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METHODIST FORWARD MOVEMENT IN EDINBURGH.*

BY THE REV. S. HORTON.

The Rev. George Jackson stands for progressive Methodism in Scotland. For long years it was taken for granted that Methodism north of the Tweed must necessarily be a dwarfed and stunted thing, and that its warmth and glow were altogether alien to the cold and unemotional nature of the Scotch people. Presbyterianism is indigenous; it has its roots in the character and sentiments of the nation; and the average Scotsman takes as naturally to it as he does to his plate of porridge in the morning. It has fairly covered the field with all kinds of Missionary Agencies, and has done its work, perhaps, more thoroughly than any other Church in the world.

All this, and much more, has been urged repeatedly as the reason for the slow progress of Methodism, and was considered as satisfactory and sufficient. Mr. Jackson has demonstrated that a Methodism that is alive and alert can not only succeed, but can win victories in Scotland equal to any that it has to boast of in England. To gather a church of upwards of six hundred members; to have made a position for himself amongst the great

ligion in the world.

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What a constellation of worthies shine in this great cathedral of Methodism! We are touched to tenderness, if not to tears, when we remember the throngs of distinguished men who have ministered within its walls, and whose remains now sleep so peacefully amid all the noise and roar of London's infinite excitement and complicated and tumultuous life. Among the names which have found a memorial in this shrine of

preachers of Edinburgh; to have created a large constituency, and generally to have raised the prestige of Methodism, and hopefully to face a Building Scheme that will cost £50,000 with every chance of success, and all in the comparatively short space of ten years, is, to say the least, a notable achieve

ment.

To learn how it has been done I waited on Mr. Jackson, and requested him to tell me the story. He lives in a comfortable manse in Morningside, not far from the beautiful Braid Hills. He received me very kindly, and readily consented to give me the particulars I sought. I had often seen his portrait, but had never met him before. He is below, rather than above, the medium height, with an eager, impressionable face, full of vivacity and of good humour. Like all men who do any work worth doing, Mr. Jackson is an optimist, and one cannot be in his company many minutes without catching the spirit of his cheery hopefulness. His library, like all about him, is thoroughly up-todate, and is apt to bring a poorer brother dangerously near to a in ure afiche tenth commandment. American Methodists alone, at the end of a century and a half, outnumber the entire census of Christianity at the end of the first three centuries.

Το look into this venerable building, where much has transpired to give existence and form to Methodist institution and law, to stand among its thronging and inspiring memories, to walk with subdued feelings around the grave of yard, where a glorious company over five thousand of the early

minister, named Borrie, of Blairgowrie, left a sum of money at his death to be devoted to the spread of Methodism in Scotland. He had been blest under the Methodists, and this was his thank-offering. The question was how best to spend it so as to fulfil the purpose of the donor. The Rev. T. T. Lambert was the Chairman of the District, and largely on his initiative the determination was arrived at to commence a West End Mission. It was also through him that I was chosen for the work of the mission."

"Then when you came you had no church," I said.

"No, when I started we had no church, no membership, no organization. Until the following November we had not even a meetingplace. Then we took the old Albert Hall-a kind of third-rate theatre. The accommodation for Methodist purposes left much to be That, until last May, formed our headquarters, when we were compelled to give it up."

desired.

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But you held services in the Synod Hall before then," I remarked.

"Yes; the way we came to take the Synod Hall was this. The exhibition held in Edinburgh in 1890 brought strangers from all parts of the world to the city, and as very few Presbyterian churches then held Sunday evening services, we were soon crowded to overflowing.

As a temporary expedient, we took the Synod Hall for the Sabbath evenings, intending to return to our own hall when the rush was over. I cannot speak too highly of the kindness and forbearance of the United Presbyterian friends in allowing us so long to occupy their hall, at inconvenience to themselves. You will readily understand that not having a home of our own is a great hindrance to We are meeting now in four different places."

our work.

"And your congregations, what of them?"

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women.

'On an ordinary Sunday evening we are nearly full. The hall seats 2,000. Our chief work is among young men and First of all there are the shop assistants. We get large numbers of these. Then clerks, students, and servant maids find a home with us. In most of the houses in the West End there are two or three servants, and we make special efforts to get hold of these. They make very capital members once you lay hold of them, though necessarily they are a migratory class, and we have difficulties sometimes in tracing them when they leave."

"Our Social Hour," he continued, in answer to another question, "is a very valuable auxiliary of our work. After the Sunday evening prayer-meeting, we meet all the young folks who care to come, and we spend the time in chat and singing, and perhaps a reading if we can get one of the right kind. There is no speaking unless I wish to say a few words to them on some important matter. The idea is to make it as much a home-circle as possible. Then we have refreshments, tea and cake, and finish with family worship. You see, in a city like Edinburgh there are hundreds of young people who are in lodgings. They have no home, nowhere, in fact, to go after the service is over. We thus provide a place for them. Of course, we make a point of one of the ministers always being present. It affords us among other advantages, the opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with them."

I ventured to suggest that it must be a serious tax on the minister at the close of a Sabbath's work to have this additional burden placed upon him.

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'Yes," was the reply, "but it is worth it. You see, when our Sunday afternoon meeting is held, I

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site cost £20,000, and the buildings will cost £30,000. Towards this we are trying to raise £25,000, and the other £25,000 will be met by shop rents. Up to the present I have in promises nearly £10,000. Of course, I anticipate a substantial grant from the Century Fund. But we need a considerable sum yet to see us through. What I have received up to the present has mostly been in small sums. have no very large donations, except that of Mr. Perks, who has generously promised 500 guineas. Much of my time will now be taken up in going about raising the money required."

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"We shall, I anticipate, be able to accommodate 2,000 people in the large hall; there will also be a lecture hall for about 300, and nearly twenty smaller rooms, with ten large shops occupying the whole of the street and basement floors."

Mr. Jackson then informed me that his method of pulpit preparation was to write pretty full notes, and to take what he has written with him into the pulpit. "I have never read a sermon," he went on to say, "but neither can I do without careful preparation. Of course, every Methodist minister has occasionally to speak impromptu, but I never do it if I can help it. I

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am not naturally a fluent speaker, and unless I know exactly what I want to say before getting up I am apt to hesitate and stammer. therefore prepare carefully for all my public work, and when thus prepared, feel at ease when speaking. I religiously set Saturday apart for my pulpit work, and on that day I see nobody, and take no appointments."

"But what about your printed sermons?" I inquired.

"All those," he answered, "were written after delivery. I can always write a sermon better after speaking it. I used to memorize, but at best it was slavish work, and is simply impossible when a preacher has to come twice before the same people every Sunday. Everything I do is made to serve the pulpit. All roads lead to Rome."

I then questioned Mr. Jackson on the place, and probable future, of Methodism in the ecclesiastical life of Scotland. "We have a place," he said, "in the larger towns and cities, but I question whether we have any mission in the small towns and villages. Presbyterianism has effectually met the religious needs of the people there, but even the Presbyterians themselves admit willingly that we supply a necessary element in the cities, and they would view with the greatest regret any attempt to withdraw our agencies. am bound to say that so far as I have been able to gauge the feeling towards us, it is that they regard us, not as aliens and strangers, but as fellow-helpers in the great work of saving men. They open their churches and pulpits to us. I have twice preached in St. Giles', a thing, as you know, that would not be dreamt of in the Established Church in England. And there is no attempt at anything like patronage. One of the most interesting services ever held in Edinburgh

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was that held in St. Giles', at the centenary of Wesley's death. There were representatives of all the Presbyterian bodies present, who took part, and the Professors of the University and the Lord Provost were also present."

"Methodism," he went on, "will succeed in the measure it is true to itself. If it attempts to become a diluted kind of Presbyterianism it will fail. One thing has been interesting me much lately, and that is the relation of Methodist doctrine to modern Presbyterian doctrine. A great change has come. over me, for example, in my thought and feeling towards Calvinism. As a Methodist, of course, distrust of Calvinism was in the very bone.

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I have come to see, since I came to Scotland, that a great deal more can be said for it than at one time I would have liked to admit. There are two sides, and we have always been taught to look at the reverse side of the shield. I am sure that one secret of the religious strength of the Scottish character has been Calvinism. I was so impressed with this that when I preached our District Synod sermon last year, I took as my subject, The debt we owe to Calvinism.' It is not true to say, as some do, that the old Calvinism is dead. What is dead is the old method of presenting it. The bitterness of the strife between Arminianism and Calvinism is also dead. But what I would call moderate Calvinism is still alive, as represented by such men as Dr. Marcus Dods and Dr. Stalker. I wish some one would write a book that would put fairly the modern presentation of Calvinism, as taught by these men. I am sure that there is a good deal to be said for it. I do not mean to say that I believe Arminianism is wrong, but I do mean to say that there is a good deal to be said for the other view."

It was interesting to hear this from one of the rising stars of Wesleyanism; indicative as it was of the tolerance that seems in the air towards those that differ in theological opinion in this city where so many hard battles have been fought over far less contentious matters. Methodist Union was then mentioned, and I found Mr. Jackson, as I expected, a very ardent advocate of it.

"I have great hopes that it will come," he said. "I know of no reason for six or seven different Methodist Churches. The union of the Free Church of Scotland with the United Presbyterians, which is now almost an accomplished fact, should be an object lesson to us. Soon the Presbyterian Church in Scotland will be one, except perhaps the Established Church, and, of course, nothing but Disestablishment could bring about a union with it. But it is a significant sign of the trend of things that the union of these two powerful bodies should be brought about so amicably, and with so little opposition." I expressed the opinion that the union of Methodism would probably be by the road of the minor Methodist bodies uniting first, and instanced the overtures now going on between our own Connexion and the Bible Christians.

Ah!" he replied with charming frankness, "it is in these lesser unions that I fear the danger lies. What I mean is this, that in order to bring about union some principle may be adopted that may hinder the larger union. I hope that whatever is done, the possibility of a united Methodism will not be lost sight of."

It has never yet been my privilege to hear Mr. Jackson preach, though I have had a taste of his quality in his first and most successful volume of sermons, "First Things First." I was not surprised to learn that upwards of

8,000 copies of it had been sold. For clear, terse presentation of great truths; for lofty ideals of life; for beauty of diction, and for unmistakable grip of principles, these sermons would be hard to beat. One cannot but feel when reading them that they are the utterances of a man in dead earnest; and that he has set out with the distinct purpose of moving the young men who gather to his ministry to a nobler life. He has published beside, "The Table Talk of Jesus," "The Ten Commandments," and "The Young Man's Bookshelf." I can well understand after this chat with Mr. Jackson, that he should attract the young to himself. I can also understand that he is popular as a preacher. He goes straight to his point; puts what he has to say in felicitous language, and avoids the ruts both in thought and speech.

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THE PENTECOST.

(The Acts of the Apostles ii. 1-12.)

BY THE REV. J. PASCOE.

See the disciples of our Lord Assembled in the "upper room," They all, in faith, with one accord, Pray for the "Comforter" to come.

This was the promise to them given,
By Christ, their risen Lord above,
The Holy Ghost should come from heaven,
In all the plenitude of love.

These men were in their wonted place, When suddenly there came a sound Which rolled and filled the sacred space, And shed its influence around.

As mighty rushing wind it came,

But bringing neither fear nor dread; Peticodiac.

And then were seen the tongues of flame Which sat on each disciple's head.

Thus on the Pentecost was given

The Comforter, the Holy Ghost; And they, commissioned now from heaven, Received the gift desired most.

To men of different nations there

They spoke in tongues which were diverse;

By miracle did God prepare

Them now with strangers to converse.

Oh! let this Pentecostal power

To all Thy servants, Lord, be given; On them Thy blessings ever shower, And bless and seal them heirs of heaven.

The wind that blows can never kill The tree God plants;

It bloweth east, it bloweth west, The tender leaves have little rest, But any wind that blows is best.

The tree God plants

Strikes deeper root, grows higher still, Spreads wider boughs, for God's goodwill Meets all its wants.

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