The Bay State Monthly. Volume 1, No. 6, June, 1884

Forty years ago, one little association in London: to-day Great Britain dotted all over with them; one hundred and ninety in England and Wales; one hundred and seventy-eight in Scotland, and twenty in Ireland. France has eight districts, or groups, containing sixty-four associations. Germany, divided into five bunds, has four hundred; Holland, its eleven provinces, with three hundred and thirty-five; Romansch Switzerland, eighty-seven; German Switzerland, one hundred and thirty-five; Belgium, eighteen; Spain, fourteen; Italy, ten Turkey in Europe, one, at Philippopolis; Sweden and Norway, seventy-one; Austria, two, at Vienna and Budapesth; Russia, eight, among them Moscow and St. Petersburg; Turkey in Asia, nine; Syria, five, at Beirût, Damascus, Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Nazareth; India, five; Japan, two; Sandwich Islands, one, at Honolulu; Australia, twenty-seven; South Africa, seven; Madagascar, two; West Indies, three; British Guiana, one, at Georgetown; South America (besides), three; Canada and British Provinces, fifty-one. In the United States, seven hundred and eighty-six.

In all, nearly twenty-seven hundred, scattered over the world, and all the outgrowth of forty years. It has been said that the sun never rises anywhere that it is not saluted by the British reveille. Look how quickly the organization of young men has stretched its cordon round the world, and dotted it all over with the tents of its conflict for them against the opposing forces of the evil one.

What are its characteristics?

1. It is the universal church of Christ, working through its young men for the salvation of young men. In the words of a paper, read at the last world's conference, at London:—

"The fundamental idea of the organization, on which all subsequent substantial development has been based, was simply this: that in the associated effort of young men connected with the various branches of the church of Christ lies a great power to promote their own development and help their fellows, thus prosecuting the work of the church among the most-important, most-tempted, and least-cared-for class in the community."

The distinct work for young men was thus emphasized at the Chicago convention in 1863, in the following resolutions presented by the Reverend Henry G. Potter, then of Troy, and now assistant bishop of the diocese of New York:—

"Resolved, That the interests and welfare of young men in our cities demand, as heretofore, the steadfast sympathies and efforts of the Young Men's Christian Associations of this country.

"Resolved, That the various means by which Christian associations can gain a hold upon young men, and preserve them from unhealthy companionship and the deteriorating influences of our large cities, ought to engage our most earnest and prayerful consideration."

2. It is a Christian work. It stands upon the basis of the faith of the church of all ages, which is thus set forth in the formula of this organization.

The convention in 1856 promptly accepted and ratified the Paris basis, adopted by the first world's conference of the associations, in the following language:—

"The Young Men's Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their doctrine and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his kingdom among young men."

This was reaffirmed in the convention of 1866 at Albany. In 1868, at the Detroit convention, was adopted what is known as the evangelical test, and at the Portland convention of 1869 the definition of the term evangelical; they are as follows:—

"As these associations bear the name of Christian, and profess to be engaged directly in the Saviour's service, so it is clearly their duty to maintain the control and management of all their affairs in the hands of those who love and publicly avow their faith in Jesus the Redeemer as divine, and who testify their faith by becoming and remaining members of churches held to be evangelical: and we hold those churches to be evangelical which, maintaining the Holy Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of faith and practice, do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (the only begotten of the Father, King of kings and Lord of lords, in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead, bodily, and who was made sin for us, though knowing no sin, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree) as the only name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved from everlasting punishment."

But while the management is thus rightly kept in the hands of those who stand together upon the platform of the church of Christ, the benefits and all other privileges are for all young men of good morals, whether Greek, Romanist, heretic, Jew, Moslem, heathen, or infidel. Its field, the world. Wherever there are young men, there is the association field, and an extended work must be organized. Already in August, 1855, the importance of the work made conference necessary, and thirty-five delegates met at Paris, of whom seven were from the United States, and the same number from Great Britain.

In 1858, a second conference was held at Geneva, with one hundred and fifty-eight delegates. In 1862, at London, were present ninety-seven delegates; in 1865, at Elberfeld, one hundred and forty; in 1867, at Paris, ninety-one; in 1872, at Amsterdam, one hundred and eighteen; in 1875, at Hamburg, one hundred and twenty-five; in 1878, at Geneva, two hundred and seven,—forty-one from the United States; in 1881, in London, three hundred and thirty-eight,—seventy-five from the United States.

At the conference of 1878, in Geneva, a man in the prime of life, and partner in a leading banking-house of that city, was chosen president. He spoke with almost equal ease the three languages of the conference—English, French, and German. Shortly after that convention Mr. Fermand gave up his business and became the general secretary of the world's committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations. He traveled over the whole continent of Europe, visiting the associations, and then came to America to make acquaintance with our plans of work. Now stationed at Geneva, with some resident members of the convention, he keeps up the intercourse of the associations through nine members representing the principal nations. I have spoken of the three languages of the conference. It is a wonderful inspiration to find one's self in a gathering of all nations, brought together by the love of one person, each speaking in his own tongue, praising the one name, so similar in each,—that name alone in each address needing no interpretation.

The conference meets this year, in August, at Berlin, when probably as many as one hundred delegates will be present from the United States.

But inter-association organization has gone much further in this country than elsewhere, and communication is exceedingly close between the nine hundred associations of America.

The first conception of uniting associations came to the Reverend William Chauncey Langdon, then a layman, and a member of the Washington Association, now rector of the Episcopal Church at Bedford, Pennsylvania. Mr. McBurney, in his fine Historical Sketch of Associations, says: "Many of the associations of America owe their individual existence to the organization effected through his wise foresight. The associations of our land, and in all lands, owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Langdon far greater than has ever been recognized." Oscar Cobb, of Buffalo, and Mr. Langdon signed the call to the first convention, which assembled on June 7, 1854, at Buffalo. This was the first conference of associations held in the English-speaking world. Here was appointed a central committee, located at Washington, and six elsewhere.

In 1860, Philadelphia was made the headquarters. The confederation of associations and its committee came to an end in Chicago, June 4, 1863, and the present organization with its international executive committee was born, with members increasing in number. The committee now numbers thirty-three, two being resident in New York City.

In the year 1865, a committee was appointed by the convention at Philadelphia. The president of this convention became the chairman of the international executive committee, consisting of ten members resident in New York City, and twenty-three placed at different prominent points in the United States and British Provinces. There is also a corresponding member of the committee in each State and province, and means of constant communication between the committee and each association, and between the several associations, through the Young Men's Christian Association Watchman, a sixteen-paged paper, published each fortnight in Chicago.

On the sixteenth day of April, 1883, the international committee, which had been superintending the work since 1865, was incorporated in the State of New York. Cephas Brainerd, a lawyer of New York City, a direct descendant of the Brainerds of Connecticut, and present owner of the homestead, has always been chairman of the committee, and, from a very large practice, has managed to take an immense amount of time for this work, which has more and more taken hold on his heart,—and here let me say that I know no work, not even that of foreign missions, which takes such a grip upon those who enter upon it. Time, means, energy, strength, have been lavishly poured out by them. Mr. Brainerd and his committee work almost as though it were their only work, and yet each member of the committee is one seemingly fully occupied with his business or professional duties. See the members of the Massachusetts committee, so fired with love for this work that, in the gospel canvasses of the State, after working all day, many of them give from forty to fifty evenings, sometimes traveling all night to get back to their work in the morning. It is no common cause that thus draws men out of themselves for others. Then, too, I greatly doubt where there are such hard-worked men as the general secretaries,—days and evenings filled with work that never ends; the work the more engrossing and exacting because it combines physical and mental with spiritual responsibility. We who know this are not surprised to find the strength of these men failing. Those who employ them should carefully watch that relief is promptly given from time to time as needed. There are now more than three hundred and fifty of these paid secretaries. Now, look back over the whole history of the associations, and can you doubt that he who meets the wants of his creatures has raised up the organization for the express purpose of saving young men as a class? And to do this he employs the church itself—not the church in its separate organizations, but the church universal. A work for all young men should be by the young men of the whole church. First, because it is young manhood that furnishes the common ground of sympathy. Second, because the appliances are too expensive for the individual churches. Large well-situated buildings, with all possible right attractions, are simply necessary to success in this work. These things are so expensive that the united church only can procure them. That in Philadelphia cost $700,000; in New York, $500,000; in Boston, more than $300,000; in Baltimore, $250,000; in Chicago, $150,000; San Francisco, $76,000; Montreal, $67,000; Toronto, $48,000; Halifax, $36,000; West New Brighton, New York, $19,000; at the small town of Rockport, Massachusetts, about $4,000; and at Nahant, $2,000. In all these are eighty buildings, worth more than $3,000,000, while as many more have land or building-funds. Third, how blessedly this sets forth the vital unity of Christ's church, "that they may all be one," and also distinguishes them from all other religious bodies. "Come out from among them and be ye separate."

This association work is divided into local (the city or town), state or home mission, the international and foreign mission.

The local is purely a city or town work. The "state," which I have called the home mission, is thoroughly to canvass the State, learn where the association is needed, plant it there, strengthen all existing associations, and keep open communication between all. This is also the international work, but its field is the United States and British Provinces, under the efficient management of this committee.

As has been said, the convention of 1866 appointed the international committee, which was directed to call and arrange for state and provincial conventions. This is the result: in 1866, no state or provincial committee or conventions. Now, thirty-three such committees, thirty-one of which hold state or provincial conventions, together with a large number of district and local conferences.

In 1870, Mr. R.C. Morse, a graduate of Yale College, and a minister of the Presbyterian Church, became the general secretary of the committee and continues such to-day. Of the missionary work of the committee the most conspicuous has been that at the West and South. In 1868, the convention authorized the employment of a secretary for the West. This man, Robert Weidansall, a graduate of Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, was found working in the shops of the Pacific Railroad Company at Omaha. He had intended entering the ministry, but his health failed him. To-day there is no question as to his health—he has a superb physique, travels constantly, works extremely hard, and has been wonderfully successful. When he began there were thirty-nine associations in the States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There was only one secretary, and no building. Now there are nearly three hundred associations, spending more than one hundred and ten thousand dollars; twenty general secretaries, and five buildings. Nine States are organized, and five employ state secretaries. The following words from a recent Kansas report sound strangely, almost like a joke, to one who remembers the peculiar influence of Missouri upon the infant Kansas: "Kansas owes much of her standing to-day to the fostering care and efforts of the Missouri state executive committee." In 1870, two visitors were sent to the Southern States. There were then three associations only between Virginia and Texas. There are now one hundred and fifty-seven.

Previous to the Civil War the work was well under way, but had been almost entirely given up. Our visitors were not at once received as brethren, but Christian love did its work and gradually all differences were forgotten by these Christians in the wonderful tie which truly united them, and when, in 1877, the convention met at Richmond, not only harmony prevailed, but it seemed as though each were trying to prove to the other his intenser brotherly love. The cross truly conquered. No one who was present can ever forget those scenes, or cease to bless God for what I truly believe was the greatest step toward the uniting again of North and South. Mr. T.K. Cree has had charge of this work since the beginning. Not only has sectional spreading of associations been done by the committee, but, in the language of the report already quoted: "Special classes of young men, isolated in a measure from their fellows by virtue of occupation, training, or foreign birth, have from time to time so strongly appealed to the attention of the American associations as to elicit specific efforts in their behalf." Thus, in 1868, the first secretary of the committee was directed to devote his time to railroad employees. For one year he labored among them. The general call on his time then became so imperative that he was obliged to leave the railroad work. This work had been undertaken at St. Albans, Vermont, in 1854, and in Canada in 1855. The first really important step in this work was at Cleveland in 1872, when an employee of a railroad company, who had been a leader in every kind of dissipation, was converted. He immediately began to use his influence among his comrades, and such was the power of the Spirit that the Cleveland Association took up the work and began holding meetings especially for these men. In 1877, Mr. E.D. Ingersol was appointed by the international committee to superintend the work. There has been no rest for him in this. A leading railroad official says: "Ingersol is indeed a busy man. Night and day he travels. To-day a railroad president wants him here, to-morrow a manager summons him. He is going like a shuttle back and forth across the country, weaving the web of railroad associations." When he entered on the work there were but three railroad secretaries; now there are nearly seventy. There are now over sixty branches in operation; and the work is going on besides at twenty-five points; almost a hundred different places, therefore, where specific work is done for railroad men. They own seven buildings, valued at thirty-three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. The expense of maintaining these reading-rooms is over eighty thousand dollars, and more than two thirds of this is paid by the corporations themselves; most of the secretaries are on the regular pay-rolls of the companies. How can this be done? Simply because the officers see such a return from this expenditure in the morals and efficiency of their men that they have no doubt as to the propriety of the investment.

Mr. William Thaw, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Company, writes: "This work is wholly good, both for the men and the roads which they serve." Mr. C. Vanderbilt, first vice-president of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, writes: "Few things about railroad affairs afford more satisfactory returns than these reading-rooms." Mr. J.H. Devereux, of Cleveland, president of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Railway, writes: "The association work has from the beginning (now ten years ago) been prosecuted at Cleveland satisfactorily and with good results. The conviction of the board of superintendents is that the influence of the room and the work in connection with it has been of great value to both the employer and the employed, and that the instrumentalities in question should not only be encouraged but further strengthened." Mr. John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, says: "A secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association, for the service of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, was appointed in 1879, and I am gratified to be able to say that the officers under whose observation his efforts have been conducted informed me that this work has been fruitful of good results." Mr. Thomas Dickson, president of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, writes: "This company takes an active interest in the prosperity of the association, and will cheerfully co-operate in all proper methods for the extension of its usefulness." Mr. H.B. Ledyard, general manager of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, writes: "I have taken a deep interest in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association among railroad men, and believe that, leaving out all other questions, it is a paying investment for a railroad company."

These are a few out of a great number of assurances from railroad men of the value of this organization. In Chicago, the president of one of the leading railroads, the general superintendent of another, and other officials, are serving on the railroad committee of the Young Men's Christian Association, and it is hoped that at every railway centre there may soon be an advisory committee of the work. Such a committee is now forming in Boston. This work should interest every individual, because it touches every one who ever journeys by train. Speak as some men may, faithlessly, concerning religion, where is the man who would not feel safer should he know that the engineer and conductor of his train were Christians? men not only caring for others, but themselves especially cared for.

Frederick von Schluembach, of noble birth, an officer in the Prussian army, was a leader there in infidelity and dissipation to such a degree as to drive him to this country at the time of our Civil War. He went into service and attained to the rank of captain. His conversion was remarkable and he brought to his Saviour's service all the intense earnestness and zeal that he had been giving to Satan. He joined the Methodists and became a minister among them. His heart went out to the multitudes of his countrymen here, and especially to the young; thus he came in contact with the central committee and was employed by them to visit German centres. This was in 1871, in Baltimore, where took place the first meeting of the national bund of German-speaking associations. At their request Mr. Von Schluembach took the field, which has resulted, after extreme opposition on the part of the German churches, in eight German Young Men's Christian Associations, besides an equal number of German committees in associations. When we remember that there are more than two million Germans in this country, and that New York is the fourth German city in the world, we can scarcely overestimate the greatness of this work. Mr. Von Schluembach was obliged on account of ill health to go to Germany for a while, and, recovering, formed associations there,—the one in Berlin being especially powerful, some of "Caesar's household" holding official positions in it. He has now returned, and with Claus Olandt, Jr., is again at work among his countrymen. His first work on returning was to assist in raising fifty thousand dollars for the German building in New York City.

Mr. Henry E. Brown has always since the war been intensely interested in the colored men of the South. Shortly after graduation at Oberlin College, Ohio, he founded, and was for two years president of, a college for colored men in Alabama. He is now secretary for the committee among this class at the South, and speaks most encouragingly of the future of this work.

In 1877, there was graduated a young man named L.D. Wishard, from Princeton College. To him seems to have been given a great desire for an inter-collegiate religious work. He, with his companions, issued a call to collegians to meet at the general convention of Young Men's Christian Associations at Louisville. Twenty-two colleges responded and sent delegates. Mr. Wishard was appointed international secretary. One hundred and seventy-five associations have now been formed, with nearly ten thousand members. These colleges report about ninety Bible-classes during the past year. Fifteen hundred students have professed conversion through the association; of these forty have decided to enter the ministry, and two of these are going to the foreign fields.

The work is among the men most likely to occupy the highest position in the country, hence its importance is very great. Mr. Wishard is quite overtaxed and help has been given him at times, but he needs, and so also does the railroad work, an assistant secretary.

There is a class of men in our community who are almost constantly traveling. Rarely at home, they go from city to city. The temptations to these men are peculiar and very great. In 1879, Mr. E.W. Watkins, himself one of this class of commercial travelers, was appointed secretary in their behalf. He has since visited all the principal associations, and has created an interest in these neglected men. Among the appliances which are productive of the most good is the traveler's ticket, which entitles him to all the privileges of membership in any place where an association may be. A second most valuable work is the hotel-visiting done by more than fifty associations each week. The hotel-registers are consulted on Saturday afternoon, and a personal note is sent to each young man, giving him the times of service at the several churches and inviting him to the rooms. Is it necessary to call the attention of business men to the importance to themselves of this work? Is it not patent? You cannot follow the young man whose honesty and clear-headedness is of such consequence to you. God has put it into the heart of this association to try and care for those men, upon whom your success largely depends. Can you be blind to its value? Every individual man who employs commercial travelers should aid the work. But how is all this great work for young men carried on? It requires now thirty thousand dollars a year to do it. Of this sum New York pays more than one half, Pennsylvania about one sixth, and Massachusetts less than one fifteenth. But to do this work properly,—this work of the universal church of Christ for young men,—at least one third more, or forty thousand dollars a year, is needed. There is another need, however, much harder to meet—the men to fill the places calling earnestly for general secretaries. There are nearly three hundred and fifty paid employees in the field, representing about two hundred associations. Since every association should have a secretary, and there are nearly, if not quite, nine hundred, the need will be clearly seen. This need it is proposed to meet by training men in schools established for the purpose. Something of this has already been done in New York State and at Peoria, Illinois, and there must soon be a regular training-school established to accommodate from fifty to one hundred men.