r sober,
considerate thought. It is a time when the best of the clergy and the best
of the laity of every denomination need seriously to face a question which
is not alone common to themselves but is a serious one confronting the
entire Protestant Church. In some ways our churches are suffering, (and it
seems will suffer more for sometime than others), for the reason that we
have not had, and have not now, so large a number of trained men to draw
upon as others who have had better advantages than ourselves. With an
honest purpose, it is our business to courageously take this matter up and
get at the facts, and then find a way to remedy the alarming condition. We
are at a crisis, and the future of our race is involved,--yea, the future
of our nation, for one-eighth of the population of any land has a
tremendous influence upon the whole.

In the first place, the demand for increased efficiency is emphasized by
increased intelligence of the people. Forty years ago we were just
entering school as a race; to-day we have the second generation in our
public schools, secondary schools, and colleges. These parents and
children read the daily papers, read the magazines, buy some books, and
are beginning to think, and as soon as an individual begins to think
independently all sorts of problems rapidly crowd in on the mind and put
it in an attitude of questioning many of the things which have always
beforehand been taken for granted as correct and true. Along with this
goes the fact that much of the literature of to-day, (including newspaper
editorials and many magazine articles), has a tendency to undermine
Christian faith rather than help it. Much of it comes from brains well
saturated with Pagan philosophy rather than the principles laid down in
the Holy Book. The swing away from Puritanism to what is called liberty
has the effect of loosening many of the well-fixed principles of morality
and right-living, and makes splendid soil for just such practices as we
are constantly reminded of by the glaring headlines in our newspapers
giving every detail of murders, and lax family relations and divorces, and
every conceivable thing that human nature can devise for the uprooting of
many of the essentials of real progress and decent living. This brings a
spirit of unrest and doubt, and the question whether life pays, and
whether it is worth while to make an effort, and whether the Church is of
any effect. The minister is looked upon as a