e rule of Prayer and of Service.
The point of the service required is that it should have the character
especially of witness among a man's equals. So much 'church work' is
directed towards raising those who are in some ways our inferiors, that
we forget that the real test of a man is the witness he bears for
Christ among his equals. There is many a man who, especially in his
youth, fails to confess Christ in his own society, and then, if I may
so express it, sneaks round the corner to do something to raise the
degraded or takes orders and preaches the gospel. Nobody can possibly
disparage these efforts of love, but a certain character of cowardice
continues to attach to them, if they are not based on a frank witness
for Christ in a man's own walk of life, where it is hardest. It is
this witness which the Brotherhood requires.

The particular rule is 'to make an earnest effort each week to bring
some one young man within hearing of the Gospel of Christ as set forth
in the services of the Church and in men's Bible classes.' This rule
is no doubt open to criticism. But it is interpreted in the spirit
rather than in the letter, and for its definite requirement it is
successfully pleaded that it keeps the members from vagueness and
slackness.

Certainly the result appears to be excellent. The brethren are
pervaded by a spirit of frank religious profession and devotion. There
appears to be a general {266} tone among them of reality and good
sense. Their missionary zeal does not degenerate into an intrusive
prying into other men's souls.

The Brotherhood was developed in the atmosphere of the United States,
and it remains a question whether it will flourish in England. The
more sharply defined distinctions of classes among us; our exaggerated
parochialism; the shyness and reserve in religious matters which
characterizes many really religious Englishmen and degenerates into a
sort of 'hypocrisy reversed,' or pretence of being less religious than
one is--these things will constitute grave obstacles. But the need is
at least as crying among us, as on the other side of the Atlantic, to
emphasize among professing Christians and churchmen the duty of
witness. At least we may trust the Brotherhood will be given a good
trial. But if it is to have a fair chance among us, the greatest care
must be taken that it should develope as a properly lay movement; and
while it receives all encouragement from the clergy, should no