I wish, brethren, instead of my address this afternoon I could have upon this platform the seven boys who occupied my pulpit on last Sunday evening, boys from fourteen to fifteen years of age, standing valiantly for Christ and not ashamed to speak for him. These boys were glad they were boys, and they would be nothing else but boys.

      Two problems confront the twentieth-century church--the men's problem and the boys' problem. The first, we are seriously attempting to solve. The Brotherhood movement, under whose auspices we meet to-day, is a splendid, though tardy, answer.

      The problem of the boy we have, hitherto, altogether neglected. We have not taken the boy seriously. We have overlooked his importance. We have neglected the care of the sapling, until the tree, twisted and gnarled, rears its unsightly form before us. The boy has been misunderstood and blamed and pushed aside that we may plan our schemes for men, forgetting that

      We shall never solve the men's problem until we have solved the problem of the boy. Mr. Roosevelt, with his usual clear vision, says: "If you are to do anything permanent for the average man, you have got to begin before he is a man."

      The men of religious power and influence have, without exception, come to a religious decision as boys. It was as a boy that Charles Spurgeon found his way to a dominating Christian faith. Garfield began the service of Christ as a boy. The religious ideals that mastered him came to Beecher in boyhood.

      We must recognize that the destiny of every sacred interest centers in the youth of our land. The despoiler recognizes it and skillfully sets his trap for the unsuspecting boy. Forces of evil, in countless ways, are seeking to reach and win him. Says John R. Mott, speaking of the crusade for the betterment of boys: "We only need to reflect upon the magnitude, the activity, the enterprise, the knowledge and the cruelty of these forces of sin and shame to be stirred deeply with the sense of the importance of a special effort like this, to counteract and overcome their baneful and blasting influence."

      1. To deal fairly and successfully with the boy, requires one element now

T. W. GRAFTON.

conspicuously lacking. That is sympathy. The lack of sympathy with youthful pursuits and pleasures is sending more boys to the devil than all other agencies. Says Judge Lindsay, friend of the misunderstood boy: "When you seek a boy, go after his heart. But you can not get his heart by sending him to jail, and you can't win him by an act that is puerile and weak. Learn to sympathize with him. Sympathy is the divinest quality of the human heart."

      To sympathize with the boy we must understand his aspirations, his temptations, his environment and then get into sympathy with his life battles, which, though often imaginary, are very real to him. When our sympathy goes out to him and we discover in him a hero marching up the hill of earthly conquest toward the throne of true manhood, rather than an imp of Satan on constant mischief bent, we have opened an avenue of access into the innermost citadel of the boy's being, and may touch the magic cord that will respond in richest music.

      2. The unfolding of the man in the boy also requires special instruction concerning the possibilities of his latent manhood. The school and the text-book [91] are all right in their place, but they miss the practical problems of boy life. He must learn elsewhere many of the vital questions of the unfolding mystery of life. Often he is left to discover them from evil sources and bitter experiences.

      Most boys sin through ignorance. Siren voices, of whose false note they have not been warned, lure them toward rocks that ruin. If the physiology that is never taught, could be given to the boy at the right time, what a world of blackening, blighting, cankering, damning sin would be escaped.

      3. Then comes the power of example in the fashioning of the boy into the man he should be. The boy is a hero-worshiper. The boy is an imitator. He is sure to imitate his hero, and his hero is always a man. What the man is, the boy worshiper will attempt to be. He smokes because men smoke. He drinks because men drink. He swears because men swear. Be sure, whatever his hero does, he will attempt to do.

      Some one has said, "Christianity is not taught, it is caught; it grows not by precept, but by contagion." This true also of the type of service.

      4. If the boy is to reach the normal manly estate, there must be some provision made for him in the church. His presence and his importance in the divine economy of man-making must be recognized. The modern church has seldom taken him into account. It has neither plan nor place for him. The problem of boy-culture has never entered seriously into the minds of our sagacious church leaders. The only recognition vouchsafed to him is a frown or rebuke from some self-constituted preserver of silent sanctity, who, by a peculiar lapse of memory, has forgotten that he was ever a boy himself.

      Our church architecture has left the boy and his necessities out of the plans. From basement to dome, there is no place where he can set his foot with freedom. There is no place he can call his own and worship God according to the dictates of his immature sainthood. There is no place where his expression of praise may be uttered in sounds, not always melodious, but nevertheless sincere and indispensable in the fashioning of the Christian man that is to be.

      Believing that something better was possible for our boys, two years ago a movement in behalf of the boys was inaugurated in Anderson under the auspices of the Central Christian Church. The plan, briefly stated, was to take the boy into partnership and give him a recognized place and a recognized work in the church. The boys were organized under the leadership of a young man, whose large experience in dealing with boys enabled him to understand their needs and provide for their development along neglected lines. They were put upon their honor in a simple pledge, which reads:

      "I believe that Christ lived to be an example for me; that when he was my age he was strong, pure and noble. I will do my best to be like him, and in my daily life do nothing in my work or play I would not do if Christ were by my side. I will play fair in every game, whether in sport or living, and in the night-time be as fair as in the sunlight. Thus with Christ's help I will try to live."

      Taking as its motto, "I play the game square," the organization was launched on what has proved a most helpful ministry among boys. Two years of interest and effort have justified our belief in the inherent nobility of boyhood. There has been developed the manliest bunch of fellows I ever saw. They have responded to what they regard as a square deal. They have caught the spirit of honor. They have found a field for service: The church has become to them an attractive center. Their voices are heard in prayer and testimony. Their hands respond to every appeal for service. They are stimulated by great life purposes. They have demonstrated that the best investment of time and money, when large dividends are desired, is in boys.

      It only remains for this great Brotherhood to see the day of its opportunity, and, while planning for closer fellowship and wider achievement, to reach out a hand of appreciation and helpfulness to the boy who to-morrow will take his place in your ranks and repay your interest in him by noble service and unblemished manhood. It is your problem. You can not push the responsibility for the boy's destiny on other shoulders. [92] You should meet it squarely. With a loving heart and helping hand bring the boys within the circle of your influence, and, as you look into their prophetic faces, you might well join in the old schoolmaster's prayer: "Lord, deliver the laddies before thee from lying, cheating, cowardice and laziness, which are as the devil. Be pleased to put common sense into their hearts and give them grace to be honest men all the days of their life." When this Brotherhood, out of sympathetic concern for our growing boys, can breathe such a prayer, and then by example and provision make possible its realization, we shall have inaugurated a new era of Christian triumph.

[CCR 91-93]