tion? Then I would call your attention to the splendid advance made by our public schools in caring for the welfare of the nearly 700,000 pupils who are in attendance. The value of the school building to the crowded neighborhood is greatly increased by its use as an indoor playground, out of school hours. The great organization of the Public School Athletic League numbers 104,000 boys. Our new Public Recreation Commission is preparing a survey of the recreation facilities of the city. On the preventive side, much has been done toward the elimination of contagious diseases.

I want you to note the great Budget Exhibit, held here, which is being copied all over the country, and we now have under consideration the creation of a City Planning Commission to point the way for our better growth, because we have grown tremendously in all directions without a firm hand to regulate our development. Our streets are being restored to the common use of the people. Traffic congestion has been reduced. Only passing reference can be made to the new Children's Court and the model tenements erected by our public spirited citizens; to the splendid new tuberculosis hospital which is about to be opened with one thousand beds; to improved child labor conditions; to increased transit facilities; to the decrease of the death rate from 20.26 per thousand in 1896 to 15.13 in 1911; to our great museums, public buildings, beautiful parks.

We have in New York a great body of men whose hearts are always touched by any call of duty, be it in defense of their country, or to help in time of calamity by flood, famine or fire. I believe there is no finer body of representative citizens in North America.

Ours is essentially a practical and scientific age. We have almost no great poets and philosophers. Time was when man mused on life, when the emphasis was upon the mystical instead of the practical. But ours is the age of reality; of the material; of the great discoveries; of vast industries; of steam, electricity, telegraphs, telephones, ocean cables, railway systems, and that wonder of wonders, the wireless telegraph.

These marvelous means of communication have brought all nations close to each other and all peoples together. And as men and nations have thus been drawn together there has come a new feeling of universal brotherhood; a realization of the rights of men and the duties of men to each other, and the rights of nations and the duties of nations to each other. Nations as well as men feel that they cannot live alone; that they are responsible for their fellow men, and that this responsibility cannot be shirked, evaded or shifted.

I believe that through all of this great development which has been going on during the past, God has prepared the world for the gospel message in a way far beyond human com

prehension. This wonderful age of ours, instead of pushing us away from God and Jesus Christ, has, by its discoveries and scientific attainment, rather brought us back to the simplicity of the gospel. Christ is our living example, the One whom we would model our lives after more and more. The gospel is freely preached the world over. The Bible is read and studied more than ever before. The great harvest is white to the gathering. As a writer has well said: "The modern world is demonstrating that Christianity is a building not made with hands. We have but to come into contact with Jesus Christ to discern that we cannot escape Him." If our eyes could be opened today, as were those of Elisha's servants our courage would be revived as we beheld the hosts of men coming to a fuller knowledge of the Christian faith.

There are more gifts for the cause of Christ, in money and lives, today, than ever before. There are hundreds who study the Bible where ten years ago there were but few thus engaged. To be sure, sin and Satan are not yet daunted, and we need to pray, and to pray mightily and earnestly, that we and all may fight hard to overcome the evil in the world and in our hearts. Nevertheless, taking the worldwide view, the harvest fields are ripening for Jesus Christ in a way never before known.

What does all this mean to us? It means in our own work more consecration and more con

centration; more getting rid of self, that Christ may reign in us and we may do His will better.

The day has gone by when men expect a Christian to apologize for his faith. An apology is needed from the man who is not a Christian and from the Christians who do not live Christfilled lives.

The great Men and Religion Forward Movement Campaign has closed. As we look back over the year and a half of preparation and the half-year of work, we are profoundly grateful to Almighty God for what he has enabled us to accomplish. We started out with one idea of a call to Christian duty, to every man, every boy and every individual church on this continent. We have not touched them all, but we have aroused many of them from their lethargy and shown them a program for Christian service and work never before equaled, and we have demonstrated the fact that the men of this country are intensely interested in religion; that they are willing and eager to uphold the Church, if a program can be given them which is worthy of a man's best efforts. No stronger evidence of this need be produced than to remind you that the Special Team men of this Movement had a total attendance of approximately 1,500,000 at the meetings and conferences which they addressed.

We hand the trust committed to the Committee of Ninety-seven back to the denominations and organizations of the Christian Church, with a

firm belief that they, by united effort, will continue the work just begun; until every church in our land, from the great cathedral to the smallest country chapel, will have put before it a plan of men's work that will meet its need, and I am sure that the splendid manhood of our times will respond to this call.