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Where Christ is Marching On.

THE WAY TO "REVIVAL;" AND TO "REACH THE

MASSES."

369

There are many grounds for hoping that the earnest prayers of many who are blindly groping after a revival of religion on the old lines of half-way Christian life are meeting with answers better and more gracious than they had dreamed of. A specimen answer, and model for praying pastors, sent forth lately, among others, is found in the Missionary Review, and shows what Dr. Pierson also thinks to be the way of holy boldness for a "revival of religion."

"A certain young vicar found himself in charge of a parish where a predecessor had given loose rein to ritualistic tendencies of the most ultra sort, and with them secular tendencies of equally pronounced character. The previous vicar had even encouraged a dance among the young people on the Saturday evening before the Eucharist as a means of attracting them to the church. Fairs, festivals, bazaars and all the like group of worldly schemes were the common resort for raising money, but the spirit of prayer and the Spirit of God had little exhibition or administrative control.

"The congregation was large, and the outward signs of prosperity were abundant. But the new vicar felt it was all a deceptive external shell, and that there would be no true life, health and growth where such sort of church conduct existed. Accordingly, he at once, with much prayer, began to preach against compromises with the world, and the use of worldly methods, and insisted vigorously on a Scriptural, spiritual, prayerful, Holy Ghost life and walk and service.

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"The church began to empty, and so rapid was the decline in the congregation that a deputation of twelve men, representing the officers, church wardens, etc., went to the bishop to protest against the new vicar's methods. But the vicar went on with his reform— until there were none left to reform. He went into church one morning to find but two persons present. They were in sympathy, however, and in place of the usual service, those three spent an hour and a half in prayer. They pleaded with God to take off them the burden of responsibility, and Himself take charge of the church.

"A powerful work of the Spirit at once began. The first fruits were the conversion of the twelve men that had waited on the bishop to have the new vicar removed. The church filled up with a new congregation in part, and in part with a transformed body of people, formerly pursuing secular methods and moved by a worldly spirit.

BAPTIZED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE POCKET.

Boxes were placed at the church door, labelled, "For offerings from the saints." No appeals were made. No appeals were made. The people were reminded of their privilege of contributing on a following Lord's Day

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Where Christ is Marching On.

to the Lord's cause; and poor people, whose average wages do not exceed sixteen shillings sterling per week, in that one missionary offering gave one hundred and fifty pounds [$750]. They support six missionaries abroad, and one of them is kept in the field by a class of three hundred poor working women. The vicar has more money than is needed for all church expenses, and only New Testament methods are encouraged. There is nothing that more closely resembles and reproduces the apostolic times.

"We give prominence to this incident as an illustration of great weight, to prove and exemplify the true remedy and resort for those who, in dismay at the worldly spirit in the churches, despair of bet

terment."

SOME OF THE LORD'S OWN TODAY.

A Christian woman who is too poor to keep a servant is yet so rich that she is supporting one home and two foreign missinaries. A school teacher, from her salary of $1,000, sustains her substitute in China with $500.

A widow in Boston, living in one room of a tenement house, gave $800 to foreign missions. When her pastor called and asked her how she could give so much, she said, 'Here I am comfortable and have enough, living upon $200 a year, but I do not know how I could go to meet my Lord if I lived upon the $800 and gave Him only $200.'

A stenographer, who works all day long in an office, began some years ago to save her small earnings, and quietly to send them out to the foreign field, until to-day, through God's blessing on her gifts, more than a thousand souls in India can look up in the face of their Heavenly Father and rejoice in the possession of eternal life.-Ex.

GOSPEL TENTS IN PHILADELPHIA, ETC.

A remarkable Christian enterprise is carried on in Philadelphia during the summers, for the outside people who never attend church, but who are called in as they pass by curiosity to hear, singing or what the man with a loud voice is saying. This work is organized in a committee of the Philadelphia Presbyteries and the Social Union; consisting of fifteen ministers and fourteen laymen; originated and driven by the great locomotive builder, John H. Converse, of the Baldwin works. The movement began with a visit of D. L. Moody, at the request of Mr. Converse, and the instalation of three Gospel tents, in 1898. The next year five were in operation, disposed in sixteen places at different times. In 1901 there were seven, and in the last summer, 1902, there were eight.

Gospel Tents in Philadelphia.

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More than the preaching and singing, the effect of these is followed up personally by assistants who visit all who in any way show an interest and give their addresses, and endeavor to secure church attendance, Christian life, and social meetings for prayer. It is estimated that about 15,000 persons weekly were in attendance at the tents, and other evangelistic places such as the front of the City Hall, Independence Hall, etc. These facts are culled from a report in the Christian Endeavor World.

In the City of New York, the Presbytery, following this example, has increased its summer outdoor evangelistic stations to two or three, in which services were maintained from June to September, inclusive.

Not a little money, besides a great amount of personal volunteer labor, goes to the support of such a system of outdoor evangelism. These beginnings will be extended in every city and considerable village, as fast as the Church becomes awakened to that for which she was created and sent into the world for.

Like organized movements (not necessarily out of doors) are urgently needed to stir up the Church to the most neglected of all her duties, the evangelization of the Jews. The Master is now calling, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" The first need is men, who are not after money, and the money will follow after the men.

"Philadelphia has, during the last winter, been doing quite a remarkable work in the Italian section of the city. During the summer they have held nightly services in a large tent on Tenth street, near Washington avenue. Here they have made use of the stereopticon to convey Gospel truth to the minds of the Italian hearers. During August and September the attendance at this Italian tent, at seventy-two services, reached a total of 30,000. The great majority of those were Italian adults, at least four out of five being men. It was our privilege on Monday evening, September 29th, to be present at one of these gatherings. There were no less than 800 present, and the interest and attention was marked. A chorus of Italian men rendered popular and most acceptable music. We were told that the priests in the vicinity strongly antagonized the work, going so far as to stand outside of the tent and forbid the people to enter, saying that their souls would be lost if they attended the service. These threats, however, were absolutely vain, for the attendance continued steadfast in spite of all the efforts to the contrary.-N. Y. City Mission Monthly.

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Where Christ is Marching On.

WHAT A CHAPEL CAR CAN DO.

FROM B. B. JACQUES, MISSIONARY IN CHARGE.

Among the many agencies for Gospel work in the world today, none seem to be more signally blessed of God than that of the chapel car. The car, being a church and parsonage combined, has a decided advantage in that respect, aside from the curiosity aroused, which draws many people who otherwise never go to church.

In March, 1896, the writer and his wife took charge of the chapel car Emmanuel, having for a field the entire Pacific coast.

Generally speaking, the work has been very successful. Churches, Sunday-schools and young people's societies have been established, wanderers reclaimed, and many souls saved.

WHERE THERE ARE NO RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES.

A little town nestled in among the mountains is a place where nothing at all of a religious nature is to be found; in the centre of such a town the chapel car Emmanuel was side-tracked. A series of special meetings was held, with blessed results. Today there stands in the same place a church building, a Sunday-school and Young People's Society were also organized, and the tone of the town is so entirely changed that a man testified, "The chapel car has spoiled all our fun; we can't even get up a dance."

In another place, a lady who was converted in one of our meetings said: "This is the first meeting I have been in for twentyseven years," simply because there were no meetings in that place to go to. Her son, who died at the age of twenty, never knew what a Sunday-school was.

We were sidetracked in a little country place-not large enough to have a depot, simply a siding. Nine houses were the most that could be seen. A little church organization was struggling for life. Three weeks' meetings resulted in a great spiritual uplift to the church, and twenty-four were baptized before the car left, among them being four husbands and their wives. Before we left, arrangements were made for the erection of a church building, and now, as the train rushes by, there can be seen among the other nine buildings one more, with its spire pointing heavenward.

The chapel car is pre-eminently a railroad man's church. The car is run right into the yards where the men work, and special notices are distributed inviting them to the noonday meetings. An audience of three hundred railroad men in their working clothes, is an inspiring sight that we have had the privilege of witnessing. At a recent meeting of two weeks, among railroad men, we had an average audience of two hundred, and God blessed the special messages given them, to the salvation of quite a number. The day we left, a paper was passed me, at the head of which was an expression of thanks for the meetings held, and a request for the car to return again as soon as possible. Then followed the names of a hundred and ninety-six railroad men.

Prominences on Mission Fields.

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Believing it is easier to construct than reconstruct, we hold a great many meetings with the children, and hundreds of them have found Jesus. We also distribute a great deal of literature, including Bibles, Testaments, books, papers, and tracts. The cars, of which there are now six, are all owned and operated by the American Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia.-Sunday School Times.

MODEL CHURCH LIFE IN RECENT HEATHENDOM.

In the Presbyterian Korean Mission, the Pyeng Yang Station has one central church with 18 associated places of meeting; 179 out-stations, each having from one to six meeting places, and 16 or more additional groups. Of native assistants there are 73 unsalaried local leaders, and 19 helpers who travel on circuits; all but six supported by the people. There are 152 church buildings, nearly all provided by the people; 46 built this year. There are 41 school teachers, 30 supported by the people. This is but a specimen of the operation of the Christian ideal as maintained in all the Korean churches.

"IN LATELY DARKEST AFRICA."

Bishop Tucker, of Uganda, says: "Ten years ago the number of baptized Christians was something like 300; to-day it is 30,000. Ten years ago there was but one place of Christian worship in the whole of Uganda; to-day there are 700. Ten years ago there were but some 20 native evangelists at work; to-day there are 2,000. The churches and schools of the country, some 700 in number, are built, repaired and maintained by the natives themselves.

"And who has been the instrument of all this widespread evangelistic and missionary effort? It has been the native 'Muganda' himself. From the very beginning the plan has been that of laying upon each convert the responsibility of handing on that truth which he himself has received. In one word, the whole work of the Native Church-its educational, pastoral and missionary—is maintained entirely from native sources. Not one single half-penny of English money is employed in its maintenance."

BY ALL MEANS.

A Roman Catholic Society for encouraging Bible reading in Italy has recently become an accomplished fact in the city of Rome itself. The promoters justify such a society on the ground that "what was most needed was to educate both priests and people in Scriptural knowledge, the want of which had facilitated Protestant propaganda in a deplorable degree." This new society has issued a new version of the Gospels and Acts at the price of 2d. (of course with notes and comments), and copies are in circulation by the thousand.

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