Office: 287 Fourth Avenue, New York Honorary Secretary and Editor, A. F. Beard, D.D., Corresponding Secretaries, H. Paul Douglas, D.D., Rev. George L. Cady; Associate Secretary, Rev. R. W. Roundy; Treasurer, Irving C. Gaylord; Secretary of Woman's Work, Mrs. F. W. Wilcox; District Secretaries, Rev. George H. Gutterson, Congregational House, Boston, Mass.; Rev. Frank N. White, D.D., 19 So. La Salle St., Chicago, Ill.; Rev. George W. Hinman, 21 Brenham Pl., San Francisco, Cal.; Field Secretary, Mrs. Ida Vose Woodbury, Congregational House, Boston, Mass. REV. CHARLES J. RYDER, D. D. Dr. Ryder was called from his first and only pastorate in Medina, Ohio, to the Southern Field Superintendency of the American Missionary Association, and entered upon the service in September 1885. For two years he REV. CHARLES J. RYDER, D.D. met the teachers in their schools and the ministers in their churches until he knew them well, both in their personal and official relations. With this exceptional experience he was appointed District Secretary for New England, in which he gave a devoted service for five years. Then, when the New York office needed an Assistant Corresponding Secretary Dr. Ryder was the foreordained one for this position. After two years, in 1896, he was elected a Corresponding Secretary coming to this responsibility through different stages of informing practical knowledge of the work with its varied feat ures. Outliving every member of the Executive Committee save one who welcomed him to the Association and who were putting the original and ineffaceable stamp upon it in their ideals and their work, his service of thirty-two years covered and contributed to nearly one-half of its history. These are the outlines: How impossible to tell what they contain, but they were lived day by day, year by year, with ability, fidelity and distinction. Born on Christmas day 1848, he was happy in the leading and order ing of his days. The brief years of his pastorate prepared him for his ever present sympathy with the churches with which so much of his future was to be associated. The American Missionary Association above all its work and in all of its features represents an educational enterprise for the salvation of elemental peoples, but in order for this it has looked for its support to the churches. In this department how effective did this brother of ours shine among the churches, beloved by pastors and people from Maine to the Golden Gate. Alert to what was transpiring in the fields, and keeping his sympathies keenly alive to every part, he especially loved his relationship with the churches. The great sense of its importance filled his heart. With the thought of its outstreaming influence he lived his faith in the purpose of God to work through his faithful children for the redemption of humanity. Believing mightily in the ideals of a Christian democracy his heart was warm towards people struggling up of whatever race or nation. He was oppressed in their oppression. He carried their sorrows. His sunny and generous disposition won the love of the missionaries in the various fields-ministers and teachers. His presence cheered them. The Negro people never questioned his devotion; they felt his steadfast friendship. As in the churches of the North his official visitations became visits of friendship. In the office an intimate association of twenty-five years can testify to a courtesy that never failed. The little acts of kindness, the disposition to please, to be accommodating, to be helpful, sympathetic and considerate, when added constitute a goodness that gladdens co-operative service. In his most strenuous hours he did not count the time lost when greeting his friends or associates. His friendliness will remain a cherished memory for all who wrought with him. The influence of his spirit and example which his life thus created and set in operation have brought blessings and hope to those who looked to him for courage and cheer in his ministrations, and will long continue after they have become untraceable. Life's work well done, Life's crown well won. A. F. BEARD. THE SEVENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING The Annual Meeting held on Thursday, October 11th, maintained its characteristic interest. The Annual Survey was given by Dr. L. C. Warner, Chairman of the Executive Committee in their behalf, and. was well received. Superintendent W. B. Pinkerton of the Rosebud Agency, S. D., presented the work for the Indians; the Rev. Otto Scheibe of West Tampa, Fla., that of the Spanishspeaking people; Rev. C. H. McDowell of Chattanooga, Tenn., that of the Negro Church and School. President W. T. Holmes of Tougaloo College gave the final address of the afternoon on Higher Education. All of the addresses were well sustained and appreciated by a great congregation of attentive listeners. In the evening a tender sympathetic Memorial of our secretary-brother, Rev. C. J. Ryder, D.D., was given by his college classmate and friend, Mr. John R. Rogers, of the Executive Committee. Rev. George L. Cady, the newly elected Corresponding Secretary, spoke eloquently upon "The Healing of the Nations." President King closed the session with one of his admirable addresses. It was on "The Claims of Latin-America." The A. M. A. received a new impulse. At the Business Meeting the following Executive Committee were elected: PRESIDENT: President, Henry C. King, Ohio. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. Harry P. Dewey, Minn., Hon. Samuel O. Prentice, Conn., Rev. F. J. Van Horn, Cal., Rev. Samuel H. Woodrow, Mo., Major Ira H. Evans, Texas. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE-Until 1919 Dr. Lucien C. Warner, N. Y., Rev. Frank S. Fitch, N. Y., Rev. G. G Atkins, Mich., Rev. J. R. Danforth, Conn., Mr. Willard B. Howe, Vt. Until 1921 Rev. Oscar E. Maurer, Conn., Rev. Ferdinand Q. Blanchard, Ohio, Mr. James F. Mason, N. J., Rev. Philip S. Moxom, Mass., Mr. Willis D. Wood, N. Y. Until 1923 Rev. Wilfrid A. Rowell, Wis., Mr. Edward P. Lyon, N. Y., Mr. John R. Rogers, N. Y., Rev. J. P. Huget, N. Y., Mrs. C. G. Phillips, N. J. We cordially welcome to the administrative force of the American Mis sionary Association the Reverend George Luther Cady, D.D., as Corresponding Secretary. Dr. Cady is too well known by our Congregational constituency to need any special introduction to our readers. He comes to the Association directly from the pastorate of Plymouth Church, Lansing, Michigan, and from a previous pastorate of Pilgrim Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts. We are giving excerpts from his admirable address on "The Healing Of The Nations," delivered at our Annual Meeting October 11th last. We regret that our limitations of space forbid the thoughtful, vigorous and eloquent presentation which commanded the earnest sympathy of its hearers in its entireness. It will however be published in a pamphlet later. keep him away from the water, but do not expect a man to be free and deny him the practice of liberty. No doubt mistakes will be made as he struggles up to the fullness of his liberty. No doubt he will stumble and fall as he learns to walk alone in his political freedom. No doubt democracy is the most expensive form of human government. No doubt it will be cheaper and easier and more efficient for a man to be ruled over by those wiser than he, but he will not be free and he will never learn how to be free. We have not yet struck our colors on the question of the wisdom of the Fifteenth Amendment. We believe that with all his mistakes the Negro has justified the experiment because we believe it is vastly better for any man to make his own mistakes by ruling himself than to be ever so efficiently ruled by someone else. THERE CAN BE NO PERMANENT PEACE WITHOUT EQUALITY No body of people in the world has a record of which they may be so proud as the Congregational Church in its fight for equality. Slavery was deeply rooted in the belief that the Negro was not a man but an inferior kind of animal, and the antipathy to him today wherever shown will be found when traced to its source, to spring from the same fountain. They may tell you that they fear him because he is ignorant, or because he is shiftless, or because he is immoral, but at the bottom they oppose him because they do not believe he is a man. We need not call to your attention tonight that we fought that battle long before the Emancipation Proclamation put him on a level with us so far as his political rights were concerned. Upon that issue from the first there was no equivocation, and in the struggle against his degradation the American Missionary Associatnon was born-born to bear its continued testimony to the essential divinity of every man of whatever race or color. We challenge you to find a single moment when we have wavered even when to bear our witness threatened the closing of our schools. With that faith we went to the colored mau with the primer in one hand and the Bible in the other believing that he was heir to all that the proudest son of the Puritan or of the Cavalier was born to. We need not call from their resting places those leaders who with eloquent words voiced this faith of ours, but we rather point your eyes to its incarnation in Hampton, Howard, Fisk, Talladega, Straight and Tougaloo and Berea. And we have believed not only that he had a right but that he had a capacity for the highest and we point with pride to the thousands and thousands whom we have sent forth to become leaders in every southern community. The necessity of bearing that testimony afresh is now upon us. The race question is drawing near the north with a mighty wave of immigration. Now is the testing time of our brotherhood. It is easy to love the colored man a thousand miles away. It is easy to chide the southern man for his race prejudice when the problem is not ours. But will the northern man be able to be a Christian when the race question sits on his own doorstep? THERE CAN BE NO PERMANENT PEACE WITHOUT CHRISTIANITY We still believe in Education but |