lons are transported into Africa alone every year, and this causes more destruction in a single day than all the missionaries can repair in years of hard work. The drink traffic in Africa is a greater curse to the people than even slavery itself. And the same can be truthfully said of the New Hebrides.

In spite of all these obstacles Christianity is making a steady and rapid progress. Let no one imagine for a moment that the mission cause is a failure. Wherever you look among the nations to-day you will find that Christianity is a great and important fact. It is showing itself in millions of lives, it has changed the whole current of the world's affairs, it is shaping and molding the present, and nothing in the future can stay its progress. As well say that the sun in the heavens is a failure. The religion of Jesus Christ is adapted to all classes and conditions of men; to the highest intelligences of India and China, and no less to the lowest forms of degraded humanity, whether living amid the eternal snows of Lapland, or sweltering on the burning plains of tropical Africa. What is needed to-day is more consecration and more zeal to bring it to bear on the great masses of heathendom. Think of the vantage ground we occupy as compared with the church in a former generation. To-day there are 7,000 trained missionaries in the field. The Bible is translated into 300 languages. Nearly all of these languages are reduced to a grammar. And we have 3,000,000 of converts from heathendom to inspire us with hope for the future. It was late in the afternoon when Napoleon rode on to the battlefield of Marengo. With his experienced eye he saw that the battle was almost lost. Looking anxiously at the setting sun, he said, "There is just time left to recover the day." He gave his orders with characteristic promptitude, and the defeat

was turned into a complete and triumphant victory. Could some victory like this not be won for 'Christ during the closing decade of this century? Everything is on the church's side. She has the men, the means, and the promise of her ascended Lord. What is needed is faith in God, prayer to God, and consecrated, well directed effort for God in winning souls.

In human history there is no sublimer, more soulstirring story than that which sketches the triumphant march of Christianity from Jerusalem and Judea to Arabia, to the shores of Africa, to Asia Minor, and last of all to the classic shores of Greece and Italy, and thence to Britain. It conquered the Roman Empire and made its way northward and westward till French and Spaniards, Germans and Scandinavians were in possession of the enlightening gospel, and Europe was won for Christ. Thence it crossed the ocean and took possession of the new world, and from the old world and the new it is going east and south among the pagan peoples of Asia and Africa, winning victories compared with which those of Alexander the Great, Caesar, or Napoleon, are as nothing. And in this majestic march, unparalleled in history, the church of Christ has simply been fulfilling the great prophecies of scripture, and realizing its grand promises. What in all the Christian era has given a greater proof of God's favor and blessing than the success of the gospel in this century, fast drawing to a close? The success of the first century was great, but the success of the first century was a failure when compared with the success of the nineteenth century. Then only about five hundred thousand nominal Christians professed conversion. But during the century of modern missions over three millions have become converts to Christianity, and this conversion is going on at a rapidly increasing ratio

every single day. Look at those standing miracles of blessing and success-the conversion of the Sandwich Islands, the New Hebrides, the Fiji Islands, the Georgia and Friendly Islands, for the clearest evidences of God's favor and approval. The annual average conversion in Africa is 18,000 souls. China has in less than fifty years increased from eight Protestant Christians to over 50,000 communicants. Japan has 35,000 professing Christians, the fruit of twenty-two years. India is experiencing a Pentecostal outpouring of God's Holy Spirit, and conversions are taking place every day. In the Methodist Episcopal church alone there were 60,000 conversions from heathenism to Christianity in three years. The great work of the Baptist mission in Telegu during the past twenty years rivals what took place in the early church as narrated in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. It is only a quarter of a century since David Livingstone ended his noble lifeservice on his knees in his reed-covered hut at Illala, and laid the burden of Africa's evangelization upon the heart of the Christian world. During this brief interval the missionary of the cross has almost literally taken possession of Africa for Christ, and to-day the work is going rapidly on. Wherever we look abroad upon the face of the world we see the missionary at work, and everywhere we see much to encourage and stimulate, to arouse and inspire the church to greater zeal and earnestness in its God-given misson of winning the world for Christ.

III. Our privilege and duty. (1). Let us be deeply interested in the cause of missions. There is no other cause half as worthy of our individual interest. The very fact of 1,000,000,000 of our fellow creatures living and dying without a knowledge of the gospel should be enough to arouse the most careless Christian

living. Our Savior died for the cause of missions, and can we doubt his interest in it? The heathen are his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth are his blood-bought possession. Let us, his professed followers, be profoundly interested in this cause, and let us take every opportunity of showing it.

(2). Let every Christian give proportionately and regularly for the spread of the gospel. This is the direct measure of our interest. Not long ago a poor woman said to a collector of the London Missionary Society, "I cannot give as the wealthy do, but I can give sixpence a week." Let every Christian be animated by that spirit, and the problem of "missionary support would be solved.

(3). Our duty is to pray for the success of missions. Jesus requested his disciples to pray for more laborers. Let us do the same, and let us pray for them after they are in the field. More prayer for them, and less criticism of them and their methods. At Waterloo the British troops fell on their knees to avoid the French fire, and then from their knees they marched on to victory. In the conquest of the world for Christ victory will only come as we rise from our knees. Christ's cause is the winning cause. gathering of the nations be.

To him shall the The ultimate success of

his kingdom is just as sure as God's plan and purpose can make it. The sound of the herald angels shall be heard again; not chanted by angels this time, but by men and women redeemed and washed in the blood of the Lamb. The continents of the earth will raise the song, and the isles of the sea shall swell the chorus, as a redeemed world rolls heavenward its psalm of praise— "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Meanwhile upon our ears there falls another and a

different sound, wrung from the depths of millions of despairing hearts. Across the billowy ocean it comes, gathering momentum as it nears our shores, and a loud, loud wail breaks upon the ear of Christian America; breaks upon our ears to be heard and heeded, or to be sent back again to the dark lands whence it comes, unheard and unheeded, and the bleeding hearts and the wounded consciences of 1,000,000,000 of our fellow creatures to go to an eternity where hope can find no entrance, but cruel despair an unending home.

Then think of the reflex influence of missions upon the church at home. The divine plan and purpose seems to be that the church which does most abroad is the strongest and healthiest at home. At one time Greece was disunited and broken up in broiling factions, ever on the verge of internecine war. The Persian at the gate was the hammer which welded the factions of Greece into one compact whole. In front of the foe the bickerings of the barracks are forgotten, and shoulder to shoulder the soldiers are one in sympathy and purpose, as they fight their country's enemy. And with such a work to do, with the command of Christ ringing down these centuries, with so many things to cheer and encourage, and from the vantage ground at present occupied, should not the church of our risen Lord unite her broken ranks, call to aid all her resources, and with an earnestness and zeal which the circumstances make absolutely imperative, endeavor to carry out her Lord's great demand?

"All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded