Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-06-15

man, nor shown the absolute need of his
spirit to make a man a man.
Again, has not the church erred IN
limiting her activities too often to the
Sabbath preaching services, the Sunday.
school and the mid-week prayer sci vice?
She has touched the man at only few
points. She has not laid hold of all Of
the avenues of approach to him. We
are more or less acquainted with the mo-
dus operdndi of fully organized Young
Mems Christian association. This insti-
tuition believes that it is the church of
Christ at work for young men:
that it is doing work that the
churches have not done at least.
some will say can never do as individu-
al churches. 1t seeks to appeal to man
in the name of Christ along the physical.
social, intellectual and spiritual sides of
his nature. 1t believes that it is both
often possible and always legitimate to
start young man toward a Christian
life by appealing to him along other than
directly spiritual lines. 1t believes that
young men need development physically
and socially in order to be well-rounded
men, and that such training should not
be wholly secular in its trend, but that
the whole atmosphere about young
man in the formative period of his lite
should be Christian. This institution has
had splendid history and is doing good
/ IVOrly today IL ahouiuo vouu,r ,,o,
that the church is interested in them, not
only when they are in attendance upon
a Sabbath service or a prayer meeting.
but as well when they are developing
body and mind. The work that the
association has done during the half
century of Its existence proves, | think,
that the church has failed to reach
young men, at least in part, because she
has limited too strictly her lines of APP
proach.
Another phase of Christian work
which the Young Mems Christian asso.
citation has emphasized and which is
certainly fruitful, though sadly ne
elected by our churches, as such, is that
personal, hand-to-hand and heart-to-
heart work with young men, the direct
appeal to young man to be IA Christian.
The more modern brotherhood of An
drew and Philip is based on this idea of
a man for a man. The preaching of the
pulpit, plus the Sunday school instruc-
ton, plus the prayer meeting appeal, is
not sufficient. From the general we
must go the particular. Men must be
reached individually. How many in
our churches ever seek by personal APP
peal to lead IA man to Christ?
Another point at which, as | think,
the church has failed to reach young
men, and this has been made clear by
the history of the Young Mems Chris
tian association. is that the clergy have
not kept themselves sufficiently in touch
with their young men. There has
seemed to be something about "the
cloth that has frightened them. Too
often, it may be, the priestly function
of the ministerial Office has been EN-
pnasIzed. We have failed to make
young men feel that, as Peter said to
Cornelius, we also are men. My feel
ing is strongly: Down with everything
that savors of pIiest-craft and let tn :,
ministry meet young men on their own
ground, showing a sincere interest in
whatever is manly and of interest to
them.
If | mistake not, another point where
the church has lost ground has been
here. 1t has been found that young
men are most difficult to reach and so
they have in many cases been left to
themselves. Because the problem is a
knotty one we have neglected its solu-
ton.
In answer, then, to the question put,
Is the church at fault for the present
state of things respecting young men
and the church? we repeat, yes, to a
degree. But not altogether.
We put another question at the start,
Is the fault with the young men, or is
there some power at work without the
church that is influential in keeping
them from it? That there are such
forces at work we must all recognize
and concede. The tendency of the nat
ural human heart seems away from all
that is best and truest. In this regard
young men are not different from others.
They do not run in the way of righteous
ness.
Again, the great enemy of man is
putting forth special effort to reach
this class in the community, bringing
three of the deadliest evils to bear
primarily upon young men-intemper-
ance, gambling, impurity With these
instrumentalities he is destroying the
life of scores of thousands of young
men each year-an army of eighty or a
hundred thousand marching into drunk
ards graves annually,-and Is running
the character of multitudes more.
Apaiu as already SuOUpstod ,-ounp