plucked from the burning. The workers, seeing these gracious evidences of blessing resting upon their labours, thank God, take courage and go forward. The methods usually pursued are: simple, cheery, bright Gospel hymns, prayer, a short, pointed address, an earnest invitation-an after meeting devoted to testimony, prayer, exhortation, and a faithful effort to point seeking souls to the Saviour of sinners.

I have not time to give details of all the different mission and rescue agencies carried on in this city, or even to enumerate them, but will endeavour to give a short sketch of a few of them, which may be taken as fairly representative of the efforts made in Toronto to "Rescue the perishing," and I may say that while the different organizations may not be conducted on as elaborate a scale as in some larger cities across the line, we have here represented nearly all the different classes of such work.

Beginning with the work with which I am most familiar: The Jarvis Street Mission-which is under the control and management of the Metropolitan Church-was begun about seven years ago, when a few street arabs were gathered into a Sunday-school room on Sunday afternoons. Amidst many discouragements, the work was resolutely carried on, and the numbers increased. Night-schools and Gospel services were added. Then a work among homeless men was entered upon-arising from the proximity of the mission to one of the worst dens in the way of a cheap lodging house in the city.

That you may get some idea of how these places are managed, let me attempt to describe the scene that was witnessed every night our workers would visit the place in order to invite the men over to our services. In a small cellar with low ceilings, dimly lighted, the air reeking with the fumes of tobacco and whiskey, we would find 100 or 125 men and boys; some playing cards, others drinking and smoking, while the coarse jest, ribald song, and blasphemous utterance continually shocked the ear and heart. Around the sides of this den was a shelf, on which the men slept, heads to the wall, feet outward, with no pillow or clothing to cover them other than the rags they wore. So crowded were they that many had to sleep on the floor. For this they were charged five cents by the proprietor, who made money by the business.

We soon found that little lasting good could be done while the men were surrounded by such influences. The necessity for a better and cleaner lodgment led to the establishment of the Central Lodging House Association, 66 Jarvis Street, which has now been over two years in existence. Here a good, clean bed, hot and cold baths, the use of a bright, comfortable reading-room,

are given to a man for ten cents, at the same time surrounding him with Christian influences. Every evening, family worship is conducted by the manager. An employment bureau, with telephone communication, and a five cent savings bank are among the agencies used to enable a man to get work and save his money. During the first year 15,000 beds were occupied. The second year in larger premises, over 26,400. I may say the proprietor of the opposition house has gone out of business. Mission services are held in the same building. Each week there is a Sabbath-school, two Gospel meetings, a Gospel temperance meeting, night-school, and a woman's sewing meeting; there is also a small gymnasium. The results have been most encouraging. Many have been picked up from the lowest depths of sin and degradation, and with a new song in their mouths, bear unmistakable evidence of changed lives. Our prospects for increased efficiency and greatly enlarged spheres of work are bright. A wealthy gentleman, Mr. H. A. Massey, is building a magnificent mission hall and lodging house, costing about $50,000, with the intention of donating it for the purposes of the work. When we consider the small beginnings only a few years ago, we are assured that the work is owned by the Master.

The Sunday free breakfast in Richmond Hall, held every Sunday morning from December to April, is another means of bringing the Gospel to the poor. Here may be seen gathered together about 150 destitute men and women, who are first fed with coffee and sandwiches, and then by singing, prayer, a short practical Gospel address and kindly words, are invited to partake of the Gospel feast. The Rev. Mr. Dixon and his band of selfsacrificing workers have every reason to be encouraged with the result. Many permanent reformations of the worst characters have been made. Critics, who themselves do nothing to alleviate distress or elevate the down-trodden, have said: "The men are pauperized by free distribution of meals, and encouraged by this and other means, our city is the resort of paupers, tramps and vagabonds," as if men would flock to the city where once a week they got a few sandwiches and a cup of coffee gratis. The results also disprove this. When the breakfasts were first started about five years ago, there was an average of about 100 in weekly attendance more than there are this year.

The Night Shelter for Women, carried on by Miss McIntyre, on Centre Street, is another instance of what one energetic worker can do. Started about a year and eight months ago by a young woman with two dollars in her pocket, and a strong faith in God in her heart, the work has made wonderful progress. Each morning she, or one of her assistants, visits the cells and

police court, and endeavours, if possible, to induce some one or more unfortunate woman or dissolute girl, who may be discharged by the magistrate, to go with her to the Shelter, where she is warmed and fed, while, at the same time, encouraged by kindly word and prayer to quit the life of sin, and turn to the good. Then each evening these faithful labourers in the Master's vineyard walk through the streets and alleys in the lowest and worst parts of the city, visit the dens of vice and crime, and by sympathetic entreaty succeed in getting many wandering ones, no matter how vile or drunk they may be, to accompany them to the Shelter, where they are welcomed and cared for. In a little over a year and a half, 324 women and thirty-three children have been sheltered. Of this number, Miss McIntyre says she can speak confidently of the reformation of 118-mostly young women. There is also a boys' reading-room, and a girls' sunshine club in connection with the work. It is carried on entirely on faith. Divinely called as Miss McIntyre believes to commence the work, she trusts God to carry it on, and, as a result, has received $632.00. Her great need is a larger building. It is utterly impossible to carry on efficient work in the little eight-roomed house at present occupied, and she is praying for increased accommodation, and I doubt not her prayer will be answered.

The Toronto Children's Aid Society has for its motto: "It is wiser and less expensive to save children than to punish criminals." Its objects are: To secure legislative enactments for the protection of children, and to see that the law is enforced; to rescue and provide shelter for destitute and neglected children, and, if possible, provide them with permanent homes; to furnish fresh-air excursions during the summer holidays, and a Christmas treat during the winter. During last summer, about 8,000 excursion tickets were issued, and 17,500 lunches were provided, while quite a number of neglected little ones were sheltered and provided with homes. Laborious though the work may be, those in charge of it are amply repaid by the joyful and happy faces they see around them on one of these outings. The Management is endeavouring to make such arrangements that delicate, sickly, neglected children may be provided with a week or fortnight's stay in a bright country home, away from the heat and noise of the city.

The Toronto City Mission is another agency, productive of great good among the poor. Under the faithful services of Mr. Robert Hall, the work has increased and largely developed since its organization, about thirteen years ago. The means employed are Visiting the homes of those who do not attend the means of

grace, and by words of cheer and prayer, reading and exposition of the Scriptures, and, by practical assistance, endeavouring to win them over to the service of Him who came to seek and to save the lost. The jails, reformatories, hospitals and various charitable institutions are also regularly visited. The open-air services in connection with the Gospel Carriage have been greatly blessed. The mission is undenominational, and entirely dependent on voluntary contributions for support.

I cannot do more than refer to the Toronto Mission Union, of which Mr. W. H. Howland is the devoted and energetic head. This is the most extensive organization for mission work in the city, having its branches in its various departments spread over almost the whole city, the central building being on Mission Avenue. By means of its evangelistic work, its women's and children's work, its cooking schools, its creche, or day nursery, its work among factory girls, its reformatory and prison gate work-by all these and others it is accomplishing much in the name of Him who went about doing good.

The Salvation Army has also recently opened a Refuge with lodgings and wood yard, where the "out of works may pay for their meals by labour.

There is a great number of other charitable and religious organizations in the city, whose object is especially to reach the "lapsed masses," but my time is exhausted. I therefore conclude by expressing the hope that the members of the Epworth League and Christian Endeavour, while active in the Church, and rendering practical assistance to Foreign Missionary work, may not forget that the fields around them in their own cities and towns are white for the harvest, and that they may not only pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers, but that the prayer may be, "O Lord, send me."

As Professor Drummond says: "This city, then, which John saw, is none other than your city, the place where you live as it might be, and as you are to help to make it. It is London, Paris, New York-these as they might be, and in some infinitesimal degree as they have already begun to be. In each of these, and in every city throughout the world to-day, there is a city descending out of heaven from God. Each one of us is daily building up this city or helping to keep it back. Its walls rise never ceases.

slowly, but as we believe in God, the building For the might of those who build, be they few or many, is so surely greater than the might of those who retard, that no day's sun sets over any city in the land, that does not see some stone of the invisible city laid. To believe this is faith. To live for this is Christianity."

RECREATIONS IN ASTRONOMY.*

BY BISHOP WARREN, D.D.

THE WORLDS AND THE WORD.

MEN have found the various worlds to be far richer than they originally thought. They have opened door after door in their vast treasuries, have ascended throne after throne of power, and ruled realms of increasing extent. We have no doubt that unfoldings in the future will amaze even those whose expectations have been quickened by the revealings of the past. What if it be found that the Word is equally inexhaustible?

After ages of thought and discovery we have come out of the darkness and misconceptions of men. We believe in no serpent, turtle, or elephant supporting the world; no Atlas holding up the heavens; no crystal domes, "with cycles and epicycles scribbled o'er." What if it be found that one book, written by ignorant men, never fell into these mistakes of the wisest! Nay, more, what if some of the greatest triumphs of modern science are to be found plainly stated in a book older than the writings of Homer? If suns, planets, and satellites, with all their possibilities of life, changes of flora and fauna, could be all provided for, as some scientists tell us, in the fiery star-dust of a cloud, why may not the same Author provide a perpetually widening river of life in His Word? As we believe He is perpetually present in His worlds, we know He has promised to be perpetually present in his Word, making it alive with spirit and life.

The wise men of the past could not help alluding to ideas the falsity of which subsequent discovery has revealed; but the writers of the Bible did avoid such erroneous allusion. Of course they referred to some things, as sunrise and sunset, according to appearance; but our most scientific books do the same to-day. That the Bible could avoid teaching the opposite of scientific truth, proclaims that a higher than human wisdom was in its teaching.

That negative argument is strong, but the affirmative argument is much stronger. The Bible declares scientific truth far in advance of its discovery, far in advance of man's ability to understand its plain declarations. Take a few conspicuous

illustrations:

The Bible asserted from the first that the present order of things had a beginning. After ages of investigation, after researches in the realms of physics, arguments in metaphysics, and conclusions by the necessities of resistless logic, science has reached the same result.

The Bible asserted from the first that creation of matter preceded arrangement. It was chaos-void—without form-darkness;

*Reprinted, by Bishop Warren's permission, from copyright volume. Published by Harper & Brothers, New York.