On the sixteenth day of April, 1883, the international committee, which
had been superintending the work since 1865, was incorporated in the
State of New York. Cephas Brainerd, a lawyer of New York City, a direct
descendant of the Brainerds of Connecticut, and present owner of the
homestead, has always been chairman of the committee, and, from a very
large practice, has managed to take an immense amount of time for this
work, which has more and more taken hold on his heart,--and here let me
say that I know no work, not even that of foreign missions, which takes
such a grip upon those who enter upon it. Time, means, energy, strength,
have been lavishly poured out by them. Mr. Brainerd and his committee
work almost as though it were their only work, and yet each member of
the committee is one seemingly fully occupied with his business or
professional duties. See the members of the Massachusetts committee, so
fired with love for this work that, in the gospel canvasses of the
State, after working all day, many of them give from forty to fifty
evenings, sometimes traveling all night to get back to their work in the
morning. It is no common cause that thus draws men out of themselves for
others. Then, too, I greatly doubt where there are such hard-worked men
as the general secretaries,--days and evenings filled with work that
never ends; the work the more engrossing and exacting because it
combines physical and mental with spiritual responsibility. We who know
this are not surprised to find the strength of these men failing. Those
who employ them should carefully watch that relief is promptly given
from time to time as needed. There are now more than three hundred and
fifty of these paid secretaries. Now, look back over the whole history
of the associations, and can you doubt that he who meets the wants of
his creatures has raised up the organization for the express purpose of
saving young men as a class? And to do this he employs the church
itself--not the church in its separate organizations, but the church