equately sketch in a few paragraphs the man who justly attained these titles is an impossible task. The full story of his life will in time be given to the world. He should have for a biographer, if it were possible, one as large-minded and as many-sided as himself. Regarding Colonel Higginson's advocacy of religious and political freedom, two incidents in his career may appropriately be inserted in this report. At that famous first meeting of the Association, in the old Horticultural Hall, Boston, May 30, 1867, he made an address in which he said: "Mr. Chairman, my faith in the immortality of truth and in the spirit of freedom is as unbounded as in boyhood. My faith in organizations that take the form of churches and the limitations of the Christian name, has faded year by year." Colonel Higginson was followed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, near the beginning of his remarks: "I have listened with great pleasure to the lessons which we have heard. Many of those last spoken I have found so much in accord with my own thought that I have little left to say." And again, thirty years later (1897), in an address before the American Historical Association, Colonel Higginson said: "I have been specially struck by the force and clearness of the speeches made in these meetings. But I noticed the absence of one word which in my student days was always in the air- the word freedom. In this morning's discussion of the relation of this country to other countries, that glorious word did not occur. I pray you, ladies and gentlemen, in your historical study and teachings to think deeply of this." The last time that Colonel Higginson met with us was a year ago, and at the afternoon session of our yearly Convention, when he delivered a tribute to his old friend, Theodore Parker. At the close of his address the audience expressed its appreciation by rising. Colonel Higginson responded, saying, "I thank you with emotions more deep than I can express for your kind recognition on this occasion, which, if I know myself, is the last time I shall endeavor to speak in public." The death of Thomas Wentworth Higginson breaks the strongest link that bound the Association to its past. While he lived, Frothingham, Potter, Conway, Abbot, Mrs. Mott, Mrs. Cheney, and others, seemed not so very far removed. With his departure there comes a new period. To his memory we offer our grateful thanks. His name and his example. shall be ever honored and cherished by the Free Religious Association. There is a matter which in no former report of the present Secretary has received due mention. This is an Association about to celebrate its forty-fourth anniversary. It has seldom called its members together oftener than three times a year, in some years the call has been made but once; yet whenever summoned they have been prompt to appear. From Boston, Cambridge, Concord, Lynn, and other Massachusetts cities and towns, there has come a constant response. From Rhode Island and New York we have received a like recognition. Without creed or formula, and with an organization the freest possible, the Association has continued to maintain a secure place in the minds and hearts of its scattered members. It is an example rare indeed in the annals of free societies. Calls for the early Annual Reports of the Association continue to be made. Members are asked once again to look through their accumulations of pamphlets and to donate to the Association whatever numbers they are willing to spare of the issues between 1867 and 1872. The programme of to-morrow's Convention presents a large subject. Considerable time and labor have been expended by the Committee of Arrangements. They are confident that the different topics will be ably treated by the speakers whose services have been engaged. It is hoped that the attendance will be large. Respectfully submitted, WILLIAM H. HAMLEN, Secretary. BOSTON, May 25, 1911. Forty-fourth Annual Convention. The Forty-fourth Annual Convention of the Free Religious Association of America was held in Boston on Friday, May 26, 1911, and, in point of attendance and the interest taken in its proceedings, was one of the most successful gatherings in the Association's history. Ford Hall, in which the morning session took place, was crowded, both floor and galleries, with an eager and responsive audience. President Wendte occupied the chair. The topic, as announced on the programme, was “THE NEXT STEP-in Religion, in Philosophy, in Social Science, in Civil Government." OPENING ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT Members and Friends of the Free Religious Association of America: It is my great privilege to welcome you to this forty-fourth annual meeting of our Society. When an association has existed, like ours, through nearly half a century, it may fairly be said to have justified the motives and purpose of its founders, and to have given evidence that the principles and aims it seeks to advance in the community are worthy of its attention and have in them the promise of enduring life. There are some with us this morning who, like the present speaker, recall tenderly and gratefully the early meetings of this Association, the profound interest they awakened in the community, the moral and spiritual enthusiasm they generated. We remember the personality and utterances of the distinguished men and women who appeared on its free platform — Ralph Waldo Emerson, the first to inscribe himself on our roll of membership; Octavius B. Frothingham, brilliant in mind and eloquent of speech; Francis Ellingwood Abbot, in whom the New England conscience was carried to its utmost; John Weiss, with the imagination and passion of a Hebrew prophet; William J. Potter, the serene and steadfast disciple of a religious rationalism; David Wasson, transcendental thinker and poet; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the happy warrior of truth and freedom; George William Curtis, the spiritual man of the world, "without fear and without reproach"; Lucretia Mott, the persuasive voice of the spirit; Julia Ward Howe, the inspired muse of Transcendentalism and apostle of peace on earth; Ednah D. Cheney, bravest and best of women. All these, and many of their comrades, have passed on and upward into the life celestial, but their gracious memory lingers with us. We are the wiser and better because they bore their faithful testimony and wrought in us for freedom and truth. They have left to us of a later generation this child of their religious faith and purpose, this instrumentality which, as its Constitution informs us, they had created "to promote the scientific study of religion and ethics, the supremacy of practical morality in all the relations of life, and the increase of free, spiritual, and universal religion." What shall we do with this honored and significant bequest from our spiritual fathers? What further use and adaptation has it for the religious needs and aspirations of the present hour? There are those, both within and outside our Association, who think that because these great leaders have passed away, because the problems of religious philosophy and administration to-day are not the same as those which roused the founders of our Society to indignant protest and larger statements of truth, therefore the need for this organization no longer exists and its work is done. To prove this they remind us that the Unitarian church of this country, against whose theological limitations and narrow interpretations of fellowship half a century ago the protest of this Association was more particularly directed, has in the course of time so developed and moved forward that to-day it practically occupies the standpoint of the Free Religious Association. Whereas forty, or even twenty-five, years ago the Unitarian minister who appeared on this platform was virtually ostracized by his denomination, to-day the President of this Society is also an officer of the American Unitarian Association, and the programmes of our meetings are included in its official bulletin for Anniversary Week. Such are the revenges wrought by time and truth. Again, whereas barely twenty years ago the liberal minister of orthodox church connection who ventured to address our audiences took his ecclesiastical life in his hands, and felt compelled to devote the first part of his speech to clearing himself from the suspicion of sympathy with our heresies, and the remainder of his remarks, often, to vigorous dissent from our principles and aims, -to-day an invitation extended to such a one is accepted as an honor and privilege, and the emphasis is far oftener laid by the speaker on points of agreement than of difference. All this may be fully and gratefully admitted. It certainly vindicates the larger vision of the founders of this Association and is an encouraging exhibit of the increase of religious freedom, tolerance, and good will in our day. But its bearing upon the question of the continued existence of our Association is not so obvious. Free For one thing, it teaches the remarkable adaptability of our organization, its capacity to fit itself to new problems and uses. Let it be noted, it is not only the religious world around us, it is we ourselves also that have changed. Religion no longer means precisely what it did forty years ago. It, also, has grown and developed, especially on the sympathetic side. It has a larger, finer appreciation of all forms of religious experience and expression, orthodox as well as radical; it has become fairer and gentler in its criticisms of others' beliefs; it accentuates the unities rather than the diversities of faith. This more inclusive and sympathetic atti |