Division, Section. No JC.M. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/memorandaconcernOOphil £ounA~ JkCX-^yh^L^n^^ MEMORANDA CONCERNING SHELDON JACKSON AND THE MODERATORSH1P OF THE 109th General Assembly OF THE Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. WINONA ASSEMBLY GROUNDS, EAGLE LAKE, INDIANA, MAY 20-28, 1897. FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. philadelphia : MacCalla & Company Incorporated. CONTENTS. PAGE Forecast of the Moderatorship : Times-Herald, Chicago 7 Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati 8, 10 Dispatch, Pittsburgh 9 Gen. John Eaton, Washington 11 The Election : Account of New York Evangelist 17, 29 " " Washington Post 20 " " Chicago Times-Herald 21 " " Chicago Interior 23 " " New York Observer 31 Nomination Addresses : H. J. Morrison 35 George L. Spining, D.D 35 Rev. Richard M. Hayes 47 George W. McMillan, D.D 54 Congratulations : Adams, Rev. Robert N., D.D 57 Allen, Rev. Arthur H 57 Baer, John Willis 58 Bailey, Mrs. Charles L 58 Baker, Rev. Enos P 59 Booth, Rev. Henry M., D.D. LL.D . 59 Brady, Hon. John G 59 Burdick, Rev. Newman H 60 Campbell, Mrs. Isabella 60 Childs, Rev. T. S., D.D 61 Cleland, Rev. Thomas H,DD 61 Cochran, Thomas 62 Cook, Mrs. John R 62 Craighead, Mrs. James G 62 Craighead, Miss Alice 62 Crocker, Rev. J. N., D.D 63 Dickson, Mrs. Cyrus 63 Dickson, Miss Margaret 64 Doty, William F 64 Education, U. S. Bureau of. 65 Fletcher, Miss Alice C . 65 Gage, Rev. John L 66 Green, A. W 67 Gwynne, Rev. F. H., D.D 67 Haehnle, Rev. C. A 67 Hamilton, William 68 Hamlin, Rev. Teunis S., D.D 68 Heid, John G 69 Hilton, Miss Olga 69 Hughes, Mrs. Melancthon 69 James, Hon. Darwin R 70 Kerr, Prof. James D . . . 70 Kirkwood, Rev. Thomas C, D.D 71 Lee, Rev. E. Trumbull, D.D 71 PAGE. McCall, Miss Ida M 72 McGaughey, Rev. Johnston 72 McMillan, Rev. Duncan J., D.D 72 McNulty, Rev. Joseph M., D.D 72 Mann, Rev. M. G 73 Marsden, Edward S 73 Martin, John C. 74 Miller, Rev. William S 74 Milligan, Rev. James V 74 Morris, Edward D., D.D., LL.D 75 Norcross, Rev. George, D.D . . . 76 Patterson, Rev. R. M., D.D., LL.D 76 Peele, Judge Stanton J 77 Quaiffe, Alfred R 77 Radcliffe, Rev. Wallace, D.D 77 Reid, Rev. John G., Ph.D 77 Reynolds, Rev. Clarence G., D.D 78 Richardson, Rev. C. H., D.D 79 Roach, Mrs. C. L 79 Roberts, James B 79 Robinson, Rev. Thomas H., D.D, LL. D 80 Schaff, Rev. David S., D.D 81 Sheldon, Mrs. Henry 82 Stephenson, Miss Florence 82 Thompson, Rev. Charles L., D.D., LL.D 83 Thompson, Rev. W. O., D.D 83 Wadhams, William 84 Weidman, Rev. Jacob 84 Willard, Miss Frances E 84 Worrall, William 85 The Press: New York Tribune 89 Chicago Times-Herald 90 Troy Daily Times 94 Altoona Tribune 95 Herald and Presbyter 97 The Moravian 98 Christian Intelligencer 99 New York Independent 99 Methodist Woman's Home Mission Magazine 99 New York Evangelist 99 New York Observer 101 Presbyterian Journal 105 Christian Herald 107 Chicago Interior 108 New York Pilot 109 Treasury Magazine no Forward hi Chicago Ram's Horn 114 The Church at Home and Abroad 115 The Converted Catholic 116 Rev. William H. Roberts, D.D., LL.D., in the Presbyterian and Reformed Review 116 Presentation of Gavel : Address of Ex-President Benjamin Harrison 121 Presentation of Historical Cane: By Elder E. K. Polk 126 THE FORECAST. FORECAST. [Chicago Times-Herald, May 9, 1897.] THE 109th General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church, which will meet on May 20 at Winona Park, on Eagle Lake, near War- saw, Ind., will be in many respects the greatest ever held in the history of the Church. It is ex- pected that there will be 5000 ministers and lay members of the Church present, a larger attend- ance than at any previous meeting. Six hundred official commissioners will be present from the various Presbyteries, the number being equally divided between ministers and laymen. Every section of the United States, as well as the Foreign Missions under the jurisdiction of the Presby- terian Church, will be represented. The As- sembly will continue in session until May 31. A friendly contest for the Moderatorship has already been begun. No lay member of the Church has ever occupied the chair of the presid- ing officer at the annual convocation, but at the coming meeting this precedent may be broken. 7 8 FORECAST. Many of the commissioners favor the election of a layman as Moderator. Four candidates have been prominently mentioned for the office. The two laymen suggested are ex- President Harrison and John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia. Dr. Henry C. Minton, of San Anselmo, Cal., and Dr. Shel- don Jackson, Commissioner of Education for Alaska, are the ministerial candidates. Dr. Jack- son is a most interesting character. For forty years he has occupied the position of missionary for the Church in the territories west of the Mis- sissippi and in Alaska. It was Dr. Jackson who introduced reindeer in Alaska from Lapland for the purpose of solving the food problem. [Herald and Presbyter, May 5, 1897.] WE have already noted the nomination of Dr. H. C. Minton, of California, and have quoted some of the reasons advanced in his behalf. He is a strong, efficient, reliable man, and would fill the office admirably. We have also noted the nomination of ex- Presi- dent Harrison, a man whom not only Presby- terians, but Americans generally, delight to honor We have also noted the nomination of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, of Alaska. Dr. Jackson is known to as many ministers and elders as any man in the Church. Letters received by us in FORECAST. 9 the same mail from the East and West propose him for the Moderatorship. The reasons assigned are his long record of useful service and his quali- fications for the office. Another nomination vigorously urged in some quarters is that of Dr. Robert F. Sample, of New- York. Dr. Sample has a long record of service both in the East and West, and would fill the office well. Since the above was written, we have learned that the friends of Mr. John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, have nominated him. [Pittsburgh Despatch, May 15, 1897.] THE Assembly will be opened on Thursday morning with a sermon by the Moderator, Rev. Dr. Withrow. Thursday afternoon the roll will be made out, and the Moderator elected. The nominating speeches are expected to be of a vermilion tinge. Rev. Dr. Henry Minton will be urged on the ground that the office should go to the Pacific coast. His personal following is large, and the Washington and Jefferson men will support him solidly, unless Rev. Dr. Robert F. Sample, of New York, should be named and divide the vote. Dr. Minton is well backed up by the Pacific coast, the Pennsylvania and the Kentucky delegations, and his prospects are roseate. io FORECAST. Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, whose name is talis- manic, and whose career of forty years in the Home Mission work, mostly in the Rocky Mount- ains, reads like a romance, will be placed in nom- ination by one of the leading orators of the Church, " the Plumed Knight," in a speech which the friends of Dr. Jackson hope will carry the As- sembly off its feet, and place Dr. Jackson in the Moderator's chair with a whirl. In the life and work of this distinguished missionary there is basis for a fervid speech. Ex-President Harrison and Hon. John Wana- maker, and the elders generally, are now practi- cally out of the race. The contest is narrowed down, in the judgment of the best judges, to Minton and Jackson. Dr. Jackson celebrates his sixty-third birthday anniversary next Tuesday, while Dr. Minton celebrated his forty-second last Saturday. Both men were born in the month of May and have the same horoscope. [Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati, May 19, 1897.] THE Michigan Presbyterian, discussing the Moderatorship of the Assembly, says: " The names already mentioned include Dr. Robert F. Sample, of New York; Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, of Philadelphia; Dr. Sheldon Jackson, of Alaska, and Rev. Henry C. Minton, D.D., of San Francisco." FORECAST. II The Presbyterian Messenger is not in favor of an elder Moderator. It adds: "The name of Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D., grows in prominence as a candidate representing our home missionary enterprise in the Presbyte- rian Church." The North and West says : ' ' Speaking of Moderators, the head of the New York delegation would make a good one. Dr. Sample came to St. Anthony Falls in 1866 as a home missionary. As the head of the home Mission Committee in Minnesota, and pastor of Westminster for a score of years, he did more to strengthen our Church throughout the North- west than will ever be known." The Presbyterian is pleased with the nomina- tion of Dr. Minton. An important document bearing on the ques- tion is the circular sent out by Dr. John Eaton, of Washington, D. C, urging the claims of Dr. Sheldon Jackson. [Presbyterian Banner, Pittsburgh, May 5, 1897.] WE hear on all hands that the great burdens of our Church are the debts of our Mission- ary Boards. The questions connected with missions, especially Home Missions, must demand particular attention at our next General Assem- 12 FORECAST. bly. The mission spirit is needed to inspire and lead us. We should avail ourselves of all lessons of this experience at our command. It is, per- haps, with this thought in mind, that so many- have suggested Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D., as the proper candidate for Moderator. Not a few know that in beginning in the service of the Foreign Board his health failed, and he was transferred to the Home Board, and located in Minnesota. Next September he rounds out forty years of mission service, much of it performed under most trying circumstances ; but altogether with results in establishing schools and churches, during the first half of that period in the valleys and among the mountains between Canada and Mexico, which can hardly be defi- nitely enumerated. We can name the Presby- teries and Synods which have been formed there; but no one would undertake to enumer- ate the souls gathered into the kingdom of the Lord from that vast region in which he was pioneer; again, no one has numbered the ministers and teachers who have risen up in it for the Home and Foreign service, or counted the moneys that have come from it to the treasuries of our Boards. There are those who will not for- get how, at his own risk, through the publication of the Rocky Mountain Presbyterian, he carried the interest and gifts of the Church along with the progress of the great work done by himself FORECAST. 13 and his devoted associates; while others who share in rejoicing over the large part so efficiently borne in missions by our elect women, will re- member how their organization for home work sprang out of his efforts, and in spite of great op- position has reached its present proportion and met with so much divine favor. Does not the consecrated wisdom of the Church require that the utmost should be made of the results of his thought in all this work? Then there is his experience in Alaska, with which this generation is mainly familiar, in which he has shown so great capacity as preacher, edu- cator and statesman — such courage, endurance, self-sacrifice and wisdom. The Presbytery of Alaska sends him this year as commissioner to the Assembly; his official duties in Alaska, and the probabilities of his being sent again as commis- sioner, are such as to make it most unlikely, if not impossible, that he can ever again be avail- able for this service. Besides, what he can do is needed now. Should not the commissioners, therefore, when gathered, put him in a way to serve them to the utmost; besides, is there not wisdom in rewarding such service as he has ren- dered by such recognition? If we want others in the field to accomplish like him, should we not show them and the divine Giver of such men that we appreciate him? If the Assembly, by the use of the means within its 14 FORECAST. reach, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, can be adequately enthused with the mission spirit, how will our Church burdens be lightened and other difficulties disappear? Sincerely yours, John Eaton, Washington, D.C. Of Athens Presbytery. THE ELECTION. ELECTION. [New York Evangelist, May 27, 1897.] THE General Assembly convened at eleven o'clock in the Auditorium, the first time in all its history of 109 years that it had ever assembled in other than a church. The great room is seated with 2000 opera chairs, and is pronounced excellent for hearing - . At the afternoon session, the roll having been called and completed, the chief event was the choice of a Moderator. The first commissioner to rise and make a nomination was Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, of Philadelphia, himself a favorite can- didate in the minds of very many delegates. He began by saying that he had no desire personally to be nominated, although many had asked him to be a candidate. He had been allowed a high honor in having so many churches opened for his work. He said he stood for a forward movement and for true blue Presbyterianism, and for the true doctrine of the Holy Spirit and of the Old Book as the Word of God. He had been assured that at least one other man stood for the same thing, and desiring to honor him, he would 17 1 8 ELECTION. present the name of Rev. Dr. Henry Collin Minton, of San Francisco, who is a skilled church parliamentarian, a man of wide travel, a suc- cessful pastor for fourteen years, and a successful professor of theology. Dr. Minton represents men of action ; there is no faction in the Presby- terian Church, as was shown in Dr. Withrow's sermon. An universal law gives the Moderator- ship to the Pacific coast, which has not had the office for twenty long years. Now is a time for all men to do all things which will promote the peace of the Church and of the General Assem- bly. He wanted Philadelphia to place all it had at the feet of the Pacific coast. Now " I ask the election of Rev. Henry Collin Minton, D.D., LL.D." Dr. Henry Ward, of Buffalo, seconded the nomination of Prof. Minton as one who well represented the whole Church. There was a short pause, broken, however, by the rising of Elder H. J. Morrison, of Madison Presbytery, Wis., who in a few words nominated the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D., of the new Presbytery of Alaska. This nomination was sup- ported by Dr. George L. Spining, of Orange, N. J., in a very eloquent speech. He went on to trace his marvelous missionary career. He went security for Sheldon Jackson's orthodoxy, "who forty years ago went out with the Standards of the Church in one hand and the Bible in the other ELECTION. 19 and founded over one hundred churches — an apostolic record, truly! and," the speaker added, "who will not come to another Assembly until he comes next year to preach the opening ser- mon." This unlooked-for and confident predic- tion was received with some laughter and more applause. Next, the Rev. S. S. Palmer, of Oakland, Cal., supported Prof. Minton in an able speech. He said among other things that his election would be a fitting contribution to the quarter-centennial celebration of the San Francisco Seminary. No man helps the churches and pastors of California more than Dr. Minton. It would also be a good thing to have Dr. Minton Moderator when the Christian Endeavor Convention meets in Cali- fornia in July. Dr. Minton has matured on the Pacific coast and understands its needs. As a Moderator he would prove himself second to none. The Rev. Richard M. Hayes, of La Grande, Ore., made a strong speech in favor of Dr. Jackson, and from the Home Missions view-point. The Moderator here reminded the Assembly that an hour had been given to oratory, and would they not abridge remarks? It was voted that speeches should be limited to three minutes, and several more were made for the candidates, when, on motion of Elder Kilaen Van Rensse- laer, of New York, the voting was proceeded 20 ELECTION. with. The division was at first very even, so that there was doubt of the result; later it became apparent that Dr. Jackson was to be chosen. He received 313 votes to 238 for Prof. Minton. The new Moderator was welcomed by his predecessor in terms of congratulation, saying in conclusion, " It is a great joy and a great honor to be Moderator, and may God give you a good year as Moderator." The new Moderator, Dr. Jackson, thanked the Assembly for the great honor it had bestowed upon him, but not on him personally so much as on the great cause he represented. In a few words he referred to the severe ordeal from which Home Missions were just emerging. He said emphatically: "There has been practical starvation in mission homes all over this land, and mission schools have been closed and churches closed and scattered." Referring later to matters more local, he remarked that one of the first missionary meetings ever held in this State of Indiana was held in the home of General Harri- son. [Post, Washington, D. G, May 2J, 1897 (Associated Press Despatch).] AS was indicated yesterday, there were but two candidates for the Moderatorship of the Presbyterian General Assembly — Dr. Shel- don Jackson, the home missionary, and Dr. ELECTION. Henrv C. Minton, the seminary professor. Both represent the work of the Church on the Pacific coast, but the rank and file of the commissioners rallied to the standard-bearer of Home Missions. The politicians of the Assembly were treated to a great surprise, and the election of Dr. Jackson by a vote of 313 to 238 was characterized by many delegates as a " breaking of the machine. " . . . . [Chicago Times-Herald, May 21, 1897.] RELIGION and politics divided the first day of the Presbyterian General Assembly. Rev. Dr. John L. Withrow, of Chicago, opened the morning session with his sermon as the retiring Moderator. Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the Alaska missionary, was chosen Moderator in the afternoon amid dramatic scenes, after a spirited contest. Two thousand persons filled the handsome auditorium. During the selection of the new Moderator the legislative body of the great Calvinistic Church resembled a political convention. The power of eloquence had another striking example. Dr. George L. Spining, of South Orange, N. J., made an impassioned nominating speech for the missionary candidate that swept the Assembly before it. Before that speech was made it was generally conceded that Rev. H. C. Minton, 22 ELECTION. Professor in the San Francisco Theological Semi- nary, would be elected, but Dr. Spining turned the tide. The vote was: Jackson, 313; Minton, 238. Rev. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, of Philadelphia, pastor of ex-Postmaster-General Wanamaker's church, withdrew from the race this morning after an unsuccessful effort had been made to have ex-President Benjamin Harrison put his name in nomination. Dr. Chapman even made the nom- inating speech for Dr. Minton and asked his friends to vote for the Californian. General Harrison and Mr. Wanamaker followed his suggestions, but Governor Mount, of Indiana, voted for the missionary. H. J. Morrison, of Richland Center, Wis., presented the name of Dr. Sheldon Jackson. Dr. Spining followed in a thrilling speech that moved the grave assemblage to repeated bursts of laughter and applause. Rev. S. S. Palmer, of Oakland, Cal. , defended the Californian. Rev. Richard M. Hayes, of La Grange, Ore., unexpectedly supported Dr. Jack- son, and Dr. George W. McMillan, of Richmond, Ohio, spoke for the missionary. At the roll call the names of Dr. Minton and Dr. Jackson were called first. Each voted for the other. Then, amid laughter, they shook hands and left the building. When Dr. Jackson was brought back after the announcement of the vote the Assembly sprang to its feet and received him ELECTION. 23 with a storm of applause. Dr. Withrow turned over the gavel, with a few touching remarks, and the new Moderator made a short speech of thanks. Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the new Moderator, has had a career unparalleled in its devotion, romance, heroism and achievement. He is round- ing out forty years of missionary work in the wild places of the United States Dr. Jackson went to Alaska in 1877 as the first missionary and located Mrs. A. R. McFarland as teacher at Fort Wrangel. There was no law in Alaska, and he began an agitation which resulted in the establishment of a territorial government. He built an industrial training school for native children at Sitka. He organized the Alaskan Society of Natural History and Ethnology, built a museum and made a valuable collection. He found whole villages on Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean perishing because the natives had recklessly killed off the wild game. He conceived the idea of importing reindeer to save the natives. Dr. Jackson has brought many Alaskan children to the States to be educated [Dr. William C. Gray, in the Chicago " Interior/' May 27, 1897.] THE election of a Moderator of the Assembly this year was peculiarly interesting; the Pacific coast had very justly demanded representation in a Moderatorship which it has not 24 ELECTION. had for more than twenty years. Though I had never met Dr. Minton, I was especially drawn toward him by his high character, fine qualifica- tions and irenic spirit. Indeed, as I have said, all the names that were mentioned were of brethren who were eminently worthy. As will be seen, however, in the autobiographical sketch of Dr. Jackson, as long ago as last October I had mentioned to him the thought that was passing in the minds of the friends of Home Missions, that we could probably give that cause an impetus by electing to the Moderatorship a distinguished home missionary, and that, if he would consent, I would do what I could to promote his election. In the first place, it would be a poor showing if a man of Dr. Jackson's record could not now, after forty years of the most distinguished service of any American missionary, with the solitary exception (if exception it be) of Marcus Whitman, receive recognition. If the Moderatorship could only go to the theological seminaries and the pastors of great churches, and if this recognition of Dr. Jackson should be refused, then above the Assembly portals should be written to all home missionaries, "Ye who enter here leave hope behind." The Church made a great mistake when it did not thus recognize Timothy Hill, and many are the regrets now expressed that that great man was permitted to go to his grave without the knowledge that the Church which he ELECTION. 25 so faithfully loved and served appreciated both that love and service. We have other home missionaries not less faithful, and I trust that hereafter the Assembly may go for Moderator to its hard-working and self-sacrificing soldiers in the field and not so frequently to the cloisters of learning and the naves of great cathedrals. The nominating address of Dr. Spining was fully up to the high standard which that brother has established for himself. I heard a New York brother, who is distinguished for eloquence, say that it was the most adroit, brilliant and effective address of the kind he had ever heard — that it ranked fully up to the Conkling nomination of Grant, and to Garfield's appeal for John Sherman. Dr. Spining put himself in pleasant relations with the Assembly in his first sentence; his description of the work of Jackson was most thrilling, but his vision of St. Paul capped the climax. The mixture of pathos, humor, picturesqueness and fraternal love in this vision fairly enraptured the Assembly. On my way to the Assembly I heard a home missionary who was enduring the privation, and engaged in the stress of the work, speaking enthusiastically of his fellow-missionary Jackson. As the reader will be interested in this episode I will put on my Campfire Musings' suit and talk familiarly about it. Arriving on the grounds, Dr. Spining soon showed up. The situation appar- ently was that the whole earth, including the 26 ELECTION. principalities and powers in high places, were for Dr. Minton. We were told that Pennsylvania was solid for him. New York city certainly was. All of New Jersey wanted Minton. The Pacific slope was for him as one man. General Harrison was for him, and as he was on the H's and would vote early in the roll call, his influence would be felt, though he desired only to vote his preference, and influence nobod)\ On Wednesday the candidacy of the popular Dr. Chapman was promoted and the word went to all of Jackson's leading friends that the people had left our David and were following after — but I must not follow the illustra- tion. It only works part of the way — I will only say that Chapman is good looking and the rank and file of Israel like him very much — and we all liked him too. These discouraging words were carried to Dr. Spining, who replied: "Shut up ! Jackson will be the Moderator." The combination for Dr. Minton did look irresistible, and it was more formidable than we supposed because we imagined that the evangelist Chapman would be more favorable to the missionary than to the theological professor. It was the Briggs-Smith roorback which put us upon our metal, because that was a reflection upon Jackson, and we resented it. I knew what Spining would be on the platform. There was a man whom I had heard talking on the train as I went down, but had not obtained his name, and set about searching for ELECTION. 27 him. About half past ten Wednesday night General Eaton came and said he had found him — that he was the Rev. Mr. Hayes, of Oregon, but that he had gone to bed. We went to the Woman's Building and asked to see him. He sent word that he had retired and would see us in the morning, but like Peter we "continued knocking." He came down, agreed to make the seconding speech, and then said, " Brethren, we must spend part of this night in prayer." That was assented to as the only politics available in such an emer- gency. If we could get God for Jackson, we would not be afraid of the combination — and it appears that we did. I am quite sure that it was the praying which resulted in the touching of the lips of Spining and Hayes with such divine fire. It was a great surprise when Dr. Chapman arose, withdrew his name, and threw his influence to Dr. Minton, but when he repeated that "there is one man true to the Word of God," and that Dr. Minton was that man, then I knew that if God had not, humanly speaking, been for Jackson, we could rely upon Him now. God would never stand that; and I recalled with great satisfaction what God says about such men as Jackson, that they are the apple of His eye. Dr. Chapman had indorsed, when there was no chance to break the force of it, the Briggs and Smith alarm, and by direct inference had smitten Sheldon Jackson. Now we leave it to the reader whether under 28 ELECTION. such circumstances any hope less than that in Al- mighty God could have given any encourage- ment. There is one place in the Bible where it is said, if our beloved Rouse correctly translates in rhyme, that God shall laugh. I think when the vote was announced, with the little missionary nearly a hundred ahead, that God smiled on the Assembly. Dr. Jackson is one of the most guileless spirits I ever knew. With a fondness for humor which is probably excessive in me, I used, a score of years ago, to find food for good-natured satire in the little missionary, Sheldon Jackson, who had charge of the whole country from the Rio Grande to British Columbia, west of the Mississippi river. I used to call him the missionary mustang of the Rockies, and depict the clouds of dust which fol- lowed his swift career between the tropics and the arctics. Almost any other man would have taken it seriously and become my mortal enemy; not so Jackson. Some of his near friends were angry about it, but he only laughed at it. He has, as I now know, a quiet revenge; he says he has clipped all those descriptions out and pasted them in a scrapbook as part of the history of western missionaries. If these descriptions should ever get into that history, the laugh would be longest and loudest — not at Jackson, but at myself. I do not remember of an instance in which a ELECTION. 29 successful candidate for the Moderatorship called upon his defeated opponent to unite with him in making- up the Assembly's committees. Dr. Jackson immediately sent for Dr. Minton and the two combined their counsels, each equally de- ferring to the other, in constituting the personale of the working machinery of the Assembly. The significance of this is that if Dr. Minton had been elected his friends could not have been better sat- isfied in the constituting of the working machin- ery of the Assembly than they now are. There was immediate and perfect confidence and co- operation between the brethren who in the matter of personal preference appeared but an hour before to be upon opposing sides. It is a guarantee that this is to be one of the most har- monious, devoted and consecrated Assemblies of recent years, certainly equaling in these blessed qualities the Assembly of last year. [The Evangelist, New York City June 3, JS97.] OF course, there were some surprises, the greatest of which was at the very begin- ning, in the choice of a Moderator. We had heard indeed of Sheldon Jackson as a possi- ble candidate, but could hardly believe that one who was modest even to shyness could come to such honor, especially as the eyes of the brethren 30 ELECTION. from the Pacific coast had been turned toward Dr. Minton, a man of admirable presence and fit- ness for such a position. Others there were also, like our dear Dr. Sample, whom all would have been glad to see in the Moderator's chair. But Sheldon Jackson is a peculiar figure in the Church. For thirty years he has been in the very front of the army of the Lord, always on the skirmish line, wherever there were dangers to be met, or hardships to be endured. Thus he has carried the Gospel westward and northward to the Arctic Circle. Such a man all were glad to see dragged out of his retirement and placed in a position of honor that he so well deserved. Dr. Spining struck the keynote of popular feeling when he drew the picture of Paul coming down to inspect the Assembly, and the officers, zealous to do him honor, proposed to introduce him to its most distinguished members, among whom were a President of the United States and a member of his Cabinet, to which the old saint re- plied, " I will see them later, but just now I should like to see Sheldon Jackson!" and when the two looked in each other's face, Paul's first salutation was, "Why, you are not any taller than I am! " This took the house by storm, and the commissioners could hardly have shown more enthusiasm if they had been voting for Paul him- self! ELECTION. 31 [New York Observer, June 3, 1897.] THE Rev. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman showed his good spirit when he withdrew his name from the list of candidates for the Modera- torship in favor of Dr. Minton, but he showed still more grace when he explained his remark about his friend, and which was unfortunately re- garded in some quarters as a reflection on Dr. Jackson. Those who know Dr. Chapman know him to be absolutely incapable of any unbrotherly reflection. Dr. Spining's address nominating Dr. Jackson for the Moderator's chair was an exceedingly happy effort. The vision of St. Paul as a visitor to Winona was a masterpiece of oratorical art. The summoning of the apostle to the support of the hero of Alaska was all so good-naturedly done that it could not fail to be appreciated even by those brethren who were looking in a different direction for a Moderator. The angels must have been pleased as they hovered over the scene when Moderator Jackson and Dr. Minton labored together to select the committees. We shall not wonder if alliteration has its way in the near future, and Moderator Minton holds the gavel. NOMINATION ADDRESSES. Ruling Elder H. J. Morrison, Wisconsin. Rev. George L. Spining, D.D., New Jersey. Rev. Richard M. Hayes, Oregon, Rev. George W. McMillan, D.D., Ohio. NOMINATION ADDRESSES. Remarks of Ruling Elder H. J. Morrison. MR. Moderator: — I nominate Dr. Sheldon Jackson. I have no set speech to make in his behalf, but merely wish to say that I first met him in 1878 at the General Assembly in Pittsburgh, and for nearly twenty years have fol- lowed him in his work. I wish that this General Assembly may be known as the " Missionary As- sembly," and to help make it so, I want the greatest home missionary to preside. I hope Dr. Sheldon Jackson will be elected Moderator. Rev. George L. Spining, D.D., Pastor First Presbyterian Church, South Orange, N. J. [From The Interior, June 17, 1897.] DR. SPINING'S address nominating Dr. Jack- son was one of the three remarkable ora- tions which distinguished the Winona Assembly, his, General Harrison's and Dr. With- row's. The latter was not stenographed, and the Doctor does not now remember what he said. 35 36 NOMINATION ADDRESSES. We desired to have Dr. Spining's address revised and published, just as it was delivered. It was impromptu, and grew out of immediate circum- stances. The appropriateness of the opening paragraph will only be perceived when it is ex- plained that a pretty strong pressure was made to have Dr. Jackson withdraw, to save him the hu- miliation of a light support. The speaker was fired, also, by what had just occurred on the plat- form — what was understood to be a reflection upon the doctrinal reliability of Dr. Jackson. He answered that imputation as briefly as nobly in the sentence beginning, "Is the loyalty of this man called in question?" We make bold to express the conviction that this speech of Dr. Spining has never been equaled as an example of im- promptu eloquence in any modern religious assem- bly, and by very few in the forums of the legis- lators. DR. SPINING'S ADDRESS. Moderator, Fathers and Brethren: — Once upon a time when Mr. Beecher was absent, his committee on pulpit supply ventured to engage a certain Congregational " rough diamond " from the backwoods of Missouri to fill the pulpit of the great preacher for a single Sabbath. A moment before service they took him aside, reminded him that he was soon to find himself before an audience which represented the brains, wealth NOMINA TION ADDRESSES. 37 and culture of America, and kindly exhorted him not to be afraid, but to go ahead and deliver his message. Upon entering the pulpit he stepped to the front, shaded his eyes with his hand, scanned his audience critically, and began as follows: " So this is the congregation of the great Mr. Beecher! Your deacons have just cautioned me not to be frightened, but to go ahead and preach as I would to my own people. Now, you bald-headed sinners and gray-haired saints, I want you to understand in the beginning that if any one in this house is scared he isn't on this platform, for I have a message from my Master to deliver to you, and I intend to deliver it in the fear of God." It is with a feeling akin to this that I venture to take the platform for a few minutes in pres- ence of this vast audience, to present the claims of Dr. Sheldon Jackson for the highest honor the Church can confer, not only on account of his splendid and incomparable services in the field of missionary activity, but because he is the incarna- tion of that aggressive and consecrated mission- ary spirit to which I believe the Master would give expression in all the deliberations of this Assembly. Too long have we been standing with the angel of the backward look — too long flailing the earth and blinding our eyes with the dust of a dying controversy. In the meantime our missionary forces at home and abroad have 38 NOMINATION ADDRESSES. had their supplies cut off ; our Church Boards have all been wounded and crippled; appropria- tions in every direction have been cut down; the humiliating order of halt and even retreat has passed to the frontier; outposts for which we have fought, and upon which we have expended the toil and treasure of years in heroic effort, have been surrendered; unhappy dissensions too long prolonged have wrought distrust and weak- ened fraternal bonds; hard times have tightened our grip on our purse-strings and weakened our faith in God; spiritual stupor has come upon us and the Delilah of self-indulgence has sought to bind us hand and foot with cords of avarice, indifference and worldliness, so that the condition of the great Presbyterian Church to-day is like that of a slumbering giant awaiting the cry, "Samson, Samson, awake! The Philistines are upon thee ! " If I know anything of the Church at large, the Church we represent — the prayer of those who get nearest to God — it is that we should turn our faces from the past toward the future, and from controversy to conquest. In this connection I venture to say that no man in this Assembly has done more to win this land for Christ than Shel- don Jackson — little Sheldon Jackson. True, he is diminutive in stature, but I think it is evident that Providence cut him off short that he might fit the Indian ponies which were to carry him NOMINATION ADDRESSES. 39 over thousands of miles of mountain trails, that he might be able to sleep in barrels, buckboards, stage-boots, kyacks and hollow logs, in his ' jour- neyings often ' over the great mountains, plains and waters of the West ; that he might accommo- date himself to the narrow quarters of the cabin of the miner, the mud hut of the Mexican, the hovel of the Alaskan, the tepee of the Indian, and the scant accommodations of the prison cell — all of which he has done in planting the standard of the cross over that western country. 'Neath the mantel of a century, Lo, a mighty empire lies, On whose brow millennial glory Of the Church of God shall rise. Naturally, he should be our standard-bearer. Is the loyalty of this man called in question? Let us test it not by the sounding brass and tinkling cymbals of party shibboleths and factious strife, but by the apostolic tests of hardness endured, of life imperiled, of fidelity in the face of imprisonment and death, of unwearied activity and of splendid achievement. The great State of New York claims the honor of his nativity; Union College gave him his classical equipment, while Princeton moulded his theology, and now points with pride to his heroic career as an example of her missionary spirit. Forty years ago, when many of us were in 40 NOMINA TION A DDR ESSES. our cradles, he crossed the frontier of the Mississippi as a trusted standard-bearer of the cross, and from that time to this he has been charged with the responsibility of laying the foundations of a colossal Church in Minnesota, Iowa, Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, Colorada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and far- off Alaska. He has been one of that noble band of pioneers who carved Presbyteries out of the wilderness and erected Synods before the founda- tions of civil government were laid. Penetrating thousands of miles into the barbaric night of that great empire which lay between the Mississippi and the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and the remotest habitation of man within the Arctic zone — carrying the Bible in one hand and our Confes- sion in the other — he has gathered hundreds of congregations and founded a hundred churches on the Word of God and "according to the pattern shown us in the mount." Deeds speak louder than words, and these churches which lighten up the wilderness and make glad the solitary place are to-day rolling up the long- meter Doxology from the plains of Minnesota, the rock-ribbed mountains of Colorado, and the ice-bound shores of Alaska, praising God for the loyalty of this "one man" to the "Old Book" and to our Confession. Has he executive ability and experience in handling difficult questions? The Church has NOMINA TION ADDRESSES. 41 already answered this question, and the United States Government has shown its high estimate of his ability by entrusting him with the forma- tion and superintendence of its whole educational system in Alaska. If it may be objected that this is a secular position, I answer that he is still a missionary of our Board, and I would God that more of our educational system throughout the land were taken from the hands of unbelief and placed in the hands of Christian men. It de- tracts nothing from the glory of the Church that many of her faithful servants have been honored by the State with positions of great responsi- bility. If it does, then let us strike off the first and most illustrious of all the names in the roll of our Moderators — the name of the Rev. John Witherspoon, President of Princeton College, member of the Continental Congress, and signer of our immortal Declaration of Independence. In Sheldon Jackson we have not only the untiring missionary who has traveled 600,000 miles — a distance equal to twenty-four circuits of the globe in the prosecution of his work; not only the educator who has founded a great institution of learning in Utah and endowed it with his patrimony, but we see in him the elements of the broad-minded statesman and great-hearted philanthropist, one of whom the future historian will write: ''In a time of famine and distress, when their food supply was gone, he crossed the 42 NOMINATION ADDRESSES. ice regions of the North, penetrated into the fastnesses of Siberia and saved the native races of Alaska by introducing large herds of reindeer for their subsistence and support." Sir, this deed alone entitles him to the admiration of mankind, and will yet place his name in the Pantheon of philanthropy with all the honors of an uncrowned king. Mr. Moderator, it is high time that the Church should show her appreciation of the splendid services of her home missionaries, by placing the highest honor within her gift upon the head of one of her battle-scarred veterans. How often within recent years has this honor gone to the seminaries; how seldom, proportion- ately, has it fallen to the great body of pastors, and in not one single instance has it ever gone to a home missionary. If it is a legitimate object of ministerial ambition, are we to understand that service counts for nothing and there is no direct path to it from the Home Mission field. vSir, it is recorded in Holy Writ that King Ahasuerus, in a wakeful hour, in reading the chronicles of his kingdom, stumbled across the record of the unrequited services of Mordecai, and touched with a feeling of gratitude cried out: "What honor or dignity hath been put upon this Mordecai?" The chamberlains answered, " None." "What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor? " was the next NOMINATION ADDRESSES. 43 question. We all know the answer, and that Mordecai was made prime minister of his king- dom. In 1879 the Church was looking over its work in the foreign field, and came across the grand record of Dr. H. H. Jessup, who had been in the forefront of the battle on foreign fields for more than a quarter of a century. The same old questions raised by Ahasuerus came up, and Dr. Jessup was made prime minister of the Presby- terian Church for that year. The result was a great quickening of interest in Foreign Missions. The Church is now on its knees praying for peace and fraternal love — for a great quickening, a spiritual uplift which shall bring us face to face again with a perishing world and with the work we have to do for its redemption. One of the means to this end will be the election of a missionary leader of this Assembly. Brethren, I had a dream to-day, which was not all a dream. In my vision I saw a corridor reaching from this platform back and upward to the first century. Out of a door in that century came a man of small stature; bronzed, scarred, and weather beaten; a dim halo of glory was about him, and while he wore the panoply of a soldier of the cross — he carried above him a tattered flag — like those of veteran soldiers re- turning from war. Upon it I read the names Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi and Rome, and as he reached this platform, I said to myself, Surely I 44 NOMINA TION A DDR ESSES. cannot be mistaken, this is none other than the Apostle Paul, the great missionary to the Gen- tiles. I ventured to inform him as to the character of our Assembly, and to assure him that the system of theology in which we believed was that which he had outlined as being in conformity with the Word of God. He seemed deeply interested, and after speaking to him of the growth of our Church and of our missionary work I offered to introduce him to some of the distinguished members of this Assembly. " Here, for instance," said I, "is Benjamin Harrison." " Yes," he replied, " a worthy successor of Wash- ington — a Christian statesman, and an elder beloved. I would like to meet him, but not now, I will see him later." I said, "Here is also General Wanamaker." "Yes," he answered, "I know his record from that of a poor boy, to wealth and high public position. I know his evangelical spirit, his liberality, his personal work — and that he hath built us a grand synagogue where Christ only is preached. I long to meet him — but wait awhile, I will see him later." I said, "Here also is James A. Mount." "Yes," he answered, "he is Governor of the great State of Indiana. An elder in a little country church — has ordered his household in the fear of God, has a daughter in the foreign field and a son a home missionary. I long to meet him — but not now, I will see him later." NOMINATION ADDRESSES. 45 "Here," said I, "is our Moderator, Dr. With- row, who has just swept the Gospel harp with a master hand and filled our souls with the music of divine charity." "Yes," he replied, "he is a man after mine own heart — a beloved disciple — I must see him, but not now, will see him later." I then remarked that we had some notable Christian women here. Mrs. James, Mrs. Pier- son, and many others. "Yes," he answered, "they are all beloved helpers in the Lord — I must meet them also, but not now, I will see them later." "Who then," said I, "do you first wish to see?" He looked carefully over the Assembly and answered: "Is there not a little bronzed missionary from Alaska here — a man about my size — a man of weak eyes and insignifi- cant bodily presence — a man in whom the apostolic zeal of ancient times has found expres- sion in the New World, and who has had the care of all the churches in the regions beyond? " "Ah," I cried, "I know who you mean," and not waiting to hear another word I sought, found, and presented Sheldon Jackson. "True yoke-fellow and brother beloved," said Paul, "we are physically small — God made us short that we might accommodate ourselves to circumstances and magnify His grace. I rejoice that primitive zeal still flames in the Church, and that here and in foreign lands are thousands of standard bearers of the cross who may not rest 46 NOMINATION ADDRESSES. until the nations that sit in darkness have seen a great light — and the world is filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea; ' be thou faithful unto death and let no man take thy crown.' " Moderator and brethren, here my vision ends, and I believe in my soul that if this Assembly elects this missionary leader as its standard-bearer, that act will be as a trumpet call to missionary endeavor, and our whole beloved Church will mark time in a forward movement toward the conquest of this and all other lands for Christ. It is related that when an iron brigade on a field of battle wavered and turned to retreat, there appeared before them an old revolutionary soldier with cocked hat, knee breeches and flint- lock musket. The fires of '76 flashed in his eyes, and with a front of iron he faced the enemy. Then it was that some one cried, " The spirits of the heroes of Lexington, Trenton and Bunker Hill are with us. About face — Double quick — Charge!" and that brigade swept the field as a hail-storm beats down a field of grain. Oh! that the inspiration of prophets, apostles and martyrs, of heroic soldiers of the cross in all ages might come upon us, that a vision of the glorious Master Himself pointing to the home and foreign field might now arrest our retreating steps — turn us with united front toward the NOMINATION ADDRESSES. 47 enemy, and lead us on to that final victory in which " Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Doth his successive journeys run ; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more." Rev. Richard M. Hayes, D.D., Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, La Grande, Ore. MR. Moderator, Fathers and Brethren: — We have listened to words most eloquently spoken in favor of the persons whose names have been placed in nomination for the honored position of Moderator, and we know that not one word has been said which is not true. There are in the ranks of our Church men, many of them of eminent ability, in whom no mistake could be made, in calling them to the highest position in the gift of the Church, but it is not the question of the mere election or exaltation to the place of honor. Mr. Moderator, there are ques- tions of deep and vital importance to be sub- mitted for the action of the General Assembly at this time, but there is one that touches the very life of our beloved Church. I refer now to the subject of Home Missions. Three years ago a cloud as black as midnight fell upon this land. Men stood with bated breath. The wheels of in- dustry were silent, the fountains of supply were 48 NOMINATION ADDRESSES. cut off. All business was paralyzed. To the pleading cry, " Give us the Gospel " in our great home mission fields, the hearts of the home mis- sionaries were made to ache, as the Board would answer, "We must retrench. No new work can be undertaken because of the great debt already upon the Board." I came as a commissioner to this Assembly unpledged, but I came praying that a sentiment might develop that would crys- tallize in a mighty awakening for the cause of Christ throughout the entire Church. I have urged upon many with whom I have conversed since I came here that Home Missions be made the subject of this Assembly, that we kindle anew the fires which have burned so low, that our be- loved Church may move on for fresh conquests for the Master, but I have been met with the statement that the times are not propitious, that there are certain things to be adjusted with the Board before that can be done, and any action now would be regarded by them as an indorse- ment. I hold my watch in my hand. I detect a speck upon the crystal. Shall I remove the works and cast them from me because there is a mote upon the dial? Mr. Moderator, Fathers and Brethren, shall the great cause of Home Missions stand paralyzed and the pleading cry, " Give us the Gospel," be smothered or go unheeded, while we wait the adjustment of some of the adminis- trative work of the Board? Let us not make a NO MINA TION ADD R ESSES. 49 mistake. The time for action is Now, Now! Let the whole Church be aroused. Let this be known as the Home Missionary Assembly. We have elected Moderators to represent the Church, the Press and Education. Let us honor ourselves and advance the cause of Home Missions by electing a home missionary Moderator. I would not say one word against the other candidates. I could not if I would. Dr. Sample is " a workman who needech not to be ashamed." Dr. Minton is a coast man, an able man, a parliamentarian. I believe all I have heard for him and more too. You have heard from zealous friends of his ability, and you have heard also that the coast was a unit for him. Our vote will decide that. But among the very many able, faithful ministers of our beloved Church, there is one whose whole record of forty years of service stands for Home Missions. A man whose work is known from the Mississippi to our farthest northern boundaries; a man whose name is a household word from where the orange blossoms waft their fragrance in sunny southland, to where the icy crags point their glittering spires heavenward in far-off Alaska, and from where the heaving billows of the Atlantic Ocean dash into ten thousand spark- ling raindrops on New England's rock-bound coast to where the shining sands of the Golden Gate are laved by the waters of the mighty Pacific. Mr. Moderator, Fathers and Brethren, I 50 NOMINATION ADDRESSES. esteem it a great pleasure to be permitted to second the nomination of Dr. Sheldon Jackson to be Moderator of the 109th General Assembly. Rev. George "Whitefield McMillan, D.D., President of Rich- mond College, Richmond, Ohio. DR. McMILLAN arose and said: Mr. Moderator, Fathers and Breth- ren: — Inasmuch as some of the commis- sioners think that there has been enough of elo- quence already displayed in electing a Moderator, I will assure the Assembly that I am not an elo- quent man. But I desire to make a statement or two. I feel that honor ought to be given to whom honor is due. About forty years ago it was my high privi- lege to sit in the chapel of Princeton Theological Seminary on the Holy Sabbath and listen to Dr. McGill, that eloquent pulpit orator, deliver a masterly sermon on the subject of missions. In the course of the argument the Doctor seemed to be inspired and, looking right down on us stu- dents, he thrust forward his hand and said: " Young men, if you can't be first, be foremost /" After the service was over a young man who sat by me in the chapel — a pure, holy, heavenly minded, consecrated young man — came into my room and said that was a very excellent sermon NOMINA TION A DDR ESSES. 5 1 to which we listened this morning — very fine was the reply. " But, McMillan, did you notice that sentence?" "What sentence? What sentence? " was the answer. " ' Young men, if yon can't be first \ be foremost ! ' I can't be first, I will be foremost." That young man was Sheldon Jack- son. Soon after this he graduated in the Semi- nary, was licensed by the Presbytery to preach the Gospel, married to a young lady wholly con- secrated to the Master's service, and he and his esteemed bride started westward to the accom- plishment of their life's work. And with the Confession of Faith in one hand and the Bible in the other and Christ in his heart, he has gone and planted churches all over the West, Northwest and North, returning again and again to encour- age the hearts of the new converts and new mis- sionaries. Difficulties were not a few and must be met — wintry storms, wild beasts and savage men — but he met and conquered all these. Clad in the furs of the North, he pressed through storm and cold to his Master's work. And when surrounded by beasts of prey, and men more sav- age than they, with no weapon but the cross of Christ, the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, he went right forward, planting churches and encouraging missionaries. I will mention one incident, which doubtless in his useful life had many multiples. It was a cold stormy night; the missionary was looking for the quarterly 5 2 NOMINA TION A DDRESSES. check, long- overdue, but was informed by letter that there was no money in the treasury of the Board; that missionaries must wait still longer for their pay. There was no coal in the bin, no sup- plies in the larder, the garments thin and thread- bare. The missionary reads the discouraging letter, looks at his dear wife and dependent chil- dren, tears flow from their eyes — they all fall upon their knees and pray God for help. They arise with sad hearts. A cart is seen coming along the road drawn by a pony; it stops at the gate; the pony is tied to the fence; a little man clad in furs winds his way to the humble dwelling of the missionary; a daughter looks through the window and cries out, " Oh, mamma, papa, it is, it is Sheldon Jackson ! Things tvill be better nozv." He enters the house — is received with tears of gladness. After congratulations the frugal meal is prepared and eaten; the story of their distress is heard. Dr. Jackson writes a brief letter to some wealthy church. A box of clothing and a generous check are forwarded, and the family is happy and thank God and bless Dr. Jackson. His name and fame were world wide; the whole Church had confidence in his word and in- tegrity; therefore, his ability to help the mission- aries. His presence among them was sunshine. Now, Brethren, here is a man who has spent so many years of suffering and hardship in the NOMINA TION ADDRESSES. 5 3 mission work of the Church. He could say with the apostle to the churches he had planted and nourished: " I testify by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus I die daily." Brethren, I verily believe that Dr. Sheldon Jackson is the greatest missionary the world has ever seen since the apostle Paul went far hence unto the Gentiles and died upon the scaffold. Second. The home missionary cause has a right to ask the Assembly to elect a home mis- sionary as its Moderator. The learned professor has repeatedly occupied the Moderator's chair; the cultured and eloquent pastor has again and again moderated the Assembly. I myself was a member of the Assembly when we elected Dr. Jessup Moderator, because he was a great and good man and a foreign missionary; but never has a home missionary as such been chosen by the Assembly to this high honor. Therefore the home missionary cause has a right to the Modera- tor — the cause demands it and the home mission- aries humbly ask it. Third. If ever there has been a time when the home missionaries and their cause needed recognition it is now. An empty treasury, the Board heavily in debt, salaries unpaid, one-fourth of the meagre pittance promised never to be paid. Families on the field in distress; godly men and women with prayers and tears looking to this Assembly for recognition and relief. Now 54 NOMINATION ADDRESSES. what ought we to do? What must we do? Shall we say to those godly men and women who are sacrificing all for Christ that we will not interest ourselves in their behalf, and that of the great cause in which you are engaged? Brethren, if ever the General Assembly is to recognize the home missionary cause and to honor the mission- aries, it is now. Their necessities are greater than they have ever been, and I pray God they may never be so great again. They offer you their greatest missionary and they can never offer you a greater. What then shall we do now? Shall we leave the dark cloud hanging over the minds and hearts of the missionaries, and throw the wet blanket upon the cause — blessed cause ! — which is at once the cause of our Church and of our country. But I am reminded that my time is up. I therefore second the nom- ination of Dr. Jackson, and pray God that when the votes are counted, he may not only be " fore- most " but "first " in this Assembly. CONGRATULATIONS BY TELEGRAPH AND MAIL. CONGRATULATIONS. Rev. Robert N. Adams, D.D., Superintendent of Home Missions, Synod of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minn., June 29, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D. : My Dear Brother: — I wish to congratulate you over the high honor so worthily received and modestly exercised by yourself. It was a just and handsome recognition of the Home Mission Department of our beloved Church. With many kind wishes I remain, Very cordially and fraternally yours, R. N. Adams. Rev. Arthur H. Allen, Pastor of "Wbodside Presbyterian Church. Troy, N. Y., May 21, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: I rejoice in the honor which has come to an apostolic home missionary. Arthur H. Allen. 57 58 CONGRATULATIONS. John Willis Baer, General Secretary of United Society of Christian Endeavor. Boston, May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D.: The writer is a son of your old church in Rochester, Minn. , and knows you better than you know him. I am now an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of this city. Permit me first to congratulate you upon the election of Moderator. Count upon me in any way that you desire in furthering the cause of missions, or in anything else that will tend to make the Presby- terian Church the power that God wants it to be. With kind regards, John Willis Baer. Mrs. Charles L. Bailey, President of the Presbyterian Woman's Society of Home Missions, Synod of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, Pa., June 12, 1897. Dear Dr. Jackson: Allow me to congratulate you upon the happy way you conducted the affairs of the General Assembly. We are all thankful for the quiet result, and praise God. With kind regards to yourself in the love of Christ and the blessed hope of His return. Mrs. Charles L. Bailey. CONGRATULATIONS. 59 Rev. Enos P. Baker, President of Presbyterian College. Del Norte, Colo., May 21, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: Hearty congratulations on the Moderatorship. It is well deserved personally ; and I hope means much for Home Missions. May God guide you and the Assembly. Enos P. Baker. Rev. Henry M. Booth, D.D., LL.D., President of Theological Seminary. Auburn, N. Y., May 21, 1897. The Reverend Sheldon Jackson: My Dear Sir: — I rejoice that you are in the Moderator's chair. No man in our Church has rendered more conspicuous and important service. You know what Presbyterianism is, and what it should be. I shall be surprised if the General Assembly, under your guidance, does not become a grand Missionary Convention. This is what we long for. "The country and the world for Christ," should be our watchword. Cordially yours, Henry M. Eooth. Hon. John G. Brady, Governor of Alaska. Washington, D. C, May 21, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: I have just read in the Post, the news of your election as Moderator of the General Assembly, 60 CONG R A TULA TIONS. one of the noblest body of men on this earth. I am not only glad, but rejoice that you have been crowned with this honor toward the closing years of your wonderful life. I shall call at once to rejoice with those who do rejoice in your own home. Yours sincerely, John G. Brady. Rev. Newman H. Burdick, Pastor Presbyterian Church. Rochester, Minn., May 22, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : The Rochester Presbyterian Church heartily congratulates their former Pastor on his election to the Moderatorship. Newman H. Burdick, Pastor. Mrs. Isabella "W. Campbell. Washington, D.C. , May 21, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: The Church has honored herself in selecting her Moderator! I want to shake hands and con- gratulate you with all my heart. It is an augury for good and a promise for the cause of righteousness when appreciation is be- stowed where it is so well deserved and has been so nobly earned. God bless you now and always, and with all needed strength and wisdom send you also great joy and happiness with the honor which is to-day CONG R A TULA TIONS. 6 1 rejoicing the hearts not only of Presbyterians, but of all Christians the whole country over. My daughter joins with me in congratulations and remembrances which please extend to any members of your family who may be with you. Very sincerely, Isabella W. Campbell. Rev. T. S. Quids, D.D. Washington, D.C., May 21, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: While not exactly in the fold at present, I can- not refrain sending you my sincere congratula- tions on your election as Moderator of the General Assembly. It is what I had hoped for but had hardly ventured to expect. It is only a just recognition of such service to the Church as no one else has been privileged to render. My family join me in congratulations for the present and best wishes for the future. Very truly yours, T. S. Childs. Rev. Thomas H. Qeland, D.D., Pastor First Presbyterian Church. Duluth, Minn., May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : My Dear Moderator : — Congratulations from your old friend and colaborer. T. H. Cleland. 62 CONGRATULATIONS. Thomas Cochran, Ruling Elder, Presbyterian Church. St. Paul, Minn., May 23, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson: Hearty congratulations on the well-deserved honor of the Moderatorship. Thomas Cochran. Mrs. John R. Cook. Rochester, Minn., May 29, 1897. Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: My loved and honored pastor of "Auld Lang Syne," congratulations! " Honor to whom honor is due." Ever since the names of candidates for Mod- erator of the General Assembly for the year have been discussed, I have been greatly interested on account of your name being among the number. When I saw in the reports that you were the suc- cessful man, I felt very much elated over it. I also enjoyed Dr. Spining's Saul of Tarsus comparison. Frances S. Cook. Mrs. James G. Craighead and Miss Alice W. Craighead. Hammerfest, Norway, July 2, 1897. Dear Mrs. Jackson: It seems most appropriate that mother should send her congratulations, to which please add mine, upon your husband's high honors, from this the most northern city in the world. These bald mountains and the Arctic Ocean CONGRA TULA TIONS. 63 suggest Dr. Jackson's labors in a similar region, where doubtless he is at present. Through the General Assembly the Church has recognized his indefatigable toil and triumphs in her behalf and crowned them by the greatest gift she could bestow. In the words of the late Moderator, may the present one have " a Good Year." Not only may Dr. Jackson have a good year, but his whole family, the Church and the great cause for which he stands. Sincerely yours, Alice W. Craighead. Rev. J. N. Crocker, D.D., Superintendent of Synodical Missions for New York. Saratoga Springs, N. Y., May 22, 1897. Dear Brother Jackson: Congratulations from your old-time friend of the Presbytery of Albany. J. N.Crocker. Mrs. Cyrus Dickson. Philadelphia, Pa., May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : With sincerest congratulations to Dr. Jackson and truest wishes for an Assembly wholly guided and controlled by the Holy Spirit. Mrs. Dickson. 64 CONGRATULATIONS. Miss Margaret Dickson, Philadelphia, Pa., May 21, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: With sincere congratulations on the election and best wishes for guidance and blessings on the labors of the place. Miss Dickson. "William F. Doty, Princeton University, Washington, D. C, May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : Dear Sir: — The news of your election as Moder- ator of the Presbyterian General Assembly reached us by the morning paper. In behalf of mother and sister, as well as for myself, I would extend to you the heartiest congratulations. It is a tribute of the esteem and affection of the Church, this recognition of your qualifications for the highest office in her gift, and a testimonial of her appreciation of your life-long labors in the mission field. May our Heavenly Father give you the higher wisdom to enable you to discharge your very responsible duties to the furthering of His Kingdom. You are soon to go again on a dangerous and tedious journey to the far North. May you be preserved in health and strength during many years in which you serve the Master. With kind regards from mother and sister, I am Sincerely yours, William F. Doty. CONGRATULATIONS. 65 Education, U. S. Bureau of. Room 13. Washington, D.C., May 21, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: Heartiest congratulations from "Room 13:" Mrs. H. F. Hove}', Mrs. F. K. Evans, Miss C. G. Forbes, Miss E. T. Chester. Miss Alice C. Fletcher, Fellow of Peabody Museum, Ffarvard University. Washington, D. C, June 17, 1897. My Dear Mrs. Jackson: I learned from the Independent of the honor which has been shown your noble husband, and just as I was going up to see you and him, I was told the Doctor was off, and you too were gone, and I knew not where to send my hearty words of sympathy and rejoicing. Now that I find you are here, I shall hope to see you, if the heat will only abate a little. I have written "the honor shown" your husband, but I think the chair of Moderator was never so honored as when it was filled by Dr. Jackson. I count it one of the honors of my life that I have been permitted to know him so well, and to love him for his grandeur of Christian spirit. I am so glad that the Church has done the right thing in so recognizing his great work, and I trust that the prayer of his heart may be answered, and that there will be a great awaken- 66 CONGRA TULA TIONS. ing of the missionary spirit, for, as Gen. Harrison said in his speech when presenting the gavel, it is a revival of the spirit of the Master among His followers. My love to you, dear Mrs. Jackson, for you too share in the Doctor's labors and fame, and to your daughters. Sincerely your friend, Alice C. Fletcher. Rev. John L. Gage, Pastor of Presbyterian Church. New Sharon, Iowa, May 21, 1897. Dear Brother Jackson: Accept congratulations, and best of all because the honor was deserved. In discussing probabili- ties this A.M., I said to Mrs. Gage, "Dr. Jackson never has failed in anything he undertook, whether it was to hang a map on a wall or carry the Gospel to Alaska." God bless you, guide you, and make the Assembly home missionary in every fibre of its organization. Mrs. Gage joins in congratulations and thinks it would have been a greater honor to vote for Sheldon Jackson for Moderator of General Assembly than for William McKinley for President of the United States. Your Brother, John L. Gage. CONG R A TULA TIONS. 67 A. "W. Green. Brick Church, N. J., May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson: Congratulations a little late, but none the less sincere. A. W. Green. Rev. Fred H. Gwynne, D.D., Pastor of Presbyterian Church. Great Falls, Montana, June 3, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: f Allow me to congratulate you upon attaining the Moderatorship of the General Assembly and for the grace given to fill the chair to your great credit and to the benefit of the Church you have so long and faithfully served. Sincerely yours, F. H. Gwynne. Rev. C. A. Haehnle, Pastor of Moravian Church. Hope, Indiana, May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson: Allow me to congratulate you on your election as Moderator. May your administration of the duties of the office be very successful. C. A. Haehnle. 68 CONG J? A TULA TIONS. William Hamilton, Assistant Agent of Education for Alaska. Washington, D. C, May 21, 1897. Dr. Jackson: Please accept sincerest congratulations, with kindest regards to you and Miss Jackson. William Hamilton. Rev. Teunis S. Hamlin, D.D., Pastor of the Church of the Covenant. Washington, D. C. , May 21, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: Most hearty congratulations on your election. It is a pure example of merit rewarded. I rejoice with all my heart; and feel a little honest pride that my parishioner and friend got there. God bless and guide you, and may the Assembly be one of peace and progress all along the lines of advance. Cordially yours, Teunis S. Hamlin. Washington, D. C, May 21, 1897. Dear Mrs. Jackson: I congratulate you most heartily on your dear husband's election as Moderator of General Assembly. It is a well-earned and fully deserved honor, which is all one could say should he write a dozen pages. May God guide him. Ever yours. Teunis S. Hamlin. CONGRA TULA TIONS. 69 John G. Heid. Juneau, Alaska, June 4, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: Mrs. Heid joins me in sending congratulations upon your choice as Moderator, by the Assembly; a success you richly deserve. John G. Heid. Miss Olga Hilton, Missionary in Alaska. Sitka, Alaska, June 14, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: Please accept our congratulations. How glad we were when we heard that you were the honored one. It seems so good. Olga Hilton. Mrs. Melancthon Hughes. Reedsburg, Wis., May 21, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: My Dear Sir: — Allow me to add my congratu- lations at your election as Moderator of the General Assembly. The news has just come to me, and I greatly rejoice in it. I have never ceased to hold you in grateful remembrance, for your kindness to me and mine years ago — or to rejoice in the successes which have continually crowned your efforts. Respectfully yours, \ E. M. Hughes. 70 CO KG R A TULA 7 IONS. Darwin R. James, Ruling Elder, Brooklyn, N. Y., Member of Board of Foreign Missions. New York, May 22, 1897. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : Accept my congratulations — they are late, but very hearty. Darwin R. James. Prof. James D. Kerr, Theological Seminary. Omaha, Neb., May 25, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson: My Dear Brother: — Permit an old friend to extend to you his hearty congratulations upon the well-merited honor which has fallen to your lot at the hands of your brethren. Mrs. Kerr and I expressed to each other the wish that you might be chosen as Moderator, and, of course, were gratified that the result was a confirmation of our hope. It was right that "Home Missions" should be thus recognized, and at the same time that the recognition should be in and through the choice of the oldest Synodical missionary extant and the best representative of genuine Home Missions. In honoring you the Assembly has honored the cause you have so long and so well represented. I am sure you will wear your crown gracefully and modestly, and that your tailor will not have to lengthen his tape line the next time he measures you, nor your hatter his block. CONG R A TULA TIONS. 7 1 I hope Mrs. Jackson is present to share in some measure in the honors of the occasion. Very truly, your brother, J. D. Kerr. Rev. Thomas C. Kirkwood, D.D., Superintendent Presby- terian Missions, Synod of Colorado. Colorado Springs, May 22, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: You will not feel that I am out of place in addressing the Moderator of the General Assembly — simply to express my pleasure that you are in that office, and to congratulate an old friend on his well-deserved promotion. Very truly yours, T. C. Kirkwood. Rev. E. Trumbull Lee, D.D., Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church. Cincinnati, O., May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : My Dear Brother: — I want to congratulate you most heartily on your recent election as Mod- erator of the General Assembly. It gives the Home Missionary interests a punctuated emphasis it has not had. Very cordially yours, E. Trumbull Lee. 7 2 CONG R A TULA TIONS. Miss Ida M. McCall, Professor in Knox College. Galesburg, 111., May 21, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: The morning papers brought us the welcome tidings of your election as Moderator. My mother and I have been greatly interested in the probabilities and are delighted with the result. Please accept our heartiest congratulations. Ida M. McCall. Rev. Johnston McGaughey, Pastor of Presbyterian Church. Kossuth, la., June 3, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : My Dear Doctor: — Congratulations for your new honor and additional labor. Most fraternally yours, J. McGaughey. Rev. D.J. McMillan, D.D., Secretary of Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church. New York, May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson: Congratulations on climbing the highest peak of the rockiest mountain. D. J. McMillan. Rev. Joseph M. McNulty, D.D., Pastor of Presbyterian Church. Woodbridge, N. J., June 4, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : My Dear Friend and Brother : — First of all let me congratulate you on the honor so deservedly CONG RA TULA TIONS. 73 conferred and so gracefully worn in connection with the meeting- of the General Assembly of our Presbyterian Church — a tribute to personal work and to the Home Mission cause at the same time. Yours fraternally, Joseph M. McNulty. Rev. M. G. Mann, Sunday-school Missionary, Presbytery of Walla Walla. Lewiston, Ida., May 24, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : I heartily congratulate you and the home mis- sionary cause that you, its representative and ex- ponent, were honored with the Moderatorship of the General Assembly. I believe I echo the sentiments of the whole Northwest wing of the Church. Home Mission has voiced itself in your selection as its standard-bearer, and will receive new stimulus and strength. Cordially and fraternally yours, M. G. Mann. Edward S. Marsden, Lane Theological Seminary. Cincinnati, O., May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson: Congratulations from Alaska and your friends. Edward S. Marsden. 74 CONGRATULATIONS. John C. Martin. New York, May 21, 1897. Dear Dr. Jackson: Mrs. Martin and myself are more than pleased at your election of Moderator of the General Assembly, while it was not unexpected to us. For we felt that the cause that you have given your life should and would be honored through you. With the best wishes for your good health and prosperity, I am yours truly, John C. Martin. Rev. "William S. Miller, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Crafton, Pa., May 21, 1897. Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: My Dear Dr. Jackson : — Permit me to express my sincere congratulations that the Church has honored herself in making you the Moderator of the General Assembly. I am so glad, for no one deserves it more than yourself. I trust you will have a good Assembly and be able for all the hard strain. Wishing you much blessing in your high honor and divine guidance, Yours with regard, William S. Miller. Rev. James V. Milligan, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church. 910 State Street, Boise, Ida., May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : Dear Dr. Jackson : — This morning's paper con- CONG R A TULA TIONS. 75 tains the information that you are Moderator. Served you right. I am glad of it. And hasten to extend my congratulations and best wishes for a successful and delightful Assembly. While I am not at present a home missionary, I think I am just as much interested in Home Missions as ever, and am anxious that this Assembly do something to press forward that cause. That one who has given his life to Home Missions is chosen Moderator may be taken as an indication that the subject will have full consideration. May the Lord guide and help you in all the difficult duties that are thus put upon you, and may He direct all the deliberations of the As- sembly. Yours fraternally, J. V. MlLLIGAN. Rev. E. D. Morris, D.D., LL.D., Professor Lane Theological Seminary, Moderator of the General Assembly, 1875. Columbus, O., May 24, 1897. My Dear Jackson: I write simply to express my great satisfaction in your election as Moderator, and for these rea- sons. First of all, it is a fit recognition of your many years of faithful and severe labors for the Church; and, secondly, it is an indorsement of that great Home Mission work, which I have so long regarded as the crowning glory of our Church in this generation. 76 CONG R A TULA TIONS. In your administration I may commend to your notice one rule which I followed implicitly in 1875: namely, to wash the slate clean every night, leaving nothing go over if possible till the next day. It is the only way to have a short and happy session. Wishing you abundant success in what will probably be the most laborious fortnight of your life, I am, Very cordially yours, E. D. Morris. Rev. George Norcross, D.D., Pastor of Second Presbyterian Church. Carlisle, Pa., May 21, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: Well, here are our congratulations! I do not know which deserves the most — the Moderator or Eaton. George Norcross. Rev. R. M. Patterson, D.D., LL.D., Pastor of the Great Valley Presbyterian Church. Malvern, Pa., May 21, 1897. My Dear Dr. Jackson: If I were at Winona I would give you a con- gratulatory shake of the hand. As I am tied at home by some preaching and other engagements, I do it by letter. Your election is a deserved tribute to a splendid missionary record. CONGRATULATIONS. 77 Old and pleasant associations from seminary- days enable me to express pleasure at the honor put upon you. God bless and help you in the arduous duties that have been imposed upon you. Very truly yours, R. M. Patterson. Stanton J. Peele, Judge U. S. Court of Claims, and A. R. Quaiffe, Treasury Department. Washington, May 21, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, D. D. : The concord in general and the shareholders and manager in particular, congratulate you and the Church on your election. Peele and Quaiffe. Rev. Wallace Radcliffe, D.D., Pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Washington, D.C., May 21, 1897. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: Exactly the right thing — hearty congratulations — the morning cometh. Selah. Wallace Radcliffe. Rev. John G. Reid, Pastor Presbyterian Church. Greeley, Colo., May 26, 1897. To the Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: I wish not to take more of your valuable time than to acquaint you with the great pleasure your 78 CONG RA TULA TIONS. elevation to an honor so fittingly yours gave the son of Alexander Reid, of Spencer Academy, In- dian Territory, the "boy" you sent out to Boulder twenty years ago (May 27. 1877, I preached my first sermon in Colorado), the strip- ling to whom you so gracefully, sixteen years ago, yielded the honors, perquisites, emoluments, prerogatives, labors of Superintendent of Presby- terian Missions for the Synod of Colorado. For thirteen years now pastor of the church you or- ganized in Barnum's Hall, August, 1870, with ten members, of whom three continue by the help of God unto this day. The original elder whom you ordained that day (still an elder), Lewis W. Teller, his wife and oldest daughter — I send per- sonal greetings, official from our Session, and such members of the church as remember you so well. Mrs. Reid, daughter of Rev. John F. Stewart, of Evans, also salutes the Moderator. Our tender regards to Mrs. Jackson and your family. Yours in His service, John G. Reid. Rev. Clarence G. Reynolds, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church. Joliet, 111., May 27, 1897. Dear Dr. Jackson: I congratulate you upon your great success in the Moderator's chair. Clarence G. Reynolds. CONGRATULATIONS. 79 Rev. C. Herbert Richardson, Pastor Fayette Street Methodist E. Church. Baltimore, Md., May 25, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : Accept my hearty congratulations on your elec- tion to the Moderator of the General Assembly of your Church. It is a great honor and well deserved. I am glad to note that the great Church of which you are a member puts in high place the men who work on the frontier line. C. Herbert Richardson. Mrs. C. L. Roach, Corresponding Secretary Woman's Home Mis- sion Society, Baltimore Conference, Methodist E. Church. Washington, D.C., June 1, 1897. Congratulations on the high office and honors bestowed upon you at your recent Church gather- ing. You well deserved all the attention you re- ceived, and it has given pleasure to your many friends. Clara L. Roach. James B. Roberts and Charles Geddes, Ruling Elders, Presbyterian Church. San Francisco, Cal., May 21, 1897. Rev. Dr. Jackson: My Dear Sir: — We have just learned of your election to the Moderatorship of our General Assembly, and hasten to congratulate you on 80 CONGRATULATIONS. your elevation to that high office ; an honor which you so richly deserve. May God bless 3^ou in the exercise of the arduous duties of the office, and in all other work that He has for you to do in your remaining years, and may they be many Come and give us a missionary address. A live Moderator of our General Assembly, who has been to Behring Sea and Point Barrow, would be a rare avis in San Francisco. Again I say, Come. Yours, James B. Roberts. Rev. Thomas H. Robinson, D.D., LL.D., Professor Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pa. Los Angeles, Cal., May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : My Dear Doctor: — I have just read aloud to my wife from the morning paper the account of your election to the Moderatorship of the General Assembly. We both rejoiced over it and now send your our joint and hearty congratulations. It is a worthy recognition of your long and devoted service in behalf of the Church and the cause of Home Missions. We left home at the close of the Seminary and are spending a few weeks in this charming part of CONG RA TULA TIONS. 8 1 the Pacific coast. Do not trouble yourself to send any reply to this letter. Yours very sincerely, T. H. Robinson. Rev. David S. Schaff, D.D., Pastor of "Westminster Presby- terian Church and Professor-elect of Lane Theological Seminary. Jacksonville, 111. My Dear Dr. Jackson: My early enthusiasm for Home Missions was fed by yourself and Timothy Hill, the two intrepid far-seeing generals on the great Home Mission territory west of the Mississippi. The Rocky Mountain Presbyterian — how it stirred me in those days, like streams of cool and pure water from the Alps themselves! I am delighted that you are Moderator of the General Assembly, for your election is a just tribute to that fine body of pioneers, whose history will all soon belong to a period of the past, and of which you are the most distinguished living representative. Although I go to Lane, my interest in the Home Mission field is strong and permanent, and my concern for the workers warm and tender. I cannot help but say these few words, and I am your friend. David S. Schaff. 82 CONGRATULATIONS. Mrs. Henry Sheldon, Brooklyn, N. Y. Brooklyn, N. Y., June 21, 1897. Dear Sheldon Jackson: Allow me to congratulate you on your success- ful administration as Moderator of the General Assembly. We are all very proud of you. Yours faithfully, Celia E. Sheldon. Miss Florence Stephenson, Principal of Home Industrial School. Asheville, N. C, May 24, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : Dear Dr. Jackson: — I write to congratulate the Presbyterian Church, the Assembly and the work of Home Missions on your being made Mod- erator. I know you have time to read only a word and I will close by saying that the Assem- bly meeting is remembered at our family altar both morning and evening. You do not know how much it meant to me to be with you those few hours in New York, and your parting, ' ' God bless you ! " will give me inspiration all my days. Yours with esteem, Florence Stephenson. CONG R A TULA TIONS. 83 Rev. Charles L. Thompson, D D. t LL.D., Pastor of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, Moderator of General Assembly, 1868. New York, May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : Congratulations and blessings on you and the Home Mission Assembly. Charles L. Thompson. Rev. W. O. Thompson, D.D., President Miami University. Oxford, O., May 21, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson: My Dear Brother: — I am very much pleased to see that you are Moderator of the General Assembly. I spent three years in Iowa as a home missionary and six years in Colorado, where I heard of your work. I have never met you, but I rejoice in the work you have done and in this recognition by the Church. Mrs. Thompson rejoices too because her father — Charles H. Clark, Cleveland — is a distant relative — second cousin, I think. My wife's grandmother was Ruth Sheldon and her brother bears the name Sheldon Clark. We are all happy therefore over your election. I hope you may have a delightful session. I regret that public engagements and college duties combine to keep me away from the Assembly. Yours very cordially, W. O. Thompson. 84 C ONGRA TULA TIONS. William "Wadhams, Ruling Elder. Portland, Ore., June 8, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : I was delighted to know that you were elected Moderator. It was only a proper recognition of your long-continued service as a home missionary, and I am sure my pastor was delighted to vote for you as I know he did. William Wadhams. Rev. Jacob Weidman. Clifton Heights, May 24, 1897. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D. : I congratulate you on your election as Moder- ator — a crown for your labors for Home Missons in the West and Northwest, which I know gratifies you as the highest testimony our Church could bestow. I hope it will be the earnest of still greater usefulness in them, and pray that God may add other crowns to your labors in years to come. Jacob Weidman. Miss Frances E. Willard, President of National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 168 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass., May 23, 1897. Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson: Honored and Dear Brother: — I never wrote to a Moderator to rejoice that he had attained that CONG R A TUL A TIONS. 85 high position in the great Church of the Presbyter, but you are one of my heroes. You have stood for all our Gospel means, not in a luxurious parish or splendid college, but out yonder on the edge of things where God's most friendless children turn toward you the eyes of pathos and hope. Most of all have those downtrodden women of Alaska been blessed by work that you have done or have inspired, and not a woman lives who has a brain to think who can fail to look upon you as one of the blessed reappearances of the primitive man of Christ in an age that needs such men more than it needs gold or tariff. God bless you and nerve your brave arm for even stronger strokes of grace against the accursed liquor traffic and every other form of cruelty, is the prayer of Your Christian Sister, Frances E. Willard. William R. Worrall, Elder, New York City. New York, May 21, 1897. Dear Dr. Jackson: I write to heartily congratulate you on the reward that has come to you even in this world. I am heartily glad of your election to the high place. May God bless you richly in executing His work in the Moderatorship, as we feel He has in the more humble but no less blessed work on the mission field. I wish I could be there to see you 86 CONGRATULATIONS. honored. Remember that as Moderator we claim your presence here in the month of October at our celebration (by Presbytery and Presbyterian Union) of the adoption of our standards. I write thus early that you may keep other things out of the road. By our Constitution (Presbyterian Union) you are by virtue of your office an honorary member of the Union, and, as before I have said to you, we will always be glad to have you with us. With hearty congratulations and best wishes, I am, Very truly and fraternally yours, William Worrall. THE PRESS. THE PRESS. [New York Tribune, May 21, 1897.] THE Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly to-day. He was born in May, 1834. After being graduated at Union College in 1855, he entered upon his theological studies at Princeton, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Albany in May, 1857. The next year, also in May, he was graduated from the seminary, and ordained. In May, 1858, he married Miss Mary Voorhees, and shortly after- ward the young couple became home mission- aries. Many honors have come to Dr. Jackson in the thirty-nine Mays that have intervened since his ordination. To-day the highest honor of all — the Moderatorship of the General Assembly — was conferred upon him by a vote of seventy-five in excess of that received by a combination of two other candidates, either one of whom seemed this morning to have an equal chance with the little man from Alaska. 89 90 THE PRESS. This is said to be the first time that a home missionary has sat in the Moderator's chair. While Dr. Jackson has never been around the world, in the tourist's sense, he has traveled in the pursuit of his missionary duties a distance equal to twenty- five circuits of the earth, 600,000 miles being placed to his credit, and this not in Pullman sleepers and high-priced staterooms on ocean greyhounds, but on Indian ponies, in Alaskan canoes, on mountain stages, across the desert, sleeping on the ground or finding a bed in the snow or tossing in a canoe on the waves of the Northern Pacific. Dr. Jackson's nomination to-day was made by an elder from a country church in some mission field in Wisconsin, and seconded by a home missionary and by Dr. Spining, of New Jersey. Dr. Spining knows more about home mission work than almost any other commissioner from the eastern part of the country, and his speech to-day was full of pathos, humor and praise for the heroic missionary. [Chicago Times-Herald, May 22, 1897.] "•WriLD rider of the Sierras." "The Buffalo W Bill of Presbyterianism in the wild West." Such are two of the cognomens of Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, who has been THE PRESS. ■ 91 elected Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly. From the rough and ready mission- ary work in unknown and untried fields to the position of Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States is a far cry. Yet there is not a Presbyterian in the country who will say that Dr. Jackson has not earned this high position, not only because of his work in building up the Church, but because of the learning which years of toil far away from civilization have not been able to dull. The career of the new Moderator has been similar to that of the brave pioneer who fought his way through virgin forests and through hostile bands of Indians in the early days of the West's awakening. His was in the religious field, however, while the pioneers fought for home and comfort. To Presbyterians Dr. Jackson is the rough heroic figure of the century. He is the pioneer of the Church, the man who has done more riding for Christianity and who has won more fights for Presbyterianism than any other mem- ber of the Church. He is of the militant type. No minister in the Church can show such a record as can Dr. Jackson. He has organized hundreds of churches. In some cases the seed has fallen on barren rock and after a brief season of bloom has perished in the burning sun. But a hundred churches, some of immense influence, flourish exceedingly, owing only a large debt of 92 THE PRESS. gratitude to the wild rider of the Sierras. Afoot, on horseback, any way to get there, he went and left a trail of Presbyterianism behind him in the West. His presence in a region wa.s recognized by a trail of dust in the air raised by the heels of his bucking broncho. Dr. Jackson was born at Minaville, N. Y., in 1834. He was graduated from Union College in 1855 and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1858. He was ordained in the same year and chose Texas as his field. His wife went with him, but he was soon taken away from Texas and sent to western Wisconsin to build up the Church there. During a part of 1863 he served under the Christian Commission in the army hospitals in Tennessee and Alabama. His rough riding for Christianity came later. In 1870 he was given charge of nearly everything between the Missis- sippi and the setting sun. He was appointed superintendent of missions for Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Utah. All he could do then was to engage three missionaries to help him. He guaranteed their support out of his own means. Within a year he had ten in the field besides himself, and all were paid. His field was widened shortly afterwards, for he was made superintendent of missions from Nebraska to Nevada and from Canada to Mexico. This was a big commission, but the Presbytery knew its man. THE PRESS. 93 During the period of his work in the West Dr. Jackson traveled 605,000 miles in whatever way he thought best and quickest in the cause of the Church. His career as a pioneer missionary was remarkable. He won more people by his rough and ready simplicity than any other missionary of the Presbyterian Church. He carved out the West for the Church while the professors who are now famous in the Presbytery were learning the first rudiments of the Westminster Confession. Early in the '80s he was sent to Alaska, and was the first missionary to make his appearance there. Here he developed the talents of the statesman and the civil economist. He found no sort of government in Alaska, and started to lay the beginnings of administration. He had a fight on his hands immediately with the corrupt officials. He was always the most incessant, plucky, cool- headed and warm-hearted missionary that ever rode a broncho or swam a river to preach the Gospel. He was made United States agent for education in the far northern territory and went to work at once. He found the problem of star- vation awaiting the natives. The Alaskans could not get enough to eat, so Dr. Jackson started in to feed the natives and then to convert them. Long before his advent in Alaska large herds of reindeer used to roam over the marshy, moss- covered tundra of the northern peninsula. These were exterminated by injudicious slaughter. 94 THE PRESS. Walrus, whale and seal were also rapidly disap- pearing owing to the inroads of the rapacious hunters of the United States and Great Britain, and it seemed only a matter of a short time when the natives of Alaska would be face to face with starvation. In this emergency Dr. Jackson suggested that the Government should transport from Siberia the domesticated reindeer that are to the Siberian what herds of cattle are to the Texan. Dr. Jackson's plan met with favor. His work in building up the Presbyterian Church in the West, where noble structures tes- tify to his arduous toil in behalf of the Church, and his struggle in Alaska against corrupt officials, make Dr. Jackson one of the most prominent fig- ures in the Church to-day. His election as Mode- rator is considered as a reward for the many years of toil in the far West. [The Troy Daily Times, Troy, N. Y., May 22, J 897.] IT is a great religious body that is in session at Winona, Ind. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America represents a vast body of loyal and virtuous citizens. The Presbyterian Church has stood for civil as well as for ecclesiastical liberty in this country since Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon of the College of New Jersey signed the Declaration of Independence after expressing impatience at its delay and until THE PRESS. 95 the present day, when ex-President Benjamin Harrison and ex-Postmaster General Wanamaker, as Presbyterian elders, walk together down the Assembly's aisles to distribute the sacramental emblems. The keynote of the present Assembly was sounded in the sermon this week of the retiring Moderator, Rev. Dr. Withrow. He advocated the abandonment of strife and the union of hearts and hands about the watchword Love. The election of a Moderator emphasized the determi- nation of the Assembly to make deeds more representative than declarations of belief. The Church that places before the country as its typical represenative a home missionary will receive the approval of a nation that judges of a faith by its works. [The Morning Tribune, Altoona, Pa., May 26, 1897.] THE proverbial Western windiness dresses the blue waters of this beautiful lake and rolls up big waves which break like miniature surf on the sandy shore. The green boughs of these charming groves bend low and wave a salute as the long, close procession of black-coated men representing the best brains and warmest hearts in this country wends its way to the great audito- rium, where the General Assembly holds its 96 THE PRESS. sessions, to decide issues which shall determine the Church's action and welfare for coming years. The auditorium is circular, lighted and venti- lated on all sides, with opera seats for 2500. Over the wide, deep platform stretches the legend, " 109th General Assembly." Beneath this, in his official chair, holding the gavel of symbolic woods, presented to him with a masterpiece of ex-President Harrison's oratory, sits the quiet, retiring little man, the hero of a thousand adven- tures more thrilling than many of the novels which fire the blood of young America, who sat with our Birmingham party the other afternoon upon the broad piazza for two hours relating a few blood- curdling experiences as calmly as one might mention an errand to the post office. The next day the Assembly arose en masse to greet him, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, as its chosen Moderator, conferring upon him the highest honor in the gift of the Church in recognition of his hard toil and much suffering in the cause. When the news was flashed over the United States each sad, discouraged, overworked home mission- ary on the frontier raised his worn face to the heavens with a fervent, "Thank God, Sheldon Jackson will not forget us!" The 600 commissioners representing the mem- bers occupy the front seats, and behind them, at each session, presses the great throng of mission- aries, men and women, wives of commissioners THE PRESS. 97 and other earnest workers, a matchless audience. Such intellectual faces, such earnest eyes, such brain force, such true consecration to God — where can one find its counterpart save in the General Assembly and Church of the First Born, in heaven, toward which their feet are tending. Mrs. H. H. Henry. [Herald and Presbyter, May 26, J 897.] THE General Assembly is distinctively a home missionary Assembly. The most important questions with which it has to deal concern the work of the Boards, especially that of the Home Board. The Moderator, Dr. Sheldon Jack- son, is a representative missionary. His work has been in the home field, and his election is not only a testimony to the regard which the Church has for him, but an evidence of its reviving interest in the work to which he has devoted his life. . . . We have heard a great many good nominating speeches in General Assemblies, but never a succession of such speeches as those proposing the names of Dr. Jackson and Dr. Minton. There was no hurrying. The speakers were picked men: Dr. Chapman, Dr. G. L. Spining ; Rev. R. M. Hayes, of Oregon; Dr. McMillan, of Rich- mond, O., and Rev. S. S. Palmer, of California, and the Assembly was appreciative. The entire afternoon session was an oratorical treat. 98 THE PRESS. Some of the best things said for the different benevolent causes of the Church have been said by men especially interested in, or identified with, other causes. Home Missions was helped by the address of Dr. Minton at the Foreign Missionary Conference. Foreign Missions received a lift from Dr. Jackson in his address accepting the Modera- torship. Governor Mount, who has a son in the ministry and a daughter in the foreign field, gave a most admirable presentation of Ministerial Relief. Interest in one cause does not hinder, but rather helps, interest in other good causes. [The Moravian, Bethlehem, Pa,, May 26, 1897.] OUR readers will have been gratified to observe in the public prints that the mis- sionary services of our friend Dr. Sheldon Jackson received deserved recognition in his being elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at Winona, Ind., on May 20. His unique career of indefatigable labor, from the borders of Texas to Alaska, in the forefront as a pioneer and an organizer, and his recent gift to the cause of Christian education in Utah render the recognition no more than deserved. THE PRESS. 99 [The Christian Intelligencer, New York, N. Y., May 26, 1897.] ON the first day of the annual session of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America at Winona Park, near Warsaw, Ind. , the Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, of Alaska, was elected the Moderator. Dr. Jackson has served many years with great industry and success as a missionary in Alaska. o [New York Independent, May 27, 1897.] F course Dr. Sheldon Jackson won. The reindeer is a swift-footed runner. ["Woman's Home Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, Delaware, O.] THE selection of this broad-minded and enterprising home missionary for Modera- tor of the late General Assembly (1897) is only another indication of the predominance of the missionary influence in this closing century. [New York Evangelist, May 27, 1897.] THE Evangelist sends greeting and congratu- lations to Dr. Sheldon Jackson in the chair. We do not at all disparage his excellent unsuccessful opponent; but we know and honor ioo THE PRESS. Dr. Jackson and feel justified in the feeling that he has come to his own, and receives no mark of approval and confidence which his long and faithful and self-denying service of the Church has not over and over merited. Positions of this kind go by courtesy often, by favor frequently, by rotation and by sectional votes sometimes. But in raising Dr. Jackson to the Moderatorship the Presbyterian Church honors itself by doing justice to one of her truest servants, best mis- sionaries, most modest benefactors and most unselfishly loyal sons. Therefore the choice may be called an ideal one and we hope it may be approved by the whole Church and followed as a precedent by other Assemblies. We have never very highly approved the idea of putting into the Moderatorship men who had distinguished them- selves in other ways than in the personal services of the Church. We have grand men among us, men whom we delight to honor as citizens and whom we devoutly love as brethren of Christ. We gladly vote for such men for places of trust, in which they may further distinguish themselves and serve the Church indirectly by so doing. When the Church calls a man to be her highest repre- sentative, it should be one who has not only given his all of influence and service to the Church, but has by that gift made the Church preeminently richer for all time. THE PRESS. 101 [New York Observer, May 27, J 897.] THE Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the Modera- tor of the General Assembly, now in session at Eagle Lake, Ind., was born at Minaville, Montgomery county, N. Y., May 18, 1834. He was graduated from Union College, N. Y. , in 1855, and from Princeton Theological Seminary, N. J., in 1858. In May of that year he was ordained by the Presbytery of Albany, and in the same month was married to Miss Mary Voorhees. On September 16, 1858, he and his wife started for Spencer Academy, Indian Territory, reaching there October 6, and remaining until the follow- ing spring, as missionaries of the Board of Foreign Missions. The climate affected his health unfavorably, and he became a home missionary for western Wisconsin and southern Minnesota, 1859 to 1864, with headquarters at La Crescent, Minn. In 1863 he served under the United States Christian Commission in the army hospitals in Tennessee and Alabama. In 1864 he accepted the pastorate of the church at Rochester, Minn., and the general oversight of the mission work in southern Minnesota, which relation contimied from 1864 to 1869. In 1869 the Presbyteries of Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Council Bluffs united in commissioning him as superintendent of missions for northern and western Iowa, 102 THE PRESS. Dakota, Nebraska and "the regions beyond," comprising one-fourth of the United States. In 1869 he removed his family to Council Bluffs, and gave special attention to the organization of churches in western Iowa, Nebraska and along the Union Pacific Railway. During the year, unexpectedly receiving a commission from the Board of Domestic Missions, as superintendent of missions for the Rocky mountain territories, in 1870 he removed his family to Denver, Colo., discontinued his work in Iowa and Nebraska, and took charge of the vast and almost unknown region of country along the Rocky mountains, from British America to old Mexico, and covered by the great territories of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. He remained in this work until January, 1882, when he was called by the Board of Home Missions to the Mission House in New York city, and made business manager of the Presbyterian Home Missionary. Dr. Jackson's field of work being among the exceptional populations of the country, he became the originator and one of the chief promoters of the "Woman's Executive Committee of Home Missions." £ In 1879, and again in 1880, he was com- missioned by the general Government to collect Indian children in New Mexico and Arizona, and bring them to the Indian Training Schools at Carlisle, Pa., and Hampton, Va. He |was a THE PRESS. 103 commissioner to the General Assemblies of i860, '65, '67, '70, '75 and '80. He was the pioneer minister organizing the first Presbyterian mis- sions and churches in the territories of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Alaska. He was the founder of the Alaskan Mission; secured the missionaries, raised the larger portion of the funds for the buildings, and made four visits to the country during the first six years of the missions. He has traveled hundreds of thou- sands of miles in all sorts of conveyances under all sorts of conditions. More than a hundred churches owe their existence to his labors. Dr. Jackson's name will be remembered for years to come on many accounts, but principally in connection with the introduction of domestic reindeer into the District of Alaska. To this great undertaking he was moved by philan- thropic considerations. The Eskimo population was slowly dying off with starvation. For ages a comfortable living had been secured from the products of the sea, principally the whale, the walrus and the seal. The fish and aquatic birds of the rivers, and the caribou, or wild reindeer, had supplemented the supply. But commerce robbed the people of their natural resources, and their extinction was only a matter of time unless a remedy could be insured. It seemed of little purpose to hope to establish the Gospel among such people if no way could be suggested for 104 THE PRESS. saving their natural lives. The story of the difficulties in the way and of their surmountal, of the initial success of Dr. Jackson's scheme and prospects of greater achievements, is wonderfully interesting. The stocking of Alaska with the domestic reindeer means not only the supply of a new and more permanent food supply for the half-famishing Eskimo, but the opening up of the vast and almost inaccessible region of northern and central Alaska to white settlers and civiliza- tion. The value of the discovery of large gold deposits on the streams of Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska is greatly enhanced. The probable com- mercial results can only be expressed in figures of handsome proportion. Dr. Jackson's interest in the work of the Presbyterian Church led him a few years ago to give property valued at $50,000, toward the erec- tion of a Presbyterian college near Salt Lake City. Man}> r New Yorkers will recall his rous- ing address at the home missionary rally, held in Carnegie Hall in March, 1896, when President Cleveland occupied the chair. His enthusiasm knows no bounds save those set by shrewd judgment. His name is held in esteem through- out the whole denomination, and, indeed, outside of its borders. His appointment as Moderator will be regarded with widespread satisfaction, and the good effect upon the cause of Home Missions will be felt, not only during the sessions of the THE PRESS. 105 General Assembly, but long after the echoes of its meetings have died away on the shores of Eagle Lake. His absolute lack of partisan spirit, his zeal and devotion, and his magnificent labors for the Church are fittingly recognized by his election. [Presbyterian Journal, Philadelphia, May 27, 1897.] IT was without doubt because of his eminent services to the Church that Dr. Sheldon Jackson was chosen to preside over the One Hundred and Ninth General Assembly. It is as a home missionary that he has gained his pre- eminence, and he is the first one thus honored. From Princeton Seminary he went with his wife, in 1858, to Indian Territory. The next year, for reasons of health, he removed to western Wisconsin and for a number of years did mis- sionary work there and in southern Minnesota, being for a part of the time Synodical Missionary of the latter section, where through his efforts Presbyterianism was widely and strongly estab- lished. Later on he was appointed Superintend- ent of Missions for Northern and Western Iowa, Dakota, Nebraska and "the regions beyond," comprising one-fourth of the United States. In 1870 he was commissioned by the Board Superin- tendent of Missions for the Rocky mountain Territories and removed to Denver. Through his energy, perseverance and endurance not only the io6 THE PRESS. first, but numerous missionary churches were organized in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Arizona. Over one hundred prosperous churches are said to owe their exist- ence to his efforts. Alaska has been the field of his latest labors and triumphs, and it has been there that he has obtained national recognition and a fame wider than his own continent. He was largely instrumental in securing a govern- ment and a common school system for that distant region. In 1885 he became General Agent of Education for the United States in Alaska. In September next he will have rounded out forty years in the home missionary service of the Church, and it may well be felt that in honoring him the General Assembly has honored the Church of which he has been such a faithful and efficient servant. [Presbyterian Journal, Philadelphia, Pa., June 3, 1897,] DR. SHELDON JACKSON, the new Modera- tor, who by unwritten law was expected to preach at the morning service, gave instead a thrilling account of the mission work in Alaska. The keyword in all the work of the Assembly is missions. There were sharp debates on many questions, but the result reached in every case was nearly unanimous. This shows that even the strongest opponents of proposed action were only seeking what was the right thing to be done. THE PRESS. 107 [Christian Herald, New York City, June % 1897.] AS announced in this journal several weeks ago, a large number of delegates to the General Assembly went to Eagle Lake, Ind. , intending to give the highest honor in the Church to the distinguished missionary, whose portrait appears in this column. It was felt that the services he had rendered to the Church, his heroic life and his sublime consecration entitled him to this distinction, and when his name was presented to the Assembly, the eminent fitness of the act commended itself at once to the delegates. The other candidates for the honor were Prof. Henry C. Minton, of San Francisco, and Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, of Philadelphia. The latter gentleman retired from the contest and Dr. Jackson was elected by a vote of 313 to 238. Dr. Spining, who supported the nomination of Dr. Jackson, made a characteristic speech on the merits of his candidate. He related a dream of meeting on the floor of the Assembly the great apostle to the Gentiles This vivid sugges- tion impressed the Assembly and the delegates, who, like the apostle in the speaker's dream, wished to see the "missionary of the snows," put him by their votes in the place where he could be seen of all and gave him the honor he so richly deserved. 108 THE PRESS. [The Interior June JO, J897.] A LETTER from Moderator Jackson, June 2, on train, says, " I am rushing along for Alaska via San Francisco and Seattle." A telegram from the Navy Department called him to Washington during the Assembly, but he answered that he could not go till his service to the Presbyterian Church in Winona was accom- plished. He left between suns on Friday night, for Washington. The urgency was that the Russian Consul for San Francisco had refused clearances to the ship Bear bound for Siberia, and Dr. Jackson was needed to clear the matter up. This was why he was going with a rush for San Francisco — the Bear must get out while the ice is loose in Behring sea. We suppose the Doctor is after more reindeer for his Indians. He said apologetically in Winona that he would be much more at home in a kyack or a sledge than in the Moderator's chair, but as everybody was satisfied with him there he has no reason for regrets. The selection of a missionary for the highest honor is giving a great deal of satisfaction in and out of the Church. The Presbyterians are rich and powerful, and are therefore regarded as necessarily aristocratic. It is regarded as having been both a graceful and a significant thing for this wealthy and brainy Church to go to a missionary kyack to find a Moderator. If it had not been for the heritage of con- THE PRESS. 109 troversy left over to the Winona Assembly as unfinished bad business it would have been one of the most evangelical bodies that ever assembled. It transmitted to its successor no trouble or quarrel. We did not get all that we wanted in the way of a harmonious and enthusiastic body of evangelists, but the way will be clear next year. [New York Pilot June 26, 1897.] DR. SHELDON JACKSON, whom the mem- bers of the Presbyterian General Assembly at Eagle Lake, Ind. , chose as Moderator, is one of the most forceful and interesting of the men whom the Church has employed in the work of Home Missions. His life has been active and varied, and the greater part of it has been devoted to his missionary work in almost every State and Territory west of the Mississippi. That he is a man also of resources and practical methods is shown by his work while General Agent of Educa- tion in Alaska. Indeed, it is not too much to say that to Dr. Jackson will belong much of the credit for the influences which are slowly working toward the opening and awakening of that vast territory. That the new industry of reindeer raising will do much to redeem the Alaskan native from barbarism and sloth seems as probable as that the no THE PRESS. new method of transportation will do much to open up and develop the vast resources of the territory. When the credit for the pioneer work in the opening of Alaska to civilization comes to be reckoned much of it will have to be given to the new Moderator chosen by the Presbyterians at Eagle Lake. — Chicago Record. [Treasury Magazine, New York City, June, J897.] DR. JACKSON was born in Minaville, N. Y., in 1834, and graduated at Union College in 1855, and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1858. He entered at once into the most aggres- sive Christian work, and during the war of the Rebellion was in the service of the United States Christian Commission. Upon the close of the war he began his remarkable career as a home missionary in the new West; and he has served that cause in almost every State and Territory west of the Mississippi river, showing remarkable skill, as well as devotion, in the organizing of new work. In 1877 he went to Alaska, and during the twenty years past, his name has become inden- tified with that territory as the father of missionary and educational development. His work in the founding of schools, in securing the effective help of the national Government, in the introduction of reindeer from Lapland and Siberia, and in cordial co peration with other religious missions besides THE PRESS. in those of his own Church, has become known the country over. Besides hundreds of able addresses, he is the author of a number of articles and books upon Alaska, and has for several years been United States Commissioner of Education for that Territory. The General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church, in fitting recognition of his char- acter and work, elected him its Moderator, May 20, 1897. [Forward, Philadelphia, Pa.] THE General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church is a strong and impressive body. It is the highest court of our Church, and behind it stands a noble and brilliant history. The man who is chosen as its Moderator fills a dignified and important office — the highest within the gift of the denomination. It was to this place of honor that the Presbyterian Church, last May, called the Alaskan missionary hero, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, whose record meets, as has been well said, "the apostolic tests of hardness endured, of life imperiled, of fidelity in the face of imprisonment and death, of unwearied activity, and of splendid achievement." Forty years ago Dr. Jackson was ordained to the ministry, immediately after his graduation from Princeton Theological Seminary. He tells us, indeed, that he graduated, was ordained, and 112 THE PRESS. married within the short space of one month ! He and his bride were ready for the mission field at once, but the physician refused to give the young- preacher a certificate of health, so that a mission station in Bogata, S. A., or Siam, where he had hoped to go, was closed to him. "They thought that I was not strong," he says, naively, "but I had an iron constitution, with the exception of dyspepsia." When one thinks of the great army of dyspeptics, who excuse themselves from duty on account of their malady, this sentence seems humorously heroic. Nothing daunted by the physician's reports, the young man applied for work in the Home Mission field, and was sent to hold meetings among the Choctaws. In one year he had three attacks of malarial fever, and finally he had to go north, where he settled in Minnesota and remained for ten years, doing pioneer work, commencing on a salary of three hundred dollars a year. He was successful and was anxious to do yet more. So he offered to labor in northern Iowa, without any salary at all. This offer was accepted, and Dr. Jackson went to work with characteristic energy. He organized missions for a thousand miles around in the new West of that day. He founded one hundred churches and went East and raised money to support them. He was in advance of the railroads, and, as he puts it, was THE PRESS. 113 " fifty miles ahead of the locomotive at Denver." He staged it twice to the Pacific coast, besides visiting every Territory thoroughly, traveling hundreds of thousands of miles in his missionary labors. No wonder that in 1877 the Board commissioned him as the first missionary in Alaska. Of Dr. Jackson's work in Alaska there is no need to write, for every one knows his wonderful achievements there. Schools, churches, converts, ministers, order and peace replacing degraded savagery, whole tribes won to the Gospel, and showing its blessed fruits — these are twice-told tales in every mission record. By Dr Jackson's energy and ability, the Eskimos, in danger of terrible famine, were saved, in 1890, by the impor- tation of herds of reindeer from Siberia. These herds, now largely increased, are being drawn upon by the Government for the relief of the gold miners in the Klondike; and Dr. Jackson's expedi- tion to Norway, last winter, at the request and expense of the Government, furnished more of these useful animals for the Yukon country. Few men live to see themselves appreciated and their work rewarded as Dr. Jackson's has been. The Government itself looks to him for counsel and assistance in Alaskan matters, and when summoned to Washington a few months ago his advice was sought not only by the President and other high officials individually, but he was given ii 4 THE PRESS. the distinguished honor of being invited to meet and confer with the entire national cabinet in session. [The Ram's Horn, Chicago, 111., July 3, 1897.] THERE has always existed in the human mind a peculiar fascination for the lives and deeds of heroes. And he who performs valiant actions and achieves mighty results for the cause of Christ may, perhaps, be called the king of heroes. Such a career as the latter has been led by the pioneer missionary of the West and the apostle of Alaska, Dr. Sheldon Jackson. Though short in stature, Dr. Jackson has a long record as a travleer. By stage and sledge, by boat and canoe, by horse and rail, he has covered a distance of more than 600,000 miles; which means that he has followed a pathway equal in length to twenty-four girdles around the globe. And this is but part of his wonderful work. He has delivered over 3000 missionary addresses. Has established more than 100 churches in our land. Has saved the Esquimaux of Alaska from starva- tion by the importation of reindeer from Siberia. And just recently he has been honored for his unparalleled labors in the western part of our continent by being elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America. THE PRESS. 115 [The Church at Home and Abroad, September, 1897.] THE portrait of this honored and beloved man greeted our readers as the frontispiece to our July number. All our readers have had op- portunity to read in the daily or weekly papers the address of Rev. Dr. Spining on presenting his nomination. It seems to us that it is an address worthy of pre- servation in the permanent literature of the Church, and we gladly give place in our pages for such preservation of it. As an oration it seems to us to possess in an un- usual degree the essential qualities of true elo- quence. Its value is not chiefly in its exaltation of the man whom it eulogiges, but in its vivid and powerful presentation of the great Christian and patriotic enterprise which that man's career so sig- nally illustrates. " True eloquence," said the greatest of our nation's senatorial orators, "must be in the man, in the subject and in the occasion." The real "subject" of this oration was Home Missions ; the "occasion" was a conspicuous op- portunity to exalt that theme before an Assembly representing a great nation to whose safety the success of Home Missions is essential ; and "the man ' ' (the orator) had the great advantage of having his subject visibly embodied in another man " whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches." n6 THE PRESS. [The Converted Catholic, New York City, July, \ 897.] THE whole Presbyterian Church honored itself by electing as its Moderator the Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the famous missionary of Alaska, at the meeting of the General Assembly in Winona, Indiana, last May. Last year we had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Jackson for the first time, and, as in the case of General Grant, his chief char- acteristic seemed to be simplicity of character. A man of apostolic zeal, he is respected, honored and loved by all American Christians The whole Church of Christ in the United States rejoices equally with the Presbyterian Church in the honor conferred on Dr. Jackson and the recognition of his faithful, heroic service in the work of the Lord. [Rev. William H. Roberts, D.D., LL.D., Stated Clerk of the Assembly, in " The Presbyterian and Reformed Review" for October, J 897.] THE 109th General Assembly of the Presbyte- rian Church in the United States of America opened auspiciously at Eagle Lake, Indiana, on May 20, with a sermon on the text, "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves. " The candidates for Moderator were two in num- ber, the talented young Professor of Systematic Theology in the San Francisco Theological Semi- nary, the Rev. Henry Collin Minton, D.D., and THE PRESS. 117 that veteran and apostolic missionary, Rev. Shel- don Jackson, D.D., LL. D., who for forty years has been a leader of the Home Mission advance toward the West, and now naturally hails from Alaska. The election of Dr. Jackson was distinctly a recognition both of great services rendered and of the importance of that branch of the mission work of our Church with which he has been so long con- nected. In harmony with the opening sermon, Dr. Jackson sought from Dr. Minton, as well as from others, aid in the appointment of committees, and his general administration of the duties of his high office gave new evidence of his possession both of a generous nature and large executive ability PRESENTATIONS GAVEL, CANE. PRESENTATIONS. PRESENTATION OF GAVEL. Address by Hon. Benjamin Harrison, Ex-President of the United States. "R. MODERATOR: The Synod of Indiana has devolved on me the pleasant duty of presenting to you a gavel to be used in keeping order. You were told by the retiring Moderator, when he handed you the gavel, that you would have no use for it. We hope you may not, but we desire that you be equipped for all emergencies. The gentleman from Texas only needed a revolver once, but he needed it badly at that time. In this open country in which this Assembly is meeting to breathe the exhilarating air and enjoy these beautiful grounds it may be that the emergency may come. ' ' We have here a gavel constructed entirely of hardwood. There is in it a piece of poplar, and I was in doubt as to its classification. I consulted my old friend, Dr. Gray, of The Interior, who knows all about trees, but who, I 1 2 2 PRE SENT A TIONS. believed, has never been treed himself, and he told me it could be called hardwood. Wood easily converted into pulp would not typify the Presbyterian Church. It has gone through many hardships, and its fibre is stiff, and strong, and true. " This gavel is composed of oak, poplar, black walnut, beech and maple. The oak we may say stands for the Calvinistic ribs of the Church; that strong framework which has enabled it to cross the stormy seas. Perhaps the poplar, a tree stately and magnificent, may stand for the symmetrical and orderly Presbyterian govern- ment which has become a model for civil govern- ment the world over. The black walnut is a tree, the timber of which no one ever paints; no one wants to hide it, and varnish is an offense. Its beautiful lines, its fine shades of color, stand for the polish, the love for education, the individ- uality of the Church. The beech, that beautiful tree which drops its sheltering arms until they almost drink the dew from the sod, may represent the sheltering, folding love of the Church for the lambs of God. And the maple — the sugar maple — through the veins of which there courses such sweetness, may stand for our retiring Moderator, Dr. Withrow, or his sermon of yesterday, and doubtless, Mr. Moderator, when you have com- pleted the year of your duties, it may also well stand for you. It is well for each and all to PRESENTATIONS. 123 remember, that to get the sweetness out of the maple it has to be boiled down." General Harrison then explained the construc- tion of the gavel, each piece of wood in which is taken from some spot in Indiana memorable in Presbyterian Church history. The oak handle was made from the old log church erected near Vincennes in 1806. It was the first Presbyterian church in Indiana and likewise the first Protes- tant church. ' ' The committee has furnished me with some mention of my grandfather's connec- tion with this church," said the General, "which it is not necessary for me to go into." The commissioners cried for him to "go on," but General Harrison claimed that he had lost the memoranda. Finally, amidst much laughter, he produced them. Said he: "The record of the first year of this church was lost, but it seems probable that my grandfather was one of its charter members. It is also certain that my father is the first person recorded as having been baptized in the church. "The piece of oak is from timber taken from the first house erected for the theological seminary at Hanover in 1830. The institution was afterward moved to New Albany and was the mother of the McCormick Theological Seminary. The piece of poplar is from one of the desks used in Hanover Academy in 1827. The beech is from a tree which formerly stood on the campus of Wabash 1 24 PRESENTA TIONS. College at Crawfordsville. The black walnut is from a piece of furniture in the old First Presby- terian Church of Indianapolis, erected in 1823, and the maple from timber in the old Second Church, in which Henry Ward Beecher once preached. The church was erected in 1838 and is now being torn down. "Mr. Moderator, these brief historical refer- ences to the wood of this gavel will show you, sir, that they all have reference to first things. It is very appropriate, sir, that a gavel made from the wood of pioneer churches and furnishings devoted to first worship should be presented to one whose life has been so much associated with pioneei churches. Does not the story I have told — do not all the associations between the life work of the Moderator and the gavel bring to us impressions this morning in harmony with the thought, already often expressed here, that the Presbyte- rian Church should now start forward in a great and earnest movement for the advancement of missions? It does not require, sir, an expounder of the Word to understand why it is that a Church that is all aglow with missionary zeal and enterprise should be a growing Church also. It is easy to know why it is so, because it is living in the spirit and in the teachings of the Master, and to securing the fulfillment of His promised bless- ing. When we are giving ourselves to frescoes and organs and cushioned pews, we are possibly PR ESENTA TIONS. 1 25 doing well. Taste may be educated, but the heart is not set on fire. When work for missions takes hold of the Church, work for others and for the Master who gave himself for us, it fills the Church with enthusiasm, and the drawing power which illustrates that giving does not impoverish but enriches and brings into the contributing churches large accessions of useful members. "Pardon me that I have not boiled down my syrup." Responding, Dr. Jackson thanked the Presby- terians of Indiana for this useful and interesting memento of their regard for the Assembly and its Moderator. He remembered the beginning of the Church in the State which has grown to a membership of 42,000. He named the pioneers and veterans, the heroes of his boyhood days, and in conclusion referred to the interest General Harrison had ever taken while President in the welfare and progress of Alaska. The Moderator announced the appointment of Hon. John Wanamaker as Vice-Moderator; and a little later said that the reason why ex- President Harrison was not named at the head of some important committee was the probability that he would not be able to remain throughout the sessions. 1 26 PRESENTA TIONS. PRESENTATION OF A GOLD-HEADED CANE. * Seventeenth Century to Nineteenth Century Presbyterianism Greeting/' Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D., LL.D. : THE Presbyterian Church of Rehoboth, Md., one of the group of churches organized near the close of the seventeenth century by Rev. Francis Makemie, a pioneer Presbyterian missionary of the seventeenth century, on the eastern coast of America, sends greeting and a historical cane to Dr. Sheldon Jackson, a pioneer missionary of the nineteenth century on the western coast. This cane is made of wood from Makemie's old pulpit in the church at Rehoboth, Md. , cut in times before the Revolutionary War. The church in which it stood was organized in the days when King Charles II ruled over the land, and only thirty-five years after the Assembly at Westminster had sent forth our Confession of Faith and Catechisms. Very truly yours, Emerson G. Polk, Ruling Elder of Presbyterian Church, Rehoboth, Aid.; Com- missioner of Presbytery of Nezv Castle to General Assembly of 1898.