A. C. Rankine: It is my honored privilege to convey to you the loving and fraternal greetings of the Federal Foreign Missionary Board of the churches of Christ in Australia. I am proud to be able to say that since the very inception of the work in connection with the churches of Christ in that great country, I have had the privilege of being closely associated with it. Some nineteen years ago, G. L. Wharton made a visit to our shores. Up to that time practically nothing was done to seek to extend the kingdom of our divine Lord in the dark places of the earth. But G. L. Wharton went from church to church and from State to State, and stirred up the brethren [166] in such a way that almost before he left our shores the first missionary society was formed in connection with the churches. And ever since that day the work has grown, until now we have representatives in several places on the foreign field. And I am glad to say that, as far as my knowledge of the church of Christ goes in Australia, that we have not one anti-missionary church in the whole of our brotherhood in Australia. And I will go further and say, as far as my knowledge goes, that we have not one anti-missionary member in the whole of our brotherhood in Australia. We have no time for anti-ism out there. We are Christians out there. We have a few o-missionary ones, but they do not dare to show their heads.

      David A. Ewers: As secretary of our Federal Conference in Australia, I want to say that I am very glad to be here. I wish to convey their greetings to the Foreign Mission Committee. The work with us is growing. Last year, in the Island of Pentecost, we baptized some two hundred heathen by the labors of one of our missionaries. We have a station of our own in India besides co-operating with your committee. We are glad, indeed, to have the co-operation of this grand organization, and to realize that, though we may sometimes think along different lines, and though we have to confess, perhaps, there may be some differences, yet we are one in this great foreign missionary work, and determined with God's help to go hand in hand with you to the conquest of the world for Christ.

      G. B. Moysey: This is an honor and a privilege which I did net expect to enjoy, but which I most deeply and most profoundly appreciate. I wish in my own person to acknowledge to you, and before you, the beloved brethren of America, the debt of gratitude which I, as an individual, and also which the churches collectively in Australia, owe to the brotherhood of America. Forty-five years ago I was immersed by the hands of an American evangelist, H. S. Earl. There is another brother here whose hand I have grasped, in whose arm my own has been linked this morning, who taught me some of the elements of Christianity, and who encouraged me to take up the work of proclaiming the gospel, and without whose warm words of encouragement and whose brotherly and sympathetic help I never should have been a preacher of the gospel. I allude to O. A. Carr, of Texas. I may say that it was the American brethren who gave the first great impetus to the cause of primitive and apostolic Christianity in Australia, not taking from the honor due to noble brethren from other parts of the world. I am pleased to endorse, to the very hilt, what has been said by Mr. Rankine and yourself with reference to the pro-missionary spirit of the churches of Christ in Australia. I do not know of a single o-missionary church; there may be o-missionary brethren, but I do not know of any o-missionary churches. Every church does something for the great cause of Foreign Missions.

      As the president of the Conference of the Churches of Christ in Western Australia, I am commissioned to give you the cordial, fraternal greetings of that great State. We rejoice with you in the magnificent triumphs of the past century and the still brighter prospects which are before you as you stand upon the threshold of the new. May God abundantly bless you all.

      Thomas Hagger: Every since I have been identified with the church of Christ in Australia, I have longed to visit the land over which the stars and stripes float. And I am glad that I am here. I landed only on Sunday morning in New York, and I am feeling quite an American already. The fact is, it seems to me that you are very much like the people we have in Australia--a pretty good-looking lot of people. Mr. McLean has visited us, and when he was there he did us a great amount of good. I want to give a word of congratulation. I am glad to stand upon the same platform as himself to-day and convey to the brethren of America the cordial greetings of the State of New South Wales, from which I come. Thank you very much.

      Mrs. Frank Coop: I bring to you the greetings of the sisters of our churches in England, and I would like to add [167] that we support two missionaries in India.

      Frank Coop: I bring to you the greetings of the brethren of the English churches. We are not quite so advanced as our friends in America, but the day of our opportunity is slowly, but gradually, approaching. The tide of democracy in old England is rising, the tyranny of ecclesiasticism and priest-craft is on the wane. Christians are coming to bristle with nonconformity, and the free churches are unconsciously, but surely, coming to our position. Our message from the English churches is to yourselves and to ourselves, "Stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong; let all that you do be done in love."

      Eli Brearley: It is now about eighteen years ago, in the home of our M. D. Adams, right away in the jungle district in India, that I first heard of the Disciples of Christ. I then came to London, and a little after I came into contact with W. T. Moore, and since that time I have been engaged in the work that has been carried on in England by the churches of Christ. Our Mr. Morgan said just now that it was quite easy to get any number of preachers to come to England, but it was hard to get them to stay. Our work has not prospered as it might have prospered in England for that very reason. Men have come for a little time, and then they have been homesick. I am almost that now, and have not been very long here. And they run back home, and you who understand anything about the management of churches, must know that that kind of thing does not tend to success. I was told by an American preacher, who now resides in England, and who is a tremendous help to our work there, that seventy years ago the work in the United States was in exactly the same position as the work is in England to-day. If that is so, I am delighted at the prospect we have before us. I have been sent to America for the salvation of England. It was recognized that some of our English brethren did not know all that they ought to know, and the Christian Association kindly volunteered to make it possible for this ignorant brother to come over to the United States. My education is almost finished already.

      H. S. Earl: I thank God that I have lived to see this day. I have heard, as well as seen, some of the friends of my beloved labors in that far-off land. Forty-five years ago I started for Australia as to an unknown land with fear and trembling, but with unwavering faith in the gospel of God's dear Son. I landed there, and at that time there was not a single American preacher there to unfold the riches of Christ. Some were laboring and toiling, it is true, but none were giving their whole time to this work. In the great colony, then called Victoria, when I arrived our membership did not amount to more than three hundred. In one year, by God's blessing, in the city of Melbourne, my labors were crowned with an abundant success, and a church of nearly four hundred stood there to witness for Christ and his truth. Now in that city we have upwards of thirty-five churches of Christ. Thence to Adelaide, South Australia, I wended my way, and there commenced the work, the first American preacher that preacher there. Now in that city we have a number of strong churches, and among them, as has been said to-day by Mr. Rankine, one numbering eight hundred. My heart rejoices in the work that has been accomplished, and not only what has been done there, but you brethren in this country have been honored by the labors that have been put forth in Australia. I look around me and I see a number of noble men laboring for Christ who gave themselves to the Lord there.

      Mrs. Margaret Bagnall: I can not say anything. I did not expect this at all. It is very good of you to want to bring me forward. The brethren in New Zealand are all looking to this Convention and want to be here. A good many came from America, and that makes it fine for us. New Zealand is very much missionary, too. We have a mission of our own, and we have contributed to your foreign missionary work, and I can only say that I have enjoyed every moment of this Convention. It has been something [168] that I have looked forward to for years, and now it reminds me of the time when they shall come from the north and from the east and from the west and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom. It is a foretaste of what we shall have by and by. May God bless you.

[CCR 166-169]