Book * JLs& 
 Copyright^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
J.JZ&-, 
 
 s7^£sS 
 
Addresses 
 
 on 
 
 Christian Endeavor Topics 
 
 ♦ ♦ ♦ by ♦ ♦ ♦ 
 
 ) 
 
 J^Vr BURNETT, 
 
 Pastor First Christian Church, 
 
 Muncie, Indiana* 
 
 Author of "The Origin and Principles of the Christ- 
 ians r "The American Christian Convent ion/' 
 
 "FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH » 
 The World for Christ, and Christ for the World. 
 
3s. 
 
 (LIBRARY Of CONGRESS I 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 NOV 2 1904 
 
 Copyrisnt £ntry 
 EgsTgt X&, No: 
 7 COPY B. 
 
 COPYRIGHTED 1904. 
 
 Christian Publishing Association, 
 Dayton, Ohio. 
 
rt 
 
 3! 
 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 The Inlook, the Uplook and the Outlook 7 
 
 The Young People's Society of Christian En- 
 deavor a National Safeguard 31 
 
 The Winning Society 51 
 
 The Eight Endeavorer 71 
 
 The Good Looking Endeavorer. 91 
 
 The Consecrated Endeavorer Ill 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The addresses contained in this little volume, 
 were originally prepared without any thought of 
 their publication, and were given at several annual 
 Conferences and Christian Endeavor Conventions, 
 and in a series to my congregation in the First 
 Christian Church, Muncie, Indiana, where they were 
 kindly received and commended, and it is partly 
 at the suggestion of some who heard them, and 
 partly with the hope that they may stimulate the 
 young life of the church to a deeper consecration, 
 and a wider usefulness in the cause of the Master, 
 that they have been prepared for publication, and 
 given to the public in this form. 
 
 They are also given with the sincere hope, that 
 one more capable to instruct and stimulate the 
 active young membership of our churches, may soon 
 follow with wiser and better counsels. 
 
 It will doubtless seem to many that having said 
 what I have, that I should have gone farther and 
 said something upon the many other points of this 
 great work, which would have been done, but for the 
 reason that I felt that I had neither time, nor talent, 
 for such a task. 
 
 There has been no effort to appear scholarly, or 
 profound, in these addresses, but to say plain truths, 
 in a plain way, and to point out what seemed to me, 
 to be the true sphere of Christian Endeavor, to cry 
 out against sin, and to lift my voice in warning 
 where I saw dangers. If to any degree this has been 
 
6 
 
 done, I shall feel amply repaid, and shall have ac- 
 complished the purpose for which I wrote. 
 
 Of the defects of these addresses, no one can 
 be more conscious than he who wrote them, but with 
 a fervent prayer than God may bless them to His 
 own glory, and the good of the many hundreds of 
 young people to whose prayers and faithful service 
 all of us owe much for the success of our efforts, 
 this little volume is now sent upon its mission. 
 
 jjzs. 
 
 <*--? s7~£<C<f 
 
 
 Muncie, Indiana, May 21, 1904, 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 When we deal with the Young People's Society 
 of Christian Endeavor we deal with the mightiest 
 problem of the church and the greatest force for 
 good in modern times. What the church of the 
 future is to be, and do, is determined by what the 
 church is and does today. 
 
 All action has reference to the future, and 
 possesses and exerts a moulding and determining 
 influence. We are what we are, and do what we do, 
 because of what others were and did. The present is 
 the product of the past, and the future will be the 
 product of the present. The power and activities 
 of the future church are being wrought out in the 
 character of the present. I represent in my life 
 the sum total of all the influences which have 
 touched me throughout all the past. We cannot 
 escape the past, nor can the future escape the 
 present. Mr Beecher was fond of saying : "You 
 think that one hour buries another; but it is not 
 so. You think that you have parted forever from 
 the things which have passed by you. No, you have 
 not. There is much in your life that you think has 
 gone which you never shall part from. It has 
 stepped behind you ; and there it waits. That which 
 vou have done will be with vou to-morrow. When 
 the mason carries up the wall, the course of brick 
 which he laid yesterday is the foundation on which 
 he is laying another course today. And all that you 
 do to-day on the structure which you are building 
 
8 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 will remain as a basis for that which you do to- 
 morrow." 
 
 We are the product of the past, the sum total 
 of all that has gone before. In our character is 
 represented the thought, the life, the love, the hate, 
 the tears, the prayers, the defeats, the victories, the 
 hopes and the associations of the past, and we are 
 breathing our lives into the life of the future with 
 and unvarying and unceasing force. 
 
 The young life of to-day will represent us to- 
 morrow with an intensified activity and with all the 
 peculiar shades and particular features of our lives. 
 Every life is very largely a duplicate of some other 
 life. In the patriot of today is something of the 
 Washington of 1776; in the dramatist of to-day is 
 represented the Shakespeare of the long ago; in 
 the poet of to-day is found the Milton, the Long- 
 fellow and the Whittier of the days gone by, and 
 in the future life and work of the church will be 
 found the life and character of the present. No 
 action ends with itself. As Paul puts it, "No man 
 liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself." An 
 action is a link in the endless chain of human events, 
 and its circle embraces the earth and includes all 
 time; and the future will most certainly contain 
 every thought and action of the present. 
 
 THE INLOOK. 
 
 We want to take a square and honest look at 
 ourselves as Christian Endeavorers, and in a most 
 impartial way scrutinize this great movement, and 
 in doing so we shall find, that, 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 9 
 
 It was the result of a long felt want. 
 
 We misunderstand and misinterpret events. We 
 do not study causes and see how a way off in the 
 future years, results may be reached from an action 
 of to-day, nor how a response to a long felt want 
 may be delayed. 
 
 The story of the Christian Endeavor movement 
 has long been a familiar one, and yet it never can 
 become common place, for the reason that it has 
 such romantic features and far reaching influences. 
 
 The society originated in a revival, which, in the 
 winter of 1881, was being held in Williston Church 
 Portland, Maine. There had been for some years 
 much earnest work in that church with the young 
 people. Rev. Francis E. Clark, the pastor, had been 
 conducting a large pastor's class of boys and girls, 
 whose members were bound to their work by a 
 pledge very similar to the present Christian En- 
 deavor pledge. A girls' missionary band, the Miz- 
 pah Circle, had been conducted by the earnest wife 
 of the pastor; and so, when it seemed necessary to 
 introduce new methods in order to set to work the 
 enthusiastic young converts made by the revival, 
 the soil was all ready for the planting. 
 
 On the evening of February 2, 1881, the first 
 Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor was 
 formed in the pastor's study, with essentially the 
 present constitution, pledge, and methods of work. 
 The first signer was Mr. W. H. Pennell. 
 
 Dr. Clark was led to publish accounts of the 
 young people's work of his church in the Congrega- 
 tionalits and Sunday School Times during the sum- 
 
10 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 mer of 1881, which created widespread interest in 
 the work. 
 
 In October, 1881, the second society was formed 
 at Newburyport, Massachusetts. Before the end of 
 the year four more societies were formed, in Rhode 
 Island (in a Christian church), in Maine, Vermont, 
 and Ohio. 
 
 In March, 1884, the first Junior society was or- 
 ganized at Tabor, Iowa. 
 
 The one supremely important question with Dr. 
 Clark, was, what to do with the young people of his 
 congregation. How shall they be trained for ser- 
 vice? How shall they be developed into strong, 
 active men and women? How shall this young life 
 so bouyant, so vigorous, so hopeful be utilized for 
 God's cause? These and many similar ones, were 
 questions that stood up to be heard and would not 
 be content without an answer. The Rev. Dr. Clark 
 was deeply conscious of his responsibility and was 
 well aware of the great possibilities wrapped up in 
 the character of that strong young life and knew 
 that if only it could be properly developed and 
 directed it would form a live moving power for good 
 in his local church, and would ultimately become 
 a vital energy in the "World-wide Evangelization." 
 
 But the question of what to do with the young 
 life of the church did not originate with Dr. Clark. 
 It was as old as the church itself. It had been 
 asked by each succeeding generation since the world 
 began. Ministers, parents, teachers and guardians 
 had again and again repeated the inquiry and sought 
 to solve the problem. For many years preceding 
 the organization of the Christian Endeavor Society 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 11 
 
 no one question had been more prominent in the 
 church, than "How shall we bring our boys and 
 girls to Christ and train them for His service?" 
 It is not an exaggeration to say that this question 
 is above all others, even now, agitating the mind 
 of the church. Scarcely is there a public gathering 
 of the churches of any denomination but this ques- 
 tion forces itself to the front in some form, and it 
 is one of the healthiest and most encouraging facts 
 of the times that pastors and churches are willing 
 to devote so much patient thought to the solution of 
 the problem. That question of the centuries was to 
 a very great degree correctly answered in the brain 
 and plans of the Rev. Dr. Clark when he organized 
 the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. 
 The church had long needed and earnestly desired 
 the utilization of the vigorous young brain and 
 heart of its membership, and as a result of that want 
 we have the Young People's Society of Christian En- 
 deavor, the like of which was not known before and 
 for usefulness will not be excelled in all the years 
 to come. 
 
 One fact standing out most prominently and 
 well worthy of recognition, is, that the Society of 
 Christian Endeavor is of the church and for the 
 church. Experience has proven that so far from 
 alienating the young people from the church it has 
 brought many more of them into the regular prayer 
 meetings, has made them more active in these meet- 
 ings and has led them to bring back and center their 
 activities in channels of church work, instead of 
 dissapating them in organizations outside the 
 church. 
 
12 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK . . . 
 
 The Young People's Society of Christian En- 
 deavor is no patent process for turning out young 
 Christians. It is no labor saving device to save the 
 pastor from work and the church from responsi- 
 bility; but when rightly managed will prove in 
 every case an indispensible right hand to the pastor 
 and church in doing their work for Christ. 
 
 It was in response to the demand of the future. 
 
 The past had been saying, What can we 
 do with the young people? The future sent back 
 the cry, "What can we do without them ?" Out from 
 the ages yet unborn, from the generations yet to be, 
 came back the real question, "What can you do 
 with the young life of the church?" The young life 
 of the church must be organized and utilized, not 
 for its own sake, but for Christ's sake, and for 
 what it is capable of doing for the church. The 
 young life of the church has the brightest eyes with 
 which to see, the clearest brain with which to com- 
 prehend, the purest heart with which to feel, the 
 sweetest voice with which to sing, the brightest 
 hopes with which to inspire, the strongest faith 
 with which to trust, the acutest ear with which to 
 hear, the readiest feet with which to run, the most 
 impressionable soul on which to write, the most 
 winsome ways with which to attract, the strongest 
 life with which to serve, why not harness it up and 
 have it do service for God and His cause? 
 
 I am old enough to remember the old time 
 ways. Our meeting houses had "Amen Corners" 
 in which sat the supposedly pious people of the 
 church, who with grave demeanor and solemn faces 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 13 
 
 were expected to frown upon everything they 
 deemed impious. In one of the churches of my 
 early ministry were the well known and the time 
 honored "Amen Corners." The young people of the 
 church drove the brethren out of their corner and 
 converted the space into a choir platform, but the 
 good old sisters were not so easily influenced and 
 held their ground and stayed in their accustomed 
 places, and to show their disapproval of such con- 
 duct some of the young ladies of the church named 
 the corner the "dried fruit row." Far be it for me 
 to speak lightly of those dear old souls who, in the 
 days gone by, bore the burdens of the church and did 
 their work to the glory of God equally well, if not 
 better than we of to-day are doing ours. But with 
 all the deep piety and fervent spirit of that age, 
 they did not conceive the tremendous power of the 
 young life of the church and made no effort whatever 
 to use it for good. In the old time congregation 
 the preacher would be as grave as a sign post, and 
 the young people would congregate in the rear of 
 the building and often hold high carnival with 
 frivolity while the preacher would scold, and fret 
 and fail. In these rear seats would be the smart 
 young man and the giggling girl, and if she had a 
 beau, she giggled twice, and if it was her first beau, 
 she outdid the famous Betsy Short of the Hoosier 
 Schoolmaster at giggling. It did not enter the 
 mind of the church at that time to organize that 
 healthy, hopeful, vigorous young life into service 
 for the Master. The church simply wanted it to 
 behave itself, and I have known men to be appointed 
 by the preacher and charged with the duty of "keep- 
 
14 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 ing order during service." It was never thought, 
 that, that mighty force could be organized and 
 wheeled into line for God's cause. It is true that 
 all recognized the necessity of doing something and 
 the one question asked by preachers, deacons, Sun- 
 day-school Superintendents, parents, pastors, and 
 teachers, was, What can we do? To these earnest 
 desires of the people of the past, came the demand 
 of the future, which when united gave us the 
 mightiest movement in church work of all the cen- 
 turies. The possibilities of this organization with 
 regard to the young manhood and womanhood of the 
 church and the nation, the home and our social in- 
 stitutions, are greater than we have realized. The 
 intimations of these possibilities raise before the 
 mind a splendid vision of the future. 
 
 Dean Stanley, when in this country, said that 
 when he first saw the cataract at Niagara — which 
 was at midnight in the light of a full moon — he saw 
 an emblem of our noisy, restless, distracting Ameri- 
 can life. But as he gazed, there rose into the moon- 
 lit sky a cloud of silvery spray twice as high as the 
 falls — silent, majectic, unmovable. "In that silver 
 column," he says, "I saw an image of the future of 
 American destiny, that should emerge from the 
 distractions of the present. Such a vision comes up 
 to us in view of the possibilities of the young peo- 
 ple's movement. When the faults, which* we per- 
 ceive and own are corrected, and the powers for 
 good that are in our hands are better realized, then 
 a majestic, supernal glory shall appear in the work 
 of the Young People's Society of Christian En- 
 deavor. 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 15 
 THE UPLOOK. 
 
 There is an uplook to this society which to me 
 is indeed gratifying and encouraging. The uplook re- 
 sults from both the internal and external conditions. 
 The flower looks up into the face of the sun and 
 seems to say "Good Morning" and the sun smiles 
 back upon the flower with radiant beams and says 
 "Come this way." There is something in the flower 
 that pushes it out into bloom, and there is something 
 ontside the flower that draws it out into perfect 
 loveliness and beauty. The life on the inside and the 
 sun on the outside pushes and pulls in perfect har- 
 mony with each other for the good of the flower. 
 Jesus said "And I, if I be lifted up will draw all 
 men unto me." Jesus Christ when lifted up is the 
 drawing power outside the society. The Holy Ghost 
 within the life of each individual member pushes 
 toward the exalted Christ, so that, that which is 
 without and that which is within work together 
 in giving an up-look and an up-lift to the whole 
 organization. 
 
 I wish to name a few things which, in my judg- 
 ment, gives the society a decided up look; and first 
 of all, and perhaps the most important of all, I 
 mention, 
 
 The Pledge. Some people are afraid of a prom- 
 ise; so much afraid that they won't even promise 
 to be good ; they won't promise to pay the preacher ; 
 they won't promise to take up a collection; they 
 even hesitate to promise themselves in marriage, 
 or to go to heaven w T hen they die. But if I read 
 my Bible correctly, the great and good men whose 
 
16 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 life history we find therein recorded, were not 
 afraid of obligating themselves to the Lord and to 
 one another by solemn vows. Abraham, Isaac, 
 Jacob, Moses, David, Daniel and many others, put 
 themselves under vows and were faithful in keep- 
 ing them. By these vows they were held to the 
 higher life and better way. The Young People of 
 the Christian Endeavor Society are not afraid of 
 making promises, nor are they slack in keeping 
 them. Here is what each member solemnly prom- 
 ises to do: 
 
 "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 life, to pray, and to read the Bible every 
 day, and to support my own church in every way, 
 especially by attending all her regular and mid- 
 week services, unless prevented by some reason 
 which I can conscientiously give to my Saviour, 
 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 possi- 
 ble send at least a verse of scripture to be read in 
 response to my name at the roll-call." 
 
 The advantages of this definite and specific 
 pledge are many and obvious. It lays an obligation 
 upon every young Christian who joins the society 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 17 
 
 which he himself willingly agrees to perform for 
 Christ's sake. It does not waste its force in glitter- 
 ing generalities. 
 
 Once each week the hour comes which he has 
 promised to set apart for this service. He cannot 
 lightly neglect this duty without breaking a sol- 
 emn promise — a promise which he has made to his 
 companions, and which they in turn have made to 
 him in joining the society. Such a pledge, experi- 
 ence has proved, is solemnly adhered to. Scores of 
 thousands of young people, whose ranks are being 
 swelled every month by thousands of others, have 
 taken this pledge, and are keeping it loyally. 
 
 The young person who takes this pledge, how- 
 ever, does not promise, and is not understood to 
 promise, to make a speech in every prayer-meeting, 
 or to offer a long prayer in every service. There is 
 a great difference to be observed between a speech 
 and a proper participation in the meeting. A pro- 
 fessional prayer-meeting speech-maker, is an abom- 
 ination. He who always takes a simple, appro- 
 priate part is a delight and constant refreshment. 
 
 The Meetings. Once a week the society meets 
 for worship. Here the Bible is read, prayers are 
 offered, and songs are sung, and every heart is filled 
 with love, and every life looks up to God. In many 
 churches, even now, and there were many more 
 before they felt the influence of the Christian En- 
 deavorer, in which the prayer-meetings had given 
 place to a weekly lecture or a sort of a machine 
 made worship. The pastor gives a more or less 
 elaborate address of fifteen or twenty minutes in 
 length, the aged deacons offer prayer, the long 
 
18 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 pauses are skillfully bridged, so far as possible, 
 with sacred song, and the small audience disperses 
 decorously, with the consolation that if they haven't 
 had a very interesting or lively meeting, yet, at 
 least, things have been done "decently and in 
 order." Such a spiritless, nerveless service is not 
 likely to occur in a church where there is a good 
 active Endeavor society. It may be truly said that 
 the chief feature of the organization is the prayer 
 meeting. To be sure much other work is to be 
 done; but after all from the weekly prayer meeting 
 emanates the most of the influences which are de- 
 signed for the nurture of the young Christian, and 
 the society that does not make the weekly prayer- 
 meeting of paramount importance has no right to 
 the name Christian Endeavor. From the very first 
 the prayer meeting has been the main feature of the 
 organization and it is gratifying to know that the 
 original aim has never been forgotten in all the 
 subsequent growth and development of the society. 
 Organization. As we know, we are living in an 
 age of organization. I heard not long ago of an 
 Irishman, who said, he saw on one corner of a square 
 in New York City a school house, and said of it, 
 "that is organized education/' on another corner of 
 the same square he saw a church and called that 
 "organized salvation," on the third corner he saw 
 a council chamber and said "that is organized leg- 
 islation" and on the fourth corner he saw a saloon 
 and called it "organized damnation." The Irish- 
 man was right, especially in his last definition. 
 Now the Young People's Society of Christian En- 
 deavor comes with a perfect organization. It has 
 
THE IN LOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 19 
 
 organized salvation, and organized education, and 
 organized legislation, and with a mighty hand 
 hurls them against organized damnation, and has 
 been doing it most successfully for the past twenty- 
 three years. The perfection of its organization is 
 found in the plan and purpose of its committees. 
 The church did not know what flowers were for 
 until the Christian Endeavor Society appointed a 
 flower committee. Now the flowers do double ser- 
 vice, they adorn our pulpits at the Sunday service, 
 and shed their fragrance in the sick room of some 
 member or friend thereafter until they wither 
 and die. The prayer-meeting committee means good 
 leaders for the prayer meeting, and a good com- 
 mittee is a great help to the meetings. To be sure 
 a meeting conducted wholly by the young and inex- 
 perienced of the church may lack some of the good 
 habits of the older people and develop some crudi 
 ties and oddities which to the older and more sedate 
 might seem unholy, but such conformities as the 
 older ones might enjoy is often gained at the expense 
 of a life and power which can never profitably be ex- 
 changed for regulations. A forest of living trees, 
 even if some of the trees do lack symmetry and are 
 overgrown with tangled creepers, is vastly better 
 than a forrest of dead and sapless trunks. 
 
 The Look-Out Committee means a careful and 
 kindly looking after the absent members, and while 
 perhaps there is no part of the work more sadly 
 neglected than this, it is yet invaluable to the society. 
 When I was yet quite young I gave my name to the 
 church, and had I been looked after as much as I 
 was looked at, I am sure I should have been a better 
 
20 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 man and a more efficient minister. Under the ar- 
 rangement of the society, if any attend who do not 
 habitually participate in the meeting or absent 
 themselves without excuse, the Look-Out Committee 
 is expected to remind them of their duty and in an 
 affectionate way urge them to attendance and par- 
 ticipation. But is not hard feelings engendered by 
 such "looking-out ?" it may be asked. By no means 
 is hard feelings a necessary result of such service. 
 The Committee is not engaged in gratuitious es- 
 pionage "spotting" unfaithful ones here and there. 
 The committee was elected for this purpose and by 
 the very ones who are thus "looked out" for, and as 
 a committee they would be untrue to their duty if 
 they did not do this very thing, and so far as experi- 
 ence has spoken, nothing but good results have come 
 from the efforts of a committee thus constituted and 
 sent out. The Sunday School Committee means a 
 larger attendance at Sunday-school, and the Mis- 
 sionary Committee means the instillment of mis- 
 sionary sentiments, the deepening and quickening of 
 the missionary spirit, and the carrying out of plans 
 which mean money and missionaries for the home 
 and foreign fields. Our own Christian Endeavor 
 societies of New England have been supporting a 
 missionary in Japan for the past several years. 
 
 From a Short History of Christian Endeavor 
 Movement by Amos B. Wells, I quote the following : 
 
 "It has penetrated into the icy north; to the 
 mission stations of Alaska. It has grown rapidly 
 in Old Mexico, West India Islands. Central and 
 South America, It is found in the South Sea Islands, 
 New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Burmah, 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND 1HE OUTLOOK 21 
 
 India, Persia, and Africa. Even Madagascar and 
 inhospitable Turkey afford it a sheltering nook. 
 Also, nearly if not quite every European country 
 (except Czar-cursed Russia) has one or more En- 
 deavor societies." 
 
 "Also, like a much-advertised soap, 'it floats.' 
 There are at present ninety -two floating societies on 
 men-of-war, in navy yards, etc. The first floating 
 society was organized on the United States revenue 
 steamer Dexter, in April, 1890." 
 
 The Social Committee has a definite field and 
 a specific work and as a rule its work is well done. 
 We have a social side to our nature which must not 
 be neglected and to this especial work the Social 
 Committee gives attention. There are no fads nor 
 foolishness to be foisted upon the people, but there 
 is one and only one purpose in all the social life of 
 the society, and that is to lead the soul to Christ 
 and develop it into his life and character. Social to 
 Save, may be put down as the legitimate object of 
 all the social life of the society. 
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 Does this organization furnish any out look for 
 the church of the future? Has it any promise of 
 power and life for the days to come? These and 
 similar questions have often been asked by those 
 who were interested in the church, but who were not 
 thoroughly in touch with the young and growing 
 members. This organized effort of the young people 
 promised in the very beginning a new era in church 
 work, and it has faithfully kept its promise and 
 
22 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 fully met every obligation. It furnishes an outlook 
 for the pastor and older members of the church. 
 Without appearing to spy them out or watch them, 
 the wise pastor can, while attending the weekly 
 prayer meeting, as every pastor ought to do, learn 
 something of the spiritual conditions of every young 
 member of his church. 
 
 But after all, the best argument is what is 
 known as the "fruit argument." Not only have these 
 societies increased in numbers in a way that is 
 phenominal, but most encouraging reports of re- 
 newed earnestness arid interest in spiritual matters 
 among the young people, thus organized, come from 
 all parts of the country. Hundreds of revivals have 
 been traced directly to these societies and very 
 largely the accessions to the church may be traced 
 to the efforts of the Young People's Society of Chris- 
 tian Endeavor. 
 
 There are four things which this society 
 promises to the local church: (1) Dignity. Some 
 of us are wonderfully afraid of Christian dignity. 
 We cannot think it consistent with a Christian ex- 
 perience and service to be dignified, and we repeat 
 the old, meaningless platitude, "the church is dying 
 of respectability," and with it ease our conscience. 
 The word dignity primarily means to make worthy, 
 and in this sense the Young People's Society of 
 Christian Endeavor gives dignity to the church. It 
 makes it worthy of a place in the community and 
 the confidence of the people. I would not be unjust 
 in my criticism, nor unkind in my spirit toward the 
 churches, that have not the blessing and advantages 
 of the Christian Endeavor Society, but am bold in 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 23 
 
 saying that some churches really lack worthiness, 
 and the lack of worthiness results from their unwil- 
 lingness to utilize the power and life of the young 
 people and in my humble judgment the time will 
 come when the church without an organization for 
 its young people will be classed among the un- 
 worthy institutions of the land. 
 
 (2) Material Help. The expenses of the 
 church are of necessity constantly increasing and 
 must be promptly met. The Society of Christian 
 Endeavor has never hesitated, so far as known to 
 me, in bearing its full share of the financial burdens. 
 At Muncie, Indiana, where I am now (February, 
 1904) pastor, the society is young in years and small 
 in membership, but besides paying $2.50 a month 
 to the incidental expenses of the church, $.50 a 
 month to the publishing fund of the church, and 
 keeping up all the demands upon it for the general 
 cause, subscribed and paid to the Building Fund of 
 the new church $50, put in a beautiful window, and 
 on the day of dedication subscribed $300.00 more to 
 the Building Fund, every dollar of which will be 
 promptly paid according to agreement. 
 
 (3) Enlarged Membership. It is a fact beyond 
 controversy that the increase in church membership 
 comes from the young people. If we do not get 
 them while they are young, we do not get them at all. 
 Conversions after forty years of age are very rare; 
 like the scattered grapes on the remotest branches 
 after the vintage is over, there is only one here and 
 there. Doctor Thomas said, "I have sometimes seen 
 an old, withered oak standing with its stiff and 
 leafless branches on the slopes of a hill, though the 
 
24 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 same refreshing rains and genial sunshine fell on it 
 as on its thriving neighbors which were green with 
 renewed youth and rich in flowing foliage: it grew 
 not, it gave no signs of life, it was too far gone for 
 genial nature to assist. The old blanched sapless 
 oak is an emblem of the aged sinner." 
 
 I have been in the ministry more than a quarter 
 of a century and I here publicly state that I do not 
 now call to mind as many as three persons over fifty 
 years of age whom I have ever heard ask the solemn 
 and infinitely momentous question, " What , shall I 
 do to be saved?" When we have learned as minis- 
 ters and churches that our increase in membership 
 must of necessity come from the young people, we 
 shall have learned the infinite importance of win- 
 ning them from sin to God in the morning of life. 
 
 (4) Inspiration. One of the great needs of 
 the church is inspiration. Human inspiration as 
 well as Divine is greatly needed in our church work. 
 When I step out on Sunday morning from my room 
 before my audience, many dear old faces radiant 
 with love and expressive of hope, greet me with 
 a kindly welcome, the like of which cannot come 
 from any other source, and I see in their counten- 
 ances the glow of an early victory, the promise of a 
 triumphant entrance into the Eternal Presence, and 
 there comes to my heart an inspiration deep and 
 strong. But the long weary day of these dear old 
 souls is almost ended. The sun of their life is 
 already setting, and if there comes not after them 
 a mighty troop to battle for the right our defeat is 
 a foregone conclusion, and our history must close 
 with a record of failure. An old Roman senator 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 25 
 
 once stood upon a balcony while the citizens of 
 Rome paraded her streets. At the head of the grand 
 procession were the veterans of the army, and when 
 the old senator looked down upon them he lifted 
 his hands and cried, "What will become of my 
 country when they have passed away?" Next in 
 procession came the flower of the Roman army, men 
 of sterling worth, and when the old senator looked 
 down upon them he lifted his hands again and 
 cried, "What will become of my country when these 
 have passed away?" Next in procession came the 
 flower of the Roman army, men of sterling worth, 
 and when the old senator looked down upon them 
 he lifted his hands again and cried, "What 
 will become of my country when these have 
 passed away?" Next, came the citizens of 
 Rome and at last a great company of children with 
 happy voices and smiling faces, and when the old 
 senator looked down upon them he lifted up his 
 hands and cried, "My country's safe! My country's 
 safe!!" As I stand on the platform of my church 
 and see passing down the valley into the shades of 
 the gathering gloom the old heroes and heroines of 
 the by gone days, I ask "What will become of my 
 church when these are gone?" but when I hear the 
 happy voices and see the smiling faces of the 
 promising young people and look down upon lives 
 filled with joy and sunshine, I lift my hands and 
 shout, "My church is safe, My church is safe !" 
 
 As to the out look for the church in general we 
 may mention its attitude toward the great questions 
 of the day, the solution of which must be by the men 
 and women of the future. 
 
26 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 (1) The Temperance Question. With the 
 great issue of temperance we must deal. From its 
 consideration and settlement there is no escape. 
 Lincoln said, "this nation could not exist one half 
 free and the other half slave." With equal truth- 
 fulness, it may be said, that this nation cannot exist 
 one half drunk and the other half sober. The church 
 of the present is a little afraid to tackle this great 
 question. At least it touches it quite gingerly and 
 with evident care, lest its individual members might 
 suffer from political or commercial embarassment. 
 
 We know that the political life of the world is 
 corrupt; voters are bribed, election schemes have 
 degenerated into frauds and the polls are the merest 
 shams. There has been so little change in political 
 tricks and tricksters in years past, that like a pool 
 long quiet, stagnation and impurity has been the 
 result. Temperance should be as much a part of 
 the churches' active Christian work as any other one 
 thing included in its curriculum of labor for souls. 
 But we know it is not. Creed, dogma, and denomina- 
 tional peculiarities have an upper seat in the syna- 
 gogue of our hearts. But with the young life of the 
 church, it is not so. It is not afraid to pass resolu- 
 tions in conventions, to utter its voice, clear, strong 
 and loud, in favor of temperance, decency, and good 
 government, and when this great question which has 
 so long agitated the mind and heart of the church 
 shall have been settled, and the liquor traffic which 
 has so long crushed, stabbed and ruined the home 
 and heart of this country, shall be forever destroyed, 
 to the now young manhood and womanhood of the 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 27 
 
 church the honor of its settlement and the glory of 
 its ruin, shall be given. 
 
 (2) Christian Union. We all desire it. We 
 all long for it, and pray that it may come, and yet 
 many of us are doing the things that most of all 
 retard its coming. Those of us whose hair is 
 mixed with gray, know something of the dissensions 
 in the church life of the past. We know something 
 of that time when on Sunday morning the theo- 
 logical batteries would be opened from every pulpit 
 of the land and the ecclesiastical pop guns would 
 bang and batter through all the morning hour. 
 Trinity, total depravity, vicarious atonement, orig- 
 inal sin, baptism and similar subjects were the 
 powerful missiles that would be hurled by the theo- 
 logical combatants into the faces (they seldom went 
 deeper) of their patient (?) hearers. My old Sun- 
 day-school teacher could drive from the field and 
 put to route, the doctrinal hosts that might be 
 encamped against him, in the shortest imaginable 
 time, and then with an air of "didn't I do it quick" 
 he would smile down upon us poor suffering boys 
 who heartily wished that the house might fall down, 
 and yet he was our hero, and we loved him. The 
 question of Union is not discussed by the Young 
 People's Society of Christian Endeavor, but is lived, 
 and the great questions that caused dissension and 
 division in the years gone by are wholly unknown 
 to the young heart and life of the church, and when 
 the redeemed of earth shall join the hosts of the 
 sky in singing, 
 
28 THE IN LOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 
 "Blest be the tie that binds 
 Our hearts in Christian love, 
 The fellowship of kindred minds 
 Is like to that above/' 
 
 and the angels shall come again to earth and whis- 
 per to every soul "Glory to God in the highest, and 
 on earth peace good will to men" to the Young 
 People's Society of Christian Endeavor that did not 
 argue nor defend, plan nor devise for union, but 
 simply lived it, shall the honor and glory be given. 
 (3) Capital and Labor. There is no lack of 
 harmony between capital and labor. There never 
 has been, and there never can be, but there is ap- 
 parently an uncompromising war between the capi- 
 talist and the laborer. This war cannot be settled 
 by political methods, nor by arbitration, nor by liti- 
 gation, nor by agitation, nor by any other means of 
 human origin. Nothing but the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ can settle the question of labor and capital 
 and harmonize into loving fellowship the capitalist 
 and the laborer, and ultimately the church will be 
 called upon to deal with this vast and far-reaching 
 problem. It will be at a time when those who have 
 been trained and drilled in our Young People's So- 
 ciety of Christian Endeavor shall be in charge of the 
 affairs of the church and state, when in the fulness 
 of time, and the ripeness of thought and character, 
 those having the question in hand will quickly find 
 the solution of the problem, and will promptly and 
 satisfactorily settle all differences. One of the fun- 
 damental elements of the society, and one prominent 
 purpose for which it lives, is the recognition of 
 
THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 29 
 
 Christianity and good citizenship as one and insep- 
 arable. The patriot loses nothing by being a Chris- 
 tian, and the Christian loses nothing by being a 
 patriot, and when we shall recognize that selfish- 
 ness cannot exist in the heart of him who would be 
 either Christian or patriot, we shall at once solve 
 the problem of labor and capital and then the crown 
 shall without question rest upon the brow of the 
 men and women who now compose our YOUNG 
 PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN EN- 
 DEAVOR, 
 
THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN EN- 
 DEAVOR A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD. 
 
 This a great country, and this a great age, 
 and there never was a greater hour in the history 
 of this great country than the present one. It was 
 predicted in the beginning of our existence that we 
 could not live, and the English, the Indian, the 
 Devil, and the Dutch did all they could to have the 
 prophecy come true. We have whipped the English, 
 we have well nigh exterminated the Indian, we have 
 domesticated the Dutch and popularized the Devil, 
 and I suppose that now we are comparatively safe, 
 with a fair prospect of continuance. An old lady 
 standing at the casket of her first born who had 
 died in her seventy-ninth year, tearfully and sadly 
 said, "I knew I could never raise that gal ; they said 
 she was too smart." Well, this country has not 
 been too smart to be raised, but it has grown too 
 wicked to live, and unless there is a change in the 
 moral life and practice of this great country, her 
 history will close in a gloom darker than night. 
 
 I have said that this is a great country, and 
 will name a few things wherein Its greatness is 
 found. 
 
 Territory. The old boundary lines will not 
 answer for a present geographical description of 
 America. Now that we own Alaska, and have 
 practically annexed the Philippines, and are in a fair 
 way to include England and a few other small 
 countries in the circle of our expansion, the boun- 
 
32 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFE GUARD 
 
 dary lines must be pushed further out. I once 
 heard of an Irishman, who said, that ultimately, 
 America would be bounded on the east by the rising 
 sun, on the west by the setting sun, on the north 
 by the Auro-Borealus, and on the south by the Day 
 of Judgment. But to be serious our growth has 
 been phenomenal. It has taken thousands of years 
 to make Europe what it is, but America has devel- 
 oped as much civilization in a little more than one 
 century. A little more than one hundred years ago 
 our population of 6,000,000 was but a thin fringe 
 along the shore of the Atlantic, and Ohio was in the 
 far west and a frontier state, which to visit meant 
 hardship and often death. Since then homes have 
 been built and furnished for 70,000,000 of people, 
 been brought under a state of high cultivation. For 
 forty years of our civilization there was an 
 average of 16,000 acres of wild land subdued every 
 More than four and one-half million farms have 
 day. Five hundred cities have been built. Millions 
 of miles of road have been opened to public travel. 
 Countless mills and factories have been erected and 
 equipped. Eight hundred thousand miles of tele- 
 graph wire have been strung and an equal amount 
 of telephone wire has been stretched. With steam 
 and electricity we have seated the whole world 
 around one common hearthstone, and yet we seek 
 greater things and more territory. 
 
 Minerals. There are no mines like the American 
 mines for quantity and quality. God seems to have 
 exhausted Divine Wisdom in packing the rocky 
 fastness of America's hills with minerals and metals. 
 England's coal lies two thousand feet below the 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 33 
 
 surface in a temperature of more than one hundred 
 degrees, and there are prophecies that the supply 
 will be exhausted within fifty years. Our coal lies 
 near the surface. The deposit is several times 
 greater than that of all Europe and the supply is 
 practically inexhaustible. Our iron is plentiful in 
 quantity and first-class in quality. In addition to 
 the well known deposit of iron in the East, the West 
 is also wonderfully rich in this ore. Not a state 
 west of the Mississippi is denied it. Our gold fields, 
 our copper beds, our silver veins, and indeed all 
 other metal deposits are equal if not superior to 
 the best of the world. 
 
 Thinkers. The mightiest problems of the 
 world's thinking are wrought out in the brain of 
 the American thinker. Problems of philosophy, 
 science, religion, sociology, government, politics, 
 mechanics, architecture, art, and literature, are 
 solved by America's thinkers. We no more go 
 abroad for knowledge, but are rapidly becoming 
 the Gamaliel of the world at whose feet are sitting 
 the nations of the earth. 
 
 Products. Our fields and orchards bring forth 
 plentifully of all needful things for private and 
 public use in the home land, with an abundance to 
 spare for the markets of foreign countries. Eu- 
 ropeans have been accustomed to think of the United 
 States as the world's great farm, and the thought 
 has not been without foundation. With only five 
 per cent of the world's population we produce about 
 thirty-two per cent of the world's food supply. 
 America is noted for one product, the like of which 
 is not found anvwhere else on the earth. I refer to 
 
34 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 the American Dude. I once saw a definition of the 
 American Dude which pleased me very much. It 
 defined the thing to be, a cushioned hat rack with 
 a hole in it for a cigarette. Well, if that be true, 
 my sympathy is with the cigarette. As foul and 
 nasty as a cigarette is, it is in bad company when 
 it is in the mouth of a Dude. There are two bad 
 things about the cigarette; the fire at one end, and 
 the Dude at the other. But if I were the cigarette 
 I should prefer the fire. It is said that a girl down 
 in Georgia married one of these things and thought 
 she was getting a man, but found out in a very 
 short time that she had only gotten a pair of old 
 patched breeches. Girls, it is wise to get married, 
 but it is wiser to get a man in the marriage. 
 
 Population. As we have already said our 
 growth has been phenominal. An American once 
 said to an intelligent and well informed Englishman, 
 "England is a great country." "Yes," said he, "but 
 yours is greater." When asked why he thought so, 
 he said, "America is capable of supporting 500,000,- 
 000 of people." Since Pre-historic times the swelling 
 population of the "Far East" has rolled westward* 
 For thousands of years there was an unoccupied 
 land toward the sun set. At length the western 
 boundary of Europe was reached but there was still 
 a "New World." In small numbers at first, and at 
 long intervals, the adventurous colonist crossed the 
 Atlantic, but in ever increasing numbers until the 
 influx to this country is appalling to say the least. 
 There are no more "New Worlds." Of course popu- 
 lation will become more dense in this country as the 
 years go by, and with population comes compli- 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 35 
 
 cation. The simple plans of government that were 
 once sufficient, are now altogether insufficient, and 
 America, the great and good nation that she is, is 
 confronted with conditions which involve her des- 
 tiny. If these questions are settled rightly America 
 lives ; if settled wrongly, her career must end. I 
 am not a pessimist in any sense of the word, but I 
 declare it as my honest conviction, that if America 
 continues to forsake her God, her God at no distant 
 day will forsake her, and Godless America will be 
 no better than the other nations whose forgetful- 
 ness of God caused their downfall, the death-throws 
 of which yet resound in our ears. Scipio-Affricanus 
 while standing in sight of burning Carthage ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 "The time will come when sacred Troy shall be leveled 
 
 with the plain, 
 And Priam and the people of that proud warrior slain." 
 
 When asked what he meant, he said, "Abysinia 
 has fallen, Greece has fallen, Carthage is burning 
 and Rome's time will come. And Rome's time did 
 come, and the blood of her ruin has not been w r ashed 
 from the earth until this day. Twenty-five years 
 ago a suggestion of our decay or downfall would 
 have been offensive to even the most pessimistic of 
 our people, but today the most thoughtful and intelli- 
 gent among the true friends of this nation, freely 
 admit the question of our future to be the most 
 serious and disquieting question of the hour. Count 
 Tolstoi in an article published in the New York 
 World, said, 
 
36 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 "America has lost her youth. Her hair is grow- 
 ing gray, her teeth are falling out; she is becoming 
 senile. Voltaire said that France was rotten before 
 she was ripe, but what shall be said of a nation 
 whose ideals have perished almost in one genera- 
 tion? Your Emersons, Garrisons, and Whittiers 
 are all gone. You produce nothing but rich men. 
 In the years before and after the Civil War the 
 soul-life of your people flowered and bore fruit. 
 You are pitiful materialists now." 
 
 That the republic is in the balance no thoughtful 
 mind questions. No more critical hour has ever 
 come to her than the one that is now striking. 
 
 This nation was born with the name of God 
 on its lips and at one time was a veritable Bible 
 Society as the following facts will show : 
 
 Congress, in 1777, appointed a committee to 
 advise as to the printing of an edition of thirty 
 thousand Bibles. The population of this country 
 was then only about three millions, and all the 
 Bibles of the world did not then exceed four mil- 
 lions. The committee, finding it difficult to procure 
 material, such as paper and type, recommended 
 Congress to direct the committee on commerce to 
 "import at the expense of Congress, twenty thousand 
 English Bibles, from Holland, Scotland, or else- 
 where, into the different ports and states of the 
 union." 
 
 The report was adopted and the importation 
 ordered. Owing to the Revolutionary War, the im- 
 portation could not be made and Congress recom- 
 mended to the people of America to purchase Bibles 
 of Robert Aitken, of Philadelphia. 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 37 
 
 A nation so well born should certainly be a 
 favorite child of the Almighty, and would be, if 
 we but did our duty. I shall mention a few things 
 which to me indicate the conditions and dangers. 
 
 An Increasing Unrest. 
 
 There is restlessness everywhere. Political un- 
 rest, social unrest, commercial unrest, religious un- 
 rest. Unrest of all kinds and in every place. It is 
 indeed a time of war and rumors of war. Govern- 
 ments are on the alert. The Cuban, Philippine, 
 Boxer and Boer wars, have been so recent that the 
 atmosphere has not yet been cleared of the smoke 
 and smell of the battlefield, while the Russia-Japan 
 war is now raging, and lynching and race wars are 
 running riot at high noon. Thirty years ago Dr. 
 Talmage addressed the laborers of Brooklyn then 
 on a strike, and said among other things, "Go back 
 to your planes and your saws, in six months labor 
 and capital will kiss each other and there will be per- 
 fect harmony between them." Somehow the peace 
 failed to arrive on schedule time, and the kiss has 
 not yet been given. The trouble is, both the laborer 
 and the capitalist want the capital. Never in the 
 historv of this nation has there been such vari- 
 ance between labor and capital as today. Labor and 
 capital are divided into two hostile camps, standing 
 over against each other like armed enemies, the one 
 carrying weapons in the name of capital, and the 
 other carrying weapons in the name of labor. The 
 capitalist is all but omnipitent having money for 
 comforts, conveniences, travel, equipage. Organized 
 
38 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 labor also is a trust almost as influential. Indeed, 
 organized labor seems for the time being more 
 powerful than organized capital. But it is my pur- 
 pose only in calling your attention to these great 
 forces, to show that the unrest, the warfare and the 
 subsequent classification and suffering of mankind 
 is a reality not to be easily disposed of. 
 
 A Tendency Toward a Permanent 
 Peasant Class. 
 
 Think as we may, it yet remains true that the 
 rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting 
 poorer. The tendency of this is to establish an 
 aristocracy on one hand and a dependency on the 
 other, and at the rate we have been going in this 
 direction it will not be long until we shall have out 
 done the classifications of the old world. It has 
 ever been our boast that we hang the star of hope 
 over the cradle of the poor man's child. We have 
 made it possible for the rail splitter of Illinois and 
 the canal boy of Ohio, to be presidents of this great 
 nation, but the sun of such great days has well nigh 
 gone down. When I was a boy in school, the preacher, 
 teacher and school directors, used to rub my head 
 almost bald, while they told of the possibilities of 
 me some day being president of the United States. 
 They were dear, good, old souls, but they did not 
 know much. There has not been any of that sort 
 of work going on in our schools very lately. It is 
 easier now for a camel to go through the eye of a 
 needle, than for the son of a poor man to be elected 
 United States Senator. Elihu Root, Ex-Secretary 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 39 
 
 of War, has this to say about money and elections : 
 "The use of money has come to such a pass at 
 the hands of both of the great political parties in 
 this country, that we find enormous contributions 
 necessary to maintain party machinery, to conduct 
 party warfare, and the effect is that great moneyed 
 interest, corporate and personal, are exerting yearly 
 more and more undue influence in political affairs. 
 Great moneyed interests are becoming more and 
 more necessary to the support op political par- 
 TIES, and political parties are every year contracting 
 greater debts to the men who can furnish the money 
 to perform the necessary functions of party 
 warfare." 
 
 There were once three distinct classes in this 
 country : the rich, the poor and the well to do. The 
 tendency of the commercial and social spirit of this 
 age is to crowd out the middle man. When the well 
 to do, gets money enough, he joins the combine, 
 merges into the trust and is lost in the great aggre- 
 gation of wealth. If he loses his money, he is 
 forced out of business, and is lost among the strug- 
 gling poor. 
 
 Some years ago I spent a week in New York 
 City, and was told while there by a retired merchant, 
 that when he first came to New York, a man could 
 start quite nicely in business, with a good standing 
 in the banks, on a capital of $25,000. "That," said 
 he, "was forty-five years ago, but now it requires 
 at least $300,000 with which to start in business 
 with any degree of respectability, or assurance of 
 success." Said a little girl to her Mamma, "Mamma, 
 if I am an old maid will I be sour and crusty and 
 
40 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 peculiar like Auntie?" "Yes, my dear," said her 
 Mamma. "And if I marry, will I have a mean old 
 husband like papa?" "Yes, my dear," said she. 
 "Well/ said the little girl, "it is pretty hard on us 
 women folks isn't it?" 
 
 It seems to me that the out look for the average 
 man is rather discouraging no matter from what 
 view point we see him. 
 
 Social conditions. Never in the history of the 
 world have we had such social conditions as exists 
 today. The class question in America is more than 
 a ghost. Miss Flipflop, and Miss Gotrox, and Mrs. 
 De Gossip, are abroad in the land, and Mrs. De 
 Cash is having her pink teas and her afternoon 
 socials, while the morning porch parties, at which 
 ladies in low neck dresses, play cards in the 
 presence of honest little boys and pure little girls 
 who may be unfortunate enough to pass that way, 
 are becoming quite the rage. Why compel the poker 
 players to hide, and allow progressive euchre to be 
 played in the open, while both are under the con- 
 demnation of the courts. The gamblers and drunk- 
 ards of this country, are not made by the hard 
 drinkers and poker players, but by the respectable 
 (?) drinkers, and the refined (?) card players. 
 More drunkards are on our streets and more gamb- 
 lers infest our cities today as the fruit of our social 
 life, than come from the saloon and the gambling 
 dens. In a town in Ohio ten girls yet in their teens, 
 went to the pastor of a popular church and said to 
 him, "We will join your church if you will allow us 
 to dance." No thought of repentance, no conscious- 
 ness of sin, no desire to honor God, no seeking to 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 41 
 
 be saved, no lifting of the life heavenward, no holy 
 ambition to serve, no pure motive in worship, but 
 a desire only, to add church membership as a side 
 issue to the social function. Not long ago I saw 
 crepe on the door of one of the high toned families 
 of an American city, and many cabs with uniformed 
 drivers, and a wagon for the floral offerings 
 (display) standing in front of the splendid resi- 
 dence. I said as I passed it, "Well, even death is 
 made a social event, and the sorrow of broken, 
 bleeding hearts are made occasions for parade and 
 classification." 
 
 Our social life is rapidly undermining the home, 
 the state and the school. The snobbery of fashion, 
 and the foolishness of pride have well nigh put the 
 American home out of business, and kindred insti- 
 tutions which have been the foundation stones in 
 our civilization are threatened with a like fate. I 
 often think of the old American days, when democ- 
 racy, sincerity and patriotism were one; when 
 liberty, independence and progress dwelt together, 
 and when greed and pretentions were all but un- 
 known. In those days there were no snobs in the 
 sense in which we have them now and society 
 everywhere was simple, democratic and natural. 
 
 But think of it as it is to-day, especially as it 
 is in our city life. While I speak there are tens 
 of thousands of men and women going over the 
 awful plunge of an impure life. Society is very 
 severe upon the impurity that lurks around the al- 
 leys and low haunts of the cities and towns. The 
 law pursues it, smites it, incarcerates it, 
 tries to destroy it, but where is the judge 
 
42 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 or jury that dares to arraign the wealthy 
 libertine? He walks the streets, he rides in the 
 parks, he flaunts his iniquity in the face of the pure. 
 The hag of uncleanness looks out of the tapestried 
 window. Where is the law that dare to take these 
 brazen wretches clothed as they are in the scarlet 
 garments and put their faces in the window of the 
 State's prison? Ever and anon there are reports 
 in the newspapers that make the story of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah quite respectable. It is no unusual thing 
 in our large cities to see men in high positions, or 
 ladies of supposed attainments willing solemnly to 
 marry the very swine of society if only they be 
 wealthy. The Bible is all aflame with denunciations 
 against an impure life, but many of our American 
 ministers utter not a word against this iniquity, 
 lest some old libertine withdraw his support. Ma- 
 chinery is organized in all our cities by which to 
 put yearly in the grinding mill of this iniquity 
 thousands of the unsuspecting girls of the country 
 home and the city too, one procuress confessing not 
 long ago, that she had supplied the infernal market 
 with a hundred and fifty souls in six months. 
 America is in a fair way to become one, foul, sticky, 
 lazar house, of social impurity ! 
 
 THE POWERLESSNESS OF THE CHURCH TO DEAL 
 WITH THESE CONDITIONS. 
 
 To confess that the church is powerless to deal 
 with these conditions is humiliating, but true. Why 
 cannot the church deal with the conditions? Be- 
 cause the church is largely a factor in the condition, 
 and because of the classes directly responsible for 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 43 
 
 the conditions. The opposite classes — the million- 
 aire and the laborer — are more directly responsible 
 for the present conditions in American life than all 
 others. Do they attend church? Not often. Do 
 they sit in our pews? Do they sing in our choirs? 
 Do they hear the Gospel? Are they brought under 
 the helpful sanctifying influences of the songs and 
 prayers of the sanctuary? Do they hear the dis- 
 cussion of the great questions of the day from the 
 standpoint of the Bible? Are they familiar with 
 God's plan of settling difficulties and smoothing 
 out the social wrinkles, and adjusting great na- 
 tional questions? Have they learned the golden 
 rule? Of the many rich and thousands of laborers, 
 including mill men, factory men, railroad hands, 
 miners, street-car men and others, how many attend 
 our Sunday services? That a few of them do, I am 
 glad to know, but the great majority of the very 
 wealthy and the very poor are not under the influ- 
 ence and blessing of church life; and especially is 
 this true of the so called working men. 
 
 Very few of the workingmen ever attend church 
 service and many seem indifferent to the religious 
 character of the community and the moral life of 
 their homes. In speaking of the workingmen it is 
 difficult to classify, for there is a sense in which most 
 men are working men, they having regular hours 
 of labor and receiving a stated sum for what they 
 do. But in the thought of the hour, all, other than 
 those who sit at desks, stand behind counters, teach 
 a school, or do similar work are classified as working- 
 men. One cause for the non-attendance of the 
 workingmen upon divine service is evidently to be 
 
44 THE. Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 found in the men themselves. Infidelity has laid 
 its cold hand upon the heart of the people, and ag- 
 nosticism has displaced the old-time faith of the 
 heart. Materialism, greed and lust, have taken fast 
 hold upon the life and deludes the mind into the 
 belief that pleasure is preferable to virtue. Then 
 the daily toilers are weary from the week's work. 
 They want the Sunday for rest, for recreation, for 
 reading, for home and their loved ones. The tastes 
 of many lead them to select the illustrated 
 Sunday newspaper and the social circle over the 
 house of prayer and the influence of worship. 
 
 Another cause is evidently found in the church. 
 T wish to plainly and candidly state that it is my hon- 
 est conviction that some of the causes are wholly im- 
 aginary and others merely local, and often they 
 are not alienations so much as pretexts for selfish 
 reasons. Nevertheless the church has ground 
 enough for self-examination and good reasons for 
 such changes as will win the workingmen to its 
 altars where wealth and aristocracy now largely 
 dominate the membership. Laborers become shy 
 and reserved beyond the touch and sympathy of the 
 church. It has been said, and with great justifica- 
 tion, too, that in the wealthy churches special efforts 
 are made to secure members of means, while those 
 in the humbler walks of life are neglected. One 
 extremely aristocratic church can do more to make 
 the impression that the church does not want the 
 ones who heard Jesus "gladly" and for whom he 
 died, than any dozen churches can do to teach men 
 and women that God is no respecter of persons. 
 Oftentimes in these wealthy churches the lectures 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 45 
 
 supplant the sermon and the gospel. Men are hun- 
 gering for the bread of life, for the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, and the poor and laboring classes will hear 
 Him as gladly to-day as they did in the days of His 
 flesh. The workingmen claim, and not without 
 cause, that the fashions and fads of the churches 
 make them painfully conscious of the difference 
 between themselves and their wealthy neighbors in 
 the church, rendering them uncomfortable during 
 the service. Often the sermon and the entire ser- 
 vice fails to meet the needs of workingmen and they 
 are led to believe that neither the pulpit nor pew 
 understand nor care for their condition. With all 
 this before us we can understand and appreciate 
 the bitterness that finds a place in the minds of some 
 of the workingmen of our country. But the church 
 does care and does seek to remedy the evils, to 
 elevate the laborer and to bring the gospel to his life 
 and home, and if he could but realize the infinite 
 greatness of the church, compared with the saloon, 
 he would never again enter the latter, but attend 
 the church with promptness and regularity. While 
 it is the distinctive province of the ministry to 
 preach the gospel of the Son of God, yet it is taking 
 a deep interest in the condition of the masses, the 
 cause of the laborer, the relation of classes and the 
 equality of opportunity. Laborers are received with- 
 out discrimination, and the working man is being 
 welcomed with the heartiness given a millionaire. 
 The one great need is to treat all men alike in God's 
 house. 
 
 It must indeed be offensive to the son of toil 
 to be received anywhere with apparent condescen- 
 
46 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 sion and a patronizing air. Workingmen should 
 be received as should all others, as men simply. 
 For that they ask, and to that they have a right. 
 This indeed is the true basis of fellowship as set 
 forth by the Apostle James in chapter 2, 1-9 : "My 
 brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 the Lord of Glory, with respect to persons. For if 
 there come unto your assembly a man with a gold 
 ring, in goodly apparel, and there comes in also a poor 
 man in vile raiment ; and ye have respect to him that 
 weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit 
 thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand 
 thou there or sit here under my footstool: Are 
 ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become 
 judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved 
 brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this 
 world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which 
 he hath promised to them that love him ? But ye have 
 despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you 
 and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not 
 they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye 
 are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according to 
 the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self, ye do well : But if ye have respect to persons, 
 ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as 
 transgressors." 
 
 AGAINST THESE CONDITIONS THE YOUNG PEOPLES' 
 SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR STANDS 
 GUARD. 
 
 In the discussion of this proposition we must 
 keep in mind three things, 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 47 
 
 (1) That all permanent reforms have been 
 begun and carried on by the church. 
 
 (2) Permanent reforms are of slow growth. 
 Slavery, that mightiest of social curses, was dis- 
 cussed for more than one hundred years before it 
 got a respectable hold in the thought and life of the 
 nation. The great questions of the day have not 
 been discussed long enough to have taken place in 
 the mind and character of men sufficiently to move 
 them to action. 
 
 (3) Great evils are never corrected by the 
 generations creating them. The generation entail- 
 ing the curse of slavery upon the American people, 
 was dead long before the curse was removed. Who 
 corrected the evil of slavery? The descendants of 
 those who created it. Will the saloon question and 
 the liquor traffic be settled? Most certainly. By 
 whom? By the children of those who have entailed 
 the curse upon us. In the great day coming when 
 the saloon shall no more curse, stab, ruin and devour 
 our home, and curse our land and children, we shall 
 know that the removal of such a crime was not by 
 those committing it, but by those who suffered from 
 it. In the midst of the unrest of the day the poli- 
 tician comes to us with the promise of peace and 
 prosperity, provided always that his party is the 
 ruling power. He has a panacea for every ill, a balm 
 for every wound. In his party is found the only 
 remedy for the aches, and pains, and poverty, and 
 sin, and suffering, of the day. But he is mistaken. 
 His remedy has failed a thousand times, and will 
 fail a thousand times more. There is no remedy 
 but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no panacea 
 
48 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 but the life and love of the infinite God, and this 
 the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor 
 has realized and has turned to God with a faith and 
 service which promises in the end to quiet the wa- 
 ters, and pushing back the waves of confusion, and 
 smoothing out the wrinkles and rough places, give 
 to this nation a peace as deep as the sea. While 
 the world is divided and subdivided, separating into 
 classes and secularizing, and localizing itself, the 
 unifying influences of the Young People's Society of 
 Christian Endeavor goes steadily on, and some day 
 we shall see the breaking down of the classification, 
 the union of all the believers in Jesus Christ, and 
 feel a harmony as sweet ais the song of angels. 
 
 Nor has the social life of the world as at pres- 
 ent defined, any place in the thought and character 
 of this societv. It has not learned, nor does it care 
 to learn, the ways of the world. It knows only 
 Jesus Christ and him crucified, and while the social 
 features of the society are well marked, and clearly 
 defined, it is social to save, and not social for 
 self. We are training in these societies a class of 
 men and women who some day will have charge of 
 the affairs of the world, and it is safe to say that 
 they will be well qualified for their place and re- 
 sponsibility and will give to the future life of the 
 church and state, a dignity, free from pretensions, 
 a life free from hypocrisy, and a service free from 
 self. I do not claim that the Young People's So- 
 ciety of Christian Endeavor is the only safe guard, 
 but that it is one of the many through which God 
 is working out the destiny and dignity of this 
 nation. The young people are better educated than 
 
THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 49 
 
 were their seniors. Our people are more generally 
 educated than the masses of any country, and their 
 education has not been purely secular either, so 
 that the qualification to deal with great social and 
 economic principles is well assured, and when the 
 Young People shall come into power they will be 
 prepared, as well as have the power to inaugurate 
 changes that will destroy the sources of corruption, 
 check the evil tendencies they find, and over-come 
 class, rulership and plutocracy. What the church 
 needs to do, and indeed must do, is to reach the 
 masses. The masses once reached and the question 
 of the moral character of the world is settled. The 
 masses can be reached by the church through the 
 young people more quickly and more efficiently, than 
 through any other source at its command. This 
 the church has not realized, but this the church 
 must come to know. It must know more of the 
 power and possibility of this strong right arm. 
 
 I saw several years ago a picture in the Kam's 
 Horn that very clearly illustrates the present con- 
 dition of things. The general appearance of the 
 picture impressed me as a Sabbath scene of about 
 five o'clock in the afternoon. The glow of the set- 
 ting sun hung like a beautiful curtain of gold sus- 
 pended from the clouds. A large and beautiful grass 
 plot formed the center of the scene. Throughout 
 this were well planned walks and flower-beds of the 
 most attractive designs. It was a most inviting 
 place indeed. In addition to the flowers and walks, 
 there were shade trees and beautiful lakes of clear 
 water in which fountains gushed forth into clouds 
 of silvery spray. At the entrance to this garden of 
 
50 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 
 
 beauty was a prominent sign "Keep off the Grass." 
 Before this sign stood a burly policeman keeping 
 guard. In one corner of the lot stood an elegant 
 church house built of stone and adorned with all 
 the art and skill of modern architecture. On the 
 door of this building were the words, "Closed for 
 Repairs." Forming a part of this building was a 
 parsonage, on the door of which was this notice, 
 "The Pastor has Gone on His Annual Three Months' 
 Vacation." Just across the street was a saloon with 
 the words prominently displayed, "Open Day and 
 Night." In the door of the saloon stood the smiling, 
 grinning, dirty saloonist, and with his hand was 
 pointing the passers by to the sign above the door. 
 Over against it all stood a young man who had just 
 come to the city, and this was his first Sunday away 
 from home and mother. He showed on his face 
 the homesickness he felt in his heart. He had 
 promised his mother that he would attend church, 
 and perhaps that particular one. But it is closed, 
 and the fashionable congregation and the popular 
 preacher were at the sea shore. But just across on 
 the opposite corner from the church, and directly 
 across from the saloon, stood an old dilapidated 
 house. There was a streamer across the door 
 and on it was the announcement that attracted 
 my attention. "The Y. P. S. C. E. Head- 
 quarters for the Summer. Services at 6:30 p. m. 
 Come In." I looked long and earnestly at the 
 picture and especially at the boy, and wondered 
 which of the two would get him, the Y. P. S. C. E. 
 or the saloon. The getting of that boy settles 
 
 THE QUESTION OP THE NATION'S SAFETY OR RUIN. 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY. 
 
 I was asked to speak upon the above topic, else 
 this address had not been written. Words are sig- 
 nificant things. They are suggestive, forceful 
 things. Bad words are as influential as the plague, 
 and as destructive as the pestilence. They have 
 wrought more evil than battle, murder and sudden 
 death. They creep through the ear into the 
 heart, call up all the bad passions and set going all 
 the unholy forces of the soul. Good words are as the 
 bloom and fragrance of flowers, the voice of angels 
 and the sweet perfume of heaven. 
 
 The words of the topic suggest the following 
 things : 
 
 THAT THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD USE THE 
 SAME DICTIONARY. 
 
 There are words, distinctively, characteristicly, 
 definitely, church words, and there are words which 
 belong as definitely and distinctively to the world, 
 and as such they have no place in the church vocabu- 
 lary. Repentance, faith, hope, salvation and similar 
 words, are children of the church. They belong to 
 the church, and the world has no right to them, 
 nor does it care to use them. But on the other hand 
 the church is adopting the words of the world. The 
 world has the winning horse, the winning candidate, 
 the winning card, the wining team, etc., etc. That 
 catches the ear of the church and it soon has the 
 winning preacher, the winning society, the winning 
 
52 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 soloist, the winning choir, the winning everything 
 except the winning of souls from sin to God. 
 
 The word win does not always carry with it a 
 righteous character, nor suggest righteous conduct. 
 The word was coined by the world, belongs to the 
 world and is in the thought of the world connected 
 with loss and gain. It is said of "Sennacherib, King 
 of Assyria," that "he came and entered into Judah, 
 and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought 
 to win them for himself." The word in this connec- 
 tion has the element of cleaving, rending, rather 
 than that more gentle persuasiveness that should 
 characterize the Society of Christian Endeavor. 
 
 When two horses enter the race course, if one 
 wins the other must lose. It is in no such sense as 
 this that I would speak of the Winning Society. 
 
 THIS IDEA OF WINNING WOULD PUT SOCIETIES IN 
 THE FIELD FOR NUMBERS ONLY. 
 
 While there is a sense in which we are justified 
 in seeking to add numbers, yet the work of the 
 Society should be to win the young people to the 
 gospel, and to develop their characters into the like- 
 ness and life of Jesus Christ. It is not quantity, 
 but quality that counts in the moral world. The 
 Jews were anxious for numbers. They considered 
 numbers as the one important thing. John, the 
 Baptist told them that "God was able of the stones 
 to raise up children unto Abraham." If numbers 
 were the important thing, God could multiply his 
 family by making children out of stones. Oh, you 
 say we must add numbers. Of course we must, but 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 53 
 
 we must not make numbers the principal thing. It 
 often times occurs that in our efforts to add num- 
 bers we fail to win the soul and entirely overlook 
 its salvation from sin which is in the thought of God 
 the principal and supremely important thing. 
 
 The oft repeated words of Solomon, "He that 
 winneth souls is wise" has always been misinter- 
 preted and misapplied. The revised version gives us 
 more accurately Solomon's thought, and the exact 
 truth as proven by the experience of men, 
 
 "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; 
 And he that is wise winneth souls." 
 
 is the way the revisers give it to us. The wise man 
 makes it his business to win souls. He does not 
 catch them ; he does not resort to tricks and schemes 
 and by the turning of the whirly-gig of a revivalistic 
 gymnastic, turn them all into the hopper and start 
 the mill grinding; he wins them. It is supposed 
 that a man is wise because he wins souls. That is 
 not the teaching of the text. He wins souls because 
 he is wise. The Rev. Joseph Parker than whom there 
 has been none with a clearer insight to God's 
 thought, says : 'Wisdom alw ays wins. The wise man 
 may never speak to a soul, and yet he may win it. 
 This is not the picture of an ardent evangelist run- 
 ning to and fro in the earth upon the vague and 
 general mission of winning souls, which is the popu- 
 lar misunderstanding of the verse. The real inter- 
 pretation is that if a man is wise he will by the very 
 necessity of wisdom win souls, draw them to him, ex- 
 cite their attention, compel their confidence, con- 
 
54 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 strain their honor. There is a silent conquest ; there 
 is a preaching that never speaks, — a most eloquent 
 preaching which simply does the law, obeys the gos- 
 pel, exemplifies the spirit of Christ, works the spirit 
 out in all the details of life, so swiftly, patiently, 
 sympathetically, completely, that souls are won, 
 drawn, saying, Behold, what virtue is this? what 
 pureness, what charity, what simplicity, what real 
 goodness and beneficence! This must be the right 
 doctrine because it comes out in the right line. So 
 then the scope of the text is enlarged. He who would 
 found upon these words an address to evangelists 
 might deliver a very excellent speech, but he would 
 miss the principal point of the text which he had 
 chosen as his starting basis. The text makes all men 
 preachers, by the necessity of their being wise. The 
 sun never speaks, yet he draws all men who could 
 walk out of the house. He does not come with a 
 strong hand, smiting the door, or ringing the bell, 
 and saying with sonorous voice, You must and shall 
 come out. The sun simply shines, silvers the win- 
 dows, seeks out all accessible corners, floods the house 
 with glory, so that even cripples begin to feel they 
 must sit outside, at least; they would gladly walk 
 and leap and praise God in the open meadows, but 
 being deprived of this high festival of thanksgiving 
 they must seek a warm corner just outside, and 
 thank God for the ministry of light. It is precisely 
 so with the wise man. He does not know what good 
 he is doing. He gives away his whole life, and yet is 
 almost unconscious of so doing. Men look at him, 
 estimate his influence, study his motives, observe 
 with what wonderous precision the whole mechan- 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 55 
 
 ism of his life works, and how all his thinking comes 
 to solid and beneficient conclusions, and they say, 
 So long as that man lives we cannot laugh at his 
 faith: he is a living argument; he never speaks a 
 word upon subjects of a metaphysical or even a 
 religious kind, and yet his whole life is religious. 
 He is like the concealed Christ; he is mistaken for 
 the gardener, and yet the mistake is self -convicting, 
 for they who affect to mistake him feel in their 
 innermost souls that there is about him a royalty 
 which commen men cannot honestly claim. Thus 
 we have only to be wise in order to win souls. The 
 fool wins nobody ; the buffoon is no preacher either 
 by tongue or example; but the solid character, 
 the wise head, the discerning eye, the judgment that 
 is well based, and that goes straight upward, heaven- 
 ward, will in the long run secure attention, confi- 
 dence and honor." 
 
 Our efforts to secure numbers and get crowds 
 have led us into doing many ridiculous things. I 
 was told in the early years of my ministry of and old 
 minister who had for many years been pastor of the 
 same church. Under his faithful preaching the 
 church had steadily grown, its influence and useful- 
 ness constantly widening and its spiritual life per- 
 petually deepening. But his audiences were small 
 and there never was much enthusiasm. Things went 
 on about the same the year round. With him one 
 day was the same as another, and yet the blessing 
 of heaven was upon his work and his membership 
 was one of power. It came to pass that an evangelist 
 came that way. An up to date evangelist. One of 
 the latest editions, and of the most approved 
 
56 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 methods of making converts, and as I once heard a 
 man say of my old friend the Rev. C. W. Garoutte, 
 "he could convert more people in an hour than any 
 other man living." He voted his audience, he used 
 cards, he fell down, he stood up, he made fun of the 
 dear old souls who could not be quick enough to 
 please his fancy, he criticized the preachers, he 
 abused the church, he wept and prayed, and sung 
 and preached, as no other man ever had done, or 
 ever could do, and the people went wild in their 
 enthusiasm. They crowded the church, they did his 
 bidding and the evangelistic machinery had not been 
 running long until a great grist of converts had 
 been ground out ready for use. But the old pastor 
 seemed undisturbed. He attended the metings when 
 he could, he prayed for blessing and for power, but 
 on his regular service days but few came out to hear 
 him. Something must be done said the officers of 
 the church. We are losing our congregation; we 
 are losing our prestige; we are losing our young 
 people and we must do something to change the 
 tide. They went to their pastor and told him what 
 was in their hearts. "Yes," said he, "I know what 
 you say is true, and if we get a crowd we must do 
 something." They were delighted to hear their pas- 
 tor speak thus. They were in a frenzy of excitement 
 and expectation and expressed their thanks and ap- 
 preciation most profusely indeed. But what should 
 be done? "Well," they said, "we will leave that all 
 to you." It is a full house we want is it" said he. 
 "Yes," they replied. "Well, you have it announced 
 that on next Sunday evening at the close of the 
 service the pastor will pronounce the benediction 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 57 
 
 standing on his head." The church officers took the 
 hint and were wise enough to act upon it, and long 
 after the hum of the great revival had died away 
 the wise old pastor and his devoted people were 
 winning souls to God. 
 
 THE WINNING SOCIETY. 
 
 If souls are saved, souls must be won, and in 
 this good sense of the word, I am glad that we have 
 "Winning Societies." Souls cannot be driven. We 
 may attempt to drive them but we shall fail, for it 
 is the nature of the soul to be charmed, lured by 
 beauty and convinced by reason. The soul can defy 
 the driver. The body can be driven to church, but 
 the soul cannot be compelled to worship. It by no 
 means proves that because a man is sitting in 
 church, that he himself is there. A child forced to 
 Sunday-school does not attend. The house of the 
 Lord should be filled with attractions, fascinations, 
 charms, so that all who attend once will want to 
 return. Men cannot be driven to observe the Sab- 
 bath, as the violated Blue Laws of Connecticut tes- 
 tify. Indeed men cannot be forced or driven to ac- 
 cept any virtue. They may be prevented from the 
 overt act of crime, but at that point our force is 
 at an end. Christianity is one strong persuasive 
 appeal to the souls of men. Think of Satan coming 
 to Eve and saying to her, "You must eat this 
 apple." Do you think she would have done it? 
 Those of us who are married know very well that 
 she would not. She would have been fighting 
 him yet, 
 
58 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 "For when a woman will, she will 
 And you can depend 'on it, 
 But when she won't, she won't, 
 And there's the end 'on it." 
 
 But by persuasion he succeeded in winning her to 
 his way of thinking, and Eve is not the only woman 
 that has been so won. 
 
 Here is a boy who starts out fresh and pure 
 from a good Christian home. His heart is light and 
 he is bouyant and hopeful. Fresh on his sweet, 
 young lips is the kiss of love imprinted by his dear 
 old mother. Here stands the saloon keeper who tells 
 him that he must become vile, corrupt, debauched, 
 and that bleared and bloated, he must reel out into 
 the streets and become a common sot, despised and 
 loathed by all good people. Do you think that he 
 could ever get that boy to take a drink if he could 
 make him believe that? You know he could not. 
 The boy knows it and the saloon keeper knows it too. 
 Before that boy would start out on a career that 
 promised such an ending, he would fight to his death. 
 But with smiles and promises, and deception, lying, 
 and persuasion, the boy is drawn little by little, 
 into the net and at last is securely held. We all 
 know that it would be hard to take a castle by seige 
 or with the open and avowed purpose of battering 
 down the wall and entering in, but if there be an 
 enemy within and he opens the gates, then the army 
 may march in and take posession. The young man, 
 when he first goes into dissipation is very particular 
 where and how he goes. It must be a respectable 
 place, a fashionable hotel, or the parlor of one of 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 59 
 
 the "First Families." No corner nuisance with its 
 red stained glass and its mug of beer painted on 
 the sign board, for him. No it must be a marble- 
 floored bar room. There must not be any lustful 
 pictures behind the counter; there must not be any 
 hic-coughing drunken sots around where he drinks. 
 It must be a place where elegant and refined gentle- 
 men congregate for a social hour, and in the purest 
 friendship click their glasses. He does not at first 
 see the cellar where he will finally sit around a card 
 table with wheezing bloated drunkards, playing with 
 a deck so greasy that the spots can hardly be dis- 
 tinguished. Could all that be seen from the begin- 
 ning no young man would ever enter a saloon. But 
 that is the trouble, they are deceived and won to 
 a life of sin through their blindness. There are a 
 great many who try to make our young men, believe 
 that it is a sign of weakness to be pure. The man 
 will toss his head and in a dramatic attitude tell of 
 his own indiscretions. They will call the young man 
 verdant and ask him how he can stand to be tied to 
 his mother's apron string. They tell him he ought 
 to break away from such a straight- jacket life and 
 see something of the world. They promise to show 
 him the town and tell him that it won't hurt him. 
 After a while the young man feels that he cannot 
 afford to be odd, nor does he want to lose these 
 friends and so he goes. From that moment the 
 grade is downward, and he goes rapidly and from 
 the gates of hell there arises a shout of victory. 
 Farewell to all innocence, to all careful training, to 
 all moral restraints and clear the tract for the 
 awful plunge of another soul into the bottomless 
 
60 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 pit, for he has been won from the path of virtue to 
 that of vice. If only the church were as energetic, 
 determined, and as wise in its efforts to win the 
 young to Christ, as the world is to win them away 
 from Him, there would be sweeter songs on earth 
 and more joy in heaven. Jesus Christ has filled the 
 gospel, the home, and the church, with that one 
 sweet word "Come." It is the gentleness of per- 
 suasion. 
 
 A Winning Society is One That Exalts Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Here is the fundamental factor in winning souls. 
 Jesus says "And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men 
 unto me." There is a winning power about Jesus 
 Christ that is irresistible, and when he is lifted up 
 he will draw all men unto himself. I have been in 
 societies where they exalted Emerson, lifted up 
 Scott, Browning, Whittier, Hawthorne, Dickens and 
 many others, while Jesus Christ was barely men- 
 tioned, if mentioned at all. Such societies are not 
 winning societies, nor have they learned the first 
 principle of winning. I was in a meeting of this 
 kind once in my life where I was reminded of the 
 utterance of an old soldier during one of the revival 
 meetings of my early ministry. He arose to speak 
 and all eyes were turned toward him, for all knew 
 him to be a good man, though quite excitable. He 
 said, "I believe in the United States, the Fourth of 
 July, and some in the Lord Jesus Christ." From the 
 services of these societies wherein all manner of men 
 are exalted, but the Son of Man, one is lead to think 
 that they only believe "some" in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. I know that the lifting up primarily means 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 61 
 
 his death on the cross, but he must be lifted up in 
 our minds, our hearts, our services, our lives and 
 before the people, or he is not lifted up to the saving 
 of souls. There is no power so attractive as Christ 
 crucified, and when in our services we make this 
 truth prominent and thus lift him up he draws and 
 wins as no other force can. 
 
 .The Winning Society is One That is Filled With 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 "My, Me, what an old fogy he is" exclaimed a 
 lady on hearing me announce the above when giving 
 this address not long ago. Yes my friends, I may 
 be a back number, wholly out of line with the mod- 
 ern thought, but nevertheless it remains true that 
 the one great need of the Young People's Society 
 of Christian Endeavor is the infilling of the Holy 
 Ghost. When Namaan went to Elijah for healing 
 and Elijah told him to go and dip seven times in 
 the river Jordan, Namaan thought that he had 
 struck an old time doctor. But it was the very thing 
 he needed. So if I seem to you to be out of date and 
 awav back in mv methods of thought and conclu- 
 sions, I comfort myself that I am in good company, 
 for from the time of Elijah until now, the man who 
 most needed help, did not know what he needed. 
 Our Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor 
 really needs the infilling of the Holy Ghost, and if 
 they are to be soul winners they must have it. Two 
 country boys stood on the platform of a great rail- 
 road station, and for the first time in their lives saw 
 an engine. They looked at it carefully and scrutin- 
 ized it with great earnestness. They had never seen 
 anything so wonderful. All at once it began to 
 
62 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 breathe through its iron lungs, and stretch out its 
 great long arms, and with a screech and a scream 
 it walked up the track. The boys saw it go, and for a 
 while were greatly amazed. But one boy soon saw 
 the secret of its power and nudging his brother, said, 
 "Jim, it's what's in her that makes her go." Let 
 me tell you, that it is what a society has in it that 
 makes it go. You may have all the external ap- 
 plinaces, but if you have not the indwelling spirit to 
 inspire, direct and draw, you have nothing worth 
 your having. 
 
 "Tell me," said a father to his son, "what differ- 
 ence you can detect between two needles, — one of 
 which has received an electric shock, whilst the other 
 has not. And yet the one has hidden virtues, which 
 occasion will show, of which the other has none. 
 The electric shock has rendered the one needle a 
 magnet, which, duly balanced, will enable man to 
 find his way across the trackless ocean. As this 
 needle, so may that soul be which has received the 
 electric shock of the Holy Ghost; on the ocean of a 
 sinful world, it shall point wanderers to the haven 
 of everlasting rest." And what is true of the indi- 
 vidual soul may be true of the Christian Endeavor 
 Society as a whole. 
 
 A Winning Society is One That Enters the Con- 
 quest for Souls and Each Individual Member Does 
 Personal Work. 
 
 The mightiest conflict of the ages is waged over 
 human souls. I see Peter standing before Christ in 
 that upper room on the night of Christ's betrayal. 
 He seems the very embodiment of manhood, strength 
 and usefulness. How stalwart he is. How strong 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 63 
 
 in spirit and purpose. Truly it may be said "Thou 
 hast made him but little lower than God." He has 
 heard no unusual sound, and seen no unusual sights. 
 But all day long the unseen forces of evil have been 
 gathering, and the tramp and tread of the might J 
 army of wrong had been heard in the soul of Jesus 
 Christ, and the forces of right and wrong were soon 
 to wage a mighty conflict over the soul of Peter. 
 Jesus, said, "Peter, I have prayed for you." I shall 
 enter the conflict for you. You are worth saving, 
 and for you I shall contend. What a momentous 
 event it was in the life of Peter, and what a momen- 
 tous event it is in the life of all others over whom 
 good and evil contends. I have seen a horse put 
 on the market to be sold to the highest bidder. What 
 a fine sleek animal he is. Long mane, and tail, 
 flashing eye, agile limb, fleet of foot, power to endure, 
 gentle in disposition, willing to work; he stands 
 there the best of his specie. The bidding begins r 
 slowly and indifferently at the first, but more spir- 
 ited as the sale proceeds. Soon the bidding is 
 limited to two men. One a gentleman, who, if he 
 gets the horse, will be careful for his comfort, will 
 be kind to him, provide him food, and shelter, and 
 never overwork or mistreat him. The other bidder 
 is a coarse, brutal man, who, if he gets the horse, 
 will overwork him, underfeed him, and roughly 
 handle him. One owner would undertake to make 
 him the best of his kind, the other the worst. If 
 that horse could know what it meant to him to be 
 owned by one or the other of the bidders, it would 
 be the most momentous event of his life. Over every 
 soul such a bidding is going on ; and the soul is con- 
 
64 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 scious of it, and more, unlike the powerless horse 
 the soul has a right to choose its master, and still 
 more, he not only has the right to choose his master, 
 but he is compelled to make the choice. I can 
 imagine myself a slave. Here is the auction block, 
 and here the bidders. Some of them are kindly dis- 
 posed toward me ; and others frown upon me and re- 
 veal only their debased and cruel hearts. The auc- 
 tioneer describes my qualities, tells of my strength 
 and skill, and the bidding begins. Two men at once 
 start the bidding. One of them I know to be a gen- 
 erous, good man, who will, if he gets me, develop my 
 life into the beauty and strength of his own, will 
 give me good food and clothe me with comfortable 
 garments, and while he will require good and faith- 
 ful service at my hands, will not demand of me any 
 unreasonable thing, and at last will give me a home 
 in which to spend all my years. The other is coarse, 
 cruel, and crafty, cold, base, and degraded, and will 
 drag me down to his level of life and living. How 
 my hopes rise and fall. How I turn from one bidder 
 to the other. To the one I look appealingly and to 
 the other with fear and disgust. During the bid- 
 ding a friend of mine who knows the good man goes 
 to him and pleads with him to continue his bids. 
 He remains with him, and continues his efforts in 
 my behalf. At last the bidding ceases, the ordeal 
 is over, and my master is the good and generous 
 man, whose every word and deed will be to me a 
 blessing. Think you, that I could ever forget that 
 friend who interceded in my behalf? Such a scene 
 occurs every day. The bidders are Christ and Satan, 
 the slave is the soul, and the friend is the Young 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 65 
 
 People's Society of Christian Endeavor. 
 
 Now the Society that will win must not 
 only enter the conquest for souls as a so- 
 ciety, but each individual member must go, 
 and go too, as a Saviour of men. Mr. W. T. 
 Stead, of London, sets this forth very clearly 
 in a remarkable incident which he relates concern- 
 ing his Christmas in 1885. It was at the time when 
 he was carrying on that memorable fight for social 
 purity in England, which attracted the attention of 
 the whole civilized world and worked with great 
 force for righteousness, though the heroic worker 
 was at that time in jail, suffering imprisonment 
 brought about by the machinations of the titled 
 criminals he had sought to unearth. On that Christ- 
 mas afternoon Mr. Stead says that he had been 
 writing a letter to a poor girl who had been strug- 
 gling, against great temptation, to regain a better 
 life. Although it was a better life, it was for the 
 time being, much duller, and the poor girl was sorely 
 tempted to go back to the old license. Some of Mr. 
 Stead's friends, who knew her, suggested that he 
 might help her failing resolution if he wrote to her 
 from the jail. He had begun the letter and was try- 
 ing his best to say what he thought would help her, 
 when there came to him as if it were a voice, which 
 said with great emphasis, "Why are you asking that 
 girl to be a Christian? Never say to any one any 
 more 'Be a Christian/ always say 'Be a Christ.' " 
 
 He meditated somewhat, wondering and mar- 
 veling not a little at the apparent blasphemy of the 
 exhortation; but again the impression came to his 
 mind with all the clearness of a speaking voice : "Do 
 
66 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 ■ i ■ 
 
 not say be a Christian ever any more, for a Chris- 
 tian has come to be a mere label, but say to every 
 one, 'Be a Christ.' " 
 
 Until we get a like passion for souls, we will 
 call out to God, and heaven, will mock us. A ship's 
 surgeon told this story to a member of the New York 
 Presbytery : "On our last trip a boy fell overboard 
 from the deck. I didn't know who he was, and told 
 the crew they had better go out and try to save the 
 boy. One of the crew pulled him up. He took off 
 his outer garments, turned him over a few times, 
 worked his hands and feet, and when they had done 
 all they knew how to do they said, 'Haven't we done 
 all we can?' 'Yes,' I said, 'I think you have.' A 
 sudden impulse told me I ought to go over and see 
 what I could do. I went over, and found it was my 
 own son. Well, you may believe, I didn't think the 
 last thing had been done. I pulled off my coat. I 
 bent over that boy, blew into his nostrils and 
 breathed into his mouth. I turned him over, and 
 simply begged God to bring him back, and for four 
 long hours I worked, until just at sunset I began 
 to see the least flutter of breath that told me he 
 lived. Oh, I will never see another boy drown with- 
 out taking off my coat in the first instance and 
 going to him and trying to save him as if I knew he 
 were my own boy." And, oh, my friends, when you 
 and I realize that these men and women around us 
 will be lost unless we turn in and personally do 
 what we can to save them, then, and not until then, 
 shall we have the requisite passion for souls, and 
 until we have that requisite passion for souls can we 
 be winning societies. Have you any idea how many 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 67 
 
 there are in our churches, in the Christian En- 
 deavor Societies, to say nothing of our homes, and 
 about our social circles, who are out of Christ, and 
 to whom we have never spoken a single word on 
 the subject of religion? 
 
 The Eev. John Balcom Shaw, D. D., has this 
 to say about pfersonal work, and in it is the experi- 
 ence of many another who wanted to do, but waited 
 until it was too late. "If ever I had this pressed in 
 upon my heart it was two summers ago when I was 
 in the mountains. Old Harvey, my old Adirondack 
 driver, who had taken me all over the mountains, I 
 knew was not a Christian. I had talked with him 
 about his soul, but I had never done real hand to 
 hand, heart to heart work with hira. One day we 
 were driving and I felt that I must speak to him. 
 Finally, I said to him, 'Harvey, I am going to preach 
 next Sunday in the Valley church, won't you come 
 and hear me?' 'Well/ he replied, 'if you put it that 
 way, I will.' The very next morning my neighbor, 
 Dr. Mac Intosh, who summered in the mountains, 
 came to me and said, 'Did you know that Old Har- 
 vey is very ill, and they don't think he is going to 
 live?' I went down that day. They said, 'You 
 can't go in; we are very sorry, but you can't, he is 
 too ill.' I went the next day and he was worse, and 
 of course, they wouldn't let me in. I went the next 
 day, and the little granddaughter came out crying as 
 if her heart would break and said. 'Oh, my grand- 
 father has just died.' The Sunday came and I went 
 and preached in the little mountain church. The 
 church was full, but I am sure I didn't see anybody. 
 My mind ran down the road to where old Harvey 
 
68 THE WINNING SOCIETY 
 
 lay cold in death. At the funeral I could not pray 
 nor talk. I said to another, 'You had better do 
 that; you have known him longer; I will just read 
 the Scriptures.' And as I looked into the strong, 
 rugged face of the old mountaineer, it soon van- 
 ished from sight. Nor could I see the plate on the 
 casket. I saw an inscription there, as if written by 
 a Divine hand, which read, 'A lost opportunity.' 
 And I believed then, as I believe to-night, and shall 
 always believe, that it was more of a lost oppor- 
 tunity to me, than it was even to old Harvey. There 
 are men and women dying near each one of us, in 
 our homes, in our churches, in our social circles, in 
 our business offices, and in every case, believe me 
 it is a lost opportunity.' 
 
 The winning society is one that has been won. 
 Is in harmony with the pastor and co-operates with 
 him in every good word and work. Is in accord with 
 the church, is in touch with men, in the fellowship 
 of the saints and communion with God. One that 
 keeps itself pure, loves God and seeks His glory. 
 One that maintains a goodly character, an upright 
 life and a loving spirit. One that is pure in thought, 
 circumspect in conduct and faithful in service. One 
 that seeks the good of mankind, the growth of the 
 church, and the success of the Sunday-school. One 
 that looks after the physical, social, intellectual, and 
 spiritual welfare of its members. One that is lib- 
 eral in gifts, generous in thought and loving in 
 heart. One that is interested in missions, educated 
 in music and inspiring in worship. One that fears 
 God, keeps his commandments and follows his 
 precepts. One that exalts Christ, is filled with 
 
THE WINNING SOCIETY 69 
 
 the Holy Ghost and does personal work. 
 One that visits the sick, relieves the dis- 
 tressed and comforts the sorrowing. One that 
 sends flowers to the afflicted, bread to the poor and 
 clothes to the needy. One that follows the Master 
 in going about doing good, scattering sunshine and 
 gladness where it otherwise could not come. One 
 who does all it does for the sake of the Master, in 
 whose name and for whose glory it lives. In a word 
 a winning society is one 
 
 "That lives for those who love it; 
 The good, the brave, the true, 
 For the heaven that smiles above it 
 And the good that it can do." 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER. 
 
 The one supremely important thing, is right 
 relations. In the absence of right relations there 
 can be no success in any sphere of human life. 
 Steam, that mightiest of physical forces, that which 
 propels our steamers, drives our engines, and turns 
 the wheels of our factories, is said to be the product 
 of fire and water. No, it is not the product of fire 
 and water, but the product of fire and water prop- 
 erly related. You may have an ocean of water, and 
 a volcano of fire, but unless they are properly related 
 you will not have an ounce of steam. But put fire 
 and water in proper relationship and you will pro- 
 duce a power which will be well nigh irresistible. 
 
 Our crops, without which all life would perish, 
 is said to be the product of seed, soil, and sunshine. 
 No, they are the product of seed, soil and sunshine 
 properly related. You may have all the fields of the 
 world with their producing power multiplied a thous- 
 and times, and all the seed of the world in the most 
 perfect order, but unless you have them properly 
 related you will have no crops. Take the most 
 perfect seed, and the most productive soil, and keep 
 them apart and you will have no result. But put the 
 seed in the soil, cover it up, hide it away from the 
 sunshine, let the rain fall upon it, let the dews moist- 
 en it, let the darkness envelop it, let the light of day 
 wake it up, and when it peeps above the ground let 
 the sunlight kiss it, and soon you will have food for 
 man and beast. Here is a fort we wish to batter 
 
72 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 down. Well, here is a cannon, with which to do it. 
 Why, that cannon is a harmless thing. A child may 
 play upon it with perfect safety, a bird may build 
 its nest in the mouth of it and rear her young with- 
 out disturbance. Yes, but see this powder. Yes, I 
 know that powder is a mighty force, and its ex 
 plosive power is great, but a little child may fill 
 its hand and let the tiny grains sift through its 
 fingers without harm ; the gentlest wind of the even- 
 ing may blow it away. Yes, but don't you see this 
 ball. Yes, I see that ball, but what power is there 
 in that ball? If a hundred men were to take it and 
 with their united strength hurl it against the fort, 
 it would rebound without even making an impres- 
 sion. But you take that harmless powder, and that 
 harmless cannon, and that harmless ball, and put 
 them into proper relationship with each other, and 
 touch a spark to the powder, and there will be a 
 flash like the flame of hell, a roar like the falling of 
 worlds, and a power that will break through the 
 strongest barricade of the fort. No, that flash and 
 crash were not the result of the cannon, the ball, and 
 the powder, but the result of these things properly 
 related. What a force a Christian is; what a force 
 in the home, the church, and the state, to say noth 
 ing of his influence in politics and society. We 
 think of him as the product of the human and the 
 divine. No, he is not the product of the human and 
 the Divine, but the product of the human and the 
 Divine properly related. It is not until the Holy 
 Spirit comes into the soul of a man that he is trans- 
 formed into the likeness of God's dear Son. Who 
 is a Christian? The answer is given by Paul in a 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 73 
 
 negative form when he says : "If any man has not 
 the spirit of Christ he is none of his." Therefore 
 if any man has the spirit of Christ, he is Christ's. 
 Many men have open and pronounced preference 
 for the doctrines of Christ. They are theoretically 
 orthodox men ; they hate men who differ from them ; 
 if they do not hate them, they linger about the point 
 of prejudice with a very strong inclination toward 
 hate. There are men who would not for the whole 
 world multiplied by ten, be Uuitarians, nor Uni- 
 versalists, nor Methodists, nor Baptists, nor Pres- 
 byterians, nor Friends, nor Disciples of Christ, but 
 they can be many things which are peculiar and 
 oftentimes offensive, and sometimes hurt the heart 
 of Jesus Christ whom they have crowned, in words, 
 and crucified in deeds, whom they worship in atti- 
 tude and betray in action. But I did not start out 
 to say that, but to say that the Christian who honors 
 God and exemplifies the life of His Son, Jesus 
 Christ is one in whom the Spirit of the Most High 
 dwelleth, and thus by the union of the human and 
 the Divine, or properly relating the two, one helpless 
 and weak, and the other omnipotently strong, you 
 have the world's greatest benefactor — A Christian. 
 
 THE IN-RIGHT. 
 
 Man must be properly related to himself, and 
 he is only properly related to himself when he is 
 properly related to God. The man who is out of har- 
 mony with God, is not in proper accord with him- 
 self, nor any of the relationships of life; and as a 
 result there can be nothing but jangling discordant 
 
74 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 notes, and unharmonious deeds. Look at man, 
 lying, stealing, drunken, selfish, poluted, debauched ; 
 plotting, scheming, cruel man ; foolish vain, 
 babbling man; prodigal, bigoted deceitful man; 
 wandering in wilderness in search of the impossible, 
 sneaking in forbidden places with the crouch and 
 purpose of a criminal, washing his hands in human 
 blood; man, leering, gibing, mocking; a painted 
 mask, a thing we call a man, and yet destitute, for- 
 saken, ostracized, and left alone in his sins. What 
 is the matter with him ? He is out of harmony with 
 his God, and consequently out of harmony with him- 
 self and every thing else with which he has to do. 
 See how cunning and cold selfishness predominate 
 in his life. See how mean, and low motives have 
 supplanted the nobler virtues, and how coarse gruff- 
 ness, has taken the music out of his voice. See the 
 body! It is misshapen, defiled and degraded, while 
 red specks of corruption make the skin loathsome 
 and the whole body totters under the leprosy of 
 disease and the visible companionship of death. 
 Why all this? Is this the man that God made in 
 His own image? Oh, no! This is the man that is 
 out of harmony with God, and out of right relation- 
 ship with himself. When Adam was in right re- 
 lationship with himself, God walked and talked with 
 him in the garden as friend talketh with friend, and 
 the scent of roses and the fragrance of the new born 
 flowers were not sweeter than their companionship; 
 but when Adam sinned and went astray, God sim- 
 ply drove him out of the garden and away from his 
 presence. The one supreme duty of man is to get 
 back into harmony with God and right relationship 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 75 
 
 with himself. But even man at his best, if unre- 
 deemed is not properly related to God nor himself, 
 and you will find the discord and discover the 
 lack of harmony, and oftentimes I have thought that 
 between what the world would call a nice man and 
 God, there w r as a greater difference than God saw 
 between what the world would call a nice man and 
 outcast. The one supreme folly of this age is the 
 idea that the external life may be right while the 
 heart is wrong. Man is what he is on the inside. 
 The man is within the man. There is a vast amount 
 of talk — the merest twaddle and silliest prating — 
 about what we ought to do. The one supremely 
 important thing is what we ought to be. We ought 
 to be right at heart. A watch is so constructed that 
 it will conform to the rotations of the earth and on 
 its dial mark the course of the sun as it pursues its 
 trackless way across the heavens. I have one. It 
 stops running, or if it runs at all is unreliable and 
 apt to lead me astray. Would it do any good for 
 me to take the point of my knife blade and move 
 the hands to the right time as indicated by the regu- 
 lator? You know it would not, for the hands would 
 soon be as far wrong as ever. Would it do any good 
 for me to take it to the watch maker and have a new 
 case made for it ? You know that would not do any 
 more good than to move the hands. Well suppose 
 that I had some new and better jewels put in it. 
 Will that answer? Let us ask the watch maker. 
 He examines it and quickly says : "Your watch must 
 have a new main spring." You might have a case 
 of gold, and jewels of the purest diamond, but with- 
 out a main spring your watch could never be made to 
 
76 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 keep time. There are a great many of us who have 
 good enough cases, and some few have jewels, but 
 unless the heart is right there is really nothing right 
 about us. I once heard a story of an old man who 
 with a tin cup was busy dipping the water out of the 
 spring branch, when his boy came along and said, 
 "Dad, what are you doing?" "I am trying to dip the 
 mud out of the spring branch," was the reply. 
 "Well," said the boy, "you had better go and drive 
 that old hog out of the spring." That spring branch 
 would never run clear with an old hog in the spring 
 stirring up the mud. And let me tell you young 
 people your external life will never be right as long 
 as there is wrong in the heart. This is the one thing 
 about which Jesus Christ himself was most anxious 
 — The Rightness of the Heart. He knew that if the 
 heart was right, the whole out-going of the life 
 would be right, but if the heart were wrong then all 
 the actions that make up the sum total of human 
 duties and energies would be wrong. In speaking 
 of the necessity of a pure heart Henry Ward Beecher 
 had this to say : 
 
 "The Divine nature can only be made known 
 to us through part of our nature which is like His. 
 You cannot imitate silence by making a noise. You 
 cannot make a man have sweet tastes by giving him 
 sour or bitter. You cannot take an opaque stone, 
 and with it illustrate the transparency of glass or 
 a diamond. You cannot by darkness imitate light. 
 You must have the quality itself that you wish to 
 make known. If that which in God is so precious 
 were a material thing, then it might be made known 
 to us through material organizations; but as God 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 77 
 
 is infinite in love, and beauty, and wisdom, and 
 glory, and excellence, He is to be known to us in 
 these elements by the actual possession of the 
 qualities themselves, as windows through which the 
 light of heaven shines. The windows in us are to be 
 like the heavenly windows; and the knowledge that 
 comes to us is to be brought out from the very chords 
 which are in our bosom, and which vibrate in us." 
 
 THE OUT-RIGHT. 
 
 The Out Right Endeavorer is one that is prop- 
 erly related to things outside himself. There is a 
 great outlying world with which man has to do and 
 deal. We must come in contact with things outside 
 ourselves, and we must be properly related to them, 
 or our touch will curse them and harm us. The 
 child in school is related to books and papers, maps, 
 teachers, recitations, schoolmates, all of which are 
 outside the child, and each of them has for him a 
 blessing or a curse, as has he for them ; the blessing 
 or the curse being determined by the attitude of the 
 child to that with which he comes in contact. 
 
 All things have a double possibility — of blessing 
 or of hurt. Everything we lay hold of has two 
 handles, and it depends upon ourselves which handle 
 we grasp and whether we shall get a shock that 
 slays, or strength and blessing from the contact. 
 This truth is clearly demonstrated in the history of 
 the Ark in the homes of its enemies and friends. 
 
 Nearly seventy years had elapsed since the cap- 
 ture of the Ark by the Philistines on the fatal field 
 of Aphek. They had carried it and set it in 
 
78 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 insolent triumph in the Temple of Dagon, as if to 
 proclaim that the Jehovah of Israel was the con- 
 quered prisoner of the Philistine god. But the 
 morning showed Dagon's stump prone on the 
 threshold. And so the terrified priests got rid of 
 their dangerous trophy as swiftly as they could. 
 From Philistine city to city it passed, and every- 
 where its presence was marked by disease and ca- 
 lamity. So at last they huddled it into some rude 
 cart, leaving the draft-oxen to drag it whither they 
 would. They made straight for the Judean hills, 
 and in the first little village were welcomed by the 
 inhabitants at their harvest as they saw them com- 
 ing across the plain. But again death attended the 
 presence, and curiosity, which was profanity, was 
 punished. So the villagers were as eager to get 
 rid of the Ark as they had been to welcome it, and 
 they passed it on to the little city of Kirjath-jearim, 
 "the city of the woods," as the name means. And 
 there it lay, neglected and all but forgotten, for 
 nearly seventy years. But as soon as David was 
 established in his newly-won capitol he set himself 
 to reorganize the national worship, which had fallen 
 into neglect and almost into disuse. The first step 
 was to bring the Ark. And so he passed with a 
 joyful company to Kirjath-jearim. But again swift 
 death overtook Uzzah who with irreverent hand 
 undertook to steady the rocking cart and David 
 shrinks, in the consciousness of his impurity, and 
 bestows the symbol of the awful Presence in the 
 house of Obed-Edom. Obed-Edom was not afraid 
 to receive the Ark. There were no idols, no irrever- 
 ent curiosity, no rash presumption in his house. He 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 79 
 
 feared and served the God of the Ark, and so the 
 Presence, which had been a source of disaster to 
 the unworthy, was a source of unbroken blessing 
 to him and to his household. Even so it is with 
 all things with which we have to do. 
 
 What our Out-Right life is, depends upon the 
 character of the In-Right Life, for the outer is but 
 the expression of the inner. When Jesus said, "A 
 tree is known by its fruit," he told a truth the half 
 of which has not yet been grasped. He certainly 
 meant that the inside of a tree gets out where it can 
 be seen and known. When I was a boy, I had a beau- 
 tiful idea of fruit, and I have often regretted that 
 the truth of fruit bearing compelled me to give it up. 
 Man as I am, and though having long since learned 
 better, I yet love to think of the way I then thought 
 fruit was produced. I thought that in the night 
 time when all men were asleep and there was perfect 
 peace and quiet, angels came and hung the fruit on 
 the trees and the roses on the stems. I now know that 
 the fruit is in the tree, and that under proper condi- 
 tions it comes out where it can be seen, and where 
 men may gather it, and use it for their own good. 
 So the external life, is but the internal coming out 
 where it may be seen; and when men see our lives 
 on the outside, they can tell quite well what kind 
 of life is on the inside. In the spring time the trees 
 are all leafless and bare. It is a time of dead leaves, 
 of dead grass, of dead flowers. But the spring time 
 beauties are coming, and the trees are to have new 
 foliage, and the meadows a new carpet, and the 
 flowers new colorings, and there is to be life and 
 loveliness everywhere. I have sometimes thought 
 
80 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 that as this time approached, the dead grass and the 
 dead leaves, might be saying to each other; we had 
 better be getting off the fields and trees, so as to 
 make room for the new foliage and carpet that is 
 soon to be here. We must not interfere with their 
 coming." 
 
 Leaves and grass, your interest in the new born 
 beauty and the fresher life is to be appreciated, 
 but you need not go to any trouble whatever or 
 give yourselves a moment's anxiety, for the forces of 
 nature are working, silently 'tis true, but none the 
 less effectively, and the new, when it comes will have 
 power to push off the old, and array the trees and 
 fields with the loveliness and life of spring. Some- 
 times a man feels that he must cut off his sins and 
 rid himself of the old life in order to make room for 
 the new. All he needs to do, is to get the new, and 
 the old will be gone. It will go before the love and 
 life of Jesus Christ, as the old dead grass and 
 leaves go before the new born garments of the spring 
 time, and he will not know where they have gone 
 any more than we know where the grass and leaves 
 went, and the new life within will give a new life 
 without, and that life without will be in harmony 
 with all the conditions and circumstances to which 
 it may be related. 
 
 THE UP-RIGHT. 
 
 The Right Endeavorer is not only related to 
 himself, and things outside himself, but he is re- 
 lated to things above himself. Outside ourselves 
 there are three classes of things with which we have 
 to do. 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 81 
 
 The Inferior, The Equal, and the Superior. 
 There are things beneath us, which if we touch, we 
 have to stoop, and we are in juried by the contact. 
 Anything which requires a bending of my manhood 
 to obtain has nothing but harm in it for me when 
 obtained. Then I have to do with things which are 
 equal to me. They are on the same plane of my 
 life. They neither add to my life nor take from it. 
 They are like me, and my contact with them leaves 
 me as I was before. Then there are things above me. 
 Infinitely above me, and if I obtain them at all, it 
 requires a lifting up of my life ; the stretching up of 
 every faculty of my being. Paul says in his letter 
 to the Colossians, "If ye then be risen with Christ, 
 seek those things which are above, where Christ 
 sitteth on the right hand of God." That is, if you 
 have the In-Right Life, and the Out-Right Life, 
 then you will seek an Up-Right Life, or be properly 
 related to things above you. All that is above us is 
 helpful to us because it requires an uplifting of the 
 life to obtain it. You ask me to name the things 
 above, and I frankly tell you that I neither have 
 time nor patience so to do. They cannot be cata- 
 logued, yet they cannot be mistaken. Every soul 
 that has a right inner life knows what it is to aspire, 
 to breathe up, to desire things that are beyond the 
 line of sight, and the heart can name them faster 
 than you can write them. Why waste time in nam- 
 ing the things that are above us? We know them 
 without naming them. We know when we are mean, 
 and we do not ask for a definition of that particular 
 meanness with which we are afflicted. We know 
 what it is to be good, to belong to the brotherhood of 
 
82 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 the saints, and feel that we are inhabitants of the 
 city of light, and we never ask for a definition nor 
 for names. There are things above us and we are 
 conscious of the fact, and if we are Up-Right En- 
 deavorers we seek them. I can see that little boat 
 in which the apostles crossed the lake on the night 
 following the feeding of the five thousand in the 
 desert place. I can see the figure of the Christ as he 
 walks upon the water, his form outlined in unspeak- 
 able grandeur in the darkness of the night. He ap- 
 proaches the boat and the disciples see what they 
 suppose to be a ghost, and they cry out in fear, it's 
 a ghost ! it's a ghost ! it's a ghost ! Then Jesus tells 
 them that it is He, and for them not to be afraid. 
 Peter ever ready for an adventure, asks permission 
 to come to him on the water and Jesus tells him to 
 come. He does not go far until he begins to sink. 
 I have always heard it said that when Peter took his 
 eyes off the Christ he began to sink. Candidly I do 
 not think he ever had his eyes on the Christ until 
 he found himself sinking. When he stepped down 
 out of the boat that night I think he turned his 
 head toward the other disciples as much as to say, 
 "None of you fellows could do this." "I am the only 
 man in the boat that could do a thing so remarkable 
 as walking on the sea. Just see me go." He thought 
 of himself just like some of us do when the Master 
 permits us to do an unusually pleasant or helpful 
 service. But he soon begins to sink; the pathway 
 for his feet is not solid; he feels himself sinking, 
 and above the sinking form is the Christ. A white 
 face full of pleading is turned upward now, and a 
 strong hand is extended downward, and the helpless 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 83 
 
 and the Helper, come in touch with each other, the 
 life below is now properly related to the life above, 
 and Peter is lifted to a solid footing and soon finds 
 himself safe in the boat with the disciples. One 
 thing is sure, Christ is above us, and unless we are 
 related to Him in a way that brings His life into 
 ours we are not Up-Right Endeavorers. "Set your 
 affection on things above." Be related to the things 
 that are able to bless you. Do not bend your life 
 earthward but lift it heavenward. There are multi- 
 plied thousands of Up-Right Endeavorers who have 
 touched the life above them, thus making their 
 course truer, purer, nobler, and more glorious ; keep- 
 ing their senses chaste and clean, their affections 
 sweet and their conscience healthy. He who is thus 
 in touch with things above him needs no label upon 
 him to tell of his church membership and where he at- 
 tends the Christian Endeavor service. His smile is 
 his certificate; his deeds stand out as so many wit- 
 nesses to his character, and his upright life is known 
 and respected by all his companions. He is a legible 
 Christian ; his goodly deeds and kindly life have re- 
 lieved the sorrow and dried the tears of the broken 
 hearted ,and his ear has been open to the cry of the 
 needy. The children, the aged, the infirm, the poor, 
 and the burdened rise up and call him blessed. 
 
 THE DOWN-RIGHT. 
 
 To be a Down-Right Endeavorer one is to be 
 properly related to things beneath himself. Here he 
 touches the things that are beneath himself; he goes 
 to the plane of the inferior. Now when he touches 
 the things that are beneath him, one of two things 
 
84 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 must occur. He must lift them up to the level of 
 his own life, or they will drag him down to the level 
 of theirs. They must either rise by the touch, or he 
 will sink by it. Jesus Christ touched our humanity, 
 since which time he has been lifting it up. He 
 touched only things below Him when touching 
 earthly things but they too have been lifted by the 
 touch, slowly 'tis true, but certainly, nevertheless. 
 This dees not always occur when we touch that 
 which is beneath us. Many a pure good girl 
 has married a drunken, unworthy man with 
 the hope of lifting him up to the plane of her 
 own goodness, to find that later on she has 
 sunken to the level of his. I can see in my vision 
 of this truth the marriage altar. I can hear the full 
 organ peals. I can see the bright lights and happy 
 faces; the long white veil trailing through the aisle. 
 The ceremony and congratulations with now and 
 then a whispered word "She will be able to reform 
 him; her sweet life is perfectly irresistible." A 
 few years later and we have a sad faced broken 
 hearted woman, waiting for staggering footsteps. 
 Old garments stuck into the broken window panes. 
 Marks of hardship and suffering on the face. Neg- 
 lect, cruelty, and despair; and still later I see a 
 woman whose face does not show sorrow and care, 
 but dissipation and sin. She held on bravely, and 
 hoped against hope, but the struggle was an uneven 
 one, and little by little she relented, and little by 
 little she sank to the level of the man which she had 
 undertaken to lift to the heights of her own life. 
 And again I see three graves in a dark place in an 
 obscure corner of the Potter's field. Flowerless 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 85 
 
 graves, neglected graves, forsaken graves; one holds 
 the body of the little one whom God gave them, and 
 who died for the want of medicine ; one contains the 
 body of the wife, and the other the body of the man 
 who had power to drag the wonam of his early love 
 to the depths of his own degraded life. The epitaph 
 that should be written for the dear dead child should 
 be, "Suffer little children and forbid them not to 
 come unto me for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
 The one for the other two should be "Destroyed 
 Souls." An eternity of night. No light. No music. 
 No hope. Blackness of darkness forever. Dear 
 young friends unless you are doubly sure that by 
 your touch you can lift that which is beneath you 
 to your level, you had better not touch it at all. 
 
 An eagle was once seen soaring near the tall 
 mountain top. The eagle is a bird much praised for 
 its soaring. We should not praise him too much, for 
 in fact he only goes up that he may look down. In 
 some frenzy of poetic feeling we might say, Behold 
 the royal bird seeking the sun ! Not he ; he does not 
 care for the sun; but that from some unmeasured 
 height, his burning eye may better see the prey. 
 This proud bird of which I spoke was seen to poise 
 in the air and look earthward, and then descend 
 with a mighty swoop until it touched the ground. 
 In a moment it was seen to rise. It had come in 
 contact with something beneath itself. If it lifts 
 what it has touched to its nest, then a supper for 
 the young eaglets and satisfaction for the mother 
 bird. But it is seen to falter. Its great body sways 
 in the air like a ship tossed by the wind of the sea. 
 One wing drops and then the other, and the proud 
 
8G THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 bird of the mountain falls to the earth helpless, 
 dead! What has happened to it? It picked up a 
 scorpion which fastened its fangs in its vitals and 
 poisoned it to death. Man is represented by the 
 eagle. He can go higher than the loftiest mountain 
 peak. He can pass through the clouds and even the 
 heavens themselves, and stand by the power of his 
 thinking in the presence of the Eternal. He stoops 
 to get that which is beneath him. He fails to lift 
 it up, and dies a victim to the poison of the touch. 
 Money is beneath him. He must stoop to get it. If 
 he gets it at all, he gets it by stooping. Can he lift it 
 to the plane of a manhood life? If so, he has blessed 
 himself, and dignified the money, but if he stays 
 down where he went to get it, it has cursed him and 
 done the money no good. He seeks companions be- 
 neath himself, intellectually beneath himself; so- 
 cially beneath himself, religiously beneath himself; 
 he must lift them up to his plane, or they will drag 
 him down to theirs. 
 
 There are some things beneath us, which 
 can never be lifted above themselves. They are 
 eternally fixed in their spheres and our only 
 true relationship to them is to let them alone. 
 Severely let them alone ; everlastingly let them alone, 
 except to make one long continued, persistent effort, 
 to destroy them. Things that cannot be lifted above 
 their plane of life must be destroyed. The saloon is 
 on a much lower plane than manhood and cannot 
 be made anything else than a saloon. It cannot be 
 made better. As a saloon it is eternally fixed and 
 must so remain. You may paint the windows, legal- 
 ize the traffic, and say that the saloonist is a nice 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 87 
 
 man outside of his business, (and so is the devil) 
 but the saloon still remains a nest of unclean birds, 
 too foul and dirty for the most polluted place in hell. 
 I think the devil must feel outraged when a saloon 
 keeper comes down and forces his foul and polluted 
 companionship upon him. He certainly feels that 
 he has over done it in a case or two. I tell you the 
 modern saloon is the gate of hell. They do not put 
 the right sign on their doors. They call them "res- 
 taurants/' and "hotels," and "sample rooms," and 
 "wine parlors," and "pleasure gardens," and other 
 beautiful and attractive names. Why not write over 
 every door the "Shortest Way to Poverty/' "The 
 Sure Road to Death/' "Heart Breakers and Home 
 Destroyers/' "The Gate of Death and the Way to 
 Hell V Why do they not say here is a place beneath 
 the life of every young man, and if he goes down to 
 it he shall never return? Why not say "this is a 
 caldron of iniquity, a sess-pool of pollution, and there 
 is nothing decent about it, and the young life that 
 comes down here will be covered with rags and 
 clothed with shame." Yes, the saloon is beneath you, 
 and it is there to stay. You can't pray it up. You 
 can't lift it up, you can't prop it up; it is just a 
 nasty, dirty saloon, and must remain so. 
 
 "They talk of the man behind the gun, 
 And the deadly work that he has done; 
 But much more deadly work by far 
 Is done by the fellow behind the bar." 
 
 "They talk of the man behind the gun — 
 Yet only in battle his work is done; 
 But never ceases, in peace or war, 
 The work of the man behind the bar." 
 
88 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 Cards are beneath you, and to play them you 
 have to go away down. Whoever heard of a religious 
 card party? The card table is a vice of ungainly 
 dimensions the evil of which has rolled over our 
 entire country. We arraign the modern card table 
 at the bar of reason and conscience as an institution 
 or unenviable history and pernicious influence, and 
 express it as an opinion worthy of consideration 
 that the cultured (?) card parties of the modern 
 home, are more responsible for the gamblers of today 
 than any other one thing. Card playing is an evil, 
 a spell, a vice, and the Christian Endeavorer who 
 indulges in it, does so at the risk of going so far 
 down that he can never come back. 
 
 Dancing is beneath you. Yes, you can dance, 
 but you must go away down from your present 
 manhood and womanhood to do it. A young 
 lady once asked me if I thought it any 
 harm to dance. I said, "would you think 
 it any harm for me to dance ?" and what would 
 you think if I should announce the dance to which 
 you and I were to go, from the pulpit next Sunday 
 morning?" "Oh/ said she, "I wouldn't have you do 
 that for anything in the world. It would be per- 
 fectly shocking." "Well, then," said I, "You have 
 given the answer to your own question. It is per- 
 fectly shocking." "Well, then," said she, "What 
 makes the boys like to dance so well ?" Said I, "My 
 dear girl, boys do not like to dance." "Oh, yes, they 
 certainly do." "No," said I, "you could not get the 
 boys to dance for pay; boys do not like to dance, 
 and I know it." "Well, then," said my fair in- 
 quirer, "what makes them dance so much?" "Just 
 
THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 89 
 
 to get to hug you, that's all." You take the girl out 
 of the dance and you will take the dance out of the 
 boy. Men will not dance with each other; they en- 
 joy the hug, and I sometimes think the girls do too ! 
 But when it comes to that, I would rather have mine 
 in the good old fashioned way of the days gone by. 
 Amos E. Wells, of the Golden Rule has said: 
 "Dancing— like all Gaul — is divided into three 
 parts: One-third is esthetic, one-third is physical 
 exercise, one-third is sensual." The distinguished 
 gentleman was evidently speaking of the dance in 
 its early stages, for at last it is all sensual. Men 
 will play cards without women, play base ball, and 
 foot ball, and polo, and every other kind of game 
 alone, but they will not dance without women. Dr. 
 Howard Crosbv said : "The foundation for the vast 
 amount of domestic misery and domestic crime 
 which startles us often in its public out-croppings, 
 was laid when parents allowed the sacredness of 
 their daughters' persons and the purity of their 
 maiden instincts to be rudely shocked in the waltz." 
 The Presbyterian Board published the following: 
 "The dancing school, instead of being called a school 
 of easy manners, ought rather to be styled a place 
 where girls are taught to substitute the finesse of the 
 coquette for true feminine delicacy, and where boys 
 take their primary lessons in the art of seduction." 
 "Women of virtue or self respect," wrote Mrs. Gen. 
 W. T. Sherman to the author of "The Dance of 
 Death," will now blush to have the dance named to 
 them. An amusement which leads, in any case, to 
 such results as you have pointed out should be 
 forever discountenanced." An ex-dancing master, 
 
90 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 
 
 Mr. T. A. Faulkner, once proprietor of the Los An- 
 geles Dancing Academy and ex-president of the 
 Dancing Masters' Association of the Pacific Coast, 
 gives it as his deliberate conviction that "two-thirds 
 of the girls who are ruined, fall through the influence 
 of dancing." The matron of a home for fallen 
 women in Los Angeles, declares that "Seven-tenths 
 of the girls received there have fallen through danc- 
 ing and its influence." Of the 2,500 abandoned 
 women of San Francisco, Professor LaFloris testi- 
 fies: "1 can safely say that three-fourths of these 
 women were led to their downfall through the in- 
 fluence of dancing." The chief of police of the City 
 of New York is authority for the statement that 
 "three-fourths of the abandoned girls of New York 
 were ruined by dancing." And Archbishop Spauld- 
 ing, of New York, is reported to have said that 
 "nineteen out of twenty of the fallen women who 
 come to the confessional have ascribed their fall 
 from virtue to the influence of the dance." 
 
 Who can tell the number who have stepped 
 from the ball room into the grave yard. Consump- 
 tions and swift neuralgies are close on their track. 
 The breath of the sepulchre is on every whirl of the 
 giddy maze and the froth of death lurks in every 
 contact of the sex, to say nothing of the moral rot- 
 tenness and social impurity it creates, fosters, and 
 spreads abroad. Young People of the Christian 
 Endeavor Society hear me to-night when I say, the 
 dance is far below your manhood and womanhood. 
 Be In-Right, Out-Right, Up-Right, and Down-Right 
 and you will be Ail-Right. 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER. 
 
 Looks are quite suggestive. They indicate char- 
 acter and feeling. When the "Hoosier School 
 Master" "spelled down Jeems Phillips" one suffo- 
 cating look from the aqueous eyes of Mirands Mean, 
 destroyed all his interest in the occasion, and took 
 out of his heart the last spark of pleasure in his 
 great victory and sent that awful below zero feeling 
 clear through him. The old time "sheep's eyes/' 
 have given place to a more dreadful look, called 
 the "goo-goo" eyes, by which I suppose is meant, 
 an ogling, simpering, tittering, blushing, snickering, 
 silly, love sick look, all in one. A look saved the 
 snake-bitten Israelites in the wilderness from an 
 awful death. A look brought them illumination, 
 "they looked unto Him and were lightened." A look 
 brings salvation to the soul, "Look unto me and be 
 ye saved." Looking at the things which are seen 
 makes us worldly minded, while looking at the 
 things which are not seen makes us spiritually 
 minded. 
 
 On his circuit in Louisiana, the Rev. D. Devinne 
 found a settler who had been reproved by Fletcher of 
 Madley for profanity ; he was "struck dumb" by the 
 look of the vicar, and though he afterwards went 
 to sea, forgot the words of the rebuke, and was 
 recklessly wicked, that look never escaped his mind. 
 "It followed him everywhere, into whatever part of 
 the world he went, and annoyed him in all his sins." 
 On penetrating Louisiana, and hearing the Metho- 
 
92 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 dist itinerant fifty years later, the remembered 
 u look" overpowered him. 
 
 The thieves looked upon the traveler going from 
 Jerusalem to Jerico with a look of greed. They 
 wanted what he had. The priest looked upon him 
 with perfect indifference; he cared nothing whatever 
 for his suffering, but passed him by with an absolute 
 indifference to his condition or to the outcome of 
 it all. The Levite looked upon him with an empty 
 sympathy; he came to the place and looked, but 
 did not help. The Samaritan looked upon him with 
 compassion; his heart was stirred with pity. Here 
 we have four classes of individuals looking upon 
 the same man, but each with a different look. The 
 man did some looking too, and his looks were in 
 keeping with the looks of those who looked upon him. 
 He looked upon the thieves with a look of terror. 
 Who can describe the feeling of the poor man's heart 
 when he saw that gang of robbers with black caps 
 and heavy clubs rush out upon him. He looked upon 
 the priest with expectation. He had a perfect right 
 to expect the priest to help him. They were of the 
 same race and religion, and they were men. And 
 besides this, the priest made a profession of goodness 
 and was thereby under obligation to help him. He 
 looked upon the Levite with disappointment ; his 
 heart must have sunk within him when the Levite 
 came so close to him and then failed to help him. 
 He looked upon the Samaritan with gratitude. He 
 helped him, and out of the fallen, bleeding man's 
 heart went a gratitude that was forcefully expressed 
 in his looks. 
 
 It is said of Jesus Christ, that he entered into 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 93 
 
 Jerusalem and into the temple, and when he had 
 looked around about upon all things, "he went out." 
 The comprehensiveness of this act makes one feel that 
 he is girt about with all seeing eyes. The silence of 
 the act almost frightens us. Jesus came into the city 
 and into the temjjle, and looked about on all things, 
 and never said a word. That is the most significant 
 thing he ever did! When men speak to me, there 
 is a way of understanding what they mean. But there 
 is even among men, looks that are mysterious, and 
 incomprehensible! There are some glances shot 
 from human eyes that trouble the beholder! Can 
 guilt endure the silent inquiring gaze of innocent 
 eyes? Does not the corrupt man fear the eye of 
 the just man more than he does the fire, or the flood, 
 the court or the prison? The look of the preacher 
 should mean something. The honest, earnest man, 
 should have a look peculiar to himself. Many a 
 sermon has failed to take effect because the preach- 
 er's face gave the lie to his voice. When Jesus 
 would rebuke Peter most severely, he did not cry 
 out, Shame! He did not say, "I cannot depend 
 upon your promises! I am ashamed of you! You 
 are always getting yourself and others into 
 trouble!" He said not a word, but turned and looked 
 upon Peter. There is little protection from the eye. 
 There is a protection from nearly every other source 
 of communication, but from the eye there is little or 
 none. We must look, and 
 
 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER IS ONE WHO 
 LOOKS AT HIMSELF. 
 
 There is a distinct selfhood, which everyone 
 
94 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 should feel ; a personality of which every one should 
 be conscious, and an individuality at which we 
 should often and carefully look. We spend too 
 much time in looking at others, and far too little 
 time in looking at ourselves. I think right here 
 would be a good time to give you the advice of 
 Cowper when he says, 
 
 "Beware of too sublime a sense 
 Of your own worth and consequence. 
 The man who dreams himself so great, 
 And his importance of such weight, 
 That all around in all that's done 
 Must move and act for him alone, 
 Will learn in school of tribulation, 
 The folly of his expectation." 
 
 We are by far the most interesting characters 
 our eyes have ever seen, and wiien we get one good 
 square look at ourselves, we shall wonder at the 
 things we see. Paul recognized this self-hood, this 
 distinct personality. He said "for me to live is 
 Christ." He may have said "I am a hunch-back. I 
 am near-sighted, and this old weather beaten barque 
 is soon to be wrecked, but I have a personality, a 
 self -hood that is distinctively my own; it is dif- 
 ferent from all others; it is in a sense independent 
 of all others; but it is a personality and it asserts 
 itself, has a purpose, a duty, and a destiny. Paul 
 very often looked at himself, and were he living to- 
 day in the flesh, he would be reckoned as "A Good 
 Looking Endeavorer." It is said of the prodigal 
 that "he came to himself," which in my way of 
 thinking is literally true. He came to see himself. 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 95 
 
 He did not see his rags nor his poverty,. nor his 
 friendless, homeless, destitute condition, nor the 
 pigs nor the pens, nor the slop nor the slush; he 
 saw himself; he saw his personality; his self -hood, 
 he got his eye on the prodigal, and off the things 
 with which he had been associated, and when he 
 saw himself he wanted to run away from himself, 
 and get into better company. No man sees himself 
 as he is, until the face of God shines upon him, and 
 in the light of that face he is sure to see who he is, 
 what he is, and what he is doing. The thieves on the 
 cross represent the necessity and advantage of 
 looking at one's self. One of the thieves did not see 
 himeslf at all. He saw only the cruel torture of the 
 cross; he raved and railed; he cursed and taunted. 
 The other looked upon himself, to see himself a thief 
 condemned to die, and piteously begged for mercy. 
 He was a good looking Endeavorer for he looked 
 upon himself. This looking at himself led him to see 
 his need and recognized the only source of supply. 
 It is a good look when one looks at himself. Not 
 long ago I was talking to a man who said to me, 
 "Now there are but two of us here, and I want to 
 tell you something just between ourselves." I said, 
 "There are more than two of us here!" He looked 
 astonished as well as to look around to see if any- 
 one beside ourselves were present. Then turning 
 to me he said, "You are mistaken, we are the only 
 persons present." I still insisted that there were 
 at least six of us present. When he demanded that 
 I explain I said, "Well, you are the man you are; 
 that is one; then, you are the man you think you 
 are, and that is another; then you are the man I 
 
96 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 think you are, that is three; then I am the man I 
 ain, and the man I think I am, and the man you 
 think I am, and that makes three more; and the 
 three on your side, and the three on my side makes 
 at least six." We must, if we would be Good Look- 
 ing Endeavorers look at ourselves. 
 
 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER IS ONE WHO 
 LOOKS AWAY FROM SELF. 
 
 He will take one good square look at himself, 
 at his motives, at his purposes, at his plans, at his 
 weakness, and then look to something better. It 
 is a fixed principle in the economy of grace, that one 
 must look away from self. In the long ago when the 
 serpents got among the Israelites, God told Moses 
 to put a brazen serpent on a pole, and that who- 
 soever would look to that serpent should live. I 
 think of Moses and the elders going through the 
 camp and calling to the poisoned and suffering 
 people to look up; I can almost hear them say, 
 "Look up! Look up! Look away from self and suf- 
 fering, to God's means of healing." Jesus was the 
 fulfillment of all the types, and he says "And I, if 
 I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." The 
 Good Looking Endeavorer w T ill look to Jesus. The 
 painter who undertakes to copy some masterpiece 
 of art sits down before the sketches, the outline upon 
 his own canvas, reproduces the coloring of the 
 model, adds item by item to his picture, constantly 
 looking upon the original, noting its quality and the 
 deficiencies of his ow T n work, till by scrupulous care, 
 and untiring endeavor, he reproduces a fac simile 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 97 
 
 of the original. Thus will the Christian Endeavorer 
 who wants to mould his life after the life of Christ, 
 and work out his character after the original de- 
 signs of the perfect model, ever look to Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Once upon a time a woman had a dream, in which 
 she fancied herself at the bottom of a deep pit. She 
 looked around to see if there were any way of get- 
 ting out; but in vain. Presently, looking upward, 
 she saw in that part of the heavens immediately 
 above the mouth of the pit, a beautiful bright star. 
 Steadily gazing at it, she felt herself to be gradually 
 lifted upward. She looked down to ascertain how 
 it was, and immediately found herself at the bottom 
 of the pit. Again her eye caught sight of the star, 
 and again she felt herself ascending. She had 
 reached a considerable height. Still desirous of an 
 explanation of so strange a phenomenon, she turned 
 her eve downward, and fell to the bottom with fear- 
 ful violence. On recovering from the effect of the 
 shock, she bethought herself as to the meaning of it 
 all, and once again turned her eye to the star, still 
 shining so brightly above, and yet once again felt 
 herself borne upward. Steadily did she keep her eye 
 upon its light, till, at length, she found herself out 
 of the horrible pit, and her feet safely planted on 
 the solid ground above. It taught her the lesson, 
 that, in the hour of danger and trouble, deliverance 
 is to be found and found only, by looking unto Jesus. 
 
 How inspiring and transforming to look away 
 from self to the Christ, and to stand perpetually 
 in his presence, and have the silent forces of trans- 
 
98 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 formation to do their perfect work in changing us 
 into his likeness and image; to feel ourselves grow- 
 ing up into the perfection of his manhood, and the 
 beauty of his life. No one ever forgets their first 
 impressions when standing before the statue of 
 Washington, or when looking into the Crypt at his 
 old home at Mt. Vernon. The mind will run back 
 to his heroic deeds and self sacrificing life; to his 
 struggles for the liberty of our country; the mind 
 will recall how his calm and well balanced genius, 
 nerved and led a nation poorly equipped for war, 
 through the dread ordeal of the Revolution, and 
 how his lofty unambitious spirit gave up all the 
 untold glories of future generations, resisting every 
 temptation to personal power, and consecrating his 
 "All" upon the altar of his country. The heart will 
 thrill, and a deep fervent inspiration will move it, 
 when before the representative of the great and good 
 Washington. But what is a Washington, compared 
 with a Christ? What is The Washington, compared 
 with The Christ? What is Our Washington, com- 
 pared with Our Christ? Look to Jesus for inspira- 
 tion, for power, for place, for safety, for heaven, 
 for manhood and womanhood; in a word, look to 
 Jesus for everything you need or desire. Henry Ward 
 Beecher tells of the time when he was a student in 
 Amherst college and a course of lectures was given 
 by the great Dr. Hitchcock. The subject of the 
 lectures was dyspepsia, the lecturer himself a con- 
 firmed dyspeptic. He taught the students that they 
 must weigh their meat, weigh their bread, measure 
 their drink, and run their appetites by a well regu- 
 lated rule. Mr. Beecher says, "It was not long 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING BNDEAVORER 99 
 
 until the students began to invest in scales and de- 
 velop dyspepsia." 
 
 Do you know the reason that so many Christian 
 Endeavorers, and Endeavor Societies have such bad 
 cases of spiritual dyspepsia? It is because they 
 have been looking at themselves, at their local inter- 
 ests rather than away from self and selfish interests 
 to the great Divine Christ. They are not Good Look- 
 ing Endeavorers who never look away from them- 
 selves, nor their societies. Suppose you were on 
 ship-board during a storm, and while the waves were 
 rolling, and the boat plunging and the white crests 
 were bursting, and the fire balls were falling from 
 the sky, and the heavens were a sheet of flame, and 
 the thunder's deafening peals were following hard 
 upon each other, and death, ghastly death, stared 
 you in the face, and a watery grave seemed the only 
 possibility, the captain would go looking for guid- 
 ance among the wheels of the engine, or the rigging 
 of the ship ! Why, you would say to him, "Captain, 
 you must look to your compass, you must, if it is 
 day time, consult the sun, and if night, you must 
 ask of the stars if the weather be fair, but now you 
 must look to your compass!" You might just as 
 well look in the hold of the ship for the north star, 
 as to your local society for the Sun of Eighteousness, 
 or to your own little life for guidance and inspira- 
 tion, when you have a case of spiritual dyspepsia. 
 Look away from self ; Look to Jesus. 
 
 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER, IS ONE WHO 
 LOOKS INTO THE GOSPEL MIRROR. 
 
 This, every Christian Endeavorer has promised 
 
 LofCi 
 
100 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 to do, and this he must do, if he is faithful as God 
 counts faithfulness. James tells us of those, who 
 look into the perfect law of liberty and immediately 
 turn away, forgetting what manner of men they 
 are. Did you look into the mirror before coming 
 here to-night? You didn't! Well you neglected a 
 very important duty. You do not know how you 
 look, and every one is obligated to look the best they 
 can. Beauty is a duty. You say you looked into the 
 glass before you started for the service? Well, that 
 was right. How did you look? Did you look like 
 a gentleman ? Then act like one. Did you look like 
 a lady? Then act like one. Did you look like a 
 Christian Endeavorer? Then act like one. Did you 
 look like a real Christian ? Then act like one. You 
 think that it is an easy thing to look into the per- 
 fect law of liberty, do you ? Well there is where you 
 are mistaken. The word "looketh" means to "stoop 
 along-side." It literally means, a peering. Some 
 men look into the gospel mirror and do not see any- 
 thing, because they do not look long enough. The 
 Bible will not give up its treasures to the casual 
 looker. The man who glances into the Bible sees 
 nothing. The man who secures the wisdom of this 
 great book is the one who looks long and intently; 
 never taking his eyes off until he sees what he is 
 looking for. He will say to you, "do not distrub me ; 
 if I turn my eyes away for one moment, I will not 
 get the truth of The Book. The Apostle would put 
 great emphasis upon this looking, by the use of the 
 word "continueth." The word "therein" is in italics, 
 and therefore we may cut it out, and that leaves us 
 to read the true meaning of Paul, who wants us to 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 101 
 
 continue peering, stooping, looking, with undivided 
 attention and unabated interest. In looking into 
 this wonderful book, we find instructions for every 
 sphere of life, home, state, church, social and busi- 
 ness. Entering the domain of home, it says, "hus- 
 bands love your wives." If some husbands were to 
 see this and obey it, their wives would be greatly 
 surprised. They have been loving wives all right 
 enough, but their wives, alas, have not for the last 
 several years had so much as a smile, and a kiss 
 would be as new and strange to them as in the days 
 of girlhood innocence. It says "wives submit your- 
 selves to your own husbands." Well, if that were done, 
 there would be less divorce proceedings and more 
 domestic felicity. To the children it says "Obey 
 your parents in the Lord ;" to the citizen it says, 
 "Bender unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's 
 and to God the things that are God's;" to 
 the fathers it says, "Fathers provoke not your chil- 
 dren to wrath" and to the Christian it has so much 
 to say that he must keep peering into it, or he will 
 miss very much that he should see. To all men it 
 says, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
 to you do ye even so to them." 
 
 In the fabulous records of pagan antiquity, we 
 read of a mirror endowed with properties so rare, 
 that by looking into it, its possessor could discover 
 any object which he wished to see, however remote; 
 and discover with equal ease persons and things 
 above, below, behind and before him. Such a mir- 
 ror, but infinitely more valuable than this fictitious 
 glass, do we possess in the Bible; by employing it 
 in a proper manner we may discern objects and 
 
102 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 events, past, present, and to come. Here we may 
 contemplate the all-enfolding circle of the eternal 
 mind, and behold a perfect portrait of Him whom 
 no mortal eye hath seen, drawn by his own unerring 
 hand. 
 
 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER, IS ONE WHO 
 
 LOOKS FOR OPPORTUNITIES FOR 
 
 GETTING GOOD. 
 
 Underlying all Christian service is the character 
 of the individual. It is but little use to try to do 
 good unless you are able to get good. There are 
 entirely too many trying to pump water out of dry 
 wells. This thing of always trying to be a Chris- 
 tian, must be an irksome task. The good looking 
 endeavorer, will keep his eyes open for opportuni- 
 ties to refresh his spiritual life. He will see streams 
 in the desert, and will gather fruit and flowers 
 where others see nothing but barreness ; he will hear 
 songs and receive impressions for good from the 
 silence and sources, which to others are cold and 
 without voice. The principle of evolution, involves 
 the principle of involution. That you cannot get 
 more sugar out of a barrel than has been put into 
 it, is true, nor can you get more good out of a 
 Christian Endeavorer than has been put into him. 
 Jesus uses two words which suggests the entire field 
 of experience and activity. He says "Come," and 
 then he says, "Go." "Come and get good, and then 
 go and do good." 
 
 There is great good to be gotten from the 
 public service. I mean the public worship of 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 103 
 
 the Church. There is no place known to me 
 where so much good can be gotten in so short a 
 time. Here are songs, prayers, sermons, anthems, 
 associations, inspirations, and suggestions, which 
 feed and nourish the soul, as nothing else can. And 
 then we must remember that it is God's appointed 
 way. It is by the foolishness of preaching that He 
 has planned to save the world. I know of no 
 pleasure so rich, no service so profitable, none so 
 hallowed^ so helpful, so constant in their supply as 
 the worship of God at the times and places ap- 
 pointed for it. Pleasant as the water brook to the 
 thirsty hart, so is it to approach unto the living 
 God. 
 
 There is a great opportunity for getting good 
 from our private devotions. When alone with 
 God and one lifts the heart in silent prayer and 
 thanksgiving, there comes into the life a power and 
 a joy, such as can come from no other source. One 
 of the great and pressing needs of our time and of 
 all times is for religious meditation, for more quiet 
 communion with God in one's own heart. Christ's 
 command to go alone into the closet and shut the 
 door upon the world has in it the secret of rich 
 blessings; blessings of strength, of hope, of power, 
 of life, of love, of faith, which no good looking en- 
 deavorer will overlook. 
 
 There is good to he gotten out of the socials. 
 We have come to think of socials as means of doing 
 good; and they are, but they are also means of 
 getting good, as well. The trouble with our socials 
 is that many of them are very unsocial. We suffer 
 ourselves to divide into little squads, we sit in 
 
104 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 little groups, and hold our little circles intact, and 
 defy any outside the select few to enter. Gold, and 
 houses, and lands, and ambition, and age, and place, 
 and many other things, separate men into classes, 
 and they sneak off into their little gulches, and we 
 condemn them for their sin and selfishness, but what 
 about the little divisions and clans, that are in evi- 
 dence in many of our so-called Endeavor Socials? 
 What a farce a Christian Endeavor Social is that 
 is not social! We are oftentimes separatists in- 
 stead of socialists, when we meet in the parlors or 
 dining halls of the church for a social ( ?) hour. 
 
 Amos R. Wells, that prince of the Endeavor 
 Social, has this to say, in his book "Social to Save :" 
 "The spirit of snobbishness will kill the socials of 
 any society. Christ would not be admitted to-day 
 into certain circles of so-called Christians, if he 
 came in the working clothes of a carpenter. God's 
 socials must be democratic, and the washerwoman's 
 daughter and the ashman's son must be made to 
 feel as much at home as the daughter of Senator 
 Biggun or the son of General Moneybags. Egotism, 
 the feeling that you are better than other people, 
 either on account of a better filled purse, or because 
 of a better filled head, or because of some other gift 
 of fortune or industry, will destroy any social — ■ 
 does kill every social that is dead at all. But in 
 place of this contemptible spirit the humble ac- 
 knowledgment of sinfulness and unworthiness, and 
 the glad perception that all for whom Christ died are 
 brothers and sisters in him, and you will have, you 
 cannot help having successful socials. I do not much 
 care what games you play, or whether you play at 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 105 
 
 all; what refreshments you serve, or whether you 
 let the overburdened stomach alone, and serve none 
 at all; sociability does not consist in forms and 
 trappings, but in the spirit. Forget yourselves; re- 
 member Christ; seek to win friends for him: this 
 is my recipe for a good social. Forget yourselves; 
 remembr Christ; seek to win souls for him" 
 
 Those of us who have felt it, know that there is 
 no joy so sweet as the joy of saving souls. There 
 is no pleasure quite so unalloyed, as the pleasure 
 that results from winning souls to Christ. But 
 there is good in everything; in song, in flower, in 
 brook, in joy, in sorrow, in pain, in disappointment; 
 in poverty, in riches, in hardship, in success, in 
 companionship, in solitude, in the socials, and the 
 good looking endeavorer will look for it, find it, and 
 get it out for his own heart. 
 
 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER, IS ONE WHO 
 LOOKS FOR OPPORTUNITIES FOR DOING GOOD. 
 
 It is not enough for us to get good, we must 
 do good. Some people's religion consists of two 
 things: Getting religion, and then boasting about 
 having it. God packs the sun full of heat and light, 
 and says to it, "Now shine," and the sun shines, 
 and the hills are tipped with glory, and the valleys 
 are flooded with light. God says to the heart : "You 
 pump up the blood, and then pump it out again." 
 And the heart does as it is bidden, and rivers of 
 rich red blood flow throughout the entire body. God 
 says to the flower, "I have filled you with fra- 
 grance, now emit it, so that every sense of life may 
 
106 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 be enriched." And the flower does as it is told, and 
 the air is redolent with the bloom of roses, and the 
 winds carry the sweet fragrance everywhere. So 
 the Christian Endeavorer must get good and do 
 good. Doing good includes two things: 
 
 First, Deeds of Mercy. Here is an element of our 
 religion that is very sadly neglected, and often ut- 
 terly disregarded. In our disregard for this ele- 
 ment, we have made our religion a religion of alms 
 giving; a religion of mouldy bread, and cast off 
 blankets. The church has been influenced by the 
 spirit and methods of the fraternity to her harm. 
 The fraternity lays no claim to a divine institution, 
 nor does it seek to deal with man's spiritual nature. 
 It has advice for him, and help for him, and the help 
 is in material things, and the appeal is often to the 
 gross and sensual plane of life, but as many live 
 down there the plan of help has become popular and 
 the church has tried to carry out the same plans, 
 and in so doing has neglected the more important 
 and diviner life it should live. In the time of Christ 
 on the earth, a woman was brought to him taken in 
 the very act of one of the most crying sins of that 
 or any other age of the world. She may have been 
 rich. We know that many of her kind today are 
 rich. She did not need alms; she did not need 
 bread; she did not need money; she did not need 
 clothes; she needed sympathy, love, mercy, charity, 
 and a help that would lift her out of her sins into 
 a life of purity. 
 
 There is many a poor down trodden woman, who 
 dresses in silks, lives in mansions, and rides behind 
 the prancing bays, whose life is a burden, and who 
 
THE OGOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 107 
 
 would, if she could, break away from her old life 
 and gladly enter into the new. She would spurn 
 your money and despise you for offering her bread, 
 but you go to her with your heart's sympathy, with 
 your love, and your tender mercy, and she will wel- 
 come you to her heart with an unfeigned love, and 
 her smile at your coming will be the radiance of an 
 angel's face when it looks into the life of God. 
 Jesus tells us of an ox that fell into the pit on the 
 Sabbath day. It might have been fed, and watered, 
 and cared for, and made comfortable, and all that, 
 but it would still have been an ox in a pit. What 
 it needed was some one to pull it out. I tell you, 
 if we are good looking endeavorers, we will look for 
 the man in the pit, and when we find him, we will 
 not feed him there, and bring him water, and care 
 for him, but we will reach down a strong arm to 
 him and help him out. There are men and women 
 in the pits of sin today, who have all the luxuries 
 the world affords. They do not need any material 
 thing, but they do need a helping hand, a sympa- 
 thetic life, a kindly word, an open heart and door, 
 and when they receive it, they will be glad and 
 grateful. Endeavorers go out and look for them. 
 Second. Deeds of Benevolence. Jesus was a 
 good looking endeavorer ; he saw the lame, the halt, 
 the blind, the deaf, the poor, and helped them. The 
 life of Jesus Christ, which had it been written, John 
 says, would have filled the whole earth, may be told 
 in this one sentence, "He went about doing good." 
 In this work He lived; for this end He died. This 
 mission of doing good drew Him from the skies; 
 this was "the joy set before Him" for which He 
 
108 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 wore the thorny crown, and bore His heavy cross. 
 And be it remembered, that none are His but those 
 that are baptized with this baptism ; — Not even you, 
 unless the same mind be in you that was in Jesus 
 Christ. The Perfection of his life is set forth 
 in his going about doing good. He person- 
 ally did it; — He did not content Himself with 
 doing good by proxy. He was not intermittent 
 in this matter, and this fact gives us an enterprise 
 and habit for life — Going about doing good. The 
 lame man mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles was 
 laid at the "Beautiful Gate." The world, as it went 
 by, saw only the charming scenery and the natural 
 advantages of the temple and its surroundings; the 
 artist saw the gate and raved over its beauty; the 
 scientist, saw the building and praised its architec- 
 ture, its solidity, and its appointments; but Chris- 
 tianity saw the poor beggar at the gate, and pro- 
 ceeded to help him. Christianity was the best look- 
 ing Endeavorer. One bitter cold night when the 
 sharp winds were whistling, and the loose boards on 
 the houses of the poor were rattling, the blinding 
 snow whirling in great sheets of white light in 
 the faces of the few belated people as they hurried 
 homeward, Henry Ward Beecher with quickened 
 footsteps pressed his way toward his comfortable 
 home in Brooklyn, N. Y.. As he crossed an alley, 
 there crept out of the shadows a little shivering form, 
 and with a voice cracked and cold, said "Will you 
 buy a paper please?" Mr. Beecher bought all the 
 papers the waif had to sell, and slipped a five dollar 
 gold piece into his cold hand for good measure. 
 "Are you not cold?" said the great preacher. "I 
 
THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 109 
 
 was sir, until I saw you/' answered the boy, "but 
 I am warm enough now." The next day, in telling 
 of the event, he said to his companions, "Boys, I 
 thought it was an angel." Would you be angels of 
 mercy? Then look for the poor, the helpless, the 
 cold, the destitute, the hungry, the sick, the dis- 
 couraged, and help them, and you will be minis- 
 tering spirits, sent of God to do good. 
 
 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER, IS ONE WHO 
 LOOKS FOR GOOD IN OTHERS. 
 
 More models and fewer critics, would be a bless- 
 ing to the Christian Endeavor Societies everywhere. 
 There is often an angel hidden in the stone which 
 God wants us to chisel out. The blind man whom 
 Jesus told to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, was 
 to the people, nothing more than a beggar, but to 
 Him who could see, he was a man of great power 
 and usefulness. Jesus saw the splendid possibili- 
 ties of that character, and proceeded to develop 
 them. For many years he had sat there and begged ; 
 his little tin cup had often rung with the touch of 
 the coin that some benevolent (?) Pharisee had 
 dropped into it. Jesus had no money, but he had 
 something better; he had an eye that could see 
 something good in the man upon whom all others 
 had looked as an object of charity. For many years, 
 David fed his father's flocks, and no one ever thought 
 of him as anything more than a shepherd boy, until 
 God sent Samuel to look for a king. The king had 
 been there all the time, but no one had gone to the 
 trouble of looking for him. No one ever saw any- 
 
110 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 
 
 thing more in Saul of Tarsus than a cold, calcu- 
 lating, scholarly Pharisee, until God wanted an 
 Apostle to the Gentiles, and he found it in him whom 
 no one had ever thought worthy. We had a man 
 amongst us, who was in his young life very unprom- 
 ising. He was a common ox driver among the hills 
 of Adams county, Ohio. The Rev. Mr. Daugherty 
 thought he saw in him a preacher, and a man of 
 great worth to the church. He spoke to him about 
 what he saw in him, and of what he thought God 
 wanted him to do. At first the young man was in- 
 different and even obstinate, saying, "Yes, I think 
 God wants me to drive these oxen and haul logs 
 to the mill." But at last the man was found, the 
 good was located, and the character developed, and 
 he rose to place and influence amongst us, as few 
 men have ever done. He was on orator, an editor, 
 a writer, a preacher, and no one ever heard the Eev. 
 A. W. Coan, speak of God and man, who did not 
 rejoice that the good that was in him had been seen 
 and saved to righteousness. John B. Gough, that 
 indefatigable temperance worker, that silver tongued 
 orator, that prince among men; that splen- 
 did Christian character, was, I am told contem- 
 plating suicide, so burdened had his life become; 
 but he was followed by a good looking preacher, who 
 saw in him something worth saving, and John B. 
 Gough was glad to say, that he thought it paid to 
 save him. There is something good in every life, 
 and if you want to be a good looking endeavorer 
 
 GO LOOK FOR IT. 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER. 
 
 Among the beautiful and helpful services of the 
 Christian Endeavor Society, is the Consecration ser- 
 vice, which occurs once a month. At these special 
 meetings, the subject of the consecrated life is made 
 prominent, and each member is expected to take 
 some part "aside from singing." If a member can- 
 not be present at the monthly consecration meeting 
 ,of the society, he is expected to send at least a 
 verse of scripture to be read in response to his name 
 at the roll call. 
 
 The word, consecrate, means "to devote," "to 
 separate," "to fill the hand," "to dedicate," "to 
 make new," "to make perfect." The word, and 
 the life for which it stands, received a new bap- 
 tism in the 'birth of Christian Endeavor. As in- 
 terpreted by the Christian Endeavor Society, it has 
 come to have a new meaning and a new purpose. 
 The purpose of consecration is divine. It came 
 from God and is a child of heaven. The supreme 
 need of the pulpit to-day, is a consecrated ministry ; 
 the supreme need of the pew, is a consecrated laity ; 
 the supreme need of the Young People's Society 
 of Christian Endeavor, is a consecrated mem- 
 bership; the supreme need of each individual 
 is a consecration full and complete to the work of 
 saving souls. Our church machinery is ponder- 
 ous and of the most improved character; our array 
 of formal ceremonies are imposing ; but the fire of en- 
 thusiasm burns low, the power is weak, the music is 
 
112 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 dull and spiritless, the Sword of the Spirit is well 
 nigh out of business in some of our modern assem- 
 blies, and the pulpit and the pew have ceased to 
 be an effectual weapon against sin. A baptism of 
 the Spirit upon the pulpit and pew would add more 
 to the efficiency of the church and the power of the 
 pulpit, than all the titles ever conferred by human 
 schools. It is not ceremonial precision, but spiritual 
 power, that the church needs to make it a soul- 
 winning institution. This baptism of the Spirit can 
 never come until all the tithes are brought into the 
 store house; in other words the windows of heaven 
 cannot be opened until all we have, and are, is con- 
 secrated to God. 
 
 A full consecration, one that is entire, means 
 to be, to do and to suffer. This embraces reputation, 
 friends, property, time and talent. It includes body 
 and soul. These are to be used when, where and as 
 God requires. The words which best express the 
 fulness of such consecration are altar and "sacrifice." 
 Paul says, we are "to present our bodies a living 
 sacrifice unto God." The body is to be put into right 
 relations with God, and the soul into right relations 
 to things infinite and eternal. 
 
 Thus, the entire life — physical, mental and 
 spiritual, is consecrated. We are to build character 
 and consecrate it to God. We are to keep our bodies 
 in a healthful condition, free from the stench and 
 stain of tobacco, the corrupting influence of the 
 cigarette, and the curse of rum, and consecrate them 
 to God. The flesh must be broken down, subdued, 
 overruled, refined, glorified ; and then offered to God, 
 a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable unto Him. 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 113 
 
 This must be a living sacrifice ; the consecration of a 
 body in which every member is complete and doing 
 its work, simply, lovingly, obediently; the whole 
 body alive, but controlled, disciplined and conse- 
 crated to the highest and sweetest uses. 
 
 The old sacrifice required a bullock which was 
 easly enough slain, but we are to consecrate a spir- 
 itual sacrifice, even, of our bodies, minds and souls. 
 This consecration does not mean that our pars are to 
 be closed to music, nor our eyes to beauties. We are 
 to open the ear to the music, and the eye to the 
 charming scene of nature and art. It does not 
 mean hiding away from the amusements and the 
 entertainments of life, but we are to say to them; 
 What are you ? What can you do ? We were once on 
 a level with you, but are now above you. Once you 
 dragged us about as with a cart rope, but now we 
 are living sacrifices, consecrated to God, and you 
 lead us no more. We are not depleted or disabled 
 men and women, but we are full and complete; 
 crowned kings and queens unto God, and have that 
 highest of all sovereignty, the sovereignty of our- 
 selves. 
 
 THIS CONSECRATION MUST BE PERPETUAL. 
 
 We cannot consecrate ourselves in advance. 
 That is to say, what I am now, I must consecrate 
 now. What I am tomorrow must be consecrated 
 tomorrow. I shall be different tomorrow from what 
 I am today; and unless I am better in every way, 
 stronger, richer, and more Christlike, something has 
 failed me, or I have failed in the application of 
 
114 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 forces and conditions to my life. What I shall be 
 tomorrow depends upon what I am today, and what 
 I am today is the aggregate result of all the in- 
 fluences of all my past life. Represented in my char- 
 acter today, are all the places, companions, books, 
 thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds, of my past life. 
 This is what I am, and this is what I must lay upon 
 the altar. We must get away from ourselves of 
 today, get out into broader aisles and wider spheres. 
 We must get away from the cradles of to-day, into 
 the activities of tomorrow. We should not stay in 
 the cradle of life. The cradle may be a silver one, 
 with rockers of gold. It may be perfect in propor- 
 tion, and elegant in trimming, but it is a cradle 
 nevertheless. There was a time when it was roomy 
 enough. It was house and home, palace and fortress, 
 but we should not be babies, always drinking the 
 sincere milk of the word, but men full grown, and 
 women beautiful in form and face, and the cradle 
 is no place for us ; and it is not enough to consecrate 
 it and its tiny occupant to God ; we must consecrate 
 men and women, who can eat the strong meat of the 
 Gospel. What a helpless thing a baby is, anyway! 
 What a little tyrant he is ! He keeps everybody busy 
 waiting on him. He is absolute monarch. The 
 mother cannot go out, the servant cannot sleep; 
 often the father and child take a lonely midnight 
 walk. 
 
 The father does the walkin, 
 And the baby does the squakin. 
 
 So there are Christians who always want help. 
 The deacons must carry salt in one hand and sugar 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 115 
 
 in the other. The pastor must carry a bottle of 
 gospel milk in his pocket and a tiny spoon in his 
 hand. They are always sore, and hurt somewhere. 
 They have a sort of a spiritual colic that has to be 
 dosed with comforting words, and poulticed with 
 flattery and intimations that the church would die 
 without them. Well, I love babies. God never gave 
 to home or church a better thing than a baby — a 
 ray of morning light — a sunset stream of gold — a 
 song from the choir of the summer land — a rosebud 
 in human hearts, and a good many other things; 
 but God never intended them always to remain 
 babies. Here in this home is a little one fresh from 
 the heart of God, it is six months old, rosy and 
 chubby, it cannot speak, it cannot walk, it can do 
 nothing. But we are not troubled about that, for 
 we know that it is natural. But suppose that at 
 the end of two years it is only rosy and chubby. 
 That it has not grown any at all, and that it needs 
 just as much care and attention as when but six 
 months old, would we not conclude that something 
 was fearfully wrong with it? That rosebud of the 
 sky, which at the age of six months was a joy to 
 all, is now a source of anxious thought, and deep 
 concern for its mother, and her friends. We rejoice 
 w r hen the boy of six can say his a. b. c. but if at 
 fifteen or twenty he can only say his a. b. c. we are 
 troubled in a sense and turn from him. He has not 
 grown, he has not developed, he is not worth con- 
 secrating to anything. So God does not want 
 babies, if babies have had opportunity to grow into 
 men and women. 
 
 What we are now, what we have now, what we 
 
116 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 can do now, must be consecrated to God and his 
 service. We could not consecrate it before we had 
 it. I cannot consecrate a manhood I have not de- 
 veloped; I cannot give a dollar that is not mine; 
 I cannot lay upon the altar something I have not 
 got, and may never get; but what I have must be 
 given to God at the time I have it. The Christian 
 Endeavorer who is not willing to make such a con- 
 secration and unless he actually adds the execution 
 to the will by a formal and decided act, has evi- 
 dently come short of the one supreme idea of con- 
 secration. 
 
 The Rev. Charles Wesley in a most decided and 
 accurate way sets forth the act of consecration as 
 follows : 
 
 "If so poor a worm as I 
 
 May to thy glory live, 
 
 All my actions sanctify, 
 
 All my words and thoughts receive; 
 
 Claim me for Thy service, Claim 
 
 All I have, and all I am. 
 
 "Take my soul and body's powers; 
 Take my memory, mind and will; 
 All my goods and all my hours, 
 All I know, and all I feel; 
 All I think, or speak, or do; 
 Take my heart; — but make it new. 
 
 "Now, O God, Thine own I am; 
 Now I give Thee back Thine own; 
 Freedom, friends and health, and fame, 
 Consecrated to Thee alone: 
 Thine I live, thrice happy I! 
 Happier still if Thine I die." 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 117 
 
 THIS CONSECRATION GIVES TO LIFE ONE SUPREME 
 
 PURPOSE. 
 
 The man who makes a consecration of himself 
 to God, will henceforth make up his mind to do one 
 thing, he may do a hundred other things, but one 
 thing he will do. He will determine like Paul, not 
 to know anything among men but Jesus Christ and 
 him crucified. Men perish intellectually and Chris- 
 tians die spiritually, for want of a dominating 
 thought. Many a young man today is wandering 
 about the world, doing nothing, because he is desti- 
 tute of a sovereign purpose, a controlling influence. 
 If like David, he had only one desire and like him 
 seek after it with an undivided heart and conse- 
 crated effort, his whole course in life would be glori- 
 fied, his character dignified, and his usefulness in- 
 creased manyfold. All the great men and women of 
 history have had one supreme purpose, and to the 
 accomplishment of that one supreme purpose they 
 consecrated all their energies. They set objects be- 
 fore themselves, and then worked to accomplish the 
 task. Life to the man or woman who has a purpose, 
 is worth the living. They never ask the question as to 
 the worth of living, they bless humanity and honor 
 God. A young person with one purpose in life 
 moves with determination and steadily forges ahead. 
 In starting in life every young person should set 
 out to effect some worthy purpose. They should 
 stamp on their minds and engrave on their hearts 
 some grand aim and object to be accomplished while 
 on the earth, and to this one thing they should give 
 
118 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 their entire service. As Paul puts it, "This one 
 thing I do." 
 
 To illustrate — Here is a man who goes to New 
 York, or Boston to make money. He is fixed in his 
 purpose and well defined in his thought. He says 
 what I may do in other matters I cannot tell, I am go- 
 ing to New York or Boston to make money, and every 
 thing else must bend to that. Will you not go into 
 some of the museums? I may. Will you not visit 
 some of the splendid art galleries? Possibly, all 
 depends. Depends upon what? Why, how such 
 things effect the one purpose for which I go. That 
 in a religious sense is what consecration will do for 
 us. It will hold us to the main track. It will anchor 
 us to the bed-rock of eternal truth. 
 
 It was Samuel Cunard, of Glasgow, who was 
 determined to build ships. He had nothing but a 
 penknife, but he whittled out little boats. He was a 
 poor boy, but he was ever examining ships. He 
 loved ships, and when he loved them enough his 
 future was all settled. Samuel Cunard was a poor 
 youug man, when they asked him for the design for 
 the first Cunard steamship. Then he was employed 
 in the company, and then he really became the com- 
 pany, and for forty-five years his steamships went all 
 over the seas of the world, and never lost a passen- 
 ger, having in all 107 steamers on the seas of the 
 world. He loved ship building so much that nothing 
 else would answer for him. Others have loved ship 
 building. But they did not love it enough. 
 
 A supreme purpose always ennobles character. 
 In the sight of God and man, character has always 
 been, and always will be, of first importance. Every 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 119 
 
 young man should consecrate his life to the building 
 up of a good strong character; a character for hon- 
 esty, temperance, truthfulness, frugality, benevo- 
 lence, purity, industry, and good habits. If the 
 character is kept clean and the conscience clear, 
 every man and woman can be squarely faced, and 
 every obstacle successfully met. No one ever has 
 to run away from a good character and a clear con- 
 science. A good character will always baffle lies, 
 and defy unjust criticism. A good character will al- 
 ways stand as a monument of truth and right; and 
 it will be the one thing in the end of life that will 
 be most appreciated by its possessor and those who 
 survive him. No matter hoy/ noble the character, it 
 is always made better by a religious experience and 
 a consecrated service. By this consecration the 
 whole range of thought is lifted to a higher plane, 
 and the entire life receives tone and power. To me, 
 it is sad, to see a purposeless unconsecrated life. 
 Can you see that stately vessel; magnificent in its 
 trappings, and grand in its proportions? Listen to 
 the pulsations of that heart of steel, and the breath- 
 ing of those lungs of solid fibre. That vessel is the 
 personification of greatness and the expressed 
 thought of usefulness. We approach the captain 
 and ask, "When do you sail?" "Today." "Where 
 do you go?" "Don't know!" "Where will you 
 land?" "Oh, most anywhere that fancy or desire 
 may suggest !" "With what are you loaded ?" "Oh, 
 everything! We could not select!" What is the 
 character of the crew and passengers?" "All kinds; 
 good, bad, rich, poor, cut throats, liars, thieves, thugs, 
 villians, gamblers, drunkards, prostitutes, and de- 
 
120 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 ceivers !" "When will you return ?" "Never-" That 
 purposeless, uneonsecrated young life, is such a ship. 
 Built after God's plan of greatness and usefulness. 
 It is launched upon the shoreless sea of time! It 
 sails, never to return! From the ports of infancy, 
 childhood, youth, school, vigor, early associations 
 and enjoyments, it goes, and to them it never re- 
 turns ! It may wail out, 
 
 "Backward, turn backward, O time in your flight! 
 And make me a child again just for tonight." 
 
 but the ship of life sails on. We ask the young man 
 the same questions we asked the captain, and to 
 our utter astonishment and dismay, receive the same 
 answers ! Going, he knows not, nor cares not where ! 
 Will load his life with anything that may please his 
 fancy or desire! Hope, avarice, passion, hatred, 
 love, caprice, deceit, intrigue, voluptiousness, con- 
 cupiscense, etc., etc., and that, too, with the full 
 knowledge that he will never return! Somewhere 
 on the rock bound coasts of death, where shoals 
 abound and vultures feed, a wrecked and ruined life 
 will some sad day be found. In one of my old 
 books I find the following picture of an uneonse- 
 crated life drawn by E. Palmer: 
 
 "Go to some man now past the meridian of life, 
 whose character and habits, with the Divine bless- 
 ing, have made him honored and successful. He was 
 one of a band, more or less numerous, who set out 
 in life together. They came forth from their homes 
 and from the school room differing, perhaps, but 
 little either in their talents or acquirements. Ask 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 121 
 
 him to tell you where those, his early associates are 
 now, and what he remembers of their history. Ah ! 
 how painful the recollection and the recital! One, 
 he will say, as he brings back the half forgotten 
 past, looked on the wine when it was red, and he 
 went early to the drunkard's grave. Another yielded 
 to the love of vain display ; and after a brief career 
 of brilliant folly and extravagance, he passed by 
 bankruptcy to poverty, and was soon forgotten by 
 the world. A third indulged, at first, in some trifling 
 dishonesty, and then he was led on, till he became a 
 villian, and finally went to prison, to an ignominious 
 death. A fourth gave loose rein to sensual appetite; 
 and then from impurity of thought and word, he went 
 on step by step till he suffered the miseries, and met 
 at last, the fate of the worn-out profligate. A fifth 
 was taken in the gambler's snare, and fell by sui- 
 cide. A sixth — but why should I go on? So daily 
 perish, on life's broad arena, the hopes of fathers 
 and mothers ! So sink into the depths of shame and 
 ruin many who should have shone as brilliant stars 
 in the galaxy of intellect — should have found a place 
 among the noblest spirits that have ever done honor 
 to humanity and climbed the enviable heights of 
 fair renown. The roadside of life is all whitened 
 with the bones of the multitudes who have fallen 
 thus, having made, by their own missteps, an utter 
 wreck of their hopes, their characters, and their all. 
 With such evidence of the perils of life, can it be 
 doubted that youth requires a guide with a friendly 
 hand to lead them? Young people anchor your 
 lives; consecrate them this day unto the Lord. 
 
122 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 IN THE CONSECRATION OF SELF, WHICH WE THIS 
 NIGHT SHALL MAKE, LET US REMEMBER THAT 
 JESUS APPRECIATES WHAT WE DO FOR EACH 
 OTHER AS HAVING BEEN DONE FOR HIMSELF. 
 
 The world is good at planning cemeteries, build- 
 ing mausoleum, crypt, monument, and statuary; 
 but Christ wants the lawyers to do like the Samari- 
 tan, and his followers to escape the sad experiences 
 of his own life. The world that gave Christ a costly 
 tomb in which to rest a few hours, could have given 
 him a decent residence in which to live, but it did 
 not. If they had used half the cost of that sepul- 
 chre in making Christ's life comfortable on earth, 
 he would not have said, a the foxes have holes and 
 the birds of the air have nests but the son of man 
 hath not where to lay his head." We do not want a 
 consecration that means only stately piles of stone 
 and beautiful monuments for the dead, but a conse- 
 cration that means help for the fallen man by the 
 wayside ; one that includes oil, wine, beast and hotel 
 bills. One that will enable us to write in the dust, 
 while proud self righteous pharisees and miserable, 
 mean pretenders, pompously accuse wayward 
 women. We want a consecration that means less 
 tombstone, and more bread; less mortuary honors, 
 and more blankets ; less funeral, and more bed room ; 
 more taffy for the living, and less epitaphy for the 
 dead. One-half the amount now spent at a Burns 
 banquet, would have kept the great Scotch poet com- 
 fortable for years, and saved him the dreadful ex- 
 periences of poverty and toil. Horace Greely was 
 outrageously abused while he lived, but was followed 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 123 
 
 to the tomb by the president of the United States, 
 and the leading men of the army and navy. Bitter 
 things for the living, and sentimental things for the 
 dead, seems to be the way of the world. Massa- 
 chusetts, at the grave of Charles Sumner, tried to 
 atone for the ignominious resolutions with which 
 the legislature denounced the living senator. It was 
 too late. The consecration of a state's tears and 
 eulogies, came too late to do him any good. The 
 costly monument at Springfield, 111., consecrated by 
 the tears and prayer of a grief stricken nation, can- 
 not compensate for Boothe's bullet, and the unkind 
 words that were thrust into Lincoln's heart, like so 
 many spears in the hands of Roman soldiers. Costly 
 tomb is that on the banks of Lake Erie an honor to 
 this nation, but it in no sense compensates for the 
 assassin's bullet, and the bitter experiences of Gar- 
 field's life. The McKinley monument, must be the 
 greatest the nation's wealth, wisdom, power and love 
 can build; but build it mountain high, overlay it 
 with gold and stud it with diamonds, yet it will not 
 compensate for the sharp, cutting piece of lead, that 
 went tearing through the heart of the man 
 we all loved so well. We want a consecra- 
 tion that means justice to the living, bread for 
 the hungry, clothes for the naked, homes for the des- 
 titute, charity for the erring, love for the wayward, 
 schools for the ignorant, churches for the poor, 
 strength for the weak, kind words for the discour- 
 aged, and a Christ for all men. All the justice and 
 kindness for our lives must be this side the grave. 
 The dead cannot look out of the hearse windows, and 
 count the carriages in the procession, or see the 
 
124 5 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 polish on the granite, or read the epitaph on the 
 stone. "I would rather have one little button-hole 
 boquet pinned on the lapel of my coat, so that my 
 eyes could behold its beauty, and my nostrils, inhale 
 its fragrance, than to have a ton of roses, and 
 and wreaths placed on my casket." 
 
 Here and now is our opportunity. Who is will- 
 ing to consecrate his service "this day" unto the 
 Lord? Pure religion is more than a doctrine, more 
 than sentiment, ritual, code of action, or ceremony. 
 
 The orphans are around our church doors, hun- 
 gry and thirsty; and the widow wails in the street. 
 Our consecration must mean room for them. We 
 must kindle fires on their cold hearth stones, and 
 warm them into life by our kindly deeds. Our 
 consecration must take us to the man fallen among 
 thieves, and as we look upon him, poor bleeding and 
 dying, say to us, 
 
 "Give him a lift, don't kneel in prayer, 
 Or moralize on his despair; 
 The man is down, and his great need, 
 Is ready help, not prayer nor creed. 
 
 "'Tis time when the wounds are washed and healed, 
 That the saintly motives be revealed, 
 But now, what e're the spirit may be, 
 Mere words are but a mockery. 
 
 "One grain of aid to him is more 
 Just now, than tomes of earthly store; 
 Pray if you must in your full heart, 
 But give him a lift, give him a start. 
 
 "The world is full of good advice, 
 Of prayers, and praise and preaching nice, 
 But the generous soul that aids mankind, 
 Is scarce as gold, and as hard to find." 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 125 
 
 But there is another phase of this consecration 
 well worthy of our consideration, namely, What we 
 have is to he conseci~ated. We so often hesitate to 
 do what we could, because we cannot do what we 
 want to do. We forget that all great works are 
 done by serving God with what we have in hand. 
 God wanted a man to go to Pharaoh. Moses was 
 keeping sheep in Midian; God said, "You go;" but 
 he shrank from the undertaking. He had nothing in 
 his hand but a shepherd's rod, cut out of a thicket, 
 with which he guided his sheep. Any day he might 
 throw it away, and cut a better one. God said, " 
 What is in thy hand?? With this rod, with this 
 stick, thou shalt serve Israel," and so it proved. 
 
 "What is in thine hand ?" said God to Shamgar. 
 "An ox-goad, with which I urge my lazy beasts." 
 "Use it for me," and Shamgar's ox-goad defeats the 
 Philistines. 
 
 "What is in thine hand David?" "My sling, 
 with which I keep the wolves from the sheep." Yet 
 with that sling he slew Goliath, of whom an army 
 had been afraid. 
 
 "What is in thine hand, disciples?" "Nothing 
 but five barley loaves, and two small fishes." "Bring 
 them to me," said the Christ, "and with them do 
 the best you can," and the multitude was fed. 
 
 What is in thine hand, poor woman? Only an 
 alabaster box of ointment. Give it to God. Break 
 it, do what you can with it, and the perfume thereof 
 shall fill the church forever. 
 
 Dorcas, what hast thou? Only my needle. 
 That's enough. Use it for God, and the garments 
 for the poor shall be multiplied throughout all time. 
 
126 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 Pastor, what hast thou? An opportunity to 
 visit the sick ; well, do not fail in that, and in heaven 
 thy reward shall be sure. 
 
 Young people, what have you? Only happy, 
 hopeful hearts, a few songs and flowers. Well con- 
 secrate them this day to the service of God, and the 
 melody of your songs shall never cease, and the 
 fragrance of your flowers shall fill the whole earth. 
 
 We must not wait until we have fortune and 
 fame to consecrate to God, we must consecrate what 
 we have now. Bring forth everything separately — 
 yourself, your family, your reputation, your prop- 
 erty; relinquish all claim, and surrender the whole 
 to God, to use and enjoy them only as he directs, 
 and then, and then only, will your consecration be 
 acceptable to Him. This is the task that Jesus sets 
 for us, and his own life is our example. He was 
 poorer than the poor ; "f oxes had holes, and the birds 
 of the air had nests, but the Son of Man had not 
 where to lay his head ;" and yet no life ever blessed 
 humanity as did his: no power ever lifted the race 
 to such heights, as did the power of his consecrated 
 words and deeds. He taught the world a better les- 
 son, and a truer way. He showed that it was not 
 a material power that was to lift this poor sin 
 cursed world above itself, and relate it to God, but 
 consecrated life and love. When Peter and John 
 were asked by the lame man at the beautiful gate for 
 alms, Peter replied, that silver and gold they had 
 none, but what they had was to be shared by 
 every unfortunate man of the world. Well if they 
 did not have silver and gold, what did they have, that 
 was worth having? Peter said that it was 
 
THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORBR 127 
 
 something better. They had divine energy, 
 spiritual life, social sympathy, consecrated man- 
 hood. We must remember that words warm as 
 well as blankets ! that fires are kindled with love as 
 well as with matches ! Bear this in mind that he who 
 has benedictions for poor discouraged hearts, has 
 at least, gone up toward the manhood of the Christ. 
 To spend an hour with some lonely heart ; to create 
 an atmosphere of love and friendship, around the 
 solitary traveler; to lift the burden for one short 
 moment only, from the overloaded back, is to do as 
 the Master would have us do, and by such deeds only 
 do we reveal the better angel of our nature. If you 
 would come up to the offering of the evening sacri- 
 fice with glowing thankful hearts, ready to receive 
 any suggestion that the Spirit would make, then 
 spend the preceding hours in doing good to those who 
 sit in the shadows,and dwell alone in the gloom. Visit 
 the poor and the friendless ; hear their dreary tales ; 
 listen with your hearts to the story of their dis- 
 appointment; give ear to all their sad experiences; 
 pour into the night of their lives a little of the sun- 
 light of your own glad day, or whisper to them the 
 fact that you too have suffered and have been dis- 
 appointed; and when you come up to the house of 
 God in the gold and purple of the sunset time, it will 
 not be with any spirit of criticism, but with loving 
 tender sympathies, and from the first note to the 
 last, there shall be for your souls the presence of 
 God and the joy of heaven. 
 
 A little, thoroughly consecrated to God, means 
 more for humanity, than all the world may have, if 
 unconsecrated. .We have martial genius of the high- 
 
128 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 
 
 est order in such men as Napoleon and Alexander; 
 but it was unconsecrated, and they struck terror 
 into the hearts of the race, and filled their age with 
 the cries of the widow, the sighs of the orphan, and 
 rent the heavens with the groan of the dying and 
 oppressed. We have oratorical genius in Mirabeau, 
 Danton and Murat ; but it was unconsecrated, and it 
 scattered the seeds of a black infidelity and a bloody 
 revolution, not only through the city of Paris, but 
 through all cities into all countries. We 
 have poetic genius in such men as Voltaire, and 
 Byron; but it was unconsecrated, and their effus- 
 ions flashed upon the virtuous sentiments of the 
 human heart, like scathing lightning, on tender 
 trees. We have the genius of scientific thought 
 and literary skill in Bolingbroke, in Hobbs, in 
 Compt, and Mill; but it was unconsecrated, and 
 their words sap the very foundations of true faith 
 in spiritual existence, in God and the future life. 
 No it is not power that lifts the world! It is con- 
 secrated power! Young people you may be poor in 
 the world's wealth; you may never know the pleas- 
 ure of inventive genius, or the glory of an author's 
 fame; but if you consecrate your services this day 
 unto the Lord you will find heights and depths, 
 and breadth, and joys, and hopes, and love, and God, 
 and life, and spheres, and heaven, which must re- 
 main forever unknown to the unconsecrated. 
 
NOV 2 1904