Mr. President and men of the Christian Church of America: In rising at the call of the Chair and in response to your hearty greeting to speak to you in these moments that mark the close of a century of splendid service, and mark, too, I am convinced, the opening of another century that is to tell of still more glorious conquests for Jesus Christ by those whom you represent, I do not hesitate to confess to a sense of responsibility that, were it less inspiring, would be overpowering. To bring to you at the close of this, your great Convention, a message appropriate to this pregnant occasion and in any measure worthy of your splendid hundred years' of service, and of the still more glorious vision toward which you are facing as it fills your wide horizon, I could wish were the task of one with eloquence less halting, and with a spirit less straitened, and an experience less circumscribed than my own. I rejoice to think, as you, I am sure, will with me in sympathy, how often God in his infinite grace has magnified himself through weak instruments so that the glory may not be ours, but all may be his.

      If I were to search for an excuse, may I say, sir, for my temerity in undertaking this service, to bring to you from another great church a message of greeting, I would find it of course first of all in the kind invitation of your committee, an invitation couched in such generous terms and altogether so attractive and appealing that it was absolutely impossible for me to refuse it. And, secondly, I would find that excuse in the fact, which I remember with pleasure, that the illustrious founder of your church, Reverend Thomas [100] Campbell, was himself cradled in the arms of the Presbyterian Church and nurtured on her strong doctrine.

      And it may not, therefore, be inappropriate that a Presbyterian should bring to you a message of greeting and of goodwill. It will at least, sir, serve to show how far that church has progressed since those days one hundred years ago, and left behind her those differences which seemed to Thomas Campbell to make the continuance of his ministry impossible within her communion.

      One hundred years of history behind you, and these hundred years close a period not alone great for you, but great for the world. Indeed, I take it that you who stand with this splendid history behind you--this inspiring history--and facing the great opportunities of the future, stand at an epoch-marking stage with all the world to-day. For behind us is a century marked by progress unparalleled in all the preceding centuries of the world. And before us, as we face them, are conditions every one of which spell for the church of Jesus Christ opportunity.

      One hundred years! Think of what they mean in every realm of scientific research, of social reform, of the subjection of the powers of nature to man's control. During that century geology has deciphered the earth's surface and read for us upon the rocks the story of the earth. Astronomy has invaded the heavens and let us see the place that our little world holds in the universe of suns and in space. Steam harnessed by man's might has been forced to drive our vessels across the ocean, and electricity captured from the lightning flash has been made to carry our whispers around the girdle of the earth in a moment of time. We have even challenged, as has been suggested to-night, the dominion of the air, and rightfully done so, for God truly gave us dominion of the firmament as well as over earth and sea, and to-day we are challenging the eagle in his flight from cloud to cloud. And these steps of progress are paralleled by others in the fields of social reform. These hundred years have seen the shackles of the slave and the whip of the taskmaster broken in Christian lands. They have seen little children rescued from the coalpit and the mine and the unsanitary factory and the

R. JOHNSTON.

deadly chimney flue. They have seen the organization of the world's forces for the advancement of conditions that make life bearable among all mankind. They have seen the transformation of prisons oftentimes from holes of death into places of rescue and reform. They have seen war become at least something to be undertaken by the nations with great difficulty and with greater unwillingness. They have heard the first faint notes sung forth of the great anthem that shall yet tell of the true and universal brotherhood of man.

      But if there have been vast steps of progress in the fields of science and in the fields of reform, what shall I say of the advancement within the visible church of Jesus Christ? This occasion, as I have suggested, marks the cause and communication of one child of advance: one hundred years ago, the scattered camps of the army of God; to-day, a spirit of unity and of true brotherhood in Jesus Christ, one Lord and King joining us in a common allegiance to him, and drawing us ever closer together in the great work that has been so eloquently presented to you by the former speaker. Progress, too, in other lines: the organization of women's work, the rallying to the call of Christ of great multitudes of young people with consecrated lives and effort, and, last of all, and, in a sense, best of all, the awakening and arousing of the majestic might of the manhood of the church, and the realization, as we have been told, that the work of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a man's work to be done in a man's way, and the response of the manhood of the church in a pledged allegiance to Jesus Christ.

      We have seen that these are the conditions to which we are aroused to-night. These are the splendid forces [101] organized for a forward march which wait for leadership as we look towards the coming century. Now we may view these advances and these forces from different viewpoints, and all of these may bring us profit. But I am chiefly concerned regarding the motive--the motive that is to inspire our movement, that is to give it permanence and enthusiasm, and that is to maintain it with a great, loyal enthusiasm in the work that is going to be no mere dress parade, but a campaign that is to call us to the uttermost of service and a sacrifice that may be even unto death. I say I am concerned as to the motive. And the message that I bring to you men of the Christian Church of America to-night is this: that the only motive, the only motive sufficiently electric to arouse the manhood and maintain that aroused manhood in an earnest, unswerving loyalty in the face of all opposition--the only sufficient motive is the motive that finds its impulse in a personal devotion to the living, reigning Christ of God, the Christ of Calvary, the King of the hearts of men.

      And, my brethren, had I the tongue of a seraph to-night, I would aspire to depict to you the need of this earth: the untold scores of little children homeless and houseless, the burdens of womankind, the agony of strong men in Christian lands or in heathen. And, having shown you the picture, I would show you another, the picture of the Christ of Calvary, toiling up new Calvaries, that burden his burden, that agony his agony, every tear that rolls down the cheek his tear, and every heartbreak his, still going to his Gethsemane, still going to his Calvary, bearing the awful burden of a world's woe. And, men of the church, you and I who call him King and Lord, it is for us to press close to him and put our hands beneath his, put our shoulders close to his, and lift if we may the burden from the heart of the Christ who still suffers in the world's need, and sorrows in the earth's sorrows, and take from that brow, scarred for us, the crown of thorns set there by scoffing hands, and place upon his head the crown of the kingdoms of the earth. That is the work that must arouse the manhood of the church. Men, Jesus Christ needs us! It is his sorrow, it is his mission, it is his work to which he calls us, and he points us with scarred hands to the pathway marked by his own bloody feet and bids us tread it with him. Men, will you do it?

      I say that the only motive that will sustain the aroused manhood of the church of Christ is the motive born of a compassionate, personal devotion to the living, reigning Christ who died for us and calls us with him into service. If I want proof of that position, and if I have time to raise it briefly, I would turn to history. Turn for a moment with me and recall that with which you are so familiar, that heroic period of the church's history known as the age of the martyrs, those three long centuries during which in ten great persecutions, culminating in that of Diocletian, all that the art and cruelty and might of world powers could do was done to wipe out of existence the faith of Jesus Christ. Recall, I say, these scenes with which you are familiar, and if I read the story of these times aright, I read this: that that which sustained the church through those long centuries as they dragged wearily on; that which made the women heroines unequaled, and sent little children and beautiful maidens to the amphitheater and to the stake rejoicing in their suffering for their Lord--that which sustained the church was this: a passionate, personal devotion to the Lord of their life. With them through all that furnace of fire heated seven times over there walked one like unto the Son of man, and for him, Redeemer, Lord and King, they suffered, and in their suffering they wrote in letters of flame that have never been extinguished this message, "Christ is King."

      Come down the centuries to the age when that strange movement among the Teutonic peoples took place, known as the Crusades. I will not say that all those who thrilled beneath the appeals of Peter the Hermit, or rallied at the call of a Godfrey, or Richard of the Lion Heart, had a clear vision of the King, Jesus Christ, or were moved by a personal faith in him; but this I will say, that underneath the man and behind the Crusade as its inspiring and impelling motive, underneath it all [102] ringing in their battle-cry, flaming on their banners, and sobbed in passionate tears as they wept when the Holy City broke upon their view--was this: the desire to enthrone the Christ, the desire to make him King who had the right to reign. I say, they did not understand it all, but this they understood: the sword was the arbiter of dispute, the battle-ax and the spear were the best tribute that they could bring; all these they brought and laid at the feet of their Lord that with them and by them he might be enthroned as best they knew how to enthrone him.

      I stay but for a moment and mention the Reformation, that great movement that struck from the millions of Europe the thralldom of tradition and gave to men consciousness of their liberty as sons of God and heirs of heaven and the right of approach to Jesus Christ. But that great movement had as its heart and the secret of all its movement this: the determination that upon no head but on Christ's should be the crown; that to him, and him only, in all matters of conscience and of creed, the hearts of men should bow. It was the movement to enthrone the Christ in the conscience of the world.

      And, if I may mention one other, it is that evangelistic revival which found England in a condition indescribable to us to-day. With the brilliant Marlborough corrupting court life both at home and abroad; with Horace Walpole making of politics a game of bribery; with drama that was poison, and literature that was without exaltation, and courts of justice where Justice wept--with conditions prevailing in England unimaginable to us to-day, you know what changed those conditions. That which the philosophy of Berkeley could not accomplish; that which the ethics of Butler failed in its attempt; that which the caricatures of Hogarth and the satire of Swift all failed to do--John Wesley, with the flaming zeal of an apostle, with the love of God in his heart, and the adoration of Christ in his soul, and Charles Wesley, with his hymns that sobbed forth in penitence and sang forth in the battle-cry of that man, did accomplish, and made of England again a land to be lived in. And the secret of it all was what? Not in doctrine, though those of you who know the literature of that period will not deny that there was doctrine in that movement; not in ethical teaching, though there was ethical teaching in it; not in social reform, though there was that; nor allegiance to a great cause; but at the heart of it all was the passionate devotion of the souls of men to a living, loving, reigning Christ. But in the heart, in the life of the whole church, and in the hearts of the people, and in the life of society, they sought to make him King.

      Brethren, we are called to-day to no martyrdom of stake and fagot or to amphitheater with bloody beasts. We are called, it may be, to no great doctrinal controversy, nor to any crusade with arms and sound of battle. We are not called even to face an atheistic irreligion such as Wesley faced. But what we are called to do is this: We are called to carry into the life of the world as we know it; into commerce in all its ramifications so powerful to-day; over all lands in all the world; into society in all its variety of relationships of whatever kind; into the athletic field so capturing the hearts of men and women in their love for pleasure to-day; into every department of life, home and social; into the government of our cities and the government of our States and Provinces and of our empires and republics--we are called to carry the life and the spirit of Jesus Christ, that, his teaching and his life being enthroned and lived out in the lives of men, he may come to his kingdom, to the crown of all the kingdoms of the earth: the kingdom of intellect, the kingdom of commerce, the kingdom of politics, the kingdom of sport--that the crown of all the kingdoms of the earth may be placed on his head. Men, that is the work we are called to do. That is the work that calls. Is it inspiring? Is it imperative? Is it worthy of your best and your truest?

      Oh, how men have rallied to a personality! How much your Lincoln counted for in the days that are gone! How much Napoleon meant to his legions and to his marshals! How much Cæsar meant to his conquering hosts! [103]

      The Moravian Church stands conspicuous in that great work that my brother has presented to you. One it has from every fifty-eight of its membership in the foreign field. One out of every fifty-eight of its membership! And what is the motive and the keynote of that church's missionary zeal? This--this: to give to the Lamb that was slain the reward of his suffering. It is the love of Christ which is the devotion to the King. It is the compassionate taking of the soul to him that has won us to himself by his measureless love.

      Oh, men, have you heard the call? Have you felt it? What we could do for Christ if we were one and loyal! They used to say that if your country and mine, the United States and Great Britain, were only united, they could whip the world. Men, in the name of the Lord of hosts, and in the name of Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace, I ask, What do we want to whip the world for? I challenge you--yea, in the name of the empire that I bear--I would challenge the men of this republic to a nobler cause and a nobler achievement. If your Christian hosts and our Christian hosts were one in Jesus Christ, with united front to stand against the enemy and to advance against the legions of darkness--my brethren, could we not, in the might of the omnipotent Spirit of God, where the spirit of peace dwells, where peace reigns--could we not win this world to the Christ and bind it by golden chains to the throne of the Most High?

      I have stood at that great gorge where your land and ours divide, and where the rushing, tumultuous tide of our great lakes pauses for a moment ere it leaps into Niagara's gorge in its way to the sea, and I have noted that as the waters from your American falls tumble into the gorge beneath and they are joined with the waters from our Canadian falls, there rises from the tumultuous tempest below a cloud of spray that as it seeks the clouds is kissed into a rainbow's beauty by the sun. One end of that rainbow rests upon your American shores and the other end rests upon the shores of the great Dominion. And I have thought--and, may I speak a prayer?--that the Christian hosts of these great lands might thus out of the times of turmoil and division and restlessness be cast into a union by the all-uniting Spirit of God, and that together we would go forth in blessing to the world. Men, it is more than a picture. May it not be a prophecy? Is it possible--possible--possible? [Cries: "Yes!" "Yes?"] Why, in imagination I am back one hundred years, and I picture the gathering of those men who stood at the inception of the movement that has grown from little to this mighty host: Thomas Campbell, Walter Scott, Barton Stone, Alexander Campbell. May it not be that their spirits are here to-night? And as I think of what has transpired in one century, as the little stream has become a river, and the river has swollen to a mighty torrent bearing the messages of God's love to all the earth, as you are doing to-night, imagination fails as I endeavor to picture what another century--yea, less than a century--may have in line for you and for the world with these thousands of Christian hearts pledged to Jesus Christ.

      Oh what an opportunity! And, may I say this word in closing? Obstacles sometimes seem hard. Does your heart cry, even with dread sometimes, as the world seems careless, as we hear of the ever-increasing hosts of heathenism, as greed and graft and strife and war make, their horrible visions and appear in our land? Sometimes do you feel that the conquest can not be Christ's? Do you remember that scene long, long ages past, when the spies returned from the promised land? "What did you see?" "Oh, we saw giants, giants, and we saw cities walled to the heavens, and we saw great armies, and the sons of Anak were there, the sons of Anak were there, and we felt as grasshoppers in their sight--grasshoppers." "Anything else did you see?" "But that was enough. It was terrible, and we felt that we could do nothing." "Joshua, did you see the cities?" "Yes." "Cities walled to heaven?" "Yes." "Did you see the giants?" "Yes, we saw the giants." "Did you see the sons of Anak, Joshua, the sons of Anak--did you see them?" "Yes." "Did you see anything else, Joshua?" "Yes." "What else, Joshua?" "We saw God, God; and if [104] God be with us, we are well able to go up and possess the land."

      Men! Men! That is the secret of conquest. Jesus Christ waits for his crown. Hasn't he waited long enough? Will you help to give it him? Will you help to lift from his heart the burden of earth's woe? Will you help to crown him King of kings?

      Oh, I love to hear you sing "America." I sing it, too--"My country, 'tis of thee," and I love it. And you will not wonder that I love a little better the old, old cry of the empire,

      But, men, better than "My country, 'tis of thee," better than "God Save the King," I love the national anthem of the kingdom of heaven. Will you sing it? Stand up, men. Stand up, every right hand lifted. Every right hand up. Sing:

      (Song, the audience standing with right hands uplifted.)

      Prayer: O Lord our Father, and Jesus Christ, thou Son of God, our loving Saviour, hear us as we pledge our hearts and hands to thee. Grant us now and ever thy Holy Spirit's power to keep us faithful, to keep us loyal, and to bring us in thy grace into the victory. For Christ's sake. Amen. [105]

[CCR 100-105]