It is an unfortunate thing that in this world-wide conquest for Christ, while every moment is freighted with awful importance, we must pause in the midst of our soul-winning to solve problems and treat ills within the church.

      I believe that all church ills can be

H. W. CARPENTER.

traced to three general sources--ignorance, indifference and selfishness. Unpleasant words these, words that bristle with formidable meaning, and yet synonymous with conditions that exist to a greater or less extent in every church in our land. speak of faith, hope We might rather and love, but in practical church problems we must deal with the unvarnished truth.

      It can not be denied that teacher-training work is doing much, and is destined to do far more, in the treatment of the ills that issue from these sources. It seeks to remove not only the trouble itself, but the source of the trouble, and becomes thereby effective not only for the present, but for all the coming years.

      This department of our church has done much to remove ignorance. The ignorance of the rank and file of our church membership is absolutely appalling. I speak not with reference to general culture, but with reference to those things that are of fundamental importance in winning a world for Christ and a crown in the eternal kingdom.

      There is a peculiar need that we have a larger knowledge of the truth--the truth that makes us free. That not only the ministry, but the mass of people, master the facts of religion, so that they might speak no longer with hesitation and uncertainty and doubt, but might be able to say with a faith that rings clear and true, "We know in whom we have believed."

      There is need for information as to methods. The faith of the real Christian is something more than intellectual [548] conviction. It is a matter of action and wants at once to know the methods by which to become the most successful soul-winner. That the teacher-training work is meeting to a large extent these needs to overcome the ignorance of the masses, is patent to all.

      It has done much also in removing the indifference of the masses toward the work of the church. Absorbing interest in other affairs leaves for the church sometimes but a small portion of time and energy. Tens of thousands of Christians in the teacher-training classes, like Mary of the Bethany home who sat at the feet of Jesus and heard his words, have seen enthusiasm crowd indifference from their lives. They have become mighty factors in awakening sleeping churches and sending them forth with power.

      The movement is also contributing much toward removing the third source of trouble. Selfishness, one of the most fruitful sources of evil, is largely the result of limitation. He who lives within his own little circle of dust naturally becomes selfish. The mass of Christians needs vision. There are too many in the valleys who have never been even on the mountain-side, to say nothing of the mountain-top. Paul, standing on the shores of the Hellespont, saw a vision of the continent of Europe. Jesus, ascending from the summit of the Mount of Olives, saw a vision. A vision of what? Jerusalem? No. Palestine? No. It was a world vision, for as he ascended his last words betrayed the burden of his great heart as he said, "Unto the uttermost parts of the earth."

      This movement has been breaking down the walls of selfishness and giving to men a world vision--leading them out from beneath their little vine and fig-tree and up to the mountain-top where the horizon broadens and the heart throbs With holy enthusiasm.

      One who has caught the teacher-training vision can never be a pessimist. The outlook is filled with promise. A new day has dawned in which the evils of the church are being dispatched, and no movement in recent years has contributed so much toward this end as the teacher-training movement. Armed with the information it is giving, with an unquestioned loyalty to Christ and a world vision of service, with what joy do we behold this army of trained workers marching forth to righteous war. Victory is assured. Heaven rejoices in the prospect.

[CCR 548-549]