And State Papers 51 



as the foundation upon which we are to build the 

 great national superstructure. But it is a pretty poor 

 building if you have nothing but the basement. It 

 is an admirable thing to have material development, 

 great material riches, if we do not misestimate the 

 position that that material well-being should occupy 

 in the nation. It is an admirable thing to have 

 wealth if we use it aright and understand its relative 

 value compared to the things of the spirit. Now that 

 sounds like preaching. But it is only an expression 

 of a political truism if you look at it in the right way. 

 We have spread during the last century over this 

 whole continent. One hundred years ago the home 

 missionary work was begun. Do you realize that 

 at that time any one who went west of the Missis 

 sippi went into a foreign land ? He did ; and as late 

 as 1846 any one who went, in this latitude, to the 

 Pacific Coast, went into a foreign land. But as we 

 expanded nationally, so it was our good fortune that 

 there should go hand in hand with such expansion 

 the expansion of the church work, and of all that 

 goes with church work. I do not think we can real 

 ize the all-importance of the way in which the vital 

 need was met by the men who went out as mission 

 aries, and pastors, and workers in the little raw, 

 struggling communities whose people were laying 

 deep the foundations of the great States that to-day 

 fill the valley of the Mississippi and stud the Pacific 

 Coast. The men who -went out have by their efforts 

 given to what would otherwise have been the merely 

 material development of our people the spiritual 



