question; but I trust that what little has been said may cheer us on. When we think of all these and many other encouraging signs of the times, and then add to them that which is our mainstay, the promise of God, the presence of Christ, the power of the Spirit, have we not abundant reason, notwithstanding all that is trying, and discouraging, and even depressing, to "thank God, and take courage," and "go on our way," and with our work, "rejoicing"?

The Rev. DAVID VAN HORNE, Philadelphia, having been asked to take part in the proceedings of this evening, but not being able to be present, sent the following paper :

AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN WORK IN GREAT CITIES.

The present need of aggressive Christian work in our great cities on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean can scarcely be over-estimated. The invariable condition of Christian progress is activity. Our Lord said, "Go, preach!" and any failure or even delay on our part in fulfilling this command, the marching orders of our army, will end in disorder and utter defeat. When the Church ceases to be aggressive she is in a decline. The law of her life is unflagging energy in the conflict with the powers of darkness; and, in all this conflict, she dare not be content with defensive action; she must be first to make the attack. Before entering upon the specific claims which great cities have for increased energy in Christian effort, let us consider briefly what we mean by the phrase, "Aggressive Christian work." And, for this purpose, we can scarcely do better than cite the example of some of our modern heroes of faith, who, like those of old, of whom the world was not worthy, illustrate in their lives the principles and the effects of this utter devotion to the extension of the cause and the kingdom of Christ.

The traveller who ascends the Connecticut River in our times, may have pointed out to him a spot near East Windsor, where, 175 years ago, a New England lad, with his companions, erected a booth on the edge of a swamp, where they went alone to pray. The leader of this youthful company always believed that he was truly converted at a later period in his life, yet, in his case, as in so many others, the child was the father of the man. Reared in a ministerial household, taught the Classics when six years old, he entered college at thirteen, and was received into full communion with his father's church upon his graduation when seventeen years of age. Soon after he formulated some seventy resolutions for the guidance of his future conduct,

among which we find this: "Resolved to live with all my might while I do live."

In time, our friend becomes a minister of the Gospel, and is placed over a congregation. Great showers of blessing descend upon his people, as he preaches the Word of Life to them, and the influence spreads to neighbouring churches. He has a young "Timothy' under his charge, who, while the pastor's literary fame spreads abroad to Scotland and other lands, preaches to the scattered tribes of Indians along the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers. They both lead lives of great self-denial; the health of the younger fails from the effects of hardships and exposures, and, at the age of twenty-nine, he passes from the Church militant to the Church triumphant in heaven.

Soon afterward, the author of the words, "Resolved to live with all my might while I do live," falls under the displeasure of his people, is dismissed by them, and becomes a teacher of Indian children in the forest. Poverty follows rejection. He writes an "Essay on the Freedom of the Will" on scraps of waste-paper; for five weeks acts as President of a struggling college; is attacked with secondary fever, after having been inoculated for smallpox, and dies in the fiftyfifth year of his age. These two men are illustrious examples to those who, with self-denial, would do aggressive work for Christ.

On the territory where Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd "lived with all their might," and sacrificed life itself for the cause and kingdom of Christ, now stand prosperous cities, with their teeming populations. In all the intervening years there has never been a time when these cities stood in greater need of evangelisation than at the present. Amid the rush and roar of business, men living with all their might for temporal interests, Satan plies his arts, and by ten thousand devices ensnares the unwary in his toils.

From the statistics we learn that there is a rapid increase of population in our American cities. Only twelve per cent. of native Americans remain in the country, while eighty-six per cent. are found in the cities. Thirty per cent. of the total population of Massachusetts is located within twelve miles of the State House in Boston. The number of people in New York and environs nearly equals that in the entire Empire State besides. In addition to this tendency on the part of the people to remove from the country districts, our city population increases rapidly by means of immigration. More than three-quarters of a million of people have come to our shores in a single year to remain; and during the past sixty-seven years fourteen and one-half million have arrived, of different nationalities, with their differing views of life, habits, and customs. It is said that twentyper cent. of the people in Philadelphia and suburbs are foreigners;

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in Boston and St. Louis, thirty per eent.; in New York and Chicago, forty per cent.; and in San Francisco, forty-four per cent. A single glance will reveal to the Christian observer the gravity of the situation, and the need of immediate effort for the salvation of these immortal souls, since it is acknowledged that, among these immigrants, are many from what are known as the dangerous classes from the old world.

It is further affirmed that the agencies at hand for bringing the Gospel message to the people in our cities are entirely inadequate. There is only one church for every five thousand four hundred people below Fourteenth Street in New York city, and above Fourteenth Street, one for three thousand one hundred. In Chicago, in 1847, there was one church for every seven hundred and forty-seven people, and now they have only one for every two thousand five hundred. The growth of New York in population, since 1880, is estimated at three hundred thousand, and, at the same time, only four new churches have been established. In Boston, one church is reported for every one thousand six hundred of the people; and in New York, taken as a whole, one for every two thousand four hundred and sixty-eight; and in St. Louis, one for every two thousand eight hundred.

In Great Britain and Europe it is reported that the situation is still more discouraging; in Berlin, one church for every twenty-one thousand souls; in London, with its five and one-half millions, and its one thousand six hundred and forty-seven Protestant and Roman Catholic churches for that multitude, we have for each church about three thousand three hundred and fifty people.

In all these great centres of population there are neglected districts. The strong churches are on the avenues, and only here and there a weak one is found in the plague-spots of society. There intemperance and licentiousness abound. Children grow up in squalor and misery, with the examples ever before them of the most vicious characters. What a harvest of crime results from this neglect of great districts in all our cities! Truly, these neglected children may well say, "No man cares for my soul."

It is natural for us to look for aids in this work for the betterment of society. The newspaper, that great agency of enlightenment, when it limits itself to its proper six days' issue each week, guarding its columns against that which will minister only to debased appetites, is to be commended as a mighty power for the diffusion of intelligence. goes into the neglected places in all our cities. Many people read the newspaper who never enter any church. While we freely acknowledge all this, we cannot commend the Sunday newspaper as

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an aid to the cause of reform and religion. Each Sabbath morning the voice of the newsboy is heard in the streets crying the sale of the Sunday papers; and, at the same time, swift speeding railroad trains distribute these sheets broadcast throughout the land. During the spring and summer months, also, excursion boats and long trains of cars are crowded to their utmost capacity with pleasure-seekers, who often return to their homes with empty pockets, suffering from the effects of the Sunday debauch.

The safeguards of Christian civilisation are bound up with the keeping of the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship of God. The statistics will show that the moral tone of any community rises with the Sabbath-keeping practice, or falls with its failure. Our great cities are great Sabbath breakers; and, unless the Church constantly agitates reform in regard to the loose methods of observance of the day on the part of her members, and of neglect altogether on the part of others, she will not only be recreant to duty, but will herself suffer in consequence. A people without a Sabbath will soon be without a sanctuary or a ministry. The Church and the Sabbath must rise or fall together; and the Bible will soon be neglected where men do not remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.

But it may be said that it is easier to point out evils than to remedy them. All true Christians recognise these and other evils in society, and deplore them, but how can they apply a remedy? They agree that the Gospel is the only source of permanent relief, but the effective application of it to those centres of social corruption is not easily accomplished. Here and there philanthropic individuals or societies put forth efforts for temporary relief. When the enormities have reached a point where endurance is no longer possible, the civil authorities interpose and enforce the law for a time; but, usually, these are only spasmodic efforts, and the evil one finds the house swept empty and garnished, ready for his return and repossession. The law may outwardly restrain human conduct, but it cannot change the character. The Gospel is needed; the sinner must receive a new heart; he must be regenerated by the Spirit of God; he must be reformed from within, and receive Christ, if he is to be saved.

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One method of applying the Gospel in this way is to introduce it into all the public institutions founded on distinctively Protestant views. To illustrate A short time since an afflicted man, thirty-five years of age, was brought into an institution of this kind in the city of Philadelphia for treatment. The matron soon discovered that he was prejudiced against religion. She set to work to win him to Christ; said nothing to him about the subject of his soul for a week; but when he was used to the quiet of the place, and the singing of hymns

in the adjoining rooms, she gradually introduced the theme; persuaded him to read the Scriptures. He said that Christ was a good man or a great deceiver. At last he consented to have prayers offered for him, and agreed to pray himself; he felt that the prayers were answered, and left the place a believer in Christ. What was done

in his case might be accomplished in thousands of others. All eleemosynary institutions should be permeated by the spirit of the Gospel. Sabbath schools should be multiplied in the different wards of our cities, in the expectation that they will ultimately develop into missions and churches. The local church, after all, is what is needed. The present movement in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Oswego, and other places, in connection with branches of the Evangelical Alliance, providing canvassers to go from house to house in the neighbourhood of the church or mission, inviting people to the services, is a move in the right direction.

But evangelistic efforts will never be successful in our great cities, unless the spirit of caste is carefully excluded from the work. "Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the people praise Thee," is a prayer that should be often expressed in these times. Churches exclusively for the rich, and others exclusively for the poor, create invidious distinctions. Let the rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all. Reformed Churches holding to the Presbyterian system have a special mission in this direction. With services adapted to all understandings; chaste and simple, decent and edifying, they can welcome all classes to their sanctuaries. With a ministry in which each servant of the Lord is primus inter pares, they can heartily say to the people, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Holding that the Bible not only contains the Word of God, but is the Word of God, the only rule of faith and practice; emphasising the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and the brotherhood of man, they can enter the places in our cities where the greatest need exists, and work as Luther did in Wittenberg, Zwingli in Zurich, Calvin in Geneva, Knox at Edinburgh, Chalmers at Glasgow, Edwards and Brainerd in America, and as thousands of others have done since their times, and are now doing on both sides of the ocean, winning multitudes to Christ.

Since the evils of denominationalism are chiefly experienced in the cities, where the work overlaps in places because of hopefulness, and is greatly neglected in other sections where there is not the same prospect of speedy growth, special efforts should be made to found mission centres in the destitute regions. These missions, like the Cremorne, Jerry M'Cauley, and Florence Night-Missions in New York,