REPORT OF THE VM- W\ V <2^ . Cbrietian Convocation IN COMMEMORATION OF THE NINETEEN HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY - OF - OUR - LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST HELD IN - The Gospel Tabernacle NEW YORK . December 24, 1896, to January 3, 1897 Published by THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING CO. 252 West 42d Street, New York. Publications of Christian Alliance Publishing Co. 252 W. 42d Street. N. Y. ON THE BIBLE. BY REV. A. B. SIMPSON. Christ in the Bible. 8 vo. lf2 oo per vol The volumes now ready are ; Genesis and Ex odus,Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy Josh ua The Life of Christ The Gospel of Matthew Mark and Luke, The Gospel of John aud the Acts of the Apostles, Romans. Christ in the Tabernacle. 128 pp. 15 cts. An exposition of the ancient Tabernacle and its ceremonial rites. From new plates, on good paper, beautifully bound. The Holy Spirit, or Power Prom on High. Old Testament, 8vo., 420 pp. |i .50. New Testament, 8vo., 392 pp., $1.50. An unfolding of the deeper life of the Spirit in the Old and New Testaments. Bound Volumes of “The Christian Alliance.” 1894, 1895, 1896. Volume xii. January-June 1894.|i.oo Volume xiii, July-December 1894.i-oo 9 Volumes xiv-xv, January-December 1895 . . 2.00 Volume xvi, January-June 1896.1.00 Volume xvii, July-December 1896 t.oo READY IN lANUARV. The Pour-Fold Gospel Leatherette loc. Cloth.50c. 'Wholly Sanctihed Paper 25c., Cloth 50c. On a deeper Christian life. Christ Fife . Leatherette loc. The secret of Abiding life. The Fove-Fife of Our Ford, Cloth 50c. A series of lessons on the book of the Canticles. The Christ of the Forty Days Clo. 75c. A volume containing chapters of the life of Christ from the Resurrection to the Ascension. The Fife of Prayer . Cloth 75c. chapters on the Inner Life. The King's Business . . . Cloth fi.oo Sermons on Christian Work (in preparation). A Farger Christian Fife ■ Cloth fi.oo On tlie larger development of our life in Christ. The Fand of Promise . . . Cloth |i.00 A series of pen pictures of the various steps to our full inheritance in Christ. Walking in the Spirit . . . Cloth |;i 00 On the closer walk with God through the Holy Spirit. The Fullness of Jesus . . . Cloth $1.00 The revelation of Christ in the New Testament. Jesus in the Psalms .... Cloth $1.00 Relating to the prophecies and allusions to our Saviour as given us by King David. The Names of Jesus .... Cloth |i.oo A delightful volume, giving the various names given to our Lord in the Scriptures and their meaning to us. Fn Heavenly Places . . . . Cloth |t.00 Sermons on the Higher Christian Life. Walking in Fove . Cloth |i 00 Chapters on our Christian Life furnishing in¬ structions in the way to walk with love aud kindliness to all. All the foregoing uniform in size and style as cut. Larger Outlooks on Missionary Lands BY REV. A. B. SIMPSON. 600 FilGES. 60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. The vo¬ lume con¬ tains over 600 quaito pa |:es, ill addition to over 50 hand some full-page engravings. It is il¬ lustrated w'ith nearly 250 haiid- som e en¬ gravings, many o1 them h a V - ing been ob- t a i n e d on th e s pot, and also a number of personal photo- graphs, taken by means of a Kodak. Handsomely printed and bound, and elaborately illustrated from original photographa obtained on the field. This handsome volume coutains the missionart’ letters of Mr. Simpson, which were published at the time in the Christian Alliance, and were read with much interest by thonsands of person.s. Their publication in this form has been called for, and they have been thoroughly revised by the author, and are being printed in permanent form with a large num¬ ber of superb illustrations. This is the only expen¬ sive book that the Christian Alliance Pnblishing Company have issued, and it will, no doubt, be valued by many of the author's friends as a personal remem¬ brance, and will make a very attractive gift for the holiday season, as well as proof a source of valuable instruction and inspiration in connection with the great subject of the world's evangelization. The book is bound in a most durable and substantial manner. We furnish it in three styles of binding, viz: The “Popular” Edition, bound in cloth, with handsome embossed cover, and black and silver stamp, making our leading and popular edition. The “ Full Gilt” edition, bound in handsome cloth, be¬ veled edge boards, full black and gold illuminated cover, with full gilt edges, colors of binding most suitable foi a gift book. The " Morocco” edition, bound in full Morocco, gold edges and stamp, mak¬ ing the handsomest book of the year. PRICE'S. Popular Edition . . . .'.$2.00 Gilt Edge Edition . ... 2.50 Full Morocco. 4.00 SOME COMMENTS ON THIS VOLUME. This is the most charming volume we have perused for many months; some of the chapters are of surpassing interest, and would easily stand alone, but being included in nearly 600 pages of descriptive sketches of journeyings through Europe, Egypt, Pal¬ estine. India, Burmah, Malaysia, China, Japan, and the Sandwich Islands ; illustrated by over two hun¬ dred well-executed pictures on super-calendered paper, the result is at once effective aud fascinating Everyone wh 3 can afford to buy this superb boon should do so at once, aud for the rest we are asking permission to reproduce in a future issue some of the original illustrations and descriptive matter.— Illus- trated Missionary News, I.ondon. It is made up of letters written in the course of a very rapid journey, but there is a charm about such a volume of letters, that would be missing in a more formal work. There is little if anything in the book to which the most orthodox or conservative Chris¬ tian can take exception .—New York Observer. REPORT OF THE CHRISTIAN CONVOCATION In Commemoration of THE NINETEEN HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HKT.D TN I THE GOSPEL TABERNACLE New York DECEMBER 24. 1896. TO JANUARY L 1897 l^LISHED BV THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING CO. 252 West 420 Street, New York. Digitized by the Internet Archive I in 2019 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/reportofchristiaOOchri REPeRT or THE CeNVOCATieN. In Commemoration of the 1900th Anniversary of our Lord's Birth. December 24. 1896. to January 3, 1897. THURSDAY, DEC. 24. The Couvention commenced on Thurs¬ day morning, December 24, in the Gospel Tabernacle, New York, by a meeting for prayer and humiliation which was led by Dr. Wilson, one of the pastors of the Tab¬ ernacle. The addresses of this Christian Conven¬ tion began at 10:30, and the first speaker was Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D., who read the ninth chapter of Daniel as an ap¬ propriate lesson for this season and ser¬ vice, referring, as it did, to a particular time and season in the history of God’s ancient people, and presenting to us ap¬ propriate lessons of humiliation and con¬ fession not only on account of our own faults and sins, bxit on account of the evils of the Church of Christ and the sins of those around us. We ought to be so iden¬ tified with the body of Christ that we would carry, like our vicarious Lord, the burden of their wrong-doing, and in holy T)riesthood bear it to Him for forgiveness and cleansing. Daniel’s intercession for ids people was followed by a l)lessed reve¬ lation from above and the visitation of the Angel Gabriel, who, being caused to fly swiftly, came to him and liroiight him not only the answer to his immediate peti¬ tions, Imt a glorious pro])hetic message covering all the ages to come. He prayed that God would grant that as we thus gathered in the spirit of Daniel the vision might come to ns also and the Lord .Jesns Himself l;e revealed in His living presence and His coming glory. Dr. Pierson then referred especially to some of tlie evils of the individual life of our time and, espe¬ cially, the selfishness and extravagance of so many of the disciples of Christ, the waste of precious time and the neglect of the Word of God. Rev. Dr. Wilson followed with some practical references to the evils to be de¬ plored in the family life to-day, and the failure of so many of God’s people to rec¬ ognize the sacredness of the home and the divine obligation of the family ties which Christ has so solemnly sanctioned. Friday, December 25th, Christmas Day, was celebrated by a large attendance of earnest friends of the Lord Jesus, who notwithstanding the many engagements usual at this season, came out in goodly numbers to offer their tribute of their love at the feet of His holy child, Jesus. THE EVILS OF MODERN SOCIAL LIFE By UEV. HENUY WULSON. We are not here to rail at society, but to try to remedy its evils. 1. Our national life is wrong. God is not recognized as the ruler of this nation. We want more than to have the name of Cod in the Constitution; we want to really j'ceognize Him in our si)iritual life as a people. It has been })ul)licly said that no President has been elected for ihirty years without the unlawful use of money. Our very legislators arc bought and sold. 2. The social as[)ect of things is wrong. If the roofs of our houses could l)e lifted, Avhat scenes of shame would be exposed to the light of heaven. 1 have lived for many years in the midst of what is called fash¬ ionable religious life, and f know that oven within the limits of good society and luiniau law, gilds arc bought and sold in the market of mari'iage as real as in the harems of Oriental despots. 3. And wIk'u we come to the darki'r side of things, how fearful ai'o the evils of our social life and the crimes of the age— divorce, murder, uncleanness, and all the awful things which wax worse and worse as the age hastens to its close. 2 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. PREVAILING EVILS IN THE MIN¬ ISTRY. By REV. CORNELIUS WOELi’KIN. This subject has been a candle to search man’s heart. It is a very awful fact that the holiest places and things may be in¬ vaded by evil, and that Satan loves to work in Lm* disguise of good. In the Old Testament we find the “ mixed multitude” from Egypt doing more harm than all the enemies of Israel, and in the New Testa¬ ment the parable of the tares and the leaven tell too sadly of the dangers of our times 1. The first evil in the ministry is the substituting of other things for the Gos¬ pel. Even in Paul’s day many were turn¬ ing aside from the truth and becoming teachers of the law. Ritualism, Formal¬ ism, Rationalism—these are taking the place of evangelical truth in thousands of pulpits. 2 . Another evil is false optimism—a rose-colored view of things not warranted by the Scriptures. Paul was very faithful in telling Timothy that in the last times many would depart from the faith. Then, he adds, “If thou put the brethren in re¬ membrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ.” It is a great evil not to warn men of the dangers around them. We are living in dark and perilous times and the man that cries “ Peace, peace,” when there is no peace is more obnoxious to God than the very evils against which he should cry out. 3. Another evil is a wrong standard of success in the ministry. There is a strong temptation to report large editions and contributions of money to adapt oneself to the times we live in, and please those who hold the keys of popidarity and in¬ fluence. Christ preached so that all His hearers frequently left Him. We cannot hold down the standard without unfaith¬ fulness. The true minister must preach in view of the judgment seat of Christ. 4. One of the worst evils of our days is anecdotism in preaching, the telling of stories rather than the exposition of the revelation of God. It frequently de¬ grades the ministry into burlesque. I re¬ cently went to hear one of the most dis¬ tinguished preachers in a certain denomi¬ nation, on a great public occasion. His text was a grand one, but in five minutes he had cracked a joke in the pulpit which caught the ear of the people, and, soon after, another, and in less than ten min¬ utes the whole spiritual influence of the place was dissipated, and my wife and I grew weary and wanted to get away. I heard him again and he did the same thing. These evils grow out of defects in our own personal life. If a man knows how to pray well in his closet he will pray well in his pulpit. A critic once went to hear Spurgeon, but when the good man began to pray the critic was so convicted that he got down on his knees and asked God to forgive him. There is nothing more injurious to min¬ isterial character and influence than the shameful habit of clerical story telling in social gatherings. The result of these evils is that men are lulled to sleep and we become to our people as the lovely song of one that can play well upon an in¬ strument; but the office of watchman and shepherd have disappeared. Beloved brethren, the more Christ blesses us in our ministry, the more subtle will our temptations become and the more need is there to watch and pray, as those that must give account when the chief Shepherd shall appear. ♦ # « THINGS TO BE DEPLORED IN THE MODERN PULPIT. By REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. No man can ordain a minister. Mr. Spurgeon’s idea was, that the act of ordi¬ nation was not necessary in our day, but was confined to apostolic times. He did not ordain his preachers because he feared that it might give the impression that some grace was transmitted by the hands of the bishop. Undoubtedly, he went too far, but he was correct in the principle that none but the Holy Ghost can really set a man apart for the ministry. Ordi¬ nation is really man recognizing what God has already done. “ When they saw the grace of God they gave unto them the right hand of fellowship.” There are four terms ascribed to the CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 3 Christian Ministry in Paul’s remarkable address to the elders of Ephesus. The first is the word “ minister,” which represents the idea of service. The second is the word “ witness.” A witness tells of what he knows. The greatest part of a sermon is the man be¬ hind it. The third term used is the word “ preacher.” The preacher is the herald and represents a king. He delivers a mes¬ sage from heaven. He stands in the name of another being and comes with the au¬ thority of the King of Kings. I remem¬ ber when I once resided in Detroit that we used to see the soldiers of Great Brit¬ ain in their red uniforms, as they came over the river from Canada and walked through our city. I thought that is just like the Christian embassador; he is in a strange country, clothed in the uniform of another king. The fourth name is “ overseer.” It sug¬ gests the flock, of which He is the Shep¬ herd, lovingly and tenderly feeding them and guarding them. Errors in the pulpit to-day arise from misunderstanding these four ideas of the Christian ministry. In the first place service is misunder¬ stood. The ambition of the minister should be to be an example of humility, and to eclipse all others in meekness, low¬ liness and self-forgetting love. Christ’s direction to all that would be chief, is to aim to be the servant of all. There is a certain thrill in personal experience; men comprehend it and instinctively realize that the speaker knows what he is talking about. The man becomes the interpreter of his message. The glass through which the light comes has God’s color to it. Alas, how many ministers are stained glass windows and they give a lurid glare to their very message. This subject has searched my own heart. I am sorry to say that in the theo¬ logical seminary we never heard very much true preaching. Wo were drilled in the analysis and illustration of texts, but preaching in the power of the Holy Ghost is one of the things which God alone can teach. Among the errors of our day are: 1. Preaching error instead of truth. Many ministers get their messages from other sources than the Word of God. They preach books, rather than the Book. The only safe rule is to give our people noth¬ ing but what we find in the Holy Scrip¬ tures. 2. Another error consists in preaching truth, but not fundamental truth. One may preach a great many things that are in the Bible and yet leave out the only truth that can save men. When Spur¬ geon was a young man he went around to all the chapels in Colchester, seeking in vain for something that could satisfy his soul, and he found nothing at all. He went into an humble chapel where a man looked him in the face and said, “ Look, look, look and live.” Spurgeon was saved, and for forty years he never preached a sermon in which he did not show his hearers, in some way, how to find Christ. 3. Many preach even fundamental truths without a deep spiritual experience back of it. It is no use for a man to teach sanctification unless he is living it. 4. The worst of all errors is to attempt to preach without the power of the Holy Ghost. A prominent professor of theol¬ ogy has recently stated publicly, that he doubts whether there is such a thing as Holy Gho.st power in our days. It was recently stated in the papers tliat a mem¬ ber of an ecclesiastical court had objected to sustaining the call a church had given to a minister of great distinction because this man held the “ Moody notion of Holy Ghost power.” All these errors are around us. I speak to myself as much as to my brethren. How we need to pray for the Spirit of God to make us faithful! # # GLOW IN GRACB. By RRV. J. II. GUAY, of Boston. A certain colporteur never approached strangers without asking: “ Are you a Christian f” Every nine .out of ten would answer “ Yes; of course I am a Christian because I am not a heathen.” Christians because they were brought up in the church, Christiana because they attended Sunday school, Christians because they read their Bibles. He approacbed a 4 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. stranger with tliis inquiry: "My friend, have you been born again That went right to the heart of the subject. That was a question which could not easily be dodged, a question which the stranger could not get around very easily. My hearers, that is the lirst question 1 want to put to you to-night. Have you been horn again? God forbid that anybody in this room should live another hour, another moment, without having that question an¬ swered satisfactorily in the light of God's word and in the light of the experience of their own soul. Through faith in His precious blood come into a state of grace that ye may grow. If we are in the state of grace that question is settled. The second thought is a question just as necessary. We are expected now to " grow in grace.'’ It is an obligation which the divine Spirit lays upon us. It is not something that we may or may not do as we please, but it is a command wdiich we must do—“ grow in grace.” Let us look at a child for a figure. The child is expected to grow phys¬ ically first for his own sake that he may enter into the responsibilities of youthhood and manhood. He is expected to grow not only for his owm sake but for his parents’ sake, that they may have the joy of seeing him enter manliood. Then he is expected to grow for the world’s sake that he may take his place there and be of u.e to the world. How, we are expected to grow as Christians first, for our own sake in order to apprehend that for which we have been apprehended in Christ Jesus. We need to grow for our heavenly Fath¬ er's sake that we may show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of the darkness into His marvellous light. Then, dear brother, we v'ant to grow for the world’s sake. In Him we shine as lights in the world, as it is written, hold¬ ing forth the light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. How much the world needs us to grow in grace that our lights, may shine before us and that the world may be turned to the Lord Jesus Christ through our light and testi¬ mony. If God has called upon us to grow in grace then certainly as our Heavenly Father He must have provided some means by which we may fulfill the obliga¬ tion " grow in grace.” Has He done sof What are the prerequisite essentials to grow in the physical sense? First, nour¬ ishment; second, air; third, exercise. Ho child can grow physically except as he re¬ ceives nourishment from the milk pro¬ vided. Is it not remarkable, to say the least, that He should have brought the same truth before us and exhorted us thus “ desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may be able to grow thereby ” ? What is one of the reasons why Christians do not grow in grace? Because we are not reading the Word of God; not assimilating or digesting the food which God has pro¬ vided for us. We read newspapers and grow in polities. A child needs air, good air, fresh air and plenty of air, if he is to grow. What is analagous to that? The Holy Ghost Himself. We recall those words of Paul in Acts xix., where he says: “ Have ye re¬ ceived the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” It is one thing to receive the Holy Ghost when we believe, and let us praise the name of God that when the Holy Ghost comes to us He comes to abide forever, but is it not another thing to receive the Holy Ghost after we believe, the baptism or the gift, whatever name you choose to give it, that will lift 3-011 up on a higher spiritual plane of living and help you to please God? So many of us are not living in the atmosphere of the Spirit of God but in the tainted putrid atmosphere of the world. Ho wonder we are not grow¬ ing in grace. The child needs exercise. He must use his voice to exercise his lungs. He must pull and walk and leap and run in order to grow. Another reason why so man}- of us are not growing in grace is because we are not exercising ourselves for Jesus Christ. Let us take the nourishment He pro¬ vides, breath'i the air He gives us in His own Spirit and engage in the exercise set before us in the gospel of His Son. God has not onl}^ commanded us to grow in grace and given us the means by which to grow, but has also given us the lines along which growth should be expected to take place. In the first epistle of Peter, Peter is speaking to Christians already in the state of grace, partakers of the divine na- CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 5 tiire through faith in Jesus Christ: “ Be¬ sides all this add to your faith virtue.” Don’t be misled by the word add, as if faith were not sufficient for our salvation or sanetitication, but the idea seems to be the faith necessary to the growth of Christians, and it must be that faith which includes virtue. Virtue does not mean morality, but courage. I tell you if we are growing in grace we are men and women having the courage of our convic¬ tions. If we believe in Jesus Christ we will confess Jesus Christ before men in our homes, at our business and social circles. Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge. Not knowledge of material things, but knowledge of God, the knowl¬ edge of the Word of God, knowledge of the will of God, in order that w'e may be¬ lieve the Word and act upon His will. Add to knowledge temperance, not only in total abstinence in drink, but moderation in all things, self-control over these bod¬ ies of ours, self-control over every mem¬ ber of the body, self-control over every part of the body, self-control over the ear, etc., etc. Add to temperance patience, forbear¬ ance in the face of the opposition of Sa¬ tan, of the world, in the face of our trials and temptations God sees fit to place upon us. Add to patience godliness, God-ward- ness, as Moses, who endured all these things as seeing Him who is invisible. Then add brotherly kindness, kindness to those not only in the flesh, but your family, your household, your noigiibor and especially those of the household of faith. Then add love. Love—this takes in the whole world—love which will enable us to bless our enemies, the love which will enable us to follow Him who came to seek and save the lost and ins])ire us to keep His command, ''As the Father bath sent Me, even so I send you.” Oh! for this love and this compassion for the lost world. Well may we say, as we go over these things, this is too much for me, too much for me. fl’hese three words, “ irrow in grace are three mighty words. They bring us face to face with the (|uestion of order. We are in the state of grace, then comes the command to grow in grace. Then conies the means by which we may grow in grace, and then the lines along wdiich the growth is to come. 1 want to tell you the secret. I want to say to you in all honesty, in all seriousness, in all earnestness and alfection, that you and I can do it if we want to do it, for we can “ do all things through Christ which strengtheneth” us. There was a time when I could not say that. There was a time when I would not say that. There was a time when I felt I must continue to be a debtor to the flesh as long as I was in the flesh. I saw this truth, ‘‘If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” I have come to see that Christ can so live His power in me that I can know day by day that I am set free from the law of (leatli by the law of the Spirit of Christ. Dr. Webb Pebloe had been talking somewhat one day along this line. A lady came up and thanked him for it, and said it had done her a great deal of good. “ I am glad to know it,” he said, “ I may take it for granted you have entered into this life.” She said, “ No, it is not true of me, [ am sorry to say. 1 am a Christian; my sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ; His Holy S])irit dwells within me, hut I have not entered into that cx|)erience because of my ciicum- stances.” “ Is not God sti’ong('r (ban your circumstances?” “ Hut my eireumslauccs are peculiar circumstances.” “ Hut is not God stronger than your peculiai- eii'cum- stances?” “Well,” she said, “I can’t quite c,X])lain, but mine arc very ])eciiliar circumstances.” “ Is not God stronger,” bo asked, “than your very jieculiar eir- cuTustances?” Again, she answered, “Mine arc very, vc'ry peculiar circum¬ stances.” Then be said, “ Von had better go and tell God so. Tell Him that Ho cannot (h'liver nor help you. Why not say, ‘ 1 thank d'bee for Jesus Christ, I thank H'lu'c that He has taken away my sins and f long to entesr into this dec])cr life, but, my God, '^riioii knowost that Thou hast not the ])ower to do this be¬ cause of the very, very peculiar eireum- stances of rny life?’ ” She said, “ I t hink 6 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. that would he hlasphemy.’^ “ So I think,” he said. “ You have been saying that in your heart. Suppose you say, ‘ Oh, my God, I thank Thee that Jesus Christ is a very, very peculiar Saviour to meet the very, very peculiar need of a very, verj peculiar sinner and to give victory to her very, very peculiar soul in all the very, very peculiar circumstances of her very, very peculiar life.’” “Is that all?” she asked. “ Well, I can say that.” I believe if she said it in earnestness and meekness and faith that God received her and showed her He was able to do for her abundantly more than she was able. How is it with you? For twelve years a man had been work¬ ing in the gospel ministry in Albany suc¬ cessfully. But there came a day in his ex¬ perience when he felt all was not right, when he felt God had more for him than he had received and yet he realized that he was not able to pay the cost. Just at that time his eye fell on a report of a ser¬ mon of P. B. Meyer, “ Are You Willing to Be Made Willing f” That fits my case ex¬ actly. Yes; I am willing to he made will¬ ing. Then and there he entered into a contract with God that made him the spiritual power that he is to-day. How many of us are willing at least to he made willingf # * ^ FRIDAY, DEC. 25. CHRIST IN OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY. By REV. J. H. GRAY, of Boston. In the earlier promises of the Book of Genesis we find the coming Deliverer an¬ nounced in the same general way, as the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent’s head. We find, next, that He was to be the seed of Abraham, and yet more definitely the seed of Isaac, until, finally, He becomes the seed of Jacob and the offspring of Judah. As we pass through the Old Testament, we come to the prophecies of Moses, and here we see the vision of a prophet who was to be like unto Him, and whom His brethren were to hear and obey. At length, we reach the prophecies that cluster around the life and reign of David. God gave to him also a promise of a seed and a house. Of course, this was fulfilled immediately in the birth and reign of Sol¬ omon; but it is evident that a greater than Solomon was meant, for God promised, concerning this coming One, “ I will be His I'ather and He shall be My Son.” Now, this high type, the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, could not be given to any created being. To which of the angels said He at any time, thou are My Son?” It must refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. But some say, how could this promise in the seventh chapter of II. Samuel refer to Christ, when we read in the fourteenth verse such words as these: “ If He commit iniquity, I will chasten Him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but My mercy shall not depart from Him.” But if we turn to the literal meaning of the original, as Bishop Horsley translates it, we shall find that it is rendered thus: “ When iniquity is laid upon Him, I will chasten Him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.” How marvellously this becomes a literal prediction of the very sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ for sinful men; for al¬ most in the same language, the prophet Isaiah says of Him, “ By His stripes we are healed.” And, again, “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Adam Clark translates this passage, “In His suf¬ ferings for iniquity, I will chasten Him with the rod of man.” There is no doubt that David understood this as a prophecy and promise of his coming Lord, for we read in the eighteenth verse, “Then David went in, and sat before the Lord, and he said. Who am I, O. Lord God? and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in Thy sight, 0, Lord God; but Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, 0, Lord God?” Again, Bishop Horsley translates this last verse in the following striking manner: “ Thou hast regarded me in reference to that klan that is to be from above,” or the Adam from above. There is no doubt that David saw, by faith, the coming of the great Redeemer; for in the thirty-second Psalm, which was CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. written after his great sin with Bathshe- ba, we find David speaking of the “bless¬ edness of the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity”^; and in the fourth chapter of Komans, Paul applies this very psalm, and the exjierience of David, to il¬ lustrate the doctrine of Christ’s imputed righteousness, and our justification by faith in Him, and tells us implicitly, that this way of salvation was witnessed by the law of prophets, and citing David as the very example of this faith under the Old Testament dispensation. Again, in the second chapter of Acts, thirtieth and thirty-first verses, the Apos¬ tle Peter, speaking of the sixteenth Psalm, distinctly says that David, seeing before the resurrection of Christ, saw Him as his Lord. And so David really saw the Christ that we see, and was saved by the same faith which unites to Christ. And, there¬ fore, we find him continuing his thanks¬ giving to God and responding to the promise in the .blessed amen of faith. “ And, now, 0, Lord God, the word that Thou hast spoken concerning Thy ser¬ vant, and concerning his house, establish it forever, and do as Thou hast said.” This is the true spirit of faith; it amens God; it takes the promise and sends it back to heaven as an echo of faith. It says, like Mary when she received the an¬ gel’s promise, “ Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word.” i% # CHBIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PBOPHECY. Ry REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. It is very difficult for us to put our¬ selves in the place of Old Testament saints. After the problem is solved, it seems to us very easy, and we can scarce¬ ly realize how hard it seemed before it had been made real. In John viii. 5G our Lord says that Abraham “ rejoiced to see His day;” and then apparently repeating that. He adds, “ He saw it and was glad.” Literally, the passage might he translated, “ Your Fath¬ er Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw and was glad.” Hero we have two experiences in the life of Abraham. The first must have been the incident recorded in Gen. xviii., when God visited Abraham and gave him the promise of the seed that should come from his own wife and his own loins. So improbable did the prom¬ ise seem, Sarah laughed in unbelief when she heard of it; but the day came when the laugh of doubt was changed into the laughter of joy and the very name of Isaac means “ laughter ” or “ gladness,” and as he came into their arms, Abraham saw in him the tjqie and prophecy of his coming Eedeemer and greater seed. It was thus that he rejoiced to see Christ’s day. But now we come to another scene- on Mount Moriah, where that child of prom¬ ise is laid upon the altar before the Lord and then given back as from the dead, while in the thicket the substitute is wait¬ ing to take his place; and Abraham be¬ holds a greater vision and sees the glo¬ rious meaning of redemption through death and resurrection. This is the sec¬ ond chapter of his faith. It was then that “he saw, and was glad.” So, in Isaac’s death, Abraham saw the incarnation of Christ, but in Isaac’s offering he saw the vicarious death and the glorious resurrec¬ tion of his illustrious seed; and the Apos¬ tle tells us that, by the same faith which justifies us, Abraham, too, believed and received his salvation. In II. Cor. iii. 18 we have this strong glory of the Lord wo are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord’s Spirit.” The mirror is the Holy Scriptures, the image is Christ. The word for “ beholding ” expresses a steady, fixed gaze, and thus they gazed until they dimly saw the coming glory. So should we gaze with fixed vision, and we, too, shall see and be transformed. The mirror into which they gazed was an imperfect one. There is a seven-fold mirror of truth. 1. Direct Messianic prophecy. 2. The ceremonies and sac¬ raments of the Did T'estament. 3. The historical types of Christ in the Old Tes¬ tament. 4. The didactic teachings con¬ tained in the Old Testament and ])resent- ing the truth about the coming Messiah, more or less clearly. They had these four mirrors in which to see the glory of the liord. We have three more, namely, the evangelical mirror, consisting of the 8 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. four gospels; the autobiographical mirror, containing the personal works of Christ; the apostolic mirror, containing the epis¬ tles and the Apocalypse. They had the light of Old Testament truth and proph¬ ecy. There were direct predictions, such as, Gen. iii. and Is. liii.; but there were in¬ direct prophecies also, such as Psalms xxii. and cx. These were also pictures of Christ which they more or less fully compre¬ hended. The twenty-second psalm is a broken drama of the suffering Christ, which is called “ the psalm of sobs.” There is not a complete sentence in it. It is just a section of ejaculations of an¬ guish, but it is full of the accents of Cal¬ vary. So, also, the symbols of the Passover, the Paschal Lamb roasted on a cross made of two splits, the brazen serpent in the wilderness on a pole formed like a cross, the day of atonement, with two goats rep¬ resenting the two sides of Christ’s death— all this was full of the story of Jesus. Then the story of Joseph is one long type of the One who was despised and rejected of men. Moses and Joshua represented the two sides of law and gospel. Elijah and Elisha stand in like manner for the Old and the Mew Testament spirit. The key to all was Christ; and now, as we gaze upon that seven-fold mirror which is given to us in all its completeness, its very light is reflected back in our faces and we become the living photographs of Him on whom we gaze. AAA THE EFFECT OF THE IMCAEMA- TIOM. By REV. DR. LOAVE. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ made all things new. 1 . It brought a new presentation of God. Men had thought of Him as a law¬ giver; now, they ivere to know Him as a Father—a God of mercy, of long-suffer¬ ing love, willing to endure reproach and suffer wrong, and shoAiung His character in the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. “ He that hath seen Me,” He saith, “ hath seen the Father.” 2 . A neiv way of access to God. No man who is conscious of his sinful condi¬ tion can stand and look into the face of God without a sense of fear of the Old Testament. We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews that man had a conscious¬ ness of sin, but now through thi. atone¬ ment of Christ the justified man is deliv¬ ered, not only from the curse but from its very shadow, and he stands accepted in the Father’s love even as Christ Himself. 3. A neiv person for men to love. The incarnation has given us Christ, “ whom not having seen, we love.” Christ came, not only to bring us truth, hut, above all, to bring us love. The human heart wants some one on whom to lavish its affections. To love a noble and lovable being exalts; and to love the Lord Jesus Christ is the most ennobling influence in a human life. God has put His Holy Babe into our arms that we may love Him and live for Him. 4. A new power in human life. What is the difference between good now and before Jesus Christ came? It is this: that we have not only the law of righteousness and the examples of righteousness, but we have the power of a Living Person within us to make us righteous. Human nature is linked ivith the Man in the glory. Eighteousness is not ethical cul¬ ture but the union of God with the human soul. You may give men instruc¬ tion, but they won’t obey it; you may give them the lash but that won’t make them take it. Christ comes both to will and to do in us after God’s good pleasure. 5. A new vieiv of humanity and ser¬ vice. You have read the story of sister Dora and the motto of her life. Whenever any message came requiring sacrifice, ser¬ vice or love, this little verse met every difficulty and settled every question; ‘‘The Master has come and calleth for thee.” And so Jesus Christ has set us the stand¬ ard of a life of unselfish devotion to the glory of God and the good of man, and He is calling through the ages to every true heart, “ Follow Me.” 4 * ^ The evening service was largely at¬ tended and was addressed by Mr. Studd and Dr. Pierson. In the course of his ad¬ dress Dr. Pierson took occasion to explain the grounds on account of which we cele¬ brate at this time the Nineteen Hun- CHUISTMAS CONVOCATION. 9 dredtli Birthday of Jesus Christ, as fol¬ lows: “ If the best chronology is taken as our standard, this year is not 1896, but 1900, of the Christian era, and marks the clos¬ ing year of the century. It is well known among students of chronology that the familiar letters, ‘‘A. D.,” do not originally stand for Anno Domini, but for Aera Di- onysii, the era of Dionysius, surnamed Ex- iguus the Little, from his small stature. This Boman abbot, originally from Scy¬ thia, who died in his monastery in .540 A. I)., was a man of great erudition and, among other labors, carried on in chro¬ nology researches which gave him great celebrity. To this man, who died in the reign of Justinian, is traced the method of reckoning the Christian era which, since the eighth century, has been, by so- called Christian nations, universally adopted, and which fixes the year of the Incarnation at the 753d year of Rome. klore careful computations, reckoning from at least six different points of obser¬ vation, like converging paths, all lead to one conclusion, that an error of at least four years has occurred in the Dionysian era, and that the Incarnation must date back to the year 749 from the founding of Rome, which would, according to the current reckoning, be 4 B. C. “For example, as the birth of Christ was certainly previous to the death of Herod the Great, which was just before the Passover, in the year 750 A. U., the year of the nativity cannot have been later than 749 A. IT. “Again, John the Baptist entered on his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tibe¬ rius, wliich, reckoning from the latter’s co-regency, would put the Baptist’s birth in the year 748 A. IT., or early in the next year; and, as there were hut, six months difference in the ages of Christ and of His forerunner, our Lord’s birth V'ould occur not later tlian 749 A. TT. “Yet, again, our Lord Himself said: forty and six years was this temple in building;’ and the eighteenth year of Herod’s reign, when he began tlie rebuild¬ ing, would coincide with 7.32 A. IT. This would make the forty-six years end some¬ where about 778 or'779 A. TT. If our TiOrd was then about thirty years old, His birth year would carry us back to 749 A. IT. Other confirmatory testimony, as collated and compared by Dr. Edward Robinson and others, conclusively fixes this same year as the date, so that the year now closing really is the year 1900, and will thus complete the nineteenth cen¬ tury and introduce the twentieth of the Christian era. CHRIST AS THE CHRISTIAX’S CENTRE. By REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. This is the most important theme that we can consider. The heart is the centre of the human organism, and as the heart is to the human frame, so Christ is to the believer. He is the centre of organism. He is the centre of life. He is the centre of revolution. He is the centre of radia¬ tion, and He is the centre of attraction. Everything is included in this theme— salvation, sanctification, service, love, joy, peace, prayer, power, eternal life. The phrase, “ In Christ ” is the most important in the New Testament. It un¬ locks every book. In Matthew we have the kingdom in Christ; Mark, the })ower of God; Luke, the Counselor; John, God manifested in the flesh; Acts, Christ working through the Holy Ghost; Ro¬ mans, Christ our Justificr; Corinthians, joined unto the Lord; Galatians, sancti¬ fied in Christ; Ephesians, all one in Christ; Colossians, complete in Christ; Thcssalonians, glorified in Christ; He¬ brews, all in Christ. There is a person back of the promises. YJien I was a student, my uncle, who was wealthy, took me once for a walk, and he handed me a bit of ])apcr with these few words on it, addressed to his bookkeci)er, “Give Arthur ’1'. Pierson as much money as he wants.” It was not the paper that was valuable, but the man back of it. We have no ])romises apart from Christ. ’J’here are ])eople who quote the ])r()mises of God and yet they reject the Saviour. There is not a promise for such ])eo])le; all the jiromiscs of God in Him are yea. The wicked man has as strong a hope as the Christian, but it is worthless. Our rights are in Christ; they are the same as His rights. All our need is covered by His name, and if we but claim our stand- 10 CnUISTMAS CONVOCATION. ing it will be abundantly supplied. The Bank of England holds thousands of pounds that have never been claimed; and so there are God’s children who have let their riches run to waste because they do not know them or use them. Christ is the centre of the Christian’s love. Do not let us ever put any one else there. If your departed wife or husband is the centre of your heaven, you have a wrong conception. There is one Person before whose glory all others should pale. “Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him,” but He will be first and best. Christian, have Christ as your cen¬ tre, it will affect everything in your life; every touch will be sacred; everything you value will belong to Him. Your whole life will be illuminated, and your whole busi¬ ness will be as sanctified as your hours of devotion. When John Wesley began his ministry he lived on £35 a year. Afterwards, when his work was a grand success, and hun¬ dreds of thousands surrounded him, he still lived on the same amount, and all the rest that came through his hands was for the cause of his Master. Your affections will be His if He is your centre. No godly woman has a right to marry an ungodly man. No child of God has a right to have an unholy part¬ nership with the world in business. If Christ is enthroned within. He will radi¬ ate through all our being and be reflected in every extremity of our life. * * # SATURDAY DEC. 26. CHEIST'S PASSION. By REV. A. T. PIERSON, O.D. It is necessary in these days to speak plain words and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints. A distinguished minister from Great Brit¬ ain has recently visited this Continent and been much admired and beloved; and he is worthy of the deepest personal re¬ gard. Of that, we have nothing to say; but this is the creed which that man has given to us: “ Friends and Followers, I believe in the Fatherhood of God, in the words of Jesus, in a clean heart, in the service of love, in an unworldly life, in the beatitudes. I promise to love God and follow Christ, to forgive my enemies, to live an unworldly life and to seek after righteousness.” Now, this is all very nice as ethics, but there is not a word in it that any Unitarian could not accept, that any Universalist could not accept, that any Spiritualist could not accept, that any Theosophist coidd not accept, that any Buddhist probably would not be willing to ascribe to. There is not a word in it about Christ dying for sinners, and I stand here to say boldly that Ian McCla- ren, of Scotland, in teaching this stuff as a substitute of the Gospel, is doing more harm than Robert Ingersoll. I want to call attention to this fact: that the Bible never asks us to follow Christ’s life except we first accept His atonement. Notice a few passages: “We thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all, that they which live should not hence¬ forth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” There, we see the unselfish life based upon the atonement of Jesus Christ. Again, in Gal. ii. 20 we read: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Here, again, we see the cross of Christ in the very centre of the Christian’s consecra¬ tion. Again, in Tit. ii. 11-14 we read: “ The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that de- mdng ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.” Here, the death of Christ stands in the very heart and the whole system of Christian morals and Christian living. Once more, I. Pet. ii. 24: “ Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose CniilSTMAS CONVOCATION. stripes ye were healed.” Here, our holi¬ ness of life is inseparably linked to the atoning death of Jesns. Finally, I. Pet. iii. 18: “ Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” This follows, immediately, a long passage, holding up the symbol of Jesus Christ for our imita¬ tion; the very motive and principle is Christ’s atonement for us. Any church that leaves out the death of Jesus Christ leaves out the most im- ])ortant doctrine of the Christian system, and yet the number is growing smaller every year of those who stand as faithful and fearless witnesses for this central doc¬ trine of Christianity. Twenty-five years ago no professor would be tolerated in a theological seminary, and no person would be admitted to the communion table who questioned the doctrine of the Atonement. To-day, millions are sitting down at the table of the Lord who deny the true significance of that holy sacra¬ ment; and chairs of public instruction in our theological seminaries are held by scores of men who have no shame in ex¬ plaining away all the real significance of the precious blood of Calvary. # ♦ # CHKIST’S RESURKECTION. Hy REV. F. II. CIIAl’ELE, D.D. The Apostle Jude seems to have in¬ tended to write an epistle of encourage¬ ment and comfort, but when he took up his pen and began to look around at the condition of things his heart became so stirred that it poured out a torrent of fiery warnings, which are as appropriate in our day as they were in his. I call it the Second Epistle of Jude, because the first seems never to have been written. The two epistles in the New Testament are always strangely solemn. Jude calls upon us “ to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints,” and there is abundant reason to do so in our day, threatened, as it is, with the final apostasy. I read the other day in the “ Outlook ” an editorial severely criticising a letter 11 which had been written by an earnest minister, warning the ministry of their neglect of the doctrine of the atonement. The editor proceeded to give us the doc¬ trine of the Atonement, according to the “ Outlook,” and that was substantially this: The Apostle Paul was quoted as saying that though he had known Christ after the flesh, now he knew Him no more, and in that way the whole thing was reduced to a mere figure of speech. Now, how shall we meet all this sort of argument? By the realistic view of the Atonement and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. These were actual scenes and facts. Here come Joseph and Nicodemus. They take down the body of the Lord, they wash away the blood, they close the eyes, they wrap the linen around it, and filling the folds with a hundred pounds of spices put the pre¬ cious body in the new tomb. Then the stone is rolled to the mouth, the Roman seal is stamped upon it, the guards set, and earth and heaven wait for the morn¬ ing of the third day. Then, by the su¬ preme power of the Father, that body springs to life and passes unhindered through the sealed stone. Then the angel comes and frightens away the guards, and then the disciples enter and see the linen clothes lie, proving the tranquility ami the power with which He had come forth and left even His tomb in perfect order. Then He began to ap¬ pear to His disciples in that strange spiritual body of the forty days. Now it was seen, and now it was invisible, and all through those days He was giving us a pattern of our resurrection, by and bye showing to humanity what this glory is. It was humanity in its mortal state. What were the characteristics of that risen life? 1. Victorious serenity. His greeting to them was “All Hail!” literally rejoice. It was serene victory; no struggling, straining or pushing; everything per¬ fectly right. 2. It was comprehensive knowledge. The whole past, present and future were open to Him. How He opened the Scriptures and told them the meaning of the prophecies! He looked upon the world as His empire, and sent them forth to claim it. Flow He took in the whole age, even unto the end! 12 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 3 . Victorious power. He passed through the closed doors without an ef¬ fort and made Himself visible and invisi¬ ble as He pleased. At length He met them at the appointed place in Galilee; perhaps on the Mount of Transfiguration where they were watching for His ap¬ pearing. At last they saw Him coming, a form of glorious majesty; perhaps floating in the air, perhaps suddenly ap¬ pearing in their midst. ” There He is,” they cry, and while they gaze He speaks: “ All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth; go ye, therefore, and disciple all the nations. You see this power in Me; soon you will have it for yourselves. I am but a sample of your coming glory; go and give the message to the nations, and then wait for my return.” 4 . How Christ’s resurrection life con¬ nects heaven and earth! He talks about the many mansions in His Father’s house. This is one of them; we know there are more, but they are all His and ours, and His life links them all to¬ gether. I have just been called to part with the dearest one on earth. As I looked at her pale, cold, beautiful face, I said: “Thank God! I shall never lose you.” He lives, and she lives, and I live for¬ evermore in the risen and living One. * A A CHRIST'S ASCEHSIOH. By REV. T. ITERSON, D.D. The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ was a contravention of all natural law. It really began in Ilis resurrection, and of which the ascension was the complement. It was God’s witness to the acceptance of His work, and God's reward for the depth of His humility. In the account given of it in Phil. ii. 9 there are seven steps down and seven steps up. “ He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fash¬ ion as a man. He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, and sub¬ mitted to the death of the cross. Where¬ fore God has exalted Him highly, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should con¬ fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Paul speaks of his ascension in Eph. iv. 8-13 in connction with His descent, first, into the lower parts of the earth. It was a triumph over all His foes. Satan had determined to destroy Him, and for this purpose He was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. The devil had done his best to destroy Christ. First he put a blot on Mar 3 ^s rep¬ utation in connection with His birth; then he sent Herod to seek Ilis life; then he came in the temntation with all his subtlety and power; then the betrayal and crucifixion. At last he had Him in the tomb with the Roman guard and the Roman seal, and the work of redemption seemed effectually arrested; but in the resurrection He burst that tomb and broke that seal, and in His ascension. He not only rose above all the depths of His humiliation, but He caiTied captive in His train the very powers of hell that had sought to crush Him; and He did all this for us as our Head and Representative. In His incarnation He brought God down to man, but in His ascension He took man up to God. He rose above all principalities and powers and took His place on the very throne of His Father, securing for us the right to all the glory to which He had at¬ tained; and even as the Roman conquer¬ ors used to enter the gates of the city in triumph carrying their captives chained to their chariot wheels, so He led captivity captive, and has passed in triumph to His throne; and as the Roman conqueror used to scatter all along his way the costly gifts and largesses which signalized the splen¬ dors of his triumph, so Jesus, when He ascended on high, not only led captivity captive, but He also gave gifts unto men, and all the privileges of our high calling in the church of God are hut the seals of Christ's ascension. Let us enter into the full significance of His ascension glory, let us claim our place hy His side, let us sit with Him in the heavenlies and in His victorious might, let us also take our victory from Satan, death and hell. CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 13 THE INTERCESSION OE CHRIST. By REV. E. II. CIIAPELL, D.D \Ve are not to think of Christ's inter¬ cession as we would of a man pleading for another. Christ is not there at the l ath¬ er’s right hand to plead with an unwilling God for mercy to sinners. He is there, rather, to represent our interest, as our attorney and advocate, with right on His side, and with His Eather as profoundly interested in our well-being as He is. He is there as our mediator, and the channel of approach to the Eather, and of the communication and blessing to us. I. —cueist’s INTERCESSION AS RELATED TO THE DEVIL. There is no doubt that Satan had ac¬ cess to the presence of God in heaven as the accuser of the saints. We see this in the case of Job and afterwards Joshua, the high priest, as mentioned in the book of Zachariah. Up to the time of Christ’s ascension Satan had a good cause, and an unanswerable argument against sinners; but Christ went forward to the throne bringing the unanswerable jilea of His own finished work, and Satan was com¬ pelled to take a back seat; and ever since he has been driven from heaven and now assails us on the earth and in the air. But just as Christ had cut His way through these principalities and ])owers that met Him at the very gates of heaven, so the believer, too, must cut liis way througli, until he shall claim his place by his Re¬ deemer’s side. Jesus Christ sits in bcav- en in the j)Osition of a saved man, and an answer to all the devil’s charges and at- taebs, and in lilce ujannei' wc;, too, in Ills name and by His grace, are pressing tbrough the ranks of the principalities and powers to take our place wliero He is seated now. II. -cueist’s INTERCESSION- IN RELATION TO THE A NO ELS. Gur Lord Jesus Christ has risen far above the angels, and, in His ascmision, we also rise to a liiglier place than ilie angels. There is no doubt that God has been much disappointed in many of the angels. Job tells that He chargetb Ills angels with folly. Multitudes of tbein are fallen from their high estate. Tin' [irob- lem of creation seems to have been this, TTow to create the bigbest possible intel¬ ligence and yet hold them in perfect sub¬ jection. Satan was the greatest being that God ever made, and yet Satan aspired to be God and lost his place of righteous¬ ness and dignity: therefore, God has now to create the loftiest beings, amid low con¬ ditions, that they may learn obedience. And so, Christ came down to live in the low conditions in which He blesses His peojile, and lift them with Himself to the very throne of God. Just as the American soldier at West Point goes through very hard discipline in order to prepare him¬ self for the life of a soldier, so Jesus has passed through the same conditions, and the Captain of their salvation is making His followers perfect through suffering. III.—CHRIST’S INTERCESSION IN RELATION TO THE GODHEAD. The ascension of Jesus Christ brought down to us the third person of the God¬ head, and the Holy Ghost came, colored by Ilis relation to the Son of Man. Just as the autumn brook is red, because it washes the crimson leaves of autumn in its course, so the Holy Ghost comes to us witli the tint of Calvary and the touch of the heart of Jesus; the Spirit of Christ bringing Him to us in personal conscious¬ ness and revealing Him as the source and centre of our life. Christ has ascended to heaven as our Great High Priest; we are as the common ])ricsts of the ancient sanctuary, 'riicre were three ministries jiertaining to the f)rief?t of old: namely. Sacrifice, Interces¬ sion and Blessing. The Tiord Jesus has jiasscd througli all these on Calvary. He gave' n[) Ilis own life as tin' greal Sacrifice, and now, at the EatheEs side. He is mak¬ ing Intercession for us, and soon lie is to conn' forth in Blessing and establish Ilis reign of peace and joy over the millennia! earth. We, likewise, must enter into all the meaning of saeritiee, the priesthood of prayer and the highest of all jovs, that of forgetting onrsidves and ministering to otlu'rs in His name. CHRIST ADMTNTSI'ERING ITTE CTITTRCH. n,V REV. A. T. RTERSON, D.D. Iliere is a very clear distinction be¬ tween the work of the Tiord Jesns Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost. The 14 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. presence of botli is promised through the Christian Age. The Holy Spirit is in us, and Christ is witii us, and yet in the minds of many there is much confusion as to the work of each. The teaching of the Scriptures is exceedingly clear. Christ is with us in the providential administer¬ ing of the church; the Holy Spirit, in the gracious administering of the work of re¬ demption. The Holy Ghost acts upon men through the Word of God, and through the agency of believers. There is no reference in the New Testament anywhere to the Holy Spirit working upon an unconverted man apart from some believer. The eunuch in the desert was saved through the ministry of Philip, and even though he was at the time read¬ ing his Bible, yet that Bible had reached him through the agency of some human hand. Cornelius was not saved through the ministry of an angel, but Peter had to go to carry the message. But while the Holy Spirit acts under these limitations, the Lord Jesus Christ is not limited by any such conditions. The minstry of the Holy Ghost is to jus¬ tify, sanctify and to divinely endue with His power the vessels of grace. Christ’s ministry is to overrule the events of time and prepare the way for the Spirit’s oper¬ ations. Take some illustrations of this adminis¬ tration. The King of Siam at one time set himself against the Gospel and de¬ termined to drive the missionaries out of his country. The missionaries were dis¬ couraged and were just awaiting the com¬ ing of a vessel to carry them away, when a few of them were led to pray for the special interposition of God. Suddenly the answer comes. The wicked king dies in perfect health and all his plans are ar¬ rested. But who will succeed him? There is but one man in the country who was capable of proving a friend to the cause of missions, one of the princes that had been educated in a missionary family. He was at this time in retirement in a Bud¬ dhist monastery: but while Christ’s ser¬ vants were lifting- up their hearts to Him in prayer, this man was chosen by the vote of the nobles to be the kino- of Siam; and for all these years he has proved the stanch and liberal friend of civilization and the cause of Christianity. He has be¬ come the foster father of the cause of re¬ ligion and the liberal supporter of the missionary institutions of the country. What was this but the hand of Christ, ruling and overruling for His own glory? Look at another scene. A decree has gone forth from the Sultan of Turkey that all the missionaries must leave. Di¬ plomacy is exhausted and everybody has decided that it is no use to do anything. Dr. Goodell and Dr. Hamlin heard of it, and they said, “ There is another Euler mightier than the Sultan; let us pray to Him.” They went to God in prayer and the next day the Sultan died and the de¬ cree has never been heard of since. If our eyes were but open to behold we could see the horses and chariots of the sky around us every day. Mrs. Armstrong, of Persia, tells of a time when a little band was shut up in the mission house and an army of Kurds was overrunning the country. It was impossi¬ ble to get military protection that would be of any avail against such numbers; and so she and her little household gathered together in prayer and calmly went to bed, trusting themselves to God. In the morning they were perfectly safe and the Kurds were gone. God’s angels had sur¬ rounded that house, and these daring men had supposed, from the perfect absence of all attempts at defense, that the party was probably securely protected and con¬ cluded that it was best not to attack them and went on. On his first journey to China, Hudson Taylor found the vessel on which they were sailing becalmed near the shore of one of the cannibal islands of southeast¬ ern Asia. They could see the forms of the savages on the shore getting ready for the horrible banquet which the ocean current was bearing to them. The captain was an ungodly man, but he knew that without a miracle they were lost, and he suggested to Taylor to pray. “ I will pray,” he an¬ swered, “ if you will put up the sail.” The captain laughed at the idea of put¬ ting up the sail in the midst of a perfect calm, but be did so, and Mr. Taylor went down to his cabin and pra 3 "ed. In a few moments the wind had come, the ship turned around and the savages were cheated of their prey. In my own experience, I remember once going to a church where there were two hostile camps who would not sit on the CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 15 saniv. side of the church. At last I asked the liord either to heal this hindering breach or to take me away. It was not long before the Lord laid His hand on the leaders of this strife. The first was taken with diphtheria and died. The second had his rent raised on him and went away. The third fell under reproach and lost all his influence. The true way to carry on the church of Jesus Christ is to recognize the Lord Himself as her King and bring to Him every detail of her work. Who has not read the story of Paton of New Hebrides? Fifty-seven times his life was marvellously saved by the direct in¬ terposition of God and he still lives to re¬ joice in the precious harvest that has sprung up on every side after years of suf¬ fering and sowing. This is what the mis¬ sionary needs to give him courage. Only let the Master say, “ Certainly, I wil I be with thee,” and nothing can dismay us. This is the secret of living a supernatural life, amid all circumstances and situa¬ tions. There is no place in life where we cannot represent our Master and rely upon His supernatural presence and mighty power. 4 * * THE LOED’S COMING. By MR. C. T. STUDD. What effect did the doctrine of the Lord’ coming have upon the early dis¬ ciples? At first they stood gazing up into heaven, but soon they turned back to Je- rualem and worshipped the ascended One, and then went forth with the miglity faith of His ascension and His coming, to conquer the world for Him, and they never ceased until Eome was subdued by the cross of Jesus Christ. How little we are like them! They were dare-devils in their bold and fearless lives and labors for their Master. We are care- devils in our selfish worry about the petty things of time. I remember the first time one of our Chinese friends heard of the coming of Jesus Christ in person to reign over this world. The man seemed overwhelmed with awe as he heard of it and he trem¬ bled all over. I asked him what was the matter. “ Why,” he said, “ I must go and sell that field and get ready to meet my Lord.” SUNDAY, DEC. 27. THE BIBLE: ITS SUPEEME CLAIMS UPON OUE FAITH AND LOYALTY. By REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. The basis of this address will be found in II. Peter, i., 16-21. This passage pre¬ sents to us the Lord Jesus at the con¬ summate moment of His earthly life. He had appeared among men in disguise, and wore the garment of humanity as a veil of flesh which concealed His true divinity. He appeared among men as a man, as a workingman among working¬ men, as a poor man among poor men. The glory of His divinity but dimly shone, and only few understood His higher character, and they but imper¬ fectly, for in the crisis they forsook Him and failed to give Him their confidence. One moment only did He reveal His true character. On the Mount of Trans¬ figuration His glory shone through the ▼eil of humanity, and so overpowered the three Disciples that accompanied Him that they were dazzled by His splendor, and talked incoherently as men who were asleep. His body became trans¬ parent, and His raiment was white as the light and made the place all supernatur- ally bright. There came a voice out of the heavenly cloud, proclaiming, “ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” Now Peter, referring to this scene, says: “We have not followed cunning¬ ly devised fables when we declared unto you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus, for we were eye-witnesses of His majesty when we were with Him on the holy mount.” But he adds: “ We have a more sure word of prophesy. More was sure; we saw it—three of us; I bear witness to it. But God’s Word is even more sure than our vision.” Tlie eye may be deceived, the ear may mislead us. There are people that see things they never saw, and hear things they never hear, but tha Word of God is more sure than the best attested witness of all our sure even than that vision. The vision scMises. Wliat a testimony this is to the Holy Scriptures! and it includes both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures. What 16 CIIIIIST.MAS CONVOCATION. mortal lools we are to treat with neglect, to allow to be depreciated by the assaults of fiiiiaclity, tins divine message which comes to us attested by such credentials. If the President of the United States should issue a decree or proclamation, it would be reasonable that he should give the people ample means of verifving the authority of that proclamation and mak¬ ing sure that it was indeed his. So God has given to us all the necessary mate¬ rials by which we may establish the genuineness, authenticity and authority of the Scriptures. He has put His own seal upon this marvelous book, and we know It bears His stamp divine. Its peculiar seal is the witness of prophecy. It is one that appeals to the common people, and the most ordinary intelligence can understand its force. There are some things we know, but we do not know the future. Any one who can accurately foretell future events with sufficient detail and with sufficient remoteness must have supernatural knowledge. There are some things which man may calculate by scientific or natural probabilities, but the prophecies of Holy Scripture have these peculiari¬ ties: First—The predictions refer to the events far in the future that were not foreshadowed by any circumstances at the time. Secondly—They go into minute par¬ ticulars. Thirdly—They present new combina¬ tions of events which had nothing in ex¬ isting events to render them probable. Fourth—They contain apparent con¬ tradictions which the events alone can harmonize, and which prove to be not contradictions but onlv deeper confirma¬ tions of the truth of the prophecy. Now. dropping all other prophecies about nations and individuals, we will simply confine ourselves to the prophe¬ cies respecting the Lord Jesus Christ, whose person and work have been brought so prominently before us this time. First—The predictions respecting Him in the Old Testament reach forward to a r.f'viod ill tbp futurc. Daniel in¬ timated that nearly five centuries must elap«e from a given date before His ap- ^^ 7 -^ know, as a matter of his¬ torical certainty, that the Jews had the Scripiures in their Hebrew form for sev¬ eral centuries, and the Greek translation between two and three centuries before the Christian era. It was not possible, therefore, that the wisest of men could guess across so long a period of time. Second—The prophecies concerning Him were given with great minuteness of detail Now. there is a law known as the law of simple and compound proba¬ bilities. A shrewd man may make a fair guess about a single circumstance that may come to pass, but if that circum¬ stance is complicated by two or three de¬ tails, each of these details lessens the probability. And if there should be three hundred details all specified, the proba¬ bility of all of these coming to pass would be diminished three hundred times. Now the Old Testament contains 333 prophecies about Jesus Christ. It tells His name, it tells who His mother was to be, what country He was to be born in, what city; it give., the particulars of His childhood, where He should reside, His temptation, His death, His burial, the very number of pieces of silver to be Daid to His betrayer, the very purpose for which this silver was afterward used, the disposition of His garments, and the verv year in which He should come. Now, how any man could look down the centuries and tell all this without supernatural knowledge is simply incon¬ ceivable. He might have been bom in a hundred different places; nay. He might easily have missed being born in Bethlehem, for His mother did not live there; but God ordered it that she should come to Bethlehem at the very moment the prophecy required, in order to fulfill the announcement of old Micah, that in Bethlehem of Judea the Christ should be bom. Rabinowitch, the distinguished He¬ brew Christian, once said to me. as I asked him how many of the psalms are Messianic. “ Everv one of them.” It was beautiful to hear the old man chanting the Psalms of David, and exulting over pas.sages which no one else ever dreamed referred to Christ, and finding in everv letter and svllable of the ancient Scrip¬ tures a foreshadowing of his coming Lord. Then the Old Testament pronhecies respecting CItrist have explicit reference to the very time of His coming. Daniel GHUISTMAS CONVOCATION. 17 tells us in his ninth chapter that an in¬ terval of sixty-nine sevens, meaning 483 years, should elapse from the decree of Artaxerxes in 483 until the time of the Messiah, the Prince; and we find that ex¬ actly that period elapsed up to the very hour when He entered into Jerusalem in triumph, and allowed Himself to be pro¬ claimed as David’s Son and Israel’s King. You can take this Bible from Genesis to Malachi, and put one forefinger on the 333 prophecies, and put the other fore¬ finger on 333 facts in the New Testa¬ ment that exactly fulfill them. Just as these two hands correspond, thumb to thumb, forefinger to forefinger, hand to hand, so, yes, and much more so, do prophecy and history agree in their parallel story of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the circular markings of the interior of the thumb are so distinct that you can identifv a man by his hand, and the two hands in the human body correspond so perfectly that no one else could claim mv hand as his. It is precisely so that these prophetic records correspond to the story of Jesus. What mortal fools we are to neglect this sacred volume, or very Word of the living God! Rut the Apostle Peter speaks of some¬ thing better: “Until the dav dawn and the day star arise in our hearts.” Travel¬ ers get up in Switzerland long before dav to see the sun rise on one of the moun¬ tain tops. Along the dangerous passage they follow the guide bv the light of a feeble torch. They walk warily to keep from stumbling, and at last thev get to the summit of the mountain and look out upon the gray east, slowly changing from purple to gold, until at last the monarch of the day arises from his couch, puts away the curtains of the morning, and goes forth as a strong man to run a race. And then you throw away your torch. Beloved, prophecy is your torch, but when vou reach the mountain top and meet the dawn, then you shall have the light of God Himself. Justification. .Sanctification, faith, hope—through all the.se steps have we come by the light of this holy torch; but some day we shall live in the Eternal Light, and then the torch will grow dim in the light of that city which has no need of the sun, for God Almighty and the Lamb are the light thereof. THE LIVING WORD. By PROFESSOR STROETER. I hold in my hand the only live book in the world. The Bible is a living word, but hack of the Bible is the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, for the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. God’s word is like a great ocean; it has deep places like the mighty sea, but we need not crawl along the bottom of the ocean. We are told about this living Word, that in the beginning He was, and He was with God and He was God. He was before all things, and by Him all things were created. To Him and through Him and for Him are all things. Philosophy says that the greater includes the less; but in the incarnation of Christ, it be¬ came true that the less included the greater. Philosophers are trying to get away from human flesh, but the mystery of re¬ demption is that God has lifted it up into union with Himself forever. No more is there to be any separation between the creation and the Creator, for some day God shall be all and in all. The very weakest of God’s creatures—man—is taken up into fellowsliip with God in Jesus Christ. And some day this will reach its consummation in the new Jeru¬ salem, when the mystery of God’s union with man shall be comjilete, and it will be true, “ Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man, and God Himself shall be with them and shall he their God.” # # ’ITIE CHRISTIAN A LIVING EPIS¬ TLE. I!y MR. C. T. STIIDI). You have heard the theory of this great subject; I am coming in with the dessert. You have had the roast beef; now I will bring you the pudding. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it, and so, to me, the best of all is that we can live this life. And yet, what a comfort it is to know that His grace is greater than our helplessnes. I often get letters from my dear wife and four little gifls, and sometimes there are blots on them. When I was a school¬ boy I once got a big blot on my copy 18 CHUISTMAS CONVOCATION. book, and I asked my companion to re¬ move it. He took the page and just gave it one lick, and, lo! the blot was entirely gone. That is the way Christ takes away my blots. He just touched me with His love and wiped away all my sin, and took it all into Himself. Sometimes things are hard and trying, but these are no contradiction of His love. Our trials are even the best proofs of His love. Our trials are even the best proofs of His tender regard. When I get letters from my little ones, they are full of little crosses, and these little crosses all stand for kisses which they have sent me; and when I write to them it is not enough for me to send a kiss in writing, but they look for their little crosses, and I have a different color for each of the little ones, according to their names. One is red, another green, an¬ other blue and another violet, and each little girl looks for her little cross, and it means to her a father’s kiss. So, it is often a comfort to me to think that His crosses are just His kisses. I have been asked, since I spoke about my call what about your mother; is she dead? No, she is living still, and she is love all over; I want you to pray for her. When any of us boys are sick she is always sick for us. She has taught me the meaning of that verse, “ In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them.” She feels the separation more than I. Ah, it has taught me to remember how God loves one. His greatest proof of love to me was to let me go to China. I have a brother in the Horse Guards, a great big fellow, more than six feet high, and my mother is very proud of him, but I feel that I have a much higher honor in being permitted to be a missionary and wear the Lord’s uniform. When my father died he left a large fortune to us, but arranged it so that I could draw nothing until I was 25, so I went to China a poor man, and for some years I tramped around and moved about from place to place, and learned to en¬ dure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It was very good of God to train me in this way, and prepare me to trust Him in hard places. Then the time came when my inheritance was to come to me, and I received a letter so inform¬ ing me, requiring me to sign a power of attorney enabling my representative to act. When I signed this paper I told the notary in China how I wanted this prop¬ erty disposed of for the Lord. He re¬ fused to witness it, and thought I must be crazy to give it away; but after wait¬ ing a couple of weeks he finally cort- sented, so I was still left dependent upon God. Ah, how God began to make it up. First, He saved my brother who had tried to avoid Him, but God per¬ mitted me to see him brought to Jesus Christ, and now he is preaching the Gos¬ pel and living for God. Then I had to propose to my dear w 4 fe that was to be. I told her that I was asking her to marry a man that had no money. To my great joy she wrote back and said; “If you had had the money I would not have had you,” and I saw the love of God again. I began to work independently. There were no Europeans, and the poor China¬ men could not help. There was no one to look to but God. There, for seven vears God kept us and met all our needs. When my earthly father was living I never had to ask Him for money; he was always thinking about us, and would give us a tip whenever we needed any¬ thing. And so God has been keeping me since I have had no other father or de¬ pendants. At one time I sent an order to my agent to use a certain amount of money for a charitable purpose. He made a big mistake, and used double the amount I ordered. It threw us into extremely hard circumstances. We had a baby which was bom then, and we could not even afford to pav for registering this little one. We had nothing that we could sell, for if we do have anything in China eveiw Chinaman is a magnet that attracts to himself anything worth tak¬ ing. Finallv we came to the last cash, and I said in the hearing of one of my Chinese friends, “ I do not know where the next cash is coming from.” I was glad the man heard me say this, for when the mail came next day and* brought a supply of all we needed, he saw the hand of God and glorified Him for His faithfulness. At another time we had bought a house, but had not enough to fix it up, for it needed to be taken down and built CH UI STM A S CONVOCATION. 19 over to be of any use. At the same time I got very ill, and was told by my friends that I had galloping consumption and must go home at once. A friend heard of my illness and sent me a large check to pay my way and my family’s, but God had already shown me that I must not go to England, and so I saw not much help by his letter, but when I turned over the page I read this postscript: “ If you won’t go to England, and will be so foolish, then use the money for anything you need it for.” Ah, that led me out an(d showed me my faithful God. I was telling a man the other day on the train how God had led me and car¬ ried me through these trials, and he told me that it was a pack of lies, and did not believe a word of it, but some day he will know how true it is, as God knows now. So He is faithful who hath promised, and even if we believe not, He abideth faithful and cannot deny Himself. Oh, brother, let Him have you fully, and you shall find that you have Him in all His fullness. 4 4 * CHRIST THE OJILY AND ALL-SUF¬ FICIENT SAVIOUR. By REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. There are four passages in the l^pistle to the Hebrews where Christ’s ability is referred to. 1. He is able to succour them that are tempted. Christ won for u? the victory which Adam lost. In His temptation He coun¬ teracted the terrible defeat of the fall and laid the foundation of our perfect victory; for we can overcome, even as He, if we know what it is to be in Him and meet our spiritual foes in His name. 2 . He is able to be touebed with the feeling of our infirmities. This corresponds with His agony in Cethsemane, as the former passage does with TTis temptation in the wilderness. When Satan cannot seduce us, he will oyipress us as ho did our blessed Lord in the supreme hour of TTis agony; hut TTe who suffered for us in the garden will suf¬ fer and triumyih in us still, and enable us to rise in TTis joy, even over the power of sorrow. 3. He is able to save to the uttermost. This finds its illustration in the super¬ natural ministries of His life. The sick¬ nesses that He healed, and the miracles that He wrought were all types of His saving power, and covered the whole range of His spiritual working. He that healed the fever-stricken ones can quench the fever of sinful desire; He that strengthened the palsied can give power to the paralyzed will; He that opened the eyes of the blind can give inward illumi¬ nation now, for He is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him. 4. He is able to introduce us into the holiest and secure our access to the fel¬ lowship of God and the glory of heaven. A poor Chinaman, and victim of opium, and one of the worst possible characters in Central China, stumliled into the chap¬ el at Hancow and heard a simple sermon on this text, “ He is able to save to the uttermost.” He waited after the serUce and asked the preacher if such a man as he could be saved. “ Oh, yes,” said the preacher. “ Ah, but you don’t know me. How long would it take Jesus to save me?” “ About a minute.” The man was incredulous, but he liung about the mis¬ sion, and one nfght he rushed into the chapel and exclaimed, “ I know it, it is true; He is able. He saved me!” TTe never tasted opium again, and went back to his own village to tell his people. They threat¬ ened to kill him, but lie did not fear them. On the street corners he preached Jesus and told his story. He was taken before the magistrate and sentenced to receive 3,000 Idows with the bamboo. Such a jiimisbinent was unjireccdented. His fiesh hung from his bones and the physician said be must die. Rut be was carried away and nursed by ,friends, and instead of complainig, he was singing liraises to God amid his sufferings. After a while ho recovered, and the first thing be did was to walk back twenlv mih's to the same street corner and begin to iireacb again. They arrested him again and yml him in nrison, but this time they did not dare to beat him. T’hey put biin liehind the bars. The yirison was on tin' top of a bill. What did be do? TTi’ went and stood at the open bars and shouted wilb all his might as a mnltilude of a tbousand neo- ple gathered around to hear him, “None of these things move me, neither count T 20 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the minis¬ try which I have received of the Lord Jesus Christ, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.” The same Saviour is still all-sutficient, and able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him. ^ « A MIRACLE OP GRACE. By MR. C. T. STOOD. 1 was brought up to dislike religion. The first thing that ever impressed me was my father’s conversion. I would as soon have thought of changing a pair of shoes into a table as changing my father into a Christian. He was a wealthy sportsman, and he brought us up to be the same. He wanted us to be manly fellows. There were three of us boys, and he used to put us on thoroughbred horses and take us out into the country and make us hunt after him, and if we did not keep up with him in the chase he was sure to be after us and make us. He taught us to swim, and then when he thought we had enough of the theory he pitched us in headforemost and compelled us to struggle for our lives. When Moody came over to England my father used to read in the papers about his great meetings, and he was struck by the novelty of the thing. One day lie threw the paper down and said, “If that man comes to London I must go and hear him. There must be something good in him when the papers abuse him so much.” My father had a friend in Dublin who had just been converted at Mr. Moody’s meetings there, although my father did not know it. He came over to visit my father about the time Mr. Moody was be¬ ginning his meetings in London. In our stables there were about forty race horses; there was one in particular that my father knew to be certain to win, and he sent word to this Irish friend, in¬ forming him of this privately and advis¬ ing him to back this horse with heavy betting, for he was sure to make a lot of money on him. The next time he met his friend he asked him how much he had put up on the horse. “Nothing,” he said. My father told him he was a fool, but he asked him, all the same, to come and dine with him. After dinner they proposed to go out, and my father asked him where they would go. He politely de¬ clined to choose, but when my father in¬ sisted, he suggested that they go and hear Mr. Moody. “Oh, no,” said my father, “not there, anywhere else.” “But,” said his friend, “you told me you would go where I chose, and I hold you to your word.” “All right,” said my father, and so they went. The hall was very crowd¬ ed and my friend knew that if he did not get a good seat for my father he would never come back again. So he stepped up to Mr. Matheson, one of the com¬ mittee, and said, “I have got a big sports¬ man here tnat i want to get converted, won’t you get him a good seat?” Mr. Matheson sat him down right under Mr. Moody’s nose, and he never took his eye off the preacher all the evening. Next night, he himself proposed to go back and said he wanted to hear that man again who told him all that he ever did. He took my little sister with him. At the close she wanted to go into the inquiry meeting, and he said, “Oh, no, not there.” Next day he wanted to take the little girl back again, but she refused. “No,” she said, “I won’t go unless you let me do as I please.” “All right,” he said, “you can do as you please,” and so they went. At the close of the meeting she insisted on going into the inquiry room. He said, “Oh, no, dear, not there.” “But you told me I could do as I pleased.” And so he had to go in with her to take care of her, and before he had got many steps in¬ side the room he was talking to one of the workers, and before the night was over he was a converted man. You never saw such a change in any man. It was the same skin, but another man was inside of it. We all thought him crazy—quite off his head—and, in¬ deed, he was, but he had got into his heart instead. He sold his horses and gave up his sporting. He went to Mr. Moody to ask what he should do about his old life—shooting, hunting and horse racing. Mr. Moody said, “I have noth¬ ing to say about the hunting and shoot¬ ing. God will show you all about that, but horse racing includes betting and bet- CUKISTMAS CONVOCATION. 21 ting is wrong.” it was not long until they all went. lint it was a good while before I got really converted. I could not see the way of accepting Christ. One night in the inquiry room a friend quoted the verse, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso¬ ever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” and asked me if I believed the verse. I said “Yes.” “Do you believe it all?” I thought I did. “Do you believe the first part of it, that God gave His only begotten Son to save men?” “Yes.” “Do you believe the last part, that you have everlasting life?” “Why, no,” I said, “I don’t think I do.” “Well,” he said, “what consistency is there in believing the first half and not believing the second part?” And then I saw that all I had to do was to believe. And, then, in a moment I was on my knees thanking God that I had everlast¬ ing life. It was a good while before I had a soul. One night as I sat beside my brother’s bed, where he lay apparently dying with malignant fever and hem¬ orrhages, I began to think, “What is the good of all his sporting now to him, all his athletics, all his physical manhood and all his college honors?” And in his life I saw my own, and I realized that it was wasted, and there and then I gave myself to God, never to lose another mo¬ ment or opportunity, but to live to get some one else saved. God was pleased to answer prayer and raised up my dear brother, and he is now preaching the gos¬ pel in Los Angelos. It was not long be¬ fore I was at work winning souls, and the first one God gave me was one of my greatest friends. Since then it has been the joy and bus¬ iness of my life. if, A MONDAY, DEC. 28. STCPIIEN AND DARNABAS, OR FAITH AND ROWER. FROM ON HIGH. liy nicv. T. O. EASTON, Wnsliliiploii, I). C. Acts vi. .5-8; xi. 22-24. Stephen and Barnabas were two of the noblest characters that adorned the infant Christian church. They have left a splendid record for the study of the church in all ages. Both were young men when converted and accomplished a glorious work for our Lord and Master, then fell asleep in death! We enter upon the study of these two young men to grasp if we can the quality of their piety as constituting the secret of their power in the primitive church. Among the great natural gifts possessed by these young men were learning and el¬ oquence. God richly freighted them with these wonderful powers for the pur¬ pose of defending the faith before the Sanhedrim. But mere eloquence and profound education are not enough, and if this had been all then they would have swayed no power over the hearts of men! Human wisdom, unattended by the di¬ vine baptism, is a poor armor for a Chris¬ tian warrior. It is like a grand piece of modern machinery without the motive power of steam! But there were supernatural gifts, for both these young heroes were “full of faith and the Holy Ghost.” This was the root of all their courage, zeal, fervor, enthusiastic heroism and devotion to their crucified Lord and Redeemer! In¬ timacy with the risen and glorified Christ made their love for Him a quenchless flame of enthusiasm. From these two typical persons—Steph¬ en and Barnabas—we learn this one great central fact, that when the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Ghost, comes into the hu¬ man heart to begin as the wise master builder the construction of character—a character that is to reach as high as the throne of God-—He first lays deep and solid the foundation stones of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! Faith in God siqqiorts the whole siqicrstnicture of a Christlike character! Let us not fail to mark that word—full, pleres—fulness plcroma: replete and over¬ flowing, filled completely. We arc not to be ]iartly filled, hut eui.t, of faith and the Holy Ghost. That tlie Holy Ghost will not keep company with uuhelief and sin. This, verily, is the great mistake of modern Christianity, that so niauv in all our churches are trying to live a half-and- half life—half world filled and half spirit filled life. 22 CIIIUSTMAS CONVOCATION. Consider 1. The Nature of Faith. 2 . The Repose of Faith. 3d. The Unity of Faith. 4th. The Power of Faith. I. —The Nature of Faith. First of all, then, Faith partakes of the nature of its author. It may be called the manifestation of the Holy Ghost life and power in the heart. The Old Tes¬ tament word for Faith is “^‘Aman,” from which we get our word “Amen,” which signifies steadfastness. The new Testa¬ ment word is “pistis,” which means trust and confidence. The two put together complete each other and become stead¬ fast trust, abiding confidence in God, the sheet anchor of the tempest-tossed soul! Faith is the friend of reason and is never unreasonable, although it runs with swift¬ ness, while reason may plod along. Rea¬ son can only wade, while faith can swim oceans. Faith is both microscopic and telescopic. It can discover the hidden things of the heart and sweep the horizon of whole eternities. Jesus teaches us that faith is the beginning of the new life in Himself, the condition of power with God to re¬ move mountains, receive healing and spir¬ itual blessings. He gave us the best il¬ lustration of faith by placing a little child in the midst of his hearers and com¬ mended the child-like spirit of absolute confidence in the Father. The charac¬ teristic of faith is not self-sufficiency— not parade of our righteousness—but truthfulness, receptivity, affection, will¬ ingness to submit to discipline, imitative¬ ness, innocence and readiness to receive instruction and care! How believing is a little child, unconsciously under the in¬ fluence of the Holy Spirit, and, Oh, it is sad that childhood’s sweet faith, so trusting and beautifully simple, must be shattered by contact with the deceitful world, and then the hard lesson of trust re-learned through years of trial and sor¬ row! II.— The Repose of Faith. We must have both faith in God and faith in our faith. Our faith must rest externally upon the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, not internally upon our experi¬ mental knowledge of Christ dwelling within the heart. We cannot pin our faith to anything but the promises of God, and thus believing we shall enter in¬ to rest even amid this world’s ceaseless trials and conflicts, building upon the one foundation —Christ! What then is the supreme repose of our faith? What is the great basic fact upon which we build the structure of a holy character? Where do we rest our hopes of eternal life? The resurrection is to the whole system of Christian thought what the keystone is to the arch. By the resurrection we have full assurance of a complete atonement and a salvation that reaches to the utter¬ most and secures the believer’s entire sanctification! Wholly sanctified simply means to be wholly the Lord’s. When faith, the gift of the Holy Ghost, claims this blessing and confidently reposes upon the truth that the blood cleanses from all sin and sweetly and peacefully reposes as the beloved disciple upon the bosom of his Lord, then is experienced that “rest of faith” that calms us in all the dangers and trials of life, and affords the sweetest rest in the midst of its turmoils! Oh, that the church could come up to her ex¬ alted privilege and know the infinite peace that abides in the soul when by an entire consecration the believer finds this absolute rest of a sanctified will and over whose life is written “Holiness unto the Lord,” then would the peevish frettings and worry, the incessant and corroding cares, the frowning fears and doubts, all surrender to the repose of faith! Into this Canaan of perfect rest would the Holy Ghost lead every one of Christ’s flock. “It is the will of God, even your sancti¬ fication,” and the Holy Ghost, praying in the heart of the apostle, voiced this peti¬ tion, “And the God of peace himself sanc¬ tify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it! Say not that this higher life in Christ is a dream—a vagary of fanatical minds—some ecstatic condi¬ tion reserved only for some elect few, as unattainable to the great sacramental host. What God wills to do for one He can do for all! God wills that I should holy be. What can withstand His will? The council of His grace in me He surely shall fumll! CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 23 III. — The Unity of Faith. Faith like a scarlet thread runs through all the Bible. As the blood of Christ is sprinkled through all its pages, so faith in that blood is everywhere inculcated. Just as in proportion we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace we shall keep the unity of that faith inwrought by the tioly Ghost! Paul exhorted the Ephe¬ sians to work for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect man, unto the meas¬ ure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” This, Paul termed “the per¬ fecting of the saints.” What an achieve¬ ment is here presented—a unified faith, and the church holding the unity of the faith in the bond of peace. Paul declares that he and his followers held that same spirit of faith, and it enabled the martyrs and heroes of the olden time to endure as seeing the invisible, and it is having “like precious faith” that brings us into com¬ munion with the saints of all ages and makes us one in Christ! We are by the unity of faith one with the believers who lived before the Incarnation, who be¬ lieved in the Saviour to come, and one with all who build upon that eternal rock, since He cried with the loud voice on Cal¬ vary. “It is finished.” Men are born and die, generations come and go, but this faith in the Christ sur¬ vives, and, like Tennyson’s brook, it “goes on forever!” IV. —The Power of Faith. Faith is fullness of life in Christ, and, therefore, manifests itself in power, yea, in the mightiest of all power! It was the prayer of the apostolic servants of God that the early church might be strength¬ ened with all might, according to his glo¬ rious power. Power, dunamis, from which we have our modern word dynamo, that tremendous power that moves great ma¬ chinery, transports great trains and is or¬ dained to revolutionize in the Twentieth Century all our system of motive power. Dynamite, that awful explosive that can rend mountains and lay in ruins gigantic buildings and break the grandest, tower¬ ing shafts of solid masonry! Dynamite, the Satanic weapon of the Anarchist to destroy the grandest institutions of our Republic and level in utter destruction the most imposing buildings that Ameri¬ can wealth and genius can construct! Now, then, faith is God’s dynamite! Faith, with the Holy Ghost behind it, can level the most imposing, firmly buttressed and heavy institutions of iniquity! Let us not discount the promises of an en¬ throned Christ, but take them at par! There is one promise given by the Christ which never was recalled, never can¬ celed nor withdrawn from the disci¬ ples of the present period. Hear it, be¬ lieve it, if ye would have power! “The works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do be¬ cause I go unto the Father.” He has gone to the Father and sent the Holy Ghost, who is the giver of all power. Ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost com¬ ing upon you! The church lacks power because she lacks faith, and she lacks faith be¬ cause she lacks the indwelling of the Holy Ghost! The great want of the church is, a new annointing of the Holy Ghost! It is not greater wealth, greater culture, greater genius, greater reach of territory, greater knowledge of science or phi¬ losophy, but we need greater power to cope with and overthrow the gigantic in¬ iquities of the present age. That power —the spiritual dynamite of the church— is the Holy Ghost! Men are in demand, men like Stephen and Barnabas, humble they may be, poor they may be. unlearned they may be, but men of God, full of faith and the Holy Ghost! Hallelujah! the resources of the in finite are ours, and the key to the treas¬ ury is in our liands. Will we turn the lock? We are urged to enter by the King Himself, saying to us, “All tilings are yours, whether Paul or Ajiollos, or Ce¬ phas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” -4 4 DWELLING IN THE HOEIEST. I!y uioy. COItNEIUTTS WOEEFKIN. Every part of the Hebrew camp was arranged with reference to the presence ot God. There were three sections in the 24 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION ancient tabernacle—the court, the holy place and the holy of holies, and each of these, among other typical applications respecting the three parts of our being, body, soul and spirit, is the dwelling place of God. When man fell, his higher nature be¬ came a death chamber. In regeneration the spirit is made alive, and its organs and functions are prepared to understand and hold communion with God. The spiritual ear and eye and touch are ad¬ justed to the divine presence. It is in this inner chamber that the Holy Spirit dwells, passing through it to the soul and body, and bringing every part of the life into adjustment to the will and presence of God. Now, when the Holy Spirit comes into a human temple there comes a conflict. The carnal nature resists at first and afterward tries to compromise. The natural man will do anything except sub¬ mit and surrender his soul and body and spirit to be controlled by the divine will. When we wholly yield ourselves to God in this complete surrender, the divine presence entirely controls our being, and we are fully sanctified. Then our whole life is pervaded with the divine influence. All things are sacred; our food and dress and our business are all subject to God’s will, and “ whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we do all to the glory of God.” In the prophecies of Zachariah we read of a time when every pot and kettle and every equipage and carriage in Jerusalem should be as the holiest vessels in the house of the Lord. This, doubt¬ less, refers to the consecration of our commercial and domestic life. Now we are to become patterns of this coming glory. We are called the chil¬ dren of the day—that is, the children of the coming age. We are to be specimens in this generation of what God will do in the next. All we are and do is to be¬ come sacred by the presence of God, and our whole being scintillate and coruscate heavenly light in a dark world. The Holy Ghost brings us into the full¬ ness of this life through the Word of God, but it is only that portion of the Word of God which is engrafted into us which be¬ comes efiectual and fruitful. Shall we receive with meakness the engrafted Word, and grow up into Him in all things? It is our privilege to be lifted into a place where we shall be conscious of things unutterable, and shall know not only the groanings of the Holy Ghost, but the unspeakable joys of the Father and the Son. Now, how shall we enter into this? Just as simply and definitely as we enter into salvation. Just as the sinner must yield himself to Christ, so the Christian must yield himself to the Holy Spirit for this full salvation. Then we shall get into cur right attitude; not attempting to do something for God, but so presenting ourselves to God that He can fill us and use us according to His good pleasure. This is true service. When you employ a boy to carry your messages and run your errands you do not always keep him running. Some¬ times you keep him standing or sitting for hours together waiting for the next order, but you pay him not only for the tim.e he spends in running but for the time he spent in sitting or standing for your next command. If he is idle, it is your business. And so our part is to let God use us, whether it be our silence or our speech, and to lie content at His feet, knowing that “ they also serve who only stand and wait.” * * A THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE. Bj- REV. A. T. PIERSON. D.D. The best evidence of a Spirit-filled life is the displacement of everything else;, even the consciousness of the blessing. A man of great spiritual power told me how once, when he was speaking in the power of the Spirit, it suddenly flashed upon him, “I am speaking with great spiritual power,” and instantly it all left him. There are some of us who once took great delight in collecting high thoughts and winning the applause of men, but all this and must have her special annoited sons and daughters! Oh, give the church men must be counted loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. The personal indwelling of God through the Holy Ghost in the believer, as in a tern- CIIKISTMAS CONVOCATION. 25 pie, is the greatest thought of the New Testament. The only real house that God can take pleasure in is the temple of a believing soul. There are seven truths connected with this, namely:— 1. Inhabitation for God where lie dwells, personally, in the consecrated dis¬ ciple. 2. Kevelation, for He manifests Him¬ self and reveals the truth of the Scrip¬ tures and the light of God’s presence to the spiritual mind. 3. Interpretation. Making clearly to understand the meaning of the Scriptures and the will of God. 4. Sanctification, that allowing not only of spirit, soul and body, but of all things we touch. 5. Transfiguration. The outshining of the glory of God. 6. Power and divine efficiency in our work. 7. Glorification. The beginning al¬ ready and the foretaste of the glory to come. There is a text in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, verse 18, which is an imbed¬ ding and comprehensive picture of the Spirit-filled life, and the whole passage is the most perfect expression of such a life that I know of anywhere in the Scrip¬ tures. The passage commences with the fourteenth verse, which really describes the sunrise of the Spirit in the believer’s life. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” The light is really the Holy Ghost. The verses that follow describe the effects of being filled with the Spirit. First—It will produce a circumspect walk (verse 15). Things that once seemed right will become doubtful to tbe awakened conscience. Things that were lawful will be found inexpedient, and in¬ stead of seeking to please ourselves wo will watch more carefully and seek to please God and help others in all things. As you have seen a cat walking on the top of a wall covered with broken glass, pick¬ ing her footsteps most carefully, so the Spirit-filled believer walks through a dan¬ gerous world, guarding against stumbling blocks and watching in all things. Second—The redeeming of opportuni¬ ties is another fruit of the Spirit-filled life (verso IG). Tbe idea is, that every time we lose an opportunity it costs us more next time to recover it, and the Spirit-filled man will eagerly seize the op¬ portunity before it goes and avail himself of every possible means to glorify God and save and help mortal souls. Third—An intelligent understanding of the will of God (verse 17). God has promised to guide the meek in judgment, and the Spirit-filled man will understand His will and will subordinate all his plans to God’s plans for him. A great many people make up their minds and then they ask God to help them. They are like a man pushing a wheelbarrow ahead of him and saying he is led by the wheel¬ barrow. Fourth—The displacement of the lower by the higher (verie 18). Wine, here, represents the coarser pleasures of the flesh and the mind. God does not re¬ quire us to renounce these things, but he wants to displace them by something bet¬ ter. “Can I dance?” is so often asked. “Do you want to?” is my answer. Can you un¬ derstand a child of God filled with the Spirit wanting to dance or go to the thea¬ tre? His tastes and preferences are lifted higher by something better; like the stage driver who told Dr. Chalmers that once his skittish horses came to a place in the road where they were used to shy, and he struck them a sharp lash with tlie whip to give them something to think about. Dr. Chalmers went home and wrote his sermon on the expulsive j)ower of a new vision. There is no stronger evidence that you are not filled with tlie Spirit than that you have a conflict with your lower passions and your sensual nature. Fifth—Spiritual worship is another ev¬ idence of being filled with the Spirit (verse It)). This singing is not to man but to the Lord. In tlie Helirew ’bab- ernaclc every principle of art was vio¬ lated. What God wanted was worshij) directly to Himself. We are told that Ahaz wont to Damascus and found an altar, which he purchased and brought in¬ to the Tabernacle in Jerusalem; but God went out. ddiis is what the church is doing to-day; it is jmtting a Damascus altar in the house of God. It is building the highest spire and having the biggest debt, but Christ is not there. Mendelssohn, the great comiioser, once 26 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. visited Freiburg Cathedral and asked per¬ mission to play on the organ, but the cus¬ todian refused. At last, after much en¬ treaty, he consented to let him touch it, but when Mendelssohn began to play the old man, who was also the organist, burst into tears and asked him for his name. When he heard who it was he wept afresh and said, “Only to think! I had al¬ most forbidden Mendelssohn to touch my organ.” And so, alas, Christ, the proprie¬ tor of His church, is scarcely welcome to its altar, and the very sanctuary of God has become the synagogue of Satan and the world. Sixth—Humility is the crowning evi¬ dence of a Spirit-filled life (verse 21). “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” Humility is the beau¬ ty of holiness and the ornament in which God takes delight. The crmvn of humil¬ ity is to be unconscious of its own humil¬ ity. God wants us to be like the gard¬ ener’s trellis, where the vine grows above the trellis, and for a moment thinks, per- standard, but, lo, the next morning the gardener adds several new bars to the trellis, and, lo, the plant finds it is not half way up, but, instead of being dis- courged, it just pushes out to the higher standard and climbs twice as high again. And so, as we go on in the Christian life we will think less of ourselves, not be¬ cause we are less, but because the stand¬ ard has been lifted higher, and it will be so to the end, from the depths to the heights. “He must increase but I must decrease.” TUESDAY. DEC. 29. FOEMS OF THE SELF LIFE. By PRES. BLANCHARD, of Wheaton College. III. There are few Christians and few min¬ isters of Christ who are not willing to ad¬ mit that there is failure somewhere in their lives, but there are still fewer who have discovered that the cause of it is almost always to be found in some form of the self life. Talking once to a man who kejit a disorderly house, I said, “How can you be engaged in such a business? Why don’t you get out of it?” “ Oh,” he said, “ 1 often wish I could, but the truth is, there is too much money in it.” That is the coarser form, but it is in its more subtle phase. It is the lurking foe that puts to sleep the great majoritv of Christians and prevents their lifting a finger, or speaking a word to save a fellow man, and that silences the tongues of thousands of preachers of the gospel who dare not speak the whole truth to covet¬ ous and compromising men in their audi¬ ences, whom they fear too often, and wEose sins they feebly excuse, because they like the nice society and the abund¬ ant salary, and the large and fashionable church; and they languidly say to them¬ selves, “ What is the use? If I went to another church I would find it just the same, and so I just let things alone and do the best I can.” How may we be delivered from the power of Self? First—We must be saved from it by the blood of Jesus and enter into the real meaning of His cross so that we truly die with Him to all our rights and all our strength. Second—The example of Jesus Christ. Our life is to be the reproduction of His. “ As my Father hath sent ]\Ie, even so send I you.” Christ lived in this world for no selfish end. He was here as a stranger simply to represent His Father, and save men, and all His personal hopes lay beyond it. This is the true spirit of His disciples. “ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be eagerly grasped, that He should be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wlierefore God also hath high¬ ly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that everv tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” CHUISTMAS CONVOCATION. 27 FAITH AND LOVE AS INCENTIVES TO SERVICE. By KEY. A. T. PIEUSON. D.D. Faith and love are the two great springs ■of holy action. Faith has direct reference to God; love to both God and man. Faith supplies the impulse of service; love sup¬ plies both the impulse and the object. Love is of two kinds—the love of com¬ placency and the love of benevolence. The love of complacency dwells on the lovable traits in others, but the love of benevo¬ lence loves most abundantly where there is no merit. The love of complacency re¬ ceives; the love of benevolence gives. The child of God draws from God by the love of complacency the power to give it to man by the love of benevolence. Man’s misery was the magnet that drew Him from the skies, but after we become His children. He is able to give to us the love of complacency. There is a kind of benev¬ olence toward man without faith in God. This is not Divine love. In God’s eye, there is no true service which does not combine both faith toward God and love toward man. True faith in God leads to true love toward man. Faith and love are the right and left arms of service. We need to go forth to help our fellow-men, strong in the con¬ sciousness of our union with our Master, and sure that God is on our side. The true servant must be loyal to God and know that God is loyal to him. We ought to be such men and women that God can trust, and we need to be absolutely certain that God has put us where we are and sent us forth to our work; and then we shall stand through good and ill report. And we must go forth to our work with a love that springs from something in us, rather than from anything from those whom we seek to help and bless. This love will make all service delightful. It will give wings to the flight of time; it will lighten every labor and it will make every sacrifice sweet. The history of the church of Jesus Christ is full of illustrations of these prin¬ ciples. Mrs. Dr. Grant went as a missionary to Persia at twenty-one. She died at twenty- five, but in those four years she attracted to herself an admiration and love that almost arose to the height of adoration, and when she died they dug up the very pavements of one of their ancient sanc¬ tuaries and buried her there. The three Mrs. Judsons, of Burmah, were such examples. Judson’s first wife used to go month after month to the pris¬ on yard to minister to her suffering hus¬ band, and if she could not get near him to cheer his heart, she would at least by a smile or look of love. The natives seemed to think of her as an angel that had crossed their path, and kissed the very shadow that she cast in passing. Robert Morrison’s was such a life. Going to China in its midnight darkness and waiting a quarter of a century outside the gates at Canton, studying the language and lighting the first lamp of truth and life that is now multiplied into tens of thousands of converted souls and conse¬ crated lives. Dr. Livingston was, perhaps, the noblest sample of love to God and man this century has produced. A few months ago I had the privilege of looking at the old factory where he used to work at his loom and at the same time study some books of instruction that were to prepare him for his future work; sacrificing every earthly ambition to the one ambition of his life—to save Africa. He buried his noble wife under a baobab tree on the Zambezi, and went into the depths of Af¬ rica for fifteen months, without a word of communication with the world beyond, and when at last found by Stanley, sick and worn, he was invited to come back with the explorer, but he refused and went forth again to his lone and danger¬ ous task; and when at last he died o.i his knees in a little hut in the centre of the Dark Continent, the two faithful natives who had learned to love and reverence their master, stole in and found that he was really dead, and, without any knowl¬ edge of embalming, or any jirospect of human reward, they took his body, first cutting out his heart and burying it in Africa, and then they dried it in the sun, and tried to preserve it in alcohol, and wrapping it in canvas carried it on their shoulders 1,500 miles to the sea that they might bear it to those that loved him. Many times they were met by hostile tribes, and often they bad to hide in the 28 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. woods aud cover it with leaves or conceal it amid bales of cloth, and so difficult was their task that even after the body was brought to England few would believe that it was really Livingston’s until it was examined by those who knew him per¬ fectly, and the very marks of the lion’s teeth were found upon his arm. The body was buried in Westminster Abbey, and those noble black men stood among the loftiest names of England, honored by the world for the highest nobility of charac¬ ter, and yet reflecting the higher honor of the noble missionary who had the power so to win their love. Another example was the heroic Gen. Gordon. With a mighty faith in God and a yet larger love to man, he honored the profession of a soldier and a states¬ man by the higher qualities of a Christlike Christian. He stood in the presence of King John of Abyssinia and dared to tell him his faults, and when the proud mon¬ arch threatened him, he said that he had no fear of death, for it would only bring him the quicker into the presence of his Lord. There was no motive of either earthly hope or fear that could swerve him a hair line from the inexorable path of right. He refused to be lionized or honored for his work, and when the Chinese gave him a memorial medal for his invaluable services to them it was found shortly af¬ terwards that he had sent it home to Man¬ chester to be melted down and the money given to the poor. Surrounded with lux¬ ury, he never partook of it. A visitor once, having come to dine with him, was sur¬ prised to find him taking only a little bread and tea, and he excused himself by saying: “ It wont make any difference in half an hour.” Left unsupported in the dark Soudan to die alone, in the siege of Khartoum,his one supreme concern to the last was to administer to the men around him and to be true to God and his country. For such lives there is a glorious rec¬ ompense. We may be saved by grace, but there is far more than this for the life that is true. God has given to each of us the opportunity of winning a crown and re¬ ceiving a reward, and it is just as true that he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done. Our lives are telling every moment for the age to come. and some day we would give worlds to be able to stand once more upon this earthly theatre of faith and love and be able to sacrifice and serve. * * « WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30. EEEILS OF THE MODEEN CHUECH. By REV. A. B. SIMPSON. God has given us in His own Word an unerring outline of the dangers that were to threaten the church of Christ through all the ages. In the last mes¬ sage of the ascended Lord, through the Apostle John in the Apocalypse, we have seven letters to certain churches in Asia,, which, undoubtedly, represent the vari¬ ous stages of the visible church to the end of the Christian age. Two of these churches are blameless, but five of them are solemnly warned, and severely re¬ proved, and in the picture given of their perils and failures we may see, as in a mirror, our own dangers. The first is the church in Ephesus, whose peril was orthodoxy and activity without supreme love to Christ. Ephesus had a perfect creed and plenty of w'orks, and the last were more than the first, but she had left her first love, that is, her su¬ preme love that put Jesus first. The next was the church in Pergamos, which represents the spirit of compro¬ mise with the Word, the error of Balaam, the mixing of Israel with the Canaanites. This last has ever been the danger of Christianity, and it never was so terrible as it is to-day. The third is the church in Thyatira, representing “ the depths of Satan,” the subtleties of false teaching, the seductions of Jezebel, the errors of the Papacy, the wicked One coming as an angel of light in pulpits and professors’ chairs, and undermining the very foundations of truth and purity. The fourth was the church in Sardis, which had a great name, but was dead, and it represents the boastful and appar¬ ently successful forms of Christian life, with, alas! no spiritual life or power. Laodicea represents the closing chap¬ ter of church histor\’, and the picture of CUltlSTMAS OONVOCATION. 29 our own times. It is a church witii Jesus Christ outside knocking for ad¬ mission to His own temple. It is a church perfectly satisfied with itself, and boasting of its riches and its spiritual condition, telling of the number of its adherents, and pointing to the magnifi¬ cence of its sanctuaries and organization. 13nt, alas, when you feel its pulse! The Master turns away with loathing and dis¬ gust; it is lukewarm, it is spiritually in¬ different, it is given over to. self-compla¬ cency, luxury and respectability, and the Lord is just about to say, “Lo! your house is left unto you desolate.” And in the next verse we see Him standing at the door, and just about to come in His glor¬ ious Advent, and the solemn heart-search¬ ing judgment of His unfaithful people. These are the perils which His own wisdom and love have pointed out. God help us to heed that whispered caution that thrills every sensitive heart, for, alas! all shall not heed it. “He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” * * * THE DOWN GRADE. By Rev. Robert Cameron, D. D. In the first chapter of Romans we have a fearful picture of the departure of man from God, which is true in every succes¬ sive age. Beecher used to say that when man fell he fell upward, and that he had been going in that direction ever since. If we will read this chapter, and the story of the Lord along side of it we will be disillusionized. We find three steps in all these declen¬ sions. First—Man turning away from God. Second—Man turning to foolish and blind idolatry. Third—Man sinking into the basest and lowest passions. This was fulfilled in ancient Israel under the very shadow of Mount Sinai; this was ful¬ filled in the early church; this is being fulfilled in the modern church. The Ref¬ ormation brought much light, but there were many things that it failed to teach: The doctrine of holiness, the hope of the Lord’s personal coming, in stojiping short of God’s truth in its fullness. Germany has gone into speculation, and to-day is sinking into moral rottenness. Our own land began in the rigid piety of our I’uritan ancestors, and George Robin¬ son said before he died: “ There is a greater light to break over this Book than we have yet seen.” Alas! instead of fol¬ lowing this Word, New England has fol¬ lowed the speculations of past ages. In¬ stead of letting the Word of God sit in judgment on them men have been sitting- in judgment on the Word of God, and as Dr. Brookes has expressed it, it has be¬ come a footrace with the devil among the college presidents and theological profes¬ sors to see who can kick the old Book the farthest. I have lived in New England three years, and I have been sadly unde¬ ceived. The wild West is a little heaven to some of the things that I know. In a single town not very far from Boston there are 500 people living together un¬ married and defying the laws of God and man. In the thirteenth chapter of Isaiah God gives the progression of evil, and the downward path of departure from Him. “Woe to them that go down to Egypt and take counsel, but not of Me; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shad¬ ow of Egypt your confusion.” The world is swamping the church. It is a good thing to have the ship in the sea, but it is a very different thing when the sea gets into the ship, and that, alas! is the state of things to-day. Turning away from her Lord, the church is sinking into idle, fool¬ ish, human speculations, and then into the idolatry of modern covetousness, and the end is all the corruptions and debase¬ ments which in these last days have al¬ ready begun to put Sodom and Gomorrah to shame. ♦ ♦ THE GREAT SPIRTTTIAI. !\I()VK- MKNTS OF THE CEN’I’IIKY. liy UIOV. A. T. lUKKSON. I).l>. The first and the last great movement of the century is the great missionary awakening for the evangelization of the world. Tdiis work dates back to the mid¬ dle of the last century, when a little club of devoted young men in Eton College, 30 OHIUSTMAS CONVOCATION. Oxford. Among them were John Wesley and George Whitfield. Out of that move¬ ment grew a great revival of spiritual life in the last century. One of the fruits of this movement was David Brainerd, and one of the fruits of his life was Jonathan Edwards, the most saintly man that has ever lived on this continent. He sent out a call to the Christian world to meet everywhere and pray for the effusion of the Holy Spirit. William Carey repub¬ lished this call in 1787 , and a few years later the first missionary society was formed, and Carey was sent to India as his first missionary. This was followed soon after by the organization of about twenty-two missionary societies, and the present century was opened by a simul¬ taneous missionary movement for the evangelization of the world, on the part of all denominations and in all lands. The century has been marked by marvel¬ ous providential openings for the Gospel in almost every nation of the world, and it is closing with an unparalleled mis¬ sionary advance to evangelize the world in the present generation. In the middle of the century two other movements of great importance arose. One was the work of faith of George Mulle’' of Bristol. He started out with the simple object of demonstrating to the world that God is the living God, and the hearer and answerer of prayer. Without a solicitation or appeal, this apostolic saint has maintained five great Orphan houses, holding between two or three thousand orphans,and a large missionary work in various countries, for which he has received, directly in answer to prayer, more than thirty-five million dollars, and he now stands, at the age of 92 , like Moses, with eve undimmed and vigor un¬ impaired, a monument for the promises of God, and it almost seems as if God had preserved him alive to wait for his Master’s coming, and to meet him, like Enoch, in a glorious translation. Mr. Muller’s work represents a large amount of faith, work in various forms and places. George Williams of London was a plain business man in a mercantile house, and he saw the need for some special work for young men, and began to gather the young men of his own estab¬ lishment about him for Bible study and prayer. This led to similar associations in other business houses, until finally sixteen of these clubs met in Mr. Will¬ iams’ house, and they organized the Young Men’s Christian Association, out of which has grown an organization that covers the world, and which has given birth to the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Student Volunteer- Movement, and a great mass of associa¬ tion work which links together the vari¬ ous denominations and stimulates Chris- tain life and work in a thousand direc¬ tions. Tlie three great principles of the Young Men’s Christian Association work are: First, the development of lay agency in our churches; secondly, the unity of all believers; thirdly, the stimulating of Bible study among young men. The young man with the Baxter Bible under his arm is the product of this great movement, and the type of a new era of spiritual power. Perhaps the greatest movement of the century has been in the direction of Scriptual holiness. To Charles Finney more than to any other individual, is this great movement due. He came when men were under the power of a religious fatalism, and he urged sinners to take the salvation that God had already given them, and Christians to co-operate with God and claim the power that was wait¬ ing their use. Finney lived, believed and preached practical holiness. Simul¬ taneously with him such men as Asa, Mahan, Monod, the Haldanes, Dr. Boardman, R. P. Smith and others arose. In 1873 a great movement began in England, which led to the consecration of a large number of Ejpiscopal clergy¬ men, including Canons Christopher, Battersbv and a circle of English clergy¬ men centering around Oxford. One of the results of this movement was the Keswick meeting, begun in 1875 , and continuing for twenty-one years with in¬ creasing power. Alongside of this has been a simultaneous movement in all Christian lands, and under various phases, emphasizing Sanctification, Sepa¬ ration and the preparation of the Bride for the coming of our Lord. Among the principles emphasized by this movement are; First, the instant abandonment of all known sin; second, the surrender of our will to the will of CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 31 God; third, the renunciation of self-life; fourth, the filling of the Holy Ghost; fifth, the revelation of Jesus Christ in the soul; sixth, all the possibilities of a Spirit-filled life for service and blessing. There is one more movement which might be called the movement for Salva¬ tion and Rescue work. It is represented by our Rescue missions in the slums, and among the neglected classes, and one of its chief illustrations has been the work of the Salvation Army, embodying these great principles: First, every believer is a witness and worker; second, every human being ought to be sought and saved; third, every human agency ought to be subordinate to the salvation of men. There are things in the Army which one could wish were different. It would be much better if the Word of God were recognized and the Sacraments were ob¬ served. But, notwithstanding all our criticism, it represents a true and a mar¬ velously successful advance movement for the neglected classes and the salva¬ tion of men. Dear friends, these are some of God’s movements. How much has He moved you, and how much are you doing and letting Him do through you for the sal¬ vation of men, the evangelization of the world and the bringing in of His king¬ dom? THURSDAY, DEC. 30. THE GOSPEL, THE POWER AND WISDOM OF GOD. By F. H. Senft. The picture has been made none too dark by the brother who preceded me, as he portrayed some of the “ awful evils of modern society.” But let the darkest hues be applied to the canvas, with many lines of crimson, the blood of the foulest crimes; let Satan do his meanest, might¬ iest work against the creatures of God, re¬ producing, yea, outdoing the wickedness of heathenism described in the first and third chapters of Romans, closing with “all guilty before God,” yet, thank God! the remedy is more than equal to the deadly disease; for “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Rom. v. 20 . " Do you see that creature down there in the slime of the pit, robbed of virtue and valor, shattered and shorn, ready to die?” “Yes; he is surely in a most pit¬ iable and deplorable condition, beyond all hope, too vile to touch, too sinful to save.” “ Aha!” says Satan, “■ he was made in the image of God, but look! that is what I have done.” God comes on the scene and says, “True, you have done all you can do, ex¬ cept take his life; I will now show what I can do.” Then the everlasting arms of Jehovah reach down (through some lov¬ ing Samaritan) and the man stands up¬ right, the breath of God regenerates; he is made a new creature. Would you rec¬ ognize him as the same man? “A marvel¬ ous transformation ! ” admitted even by Satan, “ but wait; through sin and conse¬ quent disease I will shorten his life twen¬ ty years!” Would not the enemy still have an advantage over God and one of His redeemed creatures? But listen! “ Where sin abounded, grace shall much MORE abound” This not only matches the work of the enemy, but makes us “ more than conquerors.” Salvation from sin: salvation from sickness. Still morel “ 0, death, where is thy sting? 0, grave, where is thy victory?” But thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Praise His name forever! I. The power of God. God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Ps. Ixi. 11. El Shaddai—I am the Almighty God. And this ])owor Ho makes possible and practi¬ cal to us through obedient faith. “ I am thy flod.” “ W'’ith God all things are possible.” Failh makes the connection, and “all things are possible to him that believeth ”—God, faith, infinite power, limitless ])o.ssibilities. IT. “ Christ the ])ower of God and the wisdom of God.” I. Cor. i. 24. Christ was the expression of the Father’s power and wisdom over Satan, sickness, nature, de¬ mons, death, even His own resurrection and trium])hant ascension, “ far above all principality and power and might and do¬ minion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but that which is to come; and hath put all things undiM- 32 ('HRISTMAS CONVOCATION. ilis feet, and gave liiiii to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the tidiness of Him that filleth all in all.” Ej)h. i. 21-23. Beloved, we are partakers of Ills power, “ the exceeding greatness of llis power to us-ward who believe.” However humble is thy place, even His feet, thou art a part of His body, and “all things are under His feet.” He is “on the right hand of the power of Hod.” ]juke xxii. 69. It is the power of His glory shed forth in us by the Holy Hliost. How mighty and resistless is the current from yonder throne as it passes through human lives! “In heavenly places in Christ.” His exaltation is ours. The ])rivileges and power of the throne are ours because we abide in Him and through such association ive are victor¬ ious, coming off more than conquerors through Him that loved us! “All poAver is given unto me,” says Jesus, “ Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.” In other Avords, “ I have all poAver, and you have me, therefore go.” We could not control the poAver of God any more than the child could control the dynamos that run our cars and light our cities. The Spirit strengt-hens the inner man AAuth all might that Christ may dAA^ell in our hearts that Ave might be filled AAuth all the fullness of God.” III.—The Gospel is the power of God, Bom. i. 16. Note the three “I am’s ” of Paul—“ I am debtor,” “ I am ready ” and “ I am not ashamed ”—and each has to do AAuth the gospel in his relation and ob¬ ligation to men. The gospel is the living chain that con¬ nects us AA'ith God. “ The Avords that I speak unto you they are spirit and life.” It is God’s prepared shaft to wound that He may heal; to kill that He may make alive. But it is “ the Avord of faith.” Out of the germ, concealed Avithin the folds of the Word, springs life—everlasting life, more abundant life. “ The gospel is the poAver of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Hast thou believed? Dost thou continue to believe? “ Believ- eth, ”—the perpetual present tense. The gospel is the only remedy for mod¬ ern evils, AA^hether coated Avith culture and civilization or blackened AAuth the deepest darkness of heathenism. Christ the power of God; the gospel the power of God, alone, is the cure-all. He does not bid us go and educate, refine, reform, civilize; but “ GO PREACH MY GOSPEL.” The for¬ mer Avithout the gospel will only make man more a child of hell; Avhile the gospel Avill transform him into a child of heaven, even the Bride of Christ. IIoAv the enemy dances with delight as he dazzles the AA'atchmen on the walls of Zion Avith false methods of warning the slumbering church and Avrong tactics in meeting the enemy in the open battle! It is not reformation, but regeneration; not education, but evangelization; not build¬ ing up strong communities of “ like faith and order,” but push on into all Judea, and into Samaria, and unto the utter¬ most parts of the earth.” “Let us go into the next towns.” IV.—The Holy Spirit the agent. “ He breathed on them and said, Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost.” He, the Spirit-filled, the conqueror of death, the resurrected One, clothed Avith ncAv power, breathed, im¬ parted an earnest of the post-ascension poAver received on the day of Pentecost. He shall baptize you Avith the Holy Ghost and fire.” “ Ye shall receive the ])OAver of the Holy Ghost coming upon you ” (marginal reading). He is not only the Holy Spirit but the Spirit of power. Holiness linked Avith almightiness, the Holy One transforming the impure, the Omnipotent One empoAvering the impo¬ tent one. “ HE SHALL BE IN YOU.” In Joel ii. 23 there is “ the rain, the former rain and the latter rain.” Might this not haA^e a spiritual significance? Have you had the rain of regeneration? Have you drank in the copious shoAvers of “the former rain of Pentecost?” Do you know the sweetness and fullness of the ever-increasing shoAvers of Pentecost as they mingled Avith the droppings of “ the latter rain,” Avhich Avill soon be poured upon all flesh? We are living at the end of the ages, Avhere many lines are converging into a focus of blazing light from the throne of coming glory. Let him that readeth understand. What means this eager throng, Avith hearts intensely long¬ ing for God, the living God? The ansAver Avas given tAventy-five centuries ago, “In the time of the end, many shall be puri¬ fied and made white and tried.” Never Avas there such a time of searching for the hidden treasures, seeking for him who alone can satisfy the deepest longings of CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 33 the huinaii soul. It is the time of the end: the day of llis preparation. The l^anib's wife is putting on her spotless robes of “ line linen, clean and bright.” Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to liiiii; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready.” What means this “walking, leaping and praising God?” Oh, it means that some¬ thing better than “ silver and gold ” (standard of the world’s power) is given to some suffering one “ whom Satan hath bound.” The IMaster has spoken the word, “ Behold, I give unto you power. . . over all the power of the enemy,” Luke x. 19. “ These signs shall follow them that believe.” Pentecostal faith produces Pen¬ tecostal power. The Pentecostal and Mil¬ lennial circles are crossi-ng each other, and those who, with faith and conse¬ cration will live within the segments of these circles shall experience the power of “ present truth,” shall do the “ greater works” and shall know something of “the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.” As many miraculous signs at¬ tended the first advent of Christ, so His second coming will be ushered in by dis¬ plays of supernatural power. A people are being prepared by the Supernatural Hand who believe in the supernatural and will welcome with joy the greatest mira¬ cle of the ages—^the resurrection and translation. As the shades of wickedness are growing darker, for “the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand,“ the brightness of our coming Lord throws a heavenly lustre on the “little flock,” and a voice is heard : “ Look up lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” The cup of iniquity will soon be full, and woe be to the inhabitants of the earth who shall drink it! Then He whose right it is to reign shall come and cast out the usurper, and the whole earth shall he filled with the glory of the Lord. Amen. Am en. THE OUTLOOK IN CHINA. By MR. C. T. STUDD. I believe that we are on the eve of a groat revival in China. Since the massa¬ cre at Puhkien there have been marvelous outpourings of the Holy Spirit and God seems to be turning the wrath of man to praise Him. A few years ago there were only a few missionaries along the coast. Then God laid it upon the heart of Dr. Hudson Tay¬ lor to plant the gospel in the interior pro¬ vinces of China and God has blessed that movement in a marvelous manner. Then there were four mission stations in that province; now there are over thirty. Some of the converts in China are noble specimens of the power of the Gospel. There was a man who had been very bit¬ ter against Christianity and hired the mob to beat the colporteur and evangel¬ ists who came. One day, his own heart was touched, and he bought a copy of the Gospel of Matthew and Mark, and read them through, but he ^ould not under¬ stand. He met the colporteur again and told him that he could not make any¬ thing out of the Book. The man then sold him Luke and John. Still he could not understand. Then the colporteur ad¬ vised him to go up six days journey north and he would find a missionary. He took the long journey and visited the mission¬ ary; and then he understood and began to sing and pray. He came home a happy Christian. His wife and mother beat him with the broom and tried to frighten him out of it; but he still read his Bible and rejoiced in the Lord. One day he found the hooks were gone, and his wife and mother told him they had burned them. What did he do? Why, he just took the same journey again—a six days’ journey —and got another Book, and when he came hack he began to read it to his neighbors. They reviled him, hut he re¬ viled not again; and after awhile they be¬ gan to say that it was they that were'had, not he; and his mother asked him to take her up, and she was converted. And then the wife was converted, and some of the neighbors were converted, and that place now is a blessed centre of the Gos))el. I know another man who was a slave of the opium habit; hut he was converted and immediately saved from it. He saw his folly, and took down the idols from his house. Then they tried to frighten him out of it and said, “ Are you wiser than all the scholars of China? Are yon wiser than all the millions of this Empire? Are yon wiser than your ancestors, whom 34 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. you are hound to worship and respect and follow as a true t'liinainan ^ ” Uut he stood linn; and again and again he was taken out and beaten publicly and cruelly and there was no redress for him. We call this man Peter because he is a sort of a rock who loves righteousness and hates iniquity; and there are many such men in China—glorious characters; men of un¬ compromising principle and spiritual power and sublime e.xamples of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ^ ^ # FRIDAY, JAN. 1. HINDKAXCES TD THE IMMEDIATE EVANGELIZATION OE THE AVOBLD. By REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. "What is the matter that the church at the end of the nineteenth century is fac¬ ing the fact that one thousand millions of our fellow beings have never yet heard of Christ? First—There is a lack of conviction on the part of the great majority of Chris¬ tians with respect to the fact that the heathen are lost without Christ. This is, undoubtedly, as a result of the specious teachings of many of our modern leaders of thought, an idea that, somehow, there is hope for man outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such hooks as Dean Farrars “ Eternal Hope;” such influences as the “ Parliament of Eeligions at Chicago.” the colossal mistake of the century, all tend to produce upon the minds of men the impression that there is some saving power in the natural conceptions, re¬ sources and religions of the world. Men have come to believe that the false relig¬ ions of the world are not so bad, and the spirit of unprincipled charity and tolera¬ tion has gone abroad, whose influence has certainly been to weaken the conviction of man’s lost and powerless state, out of which all true missionary effort must spring. I have no doubt, whatever, from letters received from every part of the world, and the general testimony of mis¬ sionaries, that the Parliament of Eelig¬ ions and the countenance given to the teachers of heathenism on the same plat¬ form with Christianity, was the severest blow that Christianity has received dur¬ ing the century. Second—The lack of sympathy with mankind is another cause of the decline of missions. Think of Darwin saying of the Terra Del Fuegans that they were not worth saving. The true spirit of Christi¬ anity is love for souls; sympathy for men as men. Third—The deepest cause of the fail¬ ure of the missionary spirit to-day is want of sympathy with Christ. The heart of Christ is love for the perishing, and the only Avay to have it is to have Christ Him¬ self dwelling within us. Without the in¬ dwelling of Christ there can be no true missionary sympathy. The real trouble with the church to-day is that Christ is not divelling and reigning as a living re¬ ality in the hearts of the majority of His ]ieople; and they know really nothing of Ilis love for dying men, which brought Him to the cross and the grave. Fourth—The lack of the Enduement of the Holy Ghost is, of course, the secret of all the other difficulties. This alone can bring us into sympathy with Christ, and into sympathy with men, and this is prac¬ tically rejected by a large proportion of professing Christians to-day. Christianity is a matter of doctrines and forms. "What could be done in a single decade if the church would only take up the Acts of the Apostles and make it the manual of her practice, and again become a praying, a witnessing, and a heaven-baptised church ! In a single generation the Apos¬ tolic church covered the known world with the gospel, and yet the entire mem¬ bership to-day of the Protestant churches of the world, numbering tens of millions, only sends about ten thousand mission¬ aries to heathen lands, and the aver¬ age contribution of a seventh part of a cent a day to evangelize the world. Every disciple in the Apostolic church was a missionary; less than one in a thousand of the professing Christians of to-day is def¬ initely working to give the Gospel to the world. God grant that out of this con¬ vention may come a spiritual impulse that will lead to some great movement for the immediate evangelization of the Avorld. CHItlSTMAS CONVOCATION. 35 TilK liOSPEL AMONG THE INDIANS By ARCHDEACON PHAIR, of Winuepeg, Manitoba. TIu! Gospel i.s tiie power of God. Imag¬ ine a r.iissiouary going without it! Let me give some facts to illustrate the power of the Gospel among the heathen: Thirty-four years ago I left England for the great Northwest, going oy way of your city, and then up through Minne¬ sota into the great lone land with its mighty forests and its miserable savages. A few months ago 1 was called to revisit some of the scenes of my early ministry. 1 looked at an old Indian with gray hair and wrinkled face, but with the light of God’s peace upon his countenance, and his iiand upon his Bible that he loved so dearly, 1 asked the old man why the “ big praying book,” as they call it, was so dear to him. The old man answered, “ Big night, all dark', no light. Do not know where to put my feet. Dark night, dark above, very dark. Within, big dark night. This Book was like the sun rising. It showed me where to put my feet. Its words were sweet. Everything I have got is between the covers of this Big Praying Book; everything I have is within tlie Book, and so I keexj it near me.” Will you please tell me what other book I could put into the hands of that Dakota Indian that could give Jiim the comfort and the hope of this blessed Bible? Much of our work is am.)ni.r ih' 0jib¬ way and Kree Indians. When I first went to them I had a great big box of books. They said they did not want the books, that tliey would only bring them tron])le. 'Phey could not eat the books, and they would make trouble with their wives and conjurers. Most of these ]ieople w we polygamists and under the ])ower >)f (be witch doctors, and they knew the Ilible would break up all these things, and it has. The very ])hvsicnl appeai'ance of Bm country l)as been transformed. Peaceful, happy homes and smiling fields and gar¬ dens take the idace of the once dreary wildeimess. And woman, oh! liow she has keen elevated! TTuder boatbeidsm the In¬ dian woman lias to take a back scat every¬ where. She paddles the canoe while the man sits in a comforta))le Idaidcet in (be nnddle of the boat. When they come to a T'crtage, the woman carries the boat. When the lime for eating comes, slie gets out the hsh and cooks it, and then the man sits down and cats it and if there is anything left she gets it. But when the Gospel comes woman takes her true place. There was an old Indian who gave me much trouble. lie had five wives and he used to beat them cruelly. There was one older iban the rest that he disliked most of all, and he had beaten her until she was quite mutilated from his blows. One morning he called them into his wigwam and told them that they were all free; that the Big Book had shown him that he was bad. He told them he was sorry and now in a few days he was going to get the praying water put on him (baptism), and then he was going to get married to one of tin And sure enough! the day he was baptized he married the old muti¬ lated, despised ivife, and set the others free. What power but the Gospel of Christ could ever have made a selfish human heart to act like that! On another occasion it was necessary to take the missionary from a station and send him far into the interior to a neg¬ lected held. I went to the station and called the Christian Indians together and made the proposition to them. I said, “ Now, I have a big question, a very big question, to ask you; open your ears wide. I want you to lend me your missionary for six months that I may send him to the people far away who know not God and never heard a word about this Book. Do let me have him, ami 1 will promise you that I will lot you have him back in si.\ months. Now, what will you do when he is away about your sermons and meet¬ ings?” I waited a while, and then an old Christian Indian arose and said the white mail was very foolish. He said, “Now, don’t you know that the while man can¬ not take away God’s Book? You sei’inon- making men, you are full of words, you never stop talking, bu(. (bis Book is God’s Book, and there is a boy bore that can cat this book (be meant I'cad i(), and so I will have him read it to me the day after (be ])raying day (Monday), and then I will go to fbe Big Chief in heaven and ask Him to make me understand it, and I will think al)on( it all the week until the pi'ay- ing day, and then the Big Chief will go with me, and w(' will talk to the people all (bat He has told me.” So the arrangement was made, and the 36 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. niissiouary left i'or tlie distant station. Two niontlis later i visited the station that had been bereaved of its pastor. They asked me to preach, but i said, “ iSio, I will listen.'' And the old man said, "Yes, that is very wise, it is a much bigger thing to listen than to preach,” and so he began to talk, lie said, " There were two boys tiiat the Big Book tells about. One was foolish and the other was very foolish. One went away and left his father, and did very bad; but the other one that staid home was more foolish, because he grum¬ bled when be ought to have been glad when bis brother gave up his foolishness and came back to his father.” 1 wonder if seminaries could produce as good preaching as that. Ah! it is the God back of the Book that triumphs. How this work brings us in touch with God. Beloved, it is not sitting here and singing that makes us happy, hut it is to go out and make others happy with His love. You must go out and see its triumphs among the heathen. Let us descrilie a visit to what we call our baby mission. After a long journey we reached the place about one o’clock in the morning. Our host, Mr. John Eattle- snake, got up, made a fire, and gave us some fish to eat. We told him what we came for. We came with a big message that filled our hearts—God loved them and wanted them to know Him. So in the morning John went out and beat his frying-pan with a stick as the church bell and the people came and we had some hymns. Then we talked to them from the Bible, and then I said: “ ISTow, let us stop talking and let God talk. Are there any of you that want any¬ thing from God? If so, let him stand up and say so. Then an old woman stood up and said, “ I do not know anything about God, but your words are good. I want you to tell God who I am and that I would like Him to help me and give me power to keep His words, for I do not know how.” Then another woman got up and said, “ I want you to tell God about me. I have two boys; I am afraid they will walk crooked. I want Him to make them good.” And then we prayed. Some of them were converted and our hearts were so happy. That night we did not go to bed at all, but just talked and prayed all night. Next day we went over to see some In¬ dians that had not been there. And there was a poor boy lying on a wretched thing called a bed. He had been a year and a half there. I sat down and talked to him and asked him if he ever got anything from God. He said, Many things.” 1 asked him if he ever thanked God for those things, and he said, “ Ho, I did not know where He was.” “ Would you like to thank God?” And then, do you be¬ lieve it, that poor emaciated creature crawled off his bed and stood up and stretched up his right hand to heaven and said, Oh! Big Chief in Heaven, I got your things and I never said a word to thank you. I took them and used them. I am so sorry now and thank you. If you will give me more things I will always thank you. I liked the things, but I would like to know yourself more than the things.” Ah! friends, that poor heath¬ en boy, it seems to me, will be nearer to Christ in heaven than some with finer jirayer books and more cultured prayers. In one station we have 1,200 Indians, and there is not a single heathen on the place. When an old Ojibway Indian be¬ comes a Christian, he is out and out for God. Y"ou will see these poor women, with a coarse rabbit-skin covering their bodies, walk miles through the forest that they may hear the Word of God. When I think of woman’s position without the Gospel—for an Indian will be sorry if his dog dies, but if his wife dies he will say, with a sneer, “ It was only a woman ”— when I think of this and then see their happy lot under the Gospel of Christ, their transformed lives and their simple, beautiful faith, I do not envy any man his place in the church of God. Oh, beloved! let us get side by side with the man who wrote these h'tters in the New Testament and we shall be mission¬ aries, too. And if we cannot go, we shall stand heart to heart with those who do go and be workers together with Christ for the evangelization of the world. € ^ ^ SOUTH AMERICA, THE NEG¬ LECTED CONTINENT. By EMILIO OLSSON. I do not believe that the world will ever be evangelized by machinery. The Lord CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 37 wants, not only to use ordained men but men ordained by the Holy Spirit, aiul the great commission commands us to go to Jerusalem, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. 1 think South Amer¬ ica is Samaria. We have only one missionary in South America for every 3U(J,000 people. We have many schools and the natives are be¬ ing educated; but this is only increasing their power for evil. What they need is the gospel. 1 am glad to tell you, from long expe¬ rience and recent observation, that the door is opening in Bolivia, Ecuador and all the most difficult centres. God has permitted me in the past fifteen years to circulate 20,000 copies of the Word of God and to preach to a million people in South America in more than 300 differ¬ ent places. I have travelled 50,000 miles in that continent. My great delight has been to give the people the Word of God. South America is not going to be saved by fine sermons, but by God’s precious tVord. A missionary without the Bible is like a carpenter without his tools. I know that thousands have been saved in that land by simply reading the Book. I wish to speak of my own experience, with great humilty. Twenty years ago 1 left Sweden, with my mother and sister praying for my salvation. I was cast among cruel and ungodly men, and at last T longed to know the Lord. God was pleased to answer the prayers of those who loved me, and I was saved from many perils; twice was shipwrecked; once lost overboard; and many a day in great dan¬ ger and suffering. At last, on the Falk¬ land Islands, I found Christ. My heart was so happy that T had to toll the people about my conversion and they thought I was mad. At last, I got to the mainland and began to work among the sailors and neglected people, and the work at length grew into a Young Men’s Christian Asso¬ ciation. Then I began to go out into the coun¬ try and work among the people. One of my journeys took me into Patagonia. The Indians there worshipped evil spirits, and they thought T was one of those people. They all carried revolvers and knives, but T sle])t with nothing but a Bible under my pillow and felt the reality of God’s ywesenee. T was so happy, for i knew that a hair could not fall from my head until my work was done. The In¬ dians began to say, “That man is not bad, he has no revolver.” Then I had to learn to eat their food and sleep on the hard ground and drink their strange bever¬ ages. They began to have confidence in me and became my friends. They made a league for me against the priests and would have fought for me to the death. They used to make me stand up and tell them the story of the gospel. Once, as I was talking to a man, I asked him if he had ever heard of such a person as Jesus Christ, and he said, “No. Who is He? Where is He?” Once, after a journey of forty-seven days, I lay down very tired and slept in the skin that I carried about with me. In the morning I took the skin when I got up, and, lo! two scorpions fell out. The Lord had kept them quiet all the night. Another time I was on a great plain, when suddenly a wild bull attacked me. I knew not what to do, but I just ran, and the Lord led me to run right to a tree, although I did not know that there was one there, for it was a barren plain, and it is very remarkable to find a tree on these Pampas; but God had put that tree there just for my protection, and I climbed up into the branches and sat there, praising the Lord and looking down at the bull. My worst foes, however, were the priests; they did all they could to hinder my work. One of them lioastcd tliat he liad burned twenty of my Bibles and that lie would like to l)urn me on tlie top of them. At anotlior time I liandcd one a tract, and lie said, “ Get thee bcliiud me, Satan.” I prayed for wisdom, and God led me to say, “ My Father, if I am a bad man, as you say, won’t you, a miuistc'r of God, lielp mo and bring me back to Ihe fold?” The idea struck him, ami he sat down and began to talk to mc'. lie said, “ I will bring you 1)ack,” ami so I bad a chance to tell bim about ibe Bible and o])en to him the story of Jesus. Instead of his converting me ibe I;ord (gmiu'd bis heart. He acce])ted some tracts and went away, I trust, to preach the true gos])el to those peo])le. I Avas often robbed of my Ifiblos, but I was not altogether sorry, be¬ cause I hoped they would read the Books and learn to steal no more. 38 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. :\IY CALL. Ry MIC C. T. STLDIJ. Auotlier time a man got hold of me and shook me so hard that i had to pray the Lord to give me grace or 1 would iiave hit him on the head with a iiible, but God gave me grace and victory. i once went to a magistrate of the town to protect me against the thieves that were constantly breaking into my mis¬ sion. Why/^ said he, “ we caiih pro¬ tect you. l our mission is amongst the very worst class of people, but 1 went liack to them and, thank God, many of those wicked thieves and robbers were af¬ terwards saved. You can always tell when a man is con¬ verted, or a woman truly saved, liy the different way they live at home. Y'ou find the house clean and the family neat and well cared for. The ])eo])le of South America are really hungering for the gospel. Often, after holding a meeting with them, I could not get them to leave. Once, 1 asked, “ Who will accept Jesus?'’ and the whole crowd rose to their feet and thirty came forward and knelt down and prayed in the most touching manner. Xext day, one came back and told me, I could not sleep all night, thanking God for sending you here to tell me of the precious Saviour.” Another time, an old man of eighty-two rose up and, with tears, began to thank God for the good news of salvation, which he had heard for the first time. Since I have been in South America I have been trying very hard to find a man who did not know Jesus Christ, but I have not succeeded yet. I believe that South America can be evangelized in four years. One good mis¬ sionary can reach 10,000 people a month, 100,000 a year and 400,000 in four years, and 100 missionaries could reach 40,000,- 000 people in four years. South America is like a gold mine; as you go down, it is very dark, but there is precious ore to reward you for your pains. Won’t you hel]i? It will take a good deal of money to send a hundred men there for four years. Imt not nearly as much as it would take to build one of your fine cathedrals. God wants us to go and give the gospel to those people as a witness. There are .5,000,000 of Indians who have never heard of Christ. Dear friends, will 3 'ou help to evangelize South America and hasten the coming of the Lord? After God converted me I gave up the law and devoted all my life to work for souls. China was brought before me with its awful needs and God laid it upon my heart with Ilis own divine call to the mis¬ sion field. I was very fond of cricket, but China took the place that cricket had be¬ fore. One thing absorbed me, and I lost interest in shooting, athletics and every¬ thing else, through the expulsive power of something better. The chief difficulty in my way was my mother. It seemed at first as if it would kill her, but God made that verse very real to me, A man's foes shall be they of his own house.” But I took God for this also, and He made it all right with my mother, and she is still living and a happy Christian. God made my call so clear that I could have no doubt about His will, and in all the dark¬ ness through which I have passed in China, I have never once doubted. A * A SATURDAY, JAN. 1. SEPAEATIOX. By REV. F. L. CHAPELL, D.D. All the tendencies of the age are to¬ ward combination and compromise. Sep¬ aration was one of the oldest and most im¬ portant lessons that God taught His Old Testament people. Then, ceremonial in¬ stitutions were fitted to impress upon them the distinction between the clean and the unclean. Israel itself was distinct from all other nations, and there were two reasons why God desires to keep His peo¬ ple separated. First, because the world itself was bad. Second, because even after separation there was danger of apostasy, and His people needed a deeper separa¬ tion. First He separated an earthly peo¬ ple from the world, and, then, secondly. He separated a heavenly people from the earthly. From what are we to be separated? The Bible idea of separation is not Monasti- cism. This is Satan’s counterfeit. We need to be separated, rather, from the world’s spirit and ideals, and the whole CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 39 course of this present evil world. We need to be separated from the world’s con¬ ception of what constitutes the lost state of man. The world tells us that human¬ ity is a rising, not a fallen race. The Bible idea is the opposite of this and God wants us to witness to it. We want to he separated from the world’s idea about human salvation. It is not education, but inspiration; not the development of man, hut the incoming of God. And then we want to be separated from the world’s idea about our destiny and our future life. Now, how are we to be separated from this present evil world? The only way is by the indwelling of God. Moses touch¬ ingly referred to this when he pleaded for God’s presence. He said, “ How shall we he separated from all other people on the face of the earth, except it be in this, that Thou goest with us.” Unto what are we separated? Paul said he was separated unto the Gospel of God. We have nothing to do with humanita¬ rian schemes. We are witnesses for Christ and His work. In these days, when the gospel is being, not dispensed, but dis¬ pensed with, Christ wants a people who will stand out distinctly upon His word, in His Spirit, and with His testimony, as the world’s only hope. Affain, we are separated unto our high calling. Christ, at God’s right hand, is the pattern of our true life, and we are living as a separated and heavenly people whose destiny is to be with Him and like Him there. It is not necessary that we shall come out of the church ecclesiasti¬ cally, but Christ is gathering a people unto Himself, united by invisible bonds, await¬ ing the revelation of their glorious Lord, who is Himself the pattern of what they shall be. A .#• SEPAPATION. By REV. ,T. II. GRAY, D.H. of Boston. In I Cor. chapters 8 to 10, the Apostle gives some of the j)rinciples which regu¬ late our relation to the Ijord and our true separtion to God. I’lie Corinthians had written to him, asking advice about Christian casuistry, particularly the eating of meat ofTered in sacrilice to idols. They had been con¬ verted from heathenism, tvhere it was customary to dedicate to the idols the viands at their banquets, and they were sometimes invited by their heathen neigh¬ bors to these feasts and these feasts were sometimes held in the temples of the idols. Was it right for them to go? There was a brother in the church who claimed the liberty to go, arguing that the idol was nothing, and, therefore, there could be no sin in the eating and drinking of things sacrificed to idols. Others doubted and asked Paul’s counsel. Paul takes three chapters to answer their question, and in the course of his answer lays down great and permanent principles. He states that an idol is nothing, and there is no sin in eating that which has been sacrificed to the idol. But your weak brother does not quite feel as you do, and your example may weaken and injure him. Will you press your liberty to the point of another’s injury? “No,” says Paul, “if meat make my brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the world stands.” In the next chapter he gives three illus¬ trations from his own life. First, he speaks of the innocent and right things that he might do; the enjoyment of home and married life ivliich were all legitimate for him. “But,” he says, “ I have used none of these things; not liecause they are wrong, but for the sake of my brother and the gospel.” So, he lays down great prin¬ ciples of voluntary sacrifice for the sake of others. Next, in the tenth chapter he ajqfiies the subject to their own s]uritual interest, and shows that, not only for the sake of others, but for their own, we need guard most cai’cfnlly against the very touch of evil. He refers to the failure of Israel to enter the land of ]momise, atid the reason was that they were doing the very things that you are doing—lust ing after I In* things of the world and allowing the in¬ sidious approaehes of evil, until at last they fell iimhu- God’s condemnation and lost- their iidieritance. IGnally, Iti IIu' nex't chapter, he rises to still higher ground, and shows them how, for the fjord’s sake as well as their own, and th(‘ir neighhoi's’, they must tight the very appearance of evil and hi' separated from the world. “Ye cannot drink the Clip of the Lord and the enp id' de\'ils.” 40 CHUISTMAS CONVOCATION. This subject applies to our own life, our eating and drinking, our way of liv¬ ing, our mode of dress, our amusements, the observance of the Sabbath, our busi¬ ness partnerships and investments. There are three questions that are always set¬ tling these matters. 1 . Is it expedient for your brother-' 2 . Is it good for you? 3. Is it for the glory of God? As one of the speakers suggested last night, the noble eagle that had soared to the heavens was seen to drop slowly down until it struck the earth and lay gasping in the agonies of death, and it was found that a little weasel had fastened its fangs upon the eagle’s breast and had sucked its life blood. The weasel had sprung upon the eagle the moment it had touched the earth, and although the noble bird soared yonder into the heavens, yet the hand of death was upon its heart, and it sank and perished, because too long it had touched the earth and received its fatal wound. “Wherefore, come ye out from among them, and he ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you and will he a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daugh¬ ters, saith the Lord Almighty.” * * A *.>' IXSTDIOUS DANGERS IN CONNEC¬ TION WITH SEPARATION. By REV. A. B. SIMPSON. Our great adversary is very plausible in reasoning with us on this subject of sepa¬ ration and if he can’t hold us entirely under his control he wants, at least, to get a small mortgage upon our lives and interests. When Pharaoh was asked to let Israel go, he first refused point blank, and he told them that they could worship God all they pleased, but they must not go out of the land. He rejiresented the spirit of the world, which does not object to our re¬ ligion, bnt wants to keep us in the world. Next, when defeated at this point, he made a second compromise, and he said, “Ye may go, but ye shall not go very far.” And, again, he next proposed that they should go, but leave their children. And so the world to-day, when it can’t get us to dance and go to the theatre, is willing to take our chihlren, and many a parent allows his family to do things that he would not dream of doing. Finally, Phar¬ aoh, beaten from all other compromises, proposes that they should take their chil¬ dren with them and leave their cattle. And when Satan can get no other hold upon us he wants our money invested in his kingdom and oiu' property controlled by the spirit of the world. I believe that the prohibition to be un¬ equally yoked together with unbelievers applies to business partnerships just as much as to social partnerships and relig¬ ious compromises. No Christian woman has a right to marry an unholy man and no minister of the gospel has a right to unite in marriage the unholy and the sanctified. Many a woman has lost the seal of God’s approval by going to ungodly entertain¬ ments and worldly amusements to please an unsaved husband, and while trying to influence him for good she herself has been dragged down. There is a false teaching prevalent, that the wife ought to lie in such subjection to her husband that she would even obey if he commanded her to go to the theatre. This is wholly un- scriptural. The authority of a husband does not extend to matters of conscience, or tilings where God has already given us a command. We cannot lift people up until we get above their level. A Christian woman of my acquaintance was once exposed to the severest harshness from her husband because she could not and would not go with him to social en¬ tertainments of a worldly character, and for 3 'ears it was a call to separation and the deepest pain; but she bore her trying lot in Christian meekness and gentleness and the day came ivhen that very man was brought, by her example and her prayers, to see his sinful course and to give his whole life in entire consecration to the Saviour whom she had followed so faithfully; and now he stands by her side in the same separation and serHce in which God has so honored her. The avTul condition of things which culminated in the deluge was brought about b}’’ the mixing of the people of God with the children of the world, through intermarriage; and it seems certain a sim¬ ilar state of things is rapidly deA^eloping for the more fearful judgments of tlie last days, and it is largely resulting from the CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 41 melting away of the dividing line be¬ tween the ehiirch and the world, and the failure of God's people to be true to its great purpose of separation. A FAITHFUL AND WISE STEWAED. By REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. “ Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over His household, to give them their portion of meat in due season.” Luke xii. 42. 1. A steward is one who had nothing of his own, but entrusted to administer to anotheFs profit. Eleazar was the steward of Abraham, entrusted with his flocks and herds. Joseph was the steward of Poti- phar, entrusted with his estates. The steward himself is a kind of slave, all he has and is belongs to the interest of his master. So you are a steward redeemed with precious blood. All your service to Him, never again owning anything of your own; your body, life, powers, con¬ sciousness, will, faculties, opportunities, capacities, attainments and acquisitions are all the Lord’s To speak of the tithe system. This means not the largest but the smallest amount that we can give to the Lord. A man, we will suppose, had a vineyard in Lebanon and lived in Crete and sent a steward to take charge, he might say that if the year was unfruitful that the stew¬ ard might keep nine-tenths of the fruit¬ age and send him one-tenth. If that year the crop was but ten bushels of grapes the steward would keep nine bush¬ els for his living and send the one to his master, but if the next year the vineyard should yield 1,000 busheis and the steward should keep 900 for himself, would that be a faithful return? When God increases your income He means you to take more for Him. Now Avhat is a faithful steward? A man may be wise and yet not faithful. Faithfulness renders to God what is His. Wisdom studies to use God’s ]')roporty that it may tm'ng the largest gain to Him. If you cannot use it well give it to some one who can wisely dispose of it. A man once said to me, “ T will give you $1,000 to spend for the Lord.” I took the money and I prayed over every cent of it, and to be sure it was used to the best of the light given. I put along¬ side of every $5 1 spent of his money $5 of my own. There is no one thing brings such rich blessings as in the faithful and wise use of money. If we resist all the temptations of the world and bring all to Him He will pour out the blessing, i^s He blesses so He curses. I knew a man who for twmnty-seven years was prosperous in business and after having amassed a large fortune conceived a plan to build a colos¬ sal house worth one and a half millions. He then spent eighteen months with a party of friends travelling at the rate of $1,000 a week and buying the most costly furniture for the house, one clock alone costing $8,000. The end was, he moved into the house before it was quite com¬ pleted, was stricken wflth pneumonia and paralyzed, failed in business and owed seven millions. His sons tried to go on but failed and there is now left an empty house and four graves in the churchyard. * ^ ^ THE HOLY SPIRIT AND MONEY. By REV. F. L. CHAPELL. D.D. The parable of the unjust steward in Luke xvi. 1-15 is often perplexing as to how Jesus could use this lesson of schem¬ ing, cunning and sharp practice to illus¬ trate divine things. In the Greek it appears more clearly that the Lord Himself did not commend the unjust steward, but drew His own les¬ son by comparison. I. What is money? It is the means of sustaining the ])res- ent life. Eight cents will buy a loaf of bread; you cannot eat tlie eight cents, l)ut you can oat the bread; this is an illus¬ tration of wliat is meant by the first i>oint. It is the money of this world made availa- ])]e for life. Tborofore, money is very ne¬ cessary and is the ])owor of the present age. Again, it is tlie -iiroperty of man’s labor, 'riie gold and silver, yon may say, lie in the bosom of the eartli, but before we can use it man must dig it, melt it and prepare it into coin. It is, therefore, a holy thing, for it is the price of strength, life and toil of man. If yon would like to find out the real 42 CHIIISTMAS CONVOCATION. value oi' one dollar go out into the mine or the I'arnier's held and you will soon hnd the real worth of every cent of the dollar. Again, it is called the “ main source of unrighteousness,” not that the money is unrighteous of itself, but it is called so because so closely identihed with the men of the v'orld and those who have not the Holy Ghost. Again, it is called that which belongs to the “ other,” meaning Satan, lie is the manager of the monies of this world. II. What is the Holy Ghost? We can now take up the former points and apply them to the Spirit of God. First.—It is the only power by which spiritual pownr can be sustained. It is God’s life, for us made available through Christ. Just as money is produced through man's labor and trial, so the Holy Sjiirit is the product of the life and death of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost is the sustaining power of spiritual life. In the third chapter of Acts, when the apostles were asked for alms, they gave such as they had, not money, hut the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is true riches and wull supply every need. The distinctive possession of the world is money. Our possession is the Holy Ghost. W^e see the unjust steward look¬ ing out for the best of this 'world, so we should look out for the best in the world to come. III. WJiat is the relation of money to the possessing of the Holy Ghost? First.—Faithfulness in the use of money is the condition to receiving the Holy Spirit and we dare to say that prob¬ ably the reason some have not the Spirit is because they have not been faithful in the lo'wer things and how can they have the higher things? “ If therefore ye have not l)een faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who wull commit to your trust the true riches?”— Luke xvi. 12. IV. What is a faithful use of money? 1. Appreciate it for 'ndiat it is. We heard once a story of a wealthy man who was taking a short journey and bought a trinket of about ten cents to carry back. The friends thought him very stingy and still more so when he found out that the little trinket was not worth the ten cents and w as so disturbed to think that he had been cheated that it spoiled the whole day's pleasuie for him. In one way he was right and in another not. He had learned to value money. 2. Appreciate its subordinate place. If man did not, under Holy Ghost relig¬ ion, learn to appreciate the better things in this sphere when could he learn to ap¬ preciate it in the next? A book may be a help to me to under¬ stand some passages in the Word of God, but rather let us go to the Teacher, the Holy Ghost, who wull make even the book plain. 3. Use to furnish for the -n’orking of the Holy Ghost. “ Make friends.” Use your money in the best way and that is in eternal gain of precious souls. How can we invest in soids? By bringing the Gospel in conta t wuth those who have never heard of Him. Men say, invest your money well, put it in the savings bank. Do so, but in the heavenly bank which wull bring you inter¬ est throughout all eternity. A A A THE MINISTKY OF MOXEY. By REV. J. II. GRAY, D.D. of Boston. The eighth and ninth chapters of II. Corinthians form a classic on the subject of Christian stew'ardship or the ministry of money. Paul was on his way to Jeru¬ salem; he w’as bearing an offering for the poor saints there from their Gentile breth¬ ren throughout the w'orld. He wu'ote to them, with a view' to prepare them for his visit, so that their offering would be com¬ plete before his arrival, and there wmuld be no hasty effort to get up a special col¬ lection, but that all would be calmly and deliberately arranged before he came, as a matter of principle and not as a matter of pressure. The Apostle gives se’^'oral rea¬ sons for their beneficence, wdiich apply just as fcrcildy to our times and responses as to theirs. I. Tlie example of the churclies of Macedonia. They w'ere ])Oor and in great alffiction, but. notwuthstanding their poveiuy and distress, they had prepared an offering far beyond tlieir ability, so that lie had tried CIIUISTMAS CONVOCATION. 43 10 dissuiulc tlieiii from giving so nniclij blit they Jiad prayed Idui ivith much en¬ treaty that lie wonlil consent to accent it, and he had linally done so, because lie saw that they hail lirst given themselves to the Lord, and then their gifts liad ne¬ cessarily followed. This is the true secret of all right giving. The man ivho has given himself out and out, will have no difficulty in giving all that he has, as the poor Indian, of whom our brother told us, who, when asked if his gift of a dollar was not too much, replied ivith charming simplicity, “ It would he too much for a white man, but not for an Indian.” II. The principle of symmetry in the Christian character. This is referred to in the seventh verse, where he speaks of the other graces in which they abound, and then admonishes them to see that they abound in this grace also. Anything out of proportion is a blemish, and ivhen Christ’s children are very remarkable for other graces, it is ex¬ tremely unbecoming to find them stingy and inefficient in the spirit of sacrifice and liberality; and yet, how many there are that can shout their hallelujahs but take good care to close their pocketbooks. 3. Tie reminds them of the example of the Lord Jesus. “Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor.” His poverty con¬ sisted in His bearing our sins and our riches in the salvation which He has brought us. The measure of our giving will always indicate the measure of our appreciation of what He lias given us. There is a collection hox for foreign mis¬ sions in the vestibule of a church where 1 have preached, with this inscription: “You have been blessed to-day; how much have you lieen blessed? You will show your appreciation by the offering which you have the opportunity of giving in this box for the cause of foi’oign mis¬ sions.” IV. He apjieals to their own purpose and deep conviction on the subject, and to the pledge which they were so glad to make out and ofl'er him, and he calls upon them to he consistent with themselves and fulfill in deed what they had i»urpos('d in will. V. He calls for fairness of distribution in the dispensing of the gifts that there should be an ef|nality and that their giv¬ ing shoukb supply the inability of others just as the giving of others at another time woidd supply any inability on their part. VI. He speaks of his boasting on their behalf, and how he has told the brethren in other places of their readiness to give; and now he appeals to them not to allow him to be put to shame. VII. He speaks of the reward of giving. “ He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which sow^eth bounti¬ fully shall reap also bountifully. For God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Some time ago God laid it upon my heart to make a little sacrifice in order that I might support a native Bible reader on the mission field. I gave up the idea of purchasing a new overcoat, which I thought I needed, and a few days after this I was visiting a friend in Philadelphia, when the lady of the house one day asked me if I would he offended if she offered me a very handsome over¬ coat which had been given her by a friend whose husband had died. She had thought of sending it to a missionary on the frontier, “ But,” she added, “ I think it is rather too good for a missionary, and although my husband told me I should offend you if I offered it to you. yet I feel impelled to do so, and I hope you will not be tried with me.” I immediately said, “You just bring that coat down stairs, right away.” She lirought it down and I found it exactly fitted me with very slight alterations. After I took it home and got my tailor to alter it he told me that it was a very fine coat, and he added that it ivas worth at least $(!() (the price of a. Bible reader). I have worn that coat for several yc'ai's and it is still as good as over. Thai, is what I mean when I speak of the Lord rewarding us and making all graci* abound towards us, that we, always hav¬ ing all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good woi'k. One day as I was walking out of our Training Institute, I noticed one of the students looking v('ry bine and asked him if there ivas anything the matter. He said he was very much behind with his room rent and had not eaten a mouthful for a dav. t knew him to b(‘ a \'iu'V wor- 44 CmUSTMAS CONVOCATION. thy young fellow and I said, Why, my dear brotlier would $10 be of any use to youl” ••'Why,” he said, •‘that would be more than enough tor all my needs.” So 1 gave him the $10. A few days after¬ wards I had occasion to order a new pair of shoes, and as i was riding in the street car a gentleman spoke to me and said, “ Excuse me, sir, but I noticed yon in onr store this morning ordering a pair of shoes, and I want to ask the privilege of presenting them to yon.” I said, “ Why, sir, I thank yon very much, but I have no claim upon yon and I cannot see any rea- sonaldeness of propriety in this.” “ But,” he said, “ it is my j^rivilege, and yon must allow me to insist upon it.” And so I got the Lord’s shoes, worth $10, as well as the Lord’s overcoat, and both seem as if they Avere going to last me forever. Finally, the Apostle tells ns that the ministration of this service not only sup¬ plies the want of the saints, but it reaches God Himself in a tribute of thanksgiving, and it comes to ns in a stream of prayer and blessing from the hearts that we have comforted and cheered. Just as the rain that goes up from the earth in evapora¬ tion comes back again in floods of bless¬ ing, so the love that we bestow returns to ns in the blessing that we receive. God is glorified and onr charity twice blessed, both to Him that gives and him that takes. A A A THE SIGHS OF THE TIMES Ry REV. F. L. CHAPELL, D.E. The weight of the testimony from the signs of the times lies in the concensus of many signs. There are missionary signs, there are Jewish signs, there are political signs, there are S])iritnal signs. With¬ out referring to others, let ns confine our attention to this one remarkable sign of our times, namely, the manifest with¬ drawing of the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit from the church of the Lord. It is distinctly intimated by the Apostle Paul that there was to he a let¬ ting or restraining influence of the Holy Ghost up to a certain point, and that when this was taken out of the way then the antichrist would he revealed in all his unlimited power and wickedness. ^Yllat- ever may be our interpretation of that passage, and there are, of course, many interpretations, this, at least, is certain, that there is a mystery of godliness on the one side and a mystery of iniquity on the other, and that each is to grow more in¬ tense and more antagonistic until the crisis of the age. Evil men are to grow worse and worse. The reason we do not see the more open power of evil is because there is a restraining Presence in the world which holds men back farther than we realize. There is, however, manifestly a steady decline in the spiritual power of the church I am vividly reminded of a great reidval of 1847, and I can recall, also, the later revivals of the ’50’s. These Avere manifestations rather of the power of God than of the machinery of men. Men were hushed and made to feel that God was near. Then, in the decades lollowing the ’60’s and ’70’s and ’80’s there was more and more of men’s machinery and less of the marvelous Avorking of God. We have revivals to-day, but you will note in all of them that man is to the front. They are to have a great reAuval in Boston this Avinter, hut it has all been planned and the machinery is very exten¬ sive and complete. kloody, Murphy, Jones and others are to be at the head of it. I have no fault to find Avflth this, but you cannot fail to see how different it was AALen God Avas Avont to come in His oAvn marvelous Avay. I remember one of the old-time revivals in ’68 in Fair Haven, Conn. There were tAvo sections of the toAvn on opposite sides of the river. The ]AOor lived in one section and the rich in the other. Hr. Abbott was residing in the fashionable quarter of the toAvn, en¬ gaged in literary work. A congregation in the other section inAuted him to supply for them. He told me afterwards that he accepted their invitation and preached to them for a short time in a very quiet and ordinary manner. One Sunday he felt the presence of God in a remarkable Avay, and it occurred to him to inAute all present who desired to talk about their soul’s salvation to call uiDon him at his house on the folloAving Monday evening. To his amazement, the next night he found his house croAvded with eager in¬ quirers, and a great revival began which CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 45 led to the conversion of hundreds, many of them the most profane and wicked men. In those days there was a solem¬ nity about the meetings which to-day is almost unknown. Indeed, many of our revival meetings are turned into a bur- lesqu®. We have the Gipsy Evangelist and the Cowboy Evangelist and all the stage effects of modern sensationalism. What is the effect of this? A loosing of all social, moral and spiritual bonds. The sacredness of human life is gone. In those days a murder was an awful thing. Well do I remember the crime of Dr. Webster in Harvard College that filled the whole land with horror. Now, they are daily chronicled, and the other morn¬ ing I read of twenty-two in a single morn¬ ing paper. In the year 1895 there were 10,000 murders in the United States and only 300 executions, but 700 lynchings. You may blame the courts, but what are they but the reflection of a deeper state of things in the public mind? The same is true of divorces. Sabbath observance and every sort of sin and crime. God is taking away His presence and the mystery of iniquity is working and manifesting it¬ self in proportion, yet no one seems to sense it. If it goes on at the present rate what will be the state of society a generation hence? It can be only what it was before the fall, when “God saw the imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart, that it was evil, and only evil continually.” Perhaps you will say God will come back to His people. Well, He might if this were the only sign; but, alas, the con¬ sensus of all the other signs leads us to believe that this state of things is the evi¬ dence of the final declination and apos- tacy, that the end of all things is at hand, that society is breaking up, that the true life is leaving the body and it is getting ready for the hour of judgment and the coming of the Lord. It is a solemn time, and all the signs in the political, social, ecclesiastical, spiritual, and even the nat¬ ural, world, say with deep solemnity, “What I say unto you I say unto all: Watch.” JEWISH SIGNS OF THE TIMES. By Rev. A. C. GARBELEIN. It is remarkable that many of the most thoughtful students of the Holy Scrip¬ tures have been looking forward for many years, and even centuries, to the close of the nineteenth century as closely con¬ nected with the end of the times of the Gentiles. I have a collection of books in German, Latin and other languages, all weighted with this burden of thought and all looking forward to the days in which we live as the crisis of prophecy and his- ory. I was reading toMay a little book published in 1840, written by a Eoman Catholic priest, who had grasped the dis- pensational idea, as conveyed in the let¬ ters to the seven churches of Asia, and he speaks of the appearing of the Antichrist as only about sixty years distant. As has already been said, the signs of our times are very numerous, and few are more remarkable than the preaching of the gospel and the full gospel in all the world, and the days of ungodliness, indifference, violence and the manifestation of the pow¬ ers of darkness that we see around us, re¬ mind us of the days of Noah and of Lot. Every spiritualistic medium in the world is but a specimen of the work Satan is get¬ ting ready. When he shall produce his masterpiece, the Antichrist, most of the evils of the age will head up in one crown¬ ing embodiment of wickedness and power. The nations, too, are getting ready for the world’s last battle. While travelling late¬ ly in southeastern Russia and Romelia, I found that that great nation was erecting her strongest fortifications and massing her most powerful armies with a view to reach the Mediterranean, that great sea, out of which John saw the Antichrist arise, and which is to be theatre of the last great event of history as of the first. The signs of the Gentiles are sinking fast, and with their passing come tlie hopes of Israel. This is, after all, the most wonderful sign of our times: the movement towards the restoration of God’s ancient people. 1. The wonderful increase of the He¬ brew race is most remarkable. I have made very careful inquiry, both by pub¬ lic documents and private correspond¬ ence, and I have no doubt that the pres- 46 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. ent population of the Hebrew people is at least 14,000,000. There are fully 6,000,- 000 in Kussia. Talking lately with a Kus- sian officer, he remarked to me, “Tenyears ago, when we began to persecute the Jews, there were 4,000,000, now there are 6,- 000,000. God is multiplying His people as He did in Egypt, preparatory to their deliverance. 2. Persecutions of Israel are just as re¬ markable as their increase. They are be¬ ing driven from most of the eastern coasts. In Morocco, recently, four Hebrews were murdered outside the city, and the only one that was left brought the bodies in the city and made a complaint. The man to whom he spoke was a Moslem, and his cruel answer was, “ Only four? then let it be five,” and, with that, he shot the man through the heart. All this is going on with impunity in some places. 3. The revival of nationalism among the Hebrews is the most wonderful fea¬ ture of the Jewish Kenaissance. The most influential of the Hebrew papers in London has recently taken up the patriotic movement known as the “Lovers of Zion.” It began with a feAV orthodox Hebrews, and now the whole race is aflame with the cry, “ Home to Palestine!” 4. There is a great spiritual movement among the Jews, and God is certainly blessing it. At the commencement of the century, the British Society for the Prop¬ agation of the Gospel among the Jews was organized, but it was poor; they had no money. Suddenly, God laid it upon the heart of one man, in a most providential manner, to give $350,000 for this work. There is no more remarkable fruit of Christian w'ork among the Hebrews than Joseph Eabinowitch, of Southern Eussia. Only to-day I received a Hew Year’s card from this venerable man, with the two mottoes in Hebrew, “Looking for Jeho¬ vah,” “Looking for the Blessed Hope.” He is one of the few Jewish workers who holds the same principles which our work expresses, namely: that we are not to pros- el^e the Hebrew convert, but to leave him among his own people and cherish national hope. Eabinowitch has but a small work, but his influence extends all over Europe and Southern Eussia. When I was abroad, I preached in the city of Lusch. Now, there is a congrega¬ tion of two to three hundred Jews meeting there and listening to the Word of God. A similar work is growing up in Warsaw and is gathering out the remnant of His people and preparing them to welcome their Messiah and’meet Him when He shall come. A few months ago I stood on the sum¬ mit of the great tower of Ivan, in Mos¬ cow, and looked over that wonderful city. I noticed that they were gilding all the crosses upon the countless churches and decorating their roofs, and thousands of men were busy at work all over the city. I asked the guide what it meant. “Oh,” he said, “next May our Czar will ride through yonder gate on a white horse with his generals around him, and he will go into that splendid chapel and amid the impressive ceremonies of the coronation, he will put the crown of all the Eussias upon his own head, and we are getting ready to welcome him.” 0! I thought of a time, for which we are looking, when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, riding upon a white horse and attended by myr¬ iads of saints, shall march down through yonder starry gates, and some of us shall be permitted to welcome Him to His throne. Are we getting ready? Are we not only gilding the crosses but lifting the spirit of the true cross and planting it as the symbol of the gospel in every land pre¬ paring on every mountain top torches that will glow with His welcome when He comes again. dS A SUNDAY JAN 3. IN TEUST WITH THE GOSPEL; IN DEBT TO THE WOELI). By REV. A. B. SIMPSON. Luke x\d. 5. The glorious Gospel which committed to my trust.—I. Tim. i. 11. A' stewardship of the Gospel is com¬ mitted unto me.—I. Cor. ix. 17. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians.—Eom. i. 14. Three figures stand out in bold relief behind these passages of Scripture, namely:—Stewardshi j). Trusteeship and Indebtedness. They are all figures of speech familiar to business men, and have to deal with the transactions of CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 47 coiiinion lil'e. They are intensely practi¬ cal. There is nothing sentimental about them. They deal with matters of lawful obligation and common honesty. The Apostle Paul did not consider him¬ self a hero when he sacrificed and labored for the salvation of men. He felt that he was simply discharging a trust, and pay¬ ing a debt which the simplest obligations of common honesty demanded, and when he had done all he was still but an unprof¬ itable servant, having done only what it was his duty to do. This is Christ’s ap¬ peal to us for the evangelization of the world He puts it on the ground of duty to God and debt to man. A steward is one who is put in charge of property belonging to another person, to administer it in accordance with the wishes and commands of the owner. It is not his property, and yet he has every¬ thing to do with it. But in so doing he is under directions and subject to the wishes of the proprietor. He is a servant, and in ancient times was usually a slave. He is accountable to his lord and required to make an explicit return of the way in which he has discharged his stewardship. A trustee occupies a higher position. He is one who holds property committed to him to use for the benefit of another. He is not only to consider the wishes and interests of the donor, but he is especially to consider the interests of the beneficia¬ ries or persons who are to be relieved or assisted by the kind bestowment of the giver. While the steward has chiefly to do with the owner, the trustee has espe¬ cially to do with the persons that are to be benefltted. His office is a higher one than the steward. He is selected because of special qualifications and because he is trusted as worthy of peculiar confidence. He has full charge and freedom in the ex¬ ercise of his trust, but he is also account¬ able for the manner in which he fulfills it. A debtor is one who owes an olfligation to his fellow, whether that be through trusteeship or covenant of j)urchasc, or any lawful cause. Now, we are stewaials of God; we are trustees of the Gospel, and we owe to the world a delh of love and duty which cannot be discharged until every human being has heard tlie Gospel and had a chance for eternal life. What is the extent of our stewardship and trusteeship? 1. Our life is a trust given to us by the Creator to be used for His glory and the benefit of our fellow-men, and we have no right to waste a moment of it, or use an instant of it for mere selfish gratification or any sinful purpose. 2. Our physical endowments are trusts; your health, your manly strength, your womanly grace, all these are given you by God to be used for Him, and you have no more right to waste your manliood in games of folly or dance away your woman¬ ly strength in the frivolities of fashion than you would have to take the money of your employer and throw it into the sea. 3. Our mental endowments and our ed¬ ucation and culture are sacred trusts, and we have no right to employ them for self- aggrandizement or our own glory, but to use them for the glory of God and the service of man. Oh, the splendid intel¬ lects that are used by the enemy to sow the insidious seeds of poison in human hearts. Oh, the sweet voices that are singing innumerable souls to the pit of woe! Oh, the eloquence that is instilling immorality into the hearts of millions! 'Wliat a frightful condemnation, what a wail of agony when God shall call them to His bar and say, Give an account of thy stewardship, tor thou shaft be no longer steward.” 4. Your personal influence is a sacred trust. Have you about you a magnetism that draws pco])le to you, an attractive¬ ness of manner or person that makes you the centre of your circle? Have you a power to persuade and control the minds and lives of others? It is an awful trust, and better you had never been born tluni that you should use it for your own am¬ bition or self-aggrandizcjiient. 5. Your social positii n is a trust for God. Just as God put Joseph iti a kitch¬ en and a dungeon, and afterward on a throne, that lie Tiiiglit use him in both places; just as He ))ut Ifsther and Daniel in the great centres of the world’s ])ower that they might be His instruinents there in accomplishing His ])ur])()scs, so He has put some of you in the laundry that you might bring your mistress umler the in¬ fluence of the truth that has hlessc'd you; and He has put some of you in the high¬ est social positions that you in tiuai might I'each those around you. 1 know a lady in 48 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. Washington who has access to the highest social circles, who has gone to Presiden¬ tial receptions and the highest social gath¬ erings for many years, not for her own pleasure at all, but to carry to foreign am¬ bassadors and the men and women of the highest positions the story of what God has done for her, and has often been used as a living ejiistle with persons who woidd not have road the Word of God for them¬ selves. Gh, dear friend, as you look around your elegant surroundings and your social kingdom, ask “ How much owest thou?” and to remember that to nse these things for your own selfish pride would be as base an idolatry as it was Nebuchadnezzar to say “ Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the strength of my king¬ dom and the honor of my majesty?” 6. Your business success, your means and your money are part of your trust. The real centre of human power to-day is found, not in foreign courts and earth¬ ly thrones, but in the council chambers of great financial corporations and in the hands of our merchant princes and finan¬ cial kings. Commerce is to-day the great¬ est power on the glohe, except the power of God. It has taken hold of the secrets of science, and is making hhem tributary to men's enterprise. If has stolen the lightning from the skies and harnessed the stream which it has wrung from the coal mines in the bowels of the earth, and made them tributary to its mighty enter¬ prises . It is startling the age wifh some new wonder every month, and the tele¬ phone, the phonograph, the cathode ray and the marvellous inventions which are multiplying from day to day are repeat¬ ing the story of Babel, for man is build¬ ing a tower to reach even unto heaven, and by these material forces endeavoring to supply the Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence of God and he a God unto himself. Now these are the places where God wants man to represent Him; to bring all these treasures of human skill and power and pride to lay at His feet. Men think nothing of spending $20,000,000 to build a transcontinental railroad, or hold a con¬ trolling interest in some financial corpo¬ ration. God is looking for men who will spend as much in the grander enterprise of the world’s evangelization and in build¬ ing a line of Gospel light across the dark lands that know not Jesus. Commerce sends her latest products to the heart of China and Thibet, but the Gospel has been eighteen centuries reach¬ ing the borders of these lands. The men of this Eepublic think nothing of spend¬ ing twelve to twenty millions in a single Presidential election, but it would take the church of America two or three years to spend that much in making Jesus King by sending the Gospel to the heathen. The theatres of New York City alone re¬ ceive more mone}' in a single year than all the Christians of America give annually to spread the Gospel. The citizens of New York spend $60 a year per head for wine, whiskey and beer, and the citizens of the United States spend 10 cents a head per annum in sending the Gospel to the heathen! Six hundred times as much for the devil as for the Lord. The gen¬ tlemen of New York sit down to a dinner every night in the week in some of our fashionable restaurants at which each plate costs more than enough to support a native worker for a whole year, and the ladies of New York spend as much at a single ball in many fashionable circles as would support twenty missionaries under the Alliance in India for a year Don’t you think God wants somebody to show what stewardship means? What an awful hour when these men and women stand before the throne, looking in the faces of millions of lost ones to God, and account for their stewardship! A gentleman was sitting at his desk counting over some banknotes, when a friend called and asked for a donation for a missionary object, pleasantly adding, “ Suppose you give me a hundred dollars from that pile.” “ Oh,” said his friend, “ these are trust funds.” “ Ah,” said the agent, “ I wonder if there are any fund^ that are not trust funds.” Yes, beloved, friend, money is all a trust fund, and some day you shall give an account of your stewardship. 7. Your religious privileges are trusts. Your salvation is not your own; you were redeemed that you might save some one else. Your religious experience is not vour own. Your temptations and trials have all come to you that you misht help others that have been similarly tried. And above all else, the Holy Ghost is your CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 49 sacred trust. He is given you for tlie tak¬ ing, that through Him you might be able to do your full duty, and accomplish more than in your own strength you possibly could. May you remember that you are responsible to God, not only for what you are able to accomplish, but for what the Holy Ghost would accomplish through you if you would let Him. This is the pound in the parable which your Master has given you to invest and use for Him. God help you to take it and use it so that it shall be given back tenfold. 9. Our supreme trust as the disciples of Christ is the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is given to us not for our own personal enjoyment and salvation merely, but that we may hold it in trust for the benefit of mankind and the salva¬ tion of all our race who are willing to ac¬ cept it. Not to do this is simply a breach of trust, and such conduct in human af¬ fairs would be considered a felony and a crime and would be punished in the se¬ verest manner by the laws of every civi¬ lized nation. A few years ago a man in one of our cities succeeded in establishing a home for poor children. By his artful appeals he succeeded in obtaining very large amounts of money from the too confiding public, but it was found that the children of the home were suffering from the most cruel neglect. Suspicion was aroused, and an investigation made, and it was discovered that he had been selfishly hoarding the contributions to amass a fortune for him¬ self, and that while he was living in lux¬ ury a hundred poor, haggard, gaunt, starving children were languishing in cold, nakedness and want. When the facts were brought to light before a court of justice and these poor victims of his neglect were brought out before the pub¬ lic gaze, the indignation of the communi¬ ty could scarcely be restrained, and he was driven from his position and justly hurled to a felon’s cell to suffer in bis own person some of the cruelties that his unfaithful¬ ness had inflicted uj)on others. This is the meaning of unfaithfulness to our trust. Wliat must the Heavenly Father think as His poor perishing ehildren are lifting up their wan faces and their bony fingers in entreaty to Him, and going forth in one long and ceaseless procession of de- sjiair to their eternal destiny while we are enjoying the hopes and privileges which cost our Kedeemer His precious life, and saying with self-complacency, “ 1 am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.” Surely the day will come Avhen His voice of thunder shall shake us from our indifference as it calls in our ears, “ The voice of thy brother’s blood crietli unto Me from the ground? Where is the soul of thy brother?” Yes, dear friends, there is a day of ac¬ count coming to us as surely as it came to the unfaithful stew^ard Have you ever thought how the unfaithful steward of God’s money must feel the moment after death? Suppose even he should pass into the presence of his Redeemer and in the light of heaven see and know as he is known What must it be for him to look down and see the money that is left be¬ hind him squandered by selfish and worth¬ less heirs and see also what it might have done in the salvation of hundreds of souls to whom he could have sent the gospel? What must it be for him to see the ran¬ somed ones coming home to heaven through the benevolence of others that he has known, while no harvest ever reaches him from generous sowing, but, on the contrary, he is permitted to see the despair of thousands that he could have reached and did not, and at the same time to see the curse that has followed his ill- used riches even among his family and friends whom perhaps he sought to bene¬ fit, but whom he could only harm by giv¬ ing them the stolen treasures which should have been laid u])on the altar of God? Before that day comes lot me ask you to go over the account and settle it with the Judge while you may. lie is asking you to-day, tenderly aiid solemnly asking, “Hoav much owest thou unto my Lord?” Roul redeemed by the precious blood of desus and rejoicing in your hope of heaven, how much owest thou to those who could not be saved if they would? Man or woman delivered from sickness or danger at some ])ast moment in your life, vdicn you ]»romised God that if He would spare you or deliver you, you would live for Him and others, how have you kept your pledge; how Ttiueh owest thou unto my Lord? Brother, on your way to heaven, look- 50 CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. iug forward to that time when you shall lay your head upon the bosom of your Ijord and breathe your life out into His arms, think of those who are dying to¬ day in heathen lands wdth no hope, no light but the presence of demons and the darkness of despair, and ask how much ow'est thou unto my Lord? Friend, wdio have seen your loved ones pass into the world above with dying shouts and songs of victory, and your tears w^ere wdped aw’ay as you bade them good-ljye,for it was not death, and through the gates ajar you knew^ tdey were with the Lord, where you should join them in a little while, oh, think of the sad and lonesome deathbeds of heathen lands where there is no hope beyond, no glad good-bye until we meet in heaven, noth¬ ing but the dark unkno-wn, the funeral without a ray of light, a grave wdthout a hope beyond, and oh, tell me, how much owest thou unto my Lord? Mother, clasping fondly your darling to your breast or laying her to-night on her little cot and downy pillow, think of the baby girls in China who are flung to¬ day to the vultures and the dogs because their mothers know" not your Redeemer, and tell ine how much ow"est thou unto my Lord? Maiden, in the proud consciousness of your womanly honor and purity, wdth all your privileges and prospects as a Chris¬ tian girl, think of your sisters yonder in India and Japan, dedicated from their in¬ fancy often to a life of shame, and so dark that they do not even know that it is shame. Oh, look at them as you shall see them some day in the Judgment and an¬ swer hoAv much ow^est thou unto my Lord? This, beloved, is our trust. How" touch¬ ing is that w"ord trust. It means that the ]\Iaster trusts us to finish His work and co-operate with Him in His high purpose for the wmrld's redemption. The trustee is more than a steward. Stew'ardship is rather the Old Testament idea; trustee¬ ship the New Testament conception. The stew"ard might be a slave; the trustee is a friend. Paul seems to refer to this w"hen he says in I. Cor. ix. 16-18 that as a stew¬ ard he has no choice in the matter, neces¬ sity is laid upon him; yea, woe be unto him if he preach not the gospel of Christ. But in the fulfillment of this stew"ardship there is a higher place to which we may rise voluntarily, as a trustee for men, and do His w'ork in the spirit of generous sac¬ rifice and w"ithout charge, and for this he says he shall receive a reward. Now" God gives us the high privilege and honor of choosing to be- His trustees in the same spirit in wliich the Master Himself w"ould do the w'ork if He were here. Oh! shall we be worthy of His confidence? It is one thing to trust God, but it is a grander thing for God to be able to trust us. Shall w"e be men and women on whom our IMaster can depend, and of whom He can say, as He said of Abraham: “ I know him that he w"ill do what the Lord com¬ manded, that the Lord may bring upon him all that He has promised.” Beloved, He has left us this sacred trust; He has given us an honor and a service for which any angel would gladly leave his throne. Shall He find us true? THE OPPORTUNITIES, RESPONSI¬ BILITIES AND POSSIBILITIES OF OUR TIMES. By REV. J. 11. GRAY, D.D. of Boston. It is only in the present day that we have begun to know" w"hat the w"orld really is. It was only yesterday that Nansen discovered real facts about the North Pole. He has not been there yet quite, but he has found, at least, that there is no land there and no living thing. Only in our day have the gates of all the na¬ tions been opened, and Korea, Japan, and even Thibet, brought into the line of the missionary host; and God’s Spirit has been moving as mightily as Flis providence. Multitudes of souls have been aw"akened and saved. Many are going forth and yet more are wanting to go to carry the glad tidings to the w"aiting nations. Obstacles have been removed; distance annihilated; dangers overcome; new agencies devel¬ oped; new lessons learned, and new" and mighty impulses awakened for the accom¬ plishing of the work. The ministry of w"omen has come to the front, and our sisters are permitted to enter lands whose threshold even men could not cross. What a responsil)ility all this throw's upon us, not only for our own salvation, but for the evangelization of the world. CHRISTMAS CONVOCATION. 51 God is beginning to lay this responsibility on the hearts of business men. There is a merchant in Boston who is the only man who has been making money in his line during these times of financial depression, and -yet this very man has been supporting several mission¬ aries all through the hard times, and I have no doubt that the prosperity he en¬ joys is the seal of God upon a faithful steward. If only the whole heart of the church of Christ was awakened to a practical un¬ derstanding of our times and a real sym¬ pathy with the heart of Christ, the whole world could be evangelized in ten years. The greatest incentive to this work is the hope of the Lord’s coming. There are some who tell us that this cuts the nerves of missionary zeal, but the strange fact re¬ mains, that the most successful mission¬ ary workers of our time are all men who believe profoundly in this blessed hope. God grant that the people of God may be enabled so to understand the mighty possibilities and the vast responsibilities of the times we live in that we shall go forth through these last years of the cen¬ tury to accomplish as much in a single de¬ cade as has been accomplished in all the ages of the past. 4 -f- GOD ALL IN ALL. By REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. I. Cor. XV. This is the most magnifi¬ cent and comprehensive view of the last things which God has revealed to us in His Word. It contains 150 words in the Eng¬ lish and 130 in tlie Greek. It presents seven points: First, the death of the race in Adam; second, the resurrection of the race in Christ, the last Adam; third, the second coming of Christ; fourtli, tlie res¬ urrection of the saints at His coming; fifth, the reign of Christ; sixtli, the subjection of all His foes, all authority, all rule, all enemies, all power, and death itself; seventh, surrender of the kingdom to God and His Father, who will be all in all. O’his magnificent picture commences with the fall of man and it ends with the supremacy of God. In the beginning God; in the end God all in all. There are eight “ alls ” in this passage and the last is all-in-all. This sublime passage gives the key to four great mysteries, namely: the mystery of history, the mystery of the kingdom, the mystery of destiny and the mystery of duty. I. History. Without God it is a tangled maze. Man was created with three great dignities. First, a prophet; second, a priest; third, a king. With his fall he lost his prophetic dignity, as the representative and revealer of God; his priestly honor, as one brought near to the Father; and his rule over himself and the creation. The last Adam—Jesus Christ —came to restore these three high call¬ ings, and, therefore. He appears as our Prophet, Priest and King; and He brings us into the same glorious place of privi¬ lege and service: to be the witnesses for God; to be the priests for the world; and to be the workers, first, over our own kingdom, and then to share His sover¬ eignty. II. The mystery of the kingdom. There are four aspects of Christ’s rule here. First, the church kingdom, which is to be merged in Christ; second, the world kingdom, which is to be conquered; third, the devil’s kingdom, which is ta be abolished; fourth, death’s kingdom, which is to be destroyed. III. The mystery of destiny. Here, again, there are four steps unfolded: First, the destruction of all adversaries; second, the salvation of the saints; tliird, the sur¬ render of tlie kingdom to the Father; fourth, the supremacy of God—all in all. TV. The mystei'y of duty. This is the juactical side of it. It means in our own character God is to be all in all, the first and the last. It means that w(' are to translate the Tjord’s prayer into our lives arid that tfie watchword of our being sball be: Hallowed be Thy Name; H’hy king¬ dom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It means that wc shall first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and it means that we shall rule in our little empire of character and influence and band over the sceiitre to Him as our all in all. Beloved, there are two processions mov¬ ing onward. One is marching to eternal death and shame, and in that procession 52 CHKISTMAS CONVOCATION. are the noble, as well as the filthy and abominable. But there is another proces¬ sion—the blood-washed and ransomed ones with the banner of Christ waving over their hearts and the palms of victory in their hands. They are pressing on to that glorious day when they shall lay the crowns and sceptres at His feet. Beloved, where are you in all this, and what has all this convocation meant for you? Has He begun to be your first, and, oh! shall He be your last? * * * THE CALL FOB THE CONVOCATION Besides the brethren whose addresses are reported in the preceding pages, letters of cordial sympathy with the objects of the meeting were received from Eev. James H. Brookes, D. 1)., St. Louis; Prof. Cro- zier and Prof. ]\Ioorhead, Eev. Dr. Stev¬ ens, Eev. Dr. Scofield, Eev. Dr. Erdman, Bishop Nicholson, Eev. Dr. Thompson, Edinburgh; Mr. H. W. Frost, Toronto; Eev. Dr. West, Syracuse; Eev. Henry C. j\Iabie, Boston, and many others who Avete prevented by unavoidable reasons from attending. We append the call for the Convention, which Avas signed by most of the above names and Avhich expresses Avith great force and fulness the objects of the con¬ ference. A SOLEMN CALL TO GOD’s PEOPLE. The close of the present year, 1896, really brings us to the end of the nine¬ teenth century, as it is admitted that the so-called Aera Dionysius (A.D.) began four years too late. If so, the birth of our blessed Lord reaches this year its nineteen hundredth anniversary. Surely this is a fit season for a very un¬ usual celebration, that should be no ordi¬ nary holiday Avith its Avorldly gayety and display, but a true holy day unto the liord, Avith a grateful commemoration of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and a devout humiliation in view of all past unfaithfulness to His doctrine. His example. His commands and His great commission, and a more complete separation unto a life of holiness and of serAMce. It is but too sadly obAuous that never in the history of these nineteen centuries has the Avorld more encroached upon the church or the church been more assimi¬ lated in the world. The amazing decline in doctrinal soundness, the decay of vital piety and spirituality, the godless e.xtrav- agance prevailing even among disciples, the abounding conformity to the Avorld, the practical denial of Christian steAvard- ship, the neglect of private prayer, the groAving indift'erenee to public Avorship, the vastness of the unoccupied field of missions, and the utter inadequacy of present means and methods to OA'ertake this destitution—these, and many other evils and parables noAV confronting us, demand such a neAV standard of holy liv¬ ing and giving, praying and preaching, denying of self and serving of God, as can never become actual AAdthout a neAV Pentecost from above. After much prayer and conference among brethren, it has been determined to call a ten days’ meeting at NeAV York City, from Thursday, December 24th, to and including Sunday, Januarj' 3d, 1897. To this gathering, in Avhich no name Avill be knoAvn as the centre of attraction save Jesus only, all disciples who love His name, trust in His blood, own His au¬ thority, honor His Spirit, and wait for His coming, are cordially invited. The meet¬ ings Avill be held at the Gospel Tabernacle, Eighth avenue and Forty-fourth street, at 10 A. M., 3 P. M. and 7 P. M. daily, ex¬ cept on Sundays, when the American The¬ atre is to be used for the assemblies. Those who cannot meet Avith us are as cordially invited to join in prayer for a new effusion of the Holy Spirit on all dis¬ ciples, the immediate opening of all doors now closed to mission advance, the rais¬ ing up of an adequate missionary force, and the universal awakening of disciples to the duty of a world’s evangelization. It is proposed to crown and complete this gathering by a spontaneous offering to world-AA'ide missions to be distribAited according to the choice of the individual contributors, so far as designated; the re¬ mainder to be used as may be determined by a committee appointed by the confer¬ ence. Leading Standard Yolunies —BY— REV. A. R. SIMPSON. Christ in the Bible. A ^iritual exposition of the Scriptures especially helpful in the study of the Word. On hand, JOSHUA, price, $2.00. ROMANS, price, $2.00. A Barger Christian Bife. Price, $1.00. Eleven chapters leading the reader into the larger thoughts of God for his life. The Fullness of Jesns, or The Revelation of Christ in the books of the New Testament. Price, $1.00. The Gospel of the Kingdom Price $1.00. Only volume on the Lord’s Coming. Tbe Names of Jesns. Price, $1.00. Revealing the different attributes of Christ The Band of Promise. Price, $1.00. An inspiring volume, showing our privileges in Christ. Walking in the Spirit. Price $1.00. Walking in Bove. Price $r.oo. Most practical and helpful books for the trials of our daily life. In Heavenly Places. Price $1.00. Sermons on the higher Christian life. Friday Meeting Talks. Price 60 cents. Specially helpful on Divine Healing. The Bife of Prayer. Price, 75c. Chapters on the inner life. The Bove Bife of our Bord. Price, 60c. Beautiful exposition of the Song of Solomon. Wholly Sanctified. Price 50c. One of the most helpful volumes. lillNS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. COMPOSED AND EDITED BY CAPT. R. KELSO CARTER AND REV. A. B. SIMPSON. This beautiful Hymnal is now too well known toneed introduction. It has been carefully arranged under topics, and covers a wider classification than any other book; the o n 1 3' hymn-book in which our friends can find expression for a large class of spiritual needs and emotions, especial¬ ly with reference to the Lord's Heal¬ ing, our deeper life in Christ, His Com¬ ing, Missions, etc. The music is ver3' stirring, and there area few h3’mns in the book,the popu¬ larity of which are justly considered worth the price of the whole volume. While it con¬ tains a great many new evangelistic h3'mus, it has also a large number of the old standard h3'mns of worship, and is suitable either for regular church worship, devotional meetings, or special ocra.sioiis. Special terras are made for churches, congregations, and Alliance Meetings, where quantities are ordered. Size 6x8 inches; PRIONS. MUSIC EDITION. Board Covers . . $ .so Cloth Covers.7.s Leather covers ... i.oo Postage invariably loc. extra. WORD EDITION. Board Covers .... 25c. Leatherette Covers. . loc. Postage invariabl}' 5c. extra. NEW BOOKS By rev. a. B. SIMPSON. p/VI J| THE IDEAL MAN AND MODEL MISSIONARY. A series of Sermons on the Characteristics, and Life- work of the great Pattern Man and Pioneer Missionary. Printed in new type and handsomely bound in white fibre covers. Popular Edition, 74 Pages. Price 1 0 Cents. THE GOSPEL IN THE TABERNACLE. An expo.sition of the ancient Tabernacle and its cere¬ monial rites. From new plates, on good paper, beauti¬ fully bound. Popular Edition, 128 Pages, Price 20 Cents. MISSIONARY TRACTS. Christianity’s Crime. Startling Facts and Figures about Missions. The New Testament Standpoint of Missions. Three strong tracts on the duty and privilege of the follower of Jesus regarding the work of Christ for for¬ eign missions. Price 3 Cents each. Special Features. POPULAR EDITIONS at the very cheap price of lo cents and 13 cents put the following well- known books within the reach of all: THE GOSPEL OF HEALING. Pretty and dur¬ able binding, only loc. CHRIST LIFE. 140 pages, or as much as 16 tracts usually sold at 3c. apiece, only loc. FOUR-FOLD GOSPEL. Which thoroughly explains the principles of the Alliance, and most helpful in exposition, formerly .soc., now loc. HYMNS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. A cheap popular edition, words only, will be sold at one halt the price of the ordinary word edition, namely. 15c. The usual discount will be given on this price for all orders in large quantities. The only difference in style between this and the other word edition is in the fact that this is stitched instead of sewed, and that the binding is flexible and can be rolled up, but it is very substantial and strong. All the above bound in the best leatherette. To Colporteurs! 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Any person wishing to send the Ai.liancE to any missionary abroad can do so by remitting us one dollar and the foreign postage, which usually is fift}^ cents, to all places within the postal code. Clubs of four persons can have the Alliance for one year for five dollars, but the four names with the money must be sent at once Clubs of ten can have the Alliance for one year for one dollar each, but all the names with the money must be sent at one time to save the trouble and confusion of extra bookkeeping. Papers vdll. of course, be mailed separately. Subscribers in Europe, China, Japan and India will please add fifty cents for special postage. For South Africa, $2.50; for Australia, $1, Subscriptions may commence with any issue, and will be continued until ordered discontinued. Letters should be addressed, and cheques made payable to THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUB. CO., 252 W. 420 ST., NEW YORK. AAA A Catalogue of books and tracts on Christian Life and Work and the Lord’s Coming by Rev. A. 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