SECRETARY'S REPORT, 1907.

Mr. President and Fellow Members of the Free Religious Association of America:

Since our Annual Convention of a year ago we have held no public meeting; neither have we, as an organization, participated in any convention or meeting of any other society. A formal Report from your Secretary is therefore hardly to be expected; nevertheless he is prompted to offer a few remarks on this the Fortieth Annual Business Meeting of the Association.

In his Annual Report presented May 28, 1868, when the Association was entering upon its second year of existence, Rev. William J. Potter, then its Secretary, set forth that the "sole aim" of the founders of the Free Religious Association was "to form some simple plan of association which should represent and give expression to perfect religious freedom; not prematurely to hasten, nor artificially to shape any religious movements that are in progress, but to provide an organism — itself a natural result of these movements for religious elements that are spontaneously attracted more or less strongly to each other, and that are already prepared for some kind of combination and fellowship; an organization that should enable these elements the better to define and express themselves in public sentiment in their united force, and at the same time leave the largest liberty to individual opinion and utterance."

This "sole aim" of the founders, so definitely expressed by Mr. Potter, has been recognized by every Executive Committee that has been called to conduct the affairs of the Association. During the entire forty years of its existence its officers have unceasingly invited the freest expression of religious opinion. They have also as constantly refused to make the Association. the ally or the exponent of any special school of philosophy or religion. For taking this stand the Association often has been

criticized as being a "do nothing" organization. In reply our answer has always been that to espouse any special cult or doctrine except that of religious freedom would be to violate the Constitution we were pledged to support. Because of this unique position, the Association, especially in its early days, met from its opponents constant prophecies of certain and swift failure. This rope of sand, this wisp of straw, this "rickety platform" must of necessity, they said, come to nought. Such criticism as this, together with much of a harsher sort that need not here be recalled, had its effect on timid persons who had been inclined to join us, and it succeeded for a while in spreading abroad a false impression regarding our aims and purposes. In spite of it all, the Free Religious Association has continued to flourish through two generations.

And to have maintained uninterruptedly for forty years an organization of this kind is no slight achievement. In the meantime, how many societies around us, ably officered and managed, having large memberships, ample treasuries, and other helpful accessories, have ceased to exist! Comparing the life of these with our more extended period of service, we are making the comparison not boastfully, for we remember those seasons of distrust when, to some of us, it seemed the part of wisdom to discontinue the Association for several reasons, but chiefly because our cardinal principle was being adopted by other societies, and seemed sure to spread more and more without our further example. That in those times of perplexity the counsel prevailed, "Let us keep on a while longer," has now our unqualified approval; yet when our plan of organization shall have become so generally adopted as to render our work superfluous, may we have the good sense and the courage to retire from the field.

Notwithstanding the gratification we feel because of our forty years' record, we regret that one strong hope, or expectation rather, cherished by our founders, remains unrealized. They thought that the scientific method of study would be gladly adopted by their fellow members, and that there would speedily result a unanimity of opinion regarding the leading problems of religion. Had their successors been able to insti

tute what the founders themselves were unable to establish namely, a school or even a class whose students, discarding all other processes, should be guided strictly by the scientific method, the unanimity of opinion then expected might now appear even a less remote probability than it did in 1867. At any rate, Emerson's words describing the unsettled condition of the religious world in 1851 are more vividly true to-day than they were at that time. "No Jeremy or Isaiah has arrived. Nothing can exceed the anarchy in our skies. The stern old faiths have all pulverized. 'Tis a company of gentlemen and ladies out in search of religions."

To speculate how long this chaotic condition will continue, or what will be its result, lies beyond the scope of an annual report. As an organization we simply recognize that the religious world is in upheaval; and, although offering no creed or panacea, continue to welcome to this Association all who acknowledge "the supremacy of morality in all the relations of life."

Two members of the Free Religious Association whose membership began with its founding have died during the year. The first of these to pass away was Mrs. Lydia G. Stevens, the wife of our Assistant-Secretary. She died June 4, 1906, aged ninety years, after a long period of diminished health. Mrs. Stevens was for many years a member of Theodore Parker's society, that fraternal band of men and women from whose ranks the Free Religious Association has so largely drawn throughout its history. As far as your Secretary has been able to discover, Mrs. Stevens was never a member of our board of government, but until prevented by the infirmities of age she was almost always present at our public meetings, and frequently she assisted at our Festivals. Her mind. remained unclouded, and she retained an interest in life until the last. She passed away serenely and will be remembered with affection and admiration.

Died May 3, 1907, John Cummings Haynes, in his seventyeighth year. The organization of the Free Religious Associ

ation in 1867 met with Mr. Haynes' cordial approval and support. He became at once an influential member of it, and, upon the retirement in 1879 of Mr. Richard P. Hallowell, the Association's first Treasurer, Mr. Haynes was elected to that office. He held this position for fifteen years, resigning in 1894. During this period the duties of the office were both onerous and irksome. New projects were undertaken for the enlargement of the work of the Association-projects that not only demanded increased service from its officers, but which also drew heavily upon its treasury. It was largely due to Mr. Haynes' advice and management that some of these projects were consummated and that others of them were abandoned as futile. As often as the Association's Constitution allowed he was made a member of the Board of Directors, and on his retirement as Treasurer he was again elected to that Board. Although the head of a large business corporation, and having also many private interests that claimed a large share of his time, he was seldom absent from our business meetings. Even when disease had laid its hand upon him he continued his attendance. His last appearance with us was at the Festival held in Parker Fraternity Hall, May 25, 1906.

From a letter received by your Secretary from Mr. Haynes in August, 1905, in which he inclosed for the Association a check for five hundred dollars, the following is quoted: "The work of the Free Religious Association is still a valuable one. I want to see it go on occupying the high stand that it has in the past. Our Association, well named Free Religious Association, stands for religion itself, which is found in all types of faith, great and small, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Mohammedan, and the minor types into which the great types are divided. We stand outside of them all, free to recognize the good in all or to criticize the weaknesses that are found to a greater or less degree in all of them. Those who call themselves Christians laud to the skies their own special beliefs and throw to the winds all other faiths."

This declaration of Mr. Haynes reaffirmed what he had often said in our meetings. That he held these views tenaciously, and desired that they should become more generally accepted,

is further shown by the generous bequest of three thousand dollars given to the Association in his will.

Mr. Haynes was the friend not only of this Association; he was likewise a friend of all causes that he deemed worthy of assistance. The bequests to the numerous societies named in his will show the breadth of his social sympathy. Large as is the sum of these benefactions it is exceeded by what he gave to various institutions during his lifetime. By some he was considered hard and unyielding in affairs relating to money; but with those who knew him intimately this charge has no weight. He acquired his start in life by hard, toiling effort, and having thus learned the value of money he was not the man to part with it on mere solicitation. At the beginning of his career he worked early and late, receiving only a dollar and a half a week. Of this he gave voluntarily to his parents one dollar weekly. A boy of such a stamp rarely if ever in after life becomes encrusted with selfishness.

But that is topic on which we need not dwell. In his giving Mr. Haynes was unostentatious, and it would better please him to be remembered for those traits of sterling character that he manifested during the years of our long acquaintance with him. It would please him to have it recorded that the influence that had chiefly moulded him from the days of his early manhood was that of Theodore Parker. To know Mr. Haynes intimately was to know something of the life and teaching of that great preacher. Mr. Haynes was the farthest remove from the type of man that harps continually on a single theme, but one could hardly engage him in serious conversation without receiving some impression of the man whose memory he so sacredly cherished. The grass on Parker's grave has been growing for nearly half a century, yet even to Mr. Haynes' latest days his voice would falter and his eyes fill with tears when he recounted to sympathetic friends his reminiscences of Parker's life. An abiding personal affection such as this is rare indeed. It honors equally him that pays and him that receives it.

The various ways in which Mr. Haynes befriended Theodore Parker's society (the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society of