teaching, but as a working theory many men have 
 found their beliefs shaken in things that seemed to be most 
 sure. At such a time, therefore, it seems to me that Chris¬ 
 tian people can do nothing better than to bear testimony 
 in a striking way to their belief, after all, that the heavens 
 declare the glory of God, and the firmament still showeth 
 His handiwork; that the sea is His, and He made it; that 
 the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. So this 
 is a time in which all the nations of the earth are coming 
 to know more of each other than they have ever known 
 before. The happenings of yesterday in Japan, in China, 
 and in India, as well as in Europe and in Africa were known 
 in our city this morning. So the happenings of to-day will 
 be known to-morrow. With all that growing intimacy and 
 acquaintance, I think men have also grown to realize that 
 God has not left Himself without witnesses, even in lands 
 that we are accustomed to think of as heathen lands. And 
 yet, what can Christians do better, in such a time as this, 
 than to bear their unshaken testimony to their belief that 
 there is no other name under heaven, whereby men must 
 be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ? The only name 
 whereby man, as an individual, can be redeemed from the 
 lower life to the highest, the only name whereby man in 
 society can emerge from the condition of constant struggle 
 merely for existence into the glorious liberty of the children 
 of God? How can we do any of those things, how can we 
 do all those things, better than through a great Confer¬ 
 ence devoted to foreign missions? Those who are to follow 
 me will tell you more in detail of the plans of this Confer¬ 
 ence. One something like it was held in 1888 in England, 
 and one ten years before that, in 1878. This is the first of 
 these Conferences which at least unites all of Protestant 
 Christendom, to be held on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. 
 This meeting is called in order to interest the Christian 
 people of New York in this coming Conference, and through 
 their interest to secure their aid. I am sorry, for those 
 who have had the management of the meeting, that it 
 
 4i 
 
chances to fall upon so wet a night. But as I look out upon 
 the people w r ho are here, I cannot help recalling something 
 that Moody said on the last occasion on which I ever heard 
 him speak. He was speaking of Gideon and his work, how 
 he said to the Lord that he had too few men, and the Lord 
 said to him, “No, Gideon, you have too many. Let every one 
 go home who has married a wife, and is fearful, and who 
 has not his heart in this enterprise.” And so a great many 
 left him. And when Gideon continued on his way toward 
 the enemy, he was surprised to he told again, “Gideon, you 
 have got too many men. Now, send back to their homes 
 every man who stops to drink at this brook that you are 
 coming to, for they have not got the real heart of the work. 
 Any man that has so much interest that he has not got time 
 to stop to drink, but as he walks through the water laps it 
 up with his hand, if you have only a handful, those are the 
 only men with whom you must win the battle.” And so it 
 seems to me that so far from having occasion to be regretful 
 that this meeting has been held on such a stormy night, we 
 ought to thank God and take courage that there are so 
 many people here ready to put their hand and heart to this 
 work, and to carry it through to complete success. 
 
 I have now the very great pleasure of introducing Dr. 
 Gracey who will speak to you more in detail about this 
 Conference. 
 
 DR. J. T. GRACEY: 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I am asked to speak on “Why an Ecu¬ 
 menical Conference?” I am not expected to crush Olympus 
 into a nut shell. 
 
 The very scenic effect will tend to kindle enthusiasm. 
 There will be men there, and women, too, from almost every 
 quarter of the known globe. Sturdy Britishers and Scotch¬ 
 men; men from the land of Tholuck and Krumacher and 
 Btier, men from the land of John Calvin, men from little 
 Denmark and Sweden and Norway. There will be men here 
 to tell us about the Levant and what is going on in that part 
 of the Mohammedan w r orld. There will be men here from 
 China, from beyond the great wall of the North to the 
 Yangtse in the center and the sea on the South; they will 
 come from Japan, that other Britain of the Pacific seas, and 
 from the land of the “Morning Calm.” There will be here 
 the successors of Carey and Judson and Wilson and Duff. 
 There will be men here from the Cape to Cairo in Africa; 
 poor, down-trodden Africa, the land that furnished him of 
 Cyrene to bear the cross of the Saviour, and that has borne 
 every other cross and every other curse known to human 
 history. There will be men here from the Islands of the 
 Seas; from the mines and the mountains of Mexico and the 
 balls of the Montezumas; from the broad bosom of the 
 Amazon and the silver La Platte. Think of it. An Ec¬ 
 umenical Conference! Why the very word ought to fur- 
 
 42 
 
nish an inspiration. We shall get information as well as 
 inspiration, for these men will tell us what has been done, 
 and of the mighty struggles in which they are engaged. 
 
 I trust we will get an increased solidarity of the Chris¬ 
 tian forces in the world. I know that as separate bodies 
 we have been quite too much studying the “origin of spe¬ 
 cies,” until we are saturated more or less with our de- 
 nominationalism. Now all these denominations represent 
 history. They each stand for an idea, and they represent 
 appetences. Methodists can do some things better than 
 Presbyterians; Presbyterians can do some things better 
 than Baptists; Baptists can do some things better than 
 Episcopalians. But we want to find out without sacrificing 
 any of our individuality the mighty idea back of that de- 
 nominationalism. We want to find out how to adjust these 
 into a mighty solidarity. After Magenta the army of France 
 and Italy had to march through a great forest of low trees. 
 The men could not see each other; only a few hundreds 
 on either side. They were depressed, but they deployed out 
 into the great plain, and hundreds and thousands and tens 
 of thousands of them were put into line of battle and as 
 their bayonets bristled in the sun, they gathered mighty 
 courage. They were just as near to each other an hour 
 before. There were just as many of them, but they did not 
 feel the thrill and the inspiration of the mighty multitude. 
 The next day was Solferino! So I think we will get closer 
 together and begin to ask what there is that we can do, 
 not in divisions only but as a solid army. 
 
 What tasks there are for united Christendom! 
 
 If there ever was a period in human history when men 
 ought to be impressed with the times and the tasks, it 
 seems to me it is now. The Honorable Chairman made 
 reference to it. There are periods of great religious per¬ 
 turbation. Recall for a moment some of these. How many 
 millions of minds does Confucianism dominate? How many 
 does Buddhism influence? How many has Zoroastrianism 
 swayed? Yet all three of these mighty lettered religions 
 may be said to have been born at once. Again: when Mar¬ 
 tin Luther, with a little book and a beating heart, was up¬ 
 heaving all Europe, Lamaism was born up in the Himalayas 
 and the Sikh religion in the Punjab. Mighty throes. Simul¬ 
 taneous though widely separated phenomena. No man 
 planned them. They were in the mighty providence of God. 
 
 We stand in just such a period of, I may say, universal 
 perturbation. All human creeds are thrown to the surface 
 for re-examination. Men are stirred and moved as if by an 
 eathquake, or a West India hurricane; even Christendom is 
 casting its thought into a crucible as if to find out what 
 is pure gold in it, reformulating what is necessary, and the 
 whole world at this hour seems a witch’s cauldron, with its 
 
 43 
 
“Bubble, bubble. 
 
 Toil and trouble.” 
 
 Is it for such, times that we have come to the kingdom? 
 
 I think we will find a very great deal to consider, upon 
 which our solidarity may be brought to bear. In India 
 Mr. Hunter tells us there are fifty millions of people, who, 
 within the next fifty years, will become Hindus, Moham¬ 
 medans or Christians. They are neither now. Fifty mil¬ 
 lions of people that are standing to-night in line before 
 the altars of the Christian Church, hundreds, thousands, 
 tens of thousands asking for baptism. Bishop Thoburn 
 tells us he could baptize 100,000 or 150,000 in a few months 
 if he only had the instructors to care for them afterward. 
 These descendants of the aborigines of India are pleading, 
 imploring that you will receive them into the Christian 
 Church. On the other hand the brain, of India is burning 
 with new thoughts. Cultivated men who speak English per¬ 
 fectly, in large numbers are saying, “Away with your Chris¬ 
 tian Churches. Churches that anathematize each other, 
 that are flying at each other’s throats. Away with the mis¬ 
 sionaries. Give us your Christ and give us His Gospel.” 
 I ask you to look at those two great strata of India. What 
 to do with this situation is not a Presbyterian problem; 
 it is not a Methodist problem; it is not an Episcopal prob¬ 
 lem; it is not a Baptist problem; it is not a British prob¬ 
 lem; it is not a German problem; it is not a problem of 
 the United States. It is a problem for solid Christendom. 
 We are not going to get our solidarity any too soon, to grap¬ 
 ple with the mighty problems which are before the Christian 
 Church to-day, of which this is only just a little illustra¬ 
 tion. 
 
 Well, we are going to get this inspiration from the num¬ 
 bers. We are going to get this information. W T e are going 
 to grapple, in thought, at least, with the great times in 
 which we are cast, and the mighty problems which are be¬ 
 fore us. We are going to start all this, and I do hope we 
 are going to start a campaign of education all over the 
 United States which shall reach into the very canyons of the 
 West, all over Europe, all over the world. I hope we will 
 give the impulse to the mightiest educational missionary 
 campaign the world has ever seen. 
 
 Now just one thought more. I have asked myself so of¬ 
 ten, Well, what is this all about? What does it all come to? 
 Look at Christendom. The world has never yet seen a 
 Christian Church. The world has never yet seen a Chris¬ 
 tian nation. What does it all come to? 
 
 I look at the inconsistencies and the selfishness of 
 Christian people, and I say, “Is this the flower? Is this 
 what I am trying to reproduce? Is this the best there is?” 
 And I sometimes get quite discouraged and think if I can 
 turn out no better results than this “the game is hardly 
 worth the candle.” And then I turn round and think of 
 
 44 
 
this poor world, beaten, bruised, battered, trodden down, 
 mastered by sin. 
 
 I think one thing we will get out of this great Confer¬ 
 ence is a conviction that with all the inconsistencies of the 
 Church, with all the deficiencies of Christendom, that after 
 all Jesus Christ is the last hope of this world; that in pub¬ 
 lic or in private, there is not discoverable anything which 
 gives any basis of hope that the world shall rise out of its 
 dead past, but the principles which Jesus Christ enunciated, 
 the moral standards which He erected and the laws which 
 He formulated. 
 
 I quite understand that the ultimate precipitate has 
 not yet been realized, and yet I know to-day that the trend 
 of internationalism is to the principles of Jesus Christ, 
 and kings and emperors, persons in private life and in 
 public life, in legislative halls, in church councils, in social 
 life, in the family, are, one and all of them, whether they 
 confess Christ or curse Him, throughout the length and 
 breadth of Christendom, and largely beyond that, meas¬ 
 uring human conduct according as it conforms to or di¬ 
 verges from the teachings of Jesus Christ. I understand 
 very well that Jesus Christ has become the one great, ma¬ 
 jestic Monarch of men, and that men are obliged to con¬ 
 cede the principles of His kingdom. I know very well that 
 the one hope of humanity to-night is this Gospel of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 If we do not do anything else in the Ecumenical Con¬ 
 ference, we will get up a great Jericho shout—we will shout 
 knowing that the triumph is coming. We will start it and 
 cry out in the words of John Milton: 
 
 “Come forth from Thine invisible chambers, O Thou 
 Prince of Peace, of all the earth; clothe Thyself with the 
 garments of Thy imperial majesty. Take in Thy hand Thy 
 unlimited sceptre, for Thy bride expects Thy coming, and 
 all nature waits to be renewed.” 
 
 MR. LOWt 
 
 I sometimes think that the Light that lighteth every 
 man that cometh into the world is like the white light of 
 the sun by which we live. It is possible, you know, to take 
 that white light of the sun and to break it up into its constit¬ 
 uent parts. By the study of the solar spectrum men learn 
 the composition of bodies heavenly and terrestrial. I think 
 sometimes that the divisions of Christendom have that re¬ 
 lation with the white light of the world. At Chicago I saw 
 an apparatus which was intended to take these colored 
 lights and reunite them into a single beam of white light. 
 That, it seems to me, is the great service that missionary 
 endeavor may do for the Christian Churches. This Con¬ 
 ference is Ecumenical, as Dr. Gracey has said, because it 
 is concerned with the whole world. So far as Protestant¬ 
 ism is concerned, it is Ecumenical because all Protestant 
 
 45 
 
Christendom is to take part in it. I trust that it is also 
 ecumenical prophetically, as looking forward to that happy 
 day that may yet come, when all of Christendom, Eastern 
 and Western, the Eastern Church, our Roman Catholic 
 brethren, and Protestants alike, may recognize the common 
 purpose for which they exist, and by fusing their different 
 colored rays, do something to reflect in the world that great 
 White Light which is intended to light every man that 
 cometh into it. 
 
 THE ORGANIZATION. 
 
 MORN AY WILLIAMS, ESQ.s 
 
 It is so self evident and so trite a saying that we live 
 in the day of organization, that I almost apologize for call¬ 
 ing that fact to your attention. But I want that you should 
 remember that organization is more and more becoming 
 symbolized by organism; that as the organizations become 
 more and more numerous in their functions, they become 
 in their complexity related to organism. Now the demon¬ 
 strator who has to speak of the human organism, and who 
 takes one particular branch of it is called the osteologist, 
 and as an osteologist of this organism, I am here to-night to 
 treat entirely of the bony structure of the Conference which 
 is to be held. 
 
 It is necessary that there should be this bony structure 
 if the Conference is to accomplish its work. It is not, 
 however, a very inviting subject, it may seem. The bony 
 structure of any organism such as this consists of a number 
 of committees. Some one has observed, more wittily, per¬ 
 haps, than wisely, that “Committee is a noun of multitude, 
 consisting of many but not signifying much.” Neverthe¬ 
 less, in the process of organization it is becoming evident 
 that the committee is the way in which men formulate 
 united action. Consequently, those who have brought this 
 Conference together have divided its work and divided it 
 wisely, we believe, into a large number of Committees, each 
 having their separate functions. There is the Committee on 
 Halls, the Committee on Programme, the Committee on Pop¬ 
 ular Meetings, the Committee on Press and Publication, the 
 Committee on Hospitality, the Committee on Finance, and 
 these various committees are sub-divided. 
 
 I am not going to burden you, in the very few moments 
 that I have to make my announcement, with a full descrip¬ 
 tion of the work of these various committees. The purpose, 
 I suppose, of speaking of them at all is to call your attention 
 to the magnitude of the task that is before us. We are, 
 as you have already been told, expecting to receive large 
 numbers of delegates from all portions of the known world 
 in this Ecumenical Conference. In order that the sessions 
 may be arranged so that the widest opportunity may be 
 given for attendance and information on the part not only 
 of the people of this metropolis, but on the part of those 
 
 46 
 
who come from distant parts of our own land and other 
 lands, it is necessary that the meetings themselves should 
 be sub-divided; that there should be some meetings which 
 are particularly intended for the popular presentation of the 
 main thoughts that bring this Conference together. There 
 are to be sectional conferences where the details which 
 cannot be considered in the large meetings are to be pre¬ 
 sented. It is necessary in order that this may be done that 
 some men should charge themselves especially with the 
 arrangements for the halls for the exhibit that is to be given 
 of the progress already made in foreign missions, presented 
 through curious and historical mementoes of the history of 
 missions thus far. All of these things must be detailed to 
 various committees, and so already men and women have 
 been enlisted in this work, and have been quietly but united¬ 
 ly working for some time to arrange for this great meeting. 
 
 Now, what is to make all these “dry bones” live? That, 
 my brethren, is the one question that has called this par¬ 
 ticular meeting together. What is to make these dry bones 
 live? There is only one power that can take the skeleton 
 of a committee, that can take the artificial work of man, 
 and make out of it a living organism, and that is the power 
 that the Prophet felt when there breathed over the valley of 
 bones the Spirit of the Living God, and that power resides 
 on earth in God’s people. The responsibility for the work 
 of your committees resides with you. If you and I are in 
 the spirit, if you and I have come together determined that 
 the work wisely planned must receive God’s blessing, be¬ 
 cause of our prayers and our communion with Him, if the 
 white light, to use the felicitous metaphor of our Chairman, 
 is to be visible to those who come up to attend this great 
 Ecumenical Conference, it must be because the colored 
 light of your own heart has united by the electric current 
 of God’s Spirit with the light of anoth'er heart, and you to¬ 
 gether, unitedly, have prayed and agonized that the work 
 devised and carried on in detail by many, should be the 
 work of only One. For, 0, my brethren, the sweetest thought 
 to me of all the thoughts of God, I think, is this: Said the 
 great Apostle, St. John, “When He shall appear, we shall 
 be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 
 
 God is always reproducing in some human life some 
 lineament of the Divine Face, and when all the lives are 
 knitted into one, as when all the pictures that have been 
 projected for the composite photograph on the sensitive 
 plate, have been printed off, the resultant face shall not be 
 yours or mine, shall not be of one communion or another, 
 but it will be the divine face of Jesus Christ, and you shall 
 catch some glimpse of it out of the work of these commit¬ 
 tees, if so be that you and I are ready for it. 
 
 MR. CHAS. M. JESUP: 
 
 Before taking up the subject that has been assigned to 
 me, will you allow me a few moments to give you my im- 
 
 47 
 
pressions from a business man’s standpoint of what this 
 Conference might be to the City of New York, and what real 
 significance it has. None of us can take up the daily paper 
 without reading in some of its columns an account of con¬ 
 ventions held in this or other cities for specific purposes. 
 We all know what the purpose of those conventions is—to 
 bring practical business men together to discuss ways and 
 means for the further and successful conduct of their busi¬ 
 ness, to find out practical economies, how goods can be pur¬ 
 chased at a cheaper cost, how sales can be increased. And 
 men attending those conventions leave them, almost uni¬ 
 formly, with an idea more keenly alive in their minds that 
 there is progress to be made in the business that they are 
 following. That we call “applied common sense.” Why 
 should not we, in the Church of God, in the Conference that 
 is to be held here this spring, apply the same principles, 
 only calling it applied Christian common sense? New York 
 has been fitly chosen as the place in which to hold that 
 Conference. It is the metropolis of this Western Hemi¬ 
 sphere. It is the gateway of the world, and’receives and 
 sends out the citizens of every known civilization. New 
 iork is the proper place to hold the Conference, but it is 
 going to be one of the hardest places to give it the proper 
 start. We all know how hard it is sometimes to arouse the 
 enthusiasm of a community on subjects that are very patent 
 and very dear to us. But let us hope and pray that existing 
 conditions will be changed and there shall be a unanimous 
 rally of God’s people in this city which shall give an im¬ 
 petus to the whole country. 
 
 Now, then, as a business proposition, let me touch 
 briefly on the finances of this Conference. Forty thousand 
 dollars will be needed to pay its expenses. You can judge 
 from what Mr. Williams has said of the complexity of the 
 work of the need in various avenues for the disbursement of 
 this money. Delegates have to be brought from all over the 
 world. They are to be treated with Christian hospitality 
 while they are here. We would not have it otherwise. We 
 must have money to do this with, and it is a foolish propos¬ 
 ition for a man to tell me that I can do something requir¬ 
 ing money when I haven’t it. Now that is the position of 
 the Finance Committee to-day. Various appeals have been 
 sent out. If I am correctly informed, only about $6,000 in 
 cash has been sent in, in response to these appeals; $34,- 
 000 is needed. It is hardly necessary to say that all of that 
 sum is not expected from New York, but, friends, New 
 York must do its share, and in the light of its position to 
 this country and to Europe, we cannot stand here debased 
 and ridiculed by the fact that we are doing something In 
 which we have no heart. May the pastors of the churches 
 represented here, and all Christian people, let it be known, 
 that this Conference is to be held, and to be held in the 
 right way for the credit of the city and the Church. Let me 
 
say that this Finance Committee was organized with a dis¬ 
 tinct policy. The business of the Master is worth doing 
 well, to the very best ability of the members of the Com¬ 
 mittee. Common-sense principles are applicable here. No 
 disbursements without absolute funds in hand; it is this 
 position which the Committee has taken, honestly, thought¬ 
 fully, deliberately and cautiously, with no feeling of anxiety 
 as to the success of the Ecumenical Conference. If the 
 Christian people of this city would realize this fact I think 
 they would perhaps be more willing to acknowledge the 
 necessity for action on the part of the Church and of those 
 who profess to be interested in this great cause. So as a 
 member of this Committee I appeal to you to use your 
 individual and earnest efforts to see that the word is 
 sent out through this country of ours, and across the seas, so 
 that when the call for help comes it will be given liberally, 
 promptly, with an open hand and with an open heart. 
 
 HOSPITALITY. 
 
 I>R, ARTHUR J. BROWN: 
 
 To the Committee for which I have the honor to speak 
 has been assigned the privilege of representing the hospi¬ 
 tality of New York. It is a formidable duty, for the esti¬ 
 mated number of delegates, exclusive of wives and visitors, 
 is about 2,000. The fifteen or sixteen hundred who come 
 from the United States and Canada will be expected to 
 pay for their own entertainment and our responsibility for 
 them will cease in securing reduced rates at hotels and 
 boarding houses, and assisting them so far as we may be 
 able to, in finding places of entertainment; but the four 
 hundred or more delegates from abroad ought to be wel¬ 
 comed as our guests, while we should not be unmindful 
 of the certain attendance of foreign missionaries. They 
 are not able to meet the charges of the journey to New York, 
 and yet they are the very men and women who will be 
 deeply interested in this Conference, whose presence will 
 lend to it value and dignity, and I believe in the spirit of 
 Mr. Jesup, who has just referred to this subject, that we 
 ought to receive with large-hearted hospitality the men 
 who, in the name of Jesus Christ, and who, in obedience 
 to the command of God, are preaching the Gospel in dis- 
 tant lands. 
 
 Now, if we have to send our guests to hotels and board¬ 
 ing houses and pay for them, you will at once see that 
 about $15,000 will be required. But we believe that many 
 Christian people in New York will deem it a privilege to 
 welcome these guests to their homes, and that others who 
 are so situated that they cannot do this, will pay for the 
 entertainment of guests at hotels. We are prosecuting 
 this work along church lines, that is to say, we ask Epis^ 
 copalians to entertain Episcopalian delegates, Methodists 
 to entertain Methodist delegates, and so on, a special com- 
 
 49 
 
mittee having charge of the work in each denomination 
 in co-operation with the Women’s Missionary Societies. In 
 addition to this work, the Hospitality Committee will meet 
 these guests at the trains and steamers, will assist them in 
 finding their places of entertainment, will provide at the 
 Hall a writing and reading room, besides post office and 
 telegraph office, stenographers and typewriters, and will 
 also have charge of the social functions. You will see, 
 therefore, that very large responsibilities have been as¬ 
 signed to this committee, consisting of sixty-five men, 
 representing all the leading denominations of this city, and 
 including some of the best men in New York. 
 
 Now a great deal depends upon the spirit in which these 
 delegates are received, and we believe that the very title 
 that has been given to the Committee represents that spirit 
 —Hospitality. It is a gracious word. It means literally, 
 the spirit and the act of receiving strangers with kindness 
 and consideration. It is associated with some of the most 
 genial words in our language—host, hostess, hospitable. 
 It calls up memories of home, of cheerful firesides, of tables 
 laden with good cheer, of large-hearted welcome to the 
 weary and perhaps home-sick guest. What a delicate aroma 
 attaches to the words of our Lord, “The good man of the 
 house,” for you remember that on the first day of unleav¬ 
 ened bread He told His disciples to go into the city and 
 follow a man bearing a pitcher of water, and “wheresoever 
 he shall go in, say to the good man of the house, Where is 
 the guest chamber that I may eat the Passover with my 
 disciples?” and to-day, after the lapse of nearly nineteen 
 centuries, men of different speech and from a distant land 
 make pilgrimages to the house in which that guest chamber 
 was supposed to be. For in that place were spoken sweet 
 words which will ever live in the hearts of men, and there 
 the Church of the New Covenant was born. From the time 
 when Abraham courteously knelt before his unknown 
 guests and said, “Rest yourselves under the trees, and I 
 will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts,” 
 down to the time when Gaius ministered to the Apostle 
 John, hospitality is described in the Bible as a Christian 
 grace. It calls out all that is best in a man. Its basis is 
 a spirit of brotherhood with all those who know and love 
 the Lord Christ, and the rewards of the grace have all been 
 rich. Abraham found that his unknown guest was none other 
 than the Angel of the Lord. How beautiful and dignified 
 the benediction which the aged Paul bestowed upon One- 
 siphorus, “The Lord give mercy unto the house of One- 
 siphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed 
 of my chain.” 
 
 John Watson happily tells us that certain good deeds 
 have their reward in the day time, others have theirs at 
 the set of the sun, and that others have their due recom¬ 
 pense in this world and the world to come. To this twice- 
 
 SO 
 
blessed class belongs tbe grace of hospitality. In certain 
 bouses from January to December no fire is ever made 
 in tbe guest chamber, for no guest ever enters the threshold 
 of that home. Such a man may be respectable, but he 
 certainly does not have much humanity, and it is certain 
 that he and his family will suffer loss, for the coming of q. 
 guest into a home revives and enriches the common life. 
 It brings inspiration into that home, and a guest does 
 not utterly depart when the good-byes are said at the outer 
 gate. Something remains behind, an effect of the individu¬ 
 ality of such fragrance as when sandal wood has lain on 
 paper, or rosemary among clothes. 
 
 And now the Hospitality Committee wish to enter upon 
 this work in this spirit. We do not deem it an irksome 
 thing that we must find entertainment for so large a num¬ 
 ber. We understand that peculiar difficulties are unfolded 
 in attempting to provide for such a great company for 
 the week’s stay in New York, but we are not disposed to 
 dwell upon those difficulties. We believe that those com¬ 
 ing to this Conference are the Lord’s chosen saints who 
 have been called by Him to special service, men and women 
 who walk with God, of whom we shall take knowledge 
 that they have been with Jesus Christ, men whose lives 
 are controlled from a far-off center, who proclaim the 
 Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world, and who 
 stand so close to the Divine heart that they catch some¬ 
 thing of His spirit. It will be a blessing for us to welcome 
 these people into our homes, and when they go hence, may 
 a double portion of their spirit remain with us. 
 
 ECUMENICITY AND FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 REV. WILLIAM R. HUNTINGTON, D. D.: 
 
 The title by which this impending Conference is to be 
 known is at once a misnomer and an inspiration. 
 
 We call it an “Ecumenical” Conference, but by what 
 right? Surely not in virtue of any ecclesiastical precedent, 
 for the precedents are all the other way, and yet I would 
 not change the title if I could. 
 
 It is true “Ecumenical” and “Ecumenicity,” the adjec¬ 
 tive and the substantive, are not, at present, words to con¬ 
 jure with. They have a decidely un-American look. They 
 do not readily lend themselves to oratorical use. Folk¬ 
 lore, the folk-lore of our race, knows them not. You will 
 not find them in Cruden’s Concordance nor yet in the con¬ 
 cordances of Shakespeare and of Tennyson. Literally they 
 are Greek to us. Yet, I make bold to say, there are no 
 words more essential to the vocabulary of modern thought, 
 none of which our time stands in greater need. 
 
 Solomon in the Proverbs speaks of Wisdom, the per¬ 
 sonified Wisdom, as rejoicing in the habitable part of God’s 
 earth, and as having her delights with the sons of men. 
 
 5i 
 
This is the key to the meaning of ecumenicity. The ecu- 
 menicai world is the inhabited world, so much of the 
 planet’s surface as has been taken possession of by man. 
 Ihe root of the word, if you will not scent pedantry in 
 my saying so, is house.” Blot out of the map the desert 
 and waste places, the Arctic and Antarctic Zones and what 
 you have left is the ecumenical world. Wherever on the 
 surface of the globe there are those who “dwell,” we And 
 that of which ecumenicity is compelled to take account. 
 The old 100th is the Ecumenical Psalm. 
 
 But ci\ilized man s conception of the round world at 
 the time when “ecumenical” and “ecumenicity” first found 
 their way into the dictionary of the Christian Church was 
 something very different from ours. The basin of the 
 Mediteri anean Sea, with the outlying regions contiguous 
 to it, made, to all intents and purposes, the “world” of the 
 early Christians. They dimly dreamed of regions beyond, 
 but it was only dreaming. Whatever might lie west of 
 Spain or east of Persia, was practically terra incognita 
 and a negligible quantity. Hence it came about in the early 
 Church that when a council that should represent the en¬ 
 tire Roman Empire, both Eastern and Western, was to 
 be convened, it was designated an “Ecumenical Council.” 
 There were lesser councils that were known by lesser 
 names, as, for example, provincial or national councils, 
 as the case might be; but when it came to getting at the 
 mind of the whole of Christendom nothing short of an 
 Ecumenical or General Council was thought adequate. But 
 we are not here to-night to study the history of the Coun¬ 
 cils, neither shall I dwell upon the oft-told and tragic 
 story of the events which led to the disruption of Christen¬ 
 dom. I merely desire to emphasize the point that it was 
 the discovery of America that gave the death blow to the 
 old notion of ecumenicity and changed men’s thought of 
 the round world from that conception of roundness of 
 which a circle is the symbol to that grander idea which 
 finds embodiment in a globe. So long as the old notion of 
 the circle held, it was natural enough that the Church, like 
 the Empire, should need a center. Rome was indeed, what 
 an English school teacher has lately called it, in the title 
 of a suggestive little book, the “Middle of the World.” But 
 a globe has no middle upon its surface, and therefore no 
 sooner had the round world been circumnavigated and its 
 sphericity proved to be a fact, than discerning minds saw 
 that what had satisfied the Church of the Roman Empire 
 could not possibly satisfy the Church of the whole earth. 
 
 What now is an Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Mis¬ 
 sions? It is a reaching after, I answer, some method of 
 concerted action in such an attempt to Christianize the non- 
 Christian portion of the inhabited earth as shall be com¬ 
 mensurate, at least in a degree, with the vastness of the 
 undertaking as now understood. 
 
 52 
 
I began by calling the title of our proposed gathering a 
 misnomer. In a sense it certainly is that. “What sort of an 
 Ecumenical Conference,” said a brother clergyman to me 
 the other day, with a dash of bitterness, if not of scorn 
 in his tone—‘‘What sort of an Ecumenical Conference is 
 that in which two-thirds of the Christian world will be un¬ 
 represented?” He was right in a sense. The great Latin 
 Communion carries on a magnificent missionary work. The 
 Russo-Greek Communion is Christianizing, in its way, por¬ 
 tions of the earth to which neither Rome nor Protestant 
 Europe nor yet Protestant America has access; and we have 
 to acknowledge that in the approaching Conference both 
 Rome and Moscow will be unrepresented. And yet there 
 is a valid answer to my friend’s sneer. If what we are pro¬ 
 posing to hold were a Council, his criticism would be im¬ 
 pregnable, for a Council assumes power of legislation, and 
 undertakes to lay down the law for the region which its 
 jurisdiction is supposed to cover. But a Conference is not 
 a Council. A Conference is a gathering together of a peo¬ 
 ple interested in a common object who desire to compare 
 notes as to the best means of attaining that object. A 
 Conference binds no one, but if successful it enlightens 
 many. Conferences sometimes lead up to more important 
 things, even as protocols sometimes lead up to treaties. 
 Moreover this Conference is called Ecumenical, not because 
 all portions of the Christian Church are to be represented 
 in it by delegates, but because the plan of campaign which 
 it proposes covers the whole area of the inhabited globe. 
 There is no portion of the world’s census that is a matter 
 of indifference to those who are coming to this Conference. 
 Foreign missions are understood by us in no mere national 
 or even racial sense. For Christian people the only for¬ 
 eign lands properly so called are those that lie beyond the 
 boundaries of Christendom. All within those boundaries 
 are or ought to be brethren. “Why is it,” asked the editor 
 of the London Spectator the other day, “why is it that we 
 English call the people of the Continent ‘Foreigners,’ but 
 never dream of calling the Americans ‘Foreigners?’ ” He 
 found his answer in the fact of the greater number of mem¬ 
 ories and interests that Englishmen and Americans have 
 in common as compared with Englishmen and Germans or 
 Englishmen and Frenchmen. It ought to be so with Chris¬ 
 tendom. Those who are coming to confer with us are not 
 foreigners, it is only those about whose welfare we are to 
 confer who are the foreigners. Strangers to the covenants of 
 promise, they are foreigners indeed. This is what I meant by 
 saying that the title “Ecumenical Conference,” even though 
 a misnomer was also an inspiration. The title brings out 
 as no other title possibly could the largeness of the task 
 which the Christian Church of these latter days is propos¬ 
 ing to itself. For the first time we are beginning to do full 
 justice to the visions of Isaiah and the bold foretellings of 
 
 53 
 
St. Paul. In the first book of the Bible the scattering of 
 the nations is described, in the last book of the Bible the 
 reassembly is portrayed. Between the two stand the 
 prophet and the Apostle with their predictions as to the 
 way in which the great reconciliation is to be effected. 
 Isaiah’s thought centers in Jerusalem the Holy City. He 
 foresees it becoming the rallying center for all the peoples. 
 The mountain of the Lord’s House shall be exalted above 
 the top of the mountains, he avers, and all nations shall flow 
 into it. Israel is to lose its isolation and aloofness, and is 
 to gather about itself in amicable relationship all the 
 families of the earth. But all this is vague, shadowy, of 
 dim outline and uncertain perspective. St. Paul gives defi¬ 
 niteness to it by adding the.further thought that Jesus 
 Christ the Son of God with power is to be the leader in 
 bringing the reconciliation to pass. He it is that is to 
 break down the division wall between Jew and Gentile, 
 native and out-lander, and to make all one in the great 
 commonwealth of souls. Take the two together, Isaiah and 
 St. Paul, and we have materials for a just and reasonable 
 philosophy of history such as can nowhere else be found. 
 The wonderful thing about the times in which we are liv¬ 
 ing is the rapidity of movement that characterizes them. 
 Events succeed each other with startling swiftness. Quick¬ 
 ened methods of locomotion, quickened methods of com¬ 
 munication—these are “making history” at a pace at which 
 history was never made before. How like a thunderbolt 
 came only the other day the knell of China’s national life. 
 How like a cloud the ancient prestige of Spain vanished 
 leaving the tradition of Latin Christianity weaker than be¬ 
 fore, and by so much hastening the advent of a true ecumen¬ 
 icity and a larger conception of what it means to “believe 
 in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.” 
 
 Yes, the mills of God seem to have taken on an accel¬ 
 erated movement, there are apparently more revolutions 
 to the minute than there used to be, many more, and any 
 Conference that comes together on the soil of this new 
 world to consult concerning Foreign Missions must come 
 prepared to take the quickened pace into account and to 
 plan great conquests for the Christ, yes in the near future 
 —for after all it is He that is ruling the world, He who un¬ 
 seen bears the government upon His shoulder. Prime Min¬ 
 isters and Chancellors, Secretaries of State and War come 
 and go, “they have their day and cease to be.” But the 
 Church has never passed a vote of want of confidence in 
 Jesus Christ. He has been the premier from the beginning, 
 and will be to the end. I speak in this vein, Mr. Chairman, 
 because of my conviction that only by lifting the whole 
 subject to a very lofty level will it be possible to arouse the 
 enthusiasm which the necessities of this local movement 
 demand. Under the inspiring and ennobling influence of a 
 great thought men and woman will give whatever you may 
 
 54 
 
ask of them either in money or in effort, but they must be 
 convinced that the thought is truly great. Foreign Mis¬ 
 sions have only to be understood in order to be appreciated. 
 The popular conception of them is narrow and provincial, 
 that is the trouble. To careless observers, and most observ¬ 
 ers are careless, the Christian Church seems only to be 
 chipping away at the surface of its great task. They com¬ 
 pare the statistics of missions with the statistics of com¬ 
 merce or with the statistics of emigration, or it may be 
 with the statistics of war, and from the disparity which 
 they notice they draw the hasty inference that missionary 
 activity, as compared with the activity manifested in these 
 other fields is a thing of small account. What they need 
 is to have their eyes called off from the pettiness of the 
 means at our disposal to the grandeur of the achievement 
 at which we aim. The greatest of all victories have been 
 those in which the odds have been against the victois at 
 the start, but where the inspiration of a splendid purpose 
 sufficed to the carrying of the day. Again I say let us keep 
 before men’s minds the grandeur of this ecumenical idea, 
 it is God’s thought for man. From the commercial point of 
 view, it would be an immense step forward if all the world 
 could have a single language and one uniform system of 
 coinage; but only think what it would mean for all man¬ 
 kind to unite in speaking the wholesome words of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and in accepting his mint-mark as the test 
 and measure of all spiritual values. That would mean a 
 world worth living in indeed, a world from which harem and 
 slave-market and idol-temple and all the habitations of 
 cruelty would have disappeared and in which homes, 
 schools of good learning, and sanctuaries of a pure wor¬ 
 ship would have come to stay. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, in the region of present-day politics I 
 have the misfortune to differ from most of my neighbors 
 in being an anti-expansionist and an anti-imperialist; but I 
 hold that in the politics of the Kingdom of Heaven every 
 good Christian is in virtue of his name and calling bound 
 to be both an expansionist and an imperialist. In the 
 work of pushing outward the frontier of the Kingdom of 
 Light, there should be no let-up for a moment. There are 
 no divisional lines which it were trespass to cross in that 
 field which is the world. The Church must expand and 
 expand and expand until we reach a genuine as contrasted 
 with a theoretical ecumenicity, a Holy Catholic Church 
 centered not at Rome, as the Latins would have it, nor yet 
 at Jerusalem, as the Zionists would have it, nor yet at 
 Canterbury with the Anglicans, nor yet at Geneva with the 
 Puritans, but in the throne-room of that strong Son of 
 God who sits with the globe in his right hand and on the 
 globe a cross. If so to think is to write one’s self down an 
 imperialist, why then an imperialist I am. 
 
 v 55 
 
V