keep in life. By this means the weakly and the unfit are kept alive and permitted to propagate after their kind, and thus society accumulates a vast number of unadjusted human beings; nay worse, by this means man defeats the process of natural selection, which ensures the elimination of the unfit; and he multiplies the number of defectives and dependents in society; worse still man in keeping alive these persons of tainted blood and defective mind and making it possible for them to multiply after their kind, is poisoning the blood of the race and is really promoting the degeneracy of mankind. This is no boon, certainly it is no benefit to the race; nay, as all careful thinkers see, this is an unparallelled calamity from the point of view of the race, and is simply preparing the world for disaster and degeneracy.

3. What then is demanded by this crisis in human affairs? What is the answer to this Sphinx riddle of social evolution? We must do far more than aim to keep the sickly alive and preserve the mal-endowed from inevitable extinction; we must do far more than remove hindrances from man's way and enable him to survive and propagate. We must do more than the works of charity, such as feeding the hungry, nursing the sick, keeping the weakly alive, shielding the malendowed from destruction. We must now declare that every life shall begin its existence well-endowed and capable and strong. We must guarantee that there shall be no unfit and defective members in society to be a burden to themselves and to hinder the upward march of the race. We must create such conditions in society as shall make it possible for every life to grow up tall and strong and pure and fit.

This is a vast undertaking, we admit, and it calls for a synthetic, scientific, sociological and Christian program, but nothing less than this is the task set before man to-day, and no other kind of program can meet the exigency of the crisis. That is to say, "civilized man has proceeded so far in his interference with extra-human nature, has produced for himself and the living organism associated with him such a special state of things by his rebellion against natural selection and his defiance of nature's pre-human dispositions, that he must either go on and acquire firmer control of the conditions, or perish miserably by the vengeance certain to fall on the half-hearted meddler with great affairs." In other words, Christian man must now learn how to appraise all the factors that enter into the life of man, heredity, environment, personal will and divine grace, and must so use these factors that together they shall work for man's whole progress and perfection; he must know how to manage all the forces of the universe for the advantage and superiority of the race; he must begin to subsidize and use the mighty agencies of the Church, the Family, the State and the School in behalf of these great ends. There is no retreat for him from this way; he must control these forces and factors; he must resolutely undertake the larger work of social reform and reconstruction; in fine, Christian effort to-day must be much wider in its scope than church evangelism and personal regeneration; Christian charity must do more than run soup kitchens and build hospitals; it must become social, industrial, scientific and sociological, and must seek the redemption of society. The problem of philanthropy to-day is the problem of social reconstruction.

III.

THE FAILURE OF INDIVIDUAL EFFORT One other line of inquiry may be followed, and at its end we will discover the great problem before us. One other aspect of the present problem may be noted, and then the great task will be clearly suggested.

1. As every one knows, great things have been done in the name of Christ during the past nineteen centuries. Millions of souls have been turned from sin unto righteousness, and have been saved for lives of purity and power. Great changes have been wrought in human society and many an evil has gone never to return. No one who has studied history is inclined to minimize these results or to ignore these Gesta Christi. But thus far in the history of Christian effort men have thrown chief emphasis upon the salvation of individuals, and as a consequence they have hardly contemplated the salvation of society.

The fact is that the methods thus far followed have not produced the largest results and they have not by any means wrought the redemption of the world. And the fact is also that the method of individual work for individuals gives no hope of the salvation of society within any measurable time. It would be a gross misstatement to say that the social and moral condition of the cities of the world has not improved at all in historic times, but it is the simple truth to say that the progress in these cities is so slow and uncertain as to be almost unnoticed. It is needless here to adduce evidence indicting the great cities of Christendom, for this evidence is known to all. London is confessedly the greatest city in the world; and yet London is the standing reproach of Christendom. Thus General Booth says: "Talk about Dante's Hell and all the horrors

and cruelties of the torture chamber of the lost! The man who walks with open eyes and bleeding heart through the shambles of our civilization needs no such fantastic images of the poet to teach him horror." Huxley's striking descriptions of conditions in the East End of London are well known; and he declares that among the lowest savages of New Guinea he had found that the surroundings were more conducive to a decent and moral existence than in some parts of the city wilderness; and if he had to choose between the two most distinctly he would choose the former. In London it is found that there is a Submerged Tenth, caught by the maelstrom and sinking in the flood, abandoned and despairing, without God and without hope. Above this is a larger class in poverty, -at least thirty per cent. of the total,-who are unable to obtain those necessaries of life which will permit them to maintain a state of physical efficiency. In Scotland also, according to official figures, over onethird of the families live in a single room, and more than two-thirds in only two rooms. The man who

walks through the wynds and closes of Edinburgh and Glasgow with open eyes is tempted at times to call for the crack of doom to come and end it all.

What is true of London is no less true of New York City. It is true that economic conditions are somewhat better here than in the Old World, but none the less the facts are appalling. In 1890, according to Bishop Huntington, "recent certified revelations have laid bare the multiplied horrors and depravities of the tenement population in great cities, where forty-one out of every hundred families live in a single room, and where the poorest pay more for rent than the richest for every

cubic foot of space and air." New York is one of the richest states in the Union, and yet the reports of the State Board of Charities show that from year to year about twenty-four per cent. of the people apply for relief of some kind. And most tragic of all, from year to year ten per cent. of all those who die in New York City are buried in Potter's Field. In 1900 in New York State a commission was created to investigate tenement conditions in New York City. After several days' investigation in silent amazement the up-state members of the commission declared "New York ought to be abolished."

2. In these and other cities of Christendom Christian men have been at work for generations and for centuries preaching the Gospel of Christ, seeking to save souls, building churches and founding hospitals. And yet to-day, as we study the social and moral condition of these cities, it is not easy to see wherein they are improving from generation to generation. Indeed, there are thoughtful people not a few who declare that the great cities of the world are degenerating and that the churches are steadily losing ground. Be all this as it may, be there any real progress or not, the fact remains that the progress is so slow and so disappointing that we can hardly measure its gains. In these cities millions of people are unblessed by the Gospel and live without any of the things that make for admiration, hope and love.

On the one side we have the spectacle of millions of people alienated from the churches and wholly indifferent to the gospel message. The churches are for the fortunate few, they say; religion is good enough for those who have time for it. And on the other side