obtained from Government, and at length the New Assembly Hall, were crowded to overflowing on the Sabbath evenings, so that Edinburgh was moved to its centre, and every evangelical congregation in the city felt its influence, in the revival of its members, and additions to its communicants. There were now hundreds of enthusiastic labourers in the field, baptised with the Holy Ghost and with fire, preaching in the streets, evangelising in the workshops, and holding meetings throughout the city. Edinburgh not being large enough for them, they went out into the neighbouring villages, and at length to distant towns, as Providence opened the way. The consequence was, that Carrubber's Close Mission, and its Evangelistic Meetings became known, not only throughout the kingdom, but over the whole Christian world.*

CERTIFICATION OF ITS SUCCESS.

But in an experiment of such vast importance, it was most desirable that there should be an official certification of its success, if possible by some high ecclesiastical authority, with a permanent record of the result, which might otherwise be unrecorded and at length forgotten. This, too, was accomplished by the action of the Free Presbytery of Edinburgh, who transmitted a petition to the General Assembly, praying that they might be permitted to call the founder of the Mission to the ministry. This was the more remarkable as they did not believe in its principles, but attributed its extraordinary success to something extraordinary in its founder: they held firmly to the belief that Dr. Chalmers' plan of TERRITORIAL CHURCHES was the only effectual means of reclaiming the lapsed masses to church-going habits. In its passage through the inferior courts, and especially in the General Assembly itself, the testimony of the ministers of Edinburgh and of other places, was recorded in the public prints of the day, and preserved in the official records of the Assembly of 1861 (pp. 138-163).

By a remarkable coincidence, in consequence of their delibera* See "Condensed History of Carrubber's Close Mission." Price 1d. Gall & Inglis.

tions extending beyond midnight, the petition of the Presbytery was granted on the second anniversary of the birth of the Mission. The following expresses in a few sentences the uncontradicted general testimony of the ministers :—

"It had small beginnings, but it began to develop itself in a most marvellous way, and to acquire a power of a very remarkable kind. It began to gather around it agents rich and poor, educated and uneducated; until it became one of the most powerful organisations of this kind that Edin burgh has ever seen. The results of these operations were very remarkable. They began to tell where none of their Churches had ever told before, and where no religious agency of any kind had ever made any impression before. They began to reach workshops and large factories, in which there had not been a solitary man making a profession of religion, and in these places there had been some of the most remarkable conversions that had taken place since the time of the Apostles. Carrubber's Close Mission had acquired a power which he could not attempt to describe, of working in a sphere which none of their Churches had succeeded in reaching. If he were asked where are the results? he would answer, 'everywhere,' in factories, in breweries, in sewing-rooms, where large numbers of girls were congregated. He heard of them in almost every trade." -Rev. Dr. J. H. Wilson.

"He had nothing to say on that view of the case unless he were speaking to men who were not really alive to the spiritual crisis occasioned in Edinburgh by Mr. Gall's labours, or rather, he should say, by the blessing of God on Mr. Gall's labours."-Rev. Dr. Candlish.

"Is it not a thing altogether peculiar that a man in Mr. Gall's position should gather, night after night, and Sabbath after Sabbath, audiences larger than the most popular of their ministers could gather around them? Was it not a thing altogether peculiar that multitudes from almost all the congregations in Edinburgh and its neighbourhood should trace their first serious impressions, and what they and others thought their conversion, to the words and labours, under the Spirit of God, of Mr. Gall?"-Rev. Mr. Macaulay. "The gathering of the masses is still an unsolved problem, but, by the grace of God, that problem was beginning to be solved. He believed that God had raised up Mr. Gall for this work."-Rev. Dr. Moody Stuart.

The published reports of the police also showed, that in four years from the commencement of the Mission, the drunkenness of Edinburgh had been reduced year by year to less than one-half.

PROSPECTS OF THE FUTURE.

With such testimonies as these from such authorities, it is impossible to deny that the experiment was pre-eminently successful, and that the principles which it put to the test were proved to be equal to all that had been so confidently predicted of them. But what a prospect does this open up to the Church and to the world in regard to money. Here was a little band

of Christian men and women brought into the field, without leaving their secular employments, but finding their highest enjoyment in winning souls to Christ and otherwise advancing the Redeemer's kingdom. It is testified regarding their labours that within three years they cast into the shade the professional achievements of all the ministers, missionaries, and religious societies that had gone before them; and yet not one of these workers, from the superintendent downwards, ever received a penny for his services, neither did any of them wish for it.

What possibilities also are thus opened up before us. The supply from which these workers were drawn is inexhaustible; and not only hundreds but thousands and millions are waiting for the call, to be organised and set to work. From henceforth the сту for money ought not to be so loud, now that "the mammon of unrighteousness" has been dethroned.

I need not say how utterly I disclaim the merit of these results, for were I not to do so the very purpose of the experiment would be defeated. They were God's own testimony to God's own plans, not to mine, and it was necessary to choose the feeblest instrument, that no man might glory in His presence. I was not unaware of the honour He did me, but I trembled when I found myself loaded with praises which were not my due,* lest God should find it needful to humble me. I have, therefore, ever since kept myself out of sight as much as possible, working chiefly through my assistant, the late Mr. Alexander Jenkinson, and rather by my pen advocate and expound the principles to which I had consecrated my life, chiefly by means of the Mission journal The Evangelist, which was distributed far and near. If any praise is due, it is due to my beloved brother, Mr. Jenkinson, who joined me during the first year, and became superintendent of the Sabbath Morning School. During the second year he gave such proof of his administrative abilities that he became Assistant Superintendent. The services that

"If one half of all that had been said of Mr. Gall were true, he was sure there was no member of this Assembly, there was none of their worthy elders in this Assembly, who would like to hear one half of the praise that had been lavished this evening upon this honest man, Mr. Gall."

he rendered to the Mission were unspeakable; for without him, Carrubber's Close Mission would never have been what it was. He was the most faultless Christian that I ever knew, and as I leaned heavily upon him, his death was a calamity from which the Mission has never recovered.

If the personal element be introduced at all, it would only be to emphasise the decision. On the side of the paid agency are arrayed the learning, the piety, and the abilities of the most distinguished divines in the Church, and on the side of the unpaid agency an obscure individual, a layman, and little more than a Sabbath-school teacher. But God sometimes does the like of these things on purpose. Nay more, I was but ill instructed in my own theory, and had to be sent back to school again to learn that in at least one particular of my plans I had made a radical mistake. So far as I had gone all was right; but in proposing to build or rent some twenty undenominational institutes, in which Christians of all denominations might meet together and work for Christ, I was setting aside God's ordinance of the Church and the pastorate, whose work I was proposing to take out of their hands.

This call to the ministry I dared not disobey, not so much because it was given by the highest Court of the Church, of which I was then an elder, as because I was under a vow to leave my profession at the first call, in order to devote myself entirely to the work of evangelism. The Presbytery knew this, for I told them; but I entreated that the call should not be made, on the ground that God had called me to the work of an evangelist but not to that of a pastor, as He had given me neither the aptitude nor the inclination for it. I thought that this would have made them pause, but it did not. It was answered, that the Church did not recognise the distinction, and at all events the gathering of a new congregation was clearly evangelistic work, and if after organising the new congregation I were still of the same mind, I might hand it over to the Presbytery, and they would relieve me of it. The call therefore was pressed, and I had no alternative but to obey.

CONGREGATIONAL INSTITUTES.

And yet, strange to say, in the providence of God, nothing could have been more conducive to the end that I had in view than this apparent frustration of my plans. I had not been long a pastor till I discovered that although evangelism might flourish without congregations, no congregation could flourish without evangelism. The conclusion to which I came therefore was, that although undenominational evangelism had great charms for me, the world would never be thoroughly evangelised, until every congregation became a CARRUBBER'S CLOSE MISSION; the pastor being the general superintendent, with a handsome Institute for the congregation to work in.

I also felt that I had yet much to learn, and that there was a mine of information in the New Testament that had evidently never been explored. In order, therefore, to make myself master of the subject, I set myself to study de novo the principles upon which the apostles and the Apostolic Church carried on their evangelistic operations.

The first thing that attracted my attention and stimulated my curiosity, was the difference between the extraordinary success of the Apostolic Church during the first three centuries, and the comparative failure of our efforts in the present day. How was this to be accounted for? What was the secret of their success and what was it that they had that we have not? In the one case we find the early Christian Church, without money, without learning, without political patronage or power, but in the face of a fierce and fiery persecution, undermining, and at length, within three centuries overthrowing the most powerful system of Paganism that the world has ever seen. On the other hand we find Christianity in this country dominant for centuries, patronised by the State, buttressed by the aristocracy, adorned with learning, science, and art, with more than a million of pounds expended every year in supporting, extending, and defending it; and yet it has failed to evangelise the country, or to Christianise the press or the people; while a putrid mass of heathenism all over the kingdom, still unreclaimed, bids defiance