ambition after literary

In the secrecy of my up the idol of literary

From my boyhood, literary culture applause-had been the idol of my heart. closet, God said to me, "If you will give applause and give yourself to rescuing the perishing, I will give you souls." I said, "I will do it." Within eighteen months of that time God gave me more souls brought to Christ by my simple, humble instrumentality than in eighteen years that went before.

O, brethren, brethren, brethren! Here we have been looking into the face of a glorified Christ, and looking into the face of transfigured brethren-for they have been transfigured in his glory, and we have been looking into the face of a lost world-of a coming judgment. What are we going to do about it? I tell you to-night, that, by God's help, I am going to be a new man in Christ Jesus for the rescue of the perishing; and my supreme desire at this moment is that this Mountain of Transfiguration may pass into an upper room of Pentecostal effusion, and that before we leave this house to-night we may have the tongue of fire to go and preach the gospel to a dying world. That is my farewell message to my brethren and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.

O, beloved, beloved! Is it possible that we are to see truth as we have seen it here, to see needs as we have seen them here, and to see each other as we have seen each other here, and to see a lost world, as we have seen a lost world here, and not go down from this mountain to meet the woes and wants of humanity with an anointed tongue and a transfigured life? [Great applause.]

Mr. Dodge: We could never leave this house, where we have had so much of hospitality and kindness, without hearing from our dear friend, the pastor of this church, who has given so much of himself to us during the last three days-the Rev. Dr. S. M. Newman, our host and friend.

REV. S. M. NEWMAN, D. D.

BRETHREN: It is very evident that this is an hour of consecration. What the extent of that consecration in each individual heart may be is known only to the living God, who by his Holy Spirit searches us, each one, at this moment. As brother after brother has spoken, my mind has reverted to the scene at the River

Jordan, where our Lord and Master was baptized. Coming down to the brink of the river, he was received by John the Baptist and entered upon the moment of his consecration to his Messianic mission. The hour was the hour for which he had been waiting all the first days of that life which he had spent in the village of Nazareth. You remember the delights and the harmonies of the scene-how, when the baptism was performed, it was accompanied by those manifestations which made it, to the mind of the Lord Jesus, a moment of supreme consciousness of the destiny to which he was to come. But, as I have thought of him at that moment, I have learned to think in these later years of the next experience of his life. We read in the gospel according to St. Matthew that after this baptism, with all its delights, had occurred, he was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Consecration always brings an exposure, because consecration brings new thoughts; brings, in our cases, a tumultuous experience of mental graspings, of spiritual upliftings, of endeavor after something different from what we have been. And I have thought, as I have wondered how this great congregation would go down to their homes-I have thought that possibly some of us would go down to lives in which our watchfulness would be set aside because we thought that the moment of consecration was everything, and that, by the experiences of that moment, we were protected from the dangers of the Evil One. Now, as we go back into our work, it must be remembered that temptation lies close by the side of consecration, and that, as in our Master's case, so in ours, what we need is to have such an experience of consecration as to secure the victory over the temptation which shall follow.

What are the temptations in our cases? As we go down from the Mount, it is an exposure to the old possession of notions of our own; it is an exposure to the old prejudices which come in to restrict, to thwart, to set aside, the blessed influences of these last three days. And unless we learn self-control in the presence of statements other than our own expressions of belief, unless we can hear the forms spoken which are not used by us, and believe that the men who use those words and forms are doing the Master's service with us, then we are not ready, in spite of the influence which has been cast upon us, for the work which lies at our doors. It is only through a consecration which has, in other words, a victory in it, that we are ready for service.

Mr. President, I shall have hereafter a new fondness for this platform, where I have stood so many times and undertaken to speak the blessed words of the Lord Jesus Christ. It has borne the tread of men who have been sanctified through suffering for the work which they are doing. It has had upon it men who have come across the water to preach and do the gospel work of the Lord Jesus Christ in this great land of ours; and for their presence, of all shades of belief, Episcopalian, Moravian, Lutheran, Friend, for their presence and their words and the power of their spirit, and the influence of their countenances, and the glances of their eyes, I bless God to-night.

I cannot accept without protest the slight reference which has been made to my part in the work of hospitality. It is true I did open this church, with its, I think, comfortable association and audience room, for your coming; but had it not been for my brother here-my Southern Presbyterian work-fellow; had it not been for my beloved Episcopalian lay friend, my Southern Methodist fellow-pastor and my Presbyterian coadjutor upon the committee, I could have done nothing. So I say that in remembering me, you must remember us all. It has been our delight these last few days to put ourselves at your feet, because we knew the blessing you had to leave in our midst. It has been said in my hearing to-day that the country could not get together a more remarkable body of men than has met in this room during the last few days, for nine prolonged and blessed sessions of Christian conference. I believe it. For this presence I thank you, for myself and for these brethren and for the Christian people of the city. We are your debtors. And we ask that the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, who never forgets the minutest detail of our lives; who never leaves out of his thoughtful and blessed attention a single concern to the lowest of his children—may preside in all your hearts, by the power of his Holy Spirit, and may show unto you by that blessed Spirit the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. The commission has been spoken of here to-night: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." There should be with every preacher a supreme emphasis laid upon the word "gospel"-"preach the gospel to every creature." The gospel is "the things of Christ."

Beloved friends, may the Holy Spirit make these last moments, as they go away irresistibly-moments of victory, moments of con

secration to duty, moments of resolution, not in human strength, but in divine strength; moments of transcendent appreciation that the world can be conquered only when Christians are one. May God bless this Evangelical Alliance for the United States of America, as it starts from this point for a career, the next years of its existence, which we trust will be one of increasing light and satisfaction and power to all our vast land and population.

Mr. Dodge, in closing the exercises of the Conference, said: Resolutions would be very cold as coming from us to-night, but we want, with all our hearts, those of us who are connected with the Alliance and those of us who have come from other cities and from other parts of the country, to thank our brothers here for their generous hospitality, for their Christian welcome, and for all the facilities and comforts they have given us. We hope and know these meetings will leave a blessing here. And now as we part let it be with a note of gladness and joy, that in these grand times of the world's history we are called to service for the Master.

In the old days, when in castle courts and in old walled cities, the leaders for the fray called to arms, not only was the shout of legions heard, but every sword was drawn from its scabbard and all flashed together in the light, and the bearers swore allegiance, and fealty to each other and their cause, and then went out to the fight. Let us, servants of so grand a Lord, go out with such a feeling. Even in this moment of enthusiasm and deep feeling may I state just what the practical thing is we want to do. only in our hearts to rejoice that God loves us and will save us. We want, not only to hope that others will take hold and organize great works of charity and of good: we want to know to-night what the Saviour who has redeemed us, and to whose cause we so gladly pledge ourselves-has for us to do.

We want not

We have ventured to indicate repeatedly during these meetings what seemed to us the simple and first thing for you to do.

You want to find out intelligently what your duty is. When you go home, will you study carefully what is just about you? You who are pastors, and you who are leading men in your communities, will you not meet with those who have with you a stake in the community, who have with you a love for our common country and a love for our risen Lord, and study what the needs are.

Do you know, if your experience is not different from all others, that when you find out what the needs are just by your home, when you find the sorrow and distress, the darkness and the ignorance, that you go by every day, when you find how much trouble and need for work there is, if you have a spark of love for Christ in your heart, you need nothing more?

God will give you intelligence and wisdom, and I believe that the common sense, the earnest faith and the consecration of the church of Christ will be able to meet the great emergency that is upon us. Find out what it is God wishes you to do, join with your Christian friends of all faiths in earnest work. Then we shall always remember with joy these days of blessed instruction, help and inspiration; and this will be the beginning of a work which I hope, with God's blessing, will quietly go through the whole land until every dark spot is uncovered, and until the example and teachings. of Christ our Lord are the inspiration and the life of our country.

I am going to ask our friend Mr. Thane Miller, of Cincinnati, to lead us in a closing prayer, and then we shall all heartily and gladly join in singing the first and last verses of the hymn beginning, "Christ for the World, we sing."

After prayer by Mr. H. Thane Miller, the benediction was pronounced by Rev. Dr. Pitzer, Secretary of the Washington Alliance, and the Conference adjourned sine die.