ed to awaken and quicken the conscience of every
hearer.

Two Home Missions are contributing important service to the religious
and physical improvement of the poor and neglected. One is the Society
for National Christian Education, founded five years ago, and now under
the presidency of that tireless Christian statesman, Groen van
Prinsterer. Its centre is the Hague, but it has agents scattered
throughout the country to seek out any locality that may need a school.
It has normal schools in Rotterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, and Nymegen. It
is educating many thousands of children who would otherwise go through
life without any religious instruction. The other Home Mission, the
Society for the Propagation of Christian Truth in Amsterdam, is more
local in its character. Though very young, it has founded sixteen Sunday
Schools, attended by two thousand children; a Christian lodging or
boarding-house at the cheapest rate for homeless females; a room where
the members of the society can regularly meet to attend Bible lectures,
or to hear reports about home or foreign missions; an infant school; a
drawing-school for boys; and knitting and sewing-schools for girls. A
large popular religious library has been formed, which is constantly
increased by the current useful literature. All of these institutions
are under careful Christian direction.[98]

The leaven of Christian faith is at work. The masses are beginning to
feel its permeating and purifying power. La Saussaye has despondingly
said that "what the church of Holland is now wanting is faith in itself,
in the genius which has distinguished it, in the mission which is
confided to it,--faith in its future." She must have faith in God before
she can have faith in herself. The one leads to the other. God's
strength is never perfected except in weakness. It is from without that
we receive new power. The disciples who met in the upper room of the
temple were visited by an energy to which they had been total strangers.
The Spirit came not from their own hearts, but descended from heaven.
Yet their hearts were immediately illuminated, and they felt the force
of the promise, "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you." Real strength is not self-development alone, but
reliance on that Love and Power which, now, as long ago, can save the
burning bush from destruction.

FOOTNOTES:

[92] D. Chantepie de la Saussaye. _La Crise Religieuse en Hollande,
Souvenirs