We were glad when they said unto us, "Let us go up to Pittsburg in 1909." Some of us have looked forward to this time and place with much the same spirit as that which characterized the devout worshipers going up to Jerusalem. "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem!"

      The time is sacred because of what it stands for, and because of all of its associations. We can not but be conscious of that cloud of witnesses who

MRS. A. R. ATWATER.

compass us about, and who, though invisible, give us courage and strength, and help us to know what are the real value and power of life. Each one here speaks now the name of some of these, but as an organization we may well name two of our incomparable leaders whose presence we feel, Mrs. G. A. Burgess and Mrs. Helen E. Moses. No one planned more for this time than Mrs. Moses. No one strove more unceasingly to make it glorious. Who can doubt that her radiant presence is in our midst?

      There are many others whose faces have been turned toward this occasion with hope and longing to join in this fellowship. They had part in the things we celebrate to-day, and most of any would have enjoyed this time. Among these we call the names of Mrs. Pearre, the mother of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, whose sight is dim, but whose spiritual vision is as clear as when, on her knees, thirty-five years ago, she saw what God had in store for the women of the Church of Christ; Mrs. Jameson, the first president of this organization; Miss Elmira Dickinson and Mrs. Christian, active in all its early history; Mrs. R. K. Syfers, who for many years has been a member of the Executive Committee, and Mrs. N. E. Atkinson, who has served the work in various capacities longer than any other one ever connected with it, and has presided over many of its convention sessions with unusual power. All of these are kept from us by weakness of body, but we know that they, with many others, are in earnest prayer these days over the issues of this Convention. The thought of this makes sacred the time and the event.

      Many influences from afar center here to-day and all this week. Numbers from many States in our Union, who have striven to add force to the reports of these days, and are still denied the joy of being here, have promised to pray for this Convention and its interests. The missionaries on all the fields remember us, and, as one in India writes, they pray very earnestly that God's Spirit may be manifest in great power, drawing the hearts of all toward himself so that great things may be undertaken for the kingdom. The twenty-three churches in Jamaica will meet in their respective houses of worship during this whole week to pray for this Convention. For weeks the orphanage children in India have been praying for it, and will have special seasons of prayer this week.

      Again, in this gathering have come together an unusual host. The old have come because the time is especially theirs; the children and young people have come because they are getting ready for their duties in the new century. A throng of those in middle life are here because they belong alike to the old and the new. They have come from all parts of our country and from other countries. Many of our mission fields are represented. Never did we have in one of our conventions so many of the missionaries. And we are [34] blessed, too, in having a number of those who have recently dedicated their lives to the work of Christ in the distant places and will start from here on their mission. In the thought of our people everywhere this time is, then, sacred and important.

      Starting, as the movement of the Restoration did, simultaneously with the birth of the modern missionary movement in America, emphasizing in an especial way the authority of Christ, in the very nature of things we were destined from the first to be a missionary people. Every missionary organization in the church deems itself worthy of Centennial distinction, not because its constitution and charter date back so far, but because, through the principles set forth, it existed in embryo a hundred years ago.

      What should be the spirit of this vast convention of Christian people celebrating its hundredth anniversary? In view of our origin and aims, in view of our attainments through a hundred years, and conscious of the vaster unattained, how should we meet this occasion? Anniversaries of noted events are not free from temptation to unworthy demonstrations. Our orators on national anniversaries at times indulge a spirit of boastfulness and self-assurance that delights the unthinking. The sound of trumpets, the flaunting of banners, "the boast of heraldry and pomp of power," are sometimes mistaken for patriotism, but these things make the thinking man bow his head in humiliation. He knows that patriotism is shown by love that gives itself in service, even to the cost of life. He stands in the presence of the majestic facts of our nation's history in reverent awe and appreciation. He remembers the masters who laid the keel and wrought the steel ribs of our great ship of state. He recalls the beating of anvil and hammer, the flame and the heat out of which the anchors of our national hope were forged. Our independence, our liberty, our free institutions, are to him above common compliment, and they seem unworthily celebrated by loud demonstrations. He steps into his place in the nation as if he were to be held accountable for what he builds into or what he tears down from the structure which to his time has stood the shock of wind and wave and rock and is still seaworthy.

      Something like this should be our attitude as we recount in this Convention the story of our fathers, and talk together of our religious heritage. What we say and what we do should be marked by a calm appreciation of what has come to us at great cost, by a determination that those who strove earnestly, and yet did not enter into the promises, may have their joy fulfilled in us and in those who come after us.

      The Christian Woman's Board of Missions, four years ago, set before itself certain definite things to do as a fitting celebration of this hundredth anniversary. Not putting aside the tasks that were then filling our hands and hearts, we gave ourselves to the new aims with a determination that comes from a sense of added responsibility. The things we attempted for this time have in a large measure been accomplished; how largely you shall hear from the reports to be rendered to-day.

      Does some one say we have reached the goal because financial aims have been realized, because certain definite things have been done? If so, then the muscles may relax, the eyes lose forward vision; now comes rest, the victor's crown.

      As our workers--national, State and local--have moved steadily toward this time with increasing zeal as the months and years passed by, we have often been reminded of those who run in a race--yes, of a whole army in a race for the goal. "Laying aside every weight," "Girding themselves," "Running with patience," have been phrases fitting this moving body, and the last few months the movement of the whole force has been characterized by an intensity of purpose that is inspiring and little less than sublime. But the figure fails. The Centennial is not our goal. This celebration is not to mark our victories.

      We believe this distinction is an important one. In the first place, the things that have been wrought by our people have come out of the labors, the strivings of soul, the sacrifices and the prayers of those who preceded us. If there be any glory or any praise, it is [35] for them, through Christ, the Leader of their march and their inspiration. What is true of the church as a whole is true of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions. If there are worthy achievements, credit belongs to a throng of men and women who have indeed reached the goal; who, like the apostle to the Gentiles, have finished their course, have kept the faith, and have received the victor's crown. No praise is due to us who are still in the race. The goal is ahead.

      But, again, what is the effect on this moving body of strong Christian workers who have come up to this time with continually accelerating movement under the inspiration and enthusiasm of the closing years of a century--what is the effect of looking upon this period as a goal? It takes no prophet to answer that question. We can not imagine a more pitiful failure of all the plans of the fathers, of all our own plans, than a result like that. Better by far had we not celebrated our Centennial. If we weaken here, if we slacken our pace, for us the race is lost.

      During these Centennial years the statement has often been made that reaction would be sure to follow this unusual effort; that the stimulus of the Centennial being removed, we would fall back to a dead level of commonplace effort; and such is sure to be the result if we fail to see the relation of our past effort to the things that are before us. We have not only been doing things, but we have been getting things to do. Our tasks were never so heavy in the past as they are to be in the future. Same one says when the Centennial is past we shall not be under such heavy strain. Dear sisters, "press not that flattering unction to your souls." "To him that hath, more shall be given," is as true of work as of anything in the world, and especially is it true of Christian work.

      If our sisters in one of the States had labored less diligently the past four years, we should not at this time need to plan for the maintenance of a school for our Mexican ministry. Two others of our States have added to our responsibilities by their zeal and faithfulness in raising ten thousand dollars, and so giving us a new mountain school to maintain, with nearly three hundred students in it. Look at what the other States have brought to us by their earnest effort. Every aim reached imposes a new responsibility. The old saying that the reward of hard work is more work, could not well find a verification more apparent than our experience shows.

MISS F. MILLER.

      We are not trying to sound here a single note of discouragement. There is no ground for discouragement in the thought that God has given us great responsibilities; that from the height to which he has led us we have a vision of greater heights and much more land to be possessed. It is fullness of joy to have the hands full of work, provided the heart is full of hope and the soul very courageous. And the heart will be full of hope and the soul of courage if we have the conviction of which Emerson speaks, that our work is dear to God and can not be spared.

      These past years we have just been discovering how much we can do. An organization that can do so much can do more. Who among us feels to-day that we have reached the limit? Who among us is willing to fall back from our higher aims?

      This has been a time of gathering momentum. The test is to be in our effort to carry that momentum over this special period into the work beyond, so that there shall be no falling back, no weakening of purpose or of zeal. The added responsibility urges, faith in the loyalty of our forces encourages, and conviction of the value of our work compels the upward and onward movement. To this end we must unceasingly pray, for "not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit with the Lord of hosts." [36]

[CCR 34-36]