What is our movement? It is not primarily an effort to vindicate the Book, to restore ordinances, nor to rebuild institutions. These tasks might all be worthy, but they are not ours, primarily. Ours is far more fundamental; viz.: The restoration of Christ as Lord, in men's thought, relations and life, for the purpose of uniting His followers in one body, the church, to the end that the world may hear His message and be saved. Such restoration of Christ to be the head of the church, and the complete master of man, has been our purpose, prayer and effort for one hundred years. The religious world has felt the heart-throbs of this movement, become conscious of its purpose, has discovered its value and been influenced by its growing power. The [188] history of such a movement must have many chapters. The brightest, most inspiring and heroic is that which records the doings of our missionary organizations. All are worthy and their service invaluable. But, among these, the State societies hold the important, unique and pre-eminent place.

      The attention of business men has been called by the State societies to the needs opportunities and results to be secured within their own State. Their attendance upon State conventions has been secured, their brains and hearts have enriched the programs of these assemblies, their judgments and business ability have been employed in the management, their interest has been developed by attendance upon meetings of boards of directors; and thus our business men, to-day most interested in all our enterprises for the extension of the cause, have been taught and turned and trained for these larger tasks in the schools organized and fostered by State Missions.

      Every religious movement is projected, judged and measured by personality. A cause is judged by its custodian. A plea is determined by its advocate. A church is measured by its ministry. To seek, select, secure, train and assist competent young men for the ministry, is at once the most important and immediate task of a church having any faith in its plea and any vision of its future. There is no agency among us so competent, efficient and helpful in securing young men for the ministry as is the State missionary society. The success of its work depends upon an efficient, consecrated and loyal ministry. Its greatest hindrance is found in the difficulty to secure able and faithful ministers for the new and promising fields where it has entered and organized. The Stage secretary is constantly in search of worthy young men whom he may recommend to vacant pulpits. He not only counsels consecrated young men to enter the ministry, but assists them, when prepared for work, to obtain suitable fields. The State societies, by creating new fields, discovering young men for the ministry, and assisting these when most in need, have not only builded a permanent ministry, but have doubtless assisted, directly or indirectly, 50 per cent. of our ministers active to-day; and these are among our most aggressive missionary men, leading the churches into larger visions and greater endeavors.

      The State society therefore holds the primacy, not only in giving direction to, but in cultivating and organizing, the missionary spirit. Thus it is the pioneer in the larger missionary endeavor and the creator of resources for the work beyond its own appointed territory. Let

A. I. MYHR.

it be noted that 75 per cent. of all missionary funds, for our general missionary interests, has been given by the churches organized or assisted by our State societies. Every employee of these societies is at once an advocate of and a contributor to the larger interests without any expense to them, and the State societies were the pioneers in our missionary endeavor.

      It is historically true that the missionary societies and conventions of districts and States in Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, were the harbingers of and prepared the way for the great, historic convention of the Disciples of Christ in 1849. These associations may have been crude in form, primitive in organization, but they educated and conserved and crystalized the sentiment that made for itself a larger agency in our first general convention.

      Have the State societies contributed anything worthy to the cause? Ask Kentucky. Beginning with an effort to unite two bodies of believers (those who held with Stone and Campbell), this society has operated since 1832, unifying believers and converting sinners. Many of the stronger congregations in that State owe their beginning to the labors of state missionaries sent out in those early years.

      Ask Iowa, where the State society began its labors in 1865--when there were only three thousand members in [189] forty congregations; now there are 62,000 members in 468 churches. One-half of this membership has been added in the last twenty years.

      Ask Illinois. The reply is, "We have organized four hundred churches and have aided as many more."

      And there stands old Missouri! Ask her what contribution the State society has made to the cause. Over one thousand churches answer: "We have been organized, and five hundred more have been helped, by State work since its beginning in 1837." These facts mentioned are duplicated in Indiana, Ohio and Texas. Tennessee, too, though among the youngest State organizations among us, presents good results--120 congregations have been organized and assisted; $200,000 added to the value of church property; 15,000 additions to the churches, and $31,500 in the Permanent Fund.

      These plain facts indicate only in part the service rendered by the State societies. What shall we say of the several thousand congregations who have been saved from starvation and death by this holy ministry? From the results of State missionary labor, 75 per cent. of all the offerings to our general missionary interests come. Upon these fields heroic souls have spent their lives, receiving meager salaries, and other men have entered into their labors. But the largest contribution that an individual or an organization can make to a cause is not money, it is not time, not effort--it is LIFE.

      The State societies send their servants like ministering angels to plant churches, build Sunday-schools, to furnish light and power and peace in the midst of a community of the most intense life and temptations. Are these needed there, in a most civilized land and among a most highly favored people? Yes, a thousand times, yes! They are more needed there than in any land of lower life and less culture.

      In our States we unite to more adequately present the truth, so as to be able to produce a richer harvest for our Lord. We are in a great fellowship, in which the principle operates--all for each and each for all--in which Christ is Lord and guarantees adequate reward to the humblest toiler.

[CCR 188-190]