Chauncey Langdon, then a layman, and a member of the Washington Association, now rector of the Episcopal Church at Bedford, Pennsylvania. Mr. McBurney, in his fine Historical Sketch of Associations, says: "Many of the associations of America owe their individual existence to the organization effected through his wise foresight. The associations of our land, and in all lands, owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Langdon far greater than has ever been recognized." Oscar Cobb, of Buffalo, and Mr. Langdon signed the call to the first convention, which assembled on June 7, 1854, at Buffalo. This was the first conference of associations held in the English-speaking world. Here was appointed a central committee, located at Washington, and six elsewhere.
In 1860, Philadelphia was made the headquarters. The confederation of associations and its committee came to an end in Chicago, June 4, 1863, and the present organization with its international executive committee was born, with members increasing in number. The committee now numbers thirty-three, two being resident in New York City.
In the year 1865, a committee was appointed by the convention at Philadelphia. The president of this convention became the chairman of the international executive committee, consisting of ten members resident in New York City, and twenty-three placed at different prominent points in the United States and British Provinces. There is also a corresponding member of the committee in each State and province, and means of constant communication between the committee and each association, and between the several associations, through the Young Men's Christian Association Watchman, a sixteen-paged paper, published each fortnight in Chicago.
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 care-
