THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
numerous cases they have been the means of recalling to their ancestral faith the scattered descendants of Huguenots, for generations destitute of religious privileges.
The McAll Mission neither invests money in buildings nor founds churches. Its halls are hired shops, its converts are sent to join the nearest church, in many cases forming the major part of the new accessions. Certain of the converts, mainly Roman Catholics of advanced age, prefer to remain in their own communion, though regularly attending the mission meetings. Exceptions to the rule not to establish churches have been found necessary in Corsica, and in certain parts of France where no Protestant church existed; but in these cases the converts themselves have supplied the funds for building.
The mission is supported by voluntary contributions from Great Britain, America, Protestant Europe, the descendants of Huguenots in South Africa, and an ever-increasing amount from the Protestants of France. In 1883 the American lie All Association, numbering in 1906 sixty-one auxiliaries, was formed to collect funds for the mission, and similar associations have since been formed in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Canada.
The economy with which this mission is worked is without precedent, due in part to the large proportion of unsalaried workers, and in part to the marvelous genius of its founder for organization. At no time has the average expenses of the halls exceeded a thousand dollars a year, including rent, salaries, running expenses, the due proportion of administrative expenses, and of the extensive itinerating and boat work.
Not being an effort to convert Roman Catholics, and polemics being rigidly excluded from the halls, the mission has been wonderfully exempt from opposition. Through all the evidences of animosity to religion manifested in the French Parliament in recent years no opposition to the mission has found expression. In the early days some atheists of the Belleville quarter made an attack upon it. They were frankly answered and became stanch supporters of the work. In 1898-99, during the virulent anti-Protestant campaign, the mission received some small share of abuse, but it was so strongly entrenched in public confidence that the attack fell powerless.
On Jan. 17, 1892, the twentieth anniversary of the mission was celebrated with signal evidences of the gratitude of the community and the appreciation of the State. Shortly after, McAll resigned the direction of the mission into the hands of his colleague, C. E. Greig, and removed to England. So well had he established the mission that its success has continued to increase and its importance to be recognized. In 1905 the Board of Direction gave to Greig a colleague, S. de Grenier Latour, a young man of noble Huguenot extraction, and created the office of Foreign Corresponding Secretary for America, to which they called Henri Merle d'Aubign£, son of the historian of the Reformation, and for years a worker in the mission. Louise Seymour Houghton.
Bibliography: H. Bonar, The White Fields of France; or the Story of Mr. M' All's Mission, New York, 1879; idem,
Life and Work of Rer. G. Theophilus Dodds . in Connection with the McAll Mission, ib. 1884; Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire; Records of the McAll Mission, ib. 1887; Mrs. L. S. Houghton, Cruise of the " Mystery " in McAll Mission Work, ib. 1891.
McALL, ROBERT WHITAKER: English Congregationalist, and the founder of the McAll Mission (q.v.); b. at Macclesfield (17 m. s. of Manchester), Cheshire, Dec. 17, 1821; d. in Paris May 11, 1893. He was the son of a Congregational minister, but at first proposed to take up the profession of architecture. Almost at the outset of a promising career, however, he felt himself drawn to the ministry, as his father had wished; and after completing his studies at the Free College of Theology at Whalley Range, near Manchester (1844—18), he was called to the pastorate of the Congregational church at Sunderland. Subsequently he held charges at Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, and Hadleigh, his sermons everywhere being marked by their simplicity, force, and elegance. While at Leicester, he became distinguished as a street preacher, and in all his pastorates he did extensive work in the villages, where he was eminently successful in enlisting the services of young men. In Aug., 1871, while on a ten days' visit to France with his wife, he heard, at Paris, the words of a working man which determined his future career. Convinced that there was an opportunity for evangelistic work in France among those who had abandoned religious faith, McAll, having consulted prominent French Protestant pastors, and having secured the consent and cooperation of his church at Hadleigh, returned to Paris, where, with the permission of the Government, he began evangelistic work in the communistic quarter of Belleville (Jan. 17, 1872). The work was at first carried on by the private means of McAll and his wife; but within a year interest was aroused in the undertaking, and contributions came in generously. In 1882, wishing to put the mission on a permanent foundation, McAll formed a board of directors, who in turn made him honorary director for life. This office he resigned in 1892 and returned to England to raise the funds which were urgently needed to carry on the work. Early in the following spring, becoming seriously ill, he went once more to Paris, where he died, and was buried with military honors. His wife, who died at Paris May 6, 1906, gave her last years to the mission with a devotion equal to that of her husband. McAll was the author of ninety-seven published works, chiefly tracts, many of which were written in French; and he also wrote or translated fifty hymns for the Cantiques populaires, the hymnal used in the McAll missions and by many other French Protestants. Louise Seymour Houghton.
Bibliography: R, W. McAll, Founder of the McAll Mission, Paris: a Fragment by himself, a Souvenir by his Wife, London, 1896; and literature under McAll Mission.
MACARIUS, ma-ca'ri-us: A name of frequent occurrence in the history of the early Church (cf. the DCB, s.v., and Stadler and Heim, Hciligenlexicon, iv. 2-10, where more than forty of the name are mentioned). The most noteworthy are:
1 . Macarius The Egyptian, called also The Elder or The Great: Head of the monks of the Soctic