was very much encouraged at the Agricultural Hall by a father coming into the inquiry room with his son, for whom he had often prayed, and who was then under conviction of sin. Before five minutes had elapsed a mother came in with her five daughters, so that they might see God was really working in their midst. He had good news to tell them from Liverpool, for the work there was apparently only just commenced, and had been going on better since they had left. No less than 1,300 young men met there every night to carry on the work, and they had reason to believe that at least 1000 young men had been converted, and the work was extending to other towns. They might be glad to know that by a letter he had received from Glasgow the noon-day meeting there was to be devoted that day to prayer for London. Nobody could say that was not a work from God. The devil never started men to pray for one another. In an appeal to Christians to come and work he said he found that the criticisms and the fault-finding came from those who were outside, and who were doing nothing in the work. He was sometimes surprised at the letters he received, telling him how this, that, or the other should be done. He believed there would be a general awakening in London, and there were hundreds and thousands now just waiting for some one to go and tell them what they must do to be saved. The Earl of Cavan having read a letter from Glasgow, expressing concern and regard for London, Mr. Quintin Hogg stated that in the inquiry room the night before there were ten inquirers for every one to talk to them. Mr. R. Paton said the persons he met in the inquiry room proved that persons of high and low degree had been touched by some means or other. The Rev. R. W. Dale, of Birmingham, appealed to Christian people to take up the work in the inquiry room, for they knew nothing about it until they got in. With regard to the statement that Mr. Moody's converts were not genuine ones, he himself had seen a great number of them, and his testimony was that he had very rarely seen clearer and more definite evidences of the presence and power of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men than in the case of those converts. He did not think they would all stand; saw no reason why more of them should fall away than those converted by any other Christian ministry. With respect to the difference of Mr. Moody's services to those ordinarily held, the general opinion was that it would be better if they had brighter and more cheerful music. At this, some persons began to clap and applaud;

G

but ne

but Mr. Moody immediately rose, and, with upraised hands, said, "I hope we'll never have any applause in the prayer meeting. Let us not forget ourselves." Another speaker, from Leeds, said hundreds and thousands had been converted to God. In one Church alone eighty-eight persons had applied for Church membership.

HOW TO REACH THE MASSES AT LIVERPOOL.

AT one of the meetings of the Convention of Christians, at Victoria Hall, Liverpool, a very practical and interesting discussion on this subject took place.

The Rev. Dr. Bonar, of Edinburgh, said so far as he had to speak from experience he must speak of the city of Edinburgh. He could testify concerning the work which had been going on in Edinburgh during the past fifteen or sixteen months, that it had been truly a good work, a work of the Lord, which had stood the test of criticism, and the test of prejudice, and the test of time. The work was not only excellent in itself, but it was the origin, he might say, of a vast work throughout Scotland. It bore fruits still in their congregations, in their Sabbath schools, in their day schools, in their families, and in all the different departments to which work of this kind would extend. With regard to the question before them, how to reach the masses, they found that their efforts at the outset did not reach the lowest stratum of society; that they could not get fully down. He thought that now they were reaching them. But a work like this to reach the degradation, the wickedness, and the blasphemy, drunkenness, and the lasciviousness of their cities must be a work of labour, of perseverance, and of faith. They were beginning to learn something of the way in which the work was to be done, and they found that in so doing they were, unconsciously it might be, falling back upon the Master's way of doing it. He meant that they were seeking both to attract and compelendeavouring to unite these two things. They had no miracles now, but they were doing without them what Jesus did with themthey were feeding the poor; and they had now got down to the very depths of Edinburgh society by those means, which had been

adopted in Glasgow on a larger scale. Their Sabbath morning breakfasts, after each one of which the Gospel was preached to the poor, were an exhibition of human wretchedness, human filthiness, and human poverty such as they could hardly imagine. They had the very lowest population of the closes and lanes of Edinburgh gathered in every Sabbath morning, first to be fed and then to be preached to, He thought this was not only a legitimate attraction, but that it was the true way, seeing it was the Master's. But they had not only attraction, they had compulsion; they were now going out individually every Saturday night and every Sunday morning, compelling, entreating and beseeching them to come in. He need not remind them that compulsion was the Master's command, "Go ye out into the highways and compel them to come, that my house may be filled." They should not reach this lowest class, this lowest stratum, he believed, save by these two methods combined. (Hear, hear.) And when these poor wretched people were called together they required to be attractively spoken to. (Hear, hear.) They had had one or two dull speakers, and the effect had been very bad. Dull preaching told awfully upon that class. (Laughter.)

Mr. Moody (laughing)—And every other class.

Dr. Bonar concluded by saying that they must pray for them as well as attract and compel them.

Mr. Thomas Matheson said he agreed with Dr. Bonar that aggression and attraction must go together. In Liverpool they were in these circumstances-that the ordinary channels through which the gospel was conveyed to the people were not in proportion to the immense increase of their population. The work which had now been begun by the visit of Messrs. Moody and Sankey they must feel to be in its infancy, but they were delighted to know that there was already some advance made in the work of general Christian visitation, under the auspices of a committee suggested by Mr. Radcliffe. Most of them were aware that the town had been mapped out into small districts, and that already a very large number of Christian visitors had begun the work. These visitors were not denominational, but unsectarian Christian visitors, and he felt that their safety was in this matter. With regard to the question before them, he felt that they had an immense population in Liverpool of the artisan class who would

1ot care to go to breakfast, and yet they must in love and ympathy carry to them the precious gospel which they had found or themselves. He could not help thinking that some arrangement must be made after the pressure of these meetings was over, for gathering together in some suitable way and guiding the visitation of the town into proper channels. With regard to attraction, he felt that the ordinary Church work did not reach the masses, and the men were calling out for places, halls into which they might be gathered in a simple, quiet way, not deterred by the fine dressing unfortunately so common in their churches-(hear, hear)-and where they might sit down and hear the gospel. Unfortunately, also, dull preaching was too common with them. This work had been to a considerable extent begun in Liverpool, and he could not say how much the people of Liverpool owed to Mr. W. P. Lockhart for the Circus meetings. They wanted to keep up this work. The Young Men's Christian Association had opened the theatres or circuses for Christian work, but he felt that they must open Gospel halls right in the centre of these people, that they might be gathered into them and become lights themselves, and so carry into the courts and lanes the bright influence of Christian life. In this direction he felt that the work now so happily begun must go forward. (Hear, hear.)

The Rev. Charles Garrett, Liverpool, said there was a very simple answer to the question "How to reach the masses?" and that was "Go to them." (Laughter.) This was a short cut, but there was a good deal in it. If they in Liverpool could set the rest of the country an example, then, of course, all the rest of the country would be benefited. Liverpool was now known as the dark spot on the Mersey; why should not it be the bright spot on the Mersey? Was not there sufficient power in the Christian Church to alter this? (Hear, hear.) He thought there was. IIe would ask where was the root of Liverpool depravity, and the answer was not difficult to find. All Liverpudlians gloried in their docks; they had nothing very much besides to glory in. (Laughter.) But these docks which were their glory had become their shame. They had, down by the docks, nearly 20,000 dock labourers. These 20,000 would represent at least 100,000 more. There they had 120,000 of the masses as they called them. Out of these masses came their "corner-men" that were the brand of Liverpool, and now he asked how were they to explain the existence of this depravity? Was it that the wages

earned there were small? No, they were remarkably large. What was the secret? How was it that these men were so depraved? Let anybody walk the range of these docks and they would meet the answer at every ten yards. (IIear, hear.) The fact was their men of wealth in Liverpool had yet to learn, he believed, that wealth had duties as well as rights. (Hear, hear.) Let them look at these 20,000 men in the piercingly cold mornings. They had to be at the docks, and there was no shelter for them. They might not be wanted for some time, but they must be there, and the only place for their reception was the public-house. Now, he asked, could they wonder at immorality? could they wonder that the men were depraved? Then they had to work in relays during these piercing cold nights. Some of them, having finished their day's labour, went away. They had poor homes to go to, and the only place they could go to was the public-house. If they wanted fire they must go to the public-house; if they wanted refreshment they must go to the public-house; if they wished to chat with their friends they must go to the public house. They were tied and chained to their sins, and there was no possibility of escape unless men of wealth came to the rescue. (Hear, hear.) They wanted at certain intervals "British workmen's public-houses" opened, where men could have rest, warmth, and refreshment without constant temptations to drink. (Hear, hear, and applause.) Why should not a company be formed of Christian men, if they liked, with a capital of £10,000 in £1 shares? Let everybody who had been blessed by Mr. Moody's visit contribute one sovereign and the whole cost would be met. Let their wealthy men come to the front. (Hear, hear.) It was not too much to ask that. (Applause, and Mr. Moody-Not a bit.) They talked about corner-men, but men had nowhere to stand but there or in the public-houses, and their children were trained to be corner-men. Some might say there were dining rooms already, but he wanted places where they could have cleanliness and warmth; where they could go in without paying. He wanted places where their American friends could go and sit down with working men, without being surrounded by the reeking smell of the abominable stuff that was a disgrace to the land. (IIear, hear, and applause.) If the result of this visit was that only one place of this kind could be opened, there were hundreds of men down at the docks would bless God for it. (Applause.) Their