THE BISHOP OF LONDON AS A MIDNIGHT MISSIONARY.
"During this Lent Dr. Ingram has taken as the field of his regular Lenten mission, the districts of central London. In addition to the many parish churches in which he has spoken, he has given addresses in connection with the mission at Westminster Abbey.
The last week of his work was marked by a midnight Church Army procession, which, with brass band and torches, perambulated the most squalid quarters of Westminster and Pimlico. For an hour and a quarter, the Church Army workers, headed by the bishop, marched slowly in the rain through the muddy streets, halting before the public houses (saloons), where addresses were given by the bishop. By the time the houses were closed the procession received large additions from the crowds of carousing men and women, who came out of them early Sunday morning. A meeting was held afterwards in the schoolroom of one of the parish churches near by, where there was a half-hour of hymn singing, and a final address by the bishop."
The Bishop of London, whom Editor Bok of The Ladies' Home Journal calls the best loved man in England, has taken a foremost part in the purity reform. He preaches in the slums at midnight, and on the other hand pleads with the leaders of his church and nation to oppose with the light of truth and the fire of earnestness the evils of impurity which so threaten the national life. He protests in public by voice and pen against the false modesty which keeps young people in ignorance of the wages of sin, and so thrusts them blindfolded into the pitfalls and traps which the evil-minded always have in readiness for the untaught and unwary. The good bishop insists that the children and youth of the British Isles shall know the truth, that by the truth they may be made free. He is unsparing in his criticism of those who would have the people go on in ignorance to their injury or ruin.
Surely every true minister of the Gospel needs only to know the situation and become acquainted with the black facts of rampant sin, to buckle on his armor and give battle to the hosts of iniquity. Why then should I labor to convince my brothers in the ministry? O, Pastor, Who-ever-you-are, investigate, co-operate and agitate until all the slaves are free and the "mauvais sujet" are converted to Jesus or consigned to jail!
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE STORY OF THE MIDNIGHT MISSION.
After many days and weeks of united prayer, that God would interpose against the destruction of young girls and young men in the shameful resorts of Chicago, I asked Miss Ella N. Rudy, on an August afternoon in 1904, at a meeting at 441 South Clark street, if she would come the next night, with a view to holding a meeting in Custom House Place, which at that time had half a hundred vile resorts peopled with about seven hundred ruined girls. Miss Rudy is a woman of strong and earnest Christian character, and I appealed to her because I knew that she would surely come if she promised. She hesitated a moment and promised to come. I then announced to the score of persons present that such as would like to join us should come the next night at eight o'clock for prayer and at ten we would go to the street. The announcement was received with intense interest. Pastor Boynton, who was chairman of the meeting, immediately asked permission to preach the first sermon, which was gladly granted. Fifteen devoted people stood with him when he came to preach.
Miss Rudy is now a missionary at Ping Nam, Kwang Sai Province, South China. On December 7, 1908, she wrote me: