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there began to be little prayer circles of devout souls, begging God to pluck His hand out of His bosom. MEN OF FAITH. Of such a chariacter was that little gathering in 1729 in Eincoln College, Oxford, when John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Kirk- ham met for conference and prayer, burdened with the apostate condition of the church. Six years after these meetings began there were but four teen who assembled; but out of that prayer meeting Methodism was born, the mightiest modern movement known for evangelical faith and evan gelistic work! God heard those pray ers and Whitefield and the Wesleys began to preach with tongues of Pen tecostal flame—resisted by a rigid, frigid church, driven into fields and commons, but so reaching the people as they could not have been reached inside chapel walls. Then, as I have said, in 1747 Jona than Edwards, in America, flung broadcast his mighty tract, with tre mendous power, urging concerted prayer upon the American churches, at the very time when beyond the seas went forth a summons to all dis ciples to unite in special prayer “fo'r the effusion of God’s Spirit upon all the churches and upon the whole habitable earth.” And so the com panies of praying souls, gathered in England, Scotland, Wales and Ire land, and throughout New England and the Middle States. In 1780 came another mighty tidal wave of revival, under the influence of the Haldanes, Andrew Fuller^ Rowland Hill, Sutcliffe, etc. William Grimshaw, Wm. Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, Jno. Berridge, Henry Venn. Walker of Truro, James Her- vey, Toplady, Fletcher of Madeley,— these men all belonged in that grand apostolical succession that kept up the revival fires during that period of
reformation, raised up in such num bers and in, such a crisis by Him who answers prayer, to stem the awful tide that was sweeping away every land mark of religion and morality. , BIRTH O.F MISSIONS. -Yes, and the full significance of those concerted prayers never can be fully known till eternity opens its awful doors. In answer to them came the era of Modern Missions, the establishment of the Monthly Concert of Prayer, the founding of the first Foreign Missionary Society in Eng land, the consecration of Wm. Carey to the missionary work, who alone secured the translation of the Bible into, forty different tongues and the circulation of 200,000 copies. More than this came in answer to those earnest prayers. All that mod ern missions has accomplished, open ing doors into every land, multiplying organizations till we have now ’ up wards of seventy, translating the Bible into nearly 250 languages and dialects, and setting up the cross in every quarter. More even than this may be traced to that concerted prayer, about the middle of the eighteenth century. To reach Asia with the gospel we must get to the heart of the continent, and India was the working center. Eng land . was there in the East India Company, but that company was the foe to missions. But God was mov ing. He gave Britain a foothold in this central field of Oriental missions, and a sceptre over 200,000,000 people; this made it necessary to keep open the line of communication with the home government, to maintain an open highway of travel and traffic; and hence came, in the Providence of God, that remarkable influence which determined the attitude of every na tion along that highway, as at least neutral if not favorable to Christian Missions. And so came the battle of
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