It

speak of China, there are the two hundred and fifty millions in India, too, who have never heard the Gospel yet. Go a little further, and you come to China, which has two hundred and fifty millions again. My dear friends, have we not lost our way? What are we doing? Seven hundred and fifty millions of Our fellow-creatures are persishing for want of the Gospel! If some of you want to spread the knowledge of God you will have to go out in a much greater heat than this-in China and India. It is cool here to-day compared with what it is in those countries. You will have to learn the knowledge of God there. I will not say have to go. may be the privilege of some of you to go to China, and there you will find God revealing Himself as He never does in Mildmay; under circumstances of peculiar distress and sorrow and anxiety, God reveals Himself to some as He never does to others. I know there are some here who can sympathise with what I say. They have found in the dying chamber such joy as they never found in the bridal chamber. When we love Him, and if there is the loss of loved ones, nearest and dearest left behind, to go forth in His name, with Christ in the heart and Christ on the tongue to rescue the perishing, then is there a revelation of Christ, dear friends, which is worth ten thousand times more than it costs. Have we lost our way ?-so many staying at home while the perishing thousands are passing away in immense multitudes knowing nothing of the Saviour who is all to us. Hour by hour thousands pass beyond the reach of the Gospel, and that Gospel has not yet been brought within their reach. It is not that China has not been opened. China is open to-day. There is not a province into which men have not gone, and only one province into which women have not gone, preaching the Gospel to their brethren who are in darkness.

When one looks back one cannot sufficiently thank God for what He has done. A native Christian that went to one vile spot and carried in his hand a few Gospels of St. Matthew, sold a number of them to the people for a small sum of money: and what was the result? One man who took one of these Gospels home, read it through before he went to bed that night: that Gospel wrought such a change in that man that he had gathered together a native church in his village, and had baptized fifteen Chinese before the missionary went there. One man heard the Word as he was passing through a village: deep anxiety was stirred in his heart, and with Christ in his heart he went into the

district where no missionary had been, and preached the Word, and now sixty or eighty Christians in that village are rejoicing in God! I could give you many instances if time afforded, and there were need, of the power of the Gospel to save. Is it not

a real privilege to covet to go out with the Gospel of Christ, and while winning souls for Christ to win souls for one's self? I thank God for the privilege He has given me of working in China, placing ourselves in the hands of Omnipotence. What may not a human being accomplish in the hands of Omnipotence?

Nineteen years ago I was at this Conference and was speaking of China's spiritual needs. I have since written a little book on China's spiritual needs. There were but ninety-one Protestant missionaries in all China at that time, and there were eleven provinces without any Christian work, and there was a great and mighty need. What has been done since then? God has opened up the eleven provinces, and has given to the mission that was inaugurated nineteen years ago at the Conference in the Iron Room in King Henry Street, more than double the total number of missionaries connected with all the missionary societies at that time. In answer to prayers He has done wonders. There were only three hundred native Christians in the whole of the Chinese Empire nineteen years ago. Now we have three hundred native Christian converts and inquirers in one station only! Do let us be real in this work. The Master says, "Go ye into all the world." Shall we say, "We will not have this man to rule over us; we will not obey His command; will not go"? Oh, let us each one put this question to himself solemnly. There are many excuses which are taken as valid reasons now for not going, which we shall be ashamed to bring forward when we see the King in His glory. As there are many of us who believe His coming is very near, let us be ali the more earnest in His work.

we

The Rev. J. HUDSON TAYLOR then closed the proceedings with prayer.

Home Missionary Meeting.

ADDRESSES BY

CAPT. BARING. MR. GEORGE HOLLAND.
DR. BARNARDO. DR. GOULD.

Thursday Afternoon, 26th June, 1884.

APT. BARING presided at this meeting, held in
Rooms 4 and 5, which were crowded. The hymn
No. 2 was sung-

"Arise, O Lord, arise!

Gird on Thy mighty sword."

Capt. BARING said :-Ladies and gentlemen, I should just like to say, before I ask Mr. George Holland to address us, that Lord Polwarth is exceedingly sorry at being unable to come here to-day, as he intended, to preside on this occasion, and Mr. Mathieson asked me a short time ago to come in and fill up the gap. Now I am not going to do what I fear chairmen are not quite guiltless about, which is, saying that they are going to say a few words and then speaking for an hour and a quarter. For my own part, I will only say that when I am put up to speak the chairman pushes me into a corner and gives me about ten minutes to put the way of salvation clearly. There has been perhaps an hour of introductory remarks. All that I would wish to call attention to is this, in connection with the word upon which Dr. Pentecost was speaking this morning : "The people that know their God shall be strong and--" what?

"and be idle ?" No; and do what? You will observe in your Bibles the word "exploits," and so I think without doing violence to the passage, could we not just alter it a little to suit us here this afternoon, and say that people that know their God shall be strong and do what God the Lord has commanded to do-not exploits, but just doing God's will, being of one mind with Him as to searching out the needy, the ignorant, the suffering, and so forth, and then going and doing it in His power?

There is a solemn word in the book of Proverbsperhaps some of you may have noticed it-"The idle soul shall suffer hunger," and although that, of course, applies first of all to the ordinary life, it is certainly true as regards the spiritual life. The idle soul won't get filled. Now what are the activities of the soul? Well, I think I should put first prayer, and then I should put meditation on the Word-not just reading the Word, but meditating upon the Word of God, and then certainly, thirdly, and not least, Christian work. Just as the body cannot possibly be healthy-in a healthy condition, unless it has some bodily exercise, no more, depend upon it, can the soul grow-thrive-make any progress in spirituality, unless there is Christian work. I presume that all those who have met here to-day, probably the greater number, at least, are workers, and they have come to hear about God's work, and if anyone is still unsatisfied it may arise just from this cause, that you may not be doing anything in the Lord's service; and I would just leave these words with you before I sit down.

In Gen. xli., and the last two or three verses of that chapter, you will find these words: "Go unto Joseph." That was the first thing. Now if you will observe what the very next clause of that verse is, "What he saith unto you, do," there is obedience; and then in the next verse come these precious words: "And Joseph opened all the storehouses." Now those houses will not be opened for us if we are doing nothing. It is "what He saith unto you," not "what I think I am best qualified for;" but "what He saith unto you, do." And then Joseph opened all the storehouses. Without further taking up your time, I shall ask Mr. George Holland to address you.

BY MR. GEORGE HOLLAND.

I think it would be well in speaking upon the subject of Home Missions, just to call attention to the present condition

of things generally in the Metropolis. We are told that 150,000 persons are in the Metropolis who never stay in any one place longer than three months at a time, and that number may be safely increased at the present time to 200,000, many of whom do not stay longer than one week. You must not forget, too, that 80,000 vagrants pass through the Metropolis every year, that it is said there are 20,000 homeless children in the streets of London, and more than 30,000 children not yet reached by any of our agencies. There are 10,000 servants always out of employment, and with these thousands of unskilled and casual labourers, who every morning seek employment, the greater portion unable to obtain it, and that thousands start every morning to look for work without food and without breakfast, and who, after walking eight or ten and sometimes twelve miles, return back without work and without any food. And thousands have to live upon five shillings a week; thousands of men, women, and widowed mothers have to work through the long Sabbath day, and just put on one side the garment they are stitching and go to God's house and then to work again. And a good many of these poor women, too, receive their wages on Sunday. They get it at mid-day, and then they may have everything to buy out of the market for their meals. Then there are whole streets where not more than 7 per cent., and even less, of the population don't go to any place of worship. Some have not been to a church or chapel or mission-room for years. I have met with those who have not been to a place of worship for forty, for fifty, even for sixty years. I have met with those who have only been in a place of worship twice in their lives. And there are hundreds too of girls and lads entering upon life indifferent and neglecting their precious souls, and our courtways, alleys, and back streets are filled with persons who never leave the immediate neighbourhood where they live on the Lord's-day. Let me just say, dear friends, that these do not go to places of amusement on Sunday, or to art exhibitions, or exhibitions of pictures. They have not the gloves necessary to put on their hands, nor the rings to put on their fingers, nor the clothes to put on their backs. We must leave these places to kid-gloved hands, and ringed fingers. These are the classes who go there-the rich and not the very poor, who never do go there, and who never will go-never.

Then there is drink with all its attendant horrors-the wretched