Norwich bulletin., 1910-10-07

The moderator had called upon a ma
! tive Chinanan, Chen Ching vi. to Of
Ter prayer, and this Chinese Christian,
converted from Confucianism, was
standing with upward stretched hands,
composed and unabashed before the
great crowd Of European and Ameri
can scholars, seeking the words by
Whlch best to lead us to the theme of
! the evening.
| Each morning on going to the hall
Whlch we purposed to attend, our first
| OBJECT was to purchase a copy of the
daily paper, or, rather, one of the three
! daily papers. giving respectively the
programme for each of the three halls.
Inc programme as prearranged and
then modified to conform to unavoida
Bile absence on the part of the speak
ers, the names of the substitute speak
ers, the minutes of previous meetings,
the list of delegates detained at the
opening of the ten days sermon, but
coming in later, all matters of vital
interest, were given. Meals We're
served in two of three assembly halls
| and IN the great crush he was wise
VINO, once in, ate his meals within
earshot of the next speaker.
While the council was business
like body in every sense of the word,
IL did not use up its time in prolonged
discussion of machinery. There was,
IN fact practically no differentiation
of the home field and the foreign field,
but the ever recurrent thought was
that Christ has the one field and His
desire is that there be preached al
ways the gospel to the whole world.
There were prepared beforehand and
| prlntd in large posters the size of
small newspaper, preliminary reports
submitted by the eight commissioners,
so termed, made up of the most prom
lnent missionary enthusiasts in all the
world. A day was given to each re-
port and they were studied by the del
egates in their seats as closely as
members of the United States congress
thumb their schedule of bills.
Greatest Missionary Movement Ever.
1t is a wonderfully interesting thing
to think of all the preparatory forces
that grew and took definite shape and
converged at last in one focal point
OF light, the greatest missionary move
ment that has ever been known. Do
not forget for one moment that while
you were not in person there every
one who has been forwarding the great
missionary scheme has had a ma terial,
tangible part in all that took place in
the caDital city of Scotland. What
this church has been doing has gone
TO create the possibility of such
council l pulled up and sat in all the
pride of my Anericanism as Secre-
tary Cornelius Patton of Boston held
the attention of the impressive body
detail the working and advantages of
our apportionment plan here in Am
erica. The English are great mis-
sionary givers; but I have never been
impressed with their gift of system
and organization; and l am confident
they are going to learn something
from our business method in appor-
Eoning and distributing missionary
benevolences. 1t is in any campaign,
whether civil or ecclesiastical, great
thing to know your resources and to
know how to get them together.
The greatest power in the world is
the realization of the possibilities of a
daring faith. A daring faith means
high standards, both of men and
measures. It is sometimes charged
that the boards are not up to the high
missionary standard; but DIR. Hapgood
of Boston stated it well when he said
that the standard of missionaries is
determined by the standard of the
churches. Are the churches willing to
give their best to the missionary field?
He instanced one American seminary
president who charged the whole grad
uating class to go to the mission field.
Church the Guiding Helm.
DR. Campbell Gibson showed how
this old idea is now outgrown 1t is
no longer a few missionaries who go
out to heathendom with no sympa-
thetic background. but it is the church
at home that is really guiding the helm
of the potent missionary enterprise.
The native church in India, the vast
Mohammedan problems, Japan. Korea,
Africa, and their terrible problems,
were probed to their depth and there
was no Disgusting the fact of their
magnitude and of the churches failure
to meet them Prayer was made with
out ceasing. a special MONDAY meet
ing was held for microscopy prayer
that the worlds faith and the church,
es' faith may be purified to move upon
the unmistakable promises of victory.
AS the last days drew near an espe-
cial appeal was made and it ws-a noby
responded to, to make those last days
the best of ell. At the end there were
piles of cards containing the names of
petitioners to speak. and the best that
could be done was to allow seven mig
Utes to each spea ller. The last days
were the cream of all.
The influences of that gathering are
ever with me, the memories of conse-
Grated men and women, the sacred
passages of Scripture read or quoted
at the hour of microscopy prayer and
finally the reverential hymn that rose
from scores that were quickened by
prayer and the opened visions with