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 Erb, Frank Otis. 
 The development of the young 
 people's movement 
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
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 BHANQHAI 
 
 KARL W. HIERSEMANN 
 
 LEIPZia 
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S 
 
 MOVEMENT 
 
 B3 
 
 y 
 
 FRANK OTIS ERB 
 
 ;f fia OF ^^i^Q^ 
 
 
 APR 19 1918 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 
Copyright 191 7 By 
 The University of Chicago 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Published January 1917 
 
 Composed and Printed By 
 
 The University of Chicago Press 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Period of Preparation, to 1844: The Forces in Opera- 
 tion I 
 
 The development of democracy. The invention of steam-driven 
 machinery. Resulting moral, social, and religious conditions, in America; 
 in England; in Germany. The religious revival. 
 
 II. The Period of Preparation: Early Organizations ... 11 
 
 Labor organizations. Mechanics,' Institutions. Adult or senior Sunday- 
 school classes. The Sunday-school teachers' meeting. Singing-schools. 
 Temperance societies. Young people's missionary societies. Young 
 people's devotional societies. Conditions in 1850. Note: The Greek- 
 letter fraternities. 
 
 III. The Period of Discovery (i 844-1 860) 27 
 
 The continued development of earlier societies. The Y.M.C.A.: the 
 London Association; branches; the German Jiinglingsvereine; the 
 American Association; earlier American societies; the Boston Y.M.C.A.; 
 the American federation; the Paris convention. Note i: The Boston 
 Y.M.C.U. Note 2: The growth of colleges (1844-1860). 
 
 IV. The Period of Expansion (1860-1881) 37 
 
 Introduction: The link between the Y.M.C.A. and the Christian 
 Endeavor society. The development of the work for young men. The 
 "discovery" of young women: thedeaconess movement; the Y.W.C.A.; 
 the woman's college; the college sorority. Sex co-operation. Recogni- 
 tion of the importance of recreation. Social service : the United States 
 Christian Commission; the Lend-a-Hand Clubs. Beginnings of the 
 appropriation of the young people's movement by the church: Bible 
 classes; organized societies of j^oung people; early city unions; denomina- 
 tional recognition among Methodists. 
 
 V. The Period of Church Appropriation (1881-1889) .... 52 
 
 The Christian Endeavor society. The first Christian Endeavor society 
 and its characteristics. Growth. Finances. What was original in it ? 
 Criticisms and obstacles. Secret of growth. 
 
 VI. The Period OF Differentiation ( 1 889-1 9 1 2) 64 
 
 Phases of Y.M.C.A. work in its development. Aspects of Christian 
 Endeavor work: decline of the great convention; the enrolments; the 
 paid state secretary; statistics. Differentiation on basis of denomina- 
 tion; the Epworth League and the Baptist Union. The Epworth 
 
VI CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 League: its antecedents; its relation to the Christian Endeavor society; 
 its adoption by the church; comparison of League principles in 1888, 1903, 
 1913; the League as a criticism of the Christian Endeavor society and 
 other previous organizations; weaknesses of the League. The Baptist 
 Union: its early history; its organization; its relation to the Christian 
 Endeavor movement; the study courses; the Union as a criticism of 
 earlier societies; weaknesses. Denominational differentiation in general. 
 
 VII. The Period of Differentiation — Continued 88 
 
 (i) Differentiation on basis of sex : Brotherhood of St. Andrew; Brother- 
 hood of Andrew and Philip; denominational brotherhoods; men's 
 organized classes; rapid growth of Y.W.C.A. and deaconesses; 
 Daughters of the King; the King's Daughters. The significance of 
 these organizations as criticism. (2) Differentiation on basis of activity: 
 the missionary movement; the Student Volunteer Movement; foreign 
 work of the Y.M.C.A.; the missionary movement in the churches; 
 effects. 
 
 VIII. Problems and Principles 100 
 
 (i) The psychology of adolescence a basis for evaluation. The physio- 
 logical facts; intellectual activity; emotional intensity. Socializing 
 function of sex: (a) its directly socializing value; (b) irradiations of the 
 sex instincts; (c) rise of personal religion. (2) Problems of young 
 people's church societies: (a) Function; analysis of activities as actually 
 carried on — the same elements but with different emphasis in the organ- 
 ized Sunday-school class; differing opinions among clergymen; outstand- 
 ing problems — organization or persons? Field or force? Type of 
 religion ? Sex co-operation or separation ? Adjustment to local condi- 
 tions — (b) Organization within a local church; (c) Community federa- 
 tion; (d) National federation. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION, TO 1844: THE FORCES IN 
 
 OPERATION 
 
 The period covering the last half of the eighteenth and the 1^ 
 first quarter of the nineteenth century was emphatically one of 
 transition. It witnessed the breaking up of old habits of living, 
 working, and thinking by new ideas and new ways of life and labor. 
 
 In this change three factors are of especial importance: the ^ 
 first, political^ — the development of democracy; the second, indus- 
 trial — the invention of steam-driven machinery; and the third, 
 moral and religious — the great revival of the eighteenth century. 
 
 The first is marked by three great revolutions: the Enghsh of 
 1688, finding its apologist and philosopher in John Locke; the 
 French of 1789, being but the application of Rousseau's Social 
 Contract; and this in turn being largely a popularization of Locke; 
 and the American of 1776, which in the opening sentences of its 
 Declaration speaks for them all. 
 
 In addition to this political aspect, the democratic spirit led 
 a revolt against absolutism everywhere, religion and intellect not 
 excluded. The final and authoritative doctrines of the church 
 were fiercely assailed by Voltaire and his friends, not least 
 because they were final and authoritative, and those who held them 
 were denounced as ignorant, superstitious, or hypocritical. Free- 
 dom of thought was not only demanded but asserted. In England 
 and Germany similar assaults were made, but not so effectively. 
 The doctrinal foundation of the church having been swept away, 
 an age that identified religion with the church was left without 
 religion. This was less keenly felt because of the prevailing 
 immorality of many of the priesthood in France, and because of the 
 character of the drinking, fighting, swearing clergymen of the 
 Church of England. The loss of a religion which had no power 
 over its exponents could scarcely be regarded as serious. The 
 church, however, was felt to be a necessity to government, and 
 outward respect was paid to its worship on ceremonial occasions. 
 
THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Voltaire and his immediate circle went only part of the way in 
 this democratic movement. They had little knowledge of, or 
 interest in, the masses of the population. It remained for Rous- 
 seau to become the spokesman of the dumb and distressed multi- 
 tude. The French Revolution resulted. The ideas of Voltaire, 
 Rousseau, and company spread to Germany and America, wheat 
 and chaff together, and for the time democracy and atheism were 
 inseparable. 
 1^ ^ The invention of steam-driven machinery led directly to the 
 rise of,_the._factory system with its beneficent and maleficent 
 effects. The old system of home manufacture, in which personal 
 skill v/as so large a factor, in which the master and his family 
 were on friendliest terms with journeyman and apprentice, in which 
 the children of the household early made their contribution of 
 labor under the parental eye, and so learned the family trade, was 
 swept away. In its place came largely increased production and 
 the crowding of people about the factories. A second result of the 
 invention of steam-driven machinery was the development of 
 transportation by land and sea. This interlocked with the factory 
 system, bringing food and raw materials to the factories and dis- 
 tributing the finished product. These two elements in large 
 measure explain the growth of the city. The rapid develop- 
 ment of the city is shown by the fact that the number of 
 people in cities in the United States, compared with the total 
 population, was 3.4 per cent in 1790; 4.93 per cent in 18 10; 6. 72 
 per cent in 1830; 12.5 per cent in 1850; and 33. i per cent in 1900. 
 In this same period in the United States the number of cities 
 of 8,000 population and upward had grown from 6 in 1790 to 11 
 in 1810, 26 in 1830, 85 in 1850, and 545 in 1900. 
 
 The new conditions of labor entailed many serious consequences. 
 The factories and houses were ill-constructed and insanitary sheds; 
 the work was exhausting and the hours long; woman and child 
 labor was exploited almost beyond belief; large numbers of young 
 men and women were left virtually without moral oversight. 
 This enables us to understand the violent reaction of the idle hours, 
 with their drinking, fighting, gambling, licentiousness, and related 
 evils. 
 
THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION 3 
 
 In the American colonies, there was a steady decline of both 
 morals and religion after the first generation. Lechford in Plain 
 Dealing, in 1641 , says that not more than one-quarter of the popula- 
 tion were members of the church. Thomas Prince declares: "A 
 little after 1660, there began to appear a Decay: And this increased 
 in 1670, when it grew very visible and threatening and was gener- 
 ally complained of and bewailed bitterly by the Pious among 
 them: And yet more to 1680 when but few of the first generation 
 remained." In 1678 Increase Mather stated that "many are pro- 
 fane, drunkards, lascivious, scoffers at the power of Godliness."^ 
 
 The chief sins were impurity and intemperance. In the 
 church at Andover the principal causes of discipline for a century 
 and a quarter were "fornication and drunkenness."'' One church 
 of two hundred members included sixty-six who had confessed to 
 improper sexual relations.^ While this was probably a larger 
 number than was usual, one finds a similar state of affairs wherever 
 records exist. The custom of bundling, sanctioned by the com- 
 munity, was largely responsible for this condition. ■♦ 
 
 Virtually everyone drank intoxicating liquors upon occasion. 
 
 Theodore Parker declares : 
 
 It is recorded in the probate ofi&ce that in 1678 at the funeral of Mrs. 
 Mary Norton, widow of one of the ministers of the First Church in Boston, 
 fifty-one gallons and a half of the best Malaga wine were consumed by the 
 mourners. In 1685, at the funeral of the Rev. Thomas Cobbett, minister of 
 Ipswich, there were consumed one barrel of wine and two barrels of cider. 
 .... Towns provided intoxicating drinks at the funerals of their paupers, s 
 
 In 1775, an old minister in a Fast Day sermon said: "Vast num- 
 bers, young and old, male and female, are given to intemperance, 
 so that it is a common thing to see drunken women as well as 
 drunken men."^ In the archives of the First Baptist Church of 
 Boston is a bill for liquors drunk at the ordination of Rev. Joseph 
 McKean, at Beverley, Massachusetts, in 1785. It includes 30 
 
 ' Dakin, unpublished thesis for the degree of D.B., University of Chicago. 
 
 ^ Dorchester, ChristianUy in the United States, p. 218. 
 
 ' Holtz, unpublished paper on "Religious Education in New England." 
 
 * Howard, Matrimonial Institutions. 
 
 5 Parker, Speeches and Addresses, pp. 341 ff. 
 
 ' Dorchester, op. cit., pp. 212 f. 
 
4 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 bowls of punch before meeting, lo bottles of wine, 44 bowls of 
 punch at dinner, 18 bottles of wine, 8 bottles of brandy, cherry- 
 rum, and concludes, "6 people drank tea."^ 
 
 Lyman Beecher describes an ordination he attended in 18 10: 
 "At this ordination the preparation for our creature comforts- — 
 besides food, was a broad sideboard covered with decanters and 
 bottles and sugar and pitchers of water. There we found all the 
 kinds of liquor then in vogue. The drinking was apparently 
 universal. This preparation was made by the society as a matter 
 of course."^ Indeed, liquor was used on all occasions, at births, 
 marriages, and deaths, at the raising of a barn, house, or church, at 
 the harvesting of hay, at communion, at ordinations and other 
 religious gatherings, and in most homes regularly. 
 
 Gambhng in all forms was common. Most astonishing to us, 
 perhaps, is the warm approval of the lottery by people at large. 
 After the fire of 1 76 1 , Faneuil Hall was rebuilt by a lottery. Funds 
 for Harvard, Yale, and other college buildings were so raised. The 
 United States Congress passed at least seventy acts authorizing 
 lotteries before 1820. "In the U.S., .... colleges have been 
 founded, churches built or repaired, roads made, bridges built, 
 ferries improved and hospitals erected by the aid of lotteries." 
 
 A writer speaking of the period from 1815 to 1851 says of the 
 
 West: 
 
 In the west, while government and order were being established, gambling, 
 drunkenness, licentiousness, robbery and sometimes murder, threatened to 
 overturn the new States before they could be formed. The steamboats which 
 plied the Great Lakes, the Mississippi river and the Ohio, were the haunts 
 of gamblers and thieves, who were as ruthless as the highwaymen in the days of 
 Robin Hood. Slavery in the South, Indian warfare and the hardly less demoral- 
 izing Indian trading in the North, and with it all the isolation of pioneer life, 
 stifled the religious aspiration of the people.* 
 
 [/ This decay of religion was a source of great distress to the 
 remnant of religious folk. In 1724 Cotton Mather put forth a 
 pamphlet entitled Proposals for the Revival of Dying Religion. The 
 next year he presented to the Massachusetts legislature, in the 
 
 ' Wood, History of First Baptist Church of Boston. 
 
 ' Quoted in Blair, The Temperance Movement, p. 475. 
 
 3 Doggett, History of the Young Men's Christian Association, I, 97. 
 
THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION 5 
 
 name of the general commission of ministers, a petition for a synod 
 to be called to remedy the great and visible decline of piety. The 
 Revolutionary War was brutalizing in itself, and in addition the 
 American gratitude toward and admiration for the French led them 
 to adopt the French infidelity so rife at the time. One writer in 
 1836 says : " I knew a party formed more than fifty years ago for the 
 avowed purpose of destroying Christianity and religious govern- 
 ment. All these men died violent deaths." Lyman Beecher 
 declares : 
 
 That was the day of the infidelity of the Tom Paine school. Boys that 
 
 dressed flax in the barn read Tom Paine and believed him Most of the 
 
 class before me [at Yale] were infidels, and called each other Voltaire, Rousseau, 
 D'Alembert, etc. They thought the faculty were afraid of free discussion.' 
 
 In a striking article. Dr. C. F. Dole sums up the whole situation 
 at the close of the century. There were only four professing 
 Christians among the students at Yale, church attendance was 
 small universally, many churches had no settled ministers, the 
 preaching was lifeless and mechanical, drunkenness was common 
 even among ministers and deacons, and the general level of morals 
 was low.^ 
 
 Nor was it otherwise in the South. Bishop Meade says: 
 
 As late as 1810, infideUty was rife in the State, and the College of William 
 and JMary was regarded as the hotbed of French politics and religion. I can 
 truly say that then and for some years after, in every educated young man in 
 Virginia whom I met I expected to find a skeptic, if not an avowed unbeliever. 
 .... The clergy for the most part were a laughing stock, or objects of disgust.^ 
 
 In England the conditions were even worse. Hours of labor 
 
 were excessively long. George Hitchcock, speaking in 1853, 
 
 described the drapery trade of 1836: 
 
 Young men in the larger houses were herded together, ten to fifteen in a 
 room at night. They were literally driven from the shops to their beds and 
 from their beds to the shop by a person called a shop-walker. There was no 
 sitting-room, no social comfort, no library; they remained until they were 
 taken ill, then they were discharged at a moment's notice; away they went, 
 many of them to the workhouse and numbers of them used to die prematurely.* 
 
 ' Lyman Beecher, Autobiography, I, 43. 
 
 ' New England Magazine, N.S., XII, 535 ff. 
 
 * Meade, Old Families and Churches in Virginia, I, 29, 52. 
 
 ^Doggett, op. cit., I, 79. 
 
-y 
 
 6 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Drinking, gambling, vulgarity, and vice were common among 
 these men. 
 
 The industrial revolution was well under way by the end of the 
 ^entury. The factories had drawn together by hundreds the 
 families dispossessed by the sheep-farmers. Their houses were 
 mere sheds, built without reference to health, comfort, or decency. 
 Both sexes were frequently herded together promiscuously, so that 
 "factory girl" was a term of abuse. The labor of women was 
 exploited, as regards hours, intensity, and insanitary conditions 
 of work, almost beyond belief. The labor of the children of 
 workingmen was in demand, and children from poorhouses were 
 farmed out by the manufacturers and then worked to death. The 
 A. first English Factory Act, 1802, limited in its application to chil- 
 dren, provided that the latter should not work more than twelve 
 hours a day, and that these hours must be between six o'clock in 
 the morning and nine o'clock in the evening. In this Act no 
 limit was fixed as to the age below which children must not work; 
 such legislation would not have passed. The second Factory Act, 
 in 1819, set an age limit of nine years, with a twelve-hour day 
 exclusive of time for meals, for children under sixteen. Under 
 such conditions the great mass of the people were ignorant, degraded, 
 unreligious. 
 
 What was true of the masses was true also of the classes. The 
 long-continued wars were most disastrous to English morals and 
 religion. Infidelity was rife. Gambling was found everywhere. 
 Up to 1830 drunkenness was widespread and increasing. A 
 Doctor of Divinity at Oxford was discovered going home intoxi- 
 cated one night, walking round and round the rotunda of the Rad- 
 cliffe Library and wondering why he did not reach his destination.'' 
 
 In 1803 Bishop Burgess wrote of the Welsh see of St. David: 
 '"The church and ecclesiastical buildings are in a ruinous condi- 
 tion. Many of the clergy are incompetently educated and dis- 
 grace their profession by inebriety and other degrading vices.' 
 .... Clergymen often occupied several livings and neglected them 
 all."^ The interest of the church in the people being at so low an 
 
 ' Watson, Fifty Years of the Sunday School, chap. ii. 
 ^Doggett, op. cit., I, 17. 
 
THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION 7 
 
 ebb, it is not surprising that the interest of the people in the church 
 was in a corresponding state. 
 
 In Germany somewhat the same condition existed. The old 
 system, under which the apprentice lived in the family of the 
 employer, went to church with him on Sunday, and was under his 
 constant supervision, broke down between 1800 and 1820. The 
 young workingmen drifted hither and yon. The cheap lodging 
 house, unspeakable in its accommodations and in its moral charac- 
 ter, sprang into being. Beer-gardens multiplied. The democracy 
 and atheism of the French philosophers were seized upon with 
 avidity. The church, moreover, was regarded as the bulwark of 
 things as they were. Two prevailing sentiments characterized 
 the young German workingman: unbelief in God, and indifference 
 or hostility to the church. As late as 1848, Pastor Diirselen could 
 say: "We hear how hundreds of societies of young men have been 
 formed from which comes forth the challenge, ' We hate Christianity. 
 God must be discarded. We will never rest until every comrade 
 has personally renounced God.'" 
 
 In addition, however, to the political and industrial forces, with 
 their immediate effects as described, a constructive force of increas- 
 ing power was also at work, namely, the great revivals of the 
 eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The great awakening 
 in America began under Jonathan Edwards' ministry at North- 
 ampton, Massachusetts, in 1734, and spread rapidly over the 
 whole country. It was greatly reinforced by the preaching of 
 Whitefield, and despite the opposition to revivals on the part of 
 the faculties of Yale and Harvard, and of many of the leading 
 Congregational clergymen of Massachusetts, it affected profoundly 
 the religious life of the colonies, producing the conviction that the 
 immediate conversion of sinners actually does take place, and that 
 every person ought to have an inner assurance of salvation. 
 
 The Revolution with its paralyzing effect upon rehgious life V 
 set back this movement for a time, but toward the close of the 
 century the tide began to rise again. In 1795 Dr. D wight came 
 to Yale, and for six months preached on the Bible as the Word of 
 God. These sermons constituted a powerful offset to the infidehty 
 of the time. 
 
8 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 It was the day of the concert of prayer for the advance of 
 religion. In 1746, at the request of a group of Scottish ministers 
 that the Christians of America unite with them in prayer for the 
 spread of the gospel, Jonathan Edwards wrote a pamphlet entitled 
 A Humble Attempt to Promote Agreement and Visible Union of God's 
 People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the 
 Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth. This work was widely 
 read in England, and as a result, in 1784, the "monthly concert of 
 prayer" was instituted by the Baptist ministers of Northampton- 
 shire. It speedily crossed the Atlantic, and covenants were entered 
 into to spend certain periods each week in prayer and a certain 
 day each month in fasting and prayer. In 1798, the New York 
 Missionary Society adopted the concert of prayer, and the members 
 met on the second Wednesday of each month in the respective 
 churches in turn. Out of this concert of prayer, which became 
 nearly universal, grew the weekly prayer-meeting of the churches, 
 and also the missionary, Sunday school, and other phases of church 
 concert so common until recently. It should be added that the 
 Methodists had had their class-meeting since 1743,^ but took up the 
 concert of prayer in addition. This increasing religious enthusiasm 
 soon superseded conditions represented by such statements as 
 these: "Meetings for prayer among the brethren of the Church 
 [Braintree, Massachusetts] had been unknown during the life 
 of its members." "Rev. John Fiske, of New Braintree, Mass., 
 .... stated that he had been eleven years pastor of the Church 
 before he heard the first word of prayer from any of his members." 
 
 In 1799, two brothers named McGee, one a Methodist, the other 
 a Presbyterian, started on a preaching tour through Tennessee and 
 Kentucky. A remarkable revival with extraordinary features 
 resulted. People came long distances to attend these meetings in 
 the open air, and thus the camp-meeting was bom.^ Itinerant 
 Methodist preachers followed up this revival by organizing classes 
 for weekly meetings under the leaders, and visiting them every few 
 weeks. As a result, the Methodists, who had numbered 14,000 in 
 1773, numbered 40,000 in 1800, and 196,000 in 1812. 
 
 ' Epworth Herald, September 7, 1890, p. i. 
 » Methodist Magazine, 182 1, pp. 189 ff. 
 
THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION 9 
 
 The work of Finney must also be mentioned. He was licensed 
 to preach in 1822, and preached until i860. Great revivals 
 everywhere resulted from his work. His books carried his message 
 to thousands who never saw him. In particular, his Lectures on 
 Revivals (1835) and Lectures to Professing Christians (1836), 
 profoundly influenced George Williams in England, and determined 
 the character of the Y.M.C.A. from the start. 
 
 The colleges were not insulated from the great revival move- 
 ment. Revivals occurred at Yale in 1802, 1808, 1812, 1823, 1827, 
 183 1, 1835. Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, and others were 
 similarly affected. 
 
 In England the Wesleyan revival took place in the eighteenth y(^ 
 century. At Oxford in 1829, four young men, including Charles 
 and John Wesley, joined in a society for the promotion of earnest 
 religious life. The evangelist George Whitefield, with others, 
 joined the group a little later. They met on three or four evenings a 
 week for the study of the Greek Testament and certain ancient 
 classics. Through prayer and religious conversation they sought 
 to reach the ideal of Christian experience. They received the 
 communion weekly and fasted twice each week. They practiced 
 rigid economy and devoted generous portions of their time, ability, 
 and money to the care of the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned. 
 Because of their methodical way of living they were called " Metho- 
 dists." From this little group arose the Wesleyan revival which 
 shook England to its foundations. One of the most significant Y 
 features of the movement was the extended use of laymen in 
 religious work, arising from necessity, and proving a mighty force 
 in the development and consolidation of Methodism. The lay 
 preacher, the class-leader, the Sunday-school teacher, were the 
 forerunners of the modem "personal workers." From the Wes- 
 leyan revival as the chief cause came the zealously evangelistic 
 Methodist churches of various names; a new spirit of evangelism 
 in the free churches; a new moral earnestness and religious power 
 in the Church of England; a floodtide of philanthropic zeal; and, 
 finally, the foreign missionary enterprise. 
 
 Germany, also, while experiencing no widespread emotional 
 outburst of religious fervor, saw from the middle of the seventeenth 
 
lO THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 century, a turning away from theological disputation, on the 
 part of many evangelicals, to works of mercy and help and to the 
 practice of personal piety. The Pietists, Francke and Spener, 
 founded their orphan institution at Halle in 1695. We note also 
 the beginning of young men's clubs for purely religious purposes, 
 and the rise of the deaconess movement, to both of which we shall 
 return. 
 
 In the next chapter we shall see how these three forces began 
 to work out in more or less organized ways. The industrial factor 
 supplied the constituency, inasmuch as it was chiefly responsible 
 for the development of the city. There also resulted conditions 
 which made organization imperative. The democratic element 
 with its watchword, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," furnished 
 part of the stimulus which led to the "discovery" of young men, 
 later to the "discovery" of young women, and still later to their 
 harmonious co-operation on equal terms. The religious and moral 
 force, working through its emphasis on the infinite worth of every 
 individual, powerfully reinforced all movements for human better- 
 ment, and created enterprises of its own. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION: EARLY ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 I. The conditions of life and labor brought into existence or 
 intensified by the industrial revolution virtually compelled the 
 organization of workingmen for their own protection. This took 
 form first in the "friendly societies," which were essentially sick- 
 and burial-insurance clubs with social features. The trade union 
 is to be distinguished from these by its explicit attempt to improve 
 conditions of living and working. In America it was preceded not 
 only by the friendly society with members from several occupations 
 or social classes, but also by the association of groups of men from a 
 single occupation for pohtical, social, or other purposes, as for 
 instance the Caulker's Club of Boston, formed slightly earlier than 
 1800, and by unorganized strikes, as when Boston seamen struck 
 in 1802. Soon, however, we find two sorts of labor unions develop- 
 ing. One is the strict trade union, with membership limited to the 
 workers in one trade. The first of these appears to have been the 
 New York Society of Journeymen Shipwrights, incorporated in 
 1803, but organized somewhat earher. By 1840, such organiza- 
 tions existed in the principal industrial centers "among masons, 
 marble-cutters, shoe-makers, sadlers, hatters, tailors, printers 
 bricklayers, roofers, painters, carpenters, and shipworkers." The 
 second type of labor union, arising in less densely populated 
 districts, embraced members of several trades, or even had an 
 open membership. The New England Association of Farmers, 
 Mechanics and Workingmen, organized in Boston in 1832, is an 
 instance. But none of these early unions limited themselves strictly 
 to improving the conditions of labor. The New England Working- 
 men's Association, formed in 1845, took up the abolition of slavery, 
 woman's rights, land nationahzation, and the withholding of sup- 
 plies from the American army in Mexico. 
 
 In England, the development of the laissez /aire doctrine led 
 to the passage of several acts against combinations either of capital 
 or labor. These laws were enforced against labor only, and so 
 
 II 
 
12 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 severely as to permit only the friendly societies to live. In 1824, 
 however, all the Combination Acts were repealed. Immediately, 
 trade unions sprang into existence with very large membership, 
 and a series of strikes, for the most part as unsuccessful as they were 
 costly, took place. Reactionary legislation was passed in the 
 following year, but workingmen were left free to combine for 
 better wages, hours, and conditions of labor. As a result, local 
 unions were gradually formed nearly everywhere and many federa- 
 tions of unions organized. 
 
 While one finds in the history of the trade union an occasional 
 statement of the "youth" of certain members, and their inferred 
 ''unreliabihty," mention of a young men's union as such is rare. 
 The following statement, therefore, possesses unusual interest: 
 ''Such is the rage for union societies that the sea apprentices in 
 Dunderland have actually had regular meetings every day last 
 week, on the moor, and have resolved not to go on board their ships 
 unless the owners will allow them tea and sugar. "^ We see from 
 this that the organization of the elders was teaching the apprentices 
 to organize. Furthermore, the union was a school of information, 
 debate, organization, and fraternity, whose advantages the abler 
 young people would not be slow to appreciate. 
 
 2. If, however, the spontaneous organization of a young men's 
 union is rare, the increasing needs of the young people of the working 
 classes led to the formation of mechanics' institutions and mutual 
 improvement societies, which, while predominantly educational, 
 possessed large social values as well. These were composed almost 
 entirely of young men and offered classes in practical sub- 
 jects, lectures, papers by the members, circulating libraries, and 
 reading-rooms. They formed, indeed, a sort of club for ambitious 
 young workingmen. While they never became as common in 
 America as in England, they possessed essentially the same char- 
 acter, and constitute an important link between the trade union, 
 which was essentially a forced organization, and the voluntary union 
 of young people in philanthropic and church societies. 
 
 The earhest of these was probably the Society for the Reforma- 
 tion of Manners, started in 1690 with the encouragement of De Foe, 
 
 ' Sheffield Iris, July 12, 1825; quoted by Webb, History of Trade Unionism, p. 99. 
 
EARLY ORGANIZATIONS 1 3 
 
 Dr. Kidder, and others. We find no other similar organization 
 until 1787, when the factory system had massed crowds of people 
 together, and ignorance and vice were becoming alarmingly com- 
 mon. In this year, a reform society was organized at Paisley. 
 Between 1789 and 1796 four societies were started at Birmingham, 
 of which the first artisans' library was one. In 1793, Dr. John 
 Anderson gave a series of popular scientific lectures to tradesmen 
 and mechanics in Glasgow, and out of this grew the whole institute 
 movement, as regards its aspect of technical training. Sadler 
 estimates that in 1850 there were 610 literary and mechanics' 
 institutions in the United Kingdom, with a membership of 102,000, 
 and the Earl of Carlisle in 1846 stated that i in 54 of the population 
 of Yorkshire belonged to such an institution. The Society of 
 Useful Knowledge, organized in 1825 for the purpose of providing 
 cheap and good books for popular reading, had chiefly in view the 
 needs of these societies. 
 
 Partly because the fees were too high, partly because the classes 
 assumed more preparatory work than many students possessed, the 
 high educational character of the mechanics' institutes declined. 
 In 1830, David Naismith, a man close to the situation, declared: 
 *'In these days when so many of our so-called Mechanics' Institutes 
 are merely cheap reading clubs for the middle classes, and lectures 
 are delivered for the most part merely for a pleasant evening's 
 amusement, it seems to me that we have greatly departed from the 
 original design with which the Mechanics' Institutions were 
 founded."^ Naismith had organized in Glasgow in 1824 the first 
 of a series of "Young Men's Societies for Religious Improve- 
 ment." He came to America in 1830, and formed some thirty 
 of these societies, with a general supervisory board. In 1839, he 
 resolved to give them up and predicted their speedy termination. 
 In some cases, these Societies became Young Men's Christian 
 Associations. Montreal, Canada, was a notable instance, for here 
 was organized the first Y.M.C.A. in America. The weakness of 
 these earlier societies consisted in their defective organization, 
 their lack of spontaneous development, their failure to emphasize 
 
 ' Quoted by Magnus in Roberts (ed.), Industrial Education in the Nineteenth 
 Century, p. 140. 
 
14 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 the need of having young men working for young men, and, from 
 the standpoint of church people, the absence of a predominantly 
 religious character. 
 
 3. The adult or senior classes of the Sunday school sought to 
 assist the same class of people, the difference being that in this 
 case the approach was from the side of the church, and that religion 
 and morality were the chief aims. The modern Sunday school 
 originated in the desire to teach the children of the poor to read, 
 and sometimes to write and do arithmetic, on the only day at their 
 disposal. It was intended at first only for children from six or 
 seven to fourteen years of age, and for many years it was the custom 
 to dismiss children at the age of fourteen, with a Bible and good 
 advice publicly bestowed. It began to be felt, however, that the 
 failure to minister to young people was an instance of conspicuous 
 waste. In some cases, ministers conducted Sunday Bible classes 
 for persons over fourteen, but since Sunday was the minister's 
 busy day and the only day of leisure for young people, such classes 
 were relatively rare. 
 
 The senior-class or adult-school movement started in 1798 
 Y. in Nottingham, where William Singleton, assisted by Samuel Fox, 
 gathered a group of working women on Sunday mornings to instruct 
 them in the "three R's." A school for men was begun soon after. 
 Rev. Thomas Charles opened a Sunday school for adults at Bala, 
 Wales, in 181 1. In 18 14, William Trust of Bristol wrote to his 
 friend. Dr. Divie Bethune of New York, describing these schools. 
 Dr. Bethune in the next year visited Philadelphia, where the idea 
 took root. In 18 16, there were eight adult schools, and in 18 17 
 the Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union was organized, 
 "to promote among other things, the establishment of these schools 
 in the city and vicinity." As a result they spread rapidly. Two 
 important books, Todd, The Sabbath School Teacher (1837), and 
 Packard, The Teacher Taught (1839), strongly advocated adult 
 schools. The former assumed that young people must be dis- 
 missed from the ordinary school to these senior schools, and 
 recommended classes for males and for females under the care of 
 the pastor. Interestingly enough, he based his demand for senior 
 classes, psychologically, upon the slow maturing of the mind. The 
 
EARLY ORGANIZATIONS 1$ 
 
 latter speaks of adult schools for those who need to learn to read, 
 and for domestics, apprentices, etc. "The plan of forming a 
 Bible Class in every school district seems to have many .... 
 advantages." Further, "our adult classes usually .... choose 
 their own teacher." 
 
 From these senior and adult classes have developed the young 
 people's and adult classes in our modern Sunday school, which 
 especially in their organized form constitute one of the most signi- 
 ficant aspects of the modern young people's movement. 
 
 4. Another line of development furnished by the Sunday school 
 is found in the teachers' meeting. Coincident with the use of 
 voluntary teaching, the teachers, who were usually young men and 
 women, frequently recent converts, began to meet more or less 
 informally. From such a gathering of teachers sprang in 1803 the 
 London Sunday School Union, which aimed to extend to all teachers 
 the benefits they had found in their meetings. Naturally, from the 
 first, the Sunday School Union advocated teachers' meetings and 
 they were commonly held at the home of some leader, less often 
 at the home of a minister. Todd declares that teachers ought to 
 meet weekly to be instructed in the next Sunday's lesson and to 
 discuss Sunday-school affairs. Packard says that while such meet- 
 ings are not essential they are valuable and very common. "The 
 best schools in our country owe their pre-eminent success in a great 
 degree to weekly meetings of the teachers for mutual instruction 
 and prayers." He is concerned at the spirit of gaiety which these 
 young folks manifest, and says that "prayer will tend to banish 
 levity." Dr. Tyng in 1866 says that it has been for a long time 
 his custom to meet his teachers weekly to go over the Sunday- 
 school lesson.^ 
 
 For our purpose, the significant thing is that here is an increas- . ';^ 
 ingly large number of young people of both sexes engaged in a 
 common task, meeting at stated times for prayer and religious 
 discussion, and getting not a little social enjoyment at the same 
 time. It was precisely such a group as constitutes the nucleus of 
 the young people's societies in our churches. 
 
 ' Tyng, Forty Years' Experience in the Sunday School, p. 22. 
 
l6 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 . / 5. The singing-schools of the eighteenth and early nineteenth 
 
 / centuries may be regarded as among the very first of the young 
 
 people's societies in America. Here, weekly or oftener, the youth 
 
 of both sexes met, and learned to sing the hymns of the church. A 
 
 singing-school existed in Boston in 17 17, and about this time a 
 
 number of psalm-books were published which contained primitive 
 
 vocal instruction. As the young people learned to sing, they 
 
 naturally grouped themselves together in church, and shortly were 
 
 assigned special seats. Thus the church choir came into existence 
 
 in America. In Sewall's diary (March 16, 1761), we find this entry: 
 
 "The singing extraordinary excellent, such as had hardly been 
 
 heard before in Boston." Singing- schools multiplied rapidly. 
 
 In a Salem newspaper of this period, "Samuel Wadsworth Begs 
 
 leave to inform the Publick, but the Female Sex in particular, that 
 
 he has opened a singing school for their Use at his Dwelling- 
 
 House .... to be kept on Tuesday and Friday evenings from 
 
 6 to 9 o'clock." 
 
 Music books suitable for such classes began to multiply. In 
 
 1778, William Billings brought out a revised edition of his earlier 
 
 book, The New England Psalm Singer, or American Chorister (1770), 
 
 called The Singing Master's Assistant, which became very popular. 
 
 The Salem Gazette of October, 1792, printed an advertisement of 
 
 , The American Harmony, by Oliver Holden, "Teacher of Music, 
 
 in Charlestown." The Massachusetts Magazine for August, 1792, 
 
 contains the following: 
 
 To the Publick. A large committee having been selected by the several 
 Musical Societies of Boston and its vicinity, beg leave to solicit the attention 
 of the publick to the following Proposals for publishing a Volume of Original 
 American Music composed by William Billings of Boston. The intended 
 Pubhcation wUl consist of a number of Anthems, Fuges, and Psalm Tunes, 
 calculated for publick socical Worship, or private Musical Societies. 
 
 The Salem Gazette of September, 1808, informs the public that 
 a chorus under the direction of Samuel Holyoke will give a concert 
 "in which the celebrated Hallelujah Chorus by Mr. Handel will be 
 performed." The choruses capable of doing such work were simply 
 a development of the singing-school and the church choir. The 
 Boston Handel and Haydn Society, for instance, is a direct out- 
 growth of the choir of the Park Street Church. 
 
EARLY ORGANIZATIONS 1 7 
 
 Further detail is unnecessary, but two points must be added. 
 What was taking place in Boston was taking place in all the cities. 
 The Enter peiad of Boston, May 12, 182 1, printed a list of oratorios 
 and grand concerts to be given in May by societies in Portland, 
 Maine; Augusta, Georgia; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Hanover, New 
 Hampshire; Providence; and Boston. Furthermore, not only were 
 the cities taking up the matter, but the country districts were 
 establishing singing-schools, which were very early in full swing. 
 They did not sing oratorios, but they probably got as much enjoy- 
 ment from selections more adapted to their capacities and oppor- 
 tunities. The very fact that about sixty singing-books were in 
 existence by the end of the eighteenth century gives one an idea of 
 the size of the constituency. Down to the very last these books 
 were predominantly religious in character. 
 
 The significance of the singing-class for our purpose is that all 
 over the country these gatherings of young men and women 
 were taking place under what were essentially religious auspices, 
 affording young people opportunity to meet each other in a natural 
 way and to join in a common enterprise. When the societies of 
 wider scope arose they frequently superseded the singing-schools, 
 music being an important element in the new organizations. The 
 church choir, however, is with us still. 
 
 6. The temperance societies contribute not a little to the his- 
 tory of the young people's movement. In 1775, a Huguenot 
 named Benezet had written The Mighty Destroyer Displayed. 
 This greatly influenced a personal friend of his. Dr. Benjamin 
 Rush, who in 1785 wrote the epoch-making Inquiry into the Effects 
 of Ardent Spirits on the Human Body &" Mind. This was reprinted 
 in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1786 and was as profoundly influ- 
 ential in England as in America. Societies began to spring up. 
 The Federal Herald of Lansingburgh, New York, for July 13, 1789, 
 relates that more than two hundred farmers of Litchfield, Cormecti- 
 cut, had founded an association to discourage the use of spirituous 
 liquors and had determined not to use distilled liquors of any sort 
 in the next farming season.^ Dr. Rush's Inquiry found its way into 
 the hands of Dr. Billy J. Clark of Moreau, New York, who was 
 
 * Kimball, The Blue Ribbon, p. 12. 
 
1 8 THE YOUNG PEOPLE S MOVEMENT 
 
 greatly agitated by it, and who with his pastor, Rev. Lebbaeus 
 Armstrong, founded in 1808 the Temperate Society of Moreau 
 & Northumberland, composed of forty-three members, who 
 pledged themselves to drink no distilled liquors except upon 
 physician's orders, and no wine except at public dinners. It was 
 provided that "this article shall not infringe on any religious 
 1 ordinance."' In 181 1, Dr. Rush appeared before the General 
 / Assembly of the Presbyterian church to present the temperance 
 question, and a committee was appointed which recommended to 
 the ministers that they preach temperance sermons. The following 
 year, when the committee had no remedy to suggest, Lyman 
 Beecher moved that another committee prepare a report. This 
 new body, of which he was chairman, recommended, in addition 
 to preaching, abstinence from ardent liquors on the part of ecclesi- 
 astical gatherings, on the part of church members even on social 
 occasions, and on the part of parents in the family; that employers 
 abstain from furnishing spirituous liquors to employees; and that 
 "voluntary associations to aid civil magistrates in the execution of 
 the law" be formed. In 1813, the Massachusetts Society for the 
 Suppression of Intemperance was organized, and in 18 15 it reported 
 thirty-three auxihary societies. The year 1829 witnessed the 
 organization of the New York State Temperance Society. By 
 the close of 1829, there were in the latter state a thousand local 
 temperance societies, with 100,000 members. 
 
 In the years 1826-30 the total-abstinence pledge was advocated 
 throughout New York state by Rev. Joel Jewell in the face of great 
 opposition, largely from the temperance people. Nevertheless, 
 in 1833, at the first national temperance convention, held at the call 
 of the American Temperance Society and attended by 400 delegates 
 from twenty-one states, this "teetotal" pledge was adopted. At 
 this time, there were a million and a half signers of the old pledge, 
 over 4,000 local organizations, and 1,500 distilleries had ceased 
 operations. In 1840 came the Washingtonian movement, an attempt 
 by reformed drunkards to rescue drunkards, and a woman's temper- 
 ance society, the Martha Washington Society, whose purpose 
 was work for women, 
 
 ' Armstrong, The Temperance Reformation, p. 19. 
 
EARLY ORGANIZATIONS 19 
 
 These movements waned, and the secret fraternal temperance 
 organizations arose to gather in the reformed and to offer them 
 encouragement and social life. The membership of these lodges 
 has always been composed very largely of young people, and the 
 spirit, for the most part, has been deeply religious. "Gospel 
 temperance" has meant the divine power in the rescue of the 
 drunkard. 
 
 The work of Father Matthew was far-reaching in its effects. 
 He began his work in Cork, Ireland, in 1838, came to New York in 
 1849, and at least a dozen of the societies formed at this time were 
 still in existence in 1872, when the Catholic Total Abstinence Union 
 was formed. 
 
 The temperance societies thus offered to young men in particu- 
 lar the pleasure of organization and association, and the challenge 
 of a great cause. .^><— 
 
 7. The young people's missionary societies which began to ^'^ ^ 
 spring up about the beginning of the century constitute another of 
 the converging lines of the developing young people's movement. 
 The problems of the scattered white settlers in America and of 
 the conversion of the Indian weighed ever more heavily upon the 
 Christian conscience of the people on the Atlantic seaboard. The 
 movements to meet these needs were at first largely interdenomina- 
 tional. The New York Missionary Society was formed in 1796; 
 the Northern Missionary Society of the State of New York in 
 1797; the Missionary Society of Philadelphia in 1798; the Massa- 
 chusetts Missionary Society in 1799; the Boston Female Society 
 for Missionary Purposes in 1800.^ In 1801 the Presbyterians and 
 Congregationalists made an agreement with reference to the 
 evangehzation of western New York and Ohio by which the whole 
 territory was covered.^ 
 
 These interdenominational societies worked well for a time, '' 
 but as the denominations grew, the denominational societies arose, 
 at first as auxiliary to the interdenominational society, later as inde- 
 pendent of it. One of the earliest of these was the Massachusetts 
 Baptist Missionary Society, formed in 1802. 
 
 ' Vail, The Morning Hour of American Baptist Missions, pp. 88 ff. 
 ^ Doggett, op. cit., 91 ff. 
 
y 
 
 20 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 ^At this point too the women's societies arose. In the annual 
 sermon before the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, 
 in 1804, Dr. Baldwin speaks of ''two female societies in this place" 
 (Boston), one of which was called the Cent Society (its members 
 gave one cent a week to missions). In 181 7 this Society gave 
 ten dollars to each of three Baptist Sunday schools in Boston. 
 Siinilar societies arose throughout New England, New York, New 
 Jersey, and in Philadelphia, so that in 18 14, when the General 
 Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for , 
 Foreign Missions was constituted, they were about fifty in number.^ 
 With the rise of the foreign missionary enterprise, through Carey's 
 work and letters, and the change of view that made Baptists of 
 Judson and Rice, some of these societies added the foreign work 
 to their activities, and other societies were organized for the new 
 work alone. The first of the distinctively foreign mission socie- 
 ties was formed at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1812,^ followed in 
 April, 18 13, by the New York Baptist Female Society for Promoting 
 Foreign Missions. Luther Rice declared that there were 17 exclu- 
 sively foreign missionary societies in May, 18 14, but how many of 
 them were women's societies we do not know. 
 
 In the wake of the general and the women's societies came the 
 young people's missionary organizations, A Young Men's Society 
 had been organized for devotional purposes in the Second Baptist 
 Church of Boston in 1800. Early in 1802, desiring to be "more 
 extensively useful to their fellow-beings," they sought advice from 
 their pastor. Dr. Baldwin, who turned their attention to missionary 
 work. Missionary meetings were held, and a United Society of 
 Young Men, drawing its members from the three Baptist churches 
 of Boston, was organized. In 18 10, we discover, they wished to 
 support a designated missionary for one quarter, and in the same 
 year they were credited with the sum of thirty dollars given toward 
 the support of Rev. Amos Allen in Maine.^ 
 
 On July 23, 1806, the Baptist Youth's Missionary Assistant 
 Society of New York City was formed, after the model of the Bap- 
 
 ' Vail, op. cit., pp. 126 ff. 
 
 * Vedder, Christian Epoch Makers, pp. 333. 
 
 3 Vail, op. cit., pp. 142 f., 108. 
 
EARLY ORGANIZATIONS 21 
 
 tist Missionary Assistant Society of London, organized in 1804 
 
 to collect small subscriptions. This society was composed — 
 
 chiefly of young persons of both sexes. Their officers are young men, whose 
 ages according to their constitution must not exceed a certain limitation. 
 They must be of the Baptist persuasion and in good standing in some church 
 
 of that denomination They hold a monthly meeting for business, which 
 
 is opened and closed by prayer and singing appropriate hymns. They also 
 have a monthly missionary prayer meeting. 
 
 A Young Men's Cent Society of Newburyport, Massachusetts, is 
 x:redited with a contribution of four dollars in 181 1. In this year 
 the Missionary Magazine announced that such societies had been 
 established in ''different places " and were affording " very consider- 
 able assistance to missionary institutions."^ 
 
 This movement in the Baptist denomination was paralleled 
 by similar movements for the support of the interdenominational 
 societies. On January 23, 1809, "Young Men of several denomina- 
 tions" in New York City formed themselves into a society to pro- 
 mote the objects of the New York Missionary Society. Seven years 
 later they ceased to be an auxiliary society and became the Young 
 Men's Missionary Society of New York.^ 
 
 In 1827, the New York Young Men's Auxiliary Society was 
 formed, as an assistant organization to the American Tract 
 Society, organized in 1824. This society was merged in 1829 into 
 the New York City Tract Society. 
 
 The most important of all these young people's societies was 
 that organized in Williams College in 1806, in the shelter of a hay- 
 stack during a thunderstorm. Five young men, of whom Samuel J. 
 Mills was the leading spirit, pledged themselves in prayer to the 
 work of foreign missions. A mission study class was formed which 
 sought to discover conditions and needs in foreign lands, particu- 
 larly in India. In 1808, a constitution was drawn up in cipher, 
 "public opinion being opposed to us," and a pledge signed by several 
 that, if possible, they would go to the foreign field. At Andover, 
 in 1809, Judson, Nott, and Newell joined the group. A memorial 
 signed by these young men was presented in May, 18 10, to the Gen- 
 eral Association of Congregational Churches, requesting appoint- 
 ments as foreign missionaries. On September 5 of that year the 
 
 ' Vail, op. cit., p. 427. * Dorchester, op. cit., pp. 403 ff. 
 
 / 
 
22 TECE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was 
 organized. Organizations similar to the Andover Society of 
 Brethren were formed in other institutions, ''some of which still 
 
 survive under the title of Societies of Inquiry The original 
 
 Andover society still exists under another name and constitution."^ 
 
 W>- 8. Another class of young people's societies is yet to be con- 
 A\ sidered, namely, those organized with a distinctively devotional 
 
 / purpose. There had been organized in London in 1678, by 
 Dr. Anthony Horneck, of Westminster, a Church of England Young 
 Men's Society composed of those "awakened to a serious concern 
 for the soul's interest." The rule of life urged the members to 
 love one another, to speak evil of no man, to wrong no man, to 
 pray, if possible, seven times a day, to keep close to the Church of 
 England, to be peaceable and helpful, to examine themselves at 
 night, to give to all their due, to obey their spiritual superiors. 
 Religious meetings were held at which the church prayers were 
 read, a psalm was sung, religious conversation entered into at the 
 option of those present, but no controversy was allowed. Forty- 
 two of these societies were known in London and vicinity, with 
 others elsewhere.^ 
 
 yj. In his Autobiography, Cotton Mather speaks of belonging to a 
 7^^ society in 1677 which met on Sunday evenings. "There we con- 
 stantly prayed, and sang a psalm, taking our turns in such devo- 
 tions. We then had a devout question, proposed a week before, 
 whereto anyone present gave what answer he pleased." It was 
 natural, in view of the decline of religion, that he should advocate 
 and organize such societies, and in books written in 1694 and 17 10 
 he strongly urges their formation. In 1706, a group of Harvard 
 students "formed a society, which laying to heart the too general 
 decay of serious piety in the profession of it, resolved upon some 
 essays to speak often unto one another or to carry on some suit- 
 able exercise of religion together, wherein they might prove bless- 
 ings not only unto one another, but unto many more whom they 
 might be concerned for." An interesting document has come down 
 to us, dated 1724, and entitled Proposals for the Revival of Dying 
 
 ' Button, in the Baptist Union, June 21, 1902. 
 
 ^ Leete, Christian Brotherhood (Jennings and Graham, 1912), pp. 213 ff. 
 
EARLY ORGANIZATIONS 2$ 
 
 Religion by W ell-Ordered Societies for That Purpose. The preamble 
 
 runs as follows : 
 
 We, whose names are underwritten, having by the grace of God been 
 awakened in our youth to a serious concern about the things of our everlasting 
 peace, and to an earnest desire suitably and religiously "to remember our 
 Creator in the days of our youth," and to give our hearts into the service of 
 God through our Lord Jesus Christ, do covenant and agree together. 
 
 Members were received by vote, and were "obliterated" if they 
 
 absented themselves, without sufficient reason, from the weekly 
 
 meetings. Dr. Mather says: 
 
 It is very certain that where such Private Meetings, under a good conduct, 
 have been kept aUve, the Christians which have composed them have like so 
 many Coals of the Altar kept one another alive, and kept up a lively Chris- 
 tianity in the neighborhood. Such societies have been tried and proved to be 
 strong Engines to uphold the Power of Godliness. 
 
 Rev. Otis Gary, while home on furlough from Japan, discovered 
 at Brockton, Massachusetts, an old notebook with a similar con- 
 stitution, dated 1741, written into it. The writer, who was for 
 seventy years a member of the church (North Parish of Bridge- 
 water), and sixty years a deacon, was at the time of writing a 
 youth of seventeen. Here is one article : 
 
 I it shall be our endeaveare to spend the tow ourse frome seven to nine of 
 every lords day evening in prayer to gathare by turnes the one to begine and 
 the outhere to conclud the meting and betwene the tow prayers haveing a 
 sarmon repeated whereto the singing of a psalm shall be annexed and ef aftear 
 the stated exersise of the eveneing are ovear if there be any residue of time we 
 will ask one a nothare questions out of the catecism or some questions in 
 divinyty or have some reliagus conversation as we shall best sarve for the 
 edefication of the sosiety.^ 
 
 These societies of Mather's seem not to have perpetuated ^ 
 themselves. 
 
 In the decades following the great awakening, and especially 
 after the turn of the century, it was not unusual for young people 
 or children in revival time to meet by themselves for prayer- 
 meetings. In the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine for 
 1804 there is a letter dated April 30, written by Rev. Thomas Rand 
 of West Springfield. In it he remarks: "Young people met in 
 
 ' Golden Rule, January 31, 1895; Clark, Training the Church of the Future, pp. 90 Q.; 
 Clark, Christian Etideavor in All Lands, 1906, p. 21. 
 
24 
 
 THE YOUNG PEOPLE S MOVEMENT 
 
 societies by themselves for Christian conversation, each sex by 
 themselves. The work is remarkable among youth and children." 
 In the same volume, with reference to a revival at Wardsboro, 
 Vermont, it is related: "Soon the children and young people were 
 holding most impressive conferences by themselves, which were 
 carried on with great regularity to the surprise and delight of their 
 Pastor and older brethren." These were temporary groups, but 
 in 1800, in the Second Baptist Church of Boston, a young men's 
 society was organized, which met on Sunday evenings in the 
 meeting-house, ''public worship at that hour not then having been 
 established." It was this group who organized the United Society 
 of Young Men for missionary propaganda, but they did not lose 
 their identity. The records of the church for July 13, 1804, read: 
 "Voted that our young brethren be allowed to occupy the vestry 
 on Friday evenings when not occupied with preaching." 
 
 Table I will indicate what these various agencies accomplished 
 in America with reference to church growth in the half-century from 
 1800 to 1850. 
 
 TABLE I 
 
 
 Ministers 
 
 Congregations 
 
 Communicants 
 
 
 1800 
 
 1850 
 
 1800 
 
 1850 
 
 1800 
 
 1850 
 
 Congregationalist. . . 
 
 
 1,687 
 4,578 
 8,018 
 6,000 
 1,504 
 
 
 1,971 
 5,672 
 
 13,455 
 30,000 
 
 1,550 
 
 
 197,196 
 
 490,259 
 
 948,867 
 
 1,250,000 
 
 73,000 
 
 Presbyterian 
 
 Baptist 
 
 300 
 
 500 
 1,150 
 
 40,000 
 65,000 
 40,000 
 16,000 
 
 Methodist 
 
 
 Episcopalian 
 
 260 
 
 320 
 
 This was emphatically a period of preparation and of beginnings. 
 We have seen some of our great modern movements getting under 
 way. Probably the temperance cause has never evoked such 
 enthusiasm as during the thirties. The missionary enterprise, with 
 its appeal to the romantic, the heroic, and the religious motives, 
 stirred the imagination and gripped the conscience. Philanthropy 
 found abundant outlet in education, factory legislation, work for 
 prisoners, slaves, and the submerged population generally. Under- 
 lying all these were powerful religious forces, the great awakening 
 in America, paralleled in England by the Wesleyan revival and in 
 
EARLY ORGANIZATIONS 2$ 
 
 Germany by the rally against rationalism. The rise of the prayer- 
 meeting, the beginning of the recognition of women, and the expan- 
 sion of lay activity in purely religious fields are elements in the 
 democratic movement within the church. 
 
 The revival method of church growth and of individual develop- 
 ment is dominant, almost alone, in the evangelical churches. 
 Legitimate church work is essentially the winning of souls. There 
 is practically no conception that young people form a special group 
 physically and psychologically, with interests, capacities, and needs 
 peculiarly their own. The ignorant, the vicious, the immature, the 
 unconverted, and the heathen, are all classed together as those 
 whom the educated and the converted should help. Sex co- 
 operation among young people is virtually non-existent, except in 
 choirs, where alto and soprano voices are required, and in teachers' 
 meetings, where the common task brings together all who happen 
 to be engaged in it. Organization on a sex basis is becoming 
 common, young men especially having many societies of their own. -/ 
 
 Note. — In addition to the religious or semi-religious organizations of 
 young people, a most interesting group of societies arose in the American 
 colleges, known as the Greek- letter fraternities. They grew from the ruins 
 of Uterary and debating societies, some secret, some non-secret, rejoicing in 
 such names as Hermesian, Philolethian, Erosophian, Adelphi, and so on. 
 These flourished in the period from the Revolution to 1825, or thereabout. 
 The oldest of the Greek-letter societies is the Phi Beta Kappa, formed at 
 William and Mary College in 1776, for purposes related to "literature, 
 morahty, and fraternity," its three stars. Seven branches had been organized 
 down to 1844. Chi Delta Theta, organized at Yale in 182 1 as a Senior society, 
 soon ceased to exist, and Chi Theta, formed at Princeton in 1824, was sup- 
 pressed. The first society to put into practice the usages characteristic of 
 the modern fraternity was Kappa Alpha, founded at Union College in 1825. 
 This was followed in 1827 by Delta Phi and Sigma Phi, also founded at 
 Union College. Sigma Phi estabHshed a branch at Hamilton College in 183 1, 
 being thus the first fraternity to adopt this method of growth. Through imi- 
 tation or antagonism. Alpha Delta Phi was organized at Hamilton College the 
 following year. In opposition to the secret character of these, Delta Upsilon 
 was founded at WilUams College in 1834, not merely as non-secret but as anti- 
 secret. Beta Theta Pi was organized at Miami University in 1839 and Chi 
 Psi at Union College in 184 1. Up to this time ten fraternities had been 
 formed, including something over thirty chapters. Each of these had an 
 elaborate constitution with its preamble, its definition of the object of the 
 
26 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 society, and its statement of name and motto, of conditions and degrees of 
 membership, of form of government, of duties of officers, of relations of the 
 chapters, and of the oath of membership. The causes of their founding may 
 be reduced to four: friendship, the promotion of a common object, imitation, 
 or antagonism. They constitute a very significant part of that organization of 
 yoimg people whose development we are tracing.' 
 
 » Baird, American College Fraternities (ist ed., 1879; 6th ed., 1905). 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE PERIOD OF DISCOVERY (1844-1860) 
 
 We call the years from 1844 to i860 the period of discovery 
 because in these years there came to clear consciousness the fact 
 that young men constitute a class by themselves. The year 1844 
 marks the organization of the Y.M.C.A. The year i860 witnessed 
 two important events. The great laymen's revival, beginning in 
 1857 in New York, under the direction of Y.M.C.A. men, had by 
 this time run its course. Secondly, the organization about this 
 time of a young people's soc) fy in a Brooklyn church which changed 
 the watchword of the Y.M.C.A., "Young men for young men," 
 into "Young people for youig people," marks the appropriation 
 of the movement by the church. This organization, furthermore, 
 constitutes historically the link binding together the Y.M.C.A. and 
 the Christian Endeavor society. 
 
 The various forms of organization which, in the previous chapter, 
 we saw getting under way continued their development during 
 these years. The high-class musical clubs present not a little that 
 is important for this period, but practically no new features. 
 Choral and philharmonic societies continued to multiply and to 
 perform difficult musical compositions with increasing skill. The 
 singing-school became more widespread and popular, and — what 
 is perhaps more significant— other organizations adopted the musi- 
 cal gild and adapted it to their own ends. The Sunday-school 
 societies published many musical books. When John B. Gough 
 visited London in 1853, "the united choirs of the temperance sing- 
 ing societies of the metropolis " sat on the platform.^ The churches 
 used the choir more and more, and this was usually composed of 
 mixed voices. 
 
 The adult Sunday-school classes had a much more significant 
 development in England than in America during this period. In 
 the United States the movement lagged, largely because there was 
 not the need of teaching adults to read that existed in England, 
 
 ' Couling, History of the Temperance Movement, p. 219. 
 
 27 
 
28 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 and because the new conception of the Sunday school as a place 
 for Bible study was only slowly gaining ground. 
 
 Among the temperance societies the most striking event was 
 the new place accorded women. Temperance societies of women 
 alone and of men alone had been in existence from the start. 
 In 1850, the temperance societies had been petitioned to open their 
 membership to women. When the refusal became definite, the 
 Independent Order of Good Templars, a non-beneficiary organiza- 
 tion, was instituted, in which women were accepted on the same 
 terms as men. The new order grew at a marvelous rate. In 1855, 
 there were ten state organizations and a Right Worthy Grand 
 Lodge.^ Of purely feminine organizations, several had their 
 beginnings in this period or earlier, but attained their important 
 development later, and will be considered in connection with their 
 period. 
 
 The outstanding event of these years was the organization and 
 I development of the Y.M.C.A. In order to understand its signifi- 
 j cance we must give some account of the English and German 
 associations. 
 
 The salient figure is that of George Williams, who founded the 
 London Association and gave it its distinctive character. At the 
 age of fifteen he had been apprenticed to a draper in Bridgewater. 
 Largely through the influence of two or three companions, he was 
 converted. This group began to hold prayer-meetings and do 
 personal work for the conversion of their fellow-employees, with 
 much success. In 1841, Williams entered the drapery house 
 of George Hitchcock & Sons, London. Fortunately, he came 
 in close contact with a young man of earnest religious convictions, 
 and together they started a prayer-meeting. Bible classes were 
 held, a mutual improvement society formed, and a foreign mission 
 society organized in which each member pledged a penny a week, 
 collected weekly by Williams. By 1844, a new respect for religion 
 had come to the establishment, the proprietor himself had been 
 converted, a similar prayer-meeting had been set up in another 
 establishment, and on May 31, 1844, twelve young men constituted 
 the original Y.M.C.A. Williams had been profoundly influenced 
 
 ' Daniels, The Temperance Reformation, pp. 196 ff. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISCOVERY 29 
 
 by Finney's Revival Lectures, and the evangelistic passion dominated 
 
 him. Every new convert was given Finney to read, and so was 
 
 led into personal evangehstic work. Consequently, when the 
 
 Y.M.C.A. was organized, its object was stated to be " the improve- 1 
 
 ment of the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery 
 
 and other trades." Membership was open to any young man who 
 
 was "a member of a Christian church," or who gave "sufficient 
 
 evidence of his being a converted character." The following year 
 
 the statement of aim and the basis of membership were both altered. 
 
 The aim was declared to be "the improvement of the spiritual and 
 
 mental condition of young men," and membership was open only 
 
 to those "apphcants that give credible evidence of conversion." 
 
 The membership fee was sixpence and the dues sixpence a quarter. 
 
 In 1849, provision was made for associate membership, the report 
 
 for that year containing the following sentence: 
 
 Without in the slightest degree impairing the distinctive character and 
 design of membership in the Association, of the value of which every year 
 has brought additional proof, many young men of good moral character may 
 be provided for by the society, under the simple plan of a money subscription, 
 and by this means in widening our sphere of influence we will be fulfilling our 
 mission, and by God's help promoting more largely the spiritual improvement 
 of young men. 
 
 From the first the committee of management consisted only of 
 converted men. 
 
 The Association grew rapidly. In five months there were 70 
 members, and 14 houses were represented. The West End branch 
 was started in 1845 with 50 members. In this year a paid mission- 
 ary was employed, and as a consequence we find in November, 
 1846, 6 Associations in London, and organizations begun in Man- 
 chester, Leeds, Liverpool, Taunton, and Exeter. By 1855, there 
 were in Great Britain 47 Associations with 8,500 members. It is 
 not to be supposed that these Associations were uniformly success- 
 ful. The Manchester branch, for instance, was started five times 
 before it was finally established. But on the whole the growth 
 was continuous. This was due, in part, to the comprehensive \ / 
 nature of the organization, for it included by this time not only 
 evangelistic meetings and Bible classes, but libraries, reading- 
 rooms, lecture-courses, and secular classes; in part, to the zealous 
 
30 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 support, both personal and financial, of George Hitchcock; but 
 largely, to the enthusiastic leadership and evangelistic interest of 
 WilHams and his friends, and to the fact that each new convert 
 at once became an Andrew seeking Peter. 
 
 For the roots of the German Junglingsvereine, we must go to 
 Halle, where, in i7i5-i6,Zinzendorf formed a "Senf'Korn Orden," 
 whose rules are still extant, "to follow Christ in walk and conversa- 
 tion, to love your neighbor, and strive for the conversion of Jews 
 and heathen." At Basel, in 1758, Pastor Mayenrock established an 
 association of young men in his congregation. They pledged them- 
 selves to five things: (i) to abide strictly by the teaching of the Word 
 of God and the apostolic faith; (2) to shun all sectarianism and any- 
 thing that might seduce to it; (3) to be true toward God, oneself, 
 and all men; (4) to have the privilege, to be even under the obliga- 
 tion, of reproving and reminding the others of their faults; (5) to 
 take care never to tell evil stories about the others, that good-will 
 toward one another might be strengthened. With the exception of 
 a few years between 1820 and 1825, this society's existence was 
 continuous. It began to be influential outside its own circle in 
 1833, when Dr. Frederick Mallet of Bremen made a visit to Switzer- 
 land, and on his return organized the first Junglingsverein. His 
 statement, which is still used in West Germany, is as follows: It 
 shall be the object of this association — 
 
 (i) To foster under the direction and influence of the Word of God Chris- 
 tian sentiments and godly conduct among our young men; (2) to oppose as 
 much as possible all the perils which beset young men through the temptations 
 of the world, particularly through the beer-halls; (3) to unite young men in 
 Christian union and fellowship; (4) through the increase of their knowledge 
 to enable them to be more skilful in their daily work; (5) to serve sick and 
 destitute young men by relief and attendance. 
 
 The president of the organization was usually a pastor. The 
 managing committee was chosen from the membership, which in- 
 cluded all the young men of the parish who desired to unite with the 
 society. This society spread to Barmen in 1836, to Elberfeld in 
 1838, to Karlsruhe in 1839, to Ronsdorf in 1842. In 1844, there 
 were 10 Vereine in existence. Homes were established for young 
 apprentices, where social Hfe, intellectual training, and reHgious 
 culture were provided in the form of Bible study, lectures, singing 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISCOVERY 3 1 
 
 and other classes, and warm Christian friendship. Nine of these 
 associations in 1848 formed the Rhenish-Westphahan AlHance of 
 Young Men's Associations. In 1855, there were in Germany 130 
 associations with 6,000 members. 
 
 In giving the place of priority to the English movement, we 
 appear to be departing from historical accuracy, for in point of time 
 these German societies were earlier. But it was the English Asso- 
 ciations which not only supplied the name under which the move- 
 ment was destined to spread over the earth, but which also furnished 
 the distinctive character and spiritual dynamic. 
 
 The American movement arose directly from the English. 
 Before it came across the Atlantic there were not a few young men's 
 clubs and societies, but these had not possessed the power of self- 
 propagation. There was, however, one society which influenced 
 the larger movement. A Young Men's Society of Christian Inquiry 
 had been formed in Cincinnati in 1848 "for the purpose of culti- 
 vating Christian intercourse; of assisting each other in growth in 
 grace and knowledge; and especially of enlarging their acquaintance 
 with rehgious movements of their own country and of the world, 
 and fitting themselves for more extended usefulness in the service 
 of the divine Redeemer." This society took young men and the 
 children of the poor as its especial field. To reach the former, 
 furnished rooms were opened with Hbrary, reading-room, and 
 parlors, and semi-monthly meetings of a rehgious and social char- 
 acter were held. To reach the latter, seven Sunday schools, 
 officered and taught by members of the society, were started in the 
 poorer quarters of the city. 
 
 The story of the Boston Y.M.C.A. is most significant, for it 
 not only propagated itself widely but largely determined the 
 character of the organization in America. The Watchman and 
 Reflector for October 30, 185 1, pruited a letter from London, written 
 by George M. Vanderlip, describing the original Y.M.C.A. A 
 group of men who had been concerned about the young men 
 of Boston, particularly those who had come to the city to 
 work, and consequently had no homes of their own, found in 
 this institution the solution of their problem. The first question 
 of detail had reference to the membership, and, although the 
 
 At- 
 
/ 
 
 32 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Unitarians and Universalists were eager to help, their assistance 
 was declined, and active membership, with the privilege of voting 
 and holding office, was limited to members "in regular standing 
 of an evangelical church." All other privileges were open to 
 "young men of good moral character" upon payment of one dollar 
 aimually. The management was vested in a small board of evan- 
 gelical Christians, elected by the active members. From the start 
 the Association worked through committees, "which came to be 
 characteristic of the American work." 
 
 The Association sought to help any young man who needed a 
 service which it could render, and tried especially to reach him on 
 the social side ; but its emphasis was on the religious aspect of the 
 work. From the start a young men's prayer-meeting was held 
 one evening a week. In the second year a Saturday night Bible 
 class was begun, with an attendance of 136, which speedily reached 
 an average between twenty and thirty. Its character quickly 
 became established as a training school for Christian young men, 
 and especially for Sunday-school teachers. The evangelical 
 ministers found the Association a convenient place for holding 
 meetings of all sorts, and it was soon the religious exchange for the 
 city. 
 
 One particular feature was the extensive use made of the press 
 and post. In January, 1852, a circular announcing the purpose of 
 the organization was distributed widely. Copies of the constitu- 
 tion and of the first address before the Association were sent to 
 every pastor and many hundreds of other Christian men in New 
 England. A large correspondence was carried on with reference 
 to young men coming to live in Boston. As a consequence, Asso- 
 ciations multiplied. At the close of 1853, there were 27 Associations 
 in North America. 
 
 In 1854, thirty-seven delegates from 19 Associations met in 
 Buffalo to take under consideration the organization of an American 
 federation. Boston, New York, Brooklyn, and Baltimore, whose 
 membership formed one-half of the total, declined to unite, the 
 New York Association specifying its objections to conventions and 
 a federation. They give classic expression to arguments that 
 constantly recur in succeeding years, and in other organizations: 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISCOVERY 33 
 
 We believe conventions draw off attention from local work, and our insti- 
 tution is essentially local. 
 
 We believe they foster a centralizing spirit at war with independent action. 
 
 We believe they will produce unpleasant scenes, and rupture upon such 
 subjects as slaves. 
 
 We believe the expense unauthorized by our main object. 
 
 We believe fraternal feelings between the associations may be better 
 cultivated by correspondence and chance visits. 
 
 In spite of these obstacles the federation was formed, chiefly 
 through the efforts of WilHam Chauncey Langdon of Washington. 
 A Central Committee of eleven members was formed to plan the 
 annual conventions; "to maintain correspondence with American 
 and foreign kindred bodies, promote the formation of new asso- 
 ciations, collect and diffuse appropriate information, and from time 
 to time recommend to the Associations such measures as may seem 
 calculated to promote the general object"; but it might not " com- 
 mit any local association to any proposed plan of action, nor 
 assess any pecuniary rate upon them without their consent." Mr. 
 Langdon was made secretary to the committee. 
 
 At the instance of the Cincinnati society already mentioned, 
 now a Y.M.C.A., mission Sunday-school work and especially 
 classes of young men were adopted as a proper objective. It was 
 discovered that not all Associations were organized on the Boston 
 basis of membership, and resolutions were passed strongly com- 
 mending that plan, but not insisting upon it as essential to member- 
 ship in the federation. 
 
 Thus the end of 1854 saw the British branches in intimate 
 relations with the first Association, and the German and American 
 groups organized. The way was open for an organization that 
 would unite them all. The Evangehcal Alliance was meeting in 
 Paris in 1855, and many Y.M.C.A. leaders would be in attendance. 
 A call was issued to Associations in Great Britain, America, and 
 on the continent to come together for the purpose of organizing 
 a world-federation, which was duly formed on the so-called "Paris 
 basis": "The Young Men's Christian Associations seek to unite 
 those young men, who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and 
 Savior according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples 
 
34 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 in their doctrine and in their life, and to associate their efforts for 
 the extension of his kingdom among young men." 
 
 This has proved to be an exceedingly important declaration. 
 It proposed three requirements for membership, viz., an evangelical 
 creed, personal piety, and evangelistic enthusiasm. It asserted 
 further the value of organized endeavor, and defined the sphere 
 within which the Association should work, viz., for young men. 
 Although moved by Frederick Monnier of Strasburg, it represented 
 the actual practice of the British group only, as a group. The 
 German associations were open to all young men in a parish, on 
 the supposition that they were evangelical in theology and willing 
 to become religious. The American federation had not deemed it 
 wise generally to set up the evangelical test. The Boston Asso- 
 ciation did not confine itself to young men, but held revival services 
 for the general public, and the Cincinnati society had pledged the 
 American federation to Sunday-school work. But the Paris basis 
 ultimately prevailed universally. 
 
 Let us note precisely what has happened in this period. An 
 organization of young men has arisen in Germany, Switzerland, 
 France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Great Britain, and America; it 
 has been received with favor by a large proportion of the most 
 influential members of the Protestant churches, and by a consider- 
 able number of young men in these countries; a definite field of 
 action has been marked off — the winning of young men to the 
 religious life; the fundamental principle of service has been deter- 
 mined — the winning of young men by young men ; national federa- 
 tions have been formed; a world-organization has been effected. 
 In a word, there has taken place the discovery of young men, with 
 their needs and possibilities; of a great and worthy cause to which 
 to invite their allegiance; and of the fundamental principles and 
 methods by which the work is to be done. 
 
 In America this recognition was emphasized by the laymen's 
 revival that swept over the land in the years 1857 to 1859 or i860. 
 A group of Y.M.C.A. men, mostly members of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church, in 1856 began noon prayer-meetings for men in the Fulton 
 Street Church in New York. In 1857 these were turned over to 
 Joseph C. Lamphier, lay city missionary of the Dutch Reformed 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISCOVERY 35 
 
 Church. The country was in the grip of a financial panic. On 
 September 23, 1857, the noon prayer-meeting was widely advertised 
 and met with an unexpected response. The attendance grew 
 rapidly from day to day. The revival spread over the land, being 
 particularly under the direction of the Associations. Converts 
 were finally numbered by the hundred thousands. When the 
 revival was over, the Y.M.C.A. possessed an assured status and a 
 definite significance in every city in the land. 
 
 Note i. — The Boston Young Men's Christian Union. — Originating earlier 
 than the Boston Y.M.C.A. and parallel to it, is the Boston Y.M.C.U. It was 
 organized September 17, 1851, as the Biblical Literature Association. When 
 the Unitarians were excluded from the Y.M.C.A., this B.L.A. became the 
 Y.M.C.U. and was incorporated in 1852. Its objects were: "To furnish the 
 young men of Boston and vicinity a place of pleasant resort where the influences 
 are beneficial and elevating, to provide them with opportunity of self- 
 improvement and healthful recreation, at little or no expense; to give them 
 opportunities for doing good, by engaging in charitable and benevolent work." 
 The article on membership reads: "All young men of good moral character, 
 and claiming to believe in the truths of Christianity, without distinction of 
 sect or party, shall be eligible as members of this society." The Union was 
 temporarily discontinued in 1863 on account of the war, which had so injurious 
 an effect upon religious work generally. Reorganization was effected April 15, 
 1868. A new building was dedicated March 15, 1876, and an addition buUt 
 in 1883. The report of 1871 shows the Union organized, with committees 
 as follows: finance; lectures, classes, and entertainments; library; rooms; 
 members; benevolent action; public worship and religious study. Sunday 
 religious services were maintained, seats in churches furnished to young 
 men, teachers supplied for Sunday schools and missions, boarding-places 
 recommended, employment secured, savings deposited, and practical benevo- 
 lent work engaged in. In 1875, there were classes in book-keeping, German, 
 French, parliamentary law, vocal music, astronomy, elocution, and Shake- 
 speare; monthly socials were held, at which many of Boston's most cultured 
 women were present ; and a Christmas and New Year's festival was given to 
 poor children. In 1895, we note, 2,318 children and 267 adults were sent to 
 the country for short periods, and carriage and other drives for shut-ins and 
 convalescents to the number of 8,070 provided. The report for 1900 showed 
 that the secular classes had grown in variety and attendance, that the 
 library had 15,000 volumes, that the membership was 5,554, that religious 
 services had been held every Sunday except during July and August, and 
 that over $18,000 had been expended in drives, bay trips, and country visits 
 for the poor. 
 
36 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Note. 2. — The growth of colleges from 1844 to i<?<5o.— Attention should be 
 called to the fact of the great outburst of college building in this period. From 
 1840 to 1850 there were nearly forty colleges founded in the United States, 
 and between 1850 and i860 over seventy-five. There was also a great develop- 
 ment of the existing Greek-letter fraternities, and the organization and growth 
 of many new ones. These facts are important as indicating that the young 
 people's movement was general, and not restricted to the moral and religious 
 spheres. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION (i 860-1881) 
 
 An incident highly characteristic of this period and of great 
 historical importance was the organization in i860, by Dr. Theodore 
 Cuyler, of a young people's prayer-meeting in the Lafayette Avenue 
 Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn. In his own story he states 
 that the success of the Y.M.C.A. on a purely religious basis led to 
 the organization of young people in individual churches. 
 
 It had been common to hold young men's prayer-meetings in many 
 churches; but beyond this very little had been done to combine the youth 
 of the church for Christian work. For example, the young people — of both 
 sexes — held a large weekly prayer-meeting in the various houses of my Market 
 Street congregation in New York. It was a powerful agency, especially during 
 seasons of revival. After I removed to Brooklyn, as the first pastor of the 
 Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, a similar meeting was established on 
 the 24th of September, i860. Forty persons were present. Out of this 
 weekly prayer-meeting sprang the Young People's Association which had such 
 an important influence on the establishment of societies of Christian Endeavor. 
 
 The Y.P.A. of the Lafayette Avenue Church was organized on the evening 
 of November 6th, 1867, and fifty-four persons signed its constitution. For 
 nearly a quarter of a century it has been doing its blessed work, and many 
 
 associations of a similar kind were copied after it ' The great purpose 
 
 of the society was the conversion of souls, the development of Christian char- 
 acter and the training of new converts in religious work. The social element 
 was not overlooked; and accordingly a half-hour was spent at the close of 
 each weekly meeting in friendly intercourse. A committee on entertainments 
 
 also provides for a large monthly gathering The most important 
 
 committee is the devotional committee, and the interest of the society centers 
 in the weekly devotional meeting. That lasts just one hour, and is led by the 
 members in rotation. [There is also a visiting and a temperance committee.] 
 
 Several years ago, an account of this vigorous association fell imder the 
 eye of the Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark, who was then the pastor of a church in Maine. 
 He came to our church and learned more of the work carried on by our young 
 people. Last winter Dr. Clark addressed a letter to their secretary in which he 
 said: "I had heard of the Lafayette Avenue Church Young People's Association, 
 and had read an account by Dr. Cuyler in regard to it, which led me to believe 
 that a Yovmg People's Society might be made to do efficient work for the church 
 
 ' It found its way by the score into all the principal denominations. 
 
 37 
 
38 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 with which it was connected: an experience which had not been true of many 
 such societies with which I had been acquainted. That thought was certainly 
 an inspiration to the first Christian Endeavor Society."^ 
 
 Here then is the pivotal point in the appropriation of the young 
 people's movement by the church. The purely religious foundation 
 of the successful Y.M.C.A., with its watchword, "Young men 
 for young men," led to the Young People's Association, with its 
 devotional meeting as its central function, with its constitution, 
 committee work, and social functions, and its watchword, "Young 
 people for young people." This society became the starting-point 
 for many Young People's Associations all over the country, and in 
 particular led Dr. Clark, founder of the Christian Endeavor move- 
 ment, "to believe that a Young People's Society might be made to 
 do efl&cient work for the church with which it was connected." 
 As we shall see, the Christian Endeavor Society was modeled closely 
 after this society. The Christian Endeavor Society in its turn 
 was the signal for the phenomenal growth of young people's 
 societies of the same nature which has taken place since 1881. 
 
 With this line of advance clearly before us, we shall proceed 
 to notice somewhat in detail the development of the characteristic 
 features of the period. 
 
 A significant action in America, with which the evangelical 
 churches of Great Britain and Germany were fully in accord, was 
 the drawing more closely of the lines of division between the con- 
 servative and liberal churches. We have noted that the Boston 
 Y.M.C.A. had excluded the Unitarians and Universalists from its 
 active membership, and that the Buffalo conference had left the 
 matter open. The convention of 1868 limited active membership 
 to "members of churches held to be evangelical." A curious appli- 
 cation of this rule led to the refusal of membership to a Quaker, on 
 the ground that he was not a communicant.^ The Portland, Maine, 
 convention of 1869 defined " evangelical " in the following resolution: 
 
 We hold those churches to be evangelical, which, maintaining the Holy 
 Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of faith and practice, do believe in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ (the only-begotten son of the Father, King of Kings and 
 
 ■ The Independent, July 7, 1892, p. 930. 
 " Christian Union, March 26, 1873, P- 252. 
 
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION 39 
 
 Lord of Lords, in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and who 
 was made sin for us though knowing no sin, bearing our sins in His own body 
 on the tree) as the only name under heaven given among men whereby we 
 must be saved from everlasting punishment. 
 
 The passage of this resolution has had profound practical results, 
 for it gave the evangelical churches faith in the Y.M.C.A., and their 
 unstinted financial support dates from that hour. 
 
 The great expansion of Christian work among young men is 
 seen in the continued numerical growth of young men's societies, 
 in the extension of their sphere of work, and in the arising of new 
 organizations. The development of the Y.M.C.A. illustrates this. 
 The war period caused a temporary setback, but the Y.M.C.A. 
 utilized this time in the splendid work of the United States Christian 
 Commission among the soldiers, which obtained the enthusiastic 
 support of all classes of the population. The Association has ever 
 since continued its work among soldiers, and has added to it work 
 among the United States sailors. The work among railroad men 
 began in Cleveland, in 1870, with religious services, and soon 
 commanded the interest of the railroad officials. The New York 
 Central Railroad adopted the Railroad Y.M.C.A. in 1875, and thus 
 began that long list of gifts of corporations to a religious association, 
 not on account of its religious value, but because *'it means sober 
 employees, safety for travelers, reliable engineers and brakemen, 
 polite conductors, security against unwarranted strikes, and the 
 comparatively speedy ending of strikes." The Y.M.C.A. first 
 reached the, colored men at Fisk University in 1870, and speedily 
 spread to them in the cities, so that in 1879 a colored secretary was 
 employed. The rural work began in 1872, when Robert Weidensall 
 organized a rural Y.M.C.A. in Dupage County, Illinois. The 
 next year a business man in Mason County, Illinois, undertook 
 the voluntary supervision of Y.M.C.A. work in seven or eight 
 small communities, and demonstrated its practicability and value. 
 The development of this is, however, very recent. The most far- 
 reaching of these extensions has been work among students. 
 Sporadic associations had sprung up very early — one at the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia in 1857, and one at Michigan in 1858. In 1876, 
 there were 25 college associations, with 2,500 members, and these 
 
40 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 students were invited to attend the international Y.M.C.A. con- 
 ventions. This expansion of the Association marks the rising tide 
 of the church's interest in young men. 
 
 The years 1850 to 1890 mark the period of greatest activity in 
 the founding of colleges in the United States. Of existing colleges, 
 76 were founded from 1850 to i860; 77 from i860 to 1870 (mostly 
 in the second half of the decade); 63 from 1870 to 1880; and 78' 
 from 1880 to 1890. These institutions were largely denominational 
 and for men, though women have increasingly been admitted. 
 
 In this period, the development of certain organizations indi- 
 cates the "discovery" of young women. Rousseau's ideally 
 educated girl was to be trained, quite in opposition to Rousseau's 
 own principles, for the sake of Emile. The conception was still 
 dominant at this time, but from 1870 onward women have been 
 increasingly regarded as entitled to consideration for their own 
 sakes. We shall touch upon four of the indications of the changing 
 attitude. 
 
 The modern deaconess movement goes back to 1575, when a 
 church at Wesel, Germany, employed women with this title. In 
 1820, Pastor Friedrich Kloenne published On the Revival of the 
 Deaconesses of the Ancient Church in Our Ladies^ Societies. In 
 1833, Pastor Fhedner, of Kaiserswerth, Germany, assumed the re- 
 sponsibility of caring for a female ex-convict who had nowhere to go. 
 Other needy women came to him, until it became necessary to secure 
 a superintendent and assistants. These he called deaconesses. 
 The Kaiserswerth institutions grew until they included the means 
 of caring for the ex-convict, for the feeble-minded, the aged, the 
 wayward, the sick, for children, and for infirm deaconesses. The 
 expansion abroad was equally great. Hospitals were open in Jeru- 
 salem (1851), Constantinople (1852), Smyrna (1853), Alexandria 
 (1857), Florence (i860), and so on. Daughter-institutions were 
 established in Paris (1841), Berne (1845), London (1846), Stock- 
 holm (1849), St. Petersburg (1859), Copenhagen (1863). Pastor 
 Fliedner brought four deaconesses to the United States in 1849 
 to establish a Lutheran hospital in Pittsburgh. The enterprise 
 did not succeed.^ 
 
 'Wheeler, Deaconesses, Ancient and Modern (Hunt & Eaton, 1889). 
 
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION 4 1 
 
 The Episcopal church was the first in America to conduct the 
 work successfully. In 1864, a diocesan deaconess' institution was 
 founded at Mobile, Alabama. In 1872, Bishop Littlejohn of Long 
 Island consecrated six deaconesses at St. Mary's Church, Brooklyn. 
 There were sisterhoods in the Episcopal church earlier than this, 
 and not a few have arisen since, springing up in imitation of the 
 Catholic sisterhoods. The deaconesses, though wearing a uniform, 
 living in a common house, and serving without remuneration, 
 do not constitute a conventual order, but may resign at any 
 time. Their work consists of parish work, teaching, or the care 
 of the sick, the poor, or the fallen. 
 
 Of recent years there has been an almost universal recognition 
 of the deaconess, as indicated by the great increase of training 
 schools and denominational hospitals, and by the granting of 
 official standing in the churches. For our purpose, the significance 
 of the movement is twofold : it is a voluntary, religious organiza- 
 tion of Protestant women, mostly young, and its purpose is largely 
 philanthropic and missionary. 
 
 The Women's Christian Temperance Union, which shortly 
 after its organization set itself definitely to cultivate young women, 
 and which for some years has had a young women's branch, took 
 its origin from a lyceum lecture given by Dr. Dio H. Lewis at 
 Hillsboro, Ohio, December 23, 1873. He told how, forty years 
 before, his mother, desperate because his father was rapidly becom- 
 ing a drunkard, had gathered a few women together, and how they 
 had gone to the saloon to hold a prayer-meeting and to beseech the 
 dealer to quit his business. The story aroused the women of Hills- 
 boro, and headed by the most prominent women in the town, they 
 did likewise. Like wildfire the movement spread over the whole 
 nation and for months every paper was full of it. In order to 
 conserve this enthusiasm, and to direct it most efficiently, a group 
 of women, gathered in a Sunday-school convention at Chautauqua 
 in August, 1874, issued a call for organization. As a result, the 
 W.C.T.U. was organized at Cleveland in November of that year, 
 with six departments — organization, prevention, education, evan- 
 gehstic, social, legal. Sixteen states were represented in 1874, and 
 22 in 1875. The W.C.T.U. spread almost as fast and as far as the 
 
42 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Woman's Crusade, and the foundation was laid for persistently- 
 aggressive work, which has never slackened up to this time. The 
 World's W.C.T.U. was formed in 1883, and in 191 1 embraced 52 
 nations. 
 
 The Young Women's Christian Association gathers up this 
 / significant trend of the times. The American and British branches 
 seem to have arisen independently. In 1855, two women in Eng- 
 land perceived that something more should be done for young 
 women. Miss Robarts instituted a "prayer union," banding young 
 women together for prayer. Lady Kinnaird, in London, seeing the 
 need of proper housing and companionship for business girls, set 
 herself to establish suitable Christian homes and institutes for young 
 women. These two movements, one devotional and the other 
 philanthropic, both deeply religious, spread throughout the United 
 Kingdom as parallel forces until 1877, when a union of forces and 
 methods was accomplished under the name of the Y.W.C.A. 
 
 In America, Mrs. Marshall O. Roberts of New York formed the 
 Union Prayer Circle in 1858, which in the same year changed its 
 name to "The Ladies' Christian Association .... to labor for 
 the temporal, moral, and religious welfare of young, self-supporting 
 women." Eight years later, the name was changed again to "The 
 Ladies' Christian Union," and a charter secured. In this year, 
 the Boston Y.W.C.A. was organized on the model of the Y.M.C.A. 
 The first college Association was a prayer group at Normal Uni- 
 versity, Normal, Illinois, formed in 1872, which later became a 
 Y.W.C.A. Similar groups arose in other cities and colleges, and 
 the International (United States and Canada) Board of Young 
 Women's Christian Associations was formed in 1887, with a plan 
 of biennial conventions. In 1893, college and city associations to 
 the number of 300 were reported from 37 states and provinces, and 
 16 state associations had been organized. This number had grown 
 in 191 1 to 196 city and 667 student Associations. The first women's 
 summer conference was held at Northfield in 1891, and now ten 
 of these, lasting about ten days each, are held annually in different 
 parts of the country. In 1906, it was felt that the United States 
 Associations could work more profitably if organized by them- 
 selves, and the Y.W.C.A. of the United States of America was 
 
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION 43 
 
 formed in New York. A training school for secretaries was 
 opened in 1908. 
 
 The first world-gathering took place in London, 1892, when 
 representatives were present from America, India, and several 
 European countries. Two years later the World's Y.W.C.A. was 
 organized, with a plan of quadrennial conferences. The students' 
 branch is a constituent part of the World's Student Christian 
 Federation. 
 
 It was in this period that the colleges opened their doors to 
 jvpmen. A women's college had been opened by Emma Willard at 
 Waterford, New York, in 182 1, followed by similar schools at Hart- 
 ford, Connecticut, in 1823, under the supervision of Catherine 
 Beecher, and at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1829, with Jacob Abbott 
 as principal.^ Mount Holyoke, proposed in 1829 or 1830, had been 
 established in 1837, and Rockford Seminary, Rockford, Illinois, 
 in 1849, but Ehnira College, founded at ELmira, New York, in 
 1855, was the first women's college to establish standards for 
 women similar to those of the colleges for men. Other women's 
 colleges of secondary or collegiate grade followed. Among the 
 more important may be mentioned: Vassar, founded in 1865; 
 Wells, at Aurora, New York, founded in 1868; Smith, in 187 1 ; and 
 Wellesley, in 1875. Seven Greek-letter sororities arose between 
 1870 and 1880. Kappa Alpha Theta was organized at Asbury 
 College, and Kappa Kappa Gamma at Monmouth, in 1870; Alpha 
 Phi at Syracuse, and Delta Gamma at Oxford, in 1872; Gamma 
 Phi Beta at Syracuse in 1874; Delta Sigma Rho at Northwestern 
 in 1877; and Delta Chi Alpha at Ohio Wesleyan in 1878. 
 
 The strategic and social values of sex association and co- 
 operation attained large recognition in this period. Along with 
 the women's college, the coeducational institution arose, and the 
 many colleges for men admitted women on equal terms. The 
 mixed society is the favorite in the churches. The one temperance 
 society that stood for the equality of women in its ranks increased 
 by leaps and bounds. The Independent Order of Good Templars 
 in 1875 numbered 400,000 members, organized in 6,000 subordinate 
 and 45 grand lodges, and at that time had spread to Great Britain, 
 
 'Abbott, "Reminiscences," Outlook, July 25, 1914, p. 720. 
 
 •V^i.^-^^ 
 
44 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Australia, and the South Sea Islands. Its value as a social agency 
 was abundantly recognized. Before 1877, an Illinois clergyman 
 said: "I defend the Order of Good Templars on this ground among 
 others, that it promotes matrimony." The Sons of Temperance 
 also admitted women after 1866, but this was done to save the 
 organization from complete collapse on account of the war. 
 
 In this period the element of recreation comes in for grudging 
 acceptance. In the middle of the eighteenth century Francke had 
 written: "Play must be forbidden in any and all of its forms. 
 The children shall be instructed in this matter in such a way as to 
 show them the wastefulness and folly of all play. They shall be 
 led to see that play will distract their hearts and minds from God, 
 and will work nothing but harm to their spiritual lives." Quite 
 in the same spirit was the conception "fifty years ago"^ that "if 
 boys or girls professed conversion and all love of play and amuse- 
 ment was not exorcised, it was thought impossible that they should 
 know anything of a work of grace." But at this point a new atti- 
 tude becomes discernible. Provision began to be made for recrea- 
 tion in one form or another, linked up with other things belonging 
 to the higher life, partly because young people were determined to 
 have it, rarely because play was recognized as having a legiti- 
 mate place. The London Sunday School Union "in 1861 and 
 following winter seasons held special gatherings of senior scholars 
 of a social and recreative character which were largely attended and 
 which proved highly popular with the young people."' An Ameri- 
 can writer in 1868 said : " Social meetings of the [young men's] class 
 should be held now and then, and pains should be taken to make 
 them attractive and useful. Young men and women must have 
 their social natures regarded. "^ The Boston Y.M.C.U. was 
 organized partly "to furnish the young men of Boston and vicinity 
 a place of pleasant resort .... and to provide them with oppor- 
 tunities of healthful recreation at little or no expense." The 
 Y.M.C.A.from the startused its influence to secure greater leisure for 
 working young men, and to provide for the proper employment of 
 
 ' Young People's Union, September 26, 1891, p. 10. 
 ^ Groser, Hundred Years' Work for the Children, p. 65. 
 3 Pardee, Sabbath School Index, p. 152. 
 
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION 45 
 
 that leisure. When the Y.M.C.A. building in New York was 
 erected in 1869, there was a gymnasium in it; the same was true of 
 the new Boston Y.M.C.U. Building erected in 1876. The constant 
 fear, however, lest the recreation become other than that suitable 
 for Christians, is clearly reflected, on the part not only of Metho- 
 dists but of all evangelical Christians, in the introduction of the 
 prohibition of certain specified forbidden "worldly amusements" 
 into the Methodist Episcopal Discipline of 1872. 
 
 One of the most important lines of development connected with 
 the young people's movement was the clear recognition in this 
 period of the principle of social service. The term today means 
 *' the application of Christian principles to social life and the realiza- 
 tion of the Christian ideal in human society," but this definition 
 stands at the end of a long evolution. For many years the phrase 
 meant simply philanthropy, and the majority of evangelical Chris- 
 tians justified their philanthropy by its value as a bait to lead 
 people to the religious life. The conception that brotherly kindness 
 is in itself religious seems to have become general first in Germany 
 in connection with the "Inner Mission." This expression came 
 into use in 1843, ^^^ was adopted in 1848 by a church conference 
 of 500 representatives of evangelical churches. The Inner Mission 
 includes not only such churchly activities as Bible societies, Sunday- 
 schools, colportage, and city missions, but also Christian lodging- 
 houses, work among neglected children, criminals, soldiers, the 
 unemployed, and the helpless. The work has expanded with the 
 years. 
 
 In America there has always been manifest a spirit of helpfulness 
 whenever a great need has become apparent. The motive back of 
 the foundation of the Boston Y.M.C.A. was in large part the desire 
 to take care of the country boys who came to the city to work. 
 The United States Christian Commission, organized by the 
 Y.M.C.A. to send to the soldiers some of the comforts of home 
 and the friendship of Christian men, performed a splendid service. 
 But probably all the leaders did their part in the hope that it would 
 result in the salvation of the men's souls. In other words, philan- 
 thropy was regarded with favor largely because it was a means of 
 leading the individual into the Christian life. The task of the 
 
46 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 church was conceived as the conversion and continued development 
 of the individual, and few would have understood a phrase like 
 "the Christianization of the social order." The deaconess move- 
 ment has helped to give us a broader conception, but what was 
 probably the most important means calls for especial mention. 
 
 In 1870, Edward Everett Hale wrote "Ten Times One Is Ten." 
 It was the story of a club with four mottoes: 
 
 Look up and not down; 
 Look forward and not back; 
 Look out and not in; and 
 Lend a hand. 
 
 Lend-a-Hand clubs multiplied. The first was organized in 
 187 1 in New York among the boys of a mission school. Three 
 years later the Children's Department of the Christian Advocate 
 founded the Look-up Legion, based on the four mottoes. In the 
 same year a Look-up Legion was formed at Chautauqua. Dr. 
 Hale was besieged with inquiries, and pubHshed several pamphlets, 
 later issuing the monthly Lend-a-Hand Record. The organization 
 required was of the slightest. Each club might take whatever 
 name, constitution, field of activity, badge, and watchword it might 
 desire. The one thing necessary was to accept the Wadsworth 
 mottoes. Dr. Hale says: "It is understood in their organization 
 that members must not live to themselves." The clubs rapidly 
 grew to include 100,000 members. Perhaps the greatest contribu- 
 tion that they have made is that they have popularized the concep- 
 tion that the real Christian feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, 
 visits the sick, takes upon his heart any needy person whom he 
 can help; in a word, that the essential Christian spirit is love 
 expressing itself in service. 
 
 That these clubs did not prescribe a certain body of doctrine 
 and a certain type of Christian experience and expression was a 
 serious objection to them in the minds of some good people. That 
 their organization was loose made them the despair of people who 
 thought only in terms of compact state and national formations. 
 That its principles did not provide details of action was not in its 
 favor with others. Over against these criticisms should be set 
 certain appreciations. The very flexibility of organization per- 
 
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION 47 
 
 mitted each club to meet its own local conditions and desires. It 
 set up vital and commanding ideals in its conception of religion as 
 fundamental; in its appeal for a healthy, forward-reaching spirit; 
 in its call for loving service to the needy. Finally, each club might 
 add to this any sort of prerequisite, organization, or activity 
 desired. It ought to be said that Dr. Hale had no idea of organizing 
 a world-wide federation of clubs when he wrote the book, but he 
 made brotherliness so tangible and attractive that people set about 
 practicing it.^ 
 
 Not the least significant feature of the period is the beginning 
 of the appropriation of the young people's movement by the church. 
 This began considerably before i860. One phase of it is traceable 
 in young people's Bible classes. Dr. Tyng mentions a weekly 
 female Bible class which he was meeting during the week in 1845. 
 In 1866, at St. George's in New York, there were two young women's 
 Bible classes of 39 and 57 members respectively, and a young men's 
 class of 33 members. The First Baptist Sunday School of Urbana, 
 Ohio, has had an organized class since 1870. From 1870 to 1875, 
 it was composed only of young men; for three years young women 
 were admitted, but the class declined. On the return of the former 
 teacher, the old basis was resumed, and the class has been in suc- 
 cessful operation since. The Wesleyan Bible class of the Western 
 Avenue Methodist Church in Chicago, originally composed of 
 young men, but now a mixed class, has maintained its interest since 
 1880. An Episcopal clergyman in 1873 wished to utiHze " the large 
 Bible classes in the various parishes by making them little societies 
 for Christian work, agencies by themselves."^ 
 
 In view of later developments it is not a little interesting to 
 read these words written in 1868 of young men's classes: 
 
 Band the young people together in social bonds and mutual pledges, if you 
 please, to attend church, prayer-meeting and Sabbath School, to read the Bible 
 and pray regularly, and perhaps pledge also against improper reading, associ- 
 ates, games, drinking, smoking, late hours, neglect of the Sabbath, and unite 
 
 ' The King's Daughters are simply a branch of the Lend-a-Hand Clubs, but 
 are treated separately in order to bring out more clearly their relation to the entire 
 movement. 
 
 ' Christian Union, 1873, P- S02. 
 
48 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 them in associated literary efforts, in tract missions, Sabbath School work, in 
 visitation, and in all ways of doing good. There should be social prayer- 
 meetings of the class at convenient times.^ 
 
 As our data show, these instructions were largely carried out. 
 
 There were many organized societies of young people. In 
 1848, there was a young people's society in the First Baptist Church 
 of Rochester, New York. "A prayer-meeting was started in the 
 First Baptist Church [New York City] among the young people 
 
 nearly half a century ago The meetings grew in power. 
 
 It forced them to go into the large lecture room."^ The records 
 of the Strong Place Baptist Church of Brooklyn show that a young 
 people's prayer-meeting was held there February 17, 1853, and 
 thereafter. The Tabernacle Baptist Church of Philadelphia organ- 
 ized a Young Men's Association on February 21, 1859; on May 7, 
 i860, it became a Young People's Association, and women were 
 included. This society in 1859 organized a mission school, which 
 became the Pilgrim Baptist Church. These early societies also 
 engaged in systematic visitation of the neighborhood. One of the 
 most interesting was that at Marengo, Illinois, of which the pastor 
 and organizer has left the following account. A revival in 1857-8 
 had brought many young people into the church, and he organized 
 them into the "Pastor's Helpers." This was much more than a 
 young people's prayer-meeting, "of which there were scores in the 
 churches of that day." The church covenant was the only pledge 
 and there were no associate members. 
 
 The objects of the society were to develop and strengthen the Christian 
 life of its members, to bring scholars into the Sunday School, to welcome 
 strangers at the Sunday services, to form the acquaintance of young people for 
 the purpose of introducing them to our meeting, and to labor for their conver- 
 sion, to visit the sick, to do Sunday School work in outlying neighborhoods. 
 .... All this work was separately organized and placed in the hands of 
 
 committees When the pastor resigned in 1869 to accept the call to 
 
 Delavan, the society numbered 160.3 
 
 At Delavan, this pastor organized a similar society, with a special 
 pledge. It had eleven committees, and still exists. 
 
 ' Pardee, Sabbath School Index, p. 152. 
 
 ' Young People's Union, February 13, 1892, p. 6. 
 
 3 Baptist Union, V, 75. 
 
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION 49 
 
 Another significant society was that in the First Baptist Church 
 of Troy, New York. In 1863 a society of young men was formed, 
 the pastor preaching from the text, "And there went with him a 
 band of young men whose hearts the Lord had touched." Later 
 in the same year a similar organization of young women was 
 formed. In 1876, these two merged into the "Covenant Band." 
 
 There were many other such societies in Baptist churches,' and 
 the same thing was taking place elsewhere as well. Incidentally 
 we learn that there was a young people's society in the First Presby- 
 terian Church of Sodus, New York at least as early as 1875. A 
 fellow-student at Andover of Dr. F. E. Clark organized in 1880 
 "the young People's Society for Christian Work" in the Boylston 
 Congregational Church, Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts. In the 
 First United Brethren Church of Dayton, Ohio, a society of 24 
 young men was organized in 187 1, of whom 6 were still members 
 in 1896. "In 1878 .... Rev. Dr. Hurlbut at Hoboken, N.J. 
 [Methodist], organized one hundred young people, each of whom 
 signed a pledge to pray every day and attend the young people's 
 prayer-meeting every week." 
 
 Not the least interesting of these earlier societies was a Christian 
 Endeavor Society in the North Avenue Methodist Episcopal 
 Church of Allegheny, Pennsylvania. When Dr. Leak went to this 
 charge in the fall of 1880, he found three members of a former 
 young men's society. He disbanded this society and proceeded 
 to organize one of young men and women. 
 
 Before that time I had seen in the newspapers an account of the founding 
 in Brookljoi of the Church of Christian Endeavor by the Rev. Edward Eggles- 
 ton. The name struck me as being a pecuUarly appropriate one for our society, 
 and at a meeting called for organization, I suggested it. It met with instant 
 favor and was adopted by the new society. 
 
 'Burlington, Vermont, 1866; Troy, New York, Fifth Avenue Church, 1876; 
 Flint, Michigan, 1868; Penacook, New Hampshire, 1869; Galesburg, Illinois, First 
 Church, 1870-1; Norwalk, Ohio, 1870; Portland, Maine, Free Street Church, 1871; 
 Ann Arbor, Michigan, First Church, 1874; Staunton, West Virginia, 1874; Albany, 
 New York, Tabernacle, 1874; Ionia, Michigan, 1875; Kalamazoo, Michigan, First 
 Church, 1876; Centralia, Illinois, 1876; Hartford, Connecticut, First Church, 1877; 
 Plainwell, Michigan, 1878; Chicago, Illinois, Second Church, prior to 1879; Des 
 Moines, Iowa, 1880; Detroit, Michigan, Woodward Avenue Church, 1880; Newark, 
 New Jersey, First Church, 1880. Four German Baptist Societies are known to have 
 been organized before 1880. 
 
50 THE YOtTNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 A revival came on before organization was complete, and in the 
 spring when the matter was taken up again the constitution of the 
 Portland Society of Christian Endeavor had found its way to Dr. 
 Leak's hands, and his society was organized largely on that basis. 
 Any religious paper of that day giving church news will contain 
 many items such as the following from the Christian Union, 1873. 
 
 Dr. Eddy holds a young people's meeting on Tuesday evenings which is 
 
 largely attended [p. 114I In 1867, several young women of St. John's 
 
 Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C., pledged themselves to devote a certain 
 amount of time to benevolent work, and had started a children's hospital 
 
 [p. 294] A club of young men inquires if a Unitarian is a Christian 
 
 [p. 312I Sixteen yoimg girls of Broadway Tabernacle, New York, form 
 
 an association of their own accord to do something for missions. They pledge 
 themselves two cents per week and raise $600. Seven of them join the church 
 
 [p- 394]- 
 
 In order to complete this brief survey, three further items are to 
 be noted. While there were probably hundreds of such more or 
 less organized societies in existence in 1881, they were the excep- 
 tion rather than the rule. In the ordinary church, the revival would 
 arouse a company of young men or women, less frequently both 
 together, to organize a praying band to meet and pray for the uncon- 
 verted. These bands had no further reason for existence and 
 died out when the revival was over. The pastor's class in prepara- 
 tion for church membership and for further training after entering 
 the church was much more frequent and stable. 
 
 A second item concerns the organization of at least three city 
 unions of young people. Prior to 1872, a group of lyceums in 
 Methodist churches in Philadelphia had formed a city union. The 
 Young People's Baptist Union of Brooklyn, New York, was formed 
 in 1877. In the j^ear in which the first Christian Endeavor Society 
 was organized, the Brooklyn Union had representatives from 18 
 local societies at its annual meeting. The report of its committee 
 on devotional services would reflect credit on a similar committee 
 in 19 13. A union of Baptist societies in Philadelphia was organized 
 in 1880. 
 
 The last item in this connection concerns the attempt of some 
 Methodists to secure denominational recognition of a young 
 
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION 51 
 
 people's society. In 1864, Dr. J. H. Twombly of Boston brought 
 the question of a general society of young people before the General 
 Conference. In 1866, he laid the matter before a New England 
 Methodist convention in Boston. Later, at Madison, Wisconsin, 
 he again secured a hearing. Meanwhile, prior to 1872, in Phila- 
 delphia, in the Fifty-First Street Church, a lyceum had been formed 
 which spread among the churches of the city, and a union had been 
 organized. The General Conference of 1872 was memorialized 
 to give official recognition to the lyceum, but in the press of busi- 
 ness no action was taken. In 1876, the matter was taken up again 
 and the memorial of 1872 passed. That the lyceum was un- 
 successful is not material at this point. 
 
 Thus in this period the principle of organization, in order to 
 achieve greater efficiency, is commonly accepted; there is a large 
 increase in the membership of young people's societies and a wide 
 extension of sphere; the rights of recreation and of the physical 
 organism are admitted; the principle of social service comes clearly 
 into consciousness; the "discovery" of young women occurs; the 
 strategic and social values of the association and co-operation of 
 young men and young women are recognized; not least important, 
 the church begins to appropriate the movement, and to mold it 
 to her practices and purposes. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PERIOD OF CHURCH APPROPRIATION (1881-1889) 
 
 The limits of this period are fixed, for its beginning by the date 
 of the organization of the first Christian Endeavor society in 1881, 
 whose growth and development we shall study in this chapter; 
 and, for its close, by the date — ^1889 — of the formation of the Ep- 
 worth League, a denominational organization, one of the most 
 significant of those differentiations from the Christian Endeavor 
 Society, which took many forms. 
 
 The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor is important 
 enough historically to receive a chapter by itself. It will be under- 
 stood that the other movements hitherto described were still in 
 process of development, and that new movements, to be discussed 
 later, were coming to expression. Indeed, an onlooker up to 1885 
 would probably not have picked out the Christian Endeavor 
 society as being of especial importance. To us it appears other- 
 wise. 
 
 The first Christian Endeavor society was organized by Dr. 
 Francis E. Clark in the WilHston Congregational Church of Port- 
 land, Maine, on February 2, 188 1. As we have seen, it had century- 
 old antecedents, and in that church, though it was only eight years 
 old, there had been earlier attempts to organize the young people. 
 Among these may be mentioned a literary and debating society, a 
 musical gild, a young people's prayer-meeting, and a pastor's 
 class for those preparing for church membership. Mrs. Clark had 
 organized in 1877 ^ Mizpah Circle of girls for mission study, boys 
 being included later. This society had a pledge : " Trusting in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him that I will strive to 
 do whatever He would like to have me do, that I will pray and read 
 the Bible every day, and that just so far as I know how, I will 
 endeavor to lead a Christian Hfe." This Circle, with a class of 
 young men and a group of older girls, formed the first Christian 
 Endeavor society. 
 
 52 
 
THE PERIOD OF CHURCH APPROPRIATION 53 
 
 Dr. Clark writes : 
 
 In the winter of 1880-81, in connection with some Sunday-school prayer- 
 meetings, quite a large number of boys and girls of my congregation seemed 
 hopefully converted. Their ages ranged from ten to eighteen, most of them 
 being over fourteen years old. The questions became serious. How shall this 
 band be trained, how shall they be set to work, how shall they be fitted for 
 church membership ? Is it safe with only the present agencies at work to admit 
 them to church membership ? . . . . Stimulated and guided by an article of 
 Dr. Cuyler's, concerning a young people's association in his church, I asked 
 the young Christians to my house to consider the formation of a society for 
 Christian work. They responded in large numbers; and after talking the 
 matter over, finding them willing and eager to enter upon religious duties, we 
 formed a society of Christian Endeavor of some sixty members.' 
 
 The characteristic features were the prayer-meeting pledge, 
 the consecration meeting, and the committee work. The pledge 
 adopted by the original society reads as follows: 
 
 Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him that I will 
 strive to do whatever he would like to have me do; that I will pray to Him 
 and read the Bible every day; and just so far as I know how, throughout my 
 whole life, I will endeavor to lead a Christian life. As an Active Member, I 
 promise to be true to all my duties, to be present at and take some part, 
 aside from singing, in every meeting, unless hindered by some reason which I 
 can conscientiously give to my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. If obliged 
 to be absent from the monthly consecration meeting, I will if possible send 
 an excuse for absence to the society. 
 
 The consecration meeting was called the "experience meeting" 
 and the roll call was a feature from the beginning. The original 
 committees were the prayer-meeting, to plan the young people's 
 prayer-meetings; the lookout, to win and exercise watch-care over 
 members; and the social, to have charge of the recreational aspect 
 of the society's life. 
 
 In order to appreciate the condition calling for a young people's 
 prayer-meeting, we must glance at the ordinary church prayer- 
 meeting of that day. In many cases the minister used up all the 
 time except for one or two long, able, and ancient prayers by elders 
 or deacons. Those who spoke must "speak to edification," and 
 this frequently consisted in a long review of the entire Christian 
 and pre-Christian experience of the confessor, given for the nth. 
 
 ' Clark, The Children and the Church. 
 
54 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 time in the same words. Even the Methodist class-meeting had 
 become formaHzed. The meetings were led without preparation, 
 the singing was spiritless, the prayers tame, and the questions 
 answered perfunctorily. The young people were either absent 
 from such services or silent, and when an especially courageous 
 young soul ventured to testify he was in danger of being waited 
 on by the elders and urged to keep quiet until he could speak to 
 edification. 
 
 The young people's prayer-meeting with its pledged testimony 
 changed this. These young folks were real Christians and, seeking 
 an expression for their new experience, naturally chose the form 
 sanctioned in their church. If they were in danger of omitting their 
 testimony, the pledge acted as an additional incentive. And 
 further, whoever did not "confess" Christ not only broke his 
 promise, but "denied" Christ, and was in danger of being "denied 
 before the Father " — in other words, condemned to eternal perdition. 
 There were thus at least these three forces urging to participation — 
 their own desire, their pledge, and the lurking background of fear. 
 In proportion as the first waned the others became prominent. 
 But it produced lively meetings, and "speaking to edification" was 
 reduced to a minimum. 
 
 The committee work placed on the young people definite 
 responsibility for other things besides testimony in prayer-meeting; 
 it presented a task which to these ardent souls so long shut out from 
 any active participation in church work seemed abundantly worthy. 
 Up to this time the endeavor in the churches had frequently been to 
 attract young people by making as little demand as possible. The 
 new society reversed this procedure, and the young people proved 
 themselves eflacient and trustworthy. The growth of the society 
 was little less than marvelous. In a year the original 63 members 
 had become 127, of whom 114 were active and 13 associate members. 
 In 1887, when Dr. Clark left the pastorate (he resigned from WilHs- 
 ton in 1883), there were 220 members, including 13 honorary and 
 30 absent. At the end of the decade the membership stood at 
 150, with a junior department of 44, and 98 had joined the church.^ 
 The organization also developed, partly by the addition of com- 
 
 ^ Golden Rule, V, 305. 
 
THE PERIOD OF CHURCH APPROPRIATION 55 
 
 mittees, such as the missionary, music, and Sunday school, and 
 partly by division of function, as when certain work of the lookout 
 committee was passed to the calling and flower committees. 
 
 New societies sprang up everywhere.' An article in the Con- 
 gregationalist led to the organization of the second society at New- 
 buryport, Massachusetts, October, 188 1. The pastor had before 
 him the constitutions of half a dozen young people's societies then 
 current, but preferred that of the Christian Endeavor. A young 
 English mechanic in Portland wrote to his pastor in Crewe, England, 
 and the first English society was organized. A sailor from New- 
 buryport landed in Brisbane, Australia, and a society resulted. 
 An Endeavorer traveled to Tacoma, Washington, and formed the 
 first Christian Endeavor society on the Pacific coast. A newspaper 
 clipping led to the first society in Honolulu, and a stray copy of 
 the Golden Rule to the first in Jamaica. A German pastor in 
 Buffalo, New York, wrote an account of it for a paper in Germany, 
 and the first German society was constituted. At a conference 
 held in Portland in 1882, 7 societies were known. This grew in 
 1883 to 56; in 1884 to 156; in 1886 to 850, representing 8 denomina- 
 tions, 33 states, and 7 foreign countries; in 1887 over seven thou- 
 sand societies were reported, with nearly half a million members. 
 
 The growth of the great young people's conventions is especially 
 noteworthy. The factors making them possible were the develop- 
 ment of education, the growth of the newspaper and of cheap, safe, 
 and speedy transportation, the recognition of young people as an 
 important element of society, the sight-seeing interest, and the bond 
 of a common organization. The attendance reached its climax in 
 Boston, 1895, when 56,000 were registered. It is now commonly 
 agreed that the day of such conventions is past. Up to the con- 
 vention of 1888, a large part of the time was given up to methods 
 of work. In that year the mass meetings became distinctly 
 inspirational, and simultaneous conferences discussed committee 
 work. 
 
 At the fourth convention the friends of the organization formed 
 the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and $1,200.00 was 
 raised to engage a general secretary. In this year, too, the trustees 
 
 ' Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands. 
 
^ 
 
 56 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 refused to receive fraternal delegates from any organization what- 
 soever, because they had been "beset by political parties, temper- 
 ance societies, benevolent organizations, denominational fraternities 
 of all sorts, asking recognition and seeking to get their plans before" 
 the conventions. This rule was later used to exclude many well- 
 disposed members of denominational young people's organizations, 
 and occasioned not a little friction. It was an extension of this 
 rule which led the United Society repeatedly to advise all state, 
 county, and even city Christian Endeavor Unions not to admit 
 to their fellowship any but Christian Endeavor societies. This 
 had the curious effect of excluding multitudes of Methodists, 
 Baptists, and others from a society standing explicitly for a 
 union of the evangelical Christians, and at least in one case 
 (Rochester, New York) of admitting two Universalist Christian 
 Endeavor societies. 
 
 The year 1886 saw the purchase of the Golden Rule, a paper 
 founded in 1876 by a Congregational minister,^ and the first issue 
 under Christian Endeavor auspices appeared October 7, 1886. In 
 October, 1890, it had 54,000 subscribers, and a year later 66,000. In 
 1887, the first series of uniform topics was issued. In this year also 
 Dr. Clark resigned from his church to give all his time to the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor society, his salary being paid by the Golden Rule. 
 In 1889, the Canadian delegation was admitted, and the first inter- 
 national convention was held. In this year too the second secretary 
 resigned, and John Willis Baer, to whose vision, wisdom, and tact 
 the movement owes so much, became general secretary, holding 
 this position until 1902. 
 
 In the period under discussion, the city Christian Endeavor 
 Union came into existence, the first being at New Haven, Connecti- 
 cut, composed of six societies.^ The organizer incorrectly states 
 that "this was the first organization of the kind in our country," 
 for at least three city unions of young people had previously been 
 formed.^ Out of this New Haven Union grew the Connecticut state 
 convention, the first of the state conventions of the Christian 
 Endeavor society. 
 
 ' Golden Rule, August 15, 1895. 
 
 ^ Golden Rule, V, 307. » Cf. pp. 48, 49. 
 
THE PERIOD OF CHURCH APPROPRIATION 57 
 
 The financing of the Christian Endeavor movement in the eady 
 days is a story of personal gifts. In 1883, the little group of inter- 
 ested friends raised $71 . 00 to print the report. When the United 
 Society was organized a membership fee was charged (annual, 
 $1.00; sustaining, $5.00; life, $20.00). The convention of 1885 
 raised, by subscription, $1,200. 00 to pay the salary of the secretary.' 
 No society enrolled with the central office assumed any financial 
 responsibility in so doing, but not a few were invited to contribute.^ 
 In 1889, the Golden Rule office opened a job-printing department, 
 and the sale of supplies immediately proved profitable. Dr. 
 Clark and the little group composing the Golden Rule Publishing 
 Company have not made any financial statements to the Christian 
 Endeavor constituency, but the Golden Rule, now the Christian 
 Endeavor World, was and is a private business venture and not under 
 the direction of the trustees of the United Society. It is not with- 
 out interest, however, to note that the Baptist Union, whose circu- 
 lation never went beyond 30,000, and was usually much below, 
 cleared $13,269.93 in five years; and that the Epworth Herald, 
 with 100,000 subscribers, only slightly in excess of those of the 
 Christian Endeavor World, cleared $25,000. 00 in 1907. In addition 
 to the earnings from the paper, the Golden Rule Publishing Com- 
 pany has also handled Christian Endeavor supplies, on which the 
 profits are known to be very large. 
 
 Three questions remain to be considered in this chapter : What 
 was original in the Christian Endeavor idea ? What obstacles did 
 it meet ? What was the secret of its growth ? 
 
 If one asks. What was original in the Christian Endeavor idea ? 
 one experiences the greatest difi&culty in finding anything, unless 
 it be the badge and the particular form of the pledge. In particular, 
 its name was not original. Edward Eggleston reorganized the Lee 
 Avenue Congregational Church of Brooklyn into the "Church of 
 Christian Endeavor," "translating," according to his sister, "the 
 name of the Hoosier Schoolmaster's ' Church of the Best Licks' into 
 a title better fitted for the new locality."* There was also a Chris- 
 tian Endeavor society in a bhnd school in Massachusetts earlier 
 
 » Golden Rule, V, 299, 305; Young People's Union, December 17, 1892. 
 ^ Proc. B.Y.P.U.A. Convention, 1894, p. 85. 
 J Zimmerman in Epworth Herald, III, 791. 
 
58 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 than 1 88 1 and the Methodist Christian Endeavor society already- 
 referred to, but these are without significance except as indicating 
 the suggestive character of the name. The pledge idea was found 
 in church covenants, church young people's societies, and temper- 
 ance societies, not to mention Greek-letter fraternities and the secret 
 orders. The organization of young people about a prayer-meeting, 
 with a constitution, pledged daily prayer and attendance at the 
 meetings, committee work emphasizing the same functions which 
 the Christian Endeavor plan emphasized, and the union of young 
 men and women in religious service and in recreation, were borrowed 
 for the most part directly from Dr. Cuyler's Association, though 
 they were, so to speak, in the air. The consecration meeting was 
 simply the adoption of the Methodist class-meeting, the Baptist 
 covenant meeting, and similar meetings in other communions. 
 The name of the most important committee, the lookout, was taken 
 over from the second of the Wadsworth mottoes, and indeed 
 Lookout Societies were not unknown. Even the motto, "For 
 Christ and the Church," introduced some years later, is simply 
 a translation of Harvard's "Christo et Ecclesiae." When Dr. 
 Bacon says that there is no traceable connection with other organi- 
 zations, that "it grew from its own root,"^ he makes a statement 
 which is a priori questionable, and which we see to be mistaken. 
 Dr. Clark speaks the exact truth: "The Christian Endeavor move- 
 ment seems to have been born in a day; it was really the result 
 of a century of care and thought and prayer for the young. "^ 
 
 It is not our desire to minimize in the least the profound con- 
 tribution Dr. Clark made to the young people's movement and to 
 the Hfe of the church. He belongs essentially with Raikes. There 
 were Sunday schools before Raikes, but he crystallized, stand- 
 ardized, and popularized the Sunday-school movement. Dr. 
 Clark embodied the trend of the times, and his winsome, energetic 
 personality gave to the church of the eighties exactly the society 
 it was looking for. He was the prophet of that day. 
 
 Mention must be made of the hostile criticism to which the 
 Christian Endeavor movement was subjected. Some indifferent 
 
 ' Bacon, Young People's Societies. 
 
 ' Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, p. 296. 
 
THE PERIOD OF CHURCH APPROPRIATION 59 
 
 people called it a fad and predicted its speedy collapse, but the 
 majority took it seriously. It was declared to be without scrip- 
 tural authority, and to be usurping the place of the church, which 
 alone had divine authorization. It was greatly feared that it 
 would divide the church on the basis of age, and supplant the 
 church in the affection of the young. It was declared by many 
 that it interfered seriously with other church meetings, particu- 
 larly the Sunday evening preaching service, usually evangelistic, 
 and the midweek prayer-meeting. Many feared that it would 
 divert the young people's money from denominational channels, 
 and would lead to haphazard giving and a lack of interest in the 
 causes to which the church and denomination were pledged. An 
 Episcopal clergyman declared that it was unchurchly and anti- 
 churchly. When the United Society began to publish the Golden 
 Rule and other literature, the "colorless" nature of its productions 
 was seriously criticized, one writer declaring that ''The writers of 
 Christian Endeavor literature stand in fear of all denominations, 
 not daring to run counter to the creeds of the narrowest religious 
 body. Accordingly they .... get into the habit of dealing out 
 religious platitudes for a steady diet."^ 
 
 The pledge came in for adverse comment. A pledge in addition 
 to one's confirmation or baptismal vow was held to be at least 
 unnecessary. It did not concern itself with principles, but with 
 details, and those not the most important. It frequently led to 
 thoughtless, formal, and perfunctory testimony. It was not kept 
 by a very large number of people, and resulted in hypocrisy and 
 casuistry. One pastor thought it inadvisable that everyone should 
 take part in every meeting, and that some place should be left for 
 the Holy Spirit's direction. Not the least difficult objection to 
 meet was St. Paul's injunction that women were not to speak in 
 church, and the exegesis by which this was evaded is both curious 
 and wonderful. 
 
 There were others who feared that the society would destroy 
 the usefuhiess of the Y.M.C.A. The conventions were criticized 
 upon many grounds, especially that of expense. Some were indig- 
 nant that young people should find life mates in the church society 
 and declared that the initials stood for "Courting Endeavor." 
 
 ' Epworth Herald, IX, 499. 
 
60 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 One of the most serious obstacles consisted in the scores of other 
 societies already existing in the churches. As one reads the church 
 items of papers of all denominations in this first decade of the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor society, one meets mission societies, temperance 
 leagues, young people's prayer-meetings, literary societies, and in 
 particular Young People's Associations or Young People's Chris- 
 tian Associations, descendants of Dr. Cuyler's organization. Most 
 of these were ultimately included in or replaced by the Christian 
 Endeavor society. Instead of an open field, the new society had 
 to make its way, in the larger churches, in the face of established 
 organizations. There was this difference: the Christian Endeavor 
 society was being vigorously pushed from without, and the others 
 were not. 
 
 What was the secret of the rapid growth of the Christian 
 Endeavor movement? To answer that it succeeded because it 
 deserved to succeed may be true but is not illuminating. Nor is it 
 final to say ''the hand of Providence," for other hands are plainly 
 visible. The fundamental reason why the Christian Endeavor 
 society became dominant, rather than the Young People's Associa- 
 tion or the Lend-a-Hand Clubs, seems to have been its wide and 
 persistent advertising. In August, 1881, Dr. Clark wrote an ac- 
 count of his society to the Congregationalist, which was republished 
 in the Sunday School Times and in England.^ Shortly after the con- 
 ference of 1882, 1,000 copies of the constitution were printed and 
 sent to all churches reporting a revival. Five hundred newspapers 
 representing every part of the country were selected and notices 
 sent to them regarding the methods and aims of the society. 
 William J. Van Patten, of Burlington, Vermont, circulated Dr. 
 Clark's books. The Children at the Church Doors and The Children and 
 the Church, in large numbers. Reports of conventions were scattered 
 broadcast.^ The Golden Rule has always been a strong factor in 
 this propaganda. Dr. Clark in 1891 gave fourteen rules for the 
 conduct of conventions, of which five deal with advertising. " . . . . 
 (2) Advertise well. (3) Let it be understood that it will be a 
 great meeting (5) Have as many denominational repre- 
 
 ' Christian Endeavor in All Lands, chap. iv. 
 ^New England Magazine, N.S., XII, 593; VI, 513. 
 
THE PERIOD OF CHURCH APPROPRIATION 6 1 
 
 sentatives on the program as possible (12) Have a press 
 
 committee to get notices inserted everywhere. (13) See that dele- 
 gates report the meeting at home."^ This represents the method 
 by which the Christian Endeavor society grew. These men 
 believed that they had something worth while, and were determined 
 that all should know of it. 
 
 After securing a hearing, the society must still approve itself 
 to the young people and to the churches and pastors. From the 
 point of view of the former there were at least five attractive 
 features all bound up in the name. It was a '^ young people's 
 society," giving complete recognition to them. Further, instead 
 of being composed of young men or young women alone, it com- 
 prised both sexes. It was a "society," with constitution, officers, 
 and committees, appealing to an age to which officeholding, signaliz- 
 ing the holder of the office, and committee positions, implying the 
 confidence of one's fellows and presenting a challenge to faithfulness 
 and efficiency, mean much. It was an "endeavor" society, sug- 
 gesting activity and achievement. Finally it was a "Christian" 
 society, presenting as its standard the self-sacrificing service of 
 Christ. If to us who live thirty years later this society seems not 
 to have borne out the promise of its- name, we must do it the justice 
 to remember that in the past thirty years Christian ideals have 
 become broader and the emphasis has somewhat changed. To 
 judge the Endeavor society of today by the standards of today 
 is quite a different matter and entirely legitimate. 
 
 From the standpoint of the pastor and the local church, the 
 Christian Endeavor movement made a powerful appeal. It gave 
 religion the central place. Instead of keeping it out of sight lest 
 it frighten the youth, instead of asking as little and offering as much 
 as possible, the Christian Endeavor movement presented to young 
 men and women a direct and vital approach to religion, an oppor- 
 tunity to which they responded. Religion was recognized by all 
 concerned as dignified, worthy, significant. 
 
 The organization was evangelical. It persistently opposed the 
 admission of Unitarians and Universalists into its ranks. It set 
 itself against those amusements regarded as questionable by the 
 
 = Golden Rule, V, 773. 
 
62 THE YOUNG PEOPLE S MOVEMENT 
 
 majority of evangelicals. Its standards of religion were those 
 common to orthodox churches. As the Y.M.C.A. had found favor 
 because of its Portland basis, so the Portland society found favor 
 for the same reason. 
 
 It provided for a great unification and simplification of the 
 local work. Young men's clubs and young women's gilds united; 
 missionary societies dropped their separate organization and 
 worked through the missionary committee; young people's choirs 
 came under the leadership of the music committee; church temper- 
 ance societies went out of existence and reappeared as temperance 
 committees. One pastor had six independent societies in his 
 church; they became two, a senior and a junior society, and each 
 took care of all the activities of its group. Every phase of church 
 work for young people was unified in the Christian Endeavor 
 society. 
 
 The organization was flexible, yet compact. It was found 
 adaptable to any sort of condition. Endeavor societies were 
 established in the navy, in prisons, in schools, in police stations, 
 on mission fields. The most extraordinary committees were con- 
 stituted as occasion required. Yet the organization was compact. 
 Officers could keep close to all committee work, advising and co- 
 ordinating. The pastor was ex officio a member of the society and 
 of the executive committee. Through his officers and chairmen 
 he could accomplish much, not only saving his time and energy 
 for other things, but knowing accurately the status of each member 
 of the society. 
 
 It provided for the exaltation of the local church. Constantly, 
 as one reads the pages of the Golden Rule, one meets with the advice, 
 "Ask your pastor or official board." These constitute for the 
 Endeavor the final court of appeal, according to the principles of 
 the society. The United Society frequently reiterated its statement 
 that it exercised no authority. The society belonged to the local 
 church, was to give through it, maintain its services, study its 
 doctrines, be true to its practices. 
 
 For many ministers, the way in which, in county, state, and 
 national conventions, their young people were brought in contact 
 with the young people of other societies and denominations, listened 
 
THE PERIOD OF CHURCH APPROPRIATION 63 
 
 to the great preachers of all the evangelical churches, and learned 
 to appreciate the good in all endeavors after righteousness, was one 
 of the greatest blessings. 
 
 Thus in this period the young people's movement was clearly 
 recognized and attained enthusiastic self-consciousness. It was 
 adopted and adapted by the churches. The educational principle 
 of training through expressional activity was consciously pressed 
 into service, and found a hearty response among the young people. 
 A definite standardization of the forms that expression should 
 take was effected. The church prayer-meeting underwent change 
 in character and constituency. The unification of many different 
 phases of young people's work in church and community was 
 brought to pass, and the emphasis upon certain aspects of evangeli- 
 cal doctrine and experience worked strongly to promote inter- 
 denominational good feeHng. A zealous propagandism spread 
 abroad the Christian Endeavor name, organization, and methods, 
 and furnished a profound stimulus to all workers with young people. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION (1889-1912)' 
 
 While the distinctive features of this period will be discussed 
 under the head of differentiation, we should recognize that the 
 movements whose rise we have noted, but whose development in 
 detail we must omit, are not only existent but vigorous. A num- 
 ber of items, however, concerning certain phases of the Y.M.C.A. 
 and of the Christian Endeavor movement, need to be indicated in 
 order to understand present conditions. 
 
 The varied work of the Y.M.C.A. already noted continued to 
 expand with the years, and new work was begun. One of the most 
 significant of the new departures was its educational work, provid- 
 ing not only night schools of the conventional type, but night and 
 day schools for vocational instruction,^ the courses including as 
 widely diverse subjects as running automobiles and a complete 
 law course. Its certificates are accepted at par by 108 colleges. 
 The number of students enrolled in these courses in 191 1 was 61,904. 
 
 Perhaps the most significant indorsement of the Association 
 occurred when the United States government erected four club- 
 houses in the Panama Canal zone for the men at work on the canal, 
 and intrusted their direction to the International Committee. 
 
 The student work has not escaped criticism in spite of its pro- 
 found influence. Former President Pritchett of the Massachusetts 
 Institute of Technology, while recognizing fully the great service 
 rendered, stated that in his observation the work of the college 
 Association had "been in the main along the lines of social and 
 economic aid," and that "there has seldom appeared the leader 
 who was able to deal with the larger problems of college religious 
 
 ' The year 1889 marks the event most significant as differentiation from the 
 Christian Endeavor movement, viz., the formation of the Epworth League. It is also 
 the approximate date of other important organizations attaining wide recognition. 
 It should be noted, however, that differentiation began within a few years after 1881. 
 
 ' Ross in New England Mag., N.S., XXIV, June, 1901. 
 
 64 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 65 
 
 life."' The real greatness of the Y.M.C.A. is seen in the fact that 
 it attempts neither denial nor explanation, but seriously asks itself 
 if these things are true, and how they can be remedied. This is 
 characteristic of all its work. 
 
 The secretarial system calls for a word. The training schools 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts, and Chicago, produce men well 
 qualified for their work. Close supervision by the International 
 Committee, which at the same time allows large freedom for per- 
 sonal initiative, keeps all activities true to their fundamental 
 purpose and insures efficiency. 
 
 The Associations of the world owned in 191 1 property valued 
 at $68,699,150.00, three-fourths of which was owned in America. 
 
 A number of points regarding the Christian Endeavor society 
 call for brief consideration. Mention has been made of the decline 
 of the great convention. This has been due partly to the growth 
 of other societies in which young people are interested, but also 
 to the increasing value of the small convention, and especially to 
 the development of the institute for training leaders. This is true 
 for all church societies. The institute for Christian workers is a 
 direct outgrowth of the pubhc school teachers' institute. Rev. 
 (now Bishop) J. H. Vincent in 1857 carried on in his church at 
 Joliet, Illinois, a normal class for his Sunday-school teachers. In 
 i860, he conducted a similar class as an institute at Galena, Illinois. 
 The idea spread rapidly. Chautauqua became a Sunday-school 
 training institute in 1873.^ This was the soil out of which grew 
 the Northfield summer conferences for students and the institute 
 for young people's society workers. The first of these latter was 
 a Christian Endeavor institute at Yarmouth, Maine, in 1892. 
 These institutes are now very common. 
 
 One of the great problems of Christian Endeavor work has been 
 that of sustaining the interest of members in the movement.^ One 
 of the ways adopted to secure this end has been the various 
 enrolment plans promulgated from time to time. The Tenth 
 Legion is one of the most significant, composed of those who enrol 
 
 ' The Independent, LXVI, 847, April 22, 1909. 
 
 ^ Brown, Sunday School Movements in America; Cope, Evolution of the Sunday 
 School. 
 
 ^ W. T. Ellis in The Independent, LIII, 1900; August 15, 1901. 
 
66 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 as giving a tenth of their income to religious work. This originated 
 in New York in 1896, and was adopted at the international conven- 
 tion of 1897. At the same convention was launched the enrol- 
 ment of the Comrades of the Quiet Hour, consisting of those who 
 would spend fifteen minutes daily in private devotions. The 
 Macedonian Phalanx was composed of those individuals or societies 
 who gave $20.00 at one time to some special missionary or benev- 
 olent object; this was later given up. These and similar enrol- 
 ments have not been organizations but simply lists of those to whom 
 the given idea appealed and who entered upon its observance. 
 \ ■' The employment of the paid state secretary marks a distinct 
 
 change of policy. When Dr. Clark became president, and fre- 
 quently thereafter, he enunciated the doctrine that the organization 
 should maintain no paid officials. But the logic of events has been 
 too strong. Societies have died out for lack of a little encourage- 
 ment; other groups of young people could easily have been organ- 
 ized with a little assistance; the example of denominations that 
 have employed paid officials or used their denominational organi- 
 zation to push their recognized societies has been ever before the 
 eyes of Endeavorers. The result could easily be foreseen. In 1901, 
 Ohio engaged the first paid secretary, and since that time the plan 
 has been taken up in many states, though few as yet employ a 
 secretary for all his time. Illinois reported in 1912, after one year's 
 work of such a secretary, 107 societies reorganized, and "seven 
 hundred and sixty-eight other societies added to the rolls. "^ 
 
 The continued growth of the Christian Endeavor movement has 
 been great. The number of members is counted by millions. 
 It is not, however, a matter of small importance to ask what value 
 is to be attached to these figures. The example of the Ep worth 
 League is instructive. For years they reported membership by 
 hundred thousands. 
 
 A cross file showing charters issued to any given locality was first created 
 in 1905; and it was found that in a large number of instances three senior 
 charters had been issued to the same appointment, the earlier chapters dying 
 and being succeeded by others. In a still larger number of cases two charters 
 were issued in this way. Thousands of other charters had been issued to rural 
 chapters that had passed out of existence. 
 
 ' Year Book, Chicago Christian Endeavor Union, 1912, p. 45. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 67 
 
 The first serious attempt recorded to learn the actual strength of the 
 League was made by the General Secretary in the latter part of 1904. Through 
 their presiding elders, accurate reports were secured from fifty districts, well 
 distributed throughout the church. The number of senior charters issued 
 in these districts was 2,873. The actual number of chapters was 1,714. Apply- 
 ing this ratio of shrinkage to the number of senior charters issued for the whole 
 church, May 15, 1904, gives 12,915 senior chapters possibly existing (as 
 opposed to 22,141 reported in 1904) at that time. This estimate, however, 
 may have been too great, as reports are most obtainable from districts above 
 the average in condition.' 
 
 In 19 10, the Epworth Herald said: "The Methodist Year Book 
 for 1910 contains the first reliable summary of Epworth League 
 statistical reports ever given. "^ 
 
 If a closely organized denomination declares that the reports 
 of its young people's societies for 21 years are 41 per cent too large, 
 and thinks 45 per cent inflation more nearly correct, it is obvious 
 how entirely unreliable the so-called statistics of Christian En- 
 deavor, Baptist Union, and other societies must be which have 
 no means of checking up returns. In 191 1, the Illinois Christian 
 Endeavor Union reported 1,029 societies. The new secretary 
 found that 282 of these had disbanded, that 107 were not running, 
 and his report does not profess to be complete.^ Computed on 
 this basis, however, there was an inflation of 37.8 per cent. We 
 can safely say that at least 45 per cent of the reported membership 
 of all societies which are not able to demand accurate yearly reports 
 is ''water." 
 
 We turn now to consider a group of new societies, which may 
 be regarded as differentiations from the Christian Endeavor move- 
 ment. The rise of a new organization appealing for a constituency 
 to people already conversant with an organization somewhat 
 similar suggests that the earher society is considered in some respect 
 inadequate to fit the situation ; that is, it implies criticism or protest. 
 When the new organization is received with continued favor by 
 any considerable body of people, we must understand not only 
 that these people indorse the criticism, but that the new society 
 meets their needs as the earher did not. The numerical success 
 
 ' Epworth Herald, XXIII (1912), p. 336. =" Ibid., XXI (1910), 208. 
 
 5 Year Book, Chicago Christian Endeavor Union, 191 2, p. 45. 
 
y- 
 
 68 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 of any organization, however, does not indicate the value of all its 
 ideals, nor the worth of the ideals regarded as primary by its leaders. 
 Thousands of Good Templars belong to the organization, not be- 
 cause of its temperance principles, though they believe in them, 
 but because their friends are there, and this affords them a recog- 
 nized meeting-place. The successful propagandist is he who is 
 able to utilize primary instincts to float his enterprise. The enter- 
 prise of greatest value to its members and ultimately to the world 
 is that in which fundamental human desires and needs, both indi- 
 vidual and social, are made the primary elements. The new 
 organizations of this period mark a protest against limited or false 
 standards, and indicate a search for more adequate ideals. The 
 most important result thus far is the conviction that no single 
 type of religion or form of activity will command the enthusiastic 
 allegiance of all evangelical Christians, not to speak of the vast 
 masses outside these groups. The immediate consequence is the 
 impracticability of setting up one standard form of organization 
 or ideal of religious experience or expression for all communities 
 and communions, and for different types of church within the same 
 communion. The corollary is that each denomination, each com- 
 munity, and each church must study itself, determine its needs, 
 and act accordingly. From this standpoint we shall consider some 
 of the more important variations from current ideals. 
 
 Of denominational organizations we shall study two regarded 
 as typical: the Epworth League, representing the connectional 
 society, and the Baptist Young People's Union of America, embody- 
 ing the federal principle. We shall give a sketch of their histories 
 and note some elements of protest. 
 
 The Epworth League. — The Epworth League is to be traced to 
 the lyceum started in Philadelphia prior to 1872, which secured 
 recognition from the General Conference of 1876. This was not a 
 success, and about 1884 Bishop J. H. Vincent began to organize 
 Oxford Leagues,^ for which he secured the approval of the Centen- 
 ary Conference at Baltimore, 1884, and adoption by the Methodist 
 Sunday-School Union, on December 17, 1884, with the appointment 
 of a board of control. Its aims were ambitious: 
 
 ' Epworth Herald, May 16, 1891; Vincent, ibid., June 14, 1890. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 69 
 
 (i) To study the Holy Scriptures with a view to the promotion of personal 
 piety; (2) to become familiar with the biblical origin of the doctrines, spirit 
 and methods which characterize their own church . . . . ; (4) to trace the 
 origin of the modern evangelical revival known as Methodism . . . . ; (5) to 
 promote personal consecration to practical work . . . . ; (6) to promote 
 intellectual training under the auspices of the church among those who no 
 longer attend school . . . . ; (7) to . . . . publish and circulate permanent 
 documents devoted to the history, philosophy, doctrines, and institutions of 
 Methodism. 
 
 Each member was required to pursue courses of study, to attend 
 the public services of the church, to contribute each year to each 
 benevolence of the church, and to assist the pastor in practical work, 
 A uniform constitution was required of each society. The League 
 was indorsed by the General Conference of 1888, and by May, 
 1889, there were about five hundred societies.^ 
 
 The Young People's Methodist Alliance'' was born at the 
 Des Plaines camp meeting, in 1883, among a group of people seeking 
 entire sanctification. Organization was effected under the title 
 ''Young People's Christian Alliance," and a pledge adopted. In 
 1885, the constitution was made national in character, the name 
 "Young People's Methodist Alliance" was taken, and the Alliance 
 Herald authorized. Its badge was a white ribbon with a scarlet 
 thread running lengthwise, and one of its three mottoes was, "We 
 live to make our own church a power in the land, while we live to 
 love every church that exalts our Christ."^ In the spring of 1889, 
 there were 410 alliances. 
 
 The Young People's Christian League"* was organized in Boston 
 in 1887, under authority of a resolution of the Boston preachers' 
 meeting. Its purpose was to federate existing gilds, lyceums, 
 bands, etc., in Methodist churches, without change of name or 
 constitution, and to organize societies in churches having none. 
 Reading-courses were outlined and prayer-meeting topics prepared. 
 Its motto, "Look up and lift up," was suggested by Bishop Vincent. 
 By 1889, it had auxiliaries in New England, New York, Ohio, 
 Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and Dakota. 
 
 ' Epworth Herald, December 6, 1890; May 16, 1891. 
 
 ^ Ibid., May 16, 1891. 
 
 3 Written by Bishop Simpson. 
 
 < Epworth Herald, March 14, 1891; May 16, 1891. 
 
yo THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Two other general societies of less importance, the Methodist 
 Young People's Union (founded in Detroit, Michigan, in Novem- 
 ber, 1887) and the Methodist Episcopal AlHance of the North 
 Ohio Conference (organized in Ashland, Ohio, in September, 1888), 
 secured a local following. 
 
 In addition to these societies (1,000 in number), there were at 
 least twice as many Christian Endeavor societies, and a considerable 
 number of Young People's Associations and other independent 
 organizations. The large societies were competing strenuously, 
 and, although young people's societies were rapidly being organized, 
 a condition of tension was produced. In this situation representa- 
 tives of the five Methodist societies met in Cleveland, Ohio, May 14, 
 1889, and united to form the Ep worth League.^ The mottoes of the 
 Y.P.C.L. and the Y.P.M.A. were taken over, and also the badge 
 of the latter. The organization adopted was in general that of the 
 Oxford League. The Sunday-School Union and the Tract Society 
 financed the new organization until 1892, though from the first 
 meeting of the board of control (1890) an annual collection for the 
 expenses of the general office was asked from each society, and a 
 charter fee of twenty -five cents was charged each League registering 
 at headquarters. Our Youth, a paper started by Bishop Vincent 
 December 5, 1885, was made over into the Epworth Herald, and its 
 first number issued June 7, 1890. 
 
 With the union of these rival societies, Methodists everywhere 
 began to fall in line, and not a few Christian Endeavor societies 
 became Epworth Leagues. It is not to be wondered at that the 
 Christian Endeavor officials should seek to stem the current. 
 Pamphlets, containing opinions from Methodist ministers favorable 
 to Christian Endeavor, were sent out from the Christian Endeavor 
 publishing house to Methodist pastors and others — an act which, 
 however natural, was scarcely in good taste.^ An official protest 
 from the United Society of Christian Endeavor was presented to 
 the board of control of the League about the same time. It says: 
 
 We feel that this name [Christian Endeavor] and these principles 
 [prayer-meeting pledge, consecration meeting, dual membership, and lookout 
 
 ' Buckley, History of Methodists in the United States, 1896, p. 673; Epworth Herald 1 
 December 2, 1893, p. 458. 
 
 » Epworth Herald, October 4, 1890, p. 9. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 71 
 
 committee] should be allowed to remain together, and that to adopt the name 
 without the principles, or the principles without the name, will produce con- 
 fusion and is not fair to the Christian Endeavor society.^ 
 
 The board of control in reply cited some of the facts previously 
 noted in this chapter. Early in 1892, Dr. Clark met the board of 
 control and asked that the Christian Endeavor societies be not 
 interfered with. The board assured him that no pressure had been 
 or would be brought to bear upon Christian Endeavor societies 
 to become Epworth Leagues. They suggested that a young 
 people's evangehcal alhance be formed in cities and towns, to which 
 Dr. Clark assented, providing existing Christian Endeavor unions 
 remained intact. The board appointed a committee on fraternal 
 relations to meet with a similar committee from the Christian 
 Endeavor society. The latter committee was appointed three and 
 a half years later.^ 
 
 The further official relations between the two societies have 
 been polite, not cordial. The Epworth League has from the first 
 professed its willingness to form a federation with the Christian 
 Endeavor society, but has declined to change its name, with the 
 probable result of encouraging the use of Christian Endeavor litera- 
 ture. It has been a source of irritation that the Christian Endeavor 
 society has refused to receive fraternal delegates from any other 
 society, and that state, county, and city Christian Endeavor 
 unions have been advised to follow the same rule. In many cases 
 they have used their own judgment, but this has not been universal. 
 The Christian Endeavor leaders have left no stone unturned to 
 secure the adoption by the church of the name Christian Endeavor, 
 or Epworth League of Christian Endeavor as an alternative designa- 
 tion. In one case committees from the two societies had agreed 
 on the latter name, but the board of control refused its sanction, 
 and the General Conference was even more decided when an appeal 
 was taken to it. It cannot be said that the attitude of the Golden 
 Rule has been conducive to good feeling. In 1895 the editor of the 
 Epworth Herald wrote: "During the entire career of the Epworth 
 
 ^Epworth Herald, November 15, 1890. Cf. a similar statement, adopted at the 
 Christian Endeavor convention of 1891, in Golden Rule, October i, 1891. 
 ' Epworth Herald, II, 620, 1892; VI, 331, 1895. 
 
^2 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Herald the Golden Rule has never once referred to us in a kindly 
 way and has never mentioned our name except to criticize."' 
 Many Christian Endeavor leaders denounced the League bitterly, 
 and accused it, for the most part mistakenly, of having stolen 
 Christian Endeavor principles. On the other hand, the attitude 
 of the Herald was rather condescending, owing to the rapid growth 
 of the League and the fact that its subscription list soon passed 
 that of the Golden Rule, a lead which it has ever since maintained. 
 Moreover, the church sedulously weeded out the Christian En- 
 deavor societies, and succeeded so well that there were said to be 
 only 150 in 1905, of which 57 were in Philadelphia.^ It can hardly 
 be disputed, however, that the weekly young people's prayer- 
 meeting as a universal institution among Methodists and the 
 general interest in youth were at least largely stimulated by the 
 rapid growth and great enthusiasm of Christian Endeavor. 
 ' At the General Conference of 1892, the Epworth League was 
 formally adopted. Its object was stated to be "to promote intel- 
 ligent and loyal piety in the young members and friends of the 
 church, to aid them in the attainment of purity of heart and con- 
 stant growth in grace, and to train them in works of mercy and 
 help." Any local organization might become a chapter when it 
 adopted the aims and plans of the League, when its plans and 
 officers were approved by the pastor and official board, and when 
 it was enrolled at the head office. Unless it became explicitly an 
 Epworth League, however, it was only an affiliated society with 
 limited privileges. The general board of control was to consist 
 of 29 members, 15 appointed by the bishops, of whom one, a bishop, 
 should be president; the other 14 members were to be elected, one 
 from each conference district. Provision was made for an editor 
 and a general secretary. 
 
 A footnote to the Constitution,^ providing that no legislation 
 then proposed ''is intended to disturb the present status of other 
 
 I Epworth Herald, February 9, 1895; p. 589. 
 
 'Ibid., XV, 1341, May 27, 1905. Cf. The Independent, XLIX, 398; Golden 
 Rule, July 25, 1895, p. 975; Christian Endeavor World, XXV, 60; Epworth Herald, 
 August 9, 1890; September 13, 1890; and August 29, 1891. 
 
 ^ Ibid., July 2, 1892. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 73 
 
 young people's societies now organized in Methodist Episcopal 
 churches which are under the control of the pastor and quarterly- 
 conference," led to misunderstanding, Endeavorers interpreting it 
 to mean a measure of official recognition to Christian Endeavor 
 societies. That interpretation was, however, oflficially contradicted. 
 
 The expectation was unanimously expressed [at the General Conference] 
 that before long every society in the church would become an Epworth League. 
 It was stated, however, that some Christian Endeavor societies were not yet 
 quite ready to become Epworth Leagues. We were therefore asked to insert 
 the clause .... giving assurance .... that they were not to be arbitrarily 
 disturbed before they were ready to come into the League by their own har- 
 monious action I do not believe there was one out of the five hundred 
 
 delegates who does not hope and expect that eventually every young people's 
 society in our church wUl be an Epworth League. 
 
 The constitution which local leagues were required to adopt 
 contained some important elements. The pledge was left optional 
 with each society, but, if adopted, divided the membership into 
 active and associate. The pastor was ex ofl&cio a member of the 
 cabinet. The officers must have the sanction of the pastor and the 
 ofl&cial board. The president ordinarily became a member of 
 the quarterly conference. The outline of activities was most com- 
 prehensive. 
 
 To detail the history of any organization is outside our plan, but 
 some items will be illuminating. The growth of the League, with 
 every preacher, district superintendent, and bishop supporting it, 
 was phenomenal. The circulation of the Herald reached 125,000 in 
 1904, and is now about 100,000. The League was adopted virtually 
 without change in 1890 by the Canadian Methodist church and the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church South, each with its own paper and 
 general secretary. The decline of the inspirational convention and 
 the development of the summer school of League methods is part 
 of the genera] movement among young people. The production, 
 before 1907, of a completely graded course of lessons for junior, 
 intermediate, and senior Leagues is notable. In the place of further 
 particulars, Table II, placing side by side the organization of the 
 Oxford League activities of 1888 — adopted with very few changes 
 in 1892 — the Epworth League "cross" of 1903, and the new scheme 
 of 1913, will reveal many significant changes of emphasis. 
 
74 
 
 TEE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 The Epworth League arose as a fourfold criticism. It was a 
 criticism of the assumption, which interdenominationahsm is 
 
 TABLE n 
 
 Oxford League, 1888 
 
 Epworth League, igo3 
 
 Epworth League, 1913 
 
 I. Dept. of Christian Work: 
 
 I. Dept. of Spiritual Work: 
 
 I. Dept. of Spiritual Work: 
 
 First vice-president, chair- 
 
 First vice-president, chair- 
 
 First vice-president, chair- 
 
 man 
 
 man 
 
 man 
 
 I. Weekly prayer-meeting 
 
 I. Weekly devotional meet- 
 
 I. Spiritual welfare of mem- 
 
 
 ing 
 
 bers 
 
 2. Missionary work 
 
 2. Spiritual welfare of mem- 
 
 2. Study and practice of 
 
 
 bers 
 
 personal evangelism 
 
 3. Spiritual welfare of mem- 
 bers 
 
 4. Christian work among 
 
 3. Personal evangelism 
 
 3. Weekly devotional meet- 
 
 4. Bible-study 
 
 ing 
 4. Bible-study 
 
 young 
 
 
 
 5. Sunday-school interests 
 
 5. Morning watch 
 
 6. Sunday-schooHnterests 
 
 7. Open-air meetings 
 
 8. Junior League 
 
 
 II. Dept. of Literary Work: 
 
 II. Dept. of World Evangelism: 
 
 II. Dept. of World Evangelism: 
 
 Second vice-president, chair- 
 
 Second vice-president, chair- 
 
 Second vice-president, chair- 
 
 man 
 
 man 
 
 man 
 
 I. Lectures and literary en- 
 
 1. Study of church benevo- 
 
 I. Study of missions and 
 
 tertainments 
 
 lences 
 
 other benevolences 
 
 2. Lyceum reading-circles. 
 
 2. Christian stewardship 
 
 2. Monthy missionary meet- 
 
 libraries, and all educa- 
 
 
 ings 
 
 tional work 
 
 
 
 3. C.L.S.C. readings 
 
 3. Missionary committee 
 
 3. Study of Christian stew- 
 ardship 
 
 4. Definite missionary work 
 
 4. Oxford League readings 
 
 4. Mission library and litera- 
 ture _ 
 
 5. Mission-study classes 
 
 5. Home culture circles 
 
 
 
 6. Missionary meetings 
 
 
 
 7. Cycle of prayer for world 
 
 
 
 evangelism 
 
 
 III. Dept. of Social Work: Third 
 
 III. Dept. of Mercy and Help: 
 
 III. Dept. of Social Service: 
 
 vice-president, chairman 
 
 Third vice-president, chair- 
 
 Third vice-president, chair- 
 
 
 man 
 
 man 
 
 I. All sociables and social 
 
 I. Systematic visitation 
 
 1. Mercy and help 
 
 entertainments 
 
 
 
 2. Systematic visitation 
 
 2. Care of poor and sick 
 
 2. Studies in social service 
 
 3. Reception and introduc- 
 
 3. Hospitals and other chari- 
 
 3. Good citizenship 
 
 tion of members 
 
 ties 
 
 
 4. Look-up Legion work 
 
 4. Temperance reform 
 
 4. Temperance reform and 
 social pxurity 
 
 5. Social purity 
 
 S. Temperance literature 
 
 
 6. Temperance 
 
 6. Temperance study classes 
 
 7. Social purity 
 
 8. Good citizenship 
 
 
 IV. Dept. of Entertainment: 
 
 IV. Department of Literary and 
 
 IV. Dept. of Recreation and Cul- 
 
 Fourth vice-president, chair- 
 
 Social Work: Fourth vice- 
 
 ture: Fourth vice-president, 
 
 man 
 
 president, chairman 
 
 chairman 
 
 I. Music for all meetings; 
 
 I. General literary culture 
 
 I. Athletics 
 
 selection of chorister 
 
 
 
 2. Excursions and picnics 
 
 2. Lecture courses 
 
 2. Social entertainments and 
 
 3. Amusements for all meet- 
 
 3. Committee on Epworth 
 
 music 
 3. New members; circula- 
 
 ings 
 
 Herald 
 
 tion of Epworth Herald 
 
 4. Home mission work 
 
 4. Reading-courses and li- 
 braries _ 
 
 5. Promotion of social life in 
 
 4. Literary meetings 
 
 S. Badges and signals 
 
 
 
 the church 
 
 
 6. Children's Day exercises 
 
 6. Seeking new members 
 
 7. Music for all meetings 
 
 8. Social entertainments 
 
 
 always apt to make, that the peculiar doctrines, practices, and 
 spirit of Methodism were of relatively small importance. With the 
 exception of a small minority, the Methodist denomination did 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 75 
 
 not believe that. They objected to their young people absorb- 
 ing as a steady diet the literature which constantly made that 
 assumption, or which was not in a position to emphasize aspects 
 of history and religious experience which Methodism held dear. 
 At the very least, it was an instance of the good being an enemy of 
 the best; at the worst it was an undermining of the very foundations 
 of their church. Their interest was both ecclesiastical and personal : 
 they were convinced not only that the church was in danger, but 
 that their young people would fail to attain a well-rounded spiritu- 
 ality, and that the world would be by so much the poorer. As a 
 matter of fact the Epworlh Herald from its first number breathed a 
 spirit of evangelism which the Christian Endeavor World has never 
 attained. 
 
 The United Society of Christian Endeavor virtually acknowl- 
 edged the justice of this criticism, for while in 1889 they had 
 "deprecated the running of denominational lines through the 
 Christian Endeavor movement,"^ in 1892, at the New York conven- 
 tion, denominational rallies were held for the first time, and these 
 have been a feature of each successive gathering. 
 
 It was a protest against the failure of the ordinary church to 
 organize its young people's society as a part of its organic life. It 
 has been frequent cause of complaint against the young people's 
 society in general that it stands out as an independent entity, 
 having no organic relations with the Sunday school on the one hand, 
 or with the church organization on the other; that it recruits itself, 
 not from the Sunday school or church, as such, but by the organiza- 
 tion and direction of junior and intermediate societies after its own 
 kind; that its only connection with the church has been the fact 
 that many of its members belong to the church or Sunday school, 
 and that it uses the church building without paying rent. In the 
 case of a Christian Endeavor society, its plans are formulated by 
 an agency outside of both church and denomination, the plans have 
 little if any reference to other departments of church work, and the 
 official board of the church is seldom asked to pass upon them. To 
 the reply that the particular church is entirely to blame for that 
 state of affairs, the Methodists answered : We do not care to expose 
 
 ' Rev. M. G. Kyle, in The Independent, XLIV, 934. 
 
y6 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 our churches and pastors to that possibility, but propose to 
 organize our young people's society as an integral part of the 
 church and denominational life. Thus the pastor is explicitly 
 made a member of the local cabinet, the officers must be ap- 
 proved by the official board of the church, the president becomes 
 a member of the quarterly conference, and the plans of the 
 League as a whole and the policy of the paper are determined 
 by responsible members of the church and made to harmonize 
 with its general aims. 
 
 The formation of the League was a criticism of the inadequacy 
 of the Christian Endeavor ideal of religion and of the methods to 
 be employed in developing the religious life. That ideal consists, 
 according to the pledge, in striving to do whatever Christ would 
 have one do. If this general statement were left by itself, no one 
 could offer any objection. But it is an obvious principle of inter- 
 pretation that when a general statement is followed by a series of 
 particular statements, the latter are the explication of the former. 
 And when one asks what, on Christian Endeavor standards, 
 Christ would have one do, the answer is: Read the Bible and pray, 
 attend prayer-meeting and take part. "Being true to all one's 
 duties" is simply what the "moral" man does; these others are 
 the specifically Christian demands. There is an utter absence of 
 all explicit reference to brotherly helpfulness, which Jesus declared 
 to be a full half of true religion. The Epworth League was organized 
 on an all-round conception of life, including not alone the devo- 
 tional, but the literary, recreational, and philanthropic elements 
 as well. The League has learned much since, but to it was given 
 the broader vision. 
 
 Finally, the League was a protest against the use of the pledge, 
 as shown by the fact that the pledge was made optional with the 
 individual society. It ought to be said that the form of pledge 
 offered by the League to those societies desiring one revealed no 
 new principles of pledge-making beyond the introduction of a 
 prohibition, and in this respect it was distinctly inferior to the 
 Christian Endeavor pledge. This element persists even in the 
 pledge of 1 9 13. 
 
 • Epworth Herald, XXIV (1913), P- 587. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 77 
 
 In reaction against this criticism, the vaHdity of which it denied, 
 the Christian Endeavor society about this time promulgated the 
 so-called ''cast-iron" pledge, as follows: 
 
 Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him that I will 
 strive to do whatever He would like to have me do; that I will make it the rule 
 of my Hfe to pray and read the Bible every day, and to support my own church, 
 in every way, especially by attending all her regular Sunday and midweek 
 services, unless prevented by some reason which I can conscientiously give to 
 my Savior; and that just so far as I know how, throughout my whole life, I will 
 endeavor to lead a Christian life. As an Active Member I promise to be true 
 to all my duties, to be present at and to take some part, aside from singing, in 
 every Christian Endeavor prayer-meeting, unless hindered by some reason 
 which I can conscientiously give to my Lord and Master. If obliged to be 
 absent from the monthly consecration meeting of the society, I will, if possible, 
 send at least a verse of Scripture to be read in response to my name at the 
 roll call. 
 
 We take this opportunity to complete what we have to say of 
 the pledge. Of 55 Chicago pastors, representing all the leading 
 communions and selected without any knowledge whatever of their 
 opinions, only 7 were in favor of the pledge; 16 declined to express 
 an opinion; 15 gave qualified approval (e.g., ''valuable if lived 
 up to"); and 17 opposed the pledge, their expressions running ail 
 the way from "It is contrary to the spirit of spiritual rehgion," to 
 "We do not regard perjury as a means of grace." How far this 
 attitude is general it is impossible to say, but it seems probable 
 that it fairly represents the convictions of thoughtful men. In 
 response to much criticism, the United Society has issued two other 
 pledges, both much shorter. But are even these made to be kept ? 
 Dr. Clark and his fellow Endeavorers give us to understand that 
 they are to be interpreted liberally, for in the efficiency campaign 
 of 1911-1913 one of the points set for a standard society is that 
 "three-fourths of members respond at consecration meetings in 
 person or by message." In this same campaign, an "effective 
 Endeavorer " was one who among other things attended" three-fifths 
 of the society prayer-meetings for five months." It is not regarded 
 as a possibility that all who promise Jesus Christ either to be present 
 at or to send a message to the monthly consecration meeting will 
 keep their promise. A "standard" society is one in which only 
 
78 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 one in four breaks the most solemn vow conceivable. As it is 
 with the consecration meeting, so it is with other parts of the pledge. 
 On Dr. Clark's own figures, 24 per cent of Endeavorers pledged 
 to attend all the regular Sunday and midweek meetings practically 
 never go to the church prayer-meeting or the Sunday evening 
 preachmg service.' How it fares with daily Bible-reading and 
 personal devotion, with being "true to all my duties" and striving 
 to d6 "whatever" Christ would have one do, we can only surmise, 
 but there is no reason to believe that those parts of the pledge are 
 better kept than the others. That some are helped by the pledge 
 is undoubted, but when it leads to moral deterioration for one in 
 every four, something is surely wrong. The real fact is that a means 
 of religious inspiration of unquestioned value has been made an 
 end in itself. It is a modern instance of "man being made for " an 
 institution. 
 
 If one were to point out some weaknesses of the Ep worth League, 
 one might mention the following: 
 
 1. It takes a negative attitude toward amusements. The thea- 
 ter, the dance, the card table are singled out for especial condem- 
 nation, and very little of value is suggested in their place. The 
 reiterated "Don'ts" prove what is common knowledge, that young 
 people do these things; and the tragedy of the situation became 
 evident when the most prominent leader of the organization perished 
 in the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago. If the League puts the 
 common amusements under the ban, it is its undeniable duty to 
 provide something else equally attractive. This it has not done. 
 
 2. Its scheme of activities is logically complete but psycho- 
 logically fallacious. To work so complex an organization requires 
 the skill of an efficiency engineer. It leaves too little room for 
 initiative or for the joy of discovery. It is a burden to many 
 societies. It seems to have been made with an eye to logical com- 
 pleteness rather than on the basis of a study of actual conditions. 
 The only society in which it is really at home is in a large city 
 
 ' Cf. also: "One hundred and four societies reporting show an average attendance 
 at the midweek prayer-meeting of over 34 per cent of their membership and of more 
 than 75 per cent at the Sunday evening service." — Chicago Christian Endeavor Union, 
 Report, 191 2-13, p. 34. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 79 
 
 church. The practical working out is such that there is virtually 
 no difference between a Christian Endeavor society and an Epworth 
 League. 
 
 3. It is ultra-Methodistic. That Methodism has elements with- 
 out which the world would be distinctly poorer few will question. 
 But Methodists themselves grow weary of the denominational 
 self-glorification. Too little recognition is given to the aspiration, 
 endeavor, and achievement of the rest of the Christian world, a 
 recognition which would make better Methodists and surely better 
 Christians. 
 
 A final word ought to be added. Theoretically at least, no other 
 church organization has been so responsive to changing conditions 
 as the Epworth League. 
 
 The Baptist Young People's Union of America. — The Baptist 
 Union arose as part of that denominational emphasis initiated by 
 the Methodists, which found a response in nearly every communion. 
 The Loyalist movement, so called from a suggested motto, "Loyalty 
 to Christ in all things at all times," started in Kansas in 1887, and 
 was indorsed by the Baptist State Convention of 1888. Its purpose, 
 as soon became clear, was to organize an exclusive society of Bap- 
 tist young people. The idea was welcomed in the Middle West, 
 Kansas Baptists arranging a young people's program at their 
 convention of 1889, and inviting the young people to attend. 
 Nebraska organized a state convention in 1889, and Iowa in 1890. 
 Chicago formed a city union on August 12, 1890.^ 
 
 A conference, called to meet in Boston in 1889, met in Chicago 
 in 1890, and was attended by representatives from fifteen states. 
 It was agreed that no existing society should be antagonized in the 
 new organization. An executive committee was appointed to 
 study the problem more closely and to prepare plans for a national 
 convention. In October of this year two ardent advocates started 
 The Loyalist, and in its columns the executive committee made its 
 first statement, which was important as showing a decided opposi- 
 tion to a pledge, and substituting therefor a declaration.^ 
 
 ' The Loyalist, I, 18; Young People at Work, December 20, 1890. 
 ' The Loyalist, October 16, 1890. 
 
 / 
 
8o THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 The discussion was nation-wide, even the South, with its pro- 
 nounced antagonism to all young people's societies in the church, 
 taking some part. Loyal Endeavorers opposed it heartily, one 
 pastor sending a circular to every Baptist minister asking him to 
 organize a Christian Endeavor society in his church.^ As in the 
 case of the formation of the Epworth League, the United Society 
 of Christian Endeavor took a hand in the discussion, sending to 
 Baptist ministers all over the country Baptist articles in opposition.^ 
 At the other pole, as compared with those who thought Christian 
 Endeavor sufficient for all needs, stood the Loyalists, who desired 
 a society with a uniform constitution in all the churches. 
 The largest and ablest party consisted of those who sought a 
 middle ground, and found it in a federation in which every young 
 people's society in a Baptist church, without reference to name or 
 constitution, should be enlisted. 
 ^' At this juncture the American Baptist Publication Society 
 
 purchased The Loyalist, and changed its name to the Young People 
 at Work? The secretary of the Society, recognizing the gravity 
 of the situation, invited representatives of all parties to meet at 
 Philadelphia, April 22, 1891, for friendly discussion. Two of the 
 three Baptist trustees of the Christian Endeavor society were 
 present, and everyone was heard. The result was the "Basis 
 of Organization."'' The new society should be a federation of all 
 young people's societies in Baptist churches, without respect to 
 name or constitution. The Young People at Work was to be 
 the official organ, and should be impartially hospitable to all 
 societies, devoting itself "to the indoctrination of the Baptist 
 young people in the distinguishing tenets of Baptist churches," 
 and to urging hearty co-operation in denominational enterprises. 
 Each society should be left free to determine into what measure 
 of interdenominational fellowship it should enter. 
 
 This document, together with the attention paid to the incipient 
 organization by the Publication and Home Mission societies at 
 the anniversaries in May, cleared the way for the first national 
 
 ' Y.P.A.W., January 24, 1891. =" Ibid., April 18, 1891. 
 
 i Ibid., May 9, 1891; Baptist Union, IV, 466, 857. 
 
 ^ Baptist Union, IV, 464; Bacon, Young People's Societies, p. 226. 
 
^ 
 
 THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 8l 
 
 convention of the Baptist Young People's Union of America, in 
 Chicago, July 7 and 8, 1891. Over fifteen hundred delegates 
 assembled, organization was effected, and national, state, and 
 associational constitutions adopted. It was the only national 
 Baptist society in existence. The object was stated to be "the 
 unification of the Baptist young people; their increased spirituality; 
 their stimulation in Christian service ; their edification in Scripture 
 knowledge; their instruction in Baptist doctrine and history; and 
 their enlistment in all missionary activity through existing de- 
 nominational organizations." The model local constitution, not 
 compulsory, embraced among other things an optional pledge and 
 an optional organization by committees or departments. The 
 board of managers, elected by this delegated body, was ordered 
 to engage a general secretary, preferably a layman, and to open a 
 general ofl&ce in Chicago. 
 
 It was at once felt to be necessary that the Union should control ^ 
 its own paper, inasmuch as it was a national organization and the 
 A.B.P.S. was a northern society. The Young People at Work 
 was purchased, moved to Chicago, and called the Young People's 
 Union. In 1894, its name was changed to the Baptist Union; and 
 in 1904 it became a monthly under the name of Service. The pur- 
 chase of the paper, the payment of the secretary, and the conduct 
 of the office entailed large expense, and thus began a long struggle 
 for the "founding fund," which was not finally pledged until 
 November 30, 1901. At the convention of 1908, it was stated that 
 for the first time in its history the Union did not announce a deficit. 
 The financial problem was, however, constantly before the 
 managers, and in 1908 the A.B.P.S. purchased Service, created a 
 Young People's Department, and gave explicit directions to its 
 Sunday-school missionaries to pay especial attention to young 
 people's work. In 1910, upon petition, the Northern Baptist 
 Convention (organized 1908) appointed a Young People's Com- 
 mission, which in 191 1 became a permanent department of the 
 denomination. In 191 2, the managers of the B.Y.P.U.A. were 
 requested to convey to the Commission such functions as would 
 enable it to "superintend the work of organization of young people's 
 societies in the territory of the Northern Baptist Convention, 
 
82 ' THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 together with the inspirational and educational work therein." 
 This was accordingly done, and from 19 13 the literature of the 
 B.Y.P.U.A., so far as it relates to the northern states, bears 
 the imprint: ''The American Baptist Publication Society and 
 the Northern Baptist Convention through its Young People's 
 Commission."' 
 
 The official relations of the Union with the Christian Endeavor 
 society have been most cordial. "" After the first fear that the 
 Baptist Union was to be an exclusive society, there came to be the 
 most friendly feeling. The Christian Endeavor officials readily 
 saw the necessity for a denominational union from the facts that 
 in 1 89 1 there were, in addition to perhaps two thousand Baptist 
 Christian Endeavor societies, at least as many independent organi- 
 zations, most of which simply would not affiliate with the Christian 
 Endeavor society; that there were considerably over twenty 
 thousand Baptist churches with no young people's society of 
 any sort; and that the denomination had not only the right 
 but the responsibility of taking its young people under its 
 direction. Within the denomination there has been considerable 
 lack of adjustment. An official pronouncement of 191 1 declares: 
 "It has been found difficult to convince societies of other names 
 that they are on an equal footing in the B.Y.P.U.A. with those 
 societies bearing the denominational name, or that it was possible 
 to maintain a dual allegiance with equal cordiality."^ For this 
 the attitude of the Christian Endeavor society toward the Epworth 
 League is responsible, Baptist Endeavorers applying to their own 
 situation statements made with reference to quite other conditions. 
 It is probable that the Young People's Commission will end this 
 misunderstanding. 
 
 The genius of the Baptist Union is seen in a resolution passed 
 at the first, the organizing, convention: ''Resolved, That this con- 
 vention urge the local societies to devote at least one hour a week 
 to the systematic study of the Bible, and that we request the Board 
 
 ' Young People's Commission, Report^ 1913. 
 
 ^ Cf. Golden Rule, June 4, 1891; Y.P.A.W., June 13, 1891; Christian Endeavor 
 World, November 15, 1901; Baptist Union, January 12, 1902. 
 
 3 Report of the Commission on Young People's Work, 191 1. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 83 
 
 of Managers to arrange such a course of study and provide suitable 
 material for the same.'" The study element, embracing a field 
 considerably wider than study of the Bible, has been distinctive 
 of the Union. Series of studies on "The Historical Books of the 
 Old Testament," ''Work with the Unsaved," "Dominant Re- 
 ligions," and "The Great Commission " ran through the paper in 
 189 1. The "Week Night Symposium," consisting of four series, 
 one study of each series once a month, began December 9, 189 1, 
 and comprised "Bible Study," "Church History and Polity," 
 "Christian Work and Missionary Knowledge," and "Science and 
 General Literature." At the convention of 1893, these studies 
 were named the Christian Culture courses (after a course on " Chris- 
 tian Culture" given by Rev. J. H. Campbell of New York),^ and 
 four-year cycles were outlined. The Bible Reader's course, begun 
 in the fall of 1892, planned to read the Bible, daily, systematically, 
 and completely in the period. The Conquest Missionary course, 
 also begun in 1892, set itself to cover the mission fields of the world 
 with especial reference to Baptist missions. The Sacred Literature 
 course, which had run from the beginning, included "Messianic 
 Expectation," "Life of Christ," "ApostoHc Age," and "Christian 
 Ethics." Similar courses were prepared for the juniors in 1894 
 and thereafter, and four notable textbooks for an advanced course 
 appeared later. These studies were freely acknowledged to be of 
 superior merit, the Epworth Herald, for instance, saying: "The 
 Baptist Union excels all other young people's societies in its plans 
 for literary and bibUcal culture." The way had been prepared 
 by the Chautauqua reading-courses and the American Institute of 
 Sacred Literature, and outline studies had been made occasionally 
 by progressive pastors for their young people, notably by Dr. 
 Erastus Blakslee in 1888, whose courses grew into the Bible Study 
 Union graded Sunday-school lessons. But no such comprehensive 
 plan as that of the Baptist Union had been known up to that time. 
 It exerted wide influence, similar courses being prepared by Pres- 
 byterians, United Brethren, Disciples, and others, and the Golden 
 Rule fell in line with courses on " Good Citizenship " and " Missions " 
 
 ' Y.P.A.W., July 18, 1891. 
 
 ' Young People's Union, February 6, 1892. 
 
84 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 in 1894. In particular, the Conquest Missionary courses prepared 
 the way for the great mission-study movement in the churches a 
 decade later. 
 
 In time new arrangements were seen to be necessary. At a 
 conference in 1907 between the Union and the missionary societies, 
 it was agreed that the primary responsibility for missionary educa- 
 tion lay with the latter, under whose direction mission-study classes 
 should be organized, the Union co-operating to the fullest extent, 
 and the monthly missionary meeting to be under joint direction. 
 In consequence, the Baptist Young People's Forward Mission 
 Movement was announced in 1907, and in 1908 this was merged 
 into the Baptist Forward Movement for Missionary Education, 
 thus co-ordinating all the missionary education in the church. 
 The work of making a careful survey of the whole field of the de- 
 nomination's educational activities fell to the Convention's Com- 
 mission on Moral and Religious Education, appointed in 191 1. 
 One result of the work of the Young People's Commission is the 
 hearty commendation of the Baptist Union courses to Baptist 
 Endeavorers by the United Society of Christian Endeavor, for the 
 the first time in 1913. 
 
 Regarding the Baptist Union as the expression of dissatisfaction 
 with the limitations of earlier forms of organization, particularly 
 the Christian Endeavor society, we note as elements of this criticism 
 the following : 
 
 1. Its optional pledge and the expHcit statements of many 
 leading clergymen indicate a protest against having a pledge as a 
 central feature in the organization. The brevity of the pledge 
 suggested for those desiring one is also significant in view of the 
 fact that about this time the long, "iron-clad" Christian Endeavor 
 pledge is being introduced. 
 
 2. As a denominational organization, it is a criticism of an 
 inherent limitation of the Endeavor movement. The Christian 
 Endeavor Society had been on friendly terms with the Union, but 
 it could not organize a denominational society or provide denomina- 
 tional instruction. 
 
 The instructional element of the Union, which is its distinctive 
 contribution to the young people's movement, declares in effect 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 85 
 
 that a young people's society which is essentially a prayer-meeting 
 organization is only partially meeting its obligations. The Chris- 
 tian Endeavor leaders had feared that the educational work would 
 "destroy the spirituality of the young people's movement,"^ that 
 there was grave danger that it would give undue prominence to 
 controversial sentiments, particularly in the case of doctrinal study. 
 This attitude indicated a weakness in the Christian Endeavor 
 organization, partly remediable, as its excellent courses since 1894 
 testify, and partly inherent, for it was necessarily limited by the 
 convictions of the narrowest constituent denomination. On the 
 other hand, the studies of the Baptist Union offered a much larger 
 field for biblical and doctrinal work, and it gave opportunity for 
 much more definite application in its missionary courses. If the 
 Baptist courses sometimes left the student wondering what other 
 denominations were doing, the Christian Endeavor society left 
 him in doubt concerning what any denomination was seeking to 
 accomplish. An attempt was made to meet this weakness by the 
 offerings on "Christian Endeavor Day" to some specific denomina- 
 tional object, but this could hardly be said to be more than a 
 makeshift. 
 
 3. The Baptist Union was a protest against the unwillingness of 
 the Christian Endeavor society to federate with other young 
 people's societies. The Golden Rule said that the Union's "platform 
 is cathoHc and broad ; as such we heartily approve it, and wish for 
 its sincere advocates a full and glorious success."^ But the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor society declined to stand on the same platform. 
 According to one who had been an official of the Endeavor move- 
 ment for ten years, "It stands committed to one form and name 
 of organization and it makes the latter a prerequisite to entrance 
 into its fellowship. "3 One wonders how Dr. Clark could say that 
 federation is an accomplished fact'' when the entire body of 
 Methodist young people, not to speak of large numbers of Baptists, 
 
 ' Quoted, Baptist Union, October 20, 1894. 
 ' Golden Rule, June 4, 1891; Y.P.A.W., June 13, 1891. 
 3 W. T. Ellis, The Independent, August 15, 1901. 
 * Clark, ibid., September 12, 1902. 
 
86 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Lutherans, Episcopalians, and many others, stand outside. The 
 Baptist Union is, however, not only a protest; it is a prediction 
 of the good day when Y.M.C.A,, Y.W.C.A., King's Daughters, 
 Brotherhood of St. Andrew, Epworth League, Luther League, 
 Christian Endeavor society, and all the rest shall find some cause 
 superior to personal pride, denominational interest, and pecuniary 
 profit, a cause great enough to rally all in whom is the spirit of the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 If one were suggesting the limitations of the Union, the following 
 should probably be included : 
 
 1 . A lack of pride in the organization on the part of the member- 
 ship and the denomination as a whole. The management declared 
 time and again that $10,000.00 a year would put it on a sound 
 financial basis, but it was not forthcoming. One man in particu- 
 lar was allowed to use his business credit for the organization's 
 debts for fifteen years. 
 
 2. An almost utter failure to respond to changing conditions. 
 The character of the Christian Culture courses and the society's 
 activities is in no essential respect different today from what it 
 was fifteen years ago. Its ideal is limited by the prayer-meeting 
 and the study courses. Community study, practical philanthropy , 
 and social service have crept in rarely and surreptitiously. 
 
 These things are not fatal nor inherent in the movement, but 
 they must be taken into consideration if continued usefulness and 
 attractiveness are to be expected. 
 
 Nothing would be gained by going further into detail on this 
 matter of denominational differentiation. It found expression in 
 all large denominations in one form or another, and in many smaller 
 ones. The United Presbyterians formed their Young People's 
 Christian Union; the Evangelical Association, its Young People's 
 AlHance; the Lutherans, their Luther League of America; the 
 Universalis ts, their Young People's Christian Union; the English 
 Wesleyans, their Wesley Guild. A strenuous effort was made to 
 have the Presbyterian General Assembly adopt the Westminster 
 League as its official society. This failed, owing to Christian 
 Endeavor influences, which were apparently not strong enough to 
 warrant an attempt to have the Christian Endeavor made the 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 87 
 
 ofl&cial society.' Shortly afterward a Young People's Depart- 
 ment was established in the Board of Home Missions. The 
 Methodist New Connection of England adopted the Epworth 
 League, but the following year they found that the London Sunday 
 School Union had organized so many Christian Endeavor societies 
 in their churches that they reversed their decision of the previous 
 year and adopted the Christian Endeavor organization. The 
 United Evangelical Church in America had formed a Keystone 
 League, but later changed it to the Keystone League of Christian 
 Endeavor. The United Brethren formed a Young People's Chris- 
 tian Union which later became the Young People's Christian 
 Endeavor Union of the United Brethren Church. 
 
 These latter instances suggest that very much less than justice 
 would be done the entire situation if mention were not made of the 
 fact that to some denominations, and to many in every denomina- 
 tion, the criticisms implied in this denominational movement 
 awakened no response, and in many cases were incomprehensible. 
 Christian Endeavor became the official society for the following 
 denominations, among others: Reformed Church in America, 
 Quakers, Disciples, Congregationalists. To a greater or less 
 extent, Christian Endeavor societies exist among some eighty 
 denominations at the present day. The Christian Endeavor is 
 in no sense an official federation of the denominations, inasmuch 
 as, with rare exceptions, the trustees do not officially represent 
 their churches, and in some instances have been out of harmony 
 with the prevailing opinion of their communion, as is the case, for 
 example^ among Methodists. Nevertheless, all except the most 
 sectarian must gladly recognize the profound service of the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor movement to our modern Christianity, in the 
 assistance it has rendered in bringing the denominations into 
 friendly association and co-operation. 
 
 ' Breed, Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 1896, p. 648. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION— Co«/t«MeJ 
 
 A second line of differentiation has been on the basis of sex. 
 This period was marked by the growth of organizations of young 
 men or of young women alone. The rise of the brotherhoods is 
 characteristic. There had been individual groups of men, more or 
 less organized, in all churches for centuries; but the earliest of the 
 modern general organizations was the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, 
 formed in November, 1883, in St. James Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, Chicago, from a young men's class. The name is derived 
 from the gospel narrative of Andrew bringing Simon to Jesus, and 
 the Brotherhood was fittingly organized on St. Andrew's Day. It 
 had two rules : the Rule of Prayer and the Rule of Service. The 
 former requires members to pray daily for the spread of Christ's 
 Kingdom among young men and for God's blessing upon the labors 
 of the Brotherhood. The latter demands that an earnest effort 
 be made each week to bring at least one young man within the 
 hearing of the gospel. Membership was limited to laymen, and it 
 was required that the officers belong to the Episcopal church. In 
 seeking young men, the members went everywhere, to hotels, 
 hospitals, ships, prisons; they established reading-rooms, Sunday 
 schools, missions. It was distinctly an evangelistic movement. 
 The growth has been sustained from the start. In 1886, 35 gilds 
 united to form the Brotherhood of St. Andrew in the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church of the United States. In 1890, there were 433 
 active chapters, and in 1910 about 1,000 chapters in the United 
 States. There are also national councils in Canada, England, 
 AustraHa, and Japan. The junior chapters receive boys from 
 twelve years of age upward, and are also organized on the basis of 
 the two rules. 
 
 The Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip represents the appro- 
 priation of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew by the non-Episcopal 
 churches, the name combining the story of Andrew seeking Simon 
 
 88 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 89 
 
 and Philip seeking Nathanael. It is interesting that Dr. Stephen 
 H. Tyng once spoke of the need of an "Andrew and Philip Society.'" 
 It was organized in the Second Reformed Church of Reading, 
 Pennsylvania, in May, 1888, on the basis of the two rules of the 
 Brotherhood of St. Andrew. In 1895, there were chapters in the 
 Reformed church, the Presbyterian churches North and South, 
 the United Presbyterian church, the Canadian Presbyterian church, 
 the Congregational, Methodist Protestant, Methodist Episcopal, 
 Baptist, English Lutheran, and United Brethren churches. Today 
 there are about 1,000 enrolled chapters in the United States, 
 Canada, Japan, Australia, and India, and 23 denominations are 
 represented. There are many chapters not enrolled. 
 
 The growth of the denominational organizations of men may be 
 seen from the fact that a conference of representatives of ten such 
 organizations of brotherhoods met in Chicago in 1908 to discuss 
 common problems. They varied widely in organization and aims, 
 the Methodist Brotherhood representing the most comprehensive 
 but not therefore the most efficient plans, and the two mentioned 
 above standing for the simplest and most direct scheme of organiza- 
 tion. They have sought the evangelization of the world through 
 personal effort, the relief of distress, the institution of personal and 
 social justice, and the organization of society for the realization of 
 the Kingdom of God. 
 
 Closely related to the brotherhoods are the men's organized 
 Sunday-school classes.^ As a significant force, these are distinctly 
 modern. The first Baraca class was organized at Syracuse, New 
 York, in 1890, and rapidly spread. Large organized classes of 
 young men have arisen everywhere, Rochester, New York, having 
 some especially important classes. The movement for the federa- 
 tion of these classes began in Chicago in 1899. In 1903, they were 
 granted participation in the Cook County Sunday School Asso- 
 ciation; in 1905, the International Sunday School Association gave 
 them formal recognition, and in 1906 issued a special series of les- 
 sons, "The Ethical Teachings of Jesus." In 1909, 9,000 such classes 
 were enrolled; in 191 1, 18,250; and in March, 1913, there were 
 
 ' Y.P.A.W., March 21, 1891. 
 
 ' Cope, Evolution of the Modern Sunday School, 191 1. 
 
90 THE YOUNG PEOPLE S MOVEMENT 
 
 35,815 (including a number of mixed classes). They are most 
 numerous in Pennsylvania (6,021), Ohio (4,479), Illinois (4,094), 
 Indiana (2,089), Iowa (2,064), Ontario (1,363), New York (1,334), 
 Alabama (1,070), Missouri (1,047), Texas (1,035), ^.nd Kentucky 
 (1,030). Among ;^7, denominations represented, the Methodist 
 Episcopal church has 7,970 classes; the Christian, 7,821; the 
 Presbyterian, 3,175; the United Brethren, 2,446; the Northern 
 Baptist, 2,430; the Methodist Episcopal South, 2,104; the Cana- 
 dian Methodist, 1,085.^ These are not merely Bible classes in the 
 strict sense, but accept responsibility for all matters pertaining to 
 the development of the religious life. 
 
 The Laymen's Missionary Movement and the Men and Re- 
 ligion Forward Movement, with their presentation of "a man's 
 job" by men of rare manliness and statesmanship, have educated, 
 unified, and directed these great men's organizations along lines 
 of conspicuous service. 
 
 Alongside the men's organizations, the women's societies have 
 been doing equally important work. The rapid increase of the 
 Y.W.C.A. and of deaconesses has been noted; young women's 
 classes are very common; the story of the women's clubs deserves 
 a chapter to itself, but in this place we shall merely make brief 
 mention of two organizations. The Daughters of the King, 
 organized 1885, in New York, is a sister-organization to the Brother- 
 hood of St. Andrew, following its rules of prayer and service. It 
 is an Episcopal society and has found large favor in that communion. 
 The question it raises is. Why has it not been imitated in other 
 churches as the Brotherhood of St. Andrew has been? The 
 answer is to be found partly in the fact that women are much more 
 regular in church attendance than men; partly in the essentially 
 reHgious character of other women's organizations which have 
 no masculine counterparts; and partly in the wide extension and 
 useful service of the woman's club. 
 
 The King's Daughters is not only a different organization, but 
 an entirely different type of organization from that just men- 
 tioned. In 1885 Dr. E. E. Hale sent to a woman in New York, 
 upon request, an outline constitution for a sisterhood on the lines 
 
 ' International Sunday School Association, Twenty-first Quarterly Statement. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 9 1 
 
 of "Ten Times One Is Ten." In 1886, ten women adopted the 
 four mottoes and a trinitarian confession of faith (never enforced 
 and later recanted), and took the name of the "King's Daughters." 
 They aimed to emphasize, in this order, the heart, the home, the 
 church, the world. State and national organizations were provided, 
 but a minimum of organization was suggested. A little later the 
 society was open to men and boys, and the name became the 
 "International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons," but men 
 have always been in the minority in the organization. The large 
 membership is distributed over every continent except Africa. One 
 pastor is reported to have organized his entire constituency into 
 circles of the Order. Its organ, the Silver Cross, abounds in instances 
 of human love and sacrificial service. The great contribution of the 
 Order has been its education of church and community everywhere 
 in the principles of social service, through the advocacy and 
 exempHfication of the Wadsworth mottoes. 
 
 Let us note what these various developments signify as criticisms 
 of current standards and as expressions of different ideals. 
 
 1. There is a protest against the adequacy of sex co-operation 
 as a sole method of action. The young people's society embodied 
 a principle of profound importance when it set young men and 
 young women working together. But it was only a half-truth, 
 and the complementary principle was equally true, that provision 
 must be made whereby young men and young women should each 
 have their own form of activity, and, if need be, a separate organiza- 
 tion. 
 
 2. There is a protest against the ideal of the Sunday school as 
 a place for children alone and for religious instruction alone. In 
 its place there is set an institution which includes all ages and stands 
 for a religious education which includes worship, instruction, 
 organization, fraternity, philanthropy, and recreation. 
 
 3. There is a protest against any conception of religion which 
 does not include all-round helpfulness, and in particular service 
 to needy persons and institutions in one's own community. 
 
 4. The Brotherhoods of St. Andrew and of Andrew and Philip 
 were a protest, on the one side, against the failure of a church to 
 grow by conquest from without as well as by birth, and, on the 
 
} 
 
 92 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 other side, against a high-pressure, wholesale evangelism in the 
 hands of specialists. These men believed that the gospel was the 
 power of God unto salvation if it really got a chance, and they 
 proposed to give it that chance. They believed also that the 
 ordinary methods of evangelistic effort were highly specialized, and 
 that the ordinary man was guided by a wise instinct when he felt 
 unwilling to undertake the precipitation of a soul crisis. They 
 believed, further, that those methods involved serious dangers if 
 indiscriminately applied. But they were sure that the ordinary 
 man had a grave responsibility for the souls of other men, which it 
 was his duty and privilege to accept. The rule of prayer assured 
 spiritual preparation; the rule of service indicated a natural 
 method of approach. Thus from a church making much of ecclesi- 
 astical orders has come this marvelous impulse to lay evangelism. 
 
 The missionary movement. — A third main line of differentiation 
 is found in the modern missionary movement. It goes back for its 
 beginnings to 1880, when the college Y.M.C.A. established a 
 missionary department. In this year, the American Interseminary 
 Missionary Alliance, composed of theological students, held its 
 first convention. In 1883, the Princeton Foreign Mission Society 
 was organized, with Wilder and Forman as leaders. The movement 
 really took form in 1886, when Mr. Moody, at the suggestion of 
 L. D. Wishard, invited the college men to Northfield during the 
 summer for four weeks of Bible study. Two hundred and fifty-one 
 men came. A group of 21 met daily for prayer that there might be 
 a hundred volunteers for the foreign field. During the third week 
 the "meeting of the Ten Nations" was held, at which missionary 
 addresses were given by sons of missionaries in Persia, India, and 
 China, and by natives of Armenia, Japan, Siam, Germany, Den- 
 mark, Norway, and by a North American Indian. On the last 
 day of the conference, the hundredth man came to the daily mis- 
 sionary prayer-meeting and signed the Volunteer pledge: "I am 
 willing and desirous, God willing, to become a foreign missionary." 
 Thus was born the Student Volunteer Movement. 
 
 Prior to this time, few missionary meetings were held in any 
 college in America ; missionary libraries were virtually non-existent, 
 missionary contributions almost unknown, and mission-study classes 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 93 
 
 nearly "unthinkable." In England a group of seven Cambridge 
 men had been visiting the colleges seeking recruits for the foreign 
 field. This idea was at once adopted by the American movement. 
 Together or separately, Forman and Wilder visited during the next 
 year 167 institutions of learning, and 2,200 volunteers, men and 
 women, enrolled. There was no systematic visitation in 1887-88, 
 but through the work of older volunteers 600 names were added. 
 The canvass was taken up the following year with large success. 
 
 In 1888, the movement was organized with an executive 
 committee of three: John R. Mott, chairman, representing the 
 Y.M.C.A.; Miss Nettie Dunn, the Y.W.C.A.; and Robert P. 
 Wilder, the Interseminary Alliance. An advisory committee, 
 appointed by the denominational missionary boards, determined 
 questions of policy. The executive committee had general super- 
 vision. Traveling, editorial, and corresponding secretaries were 
 to carry out the functions suggested in their names. In each 
 institution, the Volunteers formed the Volunteer Band, which 
 frequently constituted the missionary committee of the college 
 Association. 
 
 The fourfold purpose of this organization is (i) to awaken and maintain 
 among all Christian students of the United States and Canada, intelligent 
 and active interest in foreign missions; (2) to enrol a sufficient number of 
 properly qualified Student V'olunteers to meet the successive demands of the 
 various missionary boards; (3) to help all such intending missionaries to 
 prepare for their lifework, and to enlist their co-operation in developing the 
 missionary life of the home church; (4) to lay an equal burden of responsi- 
 bility on all students who are to remain as ministers and lay workers at home, 
 that they may actively promote the missionary enterprise by their intelligent 
 advocacy, by their gifts and by their prayers. The Volunteer Movement is in 
 no sense a missionary board.' 
 
 It is rather a recruiting agency for all the Boards. 
 
 The watchword of the movement, "The Evangelization of the 
 World in This Generation," means "to give all men an adequate 
 opportunity to know Jesus Christ as Savior and to become his 
 real disciples."^ 
 
 ' Report of Executive Committee, 1891. 
 
 ' Mott, Evangelization of the World in This Generation. 
 
 w 
 
94 THE YOUNG PEOPLE S MOVEMENT 
 
 Not to detail the history of the Movement, we ask briefly: 
 What has it accomplished ? 
 
 Up to the end of 191 2, 5,569 volunteers had sailed for the foreign 
 field from America, and 1,696 from the United Kingdom. More 
 volunteers were ready and acceptable than could be sent. 
 
 It issued the first series of textbooks for mission-study classes, 
 and has established mission classes whose enrolment has grown from 
 1,400 in 1895 to 36,580 in 1912. 
 
 It has held quadrennial conventions, which have been notable 
 from every point of view. 
 
 It has held annual summer conferences for students which have 
 gone far to Christianize our colleges. 
 
 It has employed traveling secretaries who have brought directly 
 to the colleges the spirit of the missionary enterprise. 
 
 It has increased the gifts of students and faculties from virtually 
 nothing to $131,761.59, as reported in 1910. 
 
 It prepared the way for the foreign mission work of the Inter- 
 national Committee of the Y.M.C.A. 
 
 It has profoundly influenced the Hfe of the churches of America. 
 To these last two points we must devote a little more attention. 
 
 The foreign work of the International Committee of the 
 Y.M.C.A. is perhaps the most important, certainly the most 
 statesmanlike, aspect of all Christian work in non-Christian 
 countries. It began in 1889 with an appeal to the Committee, on 
 the part of missionaries, for secretaries for these countries. The 
 policy of the Committee involves the selection of sixty of the most 
 strategic centers in the entire non-Christian world, establishing 
 in them dignified and suitable buildings, and assigning to them the 
 ablest secretaries obtainable. It is an attempt to pre-empt the 
 city and the university for Christ, and already its work is notable. 
 In 191 1, the Committee had 105 secretaries on the foreign field. 
 
 One of the direct results of the Student Volunteer Movement 
 was the Yoimg People's Missionary Movement, an attempt to 
 do for the young people of the churches what the student move- 
 ment had done for the colleges. The Baptists led in the systematic 
 study of missions by several years. The first issue of the Young 
 People at Work (December, 1890) contained a department called 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 95 
 
 "The Mission Field," which m 1891 was divided into "Home" and 
 "Foreign Work." The first to sound a decisive missionary note 
 for young people's societies was Dr. L. C. Barnes, who (March 21, 
 1891) said: 
 
 Let the dominant purpose [of the B.Y.P.U.A.] be not self-culture but 
 world-saving. Let the central aim be not to refine and stimulate our own 
 spirits a little more highly and have a religious good time together, but to find 
 out the moral needs [of the world] and to drill ourselves in training to supply 
 those needs. The young men of our churches are lamentably without syste- 
 matic culture in the large, heroic purposes which hold the future of American 
 society and of the world.' 
 
 It was fitting that the man who had this splendid vision and knowl- 
 edge of young people should write Two Thousand Years of Missions 
 before Carey (1900), a missionary textbook which set a standard 
 that has rarely been reached since. In January, 1892, the Young 
 People's Union, the organ of the B.Y.P.U.A., began to print material 
 for a monthly missionary meeting, which was assigned by the topic 
 card to the last Sunday of each month. In 1894, the four years' 
 schedule was announced, including not merely a monthly meeting 
 but a study class, and covering the work of the northern, southern, 
 and Canadian Baptist missions. In this same year, the American 
 Baptist Missionary Union organized a Young People's Department 
 with a secretary, whose duty it was "First, to secure in every young 
 people's society a good live missionary committee, all at work with 
 a definite purpose. Second, to secure systematic, proportionate, and 
 worshipful giving, according to the biblical plan, 'Upon the first 
 day of the week.' " This secretary discovered that most societies 
 had no missionary committee; that about one society in ten had a 
 plan of study and a monthly missionary meeting, thanks to the 
 Conquest Missionary course; but that the giving of the majority 
 was done "in a careless and indifferent way."* 
 
 The Presidential address at the Christian Endeavor convention 
 of 1893 emphasized systematic and proportionate giving. On 
 October 18, 1894, the Golden Rule began to publish a series of mis- 
 sionary studies and urged the formation of Golden Rule Mission 
 Clubs, which should be regularly organized and should take 
 examinations, for which a fee of fifty cents was charged. 
 
 ' Y.P.A.W., March 21, 1891. ^ Baptist Union, June 15, 1895. 
 
96 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 In 1897, according to the Epworth Herald,^ there were in the 
 Epworth League no constitutional provisions for missionary agita- 
 tion and no mission-study courses; practically no textbooks were 
 available, and the Student Missionary Campaign was unknown. 
 A quarterly missionary topic was the extent of its interest. The 
 Methodist text was that of Bishop Foss, From the Himalayas to 
 the Equator (1899). 
 
 The items already mentioned indicate the indirect influence of 
 the Student Volunteer Movement upon the churches. Now begins 
 its direct work. In October, 1893, the Chicago Christian Endeavor 
 Union invited all Student Volunteers in. the city and vicinity 
 to an informal social meeting held by the Christian Endeavor 
 Missionary Institute, which had come into being in consequence of 
 the action of the Chicago Union in assuming the support of a 
 Christian Endeavor secretary in India in 1891. As a result of this 
 meeting of the Volunteers, a speakers' bureau was organized, and 
 any church desiring an address on a foreign mission theme was 
 supplied by some Volunteer.^ Other large cities had similar bureaus. 
 
 In the academic year 1898-99, a band of five Yale men traveled 
 among young people's societies. Meetings to the number of 884 
 were addressed; 364 missionary conferences were held with the 
 representatives of 2,000 societies; 241 missionary committees 
 were organized; 579 collections of missionary books were sold; 
 392 societies were led to start mission-study classes; 518 societies 
 adopted the plan of systematic giving; and 757 promised to use 
 the missionary prayer cycle. They found many missionary com- 
 mittees but few study classes. At the summer conferences of 
 1899, this "Student Missionary Campaign" received large atten- 
 tion. It was officially recognized at once by many of the largest 
 denominations, and all took up the idea with enthusiasm. In 
 the summer of 1900 and succeeding summer vacations, many stu- 
 dents gave several weeks to this work; and, during the academic 
 year, hundreds visited, in small groups, the churches surrounding 
 the various institutions of learning. In the large cities all the 
 young people's societies united in these conferences, great enthu- 
 siasm was generated, and many classes were formed.^ 
 
 ' Epworth Herald, XIV, 614 (1903). 
 
 ^ Baptist Union, April 4, 1896. ^ Button, Baptist Union, XII, 692. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 97 
 
 Greater perhaps than the immediate effect upon the churches 
 was the reflex influence of this work upon the schools. Mission- 
 study and Bible-study classes multiplied.^ In the wake of the 
 Student Mission Bands came the organization of Evangelistic 
 Bands, groups of young men, touched with divine fire, who went 
 out to spend the week-end with near-by churches, seeking imme- 
 diate decisions for the Christian life. In the case of at least one 
 university (McMaster), two such bands spent the summer of 1904 
 visiting churches, receiving no remuneration beyond expenses.^ 
 
 The Missionary Movement was in great need of textbooks, the 
 Baptists being virtually the only denomination with an adequate 
 course of study. Further, there was need of united action and of 
 wise guidance.' Consequently, as the result of a meeting of the 
 leaders of missionary work in the churches, held in New York in 
 December, 1901, the first conference of the Young People's Mis- 
 sionary Movement was held at Silver Bay, New York, July, 1902. 
 Those in charge included Wishard, Beach, and Speer. Reports 
 of the work done by Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed, 
 and other churches were discussed, mission- and Bible-study classes 
 were held, and denominational gatherings were arranged. Inas- 
 much as these latter were led by persons in each denomiaation 
 ofiicially charged with the missionary propaganda, their resolu- 
 tions were widely influential. The scope of the movement was 
 defined as the preparation of leaders for mission-study classes by 
 summer conferences, institutes, etc., and the preparation of litera- 
 ture (books, helps, charts, libraries, curios, etc.). In distinction 
 from the Student Volunteer Movement, this plan embraced both 
 home and foreign missions. In 1903, two conferences were held; 
 in 1904, a third was added; and, in 1906, four were held, including 
 one at Whitby, Ontario. In some places, for instance Chicago, 
 interdenominational Young People's Missionary Institutes were 
 held for several days in the early fall, which mediated the enthu- 
 siasm of the conferences to leaders in the local societies. Over 
 10,000 persons attended the summer conferences in the first decade.^ 
 
 ' Statistical Tables, World's Student Christian Federation, 1913. 
 
 ^ Baptist Union, May 7, 1904. 
 
 i Epworth Herald, XVIII (1907), 14. 
 
98 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 The movement prepared a series of textbooks which have been 
 extensively used and have proved of great value, each denomina- 
 tion (47 in number in 1912^ issuing supplemental material touching 
 its work in the field under consideration. The work of the move- 
 ment has extended in one direction to the Sunday school and in 
 the other to adults. The woman's interdenominational missionary 
 movement has published a noteworthy series of texts, and study 
 classes have prospered. Among men, the Laymen's Missionary 
 Movement is an outgrowth, and this merged into the Men and 
 Religion Forward Movement, which has performed service of pro- 
 found value. 
 
 Looking at it in the large, whether from the standpoint of its 
 influence upon non-Christian nations in every aspect of their lives, 
 reHgious, social, industrial, educational, political, or from the point 
 of view of its profound effects upon the Christian churches and the 
 nations in which they predominate, it seems probable that the 
 missionary enterprise of the nineteenth century is the most impor- 
 tant movement of Christianity since the days of Paul. The 
 Reformation was the unshackling of the free spirit of the gospel; 
 the Wesleyan and other revivals gave it voice and enthusiasm; 
 the missionary enterprise, including in that term not only the 
 movements under immediate ecclesiastical control but all move- 
 ments looking to the increase of brotherliness and the spread of a 
 reverence for personality, is the direction of its energy into its 
 proper channel. This is the main stream not only of Christianity 
 but of history; all other streams are tributary. 
 
 In this onsweeping current of the nineteenth century, the young 
 people's movement constitutes a large element. For the most part, 
 looking at it not from the standpoint of the individual but of his- 
 tory', it has been essentially preparatory. The temperance move- 
 ment was and is largely negative in character, whether it has sought 
 the abolition of the saloon or the training of children to fear and 
 hate strong drink. Philanthropy, gracious as it is, ought to be 
 temporary, for it implies inequahty of possessions and privileges — 
 a condition which has no real place in a democracy. It is already 
 regarded as primitive, to be superseded by a more just organization 
 
 ' Epworth Herald, XXIII (191 2), 835. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DIFFERENTIATION 99 
 
 of society, in which the gold of brotherly kindness will be separated 
 from the dross of condescension. Education and organization, 
 as represented by Sunday school, public school, and university, by 
 Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., by the Christian Endeavor and kindred 
 societies, must necessarily be education for some purpose and 
 organization to some end. Otherwise we have machinery without 
 product, motion without progress. If we ask. For what are these 
 things preparatory ? the answer is. For the positive, constructive 
 task of Christianizing the world. The winning of individuals to 
 the religious life and the home and foreign missionary enterprises 
 are part of it, but these by no means exhaust it. It involves the 
 Christianizing of industry and commerce; of municipal, state, 
 national, and international politics; of all the relations in which 
 men stand toward other men, either as individuals or as groups; 
 in a word, it means the Christianizing of the entire social order. 
 If self-sacrifice and leadership be granted to the young people's 
 movement, so that it shall cease to live to itself, shall cease to ask 
 whether it is to live or die, but only seek a place in this great task 
 of the world's redemption, it will live and accomplish that whereto 
 God has sent it. It has ''come to the kingdom for such a time as 
 this." The bringing into clear consciousness of what we so dimly 
 see but so powerfully feel is the supreme business of the present 
 century. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 An attempt to evaluate current organizations of young people 
 raises at once the question of standards, a question which can be 
 answered only by discussing briefly the psychology of adolescence. 
 The physiological facts are of first importance. Early adolescence 
 shows a remarkable increase in height and weight, fourteen or fifteen 
 years being the age of most rapid growth. There is "a gradual and 
 probably irregular tapering off of growth in height at about eighteen 
 or nineteen, and, to a degree, of weight a few years later." The 
 proportions of bodily parts and organs change almost constantly. 
 The heart increases in a year or two at the beginning of adolescence 
 almost to the size of that of an adult, and there is at first no 
 corresponding increase in the arteries; its beat is accelerated and 
 becomes stronger ; these result in increased blood-pressure. "There 
 are more red corpuscles in the blood, the lung capacity is increased, 
 and there is more carbonic acid in the breath — all of which shows 
 that rapid transformations are going on in the organism."^ The 
 brain reaches the limit of its growth in weight at the age of twelve 
 or thirteen; then brain organization and unification, through the 
 growth of the fibers of the middle layer of the cerebral cortex, 
 become the important factors. Especially from the age of eighteen 
 on, these tangential fibers develop rapidly, as anatomical researches 
 indicate, so that the brain of a man of thirty-eight has about twice 
 as many as that of a youth of eighteen. The growth of these fibers 
 constitutes the physiological basis for the functioning of Flechsig's 
 "association areas," Hughlings- Jackson's "highest level," and 
 
 "unifies the whole nervous system The highest level is the 
 
 anatomical basis of mind.""* This is the period also of the rapid 
 development and of the functioning of the organs of sex. Growth 
 and development do not go on continuously and hence the danger 
 
 ' Starbuck, Psychology of Religion, p. 307. 
 ^ See Donaldson, Growth of the Brain. 
 
 100 
 
PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 10 1 
 
 to more sensitive people of being ''thrown out of gear" temporarily 
 or permanently.' 
 
 These physiological changes have psychological correlatives of 
 far-reaching significance. "It is a well-established fact, as is 
 shown from the study of the brains of children, idiots, adults, and 
 animals, that the character of the psychic life is conditioned by the 
 quality of nervous tissue."^ The new experiences connected with 
 augmented blood-pressure and brain organization are characterized 
 by enhanced mental activity, sometimes resolving itself into keen 
 intellectual enjo}Tiient, frequently into doubt and questioning. 
 After a careful study of many cases, Starbuck says: "Not only is 
 the rational power a vigorous tool for the criticism of religious 
 ideals, but frequently .... the interest in it seems to approach 
 a kind of aesthetic of logic." One woman remarks of her experi- 
 ences at this period, "It was the cold philosophy of his [Sweden- 
 borg's] teaching that satisfied my mental needs." Another says, 
 "Cared more about my doubts than the solution of them." Still 
 another, "For a year or more after fourteen, the whole matter of 
 religion seemed eclipsed by the desire for intellectual growth."^ 
 It is not a little interesting to note that many philosophers struck 
 out the ground plans of their systems during adolescence. 
 
 Adolescent questioning is clearly reflected in the doubts that so 
 often arise. Fifty-three per cent of the women and 79 per cent of 
 the men studied by Starbuck, and three-fourths of the cases con- 
 sidered by Bumham,'' went through a period of doubt. The two 
 important causes, according to the former's tables, were educational 
 influences and natural growth, in inverse ratios for men and women. 
 Doubt not seldom finds its outcome in a sense of being outside the 
 conventional mold, accompanied by a philosophical reconstruction. 
 "Alienation seems often to be due to the physiological necessity 
 of gaining relaxation" and is an attempt "to preserve in one way 
 or another the wholeness of the individual life."^ This alienation, 
 when it occurs, usually comes in later adolescence. 
 
 ' Evidence summarized in Hall, Adolescence. 
 
 'Starbuck, op. ciL, p. 149; Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, 
 chap. iv. 
 
 •5 Starbuck, op. cit., p. 271. 
 
 '' Burnham, Pedagogical Seminary, 1, 182. 5 Starbuck, op. cit., pp. 247 ff. 
 
I02 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 A high degree of emotional intensity is characteristic of adoles- 
 cence. The new appeal of Nature probably comes under this 
 category. There is frequently an enlarged susceptibility to the 
 aesthetic. Starbuck recites such cases as the following: 
 
 From twenty-four to twenty-nine, I did not believe in religion at all. I 
 wept over the pathetic in literature; had strong emotions on hearing the 
 Messiah, or Easter music at a great church 
 
 My enjoyment [from fifteen to twenty- two] was largely sensuous; flowers, 
 perfumes, music, deep, soft colors awakened more emotion than any thought 
 of the holiness of God 
 
 Chopin's "Funeral March" seems to grow into me 
 
 The "storm and stress" period through which nearly two-thirds 
 of all young people pass is a striking illustration of the emotional 
 tension of early and middle adolescence. It is characterized by a 
 sense of incompleteness and imperfection; by a sense of sin fre- 
 quently connected with matters of sex;^ by fear of punishment; 
 by brooding, depression, and morbid introspection, and by friction 
 with surroundings. These have in part a physiological explana- 
 tion, such as high blood-pressure, unequal growth of various organs, 
 the new sex function, the keenness of the senses; in part, their 
 explanation is psychical, as due to the confusion wrought by the 
 flooding in of new experiences and the attempt to organize one's 
 universe; in part, they are due to actual wrong-doing. Taken 
 altogether, they produce an emotional tension of a high degree. 
 
 The emergence of the sex function with its correlated instincts 
 is probably the most important single fact of adolescence. Its 
 biological significance is that the youth begins to live the race life. 
 The universaUty of initiation ceremonies among primitive peoples, 
 inducting the adolescent into the full life of the tribe, indicates a 
 common understanding of this fact.^ Hereditary traits and diseases 
 (e.g., insanity) crop out in these years. 
 
 The social results of sex are of unparalleled importance. The 
 first effect of sex consciousness is that of separation of the sexes, 
 and thus we have in early adolescence the "gang."^ This gives 
 
 ' Brockman, Pedagogical Seminary, IX, 255; Hoben, The Minister and the Boy, 
 P- 137- 
 
 "Daniels, American Journal of Psychology, VI, i. 
 
 :Hall, op. cit.. Vol. II, chap, xv; Hoben, op. cit., pp. 22 f.; Forbush, The Boy 
 Problem. 
 
PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES IO3 
 
 way in middle adolescence to renewed interest of boys and girls 
 
 in each other. Later adolescence is the mating time. 
 
 The directly socializing power of the sex instinct on the male has 
 
 been thus stated : 
 
 His bluff, self-centered impulses are now softened and restrained by desire 
 to win affection and admiration, and by anxious care for the comfort and 
 happiness of the one he loves. No other influence is comparable to this 
 maturing, instinctive disposition for the development of attitudes of sym- 
 pathy, co-operation, and sociability. For the first time in his experience there 
 is a compeUing inner motive urging regard for another to the point of complete 
 self-devotion.' 
 
 The vocational impulse, so strong in this period and so great in 
 socializing power, has as one of its chief roots the earning of an 
 income on which to marry. " On the whole," Mercier declares, " the 
 sexual emotion includes as an integral, fundamental, and prepon- 
 derating element in its constitution the desire for self-sacrifice";* 
 and Geddes and Thompson, from the biological standpoint, say 
 that the "primitive hunger and love become the starting-points of 
 divergent lines of egoistic and altruistic emotion and activity."^ 
 
 The "irradiations of the reproductive instincts" have important 
 results for society and for religion. "Sensitiveness to the opinion 
 of others springs directly from the impulse underlying courtship 
 between the sexes, and this sensitivity is the basis and safeguard 
 of social relations."'' Professor Ames summarizes the evidence for 
 the conclusion that this regard for the opinion of others is found 
 among animals, as is shown not only by the gay plumage and 
 courtship antics and cries of the male, but equally by the coyness 
 of the female; that among primitive peoples it is found both as a 
 craving for favorable attention and as the anguish inflicted by 
 adverse criticism; that among adolescents it is manifested as self- 
 consciousness, vanity, affectation, and the inclination to show off; 
 that among adults "it remains vivid and excessive"; and he quotes 
 Professor Thomas with approval : "Our susceptibility to the opinion 
 of others and our dependence on their good will are genetically 
 
 • Ames, Psychology of Religious Experience, p. 222. 
 
 * Mercier, Sanity and Insanity, p. 220. 
 3 Evolution of Sex, chap. xiii. 
 
 ^ Ames, op. cit., p. 227. 
 
I04 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 referable to sexual life." It is this which produces conformity 
 to the conventions, duties, and ideals of society, and makes it 
 possible and desirable for people to live together. 
 
 The close relation of personal religion to the sex life is indicated 
 by at least three things. The Christian virtues are substantially 
 those produced by "the irradiation of the sex instincts," as noted 
 in preceding paragraphs. Further, adolescence is the normal time 
 for the rise of personal rehgion. The years in which rehgious 
 awakenings, both of the conversion and spontaneous types, 
 most frequently occur center about the age of sixteen; and if it 
 has not occurred before the age of twenty, it is relatively improb- 
 able that it will ever take place.' At twelve, with the beginning 
 of puberty, there is great impressionability and responsiveness 
 to social suggestion. At sixteen the physical and psychical 
 ferment of adolescence is at its height; and at nineteen mental 
 maturity and more reasoned decisions are characteristic. The fact 
 that in the liturgical churches this is the period of confirmation 
 reveals a wisdom born of centuries of experience. Not all people, 
 however, enter into the religious experience, partly because of a 
 lack of sympathetic environment and training, and partly because 
 the individual does not find in the religious groups of his community 
 that which appeals to him. 
 
 The third point of contact of Christianity with the sex impulse 
 is shown in the fact that "the phraseology in Christian churches 
 is that of the family. The Church is the bride of Christ. The 
 members are children of God; brothers and sisters to each other. 
 They are born into this spiritual family, having been conceived by 
 the Holy Spirit. Love is the pervading bond in all these relations." 
 And not only is the phraseology significant, but "the emotional 
 attitudes aroused by the services of the churches are the tender, 
 melting moods in which the will acquiesces in the appeal for love 
 and comradeship."^ 
 
 On the basis of these facts we turn to discuss some common 
 problems of young people's societies in the churches. First we 
 shall consider the function of such an organization. 
 
 ' Starbuck, op. cit., chaps, iii and xvi; Coe, The Spiritual Life. 
 ' Ames, op. cit., p. 228; Thomas, Sex and Society, pp. 115 ff. 
 
PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES IO5 
 
 An analysis of the activities of an ordinary Christian Endeavor 
 society shows that they may be arranged somewhat in the following 
 order: (i) worship, as provided for in the weekly prayer-meeting, 
 and constituting the nucleus of everything else; (2) responsibihty, 
 represented by office-holding, committee work, leading meetings, 
 etc.; (3) friendship and recreation, the society or its inner circle 
 being usually a group of rather intimate friends, sometimes forming 
 a clique, but commonly ready to welcome any who are willing to 
 accept a measure of responsibility, and able to make some con- 
 tribution to the good-fellowship; (4) social service, consisting 
 rarely in some constant form of helpfulness, but usually limited 
 to particular occasions, such as Christmas, or to special needs; 
 (5) instruction by study classes in missions or Bible, or by occasional 
 lectures. 
 
 When we turn to the organized class of the Sunday school, we 
 find these same five elements, but with a quite different emphasis. 
 The primary factor is instruction, not teaching in the strict sense, 
 but preaching, and the most vital preaching in many instances that 
 is being done today; for the teacher knows his class individually 
 and intimately, and brings a message needed by that particular 
 group. The second element is friendship, including recreation, 
 but the former receives the emphasis. As a rule these classes grow 
 up around some person, usually the teacher, who "carries on his 
 heart" all the members, visits them in home or boarding-house, 
 invites them to his home, secures them employment if need be, 
 writes them when they are away, and so on. This attitude 
 is reflected in the leading members of the class. "Excessive 
 cordiality" was one visitor's comment; but in the cities "excessive 
 cordiaHty" without ulterior motive is rare. The social events 
 and picnics are jolly good times, but are not so important. At the 
 close of each class hour the members stand around and talk for a 
 time and the stranger is likely to be singled out for especial atten- 
 tion. Responsibility is placed upon the membership, each class 
 having officers and the most varied committees, one having even 
 a photographer and an electrician who magnify their offices. 
 Worship and philanthropy enter in, but they are relatively sub- 
 ordinate. Each class usually has its own "opening exercises," 
 
I06 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 and the writer knows two Chicago classes which maintain a monthly 
 prayer-meeting; but this is unusual. It is evident that here is 
 "the young people's society in a new form, unhampered by stereo- 
 typed methods, lack of local leadership, fixed conditions of mem- 
 bership, and conventional types of religious expression." 
 
 After this analysis it is instructive to note what ministers regard 
 as the purpose of their young people's societies. To the question, 
 What do you conceive to be the function of a young people's 
 society ? fifty-five Chicago pastors, of all the leading communions, 
 gave such answers as the following : 
 
 To bring souls to Christ and teach them how to serve him. 
 
 To promote the cause of Jesus Christ in the organized form of the church. 
 
 To promote the rehgious development of young people by providing 
 opportunities for appropriate religious expression. 
 
 To buUd the young people of a church into strong Christian character. 
 This includes the development of intelligence, afifection, loyalty, and purjiose. 
 Such character must express itself in the legitimate activities of the church. 
 
 Through social life to lead into the spiritual, means to an end. 
 
 To promote an earnest Christian life among our members, to increase their 
 mutual acquaintance, and to make them more useful in the service of God. 
 
 To meet young people as young and not mature persons, and to be helpful 
 along broad, tolerant, sincere lines, responsive to their needs, body, mind, and 
 sotd. 
 
 In attempting to answer this question of function constructively, 
 several problems must be discussed. 
 
 First, which is of primary importance, the members, the society, 
 or some other organization, such as the church or denomination ? 
 In other words, does the society exist for the young people, or do the 
 young people exist for the society ? Exceptions aside, it is safe to 
 say that the latter is the common attitude. The very mottoes 
 indicate this: the Christian Endeavor motto, "For Christ and the 
 [local] church"; the Baptist Union, "Loyalty to Christ in all 
 things at all times," which means the Baptist interpretation of 
 Christ; the Ep worth League, "We live to make our own church 
 [denomination] a power in the land, while we live to love every 
 church that exalts our Christ." To be sure, these societies have 
 benefited multitudes of people, but the primary question is, Is 
 any institution of superior value to personality? or, otherwise 
 
PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES IO7 
 
 stated. Has any institution the right to set itself above the people 
 who compose it and for whose sake it supposedly exists ? This is 
 the point of the Sabbath controversy between Jesus and the 
 Pharisees; this is the battle that is being fought out in industry 
 today; the public-school system is meeting criticism at this very 
 angle. That persons are of more worth than any institution should 
 require no argument where a Christian organization is concerned. 
 The ability and the willingness to render service to persons is the 
 test of the sacredness and of the right to live of any institution. 
 When the institution takes, even unconsciously, the opposite view, 
 it has ceased in so far to be either Christian or democratic. 
 
 A second question asks: Are the young people of the church a i, ^^ 
 field to be cultivated or a force to be directed ? Practically every- t-' 
 one, theoretically at least, would say. Both. Let us separate here 
 the two elements of instruction and activity. With reference to the 
 former, it has usually been assumed that a given amount of biblical 
 and missionary information meets all requirements, and the fallacy 
 of those public schools in which courses of instruction are of more 
 importance than children has been adopted. The only justifiable 
 starting-point, however, in framing courses of study or suggesting 
 lines of activity, is the person himself, and the question to be asked 
 is not, How can we teach this portion of the Bible or this missionary 
 material? but rather. What are the needs and problems of this 
 particular group of young people and of the individuals who make 
 up the group ? To answer this, a careful study of the psychology 
 of adolescence, of the group under consideration, and of the local 
 conditions must precede an adequate or scientific reply. The 
 organized class has laid hold of this principle, and this is one reason 
 for its pronounced success. 
 
 On the side of " expressional activity," the same conception of a 
 "field to be cultivated" is dominant. Young people who lead a 
 meeting, or take part in the service, or engage in philanthropic 
 work are "training for service," or are "preparing for future leader- 
 ship." In other words, the real tasks of the church are being per- 
 formed by deacons, elders, and such persons, but young people 
 up to, say, thirty, are engaging in a sort of play by which they will 
 be fitted for genuine work later on. That worthy and appropriate 
 
Io8 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 tasks develop the doer, and prepare him for larger things later, no 
 one questions; but this is true, not only of young people of college 
 years, but also of the aged saint ready to be translated to "nobler 
 service above." Apart from exceptions, the only churches and 
 pastors who have regarded the young people as fit for a great task 
 here and now are those that make much of evangelistic effort. 
 The watchword, "Young people for young people," has this as its 
 primary significance. Under present conditions, it cannot be too 
 often or too strongly emphasized that Spencer's definition of educa- 
 tion as "preparation for complete living" contains a fundamental 
 fallacy. For the person being educated, the processes essential to 
 a complete and appropriate education constitute complete living. 
 Tolstoi protested agamst "the snares of preparation which we 
 spread for the feet of the young," and leaders of young people's 
 work should lay this protest to heart. The minister who can find 
 an attractive and appropriate task for his young people may dismiss 
 from the remote corners of his mind the words "development" and 
 "training"; these will inevitably follow. 
 
 It is pertinent to ask if these two aspects of young people's 
 work might not be co-ordinated. An ideal connection would be 
 to have instruction grow out of activity and in turn modify activity. 
 The psychological basis of this position is in brief as follows : Activ- 
 ity is prior to both thought and feeling. Out of initial impulsive 
 movements, pleasurable sensations, control, and knowledge of the 
 world arise. All through life our emotional reactions to other 
 persons, as fundamentally friendly or hostile, for instance, depend 
 upon instinctive or impulsive physical reactions to them, which 
 arouse appropriate emotions. Thought also has this basis of 
 activity, and only arises when there is conflict between impulsive, 
 instinctive, or habitual tendencies to action. Hence the "problem 
 situation," arising from actual or projected activity, constitutes 
 the psychological basis for instruction, the instruction consisting 
 in an attempt to solve the problem." If, now, the problems arising 
 from philanthropic work, for example, problems of housing, disease, 
 delinquency, and so on, could be made the basis, at least in part, 
 
 ' James, Psychology, Vol. II, chap, .xxv; Dewey, How We Think; Ames, op. cit., 
 chaps, xv-xviii. 
 
PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES IO9 
 
 of the instructional work, this latter in turn influencing the former; 
 and if both instruction and activity could be so directed as to influ- 
 ence public meetings and private devotions to some extent; and 
 if, as would almost surely happen, friendship might be founded, 
 not simply on congeniality, but on devotion to a common task as 
 well, then we should be achieving a co-ordinated scheme for the 
 religious education of youth. 
 
 A third of our present-day problems concerns the type of religion 
 emphasized by the young people's society. In 1900, President 
 Hyde of Bowdoin said: 
 
 Of late, chiefly through the influence of societies made up mainly of young 
 people, we have come to place a premium on emotional experience and the 
 ability to take part in meeting. Our young people have come to identify these 
 
 things with Christianity There are a great many men — merchants, 
 
 bankers, lawyers, manufacturers, mechanics — who will join heartily in digni- 
 fied public worship, and will give time, money, and strength to whatever works 
 of righteousness the Church may reasonably lay upon them, who simply cannot 
 and will not wear their hearts upon their sleeve, or give expression to their 
 inmost personal experience in a social meeting. By making such social 
 expression of personal religious experience practically synonymous with the 
 religious life you are excluding this type of men from the fellowship of the 
 
 spiritual life It is a relatively small proportion of young men who are 
 
 gifted in this line and who find the exercise of these gifts natural and enjoyable. 
 .... Each member must be given a specific work to do. It must be some- 
 thing more concrete and definite and difficult than talking.' 
 
 Dr. Hyde is not making any criticism of the prayer-meeting 
 nor of an emotional type of religion; he expressly welcomes both. 
 His contention is that this is not the sole form of religious experience 
 and expression, and he demands that other forms of expression be 
 recognized as equally valid and valuable as talking in prayer- 
 meeting. The young people's society of the future must be broad 
 enough in its conception of personal religion and varied enough 
 in its forms of activity and opportunities of service to allow room 
 for all religious persons. 
 
 Another problem is that of sex co-operation and sex separation. 
 In the Roman and Anglican churches, the young people's gilds are 
 usually made up of young men or young women alone, unless the 
 
 ' The Outlook, LXVI, 889; see also ibid., LXVII, 122. 
 
 ^ 
 
no THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 parish is too small to support the separate organizations. The 
 organized class is largely following in the same direction. All 
 these forms of organization, however, plan for more or less regular 
 occasions when both sexes can be brought together. 
 
 A review of the societies we have been discussing suggests that 
 the female society, when it is not a temporary formation under 
 special conditions, is largely imitative in character. Thus we have 
 first men's missionary societies and later women's; first m.en's 
 temperance organizations and then women's; and so the men's 
 labor unions, the Y.M.C.A., boys' brigades, boy-scout troops, 
 Greek-letter fraternities, the secret fraternal societies, etc., have 
 been prior in formation to the corresponding women's organiza- 
 tions. The male organization is always earlier in time, and largely 
 determines the form of the female society. Professor Ames, follow- 
 ing Professor Thomas, seems to be right in insisting that "the 
 organizing, directing, executive power is due chiefly to men." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to discuss whether the sexes should 
 associate and co-operate. The evolution of our modern life in 
 family, school, church, business, society, and now in politics, has 
 answered it in the affirmative. For young people, the particular 
 function of this association from the biological point of view is to 
 furnish opportunity for the selection of mates. Many clergymen 
 are united in an attitude of dread toward marriage among the 
 young people of the society, because sooner or later it draws the 
 latter away from the organization. But this point of view errs 
 in two respects. It looks at young people, not from the standpoint 
 of their personal needs and problems, but from that of the organ- 
 ization; the society overshadows the person. Secondly, it places 
 the smaller organization, the local society or church, over against 
 the larger group, the community or nation, and regards the inter- 
 est of that smaller group as of more importance than the welfare 
 of the larger. Marriage concerns not merely the persons involved, 
 with their friends, but the entire community, the state, and the 
 nation. Anyone who regrets an otherwise appropriate marriage 
 because it may withdraw a certain amount of assistance from his 
 society is incompletely socialized. 
 
PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES III 
 
 The young people's society has performed an invaluable service 
 to the world in bringing young people together in two ways, viz., 
 association and co-operation. If it had done nothing more than 
 furnish a meeting-place under good auspices, and the opportunity 
 for a pleasant social time, it would have been worth all it has cost. 
 But when, in addition, it gathers young men and women of the same 
 social group about a task, it permits them to discover each other's 
 real caliber. And when the task is intimately bound up with 
 religion and the welfare of the world, it suffuses all their relations 
 to each other with this same spirit and lays the foundations of 
 marriage of superb quality. 
 
 This does undoubtedly create a problem for the society. The 
 average "life" of a member of a Christian Endeavor society, 
 according to the general secretaries, is four or five years. But this 
 problem is to be met, not by regretting the marriages forwarded 
 by the association, but by considering how to keep up the supply 
 of young people. 
 
 The final problem under this heading of function is that of 
 adjustment to local conditions. It is quite characteristic that an 
 Epworth League organized in 191 2 in the mountains of Virginia 
 set up all the departments and committees, and entirely in harmony 
 with common experience that some of the committees never met 
 and that only two accomplished anything. A Christian Endeavor 
 society in India wliich had a "graveyard committee" and a junior 
 society in China which had a "clean finger-nail committee" were 
 doing what many American societies fail to do, viz., adapt their 
 work to local needs. The present Efficiency Campaign of the 
 Christian Endeavor society is likely to increase this lack of local 
 adjustment. Any junior society, for example, whether in New 
 England or Alaska, to obtain 100 per cent must have, among 
 other things, a birthday committee, a sunshine committee, a society 
 chorus choir, at least four socials a year, an athletic committee for 
 boys and another for girls, and must make collections "as of 
 minerals, postage stamps, insects, etc." This is justified on the 
 ground that "some uniform standard must be set." The ordinary 
 society could do no better thing than to reduce its organization 
 
112 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 to its lowest terms, select one or two things that actually need doing 
 in that community, and build up the society about the local need. 
 This revision will need repetition every few years. 
 
 But a further question emerges. What sort of things is it 
 '^f. possible for a church young people's society to undertake ? In 
 particular, shall the society be purely religious, or shall it utiHze 
 the social instincts for religious purposes, or ought the social aspects 
 of Hfe to be recognized as possessing religious values ? A purely 
 reHgious person does not exist, even in a convent, for soul and 
 body coexist and social relationships are the most important of 
 realities. It is certainly justifiable to utilize the social instincts 
 for the development of religious sentiments, just as we do not hesi- 
 tate to use the religious sentiments, when they are strong, to rein- 
 force desirable attitudes and actions in political, social, or industrial 
 life. But we ought to go one step farther. Professor Hoben has 
 shown^ that organized and directed play is at heart as important 
 in the development of character as Sunday-school teaching. He 
 shows, for example, how basket-ball, played according to the rules, 
 develops self-control, self-sacrifice, the ability to co-operate, etc. 
 Religious educators who profess as their aim the development of 
 Christian character should be quick to recognize the legitimacy 
 of anything that contributes to that result. This is not the utiliza- 
 tion of the social instincts for religious purposes ; it is the direction 
 of the inborn nature to the attainment of its own highest possi- 
 bilities. Whether or not the church shall provide for recreation, 
 and to what extent and in what forms, are practical questions, de- 
 pending very largely upon what other agencies are doing and how 
 they are doing it. In any event, the church has a responsibility 
 for anything and everything in the community that is having a 
 moral or immoral influence upon the young people, whether in the 
 church or out of it. Church work is any work of betterment and 
 helpfulness that needs doing. 
 
 After the problem of function comes that of organization in 
 relation to other groups within the local church. A keen observer, 
 who for forty-five years has been a progressive leader in Sunday- 
 school work, makes this startling statement: 
 
 ' Hoben, The Minister and the Boy. 
 
PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 113 
 
 It remains a hard fact that the Sunday school is really an institution out- 
 side the church, self-appointed as "nursery," and "feeder," and "agency," and 
 occupying precisely the same relation to the church as that of the ... . 
 Y.P.S.C.E., and other organizations of similar character; its impetus at all 
 times being exercised from without rather than from within the church.' 
 
 In view of the facts that the Christian Endeavor society has 
 strenuously asserted from the first that it exists "for Christ and 
 the [local] Church"; that every Methodist pastor is under obliga- 
 tion to organize and maintain, if possible, an Epworth League in 
 his charge; that every denomination has in some way asserted 
 its right to direct the young people's movement within the body as 
 a whole and within each individual church, Dr. Blackall's statement 
 seems incredible. One who ponders the situation, however, is not 
 so sure. Take a Christian Endeavor society in a Baptist church: 
 its organization is planned, its activities suggested, its topics pre- 
 pared, and its literature printed under the direction of a group of 
 men gathered from the various denominations but officially repre- 
 senting only themselves. The financial interests of a private 
 printing company, the Christian Endeavor World Publishing Com- 
 pany, have also to be considered. Take a Baptist Union: until 
 1913, its whole direction was in the hands of a group of men elected, 
 not by the denomination, but by the convention of the B.Y.P.U.A. 
 Take an Epworth League: its policy is closely directed by the 
 denomination, but what attempt has ever been made to correlate 
 the League and the Sunday school? Junior, intermediate, and 
 senior leagues, and junior, intermediate, and senior departments 
 of the school are parallel, but as organisations unrelated. 
 
 Would it not be possible for a church to organize and correlate 
 its various elements, so that independence, duplication, and com- 
 petition might be avoided, and a child pass by regulated and natural 
 gradations, not merely from one Sunday-school class to another, 
 but from one entire stage of religious experience and expression to 
 the next, up to maturity? This becomes especially important, 
 when, as at present, in an increasing number of churches, the organ- 
 ized class is competing with the young people's society for the time, 
 energy, and loyalty which until recently belonged to the latter. 
 One of the results of this competition is that in many places the 
 
 ' Blackall, The Sunday School Situation, 1913, p. 3. 
 
114 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 society is made up of much younger people. But what will happen 
 when the International Sunday School Association has organized 
 all classes of the secondary division of the school ? It is evident 
 that the present arrangement is temporary. 
 
 If the young people's society and the organized class are to 
 coexist in the same church permanently and harmoniously, it can 
 only be by division of function (for example, with the society 
 limiting itself to a prayer-meeting) ; or by division of constituency 
 on the basis of natural groupings, etc. ; or by federations of all the 
 work of the church for young people. This last solution would 
 include the other two. In 1905 a significant document was pre- 
 sented to the B.Y.P.U.A.^ .It proposed that in a local church 
 ''where there is a number of organizations composed of young 
 people, 'the Union' shall be a federation of the various depart- 
 ments of the young people's work, each of which shall be conducted 
 under its individual constitution," and shall aim at "the close rela- 
 tion of each to the work of the church itself, under the leadership 
 of the pastor." All members of the constituent organizations 
 would belong to the federation; the council of conference, consist- 
 ing of the pastor and the president and secretary of each organiza- 
 tion, should meet once a month; each constituent society should 
 be regarded as a department of the Union; the existing Baptist 
 Union should call itself "The Devotional League of the Young 
 People's Union"; and quarterly meetings of the entire society 
 should be held. A pledge is proposed as part of this constitution, 
 but is clearly a mistake, for, if tests are proposed for membership 
 in the federation which are not required for membership in the 
 societies federated, the federation simply becomes another society 
 beside the others. This federative idea shows a way out of a state 
 of things which is bound to become worse as the organized class 
 becomes universal. 
 
 But even such an organization is only a halfway house. Every 
 church ought to have a committee on religious education, charged 
 with the duty of organizing and directing all necessary societies 
 within the church, and of co-ordinating them with each other and 
 with the work of the church itself.^ 
 
 ^Service, II (1905), 164. 
 
 'Religious Education, VIII, 231 ff.; Northern Baptist Convention, Commission 
 on Moral and Religious Education, 191 2, 1913. 
 
PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 115 
 
 The relation of the local society to other societies of the same 
 community, and of all the young people to the community itself, 
 demands more attention than has usually been given to it. There 
 are two possible bases of union, opinions, and tasks. Some people 
 unite because they think alike. This is true, to a degree, of a single 
 church, and less frequently of a group of churches in a community. 
 With reference to young people, many of whom would find it difficult 
 to state just what they do believe, or who have a philosophy of 
 hfe with quite individual characteristics, union on the basis of 
 opinions is scarcely feasible. Further, the discussion of opinions 
 is scarcely adapted for uniting the participants. Keen observers at 
 the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910, when 
 representatives of all communions from all parts of the world 
 gathered to discuss common problems, stated that the only time 
 during the whole conference when the spirit of unity was endangered 
 was when the subject of Christian union was under discussion. 
 The other possible basis is that of a common task: for instance, 
 some community enterprise too large and too important for one 
 society, but not too great to defy the efforts of two, three, or half a 
 dozen such groups. This makes appeal to youth's desire for activity 
 and achievement, to its social spirit, to its sympathy, and to its 
 wilHngness to sacrifice. Opinions may divide, but co-operation in 
 a task surely unites. 
 
 An instance of what is possible is seen in Hyde Park, Chicago. 
 This is usually known as one of the most favored sections of the 
 city, but it has great problems invisible from the boulevard, notably 
 a large number of more or less neglected children. Some years ago 
 a group of philanthropic persons set themselves the task of stud>-ing 
 and meeting this situation, and invited the co-operation of the young 
 people's societies of the neighborhood. They responded by gifts 
 and personal service. Among other things, four societies united 
 to provide pleasant Sunday afternoons for children of fourteen 
 years of age and under. This has bound the young people of these 
 societies together, and has immensely broadened their outlook. 
 It is only a beginning, to be sure, and none are so keenly alive to its 
 meagerness as its promoters, but it is the germ of untold possibiHties. 
 
 This is simply illustrative. The need varies with the com- 
 munity. As a rule, communities do not know their own conditions. 
 
Il6 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 If the societies of a given neighborhood would unite to study their 
 own section,^ and then unite in the task, which even in the most 
 favored sections is sure to be great, of meeting some one of the needs 
 that have been revealed, they would make great gain in interest, 
 fellowship, and spirituality. "He that loseth his life saveth it." 
 
 The possibility of a national federation of young people has 
 frequently been discussed, and usually advocated, be it said, either 
 by those who deplore the lines of division between societies, or 
 regret the duplication of expenditure in time, energy, and money 
 in maintaining separate conventions, or admire mere bigness. 
 Outlines of a possible organization have been prepared. The 
 Christian Endeavor society in particular has been suggested as the 
 proper body to send out the invitations. The purpose of such a 
 federation has been indicated as the holding of a common conven- 
 tion, the preparation of uniform topics, the arranging for uniform 
 textbooks, and the collation of statistics.^ 
 
 A more vital suggestion has been made — -that the young people 
 of America be invited to federate about some great enterprise, 
 national in scope, positive and constructive in character, and appeal- 
 ing to the social nature of youth. It is further intimated that the 
 matter be under the direction of a possible young people's bureau 
 of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, which 
 should select the cause, have experts prepare the measure and the 
 literature, and deal directly with the denominational leaders in 
 every case. There is much to commend such a plan. Certain it is 
 that there has been no federation up to this time because there has 
 been no sufficient reason for such a movement. It is possible that 
 this plan might provide the sufficient reason. In any case, mere 
 bigness is not a worthy goal. Unless federation means the effective 
 focusing of effort on some appropriate object, it had better not be 
 attempted. 
 
 * Amovici, Knowing One's Own Community (.\merican Unitarian Association). 
 ' The Independent, XLIX, 397; LIII (1900), 2175; Century Magazine, LXXXII, 
 854; Baptist Union, XIII, 784. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 I. GENERAL 
 
 American Church History Series (Christian Literature Co.) 
 Bacon, History of American Christianity (Christian Literature Co.), 1897 
 Dorchester, Christianity in the United States (New York), 1890 
 Ashley, Economic History (Longmans, Green, & Co.), 1898, 1905 
 Gibbins, Industry in England (Scribner), 4th ed., 1906 
 
 ■ , Industrial History of England (Methuen) 4th ed., 1895 
 
 , Economic and Industrial Progress (Bradley-Garretson Co.), 1903 
 
 Cunningham, English Industrial History (Macmillan), 1898 
 
 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution (Longmans, Green, & Co.), 1890 
 
 Clough, History of Edjication (London), 1904 
 
 Weber, Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century (Macmillan, for Columbia 
 
 University), 1899 
 James, "Growth of Cities," Annals of American Academy, Vol. XIII 
 Webb, History of Trade Unionism (Longmans, Green, & Co.), 2d ed., 1896 
 Ely, Labor Movement in America (New York), 1886 
 
 II. MISSIONARY AND DEVOTIONAL (eARLY) 
 
 SOURCES 
 
 Baptist Missionary Magazine, 1803 to date under various names (Boston) 
 Beecher, Lyman, Autobiography (New York), 187 1 
 Finney, Memoirs (New York), 1876 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 Vail, Morning Hour of American Baptist Missions (A.B.P.S.), 1907 
 
 III. MUSIC 
 
 Elson, History of American Music (Macmillan), 1904 
 
 Smith, Hull Organs and Organists (A. Brown & Sons, London), 1910 
 
 IV. TEMPERANCE 
 I . BRITISH 
 
 Dunlop, Extent and Remedy of National Intemperance (Glasgow), 1829 
 
 , Wine System of Great Britain (Glasgow), 1831 
 
 , Philosophy of Artificial and Compulsory Drinking Usages in Great 
 
 Britain and Ireland, 6th ed., 1839 
 Second Annual Report British and Foreign Temperance Society (London), 1833 
 Temperance Magazine and Review, March, 1832 — May, 1833 (London) 
 Doyle, Bishop, Open Letter, 1839; Carr, Rev. George, Reply, 1830 (Dublin) 
 Couling, History of Temperance Movement (London), 1862 
 
 117 
 
Il8 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 2. AMERICAN 
 
 Armstrong, Temperance Reformation (New York), 1850 
 
 Kimball, Blue Ribbon (Dodd, Mead & Co.), 1894 
 
 Fehlandt, Century of Drink Refor^n in the United States (Eaton & Mains), 1904 
 
 Finch, People v. the Liquor Traffic (Ripon, Wisconsin), 1906 
 
 Blair, Temperance Movement (Boston), 1888 
 
 Wlieeler, Methodism and the Temperance Reformation (Cincinnati), 1882 
 
 Daniels, The Temperance Reform (New York), 1878 
 
 Shaw, History of Temperance Reforms (Cincinnati), 1875 
 
 V. SENIOR CLASSES 
 
 I. BRITISH 
 
 Barnard, National Education in Europe (Hartford: Perkins), 2d ed., 1854 
 Roberts, Education in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: University Press), 
 
 1901 
 ^Monroe, Articles on John Anderson, Birbeck, Brougham, Hogg, Edward Baines, 
 
 Adult Schools, Mechanics' Institutions, Lyceum, Josiah Holbrook, 
 
 Cyclopedia of Education (MacmiUan) 
 IngUs, The Sabbath School (Sunday School Union), 1850 
 Watson, Senior Classes (idem), 1842 
 
 , Sunday School Union (idem) (n.d.) 
 
 , First Fifty Years of the Sunday School (idem), 1862 
 
 Report First World's Sunday School Convention, 1887 
 
 Groser, Hundred Years' Work for the Children (Sunday School Union), 1903 
 
 Rowntree and Binns, Adult School Movement (London: Heddley Bros.), 1903 
 
 2. AMERICAN 
 
 Narrative of the Revival of Religion in the State of New York during J8ig, 1820 
 
 (Glasgow Evangelical Corresponding Society), 1830 
 Todd, Sabbath School Teacher, 1837 
 Packard, Teacher Taught (Philadelphia), 1839 
 Alcott, The Sunday School as It Should Be, 1844 
 
 Tyng, Forty Years' Experience with the Sunday School (New York), 1866 
 Bullard, Fifty Years with the Sunday School (Boston: Lockwood), 1876 
 Pardee, Sabbath School Index, 1868 
 
 Brown, Sunday School Movements in America (ReveU), 1903 
 Cope, Evolution of the Sunday School (Pilgrim Press), 191 1 
 International Sunday School Association, literature and Reports 
 Lawrence, "What the Sunday School Does during the Week," Ladies' Home 
 
 Journal, April, 19 13 
 American Baptist Publication Society, Reports 
 Service (A.B.P.S.) I, 48 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 VI. Y.M.C.A. 
 
 119 
 
 Fifty Years' Work among Young Men in All Lands, 1894 
 Doggett, History of the Y.M.C.A., 1890 
 Williams, J. E. H., Sir George Williams (Armstrong), 1906 
 Moss, United States Christian Commission (Lippincott), 1868 
 Doggett, in North American (New York), CLXXII (1901), 882 
 Ross, in New England Magazine (Boston), N.S., Vol. XXIV (1901) 
 Moody, Life of Moody (Revell, 1900) 
 Boston Y.M.C.A., Reports 
 Boston Y.M.C.U., Reports 
 
 Pritchett, "Religious Leadership in College," The Independent (New York) 
 LXVI, 847 
 
 Roberts and Israel, "Rural Work of the Y.M.C.A.," Annals of the American 
 
 Academy (Philadelphia), XL, 140 
 World's Student Christian Federation Reports and literature 
 Warner, in The Independent (New York), LXV, 1550 
 Schaefer, "German Young Men's Christian Association," New Schaf-Herzog 
 
 Encyclopedia (Funk & Wagnalls), XII (1912), 479 
 "Die Jiinglingsvereine," Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon, IX (1908, 1034) 
 
 VII. THE MODERN YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 Bacon, Young People's Societies (New York), 1900 
 
 Cressey, Church and Young Men (Revell), 1903 
 
 "Young People's Societies," New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia (Funk &Wagnalls) 
 
 The Independent (New York), XLIV, 929 ff. 
 
 "Is It a Failure?" The Stattdard (Chicago), June, 1901 
 
 Carroll, Religious Forces of the United States, (Christian Literature Co.), 1893 
 
 Schwanbeck, Die Junglings- und Jungfrauen-Vereine (Gotha), 1890 
 
 Baird, American College Fraternities, 6th ed. (New York: Alcorn Co.), 1905 
 
 VIII. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE 
 
 Donaldson, Growth of Brain (Scribner), 1895 
 
 Hall, Adolescence (Appleton) 
 
 Starbuck, Psychology of Adolescence (Scribner), 1899 
 
 , "Child Mind and Child Religion," sue articles in Biblical World, (The 
 
 University of Chicago Press) , Vol. XXX 
 Coe, Spiritual Life (Revell) 1900 
 
 , Education in Religion and Morals (Revell), 1904 
 
 James, Psychology (Holt), 1890 
 
 , Varieties of Religious Experience (Longmans, Green, & Co.), 1902 
 
 Ames, Psychology of Religious Experience (Houghton, Mifflin Co.), 1910 
 Thomas, Sex and Society (The University of Chicago Press), 1907 
 
I20 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 King, Psychology of Child Development (The University of Chicago Press), 1907 
 
 Kirkpatrick, Fmtdamentals of Child Study (Macmillan), 1904 
 
 Tanner, The Child (Rand, McNally & Co.), 1904 
 
 MacDougall, Social Psychology (Methuen), 1909 
 
 Chamberlain, The Child (Scribner), 1902 
 
 Clouston, Hygiene of the Mind, 1900 
 
 Swift, Mind in the Making (Scribner), 1908 
 
 Bumham, "Study of Adolescence," Pedagogical Seminary (Worcester, Mass.), 
 
 I, 174 
 
 Various studies in social judgment, in Studies in Education, 1896, pp. 203 flf., 
 
 213 ff., 332 ff. 
 Chambers, "Evolution of Ideals," Pedagogical Seminary (Worcester, Mass.) 
 
 Vol. X 
 Kline, "Juvenile Ethics," ibid., 239 
 Tanner, "Children's Ideas of Honor," ibid., XIII, 509 ff. 
 Brockman, "Moral and Religious Life of Preparatory Students," ibid., IX, 
 
 Wyckoff, "Children's Ideals," ibid., VIII, 482 ff. 
 Street, "Study in Moral Education," ibid., V, 2 
 Lancaster, "Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence," ibid., V, 61 ff. 
 Child-Study Department, Chicago Public Schools, Reports on physical condi- 
 tion of juvenile offenders 
 
 IX. CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETY 
 
 SOURCES 
 
 Golden Rule and Christian Endeavor World (Boston); see also Proceedings of 
 Conventions 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 Clark, Children and the Church, 1882 
 
 , Children at the Church Doors, 1882 
 
 , Training the Church of the Future (Funk & Wagnalls), 1902 
 
 , Christian Endeavor in All Lands (Philadelphia), 1906 
 
 , in New England Magazine (Boston: Congregational Sunday School 
 
 Pub. Society), N.S., VI, 513; Century Magazine (New York), LXXXII, 
 
 858; North American (New York), CLXI, 287; The Independent (New 
 
 York), XLIV, 930; LIII, 264 
 Hill, "Leaders of the Christian Endeavor Movement," New England Magazine 
 
 (Boston), N.S., XII, 586 
 Woods, "A New Crusade Proposed for the Y.P.S.C.E.," Christian Union 
 
 (New York), November, 1892 
 Hyde, The Outlook (New York), LXVI, 889 (see also LXVII, 122) 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 121 
 
 Christian Endeavor Principles Stated and Commended from English Experience 
 
 (S.S.U.) 
 See also Golden Rule (Boston), February 5, 1891; Christian Endeavor World 
 
 (Boston), January 26, 191 1 
 
 X. OTHER ORGANIZATIONS 
 I. EPWORTH LEAGUE 
 
 Epworth Herald (Chicago), to date (1885 to 189 1, Our Youth) 
 Handbook of Epworth League (Chicago) , (annual) 
 Berry, The Independent (New York), XLIV, 932 
 Price, in The Chautauquan (Meadville, Pa.), XIII, 187 
 
 Buckley, History of the Methodists of the United States (Christian Literature 
 Co.), 1896 
 
 2. BAPTIST YOUNG PEOPLE'S UNION OF AMERICA 
 
 The Loyalist; Young People at Work; Young People's Union; Baptist Union; 
 
 Service 1890 to date (A.B.P.S.) 
 Proceedings of the (usually) Annual Conventions (A.B.P.S.) 
 Newman, History of Baptists (Christian Literature Co.) 
 
 3, BROTHERHOOD OF ST. ANDREW 
 
 St. Andrew's Cross (Philadelphia), (monthly) 
 
 Hough teling, in Christianity Practically Applied, 1893 
 
 Carleton, in Service (A.B.P.S.), Ill, 382 
 
 Ruleson, in The Independent (New York), XLIV, 933 
 
 Tiffany, History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, 1895 
 
 (Christian Literature Co.) 
 Carpenter, "Religious Brotherhoods," Contemporary Review (London), LVII 
 
 (1889), 29 
 
 4. BROTHERHOOD OF ANDREW AND PHILIP 
 
 Brotherhood Star (Philadelphia) , (monthly) 
 Manual of Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip (New York), n.d. 
 Taylor, Graham, in Christianity Practically Applied, 1893 
 Epworth Herald (Chicago), XIII, 819; XX, 84 
 
 5. LUTHER LEAGUE OF AMERICA 
 
 The Independent (New York), November 14, 1895 
 
 Jacobs, History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States (Christian 
 Literature Co.), 1893 
 
 6. YOUNG people's CHRISTIAN UNION OF THE UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH 
 
 Landis, in The Independent (New York), XLIX, 401 
 
 Berger, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Christian 
 Literature Co.), 1894 
 
122 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT 
 
 7. KEYSTONE LEAGUE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 
 
 Christian Endeavor World (Boston), XXV, 621 
 
 8. YOUNG people's CHRISTIAN UNION OF THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH 
 
 Onward (Boston) 
 
 Epworth Herald (Chicago), IX, 850 
 
 Golden Rule (Boston), VI, 76; VII, 892 
 
 Eddy, History of Universalism (Christian Literature Co.), 1894 
 
 9. STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 
 
 The Intercollegian (New York) 
 
 INIott, Evangelization of the World in This Generation (S.V.M.) 
 Dutton, in Baptist Union (A.B.P.S.), XII, 616 ff., 644 ff., 664 ff., 692 ff. 
 Proceedings, Baptist Union Convention (A.P.B.S.), 1900, pp. 64 flf. 
 Speer, in The hidependent (New York), XLIV, 932 
 Reports and other literature of World's Student Christian Federation 
 Baptist Union (A.B.P.S.), VIII, 147; Service (A.B.P.S.), II, 269; III, 578; 
 VI, 546; Epworth Herald (Chicago), IX, 814; XVI, 1096 
 
 10. JEWISH 
 
 Year Books of Central Conference of American Rabbis, especially Reports of 
 committees on Religious Work in Universities, Religious Schools, and 
 Social and Religious Union (Blochj 
 
 American Jewish Year Book (Bloch) 
 

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