ence and faith in the living God, and we joy in the hope of that advancing kingdom that at length shall fill the world. One God, one law, one element, and one far-off Divine event to which the whole creation moves.

"I think we shall agree also that we gather at a time most auspicious for such a conference. The missionary movement is at a stage when immediate enlargement, a vast enhancement of results is close at hand. There are conspiring events which we can not fail to notice; the enlargement of territory and of responsibility that has come to our own nation so as to constitute this a real epoch in our history, not without its dangers, but also with its glowing hopes; that great struggle in Africa between brave peoples, on which the world looks with deepest interest, on which the fate of states, it may be of a continent, depends; that ferment and apparent break-up in China, where a fourth of the population of the globe and the great powers of Europe are so intimately concerned; the convention of the Great Powers at the Hague not long since, seeking some path by which the peace of the world might be promoted and made enduring; these might seem to some to represent the most significant movement of the times; but a little thought, I am sure, will convince us all that beneath these movements and over them, with men's will and despite men's will, there is working a superior movement which He who is the author and finisher of our faith holds in His hands. It is the preparation for a new missionary epoch. The great Christian nations are assuming wider responsibility, exerting greater influence. The vast populations of China and of Africa are coming out into the swift currents of the modern times. As plain as the signs that gathered about the advent of our Lord, are the signs that gather about us that God is giving to this generation a new summons and a glorious opportunity to win the world to our Redeemer. We know the Divine purpose, we see the field. Our hosts are ready. The march has begun, and it is for us to determine what our share shall be in the struggle and in the victory. "He is sounding forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; Oh be swift my soul to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet, Our God is marching on!""

Responses of Delegates

Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson, Secretary of the London Missionary Society responded in behalf of the British delegation:

"I am here to thank you on behalf of my fellow-delegates from Great Britain for the welcome you have given us. If it were not in America I should have said, the right royal welcome you have given us. We thank you for all the careful preparation you have made. American business habits, and alertness of intelligence, and keenness for statistics, and hunger for information have almost overpowered us during the last two years. Your committees have designed and sent out to us schedules and forms of inquiry, and papers of questions, and other documents which we have, in our humble way, tried to fill up, and I can only say that if you have displayed as much care in collating the information as in collect

ing it, we shall have out of this Conference some of the most valuable information that can well be desired by those who are engaged in carrying on the missionary enterprise

"I am very sorry that we have so small a delegation from Great Britain and Ireland. This happens to be for us the most inconvenient time of all the year; all our great missionary societies are having their anniversaries. The May meetings in London begin about the first week of April and end in the third week of June, and the great assemblies of the Presbyterian churches in Scotland and Ireland have their annual meetings early in the month of May. The result is that many who would fain have been here have been effectually kept from coming. But though many have not been able to come, I speak in their name, as well as in the names of those who are present, when I say that you have their hearts with you in this great gathering. We shall watch all the proceedings with intense interest, and shall look forward to the published report of these meetings for information and stimulus, and our earnest prayer is that God's rich blessing may come upon all its proceedings, so that from this meeting there may go forth an influence and an impulse into all the churches.

"We meet here, expecting many great things from the Conference. I do not think, speaking for myself, that the principal benefit of the meetings will be in consultation or conference. It is not very easy to confer when you have 2,000 people together. The best way, I find, of conferring, is to have four or five around a table, and discussion in any real sense of delicate questions which must arise in connection with the administration of mission affairs, is a matter which is best relegated to some small body on some quiet occasion. But we come to this Conference with some hope and expectation of a great demonstration of the unity of Christ's Church. We are here from many countries; we are here belonging to many sections of the Christian Church. We have many individual views, likes, and dislikes, and differences of opinion which might very easily become antipathies. But we are here as Christian men and women, and we rejoice in being able to let the world know that below all the differences there is the one foundation, Jesus Christ our Lord, and that we are one in Him.

"We rejoice in this demonstration and we believe it will have a profound effect upon the lukewarm and the unbelievers in the missionary enterprise who are still to be found, unfortunately, some of them within the Church of Christ. We want men to understand that it is not a few faddists who have taken up this notion of missions, but that it is the Church of Christ as a whole that is waking up to her great duty and responsibility, and that we are uttering the voice of Christ when we say that to be missionary is to be Christian.

"We want the world to know that the Church of Christ has waked up at last to the commission her Lord intrusted to her nineteen centuries ago; waked up at last to the opportunities her Lord has set before her in her masterful position in this great world to-day; waked up at last and intends to use the wealth He

has lavished upon her, the knowledge with which He has endowed her, the power, political and otherwise, which rests with her, to hasten the day when all shall know Him, from the least even to the greatest.'

"Some years ago in one of my missionary journeys I had the opportunity of seeing a sight I shall never forget. My companion and I were traveling in the Himalayas. We rose very early one morning, just at the gray dawn, and started forth from the travelers' bungalow by a hill-path which led us round the shoulder of a mountain and above a deep valley. We shivered as we went, for it was bitterly cold. The air was full of the night fog and the distant mountains were very forbidding in the gray. As the time went on, the fog settled down into the deep valleys and we heard weird sounds of awakening life from far below. First, the cock's shrill clarion. Then the twitter of other birds unseen, and the ax of some early woodman chopping wood to make his morning fire. As we turned a corner my friend said 'Look!' We sat on our horses speechless. In front of us was one of the greatest peaks of the Himalaya range clad in virgin snow, and the top of that peak had caught the first rays of the rising sun and was glowing like a carbuncle in the wondrous light, a promise of the new day. And as we went on the sun arose and the whole mountain side was flooded with the light; and then the night mists rose from the valleys, and all nature, awake, went to its daily task, glad, because the lord of day was there; strong, because the lord of day was shining on them.

"To-day I bid you look at the mountain top. I bid you hear the sounds down in the valleys. You will, as you come to the meetings next week, hear again and again the story of movements in heathendom-the wakened hearts, the cry of need, the hungry child wanting the Father's care, the men in the darkness still who are needing the light of the day. Oh, but you will hear from the missionaries that the dawn has come. It is only dawn, but, thank God, it is dawn, and if we will but wait, and work, and watch, and pray, this century which is now upon us will see the whole world flooded with the glorious light and Christ Himself shall reign."

The Rev. Dr. A. Schreiber responded for the German delegation: "I consider it a great privilege that I am allowed to stand here today," said Dr. Schreiber. "It is the third time that I have been able to attend a conference like this. Now, as I have brought back from the London conferences of 1878 and 1888 some special blessings for myself and for my work, I am quite sure the same will be the case this time. I am standing here now as a representative of sixteen German missionary societies, with their 850 German missionaries. I want to express our heartfelt thanks in the name of all these societies for your kind invitation sent to us over the ocean to come here. We want to thank the American brethren for the great pains they have taken in planning and preparing this Conference, for the marvelous zeal they have shown, and especially for their fervent prayers offered to Almighty God in order to procure

a rich blessing upon this Conference. I am very sorry, indeed, that only such a small number of us from Germany have come here as delegates-only Dr. Merensky, one other brother, and myself. I had wished very much, indeed, and I have done my best to bring some more of my brethren from Germany here, especially my friend, the well-known professor, Dr. Warneck, but it was all in vain. It is not so much the sea passage that has detained the others, but most of them are not very much used to the English language, and that is a great difficulty to me also in speaking to you here to-day. Since I have been here in this country and experienced such a warm welcome from every side, which makes one feel at home at once on this side of the Atlantic in the new world, I have thought what a pity that all those other mission men from Germany can not share in it, and what a pity that they can not be present at the meetings of this Conference, which will show as never before the unity of the whole evangelical world, the unity of all of us in our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. If this Conference was not to have any other special results I consider it would not have been in vain if it demonstrates before all the world, and especially in the face of Rome, the unity of all evangelical mission people, and by that also the unity of all Protestant Christendom.

"But I am quite sure a great number of other blessings and outcomings will be bestowed upon this Conference. Our Lord can not but answer those fervent prayers that have been brought before Him in this city and through this whole country. With us, too, in Germany, there are many pious people praying now for it, asking God's blessing for our Conference, and among them that understand the situation best, there is one topic foremost in their prayers, and I must not forget to mention it here to-day. Our wish is this, that the Conference become the means in God's hand of bringing about a better mutual understanding between our English, American, and German mission people. We know very well in Germany that we have learned a great deal from the English and American missionaries and missionary societies, but on the other hand, we venture to say that perhaps, also, you too, can learn something from us; and by doing so the rule laid down by St. Paul would be acted upon that we are to serve each other, every one by the gift that is given to us by our Lord and Saviour.

"Now, at all events, to Him we will look, for His blessing we will wait, and to Him we will give all the praise at the end of our gathering. Soli Deo Gloria!"

Rev. Joseph King, the Agent of the London Missionary Society, responded for the delegation from Australia:

"The kindly welcome which has been given to Australia this afternoon must not be allowed to pass without a word of very hearty recognition. I may say that this is the first time that Australia has had such a status as this in a similar conference. German, Scandinavian, Swiss, French, British, and American missions have all had their places in former conferences, but Australia, as such, was not then known as a home of foreign missionary work.

The change is very significant. The world is not standing still. God is working, working in His infinite wisdom, working toward the world's evangelization, and, friends, He is working in ways which we do not always sufficiently recognize. The risen Christ who is alive forevermore, is living, living in this age, and He is working in connection with modern history in ways which we do not sufficiently remember. Had the great Head of the Church nothing to do with the planting of this great American Republic, of which this marvelous city is the metropolis? Verily, yes, verily, yes, and He is now permitting another Christian commonwealth to come into existence on the other side of the Pacific. It is no matter of chance that Australia is coming to the front in foreign mission work. It is God who is circling the world with Christian states, states which, if they are mercenary, and alas they are that, are also missionary. America, thank God, is a land of missions, and I venture to say in this hall here to-day that the Christian missions of America constitute America's chief glory, and at the same time her safety.

"And now, God is permitting Australia to take part in this great work, and this is why I am here. I am very sorry that the delegation from Australia is so very small. I have no authority to speak for Australasia as a whole, but I know the Australian colonies so well from end to end that I can assure you that the churches of Australasia are in deepest, closest sympathy with the objects contemplated by this great Conference. It is remarkable how very ignorant some people are about Australia. I have no doubt there are some in this audience, intelligent as they may be otherwise in respect to other things who, when they read this programme and saw in it the wordAustralia,' thought of it as another mission field. Australia, Australasia, friends, which I represent, is a land to-day of spired cathedrals, a land of many churches, a land of great colleges, and it is now a land of not a few missionary societies. And I am here to-day to bring you the greetings of earnest, devoted, prayerful fellow-workers who are from those Australian coasts yonder sending out many new helpers into the mission field."

The Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, M.D., D.D., of India, responded for the missionaries :

"It has fallen to my happy lot," said Dr. Chamberlain, "to stand here and in the name of the 2,400 missionaries in India, nay, in the name of the 15,464 missionaries of all churches in all non-Christian lands; in the name of the 73,000 native assistants working, each for his own people in those lands; in the name of the 1,317,600 communicants and the 4,414,000 enrolled Christian adherents already gathered there from among the heathen; in the name of these, to tender to you our sincerest thanks for your welcome to this World Conference for the extension of the kingdom.

"With united hearts do we thank you, Mr. Chairman, not only for your words of welcome, but we thank you, we thank the Chairman of the Executive Committee, we thank all your large-hearted colleagues for the inception of the idea, and for the three years of