„»,*««*• •*"•***■» //. d£ : I <$> PRINCETON, N. J. '% BX 9225 .C724 C7 1895 Craig, James, b. 1818. The Gospel on the continent Shel I m h THE GOSPEL ON THE CONTINENT INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF JAMES CRAIG, M.A., D.D., Ph.D. EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER JToubon HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27, PATERNOSTER ROW MPCCCXCV EDITOR'S PREFACE THE following pages contain an account of some of the leading incidents connected with my father's life and work, as noted down by him from time to time. Many who had heard portions of his experiences urged him very strongly to publish an account of the way in which the door of usefulness had been opened for him. Canon Christopher, of Oxford, especially pressed it on his conscience, as a duty that he owed to God, to leave behind him some testimony of the work he had been permitted to engage in on the Continent of Europe. This book makes no claim to literary merit, but is issued on the fiftieth anniversary of my father's ordination in the hope that by it some faithful workers in the Master's vine- yard may be encouraged to go forward, even though the work appear difficult and unpromising. The secret of the great success which attended my father's labours lay in his entire dependence on Divine guidance and help and a willingness to go forward whenever an opportunity pre- sented itself. J. P. C. London, April io, 1895. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Introduction — Parentage and Early Life — Intellectual Development — Offer of a Tutorship— The Brothers go to College — James opens a Private School— Early Religious Impressions — A Sunday-school Teacher — First Fruits — Environment — Close of Home Life . . i CHAPTER II. Preparation for the Gospel Ministry — At College — Joins Dr. Edgar's Church — Sunday Schools — Foreign Missions — Union of Presbyterian Churches — Scholastic— In Liverpool — A Sunday-school Class Con- verted — A Notable Conversion — Islington Presbyterian Church — University Honours . . . . . . • 14 CHAPTER III. Ordination and Field of Labour — Visiting Scotland — At Home Leave- taking— Conversions — Ordination Service — In Hamburg — Pastor Rautenberg — Missionary Societies . . . . . 30 CHAPTER IV. Entrance on Work — Conversion of a Jewish Lady — Enmity overcome — The Shipwreck — Mr. Sehrwald — The German Catholics — Dr. Edgar's Appeal— First Missionary Journey — Colportage — Poverty of the Country — In Holstein and Schleswig — Pastor Brodersen — Henry Sommer ...... CHAPTER V. Ordinary Work — Visitors— Miss Amalia Sieveking— In Hanover— An Israelitish Family— In Hesse-Cassel— In Silesia and Posen— In Liibeck . ...... 6] 44 CONTENTS CHAPTER VI. Criticisms — Visits Belfast— Sunday Schools— Colportage— Compared with other Local Agencies — Tea Meeting — North German Foreign Mis- sion — Colleagues appointed — An Experience Meeting . . 74 CHAPTER VII. Revolution and War, 1848— Berlin— The Funeral of the Rioters— Schleswig-Holstein War — The Volunteers — The Hospitals —The Prisoners — The Prussian Troops in Schleswig— Thanksgiving Service 86 CHAPTER VIII. Good Fruits — The Kirchentag — Wittenberg— Wichern— The German Home Mission — Work in Hamburg — Sunday Schools — Warteschulen — Pastor Rautenberg asks Craig's help — Extracts from Diary . 97 CHAPTER IX. Drs. Graham and Craig visit Vienna — Bread cast on the waters — The Hungarian War — Tract Work in Moravia — Eating Fleshmeat on Friday — The Governor of Moravia — Fruits of Tract Distribution — ■ The Pastor in Briinn . . . . . . .112 CHAPTER X. Organisation of a Church — The First Communion — Clerical Protest — Missionary Activity — Visitors — Dr. Denham — The Annual Kir- chentag — The Sunday Magazine— The Elberfeld Kirchentag— Pastor Feldtner . . . . . . . -125 CHAPTER XI. Church Visitation in Moravia — The Priest and the Bible — Mislitz — Ober Wilimowitz— Grosz L'Hota — Effect of a Tract — A Stranger's Impression — Conversions — Rev. Adolph Saphir — Bibles and Tracts — History of the Protestant Church of Hungary . . .136 CHAPTER XII. Death of his Father — Revisits Austria — -Budapest School — The Crimean War — The German Legion for the Crimea — Garibaldi's War in Italy — The Bremen Kirchentag — With Dr. Graham visits Holland — Dr. Capadose — Countess von Wrangel . .• . . 147 CONTENTS vii PAGE CHAPTER XIII. Schleswig-Holstein — Blankenese — Other Evangelistic Meetings — Influ- ential Encouragement — None of us safe — Bishop Koopman — Quarterly Meetings — Dangers to be avoided — Duchy of Schleswig — Terming — Flensburg . . . . . -159 CHAPTER XIV. Hermann Rottman — His brother Christian — Nummensen — William Voss — Marriage— Mrs. Craig — Progress — Death of Rev. David Hamilton — Church-building . . . . . . 171 CHAPTER XV. Mr. Weinhausen — Dr. Duncan and Dr. A. Moody-Stuart — Pastor Karl Kapff — Ilermansburg — Mission Festival in Liibeck — Con- versions — Ordinary Mission Work — Emigrants . . -183 CHAPTER XVI. Comenius Society— Nassau Colportage Society — Pastor Ninck — The Young Colporteur — Colportage and the Church — Death of Dr. Marriott — Baden — Baron Julius von Gemmingen — Count Uxkull's Speech . . . . . . . .194 CHAPTER XVII. The Second Schleswig-Holstein War — Austrian Soldiers — The Allied Army — The Hospitals — Two Missionary Students — Colportage — Emigrants — The Prussian-Austrian War — The Attack on Hanover — Koniggratz — Langensalza — The Austrian Prisoners — Are we beaten ? — The Prussian Officer and the Virgin Mary — Testaments refused — Retribution — The King of Prussia converted — Tract Distri- bution in South Germany ...... 207 CHAPTER XVIII. Dr. G. H. Davis — In Holstein and Denmark — In Central Germany — The Anschar Chapel in Hamburg — Death of Dr. Edgar — Death of Mrs. Craig — Rev. Dunlop Moore — The year 1870 — Jubilee — The Franco-German War— Craig visits Russia — Particulars of the War of 1870 — Military Chaplains — The Tract Societies — The Railway Station at Giessen — The Little Boys — The Tower of Prayer — The Prisoner's return Home ...... 225 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER XIX. In Spain— Spanish Missionaries — The Converted Family— Cordova— The Alhambra — Seville — Lisbon — Once more among the Soldiers in Germany — Two additional Missionaries from his Church — Pastor Blumhardt of Bad Boll — Jubilee of the Lower Saxony Tract Society — The Year 1872 — Holstein Home Mission — In Belfast — In Vienna — Close of Work in Hamburg in May, 1874 .... 244 CHAPTER XX. The Year 1874 — In Bordeaux — Lisbon — In Spain — The Carlist War — In South Germany — In Vienna — In Italy — New Societies founded — Sweden — Pastor G. E. Beskow — Fosterlands-stiftelse — Norway- Norse Home Mission — Colportage — The Lutherstift — The Silent Comforter ........ 259 CHAPTER XXI. The Church in Germany — State of Religion in Berlin — Colportage in Berlin — Book and Tract Society — Baron von Ungern Sternberg — Work in Dresden— Mr. Finger — Russia — New Tract Society— Russian-Turkish War — The Evangelical Deaconesses — A Princess as Head Nurse — Prince Mesinky — An Old Soldier . . . 276 CHAPTER XXII. In Roumania — Among the Ruthenians— In Servia— In Croatia — Poland — Finland — The Engadine in Switzerland — Turkey in Europe and Asia — Constantinople — Smyrna — British Syrian Schools — Egypt— : Greece — Italy — Jubilee of Baden Colportage Association — Conclusion 294 CHAPTER I " Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. "- Genesis xv. i. " A flower when offered in the bud Is no vain sacrifice." — Watts. INTRODUCTION. WE have of late become very familiar with many forms of mission work. So familiar, indeed, that it is rather difficult to realise how very recent have been the first steps in this direction. In the following pages we have the story of the life of one who can look back on strange times. It is the life of one who was taking an active part in mission work while it was yet in its infancy. It begins with a period when there were no railways, no cabs on the streets of London, no gas in the houses, no matches, no steamboats, no letter-boxes, no penny postage. A time when newspapers were heavily taxed, when there were few daily papers, when religious periodicals were almost unknown. There is here recorded the life of one who can remember the time when vital godliness was stamped with oppro- brious names. Several devoted servants of God con- sidered it their duty to protest against foreign missions as an insult to God. One could nearly have counted 2 INTRODUCTION on one's fingers the number of towns in Great Britain that had over thirty thousand inhabitants, and not one- half of the population could read or write. Those who were real Christians were thoroughly in earnest, but their number was small. These longed for better days, but scarcely hoped for the fulfilment of God's gracious promises in their time. Scattered over the land were here and there giants on the earth — men mighty in the Scripture — women that wrestled with God in prayer and prevailed. But the writings of Thomas Paine and Voltaire and Hume had paralyzed large numbers, who thought themselves intellectual, and the candles lighted of the Lord to enlighten the world were as one in a city and two in a family, when the subject of the following notices was born. The following pages refer chiefly to work on the Continent of Europe connected with the experience of a single individual, some incidents in whose life are here traced. PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. James Craig was born at Ashgrove, near Londonderry, in Ireland, on the 23rd of July, 1818. His father, the Rev. Samuel Craig, of Crossroads, was a Presbyterian minister in a country parish, where he laboured faithfully for fifty years, leaving behind him many traces of a useful life. Notwithstanding the name, which is supposed to be Scotch, Mr. Craig's ancestors had come from England. There was a tradition in the family that one of the ancestors was a preacher in London in the time of James I. One of his sons, from whom Mr. Craig descended, went over to Ireland as a chaplain in Cromwell's army, and settled there. Rev. Samuel Craig was born in County Down, and studied at the Glasgow University. In 1804 he was ordained as pastor of the congregation at Crossroads, within five miles of Londonderry. PARENTAGE AND EARL V LIFE 3 Pie was a man of great learning, of distinguished piety, at a time when evangelical religion was in a low state, and a very popular and successful preacher. What was, however, most frequently noticed, was his wonderful gift of prayer. In his private reading of Scripture he always made use of the original Hebrew and Greek, and urged the students of theology and young ministers to follow his example. He could converse with tolerable fluency in Latin and French, and made the works of the early Fathers and of the Puritan Divines his special study. He was always one of the principal examiners of the candidates for the Gospel ministry in the church with which he was connected. He was a man of peculiar refinement, that made him welcome in the most polished circles. No one ever heard him utter a harsh judgment, calculated to give offence; and he often urged that the nil nisi bonum should be extended as liberally to the living as to the dead. His influence for good was as great among the Roman Catholics as among the Protestants, for the fearful curse of Ireland, the endow- ment of the Maynooth College, was not dreamt of till his later days, the Roman Catholic priests having been up to that time chiefly educated in France. It is not desirable to dwell on the low state of religion at that time in Ireland. In the Presbyterian Church the Seceders maintained pure doctrine, but the Synod of Ulster was blasted with the mildew of Socinianism. The Episcopalian Church was nothing better. The Bishop of Raphoe once complained to Mr. Craig that, out of some eighty clergy in his diocese, he could count on the fingers of one hand all who were really evangelical. Many Presbyterians who loved to hear the gospel preached in its purity, walked many miles each Sunday to enjoy Mr. Craig's ministry. Mr. William McComb, of Belfast, was one of those who attributed much of his spiritual attain- 4 PA RE NT A GE AND EA RL Y LIFE ment to that privilege, to enjoy which he usually walked ten miles each Sunday ; as in those days there was neither omnibus nor cab to lighten the journey. Dr. Cooke used frequently to say that by his prayers, his preaching and his life, Mr. Craig kept the coal of evan- gelical Christianity burning bright in a large district, where there were few to fan the flame. Dr. John Edgar seldom named him in public without adding that " he was the wisest and best man he ever knew." Many Roman Catholics said that if they should ever change their religion it would be for Mr. Craig's religion, which was far better than their own. Mrs. Craig was a partner peculiarly adapted to help her husband in ever) 7 way. She lived in unbroken communion with her Saviour. To lighten the burdens of her husband and to train her children for God was the grand object of her life. She was a keeper at home ; and a happier household could not easily be found. With all her con- stant round of visitors, her husband was always quite certain that the domestic expenses would not go beyond the income. At a time when many in their position of life were living far beyond their means, both Mr. and Mrs. Craig had an absolute horror of debt, which they strove to impress on their children, urging them to regard it as a crime. There was a tradition in the family that one of Mrs. Craig's ancestors, a widow with a large family, had been shut in within the walls of Derry at the time of the siege. She was one day walking with her children on the wall when a live shell from King James's camp fell spluttering near her feet. She quickly seized the shell and threw it over the parapet, so that it exploded outside, some thirty feet below. She then said to the children — " Let us go home and return thanks to God for this great deliverance." Mrs. Craig would have been capable of doing the same in similar circumstances. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT 5 There were eight children in the family. First came four boys, of whom James was the youngest. Then followed four daughters. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. When James was three years old he was able to read. At seven he was translating Sallust and Caesar's Com- mentaries in Latin. At eight he was translating each day a few verses in the New Testament in Greek. At this age he was generally, of his own free choice, at his lessons each morning at six o'clock. At eight o'clock there were family prayers with singing and reading the Scriptures, at which service all the servants — whether Roman Catholics or Protestants — joined. The rest of the day was closely filled up with lessons. Each day when lessons were over, the children were dismissed with the words, " Now, boys, find something useful to do." As there was no good school in the neighbourhood, the children were educated at home. The want of healthy competition with other boys was compensated for in this way. Many distinguished scholars visited the house, sometimes staying several days. On such occasions the guest was invited to examine the boys, giving marks with praise or blame as the case required. The failures or mistakes were of great use in enabling them to prepare more carefully for the next examination. The effect of such trials was, that the boys had their mind opened to new views of the subjects they had been studying, and a fresh impetus and energy were imparted to their work. Of course they sometimes thought them- selves very badly treated, and fancied that the examiner had less patience with them than the ordinary teacher ; but the end of it was, that much greater efforts were made to prepare for the next examination. A pious grandmother, who lived in the house and amused herself at her spinning wheel, took a great interest in James. 6 INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT She was hale and hearty and cheerful, and able to go each Sunday to church till within a few weeks of her death, at ninety-six years of age. With her luxurious, snow-white hair and her perfect teeth, and her sweet, gentle voice, James thought her very beautiful. He loved to read and repeat his lessons to her — sometimes to discuss matters with perfect freedom. She often repaid any little attention by telling stories of her young days — the great frost — the frequent famines which occurred every six or eight years in her early life, and brought fearful sufferings— the American War of Independence — the Rebellion of 1798, and other scenes. She would then tell about answered prayer— about her con- version — about the light that rose in her mind as she sought the teaching of the Holy Spirit ; how proud she had been of her only son, whose father had died when he was very young, and what a comfort he had been to her. And then James would wipe away a tear and ask : " Grandmother, could I ever become like father ? " To which she would reply : " You know what your father says so often — ' what man has done man can do ' — so you may try." At times, when Mr. Craig was visiting distant parts of his parish, he allowed James to ride with him. To obtain this privilege it was needful that the lessons for the day were all learned. That was easy, for it required only that he should rise at four o'clock instead of six, and put on a little extra steam. These rides were pleasant times, for any subject on which the lad's mind was exercised could be introduced and discussed. On these occasions he learned more theology than ever he did at college. Sitting with his father at the bedside of the sick or dying, he learned what it is that gives strength when the waters of Jordan over- flow their banks. There was plain teaching of the way of salvation, then intense wrestling with God in prayer, and afterwards, privately, a full explanation of the reason for OFFER OF A TUTORSHIP IN A SCHOOL 7 dealing differently with different cases. At the same time a considerable knowledge was acquired of different diseases and the proper mode of treatment. OFFER OF A TUTORSHIP IN A SCHOOL. When James was twelve years old it happened that the head master of the largest classical and mathematical school in Londonderry was staying a few days in Mr. Craig's house. The usual examination of the boys was held, which included Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ancient and Modern History, Geography, Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry, spelling and reading. All the subjects were tested and the appropriate marks given. After the examination, Mr. Craig was surprised by a proposal to allow his youngest son to become a paid assistant in this gentleman's school. " That boy," he said, " is unusually tall for his age ; he knows enough to teach the junior classes in my school. Besides, he will maintafn order as few assistants can do — for that boy was born to rule." The offer was made of board and lodging, with the privilege of three hours' instruction each day in the higher classes. A salary would be given equal to the half of what was usually paid to fully qualified and competent teachers. Mr. Craig felt grateful for such a proposal, but, on mature reflection, resolved for the time to decline the offer. To James it was a matter of indifference, for he knew his father would decide what was best for him. HIS BROTHERS 00 TO COLLEGE. Two years later, when James was fourteen years of age, there were several ministers staying in the house at the same time ; and after the customary examination, it was unanimously stated that the four boys were nearly equal, and that they could readily pass the entrance examination for college. The three elder boys passed the 8 JAMES OPENS A PRIVATE SCHOOL examination with high approbation, and entered college in Belfast ; but his father kept James at home. The three brothers, John, William, and Samuel, took high prizes in every class they attended — an evidence that the home training had been satisfactory. JAMES OPENS A PRIVATE SCHOOL. When James was left at home alone, he asked his father what he was to do. He was told to wait on the Lord for divine direction. A few days later, his father came home and said that some of James's cousins were anxious to go to college, but had no opportunity of making the proper preparation. What would James think of trying to teach them ? He was delighted at the proposal to have some definite em- ployment, so as not to feel his loneliness so keenly after his brothers had left him. Arrangements were soon made, and, when the matter became known, several other lads begged permission to join the class. In a short time there were eight — and after- wards eleven — young men under training for entering college, and one of them afterwards became President of the Queen's College in Belfast. The name of Rev. Josias Leslie Porter, D.D., LL.D., became known to the world by his writings. Two sons of a retired colonel named Thomson joined the class, and passed direct from James Craig's training to Trinity College, Dublin, becoming afterwards distinguished as surgeons and physicians. All the other pupils filled good positions in the world, and all of them became Christian men, attributing their happy spiritual condition to the influence of James and his father while they were at school. EARLY' RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. James was by nature a self-willed, headstrong boy, and was more frequently in trouble than any other member of EA RL \ ' RELIGIO US IMPRESSIONS g the family. The rod was certainly not spared, but what- ever good effect this wholesome training had on the other children, it never seemed to be of much use to him. He knew well when he deserved serious blame, and did not object to chastisement ; but somehow he returned to the old course. He was taken alone to be prayed over, and he wept bitterly at such times, but remained un- changed. From his fourth year he tried, at intervals, with much earnestness, to make out his relation to God. At times he wanted very much to do what was right, but wanted also to have his own will carried out. He listened attentively to his father's sermons, hoping some day to make out the great mystery. He would often on a Sunday evening go out to the fields and confess his faults ; but as he in reality wanted to substitute this self-humiliation for Christ's way of salvation, he always after such seasons became worse than he had been before. One day, when he was eight years old, he had com- mitted some offence worse than usual, and when summoned to meet his father, he expected very severe punishment, which he was ready patiently to bear. To his astonish- ment, however, the rod lay on the table untouched ; and, after long waiting, his father rose, and saying, " Why should you be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more," he hastened away to his own room. The like of this had never happened before. James knew that his father had gone to pray, and he also retired to his own room, and closed the door. The agony he endured that day no tongue nor pen could describe, but he came out from his room having made peace with God. The meaning of the substitution of Christ in his place to make an atonement, became at once as clear as day, and he received a power he never had felt before to rest on Christ's atoning death for his salvation. From this clay there never was any doubt about Christ being his Saviour. io BECOMES A SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER BECOMES A SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. From that day — he could not tell how it happened — everything seemed changed within and around him. He even overheard his brothers and sisters saying, " See how James is now trying to please father and mother." His father wisely made no remark for several weeks, but one Sunday morning, when starting for the Sunday school, he called James and said, " I think you would now like to be of some use in the world. We want a teacher in the Sunday school. Will you come and try what you can do ? " He was very solemnly introduced to a class, and the substance of the charge he that day received from his father he often repeated when, during a long life, he had occasion to induct, one by one, hundreds of Sunday- school teachers to take charge of classes in many lands. It was true he was scarcely nine years of age, but his own education was well advanced, and, in the absence of Board Schools, the pupils required to be taught the alphabet with spelling and reading. The religious instruction was given by the superintendent of the school at the close of the other lessons. FIRSTFRUITS : A DRUNKARD RECLAIMED. One day, about this time, he saw a farmer, who regularly attended his father's church, returning home from market very drunk. He said nothing till the next Sunday, when, after the service, he asked this man if he might walk home with him, as their way lay in the same direction. When the two were free from the crowd, James began by saying, " John, I saw you drunk on Wednesday." "Yes, the day was cold, and some one gave me a drop too much." " But that was not the only time I saw you drunk, and you know what the Bible says about drunkards not inherit- ing the kingdom of God." " You would not call me a drunkard ? " ENVIRONMENT u " Well, tell me, when did you last come home from market quite sober ? " The farmer was soon in tears, and when the man of fifty and the lad of nine parted at the shedding of the roads, neither of them had dry eyes. About three or four weeks later, James saw the farmer calling on his father, and heard him say as he took leave of his minister, " When that child took more care of my soul than I did myself it broke my heart. But now I have not only given up drink for ever, but I have given myself to the Lord Jesus for salvation." Twenty years later, when James was paying a visit to his father and mother, this man, though crippled with rheumatism, walked two miles to tell his young friend that it was his word that had, by the blessing of God, led him — a poor sinner — to the Saviour. Since that day he had not once tasted intoxicating drink, and he was happy to say that all his children were, with him, trying faithfully to serve God. ENVIRONMENT. Mr. Craig's house was a place where many young ministers came to seek counsel in their work. The boys were allowed to be present and to listen to the conversa- tion. It was perfectly understood that nothing which was said on these occasions was ever mentioned by the children. Missionaries that had returned from their mission fields frequently called, and their conversation always turned on the things that concerned the kingdom of God. The children long remembered a visit from Dr. Phillips, of South Africa. The description of the dark continent, and what the gospel had accomplished there, fired the youthful imagination. Rev. Hope Waddell, of Jamaica, stayed some weeks in the house. On one occasion he preached from the text, " The love of Christ constraineth us " (2 Cor. v. 14), and that sermon was long remembered. James 12 CLOSE OF HOME LIFE returned home, after hearing it, with the earnest wish one day to become a missionary. Rev. John Wilson, of Limavady, came twice every year, and his hallowed influence on the family was incalculable. Many others of note came and greatly strengthened the influence of the father's teaching. The libraries of the surrounding gentry were placed at Mr. Craig's disposal and were highly prized. The books of Robert McClintoch, Esq., J. P., of Dunmore, were particularly serviceable to the family at Ashgrove. The boys were too busy at their daily lessons to have time for general reading, but what Mr. Craig found interesting in books of travel or biography, or science or history, he repeated day by day at the dinner-table. CLOSE OF HOME LIFE. While the three elder brothers of the family studied for three years with marked distinction in every class they attended, James was diligently prosecuting his teaching at home with considerable success. Coming home at the end of this time from college, his brother Samuel caught typhoid fever. The disease spread over the whole house, only James and his father escaping. As no trained nurses could be procured, these two were obliged to attend to the patients under the direction of Drs. Rogan and Millar, of Deny. Samuel recovered, but the eldest brother, John, ' was so seriously affected that he was obliged to give up his study and turn to a secular pursuit. The second brother, William, died in his twentieth year, and all the others recovered. One result of this trial was that the school was broken up, and James was set free to go to college. Another was that James had, from that time, no fear of infection, and in his own congregation or on the many battlefields which he visited he was never afraid of visiting and praying with the sick, from whatever disease they suffered. CLOSE OF HOME LIFE 13 The death of his brother William produced a deep impression on James. William had been early brought to love the Saviour, and his life had been a close walk with God. The last days of his life were a precious time for James, and the remembrance of that happy deathbed experience drew him near to the throne of God. The sweet peace which that beloved brother enjoyed gave him a Pisgah view of the promised land, which he never forsrot. CHAPTER II " And the angel said, Gird thyself and . . . follow me."— Acts xii. 8. " Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the King? We are on the Lord's side ; Saviour, we are Thine." F. R. Havergal. PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. HAVING passed the preliminary examination in the Presbytery, James now prepared to enter college in Belfast. The parting from home was keenly felt ; kind words and wishes reached him from all sides. The members of the prayer-meeting which he had conducted for four years in his father's church, promised to carry it on without interruption. Many of the young men who had been converted at these meetings emigrated to America and became active workers in their new home. Those that remained at home were the comfort and the support of their minister in all his efforts for the good of his church. AT COLLEGE. The subjects prescribed at college for the first year were Latin, Greek, Logic and Elocution. About seventy to eighty freshmen entered that year, and James was among the youngest, having lately completed his eighteenth year. JOINS DR. EDGAR'S CHURCH 15 At the first meeting of the professors, students, and visitors in the Common Hall, James was selected by Dr. Cairns, Professor of Logic, to read the paper before the large assembly. As he had never attended a public school, this first appearance in public was rather trying, but as he was kindly received by a — not very discriminating — but kindly audience, this gave him a position in his class, which he determined to maintain whatever labour it might cost. At the close of the session he obtained, by the votes of his fellow-students, a high place in every class he had attended ; and in the public examinations in the Common Hall he received the first place, by the judgment of the council, in most subjects on which he was examined. Con- sidering that there were from fifty to seventy competitors in the different classes, this was a high honour. At the close of the second session, Craig carried away the largest number of prizes awarded to any student in the whole college for that session. He had a first prize in Senior Hebrew, Junior Hebrew, Metaphysics, and several other subjects. Among his competitors, Mr. Thomas Miller — afterwards of Lurgan — came second in three of the classes where he was first. JOINS DR. EDGAR'S CHURCH. Having attached himself to Dr. Edgar's church, he soon became the most intimate and trusted friend of that great and good man. The elders of that church treated him with particular kindness at a time when great questions were stirring the spiritual life of the community ; and under the preaching of able ministers, the Presbyterian Church in Belfast was beginning to realise its high calling. Some eight years previously, Dr. Edgar had been the first, on this side of the Atlantic, to take up the great question of Temperance, long before it had been mentioned 16 SUNDA V SCHOOLS in England. As distilled spirits were the ordinary drink in Ireland, beer and wine being little used, the first pledge ran, " We resolve to abstain from distilled spirits as an ordinary beverage, and to promote temperance." When this blessed work began in England, this pledge of course required to be modified so as to include wine and beer. Dr. Edgar roused the Protestants in the north of Ireland, while some five or six years later, Father Mathew took up the work among Roman Catholics in the south and west. Dr. Edgar engaged all who came under his influence to help him in this work, and all the students of his class became pledged members of the temperance society. SUNDAY SCHOOLS. One branch of work in Alfred Street Church in which Craig was eminently successful was the Sunday school. The superintendent was Mr. John Arnold, and some of the prominent teachers were Mr. Robert Workman (of Windsor), Mr. Robert Magill, Mr. Samuel Edgar (father of Rev. Dr. McCheyne Edgar, of Dublin), Mr. H. H. Boyd, and others, including very active lady workers. Craig, though so young, was heartily welcomed among them and soon became secretary of the school. The superintendent, Mr. John Arnold, encouraged him to devise and carry out man) r new schemes. To prevent the elder children from drifting away, he had them put into special classes under competent teachers, to prepare them afterwards to become themselves Sunday-school teachers. A spirit of enthusiasm was awakened in these classes, and the attendance soon became numerous. The children of the better families in the church were encouraged by the minister to enter the school, and he set the example by sending his own children regularly twice each Lord's Day. When Craig joined the Alfred Street Sunday School it had been established only seven years, and had twenty-two teachers, with three hundred and twenty-six scholars. It FOREIGN MISSIONS 17 stood then, as far as the teachers were concerned, in the ninth place among the thirty-one schools of the Belfast Sunday School Union — from the number of children it took the fifth place. The proportion was very different when he left, even though the other schools had advanced with rapid strides. The number of teachers and scholars had more than doubled, and branch schools were formed for the children living at a distance. In 1839 many conversions took place among the children and young people. The heart of the pastor was cheered. The preaching became more efficacious. The weekly prayer-meetings were crowded. A great outpouring of the Holy Spirit was manifest in the schools and the church. The preparatory teacher's classes prospered, and among the members was the lady that afterwards became Mrs. Craig. While Craig was taking part in all these movements, he was generally, during the college session, attending lectures or teaching ten to twelve hours each day, and it was only after ten o'clock at night that he could begin his prepara- tion for the work of the following day. His health was good, and he had been accustomed in his father's house, both by the examples around him and by his own inclina- tion, never to shirk good honest work. His preparation for his classes in college must have been satisfactory, seeing that he obtained high prizes in every class he entered. FOREIGN MISSIONS. Up to the year 1838 the Presbyterian Church in Ireland had done very little for Foreign Missions. A small sum was raised annually by some of the churches and sent to Scotland, but no effort had been made to form a separate organisation for foreign mission work. The average annual collection for this object in Dr. Edgar's church had been about £5, but in that year, with the revived spiritual life of the church, it rose to £50 ; and in the same year Dr. Morgan's church in Fischerwick Place, raised its annual 1 8 UNION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES collection towards foreign missions from ,£20 to ^500. This liberality toward foreign missions did not cripple home mission work, but helped to increase it, for the more that was done for foreign missions, the more was done at home. UNION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. These churches had from their commencement in that country existed in two different bodies, with separate synods. There had been no disruption, but when Scottish settlers came to Ireland, they had invited ministers — some from the Established Church of Scotland, and some from the Seceders — to preach and administer the sacraments. The former constituted the Synod of Ulster, and the latter the Secession Synod. What kept these churches separate was partly the traditions of the churches from which the ministers came, and partly the laxity of doctrine and dis- cipline in the Synod of Ulster. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century the ministers were generally brought from Scotland. If natives of Ireland aspired to the office of the ministry, they studied at one of the Scotch universities. About the beginning of this century a Collegiate Insti- tution was founded in Belfast, to which gradually the students of both churches were sent. In the year 1826 Dr. Cooke of Belfast began to insist on purity of doctrine on the part of all ministers admitted to preach in the Synod of Ulster, and ten years later he succeeded in his efforts, when the Unitarians withdrew and formed a Synod of their own. The Secession Synod had from the beginning been very strict in maintaining purity of doctrine and of life on the part of their ministers and church members- The Synod of Ulster was not distinguished by strictness in this direction. From that time the two churches were perfectly in accord in doctrine and discipline. The nearer, however, UNION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES 19 they approached each other, the more bitter became their animosity and rivalry. The students who came to Belfast College brought with them all their home prejudices, the result of which was that very little social intercourse and no religious fellowship existed between the students of the two churches. There was a students' prayer-meeting conducted every Saturday evening at the same hour in different rooms of the college for the two classes of students. During his first session, Craig was grieved to find that no one seemed to own that this state of things was to be deplored. Early in the second session, in 1838, he found some men of like spirit with himself, to whom he confided his views. One Saturday evening — it was the first Saturday in January, 1839 — the two meetings had closed at the same time, and as Craig was leaving his own gathering he met Robert Knox — afterwards the Rev. Dr. Knox, of Belfast — coming out of the rival prayer-meeting. " Is this not shocking," Craig cried, " that we cannot even pray together ? " " It is abominable ; it is intolerable," Knox replied, " and it must be changed." " Changed ! " cried William Johnston — afterwards Rev. Dr. Johnston, of Belfast — who came whistling down the stairs. " Yes, when the Ethiopian changes his skin or the leopard his spots, but not till then." At the informal discussion on the stairs, the majority of those who took part seemed to think that such a change was neither possible nor desirable. Craig was joined by his brother Samuel, Mr. Knox, James McKee (afterwards of India), and a few others. On their way home it was arranged to hold a meeting the following week in Craig's rooms, where as many as wished the union of the two prayer-meetings could discuss ways and means. At this meeting, among others, Mr. Thomas Miller (afterwards of Lurgan) and James Gailey attended. It was resolved to 2o SCHOLASTIC send a deputation to the two prayer-meetings the next Saturday, and meet again that day week. In the two prayer-meetings a majority in each decided against the proposal — so deeply rooted were the prejudices on both sides. At the next meeting of committee, in Craig's rooms, it was resolved to let the two meetings continue as before, but to hold a joint meeting of as many as chose to come, immediately afterwards — that is, from six to seven o'clock each Saturday evening. This meeting became so popular, that some of the ministers in town were invited to address them once a fortnight. The subject was introduced into many of the Church Sessions in town, where it was said that if the students of the two churches could meet together for prayer, why could the churches themselves not unite ? Memorials from the students and from many of the Church Sessions were forwarded to the two Synods at their two meetings in June and July, 1839, asking for a favourable consideration of the question of the union of the two Synods. At the earliest possible opportunity — at the meetings ot the two Synods in June and July, 1840, only eighteen months after that first meeting in Craig's rooms at college at which the movement was begun— the union was com- pleted. It was thus, under God, to Craig and Knox, with the faithful students that joined them, that this happy consummation was due. SCHOLASTIC. Craig was so fond of teaching, that while attending college and competing successfully for prizes in the several classes he attended, he also found time for private tuition. Shortly after entering college, he became head assistant master in one of the departments of the Royal Academical Institution. While he was there a Head Mastership in the Belfast Academy became vacant, for which he applied. IN LIVERPOOL 2i He was unsuccessful ; but the governors were careful to say it was only on account of his youth — he being in his twentieth year. A few years later a professorship in a college in Canada became vacant, and he applied. The committee of selection consisted of Lord Cockburn of Edinburgh, Ur. Welsh, Archdeacon Williams, and a few others. He was highly complimented by the committee for his attainments ; but the newly-appointed president of the college — an Oxford man — insisted that all the pro- fessors should be graduates of Oxford or Cambridge Uni- versity. Craig must therefore be passed over. Dr. Welsh, of Edinburgh, however, congratulated him on his failure, as he thought his proper calling was to preach the gospel, and that this decision was an indication of the Divine will pointing in that direction. In the spring of 1840, after Craig had attended several sessions at college, he was appointed to a post in a Liver- pool High School. On consulting Dr. Edgar, he was advised to accept it, which he did. It was a wrench to leave the new happy home he had found in Belfast, and go out again among strangers. It was no light matter to give up the work in the Sunday school, and to part with the friends with whom he had spent so many sweet hours of prayer. Many of these friends had treated him more as a brother than as a stranger ; and to lose the opportunity of intercourse with Dr. Edgar was the heaviest of all his trials. IN LIVERPOOL. Arriving in Liverpool, Craig found a school with about fifteen hundred pupils or students, and over sixty teachers. The pupils committed to his care soon became very much attached to him, and made rapid progress. In the evening classes he had an opportunity of learning French and German, with almost any other branch in which he took an interest, and he gladly made use of this privilege. 22 IN LIVERPOOL. He joined the church of Rev. Dr. Crichton, of Mount Pleasant, and was soon made superintendent of the Sunday school ; was elected as one of the deacons of the church, and became secretary of the Home and Foreign Missionary Society of that church. The Sunday school under his care increased more than threefold. Some thirty years later, when he paid a visit to that city, he found many, whom he had made teachers in the Sunday school, occupy- ing high positions in the city, one of them being the Mayor that year, and taking a most active part in every good work in the town. As deacon of the church, he had the happiness of work- ing with Mr. Samuel Stitt, and of seeing the church mem- bership and the annual income of the church increase greatly ; while much of the debt was paid off, and the minister's salary raised. Dr. Crichton's health improved very much as he saw his work prosper. Collectors for home and foreign missions were appointed — with Craig as secretary — and a missionary spirit awakened in the con- gregation. That was the brightest period the church had ever seen, and whatever Craig proposed was at once carried out by a large and faithful band of workers. The Liverpool Sunday schools generally were not in a very prosperous condition at that time ; but Craig took measures to bring the teachers of different schools in each district together to a tea-meeting from time to time, and had them addressed by Dr. Raffles or Mr. Birrell, or some of the ministers and members of the Wesleyan, the Con- gregational, the Presbyterian, and Baptist churches. A WHOLE SUNDAY-SCHOOL CLASS CONVERTED. In Mount Pleasant Sunday School there were many cases of conversion, but one seems worthy of selection as a specimen. A seamstress, who earned a scanty pittance by her needle, had a large and most unruly class of girls. She asked leave of the superintendent to resign, as she thought she was doing no good. He urged her to hold on, and promised that two or three of the teachers would help her in prayer for her class. She and her friends prayed daily and individually for the children. One of the most troublesome girls had been absent for some time, and the teacher thought she had left the school. After several weeks she returned, after the school had been opened, and, standing in the class, asked if she might be allowed to return, though she did not deserve it. The superintendent, she said, had told her that the teacher and several friends were praying for her, but she was not worthy that any one should think of her, she had been so naught)*. As she burst into tears, her distress made a deep impres- sion on the other girls in the class. From that day there was a great change, and the teacher had easy work. Some were factory girls, and some worked in laundries ; but they seemed from that day to drink in the instruction on each returning Sunday. There was one little girl that seemed to be a sweet and gentle child. This girl remained behind one Sunday after the rest were gone, and confided to her teacher that she thought herself the worst girl in the class — for she was a hypocrite. " How do you come to think so ?" said the teacher. " Oh, it was at our little prayer-meeting in Lizzy's room " — the girl that had been so naughty — " that I saw it all. I could not tell the other girls, so I came to tell you, and to ask whether Jesus can really save me — the hypocrite ? " " What prayer-meeting?" said the teacher. "Oh! you know — but of course you don't know — that for a long time we have all met every Friday evening in Lizzy's room at six o'clock. Lizzy's mother is a laun- dress, and does not come home on Friday till eight o'clock, 24 A WHOLE SUNDAY-SCHOOL CLASS CONVERTED so Lizzy has asked us all — the whole class — to come to her house on that evening at six. For ever so long we have come there, and had a good time by ourselves." " And what do you pray for?" said the teacher. " We tell Jesus what we have done wrong during the week, and we pray for each other and for you. If there is anything in the chapter that we do not understand, we ask Him to make it plain. Now on Friday last we were read- ing about hypocrites, and I thought, ' That's me ! ' For I had vexed mother and was ashamed to confess it, as the other girls did ; so I saw I was a hypocrite, and have scarcely slept any for two nights." That girl went home comforted, saying she would never conceal her thoughts any more, in a vain attempt to make people think well of her. A considerable time had passed since Lizzy's repent- ance, and Craig observed one day that this whole class had remained behind with their teacher, when all the others had gone. He went to hear the reason, and was told that on that Sunday the last of the fourteen girls had given herself to Jesus. With parched lips and a hectic cough, the young teacher told the whole story from beginning to end, and looking up, while a streak of colour came to her pale cheeks, she said she thought her work was done, and these girls were now all, with her, children of the kingdom. They wanted the superintendent to have them all intro- duced to the minister, that they might be admitted to church fellowship and join together in partaking of the communion. At the next communion in the church the teacher with her fourteen girls and the superintendent sat together to commemorate the Saviour's dying love. There was joy in heaven that day, and joy on earth, when these redeemed ones retired from the communion-table to spend half an hour together, with closed doors, in social A NOTABLE CONVERSION 25 prayer, repeating the solemn exercises at the communion, and renewing their vows to be the Lord's. The next Sunday the teacher was absent — and all knew why, and shed bitter tears, spending the hour in prayer for their teacher, who was evidently dying. The following Sunday she was with the Lord. Her work was done, and it was no starless crown that awaited her in glory, when she took her seat with the Lord to wait till her beloved girls should arrive to be for ever with the Lord. A NOTABLE CONVERSION. One story more, and we close the narrative of the Sunday school in Mount Pleasant. Three young men, the sons of a retired minister, attended that school — the youngest simply because his father wished it. That lad was apprenticed, as was then the custom, in a large mercantile house, and had charge of the petty cash. In some inexplicable way the money disappeared, little at a time, out of his till. For some time he made it good out of his own money. At last the matter became too serious, and he spoke to the cashier. He was then told that money was disappearing in other departments, and he was supposed to know something about it. So he was being watched. Such a charge stunned the sensitive young man. He thought God must interfere to protect him, and when no rift appeared in the cloud, he was on the verge of despair. Night after night he came to the superintendent of the Sunday school, who was only a few years older than him- self, to talk over the matter and to pray. One day he was told that if he had intrusted his immortal soul entirely to God's mercy, he might well intrust to Him all earthly con- cerns. He replied that this was the difficulty ; he was not quite sure he had made peace with God. Then he was told to do one thing at a time, and this first. It was a long, sore struggle before he could give up his self- 26 ISLINGTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LIVERPOOL righteousness ; but at last he overcame, through the blood of the Lamb, and found peace. After this it was not long till he was completely cleared of the charge, and the guilty party received his due reward. He was admitted to church fellowship, and with great joy sat beside his friend that had helped him through his diffi- culty, when he partook of his first communion. At the close of the service Craig whispered to him, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?" And with a beaming countenance he joyfully replied, " Gladly will I feed His lambs, if He permit." He made a successful effort to enter college and prepare for the gospel ministry, and that young man was known afterwards as the Rev. Robert Grant Brown, Secretary of the British Jews' Society in London, a man greatly beloved. ISLINGTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LIVERPOOL. One Sunday afternoon in October, 1843, Craig was coming home from the Sunday school, accompanied, as usual, by some of the teachers, who took tea with him and waited to return to the evening service in Dr. Crichton's church, as Craig's lodging was not far distant. On the way he met two gentlemen whom he had known as office- bearers in a church in Ireland. They had not been to church that day — did not usually go anywhere to Divine service on Sunday ; had tried it when they first came to Liverpool, but as no one spoke to them, they had given it up. Most Irish Presbyterians whom they knew were like them. They were then on their way to the Prince's Park for a stroll. It was no difficult matter to persuade them to join Craig's party to tea, and afterwards go to church to hear Dr. Crichton preach. Craig set about investigating this matter ; and when he had collected facts, he consulted the Rev. Samuel Bing- ham, a retired Irish preacher, who was an elder in Mount ISLINGTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LIVERPOOL 27 Pleasant Church. The result was that a committee was formed, consisting of the Rev. S. Bingham, Messrs. John and Joseph Bingham, James Montgomery, Coulter, Mil- liken, and Craig as secretary. These met thrice every week in Craig's rooms, and eventually decided to gather these lapsed Presbyterians into a church by themselves, and invite an Irish minister to be their pastor. Craig would have much preferred if these people had consented to attach themselves to some of the existing evangelical churches, but it was useless to try this. So the committee set about excavating all they could find who had been church-members in Ireland and now attended no place of worship, and applied to the Irish Mission Board to send them good preachers to organise this church. Craig hired a large hall for three months for Sunday services, and made himself responsible for all the expense. He wrote to Ireland, and went over to persuade some of the leading ministers to take the matter up. After an enormous amount of labour, in which all the committee faithfully bore their part, Craig succeeded in obtaining a promise from Rev. Dr. Brown, Rev. Mr. Wallace of Derry, Rev. Josias Wilson, and others to make a trial whether these neglected brethren could really be gathered into a church. The attempt succeeded beyond expectation, and on the loth of December in that year — that was six weeks after the first attempt in this matter — the hall was opened by Dr. Brown for public worship, with an attendance of over eight hundred people. Dr. Brown was followed by Mr. Wallace (afterwards Professor Wallace of Belfast), and by that time about a hundred and fifty heads of families — very few of whom had been attached to any other congre- gation in Liverpool — were enrolled as members of this church. A large Sunday school was opened with forty- two teachers. Prayer-meetings in private houses were established all over the town, and the number of these rose to fifteen. A site for a church was purchased and 28 ISLINGTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LIVERPOOL paid for, and the Rev. Dr. Verner White was called to be minister. The congregation became one of the strongest Presbyterian churches in Liverpool. While Rev. Josias Wilson was engaged in organising this church in the beginning of 1844 he went to Man- chester and London, the result of which visit was that he was called to Islington Presbyterian Church in the Metropolis, where he worked with marvellous success up to his death. UNIVERSITY HONOURS. We will only add that between 1840 and 1845 Craig had matriculated in the London University, coming out in the first class. He had also gone to Germany, and there taken out the degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. Before leaving Mount Pleasant Sunday School the teachers gave him a very valuable present as a testimonial of their affection, which Craig esteemed very much, and his place was filled in the school by Mr. Samuel Stitt. In presenting to Craig the testimonial from the teachers, Mr. Stitt said he would be well satisfied if he could secure to himself one-third of the confidence the teachers had placed in Craig, by which he had been enabled to leave such an eminent record behind him. The Islington congregation expressed most sincere regret at losing the services of the founder of that church ; but as they were so soon supplied with such an excellent pastor as Rev. Dr. Verner White, they were enabled to grow up and become very active and very successful. The Rev. Samuel Bingham became superintendent of the Sunday school there, and much blessing emanated from that zealous congregation. The enthusiasm awakened by giving every new member a definite work, for which he was responsible, stamped an ISLINGTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LIVERPOOL 29 indelible character on that church as long as the first members lived. One head of a family gave his house for a weekly prayer-meeting. A couple of others, with the lady members of their household, were responsible for keeping up the attendance by regular visitation in the neighbourhood. Another must either conduct the meet- ing or find a substitute every week. Others took part in the Sunday school. In fact no one was admitted as member till he undertook some branch of active work towards building up the spiritual temple, and the little cottage prayer-meetings, that were held for a time in so many parts of the town, became a very marked means of grace. These meetings were the more necessary as the members of the new church were scattered over the whole town. It happened at that period that Dr. Craig had more time than usual at his own disposal, and was thus able to personally superintend the different departments of the work, sparing neither time nor money till he had placed the congregation on a firm footing. CHAPTER III " The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them."— Acts xiii. 2. " God doth not need either man's work or His own Gift."— Milton. ORDINATION AND FIELD OF LABOUR. DR. CRAIG returned to Belfast, and, after completing the needful preparation, was licensed, by the Bel- fast Presbytery, on the 4th of February, 1845, to preach the gospel. The following morning he received a unanimous call from the Mission Board to undertake mission work in the foreign field. This was at that time considered to be the highest honour that church could bestow on any of its ministers. As he was distinguished by taking the first place at every examination in Hebrew during his college course, it was resolved to ask him to undertake work among the Jews. His knowledge of European languages was con- sidered a reason to send him to Germany. Eventually he was appointed to proceed to Hamburg, and from that time his name was associated with that city. He was ordained on the 10th of April, and started for his field of labour early in May. He was then twenty-six years of age, and as this was an important point in his life, we may pause to take a look at the development of his religious views. In his father's house he was carefully trained in the 30 ORDINATION AND FIELD OF LABOUR 31 doctrines held by all evangelical Presbyterians at that tiem and by most of the orthodox Nonconformists in Britain. To him the Bible was the message of God to a lost world. He firmly believed in the plenary inspiration of Scripture, and the more closely he examined the Word of God the more firmly he became convinced that the apparent discrepancies found in the book were chiefly due to our ignorance of the mind of God, or to mistakes made by copyists. He recognised that from the return of Judah from the captivity in Babylon, very great care had been taken to preserve the purity of the text as it then existed. To him the Holy Scripture was the word of the living God to teach the way of salvation. The teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms which at the time when they were drawn up were the common property of all the Protestant churches of Britain, became to him ever more and more precious, as he studied them more closely. The doctrines of predestination and of the Divine decrees had for him no difficulty, as they merely showed that, like a wise architect, the Lord built up the Church by a definite plan. It seemed great irreverence to suppose that He left the great work of salvation in other hands than His own, or that He did not know at the beginning what He intended to do with His Church. He felt it sweet to realise that whatever happened was no afterthought, but a part of a definite eternal purpose. That He desired the salvation of the human race was clear from the tremendously solemn charge and threaten- ing given in Eden to our first parents, designed to prevent man from transgressing His law. This was further evident in the choice made of the Saviour, the chiefest among ten thousand. An atonement was completed which was sufficient for all. It was offered to all. What though the heathen did not know of this great love ! Was it not a part of the moral government 32 ORDINATION AND FIELD OF LABOUR of God that the children should bear the consequence of their parents' sin in turning away from God and leaving them in ignorance ? Was not this the strongest induce- ment to faithfulness on the part of Adam ? But after doing everything possible, without depriving man of free will, to prevent the fall with its terrible consequences, He hastened without delay to unfold His plan of restoring the lost by means of the substitution of the Just One for the unjust. This he saw to be unspeakable love. After making an atonement sufficient for the sins of the whole world ; after offering this great salvation to all men ; even then there was no certainty that a single individual would give up his enmity to God and accept of eternal life. Indeed there was a certainty that not one of our whole race would come to Jesus for eternal life, except the Father drew him (John vi. 44). So bitter is the hatred of the fallen nature of man towards Jesus Christ. Now it is a fact that some come to Christ, the only Saviour, and some do not. All our reasoning will not alter this fact. And the simplest explanation seems to be that one step more is necessary beyond making an atone- ment and proclaiming that it is made. The natural heart hates God and refuses free grace. And this additional work of God, without which no sinner would ever seek salvation, is that the Father takes whom He will and gives him to Jesus to be created anew — to be made a new creature. The redeemed then love God because He first loved them. On this plan salvation is entirely of God. The notion of giving to every man the same measure of grace, which one accepts and the other rejects, would make the glory of acceptance belong to us. If the whole human family is so desperately wicked, that every one resists the grace of God with all his might, then the redeemed have no merit in accepting eternal life. Neither are they compelled to do so — it is all the free grace of Him who doeth as He will. OR DIN A 770 N AND FIELD OF LABOUR 33 The first step is that the Father gives to Jesus whom He will. The next step is that the Lord Jesus undertakes to be their Saviour, and this from all eternity. The third step is that the Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ, in His own time, to the sinner who is chosen of the Father and accepted of the Son. The Holy Spirit then creates a new heart by presenting sin and salvation in such a light, that the sinner is enabled to do what he could otherwise never have done, and this he does of his own free will as enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and through the new power given him by faith (John i. 12), the gift of God. The wonder, then, is not that any one has been passed over. There is salvation prepared. There is salvation offered. The gospel is preached even to those who perish, as a testimony against them, saying : " Ye will not come unto Me." The wonder is that God takes this new step, and by His Holy Spirit creates a new man in Christ Jesus, making him willing to be saved, which he was not previous to this great new creation of a pure heart, and bestowal of a new power. These points are especially mentioned, as it was around them that much of his fighting with the modern Lutherans was afterwards waged. He had happily no less an autho- rity on his side in this contest than Luther himself. His " Theses " were, therefore, often quoted, in which Luther had stated " that man who has become a corrupt tree can will or do nought but evil. It is not in the power of man's will to choose or reject whatever is offered to it. Man cannot of his own nature will God to be God. He would prefer to be God himself, and that God were not God. The excellent, infallible, and sole preparation for grace is the eternal election and predestination of God. 1 It is false to say that if man does all that he can, he removes the obstacles to grace." 2 1 Luther, "App. Latin,''' i. 56. - Merle D'Aubigne, "Hist, of the Reformation," bk. i. chap. xi. 4 34 VISITING SCOTLAND The doctrines which he had embraced in his father's house did not become weakened — but very much strengthened — by further study. What he had drunk in with joy at his father's side from Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, President Edwards, Erskine, Fisher, Boston, Howe, Leighton, Lightfoot, Matthew Henry, and others — as these and similar books were read for two hours every Sunday evening — became ever clearer and more convincing the more he studied the Word of God as " the only rule of faith and obedience." The principal change in the development of his inward life was, that the stern Puritanical notions he had imbibed became gradually mollified. Instead of approaching the throne of grace with terror when conscience accused him of sin, he was enabled to find it ever more easy and more delightful to unburden his loaded and grieved spirit before Him who had said, " Cast thy burden on the Lord." Instead of trembling before the awful consequences of disobedience, he came habitually to rejoice more and more in the assurance that none could pluck him out of the loving Shepherd's arms. VISITING SCOTLAND. Before starting for the Continent he was directed to visit the leading ministers of the Free Church of Scotland. Dr. Welsh, whom he had previously known, was then lying on his death-bed and could not be seen. He saw Dr. Candlish, and found in him a wondrous depth of sympathy and geniality — the more prized, because not expected. Dr. Candlish offered to bring all the Edinburgh ministers together to meet Craig and confer with him, but this he declined as too much honour. Dr. John Duncan, Sir William Hamilton, Dr. H. Bonar, and Mr. Moody Stuart showed him much kindness. Dr. Keith, whom he had often met in Liverpool, gave him letters of introduction to friends on the Continent. A T HOME—L EA VE- TA KING 3 5 In Glasgow he saw Dr. David Brown, Dr. Somerville, Dr. Andrew Bonar, Dr. Buchanan, and Mrs. Wodrow. Dr. Duncan's counsel about modes of work was most valuable, and this was the beginning of a close friendship with that good man which lasted till death. AT HOME— LEAVE-TAKING. He must after this visit to Scotland take leave of his father's house. Since first leaving home to enter college he had contrived to spend at least a week with his father, mother, and sisters every year. On this occasion he pro- longed his visit, and felt once more as a boy among the old acquaintances in his father's church. He had never accepted of any money from his father for his college expenses, and being now in comfortable circumstances, he was able to add many a bit of brightness to cheer his aged father's home. The Rev. Edward Bowen and Mrs. Bowen saw him often to luncheon at the Taughboyne Rectory. They were extremely kind, and had much to tell of their eldest son — afterwards Sir George Bowen — who has since made a brilliant career as governor of several colonies, and who had then attained his high honours at the university. Rev. Mr. Lodge, of the Killea Rectory — an ex-scholar of Trinity College, Dublin — was also extremely kind. Indeed all his father's friends and neighbours showed unbounded kind- ness, and the time passed quickly away. His father and mother, who had looked forward to the occasion as a sorrowful leave-taking, declared that they felt ten years younger from their son's visit. Nor was this to be the last visit home, as his father continued to labour for nine years more. CONVERSIONS. While at home, James preached for his father, and his word was blessed to two individuals : the one was a 36 CONVERSIONS servant in his father's home, who afterwards became a faithful worker for his Master for many years ; the other was a giddy young lady, who had by accident, as it is termed, come that day to a church which she did not frequently visit, and began a life of happy service for God. In Belfast he preached in Dr. Cooke's, in Mr. Hamilton's, and in Dr. Edgar's churches. Forty years afterwards a gentleman visited him in London, and after recognising who he was, this gentleman was able to repeat the substance of the sermon preached that day in Dr. Edgar's church. He said he had good cause to remember it, and had often repeated portions of it to his children — for that day had been the turning-point in his life. A sermon preached in Ballymacarret — a suburb of Belfast— and a visit to a poor girl, a member of a Unitarian family, was blessed to her soul. She was far gone in consumption, but her father became so angry that she had adopted new views of Christ, that he turned her out of the house and refused to see her on her death-bed. She soon passed away in the enjoyment of great peace, while her last petition was for her father, that he too might learn to love Jesus. Visiting a house where he had lodged while at college, he found a Roman Catholic servant-maid rejoicing in the liberty of the children of God. She reminded him that he had taught her to read, when he as a student had lodged in the house, and that she had with her mistress attended the family prayers which he had conducted each evening, which had been blessed to her soul, and now she was about to be married to a tradesman who was a true Christian. Her mistress gave a most satisfactory account of her Christian conduct, and her beaming face showed that she had learned to rejoice in the Lord. IN HAMBURG 37 ORDINATION SERVICE. On the 10th of April, 1.S45, the Belfast Presbytery ordained Dr. Craig and appointed him to his field of labour. Rev. Dr. Hanna, the Senior Professor of Divinity, and father of Rev. Dr. William Hanna, of Edinburgh, delivered the ordination charge, and the ordination prayer was led by Rev. Samuel Craig, of Crossroads. After referring in kindly terms to Dr. Craig's past life at college and elsewhere, Dr. Hanna said : " The church of your fathers sends you to seek the salvation of the house of Israel. Your first and greatest concern will be to say to the seed of Abraham : Behold your king ! But we, on no account, wish you to confine your labours to them. Bear in mind that one soul is as dear to the Lord as another. You will remember that your field of labour is in a land where rationalism, with its baneful influence, has long reigned supreme. You will make yourself familiar with all the phases of unbelief that now prevail in the land of Luther, and be ready to grapple with the insidious argu- ments that are employed against the truth of God. You will watch the leadings of Providence, and be ready to enter wherever a door is open for you to preach the gospel." IN HAMBURG. On the 1 6th of May, 1845, Dr. Craig arrived in Ham- burg. It may be well to take a glance at that city as it appeared to him, when entering on this field of labour. The population of Hamburg was at that time 188,000, of whom 12,000 were Jews. The present population is 622,530. In the adjoining town of Altona there were 3,000 Jews, making 15,000 within reach. These were as easy of access as the Christians. The intelligent Jews knew all the arguments usually produced against Christi- anity. A large proportion of them had broken loose from the Bible and the Talmud. They read little besides 38 IN HAMBURG the daily newspapers, which were generally opposed to true Christianity, and the ordinary state of their mind was that of complete indifference to everything connected with religion. The town had been burned down three years previously, and about a third part of the city had been destroyed by the great fire. Many of the poorer people were still living in temporary huts on the ramparts and in the public squares. The building of the new houses was proceeding rapidly. The Sunday was in this respect like the week- day, with the unceasing sound of hammer, handsaw, and trowel. The external appearance of the town was under- going a complete renovation. There had been twelve Lutheran churches forty years previously, but at this time there were only seven. Out of the 180,000 Christians and the vast numbers of strangers always in town, the average attendance at all these churches taken together on an ordinary Sunday was under ten or twelve thousand. That means, that of every eighteen people residing in the city and suburbs, some sixteen or seventeen did not attend any place of worship with a perceptible amount of regularity. When, after some years, the population had trebled in amount, there had been only two small additional chapels built, capable of holding five hundred persons each, and the whole number of church-goers had not increased. There was one Roman Catholic chapel and some non- Lutheran chapels, but the attendance at these was small. The whole city, therefore, was living in a state of practical heathenism. One of the chief Lutheran pastors, a very worth)' man whose name was Strauch, told Craig, on the first interview with him, that a stranger could have no proper notion of the prevailing piety of the Hamburg population. The Hamburger, he said, does not boast of his religion, or, indeed, speak much about it ; but deep down in his breast was a very sincere piety. So deep, thought Craig, as not to be visible to the naked eye. IN HAMBURG 39 Yes, the pastor said, the Hamburger is outspoken. He can swear a good oath and give a good blow — may spend much of his leisure time in the beer-cellar, and little in church ; but there is not an unbeliever in the whole town. As some astonishment was expressed at this assertion, this mildest of men and most optimist of pastors went on to explain his meaning. He assured his amused visitor that there was not, with the exception of the Jews, an unbaptised person in the whole town — the police attended to that. Nor was there a grown person over fifteen or six- teen years that was not confirmed. Then, after confirmation each one was obliged to partake of the Holy Communion before receiving the certificate without which a servant- maid could not enter on her service, nor an apprentice enter a workshop, nor a clerk enter an office, nor any one — male or female — be married or perform any civil or military duty. " Oh, I see," said the visitor, " you make your Christians in the same way that you vaccinate them." " Just so," said the pastor, and he proceeded to descant on the benefits of vaccination. And this man was perfectly sound in his conception of the person and work of Christ, on the inspiration of the Scriptures, on the providence and grace of God, and on many other points. But by ignoring the work of the Holy Spirit and magnifying the power of the Sacraments, while he preached the great Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith on the crucified and risen Son of God, yet he bound up the efficacy of all in the Sacraments, and therefore no awakenings and no conversions took place under his preaching. The truth, as preached by him, was wrapped in such a thick mantle of ritualism that it was hidden from view. As Germany was at that time broken up into atoms, each state having a separate organisation and a separate hymn-book, there was no unity in the Lutheran Church. Religious toleration was little understood or practised. 4 o PASTOR RAUTENBERG Any people who ventured to meet together for prayer were liable to be arrested and punished by the police. In holding a prayer-meeting it was not unusual to lay on the table cups, saucers, and plates, or even a pack of cards, and if the police broke in they at once retired, leaving the sup- posed card-players unmolested. The giving away of tracts in the streets was strictly prohibited. The parish minister was not allowed to hold a religious service, even in his own parish, except in the church, during canonical hours. In good society no one ever introduced the subject of religion. Most of the parish clergy were men whose close acquaintance was not desirable. One of them had pub- lished a catechism in which he urged the importance of frequent communion. His reasons were that a communi- cant would abstain from any glaring sin on the day of the communion and on the previous day, as well as that which followed. Then three days thus spent without sin would count for much in the day of judgment. Others went so far as to say that, strictly speaking, there is no moral turpitude in the world, such as deserved Divine punish- ment. And these were men who, at their ordination, had solemnly sworn to teach nothing contrary to the Bible or the Lutheran confession of faith. So the charge of hypocrisy, so freely made against evangelical Christians, could not, by any means, be confined to them. PASTOR RAUTENBERG. There was one pastor from whom Craig received much kindness. His name was Rautenberg. He had been educated under the influence of Rationalism. When study- ing in Berlin under Schleiermacher he was roused from his spiritual sleep. That powerful teacher, who knew little of the true nature of sin or of the Saviour, advised his students to study the Bible closely as the most marvellous book in the world. Rautenberg and many others followed the advice, and found there what the master had never dis- PASTOR RAUTENBERG 41 covered. By the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he became a sincere Christian while still at college. And even there he certainly did not conceal his new convictions. When he had finished his college course and presented himself for license to preach the gospel in Hamburg, the aged Senior Rambach asked him all the prescribed ques- tions. Among other things he asked what the candidate for license to preach thought of Christ. Rautenberg answered in the words of the Lutheran catechism : " I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity ; and true man born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me when lost and lying under the curse, and has delivered me from sin — from death and from Satan's power — not with gold or silver but with His holy and precious blood and His unmerited suffering and death, that I may be His property, may live subject to Him in His kingdom and serve Him in righteousness, purity, and happiness, being made like Him, who, being raised from the dead, lives and reigns for ever. And all this is most certainly true." The young student had merely repeated, but with unusual animation, what every Lutheran child must repeat at confirmation. The examiner looked steadily in the young man's face, while a tear dimmed the old man's eye, as" he asked : " Do you really believe that, my son ? " A strong assertion of his belief and of his determination to preach this faith of his fathers was the reply. " For many years," said the aged man, " have I examined students for admission to the office of the holy ministry, and you are the first who has told me that this doctrine of our church was his own hope." Around this man, when he became pastor, was soon gathered a noble band of workers. There was a Wichern, the founder of the Rauhe Haus ; a Brauer, the Inspector of the North German Mission Seminary ; a Pehmoller, who went out to die as a missionary in South Africa ; 42 BIBLE, MISSION, AND TRACT SOCIETIES Amalia Sieveking, Eliza Averdieck, the founder of a Deaconesses' Institution ; Mr. Hoyer, one of the founders of Sunday schools, and others. The bookseller, Frederick Perthes, was two years dead. Matthias Claudius had laid down his wallet and his staff, and had fallen asleep in Jesus. Klopstock had sung the " Messiah " and gone to be with Him, while his dust rested in the honoured grave in Ottensen. But there were still living Syndicus Sieveking, Senators Sieveking and Hudt- waleker, with four or five merchants who stood like William Duncker, H. M. Waitz, and J. W. Hiipeden, as lights in the world, living up to their profession of faith in Christ. Dr. Gries and Dr. Jacobi were lawyers who publicly maintained their position on the Lord's side. It was a little flock ; but they heard the Saviour's voice saying to them, " Fear not." BIBLE, MISSION, AND TRACT SOCIETIES. Gladly would Dr. Craig have worked with those whom he believed to be real Christians, if it had been possible. There was a local Bible Society, but its Bibles were all bound up with the Apocrypha and marked on the outside, " Holy Scripture." So little was the book prized, that in large parishes of from twenty to thirty thousand inhabi- tants not half a dozen Bibles were sold in a year. There was a Foreign Missionary Society, with a seminary under charge of Mr. Brauer ; but a large portion of the funds was obtained by the sale of lottery tickets, or by other objectionable means. He might have joined the Temperance Society, but the committee were all declared enemies of the gospel. They held their meetings on a Sunday evening, which generally closed with a dance, that lasted till daylight next morning. Mr. Oncken, who had lately become an exclusive Baptist and separated himself from his old friends, had a little gathering of about twenty-five members, who were doing BIBLE, MISSION, AND TRACT SOCIETIES 43 home mission work. When Dr. Craig offered to co-operate with them he was told that the only condition on which his assistance could be accepted was that he should submit to immersion. Personally he and Mr. Oncken met frequently on very friendly terms, and Mr. Kobncr — Mr. Oncken \s colleague — a converted Israelite — was Craig's intimate friend till death. The only work that remained, in which he could take an active part, was that of the local Tract Society, that had been founded by the Religious Tract Society in 1820, and had been conducted by the deacons of the English Con- gregational Church, assisted by a couple of Germans. This society had, during the twenty-five years of its existence, issued nearly two hundred tracts, of which it distributed about three hundred thousand each year. Of this society Dr. Craig became joint secretary with Mr. Waitz, and in a short time its operations extended over the whole of North and Central Germany and into Austria. The work of distributing Christian literature had long been an employment in which Dr. Craig took a delight ; for he saw in this branch of labour an opportunity of reaching an enormous number of people with the gospel message, at a very small expense, and of securing purity of gospel teaching, which, if not properly understood, as is often the case with the spoken word in a sermon, it can be repeatedly read till the meaning of the statement is fully grasped. His own experience as a child showed him how much more accurate is the knowledge acquired by a book, than by a lecture or sermon. He therefore threw his whole heart into this work ; and as his colleagues gave him liberty, he soon found the means of very materially extending the operations of the society. CHAPTER IV " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." — Matthew xxviii. 20. " The Cross, once seen, is death to every vice, Else He that hung there suffered all His pain — Bled, groaned, and agonised, and died in vain." Cowper, Progress of Error. ENTRANCE ON WORK. HAVING obtained some knowledge of the people and the place, Dr. Craig could not long remain idle. As there was no stated pastor in the English Congregational Church, he was frequently invited to conduct the services there, both on Sundays and week- days. By this means he made the acquaintance of many of the English residents. Bearing in mind that his first duty was to look after the Jews, and knowing that many of them could speak English, he opened a service for them in that language on the Saturday forenoon. From thirty to forty Jews were brought together on each occasion, and thus he became acquainted with many Jewish families, to whose houses he was frequently invited. After each lecture there was an " after meeting " with the Jews that had been present, to talk over the substance of the address and to answer objections. In this way he became known among the 44 ENTRANCE ON WORK 45 Jews, and as at that time the persecution of the Jews in Russia and Poland had driven many of them out of that empire to seek a home in some other land, not a few of these exiles found the house of the missionary. Many came from mere secular motives, but some became interested in the study of the Scripture, of which most of them knew very little. It was disheartening that when many of these were beginning to be interested in the gospel message they were sent away from town by the police. In such cases Craig gave the inquirers introductions to other missionaries in England or America, and in some cases kept up a correspondence with them. He considered it his duty to be strict in admitting any to baptism, and some then went to the pastors in town, where they were baptised without much inquiry. One Jew who had not patience to wait for long instruction, went to one of the Lutheran pastors, and told how he wanted baptism, but did not believe that the Lord Jesus was more than any other prophet of Israel. The pastor replied this is the general opinion now, and baptised him. When Craig afterwards spoke with the pastor, he was told that no Jew who had been trained in Judaism could ever understand the mysteries of the gospel, but, if baptised, his children were a gain to the Christian Church. Craig replied, " According to you there are no mysteries in Christianity, and then what are the children benefited if nineteen of the schoolmasters out of twenty — aye, perhaps of the pastors, too — do not believe what Christ and His apostles taught ? " Out of the hundreds of inquirers who visited Craig for instruction during the first three years of his labour he had baptised a few, but he had heard of forty-two cases of Israelites that had been for a time under instruction with him, who had been baptised elsewhere. 46 CONVERSION OF A JEWISH LADY CONVERSION OF A JEWISH LADY. A Jewish lady, who for years had been convinced that her religion was no use, went to a Lutheran pastor for instruction. He gave her a Lutheran catechism, with the direction to commit it to memory. Some years afterwards she called on Dr. Craig with the inquiry whether a person could become a Christian without learning the catechism by heart ; she had tried to commit it to memory, but, with all her efforts, could not succeed. He undertook to read the New Testament with her, and in a very few days her eyes were opened to comprehend the person and work of Christ as revealed in that book. The change which came over her whole character, even over her face, was very striking. She longed for baptism with intense desire. As she was a young lady of peculiarly powerful intellect, she grew rapidly in Christian knowledge. As, however, she was very diffident and retiring, she was told on the day of her baptism that there would be a large number of people present on the occasion, but that she need not say anything beyond merely answering the questions put to her. " Oh, no ! " she said ; " you know as well as I do that the Jews regard me as a hypocrite, and few of the Christians believe me to be sincere. Will you allow me to tell my own story of what Jesus has done for me in my own way ? " There was a large gathering on the day of her baptism, and when she was called forward to be admitted into the Christian Church, she turned to face the congregation, and, to the astonishment of all present, she described her state under Judaism, her struggles, her victory, her new life in the light of the Lord and her resolve for the future. She described how one truth after another dawned on her, till at last she cast herself at the feet of Jesus, saying, " My Lord and my God ! " The whole of the Old Testament she found to agree CONVERSION OF A JEWISH LADY 47 with the New. Isaac bound on the altar and delivered when a substitute was found, represented her own case. The King on Mount Zion was her Lord. The 53rd of Isaiah was but one of the gospels written before the events took place. The new heart and new spirit promised by the prophets had been given to her. All the Jews who knew her could testify that the step she was taking would make no difference in regard to her worldly means. There was no earthly inducement to make her become a Christian. " And now," she said, " in the presence of God and of all here this day, I take this Saviour, Jesus of Nazareth, to be my Lord and King in life and death." The assembled congregation, and especially those who knew the extreme shyness and modesty of the young woman, and her teacher most of all, were astonished at this courageous declaration of her faith and hope. The Jews that were present left the hall in silence ; the solem- nity of the scene had evidently overpowered them. An old man, who had known the Lord for many years, whispered to his pastor, " I feel as if I were a mere baby, in the presence of that woman whose faith is so great." She lived for some years a very consistent life, and having afterwards been seized with a fatal illness, her pastor sat alone with her one day by her sick-bed. He asked how it stood then with her faith, and probed her conscience closely to know whether she was resting solely on the Saviour. She was so quiet and calm, he did not know how matters stood. At last she raised herself in her bed. The look she had in her face the day she was baptised returned. She folded her hands and looked firmly into her minister's face as she slowly and distinctly said, " The Father has said, This is My beloved Son in whom /am well pleased. May / not be pleased, too?" and sinking back on her pillow, she passed away. Dr. Craig did not aim at elevating the Jewish race, but 48 ENMITY OVERCOME much rather at bringing individual souls, one by one, to God. He thought this was the Master's plan. One day, Andrew followed Christ ; the next day he brought his brother Simon. The following day Jesus found Philip, and he brought Nathanael to hear the word of peace. One by one these precious stones are brought to be polished by the Holy Spirit and made fit for use. A Mary Magdalene, a Saul of Tarsus, enter the fold alone, being led by the Shepherd. This was Craig's constant aim, to lead sinners to Jesus. ENMITY OVERCOME. One of the early victories he gained was in the case oi an unmarried woman, well advanced in years. She had come regularly for a considerable time to his meetings, but had exhibited what he thought was a bitter hatred to himself personally. She heard his exposition of Scripture gladly, but then he was not a German, he was not a Lutheran — she could neither speak nor look kindly. But still she came. She fell ill, and her sickness seemed likely to be fatal. The first time that Craig visited her on her sick-bed, she sobbed out, " I am dying, and I have treated you very ill. I came to hear you chiefly for the sake of drawing away from your meetings all whom I could influence. But your words were too much for me ; I learned that I am a poor lost sinner, in spite of my baptism and confirmation in a Lutheran Church, fifty or sixty years ago; and in spite of my frequent communions, at least once every year, and of my self-righteousness, and my harsh judgment of others, I am a lost sinnner whom Jesus has sought and found. How can I ever thank Him, and how can I thank you ? I feel I have not long to live. Come as often as you can. But Jesus is with me, and even at the gate of death all is bright within and around me." This old woman was a specimen of the great body of THE SHIPWRECK 49 church-goers that were resting on their relation to a church, and on their own outward performance of certain rites. She lived only a few days longer ; but up to the end her mouth was full of praise and her heart of joy, begging her minister to accompany her body to the grave, and see her dust committed to the earth in the sure and certain hope of rising to meet her Lord — free from sin. THE SHIPWRECK. In the year 1845, a sad case occurred that made Craig's heart very sore. An unusual number of Russian Jews, having fled from the conscription, had arrived in Hamburg on their way to England. While staying in that city they had spent much of their time in Dr. Craig's house. Some of them showed a great willingness to hear the gospel. One of them, a young man of intelligence and apparent candour, had promised to study the New Testa- ment on his way to England and when he arrived there. Some of the others were ignorant and indifferent, and some very much opposed to Christianity. After about ten days of dealing with them, Dr. Craig accompanied sixteen of them to the steamer on which they had taken deck passages. The steamer started in fine weather, but a sudden storm coming on she never reached the shore and all on board perished. Dr. Craig was greatly distressed to think that perhaps he had not dealt with sufficient earnest- ness and wisdom with them. It was very sad to think that within ten or twelve hours from the time he had shaken hands with them they had found a watery grave, and apparently were not ready to meet their God. MR. SEHRWALD. In the autumn of 1845, Craig was anxious to leave town for a few weeks, but did not know how he could get away. Now his path was unexpectedly opened. A German theologian, who was supported by a society in 5 50 THE GERMAN CATHOLICS Bremen to work among the Jews, came to reside for a time in Hamburg. As he had difficulty in finding lodg- ings, Craig offered him a couple of rooms in his house. Mr. Sehrwald was a dear brother in Christ, and Craig welcomed him to town, as there was enough work for both. In this way Craig could travel more comfortably, as Mr. Sehrwald could attend his inquirers while he was absent, and Craig could in turn do as much for him. THE GERMAN CATHOLICS. About a year before the time when Dr. Craig settled in German)-, the German Catholic movement had caused much excitement. Johannes Ronge, a Roman Catholic priest, had written violent pamphlets against the papal pilgrimages to the so-called holy coat of Treves, which eventually occasioned a schism among the Roman Catholics of German}'. We will not inquire closely into his motives. He had a grievance, and wished to be avenged on his superiors. Many Roman Catholic priests, whose minds were ill at ease, joined in the protest. Several of them had large families living in their parsonage, who called the priest " uncle," and the cook they called " mother." In such cases the bishops did not interfere. But if any of these men ventured to marry the mother of his children, he was at once degraded from his office and deprived of his income. This state of matters was notorious and wide- spread. In the province of Posen and in the parish of Schnei- demuhl there was a priest named Czerski, who had eight children living in his house. Against him for all these years the bishop had made no complaint He married the mother of his children, and was then immediately ejected from his parish. A petition for restoration to his former parish, signed by five hundred heads of families, was REV. DR. EDGAR'S APPEAL 51 presented to the bishop without effect. Many of the neighbouring priests joined in the protest, and when that did not succeed, they joined the German Catholic movement. Dr. Craig thought this would be a good opportunity for bringing the Separatists under the sound of the gospel. On making inquiry he found that Ronge was utterly unworthy of confidence, but that Czerski was a man of a different type. Though poor and illiterate, he was a man of kindly disposition, and had some knowledge of the Scriptures. As Mr. Sehrwald was living in his house, Craig had no difficulty in taking a few weeks to visit the places where the excitement was most pronounced. He could at the same time visit the scattered Jews in the villages, and make the acquaintance of any pastors who might be expected to assist him in his work. He urged that the big sledge and the little hammer could strike the iron on the same anvil. The parish clergy and the missionary might well work harmoniously together. Thinking over the matter, he worked out a plan for making his effort effectual. REV. DR. EDGARS APPEAR. The Rev. Dr. Edgar, of Belfast, was at that time making a successful effort to establish schools in the south and west of Ireland, for the benefit of the neglected Roman Catholic children in those districts. To him Dr. Craig sent a full account of the actual state of the German Catholic movement. He laid special stress on the fact that — unlike Ireland, where the priests had kept the people in ignorance — all who were affected by the move- ment in Germany could read. Though poor and unable to purchase books, they were very willing to read anything that concerned the teaching of the Church of Rome. Their own priests could not enlighten them, and the 5 2 FIRS T MISSION A R V JO URNE V Protestant churches were too careless to attempt such a task. Learned treatises in the ponderous magazines were no use. The gospel must be presented in the simplest form. Dr. Edgar issued a rousing appeal, which was printed in several newspapers, asking aid to enable Dr. Craig to scatter suitable literature, so as to make the occasion a time of blessing. A large sum was contributed and forwarded to Hamburg, most of which he expended through the local Tract Society. FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY. Having made arrangements for Mr. Sehrwald to take charge of his work at home, Craig started on a wide and extensive tour of inquiry. In Berlin he consulted Pastor Gossner, who had himself been a Roman Catholic priest, but who was then superintending a great Home and Foreign Lutheran Mission. He had published several books, such as " The Life of Martin Boos," " Christ the End of the Law," " Christ in us and for us," " Primitive Christianity," and many others adapted to the state of Roman Catholics at that time. These books had already been extensively circulated, but Gossner gladly placed them at Craig's disposal, to be scattered over the land. Professors Neander, Nitzsch, and Piper took a lively interest in the movement, and their advice was most valuable. It is true that the railway system was in its infancy, and Craig must travel chiefly by the Schnellpost, which English people generally called the " Snailpost." He travelled by short stages, paying travelling expenses out of his own pocket, and spending the money that had been intrusted to him in printing suitable books and tracts. Conversing freely with the priests, the Protestant pastors, and the people, he ascertained what kind of books were most likely to be useful, and found people ready to help in COLPORTAGE 53 the distribution. Germany was at that time broken up into separate States, each differing in many respects from its neighbour, but resembling each other in the small number of real Christians to be found in the churches. In Berlin, with a population of 400,000, there were only two Roman Catholic churches for the ten or twelve thousands of that denomination in the city, and it soon became clear that it was in districts where the Roman Catholic population was denser that anything of im- portance could be done. As he travelled through Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, where there were no bookshops, and no Christian literature was attainable, the books he carried with him were gladly received and highly prized. Pie thus became convinced that what the country most wanted was to have a goodly number of pious young men, who would, as colporteurs, carry pure evangelical literature into the villages for the people to buy. But where were such colporteurs to be found ? COLPORTAGE. Craig had been several months in Hamburg, and had not been idle. The rebuilding of the town had brought a large number of carpenters, painters, bricklayers, and other tradesmen to the spot, and by degrees several of these had found their way to his house in the evenings and on Sundays. The time on such occasions had been filled up with reading the Scripture and singing of hymns. Some of the young men had, by the grace of God, become con- verted, and they brought their comrades with them. These meetings were not sanctioned by the laws, but, as much evil was carried on in town which the law did not sanc- tion, this counteracting influence was overlooked. By the time when the building had progressed so far as to allow the workmen to be dismissed, Craig had a goodly band of really earnest young men gathered round him, who could 54 COLPORTAGE no longer remain in town, but were " thrust out " to carry the gospel message to other provinces. When the police had supplied the young tradesmen with passports to travel further in search of work, or to return home, Craig let it be known that if any of his young friends wanted copies of New Testaments or of tracts to use on their way, he would gladly supply them. The offer was accepted, and a voluntary colportage work on a small scale was set on foot. Dr. Pinkerton had at that time a few colporteurs work- ing near Frankfort, but there were none in North or East Germany, and none in Bohemia, Moravia, or Austria. Many of Craig's young men were full of zeal. One young lad who had gone home to Hungary, in sending money for Testaments sold, reported that his father, a Roman Catholic, was converted. A few months later he was able to report that all his brothers and sisters, with one exception, had given their hearts to God. Another Roman Catholic tradesman who had found the Lord in Hamburg went on his journey, carrying with him Testaments and tracts ; saying, as he left, that if the grace of God had been sufficient to save him, it could save any one. This was one of the openings of Providence to which, according to his ordination charge, Craig felt he was expected to attend. By the end of 1 846 he was able to report that he had given a small salary to several young men to enable them to use their free time in colportage work. " Four of my colporteurs," he reported, "are at present in town giving an account of their work. One has been working in Brandenburg, and has sold more than what paid his expense. Another has been working in Hanover, Olden- burg, Bremen, and East Friezeland, and has paid in £\2 for books sold, after paying expenses. Heavy is the fine for introducing the gospel into Austria, and yet I have COLPORTAGE 55 succeeded in distributing nearly 10,000 tracts and New Testaments in that country. One colporteur has been travelling in Rhenish Prussia, where there is a dense Roman Catholic population, and has done good work among the German Catholics there." The colporteurs gave in monthly reports of their ex- perience, and in this way Dr. Craig obtained accurate information about the religious state of the different provinces and kingdoms through which they travelled. When they found any evangelical pastors, they left tracts and books with them for the use of their congregations, and Dr. Craig took a note of the parties whom he ought to visit on the earliest opportunity. In a few years Dr. Craig had the names of eight hundred clergy who were on the Lord's side, and who contributed towards the support of the colportage. He was greatly astonished at the number, and could only think of the seven thousand in the days of Elijah, of whom he had known nothing. But the Lord knew them. One colporteur reported of his work along the Rhine, among the Roman Catholics, how he had distributed such tracts as " The True Catholic," " The Priest and the Bible," " The Church in the House " (by Dr. James Hamilton), " The Dairyman's Daughter," tracts on Sabbath observ- ance and many for children, which were greedily sought after. In one town there had been a spiritual awakening, and over a hundred people were meeting regularly for prayer. They were very poor, so that they could not buy books, but such works as James's " Anxious Inquirer," Baxter's " Saints' Rest," Wilcock's " Drops of Honey," Alleine's u Alarm," Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted," and similar books, were accepted as a lending library, and many gospel tracts passed from hand to hand. In the course of a month, four thousand tracts and devotional books had been sold or distributed, besides New Testa- ments, by that colporteur alone. 56 POVERTY OF THE COUNTRY POVERTY OF THE COUNTRY. As Craig travelled round to visit the places brought specially to his notice by the colporteurs, what struck him most was the excessive poverty of the country. It was the fruit of war. The last scourge of the kind had been the French invasion. Dr. Craig met with many old men that, forty years previously, had fought in Napoleon's army — for he had many Germans serving under him — and some that had fought against that tyrant. He found that where the French soldiers had been billeted on the peasantry, they had robbed and plundered them in a most gentlemanly fashion. Old ladies told how polite the French soldier was. If a clean tablecloth was spread, and a clean napkin given him, he seldom complained of his food, even when scanty. If he carried away a clock or looking-glass to be pawned, he would, with a shrug of his shoulders, remark that his pay was far behind. If he rummaged the drawers and carried away clean linens or stockings, he would say, with a smile, that if the old pieces he left behind were washed and darned they might be of some use still. On the other hand, when the Russian Cossack came as friend and protector, he was never satisfied with his food or the treatment he received. He took delight in smashing the looking-glasses and crockery, cutting with the sabre the pictures on the wall, breaking up garden paling and wash-tub for firing, and never once expressing thanks for any favour. Between the two — the friend and the foe — the furniture was stolen or destroyed, the fence broken down, the crops trodden, the children's flower-beds trampled on, the husband or father or brother carried away to forced labour, not to speak of the wives and daughters and their bitter grief. Capital had been carried out of the country and the spirit of the people crushed, that it required two or three genera- tions to pass before the former comfort was restored. IN HOIS TE IN AND SC HIES WIG 57 Thirty or forty years had already passed, but the people were still crushed from the effects of the war. Such was the poverty, that the Silesian weaver, by work- ing fifteen hours a day, could scarcely earn ten pence for the support of the family. They had small allotments in the villages, to be cultivated by the wife and children ; and the pig and the poultry helped to keep the family alive. A professor in college often began on ,£40 a year, and his salary was slowly advanced, so that on £80 he considered himself tolerably comfortable. The district resident magistrate got married when his salary rose to ,£50 or £60. The skilled tradesman in towns earned is. 3d. to 2s. per day. About 45 per cent, of the families in all Germany had an income under ten shillings per week ; and 92 per cent, had less than a hundred pounds a year. IN HOLSTEIN AND SCllLESWKi. As Holstein was so near, Craig could visit several of the towns and return to his place in Hamburg on Sunday. He visited Kiel, Rendsburg, and Gliickstadt, with the towns that lay between. In Kiel he saw the university, with its two hundred students — mostly poor, hated by the towns- people, without discipline or examination in their classes, attending lectures when they chose, and fond of duels. Claus Harms was the university preacher, a distinguished and a godly man, one of the great lights in Germany, who kept open house for the students once a week, and who exercised a beneficial influence on them and the whole land. ■ PASTOR BRODERSEN. In Rendsburg the one man worthy of notice was Pastor Brodersen, the prison chaplain. Born in a family that was not in any way under the influence of the gospel ; educated in a Rationalistic High School, studying at the University of Kiel, where at that time there was only one professor — 58 PASTOR BRODERSEN i Twesten — who had £ny respect for the Word of God, there was little prospect/ of his becoming the earnest Christian he then was. All through hAs college course a sense of sin had rested on his mind. He only knew one man in college who seemed to Ceel as he did, but that man never spoke of his soul's tr/Oubles. Brodersen would gladly have gone to Berlin/ to study under Neander, or to Halle to hear Thoiuck or Julius Muller, but his poverty prevented tAiis. He found some students, however, who had sat under these men, ready to lend their college notes, and from these Brodersen learned much that he wanted to know. When licensed to preach, he was persecuted by the clergy in Schleswig and Holstein, on account of his orthodoxy. There was no prospect of a call to any parish for the same reason. At last, however, he obtained an appointment as prison chaplain in Rendsburg, among twelve hundred of the worst characters in all Denmark, on a salary of ,£28 a year, without a dwelling. After fifteen years he was removed to Gliickstadt, and his salary raised to £100. In 1845, when Craig first visited him, he was, besides his duties in prison — where many of the worst prisoners had been converted under his influence — holding Bible readings in his own lodgings, that lasted often till after midnight, and it was in one of these meetings that Craig and he became knit together like brothers, with a love that was uninterrupted for forty-two years, till Brodersen passed away to glory in 1887. HENRY SOMMER. While thus pioneering, Dr. Craig came as far as Husum in Schleswig, where he found a singularly gifted man, Henry Sommer, whose influence on the great revival that after- wards took place in the Duchies was very marked. He HENRY SOMMER . 59 was only a shoemaker, but when his course was finished, and an immense crowd stood around his grave — including many clergy — the minister of the parish declared, in his funeral address, that he had been the means of turning more souls to God than all the clergy who stood round the grave, including himself. These two men — Pastor Brodersen of Rcndsburg, and Henry Sommer of Husum — were the only men whom Craig could find at that time, in all Schlesvvig and Hol- stein, who, while themselves resting on the Rock of Ages, were devoting their entire energy towards bringing a lost world home to Christ. As they thus stood alone, Craig clung closely to them, visiting them frequently and keeping up a regular and happy correspondence. There were, no doubt, several other true believers in the country, but they were not active with a single eye to God's glory. It was worthy of notice that however few had found the light, and could say that they knew whom they had believed, still when Brodersen preached in any parish church the place was always crowded by people who came not only from that, but also from adjoining parishes. When Sommer visited the neighbouring villages, it was with difficulty he could prevent the people gathering round him in such numbers as to attract the attention of the police. There was a hungering after the word of life, and few — very few — who had any message to offer that was calculated to lift the burden from the weary soul. Even Harms of Kiel denounced private religious meetings, and insisted that the parish minister alone had a right to teach. If any individual did not know the gospel himself, why, then it was a misfortune ; but the parishioners dare not do anything to help themselves. As a rule, the Holstein ministers did not preach heresy in any form ; but they had such confidence in the rites and ceremonies of the Church, that they wanted nothing more. The prescribed text was 60 HENRY SOMMER taken up every year without change — the same text on the same day, as it returned ; thus expounding about a hundred and twenty portions of Scripture annually, and leaving the rest. The people considered it to be a great privilege to know beforehand what subject would be taken up by their minister, for, if they did not feel inclined to go to church, they could, while staying at home, read the text of the day for themselves. Every person, on his way to church, might be seen carrying his hymn-book, but not one in a thousand carried either Bible or New Testament. Under the influence of Rationalism the old system, of a previous century, of reading the Scripture had died out. CHAPTKR V " Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God ! " — Isaiah xl. i. "Jesus, I do trust Thee ; trust without a doubt. Whosoever cometh, Thou wilt not cast out." ORDINARY WORK. THESE journeys did not interfere in any way with the work at home. From eight to ten hours each day when at home were given to the instruction of Jewish callers. For several years, thirty to forty at a time was a fair average of the Jews under instruction, who generally insisted on being seen separately. An evening class was established for Jewish children. But as all the Jews could obtain an excellent education free, this branch of mission labour was not so fruitful as it was in other towns. There were several baptisms, but Dr. Craig was cautious in admitting his inquirers to that ordinance. He wished them to remain after their baptism for a time under his care, and where that was not possible, he preferred giving them letters of commendation to other stations, where they could remain for some time under the missionary's care. That one should sow and another should reap he did not consider a bad arrangement at all — and was content to be the sower. On the Sunday evening he gathered as many as were willing to come to a preaching service in his own house, and allowed others besides Jews to attend. He preached 61 62 VISITORS frequently in the English Congregational church ; took part in their Sunday school ; had a class of young ladies in a large boarding school for an hour each Sunday evening under instruction ; kept up the Saturday service for Jews as long as any were willing to come ; and spent much time in visiting from house to house, where he had made acquaintance. VISITORS. There were many visitors who called on him from time to time. Among these was Dr. Raffles, of Liver- pool, whom he had known when living in that town. Dr. Marriott, of Basel, who carried on tract distribution in South Germany and Switzerland, as Dr. Craig did in North Germany and Austria ; Dr. Baird, of New York ; Professor Tholuck, of Halle ; with Mr. Morse, of America, and many others of a similar class, were among his visitors. In the early years of his residence, as there was some clanger of being expelled from Hamburg, as his predecessor had been, he became a German citizen ; but at that time this step did not involve the giving up of his English citizenship. MISS AMALIA SIEVEKING. Amalia Sieveking, a member of one of the most dis- tinguished patrician families in the city, had chosen as her life's work to labour among the poor. She had been con- verted under Dr. Merle D'Aubigne when he was French pastor in Hamburg, and on his removal from town she became one of Pastor Rautenberg's circle, or rather under- took a work of her own. She had formed a society for systematic visiting and helping the poor, and about seventy or eighty ladies had joined to assist her. One day Miss Sieveking called to inquire whether it was true that Dr. Craig was holding Bible readings in his house, and that these meetings were well attended. She inquired MISS AM ALIA SIEVEKING 63 whether he knew that such meetings were contrary to law, and subjected him to fine and banishment. He knew all this, only that they could not banish him as lie was a Hamburg citizen. She was delighted to hear that there was one man in the city who was prepared to follow the example of the apostles when they had been ordered not to preach in the name of Christ. Rautenberg defied the civic authorities in the suburb of St. George when they ventured to trespass on the rights of the Church, but there was hitherto no one within the walls to do so. She then explained the nature of her work, and the deep interest she took in the temporal and spiritual well-being of the poor. She had a large number of respectable and worthy poor families on her list, and was not only seeking remunerative employment for those who were willing to work ; food, clothing, and medicine for the sick ; but above all she wanted to benefit their souls. Now among the seventy or eighty ladies of the first families in town that were enrolled as her assistants, there were, she said, very- few whom she could trust to deal with an awakened soul, so as to show the only way of peace. The churches were large and cold, and as many of her women suffered from rheumatism, they could not attend a service in the house of God. Besides, as there were so very few of the pastors who were preaching the way of salvation, she was greatly concerned that so little could be done for the spiritual welfare of her poor people. What she wanted was some comfortable, small room, where the people could assemble once a week to listen to an address from one of the believing pastors. Would Dr. Craig give his drawing-room for her use ? In all Hamburg no one would give a room for such a purpose, for fear of the police. On learning that it was Pastor Monckeberg she intended to ask to conduct the service, Craig said he would gladly 64 MISS AM ALIA SIEVE KING give his room. When the pastor was applied to, he said he dared not hold a Divine service anywhere except in the church during canonical hours. On being asked what constituted a Divine service, he replied : " Praise, prayer, reading and exposition of Scripture." When asked whether it would be a Divine service, such as the law prohibited, in case one of the three elements mentioned were omitted, he thought by the omission of singing, and confining the exercise to prayer, with the reading and exposition of Scripture, there could be no objection to hold such a meeting ; and he finally consented to conduct a meeting of the kind in Craig's house. Between eighty and a hundred respectable poor women assembled every Friday evening to hear a portion of Scripture expounded by Pastor Monckeberg, till the time came when the laws were changed and religious assemblies were declared to be free. The pastor had the afternoon service in the great Nicholas Church on Sunday, and he said that his congregation varied from six to ten indi- viduals each Sunday, while here in Craig's room he had eighty to a hundred every Friday, hanging on his lips for a word of comfort or direction. No other house in the whole town could be found where such meetings could be held. It was, therefore, to Miss Sieveking and to many of her poor old pensioners a source of pleasure to have this opportunity of hearing an exposition of the Word of God. The Princess Frederick of Schleswig Holstein Gliicks- burg, aunt of the Princess of Wales, heard of Dr. Craig through Miss Sieveking, and every time she came to Hamburg she sent for him to consult him about mission work she was carrying on on her estates, and to obtain books for distribution. Twice a year the daughter of the Princess Frederick and her cousin, who became afterwards the Princess of Wales, wrote to Dr. Craig to obtain Bibles, Testaments, books, and tracts in large print for the labourers on the estate. TOUR IN HANOVER AND HESSE CASSEL 65 TOUR IN HANOVER AND HESSE CASSEL. In 1847 Dr. Craig made a long tour through Hanover, Hildesheim, Brunswick, and the Electorate of Hesse, which afforded many opportunities of usefulness. He made the acquaintance of several earnest evangelical pastors, many of whom were struggling with great difficulties. Many of these said they had not a single earnest Christian in the whole parish ; the Sundays and market days were spent in such open violation of God's law, that the word of the pastor could bring no fruit. In such cases a word of sympathy and comfort was highly prized. Craig visited the isolated Jewish families in the villages, and strove to induce the pastors to take an interest in them. He left supplies of tracts with those who were willing to distribute them, and pressed on the pastors the great importance of establishing Christian libraries to counteract the baneful influence of the village lending libraries. When his colporteurs afterwards visited these pastors whose ac- quaintance Craig had made, they were able to leave their books on commission, and thus procure a greater sale. In Hildesheim, the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop and a stronghold of Popery, he found far better oppor- tunities for distributing evangelical literature than in most Protestant towns. He visited the villages in the neighbour- hood, and wherever he went the books were gladly received and read. Especially the children were quite insatiable, and he comforted many of them by the information that his colporteur would soon be among them to provide them with as many books as they chose to buy. In the hotel where he stopped, his books were allowed to lie on the table, and on returning after some weeks he found them still there, bearing marks of having been well used. The hotel keeper showed himself very willing to keep the books on the table, as the guests liked to read them. He visited Gottingen, but found little en- couragement at that seat of learning, though some of the 6 66 AN ISRAELITISH FAMIL Y professors seemed very willing to discuss with him many weighty subjects. AN ISRAELITISH FAMILY. He had a letter of introduction to an Israelitish family in M , and met with a hearty welcome. He was in- vited to stay at their house. The heads of the family had been baptized, and the mother had clear intellectual per- ception of gospel truth. She was most energetic in pressing her views on her husband, who in no way appreciated his wife's missionary zeal It was painful to sit at the dinner- table and hear the domestic squabbles over knotty points of theology. At last, however, the mistress of the house appealed to Craig to decide that she was right on some point, and that it was only the great wickedness of her husband that prevented him from agreeing with her. The guest hinted that it was well known to be a thankless task to attempt to settle disputes between husband and wife. As she, however, professed to be a Christian, it might be a matter for earnest consideration whether she was treating her husband with the gentleness and respect that the apostle Paul expected from a wife. The reproof was put in such a way as to touch the woman's heart ; so, rising from the table, she stood before her husband, acknow- ledged she was wrong, and asked his pardon. Such a thing had never before been known in that household. That evening, contrary to his usual custom, the husband remained in the room after supper, and not only attended family prayers, but took part in serious conversation after- wards. When Dr. Craig had retired to rest, the master of the house came to his bedroom quite exultant, saying : 11 She never did that before ! She asked my pardon — yes, she asked my pardon ! She knew she was in the wrong, and she asked my pardon. It was you made her do that ; she never did so before," and he seemed quite happy. The guest listened for some time in silence, and then AN ISRAELITISH FA MIL Y 67 asked if he might make a remark. " Oh, anything, every- thing ! You have made my house happy. Say whatever you like." The guest then ventured to hint that he was not quite sure that the fault had been all on one side that night. The host listened, while it was pointed out that in the course of the heated conversation he had made use of very objectionable expressions, with reference to God and Jesus Christ, and there was no evidence that he had asked pardon of God. " Now would it not be well," said the guest, " if you were to ask pardon of God, as your wife asked your pardon ? " The man was struck dumb ; and when the meaning of some expressions he had used was explained, he cried, " I never thought of that before ! I never thought that He would care about our words, when I did not mean any harm to anybody. Does God really listen to our words, and is He vexed at what one may happen to say without intending any harm ? " The sins of the tongue were pressed home on him. At first he could only see the faults of his wife's tongue ; but by degrees it dawned on him that he had acted far worse against God, than his wife against him. A deep convic- tion of sin took hold of the man, and as long as Craig remained in the house he sought every opportunity of being alone with his guest. His wife's request for pardon had given him such exquisite pleasure, that he could easily realise how it might please God to hear the humble and penitent cry coming in sincerity out of the depth of his soul. As Mr. L. had expressed disinclination to ask his wife for an explanation of any difficulties that might arise, it was suggested that he might apply to one of the Lutheran clergy in town, in case of need. On visiting this clergy- man, who was said to preach sound doctrine on many points, Craig was told that if this old Jew chose to 68 AN ISRAELIT1SH FA MIL V attend the church on Sunday he had no objection, but to ask him to come for instruction was rather much to expect from a parish minister. Craig kept up a regular correspondence with this family, and often received letters of sixteen closely written pages in reply. There was a daughter of eight or nine years in the house, who listened with great attention to everything that was said by the visitor, and took a deep interest in the devotional exercises. Her mind was evidently opening to receive the truth. About a year after this first visit, this little girl came into the room where her father was sitting, and, dancing round the room, sang with great glee a hymn she had just learned from some of her playmates, " I long to be like Jesus — I long to be with Jesus," &c. As the father was occupied with something, he begged her to be silent. As, however, she continued to sing, she was ordered to go to bed ; and on leaving the room, she turned to her father and said, " But I really do long to be with Jesus, and never come back, for it is far better than to be here." A couple of hours later the servant-maid asked the mother to see the child, as she was making strange noises. The mother sent at once for the doctor, but when the father heard of it he said the child was quite well, it was nothing but fun, the doctor should not be sent for. A couple of hours more passed and the mother became seriously alarmed, so that there was no further question about the need of bringing the medical man. At the first glance, when he came, he pronounced the attack to be diphtheria, and said nothing could be done, it was then too late. Had he been called two hours sooner he might have saved the child, but the case had become utterly hopeless. In the frenzy of a mother's grief she turned to her husband and calling him the murderer of her child, bade him leave the room. AN ISRAELITISH FAMIL Y 69 In agony he retired to his own room. He had been called a murderer, and perhaps he was. Dr. Craig had called him a blasphemer, and that was quite true — many a bitter hour he had spent till he hoped for pardon of that grievous offence. But now he was called a murderer — of his own child. With the strong passion of a Jew, and the depth of affection in a Jewish parent's heart, he sank into despair and could not venture even to pray. At the funeral he was like a man who had lost his reason, and as each day seemed to deepen the sense of despair, at last Mrs. L. proposed to send for Dr. Craig — perhaps he would come. Railway communication was at that time not much developed, and the distance being over two hundred miles, several days elapsed before he could arrive by the Iiil- wagen. The poor trembling figure stood at the coach as Dr. Craig stepped out after his thirty or forty hours' drive, and to the anxious inquiry how he felt, Mr. L. replied, " It will be all right now that you are come." The whole of that night he sat beside the bed of his weary guest, from time to time asking whether a mur- derer could really obtain mercy from God ? Very slowly the old man's heart opened to receive the comfort of the gospel ; but before the visitor left, the light — though dim — was shining into that soul. He lived three or four years, keeping up a regular correspondence with Craig, and frequently expressing his wonder that the grace of God was able to reach him — even him. One evening, when his children were playing around him, he had been telling them of the unspeakable love of Jesus. As was his custom, he threw a handkerchief over his head to have a sleep in his armchair, and his wife coming to call him to supper, found him sitting in the chair, but his spirit had fled. He had received the gospel like a little child, and like a little child he had fallen asleep. Many a visit had Dr. Craig paid him during the last years of his life, and 7o IN HESSE CASSEL every time had found him growing in grace and in likeness to Jesus; but now the summons had come: Friend, come up higher. IN HESSE CASSEL. Having letters of introduction to Mr. Abee, the Prime Minister of the Electorate, to Mr. Elvers, the Chief Justice, and to some of the officers of the army, who were Christian men, Craig received much kindness from them, and they spent many hours studying the Scripture to- gether. As the church organisation gave little encourage- ment to vital Christianity, there were many awakened souls in the Electorate that did not know where to turn for spiritual nourishment. If there was a Mora- vian church near, it opened its doors to receive many anxious inquirers. The Irvingites, however, were begin- ning to exercise much influence, especially on the higher officers of the army. A distinguished Professor of Theo- logy in Marburg, Thiersch, had joined them, and though they gave him no position — not even the lowest — in their most mechanical organisation, still he remained faithful to them till death, and used his pen freely on their behalf, though the step he had taken had cost him the loss of his professorship. The Plymouth Brethren were also spread- ing rather rapidly, and Dr. Craig was therefore welcomed in many of the higher circles, as one who could help earnest minds towards a decision on the important ques- tions of life and death, in the midst of many opposing forms of belief. In the whole city of Cassel there was but one pastor who preached the gospel, and he was the chaplain of the prison. From a dozen to twenty people of the citizens who attended his services were drinking in from him out of the great fountain. A large company of others heard him gladly, and claimed on that account to be reckoned as Zion's pilgrims. As it could not be said they had any IN HESSE CA SSEL 7 1 other claim than that they listened patiently to one who denounced their faults, their case was very unsatisfactory, and Craig's first interview with them was generally also the last. The prison chaplain was very faithful, and this last- named class of his hearers boasted that they still attended his preaching, though he prophesied hard things of them. Was that not a good sign of their state, they said. For the pastor frequently declared they had no more claim, in themselves, on God's favour than the thief on the cross — but that they knew was a great exaggeration. They understood these evangelical preachers, and discounted their phrases, that were evident quotations from Luther, Spener and such people, that really belonged to a former generation. The pastor, however, was faithful at his post, and though on a salary not much above that of an ordinary day labourer, he spared no one and flattered no one, how- ever high his social position. He gave Craig an oppor- tunity of supplying him with tracts and library books for his prisoners and for general distribution. As these were given gratuitously, he was able to use large supplies, and this arrangement lasted till his death. So here was another field and another sower, whom Craig gladly supplied with the good seed, to be scattered far and wide. For the prisoners sent the tracts to their friends at home, or had them bound, to be taken with them on leaving the prison. In Cassel he found a Jewish family ready to listen to his message, and the two highly educated and accomplished daughters of the house soon came to own the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and their King. The mother also seemed to be convinced of the Messiahship of Jesus, but feared to confess Him publicly ; while the two young ladies, after a couple of years, were baptized, and gave evidence by their lives that their profession of faith was something that influenced their whole character and conduct. On the Sunday afternoon, Craig gathered a little com- 72 IN SILESIA AND POSEN pany to go with him to the Wilhelm's Hohe, where, in the lovely pleasure grounds, with the fountains playing and the grand cascade rushing past, they were able un- disturbed to sing their hymns and listen to the pro- claiming of a Saviour's love— the sound of the water drowning their voices as they sang, so that the police took no notice. On other occasions they met early in the morning, or late in the evening, in the Augarten, near the Elector's palace, where, among the orange trees, with the nightin- gales giving out their sweet notes, the sweeter notes of the gospel were drunk in ; while the beauty of the scene and the fragrance of the orange groves made many of those present say, " This is as the gate of heaven." The hours spent on these occasions were remembered for many years by grateful hearts. IN SILESIA AND TOSEN. As his place in Hamburg was well supplied, he was not obliged to hasten home. So he crossed over Leipzig and Dresden to Silesia and Posen. All along the Rhine, in Bremen and Oldenburg, Craig had visited his colporteurs and strengthened their hands, supplying them with a fresh stock of pure evangelical literature adapted to their field of labour. In the east of Prussia he was once more among the German Catholics, many of whom were ex- cessively poor, and all of them quite ignorant of the simplest elements of the Word of God. This excessive poverty was found to be as great a hindrance to the spread of the gospel as in other cases was the deceitfulness of riches. " Give me neither riches nor poverty " was a wise prayer. In a letter written at the time, Craig quotes with approbation an article that had appeared in " Evangelical Christendom " about what Posen most wants. The writer of the article had said : " What is most needed in Posen is IN LUBECK 73 some wise Christian brother, of large heart and mind, who could remain some months among the people, to strengthen and encourage both pastors and church members ; to help to unite more into one body the several scattered congrega- tions, and from time to time to communicate with British Christians." If weeks were substituted for months, this would represent what Craig tried to do in that province. As the proportion of Jews residing there was one in every eight of the population, he of course made them his especial care. Being a comparative stranger, he had as yet little opportunity of preaching, but he found his way into many houses, and when his personal work was done, he left his colporteurs to scatter among the people that literature which was best adapted to their case. IN lObeck. After returning home and working for some weeks, he paid a visit to Lubeck, where he found the venerable Reformed Pastor Geibel, who had borne a faithful testi- mony to the truth for fifty years in that old Hanseatic, ultra Lutheran city. Mr. Geibel's son Emanuel, the dis- tinguished and well known Christian poet, was there at the time. Only one Jew was permitted to reside in Lubeck ; the rest who did business there lived at the village of Moisling, in the neighbourhood, returning home at sunset. Here Craig made many acquaintances, and the Jews whom he met in Moisling visited him regularly when they came to Hamburg. It was thus by friendly intercourse that he sought to lead them to study the Scripture for themselves. CHAPTER VI HELPS AND HINDRANCES "A great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries." — I Cor. xvi. 9. " Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land ; I am weak, but Thou art mighty ; Hold me with Thy powerful hand." CRITICISMS. THE work in Hamburg was progressing steadily. The attendance at the Sunday evening services was satisfactory. There were several cases of conversion. And yet it appeared that the visible success among the Jews did not keep pace with the growth of the work among others. Dr. Craig sent regular monthly reports, and received replies approving of what he was doing. And still he was not quite sure whether the Mission Directors fully understood his case. This uneasiness was increased by the fact that he was not working on the same lines as other missionaries to the Jews, who confined themselves exclusively to that work. On visiting these missionaries he was told that he had no right to work among those who were not Jews. The others, it was said, had their own ministers, to whose care they ought to be left. " But," Craig urged, " if nominal Christians come to my house, asking permission to take CRITICISMS 75 part in my meetings, and complaining that their pastors do nothing for them, what then ?" "Then leave the respon- sibility on the shoulders of their pastors ; you are not sent but to the house of Israel," was the universal reply. And as he urged that at his ordination he was directed not to confine himself to any one class, he was told that such a mixing up of two kinds of work was an impossibility. It could not succeed. He denied that preaching to the Jew was different from preaching to the Gentile. It was the same gospel that could save both their souls. But besides, how could the Jew know that Christianity is a reality, if he did not see a Christian community living up to their privileges ? A writer in Dr. Hengstenberg's Kirchenzeitung had written complaining of Dr. Craig, " That, when he had made the same experience as other missionaries, how the Lord had, for the present, closed the door of access to the Jew, instead of meekly sitting down and patiently waiting till the times changed, he had presumptuously turned to the Christians, for whose benefit he had no commission whatever to work." To this Craig had replied that if it was true that the Lord had closed the door of access to the Jew, then the presumption would be to continue that work contrary to His - will, and the duty would be to give it up. If the writer had made inquiry, he would have found that the door of access to the Jew was not shut. He would have found Craig engaged many hours each day with Jew r s, who took a deep interest in his instruction. The inquirer would have learned further that at Craig's ordination he had been directly charged not to confine himself to the Jew, but to proclaim the gospel wherever he had an opportunity. As a matter of fact, the nominal Christians who, under his influence, had become real Christians, had frequently opportunities of dealing with the Jew far more efficiently than a missionary could do. A tradesman dealing with 76 VISIT TO BELFAST his Jewish companions in a workshop, or a sewing girl with the Jewish mistress of the house where she worked every week, was, under certain circumstances, a more efficient labourer than the missionary, however learned and zealous, could ever hope to be. VISIT TO BELFAST. As the complaints were so persevering and so universal among the best men he knew, Craig resolved, by a personal visit to the Board of Missions at headquarters, to learn definitely what was expected of him by those to whom he was responsible. He felt he could then work with greater comfort. On arriving in Belfast he called first on Rev. David Hamilton, the Secretary, who referred to the first apostle to the Gentiles (Acts xvii. 2), "as his manner was " going into the synagogue, and three Sabbath days reasoning with the Jews out of the Scripture. And again Peter — the apostle specially for the Jews — being the first to preach suc- cessfully to the Gentiles. Craig said he gave far more time to the work among the Jews, and yet his success was far greater where he bestowed less labour. Dr. Edgar replied to this, that success is of God and we dare not prescribe to Him when or how to bless. Dr. Cooke said that if they prevented Craig admitting Gentiles to his meetings, then they ought, in consistency, not to allow a Jew to enter their churches at home. Dr. Morgan said they were all satisfied with the lines on which Craig was working. So with this unanimous approval he returned joyfully to his field of labour. SUNDAY SCHOOLS. Nearly twenty years before this time, Pastor Rautenberg had opened a Sunday school in Hamburg, and in the course of time the number of schools had increased to six. Craig now opened a Sunday school, and gradually the number of teachers and scholars increased. He soon COLPORTAGE 77 made the discovery how ignorant the young people were of the Bible, and how unwilling to accept direct instruc- tion, so he thought that by bringing the teachers together once a week for preparation, he had the best possible opportunity of instructing his young converts in the principles of religion. Many of them would listen gladly to instruction how to present certain doctrines to their class, while they might have resented the notion of being directly taught for their own benefit. It was generally supposed that with confirmation, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, religious instruction should cease, and by that time the young people ought to know everything that was necessary about religion. The weekly meeting for prcparation of the Sunday-school lessons was therefore very important. COLPORTAGE. Some of his colporteurs worked under direction of the committee of the local Tract Society, but others laboured independently under his own sole charge. Among the latter was one named Martens, who for seven years carried on a successful work in Holstein. His brother was a distinguished pastor in Schleswig, holding the position of provost, but this man had long wandered far from the fold. When he was converted, however, in advanced life, the change was complete, and he applied to Craig for appointment to colportage work. After repeatedly urging his request, Craig consented at last to make a trial, and gave him a dozen of Bibles and as many Testaments to see what he could do. In about three hours he returned to say they were all sold, and he counted out the money. Having received a supply double of what the first had been, he returned next evening and counted out the money — they were all sold. For seven years he never returned till the whole supply that had been given was disposed of, though on such occasions he 78 COLPORTAGE frequently required to give an account of several hundreds of copies of Scripture. The need of this work was manifest. Not a Jewish family in twenty had a whole Bible in the house, and among the Christians the Bible was mostly used only as a school-book for the children between ten and fourteen years. To obtain a Bible frequently implied a journey of from twenty to fifty miles. And devotional books were in most districts very rare indeed. What a boon, then, it was to have a man coming round twice a year not only with Bibles, but also with the works of Luther and Spener and Zinzendorf ; of Bogatzky, Arndt, and Hofacker, as well as Bunyan, Baxter, Alleine, and Doddridge ; and for those who had little time or inclination to read, there was the pithy pointed tract to show the way to the throne of grace. With a knapsack carrying eighty to ninety pounds weight on his back, and an open Testament in his hand, Martens, who was then over sixty years of age, would set out in the morning on his journey. To any word of sympathy for the weight of his load, he would reply, " A blessed burden ! May the Lord send hungry and thirsty souls for this bread and water of life ! " The mounted police often arrested him, and buckling him with a strap to their horse's girth, would make the old man, with the heavy burden on his back, run merrily beside the horse — often for some miles — to the nearest police station. Running, almost breathless, at the policeman's side, he would inquire whether the man had a Bible at home. Of course he had not. Then did he know the great love of Jesus ? And the prisoner would repeat portions of Scripture, saying that the word of life was for him. It often happened that when he came near the police office, the strap was loosed and the policeman, with a tear in his eye, would say he might run away, as he could not hand COLPORTAGE 79 him over to be punished. The authorities acted on the lines of the old-time Jerusalem police, whose formula was : I find no fault in this man, therefore I will scourge him and let him go. So, if Martens was taken to the police office, he was fined or imprisoned for a time. When Martens was thus set free and told to leave the neighbourhood, he would ask the policeman or magistrate to buy a New Testament. If a New Testament was bought, Martens would then suggest to buy another for his wife or his children, telling the beautiful things they would find in the book — and all true. " What will you do when you stand at last before the judgment-seat without having made peace with Jesiis ? " he would ask. One day, Martens was arrested and brought before the burgermaster in Husum, in Schleswig. He was told that his books were confiscated, and he might consider himself fortunate that he was not sent to prison. " Will you keep my books without paying for them ? " asked Martens. " Is that not stealing ? At least you will give me a list of what you have kept ? " When he received the list and was shaking his head over it, the magistrate inquired if the list was not correct ? " Oh yes, but I was thinking I would not like to be in the magistrate's place when I give this list to Dr. Craig — for he is an Englishman." After some loud talk on the part of the enraged magis- trate, which brought his wife, some of the servant-maids, and some policemen from adjoining apartments, he was told to take his Bibles with him and be gone. After making his usual inquiry whether the magistrate had a Bible in the house, he succeeded in selling eight copies of Scripture to the lady, the maids, the policemen, and the magistrate himself before he left the court. Shaking hands all round, he lifted up his eyes and prayed that the Holy Spirit might bless the books to them all, to lead them to know Jesus, and to experience the cleansing power of His precious blood. 8o A TEA-MEETING THIS WORK COMPARED WITH OTHER LOCAL AGENCIES. In that first year he sold over 1,500 copies of Scripture, and in the following year he disposed of about 5,000. In the following five years he sold from 2,000 to 5,000 Bibles and Testaments each year. To understand what that means, one ought to look at what was done by others. The Hamburg-Altona Bible Society, whose committee consisted of all the Lutheran pastors in Hamburg and Altona and several others in Holstein, with a goodly number of laymen, had been established by Dr. Pinkerton thirty years previously. This society, with forty to fifty names on its committee, reported about that time that in a whole year they had sold 168 copies of the Bible with the Apocrypha, besides giving away to pauper children, as confirmation presents, an additional number. These Bibles were disposed of in a district containing over 800,000 inhabitants. There was a branch Bible Society for eight country parishes on Hamburg territory, with annual meetings and annual sermons on the great import- ance of Bible distribution. In their annual reports, the ministers of all these parishes taken together, stated that they had sold or given away during the year thirty-one Bibles. As a matter of history, there was great joy expressed over the blessed influence that must follow such an extensive distribution of the Word of God with the Apocrypha. They did not sell many New Testaments, because the Apocrypha was not bound up in them. What might have been their joy could they have said, instead of thirty-one, sold by eight pastors, one of their number had sold five thousand Bibles within the year ! A TEA-MEETING. It was quite an innovation. No one had ever heard of the like. To be drinking tea and at the same time delivering mission addresses, singing hymns, and engaging in prayer, seemed to many a profanation of these sacred A TEA-MEETING Si services. Such meetings were customary in Elberfeld but not in the North of Germany. The occasion was this. It had been proposed to hold a public annual meeting of the local Tract Society. A trial had been made the previous year, but so few came together that it was most discouraging. Tract distribution was as unpopular in Germany at that time as it was in England and elsewhere. But, three centuries previously it was Luther's sermons, tracts, and fly-leaves that had helped on the spread of gospel truth more than the mere preaching in Wittenberg. A century before Luther's time, and two centuries after it, the same means had been greatly blessed ; in the former case by scattering Wycliff's tracts through Bohemia, and in the latter case by a wide circulation of Spener's, Francke's, Bogatzky's, and Arndt's tracts through Germany. Now how were the rich Hamburg merchants' families to be brought to take an interest in this work ? Craig secured the aid of his co-secretary in the Tract Society, Mr. Waitz, to call on twenty or thirty of the ladies in the leading families in town, asking each of them to provide tea and cake, with cups and saucers, for a dozen or more people, on the evening of the meeting ; they might invite their own intimate friends to sit at their table. And in this way about three hundred people of the class most wanted came together. Pastor Rautenberg presided, and at the first meeting there were eighteen ministers present. Wichern was there and Monckeberg, Nievert and Garve from Altona, Brauer of the mission-house, Stoter, Von Ahsen Sengelmann, Gleiss, &c, with several of the senators. Soon these gentlemen and ladies were holding similar meetings for their own purposes with great success. THE NORTH GERMAN FOREIGN MISSION. It was only a few years since the idea of a Foreign Mission had taken hold of the German churches. Zinzen- 7 82 THE NORTH GERMAN FOREIGN MISSION dorf and his Moravian Church had, in the first half of the eighteenth century, set an example of what individuals might accomplish. There were men ready to go out to the negro slaves in the West Indies, and when they were not permitted to teach the slaves, they sold themselves into slavery that they might have an opportunity of telling the message of a Saviour's love. The Danish Government gave facilities for missionaries to work in their colonies. Schwartz had gone out to India and been the means of bringing many of the natives to Christ. In the whole of that vast territory there was not a single man in any position who possessed the power over the natives which he did, by virtue of his consistent Christian character. The Basel and the Barmen Missionary Societies had for several years done excellent pioneer work for foreign missions in the south and west of Germany. The former dated back to the early years of the present century, and the latter to 1830 — the time when the first awakenings of an evangelical spirit took place in Germany. The North German Foreign Mission was founded a few years later, when a seminary for training missionaries was opened in Hamburg under Mr. Brauer. At his death it was removed to Bremen, where it still prospers. The first missionary students of the North German Missionary Society were men who had given themselves with their whole heart to the Lord. As there was no Divine service in any of the German churches on Sunday later than two o'clock, these young men generally came to Dr. Craig's service on the Sunday evening, and fre- quently took part in his meetings, by prayer and short addresses. As these were the only opportunities the young men had of exercising their gifts outside the seminary, these occasions were greatly prized by the students, and were much blessed to the hearers. It was early in 1848 that the first missionaries from this THE NORTH GERMAN FOREIGN MISSION 83 Institution were set apart for their work by Pastor Rauten- berg, of Hamburg, and Pastor Mttller, of Bremen. Four of them were sent to West Africa and one to the Maories of New Zealand. Before leaving Hamburg for their sphere of labour, there was a very solemn leave-taking in Dr. Craig's meeting-place, when each of them declared that some of the happiest hours of their life had been spent in these prayer- meetings, where they had an opportunity of joining in prayer and speaking a word for that dear Saviour who had called them to work in His vineyard. Two of the missionaries sent to Africa died almost immediately after landing on that deadly coast, and the two others died within a year. The Church of God wonders at these mysterious providential dispensations but bows under His declaration," What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." The fifth missionary, Honore, who was ordained and sent out to New Zealand, preached a most earnest sermon in Craig's room to a large congregation, on the Sunday before starting for his mission-field. The words spoken and the prayers of that evening were long remembered by many who were waiting and watching for the day when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. All these missionaries called on Dr. Craig to bid farewell, and to thank him for the light he had thrown on many passages of Scripture, that would enable them to preach with more power, should they ever be permitted to expound to the heathen that precious gospel, which was so dear to their own souls. Craig often thanked God that he had been permitted to take part in so many instances of churches in different lands sending out their first mission- aries to the heathen. In the church of his fathers ; in North Germany ; in Denmark ; in Stockholm and Christiania, he was permitted to be present and assist at the first setting apart of missionaries to the foreign field. What a short time since the churches have awakened to this duty ! 84 AN EXPERIENCE MEETING COLLEAGUES APPOINTED. The Mission Directors in Belfast were so much pleased with the openings for work which had been found, that they resolved to send out additional labourers. Mr. Givan was the first appointed to this field. He was a young man, of a good standing in his college ; but after a trial of about four years his health broke down and he returned home. The Assembly appointed him (then Dr. Givan) to be one of the professors in the Magee College, Londonderry, where he continued all his life. Mr. Hart was the second Assistant chosen. He had been Assistant-Professor of Hebrew under Rev. Dr. Hincks, of Belfast. He remained, however, only a few months at the post and then retired. The Rev. W. Graham, of Damascus, who had returned from that field after seven years' faithful work, was the third appointment, as the health of his family did not permit him to return to Syria. He was sent for a short time to Hamburg, with the design of afterwards taking up some other post on the Continent. After three years' residence in Hamburg he settled finally at Bonn, and Craig was again left alone. AN EXPERIENCE MEETING. Every week there were additions made to the attendance at the prayer-meetings. The close of 1847 was an especially earnest time. Those who professed to have been converted during the past two and a half years came together for a review of the past, and to plan for the future. They had been told that the trees in God's garden had their fruit in themselves, and grace received ought to be passed on. It was pressed on them that any candle lighted of the Lord ought to give light to others to show the Lord's glory in a dark land ; and they had been urged to begin at home — in their own families and workshops. " You must allow me to give up all attempts to work for AN EXPERIENCE MEETING 85 God in my workshop," said one, " for when I name the blessed Name, it calls out a torrent of blasphemy. I am doing more harm than good by attempting to protest against the most glaring sins." The speaker was one of the most earnest young men in the whole company, and he burst into tears as he said he could not listen to the blasphemy his comrades uttered against the Saviour. " I have lost my situation," said a young woman, " by ven- turing mildly to protest against falsehood and cheating that prevailed in our place." " I too have lost my situation as a servant-maid," said another, " by refusing to tell a lie, when my mistress required me to do so." " And I," said a bright lad, " have resigned my post where I had prospects of advancement, because there is not one of my colleagues that did not take delight in everything in his power that he knew to be wrong." " But," said a girl of about eighteen years, " only think of my case, where my father beats me with a strap because I will not go with him and mother to the theatre. Mother sits and cries the whole day, calling me a wicked girl that has broken up a happy home, and prefers a prayer-meeting to a game of cards or much that is worse." 11 Then," said the pastor, " it seems that none of you can find an opportunity of speaking profitably with your com- rades about Jesus. I have no objection that you give it up, on condition that you devote your leisure hours to prayer for your surroundings. If they will not listen when you speak to them of the Saviour, He will hear you when you speak to Him in pleading for their souls." The proposal was adopted, and the early months of 1848 saw many earnest souls kneeling in their chamber in prayer for the conversion of their companions. It was a time of intensely earnest secret prayer, and the fruit followed in due course. CHAPTER VII "Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars . . . but the end is not yet."— Matthew xxiv. 6, 11 Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error — There were no need for arsenals or forts." — Longfellow. REVOLUTION AND WAR, 1 848. THE year 1848 began as peacefully as any of its predecessors for the previous thirty years. Like a bolt from a cloudless sky, it was told over all Europe in the month of February that a Revolution had broken out in France. In Paris the barricades were erected in the leading streets. The roar of the cannon and the sharp crack of rifle or pistol filled the air. By night and by day this noise, mixed with the yell of a maddened crowd, never ceased. Louis Philippe and his queen fled in disguise to England. The first of Dr. Craig's expected colleagues had just arrived in Hamburg, and had been taken for a short run over a part of the field where Craig was so successfully carrying on his mission work in the midst of untold obstacles. Mr. Givan was delighted with all he saw, and it was hoped he would throw himself heartily into the work, so that the two colleagues might hope for many years to sustain each other's hands. 86 BERLIN S 7 The travellers had reached Brunswick. A merchant in that city had invited a dozen or more of his friends and neighbours to a prayer-meeting in his house, to be con- ducted by Dr. Craig. It had been a happy evening. But when the meeting was over, and Givan and Craig were returning to their hotel, they found the streets filled with a yelling mob that had just heard the news from Paris. The cry was raised for Religions-FreiJieit, Waffen-Freiheit, Rede-Freikeit — liberty for every man to do as he liked. The police were powerless. Public meetings were announced in the Town Hall, without leave asked or obtained. Some could speak, others could yell. Any one who chose could mount the platform and address the mob, but he was soon silenced if his message was not what the mob wanted to hear. From Brunswick they proceeded to Hildesheim and Hanover, and thence over the Harz mountains to Magdeburg. In every town the revolution had broken loose. The Prussian reserve troops were called in and ordered to march to the Rhine. At the railway stations were seen the heartrending partings of husband and wife — parent and child — separated at forty-eight hours' notice, perhaps never to meet again. In this confusion no mission work could be carried on, so the travellers soon returned home. The revolutionary spirit spread rapidly, and in a short time all the kings and princes of Europe were trembling not only for their throne, but for their very life. BERLIN. On the 23rd of February the barricades had been erected in Paris, and on the 1 8th of March the leaders of the mob in Berlin were heaving out sideboards, pianos, sofas, chests of drawers from the upper stories of the houses to erect barricades. Carts, cabs, and omnibuses were overturned on the streets. The cry, " Down with all Monarchs ! 88 THE FUNERAL OF THE RIOTERS Let us form a Republic ! " rung out loud above the awful din and confusion. The Crown Prince — afterwards the Emperor William I. — was then commander-in-chief of the Prussian army. He had a garrison of 22,000 soldiers in Berlin at his disposal, to maintain order in a city of 400,000 inhabitants, which meant about one soldier for every four families of the citizens. Planting his cannon close to the royal palace, for sixteen hours he bombarded the mob that were busy erecting barricades in the streets. The next morning the king, who was distressed at the bloodshed of the citizens, ordered the firing to cease and the soldiers to withdraw from the city. He placed himself at the head of the militia, and gave them the power that the soldiers had formerly possessed. A placard announced that the king was ready to treat with the people on their own terms. THE FUNERAL OF THE RIOTERS. The Crown Prince fled to England. The corpses of the citizens that had fallen during the night were collected and laid side by side in open coffins in front of the palace. There were 183 coffins, and the king and queen were required to come out and look at that fearful scene. A procession was in due course formed, and an immense crowd followed the corpses to the grave, singing as they went : " Jesus lives, no longer now Can thy terrors, Death, appal us ; Jesus lives, and this we know, Thou, O Grave, canst not enthral us. " Jesus lives, henceforth is death But the gate of life immortal ; This shall calm our trembling breath When we pass its gloomy portal. SCHLESWIG-HOLSTKIN WAR 89 " Jesus lives, for us He died, Then alone to Jesus living, Pure in heart may we abide, Glory to our Saviour giving." Of the eighty or a hundred thousand who sung on the way to the graveyard, these holy words, that they had learned at school, scarcely one believed them. The few hundreds of Kerliners who did believe on Jesus were lying on their knees in their chamber, trembling in the anticipation of what might happen, when that frenzied mob should return from the graveyard shouting " Vengeance ! " For several days the rioting was fearful. The armoury was broken open and the guns freely distributed among the mob, that then resembled wild beasts more than human creatures. The beautiful palace of the Crown Prince, Under the Linden, was attacked by torch-bearers ready to set it on fire, when a dapper little Jew rushed up the stairs and wrote in large letters, with chalk, on the door, " National Eigentlmm" — "The property of the people." Then turning to the citizens, he cried, with a stentorian voice, " Fellow citizens, protect your own property ! " The militia at once wheeled round, drove back the torch-bearers, and saved the palace. Who this man was, or why he acted thus, seemed never to have been discovered, but the words written with chalk on the door might have been seen there for more than a year. SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN WAR. The Berlin garrison went into camp for a few days in the Thicrgartcn outside the city, but as there seemed to be little prospect of them returning to their barracks without a renewal of the riots, some occupation at a distance from the city must be provided for them. A standing army is in all cases a menace to the peace of the country. Now it had happened that on the 20th of January, 184S, go SCHLESW1GH0LSTEIN WAR Frederick VII. succeeded his father on the throne of Denmark, and under pressure from a democratic Govern- ment in Copenhagen, he issued a decree by which Schleswig should be incorporated with the kingdom of Denmark. Here was an opportunity for the Prussian army to earn the applause of German patriots. Hitherto this Duchy had been united with Denmark only by the personal union of the rulers, in connexion with the Duchy of Oldenburg. Prussia now demanded that Holstein should not continue under Danish rule, and as Schleswig was by a long-standing treaty not to be separated from Holstein, it was demanded that this Danish province should also be separated from Denmark and united to Germany. As both requests were refused, war was proclaimed to compel Denmark to submit. According to Prussian notions it was a very wicked thing to annex a German province to Denmark ; but it was a righteous thing to separate a Danish province, Schleswig, from Denmark and annex it to Prussia. The railway from Berlin to Hamburg had just been opened, and every two hours saw a train arrive in Ham- burg with from five to eight hundred soldiers in each. General Wrangel acted as commander, in the absence of the Crown Prince. When Dr. Craig heard that the troops were on their way, he gathered his young men and directed them to stand, two by two, at the gate of the railway station, by day and night, as each train arrived, to offer every soldier a gospel tract. The free distribution of tracts had been hitherto little practised — indeed it was prohibited by the police, but in the time of war matters were every- where changed. If the troops rested a few days, there were other young men who took a supply of tracts and passed through the camp offering them to the soldiers. When the troops started by rail from Altona they were again visited, and had an opportunity of purchasing New Testaments or receiving a fresh supply of tracts. Dr. Craig was everywhere directing his workers, speaking to the SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN WAR 91 soldiers and officers, clearing up difficulties, and encour- aging the men to read the words of life. As the troops passed on to the field of battle, Craig's young men followed them, and in their lonely encampment, while waiting to be joined by their comrades, many of them were glad to have something useful to read. The workers were told that they would find many who had been the most daring blasphemers in the workshop, the factory, or the counting-house, as soon as they saw death staring them in the face, to be the readiest to hear a word about the way of salvation. And this they found in many instances to be the case. The young workers, who were only girding on their armour to do battle for the Lord, were astonished to find their prayers so abundantly answered, and to have often five or six soldiers at a time listening to them as they pointed out passages from one or another tract, telling of the love of Jesus and the efficacy of prayer. The printers were kept busy at work, and a careful watch was kept to provide the kind of literature from which the soldiers seemed likely to obtain the greatest amount of blessing. There were between thirty and forty thousand soldiers in the field on the German side, and quite as many picked troops on the Danish side. There was no chaplain with the army on either side, and the men were about to engage in deadly warfare, without any effort being made for their spiritual welfare. The tract distribution was then the only cfificient means of preaching the gospel among the troops. It was believed that it is the truth of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, that alone, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, could touch the conscience and save the soul ; whether the message of love from a risen Saviour was spoken or read. With the speaking little progress could be made, but the pithy pointed statements of the way of salvation, as con- tained in the tracts, could be read over and over, at times most favourable for reflection and meditation. 92 THE VOLUNTEERS So when Dr. Craig had found work for about thirty or forty of his young men in and around Hamburg and Altona — there being about ten or twelve at a time at work by day and night, working at three shifts and thus relieving each other — he himself went down to the different places where the soldiers encamped, and looked round to see what could be done. As ordinary work was mostly stopped, there was little difficulty in inducing his spiritual army to go down to any place where they could be useful. THE VOLUNTEERS. When the fighting began, there were some fearful scenes to be witnessed. A band of volunteers rushed to the provinces from all parts of Germany, with the expressed purpose of helping in the war of freedom. Some of them were the scum of every State in Germany, who had not the slightest idea of discipline, and whose presence was sufficient to counteract the plans of the ablest general. Wrangel was at his wits' end. He could not send them away, nor could he reduce them to discipline. So he formed them into a separate company, giving them a colonel of their own choice — Von der Tann ; and having saluted them as the glorious company who had come to offer their life's blood for the honour of their country, he said they deserved to lead off the dance — such being the military expression for the first engagement. This rabble was then planted with a lake on one side, a thick wood in their rear, and some eighteen thousand of the best soldiers in Europe in the front. They were told that their position resembled those who had burned their boats and must march on to victory. The engagement was short. The undisciplined mob were mown down before the Danish cannon. Of many of those who fell, it might be said that their own mothers would never inquire after them ; and any who could escape fled for their lives, an<3 were not seen any more. The hospitals were filled ; but THE HOSPITALS 93 the saddest affair of all was, that many of these men had been seriously spoken with when passing through Mam- burg, but had rejected the gospel message with scorn and vile oaths. Even in the hospital there was no evidence of a single man of them having repented or given reasonable ground of hope before his death. THE HOSPITALS. General Wrangel, as a soldier, had freed his troops from this hopeless incubus, and was able to proceed. When the real fighting began there were hospitals arranged in Schles- wig, in Rendsburg, in Kiel, and all the large towns near the battlefield ; while those who could bear the transport were brought to Gliickstadt, Altona, and Hamburg. Pro- testant nurses from Kaiserswerth, Duisburg, and Berlin ; and ^sisters of mercy from Silesia, Posen, and the Rhine carefully tended the sick. Dr. Craig visited every hospital and supplied the nurses with New Testaments, tracts, and devotional books — the tracts to be the property of the invalids for them to send home, if they chose, after they had been a few times read, but the Testaments and larger books were to lie in the wards. Many of the sisters of mercy distributed the tracts carefully, and refused to remove the devotional books from the wards even at the bidding of the priests who sometimes looked in. THE PRISONERS. The Danish prisoners were sent to Hamburg, to be after- wards forwarded to other towns in Prussia, where they were detained till the end of the war. There were frequently three hundred at a time waiting to be sent on. Here Dr. Craig had several men and women who took Danish Bibles, Testaments, and tracts, and as they could speak Danish, they not only gave the books, but also prayed with the men. Many little comforts in the shape of shoes, clothing, &c, were brought to these men, some of whom 94 THE PRISONERS were earnest Christians ; and it was touching to see many of the older men burst into tears as they took leave of their benefactors, saying they had expected hard words or blows, and instead of that they had been treated like brothers, and had received copies of Scripture to cheer them till the time came to return home. PRUSSIAN TROOPS IN SCHLESWIG. With varying success the war was carried on in Schleswig, and about once a month Craig visited every hospital up till 1 85 1. Here he had a congregation of nearly 40,000 soldiers, to whom he was able to supply Bibles and Testa- ments, and such books as James's " Anxious Inquirer," Baxter's " Saint's Rest," collections of biographies and devotional books written by the ablest authors. The Religious Tract Society, two American societies, and private friends in Belfast supplied him with funds, and no one was more welcome in the camp than the colporteur. When the troops were returning home in 185 1, after having been from March, 1848, kept constantly in contact with books that fully expounded the way of salvation, it was cheering to receive a hearty handshake from many of the men with an expression of thanks to God that they had during the war been brought to know and love the Saviour. Some of them promised that when their military service should be ended, and they should have a home of their own, their house should be a Bethel. And they kept their promise. In wandering over the country many years later, Craig had the privilege of meeting with some of them and seeing the good work in which they were engaged, in leading other souls to Christ, as they themselves had been led to the fountain of peace during this war. Even in 185 1 his connection with the Prussian soldiers did not cease, for the Prussian Government, knowing that the troubles in Schleswig were not ended, planted a detach- ment of two or three thousand of their soldiers, who were PRUSSIAN TROOPS IN SCHLESWIG 95 returning from the war, in the Free City of Hamburg, billeting them on the residents. Craig had nine soldiers billeted on him for a time, but after some months they were reduced to four. Some of these gladly joined at family prayers, at least in the evening, and a considerable number of them were found on Sundays and weekday evenings attending his meetings and making rapid progress in Christian life. There were five soldiers of the garrison that remained in Hamburg who were able to show New Testaments, which they had carried in their breastpocket, penetrated half-way through by a Danish bullet ; the Testaments thus being the means of saving the men's lives. 1 THANKSGIVING SERVICE. It was a rare privilege that had thus been conferred on Dr. Craig, to have such a large number of soldiers for three years under his care, and a smaller number for an- other year, many of whom visited him in his own house or attended his Sunday and weekly services. The head chaplain of the garrison in Berlin was an excellent man. He could not be said to have entirely neglected his soldiers, that had been fighting for three years without any spiritual comfort beyond what Craig and some of the more earnest nurses in the hospitals had administered; for at Easter, 1851, when the troops were finally leaving the Duchies, he came down to Ham- burg and preached a most excellent sermon to some five thousand of the men, whom he gathered in a large field to hear him. This head chaplain called on Craig to thank him very heartily for all that he had done for the soldiers, and asked 1 It cannot be denied that when some of the soldiers observed how the possession of such a New Testament made their comrades an object of interest, the trick of manufacturing such a Testament "to order,'' without any danger to human life, was not quite unknown. 96 THANKSGIVING SERVICE him to be present at the great thanksgiving service. He continued for life very friendly towards Craig, making him heartily welcome whenever he visited him in Berlin. With this service the campaign was closed, and Craig was set free to do other work. Many a time in later years, as he thought and spoke of the events of the three years of fight- ing, he marvelled how it had pleased God in this wondrous way to bring many of the soldiers under the influence of the gospel, and also many of the families in Schleswig and Holstein among whom the soldiers were billeted ; for the acquaintance which Craig made with the people of the country did not cease when the war was ended. Many of the Holsteiners whose acquaintance Craig had made, con- trived from time to time to spend a Sunday in Hamburg, for the sake of attending his church ; and having been brought to Christ, became the chief supporters of the Home Mission when it was formed. CHAPTER VIII "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know here- after."— JOHN xiv. 7. " God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform, He plants His footsteps on the sea, and rides upon the storm." GOOD FRUITS FROM THE POLITICAL TROUBLES. IT is written that the wall of the City of God shall be built even in troublous times ; and it was in the troublous times of the Napoleonic wars that the great Mis- sionary Societies, together with the Tract Society and the Bible Society, started into existence. The troublous times of 1830 had been the occasion of awakening many souls and leading them to Christ, over the whole continent of Europe. From that time forward the voice of Neander in Berlin, of Tholuck and Julius M tiller in Halle, of Hofacker, the Krummachers, Bengel, Hengstenberg, and many others in very different circumstances, was heard with power calling sinners to repentance all over Germany ; but the greater excitement of 1848 was destined to bring a far more extensive and abiding work into the churches of that country. Up till 1848 the States of Germany were isolated, so that each State looked on every other as a stranger's land. The Diet at Frankfurt was supposed to represent the joint interests of the country, but its influence for good in a political sense was very limited, and in as far as the Church 8 98 THE KIRCHENTAG was concerned, it crushed every aspiration of any earnest soul. From the year 1840, Frederick William IV. of Prussia and his pious wife had done their utmost to encourage evangelical religion, and the king gathered around him men of true faith in God and in Jesus Christ. But as the Court religion took little hold on the common people, it was needful that a thorough shaking of the country should take place, to bring true believers to realize the kingdom of God in its beauty and power. When the Revolution of 1848 spread so rapidly over Germany, the isolated portions thought that all was lost. Most of them believed that the powers of darkness had gained the victory, and the hope of the Church was gone for ever. Wickedness seemed to triumph unchecked, and the faithful preacher was as one crying in the wilderness. A few still thought that the voice which once cried in the wilderness, calling to repentance, in the days of John the Baptist, had not cried in vain, and that the Saviour in whom they believed had not lost one whit either of His power or His love. THE KIRCHENTAG. Among these were Mr. von Bethman-Hollweg and Pro- fessor Stahl, of Berlin, who issued an appeal to all in Ger- many who loved the Lord — clergy or laity — to meet on an early day in Wittenberg to talk over the position of the Church. There was to be a conference held of the living members of the Lutheran, the Reformed, the United, and the Moravian Churches, on the simple basis of personal faith in the Son of God, to try and ascertain what was the duty of each Christian in all his relations, under the existing circumstances. The meeting was appointed for the 20th of September, 1848, to ascertain how many remained in the land who still believed that Christ continued to be the Head of His own Church. As the time drew near there were many misgivings, and WITTENBERG 99 some found it hard to decide whether they were called to step out and bid defiance to the world by the confession of their faith. When Dr. Craig arrived in Wittenberg on the day before the Conference, he met with two or three country clergy who asserted they did not expect a dozen to put in an appearance on the occasion. They had not a single converted individual in their parishes, and not one of the neighbouring clergy believed in God or in Jesus Christ as a Saviour. " You expect a dozen ! " cried Craig. " Why, if Abraham could have gathered ten men to take a stand in Sodom that city should not have perished ; so if we have twelve faithful men with us the victory is secured." WITTENBERG. The 20th of September was a bright and beautiful morning. Professor Dr. Rudolf Stier, as secretary, took his seat early to enter the names of all who arrived in reply to the summons. His post was no sinecure, for he registered 476 names from nearly every State in Germany. There were many more who attended the meetings but did not give their names, as they waited to see how the matter would turn out. The entire number who attended the meeting, though not all registered, was above eight hundred. Some of the names may be mentioned. Von Bethman- Hollweg and Stahl, Dorner, Nitzsch, Teschendorf, Fabri, the Balls, the Von Gerlachs, Hengstenberg, F. W. Krum- macher, Hoffman, Mallett, Treviranus and Miiller of Bremen, Stier, Kuntze, and Piper, were among those best known. The Conference was not to attempt to form a new church or any union of churches, but to give evidence of the virtual unity of true believers. The meetings were held in the church on the doors of which Luther had nailed his famous Theses, which act was the commencement of the great German Reformation. It was vain, however, to too WICHERN search for the nailmarks, as the old doors had long before this time given place to new, Mr. von Bethman-Hollweg, as president, and Professor Stahl, as vice-president, opened the meeting with beautiful and thrilling speeches. Among the Lutheran clergy who regarded the outward organisation of the Church to be everything, it fell like a bomb to be told that the whole Church organisation and all its outward forms, with bells, talar, spire, clergy, and Confessions, with State protection and all its glittering show, were mere scaffolding, that might all be removed, while the Holy Spirit still dwelt in the hearts of true believers, who, after all, constituted the real Church. WICHERN. The tumult which rose in the Conference over such un- wonted utterances threatened for a time to make an end of the meetings, as the Saxons demanded that the Prussians with their united Church should be excluded from the deliberations. 1 Wichern of Hamburg, who had up to this time been merely Inspector of the little orphanage with its waifs that he had gathered in the Rauhe Haus, near Ham- burg, and who was unknown to most of the members of the Conference, was greatly distressed at the turn the discussions had taken. He and Dr. Craig had fre- quently met on very friendly terms at home, so he sought for Craig and poured out his complaint to him. " Only 1 It was in vain that the president insisted on the terms of the invi- tation to the Conference. It was not churches that had been invited, but believers. It was individuals. It had been stated that these indi- viduals should be connected with certain existing church organisations, but it was personal faith on the Son of God that gave them the right to sit and deliberate. "Then," said the Leipzig professors, "if you want true believers, what other test can you propose than a firm unquestioning acceptance of the Lutheran dogma of the priesthood and the sacraments ? " WICIIERN 101 think," said Wichern, " that you and I arc the only persons who have come up to-day to represent Holstein, Hamburg, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg, Lubeck, and Hanover. Is there no one in the whole of North-West Germany, except the brethren from Bremen, to come forward at a time like this?" (Before the end of the Conference three or four from these places arrived, but at that time none had entered their names.) Wichern asked Craig to accompany him in search of kindred spirits to consult together how a profitable turn could be given to the discussion. A few friends whom Craig happened to know, as Pastor Kuntze of Berlin, Von Tippelskirch, Nathusius, Focke, and others, met in the vestry, and the result of their deliberation was, that Pastor Kuntze and Dr. Craig were appointed a deputation to wait on Von Bethman-Hollweg and ask him to invite Wichern to the platform immediately after the pause foe dinner, giving at the same time a general intimation of the line Wichern intended to take in his speech. Wichern had not spoken five minutes till he held the whole Conference enthralled with the pictures he drew of the state of society all over Germany, as a land estranged from God. A church organisation, he said, however perfect, could not meet the case. There must be living men found ready to go down to the lowest slums to raise the fallen ; and all efforts for elevating the social state of the country must be consolidated. The spasmodic and isolated efforts for home mission, he thought, ought to be united under one central committee. Such language had not been heard in Germany since Luther's days — at least, so thought many of the spell-bound in that great assembly. He spoke for nearly two hours, while the whole Con- ference listened with breathless attention. Immediately when he had finished, the Prussian Minister of State, Von Miihler, proposed the appointment of a Central Com- mittee, and drew out a general plan of the way this com- io2 THE GERMAN HOME MISSION mittee might be expected to exert its beneficial influence. This was the commencement of the great movement in Germany afterwards known as THE GERMAN HOME MISSION. In several towns local committees were formed to act in conjunction with the Central Committee. In Hamburg a large local committee was appointed, which held its first two preliminary meetings in Dr. Craig's house. Among the names of the committee were Dr. Abendroth, Senators Hudtwalcker and Sieveking ; Pastors Monckeberg, von Ahsen and Sengelman ; Messrs. I. W. Duncker, Dr. Gries, Wulff, and others. Sub-committees were formed to take charge of certain branches of home mission work, and the branch on which Craig was invited to act was that which took up work among the sailors. There was perhaps some reason for asking him to take part in this work. A few weeks after his arrival in Ham- burg, in 1 845, Mr. Smeaton — afterwards Professor Smeaton of Edinburgh — had spent a few days with him, and on visiting the harbour with its vast amount of shipping, Mr. Smeaton had urged Craig to do what he could for the sailors. He tried to do something for the English sailors, but as obstacles were laid in his way he secured the assistance of Dr. Gries, Mr. H. M. Waitz, Mr. Adolf Godeffroy, Captain Bockelmann of Finland, and others, to collect money for building a " Home " for German sailors. A bazaar was opened under the patronage of Mrs. Gode- ffroy, Mrs. Senator Hudtwalcker and Arning, the Webers, Goerings, Sievekings, Slomans, Amsincks, Mercks, Tes- dorpffs, Gorrissens, and others, which resulted in raising a very considerable amount for this purpose. Many a journey did Dr. Craig and Captain Bockelmann make to Bremen and other seaport towns in search of a man who could be appointed as director of such an institution. It was while this was going on that the Home Mission THE GERMAN HOME MISSION 103 Committee was formed, with its sub-committee for work among the seamen, under the presidency of Pastor Monckeberg. The selection of names for this sub-com- mittee was rather unfortunate, as when the Committee met it was at once decided that the meeting should not be opened with prayer, and that in the new Home there must be no religious instruction or devotional exercises per- mitted. Craig, and a few others who joined him, declared that they had no intention of giving their time and money to develop an institution from which the Word of God and prayer should be excluded. They demanded that a portion of Scripture should be read each morning, with prayer, to which the inmates should be invited by public notice, while it should be left free for each to attend or not as he chose. There was considerable excitement over this matter, the result of which was that the Senate stepped in and erected a large building for the sailors, where there was no Chris- tian influence to be exercised. It was a great disappoint- ment to Dr. Craig that this opportunity for carrying on mission work among the sailors should be lost, and that the Home Mission showed itself to have no sympathy with anything beyond mere humanitarian efforts. The battle was fought ably and long, but the result showed that the work of God can only be carried on by men who have a clear notion of the difference between a mere shell or husk of an outward form, and the living power of the gospel. Wichern took part with those who objected to have the meetings of Committee opened with prayer, and against Craig, and thus their different ways parted. WORK IN HAMBURG. But we must return to Craig's direct work in Hamburg, and see how it was progressing. With the Revolution in the spring of 1848, when complete toleration was guaranteed to hold meetings for prayer and exposition of Scripture, 104 WORK IN HAMBURG he hired the largest hall in Hamburg, and publicly announced his preaching services. When he had carried on these services for some time, he received a kind mes- sage from the chief magistrate of police, to say that it was understood that an evil-disposed mob was preparing to disturb his meetings, but if trouble arose he might know that he had now a right to apply for police protection. He returned a polite reply to thank the magistrate for his kindly offer of assistance in case of need, but to express the hope that such interference might not be necessary. Since the freedom of the press had been established, a certain class of newspapers that had sprung into existence showed that they believed such freedom to mean " that every one had perfect liberty to do what he wished, but on no account what these papers disapproved." It pleased the editor of one of these scurrilous papers to visit the hall where Dr. Craig preached, and in his next week's issue to give a report of his impressions of the meeting. He appealed to his readers to confirm his opinion, that when liberty of conscience and liberty of the press had been established, it meant that there was to be no more preach- ing of the exploded doctrines of Scripture. He had, how- ever, found a man preaching in the beautiful Patriotic Hall, as if every word of the Bible was true, and as if no revolution had taken place to extinguish the preaching of the gospel. To listen to that man was capable of turning people mad, and filling the lunatic asylum with dangerous patients. After describing some things that he supposed the preacher had said, he added that if any one doubted his word he might visit the hall and hear for himself. On the following Sunday a crowd came down to the hall, which they entered with their hats on their head, smoking pipes and cigars, and carrying on loud conversa- tion. Craig began his service as usual, and after singing, prayer, and reading a portion of Scripture, he paused, and WORK IN HAMBURG 105 begged the audience to bear in mind that he had hired this hall for a definite purpose, and no one was required to attend except he chose. Those who came, however, would bear in mind that the meeting was held to worship God (here a wild shout filled the hall). Craig went on to say that on entering, it was customary to remove the hat in token of reverence for the holy exercise, to abstain from smoking and to listen in silence. He then proceeded to preach and conduct the service in the usual way. This was repeated for several weeks, and each week this scurrilous paper issued what professed to be a report of the sermon. Craig took no notice of what was said, which galled the editor, and in due course the mob tired of coming to listen to addresses which they did not approve. Instead of injuring the work, the very unfairness of the proceeding gained Craig many friends and sympathisers. There was one man in particular, named Theiss, who was an officer in the militia. He begged to be allowed to attend the meetings in uniform with his gun, and to bring with him some brother officers to frighten the mob. His well-meant offer was declined, but he himself was soon brought under the saving influence of the gospel, and became a very useful helper in the work. He afterwards emigrated to America, where he found many of his fellow-countrymen living without God. He became a preacher to them, and his three daughters grew up to become missionaries to the heathen. Through the disturbances, many were led to hear the gospel at that time and to bring forth fruit. SUNDAY SCHOOLS. The Sunday school, which in 1848 had seventy-eight children with ten teachers, increased to such an extent, that towards the end of 1849 there were three schools contain- ing forty teachers and over four hundred children. A few years later there were four Sunday schools within the city, 106 SUNDA Y SCHOOLS and two in the suburb of St. Paul's, with fifty to sixty teachers, and from eight hundred to one thousand children on the books. Nor was this work confined to^Hamburg alone, for there were schools founded under Dr. Craig's guidance, in Barmbeck, Wandsbeck, Blankenese, Rendsburg, Husum, Uetersen, Emden, and Hildesheim, with from fifty to a hundred children in each. These schools, though lying so far asunder, were visited from time to time and well sup- plied with Christian literature, that in this way came also into the hands of the parents. In the suburb of St. Paul's there was a senator at the head of the police who was much opposed to vital godli- ness. A branch of the local Home Mission that had charge of Sunday schools desired to plant one in that district, as all the schoolmasters violently opposed evan- gelical teaching among the young. It was customary in many of the schools for the schoolmaster to ask on Mon- day morning how many of the children had attended Dr. Craig's Sunday school the previous day. All the children who acknowledged that they had been guilty of this offence were made to stand for three hours on high benches, to be laughed at by the other children. Week after week the little men and women climbed up and stood idle the whole forenoon in the day school, but on the following Sunday they were among the brightest in singing and answering questions in the Sunday school. As among the two to three thousand children that might have attended Sunday school in that immense parish, only two to three hundred attended Craig's Sunday schools, the local Home Mission thought very properly there was room for them to carry on similar work. They opened a school, and though the committee of management con- sisted of two senators, three Lutheran pastors, and some other distinguished men, yet on the second Sunday the police dispersed the school and fined or banished the teachers. The pastors and senators appealed, saying they WARTESCHULEN 107 were only doing what Craig — a foreigner — had done un- molested for years. They did not want to stop his work, but claimed the same rights that he had. When Dr. Gries came to tell Craig what they had done, and to warn him that there was trouble coming, he charged Craig not to yield, for the senator had said it was not easy to crush him. Craig had received notice that on a certain day his schools must be closed, and had replied he had no inten- tion of doing so. When the police came, they found that Craig had taken the precaution to have Pastor Behrens, the School Inspector, present, who soon told them they had no right to interfere with him when examining the children in his own parish. When the police were gone, Pastor Behrens wrote out in due form a licence for Craig to open and teach as many Sunday schools as he chose in that parish. The pastor added, as a reason for granting this licence, that at the Confirmation the children of the Sunday schools passed all the others in their knowledge of Scripture. So Craig worked on undisturbed, and told Dr. Gries and the rest of his committee that he was ready to allow them to open schools, if they chose, in his name. It was the great goodness of God that thus kept the schools open for the benefit of these children, for that parish had a population of thirty thousand, with only one church, and without any school under charge of an earnest Christian teacher. WARTESCHULEN. The Wednesday evening preparation was a great boon to the teachers, and several of the female teachers made such progress that they opened infant schools in different places, and carried them on with great success. A Roman Catholic nobleman in Wandsbeck, a village five miles from Hamburg — knowing that in that parish of five thousand Lutherans, without any Roman Catholic io8 WARTESCHULEN besides himself, the pastor and people were equally care- less about religion — built and endowed a school, where the mothers, in going to work, could leave their babies and children under seven years, with a careful nurse and teacher. One of Dr. Craig's Sunday-school teachers was appointed to this post, and she introduced Fliedner's hymn-book for little children. The ladies of the com- mittee complained of asking the children to sing religious hymns, and gave orders to use no hymn in which the name of Jesus occurred. The young teacher appealed to the nobleman, who had endowed the school, and he came to see how matters stood. After listening for a long time to the hymns which the children sang, he said he would tell the committee of ladies that he wished these hymns to be sung, and added, " If the children do not hear about the Lord Jesus in this place in their youth, they will not hear of Him from their pastor or their parents or schoolmasters afterwards." After a time, in addition to the eighty or ninety children that, on payment of twopence a week, were kept in school ten hours each day while their mothers were at work, a Sunday school was opened, and an evening class for factory girls three evenings in the week. With the appro- bation of the proprietor of the hall, Dr. Craig held a lecture once a fortnight, visited the Sunday school and evening school, and saw much good done in that place. A similar institution was opened in Tonning, in the province of Schleswig, to which one of Dr. Craig's Sunday- school teachers was sent. The pastor in Tonning and the leading families in the place took a lively interest in the work; while a wealthy lady — Miss Scheer — paid the whole expense connected with it. In many other places the door was opened for Dr. Craig to carry on a mission work in which the pastor took no part ; but in Tonning the pastor threw open his pulpit for Dr. Craig, when he happened to be in town, to preach on Sunday, and accom- PASTOR RAUTENBERG ASKS CRAIG'S HELP 109 parried him in visiting from house to house in the parish ; while a prayer-meeting was held every evening as long as Craig was able to remain, and the Sunday school was helped forward on each visit. Work of the same kind was opened in Eppendorf and in Barmbcck — two distant parts of Hamburg territory — where Craig was able to plant one of his trained Sunday- school teachers, to work and witness for God. In this way five Warteschulen were opened in different places under the charge of Craig's trained teachers. PASTOR RAUTENBERG ASKS CRAIG'S HELP. It happened one day in 1850 that Craig was dining with Pastor Rautenberg, when this hard-worked man com- plained that the village of Barmbcck, which formed a part of his parish, lay so far away, that the people very rarely came to church. He was able to go out and preach about twice a yea'r, when he administered the communion to those who desired it. He had tried to persuade some of the unattached young preachers to open a service there, but had not succeeded. At last he asked Craig if he could open a service in that village. Craig consented, and for a very considerable time he held a service, with the appro- bation of Pastor Rautenberg, where from sixty to eighty persons that had no other means of hearing the gospel came weekly to worship. Pastor Rautenberg was very grateful for the help, and often declared there ought to be at least ten pastors besides himself in that great parish that had been put under his care. It would not be easy to keep count of all the places where Craig kept up services with more or less regularity, but there was a resident in Lockstadt who opened a large room in his garden where the gospel was preached with marked success. When Craig was not able to go himself, 1 10 EXTRA CTS FROM DIAR Y one of his elders took his place, and the number of conver- sions in that meeting was very considerable. The Head Bailiff of Lockstadt did not approve of religious meetings, so he gathered the loose-living young men of the place, who paraded the road singing ribald songs to annoy the people who attended the meetings. Then they pelted the worshippers with mud or even stones on their way home. At last they attacked the place of meeting, seized Craig and some others, whom they beat badly, tearing their clothes. The police interfered, and the ringleaders were imprisoned for eight or ten days for the riot. By orders issued from headquarters two policemen were directed to attend the meetings each evening, to pro- tect the worshippers in the house ; while the Head Bailiff was made personally responsible for maintaining peace and order on the roads leading to the place of meeting. The governor of the district said that if people were good enough to come and preach in a village where there was no church, they ought at least to be protected from insult and molestation. EXTRACTS FROM DIARY. We find at this time such entries as these in Craig's diary : — " April 19, 1849 : Spent the day with Ribbentrop, Ott, and Coward, three of Gossner's missionaries, on their way to India. Glad to be able to give a helping hand to brethren on their way to preach the gospel to the heathen. Love to help Gossner's missionaries at all times, as they are such true men. May 8 : Arrived early in Berlin, and returned on the 10th, travelling two nights, and working the three days. May 13 : Mr. Hefter, of Bremen, preached for me while I was away working among the soldiers. He conducted five services of different kinds on the Sunday, but said he must be excused doing so much on another occasion. June 5 (Saturday) : There were twelve Jews with me — some of them for a long time — to-day. June 6 : There were thirty Jews present at the meeting to-day (Sunday), while the entire number present was about 250. September 14 : Returned home, after a com- EXTRACTS FROM DIAR Y 1 1 1 plete round of all the hospitals in Schleswig and Holstein, to find that cholera had broken out with great violence, carrying off from forty to sixty per day. Visited several cholera patients and prayed with them. Two in particular sat up in the bed while I prayed, and, opening their eyes, said they felt better — the prayer was heard. It was only the fulfilment of the promise that the prayer of faith should save the sick, and they felt the power of the disease suddenly broken." On such occasions Dr. Craig looked back with gratitude to the experience he had made in his youth, when he and his father had for many months nursed a whole household through a long and exhausting period of fever, during which time he had overcome all fear of infectious disease. CHAPTER IX " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." — Eccles. ix. 10. " ' Wouldst thou,' so the helmsman answered, Learn the secret of the sea ? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery ! "—Longfellow. DRS. GRAHAM AND CRAIG VISIT VIENNA. IN the spring of 1849, when Dr. Graham had mastered the difficulties of the German language, he expressed a desire to see some of the places where Dr. Craig was working, in order to select a station for himself. So, leaving Dr. Givan in Hamburg, the two friends started on a lengthened tour. In Berlin they found the city under martial law. All the ordinary laws were suspended, while the militia reigned supreme. Calling on Dr. Schwartz, of the Free Church of Scotland, they found him in some difficulty. Of the three thousand or more baptized Jews in that city, a goodly number had gathered round him and were demanding the organisation of a church for Israelites alone, in which Gentile believers should have no part. Many of them asserted that if this were done, all the Jews in Prussia would at once join the Christian Church. Several stormy meetings were held, but the visitors soon made it clear that the fiery spirits of the movement not IN DRESDEN, PRAGUE, RRCNN, AND VIENNA 113 only demanded separation from the Gentile believers, but also that the leading doctrines of the New Testament should be expunged, so as to remove the offence of the Cross of Christ. Dr. Schwartz was greatly pleased with the help he thus received, for the revolutionary element retired, leaving him only such as had tasted something of the power of the gospel. Visits were paid to Gossner, Kuntze, and others who were on the Lord's side. Pastor Kuntze told his visitors that he frequently baptized from eighty to a hundred Jews in the course of a year, requiring from them only to learn the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and to promise regularly to attend the Protestant church and keep their children in Protestant schools. IN DRESDEN, PRAGUE, BRUNN, AND VIENNA. Travelling over Leipzig, they reached Dresden a fort- night before the siege. The excitement in the town was great. Craig revisited the friends he had formerly met, and Graham had an opportunity of preaching the gospel in several English families and ladies' schools. In Prague they found that the wave of revolution had greatly revived the old Hussite movement, and many of the Hussite doctrines were firmly held by the Roman Catholic priests. The whole Czeck nation was ready to throw off the yoke of the Pope and the Cardinals, and declare themselves Hussites. There is a story told of a council that was held in the dominions of Satan, when the arch-fiend consulted his princes how the world could be brought back to submit implicitly to his rule. One who boldly offered to under- take the task was asked how he would do it. He would go forth and proclaim that Christianity is a deception and a lie ; its doctrines false and its Founder a deceiver. He was told he could in this way never succeed. Many other proposals were made and rejected, till at last one rose and 9 114 IN DRESDEN, PRAGUE, BR CNN, AND VIENNA offered to go forth and tell the world that Jesus is a good and gracious ruler, very ready to pardon all offences against His law. There is none like Him, and all ought to submit to Him. Only, as many of His demands are dis- agreeable, there need be no haste in taking a decided step — that can be done any time ; they need only enjoy them- selves to their heart's content, each one as he wished, knowing that he could at last turn and enjoy all the benefits which Christ offers ; but he need be in no haste. This plan met with full approval, and was carried out. So it happened among the Bishops and Cardinals in Bohemia. They declared themselves to be all — with few exceptions — Hussites, only they must not act rashly. By this ruse they kept the people quiet till the Jesuits, that had been banished, returned to the country under the protection of the Emperor's mother, the Archduchess Sophie, and cruelly completed their work of darkness. The Jesuits contrived to pit the Lutheran against the Helvetic confession, and while fighting each other, the field was free for the real enemy of truth. When a proposal was made to unite the two Protestant confessions, the Government declared that this could never be tolerated. There was liberty for the Lutherans and also for the adherents of the Helvetic confession, but if they united, then they were neither one nor the other, and the conces- sion of toleration was at an end. In Briinn, the capital of Moravia, the travellers visited the leading men, and Craig made preparations for having a large number of gospel tracts translated into the Czeck language and printed in that town. In Vienna they had an introduction to Professor S , who was said to be the most evangelical pastor and pro- fessor at that time in Vienna. The visitors mentioned to him their desire to distribute Bibles and gospel tracts through the empire, but he implored them to do nothing UREA I) CAST ON THE WATERS 115 of the kind. He said such a step would certainly destroy the harmony that existed between the Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy. When Craig urged that, even at such a price, it might establish a greater harmony between the members of Protestant churches and their Saviour, the Professor replied that the prospects of the Protestant Church in Austria had never been so bright before. On venturing to inquire about the grounds of this hope, he was told that it lay in the mixed marriages. " How can that give you comfort," said Craig, " when you bear in mind that accord- ing to the new law no Roman Catholic priest dares celebrate a marriage between a Protestant and one of his own people, till a contract has been signed pledging them that all the children, male and female, shall be baptized and educated in the Roman Catholic Church ? " The Professor did not consider this to be a very serious matter, as a Protestant pastor had a right to visit in a house where only one of the parents was a Protestant. " Yes," said Craig, " what a privilege ! one of which no Protestant pastor ever avails himself; and if he did, he must on no account encourage the reading of the Bible, lest this should mar the beautiful harmony that seems to exist between the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches." DREAD CAST ON THE WATERS. Some ten years before this time an American mission- ary, Mr. Schauffler, had resided for a few years in Vienna. As soon as the Government discovered that he was success- ful, they banished him. He proceeded to Constantinople, where he worked for many years with great acceptance. When beginning his labours at Constantinople, he was told by the Russian Ambassador that the Czar would never permit Protestantism to be introduced into Turkey. To this, Schauffler replied that if the Lord Jesus chose to n6 THE HUNGARIAN WAR plant His banner of truth in Turkey or anywhere else, He would never ask the Czar's permission. This was the fearless man who had laboured quietly for three or four years in Vienna, with the result that about thirty individuals had been brought under the influence of the gospel. When their teacher was expelled, these men and women strengthened each other as best they could in their faith and hope, and Dr. Craig was the first, who arrived in town, to cheer them on after their own minister was gone. Scarcely was he an hour in his hotel when he was discovered by these brethren, and was invited to meet them in a quiet place in a distant suburb on the following Sunday. Craig was warned that if the Vienna police found him at the meeting he would certainly be fined, imprisoned and driven from the town. This warning of course did not prevent the meeting being held, and a considerable number of persons spent, in their quiet retreat, several hours together in prayer and meditation on the Word of God. The brethren that were present that day were greatly strengthened, and some of them continued to help Dr. Craig faithfully for fifteen years in scattering the word of life in that city. THE HUNGARIAN WAR. The war with Hungary was at that time raging. Boys of fifteen and sixteen years were being forced into the army, and few returned except after being crippled and made unfit' for further service. There were only women to be seen working in the fields ; only women and old decrepid men to be met in the villages. At the railway and steam- boat stations Craig met the young soldiers on their way to meet the soldiers of Kossuth, who had already fought over eighty engagements with the Austrian troops. He had then only German tracts, and more than a dozen different languages were spoken in the camp, while not a third of THE HUNGARIAN WAR 117 the men could read. The distribution of tracts and Gospels or portions of Scripture was thus carried on under great difficulty; but the experience gained in Ilolstein and Schleswig during the previous year was serviceable, and gave encouragement to hope that even this limited work would not be in vain. Before leaving Vienna, Craig had established two depots — the one within the walls, the other in the Leopoldstadt — where tracts were exhibited in the window and sold or given away. The travellers returned home over Linz, where Martin Boos had laboured so long and so well ; and over Passau, the seat of a powerful Roman Catholic arch- bishop. In Nuremberg they met Pastor Gottheil, who had then just entered on his work among the Jews, and who continued to labour faithfully for more than forty years there, in Stuttgart and in Cannstatt. Mr. Gottheil con- sented to take charge of a Book and Tract Depot, which was afterwards carried on with considerable success by Pastor Tretzel, a Lutheran minister, after Gottheil had removed from that city. This book-store was a source of much blessing in many parishes in Bavaria, and Craig not only kept up a diligent correspondence with the workers, but paid them many visits, to encourage them in their labour. Arriving in Hamburg late on a Saturday night, Craig conducted five services the next day in four different localities among his own people. On the following Monday, Graham and Craig were invited to spend the evening at Senator Hudtwalcker's, where they met Mr. von Bethman-Hollweg, the president of the Kirchentag, Dr. Snethlage of Berlin, Senator Sieveking, Miss Amalia Sicveking and others, where they had an opportunity of telling their experience on the journey. All present showed deep interest in the account then given. 1 1 8 TRA CT WORK IN MORA VIA TRACT WORK IN MORAVIA. About eight months after this time, in January, 1850, Dr. Craig ascertained that several tracts he had left in Moravia for translation into the Czeck language were ready for printing. He therefore made arrangements for absence from home, and proceeded to Vienna to urge on the distribution of tracts among the Austrian soldiers. While thus engaged he was told of a Christian lady who had lately been married to a professor in the Protestant High School in Briinn. The name of the professor was not known, but it was supposed there would be no difficulty in finding him. Arriving in Briinn, and walking a few hundred yards from the station to his hotel, he observed a lady looking attentively at him. Having crossed the street, she asked if he were Dr. Craig. On finding this to be the case, she at once said, " You must come to stay at our house ! " As he hesitated to accept such a kind invitation from a complete stranger, the lady hastened to explain that she and her husband had heard of the probability of his visiting the town, and had been praying that he might not pass through without making their acquaintance. If, then, this has been subject of prayer, he said, he would accept the invitation at once. The result of the visit was to discover that the lady was a person of devoted piety and unusual intellectual ability. She had been governess in a branch of the imperial family, and was greatly appreciated in the Emperor's household. The visit was prolonged for several days, but before its termination Professor N declared that his doubts and difficulties about the way of salva- tion had been removed, and that he had accepted the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. Dr. Craig was in the meantime taking steps to secure complete accuracy in the translation of his tracts. He travelled over the province, visiting the Protestant clergy, and arranged to have every translation revised by two EA TING FLESHMEA T ON FRIDA Y 119 pastors before going to press, and then having the proof- sheet corrected by two others. This involved much travelling, as the Protestant churches lay far asunder, but he gained his object in securing translations that were highly appreciated. EATING FLESHMEAT ON FRIDAY. It was January, and the thermometer often stood be- tween 40 and 50 Fahrenheit below the freezing point. When the thermometer reached -24 Reamur=54° Fahr. below the freezing point, travelling was not safe. One day, after travelling in this excessive cold, in an open sledge, for about seven hours, he reached an inn, where, cold and hungry, he ordered the best dinner his host could provide. A very satisfactory dish of roast venison soon stood on the table, when four Russian merchants, clad in rich furs, rolled into the guest-chamber out of their splendid Russian sledges. On observing Craig seated before his steaming dish of venison, they all, with one accord, gave a scream of horror. " Host," they said, " here is a gentleman eating fleshmeat on a Friday." Now Craig knew well that this was regarded as a crime greater than a breach of the whole decalogue. Cheating, lying, stealing, swearing, or even murder, was but a trifle compared with this. The jolly host came forward, rubbing his hands, to announce that the priest had given him an " Indulgence," by which any guest might, without sin, eat fleshmeat in his house on a Friday — if the weather was very cold. Turning to Craig, these gentlemen, evidently with intense earnestness, inquired whether this was the case? Craig replied that he was eating his dinner with a good con- science, and that he had seldom given God such hearty thanks for his meal as he had done that day. "Then," said the guests, " bring us exactly what this gentleman has, and bring it quick." It is thus that the Church of Rome, by its superstitions, burdens the conscience and 120 THE GOVERNOR OF MORAVIA makes an offence against God's law appear a trifle, com- pared with the neglect of a human ordinance. THE GOVERNOR OF MORAVIA was not only a very distinguished but also a very en- lightened personage. He sent his sons to the Protestant High School in Brlinn, where he knew they would receive a much better education than in any of the Roman Catholic schools. It was in that school that Professor N was one of the teachers. On one occasion Craig paid a visit to the school, and after listening for some time to the instruction, he offered two prizes to the boys who could acquit themselves best in a Scripture examination. Now it happened that the Governor's two sons answered far better than any of the other boys, and the prizes were adjudged to them. These prizes consisted of two beauti- fully bound and gilt Bibles. On ascertaining who the successful competitors were, Craig said that if they or their parents had any objection to accept of Bibles, he would give them other books equally valuable. The boys at once declared that nothing would please them as well as the Bibles, and they were sure their father would have no objection. They were told that if their father wished it, they might bring back the books to receive something else instead. A few days passed over, when a messenger from the Governor waited on Dr. Craig to say that the Governor would consider it a great favour to receive a visit at any time that suited his convenience. Craig declared himself ready to go at any moment his Excellency should appoint. The messenger, however, had received strict orders to ask Craig to fix the time. Arriving at the Governor's house the next day at the appointed time, he was received with the very highest respect, and asked to take a seat on the sofa beside him- self. Craig expressed the hope that his Excellency had THE GOVERNOR OF MORAVIA 121 not been offended at the liberty taken to give his sons Bibles ; but the fact was that his two boys had answered far better than the other pupils, and they seemed to be pleased with the books, though full liberty was given to have them changed. His Excellency was not offended. He was ashamed that it was the first time a Bible had entered his house. The boys were delighted with the books. Their mother and father were also reading them, and intended to read the whole book carefully several times. Thus this incident was settled. " What are you intending to do with all these books you arc having printed ? " his Excellency asked. " To distribute them, of course," was the reply. " But you dare not do so. If you give away a single copy of one of your books, and are brought before me, I must punish you with fine and imprisonment," said the Gover- nor; and he brought down the statute-book to read the paragraph that fixed the penalty. "As in duty bound," said Craig, "I have sent your Excellency two copies of every tract I have printed, and I hope they have been read." " Most carefully," said the Governor, "and I do not find in any one of them a single offensive word against our church. They are excellent books. I am a good Catholic, but I hate the priests, for they try to keep the people ignorant, and will* not allow these enlightened books to circulate. But tell me, have you any political motive in view in dis- tributing these books ? " This was said with hesitation, and with regard for the visitor's feelings. Craig, however, sprang to his feet and cried, " Does your Excellency suppose me to be a Jesuit ? " " No, no ! there never was a Jesuit had such a face — and such a temper. Smooth men are they, but I trust you." Craig having intimated a hope that the Governor would show him how to act within the limit of the law, he at 122 FRUITS OF TRACT DISTRIBUTION once explained what the law would permit. He might open as many depots as he chose and might advertise his books. He might do the same all over the country. Before leaving, the Governor gave him papers to enable him to stay three days in any town he chose, without any question being asked ; and, fortified with these papers, he started at once on a visit to the principal towns of the province, having promised on his return to report his experience. On reporting that he had met with no incon- venience, but had put nearly twenty thousand tracts in proper hands for distribution, the Governor expressed himself as greatly pleased, and said he would gladly see Craig at any time when passing through Briinn. The result of this visit to Moravia was that twenty-five excellent tracts were printed in Bohemian and five in German, in editions of five to ten thousand copies each. Between two and three hundred thousand gospel messages were thus printed, and a beginning was made with the distribution in a land where very few knew the joyful sound. FRUITS OF TRACT DISTRIBUTION. Professor N , burning with zeal, took complete charge of the distribution, and as he was well known his assistance was most valuable. He opened a Sunday school, and within twelve months was able to point to fourteen of his pupils who gave good reason to hope that they had found the pearl of great price. Of the several cases of usefulness that were known we will only select one. A servant-maid in the house of Professor N was brought to the know- ledge of the Saviour, and her mother, who lived in the coun- try and came every week to the house as laundress, also became converted and took the tracts with her for distri- bution. One evening she asked for a larger supply than usual, for, she said, several of her neighbours came to her house on Sundays to read the tracts, and some of them THE PASTOR 123 were now also reading the New Testament. Three neigh- bours had promised to come the following Sunday, and this laundress hoped the reading might be blessed to them as it had been to herself. As the evening seemed to threaten a snowfall, the lady begged the laundress to remain overnight. This she declined, as she said that she was quite sure that one of her neighbours had learned to love the Lord Jesus, and he had asked her to bring him a New Testament that evening. That evening the snow- storm came suddenly, and the poor woman never reached her home. A week later she was found by the police in a snow wreath, and her books were read by many in the police office, who might otherwise not have seen them. The neighbours were inconsolable on being deprived of the books, which to some of them had changed their whole life. THE PASTOR. Dr. Craig had finished his work for that time in Brunn, and was packing up, intending to leave early the next morning, when he was interrupted by the assistant-pastor of the parish. Pastor L was the son of the General Superintendent, and was also for the time his assistant. " I have come to warn you," the young preacher said, " that a large number of very objectionable books have been of late distributed in this parish. I am credibly informed that this has been done by you, and I wish you to know that if this distribution does not cease at once, the matter will be handed over to the police and to the Governor of Moravia." " I feel most happy," said Craig, " to make the acquaint- ance of a pastor who seems to be sincerely concerned about the welfare of his flock. I thank you for so kindly calling to speak face to face. That books in considerable numbers have been distributed by me I do not deny ; but that a single sentence in any of these books is contrary to 124 THE PASTOR the teaching of Scripture I will not admit, and I demand proof." The preacher threw on the table a tract, which he said was calculated to destroy the very foundation of morality. It happened to be a copy of a sermon by Pastor Ludwig Hofacker, of Stuttgart — one of the most saintly and most successful gospel preachers in Germany, and the subject was Free Grace. The pastor was asked to take a seat and to talk quietly over the whole subject. As it was a good starting point for a debate, the conversation, sometimes rather lively, was continued till midnight. The next morning it was resumed at the railway station. A few weeks later Dr. Craig received a letter from Pastor L , apologising for excess of zeal, and saying that as he was about to have a holiday he would like very much to have an opportunity of conversing further on the interesting subject. He was invited to pay a long visit to Dr. Craig, during which time he visited all the clergy on the side of the gospel in Hamburg, and those who were opposed to it. Before the visit was ended, the Holy Spirit had taken to Himself the victory, and the young preacher returned to preach for nearly an hour in his father's pulpit in Briinn from the words I Cor. xv. 1-8 : "... I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures ; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. . . ." A few years later this young man was appointed to one of the most important churches in Bohemia, where he has continued to preach with much success for more than forty years. CHAPTER X "The church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."— EPHES. i. 22, 23. " The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ the Lord, She is His new creation by water and the word, From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy Bride, With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died." S. J. Stone. ORGANISATION OF A CHURCH. IN the year 1850, when Dr. Craig had laboured five years in Hamburg, with occasional visits to other parts of Germany, he had a large congregation regularly waiting upon the Sunday and weekday services. Many came to these services merely as a matter of convenience, or because they found the exposition of Scripture to be comforting, as opening up new views of Divine truth more fully than they found to be the case in the other churches. Among these were many of the wealthier families in town, who took no further interest in the work than the spending of a pleasant hour in meditation and prayer, without any intention of associating themselves more closely with the aggressive work either among the Jews or the Germans. There were many earnest spirits, however, who regularly attended every service, and yet found their conscience burdened by being obliged to join other churches with which they had never been connected, for communion and for the baptism of their children. These had for a con- 125 126 ORGANISATION OF A CHURCH siderable time been asking Craig and his colleagues why they could not enjoy the communion and have their chil- dren baptized in the only church which they had ever attended. The laws of the country had been so far changed, that there was perfect liberty to organise a church and dispense the ordinances without giving any just cause of offence. It was also felt keenly that the discipline of an organised church was not only in accordance with Scrip- ture and a powerful means of grace, but had been the ideal of all reformed Protestant churches. Even Luther had expressed himself very strongly about the importance of the living members of a church being closely linked together, and separated from the crowd of what he called " oxen " who joined in the services without knowledge. The church at home having sanctioned the step, the three brethren who were then working together, Graham, Givan, and Craig, proceeded to organise a church in connection with the church in Ireland, and with the full approval of the General Assembly. THE FIRST COMMUNION. At the first communion there was great care taken in admitting to church membership, and, for many months, systematic instruction was given, seeing that the union of professed believers in church fellowship was something utterly unknown. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, there were fifty-four individuals admitted to the first communion. These were all believed to have been made partakers of the grace of God, and with a very few ex- ceptions had been converted or greatly quickened under Dr. Craig's preaching and teaching. Nor did these numbers in any way measure the suc- cess that had attended the means of grace in that place. Not to speak of the many souls that had been awakened among the soldiers in the camp and in the hospitals, and the others who had been brought from darkness to light by THE FIRS T CO MM UNION 1 2 7 the millions of books and tracts that had been distributed over a very large district, Craig wished it to be clearly understood that he did not desire any believing Christian, who could with a good conscience partake of the com- munion in the Lutheran Church, to join his congregation. He would at that time have preferred not to form a separate church, if it could have been avoided, and there- fore urgently requested that none should seek admission to church fellowship with him who did not feel themselves in conscience bound to do so. The preaching services and prayer-meetings were open to all, with full permission to join in all the activities of that great beehive ; but those who joined the church as church members must evidence by their lives that they had passed from death to life. In many of the Established churches in Elberfeld, Barmen, and East Friezeland, the pastors greatly longed for the power to exclude from the sealing ordinances those whose lives were unworthy ; but they dare not attempt it — it was impossible — the wickedest man in the parish demanded as his right to be admitted to the Holy Communion, and not only a heavy fine but also degradation from the ministerial orifice awaited any clergy- man who ventured to introduce church discipline. In this church it should not be so. Great stress was laid on the fact that though the Lutheran churches admitted to the communion all who applied, yet their standards invariably taught that for worthy partaking of the communion faith in Christ was essential. And for unworthy partaking, the Bible in I Cor. xi. 29 gave no uncertain sound. The minister, then, who admitted to the communion those who were notoriously unworthy, made himself partaker of their sin ; each one, however, who knew what God requires for worthy partaking of the communion was responsible to Him for what he did. 128 CLERICAL PROTEST CLERICAL PROTEST. The Hamburg Lutheran Presbytery deputed two of their number, Pastors von Ahsen and Monckeberg, to wait on Craig to warn him against the sin of schism. He replied that he thought that those who were guilty of schism were their seventeen or eighteen colleagues, many of whom, though having sworn to teach in perfect accordance with the Augsburg confession of faith, did not believe in a personal God, or in Jesus Christ as a Saviour, or in the Scripture as the Word of God, or in the atonement, the resurrection, and a final judgment. He was no more guilty of schism than they and their fathers had been in separ- ating from the impure Church of Rome. If out of a popu- lation of over two hundred thousand, only about twelve thousand — notwithstanding all their high notions of the efficacy of the sacrament — ever went to the Holy Com- munion, there was room enough for him, with the sanction of his ecclesiastical superiors, to feed the little flock that God had entrusted to his care. Besides, not more than three or four persons of all who had joined him, had ever been at a communion in a Hamburg church ; he was there- fore not drawing away their church members, or building on other men's foundations. He thanked the deputation for their visit, but could not yield to their wish. They parted in kindness. MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. Nearly every communicant in that church was appointed to undertake some definite work for which he or she was qualified. It was a new departure in Jewish mission work for the missionary to be supported by a staff of twenty to thirty church members, who made it their business to seek out Jews who were inclined to listen to the gospel message. Many members of this voluntary band were quite as efficient, or more so, than the missionary himself; and as two of his colleagues returned home, and one, Dr. Graham, VISITORS 129 went to settle in Bonn, he had need of all the voluntary aid he could procure. A Jewish inquirer was not only shown in the Word of God what a follower of the Master ought to be, but he also saw in a happy and active church membership what a change is wrought in the heart and life of those who follow the Saviour. Admitted into the family life and the church life of these true converts — both Jews and Gentiles — he saw what effect the Spirit of God pro- duces in the believer. As the number of Sunday schools and prayer-meetings increased, the elders of the church had plenty of oppor- tunity to exercise the gifts and graces that God had bestowed on them. As often as possible Craig at first attended these meetings where his elders and Sunday- school teachers tried their gifts, and then on the way home — sometimes walking four or five miles with them — he showed the points which he approved, and also what might have been otherwise expressed. This was a kind of college training. VISITORS. From the situation of the town there were frequent opportunities of seeing visitors on their way through to other places ; some of whom remained for a considerable time. Mr. Andrew Hamilton, brother of Rev. Dr. James Hamilton, of London, was a frequent and very welcome visitor. Mr. Elihu Burritt spent two winters in town, work- ing for arbitration and cheap ocean postage. Rev. William McClure, of Londonderry, came more than once and accompanied Dr. Craig on some of his mission journeys into the interior of the country. Two of his sisters also came to add materially to his domestic comfort and useful- ness, and though one of them returned home after a few years, the other remained and devoted her whole life, with- out recognition of any kind, to help to carry on the great mission work. 10 130 DR. DENHAM DR. DENHAM. The Rev. Dr. Denham and Mrs. Denham, of London- derry, also paid a visit as a deputation from the Mission Board, and on returning home the Doctor reported what he had seen as follows : — 11 In accordance with the request of the General Assembly, I have visited the Jewish Mission station in Hamburg. Mrs. Denham and I spent some days most agreeably with Dr. Craig and his amiable sisters. In Hamburg infidelity prevails, and I saw such demonstra- tions of profligacy as I never witnessed anywhere else, and which made me shudder. There are several Protestant ministers, but the gospel is preached by few of them. There is no pastoral visitation — no family religion — and the Sabbath is given up to business and amusement. On this account, and for the sake of the Germans them- selves, it is most important to have such a faithful witness to the truth, as Dr. Craig, stationed in that city. His principal work is, of course, among the Jews. Of these there are about fifteen thousand within his reach and accessible ; some of them poor, but many very rich and respectable. " On Saturday I visited the synagogues, both of the Talmudic and Reformed Jews. The male part wore their hats on the ground floor, while the ladies crowded the galleries. On leaving the place several of the Jews saluted Dr. Craig most respectfully. Although Dr. Craig was well known to them all as a missionary, yet he and I were very civilly treated, and brought by the officer of the congregation from the back seat which we had entered, to one of the most prominent and comfortable seats in the synagogue. "On Sabbath I was present in Dr. Craig's place of worship, and heard him preach with great earnestness to a numerous congregation. In the evening I was privileged myself to address them, Dr. Craig acting as interpreter. He has, in different parts of the city, five Sabbath schools containing about five hundred children. Three of these I was able to visit, and was much gratified by their order and the zeal of the teachers. " Dr. Craig's time is laboriously occupied. From six in the morning till breakfast, he meets in his study the Jews that visit him. From breakfast till four o'clock he visits from house to house, where he has found admittance, and distributes large numbers of tracts and Bibles. The evenings are occupied with meetings for prayer, lectures, or in- structing his Sabbath-school teachers. In these prayer-meetings the THE A NX UAL KIRCHENTA0 131 members officiate, and I must say I never heard more solemn or earnest pleading with God than the prayers of these people seemed to be. . . .» In the course of that year (185 1) there were thirty-two new members added to the church, and in the following year twenty, so that the communion roll contained over a hundred names, all of whom took part at each communion, if at home and in health. THE ANNUAL KIRCHENTAG. At each annual meeting of the Kirchentag there were special conferences, in which Craig took an interest. The ten Tract Societies of Germany sent representatives on these occasions to discuss in what way the Press could be made most efficient to counteract the evil influence of the infidel literature of the time. Dr. Marriott and Dr. Craig were always the leading spirits on such occasions. Prizes were offered for the best essays on the Apocrypha question, which was one of great importance. The custom of print- ing the Bible with the Apocrypha and putting the title 11 Holy Scripture " on the back, tended to bring down the Word of God to the level of these books of mere human origin ; the clergy representing some of the Apocryphal books as better than the Bible. The enemy of souls put forth all his power to weaken the influence of the Holy Scripture ; and to mix up God's Word with the mere word of man was a device worthy of its author. Several of these prize essays were published and widely distributed. THE SUNDAY MAGAZINE. Next in importance to correct views about the Word of God was the sanctification of the Sabbath. To make pro- gress in this direction it was resolved to found a magazine specially devoted to this work. Pastor Walther, near Magdeburg, undertook to edit this magazine, to which Dr. Craig was a diligent contributor. The editor wrote under 132 THE E LB ERF ELD KIRCHENTAG date of March 18, 185 1, to acknowledge some contributions that he had forwarded. He wrote as follows : — " Dear Brother, — I take this opportunity of expressing my heartiest thanks for your article, which has been printed in Nos. 2 and 3 of our monthly paper, for the better observance of the Lord's Day. Your description of a Sunday in your father's house is most interest- ing. Your article on Sunday schools pleased me very much, and will soon be printed. " I expect that our monthly magazine will, by degrees, become exclusively a periodical for advancing the proper observance of the Lord's Day. The more I think over the subject, the more am I con- vinced that, notwithstanding the objections of some of our learned men, the friends of the Sunday will come to bind themselves closer together, and to demand more earnestly the consecration of one whole day in seven for the service of the Lord. . . . " Very affectionately yours, &c." THE ELBERFELD KIRCHENTAG. In September, 185 1, the Kirchentag and Congress for Home Mission met in Elberfeld, when a considerable num- ber of English visitors put in an appearance. Among the number were Rev. Dr. Cairns, of Berwick ; Professor Birks, of Cambridge, with Mrs. Birks and the Misses Bickersteth; Mr. Latrobe, of London ; and several members of the committee of the Evangelical Alliance. One of the London deputation was anxious to address the meeting, but as he knew no German an interpreter must be found. As, after repeated urgent appeals from the chair, no one seemed willing to discharge that duty. Dr. Craig ventured to offer his services. The church, where the meeting was held, was crowded in every part, and there must have been more than three thousand persons present. The speaker began, in flowery language, to describe his journey from London to Elberfeld something in this way : "As I come for the first time to visit your glorious country, a country that makes the heart thrill with delight when one thinks of the monk who burst the bonds of Popery THE ELBERFELD KIRCHENTAG 133 and brought about the great Reformation, I felt impelled to visit some of your churches, where, to my sorrow and indignation, I found the house of God as vile as any Roman Catholic chapel. I could not at first believe that I stood inside a Protestant church, but there they were — all alike, with their emblems of the grossest idolatry, the walls covered with pictures, like heathen temples. Your churches are abominable places, more fitted to be a shrine of Diana than places intended for the worship of God." What was a translator to make of this ? Craig made it run thus : " On my first visit to your glorious country — the land of Luther — I was anxious to visit your churches about which one hears so much. I found them, how- ever, very different from our plain buildings for Divine worship," &c. The speaker went on to say : " How could any one expect to find a rag of spiritual life in a country where the Lord's Day is universally desecrated, and the clergy seem bound hand and foot to the State? For his part he could sec very little difference between Lutheranism and Popery." The translator thought that the orator wanted to convey to the assembly how deeply he was grieved to see the Lord's Day so much dishonoured ; as he believed most firmly in the close connection between the proper observ- ance of the Lord's Day and the true spiritual life to be found in a church or a nation ; and to suggest that as an English Nonconformist he thought the church increases in spirituality when left in a position to manage her own affairs without the intervention of the civil power. Instead of comparing Lutheranism with Popery, the translator put the sentence thus : " We Nonconformists in England lay great stress on simplicity in public worship, and we like to see the church — as a church — managing her own affairs." For nearly half an hour the speaker lectured the assembly 134 THE E LB ERF ELD KIRCHENTAG on their grievous shortcomings, and the translator toned down the words so as to avoid giving offence. Prince Lieven of Russia moved a vote of thanks to the speaker, and Dr. F. W. Krummacher, springing to his feet, cried, " And a double vote of thanks to the translator." Dr. Craig received quite an ovation from the gentlemen on the platform and from the whole assembly. An Englishman who was present charged Dr. Craig with not having translated the speech literally, but he replied that he could not believe that the Christian 'gentle- man who had spoken really intended to insult an assembly of three thousand devoted, earnest German Christians, who had met together to advance the glory of God. The translation, he said, had not only been kind to the speaker in throwing a mantle over his utter want of taste, but it presented his ideas in a far more efficient form. Dr. Cairns, of Berwick, said he had never seen the censor's shears used with more tact and usefulness. Professor Birks and the Misses Bickersteth could not with sufficient warmth ex- press their gratitude for the way in which their feelings and those of the whole conference had been spared, by the successful translation. The president, Mr. von Bethman-Hollweg, Dr. von M tinier, Dr. F. \V. Krummacher, Professor Nitzsch and others, grasping Craig's hand and shaking it heartily, asked how he had been able, on the spur of the moment, to manage that affair so well. He had many an oppor- tunity afterwards at other meetings of translating English speeches, but that translation of 185 1 was long spoken of, and, in fact, gave him an introduction to the whole body' of evangelical Christians in Germany. PASTOR FELDTNER. Being invited to supper at Pastor Feldtner's, there was a goodly gathering of men, strangers to each other, but all feeling much at home. The host confided to his guests PASTOR FELDTNER 135 much of his own experience of the grace of God. Pro- fessor Stern, of Carlsruhe, told how, under the influence of Professor Shenkel, of Heidelberg, the godly pastors in the Grand Duchy of Baden were in danger of being driven from their parish and their country, to make room for Rationalists ; and he asked whether the brotherly love of the brethren in other states was strong enough to receive into their houses those who, for the love of Christ, might be thrown penniless, with their families, on the world. The whole meeting rose to their feet and pledged themselves in such a case to welcome to their house — if they still should have one — and to their heart, any such brethren who should be called to suffer persecution for preaching the gospel faithfully. Professor Stern referred to the apostle Paul, who (Rom. xvi. 7) spoke of two brethren that had been " in Christ before him." Would it not, said Stern, be interesting to know which of us all has known the Lord for the longest time ? The host proposed that each guest round the table should rise, tell his name, residence, and profession, and name the date of his conversion. It turned out that all present, with two exceptions, named the year 1830 as the time he had found the Lord. One of the exceptions had been called four years earlier — in 1826 — and the other four years later. The year 1830 was a time to which many in Scotland and England looked back as the time of their conversion, and among these was Dr. Andrew Bonar, and many similar witnesses for Christ. The extra meetings during these conferences were times of refreshing, of the nature of the Mildmay and the Keswick conferences in our own country many years later. All the Protestant pulpits were occupied each evening by the most evangelical preachers who had assembled at the conference, and in many places rich spiritual fruits wcie gathered into the Church of God by means of these faithful testimonies. CHAPTER XI " In the morning sow thy seed" — ECCLES. xi. 6. " Not what inclination or fashion would suggest ; Not that situation more lofty than the rest ; Not the goal that's nearest — nor the path that's clearest, But the next thing." R. HORNLEY. THOUGH Dr. Craig's colleagues had left him to work alone in 185 1, yet he had no difficulty in keeping up the services when he was at any time called away. Mr. Hefter, a missionary to the Jews in Bremen, gladly came for weeks at a time, and his services were very highly prized. The elders of the church and the Sunday-school teachers also willingly took their part when called on, and in this way Craig was able to attend to any pressing call from other lands. CHURCH VISITATION IN MORAVIA. While Dr. Craig was engaged in preparing and distri- buting tracts in Austria, he made the acquaintance of the General Superintendent of the Reformed Church in Moravia, Pastor Nagy, and a very intimate friendship sprung up between the two men, which lasted uninter- rupted till Mr. Nagy's death. The General Superinten- dent translated several tracts into Moravian, and the purity of style made the works on the inspiration of Scripture, 136 CHURCH VISITATION TN MORAVIA 137 on the Lord's Day, on faith and repentance, very popular among the more thoughtful Protestants in the country. It happened that in 1851 he was about to hold his triennial visitation of all the Reformed churches of Moravia and Silesia, and as he had the right to appoint two assessors to accompany him on his visitation, he invited Dr. Craig to be one of them. As this was regarded as a great honour, Craig gladly accepted of the appointment. On the 26th of June the General Superintendent, with his two assessors, Senior Totuschek, of Klobauck, and Dr. Craig, started on the visitation journey. At the borders of the parish, about six miles distant from the church, they were met by fifty young men on horseback — members of the church — who had come to welcome the Superintendent and to form a guard of honour. Altogether there were twenty-two Reformed churches, with 41,000 members and adherents, to be visited, and Klobauck was taken first. After the very earnest dealings with the church on the first day, there was an examination of the schools on the following day, when sixty boys and seventy-five girls presented themselves, and answered very creditably. It turned out that the pastor's salary amounted to about £40, with free residence, a few acres of land, and certain gifts of farm produce. With this splendid provision he had two sons at college, distinguishing themselves in their studies. The head schoolmaster had £10, with free house and garden and some gifts ; while the assistant received his food from the parents of the children, a week at a time in each house— and at Christmas a pound was given him to provide all necessaries for the year. On such salaries a very large and efficient church was provided with the gospel faithfully preached, and 135 children showed they had been trained with great care. The Roman Catholic District Governor declared that the Protestant schools gave him always much more pleasure than the Roman 138 THE PRIEST AND THE BIBLE Catholic schools, for the priests seemed to delight in keeping the people ignorant. THE PRIEST AND THE BIBLE. After the public dinner, a Roman Catholic priest, who was at heart a thorough Hussite, took Craig to the top of an adjoining hill to show the extent of the parish, and there assured him that of his three thousand parishioners there were not twenty houses without a Bible. He brought the Bibles from Leipzig at ten to twelve shillings a-piece, and the people bought them from him. He required, he said, to be cautious in his public utterances from the pulpit, but in the confessional and when administering extreme unction he pressed on the attention of each individual that it was only the blood of Christ that takes away sin. His absolution, he said, was nothing but a condensed gospel sermon, declaring to the individual sinner that Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners ; as many as believe on Him with a simple childlike faith, without any merit of their own, are accepted of the Father and saved by grace. To such a man a good supply of pure gospel literature might well be entrusted, and Craig sent him a specially selected store. MISLITZ was the next station, where the party arrived on a Satur- day evening. The whole town was out to meet the Superintendent, and among them vast numbers of Jews. Shortly after his arrival Craig slipped down to the syna- gogue, where nearly the whole body of the Jews of the place soon came together. " We saw you coming into town in great state," they said, " but we little expected you would come to visit us." Over three hundred were present in the synagogue, and for a couple of hours Craig spoke to them of Christ their King. They were so attentive that he returned on the Sunday and Monday, and had long inter- OBER WIL1M0WITZ 139 views with them, leaving in their hands Gospels and tracts. Craig found, however, on his second and third visit, that the Rabbis had warned the people against the teaching. Verily in such cases one wrestles not with flesh and blood. OBER WILIMOWITZ was not reached on a following day till long after midnight, as the party were detained by a thunderstorm and heavy- rain. Here Craig was well known, as he had visited Pastor Woshkrda repeatedly to obtain help from that faithful brother in translating tracts. Most of the pastors were preaching the gospel, but this man, like Nagy and Totu- schek, was setting an example in his life. The children acquitted themselves admirably in the schools, and very many of the parents gave good evidence that they were walking with God in light. IN GROSS L'HOTA the Pastors Garcik, father and son, had laboured long. Indeed, the father had come as a young man to be pastor of the parish, very shortly after the issue of the Edict of Toleration in 1781, and at the time of this visit he had lived as pastor in the same parish for more than sixty-five years. He was then about ninety years of age, but he delighted to tell the story of the sufferings of the Protestants for two centuries before the time of Joseph II., and his own experience during his long pastorate. Dr. Craig drank in the whole narrative with intense delight, and resolved to make fresh exertions for a country that had suffered so much for the sake of the gospel. The young people of the church and neighbourhood gathered in the garden and serenaded the Superintendent and his party till daylight the next morning. The Military Governor of the district called on Craig the next day, and drove him out in his beautiful carriage and pair of Arab ponies to see the beauties of the country. He boasted that his official 140 EFFECT OF A TRACT salary enabled him to enjoy life more than most of his neighbours, for he had ^"200 a year, and therefore could keep his carriage and make his family comfortable. Each church that was visited had its own special story to tell, and the Superintendent and Senior made good use of Dr. Craig, the Englishman, to help them in stirring up spiritual life and rooting out evils that had sprung up. He was told what to say, and under what circumstances he might fiercely denounce prevailing ills ; the Superintendent following up with honeyed words to show the necessity of some change either in the conduct of the minister or of the people, as the stranger had suggested. EFFECT OF A TRACT. In one parish, which Craig had visited a year and half previously, leaving tracts with the minister, the elders, and the schoolmaster, one of the elders told of a pleasing case of good influence. " His daughter," he said, " had taken with her to school several of the tracts which her father gave her to read. One of these was an exposition of the Lord's Prayer by Luther, the name of the author not being mentioned. A little companion borrowed this tract and took it home. It there fell into the hands of the bigoted Roman Catholic father, the greatest enemy of the Pro- testants in the district." *• This man brought the tract to his Protestant neighbour, and asked : " Sir, do you know what kind of books your little daughter is reading?" and showed the tract on the Lord's Prayer. " Yes, he had himself given his daughter that beautiful book." " And do you believe in the Lord's Prayer?" asked the astonished Romanist. The neighbour declared that he used that prayer every day, and he believed in God and in Jesus Christ. In reply to further questions, he said he regarded Mary as the most favoured woman that had ever lived, but he did not A STRANGER'S IMPRESSIONS 141 worship her, for she — like himself — regarded Jesus as " God her Saviour " (Luke i. 47), and He is the only Saviour, to whom we ought to pray. " Then," said the visitor, " you have all that I have except the blessed Virgin. Now let me tell you some- thing. Our priest says that you Protestants do not believe in God, but pray to the devil. When your church was wrecked and set on fire three years ago, I was the leader of that mob, and what I did was at the bidding of the priest. Now that I know that you believe in God and in Jesus Christ, I am sorry for what I have done, and I offer you my hand in pledge that from this day forward you may count on me as your best friend." This elder added that the Romanist neighbour was calling frequently at his house and reading the tracts and the Bible with him, and having found his priest to be guilty of falsehood, he was paying no further attention to what he said, but was learning what God said. A stranger's impressions. When the Visitation in Moravia was completed, Dr. Craig returned home to resume his ordinary work. He found that a visitor who had spent some months in Hamburg had written to The Mission Herald a letter, of which the following are a few extracts. After describing the state of the churches in Hamburg, he says : — " To turn to the bright side of the picture, there is one German congregation here to which the gospel is faithfully preached. In the very heart of the city a congregation assembles, than which I never saw a more devout or attentive assembly. The minister could tell a little history of every individual present. That man who sits with such a meek and quiet spirit was once devoted to wickedness. He wandered unconcerned into the house of prayer. His attention was fixed, and he is now a careful hearer of the Word. That girl, so neatly dressed, was once as frivolous as her companions. The arrow of conviction reached her heart, and she is now a diligent Sabbath- school teacher. :; 142 CONVERSIONS " Here is a woman who teaches a school in the vicinity of Ham- burg. She teaches from 8 in the morning till 6 p.m. But that is not enough for her self-denying exertions. Four days in the week she gathers a class of factory girls and instructs them for a couple of hours. Several of the members bear unmistakable marks of their Jewish origin. This congregation furnishes at present 48 Sabbath- school teachers, who instruct each Sunday 500 of the youth of Hamburg." "The minister of this Church, Rev. Dr. Craig, besides his Sunday services, holds many meetings during the week. On Monday evening he has a lecture in his own house, and the last time I was present sixty individuals were listening to an admirable exposition of one of the Psalms. On Tuesday he preaches in the suburb of St. Paul's. On Wednesday evening he meets his Sabbath-school teachers for two hours. On Thursday he preaches in a distant part of the parish of St. George. On Friday evening he preaches sometimes in Lockstadt, sometimes in Wandsbeck (each of these places being four miles distant in opposite directions)." CONVERSIONS. In 1852 there were many striking conversions. Some of these were young, but seven of the most remarkable cases were of people over seventy years of age, and all of whom obtained quite exceptional light and happiness before they passed away. One case was that of a young girl who stood beside the grave where her brother was being laid to rest. The brother had been converted only about a year before his death, and the minister prayed at the grave for the bereaved sister, that the Lford Jesus might take the place of the departed one and be to her a brother. The next day she stood alone at the newly made grave and prayed that this petition of the previous day might be answered, for she felt very lonely. Then taking fright lest she had been guilty of some sad crime in venturing to call Jesus her Brother, she ran to her minister to tell him what she had done. She was shown that the Lord loves to call His friends brother, sister, mother, and from that day to her death she was a most joyous, devoted, and successful worker for the Master. She had many jewels CONVERSIONS 143 for her crown of glory in the land of light. This young thing became like a mother to many who were seeking the Saviour. A little child coming home from the Sunday school was the means of the conversion of a drunken father, and he, on telling of the great change that had passed over him, was the means of bringing one of his former companions in the public-house to know and love the Lord. A beautiful little girl, who in her twelfth year had been converted in the Sunday school, fell into consumption in her eighteenth year. When the minister told her that it was clear the Lord wanted her to live near Him in heaven, she was at first startled and burst into tears. But when the minister returned an hour later, she held out her hand joyously, saying, " I expected it of you that you would tell me as soon as you saw that my illness was serious. The doctor and all of them told me I should soon be quite well. But now I am glad to know that I am wanted above." For six months she waited joyously for the summons, and when the end was drawing near, she begged to be borne to the grave only by young men who loved the Lord. She mentioned the names of those she wished to carry her dust to its resting-place, and begged that only joyous hymns might be sung over her grave. Her influ- ence during the last six months of her life was the means of the conversion of her father and mother and only sur- viving brother ; so that one after another was in due time laid to rest in the assured confidence they should be for ever with the Lord. Many of her companions, too, were seriously impressed by the experience of that dear young sister, who so gladly gave up everything that earth could offer for an assured interest in the rest that remains for the people of God. i 4 4 REV. ADOLF SAPHIR REV. ADOLF SAPHIR. In 1853 the K ev - Adolf Saphir was ordained and sent out to Hamburg to assist Dr. Craig. Alas, he was not permitted to remain long at his work in that city. The Austrian Government claimed him for military service. His venerable father in Budapest and Dr. Craig did all in their power to have him set free from such duties, but as the Austrian Government had lost so many of their young men in the Hungarian war, even down to boys of sixteen years of age, all appeals were in vain. It was of the Lord, as a far wider field of labour stood open to that gifted man in different congregations in England, and many souls had reason to bless God that Mr. Saphir had not settled down to work on the Continent. He remained only about a year in Hamburg as Dr. Craig's assistant, and then was obliged to remove to England if he would avoid the conscription. When he had been some months at his work in Ham- burg, he wrote home to the Mission Board as follows : — " I must thank God for having brought me here. Indeed I feel very grateful for this leading of the Lord. I feel His nearness and love, and that His Spirit is with me. I need not tell you anything about the spiritual destitution of this city. There is no family life, and no congregational life. How happy and thankful was I therefore to see, though a small, yet an organised Christian church in connec- tion with our mission — a thing as necessary as novel in this country. Not only will, by God's blessing, these people now find food and ease for their souls, and be the nucleus to which God will add from the unconverted ; but this congregation is a blessing and instructive example to all around — to the church of this land — and its influence on the Jews will also be felt. This is the great misfortune, that the Jews see no church, no Christian life. . . . " I am very happy that it has pleased my good Lord to send me to such a faithful and affectionate . . . friend as Dr. Craig is. He works too hard. I trust God will continue to give him strength and ioy in His work. . . . "A. Saphir." BIBLES AND TRACTS 145 BIBLES AND TRACTS. In the year 1852 Dr. Craig sold 5,481 Bibles and Testaments, and in 1853 he sold 3,350 without receiving any assistance from the Bible Society or from the Mission Board. A few small donations were given by private friends, but the amount was insignificant. In 1853 there were 34 new members added to the church in Hamburg. In acknowledging a grant from the Religious Tract Society of .£200 towards the funds of the Lower Saxony Tract Society, of which he was secretary, Dr. Craig wrote as follows : — " I have been down to Gliickstadt in Holstein, and took the oppor- tunity of visiting two of the Danish state prisons. . . . The chaplain, Pastor Brodersen, who is a dear brother in the Lord Jesus, told me that our Committee could have little notion of the comfort and joy which our tracts cause within the prison walls. One prisoner, who left the place lately, attributed his conversion under God to Rev. A. H. Francke of Halle's tract ' Cleophas and Luke: the Road from Doubt \o Certainty.' Another said on leaving : ' Sir, I shall drink no more brandy, as the tract on "The Wonderful Advantages of Drunkenness " has cured me for life.' And he has as yet kept his word. Another was brought to Christ by reading Gossner's tract on the Good Shepherd. His mother had read it to him when he was a child, and he had wept over it ; and now meeting it again in one of the parcels which Dr. Craig had sent to the prison, it had softened his hard heart. " ' Hundreds of prisoners,' said the dear Pastor Brodersen, 'have read that tract with delight, and have begged copies to send to relatives. Between three hundred and four hundred prisoners are constant readers of the tracts. 5 " HISTORY OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH OF HUNGARY. The varied nature of the work that fell into Dr. Craig's hands may be illustrated by his translation of this book. One of the pastors in Budapest had written a history of the Protestant Church in Hungary, which he wished to have printed in Germany and also in England and America, 11 146 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH OF HUNGARY but the great difficulty was how to bring the manuscript across the frontier. In September, 1852, Dr. Craig received a letter from New York asking him to take the matter into his hands, and suggesting the safest way for him to proceed. As various inaccurate statements have been published by those who ought to have known better, we may give a fuller account of the transactions than might otherwise have been necessary. The Archduchess Maria Dorothea — ex-Palatina of Hun- gary and mother of the Queen of Belgium, as also grand- mother of the Queen Regent of Spain — took a deep interest in having the book published, but she was power- less as to carrying out details. She advised to have the matter put into Dr. Craig's hands, and in the course of time the sheets found themselves under the protection of a foreign embassy in Vienna. How they got there need not be examined too closely. Here a copy was taken of the manuscript so as to prevent accidents, and in due course the sheets reached Berlin. Dr. Craig took one copy home to have it translated into English, and he gave the other copy to Dr. F. W. Krum- macher, of Berlin, one of the chaplains of the King of Prussia, to have it published in German. One copy of the translation was sent to London, where it was published (with an Introduction by Dr. Merle D'Aubigne) by the firm of Messrs. Nisbet & Co. Another copy written out in Dr. Craig's handwriting went to New York, and it is the only account extant of the sufferings of the Protestant Church in Hungary at the hands of the Jesuits. The book was highly prized by the small circle of readers interested in such literature. CHAPTER XII 11 Whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord." — Romans xiv. 8. " Jesus, Thou Prince of Life, Thy chosen cannot die ; Like Thee, they conquer in the strife, To reign with Thee on high ! " G. W. BETHUNE. DEATH OF HIS FATHER. IN 1854 Dr. Craig's father was called home by Him whom he loved. He was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, and during a ministry of fifty years in the same congregation had turned many to righteousness. It had been his constant prayer not to be left to spend a useless old age, and this prayer was abundantly answered. Till he was nearly eighty years of age he preached with great power, and visited his congregation regularly. Returning one day from a visit to a sick member of his church he met with an accident that called him home in a few days. Two brothers who were practising in the neighbourhood as medical men, and who had been prepared for college by Dr. Craig twenty years previously, begged the privilege of attending their aged friend in his last illness, and would accept of no remuneration. Dr. John Thomson was fre- quently seen in deep distress when nothing could be done to relieve his friend's pain. He brought the leading 148 RE VISITS A USTRIA surgeons from Derry to consult with him in the case, but these gentlemen would accept of no fee from one whom they had known so long and esteemed so highly. The illness was so short that James was unable to be present either at the sick-bed or the funeral, which was great cause of regret. On his tombstone was written the message from the grave : " Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me " (2 Tim. i. 13). When Mr. Craig was near his end, Dr. Denham, of Derry, was one day sitting near him and quoting a text out of Isaiah. " Ah," said the dying man, " how much more beautiful are these words in the original ; " and he quoted in Hebrew two or three verses of the passage to which Dr. Denham had referred. That was but a day before his death. Many of Craig's church members and fellow-workers were called away by death that year, so that it was a time of heavy trial for him. He simply threw himself more completely into his work, having occasionally large numbers of Jews under instruction, and always large con- gregations on Sunday. The number of emigrants to America and Australia was that year unusually large; so he furnished all the emigrant ships that sailed from Ham- burg or Bremen with libraries, and supplied tracts and books for the emigrants to take with them to their new home. REVISITS AUSTRIA. Making his annual tour to Bohemia and Moravia in 1854, Craig had many opportunities of working among the officers and soldiers in the Austrian barracks, many of whom received his books gratefully and listened to the gospel message. Reaching Lundenburg one morning before daybreak, on his way from Briinn to Vienna, he had two hours to wait for the next train. It was quite dark, and the thermometer stood at 40 Fahrenheit below the freezing point. He saw near the railway station a church BUDAPEST SCHOOL 149 lighted up brilliantly, and on entering he found about twelve hundred peasants — fully half of whom were men — ehiefly prostrate on the stone flags, earnestly engaged in their devotions, while about twenty priests and acolytes chanted Latin hymns. There were many soldiers among the crowd, men of fine figure and great stature, apparently worshipping most earnestly. Craig inquired of an elderly man, who was taking no part in the devotions, what it all meant, and was told that there was a fair in the town that day, which was generally rather wild before the day closed, and the country people had come early to make atonement for any wickedness of which they might be guilty during the day. Craig said to his communicative friend that God's forgiveness made people hate sin, but man's absolution enabled them to rush with a good con- science into the blackest of crimes. Running back to the railway station, he brought his bag with tracts, which he divided among the people as they left the church, bidding them fold them up carefully, and, if they could not read, to find some one to read the books to them at home. BUDAPEST SCHOOL. Arriving in Budapest, he found Superintendent Torok in charge of the books and tracts the Free Church of Scot- land's missionaries had left behind, when they had been expelled some years previously ; but he had little oppor- tunity of using them. The Mission School had been left under the care of Mr. Saphir, senior, and had at that time 230 Jewish children in attendance, besides a few Protestant and Roman Catholic children. Mr. Saphir was then old, and quite incapable of preserving order either among the teachers or the scholars. The Mission Board of the Free Church had been speaking of closing the school and giving up the work. Dr. Craig wrote to Dr. David Brown, of Glasgow, the 150 THE CRIMEAN WAR Convener, explaining the state of the school and the need of a new staff of teachers. In reply, Dr. Brown asked if Craig could find a head master for the school. Now it happened that one of Dr. Craig's elders, a man of good education, who had for six years been superintendent of one of his Sunday schools, and an active evangelist, had given up his business and was looking out for an engage- ment in some suitable mission work. On Craig's recom- mendation, this man was eventually appointed to take charge of the school and mission in Budapest — a post which he filled with extraordinary energy and success for seven years, till the Rev. Mr. Konig was able to take up the work, which he carried on successfully till 1891. During all this time Dr. Craig kept closely connected with the book circulation from that centre in six different languages — helping to select suitable publications. THE CRIMEAN WAR. When this war broke out, it pleased Napoleon and Victor Immanuel to send their French and Italian troops to assist the English army against Russia. With the mission work among the British troops in that war Craig had nothing to do, as it was carried on from England. But when the French and Italian troops were put on board the transport vessels, he found men who took charge of French and Italian tracts and Gospels, to be distributed among the men on board. Unfortunately, scarcely one soldier in every four or five of both these armies could read ; but arrangements were made that those who could read stood on the deck of the transport vessels, while the others sat near them and listened, as story after story, or sermon after sermon, in their own language, was read, to tell of the finished work of Christ on the cross for our redemption. When the soldiers wrote home to their friends later on from the seat of war, it became a custom to enclose a tract, or New Testament, or gospel, or other THE CRIMEAN WAR 151 portion of Scripture, and all was carried home through the post-office and delivered free. The Bible Society had long been distributing Bibles and Testaments in France, but only to Protestants. If a col- porteur ventured to sell to a Roman Catholic, and it was discovered, his licence was cancelled and he was expelled. Hundreds of New Testaments, however, were sent home by post from the Crimea to the relatives of the soldiers, and this was the first opportunity for the Roman Catholics in France or Piedmont to see that blessed book ever since the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. For thirteen or fourteen years this new life was gradually developed in France, till after the Franco-German war, when full liberty was given to all Frenchmen to procure and read the Word of God. The agent of the Bible Society in Paris had, after 1858, when the Crimean soldiers were disbanded, quite an unusual number of applications from men who wished to become Bible colporteurs. When inquiry was made about what induced them to seek such a post, the reply in three cases out of four was, that the reading of the tracts and New Testaments in the Crimean hospitals had opened their eyes to know and love the Lord Jesus ; and as they wished others to become partakers of the happiness they felt, their desire was to devote their lives to the spreading the Word of God among those who knew it not. THE GERMAN LEGION IN THE CRIMEAN WAR. It had pleased the English Government quietly to raise a German Legion to help in this war. That Legion was formed in Heligoland, whither the English officers were sent to receive and drill the German mercenary troops who offered to serve as volunteers in the Crimea. Dr. Craig happened to know some of the English officers of that Legion, and through them he obtained leave to supply these troops with the printed message of the love of God. 152 GARIBALDI'S WAR In the following year, when peace had been proclaimed, these men could not return to their native country ; and when it was resolved to send them out to settle at the Cape, Dr. Craig provided all who would accept of them with choice books and tracts to take with them to their new home in Africa. garibaldi's war. When the Italian war broke out, it very soon became possible to have colporteurs at work among the soldiers. Garibaldi did not profess to take an interest in what per- tained to the Redeemer's kingdom, but he knew that real Christians hate tyranny, oppression, and lies, and love freedom ; so he welcomed the Bible among his men. Wherever the red shirts were seen, the colporteurs knew they might without fear scatter their tracts and Testa- ments ; the great drawback being the very small number of Italians who could read. Still, the tract distribution in the Italian wars prepared the way for the evangelistic work which followed. THE BREMEN KIRCHENTAG. But we must turn back to the meeting of the Kirchentag in Bremen, 1852. The annual meeting of the Kirchentag was always a time of revival and refreshing, and from these meetings Craig was seldom absent. The meeting was to be held one year in Bremen, and he was making due prepara- tion to attend. A visit to Bremen was always pleasant and profitable. There was Pastor Mallet, whose whole life, like the disciple whom Jesus loved, sought as its object that all might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing, they might have life through His name. There was Pastor Muller, who bore unflinching testimony against all ritualism, and everything else which tended to dethrone Christ and elevate the man or the Church to take His place. There was Treviranus, THE BREMEN KIRCHENTAG 153 the far-seeing and practical worker in all Home and Foreign Mission work. Four or five more faithful pillars of the church, besides the merchants and laymen who lived as seeing Him who is invisible — such men as Mr. Vietor and his friends, were the glory of the church in Bremen. Three days before the meeting, Craig was very busy arranging for carrying on the work in his absence, when a company of four or five complete strangers called on him — Mr. C. F. Klein-Schlatter, of Barmen, one of the wealthy manufacturers of that busy town and one of the most influential laymen in Germany ; Miss Spittler, of Basel, the daughter of the venerable man who founded the great '& missionary institution at Crischona, near that city ; Pastor Rinck, of Baden, who afterwards became pastor of the Lutheran Church in Elberfeld ; Pastor Ledderhose, of Baden, the author of a host of Christian biographies. These and others were on their way to the Kirchentag, and wished to make Craig's acquaintance. An unbroken intercourse with Mr. Klein-Schlatter for many years, which began that day, was one of the most delightful experiences of Dr. Craig's whole life in Germany. That long interview was very memorable, and opened up fresh opportunities of usefulness to Dr. Craig of which he had not dreamt. Arriving in Bremen, he met with many friends. Dr. Marriott was there; Mr. William Jones, of the Religious Tract Society ; General Superintendent Hoffman, of Berlin ; Barth, of Calw ; Prelate Kapff, of Stuttgart — all the leading witnesses for Christ in the whole of Germany — many from France, Switzerland, &c. — and all these, meeting in the great assembly or in private com- mittees from six oclock in the morning till near midnight each day, came nearer to Christ and prepared the way for much profitable work for His glory. Mr. Jones returned with Craig to Hamburg, and spent a few delightful days there with him before returning home. 154 THE ELBERFELD MISSION WEEK THE ELBERFELD MISSION WEEK was a great annual festival in Elberfeld, Barmen, and the adjacent towns in the month of August, and when the next meeting came round in 1853 Dr. Craig was invited to preach one of the mission sermons. For eighteen or twenty years this invitation was repeated nearly every year, and he was expected to preach for one or other of the ten or twelve mission causes that were there repre- sented. In the evenings, all the churches in the Wupper- thal were opened for the most distinguished preachers from the whole of the churches of Germany to hold services, and through Mr. Klein-Schlatter's kindness a place was frequently reserved for Craig. There was an introductory conference on the Saturday, with coffee and cake in abundance, and the meeting lasted about five hours. On Sunday the regular services were held in the churches in the morning, and in the after- noon the Y.M.C.A. met, to the number of about twelve hundred, to coffee, while the meeting lasted again five hours. Every branch of Home and Foreign Mission work was taken in turn, and the whole week was completely and profitably filled up. Such was the Wupperthal Mission week. To one who was working at home with little sympathy from the neighbouring clergy, these opportunities of meeting with the ablest and best of the German pastors and professors, on a footing of equality, were unspeakably sweet. The secretaries of the societies for which Craig preached, generally begged for the notes of his sermon, and had them printed in their annual report. To be acknowledged as a friend of Mr. Klein- Schlatter was a guarantee of one's position in each circle. One meeting in Elberfeld was more than usually solemn. There had been a great awakening among the children in the Orphanage. Old and young in the whole district had been greatly moved about the state of their soul. THE ELBERFELD MISSION WEEK 155 There had been great searching of hearts and many conver- sions to God. When the mission week came round, Craig had been invited to preach in the New Reformed Church, and there were over three thousand persons present at the evening service. The preacher spoke with earnestness, and there was scarcely a dry eye in the whole church. These were chiefly tradespeople and factory hands, who had been unable to attend the mission services during the day. At the close of the service, five individuals came to the vestry to give thanks that they had that night found the Lord. The next day three gentlemen stopped Craig in the street to tell him that the word spoken the previous evening had brought light and peace to their souls. Before leaving the vestry, Pastor Rinck hastened in to say he was in great difficulty. Dr. Barth, of Calvv, had promised to preach in the Elberfeld Lutheran Church the next evening, and had just written that he could not come. Rinck, whom we have met before in Hamburg, with Klein- Schlatter in Dr. Craig's house in 1852, was now one of the pastors of the Elberfeld Lutheran Church. He had asked two or three of the guests at the mission festival to take Barth's place, but they had declined. Would Craig preach? Under the circumstances he consented, if only Rinck and his circle would remember him in prayer. The Lutheran Church was crowded next evening so that many went away. A solemn feeling pervaded the assembly. Many were in tears. This was no unusual thing when Pastor Rinck or Pastor Jaspis occupied the pulpit. But Jaspis was gone to be General Superinten- dent in Stettin, and there was a vacancy for a new pastor. A few days later Pastor Rinck met Craig and told him that a large number of the members of the church had sent in to the ecclesiastical authorities a petition praying that Dr. Craig might be put on the list for election to the pastoral vacancy. " And now," said he, " if you want to be our colleague, you have a good chance." 156 VISIT TO HOLLAND Craig felt deeply grateful at the thought that a church so well grounded in the Scripture as that church was, could express the feeling that his mode of presenting the gospel message would be acceptable to them. Of course the thing was impossible, but it was gratifying to think- that the people had been pleased. VISIT TO HOLLAND. In October, 1855, Dr. Graham, who was then settled in Bonn, invited Dr. Craig to accompany him on a mission tour to Holland, and he gladly consented. On the day of their arrival in Amsterdam they assisted at the baptism of three Jews. For a whole week they conducted a series of missionary meetings, delivering several addresses daily in private houses or in a church which was placed at their disposal. The Rev. Dr. Schwartz, Rev. Mr. Smith, and Dr. Da Costa were at that time carrying on mission work in Amsterdam, and Dr. Capadose in the Hague. These friends heartily welcomed Graham and Craig, and made arrangements for their numerous meetings. The Countess of Limburg-Stirum and Mrs. Hartsen, sister-in-law of the Minister of the Interior in Holland, opened their drawing- rooms for services, and gathered large audiences from the Court circles to hear Dr. Graham lecture night after night on the Epistle to the Ephesians, in English. Dr. Craig preached frequently in German, in other circles. The visit paid by the English preachers was regarded by the Dutch friends as a time of great spiritual quicken- ing. Dr. Craig proceeded to Leyden to meet Pastor Chantepie de la Saussaye, and returned to meet Dr. Graham in the Hague, where two or three services were held each day in the houses of Countess van Hogen- dorp, Mrs. van Hogendorp, Mr. van der Kemp and Dr. Capadose. Never had Graham and Craig enjoyed a happier time of preaching the gospel to willing ears than DR. CAPADOSE 157 on this occasion in Amsterdam and the Hague, for the space of two weeks. DR. CAPADOSE. It happened that Dr. and Mrs. Capadosc and Dr. Da Costa were about to celebrate the thirty-third anniversary of their baptism — as they had been converted in 1822. On this occasion Dr. Craig was asked to conduct the religious service before a very large gathering that filled Dr. Capadose's large saloons to overflowing. At the close of the service, twenty-one countesses rose and stood in a semicircle round the venerable doctor. One of the ladies said : — " We read in the Word of God that salvation is of the Jews— but we, who stand here, may say that we owe our salvation to the Jew who this day looks back over the third part of a century since he first placed his foot on the Rock. "Yes, it is through your words that we have been drawn out of darkness into that wonderful light in which the children of God rejoice. We thank our blessed Saviour ; we thank the great Com- forter, and we thank you, sir, on this the thirty-third anniversary of your baptism, that through your words we hope to stand as your joy and crown in the day when the great Shepherd of the sheep shall have gathered His Redeemed to sit with Him on the throne."' It cannot be described with what deep emotion the old man rose to grasp the hand of each of these noble sisters. He said he felt in anticipation something of that joy which they would all feel when, standing on the crystal sea, and when each one would cast the crown at the feet of the Lamb, saying, " Thou art worthy. . . ." As Dr. Capadose, overcome by emotion, could say no more, the whole assembly rose to their feet and sang, in English — " Blessing and honour and glory and power, Wisdom and riches and strength evermore, Give ye to Him who our battle hath won, Whose are the kingdom, the crown and the throne." 158 COUNTESS VON WRANGEL And as the emotion had not yet been stilled, they sang another hymn in Dutch, the substance of which was, " Thou art worthy, ... for thou wast slain . . . and hast redeemed us to God." Dr. Capadose had for many years lectured on scientific subjects and expounded Scripture two or three times every week, while engaged in large medical practice, and it seemed that his word had been blessed to many others besides these titled ladies who had joined together to present him with a mark of their esteem suitable to the occasion. COUNTESS VON WRANGEL. One of the ladies present that night was the wife of the Swedish Ambassador in Hamburg, and from that day she and some of the members of her family became regular attendants at Dr. Craig's ordinary services in Hamburg. The revival wave that was sweeping over the whole Continent, had at that time reached Sweden ; and the Countess von Wrangel said it was her glory and joy to be numbered at home among the "Lasare" — the nickname for the earnest Christians of that time. The title " Readers " that was given to these people in Sweden showed at once that the revival had reached them through the reading of the Bible, the works of Luther and Rosen ius, and other books. It was by reading that the spiritual life had been developed in Sweden, and we shall have occasion to return to this subject. CHAPTER XIII 11 Hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me." — Ezekiel iii. 17. "Jesus is our Shepherd, well we know His voice ; How its gentlest whisper makes our heart rejoice !" Hugh Stowell. SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. WITH the formation of the German Kirchentag in 1848, the evangelical churches of Germany pro- fessed to start on the new undertaking of Home Mission work. One department of this work, which seemed very much neglected, was the holding of " Bibel-Stunden," or exposition of Scripture. Dr. Craig resolved to try such meetings in Schleswig-Holstein, which was very accessible. Immediately after his arrival on the Continent he had taken steps towards obtaining a thorough knowledge of these provinces, and the war of 1848-51 gave him an opportunity of becoming better acquainted with them. Holstein contained at that time nearly half a million of inhabitants in two hundred parishes, virtually all Lutherans ; and Schleswig about one hundred thousand fewer. There was no ecclesiastical organisation farther than that each pastor sent his annual report to the Danish Minister of State, and a General Superintendent, who was afterwards called Bishop, paid an occasional visit to the several churches and schools. Each parish minister then acted pretty much as he chose, and his work consisted in 159 160 BLANKENESE preaching once on Sunday, administering the sacraments, inspecting the schools, and confirming the children when they reached their fourteenth year. This arrangement afforded facilities for the Mormons and other sects to carry on their work unhindered, as the minister seldom visited his people ; but it also gave Dr. Craig special opportunities for doing good. The law had been very stringent against Dissent, but with the Revolu- tion of 1848 matters changed in this respect; so with a little tact his mission work was not seriously hindered. The tract distribution, which had been energetically pushed forward, was followed by Bible circulation. Then followed a demand for prayer meetings and Y.M.C.A. as also Y.W.C.A. work. BLANKENESE was a beautiful fishing village, about eight miles from Hamburg, which was frequently visited by Dr. Craig and his tract distributors. One of these had visited a family named Mewes, and when he was gone, the head of the house declared in a very solemn tone : " I believe Jackson has only one message when he calls, and that is, Why don't you read your Bible more?" . " And it is little enough time you devote to that work," the wife replied. " I should like to know when you last had a Bible in your hand ? " " Oh, I know the Bible so well I don't require to read it ; but we may look into these books which Jackson has left, they are generally good." One of the tracts was taken up, but on reaching what professed to be a quotation from the Bible, the master of the house declared, " That is not in the Bible." The mistress brought down the Bible, and found the passage word for word there. They read a little farther and found another quotation, which was positively declared not to be in the Bible. On examination, however, it was found to be HLANKENESE 161 correctly quoted, and the master was obliged to declare he had never seen it before. Not only the text but also the context was read, down to the end of the chapter. The next Sunday afternoon found the two old people sitting, reading the Bible with much pleasure ; and when Jack- son looked in again, these two had many a question to ask, and before he left they acknowledged they did not fully understand all that was written in the book'. A few days later Craig was in the house, and when the neighbours heard of it, a few of them slipped in to see what was come over Mewcs and his wife. At the close of the reading and prayer, an old lady, Mrs. Bohn — then well advanced in the eighties — begged the next time Craig came he might read in her house. These visits on the part of Dr. Craig or some of his people became regular, and a considerable number of the people of the village assembled on each occasion in private houses, so that within a year there were about forty cases of thorough conversion. The change which took place was so marked, whole families having been converted, that many came from a great distance to see this work of God. Of course persecution followed. Windows were broken in the houses where the praying people assembled, and in the streets they were pelted with stones and mud. All this turned out to be rather a furtherance than a hindrance to the Lord's work in that place. OTHER EVANGELISTIC MEETINGS. For several years previous to this great awakening it had been Dr. Craig's custom to accept of invitations — sometimes from pastors, sometimes from schoolmasters or trades- people—to conduct prayer-meetings in various parts of the Duchies. Individuals who had received benefit from the tracts or the Bibles, and who had occasional business in Hamburg or Altona, contrived that these visits should enable them to attend two or three of Dr. Craig's services 162 INFLUENTIAL ENCOURAGEMENT on Sundays, and they then frequently invited him to hold a meeting in their village. In this way he had usually held three or four meetings every month, and the word preached did not return void. In Gliickstadt, Pastor Brodersen made arrangements for evangelistic meetings. In Uetersen and the adjoining parishes large meetings were held, and the pastors fre- quently requested that they should be held in the churches on the Sunday. In all such cases there was an evening meeting also for the benefit of more earnest inquirers after truth. In Elmshorn, on the invitation of Pastor Sievert, Craig preached two or three times each year at the principal service in the church on Sunday, and then held meetings for prayer on Saturday and Monday evenings— frequently arranging that these week evening meetings should be conducted regularly by the people themselves. His occasional visits became times of refreshing. INFLUENTIAL ENCOURAGEMENT. In Barmstedt, Bramstedt, Kellinghusen, and Horner- kirchen many souls were awakened, and urged that Dr. Craig or some of his people might come frequently to help them in their home mission work. The Countess von Moltke — sister-in-law of the Prussian Field-Marshal, and a very godly woman — encouraged the people in her neigh- bourhood to bring Craig as often as possible to hold meet- ings, which she with her family attended regularly, even when the meetings were held in a barn, and when her children were obliged to stand during the service owing to the crowd. Her husband was President of the Schleswig- Holstein Government for many years, and therefore her influence was of great value. Baron von Heintze, of Bordesholm, one of the leading members of the Council of State, with the Baroness, urged the clergy to give Craig the use of their pulpits on Sunday as often as possible. At all times, when holding meetings NONE OF US SAFE 163 in the neighbourhood, the Baroness insisted on Craig making their castle his home ; and however little some of the clergy sympathised with the gospel which he preached, few of them ventured openly to hinder his work. NONE OF US SAFE. There was a village where one of Craig's evangelists was conducting a meeting, when a drunken man, who was the disgrace of the parish, happened to come in. The poor man was arrested by the words he heard, and was con- verted. Shortly afterwards Craig was preaching in the neighbourhood, and the churchwarden of the parish — a man of high position — resolved to come with his family to try and ascertain what kind of preaching that was which made a drunkard a useful member of the parish. There was a great crowd present that night. When the preacher began, every eye was fixed on him, and dead silence per- vaded the meeting. Soon a sob was heard. It came from the wife of the churchwarden. The eldest daughter looked and saw the tears stream down her father's cheek, while her own face beamed with joy. The eldest son sat with his face covered, while he seemed deeply moved. Many others were in deep concern that night, but at the close of the meeting the daughter rose and kissed her mother and then embraced her father, crying out : " Father, mother, it is all true. I know it." " I cannot comprehend it," sobbed the father ; " it is too wonderful." " How often," said the mother, " have we repeated the words that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and we did not know what they meant ! " The preacher was asked to go home with that family to tell it over again to them at home ; and he there found father, mother, two daughters, one son, and two servants ready to join in singing — 1 64 BISHOP KOOPMANN " Hallelujah to the Lamb, who has bought us a pardon, We will praise Him again when we pass over Jordan." When the pastor of the parish heard of what had hap- pened he was in a great rage. He said " it was all very well to convert drunken Tim. If Craig confined himself to such people, he (the pastor) had no objection, but to think of the presumption of converting the most respect- able man in the whole parish! If that went on there was none of us safe. We must put an end to this." And in order to do so he wrote to the General Superintendent, who had then just received the title " Bishop." BISHOP KOOPMANN was a hard-working, evangelical pastor of a large congre- gation, and at the same time Bishop, or General Superin- tendent, of Holstein. On receiving the complaint that it appeared no one in this particular parish — not even the wealthiest and most respectable — was quite safe from the requirement to repent and be converted, the Bishop replied he would come at an early date and visit the parish. He arrived at the appointed time and preached in the church, which, for the first time in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, was crowded to the door. The Bishop took for his text the words, " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." After fully describing the nature, necessity, evidence, agency, and fruits of the new birth, the Bishop said in con- clusion he would tell the congregation how it happened in his own case, when he was converted. After describing the piety of his parents, the faithfulness of the minister who confirmed him, the tears he had shed on that occasion, the vows he had then made, his efforts to keep the whole law of God, he said that during all this time he was without God and without hope in the world ; he was still lying under the wrath of God. QUARTERLY MEETINGS 165 Here, the women sobbed aloud at the description of a soul that does not know Christ and is still lying under the power of evil. The preacher went on to describe his work at college, and the excellency of the professors under whom he studied ; what care he took in the pre- paration of his sermons, which produced little effect, as he omitted the only subject that could change the heart of his hearers ; for as he did not know the Saviour or feel his need, he could not tell his hearers how a sinner can become just before God. He then gave a brief description of how he was awakened and what discoveries he made when he came as a guilty, helpless sinner to the cross of Christ. Then all within was made new. The congregation returned home that day saying to each other, that if a Bishop required to be converted before he was of any use, how much more must a peasant or tradesman need this great change. QUARTERLY MEETINGS. As the numbers increased who took a lively interest in Divine things, it became plain that some means must be adopted for making the living members of the churches acquainted with each other. It was arranged, with this purpose in view, to hold quarterly meetings in different parts of Holstein. These meetings were to be held in places — (1) where there were a goodly number of awakened souls living near ; (2) where a suitable hall could be secured ; (3) where, if possible, the pastor of the parish was in sympathy with the work ; (4) where it would be possible for the brethren and sisters of every part of the Duchy to attend at least one quarterly meet- ing each year. The next step was the appointment of an evangelist who could give his whole time to visit the parishes where weekly prayer-meetings were held, so as to increase their 1 66 QUARTERL Y MEETINGS number and efficiency. One of the brethren from Blankenese was the first to undertake this department. When he retired, Mr. Sommer, of Husum, took the post, and held it till his death. Afterwards others were appointed, whose expenses were partly provided by Dr. Craig and partly by the members of the Home Mission. Craig would take a fortnight at a time, during which from twenty to thirty meetings were held. It was not unusual for farmers and their labourers to rise an hour earlier than usual to the farm work, that they might be able to walk six or eight miles to the meeting when the work was done. An extract from a diary kept at this time, giving an account of a fortnight's tour, may illustrate the work : — 11 Started on Monday morning, after having packed and despatched 240 Bibles for one of the colporteurs, and reached Uetersen at mid- day. Was here met by Mr. Voss, and with him visited Pastor Brocker, who is married to a sister of Field-Marshal Moltke. Called on Pastor Nielsen and several families where some of the members were sick. " At 5 o'clock the people began to assemble. Some of those who came early had difficulties about portions of Scripture they wanted explained. The regular service began at 7, and lasted till 10. Some of the people had walked several miles to attend the meeting. 11 After coffee, bread and butter, the visitors begged for another address 'just like the last.' They did not want to leave before 1 a.m. On inquiry what they would do for sleep, they laughed and said they would reach home in time to begin their day's work, and would then sing the hymns over again and repeat what they remembered of the address, which would keep them awake the next day. " On Tuesday morning an hour's drive in the omnibus brought me to the nearest railway station at 8 a.m. Reached Bollenkuhlen at noon, and twenty-five people attended a meeting in the schoolroom. Had a good time. In Barmstedt in the evening there was a large meeting that lasted till 1 1 p.m. A young man and a married woman were awakened to think seriously of their souls." (Both of them after- wards became very consistent Christians.) " Wednesday in Hornerkirchen, for the third time, and held two large meetings. Five or six waited for serious inquiry after each meeting. DANGERS TO BE AVOIDED 167 "Thursday in Kellinghusen— one meeting in a schoolroom and another in a private house. A respectable farmer awakened to take an interest in the state of his soul. " Friday in Neumunster, where the pastor gave the use of his church for a large meeting. The pastor and his family attended the meeting and I stayed the night at the parsonage. " Saturday in Elmshorn, where Pastor Sievert gave the use of a schoolroom in a remote part of the parish, and attended the meeting. The next day being Sunday, he gave the use of his church for two services, where I preached with comfort. " Monday in Gliickstadt with Pastor Brodersen. Saw some of the prisoners who had lately been converted, and who expressed profuse thanks for the tracts they had received ; mentioning the title of some tracts that had given them light to understand the Word of God. A faithful schoolmaster here gave much help. " The remainder of the week was spent in Brunsbiittel, Marne, Quickborn, and Siiderhastedt ; returning home after having preached in fourteen different places, having been only one Sunday absent from my own pulpit." DANGERS TO BE AVOIDED. Previous to this movement, meetings for prayer had been absolutely unknown in the Duchies, and after twenty years, out of the two hundred parishes in Holstein, there were more than eighty that had their regular meetings for prayer and studying the Scripture once or twice a week. Indeed it often happened on one of Dr. Craig's tours that not a meeting was held at which there were not one or more cases of conversion to be recorded. It frequently happened that young converts in their zeal insisted on separating from the church and forming a com- munion of their own, as the Baptists had done. Against this Craig set his face firmly. He said they would fall into spiritual pride. If they had been able to support an evan- gelical preacher, and to have the means of grace properly dispensed among them, it would be another matter ; but even then they would have no certainty that all who joined with them at the communion were real Christians. They would, he said, gain nothing and lose much. 1 68 D UCH Y OF SCHLES WIG If he did not succeed in this way, he would write to the pastor and ask for a bed, when next in the neighbourhood. Such a request was always readily granted. Craig would then describe to the pastor the danger of schism in his parish, and what he had done to resist it. He would ask the pastor to accompany him to the meeting — to preside and open with prayer. In the course of the service he would then call attention to the proper relation between the pastor and his flock, and show how this is to be maintained. The pastor generally brought his wife and family with him, and this circumstance would be used for the purpose of linking the minister and parish closer together. As a matter of fact, during the whole twenty years of connection with the parishes in Holstein not a single case occurred of a member of the parish separating from his church, except where the minister acted with unusual want of spiritual discernment. DUCHY OF SCHLESWIG. On account of the distance from Hamburg, the mission- ary visits to Schleswig were less frequent than to Holstein. Still, there were many pleasant and profitable days spent from time to time in that Duchy. The frequent visits paid to the different towns in Schleswig during the first war, 1848-51, made him acquainted with some of the leading people there. A few families in the town of Schleswig made him heartily welcome, and here he had opportunities of enjoying very pleasant Christian fellowship. He con- ducted small meetings frequently in private houses, and the letters he afterwards received testified that they were not in vain. Through the Princess Frederick, sister-in-law of the King of Denmark, he was able to distribute Bibles and devotional books for the tenants on her estates. The Princess of Wales was a frequent visitor with her aunt, and she with her cousin, of the same age with herself, TUNNING 169 obtained a supply of books twice a year for presents to be distributed among the women. In Friederichstadt, Garding, and Husum ; in Flensburg, Tondern, and Hadersleben, he frequently preached in schoolrooms, and had the privilege of knowing that these meetings were blessed. Many a time Craig wondered at the kindness shown him, a complete stranger, and the readiness with which the poor people especially received the Word at his mouth. TONNING. It was, however, in Tonning that he had the greatest pleasure. It has been already mentioned how Miss Scheer had opened an infant school and had engaged one of Dr. Craig's Sunday-school teachers to take charge of it. As the teacher was faithful, she had access to a large number of families— parents of the children — where she read and expounded the Scriptures and distributed large numbers of specially selected tracts. When difficulties arose that could not be arranged by correspondence, Dr. Craig gladly ran over — it was ninety miles — and he always found new and unexpected openings for work. Pastor Goesche, the parish minister, had his church at all times — Sundays and weekdays — placed at Craig's disposal, and would himself go round with Craig inviting the people to attend. This man was thoroughly awake to the necessity of personal conversion, and preached with a faithfulness seldom found in the north of Germany. His preaching was not in vain, and there were always many souls asking the way to Zion, their faces thitherward. " Come, dear brother," the pastor would say, " there's an old fisherman in this house that wants to be saved, but cannot see why he should be beholden to Christ. Fact is, he does not believe himself much of a sinner. If all the world had been like him, Christ need not have come. Now you know where you are and what you have got to say." 170 FLENSBURG In another case it would be : " Here is a poor soul that loves the Lord Jesus dearly, but does not see how He can care for her— she is so useless." Knowing beforehand the state of each case, it was easy for Craig to deal with them. The pastor would often break in with the words, " Just what I told you ! just what I told you ! " Consul Lexow and the wife of the chief magistrate of Tbnning entered heartily into every good work, and as long as Dr. Craig at any time remained he spent the day visiting with the pastor from house to house, while every evening there was a prayer-meeting. The little Klein-Kinder-Bewahr-Anstalt was for many years the centre of life among the poor of the town, and furnished the benevolent with an opportunity of relieving real distress in an efficient manner, owing to the tact and knowledge of the young teacher whom they all trusted. FLENSBURG. In Flensburg Dr. Craig had a colporteur permanently established, who not only sold Bibles and devotional books, but conducted prayer-meetings in the evenings. A visitor from Hamburg was in such circumstances an important person. Thirty years previously, when Brodersen preached occasionally in a vacant pulpit, there was scarcely an indi- vidual to be found who had full assurance of the love of God or even a longing for it. But now the desert had begun to blossom like the rose. Instead of playing skittles in the public-house on Sunday afternoons, there were many awakened souls meeting together in private houses for prayer. When it was known at any time that Craig was coming, they gathered from distances of four or five miles to spend many hours together, enjoying a foretaste of that delight that awaits God's people in His presence. CHAPTER XIV 11 What doest thou here, Elijah?"— I KINGS xix. 13. " Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King." Frances Ridley Havergal. WHEN the prophet Elijah was weary with his work, he was sent back to anoint another to take his place. And the great work that each candle, lighted of the Lord, has to do is to light other candles, to give light where his own ray cannot penetrate. HERMANN ROTTMANN. A tradesman in Altona called on Dr. Craig in the year 1 85 1 with a weighty petition that had cost him much anxiety. He had trained his family with great care, and had apprenticed his eldest son to a wholesale draper — a Christian man. The father and the employer saw how the young man was surrounded by godless companions, and their heart trembled for the ark of God in that young man's heart. Had they been sure of his conversion, it would have been another matter. Like a wise father, that parent felt it would be useless to bid his son not associate with Sabbath breakers, if he did not show him associates that loved the Lord's Day. But there was then no Y.M.C. A., and the Church did not offer help to young men that desired to avoid ill. Dr. Craig was at that time the only 172 HERMANN RO TTMANN man in Hamburg or Altona who had gathered about him a band of young men engaged in work for God. Hermann was admitted to this Young Men's Association. He found the Lord, and became an active Sunday-school teacher. In a short time he threw himself into the work he found open for him in that circle, and was extremely happy. Whatever he did was done with his whole heart. Three or four years had passed over when one day he modestly inquired whether it might be possible for him to find work as a missionary to the heathen. His Sundays and the free hours on weekday evenings being spent in the service of the Master, made him very happy. Craig under- took to make inquiry at the Basel Missionary Society. The result of the correspondence was that he was invited to present himself before the Basel Committee, where he was at once accepted and placed on their staff. The training he had received in Hamburg satisfied the committee of the Missionary Society, and without being detained longer than was necessary to acquire a knowledge of the routine of the mission, he was in 1855 sent out to Christiansborg on the West Coast of Africa. Here he laboured faithfully and successfully for many years. In 1893 he wrote to Dr. Craig to say that, after spending thirty-nine years on the West Coast of Africa, and being over sixty years of age, he did not find himself quite so strong as he had once been. His strength was somewhat, abated, but he had seen much of Divine grace and power in the conversion of many souls at his mis- sion station. His children had grown up around him as a blessing to himself — to their dear pious mother, a native of Africa — and to the Church of God. CHRISTIAN ROTTMANN. When Hermann left the Hamburg circle, his younger brother Christian took his place in the Sunday school. He, too, soon became an earnest Christian, and worked CHRIS T1AN RO TTMANN 1 73 very successfully in Craig's Sunday school for a couple of years. His brother's letters from Christiansborg, often written when he was barely recovering from some severe attack of fever, were so joyous and encouraging, that after two years Christian Rottmann expressed a strong desire to engage in similar work. After correspondence with the North German Missionary Society and with Mr. Vietor, of Bremen, Craig had the pleasure of announcing to Christian that there was an opening for him on the same coast where his brother was working in connection with the Basel Mission ; only that he would be under the charge of the North German Mis- sion Committee. The station to which he was sent was Accra, where for many years he laboured faithfully ; and while others had died within a few months of landing on that deadly coast, Christian Rottmann was alive, as a retired agent of the North German Mission, in 1895 — fully thirty-seven years after he was first sent to the Gold Coast, to work within 6° of the Equator. It may be added that the only sister also joined the Sunday school as a zealous worker for the Master, and the youngest brother, who married a member of Dr. Craig's church, and himself became a member, having settled at home in business, was the first to be called to enter the mansions above in peace and joy. Thus was that whole family brought to the Lord and made useful members of His Church. We cannot pause to give a description of all the missionaries that were converted, trained, and sent forth to different parts of the mission field. In twenty-eight years there were twenty-eight young men and women brought to the Lord in connection with Dr. Craig's church, trained and sent forth to work in different mission fields as the Lord called them. Among the societies that employed them and sent them forth were the Basel, the Wupperthal Society in Barmen, the North German Society in Bremen, i 7 4 NUMMENSEN the Gossner Mission, the Jewish Mission, the Mission to the Germans in the United States of America, and similar institutions. The field of labour lay in the West Coast of Africa ; in South Africa ; in Natal ; in Egypt ; in Turkey ; in Persia ; in India among the Khols ; in China ; in Sumatra and Borneo ; and in the United States of America. NUMMENSEN. One missionary, working in connection with the Barmen Mission, and married to a lady from Dr. Craig's church, was stationed at Sumatra. He was often obliged to wade through marshes and pools on the east coast, where the leeches hanging to his legs made him faint for loss of blood. Two missionaries who preceded him had been eaten by the natives, and these cannibals were still alive. Arriving one evening in a native hut he asked for food, and having partaken of it, he spread his rug in the middle of the hut, saying he was weary and wished to sleep. Many of the natives had crowded in to see the white man. Before lying down to sleep, he knelt and prayed aloud in the language of the country, asking Divine protection while he slept. He then lay down and slept for several hours. The natives had in the meantime sent for the village executioner, who soon arrived with his axe. He crouched with the others round the edge of the tent while the white man was eating, and while he prayed. He trembled when he heard the missionary implore the mighty God, the only living God, to protect him from the wicked murderers while he slept. The weary hours passed slowly away as the stranger slept. When he awoke he fell once more on his knees, and with outstretched arms gave thanks for pro- tection, and prayed that these wicked people might be turned from their evil ways. At the close of that prayer the executioner sprang to NUMMENSEN 175 his feet in great excitement — his axe in his hand — and addressed the missionary. " Did you not know that they had sent for me to murder you, and yet you lay down and slept for hours ? " " And did you not hear me ask my God to protect me while I slept, and not suffer you to do me any harm ? And you could not touch me," Nummensen replied. He then appealed to the executioner and the assembled savages, asking them to give up their evil ways, and turn to God. " Would your God," said the executioner, trembling in every limb, " protect me from my enemies ? " " Yes, He would," said the missionary ; " but then you must give up your lying and cheating and murder, and all your evil deeds, and do as He says." " These people hate me," said the savage, " and want to kill me. Oh, do tell me how I can have your God for my friend, to protect me from their fury." Here, then, was the first inquirer in that place ; and the others, being terrified when they saw their great bully turn to the other side, and ask Divine protection against them, scarcely knew what to say or do. The way was open for the missionary to tell the story of the love of God ; and before two years had passed, the number of humble peni- tent souls in that district was counted by dozens. They gathered round the missionary to learn to read. He had no books to instruct them, and was therefore obliged to write out the lesson for each pupil, day by day, and paste it on a board. When Craig heard of this he applied to the Tract Society, through whose kindness a series of school-books was printed, by which means the time of the missionary was saved and the instruction was made more efficient. Within ten years the number of true converts in that district was counted by hundreds ; and most of them were young men, who, on becoming Chris- tians, were obliged to forfeit all their worldly possessions. i 7 6 WILLIAM VOSS WILLIAM VOSS was another church member and Sunday-school teacher for several years, after which experience he was taken up by Gossner's Missionary Society and sent out to India, to work among the Khols in Chota Nagpore. There were several missionaries of that Society working among that low caste and persecuted people. Mrs. Voss had lived for some years in Dr. Craig's family, where she found the Lord and became very useful in various ways. Before she had spent two years with her husband in Chota Nagpore, she was teaching two classes of native children, who spoke two different languages. The children adored her, and vied with each other in trying to do what she wished, that they might be like Jesus. The monthly reports from that station were — to Dr. Craig's astonishment — recording at times from fifty to sixty baptisms within a month, sometimes more. Craig wrote in wonder to Voss for an explanation of what he was doing. "Just what you would do yourself, if you were here," was the reply. "If you saw whole villages — men, women, and children — making a four days' journey to the mission station for the sake of becoming Christians. If they are content with one meal of rice in the day, and spend their whole time in learning to read and understand the gospel lesson. If they then give up every practice that they are told is contrary to God's Word — even to parting from all their wives but one, and making due provision for the divorced ones. If they profess sorrow for what they have done wrong, and give evidence of contrition and repentance. If they acknowledge Christ to be the Son of God, and their Prophet, Priest, King, and Saviour. If they evidence a teachable disposition and readiness to obey the gospel, even though they are ignorant, weak, and fickle as the wind. Would you not receive them into the church by baptism, and when they return to their native village send an evangelist, if pos- MARRIAGE 177 siblc, with them to continue the instruction that has been begun ? " Craig replied : " If this is a proper description of the state of matters, then go on as you are doing ; but oh, I implore you to be careful that no dishonour is brought on the cause of God by premature baptisms, and see that the natives do not regard baptism as the completion, but only as the commencement of the great work they have to do." Within ten years the missionaries among the Khols numbered more than twenty thousand, who had been baptized and had promised to follow the Lord Jesus in all things. Very many of them, like many baptized persons at home, had never tasted the power of Divine grace, but they had separated themselves from their heathen environ- ment and had promised to follow Christ. When afterwards a foolish missionary inspector had nearly wrecked the whole work by his mistaken zeal, it was a former teacher in one of Dr. Craig's Sunday schools, Mr. Schroder, that as an influential merchant in Calcutta provided the means for carrying on the mission, and not suffering the faithful missionaries to be driven from their post. MARRIAGE. In the year 1857, Dr. Craig married the eldest daughter of Robert Corry, Esq., of Belfast ; the sister of Sir James P. Corry, Baronet, M.P. Miss Corry had been a pupil in the Sunday school, where her uncle, Mr. John Arnold, was superintendent, and Dr. Craig secretary, so that they were not strangers. MRS. CRAIG. The union was exceedingly happy, as Mrs. Craig entered heartily into her husband's work. She had been well trained to Christian activity under the care of Rev. Dr. Morgan and Mr. Charles Finlay. She had, with them, been grieved with the want of whole-hearted consecration *3 178 PROGRESS on the part of many who made a profession of religion at home ; but when she had speedily acquired the language in her new home, she was delighted to find a circle of praying people who were entirely consecrated to God's work, and to them her heart went forth in full confidence and joy. There were six children, three boys and three girls, the fruit of this marriage, and Mrs. Craig soon found that with her husband's constant public engagements, the training of these dear children was the special work committed to her. She constantly cheered her husband under the ingratitude exhibited by many who had received good at his hands, and the calumnies so often heaped on him. When any- thing worse than usual occurred, she would laugh and say : " What a happiness that by the grace of God this is not true. Is it not His promise to keep in perfect peace those whose mind is stayed on Him ? " With such a comforter, keeping the nest warm at home, it was easy to work and bear trouble abroad. Craig often needed such encourage- ment greatly, for in proportion as his work was successful, was the enmity of Satan and his emissaries bitter. PROGRESS. At this time the work was very successful. Within twelve years Dr. Craig had admitted to church fellowship in Hamburg over three hundred communicants, that had been converted under his preaching, besides some who had known the Lord previous to their coming to him. Nor was this any measure of the Divine blessing enjoyed. Many who were converted under the preaching, and who afterwards attended regularly, did not become church members. On the mission journeys — particularly in Schleswig and Holstein — many had turned to the Lord. In one village fifty, in another thirty, in another ten, in others one or two souls had with their whole heart turned to serve the Lord. Merchants and others coming to the PROGRESS 179 city from many parts of Germany on business, returned home as saved men, and became centres of life in their own parish. A preacher in the United States wrote to say that ever since he first found the Lord in Hamburg, twelve years pre- viously, he had not spent a single unhappy day. A trades- man writing from New York said that he and his wife prayed every day for Dr. Craig, through whom they had found the light. In this particular case these two had been prevented from committing suicide and from drowning their three children, and in deep sorrow had sought and found the Lord. Well might they think of him that had been per- mitted to rescue them and lead them into light. Craig was walking one evening in Bremen, when he observed a happy group of school-boys, other side the street, with their tutor returning home from a stroll in the country. The tutor left his charge, and rushing across the street grasped Craig by the hand. 11 You don't know me," he said, " but I have good reason to remember you." " Have we ever met before ? " " Yes, about a year ago I was passing through Hamburg, and having an hour to spare on a Sunday evening, I dropped into your church. Your text was, ' Sir, we would see Jesus ! ' That was exactly what I wanted, and that sight has been my comfort ever since." After a little conversation he returned to his pupils, who stood waiting for him, and to the inquiry "Who is that?" the tutor was heard to say: "That is the man to whom, under God, I owe everything that makes my life happy." Many who had heard and accepted of Christ in that little despised circle might have been found witnessing for Christ, and carrying home their sheaves, in Calcutta, in Jerusalem, in Natal and at the Cape, on the West Coast of Africa, in the United States, in Poland, Finland, Russia, Bohemia, and every state or kingdom in Europe. The i So CHURCH-BUILDING brothers Rottmann were writing from the Gold Coast of Africa that their work was greatly blessed among the young. A lady residing in Russia wrote that she and her family had as much work as they could do to pull the gospel net ashore. A brother from Denmark wrote that on returning home he had repeated the last sermon he heard Craig preach, and on that occasion four souls were awakened to seek salvation. A few days later he repeated the same sermon in another circle, and the whole assembly were moved to tears, while there was reason to hope that six individuals were savingly impressed. He had preached that sermon twenty-seven times, so he must soon return to Hamburg to get another. A Jewish Christian brother wrote from a distance of two hundred miles to say : " It is long since you last called on us. Do come soon, and you will find our home very different from what it was when you first called here ; and we owe our present happiness in the Lord all to you." CHURCH-BUILDING. There was one circumstance which was felt to be a great hindrance. The congregation met in a hired hall, and they were frequently obliged to change. Dr. Craig wrote home asking permission to build a church. He gave the past success as a reason why a permanent place ought to be provided for the regular meetings, and showed how the money paid for hiring a hall would pay the interest of money that might be borrowed, if necessary, for building a permanent church. DEATH OF REV. DAVID HAMILTON. Before his letter reached Belfast a terrible calamity had befallen the Mission : Rev. David Hamilton was suddenly called away by death, after only a few days' illness. Dr. CHURCH- B UILDING 1 8 1 Craig had found in him a friend who made the work of the Mission very easy. For a year or more before his death, Mr. Hamilton, as Convener of the Mission Committee, had confided to Dr. Craig that there were some who were evidently bent on ruining the Mission. In the very last letter Mr. Hamilton wrote to Dr. Craig, he said there was a minister of the Assembly, whom he named, who seemed determined to crush the mission work. He said, " If this man con- tinues to act as he is now doing, it will be my death." Eight days later, Dr. Craig received the news that Mr. Hamilton was dead. He heard no particulars. The whole affair seemed very mysterious. The loss of such a wise, tender, faithful friend was a sad blow. As the work was now without a head, Craig felt he must make a personal appeal about the church-building, and he therefore proceeded to Belfast. He was received very kindly by the Mission Board, and asked to state his case before the Assembly. Dr. Craig addressed the Assembly, and his speech was very kindly received, as he was able to show that he had alone, and without burdening the funds of the Mission, during fifteen years distributed more Bibles, Testaments, and tracts than the whole five hundred churches connected with the Assembly at home. His congregation could be favourably compared with the larger congregations of the Church at home, and they were prepared to purchase the site for a church for £500 and make it a present to the General Assembly, if the Assembly would only undertake to approve of what had been done, and provide for the future guidance of the congregation, which had been organised under their direction. This highest Church Court sanc- tioned the request for permission to build a church, and voted a considerable sum towards the expense. 1 82 PLANS OF THE CHURCH PLANS OF THE CHURCH. As Counsellor Gibson, the advising legal authority of the Assembly, arranged the terms on which the trust deeds of the church in Hamburg should be made out, Dr. Craig drew up the document which was accepted by the Board. When the plan and estimates for church-building were ready, the cost seemed high. Dr. Craig then consulted his brother-in-law — John Corry, Esq., J. P., now of Croydon — and he kindly visited the place, and devoted several weeks of his valuable time to the matter, the result of which was a saving of ;£i,ooo without in any way diminishing the accommodation. The building of the church was completed without a single accident occurring. It was opened on the 13th of July, 1862, while the foundation had been laid on the 5th of August, 1861. CHAPTER XV 11 Be not weary in well-doing." — 2 Thess. iii. 13. " The rose is fairest when 'tis budding new, And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears." Sir Walter Scott. THE anxiety of building the church and providing the needful funds had strained Dr. Craig's nerves to the utmost, while the consciousness that he had now no sympathy to expect from the new Convener of the Mission Board chilled his heart. He was longing for some token of a Saviour's sympathy. And that token came. MR. WEINHAUSEN. The church had not been many weeks opened, when one Sunday evening a young Lutheran preacher wandered in to see the people and the service. His name was Wein- hausen, a native of Brunswick. He had been trained in the coldest Rationalistic circles, and neither at home nor at school did he meet with a single individual who knew and loved the Lord. It is customary for the German students to move freely from one college to another, and young Weinhausen had studied one session in Halle and another in Berlin. He heard Tholuck lecture in Halle, and though his views were new to him, yet, as he occasionally proclaimed what bordered on 183 1 84 MR. WEINHAUSEN universalism, Weinhausen thought that all this mysterious work of redemption was only another way of expressing his own views that God is too good to punish. He heard Dorner in Berlin, and that was a different matter. Here was a state of sin and misery proclaimed, from which nothing but the blood of the Son of God can set us free. The young man was wretched. He wanted to shake off Dorner's words, but could not. As he entered the Jerusalem Church in Hamburg that evening, the con- gregation had just risen to sing — "Aus irdischem Getiimmel, wo Gliick und Lust vergeht Wer zeigt den Weg zum Himmel, dahin die Hoffnung steht ? Wer leitet unser Streben, wenn er das Ziel vergisst ? Wer fuhrt durch's triibe Leben? Der Weg'xst Jesus Christ." Christ the Way, the Truth, and the Life. A corresponding English hymn runs thus : — " Thou art the Way ; to Thee alone from sin and death we flee, And he who would the Father seek, must seek Hirn, Lord, by Thee. Thou art the Truth ; Thy word alone true wisdom can impart, Thou only canst inform the mind and purify the heart. Thou art the Life ; Thy rending tomb proclaims Thy conquering arm, And those who put their trust in Thee, nor death nor hell can harm. 1 ' At the close of the service, the young preacher entered the vestry and said he felt as if the shutters in a dark room had been opened, and the light of the sun was shining into his soul. He had found Christ as the only way to the Father ; the gift of God that giveth life. He asked per- mission to join with that church at the next communion. This young man was tutor in a wealthy Norwegian family, and he obtained leave to bring his pupils with him to attend Craig's church. It happened that two sisters of the head of that house had in their native land, in Norway, found the Lord, and had publicly joined the " Readers " in DR. DUNCAN AND DR. A. MOODY STUART 185 that country. When they came to visit their brother, they were greatly surprised and delighted to find him and his family attending a church where Christ was preached. The father in that household and some of the children were converted, and when the eldest son, who had gone to Algiers for the benefit of his health, felt that he was dying, he begged to be taken back to Hamburg, that he might once more see Dr. Craig before he died. On the first visit which Dr. Craig paid him after his return home, he said, u I wanted to see you, and to tell my parents and my brothers that it is the gospel which you preach, and the Saviour whom you proclaim, that gives me perfect peace on this death-bed." He soon passed away. Mr. Weinhausen was afterwards appointed pastor of a parish in the kingdom of Hanover, where he preached the gospel faithfully till his death. DR. DUNCAN AND DR. A. MOODY STUART. Dr. John Duncan, of Edinburgh, and Dr. Moody Stuart paid a visit to Hamburg about this time, in 1 861, on their way to Bohemia and Hungary, and Dr. Craig accompanied them as far as Dresden and Teplitz. He always regarded it as a special privilege to be able to spend a few days with Dr. Duncan. He was able to cheer Dr. Duncan's heart by telling him how, on a late visit to Vienna, he had in a rail- way carriage made the acquaintance of a lady, the wife of an English engineer in connection with Lloyd's steamers on the Danube. In the course of conversation this lady had told him how on a certain occasion she had been in Budapest, where she had heard Dr. Duncan preach. That sermon had been the means of her conversion, and she, with the little daughter then travelling with her, gave bright assurance that both of them were walking in the light of the Lord. A tear dimmed the old man's eye as he said he had never heard of that case, and had at times feared his labours in that city had not been successful. 186 DR DUNCAN AND DR. A. MOODY STUART When this deputation returned to Scotland, Dr. A. Moody Stuart reported : — " Having written to Dr. Craig that we proposed to spend a Sabbath in Hamburg, we had abundant cause of thankfulness for that arrange- ment. Nothing could exceed his brotherly kindness, which was re- plete with benefits to us during all the first part of our journey. " Among the Jews at Hamburg Dr. Craig had not found a field sufficiently large, or at least not accessible enough to occupy all his energies. His heart is deeply set on the conversion of Israel, and from time to time the God of Israel honours him for the ingathering of one and another of His lost sheep — some of them being cases of remarkable interest. But he has set himself, by the grace of God enabling him, to form an Evangelical German Church in Hamburg, and his labours have been crowned with marked success. " Dr. Craig was about to enter a handsome new church, but he still, when we were with him, preached in a hall. ... I thought it my duty to worship with his congregation in the evening — though I could not follow his discourse. But it was not lost to me, for what I sought as a duty I found to be a privilege as well. The worship with that congregation and the service edified me more, though in a foreign tongue, than has often been the case in our own. The place was crowded to the door. There was an unmistakable earnestness of affection in the pastor to his people and in the people to their pastor ; intense eagerness in listening to the word of life, and every token of deep devotion toward God. It was impossible to escape the convic- tion that it was a living flock waiting on the ministry of a faithful shepherd." Dr. A. Moody Stuart did not know — as his visit was so short — that it was not want of a large field among the Jews, nor want of access to them, that induced Dr. Craig to admit the Germans to his services, but the positive com- mand given at his ordination not to confine his work to the Jews. Had he remained longer and visited other similar mission stations, he would have found that with the exception of Budapest and Professor Cassel in Berlin, which had been peculiarly blessed, there was no station on the Continent of Europe where so many Jews were reached by the gospel as was the case in Hamburg. ADDITIONAL VISITORS 187 ADDITIONAL VISITORS. Among other visitors who stayed frequently with Dr. Craig as his guests, were the two sons of Prelate von Kapff of Stuttgart, and the brother of Pastor Louis Harms of Hermannsburg. Pastor Karl Kapff had earned, at his university in Tubingen, a travelling scholarship, and was about to make a thorough investigation into the state of religion in England. Whatever he set about was sure to be thorough. As a preparation for his proposed work in England, he, having a perfect knowledge of the churches in South Germany, desired to know the state of things in the North. He wanted also letters of introduction to England. With these objects in view he spent a long — and what was a mutually pleasant — visit with Df. Craig. Fortified with suitable introductions, or the mode of obtaining them, he spent a most successful time in England, and was the means of bringing Mr. Christlieb — afterwards Professor in Bonn — to become pastor to the German congregation in Islington, London. His younger brother, who was for some time tutor in Count Bernstorff 's family, usually, to Dr. Craig's great joy, spent the holidays with him, and such visits were times of refreshing. HERMANNSBURG. When Mr. Harms stayed with Dr. Craig, he completely ignored his brother's views about England and the English, and thoroughly enjoyed his intercourse with a Calvin ist, forgetting for a time what was supposed to be a great gulf fixed between him and his host — this gulf really consist- ing in nothing but that dread name. So far did he carry this principle of the Evangelical Alliance, that when Craig visited Hermannsburg he was asked to preach in the Mission House. Dr. Craig had arrived in Hermannsburg on Saturday 1 88 HERMANNSBURG evening. He stayed at the hotel, where the master of the house conducted family prayers in the public room, before retiring to rest, the service lasting nearly an hour. The next morning the church was crowded with four thousand visitors. The forenoon service lasted over four hours. An afternoon catechetical service lasted two hours. Large crowds of strangers then assembled for two hours in the pastor's house, where there was earnest dealing with individual cases. After sitting six hours in church, Craig had retired to his hotel, where he was waited on by a deputation conducted by Mr. Harms, junior — the Mission Inspector — to say that as there were many strangers in town, would Dr. Craig come to the Mission House to conduct a Divine service so as to make a profitable use of the evening. On reaching the Mission House at eight o'clock, Craig found all the benches and chairs removed, and between four hundred and five hundred people packed as close as they could stand. Dr. Craig preached for a full hour the purest Calvinism, omitting all such catchwords as predesti- nation and election, or anything that could give offence. So much were the people pleased, that over a hundred of them accompanied him home for a mile to his hotel, singing mis- sion hymns of triumph all the way. Craig was more deeply impressed than ever with the conviction that the strife about the sacraments and the power of the clergy was a device of Satan to hinder the work of God. LUBECK MISSION FESTIVAL, 1 862. In the year 1862 — the same year in which the church in Hamburg was opened — Dr. Craig received a very press- ing request to preach the annual sermon for the North German Foreign Missionary Society. The festival was to be held that year in Liibeck. Pastor Deiss of Liibeck — the successor of the venerable Pastor Geibel — made arrangements for the meeting, and Pastors Drs. Proch- CONVERSIONS 189 now, Klee. and Schultzc from Berlin, with Pastors Becker and others from Hamburg and Altona, took an active part in the several gatherings both in the church and the open air. Dr. Craig preached the annual mission sermon from the text, " As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of God." The sermon was printed in several editions and very largely circulated. On leaving town after the festival, Dr. and Mrs. Craig — who accom- panied him — received very marked tokens of the apprecia- tion of the friends of missions in Liibeck, and that mission festival was long spoken of as a time of refreshment and blessing. CONVERSIONS. The number of conversions which took place about that time in Hamburg was very remarkable ; a few of which may be mentioned to the glory of God. Mrs. B. having come from Denmark with her family to reside in Altona, was visited by a colporteur offering Bibles. With astonish- ment she asked whether any one still believed in the Bible. She was brought to Dr. Craig's church, and the result was that she, her daughter, her son-in-law, and a lady friend who lived with her were within a couple of years brought to know the Lord. A son who was a sailor was about the same time converted on board an English ship coming from Calcutta. The mother trembled when she heard of him coming home, lest her new views and change of life should drive him from the house and break up the family. She had prayed much for heavenly direction. To her surprise, when the first salutations were over, the sailor said, " But mother, I am not the man I was when you last saw me ; I am now a Christian." " And so are we," said the mother and sister in the same breath, and their mutual joy was great. Another father, mother, and daughter had found the Lord and joined the church. The only son had fallen 190 CONVERSIONS into evil habits, had run away from home and gone to sea. The mother heard from time to time of his wild and wicked doings, but still she prayed, like Monica, " Oh, God, convert my son." And she believed firmly that her prayer would be answered. For some years he disappeared, and nothing was heard of him. One day a sailor called on the mother to say he had seen her son in California, and he was about to sail to New Zealand. She begged Dr. Craig to try and find him in New Zealand. The pleading of that mother was so earnest, that Craig wrote to some friends in Dunedin to inquire for him. The friends to whom he wrote were much amused to think of being asked to find a profligate sailor, who for years had not written to his mother. One of the young men in that family, however, was anxious to please Dr. Craig, and he inquired of the porter in his office whether he had ever heard of such a person. The porter knew him. He was lying in the hospital in that town with a broken leg, having a wife and two children in great poverty. When Craig took the news to the house, the sailor's sister drew all her savings out of the bank, and said, " Bring my brother and his family home ; he will yet be saved as we have been." The man was brought home, as wild as ever. Scarce a week passed for two years that Craig and that family did not unite in prayer on his behalf. A situation was unexpectedly found for him with a good salary and a pension attached to it. About a year later his constitu- tion gave way, and he was evidently near death. Week by week Craig visited him frequently. One morning he broke down and told his minister he could bear this no longer ; he must surrender to Jesus Christ. The mother and sister were sent for, and that day there was joy in heaven before the angels of God. The invalid lived several months. Seldom had a case been seen of such a complete change from death to life, ANOTHER CASE 191 till he passed away to glory rejoicing in his Saviour. The widow had in her pension the means of educating her fatherless children, who in their turn became the joy of their friends. Here was fulfilled the promise of this life as well as of the world to come in answer to the prayers of a mother and sister. ANOTHER CASE. In a wealthy and godly family in Barmen there was one son that was the hope and joy of all his friends. In his youth he seemed to be everything his father and mother could desire. Gifted beyond all his relatives, great hopes were entertained of his future influence. Having left home he fell into temptation — forgot God, forgot his father's house, and seemed to be hopelessly lost. His father called one day on Dr. Craig in Hamburg to say he had heard his son was coming to that town to settle there, and while the mother was praying at home, the father was come to join with Dr. Craig in prayer till the son should have obtained mercy. Every moment Dr. Craig could spare was spent with that afflicted parent waiting before the throne of grace. The son heard that his father was come to Hamburg to meet him. He sent word he had no father more, and would not recognise him if they met. Still the two friends prayed on. One day they had been praying together in Dr. Craig's study, when Dr. Craig rose from his knees and, taking his friend by the hand, said he had received the assurance that their prayer was heard. The next morn- ing the mother wrote that at the very same hour she had received a similar assurance, and had sung songs of praise all day long. The father on receiving this letter said, " I believe also that my son liveth." That night at midnight the erring son found his father's lodging, a penitent, though not yet a believing soul. When the father left town he committed his son to Dr. Craig's 192 ANOTHER CASE care. Within a year that bright young man found grace to call Jesus his Lord and his God. He must learn, however, the meaning of that word, " There is forgiveness with Thee that thou mayest be feared." The sentence of death was gone forth in his twenty-fourth year, but before the end came he had been made the means of turning many young men of the first families in the town, where his parents lived, to serve the living God. Many such cases might be recorded of the power of Divine grace. One of the highest officers in the army, with his wife, were brought to the Lord, and when the husband died, the widow, who had moved in the highest circles, devoted her life to raise the fallen and comfort the most miserable of her sex. About the same time one of the happiest deathbeds Craig witnessed was that of an old woman over eighty years of age, who with her daughter had lived a life of shame. The daughter was married, was converted in Dr. Craig's church, and bringing her mother from Bremen to live with her in a most com- fortable house, the old woman was awakened under the first sermon she heard, and lived seven years in faith, dying with the bright hope of eternal life. ORDINARY MISSION WORK. Without a fair amount of work, large fruits are not to be expected in the mission field. In 1859 we find Dr. Craig reporting that within the year he had preached or lectured 334 times. A few years later, in 1865, that he had four colporteurs at work, one of whom had sold 7,866 copies of Scripture, and another 6,480 copies of Scripture, while the entire sale of Bibles and Testaments by his men during the year had been nearly 19,000 copies. On another occasion he writes that one of his church members had sold in the year eight thousand copies of Scripture, while the entire sales of the men working under EMIGRANTS 193 his care had been twenty-five thousand copies of Bibles and Testaments. In one year also he had, partly by his Tract Society and partly independent of them, distributed over two millions of tracts and books. About eight hundred Lutheran clergy and three thousand school- masters or Christian heads of families subscribed annually small sums towards the expense of this work, and all these contributions passed through his hands. He might under such circumstances have often been heard to complain that he never knew what it meant to have his day's work completely finished. However diligently or late he worked, there were always some letters to be answered, or some accounts to be made up, or some person that ought to be seen. But the work was full of happiness, and to his great joy Mrs. Craig always encouraged and cheered him by reminding him that it was for the Lord. She never thought of herself or her own comforts. EMIGRANTS. The number of emigrants who left the ports of Hamburg and Bremen, chiefly for the United States, was enormous. Generally speaking they were very ignorant and careless, and the shipping agents often discouraged or even pre- vented mission work on board the ships. The additional labour had then to beundertaken of visiting the emigrants in their lodging or on the streets, and providing them with literature for themselves and their families in their new home. The colporteurs generally knew how to overcome difficulties ; but when they failed, then Dr. Craig must be sent for. Wherever his colporteurs were engaged he visited them more or less frequently, and always knew exactly what they were doing and under what circumstances they were carrying on their work. ■4 CHAPTER XVI "What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the . . . churches." — Rev. i. n. " Verbum scriptum manet." IT was with Dr. Craig a deep-rooted conviction that the printed message of Divine truth ought always to accompany or follow the spoken word. In many respects the spoken word is more powerful. Still, even where the preaching is faithful, the written word has many advantages as an aid ; and where there is no preaching, the printed word is a substitute. When near a friend, one converses with him ; when at a distance, one writes. COMENIUS SOCIETY. It was in Austria, in 1848, that Dr. Craig had begun his extensive tract distribution, but ten years later the Jesuits, under the name of the Ligorianer or Redemptorists, had gained such influence that he was not able to continue his work. He therefore in 1863 applied to Pastors Schubert and Janata, in the hope of inducing them to take up the work of distribution of Christian literature in Bohemia. He collected some money for that purpose, which he handed over to them to be used as soon as they were ready to commence operations. He had several years to wait. The Bohemians are not easily induced to take up any new idea. Craig urged them COMENIUS SOCIETY 195 to remember how it was the writings of Wickliff that had led John Huss and Jerome of Prague to know the gospel. It was the writings of Comenius that had helped to keep the coal alive in Bohemia between 1630 and 1780. At last one of the students whom Dr. John Duncan had taken over to be educated in Edinburgh, on his return to his native country took the matter up. Pastor L. Kaspar founded the Comenius Society with the design of reprint- ing some of the best works of Amos Comenius, and especially the large Krali^ Bible. Dr. Craig then in- duced the Religious Tract Society to assist Pastor Kaspar in this great work, which they did very liberally. The American Congregationalists also took the work up and received similar aid ; so that Craig could with confidence leave that field in their hands, paying occasional visits to cheer the workers, and provide fresh funds for new work. This was, then, one of the many societies of the kind that he rejoiced to see entering on its work in the hands of faithful men. The work of the Comenius Society, it is true, is still miserably small, the whole annual distribu- tion being twenty-two thousand books and tracts ; but the number of earnest Christians and of devoted faithful ministers in Bohemia is very far below what might be expected. Still it is something. NASSAU COLPORTAGE SOCIETY. Nassau is now incorporated in the German Empire, but when Craig first visited it in 1849 it was an independent duchy with a population of half a million — the size of Holstein. The people were very poor. They boasted, however, of the rich produce of their land, and spoke of the seven " zt/s " — namely, water, wheat, wine, wood, wool, &c, in which they surpassed all adjoining countries. One of the earliest experiences which Dr. Craig made as he accompanied his colporteurs in their work in Nassau 196 NASSAU COLPORTAGE SOCIETY was very startling. There were well-dressed, smooth- tongued, respectable-looking men travelling through the country and offering to adopt little girls. They expressed sympathy with the mothers of large families, and were ready to take one or two of the daughters and adopt them as their own children. They did not buy the children, but said that till such time as they had earned money in their new home to send to their mother, these benevolent gentlemen were ready to advance cash out of their own pocket, out of pity, and could recoup themselves after- wards. A regular deed of adoption was drawn up in legal form, in which these gentlemen promised to feed, clothe, educate, and in every way provide for the poor children. A thorough Christian training and superior secular education should.be provided, and after the first year the children — having then learned to write — would write home regularly to their parents. The picture of happiness which they represented as awaiting the children was most brilliant. Dr. Craig had heard from Christian men who travelled in California, how distressing it was to see beautiful yellow-haired German girls of tender age serving in the drinking and gambling saloons in that country. Having in his hands letters from respectable people describing the condition of these singing and dancing girls in different states of Western America, he made a thorough investiga- tion, till he discovered that from some villages six, from others ten, and occasionally from single families two or three, girls had been adopted and had never written home. He applied to the clergy and the police to make inquiry into the matter, and when these gentlemen found that inquiries were being made they soon disappeared, as their little game was spoiled. At that time the Protestant Church in Nassau was begin- ning to awake from the sleep of rationalism. Some of the professors at the theological seminaries had adopted PASTOR NINCK 197 evangelical views and became converted men. Their labours were blessed. Many of the students became real Christians, and Dr. Fabri of Barmen, a high authority, was able to write twelve years later that he knew no State in Germany which, in proportion to its Protestant popula- tion, had so many efficient young evangelical clergy as Nassau. It was long before the gospel took hold of the people, but a revived pulpit was a great gain for the land. one of the most energetic of these young pastors, was induced to attend the missionary festivals in Barmen, and eventually was married to the only daughter of Mr. Klein- Schlatter. In this way he became acquainted with Dr. Craig, in the year 1862. To a genuine German of that day it was a terrible wrench to acknowledge that he found in any other German State habits and practices superior to those that prevailed in his own country. The influence of his wife, of his father-in-law, and of the great men he met at the mission festivals led Ninck to see that there were some things in which his land was deficient. The poverty of the clergy in Nassau, many of whom had not more than £50 or £60 a year of salary, prevented them from meeting together frequently, and from devising any new movement that involved expense. The whole habits of the country were opposed to innovations. Of all the evangelical clergy of Nassau — of whom in 1862 there may have been between forty and fifty — there was not one besides Ninck who wouid have ventured to propose a home missionary meeting. If once introduced, others might be inclined to follow their example ; but who was ready to take the first step ? It looked like bringing a charge of neglect of duty against some of the other pastors. In his own congregation Pastor Ninck had worked well, and had many young men and young women gathered round him, whose hearts had been touched by the live coal 198 THE FOUNDING OF THE SOCIETY taken with the tongs from the altar. But he knew that to propose a missionary meeting would stir up violent oppo- sition. He could not reckon on much support from the other clergy, and in his extremity it occurred to him to ask Dr. Craig's help. A missionary meeting was announced to be held on September 6, 1863, and Dr. Craig was invited to preach the mission sermon. THE FOUNDING OF THE SOCIETY. It was two days' journey from Hamburg, involving con- siderable expense, which Craig had to pay out of his own pocket. The 2nd of September was spent in assisting Rev. Dr. Goold and Mr. Slowan, of the Scottish National Bible Society, to advance their work in Hamburg. In the evening he lectured to a large meeting in his own church. On the 3rd he started at five o'clock in the morning, and travelling by rail over Hanover, Gottingen, and Cassel, he arrived after sixteen hours in Giessen. The whole of the next day was spent in travelling by rail and coach over Wetzlar and Herborn to Westerburg — one of the wildest and poorest spots in Nassau. The following day there was a meeting in the pastor's house which lasted till near midnight, making preparation for the festival. On the Saturday evening many arrived from a distance of from twelve to twenty miles — some on foot, some in country carts. A preparatory service was held in the church on the Saturday evening, at which Pastor Ninck and Dr. Craig preached to above seven hundred mission guests. Early on Sunday morning about sixty people assembled in the pastorate for family worship, which was conducted by Dr. Craig. There was a crowded attendance in the church at the principal service at 10 o'clock, at which he preached ; and after addresses to young men at midday, Dr. Craig preached again in the afternoon and was fol- lowed by two other clergy. Many of the guests had never been present at a missionary meeting, had never travelled THE FOUNDING OF THE SOCIETY 199 beyond the bounds of their own parish and market town, and now they found themselves in a new world. The higher classes came to church in the forenoon, but disapproved of the whole proceeding ; and the newspapers expressed a wish that such innovations might never be repeated ; but the common people heard the word gladly. After dinner, while some were taking their Sunday sleep, Dr. Craig mixed with the strangers and gave away some two hundred suitable tracts. But this was too much for his friend and host Ninck. He would have no tract distribution in his parish, so he ordered all the tracts to be collected and returned to Dr. Craig. Craig had no notion of submit- ting to such a measure, and when bidding good-bye to the strangers next morning he said that, though the pastor did not wish tracts distributed in his parish, yet as they were leaving the parish to go home, they might gladly take the tracts with them. A pastoral conference was held on Monday morning, which was addressed by Dr. Craig, and the words must have been approved, for at a meeting twenty-five years later he was earnestly requested by some who had been present that morning to repeat that address as it had been given so long previously. THE YOUNG NASSAU COLPORTEUR. After the conference, Dr. Craig took an opportunity of remarking to Pastor Ninck how much he had been pleased with some of the young men in his parish, and that he understood some of them were desirous of being engaged as colporteurs or evangelists. He named one especially, and asked whether he could not be employed in carrying choice books from house to house in his and the adjoining parishes. Impossible ! was the reply. Such a work was not required in Nassau, nor would the pastor tolerate it. They had held a mission meeting, and that was enough. Then, said Craig, if Nassau is in that happy state as not 200 THE YOUNG NASSAU COLPORTEUR to require evangelical literature, there is Prussia within a few miles of you, and no doubt the people in that adjoining country are very benighted. It was arranged that Dr. Craig should engage the young man as colporteur and evangelist, and that Ninck should superintend his labour, on Prussian territory. With great joy the young man filled his bag with books and tracts that Craig provided, and with a letter of introduction to a Prussian pastor he started to cross the Prussian frontier. He offered his tracts to men breaking stones on the roadside, and they thanked him so heartily that he offered some to every one he met Everybody seemed delighted. He reached his lodging, intending to leave his books and proceed to obtain the needful license. It was market-day and the inn was crowded, so thinking it a pity to lose the opportunity, he at once began to give away his tracts and sell his books. " Let me see your license," said the hoarse voice of a policeman at his side. He showed his passport. That was not enough. The young man felt in his pockets and found the letter of introduction to the pastor of the parish. Now, surely, everything was right. " On the contrary," said the policeman, " everything is wrong. You carry a sealed letter in your pocket contrary to law. I must arrest you and bring you before the magistrate." Here his books were examined. He was closely cross- questioned. The pastor came to intercede for him. The result was that he escaped prison, but was marched by the police to the frontier and obliged to return home. Crestfallen, he sat down to report his experience. Craig wrote Pastor Ninck that it was evidently a case of Divine interference, to show that the young man ought to work in his native place. By carrying out directions, the young man obtained a colporteur's license for the whole of Nassau. Here was the field opened, and the young man was so COLPORTAGE AND THE CHURCH 201 successful that within three months a second colporteur was employed. A committee was appointed to superintend the work, the first members of which were Pastor Ninck as secretary, Pastor Only of Haiger, Pastor Cuntz, and Pastor Wilhelmi. The work went on swimming. The bishop of the diocese, Dr. Wilhelmi of Wiesbaden, expressed high approbation of the attempt to supply pure literature to root out the vile pictures that hung on cottage walls, and to supply useful reading instead of the trash that was universally read. The colporteur was placed under the charge of the parish minister in each parish, several of whom undertook to keep depots, so that at the end of the first year there were seventeen depots of pure literature in the duchy. COLPORTAGE AND THE CHURCH. The annual reports spoke of this being a happy time for Nassau. The earnest Christian ministers in each circle met frequently together, and work for the Master bound them closely in happy fellowship. In the second annual report Pastor Ninck said he could never forget, and he trusted the Society would never forget, what Dr. Craig had done in founding this work. Through him the Society had obtained the greater part of its capital, and whatever the Nassau Colportage Society might accomplish was largely due to his initiative. Dr. Craig had seen from the commencement that funds must be supplied from outside, so at one time he provided ^"150 worth of books, and shortly after £200 worth more. Several amounts in cash were placed at Pastor Ninck's disposal to enable him to meet emergencies, to visit the colporteurs, and generally to stir up a spirit of missionary zeal. The Society was not unmindful of what they had received, for the early reports spoke of Dr. Craig as " our dear old friend to whom the Society owes its existence." Again, 202 COLPORTAGE AND THE CHURCH in 1868, Pastor Ninck reports that though the field of labour is greatly extended, the finances are in excellent condition, the Society is not in debt, " and this happy state of things they owe especially to their dear old Hamburg friend who had so liberally supported the work." In the Sixth Report of the Nassau Colportage Society the secretary writes : " Could we always reckon on such a splendid annual meeting as we had on the 27th of May last year in Haiger, where our dear old friend Dr. Craig of Hamburg preached the annual sermon, and was afterwards unanimously elected to be Honorary President of the Society, it would be well with us." This dear old friend, to whom they all looked up with such respect, was in his own estimation a comparative youth, he being still in the forties. This " old friend " esteemed it a high privilege to be associated with a band of such noble men, and he not only gladly accepted their invitation to preach annual sermons at Westerburg, Friicht, near Ems, Haiger, Dillenburg, Hcrborn, and Ober Lahnstein ; but also on many other occasions he visited the depots, which were dotted over the whole duchy, and extended into the Electorate of Hesse. We may just add that ten years after the founding of the Nassau Colportage Society, Pastor Ninck was called to Hamburg, and the depot removed to Herborn. The twenty-fifth anniversary or Semi-Jubilee was held on the 9th of October, 1889, when the committee were able to report that they had 60 depots, with 172 agents — chiefly evangelical pastors ; and 733 regular annual subscribers. The sale of books brought in £2,200 a year. The annual sale of Bibles and Testaments was 3,750, with 100,000 other books, in 400 parishes. Who can estimate the amount of good done directly and indirectly by this Society ? And still it is carrying on its work with increasing efficiency. DEATH OF DR. MARRIOTT 203 DEATH OF DR. MARRIOTT. In June, 1864, when Dr. Craig was by invitation taking part in mission festivals at Bremen, he received the sad news that his friend Dr. Marriott was lying dangerously ill at Stuttgart. Dr. Craig at once wrote to ascertain whether he could be of any service. He found, however, that his sister was with him, and he had every comfort that could be procured. A few days later Craig received the sad news that Dr. Marriott's race was run and he was with the Lord. For eighteen years Dr. Marriott and Dr. Craig had worked side by side. The former had chiefly taken South Germany and Switzerland ; the latter, North Germany, the North of Europe, and Austro- Hungary. For fifteen years they met annually at the Kirchentag, where the United Tract Societies held their conference. The Religious Tract Society, under which Dr. Marriott had worked, asked Dr. Craig to take charge of his stock of tracts and books ; and in the spring of 1865 he had them all removed to the storerooms of the Lower Saxony Tract Society in Hamburg. Dr. Marriott had been faithful unto death, and had always borne a firm testimony to the truth of the Bible, the glory of the Saviour and the proper observance of the Lord's Day, and his work was greatly blessed. CHRISTIAN COLPORTAGE SOCIETY, GRAND DUCHY OF BADEN. It was not possible to carry on the distribution of Christian literature in the South of Germany and Switzer- land efficiently, without some local control and inspection. The distance from Hamburg was too great, and the cir- cumstances of the people different from the North. It was then Craig's prayer that some way might be opened up for continuing Dr. Marriott's work. There was a society in Basel, another in Stuttgart, and a third in 2o 4 BARON JULIUS VON GEMMINGEN Nuremberg, but though very good in their way, they did not quite meet the case. Craig had not long to wait. BARON JULIUS VON GEMMINGEN. Shortly after the beginning of the present century, when the great awakening had taken place among the Roman Catholics in Wiirtemberg and Bavaria, under Sailer, Martin Boos, and Gossner, there was a similar but more decided evangelical movement among the Roman Catholics of Baden under Pastor Henhofer. And among those who came under the influence of this movement was Baron von Gemmingen, with his son, Baron Joseph von Gemmingen, one of whose sisters became the wife of Professor Tholuck, of Halle. The only son of Baron Joseph was Baron Julius von Gemmingen, an officer in the service of the Grand Duke of Baden, the son-in-law of William I., Emperor of Ger- many. After a long spiritual struggle this young man was brought to know the Lord through a book entitled " Arndt's True Christianity." After his conversion, Baron Julius resigned his post in the army and sought to work for the advancement of the kingdom of God. When Dr. Craig made his acquaintance, he found that as the Baron had been led into light by means of a book, he wished to devote himself to the work of distributing pure evangelical literature to bring others to enjoy with him the peace of God. He was ready to give his time, his property, and his influence to this work, and Dr. Craig supplied him at first with suitable books. While feeling his way in this direction, the Prussian- Austrian war of 1866 broke out, and the wounded soldiers from the South German States offered a good opportunity for a retired Christian officer to distribute largely among them the precious word of reconciliation and peace with God. After the close of the war, Baron Julius von Gemmingen, with a band of BARON JULIUS VON GEMMINGEN 205 faithful clergy and laymen, founded the Christian Col- portage Society for the Grand Duchy of Baden, that eventually supplied the place left vacant by the death of Dr. Marriott. Dr. Craig was elected a member of committee, and in 1867 this Society was fully organised. It was a time when Professors Schenkel and Rothe of Heidelberg had founded the Prolcstantcnvcrein, and were doing their utmost to suppress all really evangelical preaching in the Grand Duchy. The first anniversary was celebrated in 1868, and on the 15th of May, 1870, Dr. Craig preached the anniversary sermon in the church of Ruppur, near Carlsruhe, before a large congregation. A week of special services was held in Watthalden, near Ettlingen, the residence of Baron Julius von Gemmingen, and in some neighbouring towns Among those who took an active part in these meetings was Baron Joseph von Gemmingen and family from Carlsruhe, the Baroness von Riidt and daughters, the Countess von Castell, Count and Countess von Uxkiill, the family of Chevalier Bunsen, Dean Sachs, Pastors Peter, Hechler, Flad, and others. Among those who helped very efficiently was the Baroness von Gemmingen, who greatly strengthened her husband's hands. COUNT UXKULL'S SPEECH. At one of the meetings in Watthalden, Count Uxkiill asked leave to address the meeting. He said : " I am now above 70 years of age, and most of that time have lived without God and without hope in the world. I have been entrusted from time to time with important posts in my country, and yet all this time I knew not God and cared nothing for my soul. Having four years ago been for several months unable to read, my daughter, who had long loved her Saviour, selected interesting books to read to me. She had one day been visiting at the 206 COUNT UXKULVS SPEECH house of Baron von Gemmingen, and brought home with her a copy of Bunyan's ' Holy War.' This she read and explained to me, and by the time the reading of that book was finished, the castle of my soul was con- quered by El Shaddai, and I had become a willing subject of Jesus. " Now I would say, go on with your distribution of literature that points to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, for you cannot tell where some proud unbelieving sinner, such as I was, may, even in his old age, be brought to the Cross of Christ, there to obtain pardon, justification, and sanctification through the great Atonement. Scatter your books widely and look for a blessing. This is the first missionary meeting I have ever attended, and my first speech to the glory of my Saviour. So I would say, Go on, and may the Lord bless you. . . ." Many an anniversary sermon did Dr. Craig afterwards preach for this Baden Colportage Society, and many a pleasant day did he spend in that happy circle over which Baron von Gemmingen presided. Out of this Society there grew a whole host of evan- gelical operations. There was an extensive work carried on for supplying children with pure and attractive litera- ture ; then a Bible Reading Association, a reformatory for girls and women, a printing press, with a large number of other activities adapted to the wants of the time and place. Evangelical conferences and mission meetings were fre- quently conducted in the Baron's house, and a stream of blessing issued out, not only over Baden, but also into Bavaria and other countries. When Dr. Craig was at any time attending these Mission conferences or preaching the anniversary sermons, arrangements were made for him to preach in many of the surrounding towns. The Baron and Craig had many opportunities of rejoicing over souls converted to God and careless ones quickened. CHAPTER XVII 11 Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee." — PsALM lxxvi. 10. " Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness — Some boundless contiguity of shade ! Where rumour of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war, Might never reach me more !" — Cowper. THE story of the tract and colportage societies founded by Dr. Craig has carried us far forward ; but we must return to take up other matters of interest. THE SECOND SCIIEESWIG-HOLSTEIN WAR. From 1852 to 1864 the Danish Government had ruled with great severity in Schleswig and Holstein, but a decree by which the former Duchy was incorporated into the kingdom was a direct breach of contract. Prussia and Austria demanded the withdrawal of this decree, threaten- ing war if this were not carried out within forty-eight hours. The Danes refused to submit, and an allied army of 43,000 Prussians and 28,000 Austrians entered the Duchies. For several weeks they had been concentrating their forces, but on the 1st of February, 1864, the war began. Past experience had shown Craig what a glorious oppor- tunity was offered for bringing the Truth of God into 2o8 THE AUSTRIAN SOLDIERS contact with the soldiers during a war. From his intimate acquaintance with many of those in power, he had, for some weeks beforehand, known what was coming, so that he had time to make full preparation. THE AUSTRIAN SOLDIERS. When the Austrian troops arrived, it was found that the German soldiers of the Austrian Empire could not be depended on. The Government then were obliged to send troops from Hungary, Croatia, Galicia, and the Tyrol. Here then were men who spoke seven or eight different languages, and books must be provided for each in his own tongue. The Bible Society had no difficulty in procuring New Testaments in every language in Europe, but Craig was required to have tracts translated and printed for the special occasion. Though the Rev. George Palmer Davies placed his col- porteurs under Dr. Craig's direction, yet as they could only supply copies of Scriptures to the soldiers, it was found necessary to provide other men to distribute tracts and books that drew the attention of the careless to the Word of God. It was interesting to see, when the Polish and Tyrolese soldiers reached Hamburg, how here and there, when one of them had obtained a Gospel of Luke or John, or one of the Epistles, he would be heard crying to his comrades : " Comrades, here ! comrades, here ! Here is the book that the priests will not allow us to read. Now is your chance to know the reason why." When Craig came round a few days later, some of them would tell him they had found out the reason why the priest forbade them to read the Bible. " Look here, sir — and look here — this book does not teach what the priest does." " That was not the reason why we gave you the books," Craig would reply, " that you might find something to say against the priests. This book is the Word of God to THE A /J JED ARMY 209 teach you and mc what God is, and what He wants us to be. Read it that you may find out what God thinks of you, and what lie has done and is willing to do for you ; and always remember that these words of the mighty God — of the loving Saviour — are addressed to you." THE ALLIED ARMY of 70,000 to 80,000 men, with fresh supplies to fill the place of the sick and wounded, poured in one continuous stream into Schleswig — the Saxons and Hanoverians, with 8,000 men, not permitting them to stop in Holstein. They were called Allies, and had come professedly for the same purpose, but the only visible mark of this brotherly union was the band worn by the soldiers of both countries on the left arm. When the Austrian and Prussian officers met on the streets, they did not salute. When they dined at the same table dWwte, they did not speak to each other. The soldiers of the two countries could not lodge in the same town without constant brawls. So the Austrians took the west coast of Schleswig, and the Prussians the east coast. This arrangement was very convenient for Dr. Craig, as he could send his men with German books to work- along the east coast, and the men with Polish, Italian, or Hungarian books on the west coast. Prince Frederick Charles — the Red Prince, the father of the Duchess of Connaught — was Commander-in-Chief, but Craig did not require support from him, or from Moltke or Bismarck. There were no chaplains among the troops, except that a Roman Catholic priest occasionally visited the hospitals. THE HOSPITALS. The " Bookmen," as they were called, understood their business well, and carried out their commission faithfully in the camp. The war had begun on the 1st of February, 15 2io THE HOSPITALS 1864. On the 1 8th the allied troops had taken Kolding. On the 1 8th of April the Prussians had taken Dtippel, after extraordinary exertions in frost and deep snow, the thermometer often standing at 40 F. below the freezing- point. The siege guns carried the balls over five miles, to penetrate the walls of the fortress two or three feet and then explode with terrible effect. But we need not attempt to describe the fighting. There were blunders, no doubt, but there was no dishonesty among either the officers or the contractors. The hospitals had filled terribly fast. The soldiers had begun to arrive in Hamburg during the Christmas week, and were at once taken in charge. By the 1 3th of Feb- ruary Craig was able to report to Mr. Klein-Schlatter, who had made special inquiry, that all the arrangements for the hospitals were completed. He went round and inspected all the workers himself, and gave each one hints about the best way of carrying on the business. He put himself in connection with the Countess Stolberg and Count Eber- hard Stolberg, of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. In the town of Schleswig he found the deacons from Duisburg acting as hospital nurses in the Prince's Palace ; and in the Gottorf Castle the deaconesses from Kaisers- werth were engaged in nursing several hundreds of patients. He put Bibles and Testaments in large print into each ward, with directions not to be removed, and he appointed agents to see that the tracts and devotional books were changed in each ward once a fortnight. The Roman Catholic Sisters, especially those from Silesia, entered as heartily into this work as did the Protestants. When the priests sometimes came round, and ordered the books to be removed or burnt, they received the reply that they could not do so till Dr. Craig had given his permission. When Craig was told of the command of the priests to burn the Bibles, he advised the Sisters of Mercy to wait a little and observe closely whether the invalids wished the books TWO MISSION A R V STUDENTS 2 1 1 removed. With beaming countenance the Sisters would reply that all the men, whether Protestants or Roman Catholics, were equally pleased with the hooks. So they remained. There were six or seven hospitals in each of the large towns, with three hundred to six hundred men in each. In Flensburg, Tondern, and Hadcrslcbcn the sick and wounded were lying. In Altona and Hamburg there were about four thousand patients, and to all of these Craig and his men had free access. One thing which materially helped in the work was, that as the Prussian States had refused to grant Bismarck the three or four millions sterling which he required for the war, there was a wide door for voluntary aid in the hospitals, and Craig found many who were willing to co-operate with him in this respect. Had the money been more plentiful, there would certainly have been a stricter watch kept over all movements. As it was, the plea of " bringing something for the wounded " opened every door, and if that " some- thing " happened to be spiritual comfort, there was no one prepared to interfere. TWO MISSIONARY STUDENTS. A missionary student from one of the theological seminaries in Germany, who was called to serve in the war, when passing through Hamburg called on Craig. He could not conceal his astonishment at what he saw. " Why," he declared, " on my way to the battlefield, and knowing that our company must remain a week in Ham- burg, I had pled with my comrades not to suffer them- selves to be attracted by the well-known temptations of the place. But what was our astonishment on stepping out of the train to find a gentleman on the platform offering excellent Christian tracts and books free to all the soldiers. Scarcely had we finished our first meal in the tent, when a young man — apparently a tradesman — 212 TWO MISSIONARY STUDENTS entered, saying : ' Gentlemen, I suppose you all have New Testaments with you ; if not, I will gladly supply any one who wishes.' An hour later, and two very modest-looking girls stood at the door of the tent handing small cards to all the soldiers who stood idly round. Being anxious to know what it was, I asked for a card, and there found the announcement that a prayer-meeting would be held this evening at a certain place. Having from them learned your address, I wish to accompany you to the prayer- meeting, and I hope you will find many of our men there to-night." On parting after the prayer-meeting, at which this soldier had taken part, Dr. Craig asked him to accept of a small New Testament in which he had written his name. The following day a Danish missionary student who was studying in Germany, as the Danes had at that time no separate missionary society, called on Dr. Craig to ask his advice. The principal of the seminary had urged on him the duty of returning to his fatherland to fight for his country, and this student was not convinced that such a step was his duty as a Christian. Dr. Craig replied that it was desirable as a student in a seminary to follow the advice of his teacher, though he (Craig) would have given a very different counsel if he had been the head of that seminary. The young Dane joined the Danish army, and in the very first engagement two bullets struck him at once, one of them hitting him on the cheek. In the providence of God the first man who found the wounded Dane lying on the field was Dr. Craig's German friend, whom his superior officer had permitted to serve in the ambulance instead of in the actual warfare. When the wounded man had his wounds dressed and was lying comfortably in a German hospital — for by the resolution of the Geneva Red Cross Society, friend and foe, when wounded, were treated alike — though he could not COLPORTAGE 213 speak, he pointed frequently to his mantle. When it was brought, a New Testament was found in the pocket, and the young man's eyes gleamed with joy as he looked in his nurse's face. The nurse opened the New Testament, and to his astonishment found Dr. Craig's name there. On taking out his own New Testament and showing the same name, the nurse and the patient became as brothers. Eventually both went to China, sent by different societies, but continued fast friends to the end of their career. In the Austrian camp many of the soldiers expressed great joy on receiving a New Testament or a collection of prayers. The Danish prisoners felt themselves as still under Divine protection when a copy of the Scriptures was offered, and altogether 24,000 Danish tracts and books were distributed among them. In one year at this time Dr. Craig distributed 15,000 copies of Scripture, and the next year 25,000, while in one year he distributed 2,225,000 tracts. Many of these he took from the Depot of the Lower Saxony Society, but a considerable number came from other sources. COLPORTAGE. The colportage was not always encouraged by the Lutheran clergy. General Superintendent Kliefoth, of Mecklenburg Schwerin, declared that the parish minister was the only person who had a right to distribute the Scripture, and it was presumption and impertinence for any one else to interfere. A colporteur at one time called on a parish minister to ask leave to sell Bibles in his parish. The reply was that the people were well provided with Bibles. After an urgent request, the colporteur was allowed to spend three days in the parish. The result was that fifty-two copies of Scripture were sold. " That is not true," said the pastor, on hearing this result ; " it can't be true, for I have a depot and nobody ever comes to me for a Bible. I have not sold a dozen 214 COLPORTAGE copies in five years. Tell me the name of a single indi- vidual in the parish who bought from you." The colporteur gave the names of some who had bought, and the pastor insisted on accompanying him to the houses to prove that this was not the case, and when he had proved the man to be a cheat he should be handed over to the police. The two men started together to call on these parishioners. Finding that the colporteur's report was correct, the pastor rated his people in strong language, asking why they had not come to him if they really wanted a Bible. A year later the colporteur returned with a similar request. " Do you think the people eat their Bibles ? " the pastor asked. The colporteur had not thought so, but requested per- mission to spend a week in the parish. Having this time sold over eighty copies of Scripture in that week the pastor's rage was fierce. He intimated that his people must be taught to respect the pastoral office, and not in this way to impoverish the parish by sending so much money out of the country. The colporteur could not avoid asking whether, if the pastor had sold these Bibles, the money would then have remained in the parish? Or whether the money could have been better spent ? EMIGRANTS. Another portion of work required much attention. Every year the number of emigrants from Hamburg and Bremen increased, and Craig appointed a man in each town to supply them with evangelical literature before starting. In many cases no addition was made to the literature put into the hands of these emigrants on leaving the shores of their fatherland till many years had elapsed. An arrangement was also made with friends in New York to meet the strangers and help them on their way. From IND1REC T FR UITS 215 one source or another Craig always found the means for carrying on this work efficiently. INDIRECT FRUITS. While visiting the hospitals, Craig was generally able to have most evenings filled up with prayer-meetings, to which soldiers and civilians were invited. The result was, that while some of the soldiers were known to have been con- verted, a foundation was laid for the regular conducting of weekly prayer-meetings in the villages where the soldiers were billeted. More than a hundred cases of conversion were reported to Dr. Craig in the year 1865, which, when closely investigated, seemed to be genuine. THE PRUSSIAN-AUSTRIAN WAR. The ill-feeling which had prevailed between the Prussian and Austrian soldiers in Schleswig came to a crisis when, on the nth of June, 1866, Bismarck ordered twenty thousand Prussian soldiers to drive the Austrians out of the Duchies. The Austrian Government were so enraged that, on the 14th of June, they asked the German Diet to proclaim war against Prussia. Savigne, the Prussian ambassador at the Diet, declared this to be ultra vires, and on his leaving the hall the Diet was broken up. The fact was that the Ultramontane party in Austria had long been watching for this result. The Vatican had, for many years, used all its powers to induce Austria with its allies — Hanover, Saxony, Hesse, Nassau, and Bavaria — to weaken the influence of Prussia at the Diet. The Cardinal Archbishop in Vienna persuaded Francis Joseph of Austria to make a final effort to crush Prussia, and with it the whole Protestant power of Germany. Cardinal Antonelli had asserted that, for thirty years, England, through the influence of Oxford and the "Tracts for the Times," had made rapid strides toward Rome. John Bull was slow in his movements, and might be 216 THE ATTACK ON HANOVER coaxed, but not driven. The clergy of the Church of England were calling themselves priests, and asserting that their Anglican Church is not Protestant. The Vatican had good reason to be satisfied with England's progress Romeward for the present, the Cardinal said. German Protestantism, Antonelli said, was of another type. The spirit of Luther, the arch-enemy of Rome, was strong in Bismarck. The King, William I., strongly represented that principle also, and must be crushed. Compromise with them was impossible. Francis Joseph, as the eldest son of the Church, should have the honour of restoring the unquestioned authority of the Vatican over the whole of Germany. He most unwillingly accepted this commission, which was much opposed to his inclination. THE ATTACK ON HANOVER. The next day after the dissolution of the German Diet, on the 15th of June, Hanover and the other States, that had always taken part with Austria against Prussia, were asked to remain neutral in the quarrel ; but they refused. They were then told they should be forced to give up their alliance with Austria, and war was declared. The twenty thousand Prussian soldiers that had expelled the Austrians from Holstein were massed quite near Dr. Craig's house. They were ordered to be ready to cross the Elbe at noon on the 15th of June, and take possession of Hanover. But the day passed and no order came to march. On Saturday, the 16th, at 10 o'clock forenoon a foaming steed dashed past Craig's house, and when Mrs. Craig, who was sitting in the garden, asked what that meant, she was told, " It is the war." The fact was that when Bismarck received from Hanover and the other States the refusal that he expected, the King of Prussia refused to allow his troops to be employed to dethrone the King of Hanover and the other rulers. For THE A TTA CK ON HA NO VER 1 1 7 twenty hours Bismarck prayed, entreated, stormed and stamped before the king, till at last he gave way. Craig had just returned home from the Prussian camp, where he knew many of the officers, and they were perfectly dis- mayed at the delay that was taking place. When that furious messenger rode past, Craig knew that within a few minutes, cavalry, infantry, and the whole Prussian force would march past. It was an awful sight. In two hours 20,000 men, with horses and cannon, had reached the Elbe, which was from one to three miles broad. By 5 o'clock the soldiers had crossed the Elbe and taken possession of the Hanoverian railway station in Harburg. The next morning, the 17th, the Prussian troops had possession of Stade and Hanover. On the 18th they were in Cassel, and other troops were in Dresden. Like an avalanche they spread over the country. In one battle at Langensalza, on the 27th of June, the whole Hanoverian army were surrounded by 40,000 Prussian soldiers and vanquished, and on the 29th they had com- pletely surrendered. Austria had in the meantime, on the 24th of June, routed an Italian army of 85,000 men, and was able to concentrate its forces in Bohemia without danger of an attack on the rear. KONIGGRATZ. Austria had now 240,000 of her own troops, and 22,000 Saxons in Bohemia under Benedek, and Prussia had 250,000 men with which to attack them. The first engagement was at Gitschin on the 29th of June, the day after Hanover had been defeated, and on this occa- sion Benedek was obliged to concentrate his forces at Koniggratz. When the experienced old general saw how matters stood, he telegraphed to the Emperor to make peace. " He is a Protestant," cried the Ultramontane party in 2i8 LANGENSALZA Vienna. " Don't listen to him." He was ordered to engage at once. On the 1st of July he placed his troops in position. On the morning of the 3rd of July the battle began. At 9 o'clock that night the roar of the cannon ceased at Pardubitz. The Austrians had lost that day 18,000 dead or wounded, with 24,000 prisoners. The Prussians had left 8,800 dead or wounded on the field at Chlum, Sadowa, and Koniggratz. Benedek retreated to Olmutz ; the Prussians marched to Vienna. Antonelli cried, " The world is come to an end." LANGENSALZA. On the evening of the 27th of June, Dr. Craig reached Berlin to make preparations for visiting the hospitals as soon as the wounded soldiers arrived. He knew that the more serious cases of that day's fighting at Langensalza would be treated in tents in the Hartz Mountains — as the weather was fine — or taken to the adjacent towns of Gotha, Erfurt, Eisenach, or Gottingen, and would not be ready to receive visitors for at least a fortnight. The lighter cases would be brought to Berlin aud Magdeburg, and could be visited at once. On reaching Berlin, to his astonishment, he found the railway station besieged by thousands of women howling and gesticulating furiously. Many of the troops sent to Langensalza had belonged to the reserve, and were citizens of Berlin. Some scoundrel had spread the report that the whole Prussian army had been defeated by the Hanoverians and thousands of them had been slain. The wives and children had then flocked to the railway stations, and not being able to obtain information, were demand- ing of the railway company to be taken to the field of battle to search for their husbands, fathers, and brothers. Schiller had said once that the most terrible of all pos- sible horrors was an enraged woman. But Craig here saw what it meant to meet a crowd of infuriated women, THE A US TRIA N PRISONERS 2 1 9 ready to wreak vengeance indiscriminately on all who came in their way, as if they had been the murderers of their loved ones. To crown all, the police too were mostly gone to the war, and the few who remained were powerless. How he passed through that mob of demoniacs he could not tell, but he escaped unhurt. In the whole of Berlin there were only about five hundred cabs left, as the horses had been pressed for military service, and the men too. It was towards midnight that authentic news arrived to say that Prussia was victorious, and the number of Prussians dead or wounded was very small ; that the battle was over, and the blind King of Hanover with his staff had escaped and fled out of his kingdom. For several weeks the work in the hospitals was most encouraging. In Berlin, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, Pastor Viedebannt, Dr. Prochnow, and many others gave most efficient assistance, and the gratitude of the wounded soldiers was very freely expressed. Dr. Craig usually returned home on Saturday, and resumed the hospital work on Monday. In Magdeburg, Dresden, Gorlitz, Koniggratz, Pardubitz, and Breslau, the sick and wounded were lying in great numbers, and all were visited by Dr. Craig and his assistants. THE AUSTRIAN PRISONERS. The twenty-four thousand Austrian prisoners were difficult to deal with. They had been goaded to the highest pitch of fanaticism by their priests. Before start- ing for the war, each Roman Catholic soldier had gone to confession before the priest, and had there received complete absolution for all the sins he had ever com- mitted or would commit during the war. He was told that he was happy above all other mortals, as if he fell on the battlefield there was no need for extreme unction ; he was engaged in a holy war for exterminating the 22o ARE WE BEATEN? Protestants in Germany, and if he died his soul would at once pass into the highest enjoyment of the blessed, without ever seeing the fires of Purgatory. Such teaching made the fanatical portion of the army reckless in the engagement — rather wishing to die than to live. They were told that victory on their side was certain. Mary had promised it, and she would not break her word. All she asked in return was the small favour that, when they had gained the victory, they should not leave a single heretic alive in the whole of Austria and Bavaria. ARE WE BEATEN? " Tell me," the soldiers asked Dr. Craig, " are we beaten ? You are an Englishman and will tell us the truth. These Prussians say we are beaten, but that is impossible, for Mary has promised us the victory." It was hard to tell such deluded men direct that Mary had failed them ; besides, they would not believe it. So Craig frequently replied that they scarcely as yet knew for a certainty how the war would end. The Austrian troops had certainly retired as far as Olmutz, but then one must remember that a loss of forty thousand of their bravest men on one day was something very extraordinary, and it was no wonder that the army was obliged to retreat for the time. " But tell me," Craig would add, to some of the more intelligent officers, " is it true that Mary fixed a condition to your victory ? " " Well, she only wished us, after gaining the victory, not to tolerate any Protestants in Austria and Bavaria — for Mary does not like the Protestants." " Oh, oh ! It was your priest told you that, and you know well that these gentlemen are not always to be depended on." To this they readily assented, and Craig went on to say A PRUSSIAN OFFICER AND THE VIRGIN MARY 221 that " it could not be true that Mary hated the Protestants, for they loved her most sincerely. Why, Mary had once said the sweetest word that ever came out of the mouth of woman. At a famous wedding where she and the Lord Jesus were present, some difficulty had arisen which she could not manage, so she told the servants, as she pointed to the Lord Jesus, ' Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.' Now that is the whole religion of the Protestants, and for that word they love Mary dearly, so she cannot hate them very much. Besides, the Lord Jesus said, ' Love your enemies;' and if Mary told people to do what He said, she must herself do it too— even supposing the Protestants not to do all that you think they ought toward Mary." A PRUSSIAN OFFICER AND THE VIRGIN MARY. Many of the God-fearing Prussian officers assisted Craig very efficiently during the war, for the last twenty years had made a great change in the religious state of the country. On one occasion, when a Prussian captain was carrying Craig's bag with the books, and when they had heard the above story repeated over a dozen times, the captain begged Craig to stand aside for a little, while he spoke to an intelligent Austrian lieu- tenant who had been badly wounded. " You only heard the half of the story," said the captain. " It is probably quite true that the Pope asked Mary to intercede for Austria. But then, consider how things were at that time. All of us had so much to do that we scarcely knew whether we were standing on our head or on our feet. The people were crying Mary this and Mary that, so that she could not attend to them all. She wanted to speak to the Lord Jesus, but she put it off to the next day. When she came the next morning and asked the Lord to give the Austrians the victory, she was told that this was a bad case. The King of Prussia had himself come the previous 222 TESTAMENTS REFUSED day, and had told such a story that the Lord had promised him the victory — and He could not take back His word. " Now," said the captain, " you are a dying man and you know it. If there is anything you want particularly, such as pardon or peace or more love to God — whatever you want — don't go to Mary, she might be busy. Go to the Lord Jesus, who says, ' Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.' He has always time to hear the cry of the needy. It has never yet been heard that He sent any one away empty, who came to Him in the right way to ask things that He can give." Craig was quite willing to forgive the parable for the sake of the application. TESTAMENTS REFUSED. Many of the Austrians refused to accept the Gospels or New Testaments that were offered, on the ground that the priest forbade them to read these books. " Did not you go to confession before the war and obtain absolution ? " " Yes, we were obliged to go." " For what did you obtain absolution ? " " Oh, for everything we had done wrong in our whole life, and for all we would do during the war." " Now see ; you don't know what is in this book. It may be good or it may be bad, as far as you know. If I thought it were a sin I would not ask you. But if you think it to be a sin to read the words of the Lord Jesus and His apostles, it seems you have already got pardon. Take the book, man, and read it, you will never have such a chance again. Only remember it is the word of God to you." And many of them were persuaded to take and read the gospel story. RETRIBUTION. There was one feature in this war that deserves atten- tion. Toleration of Protestants, and liberty to meet to THE KING OF PRUSSIA 223 gether for worship in any part of Austria, had been prohibited in i 5 7 S , but had not been strictly enforced till 1620. Very many who had lived quietly in the country and avoided attending meetings for Christian edification, had been still tolerated. But during the ten years from 1620 to 1630 the Inquisition was bus)-, and thousands of Protestants were publicly burned at Gitschin, Chlum, Sa- dowa, Koniggratz, and Pardubitz, and it was near these towns that the Austrians suffered their most terrible defeats in 1866. National sins, unrepented, bring national punishment in this life. THE KING OF PRUSSIA. It was during this short war that King William of Prussia was converted. In 1862, after great troubles had threatened the country, his Majesty said to his Court Chap- lain Hoffmann that he wished his chaplains to remember him specially in prayer. He was assured that his chaplains never forgot, many times daily, to pray for him. His Majesty intimated that he hoped, now that he had made this special request, they would pray for him still more earnestly. Hoffmann replied : " It is the first time your Majesty has been pleased to say that our prayers on your Majesty's behalf are regarded as desirable, and your Majesty may be assured that when I inform my colleagues of your Majesty's wish for our prayers, there will be joy in the hearts of many of God's people. Aye, and there will be joy in heaven as the angels announce, Behold, he prayeth ! " During the war in 1866 the king was often found by his attendants on his knees in prayer, long after he had been supposed to have retired to rest. On his return from the war and during the remainder of his life, he who for many years had seemed not to be influenced by his mother's prayers as his brother Frederick William IV. had been, showed himself a sincere and earnest Christian man. 224 TRACT DISTRIBUTION IN SOUTH GERMANY The war that had been proclaimed on the 15th of June — which had been finished with one day's fighting in as far as Hanover was concerned on the 27th, which had virtually been finished in as far as Austria was con- cerned in three days' fighting between the 1st and 3rd of July — was finally closed by a formal preliminary peace on the 26th of July. It was a short affair. TRACT DISTRIBUTION IN SOUTH GERMANY. During the whole of August there was fighting in Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Hesse ; but as Craig had ample work in the North, the hospitals in these States were provided with books and Christian literature by Baron von Gemmingen and the lately formed Tract Society in Nassau. The tracts were provided from Basel, Stuttgart, Strasburg, and Nassau. The experience of the blessing attending the work was a strong inducement for Baron von Gemmingen to found the Baden Colportage Society in the following year. During the years 1866, 1867 there must have been nearly a million of men kept under the sound of the gospel, in the firm assurance on the part of the workers that the Word of God is quick and powerful and is never preached in vain. Many of the soldiers, too, sent their tracts home to their families, or took them home at the close of the war. CHAPTER XVIII "O death, where is thy sting?" — i Cor. xv. 55. " Each on his cross by Thee we hang awhile, Watching Thy patient smile, Till we have learned to say, ' 'Tis justly done, Only in glory, Lord, Thy sinful servant own.'" DR. DAVIS VISITS THE CONTINENT. ON the death of William Jones, the genial Secretary of the Religious Tract Society, Dr. G. H. Davis was in July, 1856, appointed his successor. He continued the plan which Mr. Jones had adoptedj of consulting Dr. Craig on all questions relating to Tract Society's work on the Continent. With his broad grasp of the proper means of conducting evangelistic work on the Continent, he saw clearly how a reliable man residing in that country could give hints which might be useful. Dr. Marriott was then gone, and Dr. Craig was the only Englishman on the Continent to whom he could turn. When he had been Secretary for some years, and had made himself acquainted with the work of his Society in France, Italy, and the United States of America, he desired also to examine into the state of religion and of Christian activity in Germany and the North of Europe. In August, 1865 — the year before the Prussian-Austrian war — he invited Dr. Craig to accompany him over the district where he had been working for twenty years. 16 225 226 IN HOLSTEIN AND DENMARK IN HOLSTEIN AND DENMARK. They visited Holstein, and sailed from Kiel to Copen- hagen. Here they found religion to be in a low state, but with some signs of advancement and of awakening life. They had the privilege of assisting at one of the first meet- ings of the Denmark Foreign Mission. Denmark had taken the lead in missions a century previously, and had been associated with Francke in Halle, with Zinzendorf, and the other earnest workers of that time. But under the influence of Rationalism it had lost its first love. It was then very interesting to have the opportunity of joining in the first public act that showed a revival, in the sending out of two missionaries to foreign lands. Dr. Davis was quick to observe that even the best of the men to whom he was introduced, would resent strongly any interference with their own modes of work. While want of money cramped the efforts of good men, yet if aid should be given, it must be left to them to carry on the work on their own lines. The only limit which the Tract Society could insist on was, not to give help to distribute any books that did not teach the way of salva- tion as revealed in the Bible, or were not in accord with the principles of that Society. From Copenhagen the travellers came to Ltibeck, and there saw how sternly the Lutheran Church looked down on the Reformed Church. While the Reformed Church in that city had been for fifty years fed by the venerable and faithful Geibel, it had a considerable amount of spiritual life compared with the Lutherans. It was not the teaching of Luther that prevailed among them, but of the men of the second half of the sixteenth century, who retained the name after having lost the spirit of the Reformation. IN CENTRAL GERMANY 227 IN CENTRAL GERMANY. Turning southward, Hanover was visited. Kaiscrswcrth was a place of great interest to Dr. Davis. The travellers reached Barmen in time for the mission festivals, where Dr. Craig preached, as usual, one of the annual mission sermons — this time it was for the Tract Society. Dr. Davis addressed a couple of meetings, his address being translated by Dr. Craig. Five missionaries were ordained for the foreign mission field, and a young lad)-, a member of Dr. Craig's church in Hamburg, was solemnly set apart to go out to Sumatra to be the wife of a very faithful missionary from Dr. Craig's circle, who was settled in that Dutch island. That lady and her husband are still alive, having seen some two thousand of the natives — many of whom had been cannibals — turn to serve the living God. The name of Nummensen occupies an honoured place in the records of the Wupperthal Mis- sionary Society. His two predecessors had been killed and eaten by the natives. Passing through Nassau, Wiesbaden, and Frankfurt, where Dr. Davis was introduced to all the workers in the different districts, in which twenty years previously there had been no stirring among the dry bones of a fossilised church, the travellers proceeded to the Grand Duchy of Baden. Baron von Gemmingen's work began two years later, but the travellers visited Professor Stern and Mr. Billing in Carlsruhe ; saw Dr. Gundert in Calw ; saw friends in Stuttgart and Cannstatt, in Nuremberg, Prague, Dresden, and Berlin, and returned home. Dr. Davis was so greatly impressed with the openings he saw on the journey, with the visible fruits of the distri- bution of Christian literature, and with the necessity for constant oversight if any permanent good was to be accomplished, that he urged Craig to resign his post in Hamburg, and devote his whole time to carry on the work of the Tract Society on the continent of Europe. 228 FOUNDING OF THE ANSCHAR CHAPEL The proposal could not at that time be entertained, but there were many opportunities afterwards for having the suggestion renewed. At the next annual meeting of the Religious Tract Society, Dr. Craig had the honour of addressing a London audience in Exeter Hall, where he was well received. FOUNDING OF THE ANSCHAR CHAPEL IN HAMBURG. In the year 1865 the Lutheran Church in Hamburg had ten churches fewer than in 1800, though the popula- tion had during that time fully trebled. The success of Dr. Craig's work moved some of the more earnest and the wealthier members of that church to ask why a similar work should not be tried by themselves. The time for putting down Dr. Craig's work by the police was past, but they might follow his example. A committee was formed consisting of Dr. Bertheau, of the Johanneum ; Mr. Wolff, railway director ; Mr. J. W. Duncker, Dr. Gries, and others, and a chapel-of-ease was built in St. Michael's parish, that then had about eighty thousand of a population, with one church, capable of seating three thousand people. The attendance on ordinary occasions in this church rarely exceeded seven hundred persons — when Dr. Rehhoff preached, there were occasionally one thousand — and taking all the services together, there were more frequently under twenty per- sons present than above it, out of the eighty thousand parishioners. When the Anschar Chapel was ready, an application in due form was made to the Senate for leave to open it, and appoint an assistant preacher. This was refused, except on condition that no meeting should be held at a time when any service was conducted in the parish church. Dr. Gries, the secretary of one of the highest church DEATH OF DR EDGAR 229 courts in the State, who was a frequent attender at Dr. Craig's church, then asked him whether lie would have any objection to preach in the Anschar Chapel. None whatever, he said, if he were invited, but such an event was not very probable. Dr. Gries hastened to explain that he only wanted to show the Senate that if they conducted service in this chapel as separatists from the Established Church, no one could hinder them ; why then throw difficulties in their way simply because they wished to continue in the Establishment ? The petition was then granted, and in a short time the Rev. William Baur was installed. Mr. Baur afterwards became chaplain to the Emperor in Berlin, and was succeeded by Pastor Ninck of Nassau. As these men preached the gospel, as it is understood in the Lutheran Church, Craig continued in friendly relations with both of them. Dr. Craig claimed to be indirectly tfie founder of this chapel — the only evangelical chapel that had been opened in that town for seventy years. DEATH OF DR. EDGAR. It was in 1866, when Dr. Craig was busy attending the hospitals in Bohemia, that his honoured father and dearest friend, Dr. Edgar, was called away by death. To his unceasing kindness Craig owed much, and in time of need it was always to him he had turned for counsel. When Dr. Edgar was gone and Mr. Hamilton, there remained few to whom he could look for sympathy. It was a great grief that he could not be present even at Dr. Edgar's funeral. DEATH OF MRS. CRAIG. But if this loss was heavy, a heavier still awaited him the next year. His dearly beloved wife was, after a long time of suffering, taken home. They had been married only ten years when this event occurred, and while she 230 DEA TH OF MRS. CRAlG passed to glory, he was left to wander alone for the re- maining years of his life. These ten years had been a period of unclouded domestic happiness. As the end drew near, Mrs. Craig's strong faith and love to her Saviour developed in a wonderful manner. The nurse who attended her during her long illness, and the maid who waited on her, were, both of them, so much impressed with her patience and peace, that they gave their whole heart to Jesus ; and as both of them passed away a few years later, their joy on their death-bed was the prospect of seeing the Lord Jesus and being for ever near their beloved mistress and friend. The last words of each of them were, in substance, " I am going to be with the Lord Jesus, and to see my dear, dear mistress near His side." When the end was approaching, and she had taken a final leave of her five surviving children, she asked her physician to stay with her for a little. She wanted to thank him for all his kindness and sympathy during ten long years. She wanted to tell him with what intense delight she was going to be with her loved Saviour, till all her dear ones followed. "You know," she said, "how dearly I have loved my husband and my children, and yet I can leave them without a doubt or fear in the hands of my dear Lord, who wants me to be with Him. In the near presence of death I am perfectly happy. And, doctor, if you would have a death-bed like mine, you must have my Saviour as your own friend, for there is no other who can help in a time like this." She knew that the doctor was a materialist, and on that account she talked on, telling him of the source of the happiness of a true believer. She held the doctor's hand for nearly an hour, and pleaded with him to be reconciled with God. When the doctor left the sick-room that day, he took Dr. Craig in his arms and said, " Craig, when this is over DEATH OF MRS. CRAIG 231 you must not shed a tear. This is not death ; it is trans- figuration." For weeks he went around among his patients and told how that, after forty-eight years' practice, he had sat at the bedside of a dying Christian, and what she had said to him. He was deeply impressed with the scene, and as he lived only a short time afterwards, it was never known with certainty what effect these loving words had produced. When all was still, Mrs. Craig asked her husband to sit by her and hold her hand till the call came. She asked to have the words repeated about " never perish." She then asked that the fourteenth chapter of John should be read to her. When her husband came to the words in the third verse, she asked : " What is that ? ' I will come again and receive you unto Myself ! May I expect the Lord Jesus Himself to come for me? It would be like the way He has dealt with me all my life. I thought He would send an angel, but here are the words, ' I will come unto you and receive you ' ! " While she was speaking, a glow came over her face, she raised herself slightly in the bed — her eyes were fixed with delight on some object she saw before her — she then sank back without a sigh. Her husband held that hand still, after the soul had fled. This was on the 5 th of December, 1867, and they had been married on the 12th of March, 1857. For eighteen months before this stroke fell, Dr. Craig had been literally walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Many a time had he left the sick- room where his wife lay, to visit the dying soldiers in the hospitals. Fight of Dr. Craig's near relatives and seventeen members of his church were called away in triumph within three years. At the same time few weeks passed without some very marked case of conver- sion ; thus the Master was not withholding His blessing, though the heart of His servant was crushed in dust, and the many mansions were rapidly filling up in glory. 232 THE YEAR 1870 REV. DUNLOP MOORE IN VIENNA. When Mr. Dunlop Moore returned from India he was sent to Vienna. It was then very pleasant for Dr. Craig to join this brother on his annual visits to that city, and to secure his assistance in the Tract Depot. He was able to help in founding a Sunday school, and when he next returned he found Professor Vogel, one of the professors of theology in the university, with his wife, regularly teaching in that school. There were also two Countesses among the teachers, and Count Bernstorff, who now superintends the Berlin Tract and Book Society, was active as a Sunday-school teacher. THE YEAR 1870 commenced with a specially earnest week of prayer. Several young men's and young women's Christian Asso- ciations were founded. The quarterly meetings of the Holstein Home Mission had been specially blessed, and the awakenings that followed Craig's special tours of preaching were most encouraging. In May, Craig made an extensive preaching tour in the Grand Duchy of Baden. From all sides progress seemed to be satis- factory, and mission workers were most harmonious. JUBILEE. It is customary in Germany to celebrate jubilees every twenty-five years. The congregation in Hamburg there- fore remembered that it was twenty-five years since Dr. Craig had arrived in that city. They therefore arranged a festive meeting, and invited Pastor Ninck, of Nassau, to preach a sermon on the occasion. He came with his wife, two days' journey by rail, intending to make a considerable stay on the occasion. A very large meeting was held, many friends coming from a great distance. A beautiful tablet with an illuminated address expressive of kindly feeling was presented to Dr. Craig. There were 332 names JUBILEE 233 affixed, representing the congregation. Many of those present told the story of blessings received in connection with that church ; and, taken altogether, it was a very happy meeting. Pastor Ninck had much to tell of the progress of the Colportage Association in Nassau : how Bishop Wilhclmi of Wiesbaden had heartily encouraged the work ; how pastors Conradi, Eibach, Neumann, and Dictz, of Wies- baden, had thrown themselves heartily into the colportage efforts; how Pastors Cuntz in Idstein, Maurer in Iler- born, Only in Haiger, Wilhelmi in Braubach, and many others had declared that through the circulation of the books of the Society they felt their efficiency in their respective parishes to be more than doubled, and their frequent meeting with brethren in reference to this work had quickened their hearts and brightened their hopes. Ninck was specially grateful for the money which Craig had sent him, to enable him to travel over the Duchy and found depots for his books. Ninck and Craig had gone out to visit several friends of the cause, and were planning to have a quiet time together, when suddenly there arrived, like a bolt out of the blue sky, THE DECLARATION OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. Well did Craig know from former experience that except Mr. and Mrs. Ninck made haste to reach home their way would be blocked. So they started at once. The visit was thus cut short. The marvel with every thinking man was, how this wickedness could be explained. The fact was that when Austria had tried in vain to crush Protestantism in Ger- many, with the result that it was greatly strengthened ; the Vatican wished on the earliest possible occasion to urge Prance to do this work. Antonelli found in the Empress Eugenie a very ready instrument for the purpose, 234 DECLARA TION OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR and he succeeded so far in having France irretrievably committed to this task. Eugenie claimed the affair to be " her little war." The prospect of a war with France was exceedingly popular among the less intelligent Germans. King William, however, had known personally what it was to smart under the scourge of a Napoleon. He had been eighteen years of age at the time of the battle of Waterloo, and for some years previously he had served in the army. He might well remember his pious mother's tears under the brutal treatment of the first Napoleon. And he now knew well the fearful responsibility of the situation. Moltke, too, knew the greatness of the danger, and when younger men cried for a rash advance, he declared he would not suffer a single company to be moved till he was quite ready. Four years previously, in the war of 1866, William had learned where the safety of the individual or of a nation lay, namely, in Divine protection. He therefore proclaimed a fast and called the nation to prayer. It was a solemn time. All work was stopped. Men prayed that day who had never prayed before. The 27th of July was a time to be long remembered when the whole nation, as such, publicly acknowledged God to be the sovereign disposer of events. The solemn impression of that day lasted till the war was over. The mustering took place in perfect quiet. Moltke claimed the absolute control of all railways, and fixed the hour when the movement of troops on each line should begin and when it should end. CRAIG VISITS RUSSIA. Craig knew that for the first four weeks there would be no need for his efforts, and this suited his plans exceed- ingly well. A few days before the declaration of war he had received a request from Dr. Davis to accompany him and Sir James Risdon Bennett to Russia. He had accepted the invitation. So when the war was declared, CRAIG VISITS RUSSIA 235 he hastily gave his printers the needful orders to prepare German and French tracts, and then started for Russia. Some twenty years had passed since he first made the acquaintance of Pastor G. Losewitz of Riga. He was a minister of the German Lutheran Church in the Baltic provinces of Russia. As a part of his work he had printed and distributed a large number of books in German, Russian, Lettish, Esthonian, and Polish. Dr. Craig had supplied him with German tracts, and the Religious Tract Society had from time to time sent him liberal subsidies to eke out what could not be provided at home. The Russian Government gave him freedom of postage for all letters and all packages below a fixed weight. Very many of the Russian nobility, including princes and princesses of the imperial household, contributed to the Society and received packages of tracts for their families and servants. The nature and extent of this work was explained to Dr. Davis, and from this time the Religious Tract Society not only cleared off a floating debt that hampered the work, but also regularly sent an annual subsidy as long as Pastor Losewitz lived. From Riga the party proceeded to St. Petersburg, where they met with very many friends, visited the public institu- tions of the town, the imperial palaces, the Deaconess's Institution, the Orphanages, the Foundling's Hospital, and the depots of the Bible and Tract Societies. They went on to Moscow and Nishni Novgorod, and made a thorough investigation of all the operations carried on in this marvellous country. They were not at this time able to initiate any fresh work, but Craig picked up much information that he was able to turn to good account a few years later. THE WAR OF 1870. By the time Dr. Craig returned home from Russia, his tracts were printed and the army was in a position to profit by his visits. 236 THE WAR OF 1870 The Franco-German war lasted 180 days, exclusive of the time of preparation, which was in all 30 days more. During that time there were 156 engagements of more or less importance, of which 17 were regular pitched battles. The Germans took 26 fortresses, and carried away about 12,000 officers and 363,000 French soldiers as prisoners. Besides these, 80,000 French soldiers, under Bourbaki, laid down arms and fled into Switzerland. With a German army of 1,136,000 and a French army of 800,000, which afterwards, under Gambetta, was increased by 200,000 to 300,000 more, the dead and wounded on both sides must have been enormous. During a period of four hundred years the French had attacked Germany and overrun it with their troops twenty- four times, and now in the twenty-fifth engagement, which was intended by the Pope and the Empress Eugenie to stamp out Protestantism in German)-, the tables were completely turned. In the French army the arrangements for attending to the sick and wounded were most miserable. Had it not been for the enormous amount of money and helpers sent from England, the sufferings in the French hospitals would have been very terrible. In Germany, on the contrary, after the experience of two wars in Holstein, and that of 1866 in Austria, the most ample and efficient preparation was made for all the sufferers. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, under Count Eberhard Stollberg, placed 517 trained helpers, of all ranks, at the disposal of the medical staff. Besides these, there were sent from Berlin 300, from Duisberg 200, and from Dresden 80 trained deacons to act as nurses in the ambulance corps. The Roman Catholics sent large numbers of Sisters of Mercy and Lay Brothers — for nearly one-third of the German army were Roman Catholics. THE TRACT SOCIETIES 237 MILITARY CHAPLAINS. On no previous occasion had the spiritual interests of the Protestant soldiers been so admirably cared for. A large number of military chaplains were appointed to accompany the different regiments ; and what is more to the point, none were commissioned to this work but the most decided and the most competent evangelical pastors in the kingdom — men who knew the Lord and understood how to deal efficiently with the sick and dying. Since 1866, the King of Prussia knew the difference be- tween nominal and vital Christianity, and he encouraged the appointment of men of the right stamp to this duty. THE TRACT SOCIETIES. Dr. Craig had the pleasure of seeing that the work of tract distribution which he had initiated, and of Bible distribution in which the Bible Society so heartily co- operated with him, was generally recognised among all right-thinking men as the proper thing for the camp and the hospital. The Wupperthal Tract Society, as lying nearest the field of battle, had its books first in the hands of the nurses and the chaplains. The Nassau Colportage Society, of which Dr. Craig was president and Pastor Ninck secretary, followed. Baron von Gemmingen drew books from Basle, Stuttgart, and Geneva, and printed largely himself. The Nassau Colportage Society reported that as their Secretary was one of the selected military chaplains, he had special opportunities for efficient work, which they carried on in this way : — 1. All the troops in Nassau, before starting from home, were provided with golden treasuries of hymns and prayers, with meditations on select portions of Scripture, of such size that the small books could be packed into their lug- gage and the New Testament in the breast-pocket. As 238 THE TRACT SOCIETIES the soldier's knapsack was sufficiently weighty when engaged in active service, it was needful to avoid offering books for which they could find no room. 2. All the hospitals at Ems, Wiesbaden, and the other numerous health resorts in Nassau, which were pre- pared to receive the wounded when sent back from the front, were supplied beforehand with suitable literature for sick and convalescent patients. 3. Pastor Ninck established his chief depot in Corny, near Metz, and for a considerable time his books were kept in the house where the Red Prince lived. That field- marshal was frequently present when the large cases with books arrived, and expressed his pleasure on seeing the books unpacked and put into the hands of twelve colpor- teurs to be carried to the localities where they were most needed. About thirty military chaplains received their supply of books from this depot, and notwithstanding this constant and steady drain, the source never ran dry. Dr. Craig, as president, was often at the chief depot in Frucht, near Ems, and saw that the supply never failed. It was only one w r ho had seen with his own eyes the joy with which the books were received, that could realise the great- ness of the work. Over 250,000 books of that Society alone were distributed, and there was no lack of evidence of rich fruit. THE BADEN COLPORTAGE SOCIETY was the youngest of all. Its first anniversary had been celebrated two years previously and it was now in the swim, battling with the stream. Baron von Gemmingen had pro- cured a German and a Swiss pastor to work among the soldiers and prisoners in Wiirtemberg, Bavaria, and Baden, and a missionary from North Africa to w r ork among the Turcos. Besides these he had eighteen colporteurs scatter- ing books, speaking and praying with the men as they had opportunity. It was found on all hands that the tract was THE BADEN COLPORTAGE SOCIETY 239 the sort of literature best adapted to the wants of the time being soon read and easily carried, while it presented gospel truth in pithy form. With all these workers Dr. Craig was in close and con- stant correspondence. The societies mentioned took up definite positions near the front, while Dr. Craig had the whole range of the North of Germany, and watched over all the hospitals and prisons north and east of Cologne and Mayence. Very many of the French prisoners could not read. A few of those who could do so were very willing to minister to their comrades. A French prisoner lying in the Palace of Herrenhausen in Hanover, which was turned into a prison hospital, seemed to listen with interest to the gospel message, and accepted the tracts with thanks. On a second visit he was very much in earnest, and had many questions to ask. A month later he was still alive, and had become a joyous believer in the Saviour, testifying to his comrades the wondrous love of God. The Kaiserswerth deaconesses said they had seldom seen any young believer looking forward with such joy to the day when he should be permitted to enter into glory. Con- sumption had seized on him, but his New Testament was his constant companion. When Craig next visited that hospital the bed was occupied by another patient, and this young brother, so lately a Roman Catholic, was gone to the land of light. It was thus, one by one, that the ransomed of the Lord were gathered home. The important railway junctions, such as Magdeburg, Hanover, Cologne, where the soldiers stopped on the march for breakfast or dinner, were made centres for colporteurs to be permanently stationed to distribute their books, and Craig, as he went round, could at any time wave together fifty to one hundred soldiers for a short open-air service. He read and expounded a portion of Scripture — sometimes sung a hymn — made a short prayer, 2 4 o THE BADEN COLPORTAGE SOCIETY and then gave each soldier a tract, which was most gratefully received. THE RAILWAY STATION AT GIESSEN was a place where two colporteurs were permanently stationed. Craig received the news one day that both of his men had been refused permission to work any longer there. He was two hundred miles away, but hastened at once to the spot. On meeting the stationmaster, he ex- pressed sincere regret that any of his men should miscon- duct themselves in such a way as to be dismissed. " Oh, they have done nothing wrong, but I could not allow them to annoy the soldiers when they stopped here for a rest," was the reply. " Did the soldiers say they were annoyed ? " Craig asked. " I did not need to ask them ; I would not myself have pietistic books thrust into my hand at such a time, and therefore I put down my foot and dismissed them." " I should like," said Craig, " to know what the soldiers themselves say. Now there is a train coming in with eight hundred soldiers. You have your tables spread with wine, cakes, oranges, grapes. Give me two tables at which I place my two men with four hundred little books on each. You place two of your men with the refreshments, while you and I stand behind without speaking a word, and let the men decide which of us they like best." The train came in. The eight hundred men sprang out on the platform, stamping and stretching their legs. Some one espied the books and cried, " Here are the books a^ain ; we have not seen any for a week." There was a rush, and on a hint from Craig a lieutenant ordered the men to march past in single file, each one held out his hand and received a book in silence, except when one had already seen that particular book and wished for another. In an incredibly short time the whole company marched past, each one receiving his book. In the meantime, so THE LITTLE BOYS 241 intent were the men on receiving the books that not a cake, nor bunch of grapes, nor glass of wine had been touched. " We can go no further," said Craig ; " our books are gone. I think you have still something on your tables." The stationmaster burst into a loud laugh, and grasping Craig's hand, said : " I am beat— dead beat. Your men may return and work as before." THE LITTLE BOYS. In some of the prisons where the French soldiers were confined, the commanding officer refused permission for Craig to enter. On one such occasion, while meditating what was to be done, he saw a number of little boys. Calling them to him, he asked whether the prisoners ever came out for exercise. " Oh yes, sir ; every day at eleven o'clock, and they take long walks into the country." " Do you ever accompany them ? " " We do, very often ; but they speak such a strange language, no one can understand a word." The boys were told to be there the next morning before eleven o'clock. They came, and each one received about a dozen of French tracts. They were told to wait till the prisoners were well out of the town, and then, scattering themselves, to offer the men the books. The boys returned, saying the prisoners would not take the books. " And," said an intelligent little fellow, " I don't wonder at it ; for I looked into the books, and could not understand one word." They were told to return the next morning and take the books again, but when they offered them they were to say " gratuitous " ; and Craig told them the French word to say. Returning that day, they reported that all the books had been accepted. It is written, " Without faith it is impossible to please God " ; and again, " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing 17 242 THE POWER OF PRA YER by the word of God." So Craig and his friends thought if they could only persuade these men to receive the word of reconciliation, it might be left to the Holy Spirit to apply it to the soul, when, and where, and how He chose. To bring the Truth of God into contact with the con- science was their work ; to make it fruitful was God's work. At Wetzlar, in Nassau, one of Dr. Craig's elders — a captain of cavalry — was stationed in command of the town, and to this place Craig often came for hints how best to proceed. THE POWER OF PRAYER. When the war was proclaimed at first, the members ol Dr. Craig's church in Hamburg, knowing that many of their number would be called to the field, resolved that while the war lasted they would meet every evening to pray for the protection of their brethren at the seat of war. There were twenty-four church members called to active service, and at the end of the war the whole twenty-four returned home alive and well, and not one of them had been wounded or had lain in hospital the whole time. THE PRISONERS' RETURN HOME. In most of the large towns, gentlemen and ladies were found who could speak French, and who were willing to visit the prisoners and read to them. In Berlin, Baron von Ungern Sternberg and Pastor Viedebannt, with Dr. Prochnow, were most useful. In many towns, such as Dresden, Konigsberg, Leipzig, the ladies gave great assistance. When the war was over, Dr. Craig planted his men along the whole line from Geneva to Hamburg to meet the returning prisoners where they rested for meals. The Gospels and tracts they had received in prison had got lost, and here was an opportunity to send them home with something in their hand. The Christian friends and the colporteurs who waited at THE PRISONERS' RETURN HOME 243 the railway stations had directions to shake hands with every Frenchman returning home, and to say how sorry they were that these men had been so long detained away far from their family and friends. A wish was expressed that there never might be war again between the two countries. The soldiers were then asked to accept of a souvenir of their stay in Germany. The present consisted of a French New Testament and a few select illustrated tracts. This was offered to all, and only a very few refused to accept. With these books in their hands they returned home in 1 87 1 , and it was in 1872 that Dr. McAll founded his great work in Paris, for which the preparation had been made by this distribution of Christian literature during and after the war. The books brought home from the Crimea, some thirteen years previously, had found a fruitful soil in many a French family; and these books of 1871 added to the stock. It is God that works for the conversion of the world. Having put it into the hearts of some of His children to distribute tracts and copies of Scripture in such large numbers, He then sent His servants to open Mission Halls and hold the McAll meetings, which for the first time since the Revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes had become possible. It was not in vain that the work of tract distribution and Bible reading had been carried on among the French prisoners while in Germany, and the great day will reveal how in this case all things worked together for good. CHAPTER XIX :i And the Lord spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough." — Deut. ii. 2, 3. " I know not the way I am going, but well do I know my guide, And with perfect trust I give my hand to the Mighty One by my side." WITH DR. DAVIS IN SPAIN. IN 1 87 1 there was a request made that Dr. Craig should accompany Dr. Davis on a visit to Spain. The Queen, Isabella, had been banished two years previously, and with the new Government came liberty to carry on missionary work in that country. Under Isabella the read- ing of the Bible, and much more the teaching of it, subjected to fine and imprisonment. Missionaries had now for the past two years been busy at work, and it was thought advisable to organise tract work, so well adapted to the country. Considering that the Spaniards are not much inclined to read, it was thought wise to offer small portions of gospel truth at a time. With the utter ignorance of the Bible on the part of the Spanish people, it was thought that the work of the missionary would be aided by a good supply of pithy, pointed tracts. Craig was able to spare the time the more readily, as the Convener of the Mission Board had sent him a resolution of the Board, requiring him to itinerate more than he had hitherto done. He thought this order rather singular, and SPANISH MISSIONARIES 245 only possible on the supposition that the Board never read the reports which he forwarded, many of which were printed from month to month. Being, however, desirous to carry out every wish of the Board, and also being convinced that such a journey could be made useful, lie promised to be ready to join Dr. Davis at the appointed time. Entering Spain by San Sebastian, the Deputation were soon busy at work, investigating the state of society and the opportunities for spreading gospel truth. The effect of Popish teaching was everywhere visible in the squalor and poverty of the people. In Burgos, Craig counted 320 appeals from beggars in one forenoon. There appeared to be little regard for truth. The cruelty towards the inferior animals on all hands was very distressing. Everywhere idleness, poverty, pride, and falsehood seemed to be the characteristic of the country. It was only after several weeks that the better side of the national character came to light. In Madrid, the Deputation found that since November, 1868, a miscellaneous band of workers had assembled from many lands, and that there was more freedom for work than they had expected, considering the past history of the country. SPANISH MISSIONARIES. Before the banishment of Isabella, there had been some earnest men who had printed gospels and tracts, which, by means of the merchants who visited the fairs in the North of Africa, were quietly sent into the country. Nothing could be heard of the Bibles which George Borrow had circulated ; probably most of them had fallen into the hands of the priests and been burned, or those who pos- sessed a Bible kept it concealed. In Madrid were Carrasco and Ruet preaching every Sunday to large congregations. Both of these men had 246 SPANISH MISSIONARIES been imprisoned, but they were at this time free. Pastor Fritz Fliedner, from Kaiserswerth, had thrown himself with great energy into the work, and had attached himself especially to Pastor Ruet. He was supported by the Lutherans in Elberfeld, Stuttgart, and Berlin. The Irish Presbyterians had sent Rev. William Moore, to whom Craig had been able to show some kindness when he was in Hamburg, which was now very heartily repaid. He was assisted by an evangelist, named Ximenes, and a schoolmaster. The Plymouth Brethren and the Baptists were largely represented in Madrid. Mr. Corfield had charge of the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In other parts of Spain there was Rev. Mr. Tugwell in Seville, with several assistants carrying on successful work among the children. The American Xongregationalists had sent Mr. Giilich. Mrs. Peddie, of Edinburgh, had her agents at Cordova and Seville. The United Presbyterians of Scotland were responsible for the support of Rev. John Jameson, who was working especially for the Scottish National Bible Society. The names of Messrs. Cabrera — then in Seville — Armstrong, Fenn, Faithful, and others in Madrid, showed an extraordinary amount of interest taken by all branches of the Church in Spanish evangelisation. There was, unfortunately, a great want of mutual con- fidence among the workers, and Dr. Davis succeeded in bringing a large number of the discordant elements together to have them reconciled. It were tedious to give details on this point, but the visit of the Deputation was highly appreciated. THE CONVERTED FAMILY. Sitting one Sunday in the church of Madera Baja, where Carrasco was preaching, Dr. Craig observed a family listen- ing with peculiar earnestness to the words spoken. There were three young men of a fine and noble figure, and two THE CONVERTED FAMILY 247 females, all belonging evidently to the same family. On making inquiry, he heard the following story : — A colporteur entering the house of a small farmer near Madrid, found no one in the house but an old man lying in bed and a child playing before the door. He asked the invalid to buy a Bible, but he refused. " Perhaps you do not know what this book contains," said the colporteur ; " permit me to read a portion." As the visitor read, the invalid became interested, and, taking the book, examined it carefully. When the colporteur had read a little further, the old man, calling the child, sent him to bring in the whole family from the field. When all were assembled, the old man sat up in the bed and addressed them. " Many years ago," he said, " when my father was dying, he gathered all his children around him, and declared he did not believe that ours is the right religion. He had bought indulgences, had gone on many pilgrimages to holy shrines ; had even obtained a letter from the Pope, assuring him that, in virtue of what he had paid to the Church and what he had done, he should never see Pur- gatory, but would pass at once into heaven. Many an additional indulgence he had bought since that time, and yet, when now about to die, he was afraid to meet God." After dozing for a time he sat up again, and, in a clear voice, said that the only true religion that could give him comfort was one that told of a God so great and good that He could freely pardon every sin, without demanding any merit or payment on our part. Children, I believe there is such a religion, and if you hear of it be sure to accept it. " Now," said the old man, " listen to the words of this book, which tells of being justified freely — of Christ having died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Each one of you buy a copy of this book, and seek out the people that teach this doctrine, for that is my religion. 248 THE ALHAMBRA The religion which this man reads out of the book is what my father wanted, and is the right religion for you and me." The colporteur told about Carrasco and the Madera Baja church in Madrid, and on the following Sunday this whole family entered their names among its members, giving evidence that the gospel of free grace had reached their hearts. From Madrid the Deputation proceeded to Cordova, where they met the English Consul, Mr. Duncan Shaw, who was zealously supporting the good cause. The visitors saw and admired the cathedral, the orange groves, the magnificent cork-trees, and all the beauties of the scenery; but they saw, too, awakened souls pressing into light, and were glad to help forward the kingdom of God. Arriving in Seville, the British chaplain, Mr. Tugwell, was at the railway station, and before the Deputation had left the carriage he had engaged Dr. Craig to preach for him on the coming Sunday, saying that the Bishop oi Gibraltar had given him leave. THE ALHAMBRA. Leaving Dr. Davis in Seville to heal breaches in Mrs. Peddie's work, Dr. Craig proceeded to Granada, where a Protestant church had been opened. Here he visited the Alhambra, and found several lads very willing to explain the mysteries of the place. When they had conducted him round the ruins and he was about to leave, he asked them whether they would prefer a copper, or a book, as a memento of the visit. They all cried for the book. He offered to give every one a book if he could read. All that professed to be able to read stood in a row. Craig charged them not to profess except they could really read. So taking a Gospel, he found that the first lad, a big boy of fourteen, could not distinguish between the top and THE A LH AM BRA 249 bottom of the page. He was summarily dismissed, to the amazement of the others, who asked what the boy had done. He had only said he could read when he could not. When he was quite out of sight, but not sooner, the other boys who could read received each a Spanish Gospel or tract. By this time a crowd had collected, among whom were four Spanish students — young men of twenty to twenty-two years — one of whom stepped forward, saying, 11 Please, we can read too." " I am distributing portions of Scripture," said Craig ; " and you will probably not wish such books." " On the contrary," said one of the students, " it would give us great pleasure to possess such a book. We have heard of the New Testament, but have never seen a copy." " Then," said Craig, " you have seen my condition ; and I should feel greatly honoured if each of you would read a chapter. As there is a crowd around us, you would perhaps have no objection to speak distinctly, that all might hear the words." The first who took the book read the 14th chapter of John, and received as a reward a beautifully bound and gilt New Testament. The others followed, and read the 15th, 1 6th, and 17th chapters, in a full, sonorous voice, which rang out over the whole Court of the Lions. With uncovered head, each one received his gilt New Testament. On his way to his hotel, Craig observed the students following him ; and when they overtook him, they said, in true Spanish style, that they had been highly honoured that day, and wished once more to return thanks for the beautiful books. They begged the privilege of shaking hands in token of their gratitude. He went his way, and saw them no more. 250 IN PORTUGAL IN SEVILLE. On returning to Seville, Craig found several English friends with Dr. Davis, such as Principal Dr. Chalmers of London, Mr. James Stevenson of Glasgow, and other well- known friends of the gospel. On making inquiry about the place where the martyrs had suffered death under the Inquisition, Craig was told that almost in every public square in Seville, Protestants in large numbers had been burned to death. The population of Spain had been, by death and banishment, under Ferdinand and Isabella, reduced from forty millions down to fifteen millions. IN PORTUGAL. From here Dr. Davis and Craig proceeded to Portugal, accompanied by the warmest expression of thanks on the part of the Christian workers in Seville. Here they found Mr. Nicol MacNicol, Rev. Robert Stewart, and Rev. Mr. Pope, ready to undertake work. The result of this visit was the opening of a depot in Lisbon, and another in Oporto, for the sale and distribution of books. After some years the annual distribution of books from these depots amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand, which were scattered over Portugal and Brazil, among many who had no other opportunity of knowing the way of peace with God. Many a visit Dr. Craig paid afterwards to this country, the result of each of which was a fresh effort to extend the work. On the occasion of this first visit he met with Miss Whately, who was then staying in Lisbon. Craig preached frequently in Lisbon, and made many acquain- tances among the English residents. A visit to the tomb of Doddridge and to Mr. Cook of Cintra, who was known there as the Viscount de Montserrat, and to the grand exhibition of the king and all the nobles at a public religious procession of enormous splendour, were among the incidents of this visit, that showed the state and NE IV MISS ION A RIES 1 5 1 requirements of the country. Indeed, this visit might be regarded as the commencement of a new epoch in the religious history of Portugal. NEW MISSIONARIES. Returning slowly home over Germany in the summer ot 1 87 1, he found the French prisoners still detained in Ger- many, and the tract distribution and other missionary efforts faithfully continued among them. The hospitals, too, on the Rhine, in Hanover, and Prussia, were well supplied with the workers who had remained steady since the beginning of the war. Arriving at home, he was met by one of the young men in his congregation, a native of Hanover, who had been converted some months previously, and who now felt it laid on his mind to seek to work among the heathen. His name was Boeckmann, and Craig succeeded in finding him a place in the Barmen Missionary Society, to be trained under Dr. Fabri. This was the twenty-fifth missionary that had been converted in Craig's church, who went out to the mission field. Four months later, a young lady living in Dr. Craig's house was asked in marriage by Mr. Voss, of the Gossner Mission in India, and went forth as the twenty- sixth missionary from that church. This young person was during her stay in Dr. Craig's family brought to the knowledge of the Saviour, and had become very useful in many ways. The young women of the church came to her in all their difficulties, and her counsel generally turned out to be right. At the young women's prayer-meetings it was she who brought in the greatest number of new members, and her influence, though quiet, was very effective. When she consulted her minister about the application, she was told that her constitution would scarcely bear the climate in Chota Nagpore for a long time, but in all other respects there could be no objection. " Then," she replied, " if that is all, I shall be the sooner with my dear Saviour, 252 PASTOR BLUMHARDT OF BAD BOLL who will not call me home till my work is done." Rev. Mr. Plath, the secretary of the mission, having approved of the arrangement, her letters on the way out were among the most interesting description that friends at home had seen. Before she was two years in Chota Xagpore she was teaching two large classes of children in two different languages, and the children hung about her with intense affection. Her course, however, was short, and Meta Offer- mann Voss was after a very few years, as her minister had anticipated, called to rest with her Saviour. PASTOR BLUMHARDT OF BAD BOLL. At the mission meetings in Barmen, where Craig was invited to preach the annual sermon for the Tract Society in 1 87 1, he was able to give very decided testimony to the adaptation of tract distribution to the spread of the gospel. Coming direct from a year's personal inspection of the work in the hospitals over an immense district, and also in the camp, he was able to tell of large numbers of con- versions under most extraordinary circumstances, by means of the books that had been distributed. He was thrown for this mission week very much into contact with that wonderful man, Pastor Blumhardt of Bad Boll, who preached that year the anniversary sermon for the Rhenish Missionary Society. This distinguished man had a peculiar gift of prayer, by which he had been the means of guiding a great awakening that resulted in the conversion of many hundreds of souls. And not only that, but he also had seen in his own personal experience the fulfilment of the promise in James v. 15. There was no mesmeric influence — nothing but believing prayer ; and yet vast numbers were healed by him in body and soul. He said it was a Charisma — a special gift bestowed on him, as the gift of eloquence, of love, of patience, and other gifts and graces had been bestowed at times on others in high measure. His ruddy countenance beamed with love. His PASTOR BLUMHARDT OF BAD BOLL 253 exposition of Scripture at morning and evening family prayers was sweet and heavenly — perfectly quiet and calm. His memory of names and circumstances of the thousands who applied for an interest in his prayers seemed unlimited. His deep humility and unclouded confidence in every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord were most refreshing. A week spent in close brotherly communion with such a man was an experience never to be forgotten. To spend an hour with Blumhardt was itself an exposition of Scripture, for one understood what that testimony to the ancient patriarch meant, when it was recorded in olden time, " Enoch walked with God." Blumhardt lived still eight years after this time, and Craig saw him frequently. His power was unabated to the end of his life in his seventy-sixth year. Craig's own sermon on that occasion was blessed to some who had been indulging in what was called the higher hope, but who now learned the grievous danger of encourag- ing delay in the acceptance of the great salvation. The solemn warning that now is the accepted time came home to many with power. 1 1 The dangerous doctrine of the conversion of sinners after death had been held partially by Bengel. It was taught by Tholuck. In his later years Dr. Barth held and preached it. But in his biography it is recorded that from the time when he fully accepted this doctrine, he did not hear of a single conversion under his preaching, which had previously been so abundantly blessed. In 1870, these views were preached, and spread rapidly in Elber- feld, and Craig had been asked to preach the Scripture doctrine on that subject. He showed how the most zealous apostles of this new doctrine in Germany did not pretend to found it on Scripture. They only gave their own wishes. He said the tendency of the doctrine was to encourage people to postpone their conversion. If it were true, then at the day of judgment men would be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and a conversion which had taken place after death would not avail. We should then see the horrible conse- quence that converted and penitent souls should be rejected, because their repentance, like that of the foolish virgins, came too late. 254 THE YEAR 1872 JUBILEE OF THE LOWER SAXONY TRACT SOCIETY. The jubilee of this Society, of which Dr. Craig and Mr. Waitz had been joint secretaries for many years, was cele- brated toward the close of 1871. Dr. Paulus Cassel and Baron von Ungern-Sternberg came from Berlin on the occasion, and Pastor W. Baur with several others took part in the celebration. The Report was able to state that the circulation of books and tracts from that Society had increased many fold since Craig had become secretary. He had, in fact, provided the funds for all extra work, and had superintended the colportage, travelling on an average in this work from six to eight thousand miles a year. He had been well supported by the committee, and his sugges- tions almost invariably adopted. The circulation of tracts that year had been a million and a quarter. As president of the Nassau colportage and member of the committee of the Baden colportage, Craig had helped to distribute very many more. THE YEAR 1 872 began with the week of prayer, which was a very solemn time. At no time had there been more opportunity of dealing with the Jews. The mission church was in a very thriving state. The debt on the new church was completely paid off. The services in the church were well attended, and a visible blessing rested on the preached gospel. Notwithstanding the outside work, the number of Sundays that Craig had been absent from his own pulpit had been comparatively few. At a meeting of the Y.M.C.A. at which Dr. Craig presided in his own church, and Pastor W. Baur and Baron von Oertzen took part, there were two hundred and sixty persons present. HOLSTEIN HOME MISSION. The four quarterly meetings for 1872 were held in Neumiinster, Gliickstadt, Barmstedt, and Bordesholm. HOLSTEIN HOME MISSION 255 In Gluckstadt the attendance was large, and Pastor Brodcrsen, in his usual felicitous manner, roused the members to an earnest search for that peace which passeth knowledge. At the meetings in Barmstedt the Countess Moltke was present, and at a meeting in Monk Brarup, near Flensburg, the Duke of Holstein-Gliicksburg and family came to show their interest in the good work and approval of it. At Bordesholm Craig stayed with Baron and Baroness von Heintze. The local pastor, Chalybeus, presided, and some of the neighbouring clergy, that had never attended mission meetings before, came, as they said, to try and make out Craig's secret for rousing such intense enthu- siasm. The Baron explained to these gentlemen that there was no secret in it. Any one who really believed every word of the Bible, and preached this and nothing more, expecting a blessing, might have similar success. There were, as usual, some dozens of places visited and about twenty meetings held before Craig returned home. The Mission Board had ordered him to itinerate more than he had hitherto done. So in February he went round the places where his colporteurs were stationed, in Bremen, Bremerhafen, Hanover, Oldenburg, and East Friezeland, proceeding as far as Dortmund and Herford, cheering up the workers. IN BELFAST. In June, 1872, he was invited to attend the meeting of the General Assembly in Belfast. On his way he preached for Rev. Gavin Carlyle in London. The Mayor of Belfast and many of the leading merchants invited him to dinner, and showed him great kindness. He was asked to address the Assembly, and his address was received with great applause ; many of the immense crowd that filled every spot in Dr. Cook's church rising to their feet at the close of the address and cheering most heartily. On the 256 IN VIENNA following Sunday he preached four times — in Elmwood, Linenhall Street, Townsend Street, and in a Mission Hall. Having preached in Crossroads and Derry he returned home, having been, by the wish of the Assembly, three Sundays out of his own pulpit. Seeing that he seldom or never took a holiday, this absence was not too long. IN VIENNA. As preparation was being made for the Exhibition in Vienna, Dr. Davis and he went there to arrange for exhibiting the Tract Society's publications. Here he revived the Tract Society's Depot, and appointed a com- mittee of which Professor Vogel, Rev. Dunlop Moore, and Oberkirchenrath von Tardy were members. As Mrs. Moore had been a member of Dr. Craig's church, she asked him to baptize her first baby. The great success of the Sunday school was cause of hearty congratulation. Even though it could last only for a short time, it was a great victory to have been able to keep up a Sunday school containing from fifty to seventy children for several years in the centre of the city of Vienna, without police interference. Having finished his work, Dr. Craig was, after ten days' absence, again among his own people. CLOSE OF WORK IN HAMBURG. In 1873, the work in Hamburg became burdensome. Not from any want of opportunity to work, or of blessing resting on his labours, but because of the unfriendly attitude of the Mission Board. Dr. Craig thought that if the Board were tired of him, he would give them an opportunity to say so. He wrote to the Convener to say that it had become painfully evident that the relation between him and the Mission Board had become strained. He was not aware of having given any just cause for this change. If there CLOSE OF WORK IN HAMBURG 257 was any wish that he should resign, the Convener might signify it to him and he would be ready to retire from his post. He mentioned that a proposal had been made by the Secretary of the Religious Tract Society, that if at any time he should be set free from his present duties, it was probable that the Tract Society might wish to engage him in their work. He therefore begged to ask whether it were the wish of the Board that he should resign and seek work elsewhere. If that was the wish of the Mission Board, then, in appointing a successor, the Board would please to bear in mind that the church in Hamburg, which had been founded and carried on with the sanction of the General Assembly, contained a number of church members greater than could be found in three-fourths of the old established churches at home. That the money raised for missions was greater than was subscribed by any of 400 churches at home, out of the 500 of which the church in Ireland was then composed. With proper care the church would be self-supporting, and not only the 220 active church members but many of the adherents would continue to assist the mission work. Craig mentioned that in the previous year he had distributed 2,250,000 tracts, and sold 25,000 copies of Scripture. He offered, in case it were thought desirable, gratuitously to assist his successor as far as was in his power. He mentioned other facts about the state of the Mission, and how, as the church was free of debt, the congregation would be prepared to work heartily for spreading the gospel. He respectfully requested the Mission Board to advise what they wished him to do. Instead of reading Dr. Craig's letter to the Mission Board, the Convener said that here was a pretty story from Hamburg. Dr. Craig had thrown up the Mission and had joined the Religious Tract Society. After some weeks it was intimated to Dr. Craig that he had been summarily 18 258 CLOSE OF WORK IN HAMBURG dismissed from his post, though there was no one else to carry on the work. A few thoughtless men on the Board treated him very ill, and his reply to their ill-treatment was that they might do as they liked. He would neither bring an action against them in the civil courts, nor would he write to the news- papers to expose the representatives of the church of his fathers. Though he had not given in his resignation, nor given any cause for being summarily dismissed, yet as the Board had shown no inclination to retain his services, he would retire at the end of the current half year. What was personal to himself was a small matter, but the Board proceeded to force a minister on the congregation against their will. Four-fifths of the church members were obliged to retire from the church, towards the building of which they had so long and so liberally subscribed. As there was no other church where they could find spiritual nourishment, they were obliged to hire a hall for them- selves, where they could meet without a minister, for mutual improvement and edification. It was distressing to see this wreck and not be able to help. To avoid even the appearance of giving offence, Dr. Craig removed with his family to reside in London, as soon as this movement could possibly take place. The work of a lifetime was crushed by the malicious efforts of two or three men who should have made themselves acquainted with the facts of the case. CHAPTER XX 11 Depart, for I will send thee far hence." — ACTS xxii. 21. " The gospel bells are ringing, over land, from sea to sea, Blessed news of free salvation do they offer you and me." THE YEAR 1 874. FOR five years Dr. Davis had urged on Dr. Craig the importance of the work of the Religious Tract Society, and the value of the help he could give to that work. Craig could not see his way open to act on the suggestion ; but when his connection with his former work was broken off, he intimated to Dr. Davis his readiness to undertake the work of that Society, and he was soon appointed to become the Association Secretary for the Continent of Europe. IN BORDEAUX. His first journey in the service of this Society was on a visit to Portugal. On his way he stopped in Paris, where Mr. George Pearse conducted the work of tract distribution with great energy. He also visited the McAll meetings and Miss de Broen's work. On reaching Bordeaux, he found Pastor Pozzy carrying on a good work for the Master. The services on Sunday were well attended and full of power. The Sunday schools were flourishing, and the day schools were particularly attractive. In one of these Craig found eighty girls under instruction, and in 260 IN BORDEA UX another sixty, nearly all being children of Roman Catholic parents. On inquiry, it turned out that most of the Roman Catholic schools in the neighbourhood for girls were conducted by females, many of whom could not even read. They held a license to open schools, because they promised to keep up the strictest observance of the Romish festivals. As the children learned nothing in these insti- tutions, their parents gladly allowed them to attend Pastor Pozzy's schools, where they received quite a superior education. At the previous Easter, Pastor Pozzy had admitted eighteen girls out of these schools to their first communion, nearly all of whom gave evidence of a change of heart and life through the gospel teaching. Under the care of Mr. Pozzy and Miss Crowe very active tract distribution was carried on here, and Dr. Craig was able to supply them with a large stock of French tracts from Paris and Lausanne. The magazines which were issued by Miss Blundell in Paris — the " Rayon de Soleil " and " Ami de la Maison " — chiefly at the expense of the London Society, were most effectively circulated in the town, in the hospitals, and on board ships. The priests had forbidden the distribution of tracts in most of the hospitals ; but these papers looked like newspapers, and were supposed, therefore, to be harmless. In going round in Bordeaux, Dr. Craig found a strong desire expressed not only by Protestants, but also by Roman Catholics, that McAll meetings should be held there. On returning to Paris, he mentioned the matter to Mr. McAll, who declared the opening to be most provi- dential, as some of his best workers had been prevented entering on evangelistic labours elsewhere, and were ready to take up this work at once. The following week found these friends in Bordeaux making preparation for opening Conference Halls. When Craig next visited Bordeaux he found three halls opened, and the work LISBON 261 going on most successfully. One peculiar feature was that most of those who attended these " Reunions " were young men and young women from eighteen to twenty- five years of age. Craig provided them with tracts from Paris and Lausanne, and books for evangelical lending libraries from Toulouse. LISBON. In Lisbon he found the Rev. Robert Stewart ready to carry out any good work that was suggested. The visit paid by Dr. Davis and Dr. Craig in 1871 had been merely preliminary, without any definite result ; but Craig was now able, in 1874, to set the work in motion. In later years, frequent visits were paid to Lisbon — perhaps seven in all, and the work progressed under the efficient care of Mr. Stewart, till the annual sale of books and tracts — fifteen years later — amounted to over 150,000. And this in a land where, till 1870, there had been no possibility of holding meetings or distributing gospel tracts and books. These visits were very pleasant for Dr. Craig, as he received everywhere unbounded kindness from all the local workers. In 1874, Mr. Stewart wrote to the committee in London : " We felt very glad to see our old friend Dr. Craig, and were greatly refreshed by his visit. It does us good to have one to look into all affairs and stimulate us to greater deeds by his veteran ex- perience in the field, and his suggestion of fresh modes of action." Besides the depot established in Lisbon for providing Christian literature for all Portugal and Brazil, Mr. Stewart opened a depot in Oporto, where he had the assistance of Messrs. James and Andrew Cassels and their devoted wives, with Rev. Mr. Moreton and Mr. Jones.. Some of the Bible-women here employed were greatly honoured of God in bringing home wanderers who had completely lost sight of their Father's house. To the workers them- 262 IN SPAIN selves the progress seemed slow ; but, whether the work was in schools, in preaching, or in visiting from house to house, the gospel pictures and tracts helped to open up quite a new field of thought, especially for the young. IN SPAIN. Proceeding from Lisbon to Madrid, Craig found, on reaching the frontier at Badajos, that the Carlist war was raging, and that the train would bring him through the middle of the Carlist bands. He was told that the best plan for travellers to adopt when a train was attacked by Carlists, was to throw themselves flat on the floor ot the carriage. To all the varieties of war scenes, however, lie was well seasoned, and felt sure he would find a way of being useful or a way of escape. The train from Madrid to Badajos had on the previous night been stopped by Carlists, who appropriated the money found in the Government despatches. A lieutenant had warned the passengers to sit still while the train waited, and afterwards apologised for the detention ; ex- pressing regret to the ladies that in this lonely place he could not provide them with any refreshments. As a large body of Guards accompanied the train then about to start, there was no difficulty by the way, only that the passengers witnessed the smoking debris of rail- way stations that had been burned the previous night, and were stopped by broken bridges. Arriving in Madrid, Craig saw all the workers that he had seen when he accompanied Dr. Davis three years previously, and he now made several important changes in the local committee. On the way home, as San Sebastian and Irun were in the hands of the Carlists he was obliged to travel over Santander. As the pauses at the railway stations were long, Craig had a good opportunity of supplying the soldiers at the railway stations with tracts and Gospels, where they were able to read. He IN SOUTH GERMANY 263 had travelled from Madrid to Santander with the new Spanish commander, General Morioncs, and when the Carlists learned that he had arrived, they came over from Bilboa to bombard the town. Craig was most hospitably received by Mr. and Mrs. Giilich ; but as he did not wish to stand a siege, he availed himself of the accommodation of a small steamer that was about to sail for Bordeaux. To cross the Bay of Biscay in a small fishing steamer where there is no available cabin, and where a bed on the coiled ropes on the deck was preferable to a lair among the sailors, is not exactly the experience one would select If, added to this, there is no food on board but raw bacon and black bread with olive oil Well, Craig reached Bor- deaux — or at least Pouillac, the custom-house station — all right, and the rail bore him home. IN SOUTH GERMANY. The anniversary of the Baden Colportage Society, in 1874, was held in Hoffenheim, and Craig was there to preach the sermon. Here Baron von Gemmingen, Pastor Schuck, Dean Sachs, Pastor Hofert and the other members of the committee took part in a series of very successful revival meetings, which were every evening addressed by Dr. Craig. At the close of these meetings the brethren parted from each other greatly refreshed. From here Craig went to Stuttgart, where he met with Prelate von Kapff, Pastor Gottheil, Pastor Carl Kapflf of Cannstatt, and Mr. Flad, the missionary from Abyssinia. I le accompanied Mr. Scholl to many of the meetings of the Pietists and Stundists. Though the " Stundenhalter " were very jealous of the regular clergy, yet they made an ex- ception in the case of Craig, whom they were pleased to regard as one of themselves, and they generally asked him to preside at their meetings. The Wesleyan minister in Cannstatt, Mr. Barrett, also placed a pulpit at Dr. Craig's disposal. The experience of these precious meetings was 264 IN VIENNA worthy to be remembered for the remainder of one's life. Heart opened to heart, and Craig was permitted to call attention to mistakes and dangerous practices among them, which it would have been perilous for any among themselves to have referred to ; but he, as a stranger, was a privileged person. In Nuremberg in Bavaria, his honoured friend Pastor Tretzel always welcomed him heartily, and here he found the book store that he had opened in 1850, after twenty- four years, in a very flourishing condition. It was very much owing to the distribution of books in this town, where only one other evangelical preacher besides Tretzel worked, that Sunday schools, with hundreds of children and many earnest teachers, were then busy at work. Each visit which Craig paid to Nuremberg and Erlangen brought a large addition to the stock of books, which, like a pure, refreshing stream, spread over the kingdom of Bavaria. IN VIENNA. In Vienna he met his friends the Rev. W. Johnston and the Rev. Dunlop Moore, and the depot, for which, on one of his late visits, he had obtained a concession from the Austrian Government, was accomplishing more than he had ever expected. For twenty-eight years, in one shape or other, this work had been steadily maintained, and to suppose that the work had proceeded without effort in the midst of such strong opposition as it had to encounter, would be a serious mistake. Mr. Palotta, Mr. Lotter, and Professor Vogel carried out faithfully the instructions given ; and a large number of voluntary tract distributors, acting within the limits of the law, brought the message of a Saviour's love into many a Protestant and Roman Catholic family in that town. NE W SOCIE TIES FO UNDED 265 IN ITALY. From Vienna Dr. Craig proceeded to Italy, where he sought out all the workers, and rejoiced when he found they had learned the secret of making a judicious use of evangelical literature in the great struggle with the powers of darkness. In Triest, Venice, Bologna, Florence, and Rome he ascertained what was being done and in what direction the Tract Society might extend its influence. On the day after his arrival in Rome he preached in the Free Church, outside the Puerto del Popolo. Here he met Dr. Philipp, his old friend whom he had not seen for nearly thirty years. What a change there was in every town in Italy, but especially in Rome, since Victor Immanuel took possession of it ! Not a beggar, not even on the Spanish stairs, ventured to ask an alms ! The streets were clean and well paved, and on the Corso and other leading streets there were footwalks, where pedestrians could travel in safety. But we must not enter on a description of the places in Italy ; it was enough to have enjoyed them all. The stock of books was good, both in Rome and Florence, but the distribution was not satisfactory. The small num- ber of people who could read, and the total absence of a desire for reading, were the great hindrances to be overcome. NEW SOCIETIES FOUNDED. We must now as briefly as possible describe the founda- tion and development of a considerable number of societies, each of which in its own sphere became a centre of light and spiritual life over a large extent of country. In doing so we must in some cases go back for several years, so as to make intelligible how the societies in Sweden, Norway, Finland, St. Petersburg, Riga, Berlin, Dresden and Warsaw sprang into existence. 266 SWEDEN SWEDEN. In the first half of this century Sweden could show very few earnest Christians. Though the population was exclusively Lutheran, yet very few of the ministers had themselves tasted the power of the gospel. Where any were awakened to a sense of sin and a knowledge of the Saviour, they were regarded as dangerous characters, disturbing the graveyard peace of the Church. About the same time when a breath of Spring began to be felt in Germany, there began also in Sweden to be a searching after truth. As this hunger could not be satisfied in the churches, and dissent was not tolerated, the people began to read the Bible and to inquire after evangelical books that had at one time existed in the country, and for trans- lations of the works of Luther and the men of his day. The morals of the lower classes were at a very low ebb in many places, and the great ones were little better. Drink was there, as elsewhere, the bane of the country, and other vices followed in natural order. When Craig was distributing his tracts among the sailors and the Swedish emigrants in the forties, he found many of them anxious to have something to read, for education up to a certain point was compulsory in the country. He had tracts printed in their own language, which the sailors took home with them, and on each visit to Hamburg, Bremen, and other seaports, the demand for tracts became more marked. In some English seaports Swedish tracts were printed and given to the sailors. They could not at home have prayer-meetings without danger of being denounced to the police ; but in the year 1850 there were many who read gospel tracts and sermons, and lent them to their neighbours. Those who were frequently found reading at home on Sunday were regarded as sectarians, and had the objec- tionable name fixed on them. The number of readers and the demand for books had, in the year 1854, increased to SWEDEN 267 such an extent that a tract society was founded in Stock- holm, under the name of the Evangelical " Fosterlands- Stiftclse " to supply the want. Earnest Swedish merchants who came to Germany and England on business, inquired into the work of the Tract Societies in these countries, and returned home to carry out the plan. Ladies like the Countess Wrangel, the wife of the Swedish Ambassador in 1 lamburg, told Dr. Craig, early in the fifties, that they were proud to be numbered among the " Lasare " or readers, and rejoiced that their sons and daughters were growing up in the same mind. Like wildfire it spread. The writings of Rosenius, a very evangelical pastor, were read and circulated widely. For twenty years Dr. Craig kept up a correspondence with the leaders of this movement, and when they visited Germany they sought to take counsel with him, and with Gossner in Berlin, or others w r ho were busy scattering pure Christian literature over the land. The Queen and several ladies of the Court threw themselves energetically into this work, and it grew rapidly. One of the great influ- ential leaders in founding the Swedish Tract Society 5 out of which grew the Foreign Missionary and the Bible Society was Count T. H. Wrangel, and another was the Court chaplain, Pastor G. E. Beskow. The names of Lowen- hjelm and Widstrom and Janzon and Professor Rosenberg were prominent among those workers. PASTOR G. E. BESKOW. About the year 1864, when the present Crown Prince of Sweden was six years old, his mother, then Crown Princess and a distinguished friend of the " Readers," became very anxious about her eldest son's education. It was necessary that he should pass through one of the National High Schools. The Crown Princess visited all the schools in Stockholm, and found that among all the masters there was not one who believed the Bible. She declared to 268 PASTOR G. E. BESKOW her husband that their son should never, with her consent, visit one of these Rationalistic schools. " Then," said her husband, " we must resign all claim on the succession to the throne." " Better do so," she replied, " than that our dear boy's soul should be poisoned by these dangerous errors. But as our capital is every year increasing in population, is there not room for a new High School ; and could it not be arranged that we should have the selection of the teachers ? " Her suggestion was carried out, and Pastor Beskow was appointed head master. She searched among her acquaintances till she found a dozen boys of the same age as her son, from among families that loved the Lord Jesus, that they might be his class-fellows. When the second son was ready for school the same thing was done, and that noble lady thus guarded the minds of her children, as far as in her power, from the poisonous teachings of Rationalism. While Beskow was thus engaged, he felt grieved that there was no church in all Stockholm where a missionary meeting could be held, except the small Moravian church, and he longed for a change in this respect. On his way to and from the school every day he passed a vacant plot of ground, which he fancied would be a suitable site for a church. Standing one day contemplating the spot, and praying for Divine direction, he saw a young man coming out of a house that seemed to be connected with the vacant land. Approaching the young man, he asked whether he could tell him to whom this plot belonged. " Oh, yes ; it belongs to my father," the young man said. " Would he sell it ? " inquired Pastor Beskow. " No," said the young man. " That is, my father thinks there ought to be a church in this neighbourhood, and he will not sell the plot for any other purpose than as the site PASTOR G. E. BESKOW 269 of a church ; and of course he will have to wait long for a purchaser." " But that is the very purpose for which I want it," said Beskow, "and I should like to sec your father about it." " If you go in now," said the young man, " you will find my father at home and disengaged. No doubt he will be glad to see you on such an errand." The site was offered at a very low price, and as the purchase-money could remain as a mortgage at a very low interest, the matter was settled at once ; it being understood that the difference between the market price and the arranged cost of the ground was to be this gentle- man's contribution towards the building of the church. When the queen heard of this her heart was glad. A few days later, when Beskow was planning the steps to be taken for providing the capital with which to build the church, a strange thing happened. A lady who knew Pastor Beskow called on him in great distress. Her brother had just died, leaving the whole of a large fortune to her and her sister. She did not know what to do with the money— indeed, they had enough, and if they gave this to be invested they would soon lose it all. Would Pastor Beskow invest it for them ? It seemed that two or three per cent, would be regarded as sufficient interest, and the investment might be made for a long period. Here was the site of a church on mortgage at small interest, to which was added nearly half the cost of building, on a long term, at three per cent. — verily it was the hand of the Lord, and the praying people gave hearty thanks. Many a time Craig worshipped in that church, when it was finished, while crowds of earnest worshippers listened to the preaching of the pure gospel of the grace of God, and drank in the message of a Saviour's love. The king and queen and many of the members of the Court were 27o FOSTERLANDS-STIFTELSE regular attendants at the ordinary and special services held so frequently in this place. FOSTERLANDS-STIFTELSE. Dr. Craig established a close relation between the Fosterlands-Stiftelse — the Swedish Tract Society — and the London Religious Tract Society, which enabled the friends in Stockholm very materially to extend their work. Large grants were made to the Stockholm city mission and to the colportage. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, and to help each other ! The result of the Stockholm Tract Society coming into close relations with English literature has been that some of the best works of Bickersteth, Bonar, Bunyan, Everhardt, Hanna, Havergal, James, Moody, MacCheyne, Owen, Newman Hall, Ryle, Rowland Hill, Miss Tucker, in Swedish dress are carried by a hundred and thirty to a hundred and forty colporteurs into the remotest hamlets in Sweden. Besides these, the best works of several German authors, such as Luther, Krummacher, Neander, Herberger, Hengstenberg, Ahlfeld, Frommel, Francke, Arndt ; not to mention the excellent original Scandi- navian works of Rosen ius and Beskow were distributed. How wonderful it is to see in the land and Church of Sweden, that was so lately devoid of all Christian life, that within forty years the breath of Spring, chiefly by means of books and tracts, has sent a fragrance over so many parishes and towns. During that time a Home Mission work has started into existence, supported by annual con- tributions that reach nearly .£6,000. A careful watch is kept over the emigrants, the sailors, and the Swedes that have settled in New York, in Liverpool, in Grimsby, in Hamburg, in Lubeck and Marseille. A prosperous Foreign Mission in East Africa and India, supported by annual subscriptions of nearly £10,000 ; and a Book Society, circulating nearly seven hundred thousand thoroughly evangelical books and NORWAY 271 tracts, at an expense of £11,000. About twenty-five millions of such books have been circulated in thirty-eight years. In travelling over Sweden it is not difficult to find the true Christians in every town. The Church and the world are not blended as in many other countries, but true believers show their colours. Again and again the visitor in the peasants' houses is shown one or other book lying on the table, and is told, " It was through this book that I was awakened to a sense of sin, and taught to know and love the Saviour." Not only in Stockholm, but also in Gothenburg and other towns, and in many lonely hamlets, is there a good work going steadily forward. Sunday schools have been extensively established, and temperance societies have been most successfully carried on by many agents, but especially by Mr. Berg. Other Christian agencies quickly started up, such as the work of Mrs. De Ramsay, of Jon- koping. NORWAY. This little kingdom of two millions of people occupies a unique position among the nations of the world. While the tonnage of the steam and sailing ships of Great Britain and her Colonies amounts in round numbers to 11,600,000 tons, and that of the United States of America to 1,800,000 tons, Norway follows with 1,584,000 tons, while Germany has 1,569,000 tons and France 1,045,000 tons. Sweden, with a population of 4,800,000, has shipping of only 476,000 tons ; Norway, with a population less than half of that of Sweden, has treble the tonnage of shipping. During the early decades of the present century any attempt to advance spiritual life in this kingdom was visited with fine and imprisonment. Towards the middle of the century this severity had considerably relaxed, and after 1848 may be said to have completely ceased. Being 272 NORWAY a poor country, and the people not able to purchase books, there being also a very limited supply of popular literature, any printed matter was highly prized. From the great number of sailors in proportion to the popula- tion, and as a great part of the trade in fish, timber, and iron is carried on with England, nearly all the sailors speak English. The consequence was that English religious literature found a ready entrance into the country. In the University of Christiania there were two eminent professors whose influence was felt powerfully by the students, and the younger clergy in Norway soon became decided preachers of evangelical truth. One of these young men, Candidat Hoerem, felt himself impelled, while at college, and after he was licensed to preach, to hold prayer-meetings among the people where nothing of the kind had ever existed. The pioneer of gospel teaching in Norway, named Houge, had been im- prisoned, and had died in prison in 1824, for attempting something of the same kind ; but the times had altered. Hoerem heard from time to time what Craig was doing in Schleswig and Holstein, and he resolved to do the same in Norway. Craig had been printing and distributing Norse tracts since 1850, and Mr. Hoerem took up that work energetically. When Baptist and Methodist mission- aries from America and England arrived in Norway, and worked successfully in this direction, Mr. Hoerem resolved to try something of the same kind within the Lutheran Church of the country. In 1868 he, with the help of like- minded friends, founded the Home Mission. NORWEGIAN HOME MISSION. When a few tracts had been printed by the Norse Tract Society in Christiania, Mr. Hoerem engaged men to carry them through the country, and offer them for sale from house to house. There were no bookshops. Pastoral NORSE COLPORTAGE 273 visitation was impossible. In the widely scattered parishes the pastor had frequently three or four churches in one parish, far asunder, preaching in rotation in each ; or, where one was in a more populous district, he would preach twice there and once in four or five weeks in the smaller churches. Home Mission work was therefore greatly needed. NORSE COLPORTAGE. Mr. Hoerem's efforts were so well received, that after two years there were seventeen men regularly employed in scattering the books, visiting the sick, conducting meetings for expounding the Scripture and for prayer. In 1865 Craig was astonished at the number of people who gladly purchased the books and tracts offered ; but in 1874, fifty-three evangelists were engaged by the Home Mission Society. The work had increased to that extent, that it became necessary that these men should be kept under train- ing to enable them to work efficiently. A Students' Home had been built in Christiania, which was placed under Mr. Hoerem's care, and to this he brought batches of eight or ten of his colporteurs at a time, with their wives — for the women in Norway are in many respects the better-half. Here they remained in the Studentenheim for five or six weeks at a time, receiving suitable teaching and training for their work. Though converted men, they were often lamentably deficient in the knowledge of the Scripture and of the best mode of communicating to others what knowledge they had ; and these meetings served to furnish them with what they required. It was touching to see how the men and women drank in the teaching like babes. Dr. Craig was one evening walking near the Home when he met the group taking exercise. They gathered round him to tell — all, of course, speaking at the same time — how the chief magistrate of 19 274 THE LUTHERST1FT the city had knelt with them that morning on the bare ground, confessing sin and asking pardon as if he were a peasant, and how the professors had told them, with tears in their eyes, that they too had at one time not known or loved the Saviour. No, this kindness they would never forget. When the six weeks were completed the colporteurs were sent home rejoicing — the women even more than the men, for, as they said, they had no claim. It was a picture to see how their faces beamed when Craig told them that the age of claim and of merit was past, and God's children now live a life of gratitude for unspeakable favours already received. The time which Craig spent with Hoerem was exquisitely happy, for it was rare to meet with such un- selfishness, high hope, firm faith, and complete consecration to God as in the case 01 Mr. Hoerem. THE LUTHERSTIFT was the name given to the Tract Society. In 1871 they distributed 100,000 books and tracts, the next year 240,000, and the following year 300,000. This, for a population of less than 400,000 families, was not bad, especially as only a small portion of that population could be reached in the course of the year. About twelve years later, one of Dr. Craig's agents in Hamburg told him he had visited every Norwegian ship that for twelve months had touched at that port, and he had not found one ship, great or small, on which there was not at least one converted man or boy on board. On some, every one of the crew, from the captain down to the smallest cabin-boy, was a child of God, and the ship was a floating Bethel. THE SILENT COMFORTER. A young Englishman of good family, whose life was far from God, fell ill and came into the hospital in THE SILENT COMFORTER 275 Christiania while Craig was there. He knew no Nor- wegian, and there happened to be no nurse in his ward who could speak English. The English chaplain was sent for, but the patient refused to listen to his earnest words. The pastor hung up an English copy of the " Silent Comforter " in a place where he could see page after page each day — for the whole day — before his eyes. These words of Scripture were blessed to the young man's con- version, and on his recovery he asked the chaplain to have that book translated into Norwegian, and hung up in each of the separate wards of the General Hospital, at his expense. This work was committed to Dr. Craig to carry out, and soon in every ward of that hospital, and of many others in Norway, those texts of Scripture in Norwegian hung up for the comfort of the patients. Many editions of the work were printed since then, and the sweet words have lost nothing of their power. CHAPTER XXI ' Thou shalt see greater things than these.'' — John i. 50 To the work, to the work, we are servants of God, Let us follow the path that our Master has trod, With the balm of His counsel our strength to renew, Let us do with our might what our hand finds to do. THE CHURCH IN GERMANY. WHEN Christianity was first introduced into the West of Germany by the monks of Staffa and Iona, the great effort was to seek the conversion of individuals, and not merely to seek the adherence of nations. The principle of the Reformed Church, " ubi fides ibi ecclesia" was main- tained by them ; and to the present day the traces of this principle are clearly evident in the Presbyterian organisa- tion of the Rhenish and Westphalian churches. In other parts of Germany the principle of Boniface, 11 ubi ecclesia ibi fides" prevailed, and this character was stamped at the time of the Reformation on the Lutheran churches. When a ruler of a province became a Christian, he ordered all his subjects to be baptized. In the same way at the time of the Reformation, 1528-31, when the rulers adopted the teaching of Luther, they declared their State to be Protestant. In Hamburg, for example, Bugenhagen spent some weeks in connection with the Senate in preparing a new constitu- tion, and when this was ready, it was publicly read before 276 STATE OF RELIGION IN BERLIN 277 the Senate House, and the town was proclaimed to be Protestant. Any of the priests who chose to remain and teach the Lutheran Catechism were confirmed in their churches, and those who declined to do so were permitted to leave the town. The same was the case in Lubcck, Brunswick, and other places. Not a single thought was given to personal conviction or private judgment. All who lived in a certain area were declared Protestants. In places like Mecklenburg, where the whole population were virtually heathen till Luther's time, the Grand Duke one day proclaimed the whole Grand Duchy to be Lutheran, without any effort to change the character of the individual. Under such circumstances there could be but little visible manifestation of vital godliness. Spencr and Francke for a time brought life into the Lutheran churches, but at the end of the eighteenth century very little true piety was found in the North of Germany, except in Bremen, Elber- feld, and a few isolated spots. The Moravian Brethren, who followed Zinzendorf, were in many places the only green spot on which the eye could rest. And they were persecuted and ridiculed by all who made any pretension to occupy a high social position. STATE OF RELIGION IN BERLIN. During the years 1800-15 there was only one evangelical preacher in Berlin — the aged Pastor Janicke. There were a few earnest Christian men associated with him — like Ziethen, the King of the Hussars — but their number was small. From 18 10 Schleiermacher exercised a powerful influence in breaking down religious indifference. Though himself a stranger to vital religion, he urged his students to read and study the Bible. His colleague, Neandcr, who lived to the middle of the century — a true follower of the Lamb of God — was the means of awakening man)- of the students and leading them to the foot of the Cross. 278 STA TE OF RELIGION IN BERLIN All this influence, however, was confined to the few. The great body of the people of Berlin were living in practical heathenism when Dr. Craig began to work there in 1846. For several years Hengstenberg, Von Gerlach, Kuntze, Gossner, and many others had been witnessing for Christ, but their influence barely touched the surface of society. In 1 8 14 Dr. Pinkerton had founded the Berlin Tract Society under Samuel Eisner, and many useful tracts had been scattered among the people who were well disposed. No effort, however, had been made to bring the light into the dwellings of the mass of the people. The excellent books sometimes issued by Christian publishers had a very small circulation. The magazines rarely reached a circulation of from five hundred to eight hundred copies. The churches were deserted, and open- air preaching strictly prohibited. When Craig ventured to ask Pastor Kuntze to try it, he said he had once told the chief of the police that in his church on a Sunday after- noon there were seldom more than a dozen people, while crowds by thousands streamed past the edge of the church- yard. Would there be any objection, he asked, for him to stand in the churchyard and preach, rather than in the pulpit ? " The moment you open your mouth to preach in the churchyard," said the chief of the police, " you will be arrested and lodged in prison." And this man was per- sonally well disposed towards the Church. Under such circumstances any help, however small, was of importance. Single parishes contained from fifty to eight) 7 thousand people, and there was no Dissent. It was in 1850 that Dr. Craig succeeded in employing one, and afterwards two, colporteurs to go from house to house. There were others working in their own way, but none would join with him. After a few years he opened a depot under the care of an efficient worker. The year 1848 had opened the eyes of many of the Berlin clergy to see that there was more than baptism and COLPORTAGK IN BERLIN 279 confirmation necessary to produce living, happy Christians ; but what was to be done ? COLPORTAGE IN BERLIN. The monthly reports of the colporteurs were interesting, though sad. Out of fifty families visited, there were seldom found more than one or two that professed to attend church or read their Bible — or even had a Bible. Many blasphemed and threatened personal violence. Others were utterly in- different. For fifteen years this work proceeded without much encouragement, but by degrees some cases of awaken- ing were seen, and some pious poor women offered voluntary help in visiting the hospitals. As some of these hospitals contained three thousand beds, there was room for many workers on the visiting days. Each of them received as many tracts as they could profitably use, and they soon became efficient helps. In the year 1866, when many wounded soldiers arrived in Berlin from Langensalza, from Saxony and Bohemia, the interest of the clergy and the better class people was awakened. It soon became evident that a great possibility for good lay in this hitherto untried branch of home mission work. In Wickliffe's time it was his tracts that not only roused England from its slumbers, but lay at the foundation of the Hussite movement in Bohemia. The Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament had been issued as tracts. Luther's sermons and tracts penetrated into every country in Europe. Francke and Spener saw a rich blessing- resting on their preaching, but greater far was the effect produced by their writings. It was discovered that the work of tract distribution was as old as Christianity. If the work was well begun, many would join in it. Whilst these thoughts were ripening in the minds of earnest people in Berlin, and while the example of Dr. Craig's successful depot and colportage 280 COLPORTAGE IN BERLIN stood before their eyes, the great Franco- German war of 1870 broke out. When the German prisons were filled with hundreds of thousands of French prisoners, Dr. Craig could be seen with his colporteurs and friends in every town where these prisoners were confined, distributing French books among those who could read. And when the convalescent German soldiers arrived in the Berlin hospitals and tents, the tract and Bible distribution was continued on a large scale. Pastor Viedebannt and his wife, with Dr. Prochnow and Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, joined Rev. Palmer Davies, of the Bible Society, and Dr. Craig in rendering help in this work long after the war was over. It was at this time that a great society was founded in Berlin that deserves special notice. BERLIN SOCIETY FOR THE GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION OF BIBLES AND TRACTS. It was in May, 1871, that Baron von Ungern-Sternberg invited a few friends to join him in founding this society. The design was to unite the straggling forces of the evangelical workers in the great city into an organized body. The first annual report showed that 196,063 Bibles, Testaments, books, and tracts had been distributed. Where did these books come from ? The report named four societies from which a grant of from 1,300 to 1,900 each had been given free. Dr. Craig had given 154,681 German and French tracts free. The following year he provided 306,000, and the third year 237,000, while several tracts were procured from other sources. In the course of eight years this society had circulated nearly two millions of Bibles and tracts gratuitously in Berlin, besides what Dr. Craig had still continued to send out from his depot. The hospitals, the lodging houses for tradesmen, the barracks with their twenty-six thousand soldiers, the cabdrivers (which were the special field of Mr. EVANGELICAL BOOK AND TRACT SOCIETY 281 and Mrs. Palmer Davies), the boatmen on the Spree, and the factory hands in the large workshops were liberally supplied with gospel literature. As yet there was no City Mission. It was in 1874 that this institution was founded, which afterwards was greatly blessed under the able man- agement of Pastor H iille. THE GERMAN EVANGELICAL BOOK AND TRACT SOCIETY. When Dr. Craig was about to remove to London, he asked Baron von Ungern-Sternberg to take up and carry on his work in Berlin. From the committee of the Religious Tract Society he obtained a promise of help in case he succeeded in founding a satisfactory work. The Baron issued circulars asking for help to form a National Tract Society ; but after making strenuous efforts, he could only obtain a promise of local aid amounting to five or six pounds a year. Dr. Craig went to Berlin and waited on Count Bismarck- Bohlen, who consented to become president of the new society ; he appointed Baron von Ungern-Sternberg to be secretary, and Mr. Schwanitz to be treasurer. In a very short time annual contributions of ^"120 were promised locally, and a depot, value for ,£50 or ,£60 a year, was obtained on lease for fifteen years, free of rent. Mr. Edward Beck, a retired Christian bookseller, undertook the management of the new book store. On the part of the Religious Tract Society, Dr. Craig promised to give for the first three years an annual donation equal to the amount raised locally, commencing with ;£i/0, the amount at that time promised. In October, 1878, in the presence of Count Bismarck- Bohlen, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, Mr. Schwanitz, Dr. Prochnow, Pastor Disselhof, Pastor Lentzsch, Mr. Beck, and Dr. Craig, the new society was founded, and in April, 1879, the deput was opened in 142, Acker Strasse. 282 BARON MORITZ VON UNGERN-STERNBERG Immediately after the opening of the new depot there was a great exhibition in Berlin, at which the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Evangelical Book and Tract Society were represented side by side. The latter society exhibited pictures and cartoons of the Religious Tract Society, and books in many languages. When the Emperor paid his first visit to the exhibition, he declared there was nothing in the whole place gave him such pleasure as the sight of the two societies occupying such a prominent position and exhibiting so much taste. The new society was fairly launched with flying colours, though it had cost the founders immense anxiety. The receipts that year, including sales of books, amounted to ^"700, while a hundred thousand publications were given away free. The annual reports gave a highly satisfactory account of a rich blessing on the work of the society. Dr. Craig took a deep interest in it till the death of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg in 1890, after which Count A. BernstorfT became president. BARON MORITZ VON UNGERN-STERNBERG. We must pause here to take some notice of a man who for twenty-three years was very closely and intimately connected with Dr. Craig. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg was four years younger than Dr. Craig. He came to Berlin in 1859, and in 1866 he and Dr. Craig met in the work among the wounded soldiers after the Prussian- Austrian war. He had thrown himself, heart and soul, into the work of the Y.M.C.A. in Berlin, and was therefore deeply interested in the spiritual welfare of the young soldiers. It was to him a pleasant surprise to discover a source from which he could draw unlimited supplies of pure Christian literature. In 1870 this delight was in- creased when he found he could obtain from Dr. Craig any amount of French literature for the French prisoners, as KARON MORITZ VON UNGERN-STERNBERG 283 well as German- books and tracts for the Prussian soldiers. In 1867, as the population of Berlin was rapidly in- creasing, the workmen from the country found it difficult to obtain lodgings. The Baron and his friends collected funds, and built houses capable of providing 210 families with cheap and comfortable lodgings in the north or poor part of Berlin. It was here that with the Baron's help Dr. Craig obtained the lease of a house for fifteen years, free of rent, for the Book and Tract Society. In 1871 the Baron founded the Society for Gratuitous Distribution of Christian Literature. In 1877 he founded the Society for the Better Observance of the Lord's Day. The follow- ing year the Book and Tract Society opened its depot. In 1880 he became secretary of the Berlin Branch of the Evangelical Alliance. In 1884 he added a new wing to the dwellings for the poor, in which he constructed a hall for a Sunday school and for weekly lectures. One of his last works was to collect in his own parish £550 towards building the new Imperial Cathedral in Berlin. Such were but a few of the acts of this good man, with whom Craig had been so intimately associated, and whose friendship up to the end of his life was so highly prized. During his last illness he was busy helping Dr. Craig to rearrange and carry on — if possible — the work of Pastor Losewitz of Riga, after his decease. The work of the Book and Tract Society, which Baron von Ungern-Sternberg and Dr. Craig had initiated, in- creased to such an extent, that in 1894 the number of subscribers was nearly ten thousand, and the year's income was £4,550; while, besides the sales, 760,000 publications had been distributed gratuitously, over the whole o\ North German}-. Very many testimonies had been given of these publications having brought peace to troubled souls. It may well be supposed that the proportion of the healed ones who returned to give thanks, to those 284 WORK IN DRESDEN who were healed and forgot the thanks, may be nearly the same in our day as in the days of our Lord. " Where are the nine?" must still be asked. WORK IN DRESDEN. In the year 1872, when Dr. Craig was visiting the hospitals in Dresden and neighbourhood, he heard of a man called Finger, whose acquaintance he wished to make. On making inquiry, he had some difficulty in obtaining the desired information, till he met with a person who inquired whether it was the " holy Finger " he wanted ? Craig thought it probable this might be the man. So a little boy was called to show the gentleman the way to Saint Finger's house. " Why do you call him Saint Finger?" Craig asked of the boy. " Why, sir, when you meet him he is sure to tell you something out of the Bible. That is my man, thought Craig. MR. FINGER having been successful in business, had retired in 1870, resolved to devote the rest of his life to service for God. He had opened a Sunday school, and was trying, in house to house visitation, to speak with the people about their soul. Craig suggested what a help it would be if he could on each visit leave a tract behind him, bearing on the subject about which he had spoken. Mr. Finger saw at once the appropriateness of such a proposal. But, he said, if he began to distribute tracts it would be among the railway men, who never had an opportunity to attend church. A plan was soon devised, that if Craig supplied the tracts, Mr. Finger would have them sent down the different railway lines, five of which converged on Dresden. The tracts should be covered, and the needful instructions printed on the back. Every Saturday a tract should be left in the porters' room, to be sent on the following Satur- day to the next station, where it would lie a week and be MR. FINGER 28 5 sent on. Mr. Finger gathered some friends around him, who in the first year distributed 30,000 tracts, and in the second year 224,000. Of these Dr. Craig had given 100,000. Now Dresden is one of the least impressionable places in Germany. The people are nearly all Protestants, but a living faith is, or was, rarely met. And yet Mr. Finger found access to prisons, factories, postmen, hospitals, and barracks, where the books were gladly accepted. It was no maudlin Christianity he proclaimed, but a full declara- tion of the three R.'s — Ruin, Redemption, Regeneration. He had not been many weeks engaged in sending tracts down the railway lines, when he received a letter from a railway guard, enclosing a small contribution for his work, with an urgent request not to give it up. The writer had resolved on a certain day to commit suicide, and on the previous day one of these tracts fell into his hands, by which means he was arrested in his mad intention, and led to the Bible and the Saviour. Many letters testifying of benefits received came pouring in to cheer the hearts of the workers. Friends at a distance took up the work. A portion of rail fifty or sixty miles long was taken in charge from some central station, and at a certain point the tracts were collected and sent back. If some of them could not be used again after passing through some hundreds of railway workers' hands, still the return was an evidence they had reached their destination. If they were not returned, due inquiry was made, and the hindrance to free circulation was removed. If some Roman Catholic stationmaster had stopped the tracts on their way, Mr. Finger wrote to the director of the line, and a letter was sent down from headquarters to say that the offender was not required to read the tracts, but he must not prevent others doing so. When the railway lines occupied by this work had extended, Dr. Craig provided the means to enable Mr. 286 MR. FINGER Finger to make occasional trips on each line, and see for himself how gladly the tracts were received, or remove any hindrance to a free circulation. Craig visited Dresden frequently, and kept up a close correspondence with Mr. Finger. The result was that every year new portions of railway were taken up. In 1884 all the railways in Saxony had each station supplied with its weekly assort- ment of tracts, so that in this kingdom alone it was estimated that thirty thousand individuals connected with the railway received a weekly message from God. In other parts of Germany more than half of all existing railways were regularly supplied with these books. New churches may be built at great expense without any guarantee that a pure gospel is preached in them. But here was a work, carried on at a small expense, and reaching from ten to twenty thousand persons daily with the message of a Saviour's love in all its purity. What made the work still more valuable was the fact that very few indeed, either of the railway men and their families, or of the postmen, had any other opportunity of learning the way of life. In as far as they were concerned they might as well have been living in the remotest part of the Dark Continent. The evangelical clergy everywhere hailed Dr. Craig's work with joy, for they knew he was not endeavouring to proclaim any new doctrine, nor to promote schism, but to bring the people everywhere to the knowledge of the one Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as revealed in the Word of God. RUSSIA. Tract distribution had been carried on in Russia as early as 1809. Through the tract, " The Dairyman's Daughter," as read to her by Dr. Pinkerton, the Princess Metstchersky, the cousin of the emperors Alexander I. and Nicholas, was converted. At her own expense this princess procured the translation and printing of a large number of the publications RUSSIA 287 of the Religious Tract Society. She expended upwards of .£1,500 on these efforts, and the Emperor Alexander I. added £1,800 for the same object. In the year 1819 the whole empire from end to end was covered with these tracts. In 1823 the Bible Society's work was suppressed, but the distribution of tracts continued. In 1830 the Rev. Richard Knill and other friends threw themselves heartily into this work. To them the Princess Metstchersky handed over her whole stock of tracts, said to be 200,000 copies of excellent evangelical works. In 1836, the Minister of Public Instruction in his annual report spoke of the excellence of this work. He said : " These tracts present a claim for our gratitude to those friends of the human race who thus labour for the exten- sion of Christian morals." Messrs. Swan and Stallybrass circulated tracts exten- sively in Siberia. A depot was established in St. Peters- burg under the care of Mr. Meyer, and afterwards Mr. Blissmer ; and another in Moscow, both of which were aided by the Religious Tract Society to the extent of about £4,500, and between the years 1835-38 there were 750,000 tracts issued. In Nishni Novgorod 150,000 were sold at one fair a few years later. Altogether the Religious Tract Society assisted in the circulation of 3,600,000 tracts and books in the Empire of Russia up till 1850. These facts explain what would otherwise be unaccount- able, how such a large number of true believers could be found in a country where the Church did absolutely nothing to teach the people the way of salvation. NEW RUSSIAN TRACT SOCIETY. As early as 1850, Craig, as secretary of the Tract Society in Hamburg, entered into correspondence with the friends in St. Petersburg and Riga, and for twenty years supplied these depots with German tracts. In 1870 he accompanied Dr. Davis and Sir Risdon Bennett over a large part of 288 NEW RUSSIAN TRACT SOCIETY the empire to acquire a knowledge of its condition ; but without being able to accomplish any work besides clearing off the debt on the Riga depot. In 1873 ne returned alone, and began a work which ripened towards the end of 1874. On all hands he found disinclination to attempt any new work on the old lines. Mr. Blissmer and others seemed quite satisfied with the progress they were making, but Craig was very far from being satisfied. He found many Russian Christians, of high position, most anxious to do something to enlighten the people. Mrs. Dalton, the wife of Pastor Dalton of St. Petersburg, offered her drawing-room for a meeting to consider what could be done. A considerable number responded to the invitation. Dr. Craig explained how in addition to Bible circulation nothing could be done for Russia, except by reviving the work of tract distribution that had once been so successful. When the meeting had expressed the unanimous opinion that the way was open for work in this direction, he proposed the formation of a local committee to take up the matter. Having previously obtained the consent of the different parties, he nominated Colonel Paschkoff as president of the committee, Count Korff and Rev. Mr. Nicolson of the Bible Society as secretaries, and Mr. Prince as treasurer, and left it to these gentlemen to proceed as they thought best. Colonel Paschkoff having taken the chair, proposed that all who had accepted the invitation to that meeting be constituted as the committee. Dr. Craig offered to apply to the Tract Society for a grant of ;£ 1,000, which he believed they would give, and he trusted they would make an energetic local effort. The money was granted from London, and in a local canvass a sum of about ,£1,500 was raised additional, in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Tracts were examined and approved for translation, and the censors permitted them to be printed. An appli- THE RUSSIAN-TURKISH WAR 289 cation was made to the Emperor Alexander II., and he granted permission for circulation, ordering every member of committee to be supplied with a card authorising each one to distribute the tracts in the Emperor's name over the whole empire, while no civil nor ecclesiastical power should venture to hinder them. THE RUSSIAN-TURKISH WAR. The committee worked most energetically, and the chairman especially devoted much time and all his influ- ence to the preparation and distribution of tracts. Within a couple of years there was preparation going forward for a war with Turkey, and immense bodies of troops were massed in Bessarabia and along the Black Sea a year before the hostilities commenced. Dr. Craig took large quantities of tracts and found means of distributing them among the soldiers, all of whom could read with more or less fluency. Among the Russian officers was a goodly number of really evangelical men, who in many cases undertook to distribute the tracts among the men. Craig's past experience helped him in this emergency, while he found about 300,000 men whom he was able to supply with Christian literature in their own language for a full year before the war commenced. These books were received with unbounded gratitude. Many of the men embraced the gospel the first time it was presented to them, and became completely changed characters. In preparation for the war, the Governor of Bessarabia asked Pastor Faltin, the Protestant minister in Kischincff, to visit the Protestant seminaries in South Russia and engage as many of the young men as possible to take charge of supplying the soldiers on the march with what- ever they required. When Mr. Faltin suggested that he might also visit the Russian seminaries for the same pur- pose, his Excellency advised him not to do so, as most of the Greek seminarists were Agnostics and not very firm on 20 290 THE RUSSIAN-TURKISH WAR the point of common honesty, while the German colonists had a respect for religion, and were honest and truthful. Mr. Faltin engaged about 150 for this service, and furnished Craig with their names and addresses. This gave him great help. When the war commenced, the Russians found they had underestimated the power of the enemy, and were obliged to bring up 300,000 more men. In every new company that arrived, Craig saw a new congregation of immortal souls, very few of whom knew the way of salvation, and to all of whom he was able to present the gospel in its most simple and most glorious form. When Dr. Craig's stock of literature was exhausted, and the roads were blocked to that extent that no luggage could be forwarded, an application was made to the Em- press, as patroness of the Red Cross Society, to order the tracts to be forwarded from St. Petersburg to whatever address Craig furnished. In this way, day by day, bales of 3,000 to 4,000 tracts were put into his hands free of carriage, as " Military stores on no account to be delayed. By order of the Empress." During a great part of the war he had an evangelical clergyman at his side, who knew several languages and spoke to the soldiers. As there were over twenty languages spoken in the camp, several similar arrangements required to be made, so as efficiently to work among them all. THE EVANGELICAL DEACONESSES. When, after long threatening, the war at last actually broke out between Russia and Turkey, there came fifty-one deaconesses from Dr. Meyer's Institution in St. Petersburg, to nurse in the hospitals. On reaching Kischineff, how- ever, unexpected difficulties arose which detained them there four weeks, while they were much wanted and very anxious to work. Dr. Craig had started from London, THE EVANGELICAL DEACONESSES 291 accompanied by Rev. Dr. Lansdell. They had travelled over Vienna, Budapest, Grosswardein, and over the Car- pathian mountains into Roumania. All along the way Dr. Lansdell had liberally distributed tracts and visited the prisons, providing Holy Scriptures and libraries for the prisoners. Arriving at Bucharest on the day that the Russians crossed the Danube, the first man Dr. Craig met was Pastor Dalton of St. Petersburg, who had come to inquire into the difficulties connected with the deaconesses. In a few days matters were arranged, and as Dr. Craig had met with most of the ladies in St. Petersburg, he volunteered to go to Kischineff, a distance of about three hundred miles, to announce the good news and give the needful directions. He found the ladies very much depressed, and his message was most welcome. On the following day they were on their way to the respective hospitals that were ready to receive them. Dr. Meyer and Mr. Nobbs were in charge of the dea- conesses, some of whom entered the hospitals of the Queen of Roumania, some crossed the Danube and worked at the very front, the remainder found employment in and around Jassy. The carnage was fearful, and the sisters who were with Mr. Nobbs in Bulgaria saw on some mornings 3,000 wounded men brought in at a time. Whatever they had lost in the engagement, the wounded men had still kept possession of their New Testaments, and if only slightly wounded, almost every man soon had his book out of his breast-pocket to read. If too weak to read for himself, he asked the nurses to read to him. Mr. Nobbs was delighted to find that nearly every soldier had one or two books with him, so carefully had the distribution taken place, on the long march, at the different resting places. When the Russian trained nurses, who were members of the Greek Church, saw how much the soldiers appre- ciated the books which the German deaconesses distributed, 292 A PRINCESS AS HEAD NURSE they too begged Craig to supply them with books ; a request which he gladly granted. A PRINCESS AS HEAD NURSE. Travelling one day in the neighbourhood of Bender, in Bessarabia, accompanied with Pastor Valesch, Craig dis- covered a new camp, and found 1,200 convalescent soldiers resting on their way homeward as unfit for further service. On inquiring for the head nurse, intending to ask leave to speak with the soldiers, he found the Princess Dondakoff- Korsakoff, sister of the new Russian Governor of Bulgaria, in charge of this temporary hospital. The Princess received her visitors with great kindness, and with her thirteen lady nurses distributed the books among the men, leaving Dr. Craig and Pastor Valesch to speak with them about their souls. The Princess took Dr. Craig into her own tent, where an open Bible lay on the table. She laid her hand on the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, saying, "This is the portion of Scripture that I have read this morning to strengthen me for my day's work." After kneeling together in that tent for prayer, Craig promised to keep her supplied with New Testaments and tracts, in whatever language she desired, till the end of the war. They often met again, and the Princess told him she had herself found the Lord only about a year previously ; and thinking that so many of the soldiers might lie dying without knowing the Saviour, she had left her home and come to nurse the sick and wounded, and tell them the only way of salvation through Christ's atoning death. PRINCE MESINKY. In Berkan, Craig and Valesch found the Prince and Prin- cess Mesinky, who had turned their residence into a private hospital for sixty wounded soldiers and officers. Pastor Caterfeldt and his wife, and Pastor Becker, who were de- voted Christian missionaries, had charge of the hospital, and PRINCE MESINKY 293 watched tenderly over the sick and wounded men. The Prince might have been seen daily, with his coat off, carry- ing round the pails of soup as ordered by the doctors, and talking cheerfully with the men. He often came to spend the evening with Craig at his hotel, and the whole of the expense of that hospital he paid out of his own pocket. Dr. Craig was one day in Kischineff, busy in distributing his books, when he saw an old man, who was evidently no Russian, watching him very attentively. Was he a spy ? If so, Craig was protected by the Emperor's card. When he came near, however, Craig offered him some of his tracts. " You don't know me," said the stranger in German, " but I know you well and recognise the voice at once. I was one of the men to whom you often gave tracts during the Schleswig-Holstein war thirty years ago. We loved the books at that time, and they were blessed to many of us. Now I see you after so long a time carrying on a similar work here." And taking a cordial leave of his old friend, he passed on his way. When the war was over, and the Russian soldiers returned home, they carried with them the books they had received in the camp or in the hospital. The result was that the spiritual awakening, that for fifty or sixty years had been nourished in Russia by the distribution of Christian litera- ture emanating from England, now became greatly intensi- fied. The spirit of persecution awakened at the same time, guided by Mr. Pobiedonostzeff, the Procurator of the Holy Synod. The inhuman persecution of the so-called Stun- dists — who are really and truly evangelical Protestants — and which extended to the Jews, as had always been the case periodically, has blackened the reign of Alexander III. of Russia. CHAPTER XXII " Let us not be weary in well-doing."— Galatians vi. 9. "Work, for the night is coming When man's work is done." IN ROU MANIA. WHEN the tract distribution had been fully organised in Bessarabia, where some 30,000 soldiers were in barracks and 10,000 or more in hospital, Craig made a final round of the workers in 1878, and prepared to return to Roumania. He placed Pastor Valesch in Kischineff, and Bender to superintend the work in his absence, and left stocks of books with Pastor Faltin's 150 young men who had charge of the commissariat and the march routes. Arriving at Jassy, he arranged with his friend Pastor Pein, of the German Church, to have libraries established in as many German congregations in Roumania as would accept them. As there are twelve millions of people who speak the Roumanian language — only the half of whom live in the kingdom — he sought out a competent translator to prepare a dozen of suitable tracts in that language. When the translations were ready, they were sent to Mr. Konig in Budapest to be printed. The twelve hospitals in Jassy were still crowded with sick and wounded. In the previous year, 1877, the Russian soldiers had crossed the Danube on the 26th of June, and in three weeks they had lost in dead and wounded one- IN ROUMANIA 295 fifth of all the men who had entered Bulgaria. In July they lost 11,000 in one week, and in August there were more than 40,000 men in the hospitals. Those who could stand the journey were sent back to Jassy. The Protestant deaconesses marvelled at the readiness with which the Russian soldiers drank in the gospel mes- sage. Craig saw many who had themselves embraced the gospel, on the following day gathering their comrades to tell them the glorious news. In this great congregation of six or seven hundred thousand men, whom Craig was supplying with books, there was great searching of Scripture, and the power of the Holy Spirit was present to bless. In one of the largest hospitals in Jassy, with 1,200 beds, a new Governor, who had lately been appointed to the post of General Inspector, ordered one of Dr. Craig's men to leave the place and bring no more of his books. He came and told Craig, who advised him what to do. The man wrote to the commander-in-chief of the Russian forces on the Danube, whose name was Nicholas, saying that he had for twelve months visited the hospital, and had given to the soldiers certain books, which the Emperor had sanctioned for distribution in the army. The new General Inspector refused to allow him to continue his work. He begged to know if this met with the approval of Field- Marshal General Nicholas. By return of post came an order to the inspector of hospitals in Jassy to say the commander-in-chief dis- approved of what he had done. These books were a great comfort to the soldiers. He should send for the colporteur, read him this letter, asking him to affix his name as evidence of its having been read to him, and should at once reinstate him in his work ; the letter with the colporteur's signature to be returned to headquarters. In Bucharest, Rev. Mr. Kleinhenn and daughters afforded great aid to this work. The Queen of Roumania not 296 IN LEMBERG AMONG THE RUTHENIANS only supported a hospital at her own expense, but she established a high school for the daughters of the nobility, which she placed under the charge of deaconesses from Kaiserswerth, where the young ladies obtained an excellent Christian education from their fifteenth to their eighteenth year. Dr. Craig had the privilege of supplying books suitable for such an institution as a lending library, which the deaconesses used wisely. IN LEMBERG AMONG THE RUTHENIANS. From Bucharest Dr. Craig proceeded to Lemberg in Galicia, where he found his old friends Mr. Pick, of the Bible Society, and his talented daughters. Walking in Lemberg, he found people whose language he could not understand. It was not German, nor Polish, nor Russian. What was it ? On inquiry, it turned out to be Ruthenian, or Little Russian. In the Russian Empire there are fifteen millions who speak that language, but the Government will not permit any books to be printed in it. In Austria there were three millions speaking Ruthenian who had no evangelical literature whatever, except the Gospel of John that had been lately printed. Besides, very few could read. Dr. Craig found persons competent to translate tracts into Ruthenian, and in a short time a good supply of excellent literature was provided. When looking out for a translator, he heard of a professor said to favour evangelical doctrines, who was a good scholar and a good writer. To the request for his assistance and a promise of liberal remuneration, the professor gave a most decided negative. On being asked for a reason, he replied that he was an ordained priest of the Greek Church, and neither could nor would translate heretical books. How did he know these books were heretical ? He had not seen them. Would he only examine the books before- promising or refusing to translate ? After much persuasion he took a copy of " The Sinner's IN SERVIA 297 Friend," " Come to Jesus," "On Drunkenness," "An Appeal to Soldiers,' and one or two more for examination. After a few days Dr. Craig called to learn the result. The professor took the appeal to soldiers, and asked : " Who cares about the soldiers ? They are outcasts. They never come to church, and are a hopeless race. And yet who can tell ? Perhaps some of them might read such a brief hearty address. I would have no objection to translate this." Then, taking up the tract on drunkenness, he said that was the curse of every land, the ruin of body and soul ; that accursed thing should be fought against. But these other tracts, " The Sinner's Friend," and " Come to Jesus," ought to lie permanently on every Ruthenian family's table. This man had taken for granted that anything emanating from England must be heretical, and he discovered that between the Eastern and Western Church there are some points in common, especially in holding that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour. Many other tracts were translated since then, and hundreds of copies are sold every year. IN SERVIA. In travelling through Hungary, Dr. Craig found there were many nationalities there besides the Magyars and Slavonians. There were nearly three millions of Rou- manians in Hungary, and for these he had provided a number of books translated in Jassy, besides a few more which Mr. Koenig had prepared in Budapest. There were over three millions of Croatians and Servians outside the kingdom of Servia, chiefly in Hungary. In Neusatz, on the Danube, were many Servians, and a couple of years previously Craig had provided and printed several tracts for children and a few books in that language. He now thought of visiting the kingdom itself, which at that time was only a principality. Scarcely had he walked 298 IN CROATIA half an hour in the public park in Belgrade, when he was accosted by a livery servant, who asked whether he were Dr. Craig. On learning that he had guessed correctly, he presented his master's card with a request to come to tea that evening in his master's house. On reaching the house, Craig found that his host was Mr. Chedomille Myatovich, the Ex-Finance Minister of the country. His wish was to be allowed to translate Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress " into Servian. This was granted, and when the book was ready, a copy was sent free to every priest and head schoolmaster in Servia. The country was in a very low state, intellectually and other- wise. The first good translation of the Bible had been made in 1865, only fifteen years before this time ; but since then, eight editions of the New Testament and four of the whole Bible had been printed and sold, to the extent of one hundred thousand copies. This was equal to a copy for every four families in the kingdom. Mr. Myatovich provided that an evangelical priest of the Greek Church should prepare a monthly magazine, which soon became self-supporting. IN CROATIA. A couple of years later, Dr. Craig was in Croatia trying to have books printed in the language of that country. He visited Agram, the capital, which contained two millions of a population, where he found an excellent Protestant minister with a large church, which must serve for all the Protestants for twenty miles round. The Pro- testant minister here was very active and very successful. There were mission meetings held, at which, and also in the church, Craig preached repeatedly. It was no difficult matter to have books prepared for this country, as the language is virtually the same as what is spoken in Servia,, only that in one country the books must be printed in Latin letters, while in the other the IN POLAND 299 Cyril alphabet must be used. When the work was properly initiated here, it was further developed and superintended by Mr. Koenig. When Craig had finished his work in Agram for Croatia, he returned to Servia and arranged with Mr. Myatovich and Mr. Mackenzie to extend operations in that country. He was one day driving in the neighbourhood of Belgrade with Mr. Myatovich when they met the Metropolitan — or Archbishop — of Servia. He stopped his carriage, and, walking over to Mr. Myatovich and Dr. Craig, he shook them heartily by the hand, saying he had long sought an opportunity to return thanks for the beautiful books which they had sent to his clergy and schoolmasters, and trusted that they might prove a blessing not only to these gentle- men, but also to those who looked to them for instruction in religion. IN POLAND. It was before this time, and in the year 1874, while Dr. Craig had been laying the foundation of the new Russian Tract Society in St. Petersburg, he made a journey to Warsaw to attempt the formation of a similar society there for Poland. Here he found General Superintendent Evert, whom he had known in Riga as a zealous, hard-working, and successful pastor, but who had now the oversight of all the Lutheran churches in Poland. He found also Mr. Adolph Janasz, with whom he had corresponded occa- sionally for twenty years. After paying many visits and having been sufficiently discouraged by the lamentations of the best of the workers, he proceeded to develop his own plans. Having invited all whom he could find, who were working for the Lord, to meet him at supper at his hotel, he laid before them his plan for spreading the knowledge of the Saviour through Poland. He 300 IN POLAND encouraged all — both gentlemen and ladies — to express their views freely, whether favourable to his suggestions or otherwise. After a lively discussion, it was resolved unanimously to commence tract distribution in Warsaw, while each one present promised to help to the utmost of their ability. Rev. Mr. Frohwein, a teacher in a Protestant school, undertook the management, and carried it on successfully for several years. When the stock of tracts had reached nearly a hundred different works, the little boys who sold newspapers at the railway stations and in the cafes took pleasure in carrying them round for sale. Some three or four hundred copies a week were in this way for a long time purchased from the little boys. In some of the leading cafes twenty or thirty people at a time might have been seen reading these tracts, which told of the way of salvation, while they sipped their coffee, and when they had finished one would purchase another. And this in Roman Catholic Poland. Bible stories in the words of the Bible were printed in editions of twenty thousand at a time, and sold even in Roman Catholic schools. Such books as " Come to Jesus " were sold in many editions of ten thousand to fifteen thousand each. Bible almanacks in sixteen or seventeen thousand copies were sold each year, and such books as " Words of Jesus to the Weary " and " The Faithful Promiser" were circulated in thousands. Not a year passed without clear evidence of a blessing resting on the work. Dr. Craig visited the depot very frequently, and Mr. Janasz devoted himself to the work, giving much of his time and money to help it forward. The Roman Catholic priests often denounced the books, but they dis- covered that the people asked the name of the books the priest told them not to read, as they would like to see what was in them. About one hundred thousand copies a year, more or less, were distributed by sale, and there FINLAND 301 was abundant evidence of a rich blessing resting on them. Mr. Mietke was afterwards appointed agent, and worked most satisfactorily. FINLAND is another of the Russian provinces that was opened up for the spread of gospel truth. It contains about two millions of a population, nearly all Protestants. They are desperately poor, but every one can read and write. Dr. Craig was sitting one morning in the hotel in Helsingfors when he was joined by a friend from England, who kindly inquired what he was doing. On learning that he was providing Christian literature for the people, the friend exclaimed that till that day he had always thought Craig to have at least a portion of common sense left. " Look," he said, " at the thousands of peasants gathered in that great market-place before the hotel. Not two in a hundred of these wretched people will be able to read." " Hold," cried an English sea captain sitting in the room. " I bet a pound that of every twelve persons in that crowd ten can read." Craig said he did not like betting, but if they chose to try he would supply them with books ; only they must remember that at least four different languages were spoken. The two gentlemen went down at once to the market, and while one of them selected persons who seemed to him least likely to be able to read, the other offered a book for a trial. It turned out that the first twelve peasants chosen at random could all read. The friend was told that he deserved to lose his money for supposing that the Tract Society would be so foolish as to provide books where they could not be read. The lost bet came eventually to the benefit of the Society, not as a bet but as a donation. Pastor G. Tottermann, the secretary of the Home and Foreign Missionary Society, undertook the translation and 302 ENGA DINE IN S WITZERIA ND printing of the tracts, and was afterwards helped by others to carry on the work. ENGADINE IN SWITZERLAND. Nor was it in populous districts alone that the work of evangelisation was carried on. Dr. Craig was at one time in the Engadine, and found the Synod of the Protestant Ministers of the Grisons assembled in Chur. His friend Pastor Munz, of Chur, introduced him to the ministers, and thus gave him an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the state of religion in that province. It appeared that the languages spoken in the province were a great diffi- culty, for besides French, Italian, and German, there were still two languages in use — the Romanz and the Lower Engadine. In these two languages there were no devotional books beyond the New Testament. The men came little in contact with the Church, for in summer they drove their sheep and cattle to the High Alps, where they live in an isolated condition ; and in winter the snow prevented them walking to church, except it happened to be very near. Having obtained the sanction of the committee of the R. T. S. to provide Christian literature for these isolated dwellers among the mountains, he brought all the clergy, that were attending the synod, to meet him to supper at the hotel, where he made arrangements to have a stock of didactic and devotional books prepared in each of these languages. Those who could read were very grateful for the books in the long period, when for months at a time they did not meet a single stranger, and could not attend the church. Mr. Muntz, of Chur, carried out the work of preparing this literature, and from time to time Craig returned to inquire how much more could be done to help the pastors in their very difficult work. What though those who spoke these languages were not over forty thousand in one case, and a smaller number in the other; it was in the spirit of the gospel that the poor and the IN 1882 303 despised should not be passed over. New books were issued as soon as a desire for them was sufficiently expressed, and it was left to the poor pastors to keep for their trouble whatever they received for the sale of books. IN 1882 a visit was paid to Constantinople, Smyrna, Bcyrout, Athens, Egypt, and Greece. Other places were visited, but it was in these that Dr. Craig could leave footprints behind him. On his way he passed through Roumania. Several years had passed since his first knowledge of that country, when the Rev. D. Edward and Rev. Dr. Alfred Edersheim had laboured in Lemberg and Jassy, before 1848, and in 1877 he had spent much time there. What a change ! he cried. Five years ago there were but 102,000 children at school in Roumania out of a population of six millions, or less than 2 °/ of the popula- tion. Now a free education is prized and the schools arc rapidly increasing. Jassy has all its streets and footpaths laid down with asphalt. The clergy are better paid and look more respectable. Female education is making rapid progress. The High School in Bucharest, under the patronage of the Queen and conducted by the Kaisers- werth Deaconesses, is a model institution. Mr. Kleinhenn of Bucharest is still at his post and working well, having large schools. The President of the Roumanian Parlia- ment, who has translated the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians into the latest form of the language of the country that is developing into a greater resemblance to the Latin, is prepared to translate the " Pilgrim's Progress." The houses, the roads, the people of Bulgaria, he cries, are greatly changed from what they were under Turkish tyranny and oppression. The Bulgarian people, with their thirst for knowledge, will soon show themselves to be the brightest nation in the East of Europe. Such was the impression made on Dr. Craig's mind on that visit. 3 o4 IN CONSTANTINOPLE IN CONSTANTINOPLE Dr. Craig found most of the missionaries from all countries gathered into the Bible House, and working in the greatest harmony. In this Christian beehive in Stamboul he found Drs. Riggs and Byington devoting their time to work in Bul- garia. Of the 257 students in Robert College at Bebek, 160 — far more than the half — were Bulgarians. In the Scutari High School for girls more than half also were Bulgarians. The American Board were working south of the Balkan mountains — chiefly in Eski-Zagra, Samakov, Monastir, and Philippopolis. They had 16 books and 40 tracts on their list — some of the books containing from 400 to 500 pages. The monthly and the weekly journal had each about 4,000 subscribers. Several suggestions made by Dr. Craig were at once adopted, and the stock of tracts at his suggestion, and through aid provided by him, were at once doubled. A Bible Dictionary, which would cost £400 or £500, being wanted, Dr. Craig undertook to provide, through the R. T. S., the half of the cost, by which help the book was speedily prepared. Such a book was greatly needed in that country. Rev. B. Labaree was trying to prepare a Syrian edition of the Annotated Paragraph New Testament for 75,000 Nestorian Christians, and having got into trouble with it, Craig helped him out. In the course of conversation it appeared that some of the Greek priests would be willing to study the Bible and Protestant books if supplied in the French language, and Craig immediately provided suitable literature from Toulouse for this purpose. He made a long stay at Constantinople, and spent many a pleasant evening at Bebek with his friend Dr. Alexander Thomson, of the Bible Society, whom he had not seen for thirty-seven years. At Bebek he preached, and he visited IN SMYRNA 305 with pleasure the Robert College. In Scutari he saw the American Girls' Home and examined the pupils, many of whom could compete successfully — especially the Bul- garians — with the best pupils in an English High School or American Girls' College. He saw Mr. and Mrs. Tomory and visited their success- ful schools in Galata, leaving traces of his visit which were spoken of for many years. IN SMYRNA Mr. Cadoux had made himself a distinguished name, and the Dutch Consul Van Lennep, with Miss Grimstonc in the Strangers' Rest. Mr. Constantine, Mr. Charteris, Dr. Scott, and Mr. Eppstein, were among the excellent workers in that town. The grand centre of Christian activity there was con- nected with the Rest, where Mr. Constantine preached frequently in Greek to large gatherings. There were frequent conferences of all the workers during Craig's visit, and the wishes which were there expressed by those on the spot were carried out by him as far as possible. Craig met with the Deaconesses in the evening when their work was done, and ordered for their institution lending libraries in many languages, suitable for the girls. On leaving town he was accompanied to the ship by most of the workers, amid expressions of regret at the shortness of his stay. BEIRUT. At this place a very remarkable work was found in a most prosperous condition. Drs. Bliss, Jessup, Porter, Eddy, Post, Van Dyck Wortabet, Lewis, and Dennis, had been long at this post, and had seen the work of the Lord prospering in their hands. The Medical College, the Preparatory School, the Mission Press — each in turn was the subject of admiration. A Bible Dictionary and a 306 BEIRUT Commentary on the Bible were very much wanted, and as the former would cost £1,000 they had nearly given up in despair. Craig held out hopes of providing help to the extent of £400 or £500, and the whole body of the missionaries felt as if the Master had taken away the burden and enabled them to start afresh with joyful hearts. The periodical — the Neshra— had its circulation doubled. New books were provided for translation. A large library of most excellent English books was pro- vided for the College. Craig found on close investigation that four out of every five of the adult male population, not only of Beirut, but also of the Lebanon, could read. He therefore made the greater effort to add to the 25,000 books which were annually distributed in Arabic from the press. The time of the missionaries seemed unnecessarily taken up with press work, so, at, their request, Dr. Craig provided in London, after his return home, a competent printer, who was capable of superintending the work efficiently. With an attendance of nearly 4,000 people, of whom 1,000 were communicants, at 74 preaching-places, besides nearly 4,000 pupils in 84 Sunday schools, the demand for Christian literature was large. With 550 pupils in the College and High Schools, besides 5,000 pupils in ordinary schools, the Central Turkey Mission had a most successful and promising mission field, where well-chosen literature might be most beneficial. This was a field where Craig felt completely in his element, and the professors were pleased to say that his visit had been of great service to them all — it gave them, they said, a fresh start. THE KAISERSWERTH DEACONESSES. The Deaconesses' Institution was here as everywhere else in first-rate condition. With 130 orphans in the orphan- age ; 120 young ladies educated by 17 teachers in the High School ; a hospital entirely under their care, and HRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS 307 with hearts burning with the love of Jesus, these sisters could not labour in vain. As they considered the library to be of the utmost importance, Craig spared no effort to help to make it efficient for children of sixteen different religious bodies, speaking twelve languages. BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS. Mrs. Mentor Mott and her sister, Mrs. Bowcn Thomson, were still alive when Craig visited the institution and was deeply impressed with the excellence of the work. Of the thirteen schools in Beirut, Dr Craig visited seven and examined all the children. Me was astonished at the extent and accuracy of the Scripture knowledge of all the pupils. The Neslwa, or Arabic weekly periodical, published at Beirut, and books such as " Line upon Line " and " The Peep of Day," with large supplies of Arabic books, were provided for Mrs. Mentor Mott's three thousand pupils. In this respect the efficiency of the school was much improved. EGYPT. At Port Said Dr. Craig found well-arranged work going on among the sailors, of whom the numbers are immense at that port ; and he found means of making the work still more successful. In Alexandria he met Miss Whately, who had left Cairo on account of the unsettled state of society there. In the harbour of Alexandria the iron- clads were lying. A revolution appeared inevitable, with probable rioting and bloodshed. Still, the mission schools were open. The ordinary business was not suspended. The foreign residents in Alexandria were by degrees leaving their homes, and either going on board the ships in the harbour, or hasten- ing away to Italy or France or England. Dr. Craig could move about undisturbed and without fear, though those 308 EGYPT who knew the Egyptians well were day by day becoming more nervous. It was only a few days before the outbreak of the riot- ing and burning in that city that he received a hint, that if his work was nearly finished it might be as well to go on board one of the steamers. He had by this time done all that was in his power under the circumstances, and made arrangements for opening a depot of the publications of the R. T. S. as soon as peace should again be restored. In the schools of the Church of Scotland and in those of the Americans, libraries were greatly needed, and Miss Whately said she was reaching more Mahometans by means of the books from the R. T. S. than all the missionaries in Egypt by their preaching. She confirmed a statement which a Turkish Pasha, the governor of one of the largest provinces in Asia Minor, had made to Dr. Craig on board the steamer, that though the Mahometans would not attend a Protestant church, nor listen patiently to the preaching of the gospel, they will gladly take and read the books that fall into their hands. The Pasha asserted that he scarcely knew a respectable Mussulman family that had not the books of the Beirut Society on their table, to be read by every member of the family and every visitor who chose. He had added that the next generation of Mahometans could not possibly be like the present, and, he said, " Some of us will be glad when a little of the Western light has pene- trated our families and broken in on the petrifaction that has befallen our co-religionists for many ages." Miss Whately said that when the children in her schools grew up, they visited her at times and borrowed books, which were read with more or less attention in many Mahometan families where a missionary would not be tolerated. IN ITALY 309 GREECE. From Alexandria Dr. Craig proceeded to Athens, where he found Dr. Kalopothakes hard at work. He searched out all the circumstances connected with the circulation of books and tracts, so as to be able to advise the Committee of the R. T. S. in every case that came before them. He found much that was encouraging in the state of the country, and came away looking hopefully into the future. IN ITALY. Taking the route over Corinth, he in due time reached Rome and Florence. Here he made arrangements for an extension of lending libraries in Italy. The result was that several hundreds of lending libraries were established under proper arrangements ; or where such already existed, they were greatly enlarged. During the following years Dr. Craig spent a part of each year in deputation work for the Religious Tract Society at home ; part in taking charge of the foreign stock of books. Each year he visited some of the Con- tinental depots to encourage the workers. He occa- sionally took his daughter to accompany him, and she thus travelled with him over France, Spain, and Portugal ; over Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Russia and enabled him to carry out his work on each visit with greater dispatch. Sometimes he travelled some 5,000 to 8,000 miles in the course of a year, nearly one-third of the circumference of the world. His knowledge of the different countries enabled him to give useful advise to the Committee in anything that con- cerned the literature on the continent of Europe. In 1890 and 1891 he paid repeated visits to Poland, where he superintended the satisfactory development of the work in Warsaw. The large sale of evangelical books and tracts from that centre was highly gratifying. In Budapest Mr. Koenig's health having failed, he found a new 310 JUBILEE IN BADEN inspector of the great work carried on there in the person of Rev. Carl Gladischefsky, and gave instructions how to proceed. In Finland, Sweden, and Norway he had an opportunity of holding repeated conferences with the Directors of the Evangelical Literature Societies, and of helping them. JUBILEE IN BADEN. In the year 1892 the semi-jubilee of the Christian Col- portage Association in Baden was about to be held, and Baron von Gemmingen, the president of that society, sent a very pressing invitation for Dr. Craig to preach the jubilee sermon on that occasion. He had materially assisted at its foundation. He had provided the early stock of books. He had preached several of the sermons at the annual meetings, and had long been a member of committee. He had also provided a considerable amount of assistance to the annual benevolent income, and had spent the twenty-five years of the development of the society in very close and intimate relations with Baron von Gemmingen. It was therefore urged that these and other reasons made it desirable that he should preach on that occasion. He gladly accepted the call. The meetings were held on the 20-24th of August, 1892, and proved in every respect most satisfactory. He was able to state on that occasion that during 25 years that society had distributed nearly 22 millions of books and tracts, all of which were thoroughly evangelical. In the year 1891 the distribution had been 2,592,500 books and tracts, at an expense of .£2,709. The blessing that had resulted from this distribution of pure Christian litera- ture in a Grand Duchy where Rationalism, under Professor Shenkel, reigned supreme, can hardly be too highly appre- ciated. The annual meetings and the frequent conferences of this society had been a source of many conversions, and CONCLUSION 311 much quickening of faith on the part of those who took an interest in them. The cheering stories which the colpor- teurs had been able to tell of the result of their labour had been most encouraging. When the witnesses for truth were few in number, and the pulpit of the land gave a very uncertain sound, it was well to have such a stream of pure literature sweeping over the province. CONCLUSION. When Craig was in England and not otherwise occupied in connection with the foreign work of his society, he frequently preached two or three times on the Lord's Da) T , and addressed four or five meetings during the week — often travelling long distances — and at the evening meeting trying to awaken a missionary spirit in all denominations scattered over the land. This deputation work for the Tract Society afforded considerable oppor- tunity for usefulness, as long as sufficient health and strength continued. As the Tract Society is undenominational, Dr. Craig had the privilege of working with Churchmen and Non- conformists, and was made welcome by all denominations in as far as they were thoroughly evangelical. This was quite in accordance with one who had in Germany striven so earnestly for co-operation between the Lutherans and the Reformed during his whole public life. TJNWIN BEOTHEBS, CHILWORTn AND LONDOB" DATE DUE * ^^&Gf<&^^^&*3&*& ™* m GAYLORO T PRINTEO IN U.S.A. Theological Semmary-Speer 1 1012 01044 5668