THE KING’S BUSINESS
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tain.’ The soldier enquired, ‘Of what reg iment, sire?’ ‘Of the guards,’ answered Napoleon, pleased with his instant belief in his word. The Emperor rode off, the sol dier threw down his musket, and thpugh he had no epaulets on his shoulders, no sword by his side, nor any other mark of his advancement than the word of the Emperor, he ran and joined the staff of command ing officers. They laughed at him and said, ‘What have you to do here?’ He replied, ‘I am captain of the guards.’ They were amazed, but he' said, ‘The Emperor has said so, and therefore I am.’ In like man ner, though the Word of God, ‘he that believ- eth hath everlasting life,’ is not confirmed by the feelings of the believer, he- ought to take the word of God as true because HE has said it, and thus honor Him as a God of truth, and rejoice with joy unspeak able.” On one occasion, at least, the authori ties of the city refused Mr. Burns permis sion to hold an open-air meeting, and .after explaining to the assembled crowd what had taken place, he invited them to follow him to the churchyard of St. Peter’s itself. Here a great gathering was held, with a far larger audience than could have been accommodated inside the church. When a man has got a passion for the win ning of others to Jesus Christ, it will make no difference to him where he preaches the Gospel; outside the church building will do just as well and on some occasions bet ter than inside. Recall how Whitefield, when barred from the church, took to the open air, and did not John Wesley himself following his great colleague, preach to the assembled multitude in the old Epworth Churchyard when he was refused permis sion to preach inside. In our day we have heard of at least one church that refused to try and get the great crowd of people surging past its doors to come inside lest they should ruin the elegant carpets, and another that refused to have an open-air service in front of the church where hun dreds of people could have been reached, because it would ruin their beautiful lawn.
this meeting a real “break” came ; men and women groaning because of their newly- realized sinful condition, others crying out in agony for forgiveness, some so com pletely overcome that they fell to the floor. To meet such a condition as this nightly meetings, in addition to the stated serv ices of the church, had to be held, and they -were held for several months, while “the Lord added to the church daily (or nightly) such as were being saved.” Prayer meet ings were held during the day to provide opportunity for burdened hearts to lay their burdens at the Lord’s feet. It was no uncommon thing for groups of people to seek the minister for personal inter views, and in this way he often dealt with twenty, thirty, or even forty persons in one day. One man could not bear all the tremen dous strain alone, and Mr. Burns—from thé human standpoint at least—was both young and inexperienced. He called other godly brethren to his aid, and they gladly came to help in the Lord’s cause. Dr. CæSar Malan, of Geneva, with Robert Haldane, whom he was visiting, attended an open-air meeting held by Mr. Burns. After the meeting Mr. Haldane suggested that the well-known and godly visitor would like an opportunity to preach to the people, a suggestion that was promptly acted upon. Mr. Burns noted that the only marked difference in the substance of Dr. Malan’s preaching was his insistence that men should take God at His word, accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and believe they were saved—irrespective of feelings, and he quotes the story, well known to many of our readers, of Napoleon and the soldier which was used as an illus tration by Dr. Malan. For some who may never have heard it, we repeat thé story: “One day when Bonaparte was review ing some troops, the bridle of his horse slipped from his hand and his horse gal loped off. A common soldier ran and lay ing hold of the bridle brought back the horse to the Emperor’s hand, when he addressed him and said, ‘Well done, cap
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