of the singer, the song must not move you. You must yield yourself to God because the life of compromise does not pay, the life of half surrender does not count. It must be a voluntary gift. It must be unselfish. When we were in Sydney, Australia, there came a man into our mission from six hundred miles away, a minister of the Gospel, and he came saying, "I am here for a blessing, I am here for the infilling of the holy Spirit of God." Then he said, "I have lost my power. And my church people told me that unless my old power comes back, my ability to draw a crowd and sway it, I must leave my pulpit." Then I knew he was not on the way to victory. Two men in the New Testament were filled with the Spirit of God especially. One of them was Peter, the fisherman, and when he preached three thousand souls came pressing into the Kingdom. Stephen was the other. He was equally filled but was stoned to death. I wonder how many of us, if we knew that when we got back home we would be stoned to death, would get on our feet in token of full surrender! You cannot mark out the channel; you can only yield your will to God. When you have yielded yourself to Him you cannot take the gift back. I have seen children place their playthings in mother's lap and say, "These things are for you," and I have seen them come back in ten minutes and carry them away for their own pleasure. It was at Northfield, it was in the World's great convention at Washington, it was at Winona or it was when your baby died you said, "Here, Lord, I give myself to Thee, Friends and time and earthly store." and you went back and picked the gift up again, and you have robbed God. But the gift is irrevocable, you cannot take it back. Surrender means getting into position, and that is always power. The other day in Wales I saw the home where Frances Ridley Havergal lived. One day when she was very ill a friend brought in an aeolian harp. She thought she could get music out of it with her fingers but she could not; then she put it in the window where it was meant to be, where the breezes of the sea could thrum it, and she was thrilled with the music. We have no power as preachers or teachers until we get into position, and the only position for a Christian is this, "Here, Lord, I give myself to Thee."' And notice this, it is the only life that counts. The man who is living a half-hearted life, the man who is living in an inconsistent way, the man who is living with some sin hidden deep in his heart, the man whose vision is so blinded by inconsistency that he cannot see Jesus, is living a life that does not count, except against himself. If you come to the place tonight where you place all you have upon the altar, and then take your hands off, that is victory. It is victory for the man who is a minister of the Gospel. Why was it that the name of John Wesley was virtually a byword in America in 1727? Why was it he could not shake one single village, much less a continent? And why was it that in 1739 he shook three kingdoms? What made the change? John Wesley tells us that in 1739 he brought all his power of intellect, and all his power of heart, and every ambition of his life and placed these things before God, and he says that he was born again into power in 1739. I am going to plead with you to yield. Let me tell you that it is not easy. No man in this building understands it better, I think, than I that it is not easy. There are men and women in this audience who can more easily bend a bar of iron than their wills. D. L. Moody came into my church when I was a young minister; he laid his hand upon my shoulder and said that there was a missing note in my preaching. He said, "All your training in the schools will not help you unless you get this."' I confess that I did not like to be rebuked by a man who had never been in a university when I knew I had, but I know that on the 16th day of October, 1892, there came into my life a new impulse, there came a new vision, there came a new passion for souls, there came a new understanding of preaching, and there came a new desire to turn men towards righteousness, and if there has been in my ministry anything of help to the church, I know when it came to me. It is not easy. Before you bow your heads in prayer let me say that you should do it now before the door of opportunity shuts; before your Sunday-school scholars have moved away and you have no chance to win them; before God takes you out of the place where He intended to use you; before sickness claims you; before the judgment is upon you. Do it now! I wonder if it pays! The other day I said to William Booth in London-one of his eyes is blind and the other eye is defective, and he was pushing up into Switzerland to preach-"General Booth, does the way grow brighter?" With his eyes glistening with tears he said, "This is the brightest day I have ever known; the only life that counts is for others." A friend of mine tells about one of our very wealthy women of the City of New York. As she passed out of her dressing room she was met by her maid who told her that the baby was worse, and the Christian woman said to herself, "I can keep my appointment in the home of my friend and then I can hurry back to the baby." As she started down the steps she heard her baby sobbing, and she hurried into the dining room and picked up the most beautiful bunch of grapes she could find; she carried it into the nursery and looking down into the flushed face of her little child and holding up the grapes she said, "Darling, mother brought you this and she will be back in a moment." She hastened away to pay her respects to her friend. Her carriage was driven quickly back to her home and she sprang from it, but she had not returned soon enough. She made her way to the nursery. Her child was unconscious. She saw in the little chubby hand three crushed grapes from the bunch of grapes. Dropping on her knees she sobbed as if her heart would break, and that seemed to arouse the baby who opened her eyes a moment and said, "Mamma, I kept the best for you, I did, I kept the best for you." That was the last word she said. The woman took the crushed grapes in her hand and went into her room and refused to be comforted. She walked up and down the floor the day and night, and when her husband said, "My darling, it is God's will," she said, as her eyes flashed back in anger, "It could not be His will to break my heart." On the morning of the second day, having neither eaten nor slept, she came into the dining room, and she saw on the mantlepiece in the room the three crushed grapes, and she heard her baby say again, "I kept the best for you, the very best for you I kept." Down on her knees she went and sobbed out, "I will give the best to Thee, O God, my baby! I will give the best." Let us ask God to help us to give it to Him now. O Thou, Who didst suffer and die, Thou shalt have the best! Every thought of my mind, every power of my will, every strength of my heart, take it! It must be no power of mine that moves you to a decision. This is the 27th day of June, 1911. I want you to put it in your Bibles, and this is the surrender: "I yield myself to God tonight to live more than ever so as to please Him; I yield myself to God's service to win others to Christ; I yield myself to God so that I may hold my scholars when once they are won; I yield myself to God in order that I may preach as I should; I yield now." ...Chicago, Ill. Fred A. Wells... W. N. Hartshorn.. Dr. George W. Bailey.. A. B. McCrillis. A. H. Mills.. W. C. Hall. N. B. Broughton... Justice J. J. Maclaren. H. P. Crowell. .Boston, Mass. Pittsburgh, Pa. .Philadelphia, Pa. .Providence, R. I. ..Decatur, Ill. Indianapolis, Ind. .Raleigh, N. C. ...Chicago, Ill. .Corinth, Miss. Toronto, Ont. Nashville, Tenn. . Brooklyn, N. Y. ...Omaha, Neb. Washington, D. C. .Fullerton, Cal. ...Chicago, Ill. TRIENNIAL SURVEY OF THE WORK. 1908 to 1911. BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. W. N. HARTSHORN, Chairman. [This report as distributed at San Francisco was illustrated by a picture of a passenger train of seven cars and engine. The cars were placarded with the names of the various denominations and the whole train was labeled "The International Sunday School System." We greatly regret that the cut could not be adapted to these pages.-ED.] The International Sunday-school System made its survey, finished its grade, completed its track, and equipped and operated its first train from Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1872. Mr. B. F. Jacobs, Chicago, discovered the route and was the Superintendent of the Promotion and Construction Department. Rev. John H. Vincent early became his associate. This System has over 28,000,000 stockholders, located all over the world. It is now giving special attention to its "Grades.'' to straightening its curves and introducing safety signals. Also, The International Sunday-school System, either by its direct line or its branches, aims to reach every Sunday-school on this continent. It is now making surveys to extend its lines around the globe. Its trains are splendidly equipped. Day coaches only. An approved Guide Book has been adopted. Interpreters accompany each train. Each passenger hears the Guide Book interpreted in his own tongue. It may be Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, or any one of the more than twenty other tongues. The International Sunday-school System has more than 16,000,000 regular patrons; a President and board of ninety-six directors who command the services of more than 1,600,000 local and traveling agents who represent the system at over 173,000 stations in the United States and Canada. At each station is a reservoir into which has been gathered material which is available for the use of every station agent along the line. The dividends are paid "on demand" and average a full hundred per cent. The International Sunday-school System of Lessons is Uniform and Graded. One-half billion copies of Lesson Helps are issued annually. Millions of dollars are invested by the different publishers. The Bible is the text-book. The yearly product of Bibles and parts of Bibles is approximately 50,000,000 copies. The total issues of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society have exceeded 300,000,000 volumes. The Bible in whole, or in part, is printed in 526 languages and dialects. The train represented, in its make-up, some of the denominations cooperating to produce and distribute annually more than half a billion copies of the International Lesson Helps used by the Sunday-schools throughout the world. The denominations furnished the men who discovered the Uniform Lesson system, and who promoted its adoption in 1872. From the first Lesson Committee to the present, which is the seventh, its membership has represented the scholarship as well as the leadership of the great denominations. The denominations have presented some of their choicest men for this service. B. F. Jacobs and Dr. (now Bishop) John H. Vincent were leaders in the Baptist and in the Methodist Church; A. E. Dunning represented the Congregational Church; Dr. John A. Broadus, the |