Leader of Music: We will open our service this morning by all standing and singing "America." [Song.]

      Mr. Moninger: Let us all pray the Lord's Prayer. [Prayer.]

      Mr. Moninger: It is an experience of great satisfaction that one of the national officers in the Bible-school work is a member of the Christian Church. I have seen him receive such great ovations that the people stood and waved their handkerchiefs as he came on the platform. I wish you would give Brother Pearce, the national adult superintendent, such a salute now as he comes to lead us in this conference this morning. I present to you Mr. W. C. Pearce. [Applause. Chautauqua salute.]

      Mr. Pearce: I am sure, dear friends, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and thank Brother Moninger for these words, but you know I was just thinking if it were not for Jesus that neither Moninger nor myself nor any of the rest of you could be lived with, and we would not love another if it were not for Jesus, and I pray that all our conference to-day may be woven into a wreath and put upon the brow of our blessed Lord. And it is because of his work and because of his love that we are able to sing a verse which I will ask you to sing now, "Blest be the tie that binds." [Song.]

      I also like to sing that verse, "We share our mutual woes." [Song.]

      I think it is only wise that we should take just a minute to get acquainted with each other. I want to ask how many teachers of Bible classes are in the room. Will you kindly rise and remain standing?

      Thank you. Remain standing. How many presidents of Bible schools are in the room? Remain standing. Teachers? How many officers or members of committees in organized classes? Will you please rise, all of you who are members of Bible classes? Will you please rise?

      All of you who believe in Bible classes [laughter], please rise. [Applause.]

      Just a minute. A couple of folks are not up. What is the matter? Help them up. [Laughter.] Oh, I see; all right. Will you shake hands with the folks on either side of you, and then sit down? [Laughter.] Now, there wasn't anybody here for me to shake hands with; how many would be willing to shake with me? Now, put up your hands. Now put them together. Now shake. [Laughter.] If there is anybody that doesn't feel at home, will you please rise? [Laughter.] Let us bow our heads a moment in prayer. [Prayer.]

      The Chairman: I suppose one of the most significant movements of the day is the large interest being taken in adult Bible-class work. Our plan for the conference this morning is to leave just as much of it as possible for questions and answers, so that every one may get the help that he especially needs, but I have asked a few of our brethren to speak for a little time. I will ask them to come to the platform now and take these seats just here at the front. First of all, I have asked Mr. DePew, of Illinois, one of the dearest boys on this continent and doing one of the finest bits of work that any workman could do, to speak to you of the advantages of class organization. Mr. DePew. [Applause.]

      The Chairman: We have not been in our organized class work long enough to gather statistics generally from the entire field, but in Ontario recently they gathered statistics that showed this fact, that in 211 classes from little [532] villages and country churches and town churches and city churches, representing all parts of the Province of Ontario, that within six months, approximately, after the classes organized they increased 72 per cent. Some time since, in Pomona, Cal., as I was leaving their State Convention, an anonymous note was handed to me, and when I opened if I found this message, in substance: "Dear Mr. Pearce:--Evidently you believe in reaching an individual man. There is a young man living in San Francisco," and she gave his name and address. "Will you not please have one of your men's classes there go after him once"--then there was a little dash--"a hundred times"--then another dash "yea, till you bring him back?" It was the handwriting of an old lady. I, interpreted it as the cry of motherhood. Oh, friends, if the organized classes will help to bring back in six months as many young men and young women as we now have in the Sunday-schools, and answer the heart-cry of these mothers all through the land, it certainly would pay. Let us bow our heads a moment and ask the Father to use the organized class movement to bring back the prodigal. Let us pray. Moninger, will you lead us? [Prayer.]

      The Chairman: "Throw Out the Lifeline Across the Dark Wave." [Song.]

      The Chairman: I think it well here for us to stop a moment and answer one question that comes so often, What is an organized class? When the work was put upon our hearts and we first began to plan for these classes, this question was asked oftener than anything else, "What is an organized class; how much organization is demanded; what are the essentials in the organized class?" I did not find it in the dictionary; did not find it in the morning newspaper, where nearly everything is, and so I began to think what to do, and it came home to me that I should hunt up the successful Bible classes that were organized, and out of their experiences we erected the standard of organization that I want to give you.

      First of all, we found it was divided leadership, the teacher no longer the only leader. A teacher was frank enough to ask me one day what would become of the teacher when the class did everything. I said, "What will become of the preacher when he doesn't have to do everything? [Laughter.] Probably he would have some time to preach." Well, I think the teachers are not much afraid of that.

      But the next question, How much division? and we find that the minimum division represented five different officers. First, the teacher, always the chief officer, then the president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer. Now, somebody comes up and says, "Can't you make the secretary-treasurer one person?" Then some one says, "Can't the teacher be the president, or even the vice-president?" Now, you have only got to make one other division, and then it will be as it is now. How many officers? Five. How many different officers? Five. If you have only got three, you have got to hunt up some more. One class sent in and said they were organized and only had three members. They were partly organized.

      And not only divided leadership, but a variety of activities. If the classes are alive, they must be active along certain specific lines. And the first activity is membership activity. The first group of activities are all the things that a class could do to increase its membership. Therefore we require the appointment of a membership committee; but you can call it the lookout committee; you can call it the hustlers committee; you can call it any kind of name you want to; but the work of the committee is to build up the class.

      Now, second, are social activities--those that refer to the social life. I heard of a church somewhere that was absolutely united--frozen together. [Laughter.] Now, I don't think that kind of unity tempting. It might be for the crowd they have, but I don't think it would get any more, and you would have to break into it if you got in at all, and when you melted it it would be gone. [Laughter.] So we must have a social life, and we will hear about that as the conference goes on this morning, and therefore we require the appointment of a social committee.

      And the last are the religious activities, and more distinctly specific religious life, or that which cultivates the [533] spiritual, without which the class will be a failure. A great crowd having a good time is nothing more nor less in some instances than, a baseball game, and that won't build a church unless something else comes in. Your Bible-class boys may play baseball, but that is not building up the kingdom as it should be built up, and we must introduce the other phase of membership, the social and devotional committees.

      How many committees? Three. Name them. What is first? Membership. What is second? Social. What is third? Devotional.

      Now, some one may be here this morning that says, "I think that is an arbitrary standard." If you leave out that committee to do specific work along the lines of the spiritual life and service, you do it at your peril; you leave it out at your peril; you leave it out at your peril. You can go home, and you say, "Well, that is all right. We believe that, but we will leave out the social life." At your peril you leave it out. At your peril, for I declare while sugar may be the biggest thing in gooseberry pie, it is not the only thing. A gooseberry pie without gooseberries is no pie at all. [Laughter.] And so we want the standard kept clearly in your mind, and as the class grows and the activities multiply you may increase your number of committees, but the activities will not increase, for these three great divisions cover it.

      Now, somebody here says, "Well, we have a little class; we are in the country." Thank God if you are in the country; don't you ever apologize for that; that is where I grew up. [Laughter.] All the folks that grew up in the country, or are living there now, put up your hands. [Applause.] You get about 85 per cent. of your preachers from the country. [Applause.] And your doctors and your lawyers and your great men everywhere. [Applause.] What I wanted to say was this: Go home and make your little class, if you are where there are not many folks, just as good as the big ones. You can do it and this standard will help you.

      Now, we must pass on to the next. I want to ask Mr. J. H. Bryan, of Missouri--everybody knows Mr. Bryan--to talk to us. [Applause.]

      The Chairman: We have on the platform this morning a man whose life is a wonderful inspiration to all of us. He is the man who has made the present of the Centennial flag that is to be awarded to-night, Mr. I. W. Gill. He wants to make an announcement. I want to ask him to do it now. [Applause.]

      Mr. Gill: I desire at this time to announce the committee on nomination for your officers and directors for the coming year of the National Bible-school Association: E. J. Meacham, Ohio; L. C. McPherson, New York, and M. Lee Sorey, of Kansas. These brethren will report this afternoon during the business session.

      The Chairman: I should have said that Mr. Gill is our present president of our National Christian Bible-school Association.

      We will pass now to a consideration of the social committee. We will have just a brief message on this committee, and then we are going to give you all the opportunity to ask questions, and we can answer every one you will ask. I can't do it myself; I may have to say I don't know [applause and laughter], but I will answer anything you ask. So we will take the social committee. We have Mr. Welshimer to speak on this topic. [Applause.] Mr. Welshimer spoke briefly on the topic mentioned.

      The Chairman: The other day I received a letter which had in it this question, "We only have five minutes in our class for devotional service, what else is there to do?" and at a conference with the brethren they asked me to speak on this particular question this morning, "What can the devotional committee do!" I discovered at once that many people were perhaps misunderstanding the devotional committee because of its name and the common practice of having a devotional service.

      I do not know a better name for the committee. You might say religious work committee, or you might say prayer-meeting committee, or you might say spiritual committee, but that would be rather presumptuous. But what is this committee? It is the committee that has charge of the work that will produce spiritual life in the class, and I [534] will suggest two or three lines of duties for this committee.

      First of all, this Book [holding up Bible]. Get every man in the class to have a Bible in his hand, and every woman. I have discovered that a great many men do not read the Bible. They talk about the Bible, but I have been in Bible classes that look like anything else than Bible classes, a group of men with no Bibles and a teacher talking without a Bible. It looks to me like a talking class. But when I go into a class and every man has an open Bible and is reading the Bible, you will find always the spiritual life can not but burn. Let our Bible class devotional committee see to it that every man, every woman in the class has a Bible in their hands every Sunday. [Applause.] I declare there is nothing that will count for more in your class than just to put the Bible in the hands of the folks and get them to own their own Bibles.

      Now, the second kind of duties is along the line of prayer. Oh, we never need to pray the prayer more than we need to pray it to-day, "Lord, teach us to pray. Lord, teach us to pray." The devotional committee's opportunity is to teach the class to pray. And here are some of the things briefly mentioned: Bring the needs of the class--they may bring the sick of the class. They ought to go outside of their own boundary and bring in other needs.

      I want to call your attention to the third class of duties for the devotional committee. First, the Bible study. All together, what is the first? Bible study. And the second is what? Prayer life. Prayer life of the class, and the third is all the benevolent and missionary and philanthropic work of the class.

      We want the next number of our program this morning. Mr. Faris, of Ohio, one of our most effective workers, many of you know him. He is going to tell us how Bible classes can go out and touch folks that can't come to the class. The Extension Department or Home Department of the Bible class. Mr. Faris, of Ohio.

      The Chairman: There are two things about the Home Department which make me very much in sympathy with it and very enthusiastic about it. First of all, it leaves the door open for you to come back again. That is a great thing. I remember when I went to see my wife the first time that is all I accomplished, just left the door open to come back, and I was so pleased that I could hardly go to sleep that night for thinking about it, for the last words she said were, "Will you please call again." [Laughter and applause.] No doubt she has regretted it many times since. [Laughter.] And then another thing. I was so pleased yesterday to think that the offering on the day when we sat at the Lord's table was for the old folks. God pity the young man that forgets the fathers of yesterday. [Applause.] The men that can't come any more ought to be in your Home Department, if you don't have a Home Department for anything else except just to take care of those temporarily laid aside.

      Now, we have come to the next topic, to be discussed by Mr. Elliott on "What the Brotherhood Can Do to Help Our Bible Classes." Mr. Elliott, it gives me great pleasure to introduce you, sir. [Applause.] He is an Illinois boy; that makes him all right. [Applause.]

      The Chairman: Now, this takes us to the last speaker that we have invited to speak this morning. The last one is Brother Taubman, who is superintendent of the second largest school, I understand, in our church, and he will now speak to you on "The Meaning of the International Emblem," the little red button, and it gives me great pleasure to introduce our good brother. [Applause.]

      The Chairman: Just two instances of buttons that have recently come to my attention. One was a young fellow on the dining-car the other day, who happened to be seated just across the table from me. I had on my little button. I was in Nebraska. He said, "Has that button got clear out here?" I said, "Yes, it is away out here. Where are you from?" "I am from Reading, Pa." I said, "Do you belong to a Bible class?" "I do." I said, "Where is your button?" He said, "It is in my grip." I said, "Please get it out and wear it, because you might miss meeting some other Bible-class man, for if I hadn't had it on you wouldn't have known I was a Bible-class worker." He said, "That's [535] so." He was going to San Francisco, a strange city. I gave him an introduction to a Bible-class man in that city, and he promised to call on him the first week he was there, and if he kept his word he was in a Bible class yesterday because of the button.

      Oh, friends, I rejoice; it seems to me it is extremely providential that our heavenly Father should cause us to choose an emblem that stands not for any authority, or declaration, or principle, or any form of class organization, but just stands for the blood of Jesus, that is all. Do you love him? Do you belong to a Bible class? Then put on a button. Let us see how many folks have it on now. Will you raise your hands? Thank you. The only trouble about the button is it is so expensive. It costs a dollar a hundred. [Laughter.]

      Now, just one suggestion which I would like to offer. One of the perils in the organized class is, that you organize it and then go on doing the work just like you did before, or committees don't do their work, nor do the officers all of them respond. I was in another State, far away from here, when a man came up at the close of a conference like this, and he said, "Mr. Pearce, we would like to have an organized class with all these committees at work all the time, but," he said, "there is nobody down in our church that will do anything but me." [Laughter.] "Well, then," I said, "you can't do a thing." [Laughter.] Then he had a notion to get mad. Well, you know I wanted to do something to get him to thinking.

      I offer this suggestion and urge it upon you, you teachers and ministers and leaders, do not expect to get the ideal results immediately. It takes some time for training. When my little boy got to be big enough, Mrs. Pearce and I unanimously appointed him chairman of a walking committee. He wasn't much of a walker. He had never walked in his life. But we just appointed him because we thought he had it in him. We could see promise there and it took two of us to start him. She held him. She was the class teacher. And I coaxed him. I was the class president. [Laughter.] Oh, that wobbly committeeman that don't know what to do, if you will just as teacher hold him up and the president coax him, and when he falls down say, "It's fine," and go on, the time will come when you will have your class full of life and full of power. Now, what is your first question:

      "In a little city of seven thousand is there room for a men's Bible class, and also for a men's Brotherhood?"

      Why can't they be united and lessen the weight of machinery? Over in Indianapolis last winter this question was asked of Brother Grafton, who has a great men's Bible class of something like three hundred men, and when he was asked the question he answered it this way, "My Bible class is my brotherhood." And all the Brotherhoods--our own church is not the only one I am in touch with--they have all provided that the organized men's Bible class may be a chapter of the national Brotherhood, and at the same time. That answers this question. If your men are organized in a Bible class, I will say this, that no men's Bible class or women's Bible class can be the success that it ought to be unless it does the Brotherhood work. Life always lives on exercise. Dr. Dixon, the Baptist preacher, said once a deacon came to him and said, "Pastor, feed the sheep." He said, "I looked at him and said, 'Why, deacon, God bless your soul, you don't need food; you are such a fat old sheep now you can hardly walk. You need exercise.'" [Applause.] And so the Bible classes must do Brotherhood work, and I think, in a small place, one might perhaps be enough.

      "What about the Visitation Committee?"

      Of course we class that under the Membership Committee. The class, when it gets large enough, might divide its membership activities into a Look-out Committee and a Visitation Committee and a Sick Committee and a Flower Committee, and they could have a Reception Committee. You could have half a dozen committees looking after the membership activities, and a Visitation Committee is one of them. An Advertising Committee would go in the same list. This is what I want you to see this morning: if we begin with membership activities, one committee at the beginning may look after that, but as the work grows, new committees will have [536] to be appointed. That is left at your discretion and experience.

      "In a school where the adult class must meet in the same room with the rest of the school, what devotional exercises would you have the Devotional Committee provide for each session, or would you have any?"

      Well, it is very doubtful; I think there might be exceptions sometimes; the room might be curtained off. It makes no more noise to pray than to talk, although the prayer would be interrupted, but if you are off in a corner there is no reason why you might not bow your heads a moment and say, "Charlie is in the hospital this morning; let us pray for Charlie;" or "Pastor is returning to-day from his trip to Pittsburg; let us pray for him that he may have a safe return." There is no reason why the class can not bow the head in prayer as a part of the devotional service. You were in when we discussed that, so you understand that the duties of that committee are broader than just the devotional period.

      "What about the Home Department? I find so many committees just simply distribute literature from door to door, but they don't get much more than that out of it. The people say they really don't think it pays to distribute literature. They may have their visitors, but they don't get the people out to the schools. They have a Home Department Committee, but very few of them come, just about the same thing from quarter to quarter."

      Here is a Home Department that is not getting as large results as the brother thinks we ought to get. I will ask Mr. Faris to suggest, if he will. He is gone. Mr. DePew, then, answer that question. Brother Meacham then. How many here are working in Home Departments? Will you be kind enough to rise? Let us see the cloud of witnesses this morning. Can any of you give the brother one suggestion as to how he can make it go better. Brother Moninger is called for.

      Mr. Moninger: Work harder at it. [Applause.] The Home Department that is organized will not be successful in its organization unless we keep working at it. The Extension Department feature is simply this: the committee works, and it means that if I go after a man I will not ask him to belong to the Home Department, but ask him to come to our men's class. Then after he has had his curiosity aroused, he will say to me, "I would like it the best thing in the world to come down, but I am an engineer." By and by, when he has said that two or three times, that he would like to come down there, bring out the Home Department, and say, "We have an Extension Department; every man who can't come is to be on the Extension Department, and he is as much a member of the class as any other member, except he can't come on Sunday." That is the way it will work. Call on them. Work hard at it. You will find your Home Department will keep active, and most of them will come to the active school sooner or later. The Home Department is for the "shut-ins," the "shut-outs" and the "shut-ups." [Applause.]

      The Chairman: I was talking about that Home Department I had so many years ago. I did not go around once in three months, when Mrs. Pearce said, "Please call again." I didn't wait three months. [Applause.]

      I do not think a Home Department will ever succeed, or any other work of the class, unless down in our hearts we love folks, and just want to go get them and bring them to Jesus Christ. And so we must cultivate that deeper sense of spiritual life in our churches, in our schools, in our communities.

      "I haven't yet got what I want about the Home Department. We have done what Mr. Moninger has spoken of. We have increased our class so far as our school is concerned. What I am trying to find out is, how to get these people a little more closely articulated with the Sunday-school."

      The Chairman: I think the best thing to say to the brother is what the little girl said in her prayer. She asked the Father for help that night, and prayed, "O Father, help me to be a good little girl, and if at first you don't succeed, try, try again." [Laughter and applause.] You know I think that will win out after awhile.

      "Should you put in, as chairmen of committees and officers, those who are not active church-members?" [537] It is not desirable to do so, would be my answer. I will ask Mr. Welshimer to say a word on this point, for he has been getting in a lot of new folks. [Applause.]

      Mr. Welshimer: The class president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, the chairmen of committees, ought to be Christians. You would not hear a man standing in your pulpit preaching the gospel who wasn't a Christian. Why should men go out in the name of Christ working for a Bible class who are not Christians? You ought to have Christian men and women doing the important things in the Bible class. [Applause.]

      "What if you have no Christian men in your class?"

      The Chairman: Make them. [Applause.] Do the best you can with what you have already got. Do the best you can with what you have.

      How many of you are heartily in accord with Mr. Welshimer's statement of the situation? Say aye.

      [Unanimous.]

      The Chairman: How many of you would rather have one hundred men gather next Sunday, not one of whom was a Christian, for the study of the Bible, than to not have them gather? Say aye.

      [Unanimous.]

      The Chairman: But by all means hold the ideal ever before you, but do the thing that you have got to do, where you are to-day. That's all.

      "What I want to know is whether you shall organize your class out of such material as you have or wait until they become Christians?"

      The Chairman: What do you say, friends?

      Delegates: Organize.

      The Chairman: You hear what this crowd says. I promise you one thing, that if you are as good a Christian as you look to be, and you organize a class out of the material you have, you will have a revival before long. [Applause.]

      "Is it wise for the adult class to meet with the main school for the opening exercises?"

      Let me ask you a question: Is it wise for the big brother of the family to eat breakfast with the family? [Applause.] All who think it is, say aye.

      [Unanimous.]

      The Chairman: Well, that is pretty unanimous. You know I don't like an old bachelor unless he can't help it. [Laughter.] If he can't, I love him and sympathize with him; but if he could be different, I don't like him. He ought to be with so many beautiful girls in this country that are waiting for him. [Laughter.] But, putting all jokes aside, it seems to me like the Bible class needs itself added to your equipment and your society, and it seems to me the Bible class needs the home atmosphere, the boys and the girls need the presence of the adults. But you can't do like one superintendent I heard about, who had a long opening service all for the little children, and asked the men to stay around back over there at one side. No matter if the children are there, let's have something besides baby food.

      "Where Sunday-schools are adjusted for one room, would you advise the use of a downtown room where it was near enough to get to church after Sunday-school?"

      You have heard the question. How many of you think it would be wise, say aye.

      [Some voted aye.]

      The Chairman: Those who think it would not, say aye.

      [Many voted aye.]

      The Chairman: I say let's bring everything you can under the roof of the church. [Applause.] If you can't do it, then do the best--what is that motto? Do the best you can with what you have. Have your head in the clouds, but keep your feet on the earth. It is a good place for the head, providing your feet are on the earth, but when you get your head and feet up in the clouds, you are nothing but a balloon. [Applause.] You can't go anywhere unless the wind blows favorably.

      "What is the value of contests between classes?"

      Who will you have answer that? Brother Welshimer.

      Mr. Welshimer: It makes workers. In every church and community there are those who are in a measure interested in the Bible-class work, but yet who are still outside. Get a contest and it wakes them up; they really get to work. There [538] is where you discover latent talent. I have known individuals who have planned visits out of the city, but for the sake of their class or school winning, they have postponed that visit and stayed at home. I know a man who went out four miles on Saturday afternoon, and went around and made calls and paid the street-car fare of men and women and children to come to the Bible school to help with the contest. These were not Sunday-school people; the majority of them have come into the Bible school and church. Before that time that man could not do anything. It was just the contest that set him to work. That is the main purpose of contests.

      The Chairman: One of the best things I ever heard said on contests was said by Mr. Welshimer. He said a contest is a fine thing if you keep it up all the time. The trouble about so many contests is you have to get over them like measles. Then you never have them any more. [Laughter.] You don't want the measles any more than you do want the contests right along. When I was a boy I had the chills, and I have never favored intermittent things. I believe in the contest that is on all the time to put life and vigor in our work. May I say this: there is a great power in the impulse of a concerted effort. I was in a town where I heard the band playing, and I looked down the street and here they came, and just behind the band was about one hundred and fifty men with Prince Albert coats and canes and silk hats, walking in the middle of the street, and just behind them were two men dressed in flowing white robes, with little white nightcaps on their heads, and just behind them a coach, and on top of it two men dressed in the same fashion, and on the outside were these words, "We are it." Well, this is the lesson. I said, "There is not a man in that crowd that would do that thing by himself." Think of a man dressed in white with a little white cap leading a billygoat down the middle of the street by himself. He won't do it. But when you get the impulse of a concerted movement on, then hundreds of people that never did anything before will take hold and begin to do it. Then, if you are wise, keep it up, and you will have great power.

      "What time should be given on the Lord's Day morning when we meet for routine business?"

      May I answer this question: Just as little as you can possibly get along with. [Applause.] I beg of you organized classes and ministers to stand as a Gibraltar to protect the Bible-study period from anything and everything. And therefore you want to refer all the business that you can possibly refer to the regular monthly meeting, or the weekly meeting, if you have it, and on Sunday morning I should say that if you had forty minutes, not over five minutes for business.

      "What about funds?"

      Without discussing the plans as I find them in the field, first I find two principles: The Bible class must have some money of its own to spend in its own way, or it will not succeed, and it ought to get that money under the authority of the school and the church. Some plan ought to be given to the class from the school so that they won't have to take the bits in their teeth. Now, some classes give all their Sunday morning offering to the school and support their own work by a monthly pledge; other classes give a per cent. to the school and keep a per cent. themselves. One class in Rochester gives the school $300 a year, and then pays all of its own expenses. Another class gives all its money to the treasurer, and at the end of the month the school treasurer checks back to the class 60 per cent., so that all the money goes through the one treasurer's hands and comes back to the class to dispose of itself in its own way. Now, you can adopt any one of these plans, but I beg of you to remember that the class should have money of its own. To repeat, the class should give of its Sunday-school collection to the Sunday-school supporting its own specific enterprises by monthly dues; that is one way. Another way is to make a pledge of $2 a week or $1 a week to the Sunday-school and keep all the balance. Another is to give a per cent.--40 per cent. of the Sunday offerings. Another, pay all the money to the school treasurer and have the treasurer check back to the class a percentage for its own use.

      With your permission, I will ask that [539] the last ten minutes be devoted to the two following purposes. First of all, to the summing up which I have asked Brother Moninger to give us; and, second, to the hearing of a fraternal delegate who was delayed and could not be with us yesterday, and that will bring us up to the closing hour. May I say that, in introducing Moninger, for he doesn't have to be introduced to any one in America--but I never think of Herbert Moninger that I do not thank God for the day he was born. [Applause.] One of the dearest, purest, cleanest, finest Sunday-school men in the world. I have asked him to sum up this conference this morning. Come on, Herbert. [Applause.] I want to hug him. Everybody that wants to hug him hold up your hands. [Laughter.]

      The Chairman: May I ask, friends, we are about to close in a very few minutes. I want that the last minutes shall be quiet ones until we have the benediction.

      In introducing Dr. Perry, the chairman said:

      Now, I have the pleasure of introducing Dr. Alfred T. Perry, fraternal delegate from the Congregational Church, and president of Marietta College, Ohio. I am sure it will give us great pleasure, every one of us, to receive him. [Applause.]

      The Chairman: Now, Dr. Perry's remarks remind me of a story of a man who saw the Siamese twins for the first time, and he looked at them from right to left, and then up again and down again, and finally was so surprised and amazed he abstractedly said, "Brothers, I suppose." [Laughter.] We are brothers.

      Now, you have been applauding men and you have been cheering those who have spoken and receiving them kindly as they have tried to help you this morning, but this is a Bible conference, and I beg every one of you that has got a handkerchief to get it out now and I will tell you what to do with it. I hold in my hand a full copy of a book that does not contain God's word, but it is God's word. [Applause.] It happens to be the copy of my Bible that I carried in my pocket through the Holy Land. I want while I hold that book up that we salute it. [Chautauqua salute.] And while we are saluting it, let us repeat this verse: "They are they which testify of me."

      [Song.]

      [Prayer.]

      [Whereupon the session adjourned.]

[CCR 532-540]