It is a fact, then, that there are among us a vast number of children in
the most miserable and perilous condition. In the year 1849, the Chief
of Police reported the destitution and vice among this class of vagrants
as almost "incredible." In that report he says--"The offspring of always
careless, generally intemperate, and oftentimes dishonest parents, they
never see the inside of a school-room, and so far as our excellent
system of public education is concerned, it is to them a nullity." It
appears that, at that time, in 12 wards of the city, there were 2,955 of
these children, of whom two-thirds were females between the ages of 8
and 16. I am informed, also, by the Chief of Police, that 100 per cent.
should now be added to this estimate; not all attributable, of course,
to growth in depravity, but to the increase of population, especially by
immigration. I understand, moreover, that within the past year there
have been ten thousand arrests, and five thousand commitments of boys
alone between the ages of 5 and 15.

These are naked statistics, affording you an outline of the actual state
of things. Need I paint the costume and the scenery, and describe the
sad and awful drama in which these children play their parts? I could
not if I would. But think of that vast amount of young life running to
waste, sweeping through the sewers of the social fabric, an
under-current of taint and desolation! Think of them, starved, beaten,
driven into crime not merely by necessity, but by the very hands of
their parents! and think of them this night, cuddling in rags, shivering
on straw, cradled in reeking filth, drinking in blasphemy and obscenity
and cunning policies of sin, under that dark canopy that shuts out
social sympathy, and hides the very Face of God. And if you have, I will
not say parental hearts, but human souls, you will ask if there ought
not to be some remedy, and will say that all who can should help in
administering that remedy.

And _remedies_ there appear to be, my friends. For, while I said that
there is no condition in the city more sad and momentous than that of
these children of the poor, I said, likewise, that there is none more
_hopeful_. The essential and comprehensive remedy of all I indicated in
the close of the last discourse, and shall have occasion to dwell upon
in the next. That remedy is the practical operation of
Christianity--first of all in our own hearts, and then flowing out in
action. I mean