GOOD AS THREE WEEKS REVIVAL.
The value of the annual meetings of our great missionary societies is not measured chiefly by the amount of business transacted, important and necessary as that is. The information imparted might be gathered otherwise, but the full benefit to mind and heart can only be had by participating in the devotions, the instructions in righteousness, and, indeed, the arousements that are found among the vast throng that assemble on these occasions. Dr. Withrow said, at the Saratoga meeting of the Home Missionary Society: “These three days are worth as much as three weeks revival in giving a spiritual uplift to the churches.” We believe this to be no extravagant assertion. Great religious gatherings of some sort have been common from time immemorial. These have varied according to the developments of the age.
The problem of the church to-day is the world’s conversion. All other questions are but side issues. The wonderful developments of our modern civilization have been preparatory. They have made it possible for the church to make rapid strides in hastening the triumphs of the Redeemer’s kingdom. The facilities are ready. Young men and women with trained faculties for the work are being graduated from our schools of learning by the thousands. Nothing is lacking but the disposition—the mind to work. The chief value of these meetings is seen in their potency to impart this disposition.
It is not many years since there was but one truly great and grand distinctively missionary annual meeting in our land—the meeting of the American Board. Then there came well up to the front the annual meetings of the American Missionary Association, and latest, the meeting of the Home Missionary Society, which, in point of attendance from abroad, possibly, outnumbered any one ever held by the Congregational brethren. Other denominations are progressing in this direction. There is a wonderfully encouraging development all along the line. The morning cometh; they who turn their thoughts to our great missionary enterprises are looking toward it, and not toward yesterday morning, as men blinded by misbelief continually look.
We call the attention of our readers to the fact that two of these great annual meetings convene in October, and we trust that but few obstacles will be deemed so weighty as to interfere with their attendance.
The demand for Our Temperance Concert Exercise, issued in the May Missionary, and also in circular form, has been steady and encouraging. It was recently used in the First Church, Greenwich, Conn., with gratifying success. Some features were introduced by the pastor, Rev. Mr. Kellogg, not contemplated in the preparation of the exercise. Selections were made from the communications on temperance published in the same number of the Missionary, and read by different individuals. Words were adapted to Jubilee Songs, giving a pleasing variety, and recitations introduced in addition to, and in place of, those given in the paper. We again call the attention of our friends to this Concert Exercise, with reference to its use.
Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, D.D., LL. D., missionary to the American Indians for forty years, died at the age of 71, at Beloit, Wis., in August. Like Livingstone, in early life, he was desirous of becoming a missionary to China, but yielded to what he considered the overrulings of Providence, and in 1837, with his wife, went into the far Northwest among the Sioux. He reduced their language to writing, compiled a dictionary and translated the Holy Scriptures and hymns. Ten well-ordered churches and many out-stations were established in the region of his operations, reaching beyond the British line.
As an author, he did good service. His book, “Mary and I—Forty Years with the Sioux,” has magnified the significance of Indian missions. Another book, “Gospel Among the Dakotas,” portrays vividly scenes of pioneer life. His memorial of Dr. Williamson is a tribute worthy of the man and his successful efforts in behalf of the Indians. Four of his children have labored among the Sioux, and one of his daughters has entered upon work across the Pacific. Rev. Alfred L. Riggs, principal of our school at Santee, and Thomas L. Riggs, of Fort Sally, and Mrs. Martha Riggs Morris, at the Sisseton agency, are carrying on the work so happily inaugurated by their father. His life was one of incessant missionary toil, in which for years he had been aided by his children, and to whom he bequeathed its continuance, and in the midst of whom he passed from earth to his reward on high.