They did not fire. So Satan could not dare to injure them if the banner of God's love (Song of Solomon) was wrapped around them. God help that vast assembly. Let them receive the love of God into their hearts that day, and they would afterwards look back on it as the happiest of their existence. : THE WATER OF LIFE. At a meeting at the Metropolitan Hall, Dublin, Mr. Moody took for his text Isaiah lv.-"Ho, every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight in its fatness." Here they had mention of water, bread, milk, and wine. Without water there could be no life. Bread gave strength; milk growth; and they could have no joy or power unless they drank the heavenly wine. The invitation was universal. It was given to all who thirsted for the water of life. They all thirsted for worldly pleasures and happiness; but such things never had and never could satisfy the thirst of their souls. The fact was, that the world was thirsting for Christ, but the world did not know it. The devil deceived and blinded them; but they were thirsting for the water of life, nevertheless. In Exodus xvii., verse 6th, it was written :-"Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” The rock was Christ, the water the Holy Ghost. All through Scripture the word was used in the same sense. Even now in the towns of Egypt, those who cried water through the streets said, "Water the gift of God." London was full of fountains; but on one occasion a gentleman could not draw water from one, but a little boot-black came up, and showed him how to do it. If that had been the water of life, would not that boot-black have been worth more to him than bishop, priest, or Pope? What they wanted was some one to tell them the way of life. If they were lost, would it not be better to have a child of five years old who could tell them the way, than a man of seventy years old who could tell them nothing about it? So they should not disregard the speech of young converts. God wanted to pour the water of life upon every one that thirsted. He remembered being on board a steamer in which poor soldiers, wounded in the war, were being borne along the Tennessee River. They cried for water, but the water of the river was impure, and it made them sick. He heard one say, "Oh, for a draught of water from my father's well." He prayed that might be the cry of every sinner. THE MAN CLEANSED FROM LEPROSY. Speaking at one of the Birmingham meetings, Mr. Moody said he wished to draw attention to the 5th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Commencing at the 12th verse, he went on to read of the man who was "full of leprosy" going to Christ, and begging to be made clean. He read a few verses slowly, in a monotonous voice, and then paused to make a few comments. In a second or two, however, he proceeded, until he had finished the story of the man stricken with the palsy, who was let through the roof into the room in which Christ was teaching the multitude. Then he closed his book sharply, and said he would make a few remarks on what he had read. Firstly, he called attention to the fact that other persons were in the presence of Christ than the sufferers who wished to be healed-Pharisees and doctors of the law-who went there, not to be cured of any disease, but simply to reason. The truth was, those men wanted to know what that stranger was doing at Capernaum and the neighbourhood. There were a good many men now who liked to go and talk and reason about things; and, in saying this, Mr. Moody threw a shade of sarcasm into his tone. He soon changed, however, and particularly directed his hearers to observe that the man with the leprosy went straight to Jesus, without waiting to talk to any one, or to ask any one to assist him. Such conduct he commended; he advised all to go straight to the fountain head, and present their petitions. They must show faith, he said; and as the result, in his quaint Yankee style, he added that their cheque would always be cashed at sight with the pure gold of heaven. With some irony, he continued, that there were plenty of people who did not believe in instant conversion -that it could be done all at once. To such he would hold up the example of the man with the leprosy, who was immediately cleansed. Leaving this part of the subject, Mr. Moody went on to allude to the palsied man who was let through the roof of the house. This was evidently a subject on which he felt quite at home, for he gave his wayward fancy full scope. As on Sunday morning, he provoked smiles on every face by the quaintness of the language in which -he indulged. His most commonplace remarks on this subject were funnily expressed. Having depicted the grief that the palsied man would feel when he discovered that he was unable to get into the room where the Saviour was on account of the crush, he described the man as seeking friends to help him in his troubles. The man wanted four friends, and he finally succeeded in getting them. Pausing a moment in his story, and casting an eager and searching glance round the hall, he told his hearers that they had no idea what three or four people could do. Then he drew an amusing picture of a sinful man called on by a person anxious for the welfare of his soul. The sinner took no notice of the inquirer, but when a few hours afterwards another person called with a similar object he began to wonder what was the matter. Assuming a look of bewilderment, Mr. Moody impersonated the importuned man. "I can't understand this. I never was anxious about my own soul, and here's two men been asking after it." The acting, and the drawling American tone of wonderment, were irresistible, and the audience tittered. So Mr. Moody improved the subject, and sketched the sinner sitting down to tea when a third person called with the invariable inquiry about his soul. "This beat all he had ever heard of." And before he got to bed still another man called. With a dry contortion of the face, and a 'cute look, said Mr. Moody, "That man wouldn't get much sleep that night-that would thoroughly awaken him." And then he expressed the belief that there was not a sceptic in Birmingham who could not be overcome by similar means. A few other words of serious advice, and Mr. Moody again gave rein to his whimsical fancies. Telling the story of the palsied man, in an extravagantly comical style, the effect being enhanced by the shrugs and grimaces he made, he succeeded in provoking the laughter of all his hearers. There were the four men, wondering how they could get their palsied fellow creature before the Saviour. "No getting in at the door," so other means must be tried. The remainder of the story had better be told in Mr. Moody's own words. 66 They went next door, rapped at the door, and asked the man to lend them the loan of his stairs for a short time, as they wanted to get the sick man along into the next house. Certainly, said the man, and up they lugged the palsied man, bed and all, to the top of the house. Then they had to get the man into the next house, and the only way was through the roof. Perhaps it was Peter's house, and they said to themselves, "Oh, Peter won't object, and we'll send him down right through the tiles. So to work they went tearing up the tiles and the roof." By this time the laughter was pretty general; but Mr. Moody, in his odd way, saw an opportunity of instilling a little sober truth. Changing the expression of his features into a dry, hard look, which quickly checked the smiles, said he, “Ah, people don't like anybody tearing up their roofs now-a-days. We like everything done peaceably and in order." Thenceforth he went on to ridicule the notions of those who thought good could only be accomplished slowly and by roundabout methods. Again he proceeded with his tale, describing the lowering of the bed into the room by cords, and depicting the surprise and indignation of the assembled Pharisees. Having pictured the benevolence of the Saviour in not only curing the man, but forgiving him all his sins, he, in a laughable style, concluded by imagining the now restored man as doubling up his bedstead, slinging it over his shoulder, and gleefully marching off home. As the moral of the tale he pointed out the absolute necessity of faith, and earnestly solicited all to have faith in Christ, who could save them all. THE PRESS ON THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. WE have already quoted passages from the Saturday Review (which has since devoted another article to a depreciatory notice of the labours of Messrs. Moody and Sankey) and other metropolitan orgaus of opinion. On the 16th of March the Times published a moderate and judicious leader, a portion of which we quote: "The two Americans who for some time past have been conducting a remarkable religious movement in the North, have at length addressed themselves to the metropolis, and the vast and various population of this city is invited to hear and judge for itself. Judgment, perhaps, is not exactly the faculty with which these gentlemen are most concerned; they invite belief and sympathy, and they appeal to the heart rather than to the head. Still, criticism is inevitable, and they have already encountered a good deal of it. Revivals are not a novelty, and have not always proved in the end satisfactory, and a great part of the public are not a little anxious to know what is the kind of influence which has been collecting congregations of many thousands, and, as is said, influencing for good a great proportion of them, in the Northern towns. On the latter point, indeed, the balance of favourable testimony is very considerable; and if only it be true that Messrs. Moody and Sankey have roused numbers of people to a more moral and more elevated life, mere criticism of their methods is somewhat ungenerous and out of place. But in our churches and chapels even the two or three thousand people collected are for the most part broken up into sections, and are rarely seen as a whole. But the Agricultural Hall brings them together in one vast mass, and the sense of association becomes extraordinarily powerful. The singing, in particular, acquires a new force with such a volume and unison of sound. Mr. Sankey sings his solos with skill, but it may be doubted whether either the words or the execution would of themselves be effective. When the hymns, however, are sung in unison by the greater part of the audience the effect is irresistible. The tunes are at least melodious, and melody from thousands of human voices sweeps individuals into its swell like the waves of the sea. Much of Mr. Moody's success may, perhaps, be attributed to this influence, the more fairly as, by bringing Mr. Sankey in his train, he himself acknowledges the usefulness of such an aid. To assign, however, a great part of the effect produced to the numbers and to the music is no disparagement to the work itself. For that matter, every Church and every Christian gathering, even down to the typical 'two or three,' is an admission that men are for some purposes better influenced in bodies than as individuals, and these are not days when any considerable sect of Christians can consistently disparage the influence of music. They are all trying to outdo one another in new hymns, new tunes, and elaborate musical services. Mr. Sankey simply confines himself to the kind of tunes and to the mode of singing with which multitudes can be most readily brought into harmony. Both the crowds and the music, however they may contribute to the general result, are perfectly legitimate aids, and it is a mere matter of good sense for a |