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IO THE PRESBYTERIA1 district and only a stone's throw from the Board of Trade, with the confusion and chaos of the wheat pit. "Instructive Evangelism'' is the new idea that James M. Gray and I). B. Towner have taught to Chicago. Studiously avoiding all methods and appeals that might be construed as sensational emotionalism, the evangelists, esteeming it thoir miccinn ^ W , 0 .v ...WU1VI1 CW V.AUIL LUC Word of God, endeavored to press home to the hearts of men and women the principles of the Gospel and inculcate in the lives of the people a love for the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. "Were there any conversions?" you ask. "Yes." Personal work with inquirers was quietly done at every meeting. When Dr. Towner sang "Ship, Ahoy," all over the house people broke down and cried as the words of the hymn struck a responsive chord in broken and contrite hearts. "Were iiot the results of the meetings lost if no cards worn cinriKiel 0.1 ?1 !? 1 - oim 11 me pcujjic were not urged to join particular churches?" "No." Once the Word of God is implanted in the human heart and ?iven the slightest encouragement to grow, it will be watered and nourished by^ the Holy Spirit and eventually will become manifest in the life. Dr. Gray aimed deep. He struck at the great religious currents coursing under the varied life of the metropolis and tapped the source of life, happiness, and religious aspiration?the Word of God. Thus was the Word magnified in Chicago. HIS HANDS. By Rev. Thomas Harjoribanks, Callander. "He stretched forth His hands." In describing a visit to our Lord of his mother and brethren, the different evangelists give different details of the event, and of its effect upon our Lord. St. Luke merely records his words; St. Mark speaks of the look that accompanied them; St. Matthew tells of the gesture by which they were enforced: "lie stretched fortli his hands toward his disciples." The effect of a speaker's words may be helped as much by the motion of his hand as by the glance of his eye. uemosthencs, when successively asked what were the first, second, and third parts of oratory, replied in each case, "Action." And not only as an illustration of his words, but in many other ways, we may find the working of our Lord's hands no less instructive for us than his looks. We may begin with the gesture referred to above. Our Lord is smetimes spoken of as "stretching forth his hand." In this instance it was done to enforce his argument, and perhaps to indicate the men of whom he was speaking. But the act usually denoted something more; it meant help, rescue, succor. When St. Peter began to sink in the water, Jesus "stretched out his hand and caught him." When the apostles are met together after Pentecost, they pray, "Grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal." Ettsebius, writing in the fourth century, shows how the tradition of this very attitude had remained fixed in in the memory of Christendom. He tells of a statue of Christ, still extant in his day, representing the U OF THE SOUTH. April 21, 1909. I Savior standing erect, clad in a mantle, and stretching out his hand to heal the woman who had touched his garment. Whatever this tale be worth, it shows him in a characteristic posture. The stretching out of the I hand is the typical saving act. It is what we should I naturally do to save a man from drowning or falling, i; is what Goodwill, the porter, does to Christian at the gate, to save him from the enemies that threaten his life. And we best follow and help our Savior when we stretch out the helping, saving hand. Again, our Lord is often referred to as laying his hand 011 some one, or touching him. He touches a leper and says, "Be thou clean." He is bidden come and lay his hand on the daughter of Jairus, that she may live. He lays hands on sick tolk and heals them, lie touches the eyes of the blind, the cars of the deaf, the tongue of the dumb. At his touch one woman ?s cured of fever, and another who was bowed down is made straight. Nor was it only in healing that His loving hands were laid on others. When the disciples fell down in fear on hearing a voice from heaven, Jesus touched them, and said, "Arise, and be not afraid." When children were brought to him, he laid his hands upon them. If the hand "stretched out" denoted power to save, the hand "laid on" bespoke power to soothe and heal, to encourtige and help. The "laying on of hands" has heen associated in the Church with peculiarly solemn acts, such as the ordination of ministers, or the confirmation of the baptismal vow. And though we do not possess his gifts in the same lorm and measure, there is a great deal in the touch of a Hand still. The medical science of our own generalion has typified to what the pressure of the human hand can do in relieving pain. The strongest hands may be the gentlest hands too. Those are most like Christ who have the gentle touch as well as the powerful arm. The man most man with tendcrest human hands, Works best for man?as God in Nazareth. Sometimes, again,, our Lord not only touched but "took by the hand." He took the daughter of Jairus by the hand and lifted her up. He took Simon's wife's mother by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her. He took by the hand the young man from whom he had cast out the evil spirit, and he arose. "Hand in hand" is the symbol of concord and of friendship; and in nrivtnnr tli/* ! */> t 1 1 ' * ... mv. Munu ut vin]MU131/.CU ms uroincrnooa witn those he helped. But there was more than this in the act. To take by the hand is to lead, to rouse, to encourage towards effort, to help a man to help himself. Thus it means more than the mere laying on of the hand. The one act heals, comforts, soothes; the other stimulates, rouses, incites to action. For many this rousing hand is even better than the soothing one. What they need most is moral support and encouragement. We can not give help in a more Christ-like way than this. When he took any one by the hand it is always added that he "lifted him up," or, as we should say, "set him 011 his feet again." The Epistle to the Hebrews j^ives the same counsel to his followers: "Lift, up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." .. - a1 ... - ' * wne oinnr act 111 winch \vc find the hands of our Savior employed is that of benediction. The very last art of his earthly ministry is thus recorded by St.