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prayer-meetings, we have seven or eight weekly prayermeetings, and three monthly concerts.

"In the city of Poona, distant about one hundred miles from Bombay, a weekly Union Prayer-meeting has been recently established, which is well attended, and increasing in interest and power. I attended this meeting lately, while on a visit to Poona, and can testify to the earnest spirit of prayer that prevails in it. There are two or three other prayer-meetings in Poona, and a monthly

concert.

"At Ahmednugger, about seventy miles from Poona, a great spirit of prayer prevails. The Annual Meeting of the American Mission was held there from the 19th to the 26th of last month. All the American missionaries of this presidency, with one exception, were present.

"A great and interesting spirit of prayer prevails in other parts of India. I cannot lengthen this letter by a reference to all the places where daily Union Prayermeetings have been established; but I cannot refrain from noticing the very interesting circumstances in which such a meeting has been established in Calcutta."

The writer then proceeds to give a deeply interesting account of the commencement of a series of meetings for prayer at Calcutta, in the first of which he says:

"During the meeting numbers were deeply affected to tears. All went away as if sorry that the meeting was at an end, feeling that it was good to have been there, and hungering and thirsting after a renewal of similar meetings."

The following narration was given in one of the Fulton Street meetings:

"A ship captain, recently returned from a long voyage, said he had called at an island in the course of the

voyage, 14,000 miles sailing from here, one which he had known

well in former times as an island of cannibals. He stood off and on for some time, uncertain whether to land or not. He considered it dangerous to attempt it. Finally, one evening, he ventured to land with a few of his men; and what do you think we found? We found a prayermeeting. It was a meeting of sixty young people, all the children of heathen parents; but thirty of these were now Christians. They had been visited by missionaries from some of the neighboring Christian islands, and I found them and heard them singing the same tunes which I have heard here to-day. Only think of it, said the officer, 14,000 miles away I heard heathen youth singing your tunes, and praying to God on an island where I dared not land when I first hove in sight! I tell you that it affected me greatly. I thought of what God is doing in answer to prayer. I have come home more deeply impressed than ever I was before with the power of prayer."

It may be well to notice here, in this connection, that, so far as the history of prayer-meetings is concerned, in the army, among seamen, in union meetings and religious conventions, in the great annual gatherings, as the week of prayer, on the second week of January, and among the missionaries in foreign fields-all are embraced in the same general principles sanctioning them, and clearly stated in the Bible. They all belong to a distinct class of prayermeetings, outside of ecclesiastical organization. All the ends contemplated in all these specified meetings are sanctioned in God's word as the legitimate objects of Christian effort, and concerted social prayer a legitimate means of obtaining them. In a proper, yet qualified sense, all the prayer-meetings of this class are extraordinary, growing out of the circumstances and occasions suggesting them. They are not a part of the ecclesiastical organization of any particular congregation or church, and, therefore, not

under the control of any congregation, session, or higher church court. They belong to the church catholic, or to all Christians. They seem to be well adapted to the divided and scattered state of the church. They are platforms on which all Christians can stand, and rallying centres around which all can gather for the enjoyment of an extended Christian fellowship, and for holding counsel in regard to all that concerns the glory of God, the cause of religion and the church, the salvation of sinners, and the welfare of the race.

This is not the connection in which to discuss the divine warrant for prayer-meetings of this class. Their authorization has been noticed elsewhere; yet it is proper to notice the distinction referred to, inasmuch as we are about to bring under review a class of prayer-meetings distinct, more intimately connected with the church organic, and with her internal and household work, more immediately under the notice of her courts, her officers, her congregations, and her members. As revivals find a place in General Assemblies, in Synods, in Presbyteries, in Sessions, in congregations, and in select praying circles, so the prayermeeting, side by side, will, of necessity, find a place in all these. Still more, as the ordinances of religious worship appointed by the Head of the Church are to be kept pure and entire, and to be observed always, whether in times of revival or times of backsliding, so is the prayer-meeting, as an ordinance of worship, to be observed ordinarily in every congregation. In this view, mainly, of the prayer-meeting, we shall now follow its history during a period of great religious interest. The church has, or should have, her own prayer-meetings. She needs them in seasons of revival. She needs them when the love of many waxes cold. She needs them when the enemy comes in like a flood. She needs them when any perilous time shall come.

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In the year 1857, the prayer-meeting was revived in all the evangelical churches in Europe and America, just at the time when it was revived among the seamen, in religious and union conventions, and in Foreign Mission fields. And while, with men, it may be impossible to determine when, or where, or with whom, precisely, the revivals of that period first commenced-yet the historian may trace, by the prayer-meeting, their manifestations, their progress, the means employed in promoting them, and their fruits.

CHAPTER X.

THE PRAYER-MEETING AMONG THE CHURCHES.

American Writers" Five Years of Prayer "—N. Y. Observer—Premature Impressions-Revival in Ireland-Prof. Gibson, of Belfast-References to Year of Grace-Revival Awakenings in Ireland as Early as 1855Early Prayer-Meeting and Sabbath School Movements-" The Believers' Fellowship Meeting "-Revival in Connor-Prayer-Meetings for a Quarter of a Century-Facts and Reflections-Revivals and PrayerMeetings move forward over the Churches together-State of Revivals and the Prayer-Meetings brought before the General Assembly-Progress of Prayer-Meeting Revival through the North of Ireland-Reports from Congregations-Genuineness of the Revivals-Testimony of Pastors-Churches and Sabbath Schools thronged-Arianism and other prevailing errors decline as Prayer-Meetings and Revivals Progress" Psalms never so much prized "-Rev. Magill's Report of Dundrod-Prayer-Meetings and Suppression of Immorality-Drunkards Reformed-Wonderful increase of Prayer-Meetings-Lessons and Reflections suggested confirming the Views taken of the PrayerMeeting-Fruits of Revivals in Ireland and America Compared-Revival in Ireland propagated by Prayer-Meetings in the Church-Report of the Presbytery of Ahoghill-Congregational Reports of PrayerMeetings-Remarkable Record of the state of Evangelical Religion and the Prayer-meeting from 1857 to 1859.

AMERICAN writers have made, at least, enough of the

Fulton Street Union Prayer-meeting, and of the extent of its influence; and, perhaps, too much of its originality and priority. We are not sure that it is entitled to all that is claimed for it, or for the New York Observer, in waking up the Presbyterian churches of Ireland and Scotland. Nor are we sure that American writers have not given more to human-devised agencies, and less to di

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