The Portland daily press., 1895-03-12
4 GRAND OPENING.
Evangelist Mills Begins His Labors
In This City.
A SPLENDID AUDIENCE ATTENDED
THE FIRST MEETING.

Last Evening the Second Parish Church
Was Used But in Future Afternoon Ser
E&1vices Will Be Held at High Street
Church and in the Evening at City
Hall-The Singing of Mr.. Hills is a
Feature of the Services.
The Second Parish church was literal
ly packed last evening, the occasion be-
ing the Inauguration of the series of re-
vival meetings to be conducted by Rev.
B. Fay Mills, the celebrated evangelist.
Mr.. Hills led The congregational singing
and also sang two solos with fine effect.
Among the clergymen present were
Revs. DR.. Charles T. Allen. DR.. William
H. Fem, I. Luce, G. B. Woodward, Mr..
Lindsay, L.. S. Bean, Thomas S. Samson.
Mr.. Wilson. Mr.. Campbell, IA. Fl. Wright.
D. NJ. Pratt, Mr.. Cate. Rollin G. Hack.
Mr.. yers.
Rev. Mr.. Lindsay presided, and Rev.
Mr.. Samson offered prayer 1t was then
announced that the afternoon meetings
would be held at the High street Cor
gregational church, from 3 to each
day.
Many business men have expressed a
willingness to give one hour day to
these meetings Mr.. Lindsay then said
that he welcomed Mr.. Mills to Portland
in behalf of the executive committee, of
the citizens generally, and especially in
behalf of all who love the Lord Jesus.
~ Mr. Mills IN NOW toE oh arOo Of +Ao.o
meetings." ne said, and the noted evan
gelist stepped forward.
MIR. Mills has a compact figure, an i'm
pressive delivery, fine command of
words, and is evidently highly educated.
He is very earnest, at times almost dra-
his great audience from the first word IT,
the last.
He said that on the question, In
what spirit have we been sent for?' will
depend the success or the failure or
the comparative success or comparative
failure of these meetings. He asked that
every Christian present should, from
that moment, regard the meetings as his
or her own. and himself only as their
helper. He then read what he termed
the "reyival Psalm" the 126th. There
is nothing to which the return of a soul
to God is so well to be compared as to
the return of the Jews from captivity to
their own land. 1t seemed to them to be
a dream, AMI our dreams are commonly
too good to be true. But if they had
seen great things wrought by God, they
expected still greater thing. They had
come up out of captivity, but others still
fingered In the land of bondage. Fam
lilies had been broken up, and there was
a pathetic cry to God ali through that
Psalm.
at what time can the hymn Revive
us Again" be more appropriately sung
than in the midst of revival meeting?
When we sing "Come holy spirit, heav-
emily dove, 1--WE should do it not thinking
of shat coming as from distant place.
for the holy spirit is here, filing every
space except cold, hard hearts. They
sang then" Turn away our captivity as
the springs in the SOUTH" Why in the
south? Because they were warmer than
the springs in the north. In California
the dry beds of the streams are used
through the summers for driveways, but
with the fail comes the rains, and the
dry beds are streams of living water,
spreading marvellous fertility through
the land. So of the springs of God and
the thirsty souls of men.
The things of G cd should be put be-
fore the ordinary affairs Of men
Mr.. Mills then took his text from II.
Cor, viii, 5, his subject being "Giving
unto the Lord" He said that SO much
has been said about giving ourselves I'M
to the LORD that the expression has al
most fallen from grace. A gift, whether
to God or to man, must be voluntary, or
else it is not gift. God will not COM
pei you to give yourselves unto Him,
even while he invites the gift. The
great robem with God was not wheth-
er he would create sin, but whether he
would create men and women.
The gift to God must be unselfish.
If an article is sold at price much be-
low it's value, it is still sale and not a
gilt. LII Is 1luCu 10 U6 thankful Tor thai
we are not asked to sell ourselves to
God. We seek for the highest good, and
chief in this world we seek for life.
How pathetic the cry of England's dying
queen, when she offered her riches for a
moment of life. A rich man in New
York offered his physician all he had in
the world the vast sum of two and
one-half millions Of dollars, if be could
prolong his life one hour, but the phys
ician could not do even that. We cannot
purchase even one heartbeat of the life
of God. We must remem her that God is
Himself the most generous ~giver, and
that His browning, supreme gift was His
Son. More and more we must come to
see that God is love, that love is of God.
and that God is in every thought of love
that thrills the hearts of men.
81 am not SO greatly concerned about
getting into heaven or keeping out OF
hell, although l expect to do both. My
main concern is to be just what God
wants me to be, and to do just what