REPORT.

1889.

FIFTH DAY.-Morning Session.

THE Thirty-seventh Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends convened at Longwood, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on Fifth day, 13th of Sixth month, 1889.

FREDERIC A. HINCKLEY in the Chair.

Exercises opened with music by MISS LAW.

The Chairman read the Call and made appropriate expression of welcome.

H. S. KENT, S. P. MARSHALL, and ANNA R. Cox were appointed a committee to nominate officers for the ensuing year and to audit the Treasurer's account.

A business committee, nominated by the House, was appointed, with authority to add to their number as others arrived, consisting of H. S. KEnt, Josiah Pyle, Sarah Chase, PATIENCE W. KENT, and the Clerks.

The Memorial Committee not being ready to report, was allowed time at a later session.

ALICE MARSHALL, LAURA JOHNSON, F. M. PENNOCK, SARAH D. CHAMBERS, and ELLEN PYLE were appointed a finance committee to solicit funds to publish the proceedings of this meeting.

On motion, it was agreed to hold the sessions from ten to twelve A.M. and from two to four P.M., unless extended by vote. The ten-minute rule was adopted for all speakers except invited guests.

The question of the propriety of holding this meeting two days instead of three, hereafter, was fully discussed by WILLIAM PYLE, SALLIE P. MARSHALL, F. A. HINCKLEY, and others, after which, by a vote of 10 to 4, the change was ordered. Singing by the MISSES LAW.

Adjournment.

FIFTH DAY.-Afternoon Session.

Music by the MISSES LAW.

The Committee on Nominations reported the names of FREDERIC A. HINCKLEY and MARY M. BAILEY for Clerks and AARON MENDENHALL for Treasurer. The report was ac

cepted.

RELIGION.

HUGH O. PENTECOST, of Newark, New Jersey, then opened the discussion of the afternoon with an address on Religion. He said in substance that we all have religion, though differing in the outward expression of it. Does religion consist in going through what are called church services? My highest conception of God tells me I can do nothing to help or please him through religious rites. These outward forms have nothing to do with pleasing God. Who is the religious man? Is it he who regularly performs all the ceremonies of his church and is called pious? Pious men are not always the best men. Man's conception of religion often makes him willing to do that which stains the soul. We need to give no care to God, nor to the worshipping of him, but rather to turn our thoughts to doing good to our fellow-men. Away back in early times it was superstition which moved man. He fancied an unknown space peopled with innumerable beings. He formed gods in his mind, and worshipped them. These became fewer and fewer until one Supreme Being was his God, and then he worshipped him. Hence have come our forms and ceremonies, by which we try to honor this God. Do we get all the nourish

ment we need from doing this? Certainly not. Certainly not. We are told that heaven is high and the other place low, but when we ask. for tangible evidence we get no answer except from a book. Religion should be confined to this world. We know what we are doing, and should do what our hands find of good to do. He who lives up to his highest sense of duty need know nothing of God. The doctor who cares more for his patient than for his fee is religious. The servant who sweeps under the furniture is religious. To believe in God and at the same time to be indifferent to our brothers and sisters is irreligious. How is it that one man is worth six hundred thousand dollars, and pays but twenty-five or thirty cents a day for labor? The religion of the future will consist in striving to make the relations between man and man right. Slavery was righted and other wrongs will be by the religion which is to come. Let a man have only as much land as he can use. Let there be no monopoly. It is man's laws, not God's, which make some so rich and others so poor. It is time we stopped dreaming and worked for the good of those about us. My best religion has been found since I have tried to make the world better. Perhaps the spiritual life will be opened up to us when we have done all our duty to our fellow-men. The loss of doctrine and consideration of theological subjects is a distinct gain to me. I would rather be a treasurer of everything tender, loving, and kind to my brothers than hold any of the doctrines of the church.

MR. PENTECOST spoke for an hour, after which the singers sang, The King of Love my Shepherd is.”

JOHN JACKSON said: There is as much room for life and freshness in religion to-day as ever there was. He did not believe in agnosticism. A great struggle between church dogmas and spirituality is going on all about us.

REV. ANNA H. SHAW said she did not agree with either of the foregoing speakers, though she would not separate work from religion. Feeling belongs to us Methodists, she said. Let us hold on to Christ, to God, with one hand, while with

the other we hold on to humanity to help lift it up. nearer to believing what my brother Pentecost believes, because I do not know, but feel better when I depend upon God for any good I may do.

MR. HINCKLEY expressed his satisfaction at the scope the discussion had taken, and of the loving, tolerant spirit which had been manifested in it. He spoke feelingly of a strong Calvinistic friend with whom he had often talked on such themes with perfect freedom and yet with entire respect on both sides. Whatever our beliefs, the spirit of humanity calls us all together and makes us one.

After congregational singing the meeting adjourned.

SIXTH DAY.-Morning Session.

TEMPERANCE.

Sixth day was devoted exclusively to the Temperance question and the proposed Constitutional Amendment. After music by the MISSES LAW and brother, MRS. FESSENDEN, of Massachusetts, opened the discussion. She said: Must we wait twenty-five years to have the liquor traffic abolished? Oh, that this country may see to its own best interests! Medical science now introduces the blood of a healthy man into that of a sick one to cure him. Sick cities need the pure country blood to purify them. If throughout the country prohibition can be secured, the cities may feel the influence. Other States are watching with interest to see what Pennsylvania will do.

AARON M. POWELL was the next speaker. He called attention to the way in which the traffic in intoxicating liquor fills our jails, prisons, and reformatories.

The closing speech of the morning was made by THEODORE K. STUBBS, of Oxford.

The session closed with music.

SIXTH DAY.-Afternoon Session.

TEMPERANCE-Continued.

After music, ANNA H. SHAW Spoke for Woman Suffrage on ⚫ the Temperance question, claiming that the liquor traffic will be abolished when woman gets the ballot.

She was followed by E. K. HART, MR. DEMEREE, of Kentucky, MR. HINCKLEY, and LAURA JOHNSON.

JESSE HANNUM gave his views as opposed to prohibition and third-party measures. He thought that all good temperance people should be stanch Republicans. His remarks created a lively discussion. The interest in the question of the day was so great that both the forenoon and afternoon sessions were extended for thirty minutes beyond the usual limit.

SEVENTH DAY.-Morning Session.
THE LABOR QUESTION.

After music by the singers, and the reading of letters from OLIVER JOHNSON and CHARLES D. B. MILLS, and the adoption of a "Temperance Testimony" offered by HENRY S. KENT, FREDERIC A. HINCKLEY delivered the following address:

THE OVERSHADOWING QUESTION.

Friends, there are too many long faces in this world; too much tragedy, too much sorrow, too many tears. If you do not believe it, stand with me at some city or village millgate when the bell rings out from work; glance with me behind the counters in some crowded mart of trade; watch the people of all classes and ages as they pass along the streets. I want to bring smiles upon those faces, I want to remove the tragedy, the sorrow, the tears with the sunlight of opportunity. I want to be of the number whose supreme ambition is to realize a little more of heaven here and now; who believe that the high calling of life, from which no one