city. But the fact is that, in many cases, the city only completes what
was well begun at home, begun in evenings spent in country grocery stores,
and on the piazzas of village taverns.

But there is another aspect of this matter which would perhaps startle
those who think that all piety and orthodoxy reside in the rural
districts; and that is, that the city, _as it is_, affords far greater
encouragements to well developed piety than the country; and that if the
church were fully awake to her duty towards young men, and actually
employing all the means afforded her by her wealth, organization and
influence to shield, restrain, influence and reform them, the city would
be the safest place on earth for a youth. If the city is the stronghold of
vice, it is in the church's power to make it the stronghold of virtue. For
it is admitted that, in other respects, the city affords superior
advantages. Young men leave the country store and come thither if they
desire to learn business on a large scale. They are obliged to seek the
city for large literary opportunities. The great popular literary
attractions seldom move out of the track of the cities. Here the pulse of
life beats quicker. Men live faster. Thought is more energetic and prompt.
The same is in a measure true of religious life. It develops more
activity, more benevolence. It invests religious instruction with more
attractions, and throws more life and power into social worship. Go into
such a prayer meeting, for instance, as you can find in scores of churches
in our large cities, where the large numbers present augment the sympathy
of each with the common object, where thoughtful, practical, energetic men
pour into the common treasury streams of fresh, living thought, where the
singing is an inspiration, and say what you will, a man will be stirred
and stimulated as he cannot be in the thin assemblies of too many country
churches, where the minister is chiefly depended on to give interest to
the meeting, where the singing is faint and slow. I know God is often in
the one place as in the other. I know there is true religious life there,
and that souls are converted there. But so long as men remain human, their
piety will not be insensible to such influences. So too, the influences of
the city churches tend more to develop young men. My impression is that in
country districts age is a prime qualification for responsibility; young
men are kept back, and not expected to bear