St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-14
FOR CHRISTIAN ENDEAvoR.

Men who are wrestling daily with
the evil forces at work in private
life and in the state are apt to for
get the mighty, the consoling, the
triumphant fact that the forces
which work for good are as earnest,
: as active and more imperishable.
The forms of their activity change;
but as one generation falls wrecked
and passes from the stage, there
succeeds another whose ardor and
whose enthusiasm are but kindled
the more brightly by the thought
of all that the world has attempted
and failed to do. 1t is the unyielding
belief of the young in the perma-
nence and might of all that makes
for goodness, it is their devotion to
high ideals, and the splendid mad
courage with which they are ready
to fight and fall for them, that re-
deems and revivifies a daily dying
world. 1t is by this continuous
onset, growing gradually into the
wisdom and the vile of age, that the
world pauses through that slow proc
ess of progress which has its moral
rs well as it's material side.
A mighty witness of this is the
gathering in Boston, during the
past week, of representatives of the
Societies for Christian Endeavor.
This work was organized in 1881,
with two branches and sixty-eight
members. At its meeting in 1898, it
had a membership reaching almost
a million and half. The number
of local societies is given now at
41,229, with an aggregate member
ship of 2,473,740. These associations
are unSectarian and undenomina-
Gonal, and they represent the relig-
sous aspiration and activity of a
great part of the civilized world. We
sometimes look with wonder upon
the great revivals of an earlier age:
upon those marvellous outbursts Of
religious feeling which, from time
to time, have left their lasting i'm
press upon governments, upon liter
hture, upon life and art We think
of them as belonging to a more i'm
pressible era in the life of the race.
They do but change their form and
not their content. The impulse to bet
ter the world, to make life nobler
and sweeter, and humanity worth
all the sacrifices that have been re-
corded for its sake, is constant. And
wherever and under Whatever cap-
taincy its standard is raised, the
willing recruits rush in by millions
to battle for a faith that is larger
than the creeds.
The original purpose of the En-
deavor societies was principally to
organize the younger people for
church work within the churches.
Instead of leaving them idle and
restless, to be absorbed by activities
within or without, as might happen,
the thought was to unite them in a
mild discipline for combined effort
along all those lines which are includ-
ed in the purpose Of the churches. 1t
has been a great success. Young
men and women to whom the world
is just opening, to whom life looks
like nothing but one grand, glad op-
portunity, find occupation in such a
plan for the consuming fire of vigor
and energy that fills them. By mil
lions they have responded to the call.
The churches have felt the stimulus
Of a new element in their life. And
how, as was inevitable, with the en-
thusiasm of numbers, the ambition
of the Endeavorers is seeking a
wider field. Why, they are asking,
Should not their influence be felt in
public life? Why should not they
contribute to the reformation and
the molding of the state? All the
addresses at Boston are pitched to
this high keynote. Not in any mar
row field, but in one as broad as life
Itself would these throngs through
Which there runs the fine thrill of
The worid-old inspiration play q