its complicated machinery, is not the impulsive craze of some restless genius wreaking his iconoclastic wrath on timehonored methods, but a monument so general and providential as to compel the attention of all who look for the triumph of Christianity on the high places of the field.

In an earlier page of this article reference was made to the failure of modern Wesleyanism to gain a foothold in English villages. The exact facts and figures which form the basis for this conclusion demand further presentation.

Including 868 places in which services have been established during the last twenty-five years, the denomination is now represented in 5,755 villages with a gross population of 3,662,791; 3,486 of these villages have no other Non-conformist services. This degree of success does not look quite so flattering when it is borne in mind there are yet 7,659 villages with a population of over 3,500,000-equal almost to that of all Canada—which, so far as Wesleyan effort is concerned, are literally virgin soil. In other words, Wesleyanism remains totally unrepresented to this day in half of rural England. It is a singular coincidence that simultaneously with the campaign to capture the centers there should be set on foot a scheme to win the feeblest and most distant outpost. But such is the case. Just as in London investigations were made, maps and statistics published, and where it was impracticable to maintain the regular itinerancy on the score of cost, a readier means was discovered for effecting a thoroughly pioneer undertaking. The conception and execution of this scheme are entirely due to the Rev. Thomas Champness, an influential member of the Conference. Its provisions mainly include the training, under his own supervision, of competent young men as lay evangelists. They must possess special adaptation for mission work, subsist on scanty remuneration, and act under his control. The economy and definiteness of aim thus secured are praiseworthy and profitable. Under the title of Joyful News a weekly organ is published in the interests of the movement. It is edited by Mr. Champness, somewhat in the style of the Salvation Army War Cry, and has reached a circulation of fifty thousand copies per week. In setting Mr. Champness free from circuit work, that his undivided attention might be given to the project he has hitherto so successfully carried on, the late English Conference took a

step in the right direction. Eighty-five such evangelists are now employed, and the number will speedily reach a hundred. The new foundations laid, the blessed revivals brought about, and the fresh impetus given to the work at many a weak point, have gladdened the Church from center to circumference. Great care is taken, not only in the selection of suitable men, but in their practical preparation for the work. The result is, that a man accredited as a "Joyful News Evangelist" needs no further guarantee of fitness to extend and strengthen Methodism. One hardly knows which to admire most, the inspiration which led Mr. Champness to initiate the work, or the wise effort which consolidates and sustains it.

As a connecting link between the unoccupied and uncaredfor portion of Christ's dominions and well-equipped churches, this latest accession to ministerial auxiliaries seems destined to be a potent and abiding factor within and beyond English Wesleyanism.

THE OUTLOOK.

1. What is the probable destiny of the missions already started? It is agreed on all hands that a success resting on the administration of temporal aid, on sensational attractions whose novelty must soon wear out, on any sympathy with the nonchurch-going classes which would involve the sacrifice of truth or justice, or contingent on the exceptional endowments of the unique men who superintend it, would necessarily be superficial, short-lived, and dear at almost any price.

If any of these are urged against the new movement its friends need not be seriously frightened. Innovations, such as open-air services, lay preaching, and the administration of the sacraments by men not episcopally ordained, wounded the sensibilities and aroused the fears of a horde of Wesley's contemporaries. Yet Methodism lived. At every subsequent stage of its development, where new forces were discovered and utilized, friends and foes have been liberal in predictions of death and downfall. Time has taught us the vanity of their rash cal culations. The utmost discrimination is used in distributing gifts of food, clothing, and medicine; the music is never employed as a substitute for the Gospel, and such prominence is given to multitudes of other workers that there is no danger of the future of the mission hinging on any one personality. There is

nothing in the nature of the case why a work of the kind carried on as now should not be crowned with permanent stability!

2. The principles of aggression predominate so largely that it is not premature to consider their effect on English Methodism as a whole. Mr. Moody rightly singled out dullness as the great fault of English church services. In Methodist congregations, where men naturally inherit a deep regard for religious exercises, which is fostered by custom and developed by training, the pulpit is exposed to dangers unknown in places where these sympathies have to be created or corrected. This condition, added to the emphasis given from year to year to great preaching by the fathers in the Church, has had much to do with the prevalence of elaborate sermons packed with theological lore, and complacently regarded as an end rather than a means. It is not to be inferred that all English Wesleyan preachers are metaphysical, dry, or dull, but it is none the less true that the prevailing type of ministry, whatever cause produced it, is not proving itself equal to the peculiar needs of this generation. The difference between the preaching of any of the men who are succeeding so nobly in the mission branches and that of the rank and file of their brethren is so strongly marked that the former stand out as pioneers of a new era. This is one direction in which the forward movement will be fruitful of certain good. True, national styles of preaching do not readily change under ordinary circumstances, but the press has given such prominence to the methods enployed in these new centers that they are being studied with a confidence that no well-constructed theory could inspire.

The influential laymen have seen the work to be done and the class of agents adapted to it. This in itself is a straw. They largely select the pastors for their respective charges. The demand will be for thorough evangelism, and the demand creates the supply. At present the light may only gleam on distant mountain-tops, but it will not recede till the most obscure valley has caught some benefit from its beams. The movement also bids fair to impart elasticity to Wesleyanism. If it can be shown that later plans out-distance timehonored ones in securing beneficent results, will the practical common sense of Englishmen sacrifice opportunity and certain prospects out of respect for a sentiment? Their traditions and

history do not warrant the presumption. In the interest of this city enterprise the time limit must be changed. Men like Mr. Hughes should be continued at their posts beyond three years, to use with growing effect the experience and influence they have gained. Presumably they will be kept, as far as possible, in the same class of work by sending them from one mission center to another when change is necessary. ever may be the ultimate outcome of these tendencies the membership of the Wesleyan Conference will show that a new departure has been taken. For the past twenty-six years there has been little or no numerical gain, notwithstanding the rapid growth of population in that period. But, with the forces now at work in city and village, it is safe to affirm the Church has touched the lowest point it will reach in the present generation.

3. Finally, the movement will exert an incalculable influence in the work in cities generally. England is not the only place where Methodism is face to face with the city problem. Recent investigations in New York city show the deplorably inadequate provision of its churches for its people. In the older portions of the city, where the American and church-going population is rapidly diminishing, most of the churches are barely holding the fort. Along the present lines it is only by superhuman struggle that a feeble existence can be maintained in such places. The natural outcome is to gradually surrender the field to the alarming forces of evil. Busy and benevolent men seem absorbed in frontier and mission work, while this city problem, which is yearly growing larger and more difficult, is reserved as a heritage for some future generation.

The Church which will win the masses of to-day will fill one of the brightest pages in the nation's history, will gain for itself a power and prestige which will carry it triumphantly through the conflicts of coming generations, and will stand out conspicuous through all time for having achieved one of the most difficult and glorious services ever rendered to the cause of Christianity.

Wm A Dickson.

ART. V.-THE CHRIST OF THE CHURCH.

"Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his body, with all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last day."Articles of Religion.

"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."-MATT. xxviii, 20. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst."-MATT. xviii, 20.

"This is my body, which is given for you."-LUKE Xxii, 19.

Is the personal presence of Christ with his people a reality? Such a reality as substantial presence in time and space? Is Christ personally present in the Church of to-day-" with all things appertaining to man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven?" The interrogation point is not only the symbol of the nineteenth century, but the index to all healthy mind in all centuries. Socrates said, "A life without inquiry is no life for man." There are still some permanent, hereditary, unanswered interrogations in this age of ripe criticism and bold speculation: the sound mind cannot be satisfied with mere verbal formula, though it be the condensed wisdom of the ages. We must have an intelligent basis for our beliefs. If we cannot narrow the problems of Christianity to fit our philosophy, then we must broaden philosophy so as to include the facts and phenomena of religion. There must be intelligent concepts and intellectual generalizations of the mysterious facts and unspeakable experiences of our holy Christianity. Hence, if religion ventures to have a formulated creed, is she not compelled to have a speculative philosophy? The sound mind cannot think the irrational. In order that God may be worshiped in spirit and in truth must he not be a present, substantial reality for the soul, as well as a clear, formulated thought for the intellect? The problem of Christian worship is related to the metaphysical speculations of materialism, idealism, and skepticism; and the logical mind is forced to inquire, Is there a metaphysics of religion? Can the mysterious facts of Christianity be generalized into philosophic formula for the intellect? The corporate mind of the race has built up great systems of thought, and cut the channels for the future, and fenced in a vast realm of truth. The true spirit is the inquiring spirit. The best