The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-05

NAil piODtDly bc SllI DIlScu dl btlli6 iS- minded how many of the great relig- ious movements with which we are now so familiar have had their origin with in the last twenty-five years. Calvary church is older than our mission in Japan, which began in 1872, How Ar rica has changed in a quarter of cen tury! Why, it was only in 1874 that James Gordon Bennett telegraphed his 1 laconic Yes" under the sea to Stanley, asking to be sent to complete the dis coveries of Dr. Livingstone. Since that time we have had the opening up of l the Dark Continent, the founding of the 1 Congo Free state, the call for mission aries our own Congo mission, the Pen l tecost there and the multiplication Of churches where less than twenty years ago there were only cannibals. It Is less than twenty years since that won derful revival among the Telegus, which brought them flocking to be bap- tized by thousands changed the tor- lorn, despised the Lone-Star mission into the pride and glory of all Chris tian denominations. It was in 1871, the year of our beginning, that Dr and Mrs. McAll went to France for their | that if any one would come and teach them a gospel of truth and liberty they would be glad to hear Next year they returned to Paris and opened a hall for worship among 100000 desperate law less communists, with no weapon but a pocket Bible. From that small be- ginning, in sixteen years, has grown mission with 112 places of worship, in which, in one year. have been held 14,- 900 religious meetings, with a million | hearers.
 Time would fail me long before I should so much as catalogue for you all the marvellous religious develop ments of the last quarter of the nine l teenth century Why, the Salvation army, which now has it's detachments all over the earth, was not organized even twenty years ago. The devil then still considered the slums his unpreg- nable fortresses, for no red hats nor poke bonnets had as yet invaded these remote parts of his dominions. The Institutional church, which is simply the adaptation of practical Christianity to it's surroundings, had not been in l vented when Calvary church was founded The Christian Endeavor so- ciety was yet unborn. I wish l could 1 give you the figures of the increase of Protestant churches in the United States during the quarter century, for l I know it would astonish you. l can give the results of the census for the change in ten years from 1880 to 1890.
 Dr. Josiah Strong, writing in the book Our Country" predicted that during the last twenty years of the century the Roman Catholic church would increase much faster than Prot slestantisn. But when ten of these years 1 had gone by it was found that while Roman Catholics had increased 1,500,- l5OOO Protestants had increased more ] than 4000, 900. When you consider that l q large part of the Roman Catholic irl- crease was due to immigration while the Protest ant increase was due to con- Aversion, you perceive how grand has been the progress of enlightened Chris l tianity and how manifest Is. the fact that our God is marching on to the ul- innate conquest of our continent and 1 of the world.
 I My dear brethren, I3congratulate you on the position which you have been permitted to occupy in the divine line of battle. It has been your privilege to be placed where progress has been most evident and success most marked You ought to feel exceedingly thankful and confident; you ought to be strong with 1 the prestige which follows victory and ensures further triumphs And when you see to the right and left of you the hosts of the Lord arrayed in one long, glorious line of battle that stretches around the world, you ought to exult in the knowledge of your great Com
 nander's generalship and the ampli- tude of His resources for the accom- l plishment of His purposes. You ought to have the utmost assurance that, as Horace Bushnell says, ''the world is governed sllpernaturally in the inter- ests of Christianity" I know that it l does not always look like that This long chapter of Armenian massacres, which has so sickened the civilized { world, and to which there yet seems no end, may appear to discredit the doc trine And yet, when I think how in this age of unbelief, among those who have enjoyed the privileges and protec- ton of Christianity, there has been a disposition to exa1t oriental organisms into it's rivals, when ] think that the immense influence of Thomas Carlyle over literary men has led them to ac- cept Mohammed as the ideal prohpet, and that we have actually had a Mo- hammedan missionary in this country to convert us to the faith of the Turks, am not surprised that God should have permitted the Turks, just at this juncture, to show once more to the world the awfully brutalizing and de- humanizing effects of their religion. It is a sad and bitter lesson, but it is a lesson sorely needed and worth even it's dreadful cost I have no doubt it will teach mankind, as they could be taught in no other way, that the religion of which Jesus is the prophet has, and can have, no competitor.
 And if we can see, my friends, that God is marching on even in Turkey, we may be sure that his cause is being advanced everywhere. Let us. rejoice where the progress is most evident, but let us be sure that everywhere it is cer-
 tain. The great General knows by what means and measures He will car " every hostile stronghold He has
 His and His leaders at every assailed point. We may feel as Wellington's aid felt when he brought back to him word during the battle of Waterlool regard