numbers of local societies and
reform clubs.

In the winter of 1876-7, his work in Pittsburgh was attended with
remarkable results; over sixty thousand signatures were obtained to his
pledge, and over five hundred saloons in Allegheny and neighboring
counties closed their doors for want of patronage. The succeeding spring
and summer Mr. Murphy spent in Philadelphia, where the excitement was
almost as great as it had been in Pittsburgh. But, as in the last-named
city, too large a portion of the harvest which had been reaped was left
to perish on the ground for lack of the means, or the will, to gather
and garner it. The real substantial and enduring work here has been that
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; which not only held its
meetings daily during the exciting time of the Murphy meetings, but has
held them daily ever since, keeping, all the while, hand and heart upon
the men who are trying in earnest to reform, and helping, encouraging
and protecting them by all the means in their power.

Mr. Murphy continues to work in various parts of the country, attracting
large audiences wherever he appears, and leading thousands to sign his
pledge. He has done and is still doing good service in the cause to
which he is so earnestly devoting himself.

CHAPTER XIV.

GOSPEL TEMPERANCE.

As we have seen in the chapters on the "Crusade," the "Woman's Christian
Temperance Union," and the "Reform Clubs," this new temperance movement,
which has attained in the last few years such large dimensions, has in
it many of the features of a religious revival. On this account, and to
distinguish it from all preceding efforts to break down the liquor
traffic and save the drunkard, it has been called a Gospel temperance
movement. Its chief reliance with many has been on prayer and faith, as
agencies by which the mighty power of God could be so determined as not
only to save the drunkard from the curse of his debasing appetite, but
to so move and act upon the liquor-seller as to lead him to abandon his
accursed traffic.

THE VALUE OF PRAYER AND FAITH ALONE.

At the commencement of this movement, which took the form of what is
known as the "Woman's Crusade," the power of prayer seemed for awhile to
be an almost irresistible force. Thousands and tens of thousands of men
were, as they felt assured in their hearts, freed in an instant of time
from an appetite which had been growing and strengthening for years,
until it held