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Glasgow districts. The following extract from the Minutes of that meeting may be of interest:

Mr. Ridland reported that, in accordance with the proposal made at last meeting, it had been arranged that deputations should be received by the Assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland at seven o'clock that evening, and by the Assembly of the Church of Scotland shortly after noon on Thursday twenty-eighth of May, in order that they might report on the work of the past winter and solicit the prayerful interest and coöperation of the churches in the work to be undertaken next winter; and further that the Rev. Dr. George Wilson and Mr. Alexander Sloan should be the spokesmen of the deputation in the United Free Church Assembly, and the Rev. Doctor Wells and Sir Alexander Simpson in the Church of Scotland Assembly.

A list giving the membership of the Scottish Committee for the Chapman-Alexander Missions, so far as it had been formed, was laid on the table. It was remitted to the Secretary, Mr. Fulton, in consultation with several members present, to have it made still more widely representative, in respect both of the various districts of Scotland and of the religious denominations.

Suggestions having been submitted for the readjustment of the organization of the Committee and its Executives, it was agreed that the Executives appointed for Edinburgh and Glasgow districts should be called Sub-Committees (of the General Committee), and that they should exist for the purpose of supervising prescribed areas, of seeking to stimulate interest in evangelistic work within these areas, and of receiving applications for special missions and passing them with recommendations to a small Executive to be appointed with powers to make final arrangements for Scotland as a whole.

In conformity with the foregoing decision it was further agreed that Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Kirkcaldy, Hawick, and Galashiels, should fall within the Edinburgh District, and that Inverness, Stirling, Falkirk, Paisley, Kilmarnock, Ayr, and Dumfries, should fall within the Glasgow District.

Several members presenc naving pressed the claims of Fifeshire for special mission work, it was agreed to recommend that the Executive should favourably consider the application received from Kirkcaldy District.

Mr. Ridland wrote to Dr. Chapman stating that the Assemblies had received the deputations and were unanimous in welcoming the proposal for the return in the autumn.

In a letter to Dr. Chapman, dated June fifteenth, 1914, Dr. Alexander Frazer, pastor of St. Stephen's United Free Church, Edinburgh, wrote:

We in Scotland look back upon the campaign with joy and thanksgiving, and in our Church life and work are daily reminded of the victories achieved by the evidences of new life and power in our midst. The Olympia is writ large upon the religious life of Edinburgh, while your visit to Inverness will prove memorable in the evangelism of the Highlands.

Our General Assembly has just closed its sittings and may I say that the spirit of gratitude for your work in Scotland, which found constant enthusiasm on the floor of the House, was remarkable, and the spirit of expectation which gathers around your return to Scotland is very deep and widespread. Some weeks ago I fulfilled an engagement in Aberdeen and was greatly impressed by the eagerness which abounds in that city with regard to the coming campaign.

I expect to visit the north and west where I shall come into touch with many of the ministers who got enthused and blessed at Inverness. Indeed I can never think of Inverness-a place I know so well-love so much—without recalling those three days. They were remarkable! They were memorable, and the ministers who were present shall never forget them in time—nor in eternity. I wonder if you saw the account of our visit and meetings there which appeared in the United Free Church Record, written by the editor who was present. I thought of sending you a copy but concluded that your mail would in all likelihood bring you a sack full.

We look for your return and await your coming with much prayer and great hope. That the tide is rising in this country is to my mind a gracious and heartening fact. May the waters roll in great volume! Please convey kind greetings to Mrs. Chapman and believe me,

dear Doctor Chapman, I am,

Very sincerely,

(signed) ALEXANDER FRAZER.

Great plans were projected, fair hopes were cherished: all to be blasted. By the rattle of the sabre the world

was warned that the German serpent was uncoiling to strike.

As we look back over these extraordinary religious awakenings which, under the leadership of Dr. Chapman, so quickened the churches and so effectively pressed the claims of God upon the conscience of multitudes, we cannot escape the conviction that God, in gracious providence, was reaping a spiritual harvest before He permitted the outburst of the revolutionary forces that have overwhelmed the world, impoverished almost every nation, produced economic and social chaos, and stained with dishonour the pride of Christian civilization.

In the history of revivals it has often been noted that such restoral periods are a warning of, and synchronize with, impending judgment. The harvest is gathered before the field is doomed to death.

Dr. Chapman, acutely sensitive to the signs of the times, was convinced that perilous days were impending, but he had no conception of the unparalleled calamity that was so soon to flood the world with blood and tears.

Long before the time fixed for his return to Scotland the skies were red with the flames of war.

CHAPTER XVII

IN PERILOUS TIMES

THE shot that rang out in the capital of Bosnia on June twenty-eighth, 1914, started the avalanche that crumpled up civilization and rolled it back into barbarism.

The murder of the royal couple was the pretext for the humiliation of Serbia by Austria; and on August fourth, the day when the Germans began their invasion of Belgium, Great Britain declared war, and the United States, consistent with the conservative policy of non-interference with foreign governments, proclaimed neutrality. Six days later, on the tenth of August, diplomatic relations between France and Austria were broken; Belgium refused free passage to the German troops, and war on Austria was declared by Great Britain. On the fifteenth Japan delivered an ultimatum to Germany, and Austrian troops were marching into Serbia. On the eighteenth the Serbians, winning a decisive victory, cleared their country of the Austrian forces, and Russia completed the mobilization of her army. Two days later the Germans on the plea of necessity-repudiating international obligations-marched into Brussels. On the twenty-third of August Sir John French at Mons, with less than one hundred thousand men, held in check more than double that number of Germans and repelled on the left an attack by fifty thousand more. On this memorable day Dr. Chapman received notice that the Scottish mission had been definitely postponed.

While many people had looked on with passive indifference, as nation after nation was sucked into the vortex, Dr. Chapman with deepening concern viewed the developing tragedy. He held that the moral collapse of the German people was the bitter fruit of destructive Biblical criticism, and that Germany going back-as Froude said of Rome "into madness and atheism" could be saved only through the prostration of her strength.

In April Dr. Chapman had left Scotland with a promise to return, and immediately thereafter the Scottish Executive had projected a programme to cover the important sections of their country, and to extend if possible the campaign through England.

The outbreak of the war wrecked all programmes, political, social, industrial, and religious; and Dr. Chapman's plan of a campaign in Scotland was shattered.

The Scottish proposal had contemplated a mission under the direction of the London Central Y. M. C. A. The original engagement with Dr. Chapman was for eight days, beginning September twentieth; but Mr. J. J. Virgo, the Secretary, cabled that additional opportunities were opening, that any indefinite postponement of the mission would prove disastrous, and that the time should be extended.

Dr. Chapman replied that he could not leave America before the latter part of September. This proving satisfactory to the London Committee he and Mrs. Chapman took passage on the Lusitania starting from New York on the twenty-third of September. The voyage was exceedingly rough. They were delayed thirty-six hours by a dense fog, and to escape possible submarines they sailed, under protection of British cruisers, over the course usually taken

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