“ ... weary watching, wave on wave; And yet the tide heaves onward. We climb like corals, grave on grave, But pave a path that’s sunward. We’re beaten back in many a fray; Yet newer strength we borrow; And where the vanguard rests to-day, The rear shall camp to-morrow.” Let us go forth, with our faces to the stars, and do something each day of our lives to bring the world nearer to Christ, who died for it. * * * * * FROM ADDRESS OF REV. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D. There are a few themes so great, so charged with living importance, that an earnest man never wearies of their study. Like the rays of the sun, they are invested with perpetual freshness and force. Of these themes, the very greatest is the conquest of the world to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel and by the power of the Holy Ghost. But foreign missionary societies, whose special aim it is to carry the Gospel of Christ to the millions of heathenism, are not the exclusive guardians of this great trust. They are the advance guard of the army of conquest, clearing the way and widening the field, but their very presence as the scouts and scattered outposts of Christianity proclaims the presence of a greater army of occupation, pressing close upon their leadership. Back of your foreign work is that of home missions, the religious care of the ignorant, vicious, and neglected within our own borders; back of home missions is the manly culture of our professedly Christian constituency, the care and compact handling of our local churches; back of your local church life and work are those of your separate homes—influences secret, subtle, but all-pervasive, for in the Christian homes are the primary historic sources of all great inspirations and achievements, both for personal character and for social improvement. Far out on the world’s great battle-field, separated from each other by many a league, are the pickets of the army of the Lord; its great and growing supports are in the Christian nations, the Christian churches, the Christian homes. Reinforcements at any point of the long line must increase the efficiency of the entire body. But the law of solid progress must be from the home, as the training school of personal devotion, through the church and the nation, to the broad world. I am afraid that we have not fairly estimated the importance of the third factor in the solution of the complicated problem of the world’s Christianization. We are not lacking in an appreciation of the value of domestic piety. We are not blind to the evangelistic vocation of the church, though the energetic revival of this conviction may be said to date from the close of the last century, and it has as yet only partially leavened the great body of nominal Christendom. But we are even farther from having mastered the thought that nations are born of a divine purpose, and summoned to missionary service.