OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

1904-05

President

Rev. SAMUEL A. ELIOT, D.D., of Cambridge, Mass.

Vice-Presidents

Hon. JOSEPH W. SYMONDS, LL.D., of Portland, Me. Hon. ROCKWOOD HOAR, Worcester, Mass.

JOHN HARSEN RHOADES, New York, N.Y.

Hon. THOMAS J. MORRIS, of Baltimore, Md.

Hon. GEORGE E. ADAMS, of Chicago, Ill.

Hon. HORACE Davis, LL.D., of San Francisco, Cal.

Secretary

Rev. CHARLES E. ST. JOHN, of Brookline, Mass.

Assistant Secretary

GEORGE W. Fox, Esq., of Boston, Mass.

Treasurer

FRANCIS H. LINCOLN, Esq., of Hingham, Mass.

BX 9803 A53 1905

ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT,
REV. SAMUEL A. ELIOT, D.D.

The glory of our fellowship of free churches is not in our numbers, which are insignificant, or in magnificent churches or flourishing missions or great circulation of literature, but in a certain quality of character and a certain standard of public serviceableness which is nurtured and upbuilt in the atmosphere of religious freedom. Our boast is not so much in what our people get or give as in what they are.

"The value of a nation," said Lowell, "is weighed in scales more delicate than the balance of trade. On the map you can cover Athens with a pin-point and Judæa with a finger-tip, but in those insignificant places the impulses have been given which have not ceased to direct civilization." So the value of a league of independent churches like this Association is not measured by its outward prosperity or the multitude of its adherents or the money value of its lands and buildings, but by the quality of manhood and womanhood that develops under the influence of a spiritual Christianity.

Let the life records of our illustrious dead bear witness to the power of these free churches to produce brave, self-reliant, faithful men and women. The year that has passed since we last gathered has taken from

our ranks national leaders like Senator George F. Hoar and Governor George S. Boutwell, whose names stand in the annals of our land among the great names of a great era; alert, efficient administrators of great public trusts, like Henry S. Russell of Boston and William H. Baldwin, Jr., of New York; men of honorable achievement in mercantile affairs and public-spirited service, like James H. Beal of Boston, Arthur Hunnewell, and George A. Alden of Wellesley, Charles E. Guild of Brookline, Alfred Metcalf of Providence, and Pierre B. Cornwall of San Francisco; high-minded and successful lawyers, like Henry D. Moulton of Salem and George W. Wakefield of Sioux City; scholars and teachers, like Prof. William H. Pettee of Ann Arbor; generous helpers in all good causes, like Joseph Peabody of Boston and James M. Barnard of Milton; and such types of New England manhood as Francis Leland of Templeton, Benjamin Andrew of Hingham, Wilson Crosby of Bangor, and Alfred Norton of Arlington. These and many others were men who illustrated the kind of moral idealism and self-contained spiritual force that are common possessions of people trained in the Unitarian habit of mind. These men were convinced that the universe is ruled by a good and loving God, that the best way of worshipping God is in reverencing the truth and goodness and beauty he has created, and that the best way of serving God is to love and serve men. By the compulsion of their inheritances and their convictions they tried to make these beliefs of practical effect in the communities in which they lived. They possessed the manly reasonableness and the high-minded devotion

which intelligent and patriotic Americans look for in the leaders they trust and follow.

We miss also from our fellowship such gracious and persuasive women as Miss Elizabeth H. Botume of South Carolina, Mrs. Gilman and Mrs. Fessenden of Portland, Mrs. Silsbee and Mrs. Hoffman of Salem, Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Meredith of Boston, Mrs. Billings of Woodstock, Mrs. Perkins of Kennebunk, Miss Brown of Providence, Mrs. Norris of San Francisco. From our ministerial fellowship we have lost such leaders as Alger, Chadwick, Dawes, Green, Morehouse, Powell, Rogan, and Staples, and three helpful women who shared their husbands' labors,-Mrs. Beane of Newburyport, Mrs. Cronyn of Bernardston, and Mrs. Hodgin of Helena. It will recall to some of you happy memories if I also mention three of the widows of ministers who have died during the year,-Mrs. Charles T. Brooks of Newport, Mrs. Samuel A. Smith of Arlington, and Mrs. Frederic Huidekoper of Meadville. Happy is the fellowship that has the right to mourn such friends and exemplars.

The financial record of the year is set before you in the Treasurer's statement. The total receipts of your Association have been a little in excess of a quarter of a million of dollars. This total is divided, in round numbers, as follows:

Gifts and bequests for increase of endowment, $132,000.

Gifts of churches, Sunday-schools, and individuals for current expenses, $66,000.