I. FRANCE.

In drawing attention briefly to the work of the Lord in the mission-field, it is hoped to interest those who know little as yet as to it to look further into what He is doing in the present day. It is not my thought to be able to add any thing to the knowledge of those who have been already aroused to inquiry, as the means of satisfying it are now so abundant. But with very many yet of the people of God, there is a lack of interest which is largely due to ignorance-an ignorance which should no longer any where exist. " The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." His work in the salvation of souls is what must have preeminent claim on all who are themselves the subjects of it. And His ways of carrying on this work are worthy of adoring observation.

In speaking of France as a mission-field at all, in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, we cannot but realize that the Church has not fulfilled the condition upon which alone the goodness of God is assured toward her:"Toward thee, goodness," says the apostle of the Gentiles to the Gentile profession, "if 'thou continue in His goodness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off." (Rom. 11:22.) France has been a professedly Christian country (one brief terrible period excepted) for many centuries, and however gratifying it may be to hear of the success of missions in it at the present day, yet we cannot escape from the thought of what the need of them implies as to that long lapse of time in God's forbearance.

Since the Reformation, France has been in constant struggle with the gospel. She has had her religious wars and days of savage persecution, her St. Bartholomew and her dragonnacles. Again and again the cause of Protestantism seemed about to triumph, but its apparent victory which set Henry IV. upon the throne was its worst defeat. In the Edict of Nantes, it accepted toleration and compromise,-with these, retrogression and decay. Then followed the Revocation of the Edict, the slaughter and dispersion of the Protestants, and Rome reigned once more absolute over the desolated land.

But she had prepared the scourge for her own back. Allied with the most cruel and oppressive civil despotism, she nursed the spirit of revolt into a flame, and the reaction aroused in one frantic outburst overthrew Church and state together. Since the Revolution, Rome has never been able to recover her old supremacy. The hand that reinstated controlled her too, and Protestantism has been from that time tolerated. But it was no more in its old vigor; it too was controlled by the state, leavened by the infidelity that was now abroad, and with little life or hope in it. From this time, France became really a mission-field, her help from without rather than from within; and though this help was given to some extent, and workers of many sorts entered into the field, yet there was for long no very marked success. Of late, however, an encouraging change has taken place, and it can now be said, by one well qualified to speak,-

" Never before has there been such liberty in France to spread the gospel. There is now freedom for meetings of all kinds. . . . Protestantism-rather let us say, the religion of Christ-is now, so to speak, in the air one breathes in France. A breath of revival has passed over our torpid population, and the gospel is every-where welcomed."
It is my purpose to speak here of two special movements in which it is impossible not to recognize the power of God, sovereign in the instruments it employs, working in a way to give confident assurance of widespread blessing begun, which, if the Lord tarry but a short time, may be expected to manifest itself much more abundantly. Both are already well known to those whose eyes are on the fields of God's eternal harvests; but there are many of the Lord's people whose eyes are not yet there, and who are thus deprived of so much fellowship with the Lord in His blessed work, and of matter both for thanksgiving and prayer, if not of more active sympathy, I can, of course, but briefly summarize what has been said by others.

The first of these movements is that of the McAll mission, of which a much better account than I can give will be found in Mr. Loomis' interesting volume on "Modern Cities."* My own is extracted principally from that of Mr. McAll himself, in his "Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire." *"Modern Cities and their Religious Problems,"by Samuel Lane Loomis. For those who would go move at length into the subject, there are " The White Fields of France," by Dr. Horatius Bonar ; and "A Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire; " "Records of the McAll Mission," London, Hodder & Stoughton; with "French Protestantism in the Nineteenth Century," by Louise S. Houghton; published by the American McAll Association, Philadelphia.*

Mr. McAll was a Congregational minister, the pastor of a church at Hadley, England. In 1871, he was with his wife for the first time in Paris, during a short summer vacation. It was just after the Franco-German war, and the horrors of the Commune were linked in vivid memory with the quarter, on a street in which they took their stand to distribute tracts to the passers-by. They stood alone there:such was the repute of the district that their friends, having warned, declined to accompany them.

"The 'blouses,'" says Mr. McAll, "were all around us. As yet, few evidences of Christian interest had reached these remote and dreaded 'citizens.' What had been done was chiefly in supplies of food, etc., sent from England. No sooner was a friendly purpose on our part recognized than large and eager groups gathered around us, desiring the tracts. . . . The ' man of Macedonia, awaited us. My wife having offered a tract to the waiter of the large corner wine-shop, he begged her to enter, ' for,' said he, each customer wished to possess one.' Just as she emerged from the door, a working-man, French, but marvelous to say, speaking excellent English, stepped forward, and in the name of the bystanders, addressed to me the identical words with which this volume commences. I never saw him afterward so far as I know, but his earnest bearing, each word, his very countenance, were engraved indelibly in my memory."

The words were, " Sir, are you not a Christian minister ? If so, I have something of importance to say to you. You are at this moment in the very midst of a district inhabited by thousands and tens of thousands of us working-men. To a. man, we have done with an imposed religion-a religion of superstition and oppression; but if any one would come to teach us religion of another kind-a religion of freedom and earnestness,-many of us are ready to listen.'"

Five months later, Mr. and Mrs. McAll returned to devote themselves to the work in Paris. There were many difficulties to surmount. He was past fifty, quite ignorant of the French language, unacquainted with the people or their ways. He had but two sentences of French to begin with,-" God loves you," and " I love you." Their very meetings were illegal, as was the giving away of tracts, religious notices, etc.

"We chose for our residence," he says, "a humble lodging in the very midst of the workmen's habitations. The very day we had hired our rooms, a friend gave us the pleasing intelligence that it was a most dangerous quarter, and that nothing was more probable than our being assassinated in the streets."

The work began at once. From twenty-eight at the first meeting, the attendance grew to over a hundred at the second;-

"and if to-day we were again brought face to face with that Belleville workman, we could point him, as the direct fruit of his appeal, to nearly one hundred stations of our own mission, besides not a few others more or less connected in origin with the impulse then received. . . . And we should have to bid him look beyond the boundaries of France proper,-to Corsica, to the African colonies, to Switzerland, to the French-speaking people of America."

The means have been very simple.

" There was no novelty in the character of our meetings, except for these poor neglected ones, unused to religious services of every kind before. We had hymns, reading the Bible, short, pointed gospel-addresses (usually two in an hour's reading,) prayers, with the added feature of free lending libraries, children's religious gatherings, etc. . . . And the same simplicity of organization and procedure characterizes the entire work to this day."

As to the meetings,-

"Ordinary shops fronting on frequented streets are usually rented and fitted up for this purpose. The halls are thus always comparatively small. . . . Great advantages are claimed for this system. In the first place, such rooms are easily secured in any part of the-, city where they are needed. … It is furthermore claimed that they are much more easily equipped with speakers than great ones. A large audience can only be effectively addressed by a man of extraordinary power; but a man of smaller caliber can do equally good work in a smaller meeting. Other things being equal, many little meetings are more useful than a few large ones. In the former, the speaker is brought into closer contact with the hearer, his influence is more forcible, his message more personal, and each auditor involuntarily takes a larger share of it to himself. In a small meeting, it is also possible, as it never is in a great assembly, to extend a cordial welcome to every one who enters, to observe the effect of the discourse upon all, and to follow up the preaching by personal effort.

"Shops have still another advantage for mission purposes:they are much more accessible to the throngs of the street. Made so as to be easily entered-but a single step from the sidewalk-they open their inviting doors to those who, fatigued with walking, desire a few moments rest; to those who are prompted by curiosity to enter, and to all who for any reason care to go in. An illumination, suspended over the sidewalk before the door, announces, in blazing letters, the name and character of the hall, and the time of the meetings, and extends to all a cordial invitation to attend them. … A gentleman stands on the sidewalk in front of the entrance, and distributes printed invitations to the passers-by, enforcing their message as often as possible by a kind word of welcome. Those who enter are received by the inner door-keeper-a lady, who politely welcomes each one as a guest, shows him a scat, and provides him with a hymn-book.

"All polemics are, by an inflexible rule, forbidden. Not one word derogatory to the Roman Catholic Church, or even to rationalism, must be spoken. The addresses are not to be learned, rhetorical, or philosophical; their single aim must be to present, simply, clearly, vividly, and positively, the great facts of our faith." The McAll mission "meets the questions of the papacy and of infidelity, not controversially, but by constant insistence upon gospel truths, so that thousands listen with sympathy whom controversy could never reach."

Mr. Mr All speaks of two great hindrances to the spread of (he gospel in 'France,-the deadness of conscience fostered by the long prevalence of Romanism, and the "actual and prevailing oblivion of" the Bible. Among those devotedly attached to popery, this is lamented by the intelligent. He gives an instance:-

"A gentleman high in the legal profession in Paris, on occasion of arranging recently the deed of a mission-hall, inquired from me our purpose in opening it. On receiving my reply, he said, with heart,-felt emphasis, 'Sir, do all in your power to persuade my fellow-countrymen to head the bible. If you can induce them to do that, you will bring to France the only power which (tan save us from decadence and ruin.' After attending the opening meeting in that hall, this notary sought me out, and grasping both my hands in the characteristic French manner, said, ' I, a Roman Catholic, desire to assure you of my entire sympathy,-my fervent wish for your success.' "

This was written in 1886, and it is striking that at the end of the same year another movement began, initiated by a Roman Catholic of the most devoted type, whose object was, to give the Bible to the people. The story, strange in itself, and with a stranger ending, if we can say it is yet ended, is told by Dr. Wright in a pamphlet from which I borrow all that I have to say.* *The Power Behind the Pope:A Story of Blighted Hopes."* Many have read it, reprinted and commented upon it more or less in different periodicals of late; but many are yet ignorant of it too, and the narrative needs must confirm our belief that God is working in a remarkable way in France at the present time,-our hope of blessing to numbers through it.

Henri Lasserre is a well-known name just now, and was indeed before the last and most truly notable part of his history. He is a lawyer, descended from an ancient family, and till lately connected specially with the fame of "Our Lady of Lourdes." She had cured, as he believed, his sore eyes. In gratitude, he wrote the history of the appearance of the virgin to the peasant-girl of Lourdes.

"The book created 'Notre Dame de Lourdes.' The Archbishop of Albi wrote this to M. Lasserre:' Sir, our Lady of Lourdes owes you a recompense.' In fact, she owed him every thing. He may safely be considered the patentee of the whole business, for without his prismatic and potent pen, the wonders now so famous would scarcely have been heard of beyond the little Pyrennean village."

In five years, the editions book had run through eighty-seven editions.

But God had something better for him than this.

" On a happy day he discovered the four gospels. He felt the spell of the simple but profound narratives which reveal Jesus of Nazareth in all the tenderness and loveliness of perfect manhood, and in all the might and majesty of Godhead. He saw that the fourfold story of Jesus was the very book that the French people needed. He believed that the gospels would be received with joy by his countrymen, and he resolved to prepare for them a version worthy of their acceptance.

"Prompt and zealous, he began the work of translation; his aim being, not to render the gospels in the French as it ought to be, but in the French as it was. The result was, a living translation. . . . Every page said, ' Read me.' The arbitrary divisions of chapters and verses which trip up Frenchmen who attempt to read the Bible for the first time, had wholly disappeared. The narrative fell into natural clauses and paragraphs well spaced out, and the current of the Book of Life flowed on the page in abundant light."

It was, of course, a Roman Catholic translation. The perpetual virginity of Mary, the primacy of Peter, and other doctrines are maintained; but-

" In questions of larger importance, M. Lasserre breaks away from the traditional renderings of the papal church. With splendid courage, he translates the Greek word 'repent' by 'be converted, repent,' instead of by 'do penance;' and he declares in a note that the Latin rendering (Paenitentiam agite) fails accurately to represent the Greek original, 'which means, change your sentiment, repent, be converted,' and does not like the Latin, bear the idea of voluntary austerities with the object of expiation. . . . The same fearlessness is manifest in the translation ' Adore the Lord thy God, and do not render worship to any but Him alone;' and ' We are servants without merit,' etc."

But the preface to the book is as remarkable. He deplores in it the notorious fact that the gospels are scarcely ever read by those who profess to be fervent Catholics, and never by the multitude of the faithful. He declares that the Bible was not always so neglected; that all the fathers of the Church urged the people to read both the Old and New Testaments; blames the Protestants1 , » (for their free handling of it, which led the Council of Trent to decree that every translation should have episcopal sanction and explanatory notes, and considers that in consequence, through the suspicion of heresy, the Bible ceased to be a household book. And he laments the substitution of other books of a different character for this, and declares " We must lead back the faithful to the great fountain of living water which flows from the inspired book. . . . We must put the earth again face to face with Jesus Christ."

The book was published with a dedication to " Notre Dame de Lourdes " ! " But there was something still more strange. The book appeared with the imprimatur of the Archbishop of Paris, and the approval and benediction of the pope ! " the latter in a letter from Cardinal Jacobini officially communicated through the Nuncio of France. " The imprimatur of the- Archbishop of Paris placed Lasserre's version regularly in the hands of the French people. The pope's letter placed the stamp of authority, not only on the translation of the gospels, but on the terrible preface which is expressly mentioned in it."

The ages might seem to have returned upon themselves. The unchangeable Church of Rome was giving up her cherished traditions, and putting the -Word of God in the hands of the people. Rather, it was God to whom man's bulwarks are as nothing, bringing down the wall which had shut out the light so long from millions, that many might receive, perhaps, His closing testimony to them. But infallibility had pronounced its benediction on the reading of the gospels, and the people read them. Within a year, twenty-five editions had issued from the press commended by priests and prelates far and wide, and welcomed into the homes of Frenchmen every where. What must have been the effect ? Let him who knows the Word of God answer. Eternity will disclose it. Time may yet disclose it also.

The permanent acceptance of the work was secured, if papal infallibility could secure it. It was God's will, however, to expose its pretensions, and after having allowed the power of His Word to be proved in the hearts and consciences of many, to show that Rome was still and ever in hostility to it. One morning, Frenchmen waked up to find the translation of the gospels, papal benediction and all, upon the Index ! As a book of "degraded doctrine," it was proscribed and condemned, forbidden to be published, read, or retained by any one, under the penalties proclaimed in the Index of forbidden books.

Little more is known than this. It is said that M. Lasserre has bowed, called in all copies of his book, and suspended the translation of the whole Bible on which he was engaged. Upon the issue, we will not speculate; but it is clear that the Lord's design in all this will not be disappointed. God is moving. What are popes and "sacred congregations" before Him? But we can pray with a new hope-can we not ?-for France, for Henri Lasserre, and for this missionary work which has been so owned of Him. Shall we be with God, and not awake to realize our sweet sanctuary responsibilities as to all this? The Lord enable us !

And shall we not take lesson and encouragement from the McAll mission ? Have we not responsibility to bring the precious truth which God has given us in this earnest and familiar way before those to whom the Lord would send it? "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse." Ought not we ?

Could we but have these missionary stores, with their fronts proclaiming the truth they know not to the gaze of those who would not go even a step to seek it,-tract-depots, reading-rooms, inquiry-rooms, preaching-rooms in one,-how might we trust God to bless this earnest, face-to-face dealing with the multitudes around? I do, not hesitate to say, that I believe it would be a beginning of such new and wide blessing as now we have not faith even to imagine.