FEDERATION OF CHURCHES. 



225 



personal experience in the Christian life. The 

 president for the present meeting, the Rev. J. G. 

 Greenhough, in his address on The Unifying 

 Forces of the Times, defined the patriotism of the 

 Federation of Free Churches, and said that it 

 would watch with the utmost vigilance every 

 .attempt that might be made to tamper with the 

 Protestant succession to the Crown. While some 

 of them might be willing to have the language of 

 a certain oath modified,, they would resist with 

 united force every proposal to abrogate or change 

 the substance. The report of the council showed 

 that 87 new councils had been organized during 

 the year as against 44 in the previous year, and 

 that there were now about 700 councils. Three 

 new distinct federations had been formed, and an- 

 other was expected to be formed shortly. Some of 

 the federations had displayed notable originality 

 and vigor in starting new work. The Metropoli- 

 tan Federation included 60 councils. Federation 

 was represented as making great progress abroad 

 in America, Australia, New Zealand, and South 

 Africa. The formation of a Free Church Council 

 in Berlin, Prussia, was mentioned. The idea of 

 federation was being discussed in Scotland. Half 

 of the volume of the report was devoted to records 

 of the simultaneous mission which had been held 

 in London, the larger cities, and in other towns 

 and parts of the kingdom. A resolution of " most 

 hearty congratulations" upon the union of the 

 United Presbyterian and Free Churches in Scot- 

 land was adopted. A resolution respecting the 

 South African War, which was unanimously car- 

 ried, declared that while grave differences of opin- 

 ion existed among Christian citizens as to the 

 origin and conduct of the war, this disagreement 

 afforded no reason why the council " should not 

 express with one voice its distress that Christian 

 nations could find no way of settling differences 

 except the cruel arbitrament of the sword " ; ex- 

 pressed pain at the continuance of the war and 

 all the horrors attending it; and avowed a pas- 

 sionate longing for a peace which, being wise and 

 righteous, shall be enduring. The resolution fur- 

 ther called upon all the local councils and all the 

 Free Churches to pray to Almighty God to lead 

 events and the dispositions of men to that issue 

 from present difficulties and perplexities " which 

 shall be for the good of all races in South Africa " 

 and of the British Empire. A resolution was 

 passed desiring local councils to educate public 

 opinion with a view to the early enactment of the 

 recommendations of Lord Peel's report on the 

 licensing laws. The council sermon was preached 

 by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, on the subject 

 of A Learned Ministry. Papers were read and 

 addresses made on different aspects of Sunday- 

 school work (The Old Testament in the Sunday- 

 School, Are Sunday-Schools Declining? etc.) ; The 

 Relation of the Free Church Council to Pubjic 

 Institutions; Is Our Preaching as Effective as it 

 Ought to Be?; The Rest Day; Christian Liberty; 

 and Attractiveness in. Church Services. Five for- 

 mer French priests were welcomed to the meeting 

 as representatives of a body of their order who 

 had withdrawn from the Roman Catholic Church. 



Local councils were urged to carry out during 

 the year the Free Church Girls' Guild Scheme, 

 which had been adopted by the National Council, 

 and it was suggested that each council should 

 form a special committee acting in association 

 with the Central Bureau to be opened in London. 



The special committee of the National Council 

 appointed to deal with the Free Church Girls' 

 Guild organized April 26, and decided to make 

 the formation of guilds throughout the country a 

 chief work of the council for the year. 

 VOL. XLI. 15 A 



( holding of 



oi London 



iui'-il ot the 



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The Simultaneous Mission. 

 a simultaneous mission in ,i|| j, 

 was suggested to the Nationul < ou 

 Evangelical Free Churches sevrr;i! 

 the council of 1900 decided to hoM 

 services, occupying as many chiirdi 

 and halls throughout the metropolis ;i 

 ences attracted should require, from 

 Feb. 4; and to follow this movement, 

 short interval, with similar series of service: in 

 the provincial cities and towns; and finally i.o 

 hold missions in the English and Welsh village-, 

 March 2 to 6. The missioners who were expected 

 to engage in all these meetings included the most 

 prominent preachers in all the denominations rep- 

 resented in the council. The program of the meet- 

 ings included a systematic house-to-house visita- 

 tion, from which no house was excluded, to be 

 made first primarily to non-churchgoers, the rule 

 being that " the visitation must never be used for 

 proselyting purposes," and to induce such to at- 

 tend the meetings. Great care was taken in the 

 organization of the meetings and in the selection 

 of those who led and assisted at them, so as to 

 secure the most acceptable and efficient service. 

 The meetings included, besides the principal serv- 

 ice in the evening of each day, Bible readings or 

 addresses, afternoon meetings for Christians, din- 

 ner-hour meetings for business men and in fac- 

 tories, special services for shop assistants on their 

 early-closing day, early morning meetings for men 

 and women on tjieir way to work, and meetings 

 late at night for cabmen, omnibus and tramway 

 men, railway men, and other special classes. The 

 meetings were attended by daily increasing and 

 crowded audiences of hearers of all social classes, 

 even till the day of closing them, while the inter- 

 est was still rising. The second series of meet- 

 ings, in the larger towns and cities, were con- 

 ducted on a similar plan with those in the metrop- 

 olis, were engaged in to a considerable extent 

 by those who had led in the Metropolitan meet- 

 ings aiding the local ministers, and were marked 

 by similar features and like results. Among 

 the missions of which special reports were pub- 

 lished were those at Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, 

 Bradford, Cardiff where the publicans closed 

 their houses for two hours to allow their clerks 

 and hands to attend the meetings Plymouth and 

 Devonport, Brighton, Bristol, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 Halifax, Portsmouth, Swindon, Blackburn, Crewe, 

 Cambridge, Sheffield, York, etc. The most marked 

 results of the missions were found to consist in 

 the religious awakening produced through them 

 in the churches that participated in them. The 

 projectors of them were disappointed in that they 

 failed to reach the non-churchgoing classes to 

 the extent which they had hoped and anticipated. 

 These people would not come to the churches, but 

 there was less difficulty in drawing them to the 

 meetings held in theaters and halls ; but the most 

 satisfactory results were obtained among them 

 when the meetings went to such places. Thus the 

 dinner-hour services held at the great works in 

 certain cities were very successful. Large audi- 

 ences qf men, while their nooning was not inter- 

 rupted, listened attentively to the addresses and 

 joined heartily in the hymns; and in some cases 

 the missioners w r ere pressed to come again. The 

 results of the house-to-house visitations were 

 likewise encouraging, and the meetings held for 

 business men were regarded as one of the most 

 promising features of the mission. In all cases 

 the time allotted to the prosecution of the mis- 

 sions was found to be too short, and the hour of 

 closing the mission at the end of the appointed 

 ten days found the public interest still rising, and 



