es into
the ground in an Italian quarter and began to preach and to sing the
gospel of grace triumphant into the ears and hearts of Roman Catholic
Italians. Except when the weather was exceptionally bad, from five to
six hundred persons were there nightly. They were met just as the
foreign missionary would meet them. Not one among them, perhaps,
Christian from a purely evangelistic standpoint, and yet, what was the
result? In less than one year they expect to have a permanent church
building to cost $60,000; something like two hundred are ready to enter
and form a Protestant church."

[Sidenote: An Ingenious Italian Expedient]

Is this a hopeful work, this effort to evangelize the foreigners? Let
the following unique instance give its answer, and illustrate also the
intertwinings of the home and foreign work. In a quarry at Monson,
Massachusetts, where over three hundred Italians are employed, there was
among the number a man who had been converted in Italy, through the
faithful efforts of an American missionary. When this convert reached
the Massachusetts quarry, his heart burned within him as he realized the
spiritual condition of his countrymen, who were living without any
religious services. He labored so effectively for their salvation that
in a few months seventeen of the workmen were converted, and they held
regular meetings for prayer and study of the Bible. At length they sent
a message, signed by every convert, to a state missionary society: "In
God's name, send us a missionary." A missionary was sent to organize
them into a church. They had no meeting-place, and in this emergency
one of the converts proposed that a room be built on the roof of his
cottage. This was done by the little band, and there they worshiped
until the place was too small. Then the first story was extended in the
rear, giving space for a comfortable chapel, and the family occupied the
second story or roof-room. This indicates the ingenuity as well as the
generous and self-sacrificing spirit of these Italian Christians, who
maintain a regular pastor and full services. How many of our American
churches, with much larger resources, could show a better record? What
American Christian would have thought of building a meeting-house on his
home roof, or would have been willing to do it if he had thought of it?
In devotion and liberality the converted aliens often set noble examples
for American Christians.[98]

_IV. The Call to Great Thing