Examined and certified by me, as duly entered in the books of the Mission, JAMES WADDELL (of J. WADDELL & CO.),

Fellow of the Institute of Accountants,

Mansion House Chambers, 12, Queen Victoria Street, E.C.

Received for the Missions and Bible-women Nurses, with thanks :-Parcels of clothing, old linen, paper pillows, &c., from "the late Miss Knight"; Anonymous; Sherborne Friends; Mrs. Crewdson; Baroness Berners; Mrs. Conty; Mrs. E. Cox; Mrs. Swansborough; Miss Goldstone; H. E. S, Cedar Lodge; Mrs. McBayne; books and old linen, from Miss Bruce; text quilt, from Mrs. S. Ranyard; hospital letters, from C. Walton, Esq.; Mrs. Wright; Miles MacInnes, Esq.; F. A. Hamilton, Esq.; Mrs. Fry; Mrs. Maude; and Mrs. Bland; clothing, from Miss Allcard's working party, for Stephen the Yeoman and Lisson-grove; flannel, linsey, &c., from Miss M. A. Hawkins, for St. Giles's No. 2; and flannel, from W. X. Y., for poor Jews, per Messrs. Morgan and Scott.

Contributions to the LONDON BIBLE AND DOMESTIC FEMALE MISSIONS can be received by the Honorary Secretary, Mrs. Ranyard, 13, Hunter-street, Brunswick-square, London, W.C.; by the Hon. A. Kinnaird, M.P., addressed to the Bank of Messrs. Ransom and Co., No. 1, Pall-mall East; also by Messrs. Barclay, Bevan, and Co., 54, Lombard-street; and by Messrs. Nisbet and Co., Berners-street. Money Orders should be made payable at the Post-office, Burton-crescent, W.C., in the name of Ellen Ranyard, and cheques crossed Ransom and Co.

C. A. Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

MESSRS. MOODY AND SANKEY IN LONDON.

We have heard an authentic record of a lady who, fifty years ago, was placed in an asylum for the insane, because she had prophesied, among other strange things, "that the time would come when even worldly newspapers would help to preach the Gospel." The day seems now indeed arrived, when they have willingly, and of their own accord, announced in an unprecedented manner, the fresh forms in which an "old Gospel" is being daily presented to the multitude. Recent notices in the "Times," "Daily News," and especially in the "Daily Telegraph," had ensured world-wide publicity to the information that "Moody and Sankey were coming"; and we can only remark that God has made editors "willing in the day of His power." While the very few of their order essay to ridicule, reports of what has happened in our other island capitals and chief towns, have convinced the guides of the LONDON journals, as says the "Daily Telegraph," "that these two Transatlantic "missionaries have in hand a business as earnest as death and as serious as eternity. Armed only with a Bible and a book "of hymns, these men have achieved already such a pilgrimage "of popularity that no prima donna ever yet rivalled it. "Moody, 'mighty in the Word,' and Sankey, his 'chief musi"cian,' simple persons both, go together from city to city, "meeting with scorn when they first come, but always leaving "behind them respect, surprise, new thoughts, and whole com"munities energized and stirred to the quick; and the police say actually altered for the better in habits and morals. Such "are the reports that precede these Yankee Revivalists, whom "London-great, restless, worldly, disbelieving, critical London "is about to see and hear for herself.

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"What they have already accomplished—whether lasting or "not-is the arousing of such a feeling as makes the orthodox "work of the Churches among our millions, pale like gas-lamps "in the blaze of the lime-light. They wake hundreds of thou"sands of hearts to the consideration of 'righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.' Mr. Moody preaches with VOL. XI.-No. 4.

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"peculiar eloquence the love of Heaven for every individual "soul among men. He brings his discourse up to some intense "and powerful point, and then Mr. Sankey comes forward and "holds the congregation in religious ecstacy by the powerful "charm of sweet music. We advise the dignitaries and minis"ters of all the Churches to go and see what it is, that finds its way to the people's hearts, more than any sermon sold in "Paternoster-row; and to observe how congregations are "stirred with the 'Old Story,' freshly told, as the seas are raised "by storm-winds."

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It is the fourth day of Moody and Sankey's visit to London. Many have cause to count the days; and a deep interest in their message is widely felt, and chiefly for this reason:-it is so evident that the Lord has sent them, just as we are told that Christ sent forth His disciples of old in the last verses of the Gospel of St. Mark. They went "preaching everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following." We trust these modern evangelists will here be as they have been elsewhere, empowered to cast out devils, and heal many sin-sick souls. Their own physical strength seems to be wonderfully supported of God, and while one sings the Gospel in a most touching and charming way, being of bright and pleasant presence, with a gift of moving the feelings by holy music; the other (a bright man too), rather brusque and unpoetic in manner, but far from prosaic in original thought, takes the Word of the Lord, which he proves to be the sword of the Spirit,' and uses it fearlessly and cleavingly on the hydra of indifference and unbelief in this generation, and the Lord confirms His own Word, and does what neither Moody nor Sankey could do of themselves-He makes the people hear. His presence is felt amid all the listening crowds; the hearts of many are as prepared ground. The old old story, though often heard before, falls on their ear with a fresh force.

Mr. Moody is a very real man. He means what he speaks, has felt it for himself, and has a gift to make others feel it. He takes a text with one marked idea, such as 'The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.' And then he

illustrates it by a conjunction of the histories of Bartimeus and Zacchaeus, which probably no one has thought of before, 'poking about all around the text,' as he expresses it, and inferring from things that are said several things MORE.

The scene is Jericho. A blind beggar sits by the wayside. Perhaps just before this Mr. Sankey has been singing, 'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by ;' the very thing that blind beggar had heard 1800 years ago, so he cries with faith, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me!' He believes Christ can cure him,

-Is cured at once without fee or reward; and when he receives his sight he glorifies God, and follows Jesus into Jericho. "Perhaps he said to himself that he would go down and see his wife, what sort of woman she looked like after all his years of blindness."

On his way he may very probably have met with Zacchæus, for see how the one incident follows the other, if the 18th and 19th chapters of St. Luke were not divided. In surprise at finding him no longer blind, his townsman asks if he were really Bartimeus.

"Of course I am,' is the answer.

"And then Zacchæus, anxious to see this wonderful Healer whom Bartimeus followed and whom he glorified, runs before the crowd which hides Him from his sight (he being little of stature), climbs up into a sycamore tree beyond the city, and hides away among the branches; but Christ is come to seek the lost,' and He stops under that tree, looks up, and sees him, and says, 'Zacchæus, make haste and come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house.'

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"How this man must have wondered who told the Lord his name. HE really called Zacchæus,' so he made haste and came down and received HIM joyfully.' This conversion to belief in Christ must have been sudden. The man was not converted when he went up into the tree, he was converted when he came down. Is not receiving Christ joyfully being converted? He was a publican, a stamp above ordinary sinners-a 'chief publican and rich'-and all men knew he was a sinner, and the Lord knew him as a lost sinner; but He saved him there and then, and changed his heart, for he made restitution,' gave

half his goods to feed the poor, and the other half probably went in his fourfold amends to those whom he had defrauded.”

"Thus dramatized, in the most natural manner is the truth impressed, The Son of man is sent to seek and to save that which was lost?"

Just then Mr. Sankey chimes in with the touching hymn that he found for the first time, in a newspaper left behind in a railway carriage, as he and Mr. Moody were on their way to preach the Gospel to the Highlanders. It proves to have been written by a lady who died five years since, and who could indeed have little thought how it would touch the hearts of hundreds of thousands in her native isles. It is worth while to go to their meetings, if it were only to hear Mr. Sankey sing 'The ninety and nine.'

Mr. Moody has an impressive way of causing his hearers to separate themselves into classes. From the words, Adam, where art thou?' in the 3rd chapter of Genesis, which he remarks is a question asked by God, and the first question He asks of man after the Fall, his audience are asked to separate themselves in idea into four classes: Are they Christians? Are they backsliders? Are they anxious to be saved? Are they indifferent on the question altogether? And to each follows a word they are not likely to forget.

During the four months' projected stay of these Evangelists in the city we hope often to recur to their true "Biblework" among the multitudes. Their first Sunday congregations numbered no less than 17,000 women in the afternoon, and in the evening more than 20,000 men, besides the morning assembly, as early as eight o'clock, of about 10,000 "Christian workers." Day by day they conduct three services, a prayermeeting that fills Exeter Hall, and two that fill the vast Agricultural Hall. Their single aim in each and all the meetings appears to be to "lift up Christ," and on this 17th of March, St. Patrick's-day, they would no doubt rejoice to join in St. Patrick's prayer, which has just been sent us by an Irish lady.

The Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland have published Annual Volumes for 1870-71-72, on the CHRISTIAN INSCRIBED MONUMENTS OF IRELAND up to the 12th century. The work is richly illustrated. Address, Rev. James Groves, Hon. Sec., Inisnag Glebe, Stonyford.