The third International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions was held February 23-27, in the Grays' Armory, Cleveland, Ohio. For months beforehand the executive committee had been busy making the needful preparations, and the friends of the movement all over the world had been praying that the Convention might be one of unusual power and world-wide blessing. Just seven years ago the first Convention of the Movement had met in Cleveland, and about seven hundred delegates had come together. Since that time the Movement has spread so rapidly and has taken so much deeper hold on the students of the continent that a very much larger representation was expected this year; and the hospitable citizens of Cleveland were asked to make ready for fifteen hundred delegates. But the first answer to the prayers of faith came in the form of two thousand, two hundred and fourteen delegates, representing over four hundred and fifty institutions of learning and more than seventy different missionary boards. Nearly a hundred returned missionaries were also present, representing all parts of the world; together with over a hundred professors or presidents of colleges and seminaries in our own land. Never before has there been an assembly of Christian students so numerous or so representative; and probably never has the Holy Spirit guided and controlled such an assembly more manifestly than at Cleveland during this last week of February.

The business details of the Convention were excellently managed, considering the unexpected numbers present. Association Hall was the headquarters for registration and assignment of delegates, information bureau, post-office and committee meetings; and it was a scene of great activity most of the time outside of session hours, which were from 9 a. m. to noon, and from 2:30 to 5, and 8 to 10 p. m. The homes of Cleveland were thrown wide open, and the hundreds of delegates received a cordial welcome. Many were accommodated at the hotels, for the numbers far exceeded the expectations of the committee on entertainment.

SPECIAL MEETINGS.

Mr. John R. Mott, chairman of the Executive Committee, presided at the general meetings, held each morning, 9 to 12 a. m., and evening, 8 to 10 p. m., while the afternoons, 2:30 to 5 p. m., were devoted to simultaneous sectional meetings. Thursday afternoon, Feb. 24th, nine sectional meetings considered the various mission fields in nine different churches and halls. The following afternoon three large gatherings simultaneously took up the discussion of educational, evangelistic and medical work on the foreign field, each meeting being addressed by men and women actively engaged in these special branches. On Saturday, twenty-five different denominations met in as many different places to discuss their own special lines of missionary activity. There were five or six different meetings on Sunday afternoon for delegates and for friends, one being composed exclusively of foreign missionaries and representatives of missionary boards.

In spite of the large seating capacity of the Grays' Armory, -the largest audience room in Cleveland, it was necessary to hold an overflow meeting every evening for the hundreds who could not gain admittance to the armory. These were addressed by some of the best speakers of the Convention. The hall of the armory was tastefully decorated with flags of various nations, maps of many lands, and mottoes of the Movement. Above the platform, and directly over a large map of the world, were the words, "Thy Kingdom Come." Facing each other along the two side galleries were the Volunteer watchword, "The Evangelization of the World in this Generation," and "Thy People shall be Willing in the Day of Thy Power."

THE MISSIONARY EXHIBIT.

An important part of the Convention was the educational exhibit in the assembly-room of the Armory. Here were gathered the most complete collection of books and papers, pamphlets and magazines, bearing on the various foreign fields or published by the various societies ever brought together at any con

vention. Here was also a large and costly Buddhist shrine, with many other interesting objects of worship from heathen lands, under the charge of Prof. Buckley, of Chicago. The exhibits of maps and charts was also very instructive and interesting. The American Bible Society had a very complete exhibit of Bibles in all the languages into which it has thus far been translated and printed.

It was especially appropriate and pleasing to welcome at the Convention Mr. Douglas M. Thornton, of Cambridge University, England, the fraternal delegate sent by the British Student Volunteer Missionary Union; M. Thornton expects to begin work in a few months among the ten thousand Mohammedan students of Cairo, Egypt; and the delegates, most of whom have seen his book, "Africa Waiting," listened with great profit and pleasure to his many earnest words.

The presence of so many missionaries, board secretaries and able lay speakers gave the people of Cleveland a chance on Sunday, the last day of the Convention, to hear many a message from foreign fields. Nearly every pulpit in the city was occupied, both morning and evening, by delegates to the Convention; but the large audiences in the various churches did not seem to diminish the numbers at the Armory meetings.

AN APPEAL FOR FUNDS.

An appeal was made on Friday evening for funds with which to carry on the work of the Movement in this country. Mr. Mott stated the great importance of extending the Movement into the hundreds of colleges and seminaries not yet reached, and the need of carrying on a vigorous campaign of education, as well as the value of employing traveling secretaries to visit the institutions where volunteer bands now exist. It was pointed out that the Student Volunteer Movement is in no sense another missionary board, but merely a recruiting agency through which trained candidates are sent to the existing boards. In order to meet the needs of this extension of work, at least $16,000 a year are needed for the next four years, or until the next Convention is held. Pledge cards were then passed around the hall, and $7,200 were subscribed that night, to be paid annually for four years. This was supplemented later by additional

pledges, of which one, a pledge of $1,000, was announced. The glad enthusiasm with which these pledges were made and handed in, effectively refuted the theory of an old deaccn, as told that morning by Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D.D., of New York,-that the object of the organ voluntary during the collection must be to soothe the feelings of the people!

GREETINGS TO VOLUNTEERS.

A large number of telegrams and cable messages were received by the chairman during the Convention, one telegram being from the Mayor of Detroit, extending the invitation of the city to the Student Volunteers to hold their next meeting there. No final action will yet be taken on this subject. The only messages read publicly by Mr. Mott were three cablegrams. One was from the Scandinavian Volunteers, worded: "One flock, one Shepherd." Another was signed: "Lyon, Foochow," and read, "China needs you." The third was a cipher message from fifteen prominent missionaries, most of them former Volunteers,-in Lahore, India, saying: "India has never before been so open, so ripe, so needy as today. Look, pray, send, come!”

The closing hours of the Convention were full of a deep spiritual earnestness, felt by all who crowded into the Armory on Sunday evening. Short appeals were made by Gilbert A. Beaver, Dr. J. C. R. Ewing of India; S. M. Sayford and Rev. R. P. Wilder, of India, for careful preparation for lives of service. Mr. Mott then called upon all delegates who expected to be ready to sail for their fields within a year, to rise and tell in a single sentence the field of their choice and the reason for their going there. Sixty-three rose, indicating a choice of nearly every mission field, though the largest number were looking toward China. Among the number were all five traveling secretaries of the Movement: Miss Ruth Rouse, and Messrs. Wilder, Gailey, Lewis and Brockman. Miss Rouse goes to India, whither Mr. Wilder also returns, and the other three go to China. The closing prayer was offered by Mr. Robert E. Speer, and the benediction was pronounced by Bishop Hargrove of the M. E. Church South. Thus ended the largest and most representative Christian student gathering ever held in any land.

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

From the report of the Executive Committee, presented on Thursday morning by the chairman, we give the following extracts with reference to the results of the Movement, and also to its future:

"The Movement has already touched 839 institutions. In a majority of these the Movement has presented the subject of foreign missions for the first time. The fact that the interest of the student class, from whose ranks are to come the leaders of thought and action, has been enlisted in behalf of the evangelization of the world, is a fact of the largest possible significance. Four years ago the Movement began to promote the systematic and progressive study of missions. At that time there were less than thirty classes carrying on such study in all the institutions of North America. Last year the number of classes reached 267, having in them 2,361 students. Largely in connection with the educational department, the Movement during the past four years has placed in the colleges and seminaries fully $20,000 worth of missionary literature. The agitation carried on in connection with this work has led several institutions to introduce the study of missions into the regular curriculum.

"We have the names of 1,173 Volunteers who, prior to January 1st, had gone to the mission field. They have gone out under 46 missionary societies, and are distributed through 53 countries. Not only has the Movement greatly increased the number of missionary candidates, and thus afforded the Boards a larger basis of selection, but it has also improved the average quality of missionary applicants. All but two or three of the Boards of North America have borne emphatic testimony to this effect. Of 44 men who have held positions as intercollegiate secretaries in Christian Association work during the past ten years, 30, or two-thirds of them, have been volunteers, although the volunteers have constituted less than one-twentieth of the Christian students of the continent.

"The Volunteer Movement is rendering substantial help in the solution of the money problem. At its inception the colleges and seminaries were giving about $5,000 a year to foreign missions; whereas last year they gave probably not less than $40,000. Over a hun

dred institutions now support a missionary, either entirely or in large part. If the churches were giving proportionately as much as the colleges, there would be no money problem.

UNITED Efforts of CHRISTIAN studentS.

"In our report seven years ago, occur these words: 'If the students of the Protestant world are linked together by the power of the Spirit in this Movement, it will greatly strengthen the establishment of Christ's kingdom throughout the world.' Today we are able to state that the prophecy of seven years ago has become inspiring history. Through the World's Student Christian Federation, the Christian students of the lands of Protestant Christendom have been united by the Spirit of the Almighty God.

"The Movement should in no respect count itself as having already attained. Its undeveloped possibilities are simply limitless. Of the one thousand institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada, we are able to visit thoroughly only about 300 in ayear. Thus far we have barely touched the medical colleges of the continent. At least one man should give his entire time to work among medical students. Over 2,000 students are making a careful study of missions, and yet there are not less than 45,000 active members in college and seminary associations, which means that but one in fifteen in the best prepared part of the student field are in mission classes. The Volunteer Movement has a great work to do in getting Christian students who are to remain at home to recognize that they are just as responsible for the evangelization of the world as are those who go to the front. An active missionary spirit is inseparable from a real Christian life. We would call special attention to the field presented by the nearly five million members of the Christian Endeavor movement and similar movements. Without doubt there has been a marked providence in calling into existence at the same time the Volunteer Movement and these great organizations among the young. May it not be in order that the millions may send the thousands? If this great army of young people can be interested in missions, and led to form the habit of systematic and proportionate giving. it will afford an adequate outlet for the Volunteers of all branches of the church."

A few brief extracts from some of the more important addresses are all that can be given within the compass of the present article.

RT. REV. DR. BALDWIN, Bishop of Huron: "The kind of person that Jesus calls is the man who believes himself utterly insufficient for the work. He does not call the self-sufficient. Moses once thought himself able to deliver Israel, and he slew the Egyptian. Then God sent him to school, forty years in Midian, and when he was eighty years old he had learned that the man Moses was unfit for the work. He had seven objections ready when God called him out of the bush; but he was the man God wanted. He had come to the end of self. He saw the acacia bush (a worthless shrub) representing himself, burning with God's fire. So God will be in us a fire, to cheer, purify, illuminate and consume us. He asks us to show our unfitness, that He may use the weak things to confound the mighty." REV. A. F. SCHAUFFLER, D. D., New York:

"My definition of money is this,-money is myself. I am a working man, and on Saturday night I receive $12, which is one week's worth of my brawn,-of myself, my energy,put into greenbacks and pocketed. Or I am a clerk in a store, and at the end of the week I get $20, the equivalent of a week of myself. Or I am a merchant, and find that a week's worth of myself is $1000. Money in the pocket is something human, for it represents power expended. If your father is supporting you, then you carry your father around in your pocket. The electric storage battery is a marvel. The button is the governor of the stored power able to light a house, move machinery, cure a pain or kill a man. Money, too, is stored power, stored only to be loosed. The question is, how shall it be loosed, to build up or to destroy? There are many ways. Το catch, and try, and execute a murderer, a while ago, cost New York State $100,000,-a coffin at the beginning and a coffin at the end and $100,000 in between. Another man started out to murder the betrayer of his sister. He traced him to New York, and by chance passed down the Bowery and was converted at a service at the corner of Broome Street and afterwards became a missionary. That conversion cost about $5-aside from divine grace -if you count that in, it cost Calvary. But

the $5 saved the state $100,000; there was no coffin at either end, and eternity alone can tell how much more good it did. Which was the better way to loose the power? How will you loose your money power? It takes divine wisdom to handle a million dollars."'

MISS LEITCH of Ceylon:

"Of our church members, one-third know nothing about missions and do nothing for them; another third know a little and do a little; the other third know much and do much. What the church needs is information. The Volunteers must be a foraging party, and go out collecting from others to supply the army at the front with food. And as to getting to the field, the best means of going is meaning to go. We are not our own, neither is our time our own, nor our money. 'Whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple.'"'

RT. REV. DR. DUDLEY, Bishop of Kentucky:

"The man who does not believe in foreign missions does not believe in Jesus Christ. Suppose Jesus had never given the marching orders, could the apostles help going, if they believed what they said they believed? Listen to the answer of Peter and John before the magistrates: 'We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.' Have you seen anything? Have you heard anything? The man who has seen and heard anything so mighty is forced to tell it. If Christianity is only one of many religions, it will not make such a difference whether we are true Christians or not; then let us get through it as cheaply as possible. But we have seen, our eyes have been opened, and we must speak."

BISHOP NINDE, President of the Epworth
League:

"The majority of church members give nothing to missions, in money, prayer or thought. Many give in small sums, as they can. Most of the benevolent institutions are supported by associated poverty. There are also large givers, who first give themselves to the Lord, and then consecrate all theirs to Him. On a wealthy man's desk was seen over one drawer, the letters 'M. P.,' which he said stood for 'My Partner;' and God's portion was never lacking. Ministers have been lamenting the frenzy of business, and preaching moderation.

But let us not stand in front of this rushing steed, or we shall only be run over for our pains; better put a new motive in the saddle. Use the business enterprise; make it a partner in the missionary work. Give the business man a new motive, and everything becomes sacred to him."

REV. DR. EWING, President of Forman Christian College, Lahore, India:

"The church is at a new crisis. She long prayed for open doors. This missionary century is nearly gone, and paths long shut against all entrance have been freed from every obstacle. The church prayed for laborers; and now great numbers stand, as we all know, only waiting to be sent. The fields are white, the harvest is waiting, the reapers are ready. What hinders? The hour has struck, but the church is not on time. The cry of Peter the Hermit, 'God wills it!' will soon be that of the church, and she will then go forward."

It might be well to mention the preparation for the best use of the Convention in the opening meeting at Grays' Armory when Rev. F. B. Meyer led the delegates to the point of surrender and readiness to accept the gift of God's grace and power.

Also the spirit of prayer which prevailed throughout and led each one to apply to himself the truths uttered and to hear God speak with an attentive ear and willing heart.

The spirit of a sound mind was manifest in the avoidance of all oratorical attempts-omission of applause, sound advice as to thorough preparation and earnest advocacy of the present use of opportunities in study and service, without waiting for future possibilities as to what the Convention is expected to accomplish.

I.

Spiritual uplifting of the delegates and strengthening and directing of their missionary zeal. It was a council of war to arouse loyalty; deepen conviction and purpose and to consider the best methods of preparation and advance.

2. To bring blessing to institutions and churches represented, by carrying the spirit and wisdom of the Convention to those not permitted to be present, and to arouse them to further earnestness, activity and self-sacrifice.

3. As an object lesson to the world as to the strength of Christianity in Student life,—

to the church as a rebuke and inspiration in furnishing the funds to send forth candidates. Auburn, N. Y.

Blameless and Faultless.

I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thess. v. 23.

"We must distinguish between blamelessness and faultlessness," says Rev. F. B. Meyer, in a recent article in the Christian Endeavor World:

"The latter can be ours only when we have passed the gate of pearl, and been presented faultless in the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy; the former alone is possible to us here and now, but, thank God, it is possible, because He has said that 'He will do it.'

"Every one admits that there is a difference between these two. Take an instance from common life. A working woman comes home weary from her day's toil, and, having provided the evening meal and put her little ones to bed, she sits down to work for her babe. Presently the little frock falls upon her knee, and she leans back in a snatch of unconscious ness, such as only the most tired know.

"Her eldest little girl, noticing the collapse of her mother's efforts, steals to her side, takes her work gently out of the tired fingers, and, creeping back to her chair by the fire, essays to finish the uncompleted hem.

'Mary,' says the mother, suddenly awaking, 'what are you doing?'

"Helping you, mother,' replies a voice with a touch of sacredness in it.

"'Let me see what you have done; bring it here, child.' And as the quick woman's eyes look down the tortuous stitches, she sees at a glance that every one of them will have to be unpicked and done again.

"But she says never a word to the little maiden of blame or faultfinding. The work is not faultless, by a long way, but the child is blameless. Had the cobbled seam been due to slovenliness or neglect, the work had been blameworthy as well as faulty, but inasmuch as it has been done to the very best of the child's ability, she stands without blame in ber mother's presence.''