ly does not lessen the
pleasure.

I know that you have not placed me here on account of my tact and
business ability to manage this conference well. Had I possessed these
qualities in a marked degree, you would no doubt have taken notice of
them before this time. I know that you only wish to pay a token of
respect to a plain old soldier before he lays aside his harness, and,
brethren, I thank you for that.

For forty-four years I have enjoyed sweet and uninterrupted fellowship
in this brotherhood. For over forty years my voice has been heard in the
preaching of the Gospel of the Grace of God. For close on thirty years
all my time has been given to the proclamation and defense of New
Testament truth as held by us as a people. Every year has added strength
to the conviction that God has led me to take my stand among the
people who of all the people on the earth are making the best and most
consistent effort to get back to the religion established by Christ and
his apostles. I therefore bless the day that I became one of you.

Had our position been wrong, I have given myself every opportunity of
knowing it. Circumstances have compelled me to examine our foundations
again and again. I have been called upon to defend our faith, when
attacked, times not a few. Whatever may be the effect that I have had
upon others, my own confidence has been increased at every turn. To-day
I am certain that if the New Testament is right, we can not be far
wrong; and if the New Testament can not be trusted, there is an end to
the whole matter. But the claims of Christ and the truth of the New
Testament are matters upon which a doubt never rises. As years roll on,
it becomes more easy to believe and harder to doubt. Knowledge, reason,
and experience now supply such varied yet harmonious and converging
lines of evidence that a doubt seems impossible. Difficulties we may
have, and perhaps must have, as long as we live, but we can certainly
rise above the fog land of doubt. Considering all this, it gives me more
pleasure to preside over this gathering than over any other voluntary
gathering on earth. It is a voluntary gathering. We do not profess to
be here by Divine appointment. It is a meeting of heaven's freemen to
consider the best means of advancing the will of God among men. While
met, may we all act in a manner worthy of the great object which brings
us together.

Faith, forbearance and watchfulness will be required as long as we live,