helped the cause of Christian union, and especially to Mr. Laycock for his valuable service at Colchester.

On Tuesday, April 24, by the invitation of the Misses Newton, of Leylands, Derby, a number of friends met in their drawing-room, which has been so often opened to the Alliance. The Rev. J. Consterdine gave an account of the work of the Evangelical Alliance in promoting spiritual unity and defending the persecuted, dwelling on the sufferings of the Stundists. A collection was made.

On Thursday, the 26th, by the kindness of the Rev. W. A. Strawbridge, vicar of Masbrough, Rotherham, Mr. Consterdine addressed two meetings, one in the afternoon at the Vicarage, the other in the Schoolroom in the evening. Collections were made and much interest shown, several names being given for membership, including that of the Vicar. This was a new opening, and at the evening meeting Mr. Strawbridge expressed a hope that another year something might be attempted on a larger scale, and several of the neighbouring ministers brought together.

On Sunday, April 29, Mr. Consterdine preached two sermons on Christian Unity in St. Paul's, Halliwell, Bolton le Moors, of which the Rev. Thomas Lancaster is vicar. In the afternoon the members of the Men's and Women's Bible Classes met in the Church, when Mr. Consterdine addressed them on the work of the Alliance. This was the first time the cause had been preached in the parish, and very much interest was shown, twenty names being taken for membership, including those of the Rev. Thomas and Mrs. Lancaster. Mr. Morris, one of the new members, undertook kindly to act as local secretary, so that a Halliwell Branch may be considered to have been formed. The collections, morning and evening, amounted to £7 7s. 8d., which were divided between the funds of the Alliance and the Persecuted Stundists' Fund.

SOUTH GERMAN BRANCH.

THE Allianz Blatts, in a recent issue, contained an interesting account of the first meeting of the South German Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, held at Frankforton-the-Maine, from April 7 to 9.

Two meetings were held on the Sunday, at which Professor Lemme, of Heidelberg (the President of the Branch), spoke on the objects of the Alliance. Pastor Correvon also spoke of his experience of the Alliance, and how manifestly God's power was seen at the last great International Conference, held in Florence, where so many Christians of various nationalities met daily at the throne of grace.

Mr. Strobel, of Bockenheim, near Frankfurt, remembered Frankfurt as a child, and how spiritually dead the place then was. It was in the Reformed Church that real spiritual life first began, and, though he was a Lutheran, he first received life through Jesus in the Reformed Church. He used to mistrust the Alliance, but now was thankful to take part in these united meetings. The evening meeting was well attended. The addresses were most edifying and helpful, Pastors Schäffer, Kaiser, and Mann spoke, the latter giving a most stirring address on "Have you peace ?"

On Monday, there were meetings in Bockenheim, and the speeches dealt more with our unity in Christ than the objects and existence of the Alliance, which had already been explained. Pastor Lohman opened with prayer, and the very aged Baptist, Pastor Raushenbusch, followed (formerly thirty years in the Theological Seminary in Rochester) speaking on 1 Cor. iii.

Johannes Maassen spoke next on "All is yours," the cross as well as the crown. Then Dr. Pfleiderer, from Koruthal, and, after him, Preiherr von Gemmingen, from Gerusbach, on fellow-workers with God.

Pastor Shäffer, from Munster, followed, and then Pastor Bucher, dwelling on conversion, and showing that we can only point souls to Him, Who alone can save. Preacher Mann pointed out the evil of making too much of the part of Christ's Church, to which one may belong, instead of attaching most importance to the union with Christ Himself. Pastor Wittekind dwelt on Christ Jesus as a foundation. Metropolitan Strobel spoke next on cases where a preacher having been long in a church gathers round him a large congregation, and yet at his departure but little

spiritual result is seen from his ministry. Such a man requires our earnest prayers. Professor Lemme spoke in conclusion on difference of opinion about things now and when we shall stand before Christ's Judgment Throne. All the speakers dwelt more or less on the importance of Christian Unity. The meetings closed at 6 p.m., all those present separating with thankful hearts, having received much help and blessing.

ECHOES OF THE WEEK OF PRAYER.

We have received many additional reports of the observance of the Week of Prayer since the publication of the last in our April issue. We have not space now to do more than give two or three extracts from recent communications upon this subject:

JAPAN.-The January number of Missionary Tidings (a bright little magazine published in Yokohama, Japan), gives an interesting account of the Week of Prayer in Nagoya : "Week of Prayer services were held in both English and Japanese, at different hours in the day, and these services grew in interest from the first. It was a common remark that while the Week of Prayer services are often a mere matter of form, there seemed to be in their observance here this year an unusual importance. At the close of the week the Japanese Christians decided unanimously to continue the meeting for three nights more, and took for their subject the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, arranging, for reasons of convenience, to meet at the Kumi-ai Church. The prayer services of three nights were observed, the interest growing all the time, and they were compelled, on account of the crowds, to hold their meetings in the Methodist Episcopal Church, a much larger building. The services were characterised by deep heart searching, by a longing after a clean heart, by a growing interest in the souls of the unsaved, and by direct Christian work as a result. The volume of prayer flowed on for two hours at a time, and nothing but the intervention of the leader with a word of exhortation or a hymn seemed to check it. Buddhist priests came in, listened quietly, appeared bewildered, and withdrew in silence. Sinners are turning to the Lord."

In a letter from the Ven. Archdeacon C. F. Warren, of Osaka, Japan, written in February last, he states that at Nagoya the Week of Prayer was attended with marked spiritual results, and in Osaka the meetings were better attended than for some years past, and now the pastors and workers of all denominations are uniting in special preaching services every Monday evening.

The Rev. W. P. Buncombe, of Tokushima, writes in January: "The Churches in Japan almost all observe the Week of Prayer, and think that of course all Christians-especially those in England and America-meet together to unitedly supplicate God's blessing and praise Him for His Grace. 'But, alas! I find, on coming home, many Christians and Churches have not even so much as heard that there is such a Week of Prayer.' In Tokushima, in January 1893, the Lord visited them with marked and manifest blessing, the Spirit being poured out in a most blessed revival. The missionaries took it in turns to preach, and the Presbyterian pastor preached one night with power."

The Rev. C. T. Warren says that much of the good work in Tokushima is owing to the very helpful meetings held during the week of Universal Prayer, when the working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who attended the meetings was most marked.

CHINA. The Rev. Joseph Stonehouse, of Peking, writes: "During my ten years in China I have ever sought to propagate and establish the principles of the Alliance, and it has always been a delight to me in finding that our Chinese converts have readily responded to any call to unite with the converts of other missions in doing any work that will advance the Kingdom of God. The one thing, perhaps, above all others, to which Chinese Christians look forward with real joy, is the Week of Prayer. The good resulting from that union of hearts and thoughts and prayers cannot be over-estimated."

Alliance House, 7 Adam Street, Strand, London, W.C.

*** Remittances may be made payable to the order of the secretary (Mr. A. J. Arnold), or to the Treasurer.

An interesting testimony was given by a missionary-the Rev. Thomas Bryson, of Tientsin, China-at the annual Conversazione of the Evangelical Alliance, in May, to the practical working in the mission field of the principles of Christian union, which the Alliance seeks to promote. He said: "Our substantial union and oneness in a common faith and work is manifested in China in many forms. For example, in all the ports where our countrymen are assembled, they have been largely indebted to the missionaries for the conduct of Christian services from Sabbath to Sabbath. And these services are conducted in places of worship usually called Union Churches '-namely, churches provided by all the missionaries of the place. In these churches where all the different sects-so-called-unite in common fellowship from week to week, missionaries of various societies and nationalities conduct the services, so that foreign friends going into one of these churches would certainly not be able to tell whether the preacher was a Presbyterian, a Wesleyan, an Independent, a Baptist, or an Episcopalian."

"On Sunday

As to the nature of these services, Mr. Bryson added: morning there will be an Episcopalian service-that is to say, the Prayer Book of the Church of England will be read, oftentimes more devoutly than you would hear it at home; and then when you go into the same place of worship in the evening you would find the service conducted more after the manner of the Nonconformists at home." The "Union" services are carried on not only in China, but in Japan and in India, and no doubt elsewhere. They constitute

a practical protest against the separatist principles that would keep Christians apart, because they do not see eye to eye in all things relating to the externals of Christian worship, and they are specially valuable before the heathen as a testimony to the substantial unity of all who hold the Head. No wonder that Mr. Bryson could say: "It is sometimes said by critics (mostly by those without experience in the foreign field) that these divisions are a hindrance to the spread of the Gospel; but after my residence of twenty-seven years I can say that that is utterly untrue in regard to China. We live in entirely brotherly harmony with one another; we carry on our work on exactly the same lines, and so far as the heathen are concerned I have not known in all my experience of a single heathen who found these divisions a stumbling-block in coming to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ."

The Jubilee of the Young Men's Christian Association has been observed with all due honours amidst crowded and enthusiastic meetings in Exeter Hall, and services and sermons in Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and the City Temple. But, perhaps the real value of the work started fifty years ago by Sir George Williams and his co-workers is best estimated by considering its spiritual results-the many hundreds of young men who have been brought to Christ through the instrumentality of the work then set on foot. For the honoured founders of this noble institution did not aim at merely the improvement of young men in mental culture, or the promotion of their health by athletics, or even the preservation of their morals only amidst the corrupting influences of the great city. Theirs was a higher aim. They did not lightly inscribe the name of "Christian" upon their banners. They sought to win souls for Christ, and in this they have not been disappointed. May this, the highest aim and object of the Y.M.C.A., never be lost sight of amidst the many secondary causes for congratulation to which the late Jubilee rejoicings have naturally directed attention.

The Chairman of the Congregational Union for this year-the Rev. Geo. S. Barrett, D.D.-chose for the subject of his address at the Spring Meeting of the Union, "The Secularisation of the Pulpit," and gave a timely warning as to the present-day tendency to let the concerns of this life take the place which our fathers accorded to the concerns of Eternity. He pointed out that "the prominence now given to social questions and to the material welfare of the people may be a source of danger to the pulpit." After expressing his deepest sympathies with and admiration for "that great company of patient toilers who have long been labouring for the social elevation of the people "-he then adds, "Religion may have its own word to say on these social questions, but we ministers of Christ abdicate our highest position, we miss the message entrusted to us if we ever forget, or allow our hearers to forget, that our great work is not to save the body from suffering, but to deliver the soul from sin." Again, "There is no enthusiasm of humanity, as the term itself may teach us, without God in us. It is the quickening in man of the Divine passion of love for men, and if ever Gethsemane, with its tears and blood, and Calvary, with its great darkness, and Jesus, with His dying love, lose their supreme and regal place in our faith or fade away from our teaching, it will not be long before we lose the human love as well."