Among the great spiritual agencies born within my memory, none deserves a higher place than The Young Men’s Christian Association.  When my beloved brother, Sir George Williams (now an octogenarian) started the first association in London on the 6th of June, 1844, he “builded better than he knew,” The modest room in his store overlooking Paternoster Row in which he gathered the little praying band on that day is already an historic spot.  My own connection with the Young Men’s Christian Association began in New York when I joined the association there in the second year of its existence, 1854.  We met in a room in Stuyvesant Institute and the heroic Howard Crosby was our president.  We had no library, or reading room, or gymnasium, or any of the appliances that belong to the institutions of these days.  After several migrations, our association found its permanent home in the spacious building on Twenty-third Street, to which Morris K. Jesup and William E. Dodge were among the foremost contributors.  The master spirit in the operations of the New York Association for thirty years was Mr. Robert McBurney, who, when he landed from Ireland, was only seventeen years of age.  He was among my evening congregation in the old Market Street Church.  During my seven years’ pastorate in that church I delivered a great many discourses and platform addresses on behalf of the association, and through all of the subsequent years it has been a favorite object on which to bestow my humble efforts.  Here in Brooklyn a host of young-men have found a moral shelter, and many of them a spiritual birthplace, in the fine structure, reared largely from the munificent bequests of that princely Christian philanthropist, the late Mr. Frederick Marquand.  It is not permitted to every good man or woman before they die to see the glorious fruits of the trees they planted, but to the eyes of the veteran George Williams the following facts must seem like a rehearsal of heaven.  The Young Men’s Christian Association now belts the globe with half a million of members, and ten times that number in some direct connection with the organization.  It is housed in hundreds of solid structures which have cost between thirty and forty million dollars—­each one a cheerful home—­a place for physical development, manly instruction and training for Christ’s service.

It has brought thousands of young men from impenitence to Christ Jesus, and made thousands of young Christians more like Jesus in their daily life.  The most effective lay preacher of the century, D.L.  Moody, confessed that in his training for spiritual work he owed more to the Young Men’s Christian Association than to any other human agency.  It has moulded the students of colleges and universities; it has been the salvation of many a soldier and sailor; it has led many into the gospel ministry; it has taught the whole world the beauty and power of a living unity in Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit has set the Divine seal of His blessing on its world-wide work, and to the triune God be all the praise and all the glory.