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the part Christianity has already played in the moral progress of the world. Then it would present the great subject of missions and the spread of the Church throughout all lands. Growing out of this would come a study of the need and possibilities of that object for which both foreign missions and Christian Endeavor have alreadydo ne so much the re-establishment of Christian unity. And, last, it would give each young Christian some conception of that tremendous task towards which the most thoughtful minds of our day are almost all turned, the application of the spirit of Christ to the institutions of civilized society. In a time when the civilized world is attacking as never before the evils of war between nations, of drink, of contrasted poverty and wealth, of industrial injustice and commercial dishonesty, every Christian should be given some insight into the Christian remedy for them. I believe that with its world-wide prestige the United Society of Christian Endeavor could wisely make a beginning along these lines of practical Christian education.

EMMA A. ROBINSON

SECRETARY OF THE JUNIOR EPWORTH LEAGUE, CHICAGO, ILL.

The ideal young people's society must be a religious organization. Just what does the term religious organization imply? An organization for spiritual development and growth in Christian life and activity.

The conditions of growth are three-fold: normal development demands atmosphere, exercise, and nourishment. The first of these requirements has been ably emphasized. The exercise must come through self-expression; the expression in words, actions, and life; the life being the highest and most potent form of self-expression. But self-expression to become a factor in the development of character must be free; to give strength it must be spontaneous, not forced or compul

sory.

Too much cannot be said of the importance of self-expression in the development of religious character; but for a symmetrical, stable growth, education is absolutely necessary, and this education must come primarily through the study of God's word.

The so-called devotional study of the Bible has its place, but the stalwart Christian, the one who cannot be swayed by circumstance or environment, is the one who is fed and nourished by a systematic study of the Bible as a whole. Such a study grounds faith, broadens ideals, and makes devotion a looking-out rather than an introspective service. The giant Christians to-day are the Bible-study Christians.

Life is many-sided; it is a complex whole. The over-development of any one side produces an abnormality that is not wholesome.

Young people are naturally social; naturally intellectual, and that organization which fails to recognize life in its completeness can never be an ideal organization. Life is one; there can be no wall of separation between the religious and social life. The social life is part of the religious life, and the normal religious life touches the social at every point.

Not because they envy the world its power, but because they realize that power to be God given, should the Church refuse to relegate to the world this most important element of young life. The social instinct is one of the most powerful factors with young people, and can never be given a subordinate place. The ideal young people's society must not only believe in literature, in athletics, in social organizations; it must be in them.

The ideal society may open reading-rooms and libraries; conduct concerts and entertainments, but it must do this not as "a part of its mission for the young people of the neighborhood," but as a part of itself, and with the young people: not as subordinate to religion, but as an integral part of it. The ideal young people's society, then, to be religious must be self-expressive, educational, and social.

Second: It must be a young people's society. The realizing of this ideal, however, depends not on its being a denominational society or an interdenominational society, but rather upon having its membership composed of young people.

The ideal society will realize that the work of reclaiming is not its first mission; that to keep its ranks filled with the developing young life of the Church, it must take the boys and girls as they leave the primary department of the Sunday school, hold them within the Church and for Christ, not push them outside to be sought after and brought back during the stormy years of adolescence, and until they have been led to a definite decision for Christ, train and prepare them for membership in the Senior Society and in the church, ever holding this before them as the goal toward which they are striving.

Third: The ideal society must have an ideal church. The work of the ideal society must be so interlaced with the work of the church that their interests shall be one and that members shall pass from the one to the other with scarcely a recognition of a difference. The work attempted in the young people's society will not be for that society, but for and with the church.

The church must be endeavorized; the ideal young people's society is neither an undenominational society, nor a denominational society; it is not dependent on name or church, but is that organization which holds

the boys and girls through the restless, uncertain period of youth; trains them in Bible study and Christian activity so that they pass naturally into the Senior Society; that helps young people to realize and develop the possibilities God has placed within them in their own spiritual life and in their relationship to God's world.

Representing one of the large denominational organizations of the world, I would scarcely be loyal to my convictions, in view of the paper presented, were I to close without saying to you that the many superiorities claimed for the Christian Endeavor Society, may, with equal justice be claimed for the denominational societies. What that organization has accomplished, they have accomplished, and have added to this accomplishment very many things which can come only through a more compact organization, having at its head, not one, but a number who are giving heart and life to this work, not as bosses, but as advisors and counselors.

THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH AND THE PUBLIC

LIBRARY

ANDREW KEOGH, M. A.

REFERENCE LIBRARIAN, YALE UNIVERSITY

One of the most important functions of the Church is that of education. Education in religion and morality is, of course, its special field, but moral and intellectual training should go hand in hand. Immorality, says President Eliot, is but unintelligence; for only perfect righteousness is consistent with perfect intelligence. The general educational function of the Church has always been recognized; indeed, until the Reformation, the Church was almost the sole means of acquiring any education whatever. With the spread of Protestantism and the growth of democracy, the teaching function of the Church has been more and more restricted, until in our own day and country it is practically abandoned. The Church still maintains the teaching of religion, but this teaching is apart from the general educational current of the time and the teaching force is not usually so well trained as secular teachers. It is obvious that lack of pedagogical knowledge and skill is detrimental to the cause of religion, and that the confidence and respect of an educated community can only be retained by applying to the special needs of the Church the methods of work accepted by educators in general.

There is no aspect of its work in which the Church is so clearly out of joint with the age as in the supervision of the reading of its members. Instead of hoarding and copying and studying books as it did in the Middle Ages, the Church is now absurdly behind the public library and the public school in its appreciation of the use of books. This has two serious results. There is no longer a realization that every book read has some effect on the formation of ideals and the moulding of character; and the instruction and discipline of the Church suffer by contrast with the modern methods employed in the library and in the school. The Church should carry on its teaching with the most skillful teachers, with the use of the best books, and with an enthusiasm for encouraging reading that will civilize and humanize.

The modern Church carries on much of its work through the machinery of societies and guilds and it should get this institutional work into direct relation with the public libraries that so largely influence the reading of our communities. This relation can be effected (1) by co-op

erating with the library and its work, and (2) by adopting library methods in the Church itself.

The Church can co-operate with the public library in many ways. It can arrange to have a clergyman or other active church worker on the public library board; and it can see to it that all the church workers use the public library. The minister commonly uses the public library, but other church workers often ignore it. It will usually be found that from the library side co-operation is made easy. The public library is usually willing to extend to church workers the same. privileges that are accorded to public school teachers, namely the drawing of a large number of books for a long period. The books so drawn would, of course, be books specially suited to the work of the Church. Such books are always more readily bought by a public library than equally technical books in medicine or law. The public library committee is also quick to realize its responsibilities to the organized bodies of its community, as well as to its individual citizens. Where a public library does not exist, where it is not easily accessible, or where it is very poor, there is some social justification for the maintenance of libraries of general literature in the churches; but where there is a good public library, it is in the interests of economy and efficiency to make the public library the depository of the secular books owned by the churches. The public library is open for a large number of hours daily; it is not so limited in size or money as the church library; and it is administered by trained librarians. If a church finds it necessary to have secular books it should obtain them by co-operation and not by competition with the public library. This can easily be done by making a church a deposit station where some fifty or a hundred volumes, carefully selected by the librarian and some church officer, are kept for a time and then replaced. A useful supplement to such a deposit would be to make the church a delivery station for regular deliveries and collections of books. Traveling libraries and delivery stations have proved themselves so useful in schools, clubs, hospitals, and factories as to leave no doubt of their success in our churches.

The Church should further co-operate with the public library in efforts to extend the benefits of literature. Many movements for library extension are handicapped by a lack of workers, and the public library is justified in looking to the Church for help in this work. The establishment of home libraries in tenement districts, for example, has depended for success upon charity organizations, societies, and women's clubs rather than upon the churches. The aim of the home library is to broaden and sweeten the lives of the poor and to give them wholesome

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