to write and tell you, my dear Officers, something of the love and
sympathy ever welling up in my heart towards you.

"The times and friends of long ago are sometimes said to have been
brighter or better than those of to-day. This may have been the
experience of some. It has not been mine. It is true that in the
early years of my Salvation Warfare there were battlings and
victories of deep interest and value, but no conflicts or triumphs
in those far-back times exceeded, or indeed equalled, in value and
interest the conflicts and triumphs of my later days.

"It is true that from the beginning I have been associated with
many remarkable men and women--men and women whose ability,
affection, and devotion to God have been of the greatest service to
me. But with, perhaps, one or two exceptions, I have had no
co-workers who have excelled, or even equalled, in ability, in
affection or devotion, the Comrades who at the present hour are
struggling with me all over the world for the highest well-being of
their fellows, and for the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

"Sixty-five years ago I chose the Salvation of men and the
extension of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ as the supreme object for
which I would live and labour.

"Although that choice was made in my early youth, in much ignorance
of the world, and of the religious needs of those about me, still,
it was not arrived at without much thought and some information;
and that purpose is still, and will be to the end, the object which
has shaped and mastered the thoughts, ambitions, and activities of
my whole life.

"From the hour of my first Prayer Meetings in one of the cottage
homes of my native town, down to the present moment, that object
has been the governing principle of my life. The adornments and
flowers and music and other pleasant things connected with
religious service have all been secondary to efficiency in the
search for that object and success in attaining it.

"My hourly usage with regard to every effort I put forth has been
to ask myself: What does this action contemplate? What will it
achieve? Can it be improved upon? I believe I can say that every
conversation and prayer and song and address and Meeting I have had
a hand in have been valued in proportion