From the beginning this Association was wedded to right principles. It recognized their latent power. It took it for granted that right was expedient--that right would triumph. It did not ask if right thinking and right doing was the way of the multitude, even of the multitude of professing Christians. Its inquiry was simply for the way of righteousness. That way it strove to tread. It was called narrow--captious. Its leaders were sometimes stigmatized as men of one idea--disturbers of the people--fanatics. They were not time-servers, however. They had the martyr spirit and toiled on, waiting for the morning; and the morning came. What was once questioned if not ridiculed, is now accepted and honored. The elements that entered into their early labors are needful still. They had courage. They dared to do right in the face of opposition. If mobbed and mobbed again, the oppression only served to fill the country with the fragrance of their good deeds. It was but the torch that kindled the incense. They were never drawn from a righteous purpose. God was present in the shadows, keeping watch above his own. They had the spirit of sacrifice. They were ready to go to the lost sheep--to the despised. They passed not by him who fell among thieves. They achieved distinction by their readiness to endure hardness--to submit to insult--to be counted among the few--to toil with but little appreciation and for meagre rewards. They also bore about with them a rich and beautiful charity, first pure, then peaceable, full of mercy and good fruits. It was the combination of these elements in active operation for a score of years that served largely to revolutionize public sentiment, and especially the sentiment in our churches, until the principles of this Association are accepted and acceptable. The change was wrought by the power of pure motives applied to aggressive religious work in behalf of a needy and wronged people.