The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1901-07-12
CHRISTIAN ENDEAYOR.

FRANCIS II. clark, president, del1v'
cred his address at the twentieth
annual Christian Endeavor Conven-
tion in this city to-day He dwelt
particularly on the growth of the
movement during the second decade
of its existence and the rapidity
with which the societies through
out the world have multiplied.
/ For every age God prepares his
agencies. AS the bee is made for
the flower, as the birds wing fits
the air, and the fin of the fish the
yielding water, so in the moral and
religious world God adapts his
plans and methods to the needs of
the time.
To the mind of the devout be-
lever there is no surer test of the
overriding providence of God. In
every great movement in the church
of God can be seen Gods nice ad-
| justment OF time and place and
method to the needs of the age.
The Sunday-school, begun IN the
last part of the Eighteenth Cen
tury, had a vast work to do for the
Nineteenth Century in populariz-
ing Bible study. The Nineteenth
Century was to print cheap Bible
for every one. The Sunday-school
came just in time to teach every
one to study it when printed.
The Nineteenth Century saw pc
culiar perils assail the young man.
The saloon, the brothel, the gamb-
ling den, commercialism and ma
terialism laid their traps for him.
But God looked down from heav-
en- upon the children of men, and
in the middle of the century the
Young Mems Christian Association
was started to set young men at
work for young men in a new evan
gelism.
The days of the rampant in6del
and atheist are also in the past, as
l devoutly believe. No RI ert
Hume could to-day greatly in
fluence the thought of the world.
No Voltaire or Rousseau could num-
ber his followers by millions.
Robert Ingersoll to-day is little but
a memory of eloquent bathos and
pathos. No thinking man is NOV
ed by his mistakes" OF Moses, or
his TRADES against the Gospels,
But something more insidious, more
subtle, more harmful thousand
times than blatant infidelity is the
foe of the church of the Twentieth
Century. This infdelity is a scep-I
ticism of life rather than of talk.
Now think 1T is no empty boast |
to claim that the Christin Endeavor
Society was raised up by God for
this especial crisis 10 the Twentieth
Century. 1t is built on strenuous
lines. 1t appeals to the sense of
duty. It's purpose is not to amuse
young people, or to tickle them
with the entertainment straw, but
to call upon them in the name of
Jesus Christ to do hard things for
their Lord and for his church.
This is the meaning of the Chris
tian Endeavor pledge. Call it'll
what you will--covenant, affirma-
tion, promise; word it as you
so long as you do not take
out of it the ring Of high resolve
and earnest purpose to confess
Christ and work for him.
The Twentieth Century church
needs the Christian Endeavor So
riety because 1T needs the prayer
The influences which /
have already alluded to are the mi- |
,robes which are destroying the | I
tissues Of many prayer-meeting
It is too much trouble to go to the
nidweek sevice. 1t is not good | I
form" in many church circles to give !
ones testimony to the love of Ii
Christ. 1t is objected to in some
quarters as .swearing ones heart !
IN ones sleeve" Amy kind Of re- II
igious experience is considered !
cant" by some people. Il
The Twentieth Century church
needs more thoroughgoing and ef- y
ective organization in church life.
Organization is the sign of life, !"
t has been truly said, "the lack of a
/ is death. Enthusiasm and cour- i
lge are eyanescent unless they q
AXE on organized forms. Feeling {
ind resolution fade out if not turn {
ID into rule and made steady by s
labit" One of the century's great s
.st thoughts is specialization and a
in our business, our /
actories, our schools, our farms. t
Shall the church only lag behind in '
his respect? To decry organ a
zation in a church and laud it in a :
actory is the height of folly. Only 2