LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
A DECADE 
 
 Christian Endeavor. 
 
-*% 
 
 i 
 
 FRANCIS E. CLARK 
 
A DECADE 
 
 OF 
 
 Christian Endeavor, 
 
 1881—1891. 
 
 Rev. Dwight M. Pratt, 
 
 Pastor Williston Church, Portland, Maine. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Wayland Hoyt, D. D. 
 
 Pastor First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 NEW YORK and CHICAGO. 
 
 jflemina 1b. 1Rev>ell Company 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature. 
 
 N-» 
 

 Copyright 1891 
 
 — BY — 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company. 
 
 « Congress 
 Washington 
 
TO 
 
 MY ESTEEMED AND BELOVED FRIEND, 
 
 THE REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D., 
 Founder of the Society of Christian Endeavor, 
 
 WHOSE PASTORAL FIDELITY 
 
 AND SUCCESS AS A WINNER OF SOULS 
 
 ARE A CONSTANT HELP AND INSPIRATION 
 
 TO ONE WHO, 
 
 AFTER AN INTERVAL OF SEVEN YEARS, 
 
 SUCCEEDS HIM IN THE PASTORATE OF 
 
 WILLISTON CHURCH. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 A principle or an organization commands loyal 
 advocates in proportion to its inherent importance 
 or moral power. A successful enterprise needs no 
 champion. Its achievements are its best apologetic. 
 
 The writer's first experimental knowledge of 
 Christian Endeavor, both as a principle and as an 
 organization, was during the sixth year of his min- 
 istry in a Connecticut pastorate. A revival of 
 marvellous power had visited two village churches 
 in union work. Two hundred souls were con- 
 verted. The ingathering of new disciples was 
 large. The problem of their spiritual nurture was 
 similar to that which confronted the author of the 
 Christian Endeavor movement five years earlier. 
 The work wrought by the Holy Spirit was deep 
 and abiding. The new-born love and desire for 
 service were ready to respond to a high standard 
 of devotion. On these high spiritual table-lands 
 the young people rejoiced in the opportunity for 
 whole-souled commitment of themselves to Christ 
 
 ♦ ^;: 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 and His service. The Endeavor society gave such 
 opportunity. None refused its solemn covenant. 
 Personal dedication was spontaneous, devout, sin- 
 cere. The work began with enthusiasm, and was 
 carried on year after year with increasing interest, 
 intelligence and power. It revolutionized the en- 
 tire work of the church. Every department felt the 
 uplift and inspiration. No boy or girl, young man 
 or woman refused work entrusted to his care. The 
 pastor recalls no instance in which a member de- 
 clined to conduct the meeting or hesitated to lead 
 in prayer. The work of the committees was ac- 
 cepted as a commission from the Lord. The 
 members in united prayer often sought spiritual 
 preparation and power for their special duties. 
 Many had marked freedom in personal work. 
 The society increased. Others were converted. 
 The pastor had helpers in every department of 
 church activity. Instead of losing the new-born 
 joy and fervor which accompany thorough con- 
 version they became more devoted as time ad- 
 vanced. The consequent growth was as great a 
 joy to the pastor as their first introduction into 
 newness of life. 
 
 They grew intellectually. The part taken in the 
 weekly meeting was no formal fulfilment of the 
 letter of the pledge. The use of Scripture texts 
 was not made a make-shift. Original thoughts 
 were added. Liberty and ability kept pace with 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 consecrated effort. The timid vanquished their 
 timidity. Testimony became intelligent, helpful, 
 inspiring. 
 
 The young people grew also in the power of 
 self-command. They demonstrated that there is 
 no speedier way to self-mastery and ability to use 
 one's powers in public, than by joyful response to 
 the opportunity presented in the Christian En- 
 deavor prayer meeting. The only requisite is the 
 willingness to do, which is begotten of the Holy 
 Spirit. Many never gain liberty in literary circles, 
 in the debating club, or even in the freedom of 
 the school, who attain victory over self in Chris- 
 tian work. The latter supplies a new motive and a 
 new power. The motive is love for Christ, the 
 power is the gift of the Holy Spirit. "Where 
 the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." 
 
 With intellectual growth and the conscious 
 power of self-command was coupled an evident 
 spiritual enlightenment. The Word of God un- 
 folded its treasures to the inquiring mind. The 
 desire for spiritual knowledge made the youthful 
 heart keen in its discernment of fundamental 
 truth. The prayer meetings of the society were 
 characterized by intelligence, fervor and spiritual 
 power. The resultant piety was substantial, pro- 
 gressive, satisfactory. 
 
 The writer is well aware that the foregoing may 
 seem to some excessive praise. It is, however, 
 
x PREFACE. 
 
 only the record of literal fact. A Christian En- 
 deavor society born in a revival has advantage 
 every way over one organized under different spir- 
 itual conditions. It commands better material at 
 the start and a more favorable opportunity for 
 putting its principles into operation. It thus rep- 
 resents, not exceptional but normal conditions, 
 and accordingly is able to demonstrate the utility, 
 power and practical efficiency of the organization. 
 The Christian Endeavor covenant either gives 
 existing spiritual life normal expression or awak- 
 ens revival love in hearts that respond to its high 
 ideal. The failure of a society can never be due 
 to the inherent defect in its principles but to the 
 self-indulgent and disloyal spirit of its members 
 who refuse to rise to the higher levels of the spirit- 
 ual life. The standard of consecration can never 
 be set too high. He distrusts God's Word or is 
 ignorant of the philosophy of the divine life who 
 seeks to modify or abridge covenant obligations- 
 Ideals are an inspiration. The standard set by in- 
 finite wisdom and love is perfect. To accept one 
 less exalted in its demands is consciously to toler- 
 ate the very imperfection which even our own falli- 
 ble hearts condemn. The power of the Christian 
 Endeavor pledge lies in exalted requirements. Re- 
 sponse to its claims will inevitably insure growth in 
 grace and efficiency in service. 
 
 It is of vast importance that young people be 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 given a true conception of normal piety. The na- 
 ture of the religious life and the philosophy of 
 spiritual growth are more easily understood than 
 many seem to suppose. Under the guidance of 
 God's Holy Spirit the mind grasps intuitively what 
 the reason of the mature man could never master 
 alone. " These things are hidden from the wise 
 and prudent but are revealed unto babes. Even so, 
 Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."* 
 The term spirituality indicates nothing vague, in- 
 definite or mystical. The development of the 
 spiritual life is as intelligent a process as the de- 
 velopment of the intellectual. Spirituality is the re- 
 sult of spiritual intelligence and growth, and is asi. 
 easily understood as intellectual growth, only it is 
 the larger term, including every capacity of the soul 
 in its highest and holiest development. In the 
 Christian and Biblical sense, it signifies that state 
 of the soul in which all its faculties, mental and 
 moral, are under the guidance and instruction of the 
 Holy Spirit. It is the normal growth of the regen- 
 erate life, by which, under the operation of the 
 Holy Spirit, we become transformed into Christ's 
 image from glory to glory. 
 
 Spirituality is proportionate to experimental 
 knowledge of the Bible. Its sphere is not the 
 cloister but the world of energy and enterprise. It 
 
 * Matthew xi. 25, 26. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 is not limited to the sick room of the aged or dy- 
 ing saint. It is the rightful characteristic of youth. 
 Spirituality is the natural and normal condition of 
 all healthy, progressive religious life. It is robust, 
 yet refined; joyful yet serious; exuberant, yet self- 
 possessed; spontaneous in its liberty, yet given to no 
 license. It is life in its God-given fulness, healthy, 
 joyous, strong and Christ-like. To dissociate spir- 
 ituality from youth is to rob early life of its vigor, 
 sweetness and joy. 
 
 This little volume is the outgrowth of a pastor's 
 love for childhood and youth. It has been one of 
 his chiefest joys to win their affection and co- 
 operation as a means, if possible, to their salvation 
 and to the extension of Christ's Kingdom. It is 
 his earnest prayer that these pages may stimulate 
 some heart to newness of life and to consecrated 
 service. 
 
 Williston Church, Portland, Me. 
 March 20, 1S91. 
 
A master mind before the marble stood; 
 Fresh quarried was it, rough and all unhewn. 
 To other eyes it seemed a shapeless stone, 
 To his a stately form and beautiful. 
 Chisel in hand he wrought, and what he saw 
 Came forth a statue, living and divine. 
 An Artist stood and gazed on fallen man. 
 He to the soul what to the marble rough 
 Was Angelo. He saw in sinful man 
 A seraph 's form. He wrought, and forth there came 
 Manhood divine; the lifeless took on life. 
 Oh, for the Artist's eye! In every man 
 God's image dwells, and he who sees with Christ 
 Sees God in man restored, and with Him seeks 
 To bring his thought to life in saving men. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Significance of the Movement . . 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Genesis of the Idea. . . 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Its Beginnings . . . . . .41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 First Years of Williston Society . -53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Spread of the Movement . -63 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Christian Endeavor Literature . . 79 
 
COA'TKX/S. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Church's Need 89 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Covenant Idea ..... 105 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 A Bond of Union among Denominations . 119 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Decennial Anniversary . . -133 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 On the Threshold of Another Century . 153 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 NOT long since I heard an eminent minister in my 
 own denomination say, that, ten years back, the look 
 of things for the young people in the churches had, 
 to him, an aspect gloomy and discouraging; that it 
 seemed to him as though the merely material and 
 pleasurable side of things were capturing the young 
 people : that the fires of a real religious enthusiasm 
 were surely and sadly waning; that the church in the 
 thought of the young people, was bulking less and 
 the world more; that he was almost despairingly 
 questioning how the church could win and hold re- 
 cruits of young people. 
 
 But, he went on to say, that within the last ten 
 years, he had become conscious of a real, vast, 
 and accumulating change; that a veritable religious 
 chivalry had seized upon the young people; that a 
 mighty movement Christward, churchward, had 
 taken tidal flow among them; that the gray and 
 dreary prospect of ten years back had arrayed itself 
 now in the brightness of the morning. 
 
 And he put his finger on the reason of the 
 beneficent difference, when he ascribed it to the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 wide prevalence and peculiar persistence of Christian 
 Endeavor among the young people of the churches. 
 
 While I cannot say the outlook ten years since, 
 looked quite so black to me, I am most glad to say 
 that the religious vigor and victory among the young 
 people of to-day is due to the phenomenal advent 
 and advance of Christian Endeavor, more than to 
 any other cause. Nor have we yet seen, in my 
 judgment, the glorious and ultimate bloom of it. 
 What it means for Christ and His church, is, I verily 
 believe, beyond our fondest and most surpassing 
 hopes. I think no better blessing can come to any 
 church than the formation in it, and the steady 
 working of it, along the lines of the " model consti- 
 tution," of a Society of Christian Endeavor. Every 
 peculiar denominational principle is conserved by 
 the sanction of Christian Endeavor, and at the same 
 time the opportunity for the most stimulating inter- 
 denominational spiritual fellowship is yielded. And 
 as the summer ministers to leaves and flowers and 
 fruits and the song of birds, so Christian Endeavor 
 brings to the young disciple the most genial atmos- 
 phere for religious growth and service. 
 
 That this book, which attempts to tell somewhat 
 of the history and method and purpose of Christian 
 Endeavor, may, in all our Evangelical denominations, 
 give the gracious movement wider and swifter im- 
 pulse, is my earnest hope and prayer. 
 
 WAYLAND HOYT. 
 
 Minneapolis, May 5th, iSgr. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 CJje Stgittfinmre of t\t SJofaement. 
 
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of 
 cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of 
 fire, to give them light; that they might go by day and by 
 night: the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by 
 night, departed not from before the people. 
 
 —Exodus xiii. 21, 22. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord: I am returned unto Zion, and 
 will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem 
 shall be called the city of truth; and the mountain of the 
 
 Lord of hosts the holy mountain And 
 
 the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls 
 playing in the streets thereof. 
 
 — Zechariah viii. 3, 5. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 
 
 The supreme factor in human history is 
 the ever-advancing Kingdom of God. The 
 constellations in their harmony and majes- 
 tic sweep through the heavens are not so 
 clear a manifestation of the personality and 
 presence of God as the developments of this 
 on-moving empire. The Christian histo- 
 rian delights to trace its movements, its 
 laws, its continuity of life. Every discovery 
 reveals the purpose of a loving Father. 
 God loves humanity. Creation proves it. 
 Redemption demonstrates it. Both, in 
 their unfoldings, disclose an infinitely wise 
 plan for man's highest welfare and develop- 
 ment. Every progressive movement in his- 
 tory is but the evolution of this plan. 
 
4 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN' ENDEA FOR. 
 
 From the call of Abraham to leave Meso- 
 potamia and go forth he knew not whither, 
 to the call of our fathers — the Pilgrims — to 
 seek a country beyond the sea. God has 
 been leading His people. He always pre- 
 cedes them. The miraculous cloud and the 
 fiery pillar may not be visible, but His pres- 
 ence has never failed Israel from the cross- 
 ing of the Red Sea to the present hour. 
 " Fear thou not, for I am with thee"; 
 " with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world." 
 
 The Spirit's presence in believers and His 
 leadership of the Church are the fulfilment 
 of a specific prophecy. Christ's parting 
 promises assured the apostles, the founders 
 of the Church, of the Paraclete's abiding 
 presence. " I will pray the Father, and 
 He shall give you another Comforter, that 
 He may abide with you forever, even the 
 Spirit of truth, . . . He abideth with you, 
 and shall be in you." " He shall guide you 
 into all truth." 
 
 The achievements of the Church and 
 
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 5 
 
 even the material progress of the world are 
 to be viewed and interpreted in the light 
 of this promise. History is a growth un- 
 der the direction and inspiration of God. 
 " First the blade, then the ear, after that 
 the full corn in the ear." The stages of 
 growth in many instances are conspicu- 
 ously visible. The bud, which the divine 
 purpose nourished and expanded under the 
 old covenant blossomed at Pentecost, and 
 has ever since been unfolding its beauty in 
 historic Christianity. The needs of the 
 growing centuries have been met. The 
 missionary labors of Paul, the dialectic 
 skill and scriptural insight of Athanasius, 
 the civil support of the empire under Con- 
 stantine, the intellectual attainment and 
 profound spirituality of Augustine are among 
 the numberless proofs of the Spirit's pres- 
 ence in the early centuries of the Christian 
 Church. When Italy needed arousing from 
 the slumbers of the fifteenth century, He 
 kindled a fire in the soul of Savonarola. 
 When intellectual and spiritual death be- 
 
6 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 gan to paralyze the entire Church with its 
 benumbing touch, and to threaten the very- 
 existence of Christianity itself, He called 
 into exercise the energies of Luther, and a 
 new age dawned in literature, morals and 
 religion. Many efforts on the part of re- 
 formers and of the Church have been abor- 
 tive, inasmuch as the human mind, in its 
 limitations and worldliness, has failed to 
 grasp the purpose of God and interpret the 
 leadings of His Spirit. But whenever the 
 religious zeal which inspired the disastrous 
 Crusades of the middle ages has been bal- 
 anced by and coupled with an intelligent 
 faith and a profound spiritual discernment, 
 the Kingdom of God has witnessed marked 
 advance. 
 
 The achievements of modern evangelism, 
 and the conquests of missions in this cen- 
 tury, are instances of such advance. Never 
 an age, since Pentecost, has given such 
 evidence of God's presence in history, 
 through the power of the Holy Spirit in 
 the Church, as the immediate^ present. 
 
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 7 
 
 This is the age of revivals, of missionary 
 achievement, of enlarging benevolence, of 
 systematic and scientific Bible study, of 
 applied Christianity. 
 
 Pre-eminent among these manifestations 
 of the Spirit's leadership and power in the 
 Church, is the rapidly growing organiza- 
 tion, already well-known throughout the 
 world, as the Society of Christian En- 
 deavor. The beginning of the movement 
 did not reveal the potencies wrapped up in 
 its underlying principles. In fact, where, 
 in all past time, has a new idea ever given 
 a prophecy of its latent power with its 
 first promulgation ? No one saw a world- 
 wide reformation in the cradle of the German 
 peasant boy who in mature life reversed 
 the course of history. Even the birth of 
 Jesus was well-nigh an unnoticed event 
 amid the activities of that great Oriental 
 empire. A few men of more than ordinary 
 wisdom and discernment, interpreted the 
 significance of the hour. The selfish jeal- 
 ousy of a corrupt and petty Roman king 
 
8 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 suspected a possible rival in the new-born 
 babe. The divine truth was conveyed by 
 a heavenly messenger to a company of 
 shepherds on the hillsides of Judea, during 
 the silent watches of the night; but the 
 great world was wholly unconscious of the 
 blessed fact that a new era had dawned for 
 the race. It was full thirty years from 
 Christ's .birth before the thought that 
 prompted His advent and inspired His min- 
 istry gained possession even of His chosen 
 disciples, and thirty years more before it 
 began extensively to be promulgated and to 
 issue in the establishment of churches in 
 lands outside the immediate vicinity of 
 Jerusalem. Such has ever been the history 
 of new ideas and new enterprises in the 
 Messiah's Kingdom. Truth is received 
 only as men by the slow process of 
 spiritual education are qualified for its 
 reception. 
 
 But how vast the change and how rapid 
 the growth since the initial movements of 
 Christianity ! A decade now accomplishes 
 
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 9 
 
 more than a century then. Did not Christ 
 predict the rapidity as well as the vastness 
 of Christian achievement in later days when 
 He said, " And greater works than these 
 shall ye do, because I go unto My Father" ? 
 Did not the ancient prophet Ezekiel have 
 in mind these modern times in his vision of 
 the four living creatures and the wheels ? 
 The whirlwind out of which they came 
 symbolized velocity and power; the fire:— 
 light, knowledge, purification; the number 
 four:— universality; the wheels: — progress; 
 the spirit of the living creatures in the 
 wheels, that human progress is associated 
 with, and is dependent upon the life-giving 
 power of God. The prophetic symbols of 
 Christianity are thus, velocity, light and 
 power. 
 
 It was full seventy years after the Saviour's 
 advent before the inspired record of His 
 mission, and of the organization and estab- 
 lishment of His Church was completed, and 
 was ready, as a sealed and authoritative 
 " Book of Prophecy," to go forth on its 
 
10 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 ministry of educating and enlightening the 
 nations. 
 
 Full six centuries elapsed before the 
 Britons and our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 
 had the Gospel in the person of the mis- 
 sionary Augustine. But from the organiza- 
 tion of the first Christian Endeavor Society 
 in America, in the year of our Lord eighteen 
 hundred and eighty-one, a decade had not 
 passed, before, with intelligent zeal and en- 
 thusiasm, Christian Endeavor societies had 
 been organized in distant Australia and in 
 the remotest corners of the civilized world. 
 
 Such is the momentum and velocity of 
 Christianity in the closing years of this 
 nineteenth century. The Spirit of God has 
 quickened and intensified the life of the 
 Church. Every discovery in mechanical 
 art contributes to the advancement of 
 truth. Every invention becomes an instru- 
 ment in the proclamation of the Gospel. 
 Electricity is both a symbol and an agent 
 of the Spirit's energy and life. He inspires 
 the Church with inventive skill and execu- 
 
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. U 
 
 tive power. Bezaleel and Aholiab, in the 
 perfection of their material art, for the 
 construction of the tabernacle, under the 
 special endowment and guidance of the 
 Holy Spirit, are but forerunners of the men 
 of to-day, whose spiritual art, in devising 
 means for the up-building of believers for an 
 habitation of God through the Spirit, is the 
 result of even a still more divine and 
 special endowment. 
 
 The Christian Endeavor movement is 
 not to be looked upon as the event of a day. 
 It indicates a permanent life and a perma- 
 nent progress in history. As was said in the 
 opening sentence of this chapter, the great- 
 est factor in modern times is the enlarging 
 kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. There 
 are currents of life flowing down through the 
 ages which increase in volume and power 
 as the ages roll. These movements ex- 
 press the growing life of the world. They 
 are the unfoldings of a God-given energy 
 which gains momentum with every century 
 and with every decade. The Church of to- 
 
12 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 day is not moving on aimlessly. Its efforts 
 at enlargement are not mere experiments. 
 Revivals, missions, Bible schools, Young 
 Men's Christian Associations, have in them 
 the life of God. They evidence the pres- 
 ence, power and guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit; and no thought or doctrine or 
 method of work has more rapidly and po- 
 tently captured and energized the Church 
 since the apostolic era than the principle 
 and spirit of the Christian Endeavor move- 
 ment. In the extent of its reach and the 
 power of its vitality and influence it will yet 
 rank in history with such universal refor- 
 mations as that of the sixteenth century. 
 Only our nearness to the work can make 
 such a comparison seem intrusive or over- 
 drawn. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 %\it <§>eiwsxa jof i\n Jtoa. 
 
Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? And he 
 called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, 
 and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye turn, and become 
 as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as 
 this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of 
 heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my 
 name receiveth nie : but whoso shall cause one of these little 
 ones which believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him 
 that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck and 
 that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. 
 
 See that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say 
 unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the 
 face of my Father which is in heaven. 
 
 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in 
 heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. 
 
 — Matt, xviii. 1-6, 10, 14. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 
 
 Every great movement in human history- 
 has its beginnings in the heart of some one 
 man. The majestic Amazon, carrying the 
 commerce of empires on its bosom, sparkles 
 into life from some hidden spring high up 
 among the mountains. Man can go no 
 farther back than the visible fountain. God 
 only knows when and how the individual 
 and innumerable drops are brought to- 
 gether, until with joyful and irrepressible 
 life they burst from their hiding-place in a 
 perennial stream. 
 
 The deepest sources of human life are 
 equally remote from observation, yet the 
 mind which utilizes the countless sugges- 
 tions of others, and matures their tentative 
 
 15 
 
16 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 thoughts, is to be credited with originality 
 and the power of invention. 
 
 The Dutch optician, Jansen, invented a 
 small spy-glass, intended only as a play- 
 thing. Galileo heard of the simple device 
 and applied the suggestion, and is honored 
 as the original inventor of the astronomical 
 telescope. 
 
 The discovery of this continent is due to 
 one who refused to have his thought and 
 his possible attainment measured by the 
 visible boundaries of a limited environment. 
 
 Thus in science, art, philosophy and 
 religion the starting-point of all human 
 progress must be traced to ideas begotten, 
 in the providence of God, in the soul of 
 some individual man : ideas which have in 
 them capacity for endless expansion. As 
 it was unquestionably the divinely appointed 
 mission of Robert Raikes to be the founder 
 of the modern Sunday School, so unques- 
 tionably, also, a chosen instrument was 
 ordained to develop the idea and principle 
 which gave birth to the Society of Christian 
 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 17 
 
 Endeavor. It will be impossible to under- 
 stand his relation to this new agency, 
 which has already become one of the most 
 marked instrumentalities for the develop- 
 ment of the church in all history, both 
 ancient and modern, without a glance at 
 his early life, and at the influences which 
 determined his mental and spiritual char- 
 acteristics in later years. 
 
 Francis E. Clark, the originator of this 
 movement, was born in Aylmer, the Prov- 
 ince of Quebec, September 12, 1851. His 
 parents were New Englanders from the 
 vicinity of Boston, and at the time of his 
 birth were temporarily living in Canada. 
 For many successive generations his an- 
 cestors had lived in New England. On 
 both the paternal and maternal sides they 
 were of the old Puritan stock, one of his 
 first ancestors in this country being the 
 minister at Charlestown. His father died 
 when he was two years old ; and his mother 
 when he was seven. Their greatest bequest 
 to him was a Christian heritage. Yet 
 
18 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 who can measure the blessed influence 
 of that devoted mother during those seven 
 tender years, that formative period in which 
 the maternal influence makes its permanent 
 impress on the responsive soul of the child ? 
 That the mature man has reason to bless 
 God for that impress and that influence may 
 be seen from the fact that she was a wo- 
 man of a remarkably deep religious nature. 
 Though but a child of seven at the time of 
 her death the son recalls his mother as a 
 person of devout and saint-like character. 
 The accuracy of his impression is confirmed 
 by the testimony of those who knew her as 
 a companion and friend. The power of her 
 religious life was everywhere manifest. 
 She was actively engaged in good works, 
 planting Sunday Schools in remote Cana- 
 dian villages where she happened to live 
 for a little while and making herself a great 
 power for good. After the father's death 
 the mother was left almost entirely depend- 
 ent upon her own resources and energy. 
 Her energy constituted her resources. By 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 19 
 
 the moderate income of a school teacher 
 she managed to live, and support her chil- 
 dren. Her memory is still held in grateful 
 remembrance, although more than thirty 
 years have elapsed since her death. 
 
 The literary as well as the religious char- 
 acteristics of Dr. Clark which have been 
 called into such constant exercise by his 
 work as author and editor, may be traced 
 to the mother. She was a woman of poet- 
 ical taste and temperament. Her friends 
 used to speak of her as a second Mrs. Sig- 
 ourney, although she wrote, as far as is 
 known, very little for publication. A por- 
 trait of her, now in possession of the son, 
 reveals a beautiful and saint-like face. 
 
 Dr. Clark's father was a civil engineer. 
 He was a universal favorite because of his 
 great good nature and uniform cheerfulness. 
 He died of cholera in 1853, contracting it 
 from some of the emigrants to whom his 
 generous nature and self-forgetful spirit 
 prompted him to minister in their hour of 
 imperative need. 
 
20 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 After the death of both parents Francis 
 was adopted by his uncle, the Rev. E. W. 
 Clark, his mother's brother. Before going 
 to school he lived with him at Auburndale, 
 Mass., and Claremont, N. H. He prepared 
 for college at Meriden, N. H., graduating at 
 Kimball Union Academy in 1869. Dart- 
 mouth College was his chosen Alma Mater. 
 Here he graduated in 1873, with Phi Beta 
 Kappa rank.* The next academical year 
 found him at Andover Theological Seminary 
 where he graduated in 1876. 
 
 Through all these years of boyhood, and 
 of life in school, college and seminary, the 
 adopted son had occasion to rejoice in the 
 Christian home, which so devotedly repro- 
 duced the influence of earlier days. His 
 adopted father, a Congregational clergyman, 
 nourished in the young student the literary 
 taste he inherited from his mother. He took 
 
 * Sixteen years later, in 1889, Dartmouth College con- 
 ferred upon Mr. Clark the honorary degree of Doctor of 
 Divinity. 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 21 
 
 great pains with his style of writing and 
 faithfully directed his education as long as 
 his presence at home permitted this personal 
 oversight. 
 
 The adopted mother, now a leader in 
 missionary work in Massachusetts, contrib- 
 uted a positive religious character to the 
 home by her devoted interest in the cause 
 of Christ. 
 
 These inherited tastes and these religious 
 instructions were the formative influences 
 that determined the religious tendencies and 
 spiritual characteristics of the growing man. 
 Abundant evidence that he responded with 
 all his soul, to the call of God and to the 
 spiritual element in Christian doctrine and 
 life, is had in the testimony of those who 
 have been his intimate associates from early 
 youth or from his early ministry to this hour 
 of devoted service in the cause of human 
 welfare and redemption. 
 
 The pastor of Berkeley Temple, Boston, 
 the Rev. Charles A. Dickinson, a boyhood 
 friend of Dr. Clark in the preparatory school, 
 
22 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR '. 
 
 a brother pastor with him in Portland, one 
 of the first ministers in New England to in- 
 troduce a Christian Endeavor Society into 
 his own church, a cordial co-laborer in the 
 movement ever since, and a trustee of the 
 United Society, writes, with the knowledge 
 acquired through all these years of affec- 
 tionate intimacy, as follows: — 
 
 " I knew Mr. Clark when we were 
 boys together, in Kimball Union Acad- 
 emy, at Meriden, N. H. It was there 
 that I became impressed with his earnest 
 devotional spirit and consecrated purpose. 
 He had a simple, straightforward way of 
 speaking upon religious matters which 
 always moved me. The Society of Chris- 
 tian Endeavor was born, I think, of this 
 spirit. He was deeply in earnest as a 
 preacher of the gospel, and aimed always to 
 make the Christian religion a practical real- 
 ity in the lives of his people. The early 
 growth and development of the Society was 
 due, in a large measure, to his wise spirit- 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 23 
 
 ual leadership. He never allowed the ma- 
 terial success and honors connected with the 
 movement to influence him in his leader- 
 ship. 
 
 I have known Mr. Clark for a good many- 
 years, and I can say from the heart that he 
 is one of the most genuine Christian men 
 that I have ever met. Through all the suc- 
 cesses of the past ten years he has kept him- 
 self a modest, sincere man, whose one aim 
 has been to interest young people in the 
 cause of Christ. He is a man of unusual 
 sagacity, originality, and tact. These qual- 
 ities, combined with his enthusiasm for hu- 
 manity, and his personal consecration to 
 Christ, have in my judgment made him the 
 leader which he is." 
 
 One of the trustees of the United Society, 
 and one of the most aggressive supporters 
 of the movement, is the Rev. James L. Hill 
 of Medford, Mass. His enthusiasm and 
 energy may well be characterized as im- 
 petuous. 
 
24 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 Having special opportunity to know the 
 spirit and motive which actuate and inspire 
 the president of the Society, his words let 
 us into the secret of his inner life. He 
 says: — 
 
 I. " Dr. Clark's spiritual life is first and 
 most of all characterized by what I will 
 call openness of mind. I never saw this 
 feature elsewhere developed in such an 
 uncommon degree. When he comes to 
 the trustee table he will say, ' Let us now 
 all have an open mind,' — open to receive 
 indications of divine leadings, to detect 
 the direction taken by the pillar and the 
 cloud, to receive new ideas, to be ready to 
 lay aside prejudice, so as to be hospitable to 
 the ideas of others. If ' God has yet more 
 light to break forth,' Dr. Clark will soonest 
 discern it. 
 
 II. " He is marked by spiritual modesty. 
 The results of this are manifold. One of the 
 greatest effects is that it lets other persons 
 get up to him. He is always very strong in 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 25 
 
 his alliances. He will go only as far as he 
 carries his forces. He keeps in with the 
 workers. He leads like Sheridan, by taking 
 a fair share of the work. 
 
 III. " His spiritual life is distinguished by 
 the fineness of its quality. Like Mr. 
 Beecher, some of his intuitions are as fine as 
 a woman's. He sees intuitively. What 
 others reason out, he beholds. 
 
 IV. " His spiritual life is stamped with 
 truth. We all have been impressed with his 
 scorn of putting on appearances. He is al- 
 ways true to his friends. No one ever yet 
 saw the first evidence that he had become 
 exalted in his own esteem by adulation." 
 
 The second Society of Christian Endeavor 
 was organized by the Rev. Charles Perry 
 Mills, in his church at Newburyport, Mass. 
 He has been closely identified with the 
 movement from the first. With delicate 
 insight and accurate analysis of character 
 he pays marked tribute to the greatness of 
 those spiritual qualities which, under God, 
 
26 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 fitted Dr. Clark to be the founder and leader 
 of so vast a spiritual enterprise: — 
 
 " My impression of the religious life of 
 Dr. Clark cannot be separated from the im- 
 pression of his character. Religion is his 
 life. His life is his character. His character 
 in its simplicity and openness is remarkable 
 in that there is no change in the impression 
 which it makes from first acquaintance 
 through years of friendship up to the last 
 interview you are privileged to have with 
 him. The impression deepens, but it re- 
 ceives its unchanging stamp in the begin- 
 ning. He is never frivolous, and never pur- 
 poseless; he is always modest, calm and 
 earnest, carried forward by a pushing power 
 of will, and steadily poised by a central joy 
 and faith. God's gentleness has made 
 him great. Some men are gentle without 
 strength, some are strong without gentle- 
 ness; he has both gentleness and strength. 
 These are qualities of leadership. They en- 
 able him to draw others to him in con- 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 27 
 
 fidence, and give him power to infix them 
 with a great resolve. His talent of using 
 his talents rises to what Dr. Bushnell de- 
 cribes as the talent of achievement. The 
 Christian Endeavor Society is an expression 
 of his character, and as an organization, ' fitly 
 joined together and compacted by that which 
 every joint supplieth,' is an achievement of 
 his talent. A touch of divinity rests upon 
 such a man. We may love him as a brother, 
 but must reverence him as ' chosen of 
 God.' " 
 
 Max Miiller, in his portrayal of the inner 
 life of Baron Bunsen, says that, " All really 
 great and honest men may be said to live 
 three lives : there is one life which is seen and 
 accepted by the world at large, a man's out- 
 ward life; there is a second life which is 
 seen by a man's most intimate friends, his 
 household life; and there is a third life, 
 seen only by the man himself and by Him 
 who searcheth the heart, which may be called 
 the inner or heavenly life." " It is seldom," 
 
28 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 he adds, " that we catch a glimpse of those 
 deep springs of human character which can- 
 not rise to the surface even in the most confi- 
 dential intercourse, which in every-day life 
 are hidden from a man's own sight, but 
 which break forth when he is alone with 
 God in secret prayer, — aye in prayer with- 
 out words." 
 
 It is the privilege of intimate friendship 
 to see, at times, into this inner sanctuary of 
 the soul, and to discover those deep, religi- 
 ous undercurrents which reveal so accurate- 
 ly the secret motive of the life. Such a 
 glimpse of the inner life of Dr. Clark is giv- 
 en us by the Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, pas- 
 torof the Union Church, Boston. Intimate- 
 ly associated with him in personal fellow- 
 ship and as a trustee of the United Society, 
 he has seen behind the veil, which hides from 
 the ordinary beholder what Muller terms the 
 third or inner life: — 
 
 " It seems to me that there are three 
 
 things which are especially characteristic 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 29 
 
 of Dr. Clark : the length of his hope, the 
 breadth of his vision, and the depth of his 
 purpose. He believes in the reign of Jesus 
 Christ, and in the ultimate conquest of the 
 Captain of our salvation. Hope is never 
 quenched in his soul, it is always radiant 
 there, and this hope which is so constant 
 gives a marvellous breadth to his vision. 
 He is a man of one idea, I confess, but that 
 one idea is a unit made up of many parts. 
 Somebody has said that there are multitudes 
 of people who are forever looking above 
 them, and other multitudes who are forever 
 looking beneath them, and that it is a pity 
 that there are not still other multitudes 
 who look around them. Dr. Clark belongs 
 to the looking-around multitude. He is 
 quick to discern the signs of the times ; 
 nothing escapes him, and everything he 
 sees is laid under tribute to the master idea 
 of his life. That main idea illustrates the 
 depth of his soul-purpose. He means to 
 do for the rising generation all that can be 
 done to make it staunch and loyal, earnest 
 
30 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 and devoted in the service of Jesus Christ. 
 I do not know that the depth of his pur- 
 pose could be better expressed than in 
 those words of the apostle, ' For me to live 
 is Christ.' In addition to these three large 
 spiritual characteristics which we have 
 mentioned, hope, vision and purpose, there 
 is a personal characteristic, which I shall 
 call genuineness. Frank, open, generous, 
 sincere, the fruits of the Spirit are in his life 
 continually exhibited in rarest beauty, be- 
 cause in strongest manliness. Write, then, 
 for the large spiritual characteristics of the 
 man, hope, vision, purpose, and for the per- 
 sonal characteristic, genuineness, with all 
 that it implies of friendship toward man and 
 of familiarity with God, and you have, as it 
 seems to me, a pen picture of Dr. Clark." 
 
 The author of this volume, as a successor 
 of Dr. Clark in the pastorate of Williston 
 Church, has an especially favorable oppor- 
 tunity to enter into the religious elements 
 of his work and to know the type and char- 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 31 
 
 acteristics of his spiritual life. This study 
 of the man becomes the more intelligent and 
 satisfactory because of an interval of nearly 
 seven years between his and the present 
 pastorate. The impress he has left upon 
 Williston Church and congregation, and in 
 fact upon the whole city of Portland, is 
 marked to an unusual degree. The pastors 
 who thus stamp themselves upon churches, 
 and whose whole life enters permanently 
 into the character of the surrounding com- 
 munity are rare in the extreme. This im- 
 press was solely due to unselfish devotion to 
 the Kingdom of God and to an unbounded 
 and self- forgetful love for man. Dr. Clark 
 loved souls. With unremitting energy he 
 sought their salvation. The amount of 
 personal work done in pastoral visitation 
 seems almost incredible. One wonders how 
 time was secured for the manifestation of 
 such incessant personal interest in the mem- 
 bers of his flock. 
 
 The wisdom and the success of pastoral 
 effort have here a conspicuous confirmation. 
 
32 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 Young men flocked to his church by the 
 score; young people by the hundreds. The 
 poor received as much attention as the 
 rich. His eye never failed to recognize 
 the child on the street, or the busy busi- 
 ness man amid the crowded walks of the 
 city. Interest in men, of whatever class 
 or condition, was his marked characteristic. 
 Rare was his capacity for winning and 
 retaining friendships. 
 
 His ability as an organizer, his love of 
 men, his pastoral fidelity, his zeal and suc- 
 cess as a winner of souls, were the secret of 
 his power. His church grew. 
 
 The work which the Lord prepared for 
 Dr. Clark's opening ministry was peculiarly 
 suited to his tastes and special abilities. 
 Three years previous to his coming, 
 Williston Church was the outgrowth of 
 a mission Sunday School. Its constit- 
 uents were young people, and its earn- 
 est workers the youthful element in one 
 of the older churches of the city, who 
 had undertaken the enterprise through 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA, 33 
 
 the impelling power of the missionary 
 motive. 
 
 The history of the preliminary and pre- 
 paratory work has been well summarized 
 as follows : * 
 
 "As early as 1861, a devoted Christian 
 woman gathered into a schoolhouse on the 
 eastern slope of the city the children of 
 the vicinity for religious instruction each 
 Sunday afternoon; and in April, 1863, the 
 State Street Congregational Church adopt- 
 ed the enterprise as a branch of its own 
 work. In 1866 a chapel for its use was 
 built and dedicated, receiving its name, 
 " Williston," as a memorial tribute to 
 Maria Williston Walker, the beloved and 
 recently deceased wife of Dr. George 
 Leon Walker, the pastor of the State 
 Street Church. In its new home the en- 
 terprise made speedy progress; and on 
 
 * Rev. John L. Sewall, in the Decennial Number of The 
 Golden Rule, February 5, 1891. 
 
34 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 Feb. 5, 1873, Williston Church was organ- 
 ized, with twenty-two members, Rev. Burke 
 F. Leavitt * being its first pastor." 
 
 This youthful element and the missionary 
 spirit in this young church were congenial 
 soil for the development of the new ideas 
 so soon to germinate in the heart of the 
 young pastor. 
 
 In a most marvellous way God was thus 
 preparing both church and minister for the 
 inauguration of one of the mightiest move- 
 ments in religious history. Unconscious of 
 the importance of their work, they labored 
 for souls with unselfish devotion. A revival 
 of religion rewarded their united ministry. 
 Many children and youth were among those 
 who gave unmistakable evidence of a change 
 of heart. But the churches of America had 
 not yet been accustomed toreceive so young 
 disciples into the fold. The problem of 
 their spiritual nurture must be solved. The 
 
 * Recently of the Lincoln Park Church, Chicago, Illinois. 
 
The genesis of the idea. 35 
 
 new exigency — new because of its pro- 
 portions — must be met intelligently and 
 prayerfully. There were those, and pre- 
 eminent among them the pastor, whose 
 spiritual instincts and sympathies refused 
 to leave these immature disciples out in the 
 cold. Some place of shepherding must be 
 found where the lambs would receive as 
 good nourishment and as tender care as 
 the older members of the flock. If God's 
 gracious and renewing work in the soul of 
 a child must needs be distrusted and put to 
 the test, it only seemed natural to provide 
 some place of safe refuge during the pro- 
 longed period of probation. The regular 
 organizations of the church had not proved 
 themselves suitable nurseries for spiritual 
 infants. The Sunday School gave biblical 
 instruction and sought the conversion of 
 youth, but it was not designed as a 
 training school for service. The prayer 
 meeting rarely opened the way for any 
 but adults to take part. The need of 
 some organization in which these children 
 
36 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 could be trained and set to work was 
 imperative. 
 
 The pressure of this exigency gave birth 
 to the Christian Endeavor idea. As in me- 
 chanics, so in the spiritual enterprises of an 
 aggressive church, necessity compels in- 
 vention. Christian love knows no obstacles 
 to achievement. The assurance that a 
 thing ought to be done is proof that it may 
 be done. Every failure of the church in 
 the past has been due to a spiritual apathy 
 which refused to grapple with the prob- 
 lems given it for solution. Every victory 
 achieved has been through the summoning 
 of faith, courage and energy for the con- 
 quest of the promised land. Effort of this 
 kind is the highest manifestation of trust in 
 God. 
 
 In the application of the covenant idea 
 as the basis of ceaseless growth and activity 
 in service, Dr. Clark demonstrated his prac- 
 tical ability and far-reaching wisdom. The 
 pledge which every new-born soul makes in 
 an intelligent choice of Christ, of His will 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 37 
 
 and service, must have constant and ade- 
 quate expression. The allegiance of the 
 Christian to his chosen Lord must be dem- 
 onstrated. Such expression rightly under- 
 stood, is not compulsory but natural and 
 necessary. Normal spiritual growth is im- 
 possible without it. 
 
 The discernment of these principles gave 
 birth to the first Christian Endeavor So- 
 ciety, the beginnings of which are briefly 
 traced in the succeeding chapter. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 |ts §eginnhtgs< 
 
And they brought unto him little children, that he should 
 
 touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when 
 
 Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said unto 
 
 them, Suffer the little children to come unto me; forbid them 
 
 not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto 
 
 you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a 
 
 little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. And he took 
 
 them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon 
 
 them. 
 
 —Mark x. 13-16. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ITS BEGINNINGS. 
 
 What Edison's study or workshop is to 
 electrical science, the parsonage is to the 
 practical and aggressive work of the church. 
 Rectories or parsonages are largely the 
 birthplaces of new ideas and new enter- 
 prises in the Kingdom of God in these latter 
 days. Methodism, with its fervor, its 
 hymns, its revivals, was born in the Epworth 
 rectory in the early years of the last cen- 
 tury. The Torringford parsonage gave 
 birth to modern missions in 1783 in the per- 
 son of Samuel J. Mills. And the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor idea crystallized into a per- 
 manent organization in the parsonage of the 
 Williston Church, Portland, Maine, Febru- 
 ary 2, 1881. 
 
 41 
 
42 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN' ENDEAVOR. 
 
 Four years previous to this date the 
 devoted wife of the pastor had gathered 
 about her a company of boys and girls for 
 spiritual nurture and instruction in service. 
 This youthful association was known as the 
 " Mizpah Circle." Its name indicates its 
 purpose. "Mizpah" signifies watch-tower, 
 a place of look-out. The Hebrew verb 
 tsaphah from which Mizpah is derived 
 means " to look out." The germs of the 
 Look-out Committee were in this name, yea 
 and the entire principle of Christian En- 
 deavor. Still more remarkable is the fact, 
 that the very verse from which this youth- 
 ful circle received its name has become the 
 universally accepted benediction of the 
 Christian Endeavor Society. " Therefore 
 was the name of it called Galeed (the heap 
 of witness): and Mizpah (the watch-tower), 
 for he said, The Lord watch between me 
 and thee, when we are absent one from an- 
 other/' This marvellous connection be- 
 tween the name and purpose of the Mizpah 
 Circle and the Christian Endeavor Society 
 
ITS BEGINNINGS. 43 
 
 has not, as far as the writer of this volume 
 is aware, been before given to the world. 
 It indicates in a most marked way the lead- 
 ings of God's Spirit. Mizpah was the bud; 
 Christian Endeavor the blossom. In the 
 former were embodied all the fundamental 
 ideas which were unfolded and developed in 
 the latter; — the ideas of 'witness or testimony; 
 of mutual watchfulness: — to look-out for 
 each other; of fellowship and service. 
 
 Like her husband, Mrs. Clark was con- 
 spicuous for executive ability and the fac- 
 ulty for organizing. One who knew her in- 
 timately before marriage says: " Wherever 
 she went children came to the surface as if 
 by magic. It was wonderful how many she 
 could find, and how easily she made them 
 do her bidding and moulded them accord- 
 ing to her will. No sooner had she 
 gathered them about her than she organ- 
 ized them for singing or for some kind of 
 work." The practical bent of her mind was 
 intensified and directed by her love for souls. 
 She gave the children in her little society. 
 
44 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 no matter how youthful and immature, some 
 form of work. Their minds were directed 
 to definite service. The stained-glass win- 
 dow in the front of Williston Church is a 
 memorial to the devotion of this little band. 
 Under the wise leadership of Mrs. Clark 
 they also raised money for the " Book of 
 Psalms " which for more than a decade has 
 been used in the responsive service of the 
 church. To the delight and surprise of the 
 congregation these Responsive Readings 
 were found one Sabbath morning in the 
 pews, ready, as a symbol of youthful love 
 and ardor, to contribute new life to the wor- 
 ship. Most truly has the father of Chris- 
 tian Endeavor said that his wife "rocked 
 the cradle in which it was born." To her 
 the world is indebted more than it is aware. 
 Her name stands side by side, in loving re- 
 membrance, with that of her husband in all 
 that contributed to the growth and success 
 of the church in which the Christian Endea- 
 vor movement began. So vital was the 
 connection between her work for children 
 
ITS BEGINNINGS. 45 
 
 and that which matured under his leader- 
 ship that the history of the Mizpah Circle 
 might seem to have been the true genesis 
 of the later society, and thus logically to 
 have been placed at the opening of the pre- 
 ceding chapter. 
 
 Mrs. Clark came lawfully by her interest 
 in Christian work. Three generations of 
 ministerial ancestry had bequeathed to her 
 pastoral characteristics. Her father, grand- 
 father and great-grandfather were clergy- 
 men. Her maiden name was Harriet 
 Elizabeth Abbott. She was born in Hamp- 
 ton Falls, N. H., where her father was settled 
 pastor. He died while she was quite young. 
 From the time of his death until her mar- 
 riage she lived in Andover, Mass. By in- 
 heritance, training, native ability.'and reli- 
 gious tastes, she was admirably qualified 
 to be the wife of the young man whose 
 name was so soon to be a household word 
 throughout the Christian world. And now 
 after these years of achievement and fruition 
 the husband bears loving tribute to her 
 
46 A DECADE OF CHRIST/AN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 wisdom, devotion, practical ability and help- 
 fulness. 
 
 Utilizing the suggestions that came from 
 her work, from other sources, and from his 
 own fertile brain, the young pastor evolved 
 a scheme of organization and a method of 
 work which had in them larger possibilities 
 than he knew, and a philosophy of religious 
 experience and service which was both 
 natural and profound, and profound because 
 natural. He builded better than he knew. 
 When he had matured his plans, he invited 
 the young people to his house for conference. 
 Sixty or more, with mingled curiosity, hesi- 
 tancy and zeal, responded. " We wonder 
 what this new society will be," was the ar- 
 dent inquiry of all hearts previous to the 
 hour of meeting. " I will go if you will," 
 was the encouragement and sympathy which 
 inspired confidence in hearts that were 
 timid and wavering. 
 
 With the affectionate earnestness that 
 characterizes a winner of souls and a lover 
 of youth the pastor laid before them his 
 
ITS BEGINNINGS. 47 
 
 plans. The constitution of the proposed 
 society was read, the pledge explained and 
 the signatures of the young people sought. 
 The book passed from hand to hand. Not a 
 name was registered, not a member pledged. 
 Then one whose co-operation the pastor 
 sought, consulted with others. " I will sign 
 if you will," secured two names. The pledge 
 moved about the circle again, and the min- 
 ister's heart rejoiced as he read the names 
 of fifty-seven who had registered as active 
 members, with six others as associate. 
 
 Thus the Christian Endeavor movement 
 was born. But how unconscious were the 
 participants of that hour of the results that 
 were to flow from their sacred compact in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus! A process had 
 begun which was to mould together the 
 youthful life and energy of all Christen- 
 dom in the interests of human redemption. 
 
 The need and the power of fellowship in 
 Christian work were thus brought conspicu- 
 ously to view on the very threshold of this 
 new enterprise. "I will go if you will;" 
 
48 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 " I will sign if you sign," indicate not weak- 
 ness, but a social element in human nature, 
 and a desire to share responsibility and to 
 feel sympathy, which must be taken into 
 account in all Christian life and work. The 
 independence which enables a reformer or 
 a martyr to stand alone and to act alone in 
 the midst of opposition and unfavorable 
 environment is a later development. It is 
 the result of God's life in the soul, of the 
 power of truth, and the energy of the Spirit. 
 Character is a growth. To discover the 
 process by which strong, noble, independent, 
 Godlike character is produced is the mis- 
 sion of the Church. 
 
 The social element in human nature is a 
 prominent factor in all commercial, politi- 
 cal and religious life. Without an intelli- 
 gent recognition of its influence there can 
 be no wise statesmanship. To ignore it is 
 folly. To train, direct, and utilize it, is 
 philosophic wisdom. That which in im- 
 mature years may be apparent weakness, 
 becomes under guidance and discipline an 
 
ITS BEGINNINGS. 49 
 
 element of power. To make the Christian 
 religion popular in the sense of directing 
 the social element in men until God's will 
 becomes their will, and Christianity wins 
 universal favor, is the highest wisdom and 
 the highest statesmanship. 
 
 The organization took practical and per- 
 manent form in the choice of officers to lead 
 the work. The first steps were tentative. 
 The present need dictated the plans of 
 operation. Only three executives and three 
 committees suggested themselves as neces- 
 sary to carry out the purpose of the society: 
 a president, vice-president and secretary; a 
 prayer meeting, a social, and a look-out 
 committee. Under the leadership of Gran- 
 ville Staples, as president, the young people 
 entered enthusiastically into the spirit and 
 purpose of the organization, and the develop- 
 ments of after years proved its marvellous 
 efficiency as a training-school for the young 
 in Christian life, doctrine and service. 
 
 Thus the work began. The young peo- 
 ple had grasped a new idea of their relation 
 
50 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 to Christ's Kingdom; they had made a new 
 and more intelligent commitment to God; 
 their souls had been fired with a new en- 
 thusiasm and hope. From the first the work 
 gave evidence of the Holy Spirit's approval 
 and leadership. The spiritual life of the 
 young people was intensified and their 
 sphere of activity greatly enlarged. " As 
 far as they were concerned," says the author 
 of the movement, "the problem of leading 
 them to confess Christ with their lips, of 
 setting them at work and of keeping them 
 at work, seemed to be solved." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Jfirst grars of TOIIistoit SamtQ' 
 
But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, 
 
 girded with a linen ephod. . . . And the child Samuel 
 
 grew before the Lord. 
 
 — I Samuel ii. 18, 21. 
 
 And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before 
 Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those 
 days; there was no open vision. And it came to pass at 
 that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, (now his 
 eyes had begun to wax dim, that he could not see,) and 
 the lamp of God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was 
 laid down to sleep, in the temple of the Lord, where the 
 ark of God was; that the Lord called Samuel: and he 
 said, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here 
 am I; for thou calledst ?ne. And he said, I called not; lie 
 down again. And he went and lay down. And the Lord 
 called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to 
 Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he 
 answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. Now Sam- 
 uel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the 
 Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel 
 again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and 
 said, Here am L; for thou calledst me. And Eli perceived 
 that the Lord had called the child. 
 
 — I Samuel Hi. 1-8. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRST YEARS OF WILLISTON SOCIETY. 
 
 " Young Christians may make mistakes 
 in working for Christ ; they make greater 
 mistakes in not working for Him. No fail- 
 ure in making the attempt is so bad as to 
 fail to make it. Anything rather than spir- 
 itual death. Only let there be vigorous life, 
 and guidance is readily supplied." 
 
 This quotation, to be found on the open- 
 ing page of the first record book of the 
 Williston Society, indicates the spirit that 
 inaugurated the work. To incorporate this 
 sentiment is, of itself, sufficient to work a 
 transformation in any youthful life. To 
 endeavor to work out its profound spirit- 
 ual philosophy intelligently, thoughtfully, 
 
 53 
 
54 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 prayerfully, is in itself an education in 
 Christian truth and service. 
 
 That such sentiments are not beyond the 
 reach of children may be seen in the first 
 attempts to put the principles and promises 
 of the society into effect. The boy * chosen 
 to lead the first prayer meeting was but 
 eleven years of age. He spent the after- 
 noon in preparation. The open Bible sug- 
 gested words for the evening. The hour of 
 service found him in his place, alone, on 
 the platform. He read the Scripture, an- 
 nounced the hymns, led in prayer, gave 
 timid yet confident expression to his 
 thoughts. In the same spirit of devotion 
 the boys and girls of the same age sum- 
 moned themselves to participate in the ser- 
 vice. Not a moment was lost. The part 
 taken, however simple, diffident and child- 
 like, was prompt, earnest, devout. The meet- 
 ing was a success and proved the wisdom of 
 the undertaking. 
 
 * Henry B. Pennell, now a promising young architect in 
 Boston and a devoted worker in one of its leading churches. 
 
FIRST YEARS OF WILLISTON SOCIETY. 55 
 
 The members of the society caught the 
 spirit of their pastor and co-operated 
 heartily with him in the application of the 
 principles contained in its constitution and 
 covenant. Its specific aim was (i) to lead 
 children and youth to Christ; (2) to teach 
 them religious truths; (3) to train them for 
 service. 
 
 The world is already familiar with the 
 name of Granville Staples, the first presi- 
 dent of the Williston Society. Now of the 
 great commercial establishment of John 
 Wanamaker in Philadelphia, he recalls with 
 delight his early impressions of the work. 
 The spirit of aggression took possession of 
 the church. The meetings outgrew the 
 chapel, and the main audience room was 
 necessary to accommodate the people whose 
 interest in personal religion and personal 
 service had been awakened. 
 
 The growth of the society was rapid. 
 By the close of the first year the original 
 sixty-three had become one hundred and 
 twenty-seven. Thirty of this number in 
 
56 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 the meantime united with the church on 
 confession of faith. The second year wit- 
 nessed the conversion of twenty-five more; 
 the third year of an additional thirteen. 
 These all united with the church. The en- 
 rollment of active and associate members 
 now numbered one hundred and eighty, or 
 including honorary members and absentees 
 over two hundred. 
 
 The attention which this remarkable work 
 commanded, gave the young people op- 
 portunity to assist in the formation of 
 societies in neighboring churches. The first 
 fruit of these efforts was a society in the 
 west Church, Portland, organized by W. 
 H. Pennell and E. L. Sayward, and of which 
 the latter, although a member of the Wil- 
 liston Society, was temporarily chosen 
 president. Other churches were visited 
 with like results. Societies formed without 
 suchassistance wereencouraged and helped. 
 This fellowship in work greatly stimulated 
 the parent organization and qualified it to 
 take the place of leadership it so royally 
 
FIRST YEARS OF WILLISTON SOCIETY. 57 
 
 held in the early spread of the movement. 
 The removal of some of its most ardent 
 workers during the first years of its work en- 
 abled the Williston Society to become the 
 direct agent in forming many similar or- 
 ganizations throughout the various parts of 
 the country. Some of these instances are 
 of great interest and show the limitless reach 
 of Christian influence and effort. For ex- 
 ample, a young man,* a devoted Christian, 
 left Williston Church and with his bride 
 sought a home in Lincoln, Nebraska. Here 
 he formed a Christian Endeavor Society 
 among the young people of his neighbor- 
 hood. From this society a church was or- 
 ganized, of which he became one of the 
 deacons. 
 
 Another member t removed to South 
 Hadley, Mass. A society was at once 
 formed, which resulted in similar organiza- 
 tions in all that section of the state. 
 
 The marriage of one of the Williston young 
 
 * Edmund T. Garland, 
 f Charles B. Newton. 
 
58 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 ladies * to a graduate of a Theological Sem- 
 inary, carried the work to Duluth, Minnesota, 
 where he was called to minister. 
 
 The birthplace of Christian Endeavor has 
 direct communication also with foreign lands. 
 John Charnock removed from England to 
 Portland, was voted into the Williston 
 Society, but before actual enrollment as a 
 member, crossed the continent and located 
 at Tacoma, Washington. He carried with 
 him a copy of its constitution. His short 
 residence at Portland had been sufficient to 
 fill him with enthusiasm for the work. He 
 wrote his pastor in Crewe, England, de- 
 scribing its nature and remarkable success. 
 This led to the establishment of the first 
 society in England. Through his personal 
 efforts the organization was also trans- 
 planted to the Pacific coast. 
 
 One of the charter members of the Willis- 
 ton Society has in her possession a letter 
 from Foochow, China, tracing the connec- 
 tion between the first society there and the 
 
 * Miss May C. Simpson who married Rev. Edward M. Noyes. 
 
FIRST YEARS OF WILLI STON SOCIETY. 59 
 
 birthplace of the movement here. The 
 translation of the term " Christian Endea- 
 vor " into Chinese was considerable of an 
 achievement for both the Chinese thought 
 and the Chinese language. Ku la. hwoi, its 
 attempted equivalent, means literally " The 
 Rouse-up-society," and is thus a vigorous 
 tribute to the energizing spirit of the move- 
 ment. 
 
 The first Christian Endeavor Society in an 
 academy so far as is known, in the world, 
 was established by a Williston young man,* 
 while instructor at North Bridgton Academy, 
 Maine, a school preparatory to Bowdoin 
 College. A revival at once began which 
 resulted in the conversion of many of the 
 students. 
 
 So the work expanded. Many like instances 
 in which the Williston Society contributed 
 directly to its extension might be enumera- 
 ted. Of the unwritten record no one can 
 speak. The influence of one life or of one 
 
 *01iver C. Farrington, now an instructor in biology and 
 mineralogy at Yale College, 
 
60 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 society is vast in its reach and immensity, 
 and will be known only in the disclosures 
 of Eternity. A striking tribute to the 
 value of the first society and of the early 
 movement in Portland was given by one of 
 the most successful teachers in the public 
 schools. A marked improvement, she said, 
 was at once noticeable in the conduct of 
 the boys at play. They now had something 
 to talk about. They became more serious 
 and manly, and in conversation and man- 
 ners gave evidence that a new element had 
 entered their lives. 
 
 In like manner those who entered the 
 church underthe stimulating influence of the 
 Christian Endeavor covenant and service 
 showed advance over those who had been 
 converted before the organization started. 
 They grew and developed. The privilege 
 of co-operation in church activities awak- 
 ened interest and enthusiasm. The early 
 and earnest members of the parent society 
 during the first years of its history are to-day 
 among the most devoted and aggressive 
 members of Williston Church. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom, 
 and the grace of God was upon him. . . . And when 
 he was twelve years old, they went up after the custom of 
 
 the feast And . . . they found him in the temple, 
 
 sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and 
 asking them questions: and all that heard him were amazed 
 at his understanding and answers. 
 
 — Luke ii. 40, 42, 4647. 
 
 At that season Resits answered and said, I thank thee, O 
 
 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these 
 
 things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal 
 
 them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in 
 
 thy sight. 
 
 — Matt. xi. 25, 26. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 
 
 The year 1212 A. D. demonstrated with 
 unquestionable certainty that the heart of 
 childhood is devoutly and enthusiastically 
 responsive to religious truth and heroic sen- 
 timent. Seventy thousand children, thirty 
 thousand of them from France, forty thous- 
 and from Germany, in one vast, and spon- 
 taneous uprising, set out joyously for the 
 re-capturing of Jerusalem in the holy name 
 of Christ. The historic and cruel disaster 
 of their enterprise only makes conspicuous 
 the blindness and folly of the men and 
 women who inaugurated or permitted it. 
 The Crusade is itself a striking, yea, a glo- 
 rious tribute to the natural devotion and 
 Christ-like heroism of the youthful soul. 
 
 63 
 
64 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 Given the motive and the opportunity and 
 childhood responds to the call of God in de- 
 fense of truth with spontaneous and ardent 
 enthusiasm. The Christian Endeavor So- 
 ciety furnished both the motive and the op- 
 portunity. The rapidity of its spread and 
 the permanence of its work make evident a 
 youthful piety and ardor eclipsing that 
 manifested in the Children's Crusade, and 
 again forcibly demonstrate the possibility 
 of enlisting childhood and youth in the 
 cause of the Redeemer. 
 
 The mere publishing of its purpose and 
 method awakened universal interest and 
 inquiry. The church heralded with joy the 
 discovery of a method for the saving and 
 the training of the young. 
 
 The first information regarding the Young 
 People's Society of Christian Endeavor was 
 conveyed to the churches in an article pub- 
 lished by the pastor of Williston Church 
 August, 1881, in " The Congregationalist" 
 It was at once evident that a vital and 
 long-felt want had been met. Letters of 
 
THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 65 
 
 inquiry poured in from all parts of the land. 
 The principles and methods of the first so- 
 ciety were given to the world. They won 
 the hearty approval of many pastors. Be- 
 ginning with October, 1881, other societies 
 began to be formed. Five are reported as 
 the fruitage of the closing months of the 
 year. The order and date of their organi- 
 zation are as follows: — 
 
 Williston Church, Portland, Maine, . February 2, 1881. 
 
 North Church, Newburyport, Mass . October, 1881. 
 
 Scituate, R. I., November 22, 188 1. 
 
 St. Lawrence Street, Portland, Maine, December 1, 1881. 
 
 Winooski Av. Church, Burlington, Vt., December 2, 1881. 
 
 Ravenna, Ohio, December, 188 1. 
 
 So wide-spread and profound was the in- 
 terest in this new movement that the Wil- 
 liston Society decided to supplement its first 
 anniversary by holding a conference, for the 
 consideration and possible enlargement of 
 the work, to which all societies then formed 
 should be invited. This conference, held in 
 the Williston Church, June 2, 1882, was the 
 
66 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 first of those annual gatherings which have 
 given such an impetus to the movement 
 and have grown into the great international 
 conventions, surpassing in magnitude and 
 power all other annual conventions of the 
 Christian church. 
 
 In order to stimulate a still greater inter- 
 est in this new work in behalf of the young, 
 a local committee consisting of W. H. Pen- 
 nell, J. W. Stevenson, Rev. F. E. Clark, H. 
 H. Burgess and Rev. Charles A. Dickinson, 
 issued a circular which was sent to many- 
 pastors in New England and other portions 
 of the country. Rightly has this initial 
 document been called the Magna Charta 
 of the Christian Endeavor movement. "It 
 was an epoch-making paper in that it 
 brought to a focus and flashed upon the 
 eyes of the world in definite, clear-cut out- 
 lines, the somewhat diffused and confused 
 ideas which had existed for a long time in 
 many earnest hearts." This simple leaflet 
 outlined the features of the new society, 
 together with its constitution and covenant 
 
THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 67 
 
 and invited the co-operation of other 
 churches. The responses were immediate, 
 numerous and gratifying. As flowers spring 
 up in fertile soil, silently and beautifully, 
 no one knows how, so societies multiplied 
 until at the second annual conference, held 
 in the Payson Memorial Church in Portland, 
 June 7, 1883, they numbered fifty-six, with 
 an enrolled membership of 2,870. The sec- 
 retary of the conference, J. W. Stevenson 
 (who, with W. H. Pennell as president, had 
 been elected the previous year, and both 
 of whom filled these offices for three con- 
 secutive years) estimated that the number 
 of unreported societies in the United States 
 and Canada could not be less than three 
 hundred. The fifty-six registered societies 
 represented fourteen states extending from 
 Maine to California, and seven evangelical 
 denominations, viz., the Congregational, 
 Baptist, Free Baptist, Presbyterian, Metho- 
 dist, Dutch Reformed, and " Christian." 
 
 Seventy-six delegates attended this sec- 
 ond conference, representing nineteen soci- 
 
68 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 eties from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont 
 and Massachusetts. Eleven societies at 
 this conference pledged the first money for 
 the extension of the work. Mr. W. J. Van 
 Patten, of Burlington, Vermont, was chosen 
 treasurer. Unconsciously the movement 
 was crystallizing into a permanent organi- 
 zation. Its third anniversary was held in 
 the Kirk Street Church, Lowell, Mass., 
 October 22, 1884. Mathematical ratios were 
 manifest in the growth of the year. One 
 hundred and fifty-six societies were re- 
 ported with a total enrollment of 8,905. 
 Twenty-one states and the Dominion of 
 Canada were represented in this enlarge- 
 ment. Enthusiasm was enkindled by the 
 report of societies also in Foochow, China, 
 and in Honolulu in the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 The next annual conference merited the 
 dignity of a National Convention. It was 
 held at Old Orchard, July 8th and 9th, 1885. 
 Four years had evidently given the society 
 irresistible momentum. Henceforth its 
 growth and conquest were to command the 
 
THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 69 
 
 attention and admiration of the world. 
 Twelve months had increased the number 
 of reported societies to two hundred and 
 fifty-three, with a membership of 14,892. 
 The importance of this convention, how- 
 ever, lay in its statesmanlike plans for the 
 future. It secured a charter under the laws 
 of the State of Maine, and was incorporated 
 as a permanent organization to be known 
 as the "United Society of Christian En- 
 deavor." Thus qualified for financial re- 
 sponsibilities and aggressive work, the Unit- 
 ed Society chose a salaried secretary who 
 should give his whole time and energy to 
 the enterprise. 
 
 Geo. M. Ward, Esq., of Boston, a young 
 lawyer of great promise, was elected to this 
 important position. Mr. Van Patten, whose 
 generosity in support of the new movement 
 had already become marked, was trans- 
 ferred to the presidency of the United 
 Society, and his place as treasurer filled by 
 Mr. William Shaw, of Boston, who with un- 
 tiring energy and zeal, and eminent execu- 
 
70 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 tive ability has since demonstrated his 
 special fitness for so responsible a position. 
 
 It also had become very apparent that 
 the society needed some weekly peri- 
 odical as a medium of communication 
 with its growing constituency, and as a 
 source of information to the inquiring world. 
 The project was committed to the judg- 
 ment of a Board of Trustees, who wisely 
 accepted the generous offer of " The Golden 
 Rule" to become, in part, the organ and 
 representative of the United Society until 
 some one should volunteer financial support 
 for an independent enterprise. 
 
 Another year rolled by. The work in the 
 meantime had trebled. The eight hundred 
 and fifty societies now enrolled, with a mem- 
 bership of 50,000, represented practically 
 the whole known world. Saratoga Springs 
 with its hospitable accommodations was the 
 chosen place for the annual gathering July 
 6-8, 1886. The key-note of the Secretary's 
 stimulating report was " Advancement." 
 This convention revealed as never before 
 
THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 71 
 
 the cosmopolitan and inter-denominational 
 character of the movement. It was a 
 prophecy of the enlargement which has 
 been increasingly marvellous with each suc- 
 ceeding anniversary. The impression made 
 by this convention was deepened the follow- 
 ing summer at Saratoga where the meeting 
 was again held. The movement was tak- 
 ing on greater intensity and spiritual power. 
 The perfection of the organization and the 
 rare wisdom manifest in its management con- 
 tributed largely to this result. " The Gold- 
 en Rule," which for two years had served so 
 well as the temporary organ of the United 
 Society was now adopted as its permanent 
 and official representative. Rev. F. E. 
 Clark was elected editor-in-chief, and the 
 president also of the United Society. 
 This result was both natural and necessary. 
 The work from the beginning had centered 
 in him, as far as human instrumentality was 
 concerned. He had fathered it from the 
 moment of its birth in his own consecrated 
 home in the Williston parsonage. He had 
 
72 A 'DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 grown with its growth. The wisdom, 
 statesmanship and fraternal inter-denomi- 
 national spirit necessary to successful lead- 
 ership were conspicuously his possession. 
 Humility in the midst of rare success and 
 still more conspicuous laudation; largeness 
 of heart in the midst of rivalry and sectarian 
 narrowness; and withal a calm and compre- 
 hensive executive ability, were the qualities 
 essential to one commanding such a world- 
 wide enterprise and such diversity of thought 
 and life. That Mr. Clark was providentially 
 raised up for this weighty, yet magnificent 
 responsibility, is the clear verdict of these 
 later years of experience and achievement. 
 The Annual Conventions of the society 
 are the truest exponent of its spirit and the 
 clearest indication of its progress. Here 
 the life of the movement finds its freest and 
 largest expression, and here also the results 
 of each year's work are published to the 
 world. July, 1888, found thousands of youth- 
 ful pilgrims flocking to the seventh Annual 
 Conference at Chicago. The vision of that 
 
THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 73 
 
 gathering, crowding to its utmost capacity 
 the great Armory building, the delegates 
 from each state and nation assembled each 
 under his own banner, and all united under 
 one common banner: "For Christ and the 
 Church, " can never fade from the mind of 
 one who witnessed it as a lover of the Re- 
 deemer's Kingdom. The unity of believers 
 had possibly never been more beautifully 
 symbolized in Christian history, nor the 
 prophecy of their universal fellowship more 
 divinely fulfilled. Two months previous 
 to this convention Dr. Clark visited Eng- 
 land in the interests of Christian En- 
 deavor. The mother country gave him a 
 most cordial reception. He addressed large 
 audiences in City Temple, London, at the 
 Sunday School Union anniversary and 
 other May meetings; Spurgeon's pupils also 
 and assemblages in such representative 
 churches as Dr. Dale's in Birmingham, and 
 Dr. Macfayden's in Manchester. These ad- 
 dresses gave new impulse to the work which 
 had already quietly found its way into the 
 
74 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 British Isles and on a large scale may be 
 considered its true introduction into Eng- 
 land. 
 
 By the next anniversary at Philadel 
 phia, July 9-1 1, 1889, the 4000 registered 
 delegates of the preceding year had in- 
 creased to 8,000. Representatives came 
 from thirty-one states and territories in 
 this country, and from Germany, Turkey, 
 Canada, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. 
 The movement had become inter-conti- 
 nental as well as inter-denominational and 
 international. The secretary reported 
 seven thousand six hundred and seventy 
 societies with a membership of nearly half 
 a million. To-day, he said, we can add 
 nothing to the territory to be encompassed. 
 Christian Endeavor has encircled the globe. 
 
 Up to this point the work of the society 
 had received the hearty and voluntary sup- 
 port of the local societies throughout the 
 world. At the following convention held 
 June 12-15, ^90, in Music Hall in the great 
 Exposition Building in St. Louis, the income 
 

 THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 75 
 
 of the publishing department was reported as 
 adequate to cover all expenses. The growth 
 of the society during the preceding twelve 
 months had been unprecedented and mar- 
 vellous in the extreme. In the number of 
 societies formed, this year eclipsed the first 
 seven years of Christian Endeavor history. 
 Every month had increased the youthful 
 army with 17,000 volunteers, until the re- 
 corded societies had reached a total of 
 11,013, w ith a membership of 660,000. The 
 first decade of Christian Endeavor history 
 closed with over 13,000 societies and a 
 consecrated host that rapidly approached 
 the vast number of a million. 
 
 Xerxes with his heroic millions failed in 
 ancient times to conquer the little empire 
 of Greece, but back of this new army is the 
 energy of God, and failure in the conquest 
 of greater empires is impossible. One can- 
 not study the brief history of this modern 
 uprising without being made conscious of 
 the Divine Presence. In it are the unfold- 
 ings of an eternal purpose; through it the 
 
76 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 manifestations of divine wisdom and power. 
 So rapid has been the growth of Christian 
 Endeavor in lands across the sea, that to 
 trace its conquests is impossible. Eng- 
 land, the continent of Europe, South Africa, 
 India and China are in the current of this 
 new movement; Newfoundland also, Ber- 
 muda, Japan, distant Australia and the 
 islands of the Pacific. The world seemed 
 waiting for this new agency. Its potencies 
 were universally appropriated and applied. 
 The world has witnessed the dawning of 
 a new day in Christian science and philos- 
 ophy. The increasing spiritual intelligence 
 of the church is discovering the simplicity 
 of God's methods in nature and in grace. It 
 is winning and training the child, that it 
 may save and utilize the man. In the dis- 
 covery of this natural law and in the appli- 
 cation of this divine principle, Christian 
 Endeavor is hastening with intense speed 
 the fulfillment of the ancient promise that 
 " the uttermost parts of the earth shall be 
 His possession." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 dtbristhin €nt>cabor Jfitirahwri, 
 
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an ensample to 
 
 them that believe, in word, in manner of life, in love, in 
 
 faith, in purity. 
 
 —I Timothy iv. 12. 
 
 But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and 
 hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned 
 them; and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred 
 writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
 through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 
 
 — II Timothy iii. 14, 15. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR LITERATURE. 
 
 As WINGS to a bird, so is the printed page 
 to the enterprises of this modern age. By 
 means of it, information is carried to the 
 remotest corners of the globe. Pamphlet 
 and volume are the pinions of truth. On 
 these wings truth flies the world over and 
 finds its nesting-place in the intellect and 
 hearts of men. 
 
 The first printed leaflet that carried the 
 news of Christian Endeavor to the church 
 at large was like a winged messenger of love. 
 Without it and the subsequent work of the 
 press, the mighty movement, which has so 
 vivified and energized the church, would 
 have been impossible. 
 
80 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 The first printed article on the subject, as 
 already stated, was published in "The Con- 
 gregationalist" and was written by Dr. Clark 
 six months after the Williston society was 
 organized. The inquiries from all quarters 
 were answered by correspondence which, as 
 the work spread, became voluminous and 
 burdensome. Other articles from the same 
 pen were printed in the leading religious 
 journals of the country. Through them the 
 new movement commanded increased at- 
 tention. It was utterly impossible to meet, 
 by letter, the questions thus raised regard- 
 ing the relation of youth to professed 
 Christianity. The result was the first 
 volume of Christian Endeavor literature, en- 
 titled " The Children and the Church" written 
 by the author of the movement during a 
 summer's vacation when rest was much 
 more needed than extra work. The little 
 book received hearty commendation in the 
 Introduction written by the late Dr. C. L. 
 Goodell, then the beloved pastor of the Pil- 
 grim Church, St. Louis, Mo. The public 
 
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR LITERATURE. 81 
 
 ratified his approval. The volume has al- 
 ready passed through several editions. It 
 was followed by " Voting People s Prayer 
 Meetings" which also won for itself wide 
 recognition. The only other volume bear- 
 ing directly on Christian Endeavor work is 
 the recent book, edited by Dr. Clark, and 
 largely his own composition, entitled" Ways 
 and Means ." It is a comprehensive summary 
 of Christian Endeavor principles and 
 methods and is invaluable to one who 
 seeks familiarity with the organization and 
 its work. " The Mossback Correspondence" 
 is simply a volume of letters by Dr. Clark 
 reprinted from the editorial columns of" The 
 Golden Rule" In sound sense, wholesome 
 advice, keen satire, and sparkling wit they 
 have been compared to the practical writ- 
 ings of the late Dr. Holland. 
 
 " The Golden Rule" as indicated in the 
 preceding chapter, was the product of a 
 necessity. The new movement demanded 
 expression. The Christian world asked that 
 it should voice itself in literature and publish 
 
82 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 abroad its principles and achievements. 
 The humble paper which it adopted as its 
 mouthpiece, and whose name it assumed, 
 at once took its place among the eminent 
 religious journals of the day. It is the offi- 
 cial exponent of Christian Endeavor thought 
 and the only adequate means by which the 
 public can keep trace of the movement. Its 
 circulation is commensurate with the growth 
 of the organization. The risk of its publica- 
 tion was at first assumed by four or five 
 gentlemen who put their'private means into 
 the enterprise for the sake of the good it 
 could accomplish. Sometimes it has been 
 conducted at a financial loss, rarely if ever 
 with a margin of profit, this being entirely a 
 secondary consideration. "The Golden Rule" 
 has taken its place delightfully among the 
 various evangelical denominations, filling a 
 place which was wholly unoccupied. It 
 displaces no denominational paper, but on 
 the contrary urges the young people of the 
 societies to be loyal first of all to the publi- 
 cations of their own church. In Australia 
 
CHRIS TIA N ENDEA FOR LITER A TURE. 83 
 
 Christian Endeavor literature has been re- 
 published and the annual conventions re- 
 ported in almost the same form as they ap- 
 pear in this countr}'. The British section is 
 under the same auspices as the Sunday 
 School Union, and they publish the litera- 
 ture, pledge cards and other publications 
 which have such widespread circulation 
 here. 
 
 The work has also called into existence 
 numberless leaflets and tracts which form 
 no insignificant factor in its marvellous de- 
 velopment. Many of these tracts have 
 gone the world over and have been trans- 
 lated into the Norwegian, Swedish, French, 
 Spanish, German, Dutch, and Danish lan- 
 guages; also into Chinese, Hawaiian, Tamil 
 and other languages of heathen coun- 
 tries. 
 
 Every great, aggressive, spiritual move- 
 ment in the church has voiced itself in song 
 as well as in literature. The Reformation 
 was wrought by one who had music in his 
 soul and who sang of victory as he preached 
 
84 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 of faith. Methodism was introduced with 
 hymns. With the evangelistic revivals of 
 this generation a special hymnology has 
 grown up, with music equally special and 
 unique. In like manner when Christian 
 Endeavor began to reveal its marvellous 
 life and energy, songs embodying its spirit 
 began to multiply. Some of them have 
 already won enduring fame. Foremost 
 among the composers of these hymns is 
 the Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., now president 
 of Howard University, Washington, D. C. 
 His "banner hymn," — " Keep your colors 
 flying," — and " God be with you till we meet 
 again " will be sung, as favorites, as long as 
 the spirit which prompted them mar- 
 shals the youthful hosts to united and 
 valiant service. 
 
 The gathering of these hymns with ap- 
 propriate music into a volume entitled 
 " Hymns of Christian Endeavor," was the 
 work of Rev. S. W. Adriance. His musical 
 qualification for this service of love was re- 
 enforced by a devotion to the Christian 
 
CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR LITER A TURE. 85 
 
 Endeavor idea, which has been conspic- 
 uous from the organization of the first 
 society. 
 
 In addition to the publications of the 
 United Society, the Endeavor movement 
 has commanded such recognition and ap- 
 proval as to secure for itself a special de- 
 partment in nearly all the leading religious 
 journals of the day. The discussion of its 
 prayer meeting topics and the report of its 
 doings and developments are esteemed as 
 important as the weekly exposition of the 
 international Sunday School lesson. 
 
 The growth and power of an organization, 
 especially of a religious organization, may 
 be measured by its hold upon the press and 
 by its place in literature. In this respect 
 the achievements of Christian Endeavor are 
 unprecedented in history. The first five 
 years were years of experiment, and because 
 of the infancy of the movement were nec- 
 essarily years of practical obscurity. This 
 brings the marvellous achievements within 
 the limited reach of half a decade. In 
 
86 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 that short time it has won a world-wide 
 constituency, has gained the recognition 
 of the press and a place also in literature 
 that promise the work a magnificent 
 future. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be 
 upon thine heart: and thou shall leach them diligently unto 
 thy children, and shall talk oj them when thou sittest in 
 thine house, and ivhen thou walkest by the way, and when 
 thou liest down, and when thou r is est up. And thou shall 
 bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for 
 frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them 
 upon the door posts of thy house, and upon thy gates. 
 
 —Deuteronomy vi. 6-9. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CHURCH'S NEED. 
 
 A practical philosophy of conversion, of 
 religious training and service, applicable to 
 infancy, childhood and youth, and thus a 
 new philosophy regarding the nature, de- 
 sign and mission of the church: — such was 
 the need. In many respects the church of 
 to-day has been compelled to advance by 
 going back to the simplicity of primitive 
 Christianity, yea, back even to the simplest 
 fundamentals of historic religion. The cove- 
 nant with Abraham included children in 
 their earliest infancy. Upon the new-born 
 babe must the seal of the covenant be put, 
 even while he was only eight days old. 
 The significance of this must lie in the 
 spiritual inheritance. The law of heredity 
 
90 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 applies as marvellously and as minutely to 
 the spiritual nature as to the physical. 
 Under the covenant, if intelligently received 
 and implicitly obeyed, this law may, and was 
 probably intended to secure regeneration 
 at birth, or so soon after that neither the 
 child nor the parent would ever know when 
 it took place. 
 
 Regeneration as soon as it becomes evi- 
 dent qualifies any person, no matter how 
 young, for membership in the visible church. 
 It is the true science of the visible church 
 to conform itself in membership, so far as is 
 possible, to the invisible. The former can 
 certainly have no higher standard of admis- 
 sion than the latter. The standard of the 
 latter is vital rather than doctrinal, spiritual 
 rather than intellectual, — the spiritual al- 
 ways including the intellectual. To be born 
 again is the first and only requisite for ad- 
 mission to Christ's Kingdom, and any and 
 every member of His Kingdom has a right 
 to the benefits and privileges of the church 
 which is its visible exponent. 
 
THE CHURCH'S NEED. 
 
 This simple philosophy seems to have 
 escaped the notice of bygone generations. 
 To such an extent has the spiritual element 
 in religious experience and training been 
 lost sight of, and so completely have the 
 doctrinal elements of truth been exalted 
 above the experimental possession of it, 
 that in many confessions the only thing 
 required for church membership is an in- 
 tellectual knowledge of the catechism or 
 creed. The churches which require only 
 this intellectual qualification reveal a tend- 
 ency of thought and a method of operation 
 which have to some extent vitiated the reli- 
 gious philosophy of every evangelical sect. 
 A human standard or view of religious 
 training has thus supplanted the simplicity 
 of the gospel. In proportion to the weight 
 of tradition, and to the doctrinal emphasis 
 insisted upon by teachers of truth whose 
 intellectual attainments eclipsed their spirit- 
 ual, in just such proportion children were 
 excluded from the church or were received 
 into it without evidence of conversion, purely 
 
92 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 on the basis of their skill in memorizing the 
 accepted doctrinal standards. 
 
 The reversal of this method does not 
 diminish the authority of doctrine, but it 
 conforms the process of intellectual and 
 spiritual training to the processes of nature. 
 It makes the church, not a university for 
 mature saints, but a training-school for the 
 immature. The work of indoctrination and 
 spiritual nurture is not to be done outside 
 the church and preparatory to it, but in the 
 church and by it, for all those who be- 
 cause of regeneration are entitled to mem- 
 bership therein. This is an age of recon- 
 struction and discovery. Intellectual Chris- 
 tianity is formal and rigid. A doctrinal age 
 in the sense of being dogmatic, is necessarily 
 largely theoretical. To make Christianity 
 vital and spiritual is to displace the theoret- 
 ical by the practical. The whole tendency 
 of this age is along this line. The church, 
 because of new spiritual life, or because of a 
 conscious lack of it, is reconstructing its 
 philosophy and methods of work. In seek- 
 
THE CHURCH'S NEED. 
 
 ing to be more practical and efficient it 
 seeks to be more profoundly biblical and 
 intelligent in'order that it maybe practical. 
 Knowledge thus becomes experimental, not 
 theoretical. In actual effort to save sinners 
 and to apply the gospel to all ages and con- 
 ditions of men, the church is discovering 
 laws of spiritual life and growth of which it 
 was formerly ignorant. The love of Christ is 
 the Columbus of the human soul. The 
 church begins to discover the true principles 
 of Christian nurture and the true method of 
 operation the moment it yearns as Christ 
 did to redeem the world. 
 
 It was inevitable with these tendencies 
 at work in the church, that such an agency 
 as the Christian Endeavor society should be 
 born. The age demanded it. The church 
 needed it. The hope of childhood and the 
 perpetuity of the kingdom itself depended 
 upon it. Unless the church had reconstruct- 
 ed its philosophy of religious life and service 
 it could not long have competed with the 
 aggressive forces of this materialistic age. 
 
94 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 It was sadly wanting in youthful life and 
 energy. The church needed the young as 
 much as the young the church. How to 
 win childhood, secure its conversion, and 
 provide a sphere for its exercise was the im- 
 perative question. For a quarter of a cen- 
 tury the church had been feeling after some 
 agency of power, if haply it might find it. 
 Here and there individual pastors were 
 breaking through the traditions, customs, 
 and beliefs of former days. Their hearts 
 yearned not only for the salvation of the 
 young but also for their sympathy and help. 
 The whole church needed reviving. It 
 needed life and power as the human system 
 constantly needs the introduction of new 
 blood and the growth of new tissue. 
 
 In the fullness of time God manifested His 
 reviving energy. Every reforming agency 
 in the world is a re-embodiment of His 
 Spirit, a new impartation of His life, a new 
 fulfillment of His promise to abide with His 
 people unto the end of this era of conflict 
 and victory. 
 
THE CHURCH'S NEED. 95 
 
 The Christian Endeavor Society demon- 
 strates God's providential care and continued 
 leadership. It bestowed upon the young 
 something, in Christian life and service, they 
 could call their own. Not their own as 
 separate from the church, but better still as 
 a part of the church. Or to speak more 
 accurately it made them conscious of the 
 blessed fact that the church itself was their 
 inheritance and possession, that they had a 
 right to it and a place in it. 
 
 To win youth is not difficult provided the 
 effort be made early and the object pre- 
 sented for their acceptance both substantial 
 and attractive. The superficial and trivial 
 will no more capture and hold childhood 
 than manhood. When Garibaldi asked his 
 scarred and tried veterans to re-enlist for 
 another campaign they replied, " What will 
 you give us if we will follow you ? " 
 " Marches, wounds, death, — victory " was 
 his answer. Throwing their caps into the 
 air they cried, " We are your men, we are 
 your men." 
 
96 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 Until the Christian Endeavor movement, 
 with its call to duty and its clearly-defined 
 pledge, marshalled its loyal hosts of vol- 
 unteers the church was unaware of the 
 valorous and chivalrous spirit of childhood 
 and youth. It reserved the sterner tests of 
 truth and covenant obligations for manhood" 
 affirming that children were too immature, 
 intellectually and spiritually, to be ranked 
 among the confessors of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 The moral sturdiness of youth is seen in 
 the history of the Christian Endeavor pledge. 
 They covet service, they rejoice in obliga- 
 tion, they are glad to make sacrifices for 
 Christ's sake. If rightly taught and guided 
 they aspire to the Christ-like, and will en- 
 dure conflict even with the spirit of the 
 ancient martyrs. 
 
 Instead of repelling youth, the devout and 
 heroic element in the pledge is the very 
 thing that has so won their hearts and fired 
 their enthusiasm. Its rejection has often 
 been more due to the timidity of the old who 
 had the work in charge, than to the moral 
 
THE CHURCH'S NEED. 97 
 
 hesitancy of the young by whom the 
 covenant was to be received. 
 
 To command the ardor and the devotion 
 of youth by a noble ideal of life and service 
 is one thing, and to provide a sphere for the 
 exercise of these God-given qualities is 
 another. The church did neither until the 
 covenant and practical methods of the 
 Christian Endeavor society met the needs. 
 A young man whose early wants as a Chris- 
 tian were not met, as they have since been, 
 by the more practical methods of to-day, 
 relates in the following bright utterance the 
 experience of multitudes: " The pastor and 
 the members of our church fished for me for 
 years. They finally landed me in the 
 church and left me there on that rock to 
 die." 
 
 Many devoted followers of Christ, now 
 past the meridian of life, have bemoaned to 
 the writer their inability to serve and their 
 lack of liberty by saying, " When we were 
 young we did not have the help that the chil- 
 dren of to-day receive." Freedom in service 
 
98 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 is the reward of experience. Ability to do 
 comes from doing, more than from original 
 endowment. Even original endowment is 
 helpless without a sphere of action. 
 
 The civil war not only discovered but in 
 a certain sense made such generals as Grant 
 and Sherman. Heroism, or the capacity 
 therefor, is latent in well-nigh every human 
 soul. But a field of heroism is essential to 
 the development of heroes. As is the battle- 
 field to the chivalry of the soldier, such is the 
 church, through its various agencies to the 
 spiritual life of the Christian. The Chris- 
 tian Endeavor Society pledges to service 
 and at the same time provides a way in 
 which to serve. It may rightly be termed 
 the science of Christian service. 
 
 In its organization it plans to give oppor- 
 tunity for all to engage in some specific 
 work. It apportions the work among com- 
 mittees which seek to compass every possi- 
 ble field of operation and meet every possi- 
 ble need. If a sphere of action does not 
 readily suggest itself, it invents one in order 
 
THE CHURCH'S NEED. 99 
 
 that no possessor of spiritual life may fail to 
 have the natural and necessary avenue for 
 its expression, exercise and development. 
 No former agency in the church has suc- 
 ceeded in providing so many ways of call- 
 ing into service the latent powers and im- 
 mature life of young disciples. Its system 
 of rotation prevents a monopoly of any de- 
 partment of Christian activity by the older 
 and more experienced, and in so doing ban- 
 ishes the personal element which has often 
 wrought such mischief in the government of 
 the church and in the conduct of its work. 
 The remedy of these defects in training 
 and service, helps to remove the resultant 
 evil of unsociability. Christian activity ne- 
 cessitates co-operation, co-operation means 
 fellowship. The church of the present is 
 pre-eminently social. It presents a striking 
 contrast to the methods of the former gen- 
 eration. The formal, and possibly also the 
 austere, played too large a part in the ser- 
 vices of prayer and praise. The reverent 
 spirit of our fathers, in its majestic dignity 
 
100 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 and strength, had not learned that devotion 
 could express itself as truly in the joys of 
 social fellowship in the house of God, as in 
 sermon and song, nor that for its healthiest 
 development it needed such expression. 
 The church is doing God's work as much in 
 supplanting the club by an equivalent soci- 
 ability as in its specific services of prayer. 
 The working church of to-day requires a par- 
 lor as much as a chapel, and Christ's min- 
 istry is fulfilled in the one as truly as in the 
 other. The social element is so prominent 
 in the religious nature of man that the ce- 
 lestial home of the redeemed is pictured, in 
 Revelation, as a city. The wants of this na- 
 ture must be intelligently recognized by the 
 church that would compete with the world 
 in winning men. The term " applied Chris- 
 tianity" has come to stand as the exponent 
 of a more intelligent application of the gos- 
 pel to man's entire catalogue of wants. The 
 social cannot be separated from the moral. 
 To touch men socially is to touch them 
 morally, intellectually also, and spiritually. 
 
THE CHURCH'S NEED. 101 
 
 The latest appliance of scientific Christian 
 enterprise is the "Parish House" with its 
 departments for physical training, its rooms 
 for amusements, its parlors for social fellow- 
 ship, its chapel for prayer and praise. It 
 proclaims the blessed fact that Christianity 
 redeems man in body, mind, soul and spirit; 
 that religion has to do with his entire being; 
 that the provision for the intellectual or so- 
 cial nature may be the surest provision for 
 the spiritual. As has been shown, one of the 
 first three committees of the original Chris- 
 tian Endeavor Society was a social com- 
 mittee. The name indicates its purpose. 
 The young people's organization has, from 
 its beginning, been attractive and a spirit- 
 ual power because free, joyous, spontane- 
 ous, social fellowship has been associated 
 in equal parts with religious fervor. 
 
 The right adjustment of the devotional 
 and social contributes to the increase of 
 spiritual life. The mingling together of 
 Christians, of churches, of denominations 
 means the interchange of thought, the com- 
 
102 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 munication of moral energy. The social 
 revolution, — for such it is — which has taken 
 place in the church in the last decade is due 
 in part to the movement which has intro- 
 duced a million of young people into its 
 fellowship and work. 
 
 In addition to the defects above specified 
 the church needed some power by which to 
 secure allegiance to its covenant and make 
 the covenant effective in the lives of those 
 who had taken upon themselves its solemn 
 vows. The spirituality and aggressiveness 
 of a church are proportionate to such loy- 
 alty. To work out the vital principles of 
 the covenant in Christians, individually and 
 collectively, is the practical problem which 
 the Christian Endeavor Society is seeking 
 to solve. The philosophy of the cove- 
 nant, and the making its principles effec- 
 tive through the Christian Endeavor pledge, 
 furnish the theme for the subsequent chap- 
 ter. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 Clje Covenant $bca» 
 
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the 
 Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God 
 Almighty; walk before me and be thou perfect. And 1 will 
 make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply 
 thee exceedingly . And Abram fell on his face: and God 
 talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is 
 with thee, and thou shall be the father of a multitude of 
 nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, 
 but thy name shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude 
 of nations have J made thee. And I will make thee exceed- 
 ing fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings 
 shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant 
 between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their 
 generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto 
 thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, 
 and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all 
 the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I 
 will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, And as 
 for thee, thou shall keep my covenant, thou, and thy seed 
 after thee throughout their generations. 
 
 —Genesis xvii. 1-9. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE COVENANT IDEA. 
 
 Revealed religion is based on a cove- 
 nant. The history of the Christian religion 
 is but the unfolding of the nature and pur- 
 pose of this covenant. The initial step on 
 the part of Jehovah, in choosing a people as 
 the vehicle of truth, a*nd in the establish- 
 ment of the church, was a solemn compact 
 with its founder, the first great Patriarch. 
 To Abraham, Jehovah said, " I will estab- 
 lish my covenant between Me and thee, and 
 thy seed after thee in their generations, for 
 an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto 
 thee, and to thy seed after thee. Thou 
 shalt keep My covenant, therefore, thou, 
 and thy seed after thee in their genera- 
 tions." 
 
 105 
 
106 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 God prescribed the terms and man by vol- 
 untary acceptance of them inherited the 
 blessing. Under the Christian dispensation 
 the conditions are the same. Divine wis- 
 dom and authority formulate the agreement, 
 and the believer in Christ secures salvation 
 and enters into life by the free choice of its 
 provisions. 
 
 The impressive characteristic of the di- 
 vine covenant is its perpetuity. It is an 
 eternal compact. Inherently a temporary 
 or conditional element is impossible. Any 
 reserve on the part of man, looking toward 
 a provisional agreement ora possible change 
 of purpose in the future vitiates the sincer- 
 ity of his action and renders fellowship with 
 God inconceivable. 
 
 Intelligent conversion is the free, glad, 
 unconditional acceptance of God's will as 
 made known in the covenant of grace. It 
 is the resolute, uncompromising, spontane- 
 ous choice of the truth-loving heart: — a 
 heart that tolerates no thought of deviation, 
 or change in its desires or course of action 
 
THE COVENANT IDEA. 107 
 
 to the remotest bounds of eternity. The 
 covenant which God makes with His peo- 
 ple is "everlasting." 
 
 True religion is the allegiance of the 
 whole soul to its Creator and Redeemer. 
 This allegiance, because of a profound and 
 inherent spiritual necessity, demands ex- 
 pression. The visible church with its cove- 
 nants, sacraments and outward ceremonies 
 is the divine provision for this need. The 
 church can no more exist without a Con- 
 fession than the lungs can survive without 
 breathing. The regenerate life of the 
 Christian is the response of the Holy Spirit 
 to his unrestricted vow of allegiance to 
 Christ. This life manifests itself as natur- 
 ally as the heart pulsates. The formal and 
 outward covenant is thus no super-added 
 condition of external worship. Its char- 
 acter is not ecclesiastical, but spiritual. It 
 is simply the normal and necessary manifes- 
 tation of the inner spiritual process which 
 took place when the believer surrendered to 
 Christ, in life-long and loving allegiance. 
 
108 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 This spiritual fact needs repeated em- 
 phasis as the generations come and go. 
 The covenants of the church were designed 
 as aids to the religious life in giving ex- 
 pression to the eternal agreement into 
 which the soul entered with God at conver- 
 sion. To look upon them as something 
 super-imposed upon Christians by priestly 
 or ecclesiastical authority is to be culpably 
 ignorant of the philosophy both of the 
 church and of religious experience. 
 
 Nor does this law and spiritual necessity 
 find its only manifestation in religion. All 
 substantial and trustworthy secular organi- 
 zations are based on a covenant. Every 
 business transaction, in order to be mutu- 
 ally obligatory, must be confirmed by a 
 legal compact. Every bond signed, every 
 civil oath, every marriage vow, every social 
 fraternity with its secret and solemn as- 
 severations of loyalty demonstrate the ne- 
 cessity of the covenant relation, and at the 
 same time unfold its practical philosophy. 
 The soul must register its decisions in some 
 
THE COVENANT IDEA. 109 
 
 outward agreement. Until it does, neither 
 the individual nor the world at large is cer- 
 tain that the decision had been made. 
 
 It is because of this profound moral and 
 spiritual law that Jesus made confession 
 imperative. It is safe to say that almost 
 without exception that soul is self-deceived 
 or treacherous both to itself and to God, 
 which refuses the outward expression and 
 the formal covenant. 
 
 With intelligent recognition of this law 
 the church from the beginning has had its 
 outward confession. It has required sub- 
 scription to its evangelical beliefs and to 
 its covenants. Had its instructions been 
 thorough and its requirements set forth with 
 more intelligence and conviction; had the 
 spiritual philosophy of the covenant idea 
 been more clearly understood and unfolded, 
 and subscription thereto by individual 
 Christians been more clearly defined, more 
 positive and vital, it would from the first 
 have compassed all the aggressive work of 
 the Kingdom. Nothing can be more vital 
 
110 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 and comprehensive than the ordinary church 
 covenant. Yet what church has secured 
 fidelity to its own principles ? Its machin- 
 ery has been adequate, but the vital element, 
 owing to some imperfect method of oper- 
 ation, or undiscovered defect, has been 
 partially or wholly wanting. The lack lay 
 not in the covenant, but in the failure of the 
 church to secure allegiance thereto. 
 
 This historic defect made the Christian 
 Endeavor Society a necessity and led to its 
 organization. Its chief aim is to make the 
 covenant effective. It does this by inter- 
 preting to the young disciple the nature of 
 conversion. What is it to be a Christian ? 
 Is it not, as has already been said, to give 
 one's self, body and soul, for time and eter- 
 nity, without reserve to God ? Is it not to 
 enter into perpetual and solemn covenant 
 with Him, taking Him in His triune per- 
 sonality to be our Father, Redeemer, Sancti- 
 fier and Guide ? It is safe to say that not 
 an evangelical creed in the Protestant 
 church contains or requires more in its 
 
THE COVENANT IDEA. Ill 
 
 covenant than every truly and intelligently 
 regenerated person has, in the secrecy of 
 his soul, already solemnly and joyfully 
 pledged to God. Without such pledge and 
 commitment conversion is impossible. In 
 choosing Christ as Saviour we accept His 
 will and pledge ourselves to His service. 
 The formal covenant simply announces what 
 has already transpired between the con- 
 verted sinner and his God. The verbal 
 pledge contains no more than the secret 
 pedge. With reference only to religious 
 life and duty it can contain no more, for 
 conversion is the giving of all to God. 
 
 The power of Christian Endeavor lies 
 in the unfolding and the working of this 
 principle. It insists that the secret vow of 
 the soul must express itself, in order to 
 insure that it has truly been made and to 
 secure the development of character which 
 can only come from such expression. 
 
 Hostility to the pledge which is so instinc- 
 tive with the human heart is due either to 
 the rebellious element in human nature pre- 
 
112 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 vious to conversion, or to ignorance of the 
 philosophy of the spiritual life after conver- 
 sion. 
 
 That conversion is impossible without a 
 comprehensive and unrestricted pledge, 
 needs, as has already been affirmed, repeated 
 reiteration and emphasis. Normal Chris- 
 tianity finds in the covenant its freest and 
 most natural expression. A soul that re- 
 fuses such expression is, like Ananias and 
 Sapphira, reserving something from God, 
 and in thus keeping back part of the price 
 is both self-deceived and commits the fatal 
 blunder of lying to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 In actual experiment or experience under 
 the Christian Endeavor pledge it is found 
 that the disciples of Christ who give evi- 
 dence of having made the most joyful and 
 unreserved commitment of themselves to 
 His service are those who most gladly re- 
 spond to this new form of allegiance. It is 
 not a question of how little, but of how 
 much. The covenant enkindles aspiration 
 and develops spirituality. It is universally 
 
THE COVENANT IDEA. 113 
 
 objected to by the worldly and unspiritual. 
 Few ardent followers of Jesus hesitate in 
 the presence of its obligations when the re- 
 lation- of the covenant to life is clearly un- 
 derstood. 
 
 In unfolding this relation and in putting 
 the pledge idea into operation, the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor Society has conferred a 
 priceless boon upon the church. It has 
 made the individual conscious of his relation 
 to the Kingdom, has made service more in- 
 telligent and specific, has quickened and 
 energized the spiritual life of all who have 
 responded to its principles, has stimulated 
 to greater study of the Bible, and to more 
 aggressive and systematic work. 
 
 The Christian Endeavor pledge has also 
 demonstrated that childhood can both un- 
 derstand and accept covenant obligations. 
 It has thus made evident to the church that 
 no period of life is so responsive to noble 
 ideals, so ready to make uncompromising 
 commitment to Christ. The heroic is a 
 prominent element in youthful character. 
 
114 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 The willingness to make sacrifice for Christ's 
 sake is greater in a child of twelve than in 
 a new convert at twenty-five or forty years 
 of age. For this reason the covenant idea 
 and obligation become, if received in early 
 life, a part of the child's spiritual make-up. 
 They enter into his moral constitution. 
 They grow with his growth. They develop 
 intellectual vigor, positive views of truth 
 and duty, moral nerve and sinew, and 
 strength of will. 
 
 The church covenant never secured, as it 
 ought, and as it was inherently capable of 
 doing, these qualities in the membership at 
 large, because it was never actually incor- 
 porated into the moral and spiritual con- 
 stitution. The flexible period had passed 
 when the covenant was made obligatory. 
 The intellectual and doctrinal element in 
 religion was emphasized to the neglect of 
 the experimental. The writer, in the sixth 
 year of his ministry, received a venerable 
 disciple into the fellowship of God's people 
 on confession of faith at the advanced age 
 
THE COVENANT IDEA. 115 
 
 of ninety-two. At the early age of sixteen 
 she gave her heart to Christ and wished to 
 unite with the church, but was rejected on 
 account of her youth. For seventy-six years 
 she lost the privilege, joy, and help of mem- 
 bership in the visible church through the 
 false spiritual philosophy universally prev- 
 alent in her childhood. In the same par- 
 ish were many aged people who " indulged 
 a hope," some of them more than four- 
 score years of age, who had spent their lives 
 outside the church because when converted 
 at an early age they were told that they 
 were too young to take such an important 
 step intelligently. The writer speaks from 
 intimate acquaintance with such aged dis- 
 ciples. The church as it outgrew this piti- 
 ful ignorance, discovered a deficiency in its 
 method of Christian nurture, but had not 
 solved the problem until the principle un- 
 derlying the covenant was made applicable 
 to childhood by the Christian Endeavor 
 Society. The unspiritual condition of the 
 church had imposed upon the Scriptures a 
 philosophy of religion that obscured what 
 
116 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 is now seen to be its simplest teaching re- 
 garding the process of spiritual growth. 
 Christ called special attention to children 
 and rebuked those who deemed them un- 
 worthy of His notice. His own confirmation 
 as a son of the law, in harmony with Jewish 
 custom, at the age of twelve, ought to have 
 revealed the covenant principle to the 
 church centuries ago. By the discovery 
 and application of this neglected spiritual 
 law the church of to-day has returned to the 
 simplicity of the gospel. "If ever," as the 
 author of this movement says, " a young 
 Christian stood on a high plane of moral 
 grandeur, if ever he climbed to the mountain 
 peak of his transfiguration, with his face 
 lifted skyward while the light of heaven 
 shone upon it, and his hands, raised aloft, 
 clasped the very hand of God, it was 
 when he said before all the world, ' Trust- 
 ing in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, 
 I promise Him that I will strive to do what- 
 ever He would have me do, and that through- 
 out my whole life I will endeavor to lead a 
 Christian life.' " 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 Donb of Pinion §mon0 Dcnomhtatijons. 
 
And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were 
 
 all together in one place 4nl they -Mere all filled 
 
 with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, 
 as the Spirit gave them utterance; .... but this is that 
 which hath been spoken by the prophet Joel; 
 
 And it shall be in the last days, saith God, 
 
 I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh; 
 
 And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
 
 And your young men shall see visions, 
 
 And your old men shall dream dreams; 
 
 Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those 
 
 days 
 Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 
 —Acts ii. i, 4, 16-18. 
 
 And the glory which thou has given me I have given unto 
 them; that they may be one, even as we are one. 
 
 —John xvii. 22. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A BOND OF UNION AMONG DENOMINATIONS. 
 
 A NET-WORK of steel railways binds to- 
 gether all the states and territories of the 
 American republic. These glittering high- 
 ways furnish social and commerical connec- 
 tion between the various parts of this great 
 empire. They forbid seclusion; they compel 
 enlightenment; through the heart of one 
 section of the country they carry the citizens 
 and the commodities of another section; they 
 bind each state to its nearest and to its most 
 distant neighbor, while in the midst of all 
 this multiplied complexity of life, each state 
 retains its distinct identity and individuality, 
 its native characteristics being refined and 
 ennobled by contact with the rest of the 
 world. If the dream of the hour ever be- 
 
 119 
 
120 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 comes a reality and the iron rail crosses 
 Behring's Strait, the ocean will be an- 
 nihilated and Boston will have through con- 
 nections with Paris. The two Americas 
 will have an overland route to Asia, to 
 northern Europe and to the Cape of Good 
 Hope. 
 
 What the steel railway does for civilization 
 the Christian Endeavor Society does for the 
 evangelical denominations of Christendom. 
 It binds them together for mutual advantage 
 and enlightenment. It brings to each the 
 wealth of the other and no more affects the 
 integrity and individuality of each, than the 
 breathing of the same atmosphere tends to 
 change the identity of the various races of 
 men. 
 
 Christian union among the churches of all 
 creeds has been the talk and the dream of 
 the last half century. Efforts to secure such 
 unity are among the sublimest movements 
 of modern times. The drawing together of 
 the various branches of the church, in sym- 
 pathy, in belief, in co-operation, in recog- 
 
A BOND OF UNION. 121 
 
 nition of a common aim and interest in the 
 redemption of the world, is among the pro- 
 phecies of the coming millennium. " Chris- 
 tian fellowship is in the air. He who con- 
 tends against it contends against God." 
 Everything that intensifies this union and 
 renders fellowship and co-operation more 
 and more possible, is the work of the Holy 
 Spirit, and should be hailed with delight by 
 the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 The causes of temperance, of evangelism, of 
 union Sunday Schools have done much to 
 inspire a feeling of brotherhood among 
 Christians of every name. But surpassing 
 all these in its possibilities and achievements 
 is the Young People's Society of Christian 
 Endeavor. Its power lies both in its sim- 
 plicity and comprehensiveness. It insures, 
 by its constitution and pledge, loyalty to 
 one's own church and denomination, and at 
 the same time by its purpose and spirit 
 renders co-operation and sympathy with all 
 Christians not only desirable and possible, 
 but necessary. It is the truest and most 
 
22 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR, 
 
 im- 
 
 practical embodiment of aggressive, spiritual 
 Christianity the world has ever seen. It has 
 done more in a decade to unite Maine and 
 California, Florida and Oregon, than all pre- 
 vious organizations in the church since the 
 landing of the Pilgrims. It acquaints the 
 various states, and the various Christian 
 denominations in these states, with each 
 other. It educates the young people in the 
 best methods and spirit of religious work 
 Whether Methodists, Presbyterians, Bap- 
 tists, Congregationalists or Lutherans, if true 
 to the Christian Endeavor principle, they 
 will better represent their individual charac- 
 teristics and at the same time maintain 
 intimate relations with every other branch 
 of the Christian church. 
 
 More than any other agency it has taught 
 young people the difference between secta- 
 rianism and denominationalism. God, in this 
 new movement, has given the churches of 
 Christendom an opportunity never equalled 
 in Christian history. It is both an oppor- 
 tunity and a test:— an opportunity to de- 
 
A BOND OF UNION. 123 
 
 monstrate the unity of believers, and the 
 oneness of their cause; — and a test of their 
 sincerity in proclaiming their desire fO'r such 
 union. 
 
 Counter movements bring- grief to the 
 heart of large sympathies and unrestricted 
 love. Not because of injury therefrom to 
 Christian Endeavor, but to the cause of 
 Christian brotherhood the world over. The 
 promotion of a large-hearted, aggressive, 
 world-encompassing and world-conquering 
 Christianity is impossible until Christians 
 are Christ-like enough to stand upon a com- 
 mon platform of work without distrusting 
 each other. Christian Endeavor makes such 
 trust and such practical unity possible inas- 
 much as it tolerates no cause of rivalry. 
 Loyalty to one's church, to one's pastor, to 
 one's denomination, is the keystone that 
 binds its arch of principles together and 
 makes them effective. It encourages and 
 intensifies the local work by giving the indi- 
 vidual Christian an inspiring consciousness 
 of membership in a great, invincible host 
 
124 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 which, under the guidance of a common 
 Leader, shall share the joys and glories of 
 a common victory. 
 
 These ardent statements are not general- 
 ities. In its declaration of principles the 
 platform of the society says, "The basis of 
 the union of the societies is one of common 
 loyalty to Christ, common methods of ser- 
 vice for Him, and mutual Christian affection' 
 rather than a doctrinal and ecclesiastical 
 basis. In such a union all evangelical 
 Christians can unite without repudiating or 
 being disloyal to any denominational cus- 
 tom or tenet." 
 
 Each international convention of the 
 United Society embodies and illustrates this 
 principle. The representatives of each state 
 and foreign country assemble in their as- 
 signed place in the chosen auditorium, under 
 their state or national banner. The theme 
 is " America for Christ "or " The World for 
 Christ." Minor things are forgotten. The 
 consideration of large things in the Kingdom 
 of God inspires the youthful heart with 
 
A BOND OF UNION: 125 
 
 large ideas and purposes. The representa- 
 tives from Massachusetts and Missouri, from 
 Canada and from continents across the sea 
 forget, for the time being, local distinctions 
 and points of difference and stand together 
 as Christians, uplifted and ennobled by a 
 new consciousness of their world-wide com- 
 mission. They return to their individual 
 spheres of activity in sympathy and in love 
 with Christians of every name. Their love 
 and sympathy encircle the globe. They 
 no longer labor for Congregationalism, for 
 Methodism, for Presbyterianism, as an end, 
 but as a means. Each denominations, thus 
 inspired with the true motive, becomes more 
 intelligent and aggressive as an individual 
 and special agency. The intensity which is 
 born of narrowness and selfish ambition is 
 supplanted by an aggressive, all-conquering 
 spiritual power born of zeal for the Kingdom, 
 and begotten in the soul by the Holy Spirit, 
 who now finds in His people no barrier to His 
 gracious work. 
 
 Christian Endeavor solves the problem 
 
126 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 of practical, without organic unity among 
 the denominations. It enlarges their sym- 
 pathies, broadens their intelligence, and by 
 making the smaller things subordinate and 
 incidental, enables Christians and churches 
 to take in the vast, comprehensive, eternal 
 plans of the Messiah's Kingdom. 
 
 It has also greatly stimulated the inven- 
 tive faculty of Christians. It discovers needs 
 and possibilities and meets both with a prac- 
 tical expedient. As a result new methods 
 of aggressive work have multiplied. For ex- 
 ample, the principle of co-operation among 
 the denominations and the need of closer 
 contact among the churches suggested Lo- 
 cal Unions.* Their existence has become 
 general throughout the world. City, county 
 and state unions have made co-operation and 
 inter-denominational fellowship practicable 
 
 *The Rev. Justin E. Twitchell, D.D., of the Dwight 
 Place Church, New Haven, Conn., first conceived the happy 
 idea of the Local Union, which was immediately adopted 
 with marked success by the Christian Endeavor ^Societies 
 of that city. 
 
A BOND OF UNION. 127 
 
 in every locality. The educating power of such 
 gatherings is beyond estimate and has been 
 a benediction to the churches. By bringing 
 the ruraland the city church together they 
 have rendered isolation, narrowness, crude- 
 ness and indifference, impossible. Frater- 
 nity among denominations has made the 
 good characteristics and methods of each, 
 the possession of all. These practical ad- 
 vantages together with the enthusiasm en- 
 kindled by large numbers have in a most 
 marked degree quickened the spiritual life 
 of all who have entered heartily into Chris- 
 tian Endeavor work. 
 
 The expansion of the organization to its 
 present inter-denominational compass was 
 not in the thought of the founder. It has 
 grown naturally and providentially, as has 
 all life in the universe of God. The growth 
 has been tropical in its luxuriance and rap- 
 idity, but it has also been normal. And it 
 has been normal because it had in it the 
 capacity for being tropical. This seems to 
 be sufficient evidence that it is of God, that 
 
128 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 it has a world-wide mission, and that any- 
 thing that tends to narrow its influence or 
 limit its power is an obstacle in the pathway 
 of a world-encompassing and world-uniting 
 Christianity; is a foe to Christian union and 
 to largeness of thought and life in and among 
 denominations. 
 
 The keen-eyed, critical press of all creeds 
 and of all lands, secular and religious, pays 
 high and glad tribute to the efficacy of the 
 co-operative principle embodied in the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor organization. It says: — "Any 
 Christian movement inaugurated for the up- 
 building of the cause of Christ and the pro- 
 motion of pure Christianity should not be 
 hampered and ruined by sectionalism and 
 party zeal." " In the Society of Christian 
 Endeavor the spirit that is larger than any 
 sect finds expression and a theatre of action. 
 Large acquaintance and sympathy with the 
 work and workers of other churches conduce 
 to breadth of view, and catholicity of spirit." 
 "The bane of Protestant Christianity has 
 been its tendency to divide and subdivide 
 
A BOND OF UNION. 129 
 
 into innumerable sects, many of which spent, 
 righting each other, the force and the energy 
 that should have been devoted to the pro- 
 pagation of the religion of Christ. The 
 Christian Endeavor movement deserves the 
 highest commendation for its recognition 
 and cultivation of the co-operative prin- 
 ciple." 
 
 The biographer of Michael Angelo tells 
 of the sympathy and affection that sprang 
 up between the great sculptor and his 
 fellow-artist Raphael. All the influences 
 of their day tended to make them enemies; 
 but, like solitary mountain peaks, they rose 
 so high above the common level of life about 
 them that they felt themselves necessary to 
 each other in those high moral altitudes. 
 So in the lofty spiritual altitudes of the 
 Christian Endeavor work and fellowship, 
 the various denominations recognize their 
 kinship and their need of each other, and 
 former differences are forgotten in their 
 nearness to their common Lord. 
 
 At the ninth international convention at 
 
130 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 St. Louis the British flag and the Stars and 
 Stripes were wreathed together in sacred 
 wedlock, to symbolize the union of England 
 and America in the cause of the Redeemer. 
 This impressive ceremony both prophesies 
 a possibility and proclaims a fact. The 
 achievements of Christian Endeavor reveal, 
 in this agency, a means of union and a capac- 
 ity for promoting fellowship unknown in any 
 former organization in the history of the 
 church. Inspired prophecy is having its 
 fulfilment. " The wolf also shall dwell with 
 the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down 
 with the kid; and the calf, and the lion and 
 the fading together; and a little child shall 
 lead them" 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 @Dbc decennial Jtnmbenmnj. 
 
Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses 
 
 and Aaron. 
 
 — Psalm lxxvii. 20. 
 
 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the 
 lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. 
 
 —Isaiah xl. ir. 
 
 Praise ve the Lord .... 
 
 Both young men and maidens ; 
 
 Old men and children: 
 
 Let them praise the name of the Lord; 
 
 For his name alone is exalted: .... 
 
 Praise ye the Lord. 
 
 —Psalm cxlviii. 1, 12, 13, 14. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 The completion of its first decade marks 
 an era in Christian Endeavor history. Won- 
 derful things has God wrought in these ten 
 short years. The growth of the organiza- 
 tion, although marvellously rapid, has yet 
 been so gradual as to make it difficult to 
 turn back in thought to former conditions 
 and accurately measure the change that has 
 taken place. The new methods it has 
 introduced have become so naturally and 
 so completely a part of church life and 
 Christian service that to the younger gen- 
 eration of workers the time when they did 
 not exist seems almost to have never been. 
 
 Nearness to an event or era dims its 
 glory. Distance enhances the beauty of a 
 
 133 
 
134 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 prospect not merely because imperfections 
 thus become obscure, but because in this 
 way only are things seen in their true pro- 
 portions and relative values. The peaks of 
 a mountain in the distance are measured as 
 they cannot be near at hand. Their com- 
 parative altitudes, beauty and grandeur are 
 visible only to the remote observer. 
 
 In like manner, in history, a view across 
 a century is more accurate than one which 
 spans only a decade. The magnitude and 
 glory of an event increase or diminish as 
 the ages roll, in proportion to the inherent 
 worth of its underlying principles and the 
 vitality of its impelling life. 
 
 The significance of the Reformation of 
 the sixteenth century as a permanent fac- 
 tor in religious history could not have been 
 intelligently estimated by the actors on 
 that field of intellectual and spiritual con- 
 flict. They were well aware, however, that 
 a mighty upheaval of thought was in prog- 
 ress. The church even to their immediate 
 vision was undergoing rapid transformation. 
 
THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 135 
 
 Yet during the period of transition neither 
 the grandeur nor the transcendent impor- 
 tance of the change could, by any process 
 of human knowledge, be accurately meas- 
 ured. 
 
 The closing decades of this century give 
 evidence of being the most wonderful in 
 character and achievements of any since 
 time began. Through the inherent power 
 of redemption man is returning to his right- 
 ful supremacy over the world of matter 
 and thought. "We do not yet see all 
 things subjected to him."* But since Jesus 
 introduced the new era of spiritual conquest, 
 and in His own holy personality restored 
 man to his original sovereignty, his domin- 
 ion has been constantly enlarging. God, 
 who in His original purpose regarding man 
 "left nothing that was not put under him," 
 is, through the regenerating and uplifting 
 power of the gospel, again crowning him 
 with glory and honor, and is again setting 
 
 * Hebrews ii. 8. 
 
13b A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 him over the works of His hands. The 
 material universe is surrendering its secrets 
 to the piercing eye of science. The hither- 
 to unbridled forces of nature are becoming 
 man's docile servants. That which once 
 only ministered destruction now whispers 
 his messages across oceans and continents, 
 obeys his guiding hand more submissively 
 than the horse or the engine, lights and 
 warms his dwelling, and with its incandes- 
 cent brilliancy transforms night into day. 
 
 These marvellous achievements are sim- 
 ply the material exponents of the spiritual 
 conquests which have made them possible. 
 Physical supremacy and intellectual en- 
 lightenment are commensurate with moral 
 attainment. Spiritual uplift is the highway 
 to restored sovereignty. The advent of 
 Christ introduced an era of spiritual inten- 
 sity and power. The thrill of a new life 
 now pulsates throughout the world. The 
 present age feels its power. Yet, with all 
 its conscious energy and grasp of truth, it 
 knows not the full significance of the hour 
 
THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 137 
 
 or the relative importance of its place in 
 history. 
 
 The Society of Christian Endeavor is a 
 factor in this on-moving life. While it has 
 no assured means of knowing its own per- 
 manence as an organization and as a spirit- 
 ual agency in the church except through 
 the prophecy of past achievement and the 
 inherent and abiding power of a right prin- 
 ciple, it has had marked evidence of the ap- 
 proval of God. His Presence and blessing 
 have been manifest at every stage of its 
 growth and in every step of its onward way. 
 
 The close of the first decade of Christian 
 Endeavor history is a turning-point of 
 great significance. It rivets thought upon 
 the future. It calls attention to the past 
 only as to the beginning of a prolonged 
 and magnificent campaign. Nevertheless 
 the past is worthy of commemoration. In 
 grateful recognition of Jehovah's goodness 
 and gracious leadership, the Williston so- 
 ciety took steps towards celebrating its 
 tenth anniversary. Their plan suggested 
 
138 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 to the Portland Christian Endeavor Union 
 a large convention. It asked the privilege 
 of co-operation in making the birthday of 
 the Williston society, and thus of the entire 
 movement throughout the world, an event 
 of universal interest. The anniversary de- 
 signed only for the parent society was in 
 this way expanded to a convention of na- 
 tional importance. This gave opportunity 
 for a large commemoration of the day, an 
 opportunity which was joyfully embraced 
 throughout the Christian Endeavor world. 
 Societies too remote for representation at 
 the Portland Decennial celebrated the day 
 at home. Thanksgiving for the past, joy 
 for the present, hope and faith for the future 
 were the spontaneous impulses of the hour. 
 The anniversary began February 2d, in the 
 Williston church where the first society had 
 its birth. The beautiful sanctuary seemed 
 to have about it a special joy and sanctity. 
 Above the sacred desk hung a globe of the 
 world encircled with the words " The 
 whole world for Christ," and with the let- 
 
THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 139 
 
 ters " Y. P. S. C. E." This eloquent sym- 
 bol proclaimed the hope and purpose of the 
 society and prophesied its ultimate victory. 
 Through both its president* and pastor the 
 Williston society welcomed the delegates 
 to the homestead of Christian Endeavor. 
 The occasion seemed like the old historic 
 New England Thanksgiving. It was purely 
 a family reunion and a time of grateful 
 reminiscence. 
 
 Williston Church, as the birthplace of 
 the Christian Endeavor movement, will 
 ever be a place of sacred associations. Did 
 not God here reveal His purpose even as 
 He met Moses face to face at the burning 
 bush and revealed to him his mission ? 
 One locality is no more hallowed than an- 
 other except as indicative of God's special 
 presence and leadership. The ground on 
 which Moses stood was holy only because 
 God was there. 
 
 The advent of Jesus has given to the once 
 
 * Mr. George C. Libby. 
 
140 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 obscure Bethlehem a marvellous eminence 
 and charm, and throughout succeeding cen- 
 turies every spot that has witnessed the 
 inauguration of any successful enterprise 
 in His name has commanded the reverent 
 affection of the world. 
 
 At the Williston anniversary the founder 
 of the society familiarly recounted his ex- 
 perience as pastor in its formation and de- 
 velopment. Mr. W. H. Pennell, the first 
 enrolled member, intimately associated 
 with Dr. Clark in all its early history, brief- 
 ly traced its various stages of growth. The 
 movement, by providential anticipation, be- 
 gan in the Walnut Street school-house, 
 where a few children were gathered for Bi- 
 ble instruction. The work soon required 
 larger accommodations. The continued ex- 
 pansion ultimately respited in a church, and 
 in the choice of the man, as pastor, who was 
 to organize a work larger in its scope and 
 possibilities than the bounds of any one 
 church. 
 
 Crowding the platform were some of the 
 
THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 141 
 
 earliest supporters of the movement, and 
 some of its present ardent advocates. 
 Among the former were the Rev. Charles 
 A. Dickinson of Boston, Rev. James L. Hill 
 of Medford, Mass., Rev. Charles P. Mills of 
 of Newburyport, Mass. Among the latter, 
 Rev. Nehemiah Boynton of Boston, Rev. 
 Charles S. Nash, President of the Connecti- 
 cut State Union, Rev. Clarence H. Barber 
 of Manchester, Conn., Rev. B. L. Whitman 
 of Portland and Secretary Baer of the 
 United Society, also the Rev. A. H. Plumb, 
 D. D., who led the convention in prayer. 
 The five-minute addresses of these speakers, 
 in their rare brilliancy and power, were in 
 keeping with the high enthusiasm of the 
 hour. Religious gatherings have about 
 them an atmosphere of their own. On this 
 occasion, the dawn of a new era seemed to 
 throw its joy and hope and life over the en- 
 tire assembly. 
 
 The general convention in City Hall, un- 
 der the lead of Mr. V. Richard Foss, Presi- 
 dent of the Maine State Union, occupied 
 
142 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 two full days. His Excellency Governor 
 Edwin C. Burleigh, detained by executive 
 duties at the State Capitol, in a letter of 
 cordial sympathy expressed sincerest admi- 
 ration for the noble and far-reaching work 
 of the Christian Endeavor Society, and said 
 that " its history is an inspiring example of 
 the great strength that adheres in earnest 
 Christian purpose." The city of Portland 
 and its churches voiced their welcome 
 through His Honor Mayor H. S. Melcher 
 and the pastor of Williston Church. The 
 General Secretary of the United Society, 
 Mr. J. W. Baer, responded. 
 
 The details of this Decennial Anniversary 
 will be read with interest at the close of 
 another decade, at the dawn of a new cen- 
 tury. The deep snows and the zero chill 
 of a mid-winter in Maine could not daunt 
 the youthful heart sturdy in its principle of 
 Endeavor. Two thousand delegates were 
 in attendance, representing New England, 
 Canada, the Interior, and even the Great 
 West. The whole trend of thought at the 
 
THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 143 
 
 anniversary was practical and prophetic. 
 Only a brief hour was given to survey of 
 the past. Its achievements were recounted 
 as proofs of the Divine goodness and leader- 
 ship in order to stimulate faith, courage and 
 enterprise for the future. The themes con- 
 sidered may be briefly classified in their 
 logical order. 
 
 1. History of Christian Endeavor, (i) Its 
 origin, (2) development, and (3) practical re- 
 sults thus far. 
 
 2. Its Possibilities. How it meets the 
 demands of the times in (1) developing 
 Christian workers and (2) in securing an 
 intelligent spiritual development. 
 
 3. Its Practical Efficiency. (1) In the so- 
 lution of the social problems of the church; 
 (2) in city evangelization; (3) in the de- 
 velopment of Bible study in the immediate 
 future; (4) in Christian fellowship. 
 
 4. Its part in the aggressive reform, 
 educational, and missionary movements of 
 the day. (1) in temperance, (2) Sunday 
 Schools, (3) missions. 
 
U4 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 In sermon and discussion these weighty 
 problems were considered by some of the 
 representative men of the leading evangel- 
 ical denominations : Methodist, Baptist, 
 Presbyterian, Congregational, Free Baptist 
 and others. Among them were Rev. 
 George H. Wells, D. D., of Montreal, 
 Canada ; Rev. O. P. GifTord, D. D., Rev. J. 
 W. Hamilton, D. D., Rev. R. L. Greene, 
 
 D. D., Rev. A. E. Dunning, D. D., Rev. E. 
 K. Alden, D. D., Rev. A. H. Plumb, D. D., 
 Rev. Francis E. Clark, D. D., all of Boston; 
 Rev. J. T. Beckley, D. D., of Philadelphia, 
 Rev. J. G. Merrill, D. D., of Portland ; also 
 Rev. Messrs. C. M. Southgate of Worcester, 
 
 E. P. Farnum of Salem, A. A. Fulton of 
 China, L. S. Bean of South Windham, 
 Maine, Lawrence Phelps, President of the 
 Massachusetts State Union, H. N. Kinney 
 of Winsted, Conn. Prof. Frank K. Saunders 
 of Yale University and others who partici- 
 pated in the Williston anniversary. 
 
 The entire thought of the convention 
 focused on the mission of the Endeavor 
 
THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 145 
 
 Society. To gather its bright gems into 
 the small casket of one short chapter would 
 require the skill of an artist. The convic- 
 tion that the Christian Endeavor Society 
 was ordained of God for grand achievement 
 pervaded every utterance. In its original 
 endowments it was equipped for aggressive 
 Christian enterprise, being born with a con- 
 stitution in one hand and a pledge in the 
 other. An unseen Presence has directed 
 its course from the first. Its birth, owing 
 to the imperative need of the church, was 
 timely. Its character is international. Its 
 possibilities wondrous. The success of the 
 society is assured by the hopeful elements 
 of the youthful piety on which it is based. 
 Youthful piety is devoted, active, vigorous. 
 Conversion is secured earlier than in former 
 days, the young are set earlier to work, they 
 have more opportunities for efficient train- 
 ing, increasing sympathy for all kinds of 
 practical reform, are possessed more and 
 more with the democratic and the aggres- 
 sive missionary spirit of Christianity. The 
 
146 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 true process of religious training and growth 
 has been found to be a natural spiritual 
 evolution and normal development from in- 
 fancy to age. 
 
 This process directs and utilizes the en- 
 tire energies and capacities of the soul from 
 earliest youth to mature sainthood. The 
 efficacy of the Christian Endeavor principle 
 lies in its dedication of the entire manhood 
 to God. Its spirit is Christ-like unselfish- 
 ness ; its method, the application of cove- 
 nant obligations ; its force, the power of 
 God. 
 
 These endowments of organization, these 
 qualifications in training and spirit and 
 these practical Christian principles open to 
 the Endeavor society a universal mission. 
 " It is as good for the jungles of Africa as 
 for the prairies of the great west. It is 
 suited to any church or denomination. Its 
 sympathies are as wide as the world, as 
 deep as the needs of humanity, as high as 
 the heaven to which they aspire." 
 
 Such enlarged conceptions of service are 
 
THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. Hi 
 
 fitted to develop intelligent, aggressive 
 Christian workers. "Young people cannot 
 be made enthusiastic for any length of time 
 over a small matter ; but the very great- 
 ness of the Christian Endeavor idea creates 
 workers, because it exalts and ennobles 
 him who is possessed by it." 
 
 It secures, also, specific efficiency. The 
 age demands specialists in every depart- 
 ment of life and thought. The sphere of 
 religious activity is no exception. This 
 specific ministry requires the young people 
 of the Endeavor society to be evangelistic 
 in spirit and effort. " It is not enough to 
 be good : one must be good for something." 
 " Christianity is not simply a power of re- 
 spectability, but a power for regeneration. 
 Too many churches in our cities stand for 
 society rather than for souls. The Chris- 
 tian Endeavor movement is a protest 
 against any Christianity which is content 
 with being respectable. City evangeliza- 
 tion means catching hold of and holding on 
 to the soul which is next below you in the 
 
148 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 social order. If we are to touch souls we 
 must come into the circle of neglected boy- 
 hood and girlhood. The members of our 
 Christian Endeavor societies must give 
 themselves in genuine friendship and per- 
 sonal contact to the friendless boys and 
 girls about them." 
 
 The mission and philosophy of the church 
 will be understood in proportion as the 
 disciples of Christ spiritually appropriate 
 Scripture truth. The spirit of Christianity 
 comes ultimately to possess the intelligent 
 and comprehensive student of the Word. 
 "The Christian Endeavor Society has a 
 large responsibility in determining whether 
 the Bible study of the next ten years in 
 our churches shall be scholastic and ra- 
 tionalistic, or devotional and evangelistic." 
 The supreme purpose of Bible study is to 
 become Christ-like. Every form of Chris- 
 tian enterprise will be manned with com- 
 petent workers when the youth of this gen- 
 eration catch the spirit of their Master. 
 Their work will be specific, will be classi- 
 
THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 149 
 
 fied according to taste and ability, will 
 cover all departments of need, will be char- 
 acterized as unselfish, patient, aggressive 
 and spiritual. 
 
 These suggestions and utterances of the 
 Decennial anniversary indicate that the 
 church is grappling as never before with 
 the great problems of sin and human re- 
 demption. The promise of the hour lies in 
 the enlistment of youth in the cause of the 
 Redeemer. This will make the work of 
 after generations easier and more successful. 
 To teach youth that the end of life is min- 
 istry, to enlist them in the very work that 
 commanded the enthusiasm and devotion 
 of the Son of God is to ennoble manhood, 
 is to insure the redemption of the world. 
 Christian Endeavor, in its initial letters, 
 " stands for Christ exalted." The only 
 way to exalt Him is to reproduce Him : to 
 reproduce Him both in character and min- 
 istry. The one supreme thing in the Chris- 
 tian is the life and spirit of the living God. 
 
 God is rearing a temple in history. It is 
 
150 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 going up without the noise of axe or ham- 
 mer. Humanity is the quarry out of which 
 the material is being wrought. Christ, 
 revealed in history as the Angel ^of the 
 Covenant and as the incarnate Messiah, in- 
 augurated the work. His disciples are the 
 artisans to whom the work is intrusted. In- 
 spired by His spirit the issue will be infi- 
 nitely glorious. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 €ht tire ^Ijnsjrolfo oi %not^tx €trdm%* 
 
Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: they all gather 
 themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come 
 from far, and thy daughters shall be carried in the arms. 
 Then thou shall see and be lightened, and thine heart shall 
 tremble and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea 
 shall be turned unto thee, the wealth of the nations shall 
 come unto thee 
 
 Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit 
 the land forever; the branch of my planting, the work of 
 my hands, that I may be glorified. The little one shall be- 
 come a thousand, and the small one a strong nation: I the 
 Lord will hasten it in its time. 
 
 —Isaiah lx. 4-5, 21-22 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ON THE THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CEN- 
 TURY. 
 
 LIKE a mountain with its lofty summit 
 lifted into the clear azure, the opening of the 
 second decade of Christian Endeavor his- 
 tory commands a wide outlook. In the far- 
 off distance, as over a limitless prairie, 
 stretches a new century, with its horizon 
 lost in the sky. The vision inspires awe, rev- 
 erent hope, tranquil faith, ardent enthusiasm. 
 Past achievements prophesy a future of 
 boundless possibility. The way traversed 
 is brief. Its starting point is still clearly 
 visible. Its early course, as that of a foot- 
 path now on the open hillside, now in the 
 partial obscurity of the forest, is faint, de- 
 vious, winding. Its roughnesses, its abrupt 
 
 153 
 
154 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 turnings, its obstacles, its opening vistas, its 
 growing safety are yet easily discerned. 
 Marks of God's providence are along its en- 
 tire way. They indicate His approval and 
 guiding care. 
 
 But the future summons our thought. Re- 
 trospect is not the vocation of the church. 
 Jehovah bade Abraham turn his eye along 
 the line of coming generations. His call 
 had reference to nations yet unborn. The 
 covenant made with him focused thought 
 upon distant multitudes as countless as 
 stars in the midnight azure, or as sands 
 upon the seashore innumerable. The glory 
 of his life would be proportionate to his in- 
 fluence on succeeding ages. Four millenni- 
 ums of history have not dimmed the lustre 
 of his fame. His faith, which had its eye on 
 the remotest future, is that which overcomes 
 the world, and this faith is the heritage of 
 the church of to-day. 
 
 The ancient prophets embodied his spirit 
 and reveal the true attitude of believers in 
 every age. Isaiah's gaze spanned uncounted 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 155 
 
 centuries. He peered down the ages with 
 wondrous expectancy. The stretch of his 
 hope and faith are symbolized in the intent 
 and ardent gaze of the man on the watch- 
 tower or the sailor at the masthead, who 
 with hand upon his brow shields his eye that 
 he may scan far-off, dim horizons. It was 
 a magnificent sweep of thought that com- 
 passed the space between wicked Ahaz and 
 the Messiah's advent. The vision of the 
 coming Child made the sad prophet sing. It 
 lifted him out of the gloom of a decayed age 
 until with joy he was enabled "to draw 
 water out of the wells of salvation " for the 
 cheer and comfort of the faithful remnant in 
 Israel. What changes the future would 
 bring ! History would be revolutionized 
 and redeemed. The name of the expected 
 Child was to be " Wonderful," the " Mighty 
 God," " the Prince of Peace." The govern- 
 ment of after ages would be upon His shoul- 
 ders. His wisdom would direct the thought 
 of the world, His authority administer its 
 
156 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 laws, His purpose direct the course and the 
 issue of history. 
 
 The sublime faith which caught this vision 
 and comprehended its significance ought to 
 be eclipsed by the faith of this modern age. 
 What obstacles to-day compare with the 
 darkness and degradation of ancient,' idola- 
 trous Israel ? The Light has come. The 
 glory of the Lord has risen upon us. Re- 
 demption is no longer an expectation. It 
 is an accomplished fact. 
 
 The new age is increasingly an age of 
 realization. The era of experiment has 
 passed into centuries of demonstration and 
 conquest. The power of the Messiah is 
 visible in the birth of civilizations and the 
 moral redemption of entire continents. 
 The issue of history is no longer uncertain. 
 The prophecy of Isaiah has been expanded 
 by the later vision of the inspired John. 
 Even the more ancient seer did not limit 
 thought to the bounds of time. Both pro- 
 phets fix our gaze on ultimate issues. The 
 church is to look forward both to an earthly 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 157 
 
 millennium and to celestial glory. Its mis- 
 sion is to co-operate with Christ until He 
 has put all enemies under His feet, until 
 every knee shall bow and every tongue con- 
 fess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God 
 the Father, until the uttermost part of the 
 earth becomes His possession, until He 
 limits the redeeming process by His own 
 return to claim His inheritance and intro- 
 duce His people to a more glorious era of 
 discovery and growth. 
 
 In order to enter into the realization of 
 this hope the church of the present must 
 summon itself to new faith, energy, and 
 effort. It must open every avenue of pos- 
 sible achievement, discover and utilize 
 every available method of conquest. As 
 previously indicated, many are the proofs 
 that it is doing this. Agencies multiply, 
 opportunities enlarge, horizons expand, 
 progress is more and more visible, definite 
 achievement demonstrates the reality of 
 present conquest. As life is more complex 
 under civilization than in savagery, so the 
 
158 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 complexity of Christian effort to-day proves 
 the advance of the Redeemer's Kingdom. 
 
 The Christian Endeavor Society which 
 forms a part of this intricate and growing 
 life has a mission commensurate in its pos- 
 sibilities with the vastness of the untried 
 future. The expansion of its thought must 
 keep pace with the rapid advancement of 
 the age. It has no separate vocation. Its 
 mission is the mission of the church. It is 
 itself a department of the church, bringing 
 into effective operation one agency of power. 
 Its realm is the realm of youth. But inas- 
 much as the youth of one generation con- 
 stitute the men and women of the next, its 
 field is commensurate with the world. 
 
 The first requisite for intelligent, devout, 
 ardent, aggressive Christian enterprise is a 
 large, comprehensive view of Christ's King- 
 dom. The individual believer, and the in- 
 dividual church must estimate their work 
 by the largeness of Christ's commission and 
 command. Faith must compass the world 
 as its field for conquest. Affection, in its 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 159 
 
 sympathy and purpose, must reach out to 
 " every creature " upon whom Christ lav- 
 ished His redeeming love. 
 
 Such affection is divine. Love makes 
 Christian effort intelligent, comprehensive, 
 ceaseless. The Christian Endeavor Society 
 in its response to its opportunity and com- 
 mission, will in the coming decade, have 
 as its chief characteristic : — 
 
 i. Intelligence in Bible truth. 
 
 In respect to Bible study the past decade 
 is a prophecy of wonderful progress in 
 spiritual knowledge in the immediate fu- 
 ture. As historians, with growing intelli- 
 gence seek to catch the spirit of the age 
 to which, by historic investigation, they 
 transport themselves, so students of the 
 Inspired Word are coming more and more 
 to interpret the movements of God in 
 ancient religious history. Through a com- 
 prehensive study of the Scriptures they 
 catch the "spirit of the age" during those 
 prolonged centuries which stretch from the 
 dawn of history in Genesis to the comple- 
 
1G0 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 tion of the written revelation by the hand 
 of the saintly John. The movement of 
 life there indicates the trend of life in mod- 
 ern centuries. To know that life, to feel 
 its power, to understand its purpose, to be 
 vitalized by its divine energy, is to enter 
 into the very process of redemption itself, 
 is to become a part of the onward move- 
 ment by which the world is to be and is 
 being redeemed. The continuity of thought 
 and life in the Word of God has not been 
 understood as it ought to have been, in 
 days gone by, by the church at large. 
 Redemption is a historic process. In fact 
 redemption is history itself. Not to know 
 this is to be ignorant of God's Word, and 
 of the philosophy of the Messiah's King- 
 dom. Creation is logically connected with 
 redemption. Sinai and Calvary are spirit- 
 ually one mountain visible in history as two 
 peaks, and separated only because of the 
 distinctions of thought, made necessary by 
 the conditions of the age in which their re- 
 velations were given. The tree of life in 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 161 
 
 the fruitful garden of the ancient Paradise is 
 fundamentally the same as the tree which 
 grows on the banks of that river which 
 flows from the throne of God and whose 
 leaves are for the healing of the nations. 
 
 The Inspired Word studied in its entirety 
 will revolutionize many modern conceptions 
 of truth, will dispel ignorance, and will in- 
 fuse into God's people the very spirit of life 
 which, through the unfoldings of history, are 
 working out the redemption of the race. 
 The future growth, power and success of the 
 Christian Endeavor Society depend upon its 
 intelligent, spiritual grasp of Scripture truth. 
 The five leading characteristics of sys- 
 tematic Bible study have been defined as 
 inductive, independent, logical, definite, com- 
 prehensive. These elements of accurate Bib- 
 lical scholarship make the Bible the basis 
 of study, the student original in his investi- 
 gations and in the last resort independent 
 of human authority; they necessitate con- 
 tinuity of study and thought, a practical 
 purpose in investigation, and a recogni- 
 
162 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 
 
 tion of the life which pervades all Scrip- 
 ture, making it, of necessity, one revela- 
 tion. 
 
 Such study, which is to be pre-eminently 
 the characteristic of the aggressive church 
 of the future, will supplant the skeptical 
 criticism of an unregenerate or unspiritual 
 scholarship by a spirit of reverent, obedi- 
 ent, docile, devout faith. In its growth and 
 consciously increased power the human 
 mind will more intelligently recognize its 
 need of a Revelation, and will humbly and 
 gratefully rejoice that such Revelation has 
 been made. 
 
 2. The church that crosses the threshold 
 of another century in harmony with the 
 spirit of the Redeemer's Kingdom, intelli- 
 gent in the sacred Scriptures, and equipped 
 for conquest, will be missionary. The words 
 " missionary" and " Christian " will be un- 
 derstood by all disciples to be synonymous. 
 The individual believer will come experi- 
 mentally to know the principle underlying 
 the atonement. Impartial love for man is 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 163 
 
 the " mind of Christ " which the apostle ex- 
 horts disciples to have also in them. The 
 advent of Jesus in Palestine did not indicate 
 favoritism in respect to people or locality, 
 but the confinement of His ministry to one 
 section of the world was the necessary re- 
 sult of the limitations to which He subjected 
 Himself in the incarnation. The Gentile 
 was as much an object of redeeming love as 
 the Jew, and the Christian of the twentieth 
 century must be world-wide in his sympathy 
 and effort if Christianity is to fulfil its mis- 
 sion. "The conditions of vitality in a 
 church," as has been well said, " are not 
 only self-government and self-support, but 
 
 self-propagation Where the 
 
 principle of missions is not firmly rooted and 
 practically fruitful the church runs the risk 
 of breathing its own atmosphere." 
 
 That the spirit of the Kingdom is coming, 
 in the last years of this wonderful century, 
 to possess the heart of youth, is evidenced 
 by their increased interest in missions. Six 
 thousand volunteers, from the schools and 
 
164 A DECADE OF CHRIST/AN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 colleges of America, pledged to foreign 
 service if God opens the way, is a new 
 thing in history. It is the devotion and 
 chivalry of the medieval crusades reappear- 
 ing, not however in the form of ignorant 
 zeal, but of intelligent self-dedication to the 
 cause of human redemption. The Christian 
 Endeavor principle of loyalty to Christ re- 
 quires for the growth and perpetuity of the 
 organization one of the most aggressive 
 missionary campaigns in history. It com- 
 mands youthful ardor and devotion not for 
 the sake of the local church, but for the 
 salvation of the world. The individual 
 church is not an end in itself, but a means. 
 God reaches one generation of men through 
 their predecessors. The covenant with the 
 father includes the son. God saves the 
 father that He may save the son. He re- 
 deems one sinner that through him He may 
 redeem another. The philosophy of the 
 Redeemer's Kingdom is based on this 
 principle, and in proportion to the growth 
 of the Kingdom this philosophy must and 
 

 THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 165 
 
 will unfold itself in the aggressive piety of 
 the coming age. 
 
 One of the marvellous spiritual develop- 
 ments of the immediate future will thus, of 
 necessity, be an enlarged sense of personal 
 responsibility for the extension of Christ's 
 Kingdom. The call to preach the Word as 
 an ordained minister indicates no excep- 
 tional responsibility. This is simply one 
 form of ministry. The man of business is 
 called of God as truly as the preacher. 
 Their mission is identical. The latter could 
 not work without the co-operation of the 
 former. When the boy and girl are edu- 
 cated to this view of Christian service, when 
 they grasp the thought that life, whatever 
 the endowment or vocation, is designed of 
 God as a redeeming agency in the world, 
 and that it is, from every natural and divine 
 point of view, a failure unless it becomes 
 such an agency, then the millennium, with 
 its universal peace and glory, will be near 
 at hand. Life is abortive the moment it is 
 separated from God. Every faculty, every 
 
106 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 accumulated resource, every spiritual ac- 
 quisition fulfils its mission only as it becomes 
 of service. Death strikes the very centre of 
 the soul's vitality the moment thought and 
 effort are focused upon self. 
 
 No sublimer and more inspiring concep- 
 tion of human progress and glory can pos- 
 sess the mind than that of a generation of 
 young people dedicated in person and 
 property to the very ministry that brought 
 the Son of God into the world. 
 
 3. The argument is cumulative. Experi- 
 mental knowledge of the Scriptures, and the 
 resultant missionary spirit, will inspire Be- 
 7ievolence in the church that seeks to do 
 God's work, as it wistfully looks across the 
 threshold of a new century. 
 
 The Christian world to-day is honestly 
 and earnestly striving to discover the fun- 
 damental principles of the gospel, to in- 
 corporate them in life, to apply them in 
 practical Christian effort. Its most diffi- 
 cult self-conquest is to include in its cata- 
 logue of talents for service its worldly pos- 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 167 
 
 sessions. The rapidity of the world's re- 
 demption hinges upon this very struggle for 
 spiritual self-mastery. Divinely perfect was 
 Christ's insight into the human soul. The 
 heart and its treasure are never separated. 
 The disciple is not enlisted in the world's 
 redemption until his property is enlisted. 
 To give the person without the property is 
 a moral and spiritual impossibility. The 
 call to give awakens joy or the impulse to 
 withhold, in proportion to the soul's dedica- 
 tion to God. The silver and the gold of the 
 covenant people are to have a new and en- 
 larged mission in the spiritual achievements 
 of the expanding Kingdom. " The silver 
 and the gold are mine, saith the Lord of 
 Hosts." If the tithe or the tenth deposited 
 in God's storehouse was the only way in 
 ancient times to secure the fulfilment of 
 His promise in the out-poured and divinely 
 abundant blessing, certainly this age with 
 its greater material prosperity cannot ex- 
 pect the redemption of the world at a less 
 expenditure of its wealth. Property is of 
 
168 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 no value except as it contributes good to 
 character. The Creator intended it for 
 ministry. Systematic benevolence is essen- 
 tial to spiritual growth and Christian useful- 
 ness. The young people of the Endeavor 
 Society will keep in the van and make their 
 organization a redemptive power only as 
 they adopt this principle and enlarge their 
 conception of ministry. 
 
 Possibly no greater need confronts the 
 church of to-day than that of the habit of 
 giving. Childhood trained to systematic 
 benevolence would regenerate, yea would 
 absolutely transform, as a spiritual power, 
 the church of the next generation. Habits 
 are formed in youth. Chronic withholding 
 blemishes many lives that would other- 
 wise be conspicuous for Christ-like loveli- 
 ness. 
 
 The Christian Endeavor Society has it in 
 its power to make systematic benevolence 
 a habit, a part of the spiritual make-up, in- 
 asmuch as it deals with character in its for- 
 mative period. What marvels would be 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 169 
 
 wrought, what spiritual conquests ultimate- 
 ly won in the Redeemer's Kingdom if every 
 boy and girl were trained, from their earli- 
 est years, to give the Lord a tenth of all 
 their income ! It would introduce into the 
 Christian world a new type of piety, a 
 measure of joy in religious experience ap- 
 proximating the Saviour's own divine hap- 
 piness, a spiritual power which the unbe- 
 lieving world could not resist. Prophecy 
 awaits'fulfilment along this line. " The glo- 
 ry of the latter house shall be greater than 
 of the former," when the silver and the 
 gold contribute, as God intended, to the 
 progress of His spiritual empire. 
 
 4. The inventive power and aggressive 
 spirit of the church, in coming days, will 
 increase proportionately with its Biblical 
 intelligence, its missionary zeal, its self- 
 denying benevolence. The methods of to- 
 day will be supplanted by better methods 
 in days to come. New light will flash from 
 God's Word. New views of truth will com- 
 pel new appliances in the practical science 
 
170 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 
 
 of Christian work. The young will enter 
 into their various departments of service as 
 skillfully and as devotedly as they fill posi- 
 tions in all the practical industries, in 
 mechanics, art, law, science or government. 
 The church will be a spiritual work-shop 
 in the Kingdom of God. Everyman, woman 
 and child will have a specific work to per- 
 form. As we speak of the science of gov- 
 ernment, so we shall yet speak of the science 
 of practical Christianity. The church will 
 fix its gaze upon the surrounding community: 
 — the world outside of its regenerate fellow- 
 ship. It will aim at the redemption of all. 
 Each member will ally himself to the pastor 
 as a partner in Christian enterprise. The 
 ministry of each will be identical. The 
 spirit of the Redeemer will possess the re- 
 deemed. As patriotism fires the heart of 
 the private soldier as ardently as it does 
 the commander-in-chief, so in the ideal 
 church every member will have a consecra- 
 tion, zeal, and energy in service equal to 
 that of the church's leader. His purpose 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 171 
 
 will be their purpose. To win souls and 
 build character for eternity will be seen, by 
 every true disciple of Christ, to be the 
 only mission of life. No statesman or phil- 
 osopher limits his ambition to the material 
 acquisitions of a day. To be an intelli- 
 gent Christian is to be both a statesman 
 and philosopher, is to know the compara- 
 tive value of the material and spiritual, is 
 to have risen to Christ's estimate of the 
 dignity and worth of the human soul 
 as revealed in the atonement. The ulti- 
 mate aim of scientific achievement is not 
 material enrichment but manhood. The 
 time will come when the marvellous enter- 
 prises of this inventive age will be pushed 
 with a view to the moral advancement of 
 the race. The true destiny of history will 
 possess the thought and inspire the energy 
 of capitalists as they span continents with 
 highways of steel, tunnel mountains, fathom 
 seas with electric cables, bridge ocean 
 straits, construct aerial ships, or build pneu- 
 matic railways. The resultant wealth will 
 
172 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 not command so much attention as the 
 consequent intellectual and moral advance- 
 ment of the race. In fact, with a right es- 
 timate of life and its mission, the wealth 
 will be sought only for the purpose of 
 man's uplift and redemption. The philoso- 
 phy of the gospel necessitates such an is- 
 sue. The moral optimist is confidently 
 assured that this philosophy is not only 
 practical, but that it is the only remedy for 
 historic evils, and the only highway to 
 ultimate happiness and glory. The world's 
 dream of Elysium will become a reality 
 when the principles of Christ's life are made 
 the basis of human enterprise, when the 
 mind and energy of man are focused, not 
 on material substance, but upon the di- 
 vine possibilities of manhood. 
 
 The working out of this philosophy has 
 already begun. The aggressive enterprises 
 of modern Christianity are all organized on 
 this basis. The centralizing tendencies of 
 this age call for a new and more powerful 
 application of Christian truth and principle. 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 173 
 
 Cities are coming more and more to be the 
 foci of civilization. Here centre the intense 
 forces of modern life, and here consequently 
 are new and difficult fields of conquest for 
 the church. The Christian who would do 
 God's work in the future must be qualified 
 for personal ministry. The training school 
 of Christian Endeavor must secure freedom 
 of utterance, familiarity with practical spir- 
 itual truth, the 1 ability and the willingness 
 to do personal work. The opportunities 
 to-day are such that any Christian may be 
 as truly a missionary at his own door as 
 was Cary or Mills, Judson or Livingstone 
 in lands across the sea. The redemption 
 of cities is the hope of history. The mod- 
 ern metropolis can escape the destiny of 
 Babylon, Nineveh, Alexandria, Athens and 
 Rome only as the Christians of this age 
 qualify themselves to do God's work. 
 Childhood must be taught its mission. 
 Youth must respond to Christ's ideal. 
 Manhood must dedicate its energies to the 
 world's redemption. Womanhood must be 
 
174 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
 
 sanctified, ennobled and inspired with the 
 thought of its God-given influence and 
 power. 
 
 6. Who can look out upon the expanses 
 of a new century without profound emotion 
 and the thrill of wondrous hope ? Are the 
 increased momentum and accelerated ve- 
 locity of the past decade a prophecy of the 
 future ? Then history is rapidly nearing 
 its consummation. As never before in the 
 progress of Christ's spiritual empire, 
 
 "We count time by heart-throbs; 
 
 . . . Not by figures on a dial. 
 
 ... He lives most 
 
 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 
 
 God is shortening normal processes. A 
 decade now means more than a century in 
 ages past. The wonders wrought beneath 
 the gaze of men still living eclipse the 
 achievements of all past history. And the 
 wondrous fact in all this modern progress is 
 that material conquest is synchronous with 
 and dependent upon man's spiritual enlight- 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 175 
 
 enment. Both are being marvellously ac- 
 celerated a^ this nineteenth century draws 
 to a close. The living age will cross the 
 threshold of the twentieth century with a 
 bound. To be young at this hour, and to 
 enter a new age in the ardor of youth or the 
 vigor of early manhood is glorious. Some 
 have counted time by millenniums and have 
 prophesied Christ's second coming in the 
 near future. History is not measured by 
 years but by achievement. The church mili- 
 tant will be ready for translation when it 
 becomes the church triumphant. Marvellous 
 things are yet to be wrought through the 
 power of the gospel. The rapidity of the work 
 determines the nearness of the goal. Proph- 
 ecy summons the church to speed. Ac- 
 celeration is the law of the Kingdom. "A 
 little one shall become a thousand and a 
 small one a strong nation : I the Lord will 
 hasten it in his time." The church should 
 be expectant. God has promised to shake 
 the nations and to cause truth to break forth 
 before all peoples. The bands of wicked- 
 
17.5 A DECADE OF C1IRISTIAX ENDEAVOli. 
 
 ness, idolatry and paganism cannot long 
 resist its energy. The upheaval is already 
 predicted by the signs of the times. It may 
 begin in America or in benighted Asia, but 
 in either case the world during the next 
 century is certain to become a new world. 
 Material forces predict it, intellectual life 
 anticipates it, moral law compels it, spirit- 
 ual enlightenment and growth insure it, the 
 Inspired Word pledges it. " The Lord will 
 finish the work, and cut it short in righteous- 
 ness: because a short work will the Lord 
 make upon the earth." " Endeavor " is 
 the watchword of the present age; it will 
 be increasingly the watchword of the 
 new. 
 
 To be Christian is to hope, is to endeav- 
 or, is to do. Beyond the bounds of Time 
 rises the City of God, with its Temple of 
 glory. The Lamb is the Light thereof as 
 He is the light of His people now. To walk 
 in His light and to abide in His love is 
 life. 
 
 Speed thy conquest, oh beloved in Christ. 
 
THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 177 
 
 " The ransomed of the Lord will soon re- 
 turn and come to Zion with songs, and 
 everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall 
 obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and 
 sighing shall flee away." 
 
^"' 
 
 
 
 ; !: ... 
 
 
 
 i3 !i j;' 
 
 
 jtW- 
 
 
 > 
 
 'gfjl 
 
 ATTRACTIVE TRUTHS, 
 
 IN LESSON AND STORY. 
 
 A 
 
 Y. JP. S. C. B. 
 
 TEXT-BOOK FOR JUNIOR SOCIETIES. 
 
 A series of outline lessons, with il- 
 lustrative stories for Junior Chris- 
 tian Endeavor Societies, Child- 
 ren's Meetings, and Home 
 
 Teaching. 
 By Mrs. A. M. SCUDDER, 
 
 With Introduction by Rev. Francis 
 E. Clark, President Y. P. S. C. E. 
 
 12mo, 351 pages, Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 Dr. Clark, in his introduction, says:—" This book we most heartily 
 welcome, not only for what it indicates, but for what it is, for we have 
 never seen any work more admirably fitted to its purpose. In fact lit- 
 erature of this sort is very scanty, and so far as we know, this book 
 occupies a place all its own. In the home, in Sunday-school class, in 
 the mission circle, above all, in the children's meeting, this volume will 
 find its place, and will be welcomed eagerly by many a perplexed par- 
 ent, pastor, and teacher. 
 
 We do not see why this book, with its wealth of suggestive material, 
 its outline studies on all matters of practical Christianity, and its hap- 
 pily chosen stories, may not be used as a text-book by leaders of these 
 societies." 
 
 "This book occupies a new field, and occupies it well. No other 
 book in the language, so far as we know, has even attempted just this 
 task of providing a manual for teachers of children's classes, superin- 
 tendents of Junior Endeavor Societies and the like. Each lesson be- 
 gins with certain Bible texts bearing on the subject, to be marked 
 and explained, then an outline of the subject, followed by a story 
 which illustrates and enforces it. There is nothing weak or puerile 
 about the book, but there is a wealth of information and suggestion, of 
 which thousands of workers among the children will avail themselves. 
 Superintendents of Junior Christian Endeavor Societies will find it very 
 useful, in fact, almost indispensable. We commend it most cordially." 
 — Golden Rule, 
 
 nbw york. :: Fleming H. Revell Company -Chicago. 
 
The New Enlarged and Authorized Edition of a Remarkable Work. 
 
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 mastered, in your own experience, the ' secret ' of which it 
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"HERE ARE TWO BOOKS 
 
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 has laid his eyes upon them. 
 
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 way thorough and complete. 
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 ever known, for some years we have had it in constant service 
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 passing years. We know of no other work comparable with it, 
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 The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Consisting 
 of Five Hundred Thousand Scripture references and 
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 cloth, 700 pages, $2.00. 
 
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 the Treasury to be a better help thau any other book of which I 
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 new york. :: Fleming H. Revcll Company -Chicago. 
 
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 " We commended this ser- 
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