The conference meets this year, in August, at Berlin, when probably as many as one hundred delegates will be present from the United States.
But inter-association organization has gone much further in this country than elsewhere, and communication is exceedingly close between the nine hundred associations of America.
The first conception of uniting associations came to the Reverend William [pg 359] Chauncey Langdon, then a layman, and a member of the Washington Association, now rector of the Episcopal Church at Bedford, Pennsylvania. Mr. McBurney, in his fine Historical Sketch of Associations, says: "Many of the associations of America owe their individual existence to the organization effected through his wise foresight. The associations of our land, and in all lands, owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Langdon far greater than has ever been recognized." Oscar Cobb, of Buffalo, and Mr. Langdon signed the call to the first convention, which assembled on June 7, 1854, at Buffalo. This was the first conference of associations held in the English-speaking world. Here was appointed a central committee, located at Washington, and six elsewhere.
In 1860, Philadelphia was made the headquarters. The confederation of associations and its committee came to an end in Chicago, June 4, 1863, and the present organization with its international executive committee was born, with members increasing in number. The committee now numbers thirty-three, two being resident in New York City.
In the year 1865, a committee was appointed by the convention at Philadelphia. The president of this convention became the chairman of the international executive committee, consisting of ten members resident in New York City, and twenty-three placed at different prominent points in the United States and British Provinces. There is also a corresponding member of the committee in each State and province, and means of constant communication between the committee and each association, and between the several associations, through the Young Men's Christian Association Watchman, a sixteen-paged paper, published each fortnight in Chicago.
On the sixteenth day of April, 1883, the international committee, which had been superintending the work since 1865, was incorporated in the State of New York. Cephas Brainerd, a lawyer of New York City, a direct descendant of the Brainerds of Connecticut, and present owner of the homestead, has always been chairman of the committee, and, from a very large practice, has managed to take an immense amount of time for this work, which has more and more taken hold on his heart,—and here let me say that I know no work, not even that of foreign missions, which takes such a grip upon those who enter upon it. Time, means, energy, strength, have been lavishly poured out by them. Mr. Brainerd and his committee work almost as though it were their only work, and yet each member of the committee is one seemingly fully occupied with his business or professional duties. See the members of the Massachusetts committee, so fired with love for this work that, in the gospel canvasses of the State, after working all day, many of them give from forty to fifty evenings, sometimes traveling all night to get back to their work in the morning. It is no common cause that thus draws men out of themselves for others. Then, too, I greatly doubt where there are such hard-worked men as the general secretaries,—days and evenings filled with work that never ends; the work the more engrossing and exacting because it combines physical and mental with spiritual responsibility. We who know this are not surprised to find the strength of these men failing. Those who employ them should carefully [pg 360] watch that relief is promptly given from time to time as needed. There are now more than three hundred and fifty of these paid secretaries. Now, look back over the whole history of the associations, and can you doubt that he who meets the wants of his creatures has raised up the organization for the express purpose of saving young men as a class? And to do this he employs the church itself—not the church in its separate organizations, but the church universal. A work for all young men should be by the young men of the whole church. First, because it is young manhood that furnishes the common ground of sympathy. Second, because the appliances are too expensive for the individual churches. Large well-situated buildings, with all possible right attractions, are simply necessary to success in this work. These things are so expensive that the united church only can procure them. That in Philadelphia cost $700,000; in New York, $500,000; in Boston, more than $300,000; in Baltimore, $250,000; in Chicago, $150,000; San Francisco, $76,000; Montreal, $67,000; Toronto, $48,000; Halifax, $36,000; West New Brighton, New York, $19,000; at the small town of Rockport, Massachusetts, about $4,000; and at Nahant, $2,000. In all these are [pg 361] eighty buildings, worth more than $3,000,000, while as many more have land or building-funds. Third, how blessedly this sets forth the vital unity of Christ's church, "that they may all be one," and also distinguishes them from all other religious bodies. "Come out from among them and be ye separate."
BUILDING OF THE Y.M.C.A. AT JACKSONVILLE, ILL.
This association work is divided into local (the city or town), state or home mission, the international and foreign mission.
The local is purely a city or town work. The "state," which I have called the home mission, is thoroughly to canvass the State, learn where the association is needed, plant it there, strengthen all existing associations, and keep open communication between all. This is also the international work, but its field is the United States and British Provinces, under the efficient management of this committee.