David Livingstone, after he had spent years of labor in the heart of Africa, in trying to arouse the conscience of the religious world to the needs of a neglected continent, was accustomed to write at the close of his letters and articles this sentence: "The end of exploration is the beginning of enterprise." These words have a significance for the Disciples of Christ as they enter upon a second century of progress.

      In the flush of triumph no religious movement should fail to scan its future. A crisis is before the people of this great community, not as the result of anticipated failure, but because of our recent unprecedented successes. We face peril to-day, only in the neglect of unparalleled advantages.

      One of these advantages is brought to your attention. West of the Mississippi, across the great plains, beyond the towering Rocky Mountains, where the waters of the Pacific wash its shores, to the north and the northwest lies a neglected field.

      My plea is for the great Northwest and that wonderful country of Alaska. Not the West, as you are accustomed to think of it, for there is no West to-day in the pioneer sense of that turn.

      There was a time when no interest of any kind was taken in the West. Senator Washburn, of Wisconsin, in 1867, said that there was no public sentiment in favor of the West, and that no newspaper in the whole length of the land was talking for it. Yet that land, which was once so unwelcomed, afar off and beyond the distant horizon, has become the front of the continent. We dare not refuse to take a religious interest in this country.

      With the growth of a religious people [190] is bound to come fields of responsibility. One hundred years ago we were nobody, and this country was not even recognized as a national domain.

      William Cullen Bryant, in his immortal poem, "Thanatopsis," referring to that majestic Columbia River by the name of the country through which it flows, said, "Where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound save its own dashing." He spoke the truth back there in 1815. To-day we are a mighty host, and this is the land of promise.

      This country has grown with our movement. It seems natural, therefore, at this time, when we are thinking great thoughts and planning big enterprises, that our attention should be brought to a country of such importance. It is a neglected field, worthy of our labor. And it is worthy. Notice for a moment the greatness of that field.

      Palestine is small--smaller in area than New Hampshire, Greece than Maine, and the Roman Empire than the State of Montana. Yet if all three of these countries were in one section, they could be lost in Alaska. Alaska comprises almost one-fifth of the area of the United States. Place Alaska upon the map of the United States, with the northeastern corner of that country touching the northwestern corner of Lake Michigan, and see the Central States it covers. The western point of the Aleutian Islands would touch the Pacific Ocean in California, and the southwestern part of this country would penetrate Carolina to the Atlantic seacoast. Washington, Idaho and Montana, placed upon the map, would cover every State east of Indiana and north of West Virginia. If you included Oregon, Idaho and California, it would approximately wipe the other States off the map.

      We find within sixty years the wilderness covering half the continent, transformed into a land of beauty and productiveness. Those mountains, once thought so inaccessible, have become national parks or natural forest reservations. Those valleys, once thought to be covered with stone and useless, have become the famous fruit valleys of the world. Those level plains, once thought to be arid and called the American desert, have answered to the touch of water and discipline of the plow and blossom like a garden. On the shores of the sounding sea stately cities with mighty commerce have raised their

JOSEPH L. GARVIN.

spires and set in motion the whirring wheels among the upheaved mountains of a far-off age.

      Size is of less importance than the resources. There are two laws governing the settlement of a discovered country. First, the productiveness of its soil and natural resources. Second, the communication with the outside world by rail or steamer, by land or water; and we have both.

      This country possesses in great abundance the four sources of wealth upon which human life depends. Its fisheries are the most valuable in the world. Its minerals, partially developed as yet, have become as famous already as the diggings in Australia or the diamond fields of Africa. Its forests are of untold wealth. We have the only great body of merchantable timber standing to-day. Its soil is rich and will produce a great variety of products. And all of this means people. As fast as the people learn about the natural resources of this developing section, they come and settle there.

      What, therefore, must be the future of this country, with its immense wheatfields, its flocks of sheep, its herds of cattle, its great forests, its diversified farm products, its navigable streams that once ran "like mad" filled with merchantable fish, its mineral wealth, its capacious harbors which float the commerce of an ocean, its towns and cities, its schools and churches, its businesses and advanced type of civilization? Already the dream of Whittier is realized:

      They are there, and they are going in [191] countless numbers. Where the people are, there is a religious need, and it is this need that makes the appeal to our hearts to-day.

      Best of all, this great field for endeavor is within the reach of everybody. There was once a time when it was taken for granted that the ridge of the Rocky Mountains would be the natural and everlasting boundary between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It was once thought that the people would plant a new power upon the shores of the Pacific coast, and this new government, when it should be strong enough, would separate itself from the mother country as a child separates itself from the parent at the age of maturity.

      There was once a certain remoteness in distance, and a certain aloofness in feeling. The mountain ranges cut off the land and shut off the view. But the coming of the transcontinental railroads have shattered this isolation. There has been a steady inflow of restless life and resistless enterprise. The acquisition and development of Alaska, the improvement of the country and the upbuilding of the cities, the entire exchange of ideas and commerce, have strengthened the bonds of the East and West and created new ones.

      For I have not forgotten the people back there who are speaking to you through me to-day. They are one of us in language and tradition. They obey our laws. They reverence our institutions. They share our national views, and with us have a hundred common ties, and they need with us our common faith in our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. They are young people. They are your sons and daughters. They have gone there to live, and unless this great brotherhood gives them the proper support by aiding in the establishment of churches and the support of a Christian minister around whom they can rally, and who will strengthen their religious lives, this splendid group of men and women, surrounded by every fascination of wealth and pleasure, will be lost to us, if not lost forever. They live in scattered groups, lacking the initiative to organize. Their welfare and the welfare of their neighbors depends upon the attitude and action of that great American Christian Missionary Society through whom we act.

      In all the area of Alaska we have not a man, a woman or a church representing the plea that we love so dearly. In the next ten years what the Disciples of Christ do for the Northwest and Alaska will forever give it power and influence, or cause it to repeat the failures of the East.

      Let me tell you my vision, before the time is up, of that great country of Alaska. It has many thousand miles of coast line, six thousand miles of navigable rivers, and nearly one thousand miles of railroads built or building. It has telegraph, cable and wireless. It has telephones, electric lights, and all the modern conveniences in its towns and cities. Its climate is more variable than that of Pittsburg; warmer in summer than Washington, D. C.; less cool in winter, with the thermometer 60 or 70 degrees below zero, than South Dakota. The babies in the winter afternoons are wrapped in furs and take their nap out of doors. It has thousands of acres of agricultural land, and ranges of mountains containing the treasures of the earth. It has more acres for farming than New York, Pennsylvania and the New England States combined possess. Its fruits and vegetables are of the finest quality.

      Everything, from the sub-arctic to the sub-tropic products, can be grown. Upon its meadows the Kentucky bluegrass grows with grace and beauty. The long summer days mature the crops. A Government official reports that during the month of June, one year, ten thousand feet up Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in America, 20,464 feet high, he could see the sun for seven days and seven nights. There is culture even in the new small towns, and all the comforts of American life can be found in its cities.

      You can see that we must enter this land in no mean way and on no small scale. We must put enough money into it to buy a corner lot in the leading cities of Alaska, build a house in each that will be respected and support a man until the work can be established. It will take money and calls for sacrifice, but we must do this thing and trust in the future for results. They [192] are sure to come. Ten religious bodies, including the Orthodox Russian and Greek Churches, have establishments in the leading cities. The Disciples of Christ have no representative in this wonderful country.

      I plead for some man of wealth to take Alaska under his protection and give it $50,000 to establish five churches at $10 000 each in the leading centers of this Northland. Let him build them, equip them and establish the plant. Let the man sent there be supported by our splendid American Christian Missionary Society. Still more I plead with this society to take the initiative in this matter and see that it is done. The results are worth the effort from a business man's standpoint as well as the promise of our Master, Christ.

      So long as the church is on the frontier it is safe. Failure to advance now, when there are so many favorable circumstances to aid us and such rich rewards awaiting us, will defer the evangelization beyond our own day. We will mortgage for our children the future and hinder the achievement of our successors.

      I plead for the West; I plead for the Northwest; I plead for Alaska. Lift up your eyes and look on the field, for it is already white unto harvest. Pray you the Lord of the harvest that he send forth laborers into his harvest--and send.

[CCR 190-193]