Boston) are worthy of record, but they can be told only in part in this Report. He gave it both time and money. For twentyfive years he managed its choir, himself its tenor, singing always without recompense. His voice, strong, rich, and vibrant, retained its power and charm until he was almost seventy years of age. When the Parker Memorial was built he became one of the largest stockholders, if not the largest one, and since its transfer to the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches he has contributed annually toward its running expenses. The meetinghouse in West Roxbury where Parker first preached has been partially restored through Mr. Haynes' generosity. The statue of Parker which stands on the lawn in front of that meetinghouse was in large part the gift of Mr. Haynes. His, wholly, the gift of the marble and bronze tablet now in the hands of the architect, to be placed to Parker's memory on the walls of the chapel of Divinity Hall at Harvard College. In a room over this chapel Parker lodged while at the school. In the chapel itself Emerson delivered his famous Divinity School address of July 15, 1838, which address Parker heard, and which, he himself asserts, "roused his soul" to new and enlarged conceptions of the state of the church and the duties of the time. In this same chapel also, at a later day (1859), the assembled alumni of the Divinity School refused to send to Parker the vote of sympathy suggested by M. D. Conway, at the time of Parker's final journeyings abroad in his futile search for health. For the editing and republishing of Parker's works, the labor being now in progress, Mr. Haynes has given eleven thousand dollars. These are only a part of his gifts under this head, but they are enough to show how preeminently he has helped to perpetuate the now famous declaration: "Resolved, that Theodore Parker shall have a chance to be heard in Boston."

In this south parlor of the Parker Memorial Building where we are assembled for our Annual Business Meeting, there gathered for twenty years, from about 1880 to 1900, a company of men and women known as the Parker Memorial Science Class, with Mr. Haynes as its President during eighteen years of its existence. The class was composed of

individuals of varying rank and culture, but Mr. Haynes by his just and cordial manner of presiding did much to modify these distinctions, and the class represented a true democracy of feeling and interest. Although he possessed tastes that urged him in other directions, - tastes that many men in his position would have felt bound to cultivate, — Sunday after Sunday found him at his post. Here as elsewhere he manifested a trait that no close observer of him could fail to notice. Unlike the majority of men of wealth, Mr. Haynes seemed to enjoy the companionship of intelligent men and women of moderate means, or of no means at all, above that of the possessors of larger fortunes.

Mr. Haynes maintained from first to last a strong interest in public affairs. He carefully considered National, State, and Civic problems, and he always kept himself informed on the questions of the day. He might have entered public life (indeed, when a young man, he served one term at City Hall) and have attained distinction as a legislator, but his chosen lot was that which has here been sketched.

His closing days passed quietly and cheerfully. His love of music and of conversation remained unabated until the last. Watchful love and care anticipated his every want. A few days before his death he observed with his wife and family the fifty-second anniversary of his marriage. The end, although not unexpected, came suddenly. His funeral called together many who had known him in his various walks of life, and, as doubtless he would have chosen, the bearers of his pall were five of his sons-in-law and a few long-time friends who had been his associates in the old days of the Parker Fraternity, and later in the Free Religious Association.

Your Secretary has extended this tribute to Mr. Haynes beyond the space usually given to our departed members, and yet he leaves untold much that is worthy of record. The daily press has published the story of Mr. Haynes' mercantile life, together with a partial list of his benefactions, leaving unsaid much that deserves commemoration. If he is to receive a memorial at all adequate to his merits it must be rendered by his friends in the various societies of which he was a member

- friends who divined his aspirations, appreciated his friendship and his services, and who cherish his memory. As part of such a memorial the Free Religious Association records this tribute in all sincerity.

Our publications for distribution show a slight diminution since the last Report was rendered. The calls for the same have come chiefly from individuals here and there who appear to have heard only recently of our Association, and from libraries that desire to complete their files. In the latter case it is rarely that we are able to comply with the requests, many editions of our Annual Report being now exhausted. In answer to the circular distributed at our last Annual Convention, asking for disused back numbers of our Reports, we received but twenty copies. This meagre response indicates that those who own the pamphlets prize them highly and are unwilling to make the surrender asked for.

It is hoped that our Annual Convention and Festival to be held in this building to-morrow will be largely attended. With few exceptions the speakers to be presented have been heard many times on our platform and are thought of as old friends. To them, and to those whom we shall greet for the first time, we extend cordial welcome.

WILLIAM H. HAMLEN,

BOSTON, May 30, 1907.

Secretary.

Fortieth Annual Convention.

The Fortieth Annual Convention of the Free Religious Association of America was held in the large audience-room of the Parker Memorial Building, in Boston, Friday morning, May 31, 1907. The general subject announced upon the programme was "THE FORTY YEARS' GAIN IN RELIGION."

OPENING ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT,
EDWIN D. MEAD, BOSTON, MASS.

It is fitting that we should meet for a commemorative session of this Association it being just forty years ago that the Association was organized - immediately after Memorial Day, when we have been remembering those who fought for the Union and have been decorating their graves.

Before speaking of the early days of our Association, I cannot forbear paying one word of tribute to a most faithful and useful member of it who has died since we last came together; and it is doubly fitting that the word should be spoken here in the hall named for Theodore Parker - because John C. Haynes was, during his whole life, a devout and faithful disciple of Theodore Parker. One of his last important acts was to provide for the publication of a complete edition of Parker's works. It is a reproach to America that there has never been a complete American edition of them; the nearest complete edition which exists is the English edition, edited by Frances Power Cobbe. Through Mr. Haynes' gift of, I think, $11,000 or $12,000 we are to have, in volumes appearing successively and rapidly, a complete edition of Theodore Parker's works. This is due to the generosity of one who has been, almost from the beginning, a faithful member of this Association, who was

for a long time its Treasurer, and who was at the time of his death one of its Vice-Presidents. Mr. Haynes assisted us liberally during his life; he remembered us liberally in his will; but we remember him chiefly for his personal service and for his warm friendship for his co-workers through these years.

It is well that we should not always confine our tributes to those who are dead; and I cannot forbear speaking on this occasion of the fact that the Assistant-Secretary of the Association, one who has been present at every one of its conventions, who has been on its Board of Directors often, who has served it incessantly, who has been devoted to all it stands for, Mr. George W. Stevens, is to be ninety years old a week from to-day. [Applause.] He is with us this morning, ninety years young, as Mrs. Howe's happy phrase is. Mrs. Howe is to be with us this afternoon, eighty-eight years young. Mr. Stevens is with us, always young for freedom in religion and for fellowship in spirit.

At the afternoon meeting, which will be more a commemorative meeting than this morning's session, we shall have present not only Mrs. Howe, but Rev. Henry Blanchard, Mr. Henry B. Blackwell, and others who were among the early speakers before this Association; and the hymns which will be sung this afternoon, interspersed among the speeches, will be those which were specially composed by Mr. Chadwick and Mr. Gannett and Samuel Longfellow for the early social meetings of the Association and have now become well known and have found place in our hymn-books.

It must have been an interesting and impressive gathering, that of the men who came together at Horticultural Hall in Boston on the 30th of May, forty years ago, to found this Association. That meeting at Horticultural Hall met at the call of three men highly honored in the history of this Association Octavius B. Frothingham, William J. Potter, and Rowland Connor. Mr. Frothingham explained that the meeting was the outcome of an earlier meeting - a stirring meeting that too must have been - held at the house of "a gentleman of Boston," as he said. We know that that "gentleman of Boston" was our revered saint, Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol. The