There is many a man whom the ordinary appeals do not reach. He can not be classed with the missionary, or anti-missionary, or even with the o-missionary. He is not for and he is not against missions. It can not be truthfully charged that he is omitting to perform a well-defined duty. He is conscious of no duty. He is simply not moved. The fervid appeal in behalf of the myriads of the unsaved and unenlightened does not even make a dint in him. It is too vast an enterprise. It is on a scale disproportionate to his apprehension. He can not get hold of it. He needs something concrete, specific, direct. The Church Extension idea just strikes him.

      For one reason, because of the sense of security it gives to ambitious churches. Climbing one of the high hills on the south side of Pittsburg in an inclined-plane car, my attention was attracted by the fact that to the car in which I was going up there were two strong, steel wire cables fastened, and I was instantly curious to know why two were used instead of one. The conductor enlightened me. He said: "The second cable is only to satisfy the public. It demands safety. The one cable can not possibly break. It would hold two such cars. But that no one may be afraid to ride up and down, we put the other cable on, and there it is to catch the car if the one should unexpectedly break. And seeing it there day by day gives the public a sense of security it would not otherwise feel." That is precisely the principle on which Church Extension frequently acts. The mission church is abundantly able to build, but, fearing to attempt, needs the reassuring cable of Church Extension to say practically, "Go in, be not afraid. We'll catch you if you begin to slip back." Held by the double cable, it begins to climb the steep and rough and

GEORGE DARSIE.

rocky mountain of a building enterprise; and upon reaching the high tableland of permanent success, with debts all paid and money in the treasury, finds what it needed was not assistance, but assurance; not help, but encouragement; not security, but a sense of security. Thank God for this double cable, which, though working not, in scores of instances insures magical results.

      But the overwhelming majority of churches requires more than the sense of security. Actual help is what they need, the denial of which foredooms them to gradual decline and ultimate extinction. As well attempt to grow a kernel without a shell, as a church without a building. As well expect a man palsied from head to foot to arise and do a day's work, as a discouraged, homeless church to push forward the chariot wheels of the kingdom of God in the world. As well set a horse to pull without harness, as a congregation [267] to work without ample facilities--an impossibility emphasized and accented by the overshadowing Bible-school revival in the midst of which we find ourselves. Like one of those progressive cartoons seen in papers and periodicals, in which an entire history is condensed in three or four pictures, was that interesting page in one of our missionary magazines, portraying the evolution of many buildings among us, from tent or tabernacle up through successive stages to a commodious and inviting structure on the "Akron Plan." But the different departments and the graded work, the organized classes and the systematic efforts of the modern Bible school, compel our aspiring churches to begin, to build--not where our fathers did, but where they left off. In this day, conceive a dwarf, and you will grow a dwarf. Better stand on some Mars' Hill, or staircase, or market-place, than court failure in inadequate quarters.

      For the sake of the community should the Church Extension idea strike home to our hearts. The building it helps to erect stands in the community as an expression to the world that religion is the most important thing there. A true church is an echo of God. It points men to heaven, keeps before their minds the importance of Christianity, and speaks to them of better things. And especially as it contemplates the divine plea, whose holy and righteous cause it is its wondrous privilege to espouse and champion--a plea whose cardinal points are the restoration of Christ to the central place in Christianity and our wisest liberty in him. The contention of the fathers was that this plea would take the world. As a loyal son, I believe it, I believe it. But it will not do it with the lightning-like flash they contemplated, or that we might wish. We must back it up with energy and enterprise, sand and spirit, push and progress. As we read the record of the century closed, nothing is plainer than that it availed little in the capital of our nation until F. D. Power put the Garfield Memorial back of it; in Baltimore, until Peter Ainslie glorified it in his Temple; in Mobile, Ala.; in East Orange, N. J.; in Brooklyn, N. Y., until Claude E. Hill, L. D. Wells and Joseph Keevil put brick and mortar, corner-stones and shingles behind it; in 1,262 cities and towns until, encouraged by the timely aid of Church Extension, it joined hands with the "ring of the hammer and the sound of the saw." If you want your candle to shine, you put it on a candlestick, not under a bushel. And if you want the divine plea to be seen and read of men, you must put it in Gothic and Doric, not under a dancing-hall or a lodge-room. It must have visible expression if it is to conquer. It must have a power-house, if it is to be an electric battery to charge and fill all around with warm, earnest, throbbing life. Hence the necessity of hitching it up with the gospel of "Business in Christianity." Hence the importance of Church Extension as its house-builder. Hence the utter impossibility of over-zealousness in waving the magic wand of Church Extension. To deny Church Extension generous aid, is to deny the divine plea the earthly habitation and a home it must have to win.

      For the sake of opportunities in city evangelization should the Church Extension idea be heralded until all opposition and indifference have melted into hearty co-operation and active support.

      The situation is different in our day, in that the opportunity lost to us in the downtown is before us in the suburban district. We have only to read the signs of the times with sagacious penetration, go in with boldness and confidence, in order to pluck the fruit of the rare teeming and harvest full field. We shall show ourselves incapable of learning by experience, if we longer delay buying choice corner lots in the residential portions of all our great cities, where we have not already wisely done so, even at prices ranging from five to twenty thousand dollars each, to be followed by buildings which satisfy the æsthetic and artistic taste of the cultivated and comfortably rich.

      The day of large things is upon us. Let our churches and our people show that they believe it by a disposition to heartily applaud the expenditure by our Church Extension Society of sums for lot and building commensurate with the size and importance of the place. Let us by our generosity empower our Board to meet the value of [268] city property, and meet it before it gets beyond our reach. Let our people of wealth toe the mark like men, and pour out their money to Church Extension in a generous and copious stream. Come, let us be wise and take time by the forelock.

      Church Extension is the universal accompaniment of American missions, either of which without the other is valueless and inoperative. They are as indissolubly joined as the Siamese twins. They are the two wings in the mighty flight of our soaring movement. To cripple the wing of Church Extension is to bring down the bird in unmistakable distress. Every plea ringing like a tocsin in our souls for American missions is equally full and strong for Church Extension. Our ceaseless advocacy of the revealed way of salvation from past sins, requires like faithfulness to the salvation which we are to grow up into, as we advance in the Christian life. Organization at the expense of preservation is a farce. If the Son of God lifted up will draw all men, the house of God built up will go far to hold all men. Because Church Extension supplies a building to hold, an equipment to utilize, an armory to drill, a holy place where the light of God's word can shine upon his people, and the dew and the rain of divine grace coming down in answer to prayer can moisten and mellow their Christian lives and experiences, a very gate of heaven, where the atmosphere of pure and elevating fellowships and associations can help them rise to higher heights, and attain unto nobler characters, I would put it in even balance with American missions, and argue for an equality of offerings thereto. We allow Church Extension to be pushed aside, crowded into a corner, belittled by lopsided support, when it should be made as big, as prominent, as important, as necessary as the copartner whose evangelism it secures.

      Indeed, Church Extension should be forced to the rear of none of our missionary organizations. As the great Corliss engine in Machinery Hall at the Philadelphia Centennial set in motion every shaft and spindle and wheel that was belted to it, so is Church Extension a fervent spirit in starting a contagion of enthusiasm and interest for Christian education, Christian evangelization and Christian conquest. Church Extension is a mighty crowbar in prying up zeal for the world movement. In liberating the young church from its own thralldom, it so fills and thrills it with the feeling of brotherly fellowship and helpfulness that in sheer self-defense it becomes a propelling force, a driving-wheel, a very engine of energy in speeding the oncoming day when Christ's kingdom shall be coextensive with the world.

[CCR 267-269]