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THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
WILLIAM P. NICHOLSON’S WORK
IB blessing of God continues to rest in larger and larger measure upon the service of our Institute evangelist, Rev. W. P. Nicholson,
vious ten years;- at least twenty new ' Christian Endeavor Societies have been formed. The usual weekly prayer m eet ings have experienced enormously in creased attendances, 400 to 500 not being an uncommon attendance; but the attend ance is only one feature of th e revived in terest in the prayer-meeting. It is not' now so much a mid-week preaching se r vice, a t which few attended and fewer took parf ; it is. now a live praise and prayer meeting in which many take part, testimony forming a large p art of the service. Bible classes and Bible study circles have greatly increased in numbers and enthusiasm. Many are eager for work as Sunday school teachers, leaders, or- helpers in cottage or other meetings. Missionary enthusiasm has been aroused, and in several places definite evangelistic work has been undertaken in th e su r rounding districts w ith good success. In most, if not all, the centers where a m is sion was held a United Christian W ork ers’ Meeting has been started , and is being carried on weekly w ith large a t tendances. Open-air meetings have also been sta rted in many districts. If one thing emerges more clearly than another from th e replies, it is the value of prayer in preparation for missions such as these. The power of united and continuous prayer cannot be exaggerated. The value, also, of co-operation by the various churches in th e towns or areas is a factor of. first-class importance, and the throwing into the movement of the whole weight of every individual Chris tian connected with these churches. There is évidence in many parts of U lster of a spirit of expectancy. Is it too muchVto expect th a t God will again visit this fair province of ours w ith a great and w ide-spread revival? If not, why not all unite in one spirit and one desire th a t it should come, and thus solve all th e difficulties, economic, social and religious, which now confront us? ARCHIBALD IRWIN
in Ireland. The following account from “ The Life of Faith’’ (an English paper) is most inspiring: When I undertook to prepare a paper on the above subject, I thought it was wise to have as, many competent opinions on the subject as possible. I, therefore, called into counsel a representative from each of those who had been closely identi fied with the various missions, which the Rev. W. P. Nicholson has been holding in th e .c itie s. and towns of U lster for upwards of a year. We prepared a questionnaire which was sent to Bangor, Lurgan, Lisburn, Newtownards, Shankill Road Mission, Newington P resbyterian Church, Dro- more, Portadown, People’s Palace and Londonderry, and have received very full and deeply interesting replies. The missions have all been conducted by th e Rev. W. P. Nicholson, and lasted from four to seven weeks each. All the replies give- special prominence to the preparation for the missions, consisting of united prayer meetings, cottage m eet ings, etc.; in one or two places as many as forty of these latter were in full swing weeks before the mission. In the main, and a t least outwardly, there was unity among th e churches. This was much, more apparent in some places than others, but th e general testimony is th a t the M inisters and churches who threw most weight into the missions got most good out of them. The numbers reported as having passed through .the enquiry rooms in the ten missions under review are 12,409. The proportion of these who were under 14 years of age averages slightly over 10 per cent, so that, to use th e words of one of those who replied, it was mainly a mission to adults. In some places chil dren under 15 years of age were no t ad m itted to the meetings at all except ac companied by their parents. The after-results of the missions fall into several groups. There have been large and unprecedented additions to the Communicants’ Roll. In several indi vidual churches the addition to the roll is well over 100 and in a t least one place amounts to 250. In several cases more names have been added than in the p re
THE REMEDY “ If you were busy being kind,
Before you knew it you would find You’d soon forget to th ink ’twas tru e T hat someone was unkind to you.”
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