NBWTA Report 1903-059
Image details
| Document format | |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Transcript |
|
| Original Source Organisation | |
| Original Source URL | |
| Transcription |
112 113 Farewell,” with a heart full of gratitude for all that you have that she was a sinner, and then perhaps have wondered when she turned away crushed, hurt, or indignant? But Christ, with that infinite and divine patience which belongs only to the great heart of God, unfolded to that sinful soul the most wonderful truths that He had come to teach to man. He deigned to unfold to her the great philosophy of Christianity, and only when she realized the marvel of the truth He came to teach, only as she apprehended what He was, did she see herself and realize her guilt. This is God’s way, may it be ours, to uplift, to uphold, to show forth that which is true, and good, and lovely, and then men and women, sinful and sorrow-stained, will measure themselves by that wonderful shortcomings. Wer standard, and will themselves realize their me. Our ComrapEs GLADLY own To-Day. It is a joy to us all to feel that we have with us this year again our comrades in the wide field of the World’s work. My visit to America this year showed me how faithfully the work had been carried on in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, how bravely the President stands at the head of that noble army of women, holding the fort as her great predecessor must rejoice to see. But I realized again how, no matter what trials beset them, their problem is less intricate than the one that meets us here ; although it is true that the varied legis- lation of the different States presents a network of complications. I saw the difficulty which that great new country experiences at present in enforcing her laws, and the way in which, unfortunately (according to the:words of the President, Mr. Roosevelt), “laws are passed to please “one party and broken to please another,” and yet I realized anew great hope, because the whole trend of the religious sentiment of the country, as I have already said, supports Total Abstinence, and the soberness of the women of America, the strong sentiment for Total Abstinence amongst men of all professions, and the sound education, thanks largely to the efforts of Mrs. Mary Hunt, which is now given in her public schools, make a bed-rock of principle on which it is not difficult to build. Most gladly do we welcome also the Vice-President of our Society, Anna Gordon, nor do we ever forget her faithful Wuat service to one who will ever live in all our hearts the acknowledged leader of our World’s work, and to many an ideal friend and woman whose example and whose love have been amongst the priceless treasures of our life. And we greet many others who are with us to-day from all parts of the world on their way to the Convention at Geneva. HAIL And last words now, dear sisters, as AND FAREWELL. I draw to the close of this address, my to you as President of this Association shall be “Hail me a thousand been to times, for the love with which you have surrounded me, for the loyalty with which you have upheld me, and for the patience with which you have borne with me—from my heart I thank you. I came to you a novice in public work, and tenderly you have borne with my mistakes, and praised me only too much if you deemed that I did well ; but the time has come when I feel that another must take my place. I can no longer promise to be with you at your Executive meetings and at your Committees, and I realize how every day the principle that I set before me when first I accepted the office of President, is a true one, that you must have no figure-head, but that your leader must be a worker with you. I am now forced to look round and curtail work on every side, and while I hope and pray and believe that God may still use me in some measure in the Temperance cause, yet I feel that I cannot be depended upon for the daily work as heretofore, and that, dear sisters, is why I know that I am right in resigning the office to which you have so generously elected me year by year. May God give you wisdom in your future choice, and may the woman who shall take my place be endued with a far greater measure of power than has been given to me, with deeper insight, wider vision, loftier powers. In one thing only I know she cannot surpass me, the love that I have for the cause in which we have so long laboured together. This is God’s dealing with souls. WELCOME For the confidence that you have shown and a 7 po I WisH For You? And now as I leave you and look into your faces I say to myself, What do I wish most for these among whom I have travelled so far, who have been with me on this long stretch in the journey of life? I have seen the hand of Time draw its fine tracery upon the faces of many here. I have seen the winter snow fall softly on their heads, ‘that “dawn of a better life that spreads o'er our earthly horizon, as in the “Kast the first faint streaks of the morning.” I have watched how one by one many of our comrades grow more tired now than they used, and we have stood together year after year to read the names of those who have passed out from our midst, and been called to the promotion of a wider work, as the bonds of time have drawn us very close I would that I had some gift to give you, ere I leave you, but I have none save the love I bear you all, and that love bids me say, that the best gift, the gift I covet most, is that we may have a clearer vision of our God, that as the light from the world beyond shines more fully in our faces, as the journey shortens, and as the things of life grow dimmer because perhaps that greater light may blur the things of time, so I pray that our concept of God, our understanding of Him, our realization of His love, an infinite sense of trust as of little children to a Heavenly Father, may grow more strong, more clear. _. _The Church of England this year lost one of her brightest sons, a life full of promise, of whom all men said that he would yet go far, and B—5 |