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THE KING’S BUSINESS
cance o f the Laymen’s Missionary Move ment : One hundred years ago, at the famous Haystack Prayer Meeting, the first organ- 1 ized foreign missionary work in North America was inaugurated. A small group o f college students at Williamstown, Mas sachusetts, Voiced the keynote o f ,the new enterprise in the now historic phrase, “We can do it if we will.” . During the last twenty years the mission ary spirit has had a marvelous develop ment among the colleges o f the United States; and Canada. The Student Volun- tee# Movement, born at. Northfield in 1886, has swept through the colleges with its inspiring watch-cry, “ The Evangelization o f the World in This Generation,” familiariz ing students with world conditions and leading thousands o f strong men and women to live with a dominating missionary life-purpose. As volunteers went into various mission -fields they found very few, even among their fellow-workers, who were living in the hope o f seeing the world evangelized in this generation. Largely under their influence this conception o f the Church’s present duty has taken hold o f the mis sionaries abroad and the missionary lead ers at home, until now it' has become a part o f the prayers and earnest hopes o f nearly all the important missionary societies of Christendom. Every four years there is a great con- . vention o f the Student Volunteer move ment, bringing together some thousands of the students o f North America to consider the progress o f the kingdom throughout the world. It was at the convention held at Nashville in February-March, 1906, that the seed-thought o f the Laymen’s Mis sionary Movement was planted by the Spirit in the mind o f a young business man o f the City o f Washington. As he saw over three thousand students consid ering for several days their relation to the evangelization o f the world, this thought came to him—i t the laymen o f North America could see the world as these stu dents are seeing it, they would rise up
in their strength and provide all the funds needed for -the enterprise. The providential opportunity for testing this idea came a few months later. The one hundredth anniversary o f the Haystack Prayer Meeting was to be celebrated in New York City by a series o f interdenom inational missionary meetings. It was arranged that one o f these meetings should be for laymen and should take the form o f a prayer meeting. This meeting was held on November IS, 1906, in the Fifth Ave nue Presbyterian Church. The afternoon was very stormy, and only about seventy- five laymen were present. Mr. Samuel B. Capen, of Boston, presided. It was really a prayer meeting, most o f the time from 3 to 6 p. m. being spent in actual prayer. A fter an intermission o f -an hour for sup per the meeting continued in the evening, consisting mainly o f discussion as to what practical steps should be taken. Out o f this discussion a series o f resolutions was adopted calling into existence the Lay men’s Missionary Movement. From the-first the whole idea o f the movement has been to Co-operate with the regular missionary agencies o f the churches in the enlargement o f their work. It does not divert any missionary offerings from congregational or denominational chan nels. Nor does it promote the organization o f separate Men’s Missionary Societies within the congregations. All the organi zation asked for is a Missionary Commit tee o f men in each congregation to work with the pastor in enlisting all members and adherents in the intelligent and ade quate support and extension of missionary work. The Movement itself has no organization apart from a General Committee, which meets twice a year, and an Executive Com mittee o f twenty-one members, which meets every month. Twelve secretaries give their whole time to the work o f the General Movement. A t least twelve denominational Lay men’s Missionary Movements have already been organized. As a rule, these follow the practice o f the general Movement and con-
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