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Sankey accompanying with his instrument. Mr. Moody then announced that he had received despatches from all parts of the world expressing sympathy with their mission in London, and desired the congregation to unite in silent prayer. The unbroken silence which reigned for several minutes afforded a remarkable contrast to the immense volume of sound which the union of many thousand voices in the magnificent "All people that on earth do dwell," had just before produced. Then Mr. Moody's voice was heard, as he offered up a fervent prayer. The 30th hymn, "One more day's work for Jesus,” having been sung, Mr. Moody read a portion of the 1st chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, beginning at the 17th verse. Mr. Sankey then came forward, and said he would sing a hymn, which he explained was not a hymn of praise, but a Christian song, adding, May the Lord bless it here as He has blessed it elsewhere." He then sang, "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," and his exquisite voice, clear, powerful, intensely sympathetic, and modulated with great taste and unaffected feeling, produced considerable effect, so great, indeed, that some persons, more accustomed, apparently, to vocal performances of another character, actually applauded. Toplady's fine timehonoured hymn, "Rock of Ages cleft for me," was then sung by the choir, and Mr. Moody commenced his address, taking for his text the passages of Scripture he had previously read. A slight interruption being occasioned by the endeavour of the crowd outside to force an entrance, Mr. Moody gave out a hymn, "Free from the law, oh, happy condition!" during the singing of which the "stewards," as they were named, a number of gentlemen appointed to maintain order in the vast assemblage, secured the doors. Then Mr. Moody resumed his address.

He said he had received letters from a great many Christians in London, who were praying that God might revive His work here. His great fear in coming to this city was that many might be leaning upon man, and upon the arm of flesh, and might take their eyes off from the living God. If a work was to be done in London, however, God must do it. It was not any new gospel that London wanted, nor any new power. It was the same old, old story, that the ministers of the churches had been telling continually. God's ways were not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts, and we must not mark out channels for the Hol

Ghost to work in when He comes. When God was going to destroy the world, and wanted an ark built, He did not tell a nation to do it, neither did He call upon hundreds of men to do it, but one man, and he a man who was contemptible in the sight of the world, for the world laughed at him and mocked him. What was highly esteemed by man was an abomination to God, and what was highly esteemed by God was an abomination to man. When He wanted to bring three millions of people out of Egypt, His way of doing it was quite different from any that man would have adopted. He did not send an army with chariots, but a man who had been forty years on the back side of the desert, and whose name had been forgotten among the children of Israel, a man slow of speech, a stuttering man. There was not a man whose name shone out on the page of Divine history but was considered a fool in his day. He had no doubt that Enoch was considered a great fool in the sight of the world, but he walked with God, and God thought so much of him that he said, “Come up higher," for he liked his company. Noah was the laughing-stock of his day. Men made great sport of him, but he was willing to be a fool for God's sake, and God used him and blessed him. And if we want to be of use to God we must be willing to be fools in the sight of the world. Look at Joshua going round the walls of Jericho. It was a most absurd sight. How the London press would have come down upon a scene like that! Fancy the Archbishop of Canterbury and other great dignitaries going round London blowing ram's horns. Everybody would be disgusted, and say they should have golden trumpets at least. But that was not God's way. Look at Samson. When the spirit was on him how he worked! With a jawbone of an ass he slew a thousand men. People now-a-days were not willing to work with a jawbone of an They wanted some polished weapons that the world would not say anything against; but Samson came down from the rock and took up the first jawbone of an ass that he came across, and went out and slew the Philistines right and left. What was wanted now was that every one should grab up the first jawbone of an ass that they could lay hold of, and not wait to do some great thing. How absurd it must have looked to see Gideon with his three hundred men with their pitchers. What queer weapons they were! but every man stood in his place, and the result was that they

ass.

routed the whole army. Look at Elijah fed by such unclean, contemptible things as ravens: and when the Lord sent him somewhere else it was not to a palace or to a table laid with good things, but to a poor widow who had scarcely enough for a meal for herself and her boy. So it was at the present day, for God was unchangeable. It was said that we were living in an enlightened age. That might be true, but to God it made no difference. He still used base and contemptible and despised things to effect His purpose. When He wanted a book written that should do some good to the world, He did not call forth a philosopher, but a Bedford tinker, and the devil had his match when he got hold of John Bunyan. There was not a man present at the gathering whom God could not use if he was willing to be used. There was not a man in all Saul's army but knew that God could use him against Goliath, but only one, and he the youngest of Jesse's family, was willing to be used. It was said of David's soldiers that they were all right and left handed men. That was what London wanted now, men who could use their right hand or their left hand, their eyes, their tongues, their ears for the King of Glory. Who would have thought of Elisha to take the place of the wonderful old prophet Elijah? Men now-adays would go to the schools of the prophets and pick out some theological professor, but Elijah found a man behind twelve yoke of oxen, and Elisha slew his oxen and started off with Elijah, consecrating all to the service of God. Christ did not call around Him the learned and the wise, but Galilean fishermen, and that handful of men shook the world. Even before He could use Saul the name had to be changed to Paul-the Little. What London wanted, and what the whole world wanted, was not eloquence, but Christ, and Him crucified. Let every man and woman, then, who loved the Lord Jesus, begin to publish the glad tidings of salvation; let them talk to their neighbours of the love of Christ, and so rise and take the city, for God was able to do it. The world did not like to have Christ preached, but it was just what the world did not like that Christians must give it. The lion of hell was overcome by a lion; but the Lion of the tribe of Judah was also a Lamb. There was weeping once in heaven when John found no one worthy to open the Book; but at last one touched him and said, "Weep not, John, for

there is one worthy; the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed, and he is worthy." And when John turned round to ook at the Lion it was a slain Lamb. God's Lion is a Lamb slain. It was the weakness of God that overcame the strength of man. Then, in order to success there must be union among Christians. There were three classes of people that ought to sympathize with this movement. Every minister who wanted to crown Christ King ought to be interested in the work; every Sabbath-school superintendent and teacher, every missionary and colporteur ought, at least, to pray for it, and every father and mother ought to join in it. When he was in Liverpool the other day a woman came to him with a photograph of a beautiful boy, who, she said, would now be nineteen years old. She said he had had trouble, and had fled from his home. She did not know what had become of him, and she asked him, if he saw him in London, to try and win him to the Lord, that he might come back to cheer her heart. There were many such boys in London, and he hoped God would bring them to Christ, so that they might go back to be a blessing to their parents and to the Church at large. To all such he would say, "Your mother still loves you, and wants you to return. Her heart is breaking for you. God wants you; Jesus wants you. There is room in heaven for you." If there was unity among God's people in this work, no power earthly or infernal could stand against it. When the Church, the pulpit, and the pew were all of one mind, Christianity would be like a red-hot ball rolling over the earth, and all the hosts of death and hell would not be able to resist it. "By this," said Christ, "shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." When General Grant was in front of Richmond, and his army had been repulsed in the Wilderness, he called his commanders together, and asked them what they thought he had better do. They advised him to retreat, but before morning an orderly was sent round, directing an advance in solid column on the enemy at daylight. That was what took Richmond, and broke down the rebellion. The Christians of London, too, must lift high the standard, and, in the name of their God, advance in solid columu on the enemy before daylight. Let them work together, shoulder to shoulder, with a single eye to the honour and glory of Christ; let them pray that they might get self out of the way, and that Christ might be all and in all, and then they would have success.

Let their watchword be, "Here am I, send me," and the result was certain. At the conclusion of the address Mr. Sankey led the congregation in the hymn, "Hold the Fort!" and the proceedings were terminated by the benediction, pronounced by the Rev. Dr. Allon, of Union Chapel, Islington.

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LONDON.

The first Sunday services conducted by Messrs. Moody and Sankey at the Agricultural Hall were three in number. It will complete our account of the opening of this remarkable series of meetings in London if we add a report of the interesting proceedings of the day. The Daily News account is so fair in spirit, and so well written, that we freely avail ourselves of its assistance :

"The first service, at eight o'clock in the morning, was for Christian worshippers, the second at three o'clock for women only, and the third at seven o'clock in the evening for men. The arca, at the early service, which largely partook of the character of a prayer meeting, was covered, but there were many vacant seats in the gallery. In the afternoon the hall, though not crowded in the remoter galleries, was fairly filled, and the sunshine streaming in from the ample glass of the roof and western end upon the well dressed concourse of women, whose coloured garments it lighted up, rendered the spectacle a remarkably pleasing one. Numbers of gentlemen, many of them evidently from distant parts of London, sought admittance, unaware that any restriction was put upon sex; but the doorkeepers, who perform their onerous duties with as much firmness as ability, were under the necessity of refusing them entrance, although there was room within for two or three thousand more than were present. A few ministers, and the male choristers upon the platform, and the ushers charged with the duty of showing the people to their seats, were accordingly the only exception to the rule confining the congregation to the female sex. Amongst the twelve or thirteen thousand persons present not one could be seen who, from external appearances, could have been suspected of being in indigent circumstances; outside, at each entrance, there was quite a string of carriages, and the majority of the ladies in the body of the hall, if not fashionably attired, bore