Those of us who have been permitted to come in contact with the more thoughtful young men and women of this generation, especially those in the colleges and the professional schools, have been made aware of a deepening conviction among the best of them that the kind of prizes for which the multitude are contending are not of the highest value.  Great revisions have been taking place, during the past few years, in the estimates of success.  Many careers which, but a little while ago, seemed enviable, now appear much less alluring.  And while this change of attitude is far from being universal, there is a goodly number of young men and women scattered through all our communities whose souls are kindled with social passion, and who are asking not so eagerly how they may succeed as how they may serve.  To these we have a right to look for leadership in the work of social redemption.

Many phases of this work will appeal to them.  In education, in philanthropy, in journalism, in literature, in art, they will be called to serve; many philanthropies will invite them; the organization of industry upon cooeperative lines will offer some of them a vocation, and the government will be upon their shoulders.

But what they are asked to consider here is the claim of the church upon them.  That claim need not conflict with any of these other vocations, unless, indeed, the work of the Christian ministry should offer itself to their choice.  That possibility, by the way, is well worth thinking of.  Some of them, let us trust, will keep it in mind for further consideration.  If the business of the church is what we have found it to be, and the new evangelism is such as we have outlined, the Christian ministry must offer to any man whose heart is on fire with social passion a great opportunity.  But for the present let us note the fact that upon those who are not to give their whole lives to the work of the church, the church has a claim, which they ought seriously to consider.  Whatever their callings may be, in whatever fields they may be laboring, the church will need their loyal service, and they will need its goodly fellowships and its inspiring cooeperation.

The church which ought to be, and must be, is not for some of us, but for all of us.  Even as the state is the political commonwealth to which all citizens belong, so the church is the spiritual commonwealth in which all souls should be included.  The interests for which the church provides are the common human interests; it never can be what it ought to be, or do what it is called to do, until it gathers all the people into its fellowship.  And therefore these young men and women to whom the future is intrusted must find their places in the church.  The church needs them; it cannot fulfill its function without them; and we have seen that its function is a vital function; that it furnishes the bond by which society is held together.

The church is God’s agency for leavening society with Christian influences; and these young men and women by whom the social order is to be reconstructed will be in the church.  Its leadership will be committed to them.  They will have the shaping of its life.  Its life will need much reshaping, and that will be their work.  What will they make of it?