The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-11-08


missions or other agencies. Its work
may and does lead TO the organization
of such agencies, but 1t Is chiefly to in
crease the spiritual power and efficiency
of individual Christians, so that 1t may
be truly said of many who have been
so helped that their work is equal to
that of some churches or Christian work
agencies, or that they have been able
to largely increase their helpfulness and
consequently the power of the church
or Christian work with which they have
been connected 1t does this work not
only through the conventions of Chris
tians In which methods and plans of
work and spiritual experiences are COM
pared and new knowledge and spiritual
strength gained, but through the spread
of literature and the constant effort by
which the same results are produced
in Christian lives as are brought about
through the conventions of Christian
Workers.
am not here this afternoon to say a
word to glorify or exalt the Information
al Christian Workers association. 1t
is nothing except a bit of machinery
through which we are seeking to bring
about certain results. We see before us
great needs. Forty millions in the
United States alone not church men,
bers! Hundreds of thousands of men
in our prisons! Tens of thousands en-
shaved to the drink habit and wretch
edness and misery running riot in null
titudes of lives! Beyond our own bor-
ders in heather lands we see millions
upon millions who have never heard of
the name of the Lord Jesus and whose
lives are unspeakably miserable. We
see these and like evils. How shall the
glad good news of the gospel penetrate
this mass of ignorance and wretched-
ness? Aye, how shall those who have
heard the gospel and who have taken
the name of servants of Christ upon
them have greater power over the, evil
with which their own lives are sur
rounded, and by which they are per-
picked and hampered? Something is
being done; how shall more be dome,
both in the life of the Christian and
to send the message of peace and help
into the dark places in our own and
other lands? 1t is for this that we care
for, if we are real Christians, not for
institutions or societies. The Interna-
tional Christian Workers association IS
nothing, except as it may do some work
for this purpose. Can it do this work?
believe it can, and a great work, per-
haps one of the greatest committed to
men.
In the first place, it Is along the line
of Christian unity. I feel free to say
that personally I care very little for So
called organic unity among Christians
If / see a, man perishing and my own
strength is insufficient to rescue him.
my whole being calls for the increased
force which comes from another helper
joining his strength to mine that we
together may save him, and that is all
1 care about it. I care nothing about
whether he lives in the same kind of a
house that I do, dresses the same way,
or for other unessential differences. The
important thing is that we should save
that perishing man, turn his cries and
tears of distress into thanksgiving and
tears of Joy. I think, too, that we two
having saved a man will ever after be
more tolerant of each other and have
a deeper interest in each other. You
see here to-day men of almost every
denomination seated together joining
their forces that they may save men,
This is Christian unity in it's highest
and best sense. There is no possibility
of a division among us. We are going
forth in one name, that of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that, too, for the prac-
teal reason that we are confident we
cannot save a man or any part Of the
world in any other way, that there is
no name given under heaven by which
men shall be saved except that name
know of no work in the interests Of
Christian unity that is so practical and
rational as that of this Christian Work
ers' association
Again. how shall we save men or
rather save the most men? I mean, of
course, doing what God has put into
our power to do? Shall we have more
societies, more money, more education?
Possibly so. He who goes out to create
more societies, secure more money, to
establish more schools, is doubtless do
ing a. good work, but is it not a greater
work, an absolutely essential work if
the greatest results are to be obtained
at all events is it not a great and wise
thing to do, to increase the efficiency
of what already exists. What church,
what Christian, is producing the re-
suits that might be produced or that
are satisfactory? I believe the world
is yet to see what can be produced by
one thoroughly trained, equipped and
consecrated Christian man or woman.
What a church would that be whose
every member was wholly given up to
God and whose thoughts by day and by
night was how to follow more closely
in the footsteps of Him who came to
seek and to save that which was lost?
Here is one who is watching and work
ing and praying for the boys and who
uses consecrated tact to win them from
evil into the arms of the Lord Jesus.
If one of these little ones is seen getting
into some evil ways, heard to use some
vile language or his name seen in the
papers as having been in the police
court for some petty misdemeanor. He
is by his side to help with all possible
speed. Who shall say how many of
such little ones a single Christian man
or woman might bring to Christ and
save misery and wretchedness unspeak-
able? Here is another who finds his
or her life in looking after the girls:
another is bringing the children into
the Sunday schools; another is looking
after the Incorporate, another is COM