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gentle looks, and friendly, warm-hearted manner of the attendants then in the house, I was most anxious to see the opening, though unwilling to intrude. A personal invitation from one of the directors, however, quite removed my scruples, and on Sunday afternoon, when the church-services for the day were over, I gladly joined some others who were among the favoured few, and after a pleasant walk to the suburbs of the town, we reached our destination about three o'clock. Many were there before us, and the number increased to about two hundred, all delighted to see the labours and anxieties of years thus completed, and their wishes and hopes thus realized. Every heart must have been filled with happiness, for every countenance beamed with joy; and if here and there tears glistened in the eye, or moistened the cheek, they were tears of overflowing gratitude to the Giver of all good, through whose blessing everything had been accomplished, or springing from the gladdening hope that here He, who was on earth the Man of sorrows, might see somewhat of the "travail of his soul and be satisfied."

The company were ushered into the principal hall, which was profusely and beautifully decorated with plants, bouquets, and garlands of flowers; every seat of honour, as well as all the windows, doorways, &c., being tastefully adorned with wreaths. The ladies of the committee, having laid aside their walking-dresses, were thus distinguished from their guests, who were kindly welcomed, and then admitted to the adjoining wards, for boys on one side of the hall, and for girls on the other side. All are friends whom the children see, and they were delighted to have so many around them; the elder responded cheerfully to the remarks addressed to them, while from the infant beds wondering eyes observed the moving groups, and tiny hands were extended to the passers-by, with a gentle "Guten Tag."

Presently all assembled in the large hall; the early supporters of the Institution were placed in the flowery seats; the rest of the company sat or stood as opportunity offered; all the children able to be present were carried in to occupy their own little chairs; the lady-superintendent or matron (Oberinn), and her small band of nurses, were in one corner, while in another, stood a group of young ladies who regularly visit the hospital to instruct the convalescent children. All were ready, when the pastor chosen for the duty, and who is chaplain to the neighbouring infirmary, entered the room for the especial service of the day. The singing with which it began and ended was rich in the musical harmony of many well-attuned voices, but richer still as

"The high, the heav'nly melody,

The music of a thankful heart."

Prayer, containing as much thanksgiving as supplication, with an earnest address, formed the rest of the service. The motto chosen for the house, and inscribed upon it in gold letters, is taken from Psalm lxviii. 20, in Luther's version of the Bible, "Gelobet sey der Herr täglich; er legt uns eine Last auf; aber er hilft uns auch." "Blessed be the Lord daily; he lays a burden upon us, but he helps us also." In the English version this

forms the nineteenth verse, and the same meaning can only be traced by casting out the words in italics. The verse, as it stands in German, was a fitting text for the address founded upon it, and which alluded beautifully to the burden laid on all then present, on the directors and committee, on the newly-appointed Oberinn, on the nurses and other attendants, and on the children. The latter were affectionately reminded of the peculiar and heavy burden laid on them, but reminded too that all came from the same God, and all would receive the necessary help.

Before the company dispersed, the Doctor traced the rise and progress of the Hospital in a short and interesting review of its history. From it I learned that the beginning was made in 1836, with only six beds and three children. It progressed until 1850, when thirty beds were in use. In 1854, enlarged accommodation was decided upon ; four years and a half were spent in drawing out the plan, ideas being gathered from every available source, and now at the expense of £5000, the edifice, represented in the accompanying sketch, has been completed. The garden is an addition, secured by the exertions of one gentleman, who collected in a week above £300 to purchase the ground. I conversed with several members of committee, who kindly gave me additional particulars, and hearty wishes that the Edinburgh Hospital might be as successful as that of Bremen. The latter has passed through difficulties as well as our own, having been opposed on the same grounds, that it is wrong to withdraw a sick child from the maternal care, the most fit to tend it in illness. This objection, seemingly cogent, but untenable when applied to poverty-stricken homes, or to mothers working hard from morning to night, was soon overcome, and now nine shillings a month is paid for each patient. In some cases this is given by the parents, who are thankful to have their children better tended than they would be at home; in other cases, the expense is borne by the Fund for the Poor"-a fund provided by the voluntary contributions of the citizens of Bremen. I have already mentioned that four and a half years were spent in preparing the plan of the Hospital, and the result has been a building, simple in its general plan, but presenting everywhere some wise arrangement for affording convenience, economizing labour, or securing the main object of the whole-improved health. Double walls to preserve equality of temperature in summer and winter; hoisting shafts from the lower to the upper storeys, so that nothing needs to be carried up the staircases; speaking-trumpets from the kitchen to all parts of the house; a regular supply both of soft and hard water on each storey, and constant ventilation throughout, as well as the light, airy, cheerfulness of the whole, show how carefully every point has been weighed. The washing apparatus | is complete, and attached to it is a drying apart ment where half a dozen moveable screens are so arranged as to be filled or emptied with perfect convenience, and when the last is filled, the articles on the first are ready to be removed.

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In my repeated visits, nothing struck me more forcibly than the attendants of the Hospital. All seemed inspired with the same spirit: from the

Oberinn to the kitchen-maid, all were eager to exhibit the excellent arrangements in every department. On the other hand, their comfort has been attended to, and much has been done to promote it. The superintendent has a private sitting-room and bedroom, furnished as a lady's home ought to be; the housekeeper has two store-rooms off the kitchen, so conveniently fitted up for all that is under her wise care, that housekeeping seems quite a delightful duty, and the nurses' comfort, as well as the children's, has been thought of in the wards. Between the two girl's wards, as between the two for boys, is a third chamber for their attendants; this is partially divided, the front portion forming a sitting-room, the back part a bed-room in which the two nurses sleep, and each is ready to attend to her own ward, as a sliding panel at the side of her bed is withdrawn at night, enabling her when required both to see and hear all that passes among her charge. Additional service is of course necessary in severe cases, but this is the ordinary provision.

The whole Institution, externally and internally, excites admiration, and when I add that every necessary comfort for furnishing and fitting up, and even ornaments, up to fine engravings, have been supplied by generous gifts from well-wishers, it will readily be supposed that an afternoon could scarcely be more happily spent than in the services connected with the inauguration of a building which so appeals to all our best feelings and sympathies, as does the New Children's Hospital at Bremen.

PASTOR HARMS OF HERMANNSBURG.

II. THE PASTOR IN HARNESS.

WHEN the hurry of departure was over, and the parish life returned into its old channel, it felt somewhat dull. The first brood had gone, and the nests were empty, as Harms says. The old places were vacant, the children missed their teachers, and the peasants looked in vain for the kindly men who walked across the moor to read the Bible in their cottages. This did not last long. Three weeks were spent in putting things to rights, and by that time twelve new candidates were waiting to enter the house. There were two tailors, four carpenters, and six yeomen or peasants, and one of them had a history of his own, which has so connected itself with the progress of the mission, and is so intelligible a sign of the place, that it cannot be omitted.

In the first days of his conversion, about eight years before, one Behrens had a very eager wish to go over to the heathen. Harms dissuaded him, for he was an eldest son and heir to the family farm, and when his desire grew only stronger, he counselled him to ask permission of his parents, and not to leave without their blessing. They would not part with him, and he submitted. It was not long till his father lay dying, and, confessing his fear that he had sinned in restraining his son, begged of the minister to see that if the like desire should again spring up in his family it should not be hindered. Behrens, however, having entered in possession, conceived that he had no right to leave this new calling, and repressed the wish, which was

still strong in him. It would not be repressed, and when he talked it over with his wife, he found that she was of the same mind. While he was undecided, his only son died, and his ties being now broken, he resisted no longer, but presented himself at the Mission House. He was warned of the importance of the step, and of the difficulty of his position, that he could no longer be considered as a man of property, but simply a scholar like the rest. He was prepared for that, and for much more. He came with his property in his hand, to make it over to the service of God. It astonished him to find that it was not received with the same readiness; that instead, he was entreated to consider his duties to his mother. She, when asked, gave him full permission, and there was now no plea for refusing so self-denying a gift. Harms still insisted, to Behrens' continued surprise, on one condition, that if either he or his children wished at any time to retire from Africa and their connexion with the Mission, a sum of money should be paid them equivalent to the value of the farm. On this condition the transference was made, and the mission became possessed of a house and garden, meadow land, arable land, and bog, which bore henceforth the name of the Mission Farm, and by skilful labour and reclamation of the waste ground, would suffice for the sustenance of the missionaries at home. It is not wonderful that a congregation which produced such men as Behrens should be full of holy life, or that a minister who showed himself so honest and sensible in the most delicate relations with his people, should be loved and honoured by them as their father.

It was about this time that the Hermannsburg Missionary Magazine* was begun, as a means of communicating missionary intelligence from the African colonists to the people, to the surrounding districts, and to some more distant friends of the undertaking. It is unique in missionary literature as well by its form, as by the circumstances under which it appeared. The quaintness of the beginning is very original. "When it is said that we shall publish a Missionary Magazine, it is not meant to be a kind of royal speech, we by the grace of God, and yet there is only one; nor, as our writers say, as if they had learned it from the kings, we have been informed in our opinion, and the man is speaking all the while of himself. Our we means literally we, my brother and I, for he will help me. And now I think I hear many a sigh, and words like these: So many missionary magazines already, and here is another? what folly! Dear friend, believe me, if you sigh once over this new magazine, I sigh ten times. For you need only read it, or if you will not do that, lay it aside; or if you have ordered it, countermand it, and all your trouble and sighing are at an end. But I must write it, every month a new one, although I am burdened with work enough already. Believe me, I would much rather let the whole matter drop if I dare.

"You will say, Why dare you not? My answer is, The love of Christ constraineth me. Ever since our mission was established I have been besought to publish a missionary paper, and I shook off

* Hermannsburger Missionsblatt.

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these petitions as one might shake the rain drops Calwer Magazine only 10,000.* The paper has off a wet cloak. But when you shake and shake, now become a source of income for the mission, and it only rains the harder, you are presently wet and last year brought in more than 2000 crowns' through. And so, that the rain may cease, I pub-profit, though it costs less than a penny a number. lish the magazine. And in truth I would have no It was not long established till it suggested the love for the Lord Christ, and for the people who necessity of a Hermannsburg printing-press. It ask it of me, if I hesitated longer. So then, in was desirable that the missionaries should learn our God's name, let it be begun, and may our faith-type-setting, and other mysteries of the printing ful Lord say thereto, Yea, and amen; and grant art, so that they might be able to supply books new strength for the new work!" This was in afterwards to the heathen in their own tongues. 1854, and since then it has appeared regularly, Many Bibles, Catechisms, and Hymn-books were month by month. It is marked with all the indi- needed, and catechisms and hymn-books that had viduality of the editor. Each number begins with not been tampered with by the Rationalists were a prayer in very simple form, but out of the depths rare. There was, besides, great inconvenience, of a heart divinely taught. The rest is filled with often delay, in having the paper printed in the disextracts from the missionaries' letters when they tant town. So now the village prints its own hiscome, and when they fail, with narratives of the mis- tory to all the world, and the printing press never sion progress at home, of the work of God in the rests. congregation; sometimes with a sermon; or per In the second year of the Hermannsburger Mishaps one of those stories out of the olden time,sionsblatt it was obliged to chronicle the death of a which have been the fruit of much labour of the young Norwegian in the mission-house. He was eyes, and endurance of dust, up in the very top of one of the last twelve, and the favourite with his some rude church upon the Heath. There is no companions; but his wish to be a missionary was formality about it. A father might address his cut short by consumption. "God has greatly children, or a Christian speak frankly over his blessed us this year," Harms wrote in September. position with a friend, just as the magazine is "Above all, He has blessed us with affliction. written. It is thoroughly natural and personal, Christoffersen's death, bitter as it was for us, has and with the air of one who assumes an interest been a rich, and perhaps the richest, blessing for among his audience in all the details of his work. all." His notion of blessing would seem whimsical And to those who turn away from the statistical and contradictory to most. "The first joyful hardness, the manifest effort to be interesting, the tidings I have to-day," he says at another time, want of connexion, the official atmosphere, of "are of the happy death of our dear Sarah.” In many of our own missionary papers (those written the second year also the "Candace" returned. for children being often the best for adults, because Sinister reports had been spread by the Hamburg less formal), it is a joyful and unexpected relief to papers. It was said the Mission ship was lost; meet with anything so fresh and graphic and easy, that it was worthless and worm-eaten; that it which puts you so completely in connexion with would never sail back into the Elbe. These reports, what is doing that you feel the warmth of a per- from the highest commercial authorities, were not sonal interest, and sends you into the world with hidden from the people; but they were bid to stronger faith, and better thoughts, energy, and wait in faith for more certain intelligence. When love. Something must be set down to the peculi- the ship returned not even the average repairs, after arity of the entire Mission, to the intimacy of rela- so long a voyage, were necessary. As no mission tion between Harms and the missionaries, which work would be undertaken before the next year, it gives their letters, and his comments, the unreserved was prudently resolved to ship a cargo for Vera and charming minuteness of detail that would be- Cruz, and thus help to pay the expenses of the long to the correspondence of a family circle, some- crew; and, in the spring of 1856, the preparations thing also to the true romance, if the word may be used for a new African voyage were completed. Four in a Christian sense, of the whole undertaking; but brides were sent out to as many of the missionaries, much more there is the higher region in which the nor were bridal wreaths forgotten in the great narrative moves, the living faith of the narrators, chests. A tailor, a shoemaker, a smith, a tanner, so that the reader has not only information of the and a wheel-wright went as colonists, the latter kingdom of God, but feels its motive power. This with his wife and five sons. There were the usual seems to be the key to the otherwise puzzling fact busy days, and the quiet farewells in the church, of the rapid, and for Germany, marvellous success the service on the quarter-deck, and then the of the paper. It was begun in obscurity, among dropping down the river, the last letter from Cuxpeasants, and in that part of the Continent where haven, and the long sea over which, in storm and there is little spiritual life. Its circulation in 1854 calm, the daily prayer followed them from their was 2500; in 1857, 10,000; in 1858, 13,000; in home, and guided them to the shore. 1859, 14,000. The first year is already in the fourth, and the second in the third editions. Now, the circulation of the Kölnische Zeitung, the Times of North Germany, is only 14,000; and of the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, the Times of South Germany, only 10,000. And if the same test is applied to the religious papers, Hengstenberg's journal in Berlin had only 1500 subscribers in its palmy days, the well-known paper of the Society at Basle reckons 2500, and Dr. Barth's excellent

In 1857, the mission sustained a severe loss in the removal of Theodore Harms, hitherto the superintendent of the mission-house, to the pastorate of Müden. But the appointment of a successor, who has proved as faithful, gifted, and devoted, was no mean gain. Harms' account of him is this: "A true, simple, able man, just such as we need,

These figures are taken from Wuttig's Deutscher Zeitschriften Katalog.

not of lofty words nor lofty nature, although, by the body, he belongs to the high people of this world; one who knows how to deal with plain peasant folk, and, as you may believe, heartily devoted to our dear church." The ordination of the twelve missionaries by the Consistory of Hanover quickly followed. The King and Queen, with their children, were present; the ministers of the town all took part. The next day they were sent for to the Palace, where the King entered freely into conversation with each of them, delighted them by the interest he took, and assured them that they would be remembered by himself and his family in prayer. On the peasants whose hearts knocked wildly at the very sight of the dreary street of Hanover, and on so devoted a -royalist as their pastor, this must have made a wonderful impression. Those further off, and who have certain distinct recollections of the conduct of the King in 1848, and fail to recognise the identity of that conduct, and of a policy verging upon absolutism with either private or public Christian morality, may be excused from any reverential feeling.

In the autumn of this year the "Candace" was ready for another mission-journey, and was so crowded that the captain and the shipping-agent were in despair. No less than 44 persons left the old Hermannsburg for the new, 12 of them missionaries, 14 colonists, and again four brides, the rest being women and children. By their calling, the colonists were: two tailors, two weavers, two rope-makers, a saddler, a turner, a joiner, a carpenter, a wheel-wright, a smith, a shepherd, and a sailor,-variety enough to found another Rome, though, if the legend tell truth, a vastly more honest and useful variety. While these were writing merrily from the mouth of the Elbe about their necessary closeness of contact and unity of conduct, the old house that they had left was filled in every corner by one-and-twenty young men, who had taken possession of it for the next course of training."I will tell you who they are," says Harms; and he mentions them by name. "Now pray for them all." When this falls into the hands of a Christian reader, let the request be understood. Pray for them and pray for the work, that it may be blessed and kept from the evil. As the missionhouse had not been planned for so large a number, and as others came till there were twenty-four, additions were made, and at present it is capable of accommodating as many, though by no means after English notions of comfort, as the Church Missionary Training School at Islington.

Such work as this, and growing so rapidly under his hands, might seem sufficient to most people; but exceptional persons are found who refuse to be bound by any well-understood rule of worldly prudence, and from whom the wisest sayings about too many irons in the fire, &c., fall off harmless. There is a vitality of faith that quickens a man's whole moral and intellectual being, by virtue of which his powers are strung to a higher tension, and bear a greater strain. It would be absurd to suppose that a principle of such energy could be introduced, and act entirely apart. And if a man has shrewdness, insight, practical gifts, power of organization, it is only natural to expect that in

the life of faith he will become more shrewd and practical, keep a clearer head, and be equal to more work. There was a burden pressing on Harms which is pressing on very many. We catch the thief and put him in prison. On the whole, our machinery so far is admirable. But when the prison door lets him out again into the world, our machinery ceases. It is simply the opening and closing of a trap. We are trying to better this in many ways; trying to care something for the creature that we catch, to remember that it has a human soul. The first step was to remember that it had a human body. Festering chains were struck off, cells were cleansed, light and air were made available, prison fare was reformed till prison cookery had made a name for itself. Then chaplains were introduced and Christian visitors; there was some pains to teach, there were kind and warning voices. Reformatories were begun. They are doing their work; they are more capable of limiting the num. ber of the vicious and criminal than had been even sanguinely supposed. But the older criminal had no place in them. He was turned out of the prison; he had heard good things of a better life; he had perhaps learnt to value these better things, and dreamt that he might live honest and without reproach. He found every man's hand against him; suspicions, abuse, selfishness. His old companions were still true to him. He was driven back to his former ways. Every honest work was denied us; we could not starve ; we were forced to steal." These were the miserable words which earnest and pains-taking prison chaplains had been hearing for years. And as the burden of these pressed sore upon Harms, he determined to join in connexion with the mission, a refuge for discharged convicts. He felt rightly that there were peculiar facilities about him; the quietness and country character of the neighbourhood, the Christian life that it had pleased God to quicken and sustain, and the presence of the future missionaries, who would find as great advantage in teaching and helping these convicts as the convicts would find from them. A farm was purchased, of sufficient extent to afford the men constant employment. The farm-house was fitted up for their reception; a pious yeoman of the parish was appointed superintendent-is not the German word housefather better?-and they waited in stillness for any who would voluntarily come. Thus waiting, they closed the year 1857.

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A year slipped past in hard work; by the end of it, Harms was chained to his desk for twelve hours a day, and did his parish duty as before. When the stress was past he could work no more, but lay sick for months. He was never very strong, rather feeble, and latterly delicate and suffering; so much, that he sometimes writes as if he was soon to die. By the midsummer of 1859 he was recovered, and arranged what was needful for a fourth voyage to the Cape. There were four colonists,-a mason, a bricklayer, a shoemaker, and a miller, some of them with wife and child; four Christian women; one missionary, whose course of study at Göttingen was reckoned to him by the Board, and who was thus enabled to leave at once; and of more importance to the mission than an entire emigration, Hardeland, the Bornese mis

sionary, with his wife, two adopted children, and a little Indian girl from Chili, who had strayed in among the Heath people. Hardeland had been a pioneer in missionary enterprises at Borneo. It was as trying a mission field as could be found. At last about 15,000 of the Dyaks were gathered together; Christian families of them were made centres for the rest; a time of reaping promised, and the latest tidings are the murder of the missionaries. Three years before the last event, Hardeland left the island, and finally the Society, first completing a grammar and lexicon in the language of the Dyaks. Just then it became imperative to have a tried and able man at the head of the missions in Africa. The stations were spreading wide, new openings were occurring, every year there were fresh workers, and there was no one with either sufficient time or the necessary gifts to superintend the rest, and lay out the future plans. Finding his health permitted it, Hardeland accepted the office. This autumn the ship is on a fifth voyage, well laden as before, and, in 1861, will return for twenty-two missionaries, and as many colonists as are ready.

Every year the June and July numbers of the Missionsblatt are occupied with the sayings and doings of the Hermannsburg Missionary Festival; every year that festival is held for two days in the leafy month of June. It is a middle point for the Mission interest; the point of attraction for strangers; the ecclesiastical date of the country round. The children divide their affections between it and Christmas. It represents the picturesque side of Heath life, and the joyousness of Christian feeling; and it is peculiar, without a counterpart in this country, like a picture from the out-of-door life of England two centuries ago, or a Covenanters' meeting among the hills of Scotland. A visit to Hermannsburg would be little if it were not in the long light of midsummer, and if it did not include the two days of festival.

The day before is marked by a not unnatural commotion in the village, for along every road and bridle-path, and over the moor where there is no path at all, the strangers are dropping in, in wagons or carts, or on horseback, or most of them on foot. What becomes of them you can scarcely say, for as soon as they drop into the street they disappear. But use hospitality is a precept which admits here of a surprising elasticity, and when 70 or 100 people are found in one house, and in the vicarage still more, the wonder ceases. Every corner is full; the hay-lofts are crowded with guests; a barn, an out-house, a lobby,-anywhere that there is shelter, there is room and content. The strangers cannot be at a loss, for on till late in the night the mission students act as stewards, until no place is found but beneath the moon. The majority are peasants; people of station never come, of clergymen a few, of schoolmasters several, of the people an incredible multitude." Students drop in from Göttingen; perhaps there is a famous preacher from Berlin; a hot Lutheran finds his next bed-fellow in the hay-loft, is a leader of the Reformed; a genial pietist from Wittemberg, is sit ting beside a dry orthodox divine from Pomerania. They can't help it. Harms attracts them all; and they have literally no room to display

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their differences. The next morning all is hushed till the bell rings for prayer. In the house and out on the streets, and away over the fields where the bell rings faint, there is one thought written in the ancient words, O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, have mercy upon us! one sweet undersong of prayer that Luther wrote, Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich. Then from every house, there burst forth a peal of morning psalms, and up on the hill before their doors the mission students blew chorales in their long trumpets. And when the householder had assembled his friends for morning worship, and they had breakfasted, the street is crowded and living with greetings of neighbours and friends unexpectedly met, until the bell rings out again for service at ten. The church is soon filled, the men on one side, the women on the other, as the old fashioned way is; the passages admit no more; and the rest gather outside about the open windows, for there are more than 6000 people., There is not a flower in the building, nor a wreath of green boughs, though that is the German custum on festive days, and Harms is a true churchman. But his churchism never comes in the way of his piety or good sense, and to every petition for the flowers he has replied quietly, No theatre wares. The singing is in somewhat quicker time than usual, firm and strong and full, so exquisite for harmony and expression that, as a visitor once said, he must be a daring preacher who will ven ture into the pulpit after that. Harms stands before the communion-table, and salutes the congregation with the blessing, The Lord be with you: they answer by one voice, within and without, And with thy spirit. After a brief liturgical service, in which the pastor's free prayer seizes on the whole soul, the Gospel is read with brief comment, Harms walking backwards and forwards in his energy, to the scandal of every dry-as-dust ecclesiastic; and with the interval of a hymn, the sermon follows. It would be impossible, without transcribing the whole, to give a right conception of what is preached and how; it would be impossible thus to convey a sense of the fervour, and (there is no better word for it) holiness of the speaker, his utter simpleness, the directness of his country phrases, his fire, and that love and perfect faith which colour all his words. Of his other qualities as a preacher, the year's course of sermons now in course of publication enable any one to judge. He has a mastery of exposition, of unfolding the meaning in the fewest and plainest words, in lucid order, and with a natural reference to the people. He never pretends to flights of eloquence; it would be unsuited to his position, and probably to the character of his mind. He is content with the Word itself, as it appeals to the heart, with broad and positive statements of doctrine. He has much of that plainness of doe trine and homeliness of illustration which the ultraLutheran party affect but never reach. He has also a sharpness and roughness of idiom which would offend fastidious hearers. But he has eminently that merit which Luther pronounces the highest, of making you forget the preacher and hear the Word.

After the benediction, a great number of the young people come forward and sing over many of the best known hymns. Liturgical responses fo

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