The Columbus journal., 1909-06-09

1T is said of us French working.
men that We are opposed to religion
That is not true. We are done with
an imposed religion, a religion Of
forms and ceremonies; but We are
ready to hear il anyone will teach US
the true religion. the religion Of free
dom and earnestness."
The speaker. a French workingman
IN his blouse. was standing at the cor
ner OF Paris boulevard. talking with
a stranger. whom yet he had recog-
nfzed as "a Christian minister" II
was ten o'clock on a hot August night.
a few weeks after the suppression OF
the Commune. nearly thirty-eight
years ago. The smoke of its fires was
still ascending. the bodies were hardly
cold which filed those CHASTITY
trenches In Pere la Chaise. into which
thousands of Cummunards had been
mown by the avenging cannon Of the
army Of the republic: the blood was
hardly dry on the wall. not many rods
away. against which 40 priests had
been stood and shot to death by those
Communards in their day of mad
power, for the sole crime of being
priests. Yet that workingman said
truly. writes Louise Seymour Hough-
ton. in the Christian Herald That in
furiated French mob had not been ami
mated by hatred of religion in itself.
but simply by hatred of that religion
of forms and ceremonies" because in
their Utmost hearts they felt that 1t
had deceived and betrayed them.
The workingman disappeared in the
crowd of the Partisan boulevard. and
has never since been seen or heard of.
but his words have come sounding
down through all these years. and be-
cause of them hundreds of thousands.
yes. a great multitude whom no man
can number. have been taught 1.-The
true religion of freedom and earnest
ness" For the words were spoken to
Rev. Robert w. McAll. then the pas
tor of a large church in England. and
their immediate result was the begin
ming Of the work now known all over
the Christian world as the McAll Mis-
sion. but to the people Of France as
the Popular Mission" the mission to
the common people.
Readers of the Christian Herald
know how DR.. McAll left his comfort
able church and. without ever again
receiving a cent Of salary. began a
work which. with its halls. its boats.
its itinerant tract distributors. its col
porteurs. its automobile and tent
work. has covered France from Calais
to Marseilles. penetrated into Tunis
and Algiers. and brought the light Of
the Gospel to almost pagan Corsica.
Pages might be written of remark
able incidents of the boat and other
work of this great mission.
Floating chapels." or missionary
boats" are so well known to readers
of this paper that 1t -7ill perhaps be
news to them that this form of evan
gelistic work began with the McAn
Mission All the rivers of France are |
connected by canals. so that there are
10000 miles of connected inland wa
terways in France. About seventeen |
years ago q floating chapel. lie Bon !
Messenger (The Good Messenger).
was built for the McAll Mission and |
launched upon these inland water.
ways to carry the Gospel to as many
rs possible of the villages and hamlets
not reached by railway. many of them
without even q Roman Catholic
church. A few years later. by the
of an American lady. Sec
ond mission boat. La Bonnie Nouvelle
The Good News). was launched. The
story OF these two boats might al!
volumes. The people Of many farm
Ing hamlets and waterside villages
have heard the Gospel for the first