a large part of all that has been done to enlighten, to comfort, and to uplift humanity.  And the discipline through which she has passed gives some indication of the work she has yet to do.  It is not credible that a wise Providence should have kept her alive so many centuries, and should have made so much use of her in the establishment upon the earth of the kingdom of heaven, and should have led her into a constantly increasing knowledge of Himself, if he had not meant to make her his servant in the great work now waiting to be done.

Her hour has come, and her task lies before her.  It might be urged that she ought to have been better fitted for her work before she was called to undertake it; but that is not God’s way.  We get our preparation for great work in the work itself.  We are called from the sheepfolds to lead the armies of Israel.  We are sent out with a few loaves and fishes to feed the multitude.  Our powers are developed and our resources are multiplied by using them.  And though the church is far from having the equipment she needs for the redemption of society, the power and the wisdom will come when the work is bravely undertaken.

To whom, now, does this great enterprise of social redemption make its strongest appeal?  It ought to appeal to all good men and women.  It ought to enlist the powers of those who are in the meridian of their strength.  The men whose vision has been widened and whose wills have been invigorated in the great undertakings of industry and commerce ought to find in this proposition something worthy of their powers.  It ought, also, to stir the hearts of those who have labored hard and waited long for the coming of the kingdom to hear a great voice saying, “Now is the accepted time:  behold! now is the day of salvation!” To many of those who have not much longer to live life never seemed a thing so fair as it is to-day.

But this great appeal ought most strongly to lay hold upon the hearts of the young men and women of this generation.  The enterprise is mainly theirs.  If the new reformation comes, they will lead it on.  If society is redeemed, it will be by their toil and sacrifice.  If the church ever learns its business, it will be under their tuition.  And it must be by their voices, chiefly, that the new evangel will be proclaimed.

The young men and women who have had the patience to read these chapters have been invited to consider some large and serious themes.  It has been assumed that they did not care for kindergarten talk, nor even for the ethical platitudes to which youth are apt to be treated.  There has been no talking down to them; they have been asked to sit where Jesus sat, among the doctors in the temple, to hear and answer questions, and to consider, with the rest of us, our Father’s business.

All this tremendous work of social reconstruction about which we are talking must be done, and most of it must be done by them.  It is to be hoped that they will be able to see the urgency of it, and to feel that it is something worth their while.