accerted. Of this I am glad. I have no fancy for a Protestant confessional. I have no admiration for the bad taste and wrong judgment that sends individuals away into a private room to be stared at as they struggle through the crowd. This feature of the movement might well be dispensed with. Other means might be contrived by which those who may be stirred up to conviction of sin and acceptance of salvation might meet with those who can say a word in season to them."

The Rev. R. N. Dale, of Birmingham, however, entertains a very different opinion respecting the value of these inquiry meetings.

"Almost invariably the preaching was followed by an aftermeeting. Cards of admission to the Meetings for Inquirers had been distributed among the ministers who co-operated with the movement, to be given by them to ladies and gentlemen to whom they could entrust the duty of conversing with persons agitated by religious anxiety, and needing sympathy and advice. The intention of this arrangement was to prevent inquirers from being left in the hands of unwise and incompetent people. How many of these cards were distributed I do not know; in my own church I gave away between a dozen and a score, and it was pleasant to me to see many of my friends at their work night after night. The arrangement broke down. The number of persons who remained for the after-meeting was so large, that a general appeal had to be made again and again to Christian people in the congregation to give their help. Some responded who had more enthusiasm than good sense. But notwithstanding this, the results of the aftermeeting were extraordinary. I have already spoken of the number of persons with whom I conversed myself, to whom, while I was conversing with them, the light came which springs from the discovery of God's love and power, and from the acceptance of his will as the law of life. Testimony after testimony has reached me from converts, to whom the same light came while conversing with others. I went up into the gallery,' said one young man to me, a day or two ago, and Mr. Sankey walked up and down with me, and talked to me as though he had been my own father, and I found Christ.' The preaching without the after-meeting would not have accomplished one-fifth of the results. It was in the quiet, unexciting talk with individuals that the impressions produced by

Mr. Moody's addresses issued in a happy trust in Christ, and a clear decision to live a Christian life. The galleries were a beautiful sight. Mr. Moody's quaint directions were almost universally followed: 'Let the young men talk to the young men, the maidens to the maidens, the elder women to the elder women, and the elder men to the elder men.' Cultivated young ladies were sitting or standing with girls of their own age, sometimes with two or three together, whose eager faces indicated the earnestness of their desire to understand how they were to lay hold of the great blessing which they seemed to be touching, but could not grasp. Young men were talking to lads, some of their own social position, others with black hands and rough clothes, which were suggestive of gun-making, and rolling-mills, and brass-foundries. Ladies of refinement were trying to make the truth clear to women whose worn faces and poor dress told of the hardships of their daily life. Men of business, local politicians, were at the same work with men of forty and fifty years of age. And there was the brightness of hope and faith in the tone, and manner, and bearing of nearly all of them. Christian people who want to know the real nature of the work of our American brethren, and to catch its spirit, should take care to spend a few hours at the after-meeting. If they go twiee, they will find it hard to keep away."

Another writer, speaking from personal observation, says:—

"It is very remarkable that in these inquiry.meetings a number of young men are found who have been entirely neglecting the church and her ordinances, and trying to live on the moral husks of infidelity. When the history of this movement comes to be written, this will come out as a striking fact. And these young men do not come to the inquiry-room in the sceptic's pride, and with parade of intellectual difficulty; but they come because they are miserable, and because they feel that there is nothing in scepticism to sustain the realities of human life."

Another says:

"Not a few instances of solemnizing impression take place in the pews, and persons have been seen, here and there evidently deeply touched either by the addresses or by the singing. In fact, the movement began there have been many such cases in the

since

different places of meeting. Gaily-dressed females are reported to have been observed showing themselves at the beginning highly amused at the whole thing, but during the services they have been seen to bow their heads and press into the inquiring-rooms, ranking among those who came to scoff and remained to pray."

THE WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

WE have mentioned that when Moody and Sankey arrived in England, they found that the pious men who had been most prominent in inviting them, the Rev. Mr. Pennefather, and Mr. Bainbridge, of Newcastle, were both dead. It is not quite clear why they selected York, a quiet and somewhat out-of-the-way, though venerable, city, for their first meetings, but so it was. "We arrived in York on a Saturday night in July, 1873," Mr. Moody himself states, "and did not know a soul in the place." Nevertheless, their aim was so unselfish and noble, and their powers and gifts were evidently so extraordinary, that ere long they were surrounded by numerous friends. Having, moreover, come here to preach and sing the Gospel, they were not the men to fold their arms in despair and return to America without doing the work which they felt themselves divinely commissioned to perform. In York they, therefore, commenced to hold their meetings, and soon they became almost as well known in religious circles in the United Kingdom, as in the United States, and pressing invitations poured in for them to visit other towns. At each place crowds came to hear the Gospel preached and sung, and many believed on Christ. Affecting incidents occurred, such as the following:-On the evening of July 27, Mr. Moody preached to a crowded meeting in Victoria Hall, Sunderland. At the close he related an anecdote of a prodigal son who was reconciled to his father as he stood by the bedside of his dying mother. Mr. Sankey sang, "Oh, prodigal child, come home, come home!" The audience were deeply impressed. The meeting was then adjourned to Bethesda Chapel, where a touching scene was witnessed. A young man, who had long played the part of the prodigal son, to the great grief of his godly parents, evidently moved by penitential sorrow for his sins, came up the aisle to his

D

father and mother. Throwing his arms around his father's neck, he asked his forgiveness with many tears. Then, turning to his mother, he in like manner embraced her tenderly, entreating her also to forgive him. He afterwards took his younger brother in his arms, and kissed him. No wonder that the father and mother and the newly-returned prodigal, with his brother, were obliged to retire to the vestry, being quite overcome. A voice seemed to say, "This my son was dead, but is alive again; he was lost and is found." When a sinner tastes the forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ, and is reconciled to the great Father in heaven, the deepest fountains of the heart are unsealed, and the affections begin to flow afresh in their natural channels. There is nothing begets love to man like the love of God.

In December, 1873, Messrs. Moody and Sankey arrived in Edinburgh and commenced a series of special services. What may appear to English worshippers a very unreasonable prejudice had to be met and overcome. It is well known that some of the stricter religionists in Scotland object to the employment of musical instruments in public worship, and the small American organ-an instrument in many respects similar to the harmonium-on which Mr. Sankey accompanies his voice, became an object of dislike and suspicion. But that prejudice was soon overcome, and the visitors excited an enthusiasm that was surprising to lookers-on. The local clergy came forward, and not only offered their pulpits, but supported the strangers with their presence whenever they appeared in public. Mr. Moody preached and Mr. Sankey sang twice and thrice a day; but every day, thousands were, for lack of room, turned away from the doors of the halls and churches where the services were being held.

"On the last Sunday evening of the year (writes an Edinburgb correspondent) a most interesting meeting was held in the Corn Exchange. This is the largest place in Edinburgh, being capable of holding, without seats, between five and six thousand people. Six thousand tickets were issued to the working-men of Edinburgh, none but men being admitted, and nearly that number thronged the vast building on Sunday evening, content to stand for more than two hours to wait for and listen to the preaching of the simple gospel. Mr. Moody, after preaching twice in Leith, between six and eight o'clock, came up to Edinburgh at half-past eight, and addressed

this great crowd. The Rev. Mr. Wilson and the Rev. J. Morgan, also delivered short addresses, while the Jubilee Singers offered their services to Mr. Moody, and sang some of the sweet songs of redeeming love. At first the appearance of these singers at evangelistic meetings was thought too bold a step, but when it became known that they are all living believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the voice of disapproval was at once hushed, and their help gladly accepted in the ministry of this great work. After Mr. Moody had concluded, there being no accommodation for a second meeting in the Corn Exchange, he asked those who wished to hear further of salvation if they would adjourn to the Free Assembly Hall; and before leaving, he asked those who were favourable to another large meeting on Monday evening to hold up their hands. A perfect sea of hands was held up, and arrangements for the meeting were at once proceeded with. Mr. Moody and those with him, on reaching the Assembly Hall, found that nearly seven hundred men had come up from the Corn Exchange, desiring to hear further of Christ. It was impossible to speak to each in conversation, and, with the view of considering the propriety of giving a short special address to the anxious, he asked those who were really in earnest, and truly desiring to know Christ, to stand up; and nearly the whole of them stood up at once, in token of their thirst for the water of life. There were ministers and laymen at the time around Mr. Moody who had seen all the great revival movements of the last forty years, and it was the testimony of every one present that they had never seen such a solemn sight as the one before them. After saying a few words to them, Mr. Moody asked them to go home, and to come back on Monday evening to the meeting for young converts, and for anxious souls. Many of them then went away, but not a few lingered behind, willing to speak with any one who would sympathize with their troubled heart, and the groping heavenward of a soul in the dark."

In reference to the Edinburgh services, Dr. Horatius Bonar, wrote to the Daily Review :

"It will not be denied that the thing which has so suddenly appeared among us, and stirred the placidity of our literary city, looks, in many respects, very like what we have long desired and prayed for; so that the news of such a movement should not repel,