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/ 
 
 open- Air Preaching 
 
 Edwin Hallock Byington 
 
iSee page 67.) 
 
 BISHOP ALDHELM'S MEMORIAL. 
 
Open-Air Preaching 
 
 H practical /iDanual 
 
 FOR 
 
 PASTORS, EVANGELISTS, AND OTHER 
 CHRISTIAN WORKERS 
 
 Edwin Hallock Byington 
 
 ASSISTANT MINISTER OF THE CHURCH OF THE PILGRIMS 
 \ I ^ ^ BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 5/7V y 
 
 Hartford, Conn. 
 
 IbartforD ZhcoloQical Seminary 
 
 • 1 892 
 
 e>^ 
 
^t^ 
 
 Copj^ght by 
 
 Hartford Theological Seminary. 
 
 1892. 
 
 PRESS OF THE CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD COMPANY, 
 HARTFORD, CONN. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction by Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D.D., . .; . . 5 
 
 Author's Note, 8 
 
 Open-Air Preaching 
 
 In the EstabHshment of the Church, 9 
 
 In the Extension of the Church, 15 
 
 In the Reformation of the Church, 27 
 
 In the Normal Life of the Church, . . . . . . 41 
 
 " The more of it, the better ! " 61 
 
 As a Factor in City Evangelization, 72 
 
 " Who will go for us ? " 83 
 
 The Best Methods, 85 
 
 Index, loi 
 
 (3) 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Bishop Aldhelm Memorial, 
 
 In the Punjaub, India, . . . . 
 
 (By kindness of the Church Missionary Society.) 
 
 At Tarokeshor, India, 
 
 (By kindness of the Baptist Missionary Society.) 
 
 One of Wiclif s Poor Priests, 
 At Llanerch Colliery, ..... 
 Open-Air Pulpit, St. Mary's, Whitechapel, 
 In Paradise Court, . . 
 
 At the Seaside, 
 
 In Regent's Park, London, .... 
 Jeremy Taylor Preaching in Camp, 
 Wesley Preaching on his Father's Tomb, 
 In Mitre Court, Gloucester, .... 
 A Location Wisely Chosen, . . . . 
 A Fisherman's Sermon, .... 
 
 The Mulberry Tree, Mildmay Park, London, 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 22 
 24 
 26 
 
 34 
 43 
 
 SO 
 . 56 
 
 60 
 68 
 
 71 
 80 
 90 
 
 97 
 98 
 
 The illustrations in this book represent real scenes in open-air work. 
 The plates were made in England., under the direction of '■''The Open-Air 
 Mission,^'' and were presented by its Secretary to the author as an expres- 
 sion of interest. 
 
 (4) 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 About two thousand years ago a noted person said, "The 
 children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children 
 of light." This witness was true, and has remained so from that day 
 to this, for, in the race for success, they have kept ahead for two 
 thousand years. If any one desires proof of this, it is at hand, and 
 in the matter of reaching the people, is not far to seek. Note, for 
 example, the outdoor political gatherings in all of our great cities. 
 Large platforms are erected and popular speakers put on them, 
 reinforced by bands, banners, and electric lights, and all for the simple 
 purpose of getting votes. Nowhere in all the world does the Church 
 put forth such efforts to reach the people as do these political parties. 
 It is a liberal education for the young minister, fresh from the 
 "cloistered halls " of the Seminary, to attend one of these meetings, 
 and see how direct and forcible are the burning appeals for action 
 that are shot forth. There is no uncertainty of sound at these 
 gatherings. It would seem from the way in which the orators speak 
 as if the destiny of humanity for a millennium hung on the votes that 
 are to be cast at the coming election. If such blood-earnestness 
 were shown in our sermons, we should have more definite results. 
 Many political harangues are red-hot, while many sermons are 
 ice-cold ; hence the difference in the results. 
 
 Note again the way in which the man who has not the means to 
 rent a store goes out on the street and seeks his customers where he 
 can find them. His oratory is at times of no mean order, and might 
 well be copied in its practical methods by the graduate from the 
 Seminary. Since men will not come to him, he goes to them, and 
 what is more, he goes for them, and in many cases he gets them. Is 
 there not in all this a lesson for the Church ? If the people will not 
 come to us, why should we stand and grumble when we have the 
 
 (5) 
 
opportunity of going to them ? Is it not stupid to find fault with 
 them when the fault lies at our own door ? 
 
 Now if this matter of outdoor preaching were a new or an un- 
 scriptural thing, we might well pause and think it over ^ very carefully 
 before trying it. But since it is "as old as the hills," and has 
 abundant scriptural warrant, and the personal sanction of our Master, 
 why under the sun should any one pause for a moment ? I fancy I 
 see the Apostle Paul in a modern ministers' meeting, listening to a 
 debate on this subject, and hearing the arguments for "caution" in 
 this regard. When it came his turn to speak, what do you suppose 
 would be the line of his remarks ? Think you he would say, "Well, 
 brethren, I used to preach out of doors constantly, but after hearing 
 this debate I have come to the conclusion that I made a great 
 mistake, and if I had my work to do over again, I would not preach 
 from the steps of the tower of Antonia, or from Mars' Hill." Perish 
 the thought ! I rather fancy he would utter some burning words 
 about the lethargy of the modern Church in not taking advantage of 
 every opportunity to make known the Gospel of the blessed Lord. 
 
 This book shows that in modern times street-preaching has been 
 abundantly used of God for the salvation of men. I myself have seen 
 in front of the Albert Hall in Liverpool a Gospel wagon drive up at 
 ten in the morning, and then from that time till ten at night there 
 was incessant service going on, and relay after relay of workers took 
 their turns at the grand work. The crowds were constantly chang- 
 ing, so that in the course of the day a very large number of people 
 were reached by the message. I could not help admiring the pluck 
 and the common-sense of that band of men and women who thus 
 seized a place of common meeting of the populace, and gave them 
 a chance to hear the truth at any time of the day. 
 
 In London I have seen street-preaching time and again. In 
 fact, near the Tower Hamlet's mission, on the broad sidewalk, I have 
 seen two services going on at the same time, the one not more than 
 two hundred feet from the other, and in one the Gospel was being 
 proclaimed red-hot, while in the other equally red-hot atheism was 
 being set forth. Men went from the one to the other, and yet all was 
 done decently and in order. I was pleased to see that the Gospel 
 preacher got and held a larger audience than the infidel. 
 
In New York this same method has been a.dopted with marked 
 results. It makes with us very little difference what the weather is. 
 The people will stand and listen even if the thermometer is down to 
 the freezing point, and the rain makes not much change in their 
 attendance. Where the preaching is regular, there are always those 
 who will come week after week, and if there are tenement houses 
 near, they will throw up the windows and listen to the truth. We 
 have also used the stereopticon in giving pictures of the life of 
 Christ, — and this is a very popular service. If held outside of the 
 church, you can then at the close of the service get many to enter 
 who could be gotten hold of in no other way. 
 
 But what is the use of saying anything more on the subject 
 when it is so fully discussed in this volume ? All that is needed in 
 an introduction is that the writer should commend that which is to 
 be found in the volume, and say that he is in hearty accord with it. 
 This I do with all my heart, and commend the practice to all who 
 wish to obey their Master's injunctions, and "go out into the high- 
 ways and hedges and compel them to come in." Mr. Byington has 
 done a most needed work, and has done it well, and now only one 
 thing remains, and that is for the readers of the book to carry out 
 the practical suggestions that they will find in its pages. 
 
 A. F. SCHAUFFLER. 
 
AUTHOR'S NOTE. 
 
 I have written the following pages with a firm faith in the 
 value of open-air preachi7ig and a strong assurance that its more 
 general adoption will aid the Church in solving some problems of 
 modern life. If the book succeeds in giving an impulse to a wider 
 and wiser use of open-air preaching, I shall feel repaid for my 
 labors. 
 
 I use the word preaching in the broad New Testament sense, 
 meaning ^^ any proclamation of Gospel truth, whether brief or pro- 
 tracted, with or without a text, by church officer or private member." 
 The appeal is to laymen as well as ministers. 
 
 I desire to express my appreciation of the assistance given me 
 by the Open-Air Mission of London and by its efficient Secretary, 
 Mr. Gawin Kirkham, of the encouragemejit and couftsel of my 
 former instructor. Professor Waldo S. Pratt of Hartford Theological 
 Seminary, and especially of the sympathy and aid coming from 
 my own home. 
 
 Edwin Hallock Eying ton. 
 
 Brooklyn, N ¥., 
 
 April, 1892. 
 
 (8) 
 
OPEN-AIR PREACHING 
 
 IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Open-air preaching is not one of the " new methods." It 
 was the original way of extending among men the revealed will 
 of God. Not only is it *' as old as preaching itself," but for 
 centuries it was the only kind of preaching. " We are at full 
 liberty to believe," says Spurgeon, "that Enoch, the seventh 
 from Adam, when he prophesied, asked for no better pulpit than 
 the hillside, and that Noah as a preacher of righteousness was 
 willing to reason with his cotemporaries in the shipyard 
 wherein his marvelous ark was builded." The absence of per- 
 manent structures might account for its use in primitive times, 
 but in the Mosaic era, when Jehovah worship was systematized 
 and sacred buildings erected, we find neither in the commands 
 of the Lord, nor in the customs of the people, the modern idea of 
 a building into which the congregation should enter for worship 
 and religious instruction. The Lord had His Tabernacle, the 
 people had their tents ; but their place of meeting was beneath 
 the blue sky. Moses' grand valedictory addresses, recorded in 
 Deuteronomy, as well as all his others, were delivered in the 
 open air. Three times on the plain on the east side of Jordan 
 the venerable leader gathered the children of Israel about him. 
 Forty years before he had said, " I am slow of speech and of a 
 slow tongue ; " but now he spoke with a marvelous eloquence. 
 To the south stretched the wilderness, the scene of his life's 
 labor ; in the opposite direction lay the promised land — for all 
 except himself; above him Nebo, his watch-tower, and his 
 tomb ; and before him God's chosen people. Standing thus, he 
 was moved mightily, and over that plain rang out an acknowl- 
 edgment of God's mercies, a presentation of duties and an 
 impassioned appeal such as no consecrated building ever heard. 
 Moses, during the time of his leadership, gave extensive and 
 minute directions for public worship, but closed his ministry 
 without having authorized the erection of a covered auditorium 
 for the worshipers. 
 
 (9) 
 
lO 
 
 Several of Joshua's open-air services must have been very 
 touching and impressive. One he held on Mount Ebal, after 
 all hearts had been softened by the punishment of Achan and 
 the fall of Ai. Here he gathered not only the men, but th6 
 women also, and even the httle children. At another he had 
 present only "mighty men of valor," — the soldiers of the two 
 and a half tribes, who several years before had left their wives, 
 their little ones, and their possessions on the other side of Jor- 
 dan, and had fought valiantly for their brethren. Now he spoke 
 farewell words, and added a blessing. At his last service, when 
 ''Joshua was old and well stricken in years," he assembled 
 the people and led them to renew their covenant with the Lord. 
 Then taking a rock that had stood near their place of meeting, 
 perhaps one he had used as a pulpit, he placed it under an oak 
 tree and said : *' Behold, this stone shall be a witness against 
 us ; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which He spake 
 unto us : it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest ye 
 deny your God." 
 
 Naturally we find no change during the period of the Judges ; 
 and after the manner of Moses, the lawgiver, did the prophet 
 Samuel deliver his farewell address, when he surrendered to 
 Saul the leadership. At Gilgal the people assembled to renew 
 their covenant and to listen to the tender and faithful words of 
 the " old and gray -headed " seer. Then no human structure, 
 enclosing the assembly, concealed the fury and marred the 
 effect of the storm, summoned by Samuel as a confirmation of 
 his words and as a warning to king and people alike. They 
 saw, what never before they had witnessed at that season of the 
 year, the heavy black clouds rapidly rolling across the sky and 
 darkening the day ; they felt the passionate embrace of the 
 wind, and the pitiless rain beating upon them ; the lightning 
 dazzled them ; " and all the people greatly feared the Lord and 
 Samuel," as nature joined in the meeting and uttered her im- 
 pressive "Amen." 
 
 During David's reign the kingdom was extended and estab- 
 lished, the dwelling-places became permanent, the king's palace 
 was built, and the Temple planned. But, though it was now 
 possible, we find no suggestion of a public building for worship 
 after our fashion. Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the 
 Temple was in the open air. " For Solomon had made a brazen 
 
II 
 
 scaffold, and had it set in the midst of the caurt, and upon it he 
 stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congrega- 
 tion of Israel and spread forth his hands toward heaven." The 
 Lord had His Temple, with the holy place covered, the people 
 had their houses, but the worshipers continued to assemble in 
 the courts of the Lord's house and other open places, as their 
 fathers did before them in the wilderness. Possibly the method 
 and place for religious instruction at that time is indicated by 
 such passages as this from Proverbs : '* Wisdom crieth aloud 
 in the streets. She uttereth her voice in the broad places. 
 She crieth in the chief place of concourse ; at the entering in 
 of the gates in the city she uttereth her words." 
 
 Few religious services have equalled in the manifestation of 
 divine power and in the number turned to the living God the 
 one. held on Mount Carmel under the leadership of Elijah. 
 Ninevah was brought to repentance by a prophet who preached 
 not to an interested few in a quiet building, but whose voice 
 rang out above the noise and confusion in the crowded streets 
 of that great city. Jeremiah had no option. The Lord directed 
 him very plainly : " Go forth unto the valley of the son of 
 Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim 
 there the words that I shall tell thee " : "Go and stand in the 
 gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah 
 come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of 
 Jerusalem." Their own judgment as well as the commands of 
 the Lord led Jeremiah and other prophets to seek the gates of 
 the city. Here the street was thronged with the crowds coming 
 in and going out. A more difficult place to preach it is hard to 
 imagine ; but here they attracted attention, secured audiences, 
 delivered their messages. These men were determined that the 
 people should hear ''the word of the Lord," and over the surging 
 multitude fearlessly they heralded the divine warnings and invi- 
 tations. Another favorite place with these open-air preachers 
 was the gate of the temple, where their earnest exhortations 
 were addressed to the people entering for their formal and too 
 often hypocritical acts of religious service. That these prophets 
 sometimes encountered opposition and ridicule is evident from 
 Isaiah's reference to those who "lay a snare for him that re- 
 proveth in the gate," and Amos' warning to those who " hate 
 him that reproveth in the gate." 
 
12 
 
 The experience of the captivity resulted in no immediate 
 change. On the return the Temple was rebuilt. Still there 
 was no enclosed building for the worshiping multitudes. We 
 learn from Nehemiah that the first pulpit ever made was not for 
 use in a consecrated building, but for street preaching. "And 
 all the people gathered themselves together as one man into 
 the broad place that was before the water-gate. And Ezra, the 
 scribe, stood upon a pulpit of wood which had been made for 
 the purpose. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the 
 people (for he was above all the people) ; and when he opened 
 it, all the people stood up ; and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great 
 God. And all the people answered. Amen ! Amen ! with the 
 lifting up of their hands ; and they bowed their heads, and 
 worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground." 
 
 In the New Testament times the whole subject assumes a 
 new aspect. The synagogue has appeared. The open-air service 
 is no longer the sole, nor even the normal, religious gathering 
 of the Jews. Formerly it was the rule, now it is the excep- 
 tion. Then it was a necessity, now it is simply an alternative. 
 Therefore, to find it almost as prominent in the establishment 
 of the Christian Church as it was in the Jewish is specially 
 significant. "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness," 
 said John the Baptist, as he stood on the banks of the Jordan, 
 and never were his warning words hemmed in by wall and roof, 
 except when as a prisoner he spoke to King Herod, He was 
 not excluded from the synagogues by the chief priests and 
 elders, for " they feared the people ; for all verily held John 
 to be a prophet"; but apparently he chose to begin and 
 continue an open-air preacher. Thus better could he reach the 
 masses, whose attention would not otherwise have been attracted 
 so widely. Such a method, also, better accorded with the spirit 
 of the man and the nature of his message. Here he was free 
 from priestly supervision. Here he was responsible to none 
 save to Him from whom he came, and whose temple, not made 
 with hands, he occupied. He allowed no human structure to 
 muffle the ringing tones of his warning voice ; nor human 
 authority to muffle its moral power, as it rolled along the banks 
 of Jordan, across the hills of Judea, past the Roman guards, into 
 the king's palace. 
 
 Our Saviour, while claiming a position above Jewish law 
 
 ( 
 
 I 
 
13 
 
 and custom, ordinarily followed them. Thus, naturally, we find 
 Him attending the synagogue. Yet how few would be the 
 treasured words, if only those spoken in consecrated buildings 
 had been preserved for us. Like His forerunner, Christ was in 
 the main an open-air preacher. Gather together His sermons 
 on the mountains, His parables by the seashore. His warnings 
 and encouragements along the wayside, and they will form a 
 large part of His teachings. Rev. Dr. Kerr, in his lecture on 
 preaching, referring to Christ, says : "Another sphere was His 
 occasional preaching on the mountains, by the seashore, in the 
 city, wherever men gathered about Him. In this He seems to 
 have spent the great part of His ministry." Christ is well 
 called by open-air preachers ''Our Great Exemplar." When 
 we think of our possible relations with Him, had we lived in 
 those days, how seldom do we picture ourselves shut up in a 
 pew with the Master looking down upon us from behind a 
 pulpit. Rather do we imagine ourselves sitting by Jacob's well, 
 drinking eagerly the "water of life" He offered there. In 
 thought we walk with Him by the wayside, we seat ourselves 
 on the shore while He stands in the boat, or we recline on the 
 green sward of the mountain side, as we listen to His words. 
 Thus do we picture to ourselves the Son of Man. Thus artists 
 have loved to paint Him, for thus He did His preaching. 
 
 It is noticeable how much of His own personal spiritual life 
 is associated with the open air. Early one morning He " went 
 out and departed into a desert place and there prayed." After 
 feeding the five thousand, when " He had sent the multitudes 
 away. He went up into the mountain apart to pray." Before 
 making the final choice of the twelve "He went out into the 
 mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." 
 The birth of the Saviour was proclaimed by the angels in the 
 fields. He was baptized in Jordan. The temptation was in the 
 wilderness ; His transfiguration on a mountain ; His agony in 
 a garden ; His death on Calvary ; His ascension from a mount. 
 Christ's was a life in the open air; there most of His miracles 
 were performed, and there most of His preaching. Christ had 
 no aversion to the synagogue. He simply went where the 
 people were. He did not wait for them to seek Him. He 
 sought them. 
 
 The apostles evidently followed His example. When they 
 
14 
 
 received the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, instead of 
 having a delightful season of prayer and praise in that house 
 where they were sitting, they went out where the people were, 
 apparently on the street - — at least that would be inferred from 
 the nature and size of the audience and the number of their 
 converts. Paul usually went to the synagogues, but his first 
 European convert found Christ on a river bank. He never 
 delivered a more masterly address than that on Mars Hill at 
 Athens, nor one of more intense and dramatic interest than 
 when he stood on the castle stairs, and, beckoning with his 
 hand, addressed as "men, brethren, and fathers" that street 
 mob from whose violent hands he had just been rescued by the 
 Roman soldiers. 
 
 Thus the Bible record reveals that prophets and apostles, 
 and above all, the great Head of the Church, were open-air 
 preachers. It is a divinely appointed means of grace. It was 
 faithfully practised. So far as preaching was a factor, it was 
 by open-air preaching mainly that the Church of God was 
 established on the earth. 
 
OPEN-AIR PREACHING 
 
 IN THE EXTENSION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Christianity is spreading in successive waves, varying in fre- 
 quency and force, over the earth. Each land in turn is the seat 
 of foreign missionary labor. The methods by which the Gos- 
 pel secures its foothold are substantially the same everywhere. 
 Among them we find open-air preaching practically universal 
 and seemingly indispensable. It almost might be said that in 
 every land, as in Judea, the message, " Behold, I bring you good 
 tidings of great joy," was proclaimed for the first time to aston- 
 ished hearers in the open air. 
 
 In the first centuries, when persecution was often raging and 
 always imminent, the Church extended her reign over men 
 by personal rather than by public efforts. The Christians 
 assembled in houses and halls, in caves and catacombs, where 
 their gatherings would not attract attention. The first unequivo- 
 cal mention of buildings designed for public worship occurs," 
 says Kurtz, " in the writings of Tertullian at the close of the 
 second century." Ordinarily, to have gathered a crowd on the 
 street or any public place for a preaching service would have 
 been simply to have invited attack and rekindled the flames of 
 persecution. In this era there were no missionary societies and 
 no celebrated missionaries, but every Christian was a missionary 
 preacher, and many were the open-air sermons preached to 
 audiences of one. On the street, by the wayside, in the fields, 
 as well as in their houses and at their work, were the Christians 
 alert to declare Christ. " Justin Martyr was converted," says 
 Schaff, " by a venerable old man whom he met walking on the 
 shore of the sea." The wonderful growth of the Church, in 
 those times of poverty and persecution, was possible because 
 there were so many preachers like the old man by the sea. 
 There is little to record of this period, but probably never were 
 there so many foreign missionaries — not even in this nine- 
 teenth century — probably never since has the blue sky wit- 
 
 (is) 
 
i6 
 
 nessed so many proclamations of peace on earth, good will to 
 men. 
 
 In the following centuries we find the great missionaries, 
 Patrick, Augustine, Boniface, and besides these many, not as 
 famous, but as fearless and consecrated. These men did not go 
 to build the cathedrals now standing in the lands of their labors. 
 Their monasteries were not retreats from the world, but centers 
 of Christian activity ; not places for gathering congregations, 
 but starting-points for further advances. They did not, however, 
 wait for the erection of these buildings before beginning their 
 work. They always pressed forward rapidly, often with no visi- 
 ble means of support. They penetrated dark, dismal forests, 
 inhabited by hostile warriors, and beneath their shadows pro- 
 claimed the Christian faith. They sailed stormy seas, landed on 
 rugged coasts, and before savage hordes held up the cross. 
 Not more astonished were the pigmies of Africa at the sight of 
 Stanley than were these barbarians at the appearance among 
 them of the monks with their somber dress, their earnest man- 
 ner, and their fearless though defenseless advance. The mis- 
 sionaries made no delay for the erection of buildings for relig- 
 ious services. That would have been fatal alike to their 
 enterprise and their own lives. Quickly to the crowds question- 
 ing who they were, whence and why they came, they earnestly 
 declared their message, sometimes struggling with the newly 
 acquired language of their auditors, sometimes through an inter- 
 preter, sometimes through signs. Of course these men were 
 open-air preachers. Circumstances made them such ; their 
 own earnestness made them such. Most monks dwelt in 
 monasteries more concerned about their own souls than the per- 
 ishing peoples of other lands ; but some were consecrated tO' 
 winning the masses for Christ and his Church, determined that 
 in this " dark continent " of the first centuries the idols should 
 be cast down and the cross uplifted. They traveled not in cov- 
 ered coaches, but often on foot, or at best on beasts of burden. 
 In the open air they ate and slept, and there they preached. It 
 was their house ; it was their temple. They forgot themselves 
 and their surroundings. They were intense ; perhaps they were 
 extravagant in their zeal, and intolerant in their beliefs, and 
 superficial in their work, but they had a Pauline passion for 
 preaching Christ to all men. They had little money, time, and 
 
17 
 
 strength for the erection of buildings ; they ever pressed on into 
 unconquered and unknown regions. To have limited these 
 missionary monks to decorous in-door services would have 
 been almost impossible. They were irrepressible. An exam- 
 ple of their zeal is shown in St. Berard, a Franciscan, who 
 was sent with four other monks to preach the Gospel to 
 the Mohammedans of the West. They began in Spain and then 
 went to Morocco, where they were advised by the resident 
 Christians to moderate their zeal. But the first morning they 
 were out on the streets preaching Jesus Christ to the followers 
 of Mohammed. The king happened to pass them one day, and 
 paused to hear what they were saying. The monk, instead of 
 being awed into silence or moderation, was inspired to greater 
 earnestness in his appeal. The king, thinking him mad, 
 ordered him sent to a Christian country. On the way the mis- 
 sionaries escaped from their guards. Instead of using their 
 liberty to choose another field of labor, they returned to 
 Morocco, and commenced preaching in the public square. 
 Again they were sent away, and again escaping they returned 
 to preach in the same place. 
 
 These missionaries were not all ignorant, narrow-minded men. 
 Among them was Raymond Lull, " a man who, in the four- 
 teenth century, traveled more than ninety-nine persons out of 
 every hundred in these days of railroads and steamships ; a man 
 who wrote more books than almost any man would be able in a 
 lifetime to translate." In his eightieth year he was engaged in 
 missionary work. His friends advised his laboring with those 
 known to be friendly to his cause. He tried this for a time, but 
 it was contrary to the whole nature of the man, and he soon took 
 his stand in the public square and commenced to preach that the 
 only salvation is through Jesus Christ. A crowd gathered about 
 him and commenced an attack when they heard what he was 
 saying. Stones were thrown, and he was driven back out of the 
 city. " Yet grandly he kept his face to the foe, and in a voice 
 from which the enthusiasm of the apostle threw off the weight 
 of four score years, he still proclaimed Christ, 'None but 
 Christ.' At last he fell down on the sandy shore, but rallying 
 his strength for one supreme effort, he raised himself on his 
 hands and knees and shouted, *None but Christ,' " 
 
 A Roman Catholic priest, advocating open-air preaching and 
 
i8 
 
 replying to an objector, says in The Catholic World: "Evi- 
 dently the writer has small acquaintance with the lives of all re- 
 nowned heroic and successful Christian missionaries from the 
 Apostles down. Has he never heard of a St. Augustine, who 
 did so much for the conversion of England, or of a St. Boniface, 
 a St. Patrick, a St. Dominic, a St. Francis of Assisi, a St. An- 
 thony of Padua, or a St. Vincent Ferrer } Has he ever read 
 of how, when, and where all these and thousands of other great 
 missionaries preached to unbelievers t That holy Dominican 
 monk whom I last named is credited with having converted in 
 the kingdom of Spain eight thousand Moors, and thirty-six thou- 
 sand Jews. Did he take his stand in one or another pulpit of 
 some Catholic church, and from there deliver this miraculous 
 proclamation of the Catholic faith t No, he did what all success- 
 ful preachers have done. He went to those whom he sought to 
 convert. He did not wait for strange and lost sheep to come 
 back of their own will ; but he went where they were to be 
 found — and that was anywhere but within the four walls of a 
 Catholic church." 
 
 The most important open-air service since the days of 
 the Apostles was held by some missionaries in the year 597, 
 on the Isle of Thanet, near the mouth of the Thames in 
 England. Pope Gregory, charmed by the sweet faces of the 
 fair-haired Anglo-Saxon boys offered as slaves at Rome, de- 
 sired to go as a missionary to England. Being prevented, he 
 sent Augustine the monk. King Ethelbert, having married a 
 Christian princess, was kindly disposed, and consented to give 
 the new religion a hearing. They met in the open air. 
 Prayer was offered ; the litany was sung, and the Gospel 
 preached. The king saw all the service, and by means of in- 
 terpreters was enabled to understand what was said. He gave 
 this decision : " Your words and promises are very fair ; but as 
 they are new to us, and of uncertain import, I cannot forsake 
 the religion I have so long followed with the whole English 
 nation. Yet, as you are come from far, and are desirous to 
 benefit us, I will supply you with the necessary sustenance, and 
 not forbid you to preach, and convert as many as you can to 
 your religion." Soon after the king accepted the new faith, 
 received baptism, and gradually drew after him the whole 
 nation. Had the missionaries refused to conduct their service 
 
19 
 
 out of doors, or had the king's verdict been unfavorable, the 
 progress of the Gospel in England would long have been 
 delayed. 
 
 The missionaries of the Middle Ages did not limit their open- 
 air work to the first proclamation. They erected the cross by 
 the roadsides, in the fields, at the foot of which they stood while 
 preaching, and where the people assembled regularly for services 
 of worship. " They gathered around it for public and daily prayer, 
 and were inspired by it with a veneration not less affectionate 
 than that which attached to the sanctuary." These crosses 
 have given names to many localities, and are m.onuments to the 
 zeal and wisdom of those who were determined that Christ 
 should be brought constantly before all men. 
 
 Passing from mediaeval to modern missions, we find a 
 marked change in the manner of conducting missionary work. 
 Organizations, receiving the gifts of benevolent Christians, 
 send and sustain the missionaries. The erection of buildings 
 at the outset is possible. Open-air preaching is no longer a 
 necessity in pioneer work. None the less do we find it used. 
 Although at the present time foreign missionaries constitute a 
 small proportion of the ordained ministry, they probably do more 
 open-air preaching than all the rest of us combined. Perhaps 
 the need of it is more apparent ; perhaps they are more free 
 from restraint ; perhaps they are more earnest and intense. At 
 any rate, they are leaders in this direction. 
 
 A missionary, having committed to him the spiritual wel- 
 fare of many hundred, cannot give to each the personal super- 
 vision, the weekly instruction possible with the pastor of a few- 
 hundred. Still he feels the necessity of doing something to 
 present and keep before them Christ. To accomplish this the 
 system of touring or itineration is employed, and this is simply 
 open-air preaching on a large scale. It is thus described by a 
 missionary : " One or more missionaries and a few native assist- 
 ants make their preparation to leave home and spend several 
 consecutive weeks, or months, it may be, in itinerating the dis- 
 trict. Tents, provisions, and books for distribution are sent in 
 advance. A favorable spot is chosen as a center, and the camp 
 is established in the shade, if it can be found, of some um- 
 brageous grove. Every morning before the dawn lightens the 
 east the missionaries, with their native attendants, sally forth ; 
 
20 
 
 and, leaving the nearer villages for evening work, go out to a 
 distance of three or four miles from the encampment. Here 
 they separate into couples, composed usually of one missionary 
 and one catechist. Each party enters a village, and, a favorable 
 position having been secured, a passage of Scripture is read, or 
 a lyric in the vernacular is sung in a loud tone, with a view of 
 collecting the inhabitants. In general, the visitors are almost 
 immediately environed by a crowd of dusky auditors, who ordi- 
 narily listen with respectful attention to the message of truth. 
 Opportunity is given for asking questions, and amicable discus- 
 sion is not discouraged. At the close of the interview books 
 and tracts are distributed among those who can read ; and the 
 visitors, after inviting the people to seek further instruction at 
 their tent, pass on to another street, or to a neighboring village, 
 where the same process is repeated. When the circle is com- 
 pleted, and every inhabited spot within its circumference has 
 heard the voice of the preacher, the tents are moved to a new 
 locality. By this plan, systematically and perseveringly fol- 
 lowed up year after year, the entire district, large as it is, has 
 been toured over repeatedly, until, it is safe to say, there is no 
 town or village in it which has not become more or less familiar 
 with the teachings of Christianity. Three millions of people 
 have by this agency been brought within Gospel influences." 
 
 This kind of open-air preaching, though necessarily super- 
 ficial, secures important results. It gives the people at large 
 a conception of Christianity, which, though crude and imper- 
 fect, approximates to the truth. All who have been in mission 
 lands know that the enemies of Christianity spread abroad hor- 
 rible stories about the lives and teachings of the missionaries. 
 If the natives believe one-half of what is said, it is no wonder 
 that they call them "white devils," and shun their houses and 
 chapels. In these free open-air gatherings they feel reasonably 
 safe, and curiosity is able to overcome their fear. Thus they 
 hear what is said by the missionaries themselves, and have for 
 their thoughts and conversation some idea of the beauty of our 
 faith. The missionary quoted above also says : " It is the 
 simple proclamation of the Gospel that has diffused a knowl- 
 edge of Christ and his religion throughout large sections. To 
 hundreds of thousands of their inhabitants Christianity is no 
 longer a thing new and strange, but a common and familiar 
 
21 
 
 topic of talk and discussion. The missionary is not so often as 
 formerly met with a stare of blank amazement or idle curiosity. 
 Intelligent questions about the leading doctrines of the Gospel 
 prove that his message has been pondered and canvassed by 
 thinking minds. Confidence in pagan myths and hoary super- 
 stitions is manifestly shaken." Thus is the field prepared for 
 a more permanent and effective occupation. When, later, a 
 missionary or a native catechist occupies such a village, when a 
 school is started, a congregation sought, a chapel erected, oppo- 
 sition has largely spent itself, prejudice has been removed, and 
 possibly some sympathy created. Says a missionary of the 
 American Madura Mission : "These journeys have opened up 
 the waste places of the field, and assisted materially in the ex- 
 tension of our work in the villages. Scarcely a year goes by 
 in which congregations are not organized through these efforts, 
 and frequently individuals are found who date their interest in 
 Christianity from these visits." 
 
 Another missionary relates this illustration of that very 
 thing: ''The first preaching tour I ever took in the Ellore 
 district was signalized by showing me an open door, with which 
 all subsequent increase was connected. I was preaching in a 
 village twenty miles from Ellore to a group of weavers, and on 
 the outskirts stood listening a little boy, not more than ten 
 years old, whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the mes- 
 sage, then heard for the first time. He was instantly con- 
 vinced and sought opportunity to join me and make known his 
 wishes, but he was foiled on that occasion. Six months after- 
 wards I again approached the place, and then the boy insisted 
 on his father going with him to my tent. A connection was 
 then formed, which led to a large ingathering of souls." Con- 
 versions occasionally occur as a direct result of these open-air 
 services ; the way is prepared for larger and more permanent 
 effort; but their greatest value, perhaps, lies in indicating the 
 field ripe for the harvest, and the strategic points for occupa- 
 tion. Blindly to plant stations, erect buildings, would result 
 often in a waste of time, strength, and money. These tours are 
 guides in the future development of the work and save many a 
 fruitless and discouraging experiment. 
 
 The missionaries, however, by no means limit their open-air 
 preaching to touring. In the vicinity of their established 
 
23 
 
 stations they constantly make shorter excursions, preaching in a 
 place, not once a year, but frequently and regularly. Their 
 coming is expected. The same persons are seen often in 
 the audience. Impressions can be deepened ; truths can be 
 clinched ; interest fostered and results gathered. This work is 
 more satisfactory in that the harvest is more apparent and 
 sooner ripe. 
 
 Open-air preaching is also sustained in the villages and cities 
 where the work has been well established and is equipped with 
 buildings. Here the circumstances are more like those in 
 Christian lands. Still the missionaries reach out after the 
 people. They go to them, because they can reach a class 
 of hearers who would not be met in any other way. They 
 come into personal contact with all classes and awaken an 
 interest in the Gospel. The method and spirit of their work is 
 well illustrated by the following account: "We have selected 
 about a dozen places in different parts of the town, where a 
 congregation can be secured without collecting a mob, and these 
 we visit in regular order. We go out two and two. Hearers 
 are easily obtained by singing a lyric, or reading a portion of 
 Scripture, of which the Book of Proverbs catches the ear of the 
 people soonest. The congregation is made up of those passing 
 at the time and a few who come from the neighboring houses. 
 Side by side are the Hindu and Mussulman, the scavenger and 
 the merchant, the official arrested on his way to office, and the 
 Brahmin on his way to his morning ablutions — a motley throng 
 and one difficult to please. After preaching, hand-bills are dis- 
 tributed in the immediate neighborhood, and with these, as 
 occasion offers, a few kind and serious words are said. There 
 is another way, and one, perhaps, more in keeping with the 
 habits of the people — to sit down with a small company in a 
 veranda, or under a spreading banyan tree, and there in peace 
 and quietness to discourse on sacred things. 
 
 "There is for me something very touching and impressive in 
 the sight of a crowd of Hindus, gathered in the streets of their 
 own city and under the shadow of their ancient temples to hear 
 a white-faced stranger from another continent speak to them of 
 the Great Father from whom they have hopelessly wandered. I 
 can never look such a concourse in the face without emotion. 
 I almost feel that some apology is necessary. ' Friends,' I say, 
 
24 
 
 * I come by command of the Almighty, to tell you something 
 new — to tell you of One who died for His enemies. In 
 your Shastras it is said that the gods have visited the earth at 
 different times : one, as when the sea was churned in quest of 
 the lost nectar, to help their friends ; again, as Rama, the hero 
 of the solar line, to destroy the wicked ; and many times to 
 tamper with the virtue of the good ; but never one to save their 
 foes ; never to help man, crouching like an over-burdened beast 
 under the load of his iniquities. But God commendeth His 
 love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died 
 for us.' 'Yes,' they say, 'that is something new.' And this 
 opens the way for speaking of man's sinfulness and Christ's 
 willingness and ability to save." 
 
 So great value is put on this work that the missionaries not 
 only take their native helpers with them, but also train them to 
 go out alone and conduct open-air services. Though the natives 
 have not the assistance in securing an audience of that curiosity 
 always aroused by a foreigner, they do succeed. 
 
 AT TAROKESHOR, INDIA. 
 
 In the report of the Marathi Mission, India, sent me by the 
 Rev. Henry Fairbank, I find the following interesting account 
 
25 
 
 of a tour by thirteen native Christians, They went to a village 
 where was being held a fair in honor of the god Khandoba, at 
 which 50,000 people were present. '' The principal ceremonies 
 are those connected with the marriage of young girls to the god 
 Khandoba, thus, in the name of religion, devoting them to lives 
 of public prostitution. Many parents bring their young and 
 innocent daughters and present them as offerings to the vile 
 gods. One of our preachers, in describing what they saw, says : 
 *The scene of credulous worshipers offering their daughters to 
 the god Khandoba for immoral purposes, the throwing lavishly 
 on the god of cocoanut kernels and tumeric powder, the licen- 
 tious acts of the young people in connection with the ''merry- 
 go-round," the obscene songs of the worshipers, the loud 
 discordant tones of different religious mendicants, the tinkling 
 of cymbals, the pickpockets going about in the crowd to carry 
 out their wicked designs, the jabbering of persons intoxicated, 
 the shrill sounds of various kinds of drums and other musical 
 instruments, and the excited talking of many shop-keepers and 
 their customers, all these things made the place look like the 
 stronghold of Satan.' On witnessing such scenes, the spirits 
 of our preachers were stirred within them, and with earnest 
 prayer for God's help and direction they commenced singing a 
 Christian hymn. Immediately a great crowd gathered around 
 them, and listened in perfect silence while they preached to them 
 the words of life. Speaking in turn they continued until all 
 were weary, but even then the people were unwilling to let 
 them go. They spoke plainly in regard to the abominations 
 which were going on near by, but all assented to the truth, and 
 no one objected to their plain speaking. Thus it was every 
 time our preachers appeared during the three days of their stay. 
 They were surrounded by large numbers of people, who seemed 
 to be thirsting for the truth, and who eagerly drank in every 
 word. Some also followed the Christians to their tent and were 
 further instructed and prayed with there." 
 
 Open-air preaching certainly has played a prominent part in 
 the extension of the Church. It is the easiest and most effec- 
 tive way of pushing Christianity into new territory. Without 
 it missionary work would be crippled, and all advance would 
 be slow and uncertain. It ever has been the speediest method 
 of reaching those outside the influence of the Church. 
 
(26) 
 
 ONE OF WICLIF'S POOR PRIESTS. 
 
OPEN-AIR PREACHING 
 
 IN THE REFORMATION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Ever since the establishment of the Church there have been 
 men protesting against the error, corruption, or coldness which 
 from time to time have crept into it. They have all been intense 
 and determined men bent on a purpose and caring little where 
 they preached if only the desired end was attained. It is not 
 surprising, therefore, to find most of them open-air preachers. 
 
 In the Dark Ages preaching had disappeared largely from the 
 religious services. The ritual culminating in the mass occupied 
 most of the time and attention. Neither was the service in the 
 vernacular. Then there arose men who commenced to preach, 
 using the language of the people. They were the forerunners 
 of the Reformation, preaching repentance, and attacking corrupt 
 practices rather than false beliefs. They demanded that 
 people, priests, and pope should repent, should " cease to do 
 evil, learn to do well." Their preaching was done in the open 
 air; as the church was not considered the place for preaching, 
 but for the mass, and its language must be Latin, not the com- 
 mon speech. The only proper places for the profane work of 
 preaching in the vernacular were outside of consecrated build- 
 ings. 
 
 Many of these men appeared independently in different 
 places during the twelfth century. Among them was Peter of 
 Bruys, an intense, narrow fanatic. He recognized deep-seated 
 evils in the Church, and against these he hurled his protests, fear- 
 lessly denouncing them in street and market-place. He said, 
 '* God may be worshiped just as well in the shop or in the 
 market-place as in the church. God hears wherever He is 
 called upon, and listens to the worthy suppliant whether he 
 prays before an altar or in a stall." In his zeal he failed to dis- 
 tinguish between the good and the evil. The religion taught 
 and practiced at that time by the Church consisted of devotion 
 to things seen rather than to things unseen. That he knew 
 was wrong, and therefore he attacked whatever was visible in 
 
 (27) 
 
28 
 
 religious life, even condemning church buildings, some of which 
 were destroyed through his influence. He was as intolerant of 
 indoor services as some are to-day of outdoor services. Going 
 from place to place, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes driven by 
 persecution, he preached wherever an audience would gather, ex- 
 alting the Bible, and especially the four gospels, and demanding 
 a discontinuance of the formal and corrupt practices of the 
 Church. 
 
 Perhaps associated with Peter of Bruys, certainly following 
 him closely, came the monk Henry of Clugny. Not so hereti- 
 cal, nor so fanatical and narrow, but as intense and fearless, he 
 left his monastery to preach repentance. Clad in the dress of a 
 monk, barefooted, and bearing a cross in his hand, he pro- 
 claimed his message with great fervor and eloquence, demand- 
 ing that priests and people alike should forsake their sinful 
 ways. His attacks on the corruptions of the Church created 
 great excitement, and were received with enthusiasm. Wherever 
 he went he made a deep impression, and ecclesiastics opposed 
 him in vain. The people deserted the churches and flocked to 
 him. "The churches are without people," it was reported to 
 the Pope, " the people without priests, the priests without the 
 reverence due them, and Christians without Christ. The 
 voice of a single heretic silences all." He was twice im- 
 prisoned, the last time being condemned to imprisonment for 
 life. 
 
 About the same ,time came Arnold, pupil of Abelard, but 
 possessed of a stronger character than his master. '' In the 
 garb of a monk and with a countenance which bespoke his 
 decision and capacity, but which had already become marked 
 with many cares, Arnold commenced his stormy career as a 
 preacher in the streets of Brescia." Great was the impression 
 made and the opposition aroused. Banishment resulted. But 
 he could not be stopped. At Paris and afterward at Rome he 
 thundered away at the evils within the Church of Christ. 
 Attributing them all to the possession of wealth by the clergy 
 and of temporal power by the Church, he demanded a return 
 to Apostolic poverty, and a devotion to strictly spiritual work. 
 At the close his preaching assumed a political aspect, but it had 
 the same end in view. Certainly a street preacher at the gates 
 of the Vatican denouncing the temporal power of the Pope is a 
 
29 
 
 dramatic figure. Neander says, " It was long since the voice 
 of freedom had echoed among the seven hills, and her authority 
 in the present instance was precarious and of short duration." 
 Arnold soon exchanged the open air for the prison, and was 
 finally put to death. 
 
 Of all the open-air preachers of this century the most at- 
 tractive in their character and lives and the most influential in 
 their preaching, were the Poor Men of Lyons. Peter Waldo, 
 a rich merchant, startled by the sudden death of a companion, 
 changed the entire course of his life. He gave his wife part of 
 his wealth for her support, provided for his daughters, and then 
 distributed all the remainder to the hungry poor. Becoming 
 interested in the Bible, he devoted much time to its study. 
 He gathered others about him, and from the study of the Bible 
 they turned easily and naturally to its exposition, and became 
 street preachers. They attracted attention and then opposition, 
 and finally were silenced. Peter Waldo appealed to the Pope, 
 declaring they did not wish to preach, but simply to read and 
 expound the Scriptures in public places. Permission was 
 granted, subject to the approval of the ecclesiastic in whose 
 territory they wished to labor. This was practically a 
 refusal. They at last broke away from the Church, denied her 
 right to forbid them, and two by two, in plain dress and with 
 evidence of their poverty, they scattered in every direction. 
 Their sincerity was apparent, their zeal unbounded, their devo- 
 tion to the Scripture complete. They were not crushed easily 
 and speedily, and their influence was wide and permanent. 
 They almost brought the Reformation, and would have succeeded 
 had not Rome sent forth her own open-air preachers, who 
 overcame their influence by opposing them before the people 
 in the street and market-place, and by attacking, in the name 
 of the Church, some of the evils denounced by Peter, Henry, 
 Waldo, and their followers. 
 
 These preaching friars, being under the direct control of 
 Rome, were not reformers, nor were they at all in the line of 
 the subsequent Reformation ; but they were revivalists. The 
 leaders were generally consecrated and spiritually minded, 
 sincere, and zealous, striving to live holy lives, and urging 
 others to do the same. Their immediate followers caught their 
 spirit and enthusiasm, but existing corruptions soon entered 
 
30 
 
 their ranks and destroyed their earnestness and spiritual power. 
 Many might be named. There was Robert, founder of the 
 Cistercian order of monks, who received from Pope Urban II 
 permission to preach everywhere. As he traveled from town 
 to town and from province to province, he did not regard his 
 permission as limited to churches, and preached on the high- 
 ways and in the forests. Norbert, founder of the order of 
 Premonstrants, received a similar privilege and used it for the 
 same purpose. " With naked feet and clad in his sheepskins, 
 Norbert proceeded even in the depths of winter, when snow 
 reached his knees, to travel from town to town, from hamlet to 
 hamlet, preaching repentance as he passed along." 
 
 In the thirteenth century came St. Francis, among the 
 heathen a missionary, among the Christians a revivalist, among 
 the monks a reformer. He commenced his religious work 
 preaching in the streets of Assisi, where he gathered about him 
 a band of young men, the nucleus of his future powerful order. 
 He always was an open-air preacher. Mrs. Oliphant, in her 
 life of St. Francis, gives a charming little incident from the life 
 of this austere and fearless preacher. '' On another occasion 
 when he was preaching in the town of Alva, the swallows, with 
 their perpetual twittering, incommoded the audience. Francis 
 had gone up to a high piece of ground that he might be seen of all, 
 and had asked silence of the assembled people. But the birds 
 were flitting about in airy circles, making their nests, chirping, 
 and calling to each other overhead in the blue heavens of the 
 Italian sky. When it became apparent that these sweet dis- 
 turbers of the peace prevented their human companions from 
 hearing the word of God, the preacher turned and courteously 
 saluted the little nest builders : ' My sisters, it is now time 
 that I should speak. Since you have have had your say, listen 
 now in your turn to the word of God, and be silent till the 
 sermon is finished.' " 
 
 Of St. Dominic it is said that he preached to whatever peo- 
 ple he met and could gather about him as he journeyed along 
 the highway. The followers of these two great leaders were 
 not slow in following the example given them. Vast numbers 
 in the two orders have been street preachers. Some obscure, 
 of limited talents and opportunities, preached to little groups 
 scattered here and there in the villages ; others, like Bethold 
 
31 
 
 and Anthony and Bernard, eloquent and popular, spoke to 
 immense audiences numbered by the thousands. The Domini- 
 cans were more conservative than the Franciscans, who preached 
 anywhere and everywhere ; and we find one of the former, 
 Hubert de Romanis, objecting to preaching at fairs, on account 
 of the noise and confusion, but advocating its use in the fields 
 and church-yards. 
 
 Whatever we may think of its accuracy, the following state- 
 ment by a Roman Catholic writer is suggestive : " He is not a 
 very profound student of history who does not know that 
 Christian society was saved from falling into Lutherism by 
 Pope Gregory the Ninth sending the Dominican and Francis- 
 can preachers to tramp around the cities and villages of Europe, 
 with hearty encouragements to preach wherever they could, 
 and with his full permission to set up an altar and say mass out 
 of doors, indoors, by the roadside, under the trees, in a word, 
 anywhere, if by such means they could readily assemble a crowd 
 of people and preach to them." Whether their influence was 
 for good or for evil, the open-air preachers sent forth by the 
 Romish Church for several centuries certainly were a tremen- 
 dous power. 
 
 The natural result of all this preaching in the open air was 
 its re-intfoduction into the regular ministrations of the Church. 
 From occasional sermons by bishops it spread to frequent dis- 
 courses by the priests. It is true these were often superficial 
 and silly as well as erroneous in their teachings, but they 
 opened the way for the work of the Reformation. At first 
 much of the preaching was done from pulpits erected in the 
 church-yards, but gradually the church edifice was used more 
 and more for this purpose. 
 
 Though the reformers of the fourteenth and later centuries 
 preached from indoor pulpits, they by no means discarded work 
 in the open air. Wiclif, realizing the value of popular preach- 
 ing, sent forth two by two his "poor priests." Later in his 
 work he took laymen as well as priests, and, having trained 
 them, sent them to preach to the people. These men, dressed 
 in long coarse red garments, barefooted, with staff in hand, 
 went from village to village, preaching repentance and faith. 
 It was their custom to read from Wiclif's translation of the 
 Bible and then to expound its meaning. So great was the im- 
 
32 
 
 pression made and the opposition aroused that an act of Parlia- 
 ment in 1382 expressed the complaint of the clergy that per- 
 sons in frieze gowns, without licenses, were going from place 
 to place, preaching not only in the churches, but also in church- 
 yards, at market-places, and fairs. Not only were they in favor 
 with the people who flocked to hear them, but the soldiers ming- 
 ling with the crowd stood armed ready to defend them from all 
 assaults. The value placed by Wiclif himself on the work 
 done by these open-air preachers is shown by what he wrote 
 for their guidance and in their defense. 
 
 We find open-air preaching practised by others whom he in- 
 fluenced, notably Huss in Bohemia. For years he had preached 
 in Bethlehem church, where he enjoyed great freedom. In 
 1412 his enemies succeeded in dislodging him, and at the king's 
 request he left the city. But he was not to be suppressed thus, 
 and commenced preaching in the open air wherever he went. 
 He thus speaks in defense of his action : *' The command that 
 forbids me to preach is opposed to the word and example of 
 both Christ and His apostles. Christ preached to the people on 
 the sea, in the desert, in the open field, in houses, in synagogues, 
 in villages, in the streets ; and the apostles preached every- 
 where, the Lord helping them. The command, moreover, is op- 
 posed to the interests of the Church in forbidding the word to 
 have free course." Immense congregations gathered about 
 him wherever he appeared, and the Gospel for a season did have 
 free course. How much he thus accomplished is shown by 
 these words from one of his biographers : " The impression 
 made was in many cases deep and abiding. Years did not 
 efface it. When Huss afterward was enclosed by prison walls in 
 the city of Constance, there were thousands of his Bohemian 
 countrymen, far distant from Prague, on whose hearts his 
 memory was deeply engraven by the experience wrought within 
 them through the words that were uttered now." 
 
 When the Reformation at last burst the barriers which had 
 so long restrained it and swept over North Western Europe, it was 
 carried along by the enthusiasm of open-air preaching. Luther 
 did his work mainly with the pen and before diets and dignitaries, 
 but he did not hesitate to use this means also. At Zwickau he 
 preached to 25,000 people gathered in the market-place and 
 showed his power by deeply impressing the audience, though- 
 
33 
 
 disturbed by the shrieks of a crazy woman. His followers went 
 everywhere, proclaiming the truth. D'Aubigne says, " If not 
 permitted to preach in the church, the preaching took place 
 elsewhere, and every place became a temple. At Husum, in 
 Holstein, Herman Tast, then on his way from Wittenberg, and 
 to whom the parochial clergy denied the use of the church, 
 preached to an immense multitude under the shade of two large 
 trees adjoining the church-yard, not far from the spot where 
 seven centuries before Anschar had first proclaimed the Gospel to 
 a heathen auditory. At Armstadt Gaspard Gittel, an Augustine 
 friar, preached in the market-place. At Dantzic the Gospel 
 was proclaimed from an eminence outside the city. At Gosslar 
 a student of Wittenberg opened the new doctrines, in a plain 
 planted with lime trees, from which circumstance the evangelical 
 Christians there obtained the appellation of the Lhne-tree 
 Brethren^ I do not know a more vivid account of the persist- 
 ent desire of both preachers and people for the proclamation of 
 Gospel than this simple account by the same writer of what oc- 
 curred at Worms : "■ The imperial decree overawed the magis- 
 trates ; the churches were all closed ; but a preacher, taking his 
 stand on a rudely constructed pulpit in a square thronged with 
 an immense multitude, proclaimed the glad tidings with per- 
 suasive earnestness. If the authorities showed a disposition to 
 interfere, the people dispersed in an instant, hastily carrying off 
 their pulpit ; but no sooner had the officers of authority passed 
 by than they again erected their pulpit in some more retired 
 spot, to which the multitude would again flock together. This 
 temporary pulpit was every day set up in one spot or another, 
 and served as a rallying point for the people." 
 
 In the Netherlands field preaching played a prominent part 
 in the spread of the Reformation. In 1562 there had been some 
 public preaching near Ypres, but that was speedily suppressed. 
 In 1566, however, the eagerness for the truth could not be 
 restrained and manifested itself in huge gatherings in the fields 
 to listen to the preaching. The audiences which assembled in- 
 cluded all classes of people. "The gentry of the place, the 
 rich merchants, the notables as well as the humbler artisans and 
 laborers, all had received the infection." Some came on foot; 
 others were on horseback. Many were armed to resist if there 
 should be any opposition. Although Margaret had offered a re- 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 ward of seven hundred crowns to the man who would bring her 
 a preacher alive or dead, men of all classes were ready to preach 
 the unsearchable riches of Christ. Monks, like Modet and 
 Peter Dalthenus, who had renounced their vows, took the lead. 
 Theologians, like Francis Junius, joined in the field work. 
 There were men of high rank like " Peregrine de la Grange, of 
 a noble family in Provence, with the fiery blood of Southern 
 France in his veins, brave as his nation, learned, eloquent, 
 enthusiastic, who galloped to his field preaching on horseback, 
 and fired a pistol shot as a signal for his congregation to give 
 attention. To the ineffable disgust of the conservatives in 
 Church and state, there were men of little education, utterly 
 devoid of Hebrew, of lowly station, hatters, curriers, tanners, 
 dyers, and the like, who began to preach also." 
 
 Motley, in his "Dutch Republic," from which the above is 
 quoted, tells of meetings held at a bridge near Tournay, 
 where 6,000 people assembled June 28, 1566, at eleven o'clock 
 at night. Two days later 10,000 came together to hear the 
 preaching ; and a week later the congregation numbered 20,000. 
 At the hours of these open-air services Tournay was literally 
 emptied of its inhabitants. The streets were as silent as if 
 war or pestilence had swept the place. Motley continues thus : 
 *' Throughout Flanders similar scenes were enacted. Thus the 
 preaching spread throughout the Walloon provinces to the 
 Northern Netherlands. Toward the end of July an apostate 
 monk of singular eloquence, Peter Gabriel, was announced to 
 preach at Overeen near Haarlem. This was the first field 
 preaching which had taken place in Holland. The people were 
 wild with enthusiasm, the authorities beside themselves with 
 apprehension. People from the country flocked into town by 
 thousands. The services commenced with the singing of a 
 psalm by the whole assemblage. No anthem from the world- 
 renowned organ in that ancient city ever awakened more lofty 
 emotions than did those ten thousand human voices ringing 
 from the grassy meadows in that fervid mid-summer noon. 
 When all was silent again, the preacher rose, a little meager 
 man, who looked as if he might rather melt away beneath the 
 blazing sunshine of July, than hold the multitudes enchained by 
 the magic of his tongue. His text was verses 8, 9, and 10 of 
 the second chapter of Ephesians ; and, as the slender monk 
 
35 
 
 spoke to his simple audience of God's grace and of faith in 
 Jesus, who had descended from above to serve the lowliest and 
 the most abandoned, if they would put their trust in Him, his 
 hearers were alternately exalted with fervor or melted into 
 tears. At times, according to one who was present, not a dry 
 eye was to be seen in the crowd." 
 
 So it was wherever the Reformation spread. Most interest- 
 ing accounts might be given of Farel preaching in the secluded 
 meadows and wooded ravines of that Alpine region where he 
 had rambled when a boy ; of Wishart preaching at Mauchline 
 in Scotland from a ditch-dike, and at Dundee, when the plague 
 raged there, standing at the city gate, the infected persons 
 on one side and those that were whole on the other ; of young 
 John Livingstone who preached in the church-yard, so that 
 " not less than 500 of his hearers found Christ, though it rained 
 in torrents during a considerable part of the time " ; of John 
 Welsh who gathered his congregations by the river Tweed, be- 
 tween England and Scotland, that he might escape if sought by 
 the authorities of either ; of John Bunyan and hosts of others 
 who preached in the open air. All are familiar with the thrill- 
 ing accounts of the meetings held by the Scotch covenanters in 
 the depths of the forests, in the fastnesses of the mountains, 
 often by night, which kept alive the fire of the pure faith that 
 Popery so eagerly and relentlessly sought to extinguish. But I 
 must omit these and multitudes of accounts of other interesting 
 open-air services held in those days of self-sacrificing loyalty to 
 truth and righteousness. 
 
 As time passed, the ardor of the Reformation diminished, 
 coldness entered the Church, and the use of open-air preaching 
 gradually grew less and less ; but in the eighteenth century it 
 again sprang into prominence and importance in the time of the 
 revival of which Methodism was born. " It was by field preach- 
 ing and in no other possible way," remarks a thoughtful critic, 
 ''that England could be roused from its spiritual slumber, or 
 Methodism spread over the country and rooted where it spread." 
 ''The men who commenced and achieved this arduous ser- 
 vice — and they were scholars and gentlemen — displayed a 
 courage far surpassing that which carries the soldier through 
 the hailstorm of the battlefield. Ten thousand might more 
 easily be found who would confront a battery, than two with 
 
37 
 
 the sensitiveness of education about them, could mount a table 
 by the roadside, give out a psalm, and gather a mob." Wesley 
 was not a rough, rude radical, but a sensitive, reverent man. 
 He says in his diary, '' I could scarce reconcile myself at first to 
 this strange way of preaching in the fields, having been all my life 
 till very lately so tenacious of every point relating to decency 
 and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost 
 a sin, if it had not been done in a church." In reaUty, Wesley 
 followed Whitefield in taking up open-air preaching, who in 
 turn may have been influenced by the leaders of the revival in 
 Wales, both clergymen and laymen having commenced to 
 practice it. 
 
 Whitefield had been refused access to the churches, and 
 desiring to preach to the rough colliers of Kingswood deter- 
 mined to address them in the open air. His first audience 
 •consisted of 200 colliers to whom he spoke from Matt. v. i, 2, 
 and 3, — a most pertinent text, as he had taken his stand on 
 Hannan Mount. In his diary are these words written after this 
 service : '' Blessed be God, the ice is now broke and I have now 
 taken the field. Some may censure me, but is there not cause ? 
 Pulpits are denied, and the poor colliers ready to perish for lack 
 of knowledge." At his next service 2,000 were present. The 
 numbers continued to increase until as many as 20,000 were 
 reported as present at one time. Whitefield deeply moved his 
 rough auditors, upon whose blackened cheeks the falling tears 
 marked their path. 
 
 Here it was that Wesley came to Whitefield and went with 
 him one Sunday to these services. On Monday morning White- 
 field started for London, and that afternoon Wesley commenced. 
 He says he made himself more vile than he had been on the 
 preceding day, by preaching on the highway. The next Sunday 
 he determinedly entered upon the work of open-air preaching. 
 
 Whitefield went on his way to London, preaching at differ- 
 ent places, including Stonehouse, where three thousand people 
 stood during the entire service outdoors, though it rained the 
 whole time. At London some of his friends feared he would do 
 the same thing there. He says, " We knelt down and prayed 
 that nothing might be done rashly." It soon became a necessity, 
 and then commenced those most remarkable open-air services at 
 Moorfields and Kennington Common, the former reaching the 
 
38 
 
 roughest element in London, and the latter attracting the 
 higher grades of society. In each place the audiences num- 
 bered thousands, and the spiritual results were far-reaching and 
 permanent. 
 
 When Whitefield returned to America he continued work- 
 ing in the same way. Ten thousand persons stood for an hour 
 and a half during his farewell sermon on leaving Philadelphia 
 Franklin's newspaper contained this account of what followed:: 
 *' On Thursday last the Rev. Mr. Whitefield left this city and 
 was accompanied to Chester by about 150 horse, and preached 
 to about 7,000 people. On Friday he preached at Willings 
 Town to about 5,000 ; on Saturday at Newcastle to about 2,500; 
 and the same evening at Christiana Bridge to about 3,000. 
 On Sunday at White Clay Creek he preached twice, resting 
 about half an hour between the sermons, to about 8,000, of 
 whom 3,000, it is computed, came on horseback. It rained 
 most of the time, and yet they stood in the open air." 
 
 Wesley, once launched in this work in England, and recog- 
 nizing its necessity and value, pressed forward vigorously. One 
 of the most interesting services he ever held was in the home of 
 his youth at Epworth. He offered to assist in the service of the 
 parish church where his father had labored so many years, but 
 his proffers were declined. As the people came from the 
 church in the afternoon, John Taylor stood at the door and 
 announced that as the church had been refused Wesley would 
 preach in the church-yard that evening at six o'clock. A large 
 audience assembled. Wesley preached standing on his father's 
 tomb. His text was, " The Kingdom of God is not meat and 
 drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. "^ 
 It must have been a strange sight, a son standing on his 
 father's tomb and preaching there the words of eternal life be- 
 cause refused admission to his father's church. He says of this 
 time, " I am well assured that I did far more good to my Lincoln- 
 shire parishoners by preaching three days on my father's tomb, 
 than I did by preaching three years in his pulpit." {See page 71.) 
 
 Another interesting service, described in all the lives of 
 Wesley, was held at Bath, where Beau Nash, a gambler, called 
 " King of Bath," possessed almost absolute authority. While 
 Wesley was preaching, Nash came along, and making his way 
 through the crowd, asked the preacher by what authority he did 
 
39 
 
 these things. " By the authority of Jesus Christ." " This is 
 contrary to Act of Parliament ; this is a conventicle," rejoined 
 Nash. "Sir," said Wesley, " the conventicles mentioned in 
 that act are seditious meetings, but this is not such ; here is no 
 shadow of sedition ; therefore, it is not contrary to that act." 
 " I say it is," retorted Nash, " and besides your preaching 
 frightens people out of their wits." " Sir," said Wesley, " did 
 you ever hear me preach.'*" "No." "How then can you 
 judge of what you never heard ? " " Sir, by common report," 
 was the answer. " Common report is not enough," replied 
 Wesley ; " give me leave, sir, to ask, is not your name 
 Nash .? " " My name is Nash." " Sir, I dare not judge of you by 
 common report," was Wesley's keen answer. The disturber 
 was taken back by this attack, and, finding popular feeling 
 against him, soon withdrew. 
 
 Wesley, however, did not always rid himself so quickly of 
 his opponents, who often broke up the meetings. Sometimes 
 the mob, sometimes the authorities attacked him. He often re- 
 ceived treatment similar to that which befell his followers, and 
 which is thus described : "A string of pack horses is so driven 
 as to break up a congregation, and a fire engine is brought out 
 and played over the throng to achieve the same purpose. Hand- 
 bells, old kettles, marrow bones and cleavers, trumpets, drums, 
 and entire bands of music, were engaged to drown the preach- 
 ers' voices. In one case the parish bull was let loose, and in 
 others, dogs were set to fight. The preachers needed to have 
 faces set like flints, and so, indeed, they had." Protection was 
 not secured by the authorities, nor justice given in the courts. 
 The press and the pulpit sent forth fierce and bitter attacks. 
 Dr. Trapp preached four sermons against Wesley and his 
 followers, in which he says : " For a clergyman of the Church 
 of England to pray and preach in the fields in the country or 
 in the streets of the city, is perfectly new. I am ashamed 
 to speak upon a subject which is a reproach not only to our 
 Church and country, but to human nature itself. Can it pro- 
 mote the Christian religion to turn it into riot, tumult, and 
 confusion ? to make it ridiculous and contemptible, and expose 
 it to the scorn and scoffs of infidels and atheists ? Go not 
 after these imposters and seducers, but shun them as you 
 would the plague." He calls them hypocrites, enthusiasts, 
 
40 
 
 novelists, ignis fatui, glaring meteors, in the bonds of iniquity, 
 in the gall of bitterness. "They met," says a writer, "the 
 opposition of vulgar mobs, fiery priests, lampooning pamphleteers, 
 unjust magistrates and grand juries." But Wesley persevered 
 in this kind of work during all his life, and a short time before 
 his death, when S'j years of age, he preached at Winchelsea 
 in the open air under an ash known afterwards as "Wesley's 
 Tree." 
 
 Spurgeon thus estimates the open-air preaching of this 
 period : " Glorious were those great gatherings in fields and 
 commons which lasted throughout the long period in which m 
 
 Wesley and Whitefield blessed our nation. Field preaching f| 
 was the wild note of the birds singing in the trees, in testimony 
 that the true spring-time of religion had come. Birds in cages 
 may sing more sweetly, perhaps, but their music is not so nat- 
 ural, nor so sure a pledge of the coming summer. It was a 
 blessed day when Methodists and others began to proclaim 
 Jesus in the open air ; then were the gates of hell shaken, and 
 the captives of the devil set free by hundreds and thousands." 
 
 These few selections from many possible, make it evident, 
 that without open-air preaching, some movements of world-wide 
 spiritual influence in the reformation of the Church would have 
 been smothered in their infancy, many would have been simply 
 local in their sphere, and all would have failed to secure the 
 results actually attained ; and that it has been par excellence the 
 reformer's method of winning the masses to his cause. 
 
OPEN-AIR PREACHING 
 
 IN THE NORMAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 To Christians generally the most interesting and practical 
 question is concerning the place of open-air preaching in the 
 normal life of the Church in Protestant lands. Its effectiveness 
 during the critical periods of the past, and in heathen lands to- 
 day, may compel respect without convincing us that it possesses 
 any value for us. 
 
 The past supplies many instances where open-air preaching 
 has played a prominent part in the normal life of individual local 
 churches. Careful consideration might well be given to the 
 work done during the present century in different countries ; in 
 Australia, in Canada, in the United States, where have labored 
 Peter Cartwright, "the backwoods preacher," and Bishop 
 Taylor, street preacher for forty years, and other such men ; 
 and where camp-meetings have entered so largely into the life 
 of the Methodist denomination ; and in Holland, where this 
 strong testimony was given by a burgomaster of the Hague: 
 "One good street preacher is worth ten policemen." But 
 a close study of the work in one land at one period will throw 
 more light on the subject than any number of miscellaneous 
 selections. I therefore shall omit all mention of the open-air 
 preaching which is being done elsewhere, and devote this chap- 
 ter entirely to a description of the extent, form, and results of 
 open-air preaching in Great Britain at the present time. 
 
 My investigations have been as complete as I could make 
 them. I visited the leading cities throughout the kingdom, 
 attended sixty to, seventy open-air meetings, each in a differ- 
 ent locality, and each conducted after his own fashion by a 
 different leader. I sought the opinion of prominent men, of 
 those in the rank and file of Christian workers, and of outsiders ; 
 questioning them concerning their estimate of its value, and 
 their methods if they practiced it themselves. Through the 
 kindness of Mr. Kirkham of the Open-Air Mission, I secured 
 much literature, running back thirty-five years, and including in- 
 cidents, methods, and results from every part of Great Britain. 
 
 (41) 
 
42 
 
 I found that preaching in the open air was practised 
 constantly by the Salvation Army, whose members seldom hold 
 an evangelistic service without an out-door service first. Their 
 efforts force themselves upon the casual observer, as they march 
 through the streets, singing and playing vigorously on musical 
 instruments. Closer observation reveals, however, that the 
 larger part of open-air preaching is not done by them. The 
 army has simply adapted to its system practices already widely 
 prevalent. Various denominations, organizations of laymen, and 
 many independent workers approve and use it. 
 
 The Church of England, for example, sustains many open- 
 air preaching stations, concerning one of which the London 
 Daily Telegraph of July 8, 1890, says : "Lord Radstock delivered 
 an address in the churchyard of St. Botolph, Aldersgate street, 
 between one and two o'clock yesterday, to upwards of 4,000 
 business men. Open-air services have been carried on daily 
 during the last two summers by the Rev. T. Selby Henrey. 
 Among the speakers for this month will be the Bishop of Bed- 
 ford, the Archdeacon of London, General Sir R. Phayre, Sir 
 William Charley (Common Serjeant) and Lord Radstock 
 (second time)." 
 
 St. Mary's Church, Whitechapel, London, has an outdoor 
 pulpit built in the wall, into which the clergyman enters from 
 within and addresses those who gather in the churchyard or listen 
 from the sidewalk. It was from a colored man, standing in this- 
 pulpit and facing almost the very place where those horrible 
 murders were committed, that I heard the most powerful dis- 
 course on the immortality of the soul to which I ever listened. 
 I was told that the rector of another church in that same dis- 
 trict was accustomed, in conducting open-air services, to take 
 with him on the street his choir-boys, the entire company 
 dressed in their robes. 
 
 In a conversation on this subject Canon Rycroft of Liver- 
 pool said to me: "To show you how I stand, I need only say 
 that a week ago, after my evening service in the church, I preached 
 on the street to an audience of over 1,000, most of them men."' 
 A few years ago various bishops expressed their opinions, the 
 Bishop of Durham saying : " The movement for open-air 
 preaching has my approval " ; the Bishop of Manchester : " We 
 do what we can in this diocese as opportunity offers in that 
 
<43) 
 
 OPEN-AIR PULPIT, ST. MARY'S, WHITECHAPEL. 
 
44 
 
 way, and I myself am frequently addressing bodies of men in 
 the open air, or at least in sheds or workshops " ; the Bishop of 
 Litchfield : " I have always encouraged and always practiced 
 open-air preaching;" the Bishop of Rochester, referring to the 
 "Sermon Day" : "I heartily approve of the work of the Open- 
 Air Mission, and wish God-speed to its useful operations. On 
 the'^day you name I hope to be preaching in the open air myself 
 to some navvies in the neighborhood." The "Sermon Day" 
 mentioned was a Sabbath on which the clergymen of London 
 and its suburbs were requested to present to their congregations 
 the subject of open-air preaching. Many acceded to the re- 
 quest, among them being fifty-two Baptist, forty-nine Congre- 
 gational, thirty-five Methodist, and sixty-five Church of Eng- 
 land clergymen. 
 
 The Presbyterians also are aggressive along this line. 
 Last year's report of the Evangelization Committee of the 
 North and South Presbyteries of London contains the follow- 
 ing: "The special feature of the year was the organizing of 
 the open-air work, the result being that fully thirty places in 
 London, besides several in connection with our country congre- 
 gations, were regularly every Lord's Day during the summer 
 months, occupied by ministers and members of our churches. 
 In addition to these separate open-air services, there were 
 four of a united character, namely, three at the beginning of 
 summer in Regent's Park, Victoria Park, and Blackheath, and 
 one at the close of summer in Regent's Park. Several minis- 
 ters took part in each of these united services, and it is perhaps 
 not too much to say that there never has been so large an open- 
 air service in Regent's Park as that held on May 5, when the 
 number attending was variously estimated at from 3,000 to 
 4,000." 
 
 Much might be said concerning the open-air work of the 
 Salvation Army, "instant in season, out of season"; of the 
 Baptists, so aggressive in city evangelization ; of the Congrega- 
 tionalists, quick to adopt new methods for advancing the 
 Master's kingdom ; of the Methodists, who perhaps lead all 
 other denominations in out-door work; and of the Quakers, 
 whom the Spirit, sometimes commanding silence within their 
 halls of worship, drives forth to proclaim to the passing multi- 
 tude the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
 
45 
 
 Most profitable and inspiring would it be to consider the 
 example of the leaders : of John McNeill, Scotland's sturdy son 
 and London's famous preacher, to whose influence largely is 
 due the increase of open-air preaching among the Presbyterians 
 of the metropolis ; of Newman Hall, whose church sustains during 
 the summer daily open-air services (he himself often participat- 
 ing), and who by the special and most appropriate request of the 
 Open-Air Mission has lectured on '' My Personal Recollections 
 as an Open-Air Preacher," and " Successful Open-Air Preach- 
 ing"; of Theodore Parker, who began his preaching in the open 
 air; and of Spurgeon, who probably has more often addressed 
 vast open-air audiences than any living man, and who, however 
 much the subject may be neglected in other theological semi- 
 naries, has for his students two rousing lectures on this topic. 
 But limits of time and space forbid. Suffice it to say that the 
 denominations of Great Britain, as represented by their clergy- 
 men, have placed upon this way of preaching "the gospel to 
 every creature " their seal of approval. 
 
 But ministers, however favorably inclined, can do compara- 
 tively little in this direction, for their time and strength are 
 absorbed largely by their regular duties. The extent and effi- 
 ciency of this movement, as of the Sunday-school, depends on 
 the support it receives from laymen. Therefore their attitude, 
 especially as shown in the undenominational organizations into 
 which they have banded themselves, is of much importance. 
 Take the Young Men's Christian Associations, for example. 
 Almost all, if not all of them hold some of their meetings in 
 the open air. At first this seemed to me outside their domain 
 of "work for young men," but observation revealed that their 
 audiences consisted mainly of men, and no branch of their work 
 receives more justification in the opportunities offered of win- 
 ning to Christ the young men of the great cities. 
 
 The London City Mission, employing 500 lay missiona- 
 ries, says, in the report of 1890 : "The committee are happy to 
 report also that most of the society's missionaries hold open- 
 air meetings in their respective districts, both on Sundays and 
 week-days, and that these are the means of reaching many who 
 cannot be pursuaded to attend even a mission-room. . . . 
 By these services the Gospel has been carried during the past 
 year into many a secluded court and alley, as well as proclaimed 
 
46 
 
 to dense multitudes in open spaces, and many instances of con- 
 version to God are related by the missionaries." 
 
 Naturally, the most prominent in this direction is the Open- 
 Air Mission, whose efficient Secretary is Mr. Gawin Kirkham, 
 with headquarters in London. The object of this Mission, es- 
 tablished in 1853, is to encourage, by means of publications 
 and addresses, the judicious practice of open-air preaching, to 
 bring together the workers for mutual instruction and encour- 
 agement, and to undertake the visitation of fairs, races, and 
 other gatherings of the people. According to their last annual 
 report, the members of the Mission (laymen connected with 
 it, pledged to practice and encourage open-air preaching, re- 
 ceiving from the Mission no compensation,) numbered 1,089; 
 special agents (paid for special work), 20 ; conferences of 
 preachers, 33 ; races, fairs, etc., visited, 620; towns and villages 
 to which speakers were sent, 521 ; books, tracts, and cards sent 
 from the central office, 1,255,057 ; addresses by the secretary, 
 325. This organization has had a vast influence, not only 
 through what its members have accomplished in winning wan- 
 derers to Christ, but also indirectly in stimulating others to sim- 
 ilar efforts, in discouraging unwise methods, and in giving char- 
 acter to the whole movement. 
 
 The Manchester City Mission, the Liverpool Town Mission, 
 the Christian Evidence Society, the Christian Community, and 
 many other organizations like them, would form interesting 
 and profitable studies in this connection because of their con- 
 stant use of this agency. 
 
 Besides denominations and societies of laymen, almost all 
 independent missions and many individuals, alone or in company 
 with others, push out along this line — such as George Holland 
 •of the George Yard Mission, Whitechapel, Charles Cook of 
 Hyde Park Hall, Miss McPherson of the Bethnal Green Home of 
 Industry, Captain Hamilton, active at Great Assembly Hall, 
 F. N. Charrington, the founder of that institution, and H. Grat- 
 tan Guiness, often accompanied by his students. 
 
 These organizations and individuals in London are presented 
 not as an exhaustive list of the favorably inclined, but simply 
 as examples which might be duplicated many times, not only in 
 that city, but also in many others. 
 
 As there is honest disagreement among Christians con- 
 
47 
 
 cerning certain expressions of belief, forms of worship, and 
 methods of work, so undoubtedly there is concerning this. 
 Many disapprove of it, and only a small minority actually prac- 
 tice it. The leaders still view the movement as in its incipient 
 stages, and look forward to greater developments. But, on the 
 other hand, I observed that almost all who are actively engaged 
 in city evangelization use it extensively. 
 
 Moreover, it is noteworthy that these efforts have found 
 favor with certain men of affairs. Among those who have 
 presided at the annual meetings of the Open-Air Mission, there- 
 by indicating their sympathy with the cause, have been mem- 
 b)ers of Parliament, and among them several of the nobility. 
 The Lord Mayor of London, while presiding in 1881, said : " It 
 gives me very great pleasure to be here to-day, and it seems 
 both fitting and appropriate that the chief magistrate of the city 
 of London should give the sanction of his high office to such an 
 •effort as this. ... I have thorough sympathy with the 
 work. . . . . I am very glad that prejudice against open-air 
 preaching is gradually diminishing," etc. In 1884, the annual 
 meeting being in the saloon of the Mansion House, the Lord 
 Mayor presiding, one speaker said : " I think it is singularly 
 worthy of remark that we meet in the palace of the chief magis- 
 trate of London for the purpose of furthering the work of an 
 institution which a few years ago was discredited to the highest 
 possible extent." At another annual meeting the Earl of 
 Shaftesbury, the presiding officer for that year, said : " Amidst 
 all the movements in which I have been engaged, and all I have 
 known through a somewhat long career, I do not think there is 
 one which has ever commended itself so much to my heart as 
 this effort in which you are engaged for the promotion of open- 
 air preaching. ... I assure you I know of no one movement 
 so characteristic of the times in which we live as that in which 
 you are engaged ; none on which the blessing of God seems so 
 signally to rest ; and none which is so eminently calculated to 
 conduce to the propagation of God's truth among the large 
 neglected masses of this vast metropolis. Depend upon it, my 
 friends, you will find that, throughout the whole range of human 
 history and Christian effort, no nobler sermons have been de- 
 livered, and no more acceptable prayers have been offered up, 
 
48 
 
 than those sermons delivered, and those supplications presented 
 to the throne of grace, under the broad canopy of God's heaven." 
 
 The municipal authorities, either because public opinion is 
 so favorable, or because their own judgment approves, give it 
 their sanction and protection. Though in a few places open-air 
 preachers are hampered, as a rule they are given ample liberties, 
 and enjoy the protection of the police. In London, "within 
 the old city walls, open-air preaching is not allowed in or near 
 any prominent thoroughfare." Elsewhere in the city the police 
 are bound to protect it, and can stop the meeting only when 
 the street is blocked or a householder complains. One report 
 says : " The police have treated the open-air preachers with con- 
 sideration and kindness, and the thanks of the committee are 
 due to the distinguished officer who commands the metropolitan 
 police, Major-General Sir Charles Warren." 
 
 The attitude of the common people, however, is of far 
 more importance, for, though approved by ecclesiastical and sec- 
 ular dignitaries, open-air preaching will accomplish little unless 
 regarded with favor by the mass of the people. In my investiga- 
 tions I gave especial consideration to this point. Sometimes,, 
 standing at a distance, I watched to see which passers-by took 
 no notice of the meeting, which tarried a moment, and which 
 stayed during the entire service. At other times I mingled 
 freely with the audience, observing their personal appearance 
 and manner, their interest and comments. Often I forced my 
 way into the groups nearer the speaker, trying to catch their 
 spirit and feelings, to listen and receive impressions as they did ; 
 or I stood where, the light falling upon them, I could see the ex- 
 pression on their faces, where was pictured their approval or 
 disapproval of the speaker's words. In it all I was brought very 
 positively to the conclusion that the people regard the open-air 
 preacher with favor — in fact, with far more favor than they do 
 the Christians who stay at home. This was shown by the size 
 of the audiences, the only limit sometimes being the speaker's 
 ability to make himself heard. The people, however, were dis- 
 criminating, prompt to gather about an earnest, thoughtful 
 man, and very quick to leave a prattler The attention was 
 good, and though the speakers not infrequently were inter- 
 rupted, they had the sympathy of the audience, which invariably 
 bestowed upon the disturber angry glances and sharp words. 
 
49 
 
 and in one case hustled him off the grounds. It was rather 
 
 an anomaly to hear one man swear at another for disturbing 
 
 ' a religious gathering. Undoubtedly sometimes meetings are 
 
 4 disturbed and broken up, occasionally the preacher is insulted 
 
 and assailed, for infidels, Jews, and Roman Catholics are 
 
 opposed to this work, and would stop it if they could. 
 
 Drunken men also often demoralize matters greatly. But 
 
 the people generally, by their presence, attentiveness, and 
 
 loyalty, manifested a hearty approval of the movement. Such 
 
 favor from classes of men so different has been won only by 
 
 ■i the employment of judicious methods, which deserve careful 
 
 « consideration, but which, in this paper can be presented only 
 
 in outline. 
 
 There are two kinds of open-air preaching, the first includ- 
 ing services preliminary to an indoor meeting, the second 
 including those complete in themselves. 
 
 All preliminary services are very similar in kind, the only 
 difference being that some are more elaborate than others. In 
 the simplest form a company gather about the entrance of a 
 building, singing hymns until a crowd has assembled. All are 
 m then invited to enter and attend the main service. When the 
 \ building is on a prominent thoroughfare this is effective. Ordin- 
 arily, however, the singers take their stand at a point some dis- 
 tance away, and endeavor to draw the people back with them. 
 The Salvation Army uses this form almost exclusively, seldom 
 holding the entire service in the open air, and certain evangel- 
 istic and rescue agencies depend altogether upon it for securing 
 their audiences. 
 
 The Carrubber's Close Mission of Edinburgh, a remarkable 
 organization of 500 volunteer workers, which has succeeded in 
 reaching many of the degraded and criminal classes, makes an 
 effort of this sort every night in the year. The evening I was 
 . there about thirty workers went to the corner of a prominent 
 street. After the singing had drawn a crowd, prayer was of- 
 fered, and a simple, earnest presentation of Christ was made. 
 After heartily inviting all to accompany them to their hall, 
 they started down the street singing a spirited hymn. On 
 reaching the mission I was about to enter, when the leader 
 touched me on the arm, and asked me if I would go again. Then 
 
(so) 
 
 IN PARADISE COURT. 
 
51 
 
 1 perceived that only a part had entered, and while these com- 
 menced and sustained the meeting, the rest returned to the cor- 
 ner to cast again the net. The second time all entered and re- 
 joined their forces. 
 
 The Rev. Z. B. Woffendale of the Somers Town Presbyte- 
 rian church, London, made a still more elaborate use of the pre- 
 liminary service the night I was with him. With a company of 
 his young people, he went about half a mile from a theatre 
 where he was holding special evangelistic services. Instead of 
 returning directly to the theatre, his company halted every two 
 or three blocks, at each place different hymns being sung, and a 
 different person presenting the invitation. The number follow- 
 ing increased steadily, and after their last stop, which was in 
 front of the theatre, many followed them into the building. 
 Mr. Woffendale also uses this agency on Sunday evening in an- 
 other way. After preaching to his people he holds a protracted 
 after-meeting. At its commencement several bands of his young 
 men go out on the street, secure a following in the usual man- 
 ner, bring as many as possible into the church and then start 
 for more, while the pastor and his other helpers strive to win 
 them for Christ. Thus there is a constant ingathering as one 
 band after another brings the fruit of its labors. 
 
 The inclemency of the weather is no hindrance to work of 
 this sort, which can be, and often is, sustained during the entire 
 year, in winter as well as summer. In fact, many regard the 
 stormy seasons as the most favorable, for then the people on the 
 street are more likely to accept the invitation to a brighter and 
 warmer place. 
 
 Open-air services complete in themselves may be found 
 in an endless variety of forms. Still, they naturally divide them- 
 selves into four groups — those near the homes, those on the pub- 
 lic thoroughfares, those at popular resorts, and those in the fields. 
 
 Those held near the homes are quiet and unostentatious, and 
 are more numerous than a superficial examination would indi- 
 cate. A company of Christians leave the crowded streets and 
 enter some court or alley. Necessarily the number gathered 
 about them is small, but in the comparative quiet of the place 
 their voices reach many others. Under such circumstances in 
 Manchester, I noticed as part of the audience people sitting on 
 the front steps of their houses, standing in the doorways, and 
 
52 
 
 even peering from the windows. Many interesting cases are 
 recorded of the conversion of persons on their sick-beds, who 
 received the invitation from the invisible messengers in the 
 street below. 
 
 A rector in London uses this form in an ideal way. Feeling 
 himself responsible for all the souls in the territory apportioned 
 to him as his parish, each Sunday evening he sends out four 
 companies of young men, who occupy as many stations. The 
 next week they hold their meetings at four different places, and 
 so on, week after week, until every part of his parish has been 
 occupied, and the Gospel has been carried by their voices to 
 every soul, whether on the street, at the saloon, or in the house. 
 
 Services on the public thoroughfares also ordinarily gather 
 small audiences ; for either the noise of the traffic drowns the 
 voices so that only a few can get within hearing distance, or the 
 current of the passing multitudes keeps the people from staying 
 more than a moment, or the police object to the blocking of the 
 way. Sometimes, however, excellent situations are found a little 
 to one side, away from the crowd, and yet near enough to 
 attract their attention. At such places large and satisfactory 
 meetings are held. 
 
 In Liverpool the steps of George's Hall offer a popular 
 and most desirable location; but the most interesting large 
 street gathering I ever attended was in Nottingham. The 
 streets were filled with the customary Sunday night throng, 
 many of whom turned their steps to the market, a large open 
 paved square. Here and there in this place were burning 
 torches, under each of which stood a speaker, and about him a 
 band of singers, sustaining a gospel meeting. The people who 
 gathered about them in large numbers, though in the main atten- 
 tive and respectful, were evidently the ordinary city street 
 crowd. The whole formed a striking scene — ^the murmurs of 
 the restlessly moving multitude, the crowd surging about the 
 singers, the torches sending their light into the gloomy night, 
 the strains of sacred music, and the earnest tones of the speak- 
 ers. I shall not soon forget that evening, nor another spent 
 in the salt market of Glasgow at the end of a Saturday. The 
 public houses (saloons) were doing a thriving trade, with men, 
 women, and children flocking to the bars. The police were 
 busy marching off the offenders. The streets were filled with 
 
53 
 
 men swearing, staggering, fighting, with brawling women hor- 
 rible in their drunkenness, and with the children of these men 
 and these women. Everywhere profanity and vulgarity, harsh 
 laughter and bitter sobs — every thing depressing — nothing to 
 uplift or sustain. A stranger in a strange land, alone in the 
 midst of this multitude, despair seized upon me. Verily it was 
 3. place forsaken of God : here the devil seemed to hold undis- 
 puted sway. Stifled, choked with the moral atmosphere, I was 
 about to rush away, when suddenly, above the harsh clamors, 
 above the maudlin laughter, there rose strong, clear, sweet, the 
 voice of one singing "Jesus died for all mankind, and Jesus died 
 for me," and a few minutes later, "This is my story, this is my 
 song, praising my Saviour all the day long." I have heard trained 
 choirs, large choruses, vast audiences sing, but never did the 
 good news seem half so sweet and inspiring as that night, when 
 the young men and maidens of Glasgow came to dispute the 
 reign of Satan in this his own domain. 
 
 The night is regarded as the very best time for open-air 
 work, and not a few pastors, after preaching to their flocks in 
 the church on Sunday evening, go out on the streets and in the 
 darkness preach to those who love darkness rather than light. 
 Mr. Cockrem of the Open-Air Mission said in explanation : "The 
 Nicodemuses are not all dead yet." Many who would not be 
 seen entering a place of worship or attending any religious 
 service, under cover of darkness will creep up within hearing 
 distance. This is especially true of Jews, Roman Catholics, 
 and infidels ; and many are the interesting cases recorded of 
 those who, coming thus in the darkness and finding the Saviour, 
 have openly and fearlessly proclaimed him before men. 
 
 Services at public resorts, such as races, fairs, parks, and 
 at the sea-shore, are held generally in the day-time. The 
 work at the Epsom, Derby, and other races requires both courage 
 and judgment, for the people are absorbed entirely in the con- 
 tests, and little inclined to give heed to spiritual things. 
 Sometimes large audiences are gathered, but usually the main 
 efforts are tract distribution, and the personal conversation to 
 which often it leads. There are special opportunities among men 
 who, finding themselves utterly ruined and realizing thus their 
 folly and wickedness, are ready to listen to words of warning 
 and encouragement. This work, which, despite the difficulties, 
 
54 
 
 is not fruitless by any means, is sustained largely by the 
 agents of the Open-Air Mission and other missionaries. The fol- 
 lowing is a description of these men and their work: ''Their 
 reception varies from the most profuse gratitude to the fiercest 
 opposition, sometimes including personal violence. Homely in 
 appearance, cheerful in manner, quick at repartee, patient under 
 insult, grateful for kindness, now preaching a sermon, then 
 giving a tract, now reproving sin, then rescuing a sinner, caring^ 
 for a wandering boy, taking a lost girl home, now cast down 
 by the hardness of the human heart, and anon lifted up by the 
 power of the Word of God — so they pursue the even tenor 
 of their way, waiting the ' Well done ! ' of the Master, when 
 toil shall be exchanged for rest, the cross for the crown." 
 
 A similar work is done at football and cricket matches, at 
 flower and fruit shows, and other such gatherings. Fairs of 
 every description are visited, among which none is more in- 
 teresting than the Bird's Fair held each Sunday morning near 
 Whitechapel in East London. Here regularly are conducted 
 two open-air services by Miss Anna McPherson and her helpers. 
 At other times these streets are comparatively quiet, but on 
 Sunday morning they swarm with a good-natured, bustling. 
 East End crowd. The walls of the houses are lined with bird- 
 cages, curb-stones piled high, wagons loaded, men's arms full of 
 them, some empty and for sale, but most containing birds. 
 Here are birds of all colors, of all sizes, of all prices, from three 
 pence to as many pounds, — birds desired for their beauty, or 
 their song, or the flavor of their flesh. Besides these, the small 
 traders are present in full force, with vegetables, meats, fruity 
 old clothes or trinkets, taking advantage of the crowd, and 
 driving a brisk trade. The church bells rang, but no one heeded 
 them, and the traffic went on merrily. The influence of the place 
 was almost irresistible. I also turned to make a purchase, and 
 only by a vigorous effort brought myself to realize that it was the 
 Lord's Day of holy rest and worship. But though the invitation 
 of the church bells was not heeded, many heard the gospel, for 
 it was brought to them, and in the midst of the bargaining was 
 offered without money and without price. With a box for a 
 pulpit platform, a small organ on wheels, a band of singers, 
 some hymn-books to spare for the audience, and several speak- 
 ers, divine services were held in this place. In one place the. 
 
55 
 
 audience was changing constantly, many coming, but most stay- 
 ing only a short time. The other audience was large, consist- 
 ing almost entirely of men. It was a pleasant audience to 
 address. Of course many were in their shirt sleeves, some 
 evidently had overlooked their morning toilet, and a few were 
 smoking, but they were attentive, responsive, and reverent. A 
 loaded wagon, driven rapidly, and making a terrific din, passed 
 through this assembly, which quietly parted for it, and then 
 resumed its former position. I have seen church audiences dis- 
 tracted far more by the crying of a child or the entrance of an 
 elaborately dressed late-comer. With difficulty can " the saints " 
 be induced to " come up front " near the speaker; but when I said 
 to these burly fellows, **I always have heard that Englishmen 
 were brave, but, unless you accept my invitation to come up 
 nearer, on my return to America I shall tell my friends that I 
 faced three hundred Englishmen, and they were so afraid of me 
 that not one dared to come within reach of my arm" — upon 
 my saying this they good-naturedly drew close about me, and 
 seldom have I spoken to an audience so sympathetic and kindly 
 disposed. Every Sunday morning, the year around, whatever 
 the weather, these two services are sustained. Many like them 
 may be found throughout the kingdom, on week days as well. 
 
 During the summer months the parks are the favorite places 
 for open-air workers, especially on Sunday afternoons. Here 
 sometimes the gatherings number thousands. 
 
 Of the services held in places of recreation, some of the 
 most attractive are in the churchyards of London. Take, for 
 example, the one mentioned in the opening of this article, St. 
 Botolph's, Aldersgate street, only a few steps from the general 
 post-office. Interments have not been made in this burial 
 ground for many years, most of the grave-stones have been 
 removed, and now stand against the ivied walls. The ground 
 has been laid out with walks, and in the center of the plots of 
 thick velvety grass are beds of geraniums and other brightly- 
 blooming flowers, or richly colored foliage plants or dense shrub- 
 bery. The contrast between the outside world and this spot 
 is almost startling. There, din and turmoil ; here, the murmur- 
 ing fountain, the rustling leaves, and the birds. No wonder it 
 is thronged with shop girls and roughly dressed laborers during 
 the dinner hour; and all day long ragged children and wan-faced 
 
(S6) 
 
 AT THE SEASIDE. 
 
57 
 
 women come, and, consciously or unconsciously, are soothed, 
 refreshed, uplifted. Here, during the noon hour, is held the 
 service, not loud and boisterous, not harsh and threatening, but 
 tender, thoughtful, worshipful. Rev. Mr. Henrey distributes the 
 leaflets, on which are such hymns as " Rock of Ages," " Hark ! 
 hark! my soul." And on these, besides the hymns. Scripture 
 references, and an invitation to the regular church services, are 
 these words : "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground, 
 having served as the churchyard for this ancient parish for many 
 hundreds of years." These words, the proximity of the church, 
 and nature speaking " a various language," give to these services 
 a tender and hallowed impressiveness, and make the moments 
 most restful and inspiring to all present. 
 
 Mention should be made of the work at the sea-shore and 
 other summer resorts, which serves to remind the pleasure- 
 seekers of their spiritual privileges and duties, so often left 
 behind at such seasons. Interesting and successful open-air 
 efforts for children have been carried on at some of these 
 places. 
 
 Open-air work in the fields is in the midst of some- 
 what similar natural surroundings, but is sustained for a very 
 different class of people. This reaches the gipsies and other 
 wandering elements of society, and also those coming to farming 
 localities in harvest time, when large numbers are employed at 
 once. One worker reports : " For five Sunday afternoons, at 
 the request of the Earl of Aberdeen, the auxiliary arranged for 
 services for the haymakers at Dollis Hill. The presence of the 
 Earl at nearly all the services did much to cheer the men, who 
 had suffered materially, owing to the wet weather. From thirty 
 to eighty were present. The Earl read the Scriptures, and the 
 preaching included Archdeacon Atlay, Rev. James Durran, 
 Rev. Jonadab Finch, Ned Wright, and myself. Tea was served 
 to the men at the close of the meeting." 
 
 Mr. Spurgeon, in one of his lectures to his students, relates 
 the following experience : " I once preached a sermon in the 
 open air in haying time during a violent storm of rain. The 
 text was : * He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, 
 as showers that water the earth,' and surely we had the blessing 
 as well as the inconvenience. I was sufficiently wet, and my 
 congregation must have been drenched, but they stood it out, 
 
58 
 
 and I never heard that anybody was the worse in health, and^ 
 thank God, I have heard of souls brought to Christ under that 
 discourse." 
 
 A vigorous work is done among the pickers in the hop gar- 
 dens of Kent and other counties, among whom are not only 
 country people, but also many from the cities. The method of 
 work is thus described by one : " Our plan was to go from bin 
 to bin, picking and speaking at each. Then we sang and spoke 
 in the center of a number of bins. This, of course, was done 
 most easily at dinner time. In some of the gardens as many as 
 200 or 300 listened." The following shows the spirit of the 
 workers: ''Peter Wallis' report of a month among the hop- 
 pickers gives a lively picture of a miscellaneous community of 
 2,000, with its joys, sorrows, and varied experiences. Here is 
 an ideal missionary's Sunday : * Had a good day, and a rough 
 day, and a long day, and yet a blessed day. Preached twelve 
 times at twelve encampments, beginning at half-past nine in. 
 the morning and ending at ten at night, only coming in to 
 meals.' " 
 
 Most interesting are the monster gatherings in Wales^ 
 where the assembled multitude in the fields spends the day in 
 listening to successive sermons by different ministers ; and per- 
 haps more pleasing and profitable, as well as more common, are 
 the country congregations which assemble for part of the Sab- 
 bath on a hillside or in a meadow, and worship beneath the blue 
 sky in a temple not made with hands. 
 
 What are the results of open-air preaching .? Naturally 
 we expect to find few. The audiences, while containing 
 many reverent listeners, consist largely of those who are morally 
 degraded, or spiritually hardened, or prejudiced, or, at best, in- 
 different to the claims of the truth. The open-air preacher 
 works in fields where there are many " stony places," and he 
 cannot expect as many fold as from seed sown under more fav- 
 orable circumstances. Moreover, his hearers being mainly 
 strangers, and sometimes the faces of all being invisible in the 
 darkness, a man cannot ascertain the effect of his words. I 
 presume that only a small percentage of the conversions are 
 or could be recorded on earth. Many will not know, until 
 the records of the deeds done in the body are read, what street 
 

 » 
 
 59 
 
 preacher gave to them the bread of life. But though they cannot 
 express their gratitude to the messenger, they do not hesitate to 
 honor the means employed to bring the message. The witness 
 of open-air converts bears stronger testimony to this kind of 
 preaching than do the statistics of the workers themselves. 
 
 But nevertheless there is no lack of evidence on this ques- 
 tion. About the first man in England I questioned on this sub- 
 ject said his church was the outgrowth of open-air work, and 
 that among the converts were missionaries in Asia and Africa, 
 as well as clergymen in England. Mr. Charles Cook, whose ef- 
 forts in Hyde Park are so well known, wrote, in answer to an in- 
 quiry : " I have gathered an indoor congregation of 2,000 from 
 ■ open-air meetings. Real conversions are seen at the close of 
 every meeting." That the striking results secured by the 
 Salvation Army in Great Britain have come in no small degree 
 from open-air preaching is shown by the following extract from 
 a personal letter to me from General Booth : " I may say that a 
 large proportion of the successes of the Salvation Army has 
 been due, in my estimation, humanly, to our open-air operations. 
 , . . With the submerged tenth, in the ordinary course of 
 things, we should have, you will easily see, no chance without 
 open-air work." I have similar testimony, equally emphatic, 
 from Commissioner Howard, who has charge of the Army 
 work in London. Mr. Robertson, Secretary of that remarkable 
 mission in Edinburgh, the Carrubber's Close, when asked how 
 their work would be affected if open-air preaching were discon- 
 tinued, answered unhesitatingly and emphatically : " Absolutely 
 crippled ! absolutely crippled ! " A report of the Open-Air Mis- 
 sion says that at every election of new members, some are found 
 to be open-air converts. The Somers Town Presbyterian 
 church of London has a membership of over 1,000, and "of 
 these no less than two-thirds are the fruit of open-air preach- 
 ing." On my table lie records of such conversions, which, if 
 but partially given here, would fill an article ten times the length 
 of this. And, moreover, no one has counted the number of 
 weary travelers refreshed, of drooping hearts revived, of evil 
 purposes checked, of men nerved to hurl back temptation, 
 of wandering boys called home by the sound of a mother's fav- 
 orite hymn, of forsaken girls thus saved from bitterness and a 
 life worse than death. No one can measure the results in re- 
 
6o 
 
 moving the prejudice of those who believe the Church cares 
 nothing for them, and whose bitter cry often is : " And no man 
 cared for my soul." And who can sum up the effects on the 
 workers themselves, to whom is imparted a wonderful strength 
 and sturdiness, and into whose character is woven somewhat of 
 the fibre of which martyrs are made ? 
 
 Influences cannot always be compressed into figures ; but 
 they can be felt and acknowledged. The conviction of thought- 
 ful, observant men carries much weight. This it was, far more 
 than all the "experiences" and "cases" brought to my atten- 
 tion, that convinced me that there were eminently satisfactory 
 results. These men collected no figures : they wished none. 
 They were in the heat of the battle and knew this was a mighty 
 weapon. That was enough for them. Whatever doubt may 
 have remained in my mind concerning the effectiveness and 
 value of open-air preaching, was driven away by Mr. Spurgeon. 
 Second to none in the range of his experience and the extent 
 of his observations, versatile in the employment of diverse 
 methods, a keen and conservative observer of men and things, 
 he said in answer to my question concerning the value of this 
 agency and the desirability of its extension : " It is the very 
 back-bone of the movement to win the non-church-going ele- 
 ment. The more of it the better, the more of it the better, 
 — the whole world around ! " 
 
 IN REGENT'S PARK, LONDON. 
 
'^THE MORE OF IT THE BETTER." 
 
 " The more of it the better. The more of it the better, the 
 whole world around." These inspiring words of the great 
 preacher, who has since passed from the scene of his earthly 
 labors, lead naturally from a consideration of what has been to 
 what should be. Little, comparatively, is being done. Preach- 
 ing in the open air might be increased a thousandfold, if the 
 Church adopted it heartily, as it has the Sunday-school and 
 prayer-meeting. The wisdom of such an adoption and the 
 pertinence of Mr. Spurgeon's words are to be ascertained in 
 the light of the present opportunity and need. 
 
 There is no lack of opportunity. The peculiar charac- 
 teristics of modern life are favorable for open-air preaching. In 
 these days houses are built closer together, their rooms are 
 smaller, their yards are disappearing. Almost everybody is 
 crowded, in town as well as city. Multitudes have in their 
 private apartments no convenient place in which to enjoy their 
 leisure time. As a consequence spare moments are naturally, 
 perhaps necessarily, spent on the streets. At certain hours 
 of the day these are filled with people chatting, laughing, 
 visiting. The street is the poor man's reception-room. 
 
 Another cause sends people outdoors. The majority work 
 in ill-ventilated, sunless offices, stores, factories, where they 
 seldom enjoy the combination of fresh air and sunshine. For 
 these they thirst as the hart panteth after the water-brooks. 
 Crowded in huge buildings by day and little rooms by night, 
 they are eager to get outdoors. Vast multitudes spend their 
 unemployed hours on the street and in other open places. 
 Here they are at leisure, ready to hear and see anything. A 
 public speaker is a diversion, and not an intrusion. In the 
 past the preacher has generally called the people from tent and 
 castle and cottage out into the open air to his service. Now, 
 they are outdoors already. The audience is there before the 
 preacher. There is no lack of opportunity. 
 
 Furthermore, the right to address people in public places 
 
 (6.) 
 
62 
 
 has been extended. In Protestant countries local governments 
 are growing more liberal, and the public are generally friendly. 
 In missionary fields foreign influence at the native courts 
 usually secures needed protection. This is not universal, and 
 intense hostility is often manifested by both people and au- 
 thorities. The Salvation Armv and others many times have 
 been treated shamefully. Still permission and protection for 
 the open-air preacher are far more general than formerly ; and 
 more places and people are ready for his efforts. Certainly 
 never before in the history of the Church have the opportuni- 
 ties for open-air work been so numerous, safe, and satisfactory 
 as at the present time. 
 
 The need is as great as the opportunity. // is needed 
 for the flirt he?' extension of the CJinrcJi of CJirist. The greater 
 part of the world still remains unconquered ; but more of it is 
 open for the entrance of the Gospel than ever before, and more 
 countries are actually the scene of missionary activity. In 
 almost every land, amid scores of languages, are thousands of men 
 seeking to extend the Master's kingdom among the millions of 
 heathendom. Far-reaching, systematic, and persistent are the 
 efforts made. Every method valuable in missionary work is of 
 more value to-day than at any previous time in the history of 
 the Church. Of these, open-air preaching has proved most 
 effective. Surely, it may be said, the more of it the better, in 
 every missionary field the whole world around. 
 
 It is needed for the further reformation of the Chnrch. 
 There are more Roman Catholics to-day than in the time of 
 Luther; and though some gross abuses have been discarded, 
 the supremacy of the Scriptures and the sufficiency of a simple 
 faith in Christ, for which Luther contended, and which are the 
 heritage of Protestantism, are not at all accepted. The car- 
 dinal errors remain. The work of reformation is still a need. 
 The more the better the whole world around of every agency 
 which has been successful in winning to a true and li\ing faith 
 in Christ those who are His in name only, and in compelling 
 the Church to harmonize its teachings with the Master's. 
 
 // is needed in the normal life of the OmrcJi i7i Protestant 
 lands. The very people who offer in public places material for 
 open-air congregations are the ones who come the least under 
 the ordinary ministrations of the Church. The educated 
 
63 
 
 classes are largely connected with the Church, as is shown by 
 the remarkably large proportion of Christians in our higher 
 schools and colleges. The family of wealth having no church 
 relationship is the exception and not the rule. The people 
 working in shops, living in little rooms, and spending their 
 leisure on the streets, constitute the large majority of the non- 
 church-going classes. The opportunity offered the open-air 
 preacher enables him to reach the very ones he is eager to 
 reach, and who need him. The opportunity is providential. 
 
 It may be thought that Mr. Spurgeon's words are too sweep- 
 ing, and that while needed in general the whole world around, 
 in Protestant countries open-air preaching is adapted only to 
 peculiar localities and special circumstances which require ex- 
 traordinary efforts ; and that in the large majority of cases and 
 places it can do little good. It is true that any particular form 
 of open-air preaching is not adapted to all circumstances, but 
 it is equally true that almost all Christians are called upon at 
 times to face situations where the introduction of some form 
 of it would be fruitful of good results. 
 
 It could be used advantageously in country and town dur- 
 ing the summer in place of the regular church service. At the 
 customary hour the congregation assembling in grove, or 
 meadow, or churchyard, would find the service far more restful 
 and inspiring than in a close, walled audience-room. A prayer- 
 meeting held some bright evening on lawn or piazza would 
 prove more refreshing to body and soul than if held in the 
 lecture-room with its heat and heavy atmosphere. In the life 
 of Rev. John G. Paton, missionary to the Hebrides, occurs an 
 account of such a gathering which would be as delightful in a 
 Christian as in a heathen land. Mrs. Paton says in a letter : 
 " Namakei never fails, when well, to take Mr. Paton's Bible 
 and lay it on the desk every Sabbath and Wednesday before 
 the service; and to get the people in the village assembled for 
 worship, which we have every evening under a large ban- 
 yan tree in the Imrai (the public meeting-ground), the great 
 place of general rendezvous, which is close beside our house. 
 I particularly enjoy this evening service, when all nature is 
 at rest and looks so exquisitely beautiful, everything reflecting 
 the gorgeous sunsets, and nothing heard but the soft -rustle of 
 the leaves, and what Longfellow calls the 'symphony of the 
 
64 
 
 ocean.' I think the natives too are inspired with it, for none 
 of us seem inclined to move off after worship, and often, but 
 especially on Sabbath evenings, we sit still and sing over alL 
 our hymns." 
 
 The church of which I formerly was pastor, the Eastern 
 Avenue of Springfield, Mass., held some Sabbath evening ser- 
 vices during July and August on the church grounds at about 
 the hour of sunset. The audiences were larger than at our 
 regular indoor services, and the spiritual life of the church 
 was quickened and refreshed. As a consequence, the church 
 was in a better condition at the close than at the beginning of 
 the summer. Instead of spending the fall in preparation for 
 active work, we were ready to put forth at once earnest hearty 
 efforts. The mere change itself was beneficial. When we 
 returned to the customary services, they seemed fresh and 
 more attractive. Their monotony had vanished. 
 
 There is some ground for the claim of those who discon- 
 tinue some or all the religious ser\nces during the summer. 
 They believe the work will be taken up in the fall with vigor 
 and enthusiasm, instead of wearily and listlessly after a monot- 
 onous and disheartening summer's efforts. A little change is 
 indeed often the best tonic for soul as well as for body. But 
 all these and many other advantages would be gained by a 
 change instead of a cessation of work. Securing this, the re- 
 maining months would be more enjoyable and fruitful, and the 
 summer would not be as barren as it often is. Most country 
 and town churches would be profited greatly by a few open-air 
 services during the summer. 
 
 Mr. Spurgeon is very hearty and emphatic on this subject,. 
 saying : " I am quite sure, too, that if we could persuade our 
 friends in the country to come out a good many times in the 
 year, and hold a service in a meadow, or in a shady grove, or on 
 the hillside, or in a garden, or on a common, // would be all the 
 better for the icsual hearers. The mere novelty of the place 
 would freshen their interest, and wake them up. The slight 
 change of scene would have a wonderful effect upon the more 
 somnolent. See how mechanically they move into their usual 
 place of worship, and how mechanically they go out again. 
 They fall into their seats, as if at last they had found a resting 
 place ; they rise to sing with an amazing effort, and they drop 
 
I 
 
 6s 
 
 down before you have time for a doxology at the close of the 
 hymn, because they did not notice it was coming. What logs 
 some regular hearers are ! Many of them are asleep with their 
 eyes open. After sitting a certain number of years in the 
 same old spot, where the pews, pulpit, galleries, and all things 
 else are always the same, except that they get a little dirtier 
 and dingier every week, where everybody occupies the same 
 position for ever and for evermore, and the minister's face, voice, 
 tone are much the same from January to December — you get 
 to feel the holy quiet of the scene, and listen to what is going 
 on as though it were addressed to 'the dull cold ear of death.' 
 As a miller hears his wheels, as though he did not hear them, 
 or a stoker scarcely notices the clatter of his engine after en- 
 during it for a little time, or as a dweller in London never 
 notices the ceaseless grind of the traffic ; so do many members 
 of our congregations become insensible to the most earnest 
 addresses, and accept them as a matter of course. The preach- 
 ing and the rest of it get to be so usual that they might as well 
 not be at all. Hence a change of place might be useful, it 
 might prevent monotony, shake up indifference, suggest 
 thought, and in a thousand ways promote attention, and give 
 new hope of doing good. A great fire which should burn some 
 of our churches to the ground might not be the greatest 
 calamity which has ever occurred, if it only aroused some of 
 those rivals of the seven sleepers of Ephesus, who will never 
 be moved so long as the old house and the old pews hold to- 
 gether. Besides, the fresh air, and plenty of it, is a grand 
 thing for every mortal man, woman, and child. I preached in 
 Scotland twice on a Sabbath day at Blairmore, on a little 
 height by the side of the sea ; and after discoursing with all my 
 might to large congregations, to be counted by thousands, I did 
 not feel one-half so much exhausted as I often am when ad- 
 dressing a few hundreds in some horrible black hole of Calcutta 
 called a church." 
 
 " One of the earliest things that a minister should do when 
 he leaves college and settles in a country town or village is to 
 begin open-air speaking. He will generally have no difficulty 
 as to the position — the land is before him, and he may choose 
 according to his own sweet will. The market-cross will be a 
 good beginning, then the head of a court crowded with the 
 5 
 
66 
 
 poor, and next the favorite corner of the idlers of the parish. 
 Cheap-Jack's stand will make a capital pulpit on Sunday night 
 during the village fair, and a wagon will serve well on the green, 
 or in a field at a little distance, during the week-day evenings of 
 the rustic festival. A capital place for an al fresco discourse is 
 the green, where the old elm trees, felled long ago, are still 
 lying in reserve, as if they were meant to be seats for your 
 congregation ; so also is the burial ground of the meeting- 
 house, where 'the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.' 
 Consecrate it to the living, and let the people enjoy ' Meditations 
 among the Tombs.' Make no excuses, then, but get to work at 
 once." 
 
 In many churches there would be little pleasure and profit 
 in such open-air services because during the summer most of 
 the congregation are absent, the rich having gone to summer 
 resorts and the poor to the parks. This temporary desertion 
 of the sanctuary would not be a cause for anxiety, for empty 
 churches are harmless, and preachers can survive the stare of 
 empty pews, if only all the absentees were enjoying regular 
 spiritual instruction and inspiration. But they aref not. Prob- 
 ably no prayer is more pertinent at the close of the summer 
 holidays than '' We have left undone those things which we 
 ought to have done." People on their vacations, including re- 
 ligious leaders, who are as faithful in attendance on divine ser- 
 vice as when at home, are exceptions. This is sometimes of 
 choice, and sometimes of necessity, for in many summer re- 
 sorts church accommodations are unsatisfactory or insufficient. 
 People remaining in the city have the same feeling, and do 
 practically the same thing. They are determined to go where 
 the green grass grows all around, and if they cannot go for 
 many days, they go for one ; if they cannot have five dollars for 
 car fare, they pay five cents, and go just the same. In all 
 classes are many who lose ground steadily during this period, 
 and as a consequence most pastors feel in their churches at the 
 end of the summer the loss of the previous season's spiritual 
 momentum. 
 
 The church may utter a dignified protest and cling to its 
 deserted courts, or may make, as some do, an unconditional sur- 
 render of all effort ; or else, becoming as weak to the weak, she 
 may take the opportunity presented by open-air preaching, and 
 
67 
 
 carry the Gospel to them where they are. Open-air preaching- 
 is needed to cope with this evil. Though it cannot entirely make 
 good the lack, it will help to keep alive and nourish spiritual 
 life. Thus did Aldhelm, bishop of the Church in the seventh 
 century. When the people would not come to receive his 
 instructions and exhortations, he disguised himself as a harper 
 and went forth. When with his minstrelsy he had collected 
 an audience about him, he turned to loftier themes and sang a 
 Saviour's love and the story of Redemption. Open-air services 
 in parks and at summer resorts have been a great success 
 in America, as well as in Britain, and have proved beyond a 
 peradventure that multitudes will attend in an interested and 
 devotional manner such meetings who cannot be persuaded 
 to enter a closed building for the same purpose. People 
 visit resorts to be in the open air, and it requires a 
 strong sense of duty, or a great attraction, to bring them to 
 an indoor gathering. But they can be easily drawn to an open- 
 air service. 
 
 Of course, no church goes in a body to any given place, and 
 the minister is not usually in the same place with his flock. 
 But if open-air services were instituted generally wherever peo- 
 ple flock for the summer, many would be reached and benefited 
 thereby, and would return to their churches with undiminished 
 spiritual earnestness and sensitiveness. It is done in many 
 places. It can be done in many more. The difficulties meet- 
 ing many movements do not appear here. A large force of 
 workers, though desirable, is not necessary, and little or no 
 money is required. Private solicitation and public appeals for 
 funds are not indispensable adjuncts. The gospel can be given 
 without money and without price, as well as received in that 
 way. Wherever there are people and a willing witness for 
 Christ, then and there open-air services are possible if desira- 
 ble. I do not see why this work cannot be introduced gen- 
 erally as a feature of summer vacations. 
 
 Of course, some will object. In one town the leading min- 
 ister succeeded in stopping a plan for Sunday afternoon preach- 
 ing on the parks because he thought it would draw people from 
 his church, and justify his young people in going to the park at 
 that time. And not many days after he sailed for Europe, and 
 was gone all the summer. He strained at a gnat and swallowed 
 
69 
 
 a camel. Without doubt, had those services been held, some 
 of his congregation, who, though in town, were away from his 
 church about as long as he was, would have had their thoughts 
 turned to higher and spiritual things while wandering through 
 the parks, and he would have found his church in better spirit- 
 ual condition on his return. Though there are objections to 
 this work, it is by far the best, and in fact almost the only, way 
 of meeting the difficulties presented to the church in the sum- 
 mer season. 
 
 The Church needs open-air preaching as a means of meeting 
 another responsibility — that of caring for men temporarily 
 gathered in some place for a specific purpose. Such communi- 
 ties are seen about mines and quarries, in lumber camps, where 
 a railroad is being built, where sailors are numerous on the 
 shore, or a regiment has gone into encampment. These men, 
 away from the refining influences of home and woman, are in 
 especial need of safeguards. Erection of churches would be an 
 extravagance, for they soon might be entirely useless. Instead 
 of trying a tent, or crowding a cabin, the preacher can often best 
 accomplish his purpose of reaching the men by an open-air ser- 
 vice. I have been greatly interested in reading accounts of such 
 gatherings held during the War of the Rebellion. Some were 
 in pine groves, others in grassy meadows ; some were in the 
 bright morning, and some at sunset ; some were held on the eve 
 of a conflict, and others on the battlefield itself, while the con- 
 flict was raging all about. These were thrilling scenes and 
 often blessed. The illustration of Jeremy Taylor preaching in 
 camp is picturesque, and shows how such opportunities present 
 themselves and may be seized. 
 
 In a different form it is needed in making good another lack. 
 Upon the outskirts of our large cities are scattered communi- 
 ties, too small to erect buildings and sustain churches ; and in 
 their centers are sections similarly destitute, although for differ- 
 ent reasons. These can be and have been reached by means of 
 a Gospel Wagon, either one made expressly for this purpose, or 
 temporarily adapted to the work. Such a wagon, holding a small 
 organ, and a company of singers and speakers, can be driven in 
 succession to places comparatively distant, without consuming 
 the time and strength of the workers. There are numerous ad- 
 vantages in this plan. Good music is always possible, the 
 
70 
 
 speakers have an advantageous position, and they enjoy an inde- 
 pendence not otherwise attainable. Several of these Gospel 
 Wagons are in use in different cities in the United States. 
 
 I have heard of a similar plan employed on Western plains, 
 less elaborate, but equally effective, where a large farm wagon 
 was put to this service and secured results as satisfactory as in 
 its secular harvesting. I also have known of a party of young 
 men starting in a less commodious wagon, and driving over 
 sparsely settled hills, and accomplishing much good by holding 
 services wherever a group of houses presented the opportunity 
 of an audience. 
 
 The more the results actually attained are considered, and 
 also the opportunities and needs of the times, the more perti- 
 nent do Mr. Spurgeon's words appear. The Church does need . 
 more and more open-air preaching to meet many difBculties- 
 constantly presenting themselves, and not easily compassed by 
 the regular services. 
 
 Moreover, the time is ripe for the general introduction of this 
 method of advancing the Master's kingdom. It is a period of 
 forward movements. Though opposition will appear, without 
 doubt the objectors will be reconciled as easily and quickly as 
 they have been to scores of innovations introduced during the 
 past half-century in forms of work and worship. In fact, the 
 Church is peculiarly ready for open-air preaching, because it 
 begins to feel a want which this can best supply. For a long 
 time mental and spiritual activity ceased with the approach of 
 summer, to be resumed only when it took its flight. Schools 
 and colleges were closed and church work was reduced to a 
 minimum. Intellectual and religious hibernation took place in 
 summer. Education was the first to escape from this absurd 
 notion. Summer schools are now the order of the day. Not 
 only do pupils study the modern languages, but they wrestle 
 with ancient languages and history, with science and philosophy. 
 The summer has become a period of intellectual activity. 
 Places and methods are different, but good work is done and the 
 results are real. The Church also is commencing to feel that it 
 too has possibilities of profit during this season. It is like a 
 man clothed in summer with heavy winter garments, who is 
 certain he cannot work in the harvest field, but who is wonder- 
 ing whether he cannot dress himself in garments suited to the 
 
71 
 
 season, and do some work after all. We wear clothes in sum- 
 mer as well as in winter, but of different material and cut ; we 
 eat food in summer as well as in winter, but of different kind 
 and proportion ; we continue our social life, but change the 
 glowing hearth for the green hill ; but we make no accommoda- 
 tions in our religious life, and consequently it languishes. It is 
 a significant fact that the denomination which has grown the 
 most rapidly in the past century is the only one that has 
 largely realized that summer spiritual work can be done. All 
 may not need camp meetings, but all do need to follow the ex- 
 ample of the Methodists in striving to make the summer a fruit- 
 ful season. The Church is awakening to this fact, is looking 
 about, is trying experiments. In open-air preaching is found 
 the desired adaptation of religious work to summer circum- 
 stances. By it the barren season will become fruitful. The 
 Church is ready and is welcoming it. Mr. Spurgeon's wish is 
 prophetic. There will be more and more of open-air preaching 
 the whole world around. It will be better for man and will be 
 for the glory of God. 
 
 WESLEY PREACHING ON HIS FATHER'S TOMB. 
 
OPEN-AIR PREACHING AS A FACTOR IN CITY 
 EVANGELIZATION. 
 
 Greatness has been thrust upon our cities, at first dehghting 
 and then alarming us. To-day earnest men in every sphere of 
 life are wrestling with the new and perplexing problems created 
 by this rapid growth. The church has her share, and among 
 them is the problem of city evangelization. Large numbers of 
 people are away from all visible religious influences. The devil 
 has mortgages on many down-town churches and is foreclosing 
 rapidly. Often on Sunday the bell of the excursion-train ex- 
 tends a more effectual call than the church chimes; and the 
 "closed door" of the saloon successfully rivals the ''open door" 
 set before us by the Lord. In speaking of these non-church- 
 going masses we say they have drifted away from the Church. 
 They, on the other hand, stoutly assert that the Church has de- 
 serted them, and is the guilty party. Neither deny the separa- 
 tion. Whose the fault, God knows. Their reunion is the 
 problem of city evangelization. 
 
 To accomplish this we must adopt in our church work the 
 cardinal principle of modern business methods. We are behind 
 the times. A merchant managing his affairs as we do ours 
 would not be able to pay ten cents on a dollar. " The children 
 of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of 
 light." In the business world to-day the demand does not seek 
 the supply, but the supply seeks the demand, and if necessary 
 awakens and even creates it. Upon this principle have our 
 great business enterprises been erected. No longer do mer- 
 chants wait for their customers. The wholesale houses send 
 their traveling men. The retailers solicit orders and deliver 
 goods. Everything is brought to a man these days — except 
 the Gospel. The Church alone still follows the old plan, secur- 
 ing a building, offering its treasures, and waiting for the demand 
 to seek the spiritual supply. 
 
 But this will not do. Non-church-goers cannot be drawn to 
 the church simply by attractions offered there, however success- 
 ful such inducements may be in drawing people from other 
 
 (72) 
 
73 
 
 churches. A brilUant preacher told me that he repeated in a 
 New York mission a series of sermons which in a New England 
 town had crowded the church, but only one new auditor was 
 drawn. Some years ago a famous evangelist held special ser- 
 vices in another down-town New York mission. It was kept 
 out of the papers, but widely advertised in the vicinity. Few 
 came, until the up-town church-going people, hearing he was 
 there, came down and crowded the church. I attended a service 
 in the only church of a populous district in London. The 
 music was wonderfully sweet and inspiring, but the singers 
 numbered more than the audience. The strongest attraction, 
 whether of sermon or song, within the church affects the world, 
 the flesh, and the devil about as much as the latest sensation at 
 a dive affects a spiritually-minded Christian. 
 
 To succeed we must adopt this important business principle 
 in our religious work: the spiritual supply must seek the de- 
 mand, and if necessary revive or create it. Objections that this 
 degrades the Gospel are not pertinent, for this is God's way. 
 He sent Moses, Isaiah, Jonah, and other prophets to the people, 
 not the people to the prophets. We have reversed this divine 
 method. We demand that the people shall seek the preacher. 
 The Good Shepherd did not wait until the lost sheep stood at 
 the door of the fold bleating for admittance. Christ did not 
 wait until we knocked at the door of heaven, but from its por- 
 tals he hastened while our feet were at the threshold of hell, 
 and our hand stretched forth to knock there. The Son of Man 
 came to seek the lost. What right have we to say that the lost, 
 whom we are sent to save, must seek us. The responsibility 
 rests upon us. Too often we shirk it. A minister said to me 
 once : " The churches are practically saying to the people, ' We 
 have put the Gospel in this building. You may come here and 
 get it, and find the way to heaven ; or stay where you are, and 
 go to hell.' " This assumption that a Christian's responsibility 
 terminates when he has given the good news to all willing to 
 come and hear him is unscriptural. We cannot wash our hands 
 at their failure to come to a place of worship appointed by us. 
 If they refuse to heed the Gospel, the sin is indeed theirs : if, 
 however, it is not brought to their hearing, the fault is ours. 
 We must not leave them alone. The doctrine of laissez faire 
 has no place in the creed of the church militant. 
 
74 
 
 There are many turning the Church upside down with their 
 theological teachings : whether or not such men are needed, we 
 do need men who shall turn the churches inside out, that each 
 pew may become an outside pulpit, preaching salvation to the 
 portion of the city over against itself. Church buildings too 
 often are huge ''bushels" under which a glorious light is hid- 
 den, instead of being candlesticks, sending rays of spiritual 
 light in all directions. The words " Preach the Gospel to every 
 creature" are relegated to foreign missionary meetings. We 
 emphasize it, when obedience by proxy is possible. But 
 absolute and imperative is the command for us to present 
 Christ to every creature within our cities. If it cannot be ac- 
 complished by our regular church services, then must it be 
 done some other way. One British Presbytery is right when it 
 requires its ministers to go out to the people several times a 
 year and preach in the open air. We, too, must go to the people 
 in their houses, on the streets, in the parks, wherever we can 
 get a hearing. House-to-house visitation is necessary and is 
 effective in reaching mothers and children in their homes. 
 Men and young people, working all day and going out generally 
 in the evening, must be reached by open-air preaching, if at all. 
 And this will reach them. Wherever in Great Britain and else- 
 where it has been fairly tried, such people have listened to the 
 message brought to them. The character of these audiences is 
 well indicated by the fact that such services flourish best where 
 there is a large non-church-going element. The two New York 
 pastors, who complained that few of the crowds at their open- 
 air meetings would follow them into the church, were witnesses 
 to the need and opportunity of open-air preaching as a factor 
 in city evangelization. 
 
 The motives bringing them to listen are varied. This is 
 true of a church congregation, also. But so long as they are 
 willing to listen, the opportunity exists, and the preacher's duty 
 is plain and imperative. Sometimes opposition is aroused and 
 manifested, but as a rule the majority of the people are kindly 
 disposed to the open-air preacher. They recognize the unself- 
 ish loving interest prompting his effort, and are touched by it. 
 Except in strongly Roman Catholic districts, the large majority 
 sympathize with the preacher and are against the intruder. 
 Ordinarily, the attention of an open-air audience is equal to that 
 
75 
 
 of any, and the speaker's opportunity as great. There are more 
 distractions than in a church, but the audience keeps awake. 
 The wandering mind simply carries off the body, instead of 
 leaving it to gaze blankly at the pulpit ; and there is not much 
 choice between these two common occurrences. Expressions 
 of approval and disapproval are more apparent and disturbing, 
 but also more stimulating. Though the environment appar- 
 ently is unfavorable, an audience outdoors will receive and 
 carry away about as much as one in a heated closed building. 
 
 All sorts and conditions of men will be reached by the open- 
 air preacher. Among them will be found, besides others, three 
 classes who can be reached with difficulty by ordinary means. 
 
 The first class includes those who have come from priest- 
 ridden countries, where religion is a mere form, presenting irk- 
 some restraints rather than spiritual inspiration. Continuing in 
 subjection, they regard Protestantism as a damnable heresy; or, 
 having escaped, they shun all religious organizations as alike 
 detestable and dangerous. Bitterness, prejudice, or fear of 
 priestly condemnation keep them from crossing the thresholds 
 of our sanctuaries. With such our cities are crowded, and yet 
 to get a mere handful within a Protestant church is no easy 
 task, as all laborers among them will testify. It requires gen- 
 erally a moral earnestness within their hearts to surmount these 
 barriers. This, the Gospel alone can supply, but they do not 
 have the Gospel. It is absurd to expect them to enter our 
 churches for that power, without which their coming is impossi- 
 ble. As well signal the shipwrecked sailor to swim to the shore 
 for the lifeboat. As well ask the sick man to walk to the place 
 where he can find nourishment which will enable him to walk. 
 As well bid the fettered prisoner come forth and secure imple- 
 ments with which to break his fetters and free himself. Rather 
 should we take to them the means of escape, and then, being 
 free, will they come to us. The nail will leap to the magnet 
 and cling to it, but the magnet must first be brought near the 
 nail. Thousands never will feel the attraction of the sweet 
 story of old until it is taken to them. These Italians, Bohe- 
 mians, and other such, know nothing of the sweetness, purity, 
 and power of the Gospel as it is in Jesus Christ. When 
 we urge them to our churches, they picture to themselves as 
 ours a relio-ion from which we ourselves would shrink. We 
 
75 
 
 must make dear to them the good tidings. The Bible, 
 and portions of it, tracts and illustrated papers must be dis- 
 tributed, and the old, old story must be told again and again to 
 them, in their houses, on the streets, at the parks, — wherever 
 they can be found. Only thus can their false ideas of 
 Christianity be banished and their prejudices removed. Espec- 
 ially valuable is the opportunity of sowing the good seed in the 
 hearts of the children of such parentage, who often gather in 
 large numbers around the open-air preacher, though they dare 
 not cross the threshold of his church. Let those who claim 
 that Romanism does not offer the Gospel, cease their tirades, 
 and strive to make good the lack, by simply holding up Christ 
 wherever Romanists will listen. The philanthropist, George 
 Holland of London, told me that he had observed that Jews 
 who shunned every appearance of Christian interest, gathered 
 in large numbers in open-air services after dark. Mr. Spurgeon, 
 after relating the conversion of a Jew who had attended such 
 meetings, adds : *' How many other strangers and fellow-citi- 
 zens may, by the same instrumentality, have become fellow- 
 citizens with the saints and of the household of God we cannot 
 tell. Romanists also are met with in this manner more fre- 
 quently than some would suppose. It is seldom prudent to 
 publish cases of conversion among Papists ; but my own obser- 
 vation leads me to believe that they are far more common than 
 they were ten years ago, and the gracious work is frequently 
 commenced by what is heard of the Gospel at our street 
 corners." Such people after their conversion require faithful 
 instruction and Christian sympathy for a long time. These, 
 open-air preaching cannot supply : but it can let them taste 
 and see that the Lord is good, and arouse in them a hungering 
 and thirsting after righteousness, sufficiently strong to bring 
 them to the churches. 
 
 Another class includes foreigners very different from these, 
 being nominally Protestant, but whom it is almost as difficult 
 to reach. Some of them have had a Godless childhood. Still 
 more regard religion as a childish diversion, to be put away at 
 manhood. They speak pleasantly and patronizingly of the re- 
 ligious forms observed by them in their youth, as we would of 
 their playthings. They have nothing against the Church ; it has 
 no attractions for them. They receive an invitation to attend 
 
77 
 
 church with a smile and expression of thanks, as a little cour- 
 tesy extended to them out of good will ; they never accept. 
 Neither church nor mission reaches them. The former they 
 consider an expensive luxury, and less desirable than the beer 
 garden ; the latter is for criminals and the poor, they think ; 
 and they are neither. They pay their debts ; they care for 
 their families. This is religion enough, they say. Real re- 
 ligion is unknown to them. Such form the bulk of our re- 
 spectable Protestant non-church-going element. Their hearts 
 are good ground, but they will not come to receive the seed. 
 From them could be formed tender, faithful, aggressive Chris- 
 tkns, if only we could reach them. They can be found in 
 large numbers on our parks on Sunday afternoons, and offer a 
 most attractive field. Here at leisure and sauntering about, 
 they are drawn by their love of music or simple curiosity to 
 join a congregation. I know of no other way of successfully 
 bringing to this class the Gospel. It is this or nothing ; a 
 Hobson's choice for the Church. Fortunately the opportunity 
 thus offered is favorable. The bright sunshine, the pure air, 
 the rich coloring of sky and earth, prepare the mind for God's 
 revelation spoken by men. I would much prefer an auditor 
 coming from a walk on the park to one coming from the peru- 
 sal of a Sunday newspaper, as do the majority of men in our 
 church congregations. A man shut up in a shop or store all the 
 week, with its close air and gloomy rooms, finds his whole nature 
 soothed and uplifted ; his mind and heart are in a wonderfully 
 receptive condition. Some of the most reverent, responsive, 
 inspiring audiences I ever saw were in parks on Sunday after- 
 noons. So this is not only the sole opportunity of reaching 
 large portions of our respectable non-church-going population, 
 but it is a grand opportunity, and full of promise. 
 
 Some fear this work will discredit the regular church ser- 
 vices. This easily can be avoided by choosing other than the 
 usual hours for church services, and by going out avowedly as 
 representatives of the Church. Nor will it be accepted as a 
 substitute for church life. Almost invariably when a man's 
 heart is touched he seeks a regular place of worship. Open-air 
 work has been far more fruitful in convicting men, so that they 
 sought the Church and there found Christ, than in actually 
 securing their conversion while in the open air. After speak- 
 
78 
 
 ing in a Glasgow mission, I was addressed by a young man, 
 who said : •' I also am an American." He told me his experi- 
 ence. A professional gambler, once the keeper of an opium 
 joint with a Chinaman, he had come to England to swindle 
 people at the races with a card trick. On his way to make ar- 
 rangements for the coming races he passed some people hold- 
 ing an open-air meeting. A hymn was being sung which 
 touched him strangely. He passed on, but could not escape 
 the impression. Instead of continuing his plan, he sought a 
 religious service in a church, and that night made his peace 
 with God. Many others have done the same. Churches have 
 filled their empty seats by means of open-air services. More 
 might do the same. They are feeders to the Church, and in no 
 sense rivals or substitutes. If men, being converted, were left 
 without a church home, they would die spiritually. The object 
 in open-air work is to present Christ to the Christless, in the 
 assured belief that finding Him, or even seeking Him, they will 
 go to His Church, and receive all it has to offer, and give to it 
 their lives. It is distinctively a factor in city evangelization, 
 and when that has been accomplished and people are all again 
 under the direct spiritual influence of the Church, there will be 
 less need for it. But until that is accomplished, and in ac- 
 complishing that, we must use it as an important factor ; use it 
 constantly and earnestly, 
 
 A third class who would be blessed by open-air preaching 
 includes those who need to have revived within their hearts 
 spiritual truths, experiences, purposes, aspirations, which have 
 been crushed by the blows of error, or stupefied by the fumes 
 of vice. In this class are children of Christian parents and 
 those who still have in their possession certificates of church 
 membership, whose voices once were heard in exhortation. 
 Among them may be found those formerly Sunday-school teach- 
 ers and superintendents, deacons and ministers. Few experi- 
 ences in mission work are sadder and more painful than meeting 
 such. How can I describe my feelings, as the son of a minister 
 I plead, in the midst of the fumes of a bar-room, with one who 
 declared himself a minister's son. These once godly, the chil- 
 dren of godly parents, once under Christian influences, are dead 
 in trespasses and sins. They can be reached only in one way. 
 New truths, new exhortations, new hymns cannot touch them. 
 
79 
 
 There must be something which shall awaken the spiritual in- 
 fluences of the past. 
 
 But what is there in the surroundings of such men to remind 
 them of the past? It is work, work, work, all the time, — an 
 incessant drive. How long a man might live in a great city 
 without any external reminder of the things which are unseen 
 and eternal ! The Sabbath can make little spiritual impression 
 with its newspapers, its street traffic, its excursions and sports. 
 The stately church edifices do not remind him of the little white 
 meeting-house with its green blinds. The voice of the preacher 
 never reaches even the vestibule. The grand volume of sacred 
 music is muffled by the massive walls. What is there in the life 
 of the non-church-goer to arrest him in his course, what to re- 
 mind him of broken vows, of covenants unkept ? Scarcely a 
 thing even to remind him there is a God. The stone pavements, 
 the brick walls, the brown-stone fronts, feebly declare the glory 
 of God and show his handiwork. The pure pale starlight 
 shrinks from rivalling the glare of the electric light. Even the 
 sun seems unlovely. Nature indeed is crowded out : she 
 barely has standing room in a few scattered parks. Scarcely 
 able to make herself heard, she speaks no "variable language" 
 to him. And as for his conscience — it has little opportunity. 
 So great is the city's clamor and confusion, a man cannot hear 
 himself think. He has little quiet and no solitude. He is not 
 alone with God. The omnipresence of man conceals the omni- 
 presence of God. 
 
 Nor do men speak to him of faith, hope, and charity. He 
 knows men are harsh and grasping. ''All is fair in love and 
 war," and he finds it all war. He is told that a corporation has 
 no soul, and he concludes that every man is a corporation in 
 business whatever he may be elsewhere. He does not search 
 for lovely Christian characters. They do not search for him. 
 He thinks there are none. His associations push him down in- 
 stead of helping him up. What is there in this intense city life 
 to arouse, to inspire the noble in him } The brightest public 
 place is the saloon ; the strongest invitation is the harlot's ; the 
 commonest word is the oath ; the easiest step is toward sin. I 
 marvel that any man ever escapes from that life. Each one 
 saved is a walking miracle. There is a point in the rapids 
 where a man alone cannot possibly stem the current. Unless 
 
(8o) 
 
 IN MITRE COURT, GLOUCESTER. 
 
8i 
 
 rescue is brought to him he is lost. Open-air preaching is un- 
 satisfactory in many ways, but in no other way can multitudes 
 in our cities be reached. How full are its annals with the 
 records of the rescue of such. It is preeminently a way of sav- 
 ing backsliders. Though these shun the sanctuary, the Gospel 
 is not yet powerless. A hymn, a prayer, a word of Scripture, 
 an earnest appeal by the street preacher, awakens the slumber- 
 ing past. O the power of a hymn taught by a mother! 
 Should an angel, hovering over a great city some night, sing 
 with a mother's voice and a mother's heart, if that were possible, 
 '' Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber," hands clutching ill-got- 
 ten gains would relax, feet swift to death would halt, bleared 
 eyes would fill with innocent tears, hardened visages would 
 soften into penitence, and many a soul would sob itself back to 
 righteousness. Men and women, to whom God has given sweet 
 voices, have mercy, for Jesus Christ's sake, have mercy upon 
 these wanderers. Unless some one sings to them their mother's 
 song, they will be lost forever. 
 
 What a powerful reminder is a bowed head. Many in our 
 cities for long years have not seen knee bent, head bowed, eyes 
 closed in prayer. But as they pass a group of worshipers, 
 something brings like a flash the picture of that servant of God 
 in the little quiet church, or perhaps the father gathering them 
 about the family altar — it may have been the reverent manner, 
 the tender voice, or the familiar words. I am not picturing an 
 imaginary scene, but what often has occurred. How many have 
 thus been restored to the path of righteousness ! How many 
 more might have been had we been faithful ! But some would 
 protest, " Would you have us stand in prayer on the street cor- 
 ners to be seen of men .? " Yes, I would. Surely the Master 
 was not condemning this, but hypocrisy. Let the lost wanderer 
 who has heard the name of Jesus a myriad times in coarse pro- 
 fanity, let him hear it once in prayer. Let him who ten thou- 
 sand times has seen man prostrate before the demon alcohol be- 
 hold him bow before Jehovah. Let him who has heard only 
 voluptuous music and ribald song listen to sweet voices singing 
 the beautiful words of life. Something is needed to remind 
 him of what has been, to awaken spiritual sensibilities now 
 slumbering in his heart. 
 
82 
 
 Open-air preaching has saved many backsHders. More 
 might so be saved. We should not be neglectful, though they 
 are doing wrong. For that very reason we should search them 
 out. It is true our church doors are open, and whosoever will 
 may come, and that they are "without excuse," under just con- 
 demnation for not coming; but that is no excuse for us. Shall 
 we let the harlot, once as fair and pure as our sons and daugh- 
 ters, who for very shame and bitterness will not enter the holy 
 place, die in her sins without trying to win her.-^ Shall we let 
 the tempted and fallen youth, once the pride of his mother's 
 heart, who now in his swagger scorns the sanctuary, die in 
 his sins without warning.? Shall we say to the strong man, 
 embittered by unjust treatment and starvation wages received 
 from Christian employers, " Die in your sins ^ " Not thus 
 have we been commanded. If we do, it may be better in the 
 day of judgment for them than for us. The Lord hath said : 
 "When I say unto the wicked 'Thou shalt surely die': and 
 thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked 
 from his wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked man 
 shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine 
 hand. Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the 
 house of Israel. Therefore hear the word at my mouth, and 
 give them warning from me." 
 
 The time when our cities shall be permeated with the Gos- 
 pel life and spirit, as were the towns from which they grew, or 
 from which their founders came, is distant. But surely, as the 
 Lord liveth, it will come. The Gospel is bound to triumph 
 among all these widely different classes, for the Gospel has 
 not lost its power, nor is the Church of Christ dead. The 
 body of the city has outgrown its soul. But the soul lives. It 
 is growing. In time it will dominate the body. The evangel- 
 ization of our cities is certain. The task, however, is difficult. 
 Efforts in many different ways must be made unceasingly. Let 
 there be people's palaces, missions, institutional churches, 
 stately cathedrals. These and many other things are needed. 
 But we should not neglect to carry the Gospel to the people 
 where they are. The more extensively judicious, earnest, 
 spiritual open-air work is employed, the more quickly will our 
 cities be evangelized, and this difficult problem solved. 
 
"WHO WILL GO FOR US?" 
 
 '' And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ' Whom shall I 
 send, and who will go for us ? ' " If Christ were here in visi- 
 ble presence, as eighteen centuries ago, He surely, as then, 
 would be found going to the people in their houses of worship, 
 at their social gatherings, on the hillsides, by the seashore, and 
 in the streets. Who will go for Him ? Plenty volunteer to rep- 
 resent Him in our churches and chapels ; but who will repre- 
 sent Him on the streets ? If the force is to be commensurate 
 with the task, laymen and women must volunteer as well as 
 ministers. How nobly they have responded to the call for in- 
 structors of the young ! Over a million Christians are teachers 
 in our Sunday-schools, where a hundred years ago there were 
 practically none. How grandly they have performed their duty 
 in our prayer-meetings ! A vast multitude, by narrating their 
 experiences and expounding the Scriptures, are accomplishing 
 much in the perfecting of the saints, in bringing us all nearer 
 unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ ! 
 
 Why should laymen, so widely and wisely employed in these 
 two directions, so generally remain inactive in evangelistic 
 effort.? Why should the vast multitudes, found neither in 
 Sabbath schools nor prayer-meetings, be deprived of their 
 spiritual influence ? For the adequate presentation of the Gos- 
 pel to these non-church-going masses, we need not a few thou- 
 sand open-air preachers, as there are to-day, but a million and 
 more — as many as there are Sunday-school teachers; as many 
 as are active in our prayer-meetings. Think of the spiritual 
 power of the laymen in our churches ! If brought to bear on 
 the unevangelized in our cities, the number of these would be 
 materially reduced. 
 
 Let our churches as such, under the leadership of their 
 pastors, engage in this, work, showing the world that the Church 
 is earnest in its search for the lost. 
 
 Let every Young Men's Christian Association enter into it, 
 
 (83) 
 
84 
 
 because open-air audiences consist largely of men. In no other 
 way can they bring the Gospel to so many young men. 
 
 Let our organized bodies of young Christians take it up. I 
 have been charmed and inspired by the fearless and winning 
 testimony for Christ given by intelligent young men and re- 
 fined young women at open-air services. One Sunday even- 
 ing I accompanied the members of a young people's society as 
 they went to hold an open-air meeting. They gathered about 
 a lamp post and commenced singing. Soon a considerable 
 audience assembled and among them some children. As a 
 young man was about to offer prayer, a dirty, ragged little girl 
 commenced to attract the attention of every one. The young 
 man hesitated a moment. Then quickly one of their number, a 
 young lady of evident refinement, stepped forward. Placing her 
 gloved hand upon the child, she drew the little one close to her 
 side and bowed her head. The child caught her spirit, and 
 nestling in the folds of her dress remained perfectly quiet. All 
 present w^ere touched and reverently drew near to the throne of 
 grace. Let our young people with such a spirit go out into the 
 highways and hedges and compel them to come in. 
 
 Who will go for us ? Open-air preaching is no pastime, no 
 honor-bringing, luxurious undertaking. Opposition will meet alL 
 Some will ridicule. Many regard it as useless self-degradation, 
 beneath a Christian gentleman and altogether improper for 
 a lady. Friends too gentle and loving to ridicule and oppose 
 convictions of duty will grieve if it is attempted. 
 
 Then the work itself is hard — the opposition, sometimes 
 words, sometimes blows, is disheartening, as also is the un 
 certainty concerning an audience, the inopportune distractions, 
 and the impossibility of ascertaining results. I do not urge 
 open-air preaching because I enjoy it. Some men find it a 
 delight. I do not. I shrink from it. It is the greatest cross 
 I have to bear. If I thought this work could be accomplished 
 in any other way, I never would do it any more. I pray God 
 the time may soon come when it no longer is necessary. But 
 it is necessary. I must. You must. A million more must. 
 "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, 
 and who will go for us.''" God grant that from a thousand 
 thousand hearts will come the answer '* Here am I ; send me." 
 
THE BEST METHODS. 
 
 I have thus far emphasized the prominence given to open- 
 air preaching in the past and present, especially in Great 
 Britain, and the various forms in which it is used. The fol- 
 lowing suggestions as to the best methods to be employed 
 are not based simply on my own experience, but also and 
 mainly on the experience of others, as narrated in the reports 
 of the Open-Air Mission, which run back nearly forty years 
 and include each year records from scores of places all over 
 the world. I have gathered much also from pamphlets and 
 books, especially Mr. Kirkham's '' Open-Air Preacher's Hand- 
 Book," and Mr. Spurgeon's lectures to his students on this 
 subject ; from my own observation in different parts of Great 
 Britain ; and from my conversations with many successful 
 open-air preachers. 
 
 I offer these suggestions with the full knowledge that in this 
 kind of work every man should be a law unto himself and that 
 any attempt to follow blindly a set of rules is apt to result in 
 dismal failure ; but I am equally certain that much of the disre- 
 pute into which open-air preaching has fallen in some commu- 
 nities is due to zeal without knowledge, and that many blunders 
 and failures would have been prevented by a little wise counsel. 
 
 The manner of conducting open-air services demands care- 
 ful consideration because the preacher, having greater freedom, 
 is more liable to error than at an indoor gathering where ordi- 
 narily little is left to his judgment — the hour, the speaker's 
 position, the number and order of the parts, the character of 
 each and the length of the entire service, being established 
 usually by custom. But in the open air he must decide these 
 details each time for himself, according to the ever-varying cir- 
 cumstances of the occasion. 
 
 His task, moreover, does not consist simply, as at a church 
 service, in impressing the truth on hearers who have assembled 
 and who will tarry until the close. He must be able also to 
 gather an audience and keep it. If he fails in these, his entire 
 effort is in vain. One Sunday morning in London, I saw a 
 
 (85) 
 
86 
 
 man preaching on the street without a congregation. His 
 words may have been winning and his thoughts impressive, 
 but he had erred so in the selection of the locality, time, and 
 his position that the gathering of an audience was an impossi- 
 bility. 
 
 Frequently workers succeed in drawing but fail in keeping 
 those who come. Such a misfortune I witnessed in Notting- 
 ham, where some young men had collected a company, but un- 
 wisely had chosen a location where they were liable to inter- 
 ruption. Suddenly the counter-attraction appeared, and soon 
 after these young men, deserted by their audience, could be 
 seen with their Bibles under their arms disconsolately retiring 
 from the field of battle. Had they used better judgment they 
 might have continued successfully to the end. 
 
 The open-air preacher must do some things to attract and 
 others to keep his hearers. Many lose sight of this in criticiz- 
 ing words and acts that have no direct spiritual import, forget- 
 ting that these may be a substitute, often a great improvement 
 too, for the clanging church bell ; or that they may have the 
 same function as four walls, a roof, closed doors, and cushioned 
 seats, namely, to keep the audience while the truth is being 
 presented. As such they should be judged. 
 
 But while these two objects must be sought, it never should 
 be forgotten that they are only means to the one great end, 
 which is the making of spiritual impressions. This must ever 
 be kept in the view of speaker and hearer alike. 
 
 The belief that improprieties will be overlooked in the open 
 air is entirely erroneous. Unusual methods are justifiable and 
 among them many condemned by ecclesiastical fastidiousness ;. 
 but improprieties and especially things coarse or irreverent are 
 altogether out of place and harmful. Mistakes are likely to 
 produce evil consequences, for the audience often contains many 
 in whose heart the smoking flax of faith burns so low that a very 
 little will quench it ; others who are prejudiced against the 
 church and are ready to have that prejudice intensified, and 
 others glad to find in some mistake material for their irrever- 
 ence and justification for their evil ways. Surely of open-air 
 preaching also it may be said : " and therefore, is not by any to 
 be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, dis- 
 creetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God.'' 
 
87 
 
 The Need of Preparation. Though in this work much is 
 necessarily extemporaneous, careful preparation should not be 
 neglected. Let the physical life be developed, for a vigorous 
 delivery is most important, and that comes naturally only from 
 a man possessed of good health and some physical vitality. 
 Though it is not necessary to make Samsons of ourselves, we 
 should be able to stand firmly on our feet. A weakling can 
 get along by grasping a chair to steady himself, or by resting 
 his body on the back of a pew or on a pulpit, but he should not 
 try speaking in the open air until he can stand alone and have 
 some surplus energy for use in speaking. 
 
 Scholarly and elaborate discourses generally are out of place, 
 but thoughtful presentations of truth are necessary for effective 
 work. " Anything will do in open-air work " is taken from the 
 devil's Book of Proverbs. The hand-organ style is too com- 
 mon. The good man has his '' experience " or '' testimony" or 
 sermonette, and when he is started he grinds it out exactly as 
 he has given it scores of times these many years. Men should 
 come rather each time under the inspiration of a new truth or 
 a clearer perception or deeper realization of one before known. 
 The temptation to say the same thing in the same way is espec- 
 ially strong because the audiences vary so greatly. But yielding 
 is fatal to a man's best influence. While I have heard some 
 speak in such a way that it seemed as though they must have 
 run all the way from the fountain of life, the water they gave 
 was so fresh and sparkling, what others offered was stale and 
 tasteless, and I did. not wonder it was refused though offered 
 without money and without price. 
 
 Every sentence should contain a message. The sword of 
 the Spirit should be flashing constantly. In a church we have 
 a man before us an hour and we may hope, however poor the 
 effort, that something in that time will reach him. But in the 
 open air many remain only a moment, and if that moment is 
 barren of spiritual results, the opportunity is lost. Therefore 
 should the open-air preacher study diligently the Bible, making 
 special preparation for each effort and constantly gathering 
 material for future us€. Also let him study human nature, 
 become familiar with history, especially the lives of Wesley, 
 Whitefield, and other great open-air preachers, read newspapers, 
 gather illustrations, commit to memory apt sayings, become 
 
' ss 
 
 familiar with great truths. Of great value are the conferences 
 of open-air preachers. Attend them. If there are none, intro- 
 duce them. Even after the most thorough and conscientious 
 preparation seldom will a man find himself fully equal to the 
 demands and opportunities of this kind of work. 
 
 The spiritual preparation, however, is the most important, 
 and again comparing, I say more important than for the con- 
 duct of public worship in the house of God. There the con- 
 sciousness that we are standing on holy ground, the solemn 
 stillness, the influence of sacred associations, the reverent mul- 
 titude and the music tend to arouse and intensify spiritual emo- 
 tions and exalt the soul. But in the open air the passing of the 
 multitude, the noise of the traffic, the covered heads, and the 
 innumerable distractions ever present tend to dissipate spiritu- 
 ality. The lamp, which in a closed room lights all, without can 
 do little more than reveal its own presence. We need more 
 of " that light " to illumine our own souls and to shine forth so 
 clear and so strong that those in darkness may be able to see 
 the path of life. Spirituality is the open-air preacher's first and 
 greatest need. " This kind can come forth by nothing but by 
 prayer and fasting." Universal and invariable should be the 
 habit of gathering for prayer before starting out. 
 
 Relation to Local Authorities. If the law does not 
 allow open-air services, secure all possible endorsement and 
 approach the authorities with a reasonable request, not asking 
 everything, but simply permission for certain limited hours, 
 places, and persons. If these meetings are conducted properly, 
 an extension of the privilege will not be difficult. If the first 
 request is refused, repeat at suitable intervals, avoiding a man- 
 ner liable to antagonize. Quiet persistence and influence will 
 prevail ordinarily. Yield to the police always, making com- 
 plaint subsequently at headquarters, if there is just ground. 
 
 When public grounds are refused, private property can often 
 be secured, such as vacant lots, lawns, meadows, where the police 
 have no restrictive control. In a New England city, under 
 such circumstances, an open lot adjacent to the park was rented 
 and proved perfectly satisfactory. 
 
 The Leader. Mr. Kirkham says," A leader is essential." 
 He should lead to the place, arrange the workers, conduct the 
 
89 
 
 opening exercises, call upon the speakers, quiet disturbances, 
 direct the distribution of tracts, look after enquirers and close 
 the meeting. Thus the speakers and singers are relieved from 
 distracting responsibilities. Of course the leader cannot do 
 all these himself, but he should see that each thing is done by 
 some one and properly. A ridiculous performance occurred in 
 Victoria Park, London, one Sunday afternoon when several 
 speakers stood looking at each other and saying, " You speak 
 next," "Oh, no, you," etc. While they were settling it, the 
 audience scattered. Let the leader see that the meeting moves 
 along without delay, always having a hymn ready in case there 
 should be hesitation anywhere. All should place themselves 
 under his direction, and should instantly, without protest, 
 accede to his wishes. If there is any objection, it should be 
 offered afterwards in some less public place. 
 
 The Time. Ordinarily go when the people are at leisure. 
 On Sunday little can be done before eleven, and during the 
 week the noon hour and the evening alone offer profitable 
 opportunities, except on holidays and special occacions. Dark- 
 ness is a help rather than a hindrance. Often larger audi- 
 ences can then be gathered, and some people cannot be reached 
 at any other time. A street lamp or torch will supply light 
 enough, but even these are not necessary. In every place, an 
 hour Sunday morning, another in the evening, and another dur- 
 ing the week, are occupied by the regular church services. Do 
 not hold open-air gatherings during these hours. Clear sum- 
 mer weather is most advantageous. Let us not, however, earn 
 the title of fair weather Christians. Spurgeon says : " In Scot- 
 land, I have heard of sermons amid the sleet, and John Nelson 
 writes of speaking to ' a crowd too large to get into the house, 
 though it was dark and snowed,' " and in another place, Mr. 
 Spurgeon writes of his own experience in preaching in the rain. 
 Mr. Kirkham, referring to the text, *' Hast thou entered into the 
 treasures of the snow ? " says : " I have frequently preached on 
 the snow in a double sense, z. e., standing upon it and talking 
 about it." I find many allusions in the Open-Air Mission 
 reports to successful meetings in stormy weather, and of con- 
 versions "when the snow lay on the ground." A certain Eng- 
 lish evangelist invariably precedes his " meetings in winter and 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 91 
 
 summer alike by half an hour or more of open-air work." In 
 New York City, the " open-air service continued with hardly a 
 break during the year " at the Broome Street Tabernacle. Of 
 course these are exceptional cases, but they warn against 
 being over particular about the weather. In a populous dis- 
 trict where many spend all their leisure time on the streets, a 
 service preliminary to an indoor meeting is apt to draw more on 
 a stormy day than when the weather is fine. People also are 
 impressed with an earnestness whose ardor is not quenched by 
 a little rain. As one said : " You're a downright good 'un to 
 come after us such a day as this." "Be instant in season, out 
 of season." 
 
 It is entirely a mistaken idea that the American climate is 
 so unfavorable that open-air preaching cannot be sustained 
 here successfully. 
 
 The Location. Go where the people are, and choose a 
 place where it is natural and easy for them to come. In every 
 locality are places where people will readily congregate and 
 where more can be gathered than at any other place, as in 
 ponds there are " spots " or " holes " where fish are abundant, 
 while a few rods away the line will dangle all day without a 
 bite. Observe and experiment until these places are found. 
 
 If in the country, a hillside with the speaker at the foot is 
 desirable, allowing the voice to rise to the audience. Vast 
 numbers can thus be addressed. In a town choose the village 
 green for large gatherings, lawns and piazzas for smaller meet- 
 ings. In the courts and alleys of a city, stand near the houses, 
 so that people can hear without being seen. An English min- 
 ister writes concerning his experience in this kind of work : '* I 
 have known many persons quietly pass into houses near which 
 I have been expected, on purpose to listen to the preaching, 
 who would not allow themselves to be seen attending any kind 
 of religious services." If the audience is to be drawn from a 
 crowded city street, find a spot, not on the thoroughfare nor in 
 the crowd, but very near them — a side street, a vacant lot, an 
 open square, a few rods from the throng. In parks and at all 
 public gatherings the same rule applies — very near the crowd, 
 but not in it ; but beware of large open spaces where the com- 
 pany will look insignificantly small. Choose a corner or some 
 
92 
 
 place where even a few will look like a crowd. The foot of a 
 large tree offers an excellent position unless there is a strong 
 wind. Such places are very popular with speakers in the parks 
 of London. 
 
 Make it comfortable for the audience so that they will stay. 
 If the day is hot, try to find a shady place for them ; if there is 
 a cold wind, let them stand on the leeward side of a wall or 
 building ; if it storms, find for them a shed, railroad arch, or 
 some sheltered corner. Never compel them to stand with the 
 sun in their eyes. 
 
 A wall behind the speaker helps the voice, and Mr. Spurgeon 
 gives this advice : " Preach so that the wind carries your voice 
 towards the people and does not blow it down your throat, 
 or you will have to eat your own words." Always stand upon 
 some elevation — a curbstone, step, box, chair, platform, any- 
 thing to raise you above the people. This is very important. 
 Otherw^ise, only a few can hear with comfort, but if the speaker 
 stands on an elevation, and the people gather close about him, 
 several hundred can come within range of an average voice and 
 heartily enjoy the service. Church yards and steps are excel- 
 lent if the people will come, because the preaching is linked 
 more closely with the church life, and freedom from certain 
 kinds of interruptions and independence from municipal author- 
 ity are secured. Every evening during several months of the 
 year such services are held in front of Newman Hall's church 
 in London. 
 
 Gathering the Audience. Sometimes notices in church 
 and newspapers, distribution of hand-bills and personal invita- 
 tions are sufficient. Often other means must be tried. If 
 alone, take a stand and commence to read the Bible aloud. 
 If skillfully done this may secure a nucleus for an audience. 
 Mr. Davis of Cardiff says : " I find this brings a crowd together 
 better than singing." Or, commence a conversation with 
 some who may be standing about and include in your words 
 others as they draw near. A successful Liverpool minister, 
 following the example of the churches, rings a bell which 
 he carries in his hand, until an audience assembles. Many 
 use a banner with the name of their organization upon it, 
 or a passage of Scripture, or a picture which can be used in the 
 
93 
 
 address ; at night a torch or lantern with lettering on the glass 
 answer the same purpose. " Mr. Edwin Carter of Liverpool has 
 drawn crowds by showing dissolving views in the open air." 
 Dr. Samuel Fairbank reports concerning his work in India : 
 " The audiences secured by reading, singing, and preaching in 
 the streets are usually small. If such an audience numbers 
 fifty the preacher is well pleased. . . . For many years I 
 used a magic lantern of the old style and found it a great 
 attraction. Practice taught the way to use the pictures instead 
 of texts and to preach short sermons on the subjects illustrated 
 by the pictures." Having secured a better instrument which 
 would throw on the screen a picture eight feet in diameter, he 
 adds : " I have counted as well as I could in the dark, and have 
 found that our audiences usually number 300 or 400. In each 
 of two large villages there were six hundred." Instrumental 
 music always attracts ; so does a chorus. Children's choirs 
 have proved a success. 
 
 If there are several workers, some invariably should stand 
 in front of the speakers to form the front row. Here is a 
 work for those who can neither sing nor speak; and a most 
 important work it is. People are unwilling to stand close to a 
 speaker and directly in front of him, and consequently often 
 the audience stand a long way off or on one side, or even 
 behind him. One day I drew up to an open-air meeting, and 
 suddenly became conscious that I was alone in front, facing a 
 preacher, a Bible reader, several musicians, and a large chorus, 
 all of whose gospel earnestness seemed to be concentrated on 
 me. I stood it for a moment and then fled ignominiously. I 
 can stand preaching to a crowd or listening with others, but to 
 have a whole company preaching at me, while England looked 
 on, that was too much. However, I did as the rest had done 
 before me. I came around in the rear and enjoyed the service ; 
 whether the preacher did with all his audience behind his back, 
 I do not know. Had a few of his helpers formed a row directly 
 in front at the proper distance, all the audience would have 
 gathered behind them. 
 
 Having attracted an audience, cease trying to draw and 
 concentrate every effort on retaining those who come. Once 
 started, the crowd will do the drawing, and the size of the audi- 
 ence will depend upon their being interested enough to stay. 
 
94 
 
 Singing. If there is to be singing, a cornet, horn, or some 
 other musical instrument is desirable. In Great Britain a 
 melodeon on wheels is often taken to the place of meeting. 
 Hymn-books may be passed about, but even better are printed 
 sheets upon which are hymns and perhaps a few verses of 
 Scripture and an invitation to some house of worship. Distrib- 
 ute liberally and let them be carried home. , In parts of England 
 the leader often, instead of reading the entire hymn at once, 
 reads each verse separately just before it is sung. Familiar 
 hymns should be chosen, not necessarily only the " lively " tunes, 
 but also the grand old hymns familiar from childhood to many, 
 and doubly impressive by reason of associations. Mr. Double 
 of Hoxton tells of a young man who rushed excitedly from a 
 saloon to oppose the preaching, but was silenced by the hymn, 
 "There is a fountain filled with blood," saying, "I can't stand 
 that — it was my mother's." If the singing is good, let there 
 be plenty of it ; if not, the less the better : if decidedly weak, 
 total abstinence is best. Singing is not essential. If at- 
 tempted, however, it should be strong, hearty, and spirited 
 from the first. Unless it is, the audience will not join 
 
 Though not necessary, a large well-trained chorus and a 
 good orchestra are greatly to be desired. The Charrington 
 Mission of East London send on Sunday afternoon their mili- 
 tary brass band of 30 pieces to Victoria Park. In the evening 
 these are divided into four companies and occupy as many differ- 
 ent stations. Of course large numbers gather about them, as 
 they also do in Hyde Park about the large choir under Mr. 
 Charles Cook's leadership. Sometimes quartettes and solos 
 are sung effectively, and one worker says that when one of the 
 ladies sings a solo " hundreds of people gather round, and thus 
 many hear the gospel sung, who would never walk a yard to hear 
 the best speaker " Ordinarily, however, the aim should be to 
 inspire others to join in the singing. Let it be remembered 
 that singing is not simply to attract. Its spiritual power is 
 great. 
 
 Prayer. Though preparatory prayer never should be 
 omitted, prayer in the open air is not always desirable. But a 
 short reverent prayer, very short and very reverent, generally 
 should be offered. It bids the people look from the creature to 
 
95 
 
 the Creator more emphatically than can anything else. A 
 Scripture Reader at the close of a meeting was addressed by a 
 man who afterward became an earnest Christian. During the 
 singing and speaking he had become very angry and " picked 
 up," he said, "a large brick from the building close by to throw 
 at you ; but the prayer you said made me feel so strange that 
 I put the brick down, and before I knew what I was about I 
 had spoken to you, and am glad I did so." 
 
 The one offering the prayer should remove or raise his hat, 
 and if others do not do that, they should by closed eyes, bowed 
 head, hand raised to the face, and perfect silence, indicate their 
 reverence. Sometimes an audience will join in the Lord's 
 Prayer. That is well. 
 
 Scripture. Read something short and interesting, — a par- 
 able, miracle, incident, message, something complete in itself. 
 Avoid argumentative, obscure, or long passages. Do not hesitate 
 to read several times, nor on the other hand to omit altogether 
 the formal reading of a Bible lesson. Use constantly, however, 
 quotations and incidents from the Bible. In a church the 
 Scriptures are assumed to be the foundation of the discourse ; 
 here, it must be shown. Avoid, however, affectation in the use 
 of the Bible ; it is growing quite common. Large limp-covered, 
 broad-margined Oxfords are for study, not display. A small 
 book is best. Do not make a show of turning to every passage 
 mentioned, and reading it, nor is it necessary to give book, 
 chapter, and verse of each quotation. Quote accurately and be 
 ready to state where it is found. One man in preaching where 
 there were many Romanists could not read the Bible without 
 antagonizing his audience ; but he could and did repeat to them 
 from memory long passages of scripture. In reading, be thor- 
 oughly familiar with the passage. Running comments are 
 effective if brief, pointed, and pithy. Too often they are mere 
 paraphrases, weakening rather than intensifying the truth of 
 the words read. Few can do this successfully and none should 
 attempt it without careful preparation. 
 
 Notices and Collection. If the service is preliminary to 
 an indoor gathering, or if there are to be other open-air meet- 
 ings, notice to that effect should be given clearly and with a 
 warm invitation. If it is not declared by a banner or printed 
 
96 
 
 slip, announce invariably a place wnere the workers can be 
 found subsequently, in case any are awakened and desire more 
 light. 
 
 One summer, my church, the Eastern Avenue of Springfield, 
 transferred the evening service out-doors and followed the regular 
 form including the collection. No harm came from it. But 
 where the audience consists of strangers ordinarily it is not a 
 profitable undertaking, as we are apt to receive little and to 
 lose our audience, for at the announcement their hands go into 
 their pockets and they saunter innocently down the street. 
 
 The Address. Have a text always. It need not be called 
 such. It need not come at the beginning, but let the whole 
 address concentrate itself on some short, striking passage of 
 Scripture. Repeat the text frequently. Let anecdotes, expe- 
 riences, arguments, appeals rain down like sledge-hammer 
 blows, driving this wedge of God's truth into hard hearts. 
 Avoid texts needing explanations and limitations, because the 
 audiences change constantly and late comers will misunder- 
 stand the text and its application. 
 
 Have a plan in the discourse, but not so as to make the effect 
 of one part dependent on another part being heard. A grand 
 climax at the end built on preceding arguments generally is 
 not effective. Clinch every nail as it is driven. Follow each 
 argument and* illustration with a practical application or an 
 appeal. 
 
 Use liberally quotations and illustrations. Few can hold 
 an audience without them. Mr. Spurgeon thus advises his 
 students : " In the street a man must keep himself alive and 
 use many illustrations and anecdotes, and sprinkle a quaint 
 remark here and there. To dwell long on a point will never 
 do. Reasoning must be brief, clear, and soon done with. The 
 discourse must not be labored or involved, neither must the 
 second head depend upon the first, for the audience is a chang- 
 ing one and each point must be complete in itself .... 
 Short sentences of words and short passages of thought are 
 needed for out-of-doors." On the other hand, avoid making 
 the sermon a series of stories, or simply a personal experience 
 or zealous appeal. In everything let there be a truth, a vital 
 burning truth, — a truth illustrated if need be, a truth experienced, 
 
97 
 
 a truth applied, but always a truth, which should be constantly 
 before the speaker's mind and which the hearers should always 
 feel. Mr. Kirkham thus warns against a kindred danger : "■ I 
 have heard street preachers try to catch and keep a street 
 audience by a succession of odd and amusing stories, told appar- 
 ently for the sake of showing the preacher's smartness. This 
 is a vice to be reprobated." 
 
 Ordinarily the preaching should be evangelistic, its aim 
 conversion. Though the addresses all lead up to " repentance 
 towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," monot- 
 ony is not a necessity. '' All roads leads to Rome," but they 
 start from ten thousand different places. Even if all sermons 
 should lead to conversion, the good brother need not, as is the 
 manner of some, always choose the same starting point and 
 travel the same road, as though there were none other. Of 
 almost equal importance are addresses to backsliders. Open-air 
 work has been singularly successful in reaching this class. 
 
 In nothing is the fa- _ 
 
 mous orator's emphasis 
 on the importance of '* ac- 
 tion" more pertinent than 
 in this kind of speech. 
 An earnest, impressive 
 manner and expressive 
 and forceful gestures are 
 valuable. " In the streets 
 a man must from begin- 
 ning to end be intense." 
 Another says, " Life, fire, 
 and energy are essen- 
 tial as the powder is 
 essential to carry the 
 shot." 
 
 A manuscript, of course, 
 is out of place. Brief 
 notes are allowable, but 
 undesirable. Memorizing * fisherman's sermon. 
 
 a discourse generally neutralizes the magnetism of personal 
 address. Mr. Kirkham says, and wisely, " I know of no better 
 plan than to prepare an outline ; and leave to the Holy Ghost 
 
 \ 
 
98 
 
 on the one hand, and to the occasion on the other, to clothe it 
 with suitable words." All the rules concerning the culture of 
 the voice and its use in public speech are pertinent. The 
 special dangers in the open air are pitching the voice too high 
 and shouting. Almost every beginner does this. Accustomed 
 to the resonance within a building, the speaker not hearing it 
 in the open air feels as though he were making no appreciable 
 sound, even when he can really be heard a long distance. Be- 
 gin in a low, quiet, conversational tone, and increase the vol- 
 ume gradually, if the people by their manner indicate their 
 inability to hear. Generally, however, it is not more sound 
 that is needed but better enunciation and less rapidity. An 
 astonishingly large number can hear a person with a compara- 
 tively weak voice if only he speaks distinctly and slowly. In 
 any case it is more profitable for a few to hear the gospel 
 explained in a natural voice than for a multitude to listen to 
 the frantic screams of an ambitious herald. Avoid turning the 
 head too much to either side. Sending the sound in another 
 direction throws parts of the audience out of the range of the 
 voice. 
 
 THE MULBERRY TREE, MILDMAY PARK, LONDON. 
 
99 
 
 The Order and Length. Brevity and variety are the two 
 essentials. Several short addresses are better than one, even 
 where there is only one speaker. " I find," says one man, 
 " the best way to hold a company for any length of time is to 
 give short addresses of five or six minutes' duration between 
 the verses of some favorite hymn." Judgment based on expe- 
 rience and the circumstances of the occasion alone can deter- 
 mine whether the service should last five minutes or five hours, 
 and what prominence should be given to each part. " Prove 
 all things. Hold fast that which is good." 
 
 Interruptions. These things must be from a child's merry 
 laugh to a brickbat. Sometimes it is wise to continue in spite 
 of all interruptions, but ordinarily if circumstances appear 
 which are certain to destroy the spiritual influence of the 
 gathering, adjourn to another time or place. "When men are 
 drunk," says Mr. Spurgeon, " there is no reasoning with them, 
 and of furious Irish Papists we may say the same. Little is to 
 be done with such unless the crowd around will co-operate, as 
 they oftentimes will." One of England's oldest and most suc- 
 cessful open-air preachers told me he never appealed to the 
 police, but always to the crowd, who invariably responded, even 
 going so far as to duck the intruder in a neighboring pond. 
 " A little mother wit is often the best resource, and will work 
 wonders with a crowd." Spurgeon tells how Gideon Ousley, 
 when preaching in the open air, transformed an Irish mob into 
 an attentive audience. " I want to tell you," he said, " a story 
 about one whom you all respect and love, the Blessed Virgin." 
 "Och," was the reply, "and what do you know about the 
 Blessed Virgin ! " "More than you think," he answered, and 
 proceeded to tell of the marriage at Cana until he came to the 
 words, " Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." Then he 
 preached his sermon on what Christ tells us to do, taking up 
 the cardinal doctrines and enforcing each exhortation by the 
 Virgin's counsel to the servants at Cana. 
 
 Do not enter into discussion with any in the audience. 
 Answer questions frankly, and, if discussion seems desirable, 
 offer to meet the man at the close of the meeting. Do not be 
 diverted from the simple preaching of the gospel. Above all, 
 
100 
 
 followers of Christ never should lose self-control, nor, how- 
 ever great the provocation, indulge in loud, angry, threatening 
 language. 
 
 Closing. If an indoor meeting is to follow, say nothing 
 until the end, then give the notice and start instantly before 
 the people commence to scatter. Many sing as they go. If 
 the company is large enough this is very desirable. If possible 
 the workers in starting should go not away from the crowd, 
 but through them, thus *' stampeding " them, as it were. 
 
 If there is no after-meeting, make every effort to discover 
 and help any who may have been touched. Invite the people 
 to tarry for personal conversation. Seek out any who seemed 
 particularly interested. Distribute tracts and accompany each 
 with a Christian greeting. While abstaining from impertinent 
 questions, watch for a look, a grasp of the hand, a word indi- 
 cating a readiness or desire for further conversation. Here 
 are the opportunities of leading men to a decision for Christ. 
 These moments after the meeting, these personal conversations, 
 are by far the most important part of the hour. Very many 
 open-air preachers sin terribly in neglecting their opportunity 
 and duty at this time. It seemed to me the weakest point in 
 open-air work in many places in Great Britain. The moment 
 the services close, each one should search for some one needing 
 Christian sympathy and help. 
 
 In Conclusion. After all suggestions have been consid- 
 ered, remember that a sense of the fitness of things and de- 
 pendence upon the Holy Ghost are the two essentials to suc- 
 cess. As the Holy Ghost told Paul where to go, what to do, 
 how to speak, so must He be our guide and strength, if we 
 would fight a good fight. 
 
 f^rn^'^ 
 
 ^ 
 
INDEX. 
 
 
 Address, The . . . , . 
 
 . 87, 96 
 
 After the service, 
 
 20, 49, 51, 100 
 
 Aldhelm, Bishop . . ... 
 
 . 6^ 
 
 Amos, ..... 
 
 II 
 
 Apostles, Custom of the 
 
 13 
 
 Approval, Ecclesiastical 
 
 .... . 42-45 
 
 Arnold of Brescia, 
 
 ... . .28 
 
 Audiences at doors and windows. 
 
 .... .51,91 
 
 Audiences ready for a preacher, 
 
 61 
 
 Audiences, Gathering 
 
 20,35,49,51,92 
 
 Audiences, Holding 
 
 . 86, 93 
 
 Audiences, Large 
 
 . ' 31, 32, 35, 37, 38, 42, 44 
 
 Audiences, Small 
 
 15, 30, 51, si^ 70 
 
 Augustine, . . . . ' 
 
 . 16, 18 
 
 Authorities, Government 
 
 48, 62, %?> 
 
 Back-sliders, Reaching . 
 
 . 78-82 
 
 Baptists (see also Spurgeon), 
 
 44 
 
 Bible, Reading of . . " . 
 
 . 12,20,23,29,31,63,92,95 
 
 Birds Fair in London, 
 
 54 
 
 Bishops, Testimony of . 
 
 42 
 
 Boniface, ..... 
 
 .16, 18 
 
 Booth, General (see also Salvation Army) 
 
 59 
 
 Broome St. Tabernacle in New York, . 
 
 91 
 
 Bunyan, ..... 
 
 . - . . .36 
 
 Business Principles, In accord with 
 
 . . . 5, 72, 73 
 
 Camp Meetings, .... 
 
 .41,71 
 
 Carrubber's Close mission in Edinburgh, 
 
 • 49, 59 
 
 Christ, Example of . . . 
 
 13, 73, 83 
 
 Christ, Presentation of . . . 
 
 . 17, 49, 7^, 97 
 
 Christian Community, The 
 
 46 
 
 Christian Evidence Society, The 
 
 . 46 
 
 Church of England, 
 
 . 42, 43, 44, 55 
 
 Church now ready for this work, 
 
 .70 
 
 Church-yards, In 
 
 31, 32, 38, 42, 43, SS, 64, 71, 92 
 
 City Evangelization, Relation to 
 
 47, 72-82 
 
 Classes of people best reached . 
 
 7S. 7^, 7^ 
 
 Common People, Attitude of 
 
 . 48, 74 
 
 Congregationalists (see also Eastern Avenue 
 
 Church), . .44,45 
 
 Cook, Charles .... 
 
 46, 59, 94 
 
 Crosses, Services at foot of . , 
 
 19 
 
 Darkness, In the 
 
 . 42, 52, 53, 89 
 
 DeHvery in speaking. 
 
 
 Difficulties, .... 
 
 . 16, 36, 39, 84 
 
 Discussions to be avoided, 
 
 . 38, 99 
 
 Disturbances, .... 
 
 • 30, 33, 39, 98 
 
 (lOl) 
 
102 
 
 Dominic and the Dominicans, 
 
 i8, 30, 31 
 
 Eastern Avenue Church in Springfield, 
 Edinburgh, ..... 
 
 Elijah, ...... 
 
 Epworth, . . 
 
 Exemplar, Our Great .... 
 
 Ezra, ...... 
 
 . 64,96 
 
 . 49, 59 
 
 II 
 
 . 38, 71 
 
 13 
 12 
 
 Fairs, At ..... 
 
 Farel, . . . ' . 
 
 Fields, In the . 
 
 Francis and the Franciscans, 
 
 Friars, Preaching .... 
 
 . 25,31,32,46, 53, 54 
 . 36 
 
 9, 19, 33-36, 51, 57, 58 
 17,30,31 
 16, 29, 31 
 
 Glasgow, ...... 
 
 Gospel Wagon, ..... 
 
 Great Britain, In . 
 
 Guiness, H. Grattan .... 
 
 : : : 11 
 
 . 18, 31, 36, 41, 67, 85 
 . 46 
 
 Hall, Newman ..... 
 Hay-field, In a . 
 
 Helpers, Duties of ... . 
 Henry of Clugny, .... 
 Holland, George ..... 
 
 Holland, In 
 
 Homes, Near the .... 
 Huss, ...... 
 
 . 45, 92 
 . s7 
 . 89, 93 
 . 28, 29 
 . 46, 76 
 
 ' 35,41 
 . 51,91 
 
 32 
 
 Improprieties unjustifiable. 
 Indifferent, Suited for reaching the 
 Indoor preaching, Forerunner of 
 Interruptions, ..... 
 Itinerating, ..... 
 Isaiah, ...... 
 
 86 
 
 . 76 
 
 9, 27, 31 
 
 . 30, 33, 38, 39, 86, 98 
 
 19, 20, 21 
 
 . 11,73 
 
 Jeremiah, ...... 
 
 Jews, ...... 
 
 John the Baptist, .... 
 
 Jonah, ...... 
 
 Joshua, ..... 
 
 Justin Martyr, Conversion of . 
 
 II 
 
 . 12, 49, 53, 76 
 12 
 
 • 11,73 
 10 
 15 
 
 Kirkham, Gawin ..... 
 
 8, 41, 46, 85, 88, 89, 97 
 
 Laymen, . 
 
 Leaders, • . . . ... 
 
 Length of service, . . . . 
 
 Liverpool, ..... 
 
 Local authorities, .... 
 
 Location, 1 1, 19, 23, 30, 33, 35, 37, 38, 49, 5^ 
 London, ..... 
 
 London City Mission, .... 
 
 Lull, Raymond ..... 
 
 Luther, ...... 
 
 8,31,35,45,83 
 
 . 49, 88 
 
 . 98 
 
 42, 46, 52, 92 
 
 48, 62, 88 
 
 , 52, 55, 63, 65, 86, 90, 91 
 
 41-60, 85, 89, 94 
 
 . 45, 50 
 
 17 
 
 . 32, 62 
 
 Macpherson, Miss Annie 
 
 . 46, 54 
 
103 
 
 Magic Lantern, . 
 
 , 
 
 , , 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 93 
 
 Manchester, 
 
 , , 
 
 
 
 
 46, 51 
 
 Manuscript, 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 97 
 
 Mar's Hill, 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 Mayor of London, Testimony of 
 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 McNeill, John . 
 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 Men, Adapted to reach . 
 
 
 
 
 42, 45, 55 
 
 69, 74 
 
 Men of affairs. Approval of 
 
 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 Methodists, 
 
 
 
 
 36-40, 41 
 
 44, 71 
 
 Ministers, 
 
 
 
 
 45, 83 
 
 Missionaries, 
 
 
 
 
 15-25, 63 
 
 Mistakes, 
 
 
 
 
 86, 87, 89, 93 
 
 Modern Missions, In 
 
 
 
 
 19-25 
 
 Moses, 
 
 
 
 
 • 9, 73 
 
 Mountain, On a . 
 
 
 
 
 . 10, II, 13, 37 
 
 Nature, Influence of 
 
 
 
 
 . 10, 5S, 63, 77 
 
 Netherlands, In 
 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 New York, 
 
 
 
 
 . 6, 73, 74, 90 
 
 Non-church-goers, 
 
 
 
 
 62, 72-82 
 
 Norber, founder of Premonstrants, 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 Nottingham, 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 . 52, 86 
 
 Open-Air Mission, 
 
 
 8, 41, 46 
 
 ,47, 
 
 53, 54, 59, 85, 89 
 
 Opportunity, No lack of 
 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 Opposition, 
 
 II, 17, 
 
 28, 29, 36 
 
 >, 49 
 
 62, 67, 70, 88, 98 
 
 Order of parts in the service. 
 
 
 
 
 . 98 
 
 Parker, Dr. Joseph 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 Parks, At the 
 
 
 
 
 • 55, 67, 77, 91 
 
 Paton, Mrs. John G. 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 63 
 
 Patrick, 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 16, 18 
 
 Paul, 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 Pentecost, Day of 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 Peter of Bruys, . 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 27,29 
 
 Police, . 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 48, 88 
 
 Poor Men of Lyons, 
 
 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 Poor Priests, Wichf's 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 26, 31 
 
 Popular Resorts, At 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 51, 53 
 
 Popes, Attitude of 
 
 
 
 
 
 29, 30,31 
 
 Prayer, 
 
 
 
 
 
 10, 81, 94 
 
 Preachers, Need of more 
 
 
 
 
 . 83 
 
 Preliminary in their nature. Services 
 
 
 
 20, 49-51, 100 
 
 Preparation, 
 
 
 
 
 . 87 
 
 Presbyterians, 
 
 
 
 
 44, 51, 59 
 
 Public throughfares, On 
 
 
 
 
 . 51,52 
 
 Pulpits, 
 
 
 12 
 
 ,31, 
 
 33, 42, 43, 66, 92 
 
 Quakers, 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 Quiet open-air services, 
 
 
 
 
 23, S5, 63 
 
 Rain, Preaching in the . 
 
 
 7 
 
 , 10, 
 
 36, 37, 38, 57, 91 
 
 Recreation, At places of 
 
 
 
 
 • 55, 66 
 
 Reformation checked by preaching friars. 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 Regular church services not 
 
 discredited. 
 
 
 
 77 
 
 Results, 
 
 14, 18, 20, 21, 
 
 25, 31, 32 
 
 , 37, 
 
 40, 58, 64, 78, 94 
 
 Results unrecorded, 
 
 
 
 
 . 58, 59 
 
 Reminding backsliders o 
 
 E the 
 
 past, 
 
 . 
 
 
 7S- 
 
 -82, 94 
 
I04 
 
 United States, In the 
 
 Vacation season, Adapted to 
 Voice, Use of, . 
 
 Waldo, Peter, 
 
 Wales, In 
 
 Wesley, 
 
 Whitefield, 
 
 Wiclif, 
 
 Winter, During the 
 
 Wishart, 
 
 Woffendale, Rev. Z. B. 
 
 Workers, Testimony of Christian 
 
 Working classes, In reaching the 
 
 Year, During the entire 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association, 
 
 Young people at work, . 
 
 Repetition, Danger of . 
 
 Robert, Founder of Cistercians, 
 
 Roman Catholics, 
 
 Rome, At 
 
 Rules, ImpossibiHty of following 
 
 Rycroft, Canon, . 
 
 St. Botolph's in London, 
 
 St. Mary's in Whitechapel, 
 
 Salvation Army, 
 
 Samuel, . . ' . 
 
 Scattered communities, Adapted to 
 
 Schauffler, Dr. A. F. 
 
 Scripture, Reading of, . 
 
 Sea-shore, On the 
 
 Shaftesbury, Testimony of the Earl of 
 
 Singing, 20, 23, 25, 35, 49, 51, 53, 54, S7, 5^ 
 
 Snow, In the 
 
 Spirituality, Need of 
 
 Spurgeon, . 9, 40, 45, S7 
 
 Springfield, Mass., 
 
 Streets, Preaching in the 
 
 Summer, Adapted to 
 
 Sympathy of common people, 
 
 Tact, 
 
 Taylor, Bishop 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy 
 
 Texts, 
 
 Touring, 
 
 Tracts, tjse of 
 
 Trees, Under 
 
 64,67 
 
 , 60, 61, 63, 64, 70, 7 
 
 . 87 
 
 30 
 
 17, 49, S3, 76 
 
 28 
 
 . 85 
 42 
 
 . 42, SS 
 
 ' 42, 43 
 
 42, 44, 49, 59, 62 
 
 10 
 
 19, 20, 21, 69 
 
 • S-7 
 12, 20, 23, 29, 31, 63, 92, 95 
 15, 16, 17, 56, S7 
 47 
 69, 81, 89, 92, 94, 100 
 
 30, 51, 89 
 
 88 
 
 y6, 85, 89, 92, 96, 99 
 
 64,96 
 II, 17, 23, 26, 28, 33, 49-53, 61, 72-82, 91 
 
 63-68, 70 
 . 48, 74 
 
 38, ^6, 99 
 41 
 . 68, 69 
 35, 37, 38, 89, 96 
 . 19-21 
 100 
 33, 40, SS, 63, 92 
 
 7, 38, 41, 64, 67, 69, 71, 72-84, 
 
 5, 91, 96 
 . 66, 67 
 
 29 
 
 . 37, 58 
 
 37-40, 71, d>7 
 
 37-40, 87 
 
 • 26, 31 
 
 30, 51, 89 
 
 . 36 
 
 51 
 
 60 
 
 . 61, 62 
 
 7, 49, SI, SS, 89, 91 
 . 45, 83 
 . 51, 84 
 
► 
 
HARTFORD SEMINARY PUBLICATIONS, 
 
 1 . Some Thoughts on the Scope of Theology and Theological 
 Education. By President Chestbr D. Hartranft. May, 1 888. 24 pp. \_Price, to ceftts.'\ 
 
 2. The Practical Training Needed for the Ministry of To-Day. 
 By Professor Graham Taylor. October, 1888. 19 pp. [Price, to cenis.] 
 
 3. The Relations of New Testament Study to the Present Age. 
 By Professor Andrew C. Zenos. January, 1889. 19 pp. [Price, 10 cenis.] 
 
 7-8. Studies in the English Bible and Suggestions about Meth- 
 ods of Christian Work. By Professors Clark S. Beardslhe and Graham Taylor. 
 A practical help for pastors, Bible-classes, etc. Eight numbers, 25-30 pp. each. December, 1889, 
 to July, 1890. [Price, jo cents for the set. Liberal discount for more than ten copies. 1 
 
 9. The Nature of Public Worship. By Professor Waldo S. Pratt. Jan- 
 uary, 1890. 24 pp. [Price, TO cents,] 
 
 10. A Religious Census of the City of Hartford. Being a reprint of a 
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 1 7. A Practical Introductory Hebrew Grammar. By Professor 
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 23. Open-Air Preaching. By Rev. Edwin Hallock Byington, A Practical 
 Manual for Pastors, etc. 1892. 104 pp. [Price, post-paid, 30 cents in paper, 73 cents in cloth.] 
 
 For copies of the above, address 
 
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