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::R5016 : page 138::

NEW YORK HIPPODROME MASS MEETING

TO HEAR I.B.S.A. COMMITTEE’S REPORT ON MISSIONS

Less than a week brought us safely across the Atlantic on the Cunarder “Mauretania.” Here we received a most hearty welcome, which culminated on Sunday in a mass meeting of Christian people at the New York Hippodrome.

The Hippodrome, with a seating capacity of fifty-two hundred, had been secured for the Committee’s report on March 31, 3 p.m. Crowds were at the entrances waiting for admission at 1:30 o’clock. Before 3 o’clock every seat was taken, and subsequently hundreds were turned away disappointed. No better evidence than this of the interest of the public and of Bible Students of all denominations could be asked.

The crowds entering beheld with bated breath the entire platform, or stage, over a hundred feet wide, banked with beautiful floral evergreen plants, etc., etc. We learned afterwards that it required eighteen men to unwrap and place these floral tributes—from 4 a.m. until noon. The decoration was a master-work, both as respects the materials and their arrangement. It was declared the most beautiful floral display of the kind ever seen in the American Metropolis. The Chairman, referring to the flowers, remarked that they had come from Bible Students of twenty-one different States of the Union addressed to the Pastor and with greetings to himself and to the Committee. The central feature of the display was a large Cross of red carnations circled by a crown of yellow daffodils and surrounded by a circular wreath-work of dark green leaves in which were scattered beautiful white lilies.

The Hon. J. F. Rutherford of the New York Bar served as Chairman. He introduced Prof. F. H. Robison, who read to the audience the categorical Summary which constitutes the conclusion of their Report, explaining that the full Report would be printed, as we here have it.

Pastor Russell followed with a discourse from the text, “Ask of Me and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” (Psa. 2:8.) It will be unnecessary for us to give a synopsis of this, as Bible Students in all parts of England and America have already had opportunity to read it in the more than one thousand newspapers which publish the Pastor’s sermons every week.

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— April 15, 1912 —