nd other humanitarian annexes as it has the
means to support. An illustration of this is seen in the successful and
Heaven-blessed Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, founded and
maintained and guided by that hundred-handed Briareus in the service of
Christ--my beloved friend, the Hon. John Wanamaker. The aim of that
great church and its well-known Sunday School, is to make people happy
by making them better, and to save them for this world after saving them
for another world. When a church has the spiritual purposes and
spiritual power of the London Tabernacle and the Bethany Church, and is
guided by a Spurgeon or a Wanamaker, it may safely become
"institutional." But some experiments that have been made to establish
churches of that name in this country have not always been conspicuously
successful.

In taking this, my retrospective view at four-score, I have noted many
heart-cheering tokens of social and religious progress, and many
splendid mechanical and material inventions to make the world better and
happier. Yet I have also seen some painful symptoms of decline and
deterioration. All the changes have not been for the better; some have
been decidedly for the worse. For example, while there is an increase in
the number of the Christian churches, there is a lamentably steady
diminution of attendance at places of religious worship. Careful
investigation shows a constant falling off in church attendance--both in
the large towns, and in the rural districts. In spite of the blessed
influence of the Sunday School, the Young Men's Christian Association
and Christian Endeavor, there is an increasing swing of young people
away from the House of God, and therefore from soul-saving influences.
The Sabbath is not as generally kept sacred as formerly. One of the
indications of this sad fact is a decrease in church attendance, and
another is the enormous increase in the secular and godless Sunday
newspapers. Materialism and Mammonism work against spiritual religion,
and the social customs which wealth brings are adverse to a spiritual
life. As one illustration of this a distinguished pastor said to me:
"Forty years ago my people lived plainly, were ready for earnest
Christian work, and attended our devotional meetings; now they have
grown rich, our work flags, and our weekly services are almost
deserted." Half-day religion is on the increase almost everywhere.
Sporting and gambling are more rife than formerly. What is