must go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.' A Church is dying which is not aggressively missionary. Let us remember that Catholic means nothing less than universal.

During the past thirty years the Episcopal Church has expended millions of dollars in undertakings looking toward ends which a generation ago were scarcely thought of. During this period we have probably built more parish houses than churches. We have equipped these buildings generously with club-rooms, reading-rooms, gymnasiums, and other physical apparatus. We have also interested our people in these works, and they have not only given lavishly to them, but, what is far more important, they have given themselves, they have held up our hands and have faithfully worked by our side. This movement proceeded largely from the splendid organizing brain of Dr. Rainsford and it still bears the imprint of his noble personality. Originating at St. George's Church it has not only spread through our entire communion, but, beyond our communion, it has changed the ideal of most of the other Evangelical churches and it has profoundly influenced the Young Men's Christian Association and the Salvation Army. The object of this effort is the creation of a better social, moral, and physical environment for those whose lives contain few elevating influences. Its importance consists not merely in the benefits it confers upon the less favored, but in the charity and the sympathy it has awakened in the Church and in the drawing together of the rich and poor. It is an endeavor to improve man, so just, so reasonable and successful that it can never be abandoned so long as our social relations continue what they are. By this expansion of sympathy and by this self-sacrificing endeavor to help those who most need our help, the Episcopal Church has intrenched itself in all our great cities and has gained a national recognition which our old restricted selfish policy would never have gained for us. Even if their Sunday services should be neglected, churches like St. George's, Grace Church, and St. Bartholomew's Church, New York, would still stand among the most potent forces of the cities' betterment, as among the most effective agencies for the improvement of human life.

It had been planned to hold a pre-Lent mission for one week in the spring of 1908. The execution of the plan, however, was delayed and its scope enlarged into a two weeks Advent mission, which was held from November 29th to December 13, 1908, by the Rev. W. J. Dawson, D.D., of London, the vestry guaranteeing its cordial cooperation and support. The following contemporary notice of the Mission well describes it:

Much interest and enthusiasm is attending the mission which is being conducted by the Rev. Dr. Dawson in St. George's Church on Stuyvesant Square. Congregations which crowd the capacity of the church building are coming out every evening to hear this famous mission preacher who is stirring the neighborhood around the church as it was years ago when missions were introduced into that parish by the late rector, Dr. Rainsford. Dr. Dawson is a preacher who appeals to the people in a perfectly straightforward manner, and his sermons and addresses are free from that sensationalism which is characteristic of many such series of special services.

The Mission was announced as a means of stirring up the religious life of that community in this Advent season and will continue during the first two weeks of this month. It was begun on Advent Sunday, and daily services are held in the afternoon and in the evening of each week-day; they will end on Sunday, the 13th. The services are planned to appeal to all sorts of people. The afternoon meetings partake of the nature of quiet hours, while the evening services are purely evangelistic in tone. That these meetings are taking hold of the people of the Church and of the neighborhood is evident from the rapidly increasing attendance at the two services each day.

As a preacher, Dr. Dawson is wonderfully well fitted to hold missions. His power in the pulpit, his sympathy with all classes, his knowledge of human nature-gained from a long period of pastoral work-all combine to make his addresses reach those for whom they are intended. From the critical point of view his sermons are worthy of close study, for it is a rare thing to find a preacher who unites all the qualities which go to make up a well-rounded discourse--as they are seen in his sermons. His aptness of illustration, his quiet humor, his wonderfully well-chosen diction, and his force in utterance are points which indicate a finished preacher. His sermons reach the people-the educated as well as the uneducated-for Dr. Dawson is not only an Evangelist, but he is at the same time a scholar and knows well how to adapt his ideas to all acceptably. He brings a great fund of scholarly attainments to bear upon his hearers, for he is thoroughly at home in the realm of literature and letters and has to back his mission preaching a reputation as a critic and as a lecturer which is recognized in the English-speaking world, and during the months of the year in which he is not engaged in conducting missions over this country he is at work upon his literary productions.

He is assisted in the service by a large chorus choir which leads the congregation in a service of praise before every daily meeting. An innovation has been introduced by having the choir sing hymns upon the steps of the church before the evening services as a preliminary to the worship of praise. And in this service fully one hundred people engage each night. In order that this mission may reach many in the neighborhood, it is being planned to have a great religious procession through the streets near the church the early part of next week. Religious processions are no new thing in evangelistic campaigns and have been used for many years, particularly in England, where they are regarded with favor by even the most conservative churchmen in the Church of England and the other religious bodies there. Success has attended such demonstrations, and in some missions which Dr. Dawson has had in this country such processions have been carried on.

The whole policy of having this mission in St. George's is in keeping with the 'traditions' of that parish, for it has always stood as a leading representative of the Evangelical school in the church in this country; and its previous rectors, the Rev. Drs. Milnor, Tyng, and Rainsford, were leaders in that matter, so that the present rector, the Rev. Hugh Birckhead, is merely carrying on the ideas which this parish has always emphasized.

A special musical service, "The Children of Bethlehem," was held in the church on Sunday evening December 27, 1908. It was

described as A Mystery "in two parts and was sung by one hundred of the parish children assisted by adult soloists and the Russian Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the organist, Homer Norris. Ben Greet, the well-known open-air actor of Shakespearian plays, was the narrator. Part I. of "The Mystery" showed the pasture lands surrounding the village of Bethlehem. In the winter twilight a group of shepherd children were watching the flocks. Part II. represented the stable.

After the musical service the rector made a brief address welcoming the strangers present and urging all to begin the new year aright. Speaking of the musical service, Dr. Birckhead said:

In England when there were no theaters and very few persons knew how to read great festivals were given in the chapels. They were called 'Mystery Plays' and were acted by the clergy and members of the choir. These 'Mystery Plays' always pictured some scene from the Old or the New Testament. One of these plays was called 'The Shepherd' and told the story of the first Christmas. They were similar to the service we have had to-night.

The three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson in 1609, and the one hundredth anniversary of the first successful application of steam to navigation by Robert Fulton in 1807, were regarded by the vestry as of sufficient importance to justify arrangements, which they made in March, 1909, for a special service to be held in St. George's Church on September 26, 1909, in their commemoration.

Two valuable bequests were received by the Church during the year ending in March, 1909. The first was one of $13,726, under the will of Frances Louise Wilson, to be known as the Frederick Danne bequest for the "Endowment Fund of Seaside Work." The other of $25,000 was for the endowment fund of the parish under the will of Mrs. David Dows, whose husband had been a vestryman and warden from 1868 to 1890 and whose services had been invaluable during the trying period of transition in the parish history.

Another endowment gift of $1,000 was made early in 1910 by Mr. and Mrs. Wolcott G. Lane, the income of which during their life was to be applied toward the support of Camp Rainsford and after their death to this or a similar purpose; which gift was appreciatively accepted by the vestry.

The rector's treatment of two pressing problems in the Year Book of 1909, as indicating the necessity of changing methods to meet new conditions, is worthy of insertion here:

There are two problems which particularly confront the Church to-day. The first of these is whether the Church is to have a part in the solution of the national problem of democracy. Those who have the eye to see must bear witness to the fact that great forces are at work in our land to bring about social reformation. Questions of individual liberty, the restriction of corporations, and the correction of the political machinery are all being vigorously mooted, and every intelligent man who reads his daily paper must realize in what is thus brought to his attention that these are but the birth pangs of a greater national life. Meanwhile the Church has sedulously confined herself to purely religious matters. She has refused to hear the voices from without, she has allowed most of the leaders of our time to grow up outside her border and to act without her support. Bishop Greer, in the annual convention address, said that religion in this land was only a guest,' treated courteously and given honorable place, but not really a part of the life of every day, not really a working factor in the great solution. The problems that confront us as a nation are principally moral problems,-how to make it easier for men under this government and in this government to do right. These problems are distinctly the province of the Church. They need at once inspiration, the spirit of discernment, and the loving knowledge of human nature which characterized our Saviour. Moreover, the Church is here not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give her life for many.' We have taken the attitude that we should receive the contributions and the confidence of the community without particularly striving to minister to the community; and if we minister we are quite content to deal with the results which mismanagement and misgovernment bring about, rather than to insist that the causes which produce those results should be done away with. The whole scheme of philanthropy, necessary as it is, stands in the way of the average intelligent American, dealing with the first causes in his own land. It is part of our good nature and kindness that we would rather bind up the broken arm than correct the machinery which inflicted the fracture. It is simpler, and in a great majority of cases it costs little more than the effort to write one's signature. I trust that this Parish will take a definite part in the movement toward civic righteousness in New York. It is part of God's truth that we should be rightly governed, it is part of Christianity that we should do away with the wheels of a system which are luring hundreds of well-meaning men into fraud and graft. Such questions as the opening of the saloon on Sunday and the city's budget, of vital importance to the community, are well within our province, and there are many more. The average American is not interested in his own governance. It is on this lack of interest that the corrupt politician depends. The causes and results in our American life are too far apart for the average man to see their relation, for the average man to see the result of his own wrongdoing. The Church must bring them together, the Church must make the complexities of the situation plain, the Church must insist that citizenship is a definite part of Christianity. God grant that the Church may qualify when the great day of decision comes, and not as was so terribly true in France in 1789, and is so grimly true in Russia to-day, fail the nation in her hour of need.

The second problem to which I wish to call your attention is 'How to reach the man outside the Church who calls himself a Protestant.' There are here in our midst in New York, according to the Federation

of Churches, 1,072,000 Protestants, of whom only 337,000 are actually Church members, and only 500,000 seats in Protestant Churches. We should be particularly interested in this matter, because we have to-day registered upon the books of St. George's Church the names of 7,816 people, 5,229 of whom are communicants, in spite of which fact we rarely have an attendance of more than 3,000 persons at all the religious services of the week. Part of the reason for this is the change in the feeling of our time. We have not the same sin-consciousness that our forefathers had. The fear once so potent a factor in religion has been largely eliminated by the doctrine of evolution and by the gradualness of the whole human process. We shall never see again the religious dominance of the Middle Age or the religious intensity of the Puritan. The whole scheme of thought about God and His relation to us has become very broad and allows much room for individual opinion and great divergence in conduct as well as ideas. These reasons do not entirely explain the situation. Man is essentially a religious animal; he really wants to know God, he really wants to do right, but this effort after God consciousness requires too much concentration and too high a standard of comment; it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' But it is a difficult discipline to live daily face to face with Him. We are ever seeking, therefore, the easiest way; we try as individuals and as organizations to discover some escape from the all-absorbing imperative of the Christian conception of God. The Church, influenced by this demand in the community, has turned her attention to social things, on the one hand, or has reduced her requirements to suit the comfortable, luxurious living of a certain class, who find it a part of their peace of mind to attend public worship at least once a week. The comfortable gospel is too often preached in the Episcopal Church; it is well written, interesting; and has a certain cultivated spirituality which is very pleasing to the trained ear; it is frequently discussed at the luncheon table on Sundays and occasionally finds a place in the conversation of its hearers during the week which follows. By much repetition of such preaching certain beautiful and sacred results are undoubtedly obtained, but such sermons require a cultivated taste to be appreciated. They minister very often to the ninety-and-nine who need no repentance; such people do not wish to be aroused, the word sensational is the most scathing epithet in their vocabulary which can be applied to a sermon or clergyman. But, alas, the world is not going to be saved through such self-satisfying ministrations. The average man wants realities and will have them wherever they may be found. These realities, alas, are too often the hard American facts of commerce or the tangible luxuries which appeal to the senses, and he is perforce content with these because the great realities of the spiritual life have never been revealed to him or forced on his attention. The average Churchless man or woman is unconscious of any great lack, and they can only be made to feel their loss by a very stirring presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by a still more stirring exemplification of what it can mean in the lives of men and women. What was true in the days of the Apostolic period is true to-day. Men are more convinced by human sacrifice than by words or organization, and while evolution teaches us the survival of the fittest Christianity makes imperative the sacrifice of the most fit.

This, then, is the question to every man and woman who has had a vision of what Christianity can mean in his time, to bend all his energies