is set before us in Holy Scripture. And yet we treat it as if it were the easiest thing in the world, the especial province of such women and children as have nothing else to do. Do let us do something to rescue prayer from the contempt which is impairing its efficiency. There are two elements at least in earnest prayer which we do well to remember. It must cost us trouble, and may

very well take up a great deal of our time. Think of Bishop Andrewes, that great scholar and divine, and of the hours which he spent in prayer-five hours, it is said, in a day. There is a tendency to curtail the time spent in public prayer. God grant that this does not mean that private prayer is curtailed also. Sometimes when a man wishes to economize in his money, he economizes in his almsgiving. And so it also happens that when he wishes to economize in time, he economizes in his prayers. Both of these are false economies. We clergy and those set in positions of spiritual authority are ex hypothesi spiritual men, and if those to whom we are bound to dispense the good things of God find us empty of all spiritual power, we are defrauding them of that which they have a right to expect from us.

A man may be so devoted to his work that he may sacrifice in the generosity of his heart even his moments of prayer to the demands made on his time by the needs of his people. But the sacrifice is a deadly one to himself, and cruel to his people. He is thereby setting himself to give them the stone of his own personal powers, when they want the bread of God's grace. "For their sakes I sanctify myself," must be a message which is ever calling the busy man to his knees, as he feels that sometimes he is helping his people most when he refuses to listen to them.

Intercession is a tremendous subject, linked on to the Atonement, the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and daily prayer. I would only say these two things. Do not let us play with it. You have not necessarily interceded when you have read over on your knees the initials of a man's name or the weekly paper of a guild. Intercession means, I suppose, coming between; coming between a man and the working out in the hands of God of some cause and effect. It means Abraham coming between God and the punishment of Sodom. It means, in the last resort, Calvary. Ah, my friends, as we get older we shall hear, perhaps, the cry, "Expel the useless mouths." And we shall have to sit at home and see the youths go forth to the battle, where our strength will no longer let us go; but as we open our Psalter we read, "They also shall bring forth more fruit in their age." We have our work, our best work, our hardest work still to do. Interceding, with all the burden of life stored within us, with the visions of God strong upon us. It is a real work, this coming between God and the evolution of His great destiny, which can only be undertaken by those who feel that they can end their prayers, without presumption, through Jesus Christ.

Neither is it always begging, always interceding, always asking, but listen to the great hymn rising up around us, which ascends from

Nature, unconsciously fulfilling God's will in the functions assigned to its manifold activity. There is the singing of the birds, the sigh of the wind, the roar of the cataract, the lowing of the cattle, the deep voice of the sea, the rustle of the grass, all united in saying, "Bless ye the Lord; praise Him and magnify Him for ever." And the only flaw in the harmony is when man breaks in with his discordant note-Israel with its rebellion, the priest with his faithlessness, the servant with his indolence; and it is for us to learn more and more to do consciously from the depths of our freewill what Nature does unconsciously, in its simple dependence on God, and say, Amen. Alleluia. God is worthy; God is to be praised in all that he does for us. As the Church empties herself out in the fullness of adoring love, when as if there was nothing more to be said, she cries in the simplicity of her love, "We give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory.' Dear friends, let us take home with us to our work of service the words of Dean Church, when he says of the same Bishop Andrewes, "In Andrewes it had a saint-not called so, not canonized, but one in whom men felt the irresistible charm of real holiness. It had some one in high places not only to advise, but to love. And Churches need saints as much as theologians, and statesmen, and even martyrs."

SPECIAL MEETINGS

MEETING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE1

The Albert Hall was crowded with young people on Saturday afternoon, June 20. The Bishop of Kensington presided.

THE BISHOP OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA (Dr. Talbot) pointed out the real relationship between the people of England and America, and how the Church of England and the Church of America was

one.

He held up to all the idea of personal service for the Church as the work that God wanted each one to do for Him.

THE BISHOP OF AUCKLAND (Dr. Neligan) said the Pan-Anglican Congress was an opportunity for asking questions. The question they were all asking was, "How can we all in our different parts of the world do our work better for Jesus Christ and the branch of his holy Church to which we belong?" Too many who left England for the Colonies left their Prayer-Book and Bible, the lessons of their Church, and the practice of their religion, at home.

THE BISHOP OF HANKOW (Dr. Roots) explained the hatred of Chinese for foreigners, and spoke of the need of Christianity for China.

CANON WESTON (Bishop-Designate of Zanzibar) said the Church could not afford to wait in Central Africa. There were 68,000,000 heathen there ready to be converted, and another gospel, that of Mohammed, not of Christ, was being preached to them. Christians had got to be prompt and to get to work at once.

MEETINGS FOR MEN

In the Great Hall of the Church House on the afternoon of Saturday, June 20, the Bishop of Stepney presided over a meeting largely composed of city men. The subject of the meeting was Social Purity.

THE BISHOP OF STEPNEY said that social purity was the arena in which the Church was always making its challenge to the standard of the world. The first work was to conquer themselves. They could only conquer the world by the weapons by which they subdued their own passions and overcame their own temptations. Their duty as citizens was to prevent the corruption of our public morals. They must see that proper places of recreation are provided; that parks and open spaces are kept well lighted and guarded; the spread of indecent literature and pictures must be stopped; but all this must be done by concerted action.

1 For fuller report, see vol. vii, sect. G.

THE BISHOP OF NEWCASTLE, New South Wales (Dr. Stretch), pointed out that first of all a public opinion must be formed and fostered to deal with this question.

THE BISHOP OF HANKOW, China (Dr. Roots), spoke hopefully of the improvement of the moral tone in the far East.

COLONEL EVERITT welcomed the work of the Church of England Men's Society as a practical step in the right direction.

On Sunday afternoon the Albert Hall was packed with an audience of about seven thousand men. The Bishop of Stepney presided.

THE BISHOP OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA (Dr. Talbot) said that the Church knew no class distinction between clergy and laymen. Their work was side by side. Laymen could often do spiritual work for other laymen which no parson could do. But the laity were only just beginning to learn this.

BISHOP TAYLOR SMITH, Chaplain-General of the Forces, spoke of the hindrances to self-consecration in the Master's service.

MR. JOHN W. WOOD, Secretary of the Board of Missions of the American Church, urged Churchmen to break through the AngloSaxon reserve, and do their best to influence their social equals rather than their social inferiors.

THE BISHOP OF STEPNEY spoke of the absolute necessity of a spirit of brotherly fellowship. How many men were lost to the Church every week because they found the Churches respectable but chilling? They must hold out the hand, not of patronage, but of brotherhood. The whole world was longing for the gospel of fellowship.

MEETINGS FOR WOMEN

Several meetings for women were held on the Friday preceding the Congress Week, June 12. Of these a full account has been separately published.

The aggregate women's meeting was held in the Albert Hall on Tuesday evening, June 23. The Bishop of London presided. H.R.H. Princess Louise of Schleswig-Holstein occupied a seat on the platform.

THE BISHOP OF LONDON said the Church had found woman a slave, and had made her something more like a queen; and women as well as men had pushed the Church through a hard and unsympathetic world. Women were called to continual sacrifice; the mother who sacrificed herself to her children had the joy of the children's confidence throughout life.

THE BISHOP OF MISSOURI (Dr. Tuttle) dealt with women's responsibility in the family, which was vital-far more than in voting, contending, and ruling.

MRS. CREIGHTON said women were guardians of good manners and purity in society. It was not so much what a woman said, so

much as what she was, that told. She deplored the increase of drinking and gambling amongst women, who seemed disposed to copy the vices rather than the virtues of men.

MR. WILLIAM TEMPLE spoke of women's responsibility in the State, and argued in favour of female suffrage.

DR. PARKIN, organizer of the Rhodes Scholarships, spoke of woman's responsibility in the world. Woman's share was first to keep pure the fountains of our nation's life. Only the reverence for woman as woman, inspired by mothers in their sons, is capable of removing that awful blot on the fair life of our great cities. Women hold the gateways of our social life, and also control and determine social expenditure. They also guard the barriers of social life which mark the boundary between class and class, and they must reconcile these barriers with the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood within the Christian Church.