amongst each of these classes, and then to offer my suggestions arising therefrom, and I shall be glad if any humble recommendations on my part are found worthy of notice.

(1) Young men who have slipped away from the Christian faith; these may be numbered by their thousands all over the land. From the latest and most correct returns I am able to obtain, I find that we have in London a little over 250,000 youths and young men (and I take London as an example) between the ages of 15 and 25; and after the closest possible inquiries, as far as I have been able to ascertain, there are only a little over 50,000 of these connected with any kind of parochial guild, Bible class, choir, club, or institute, or with the London branches of the Church of England Young Men's Society, the Young Men's Friendly Society, the Young Men's Christian Association, and Mr. Quintinn Hogg's Polytechnic in Regent Street. So you see even if we allow a very large margin for young men who are connected with exclusively Nonconformist institutions and clubs, it goes to show that there must be thousands and thousands of youths who are still outside the pale of any of those refining and elevating influences. Amongst these outsiders I have spent much time. I generally spend one night a week in parading the streets or frequenting some locality, such as Hyde Park, where large numbers of young men and youths-youths whom I regret to say have lost the early dew of youth and innocence-congregate; and by this means I have been able to learn a great deal. I do not let them know who I am, or what my object is, but sometimes I can get into conversation with a party of them—and I find it necessary to keep up a knowledge of the names of race horses and of the latest artistes at music halls to do so without suspicion-but by this means I have often been able to get to know them, and after a while to get one or two of them to come home with me, and have a smoke and a chat. When they see the ecclesiastical entrance to Dean's Yard, Westminster, in which my chambers are situated, some of them I have known to change their mind, but still I have been able to land some of my fish, and having got them to come once, I find the rest is comparatively easy; for when I get them each by himself over a friendly pipe, and get them to open their hearts to me, many and many is the sad ife-history I have heard. Were it possible for me, here, to relate to you some of those pathetically piteous life-stories I have heard, sitting in my quiet chambers in that historical spot of Westminster, under the shadow of the glorious old abbey of S. Peter, I could make the very heart-strings of your sympathy vibrate on their behalf— how some of them who have come up to London with buoyant hopes for a successful career, have for a time been able to keep straight, but how, owing to their loneliness in cheerless and solitary lodgings, and their utter friendlessness, have been lured into the temptations of every kind by which they are surrounded, by the amusements both cheap and immoral which are lavishly provided; or how others are drawn down by the spread of secularism and forms of infidelity by which they are confronted on all sides, and which deliberately undermine the sense of moral obligation; and how one and all have been driven by the necessity for exercise, the lack of recreation, and owing to their loneliness, to resort to low theatres, music halls, dancing rooms, drinking saloons, and gambling hells; or to wander about the streets of London, of which some are generally admitted to present at night a spectacle of vice more shameless and unblushing than it is possible to conceive, but for the fact that it is so. For it is only within the last year or so that a keener interest in their welfare has been aroused in the public mind, and those of whom I am now speaking had not, when first they came to London, the opportunities now offered to young men.

Such young men as I have just described cannot, to my mind, be influenced by spiritual things straight away, having descended step by step from the earthly to the

sensual, and from the sensual to the devilish, they can only be reclaimed by a like process. You must first make them moral, and this must be done by pointing out the physical consequences of such a life, and by giving them as an antidote healthy, muscular exercise and recreation. Any higher motive cannot, at first, appeal to them. Afterwards you can make Christians of them, and finally, when you have given them the mental conviction, the spiritual can be applied, and, what is better still, it will be acted on; thus producing the antidote to earthly, sensual, devilish, in the noble, the elevating, the Christlike.

But there is also a class of young men-and these also who have slipped away from the Christian faith-who are not immoral, and who are not bad, but who, from various other causes, have ceased to believe in and exercise the Christian's privileges. The causes which have brought them to this have been many and varied. Sometimes it is through carelessness; sometimes it is willingly but knowingly abdicating their faith, on the futile assumption that they may thus cease to be responsible, and who would ease their conscience by trying to make themselves think they cannot believe; sometimes it is unwillingly, but arising out of their training in youth, of which more hereafter. These are causes in themselves. But sometimes, I am sorry to say, it is through the fault of others, through disgust from having witnessed the unreality amongst those who preached and professed a Christian life, but whose practice did not bear out their preaching. I have known young men to get disgusted and throw up their Christian faith owing to the cant and hypocrisy and effeminateness of some of their mates. They have told me, "Well, if those fellows are samples of Christian young men, heaven protect us from practising Christianity."

But what, to my mind, is the saddest cause almost of any, is when young men who have been brought up from boyhood in the sentimental belief, only, of the Christian faith-believing and worshipping with the soul only, and not with the mind also have that faith shipwrecked, by suddenly being confronted with arguments brought to bear on that faith, totally new to them, and who, having their foundations built on sand, as it were, and with no one to go to for help whom they could really trust-for this makes them lose faith in the clergy-have joined that vast multitude of those careless and thoughtless young men who have slipped away from the Christian faith, and who, alas, too often end in infidelity.

Faith we undoubtedly must have, but there is no reason why we should not have conviction as well. It is naturally rather a shock to a young man's faith, who has all through his childhood and boyhood unheedingly acquiesced in, say, the belief—taken from the poetic allusions in the Bible-that heaven is a glorious city away in the far off blue, whose streets are of gold and precious stones, and the occupation of whose inhabitants is an eternal antheming, clothed in white robes, with the accompaniment of harps-to be ruthlessly and unpityingly asked the deliberate question by an enthusiastic unbeliever, "Do you really think you will find it unutterable bliss to spend eternity in such a condition and occupation?" In his own mind he has probably never considered the question, or if he has it was banished with the unsatisfactory excuse, “Oh, I suppose it will be all right, and I shall get used to it." But when he is brought face to face with this, and similar other questions, by his unbelieving mates in office or shop or warehouse, and is made to thresh the question out, it wrenches very hard at the sentimental strings by which his faith is attached to him. The after stages are comparatively quickly gone through. He has had the shock, and only a little more is required, and he passes, as I have said-in only too many cases-into the careless and godless state, and finally, perhaps, into total unbelief. And all this is really brought about through ignorance, or rather through want of better and more complete teaching.

And even though their faith may not be entirely shipwrecked, yet it is a severe test to put upon them. Young men have often said to me, "I find it so hard to stick to my faith, for in the office or workshop I hear arguments and criticisms brought against the truth of the Bible and against the Christian faith, and when I go to church, or Bible class, I only hear that Bible and that faith preached and applied, but never any of the agnostical arguments against it shown up, nor any help given me to oust those arguments from my mind, or whereby I may be fortified against being carried away through them into unbelief."

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Knowing this to be one of the needs of London young men, I started a class, for helping them in this respect, at the Finsbury Polytechnic, under the auspices of the London Diocesan Council for the Welfare of Young Men. It is held on Sunday afternoons, and it is called a Sunday Afternoon Lecture Society (for I knew it would be defeating my own ends if I called it a Bible Class, as it would keep away just the fellows I most wanted to get to come). There are over 300 members attending these lectures, mostly clerks and mechanics whose ages range from 17 to 30 years of age, and many of whom profess-though I tell them it is ignorance-they profess agnosticism. We have lectures on various subjects, such as "The Bible, what it is," "Lessons from Nature," "Science and the Bible," "Sowing wild oats Christianity and Athletics," "The difficulties of unbelief." We have even been so frivolous as to have a lecture on "Courtship and Marriage," and when I tell you it was delivered by myself, and that I have never courted, nor been given in marriage, you may imagine it was rather of a theoretical-though I trust also of a practicalcharacter. I allow no public discussion at these lectures, as I believe the only people who would avail themselves of it would be those who did not come to seek infor mation, but to air themselves and to confound others, but anyone may write down a question and give to the lecturer, who answers him privately. When I tell you that the Bishops of London and Bedford, Archdeacon Farrar, Sir John Kennaway, Colonel Everitt, and Mr. Spottiswoode are amongst the speakers, you can imagine the lectures are calculated to be of use to the young men.

I venture to suggest-not to the clergy, for they have already enough upon their shoulders, and this I believe should be a layman's work, an educated layman's work— I say I venture to suggest that if more was done in the way of lectures (on Sunday afternoons or evenings) for the purpose of explaining what the Bible is, looking at it with, and bringing to bear upon it, history, science, and the glorious truths contained in its second volume-Nature-much would be done to meet the spiritual needs of young men. For in these days men will not be satisfied with the sentimental side of Christianity only, they must have the mental side as well, to strengthen and confirm their faith. And is there any reason against our doing this? Is our Christian faith an effeminate faith? Is it like an exotic which must be kept under glass lest any wind of heaven visit it too roughly? No! the Christian faith is a manly faith; and rather than an exotic, it is like the hardy corn plant upon which the snow may lie, and which the heavy rain may drench, and over which the biting east wind may blow, and upon which the scorching sun may shine, and yet through it all--nay, because of it all—it will flourish and grow till it reaches the full corn in the ear-for it contains the principle of life.

Having found lectures, such as I have described, to be immensely appreciated by, and of great service to, young men in London, I would earnestly ask members of the Congress to use their influence to get them started in other large towns and cities both in England and Wales, for I believe they meet the special need of the times. I think it is decidedly better for them to be managed by laymen, as I fear the clerical cloth may keep some of those away whom you most want to get hold of, and above all

things it is necessary to avoid altogether any appearance or semblance of a sermon. I always begin by saying "Gentlemen," and not "Dear Christian Friends," and I allow applause, and all the way through I try to "lecture," and not to "address." We begin with a hymn and collect, and conclude with a hymn and "The Grace."

One word on my second point-youths who are now growing up-and then I shall conclude. Every parish ought, in my humble opinion, to have a thoroughly well organized and well appointed "Youth's Institute "-where their physical and their mental welfare is catered for, and done so in the healthy atmosphere of a moral tone -which the lads may be encouraged to join as soon as they leave school. I shall never be content with those make-believe youths' institutes which are held in some wretched bare room in the parish schools, and where the only attractions offered to entice lads from the world, the flesh, and the devil, are a few stale papers, some games such as draughts and dominoes, and one pair of boxing gloves; to say the least of it, it is either paying a poor compliment to those wicked powers which we Christians have so much difficulty in contending with, or else it is encouraging the youths in spiritual pride, to arm them only with such exceedingly weak weapons as draughts, dominoes, and boxing gloves as a counter attraction to their strong foes. But, for my own part, I shall never rest content as long as "make-shift" kind of youths' institutes are the prevailing custom in our parochial organizations, for as long as they exist you will never catch the lads. I firmly believe that in the interests of the Church, in the interests of the Christian Faith, and in the interests of our youths, that it is more important for the parochial clergy to have a thoroughly well organized and well appointed youths' institute in their parish than to have Church schools. The expense would not be so heavy, the worry would not be so great, and the result, I believe, would be double in point of assistance to the Church, and of use to the lads. Where the parish can afford both, well and good, but where it can only afford one, I would say, go in for the youths' institute, and never mind the schools. The children will be educated whatever happens. The State will take care of that; but if the Church continues to neglect, as she has done in the past, the youths that are growing up in her midst, she may be sure that she will have to continue to lose her men as she has done in the past. Now is the time to make the move, if any move is to be made, for public opinion has lately been aroused and interested by the stir which has been made over the great Polytechnics for young men in different parts of London. I wish those Polytechnics God-speed from the bottom of my heart, but I have great doubts all the same as to their ever succeeding as anticipated, for I venture to think that the promoters of these, instead of ascertaining from the youths what they want, have made up their minds what the youths ought to want, and are preparing to cater accordingly.

In any case the Church cannot afford to leave it to unsectarian institutions to have the entire monopoly of youths and young men, and so she must bestir herself.

Once more I would urge upon you the importance of remembering, when dealing with the spiritual needs of young men, that they are tripartite, and their needs must be catered for as such; and also that in these days we must not only instruct them in a sentimental faith, but strengthen them with a mental conviction.

DISCUSSION.

C. E. NICHOLS, Esq., London.

I VENTURE to occupy this position before you as a child of the Young Men's Christian Association, of which institution I have been a member for upwards of thirty years. I was also for some time on the committee of a local branch of "The Church of England Young Men's Society for aiding Missions at home and abroad,"

and have been a Sunday school teacher for the greater portion of my life. The best way to meet the spiritual needs of young men is by young men-young men for young men. The pledge of the Young Men's Christian Association is yourself for Christ and to influence others in the sphere of your daily calling. When once you have got young men with their hearts in the right place, they must have something to do. Give them the work of finding their brethren as the disciples of old did. I well remember as a youth just left school attending my first Bible class at the Young Men's Christian Association. I was met not only by young men my elders, but also by youths of my own age, and it is due to their influence that I learned to apply the precepts of the Word of God to my own self and eventually to decide to forsake the world and to follow Christ. Some years ago I was complaining that our Church was losing the young men. Many of my schoolfellows and companions who were seriously disposed, and had given their hearts to Christ, having been lost to the Church and become united with Nonconforming bodies, not from any sectarian preference, but simply because amongst those bodies was found work for the glory of God which they were enabled to do. This is to be deplored, considering the scriptural character of our Church, its Prayer-book and Articles, and for this reason I have always been anxious to see the young men preserved to our Church. The Young Men's Christian Association has Bible classes and services for men only, and I think it would be better if services which are held for men only in connection with missions, &c., were used more to deal with subjects of general interest to men on their duties and obligations, dealing with them in a manly way. I sometimes have my doubts as to the amount of good done at those meetings which are devoted more especially to the sins of the flesh. That subject, I am convinced, would be better and more effectually dealt with, as the Bible does, in a manly, straightforward way, prayerfully, before a mixed audience. It is then more likely to be treated reverently and modestly, for nothing short of the Grace of God can be depended on to keep us from falling. As to the relative position of prayer and preaching prayer must precede the reading and exposition of the Word, for the light of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. The reading of the Word will then give a further stimulus to prayer by revealing to us our deficiencies and needs. The rite of confirmation is a wonderful engine in the hands of the ministers of our Church, who, with the aid of Bible classes are enabled to bring the young to Christ while they are innocent and impressionable. We should thus take advantage of the precepts of our Church by inducing young men to give themselves to Christ, the rite of confirmation being an act which confirms them in that decision which it is so earnestly desired they should make. Sympathy, fellow-feeling, good example, and cheerfulness, should always be shown. We should not debar young men from the natural enjoyments of youth, we should encourage them in every healthy and manly exercise. Let them see that we are happy because we have a Divine Master who can make us happy, and that we have no fear either for this world or for that which is to come.

"Who hath a right like us to sing,

Us whom Christ's mercy raises;
Merry our hearts, for Christ is King,
Cheerful are all our faces."

The Very Rev. JOHN OAKLEY, D.D., Dean of Manchester.

I FEEL that not only this Congress but the whole Church is most deeply indebted to Mr. Welldon for coming up from the head of one of the great English schools, at obvious and inevitable effort and inconvenience, to talk for a quarter of an hour to an assembly like this. It should fill us with the deepest thankfulness to realize that high thinking and true culture preside over a great English school-for the training of those who may some day be our rulers and teachers-combined with the most living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact should give great encouragement to all Christian parents. I am quite sure we have also shared the impulse of grateful admiration of the simplicity and modesty represented to us this evening on the part of one young layman (Mr. Percy Crosse), who has shown us there are abundant good materials ready to our hands for dealing with the young men of great cities. Mr. Chapman no doubt is quite right in telling us that the key of all influence upon the young is sympathy. It must take the form of sincere and perfect human sympathy