THE DEVOTIONAL DAY

It was, from the first, arranged that the last day of the Congress, Tuesday, June 23, should be devoted to devotional meetings. No meeting was fixed for the evening, in order that nothing might fatigue or distract members who would wish to attend Holy Communion Services next morning, before the Thanksgiving at St. Paul's (although afterwards a women's meeting was held at the Albert Hall). The Congress sat in the forenoon in four divisions: (1) At the Albert Hall the subject was the Church's Call to Personal Consecration. The Bishop of Salisbury presided, and the speakers were Bishop Taylor Smith, the Dean of St. Patrick's (Dr. Bernard), Dr. Arthur Robinson, and the Rev. Evan H. Hopkins. (2) At the Church House the subject was the Church's Call to the Study of the Bible. The Bishop of Ely presided, and the speakers were Professor Du Bose (paper read for him), the Dean of Ely (Dr. Kirkpatrick), Dr. J. O. F. Murray of St. Augustine's, Canon R. B. Girdlestone, the Principal of Cuddesdon (Dr. Johnston), and the Rev. Tissington Tatlow, Secretary of the Student Movement. (3) In the Hoare Memorial Hall the subject was the Church's Call to Intercession and Thanksgiving, the Bishop of Southwark presiding, and the other speakers being Canon Walpole, Canon BullockWebster, the Rev. C. E. Lambert, and the Bishop of Albany. (4) At St. John's Institute, Westminster, the subject was the Church's Call to Consecration of Substance, the Bishop of Quebec presiding, and the speakers being Lord Kinnaird, Mr. G. A. King (Treasurer of the Congress), the Rev. Dr. Lansdell, and the Rev. H. A. S. Pitt.

In the afternoon, an aggregate meeting was held in the Albert Hall. The subject was the Church's Call to Service. The Archbishop of Sydney occupied the chair, and addresses were given by the Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of Derry, the Bishop of Gibraltar, Canon Body, and Canon Newbolt.

The Congress thus anticipated the deeply impressive words of the Encyclical issued six weeks later by the Lambeth Conference, which called upon the Church to imitate her Divine Master, and to say, "We come, not to be ministered unto, but to minister."

All these papers and addresses are reported in the following pages. By way of introduction to them, the remarkable little article on "Pentecost" which appeared in the June number of the Pan-Anglican News-Sheet, is here appended:

PENTECOST

The last phase of our preparation for the Congress is at the season of Pentecost. Let that great event mould our expectations, suggest our prayers. For we need prayers— deeper, fuller, stronger than ever. At this time at least we must ask enough. What do we want? We hardly dare say "another Pentecost". But we dare to pray it, and we will.

We want the rushing mighty wind. We would hail the wind of God, unpredictable, incomprehensible, blowing beyond our hopes and against our hopes. We would have it shake the ancient and beloved house in which we are gathered together. We know that much in it ought to be shaken and removed, that so that which is not shaken may remain. We know that many in it sleep; yea, sleep in death: come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these dead, that they may live.

We want the fire. We would welcome the fire of God; we would open our hearts to its flames. If only it would burn away our pettiness and partisanship, our indolence and obstinacy, our disloyalty to each other and to the cause of God, our lovelessness. O fire of love, descend upon us, destroy and re-create. That which burns with love is not consumed: it burns and shines, transfused by the fire, transfigured by the radiance of love. We want so to be transformed and disfigured. "By this shall men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another."

Tongues like as of fire sat upon each of them. What? On the 7,000 of us? No unloving word to be spoken all the Congress through? No vain word to catch man's praise? No lukewarm, no superfluous word? Every word afire with love and with God? Shall we pray for this? We must. Why pray at all if not for the best? We must pray that if any man speak he shall speak as the oracles of God, and that every man shall listen only for the message of God to himself and the Church.

They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. We want the consecration of nationality; we see it symbolized in this feature of Pentecost. The spirit of nationality stirs all around us. Let us pray the Creator

Spirit Who implanted it in the hearts of men, both to teach the Church to understand and respect it, and Him to purify it and make it glorious, meet to adorn the Holy City.

We are praying to the Almighty; let us ask what He alone can give.

A PRAYER

O God of all the nations of the earth, look down in mercy on the multitudes assembled in this Congress. Pour out Thy Holy Spirit on all who speak, that they may speak as Thine oracles, and on all who listen that they may hear Thy voice; that so Thy Church, replenished with Thy Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, may go forth conquering and to conquer in the name of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

THE CHURCH'S CALL TO PERSONAL

CONSECRATION

ALBERT HALL. TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 23

CHAIRMAN: THE LORD BISHOP OF SALISBURY

The BISHOP OF SALISBURY said: How much do we need consecration for our mission in life, since even our Saviour needed it for His mission! He was sinless, we are sinful; He so strong, we so weak; He God's wisdom, we ignorant even of ourselves. Yet our mission to the world is part of His, comparable to His, in one sense the same as His. We are sent as He was-not to do our own will, but the will of Him that sent us. We are sent, as He, to save sinners. We are sent, as He, to send others to the same blessed work. And in consequence of this mission, so like His, we are called to personal consecration, as He was. We are called not only for the work's sake, but in order that those whom we send may feel the hallowing shadow of Christ-like lives over them, and themselves in turn so consecrate others to the end of time. Two points of closely connected duty thus emerge the call to send others, the call to consecrate ourselves for the sake of those whom we send. Yet both are constantly forgotten, plain as they

are.

It is strange that the first should ever be overlooked. Simple common-sense reminds us that the world is wide, humanity hard to penetrate and persuade, our own lives very short. If we have to speak of a Christ Who died for all men and in Whom all may live, we must speak through other voices who will carry on the message. Yet how careless are Englishmen of this duty! While nearly every Moslem in Africa seems to be a born missionary of his most imperfect creed, Englishmen, who have the truth, are so reserved in their religion that they often seem to have none, and to take no interest in propagating it. Our present Congress as a timely witness to the world, our Church Lads' Brigade, our Men's Society, our Church Army, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and other continuous efforts, will, I trust, rouse many from this fatal torpor. If we are real Christians our first business, not our last, is to make other men so. Those who are indifferent to the first duty will certainly forget the second-the call to personal consecration. Yet to Christians it ought to be a most natural thing. Let me remind you what it means. It involves, first, separation from evil; secondly, destination to work for God; thirdly, self-sacrifice. These three stages naturally follow, as in the life of our Lord. First comes the Virgin-birth at Bethlehem and the home life at Nazareth; secondly, the descent of the Holy

Ghost at the Jordan; and thirdly, the ministry of self-sacrifice issuing in the Passion. To us, too, home life, confirmation, entrance into a profession or business, should all naturally be moments of self-consecration.

covetousness.

First, as to home life. We are proud of our English homestheir purity, their simplicity, their piety. To many an Englishman the early conditions of life are almost ideal. He is kept very separate from evil. He may grow to boyhood having no personal contact with uncleanness or intemperance, dishonesty, or But parents need to work much harder than they generally do to make this separateness the beginning of an actual consecration which shall influence the world. Far too much is left to nurses and teachers. Far too much is mere absence of evil. What we parents need to teach our children is to join us in hating evil and in loving good: we must sanctify ourselves that they also may be sanctified in truth, that is, in reality. May I say this to all parents here present? Teach your children yourselves the elements of prayer, confession of sin, supplication, intercession, thanksgiving. Let them pray first at your knees; then by your sides as you kneel. Be strict yourselves, and be strict with them (for laxity of discipline is no kindness) as to family prayers and church-going. Plan to spend your Sundays with them, and make them days of religious enjoyment, not paltry amusement. Teach them unselfishness by associating them with yourselves in acts of kindness. Show them by example the value of fasting and selfdenial. You need not press them in this, they will follow. Let them into the secret of your best thoughts. Be in their presence your best selves.

Secondly, as to confirmation. Infant baptism as a practice is only defensible if confirmation or first communion is made a definite moment of self-consecration, a time when a real gift of the Holy Spirit is expected. It should be a time when the sense of destination to God's work becomes conscious and constant. The actual sphere need not at once be fixed. Our Lord took His place in His Father's house at the age of twelve; but He went on working as a carpenter to the age of thirty. We may be sure He did this last duty in no half-hearted way. Doubtless the ploughs and yokes which He made, and which were afterwards shown, were the best that could be made. So if any of you here are doing worldly business, as some may think it, do it as to God, do it with your might. Make it unworldly by your own Christian character. If He needs you for what seems higher service, He will show the way; but, after all, what you are now doing may be the highest, because in some strange way the most influential. Do you know a little book of delightful flowing verse, The Hidden Servants? It teaches an old lesson-that a life lived in the world and at home with simple piety and self-denial may be as pleasing or more pleasing to God than one of pronounced separation and renunciation. So Evelyn's Life of Mrs. Godolphin reveals one