Mexico: We have been speaking a great deal of the simple gospel, and that is the very thing we need in Mexico. The Disciples of Christ have been working in Mexico for thirteen years. The first mission was established across from El Paso some thirteen years ago. After a year's work there, it was moved to Monterey, Mexico, and in Monterey at present we have a great mission station established, a splendid mission building and two residences. In that mission building we have a school, an American department with some four teachers, and a Mexican department with some eight teachers, all of those in the Mexican department being Mexicans. We are educating some three hundred Mexican young people in that school, as well as some hundred young people of the American colony. We have an American church there with about twenty-five members, and a Mexican church of some 250 members. One of the largest evangelistic meetings ever held in the history of Protestantism in Mexico was held in our Mexican church, some two years ago, when we had 107 additions in three weeks' time. A large field has been recently developed in the State of Cohahuila. Four years ago we entered that field. To-day we have six [426] organized congregations and about twenty other preaching-points. Just a year ago we had only six workers in that field. To-day we have thirteen workers. Many tell us that the Mexican work is very encouraging to them. Many of the home people tell us they think there is a great work being done; but we feel that the great opportunity is in the future. And we make an appeal to the Disciples of Christ, entering the second century of history, to give Mexico more of the simple gospel, that we claim to preach. The harvest will a hundred times repay our sowing.

      Ontario: Our people began work here, the queen of all the Canadian provinces, about the year 1820. We now number about five thousand. We would have numbered several times that many, had we not been so kind to the United States and our own western provinces, in contributing men to churches in these various parts. We have about thirty-five preachers. We are organized there, as we are organized in nearly all of the United States. We are incorporated there under the name of the "Co-operation of the Disciples of Christ in Ontario," and that organization is now supporting several missionary points. Our newest one is a church in Toronto, and to that particular point we are contributing this year $1,000. Our last provincial convention was perhaps the most hopeful one we had. On the evening of our Home Missionary day there, without any preparation whatever, just upon suggestion, those present contributed, as a special Centennial fund, $1,000. You have just heard that the Disciples of Christ have $30,000,000 of property. Just running it over in my mind, from our statistics, the Disciples in Ontario contribute a fair share of that amount. And I would just like to say now that the Dominion of Canada forms a part of the American Christian Missionary Society. I notice some of the secretaries leave us out in giving the statistics of that society, but we will have a part of it, and the American Christian Missionary Society is helping us now at one missionary point, and we hope before the end of the year that they will be helping us at several points. You have all heard of Cobalt, Port William, Port Arthur, these various places that are asking us for help; but with our limited finances we are unable to render them aid.

      New York: I am glad to hail from the Empire State, a State that is important in many respects, in that it is an Empire State in opportunity for the Disciples of Christ. We have in the great Empire State of New York nearly one hundred cities of five thousand population in which there is not a Disciple church. In 1865 there were nineteen churches in the State, two of which were in the cities. To-day we have forty-eight, twenty-eight of which are in cities of over five thousand population. At that time there were 5,121 members. To-day we have 9,037 reported to our New York Christian Missionary Society, and probably a thousand more living in cities where we have no churches. The New York Christian Missionary Society, with the help of the American Christian Missionary Society and the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, is supporting twelve mission points in the State of New York, and we also have a society known as the Disciples' Missionary Union, in New York City, which is doing a blessed evangelistic work in that city. The points supported by it are as follows: Brooklyn (Second), Brooklyn (Third), Buffalo (Kensington), Buffalo (Gloversville), Rochester (Second), Watertown, Syracuse, and some others, making twelve in all, in addition to two or three mission Sunday-schools that are being supported by the Disciples' Union of New York City.

      California: While the work in Southern California has not yet reached its silver anniversary, we now have seventy churches located in strategic centers of that growing Southland. These seventy churches are half of them missions supported by the other half. So that, practically speaking, every self-supporting church in Southern California is a home mission living link.

      Of these seventy churches, seven of them, a sacred number, are red-ribbon churches, in that they each support a local pastor, a home missionary of their own and a foreign missionary of their own. In the past five years the income of our Home Missionary Society has gone from $4,000 to $14,000, and the membership of our churches has doubled. [427]

      In these five years we have sent our home missionaries into forty-four different communities, and have brought twenty-two of those churches to self-support. God has blessed us with giving us leadership in splendid business men, such as C. C. Chapman and J. G. Warren, and we have great expectations of the future of our work.

      Nebraska: The first Christian preacher who delivered an utterance on the soil of Nebraska was a man by the name of Foster, back in 1845, about the 15th day of June, and it was far west, upon the North Platte River, rather than in the eastern part, it was delivered. The first church in this State was organized in 1855, very early in January, out of material largely contributed by Northwest Missouri. This was at old Brownsville, and was undoubtedly the first actually organized church body in the State of Nebraska. Our missionary enterprises gained when our general missionary society commissioned D. R. Dungan and R. C. Barrows to do what they could in that territory. We have had from that time to this, always an active, energetic missionary society in the State of Nebraska. For a little while, it has been true, we have attempted to hold the field we have attained, and in the last decade we have more than doubled our actual membership. During the last twenty years we have also taken up an educational venture, and we are now maintaining one of the good colleges among our brotherhood. Nebraska University may not be so well known to you as some others, but it now has yearly about four hundred students, from forty to sixty ministerial students every year. We are praying for the day to come when we can be utterly self-supporting. In addition to our own State enterprises, we have our several foreign missionaries, by the living-link churches. We are entering all the missionary enterprises.

      Missouri: Missouri has given to the brotherhood at large, or Missouri has within her borders as her ministers, such men as T. M. Allen, D. Boyd Henderson and Jacob Creath: and, although Kentucky claims a right in the work and labors and life and influence of J. W. McGarvey, we want them to understand he was born on Missouri soil, born of Missouri parents, and that he got his start in Missouri, and that is the reason he started right. J. H. Garrison, another man; G. W. Longan, of sacred memory; George Plattenburg, long since gone home, and he whose name always causes a huskiness to come into our voices, Alexander Proctor. In State secretaries, we have sent them to Tennessee and to Arkansas and to Kansas and to Iowa; and into California we have sent a man and woman who have made it possible for California to come and make the splendid report that she has made. In institutions, we have that Bible College that has been marvelous in its influence in moulding and shaping the characters of our brotherhood of Christian evangelists. Then we have Christian College, the finest institution for the education of young women that there is in the West; Christian University, Missouri Bible College, William Woods College, the Orphans' School; and then we have such business men as R. A. Long, of Kansas City, who only yesterday evening, in addition to the $50,000 that he has offered to the Missouri Bible College this year, and the $10,000 that he has given, as we know, to another institution, offers $25,000 to old Bethany for every $100,000 it obtains. And we have such men as J. H. Allen and R. H. Stockton, of St. Louis, who recently gave $50,000 to Christian University. And then we have such men as that prince of men that stood here upon this platform this morning and delivered that masterful address, the Hon. Champ Clark. And then we have not only these, but we have some other institutions as well. You must remember that the Benevolent Association of the Christian Church was born upon Missouri soil, in the city of St. Louis. You must remember that the Christian Brotherhood was born upon Missouri soil, in the same city.

      South Idaho: Just a word from South Idaho. We have come over two thousand miles to enjoy the inspiration of this great occasion. South Idaho is the land of sunshine and the land of fruit orchards and the land of great opportunities. And just in these days we are now being discovered. Thousands and [428] thousands of people are coming into Southern Idaho, and yet we have but seventeen churches and about twenty-five hundred Disciples. We get very lonesome out there sometimes, and we wish to direct the attention of our brotherhood more and more to this land of opportunity, opportunity in the cause of our Master as well as in a material way.

      Alabama: The word "Alabama" means "here we rest," but the Disciples are not resting in Alabama.

      Argentina: No response.

      Minnesota: We have in Minnesota forty-seven churches, including outstations. About one-half of these stations are ministered to by preachers; the others have to be satisfied with an occasional sermon by some passing preacher. Our work suffers because of a lack of preachers of the gospel.

      Western Canada: No field that lies between the great oceans is more hopeful, or has greater need, than has the great Canada Northwest. We need men, men after God's own heart. We need ministers that will preach the Jerusalem gospel. Not only a hundred, but thousands upon thousands, of the American citizens are leaving home for the great Canada Northwest. We are losing many of our own people from the churches simply because we can not get men to minister to them.

      Georgia: I wish to tell three things--what we have done in a hundred years, what we have done in the last four years and what we have done in the last year. A hundred years ago there were no churches of Christ in Georgia. Now there are 133, with a membership of twelve thousand and church property valued at $400,000. In the last report we have eighteen hundred additions for the year, $4,000 for missions of all kinds and $50,000 for other expenditures.

      Eastern Washington: Our plea in eastern Washington is about thirty years old. At the beginning of the four-year Centennial campaign we had forty-two churches and about forty-five hundred members. The value of the church property was about $180,000. Then we organized what is now the Eastern Washington Christian Missionary Society out of the scattered churches in Whitmore County, a co-operative association. During the four years we added in all about four thousand to the church and organized sixteen congregations. Fourteen churches were built during the time, the value of which is about $78,000. Our churches at the beginning of the period stood, with two or three exceptions, about third or fourth in religious influence of the community. To-day the majority of them stand in the lead. We face the new century with an increased interest in the Centennial thought. We intend to press on into the future with the hope of a great victory. There are 125 waiting fields, with at least four thousand scattered Disciples in eastern Washington, splendid towns of five hundred to two thousand where we have never attempted to place the church of Christ.

      Oregon: Oregon brings to you the message of love and of loyalty. She does not know yet any better than to preach one Lord, one faith and one baptism. She has never been through the tunnel of evolution, nor has she taken any backward steps. She has to-day a membership of about fifteen thousand, a gain last year of about twenty-five hundred over the year previous. The last year she took all the offerings for our missionary societies, and, in addition, brought to this Convention the steamer "Oregon," that goes to the Congo. And we think this entitles us to the National Convention in 1911 at Portland.

      Iowa: It is said that Iowa has less barren lands than any other State in the Union. It has fifty-five thousand square miles of territory and 2,210,000 population. The first church was established in Iowa on the first Lord's Day in June, 1836. In 1843 the first regular minister came to Iowa to devote his entire time to the work. In 1850 we had seven ministers. At that time we had thirty-seven congregations and 2,009 members. Our missionary society was organized in 1865, called the Iowa Christian Missionary Society. In 1870 we changed the name to the Iowa Christian Convention. From 1875 to 1880 our cause in Iowa, as in other States, suffered for lack of systematic co-operation in missionary work at a time when the doors of opportunity were wide open. From 1880 to 1895 was our great evangelistic period. During that time our [429] membership more than doubled. Almost every preacher was an evangelist and they went everywhere preaching the gospel and organizing churches. From 1895 until now we have been in the period of missionary development and church co-operation. The evangelistic was not neglected, but the emphasis was put on the importance of linking the local congregations together, for mutual benefit and for sending the gospel to regions beyond their local congregations. During this period offerings have increased for State Missions fourfold and for other missions proportionately. Of the churches now in existence, 187 have been organized by our State Missionary Society, and there are but few churches in the State that have not received substantial help from this pioneering work. In twenty years our State Missionary Society has collected and distributed $120,720 and added 33,708 members to the church; for the year ending June, 1909, our State Missionary Society had forty-three employees; fifteen of the number were evangelists and twenty-eight missionary pastors. They labored 9,476 days, preaching 3,873 sermons and added 2,173 members to the church. Fifty-five evangelistic meetings were held by the board, 1,281 churches were visited by the I. C. C. missionary, many of which received substantial assistance and encouragement at a time of great need.

      Kentucky: We started in Kentucky ahead of the century--beginning with 1809. Old Cane Ridge Church, Bourbon County, still stands, the very house, on the same spot, where Barton W. Stone began the plea for New Testament Christianity in 1803.

      The movement started by him united with the Campbell movement in 1832--Kentucky furnishes the first example of Christian union. Since that time--for seventy-seven years we have had State missionary work--doubtless one hundred thousand added through this agency, and five hundred of the 1,030 churches owe their existence to Kentucky Missions.

      Kentucky, in addition to building up Transylvania University and other institutions of learning, has the College of the Bible--and this is unique in taking the Bible as a text-book.

      Midway Orphan School is without a parallel in the United States, not only among our folk, but any and all others. One hundred and fifty orphan girls taught every year.

      Our own Orphans' Home, at Louisville, the first to be established.

      In four years: As to other matter than State Missions: The C. W. B. M. passed the amount of Centennial apportionment by $5,000.

      Led by R. M. Hopkins and the Sunday-school Board, Bible schools, churches and individuals have endowed a chair of Bible-school pedagogy, and the professor, W. F. Smith, is already sitting in the chair. Kentucky Bible schools have the A. C. M. S. banner for two years, and a third makes it permanent.

      State Missions have steadily grown and gone forward, as they have for a number of years previous.

      We have averaged at work, for all or a part of the time, forty-five men. They were at work 21,568 days; preached 15,586 sermons; baptized 4,801; added otherwise, 4,801; total added, 9,602; organized 172 Bible schools; organized forty-three churches; raised for all State missionary work, including money for houses, etc., $144,284.99.

      In the year 1909: In State work we had fifty-three men, who worked 5,097 days, preached 4,794 sermons, added by baptism and otherwise, 3,132; organized forty-eight Bible schools; organized nineteen churches; raised for evangelistic fund and building houses, etc., $42,919.28.

      State of the cause: While we have much cause for rejoicing, we have many reasons for sadness. Our country churches are declining; many of them without adequate preaching and pastoral care; shortage of preachers felt here most sensibly. Twenty county-seats without a church that is Christian only; thirty county-seats with weak churches needing help. Fifty out of 121 county-seats missionary fields.

      Seven counties without one of our churches; ten counties with only one or two; one-seventh of the State hardly touched.

      Every educational institution needs adequate endowment--a white harvest-field--no spot where a dollar will yield as large as in Kentucky. [430]

      Florida: The number of congregations in the State is about fifty. The number of ministers is about twenty-five. We raised last year for State Mission work, $1,572; for other church work, $16,790.85. The State Society organized three churches. The number baptized by its missionaries, ninety-four; three men in the field part of the time. Other additions, eighty-one; total, 175. The number of places assisted by the Missionary Society was eighteen; number of Bible schools, twenty-five; enrollment in these schools, 1,565. We have only about one Bible school for two churches. Value of church property, $130,415. We have but one strong church in the State, and that is the church at Jacksonville. That has about twelve hundred members. We have but two churches in the State that have preaching all the time without help, and this is not because we are stingy, but because we are not able to do better. Florida, as you know, is a tourist State, and it is an opportunity for scattering our teaching all over the world, or at least all over the United States, by preaching it to the people that come down there throughout the winter.

      Arkansas: No response.

      Great Britain: No response.

      New Mexico: The great and fertile valleys, since the great irrigation projects have been instituted, are now blossoming like the rose, and some of the finest fruits that come to the great markets of the North and East come from that country; and in the last three years there have been over thirty-five thousand original homestead filings, and the class of people that are coming there is a representative, a cosmopolitan class; they are of a very high average of education. Our organized work is scarcely two years old. We have now about eighteen congregations, with about fifteen hundred members. There are twelve preachers who are giving their entire time to religious work; there are some fifteen preachers who are giving only a part of their time. Since the organization of our missionary society, there have been about eight churches organized. There have been several that were very much discouraged, that have been strengthened, debts have been raised, and the missionary conscience has been awakened within the hearts of the people, and these widely isolated Disciples have been brought into closer relationship; they are coming to feel the sense of missionary solidarity, and the sense of brotherhood in that great territory.

      Michigan: I can hardly understand why it is to-day that we scarcely number eight thousand people in that State. We call it 111 points of operation. I can not honestly say 111 churches. I could count almost on the fingers of my two hands the real churches in Michigan which are living and supporting their pastors and contributing to the interests of our work and running winter and summer. We have about eighty preachers in the State. The State Missionary Society last year raised $3,000. It was Mrs. Ferris, of Detroit, who gave the $25,000 to start that splendid training school in Indianapolis. It was a Michigan sister who gave $10,000 for a school in Kentucky. It was a Michigan sister, Sister Scott, that left a legacy to provide for a little church in Ann Arbor, and out of that came the necessity for a Bible chair in Ann Arbor at the present day. So we have to say that the spirit of Michigan is on the upgrade; it is harmonious; it is progressive.

      Ohio: Within Ohio's borders the Restoration movement in its very incipiency found fertile soul, and the seed sown has produced abundantly. The past century has witnessed the permanent organization of almost six hundred churches of Christ, representing at present a membership of ninety thousand. Ohio contributes liberally in her money, and sends much more to serve national and world-wide interests than she bestows within her own limits; and rightly so. In every department of human activity--commercial, political, industrial, social--are found worthy representatives of the people who say, "The Bible only." Ohio has been especially a producer of preachers, and the countries beyond have heard the voice of her missionaries. All the islands of the sea have listened to her harbingers of salvation. [431] While we have about 570 churches, we have about 250 churches that are pastorless. Our great need, and I think I voice a universal need, is for men, young men, strong men, who will prepare themselves thoroughly to take up the work of the ministry of the gospel of the Son of God. We have 142 towns of a population of one thousand or more with no church of Christ; we have four counties in Ohio with no church of Christ. We have twenty-seven county-seats in Ohio without a single church; and of our 570 churches in Ohio, the State Society has given aid directly to over 350 of them.

      Our Ohio churches, and I suspect the churches generally, need, as congregations, to gather in their upper room and there wait on bended knee like the disciples of old, until they see Jesus Christ standing in their midst, and wait there until, like Thomas, shorn of doubt, they shall exclaim, "My Lord and my God!" Friends, then, and not till then, shall you and I be able to go forth Spirit-filled, Spirit-thrilled, and, in consequence, divinely empowered to conquer this old world, and claim it for Him who is King of kings.

      New England: Massachusetts has eight churches. There has recently been organized another. Rhode Island has one. Connecticut has two. Vermont has two. New Hampshire has none. Maine has three churches that live. You may think from what I have said that from forty years' work in New England we have not done very much, and if you will look at our churches in New England, we have not. But do you know that this plea of ours is a plea that permeates?

      Northern Idaho: Twelve years ago we had one congregation and one church building, but since then, notwithstanding we have labored against many difficulties, we have eighteen housed congregations and six congregations unhoused. I appeal to our young ministers here. Will you not come out in Northern Idaho and help us to possess this land for Jesus Christ?

      No response from South Carolina or Jamaica.

      Colorado: There are thirty-seven of us from Colorado, not in this room, but at the Convention. The first Disciples came to Colorado overland in 1863, and located at Golden, fifteen miles west of Denver; the first Disciples known in Denver arrived there in 1864; the first church building in Denver was upon a leased lot, and was erected in 1866, about the same time as the one at Golden. Berdie Stover, the boy preacher, whose name has become a household word to the Disciples in Colorado, was the pioneer. He lifted the first spade of earth for the foundation of the house of God in 1873. The first located pastor in Denver was J. H. McCullough, now of California, and present at this Convention. The first building in Denver was a log building upon a leased lot, and in that building Bro. McCullough began his ministry. The first permanent building in the city of Denver was the building of the Central Christian Church that was erected under the ministry of Wm. Bayard Craig. The real missionary work in Colorado began in 1883. Our church there was assisted from 1883 continuously until 1891. In that year, by mutual consent of all concerned, the State of Colorado became the mission field of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions and has continued so until this date. The American Christian Missionary Society is now aiding in the support of our work. Counting all churches, large and small, weak and strong, there are sixty-three in Colorado, and, of that number, fifty-six have been either organized or supported by missionary help, leaving only seven out of the present number of churches that have been able to start without missionary money. The number of Disciples in the State is now seventy-five hundred, I believe. We have not quite one Disciple to every one hundred of the population, as against one to nineteen in Kentucky, and one to eighteen in Missouri.

      No response from Virginia.

      Indiana: The Restoration movement began in Indiana very early in the last century. The State Missionary Society began co-operative mission work in 1839. Then we had 115 churches, now 796. Then there were 7,701 members, now [432] there are 156,000. There have been 143 churches organized and 439 helped, with 60,910 accessions by State work. It is estimated that there have been given in fifty years to five of our general boards, $1,455,350.

      This society has gathered and published information in reports of fields, forces and fruits of mission work. It has cited great open doors of opportunity and sounded "Macedonian calls." It has planned and held conventions, county, district and State. It has helped to introduce preachers and churches in the vital service of preaching the gospel.

      It has organized and systematized the work on the missionary co-operative basis, so that by county, district and State co-operation the weak and unreached churches and the unoccupied fields can be reached and helped. Thus, "the strong can bear the infirmities of the weak" and churches can "bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ." This is the law of missions and of missionary organization. "No man liveth unto himself."

      It has gone out to the weak churches and waste places with evangelization. By demonstrating the life of Christ, these State evangelists have been able to overcome anti-missionary prejudices and quicken o-missionary stagnation into life and zeal, while the perishing have been saved and the spirit of the great commission for world-wide evangelism has been imparted to the churches, so that they have begun to support these great organized missionary societies with offerings of money and men.

      It has helped all the churches to produce leadership for all departments of church work, both at home and abroad. It has given help in time of almost hopeless trouble to hundreds of churches, as in New Testament evangelism it has "set in order the things that were wanting and ordained elders" in these churches. It has given visions to inspire and instructions to direct in the divine plea for the unity of God's people that the world may believe.

      Mr. Smith, of Oklahoma, made a few remarks, but, being far back in the hall, they were inaudible to the reporter.

      The representative from Nova Scotia stated that they had twenty-two churches there, with a membership of about two thousand, and pleaded to have more preachers sent to that Province.

      Montana: We have twenty-four churches and nineteen hundred members. We have twelve preachers. Last year we organized, under the State Board, two churches. We built three houses of worship and raised altogether for all purposes $38,293. Not only that, but we have had many converts, and in this work of winning souls to Jesus Christ Miss Park has had a great share, and I want her to sing for you this afternoon our rallying-song, "Montana for Christ."

      Wisconsin: We have in Wisconsin about fifteen hundred members and seven preachers. We have built one church during the past year, and we hope to build more in the future. We revived one church that was dead and re-established it and held a great meeting. There are twenty-four representatives here.

      Eastern Pennsylvania: This territory embraces about two-thirds of the territory and two-thirds of the population of our State; namely, 4,500,000. Early in our history some one journeyed to Philadelphia and started a movement in that city. Late in the twenties one N. J. Mitchell learned the plea in Ohio, and, having married a lady from Howard, Pa., moved to that place, and, laboring then as a surveyor, organized a church, and later others near by. Soon after on, S. E. Shepard was called to preach for the Baptists in Bradford County, and, learning from the Campbell publications the way of the Lord more perfectly, left the Baptists and organized churches on the basis of the New Testament alone. Now we have fifty-seven churches and about seven thousand members--one for each eight hundred of our population. "The harvest is great, but the laborers are few."

      West Virginia: It is the State of Bethany College; it is the State also that has at present the oldest congregation of Disciples in the brotherhood--the church at Wellsburg. The church [433] was organized by Alexander Campbell, Aug. 21, 1823.

      Western Washington: Western Washington was organized about four years ago, but was not able to employ a secretary until the last year. During this time we have organized one church; we have built four churches that will aggregate about $20,000. We have drawn plans for four other churches. In addition to that, we have located eight pastors and have increased the pay of those pastors to the amount of $4,160, and yet they are not overpaid by any means. There are twenty-five delegates in the Convention from western Washington.

      Tennessee: Tennessee has gone dry!

      Kansas: Since you are to go to Kansas next year, I will ask the people of Kansas to stand and see who will entertain you. A young Kansan said recently that Kansas is a stretch of prairie, a land of sunflowers, a billowing sea of gold. Kansas is an emotion, a principle, a living spirit. Our work in Kansas began fifty-five years ago. A church was organized in a grove. The people were poor, but honest. During the last twenty years our State Missionary Society has added $32,000 to the fund, in a State where there are now living 52,000 Disciples. This is the influence that the State Missionary Society has had on our work in Kansas. So when you come next year you can learn more about the land of sunflowers and progress.

      Illinois: There is quite a good sprinkling of Illinois boys and girls here. One hundred years ago Illinois was just an open prairie, with the prairie grass and flowers. Since then everything has happened. Alexander Campbell, Ben Franklin, Barton Stone and other great men came our way and preached the gospel in our State--a great State of good people. People came from Indiana and Ohio into central and southern Illinois and brought their religion with them, and these furnished us the means of starting many churches, so that to-day we have 765 churches in Illinois and 111,000 Disciples. Our State Missionary Board, organized in 1851, is responsible for the existence of four hundred of those churches, and more than one-half of the preachers who preach full time live in the churches the State Missionary Society established. We have helped, nobody knows how many weak churches, over and over again, within the last fourteen years. Within that time we have established eighty-five churches and have brought 18,500 people into the brotherhood during that time. We have helped a large number of congregations and put preachers in the churches by the year at a time. We have lost within the last three or four years forty-five churches, and, brethren, every last one of these, without exception, has died because it undertook to live by itself and for itself. Our State Missionary Society has been a power and a blessing to Home Missions and to Foreign Missions, and we glory in the thought that every church established preaches the gospel, not only in Judea and Samaria, but unto the uttermost parts of the earth. We could organize a great many more churches in our State, because there is only one Disciple for every thirty-four of the population. There is plenty of room there for us, but we can't find the preachers to fill the pulpit after the new church is established. We can't afford to establish a church and let it die for the want of a good minister. You good folks that have boys in your families that are the brightest and most promising in school, teach those boys to give themselves as heroically to the service of Christ as to the service of the Government. Many a father and many a mother will send their boys in the service of the Government at $1,300 a year. That is a good thing; but when the people get by this and are willing to give us the boys in our State, we will have an abundance of churches. We can only go as fast as the supply of ministers permits us. We want two hundred competent men--not men that are failures everywhere else--men that will gloriously preach the gospel of the Lord.

      Mississippi: Before the war the cause was prosperous in this State, but most of the ministers were from the North, who went home to be with their families during that time of great trial. The work died; it has never taken much stride until just a few years ago. For twenty years the State Board accounted itself fortunate to be able to keep one [434] missionary in the field to evangelize nearly two million souls. In the last five years that number has been increased from one missionary to seven, and the income from $2,000 to something over $7,000 annually. It is a great field for strong men who are willing to labor in the cause of Christ.

      Australia: I think we have nearly 20,000 members and about 250 churches, and about fifty churches having 3,000 members, in the near-by islands, New Zealand. We owe, in a very large measure, our prosperity to the work you men have done there. We have sent our men here to your colleges, then your daughters and your sisters have married them, and they have settled in your presence and we have lost them to a great extent. Just in self-defense we have had to establish a college there of our own. The work in Australia is growing. Australia itself is almost the same area as the United States. When you fought against the old country and gained your freedom, you secured ours as well, for we never had to pay a penny of taxation to the old country. We have in Australia about ninety preachers of the gospel, trying to win souls for Christ. We have quite a number of Endeavor societies. We need men. We don't want men you can spare; we want men you can't spare.

[CCR 426-435]