NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. CCXLV.-OCTOBER, 1870.-VOL. XLI. I' T is now about a quarter of a century since | by one of those sudden and unexpected movea dozen clerks in the heart of London met ments by which the Great Father seems to dein the upper story of one of its great commer- light sometimes to surprise His children, who cial houses for the purpose of spending an hour receive the more because they expect so little, in religious and devotional exercises. A few of the influence of this little meeting spread with the more sanguine among them entertained the wonderful rapidity to other houses. Even those hope that some of their fellows might perhaps clerks who had the least inclination for devotionbe induced to join them. The first thought al exercises found a social gathering of this deof the founders of this meeting did not in- scription an agreeable relaxation from the worvolve the idea that their field was any larger ry and wear of business. Daily prayer-meetings than the house to which they belonged. But, I were multiplied. Finally, a conference between Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York VOL. XLI.-No. 245-41 those who had become interested in this move- | sorrowed, suffered, died. The Young Men's ment was held; and on the 6th of June, 1844, Christian Association availed itself of the exa society was formed for "Improving the Spir-citement of the hour. Under its auspices Protitual Condition of Young Men in the Drapery estant lectures were delivered in reply to the cuand other Trades." This was the foundation riously inconsistent but fervidly imaginative picof the Young Men's Christian Associations, torial representations of the French romancer. which, extending first upon the Continent and These lectures were thronged. Hundreds, then to this country, now embrace between before inaccessible, listened with avidity, if not twelve and fifteen hundred local organizations, with profit. The Association obtained by this and from one to two hundred thousand mem- act a status with the Churches, the people, and bers. the government which it still retains. The Young Men's Christian Association of Paris is the embodied spirit of youthful Protestantism. From London and Paris these associations have gone on extending throughout all Protestant Europe. They are to be found in Great Britain, in France, Switzerland, Germany; and, since the revolution, we believe, in Spain, in Holland, Belgium, Italy, and the Mediterranean coasts. Thus not only sectarian distinctions, as we shall presently see, but national and political lines also, are disregarded. In the Young Men's Christian Association there is a congress of nations, and of all Protestant denominations. Between these various organizations there is indeed no other bond of union than that of a common work and a common sympathy, though the latter has found occasional expression in international conferences. From London the movement, which was so little organic that we may designate it as spontaneous, crossed the Channel. In Paris it met with some obstacles which were unknown to Englishmen-impossible, indeed, under English law. By the French Code, no public meeting can be held without authority from the police. This new movement the police were unable to comprehend. They feared that it was a blind to conceal ulterior political purposes. Assured that it was purely religious in its character, they asked, with naïve simplicity, if there were not already churches enough in Paris. They watched with suspicious eyes the first sessions, when permission to assemble had been reluctantly granted. Placards posted on the walls forbade all political discussions. These were, perhaps, not unnecessary in Paris, where the temptation to make the most casual meeting an occasion for a political debate is very great. However, the suspicions of the police were at last allayed. The new organization secured the confidence of the prefect. It grew rapidly, and multiplied itself by establishing local associations in connection with the various Prot-Boston. They were followed by similar sociestant churches of the city. Seventy or eighty of these associations have been since formed in France. Fortune, or, should we not rather say, Providence, placed it in the power of these young men to render to the cause of Christian truth an essential service, and, at the same time, to secure the increased confidence of the govern ment. The The relations between England and America are such that any religious movement originated in the parent country is sure to be repeated in a modified form in the other. Almost simultaneously associations patterned after the London model were organized in Montreal and eties in New York, Washington, Buffalo, and The first asorganized at In one year There are two characteristic features of these associations to which we should perhaps advert before passing to speak in detail of their labors. Both are indicated in their title. Monsieur Rénan issued his "Life of Christ." All Paris rushed after it with an enthusiasm equal to that with which the earlier romances of Sue, Sand, and Dumas were greeted. French government suspended the learned but unbelieving lecturer from his post. All literary Paris was thrown into a fever heat by the The first is, that they embody the youthful deposition. The "Life of Christ" was made enthusiasms and the youthful energies of the more popular by the martyrdom of its author. Church. They are Young Men's Christian AsThe Paris that had rarely spoken the name of sociations. In one or two organizations women Jesus except in jest or in derision read with have been admitted to equal or nearly equal avidity the romance of Monsieur Rénan, and privileges with their brethren. This is the case studied the character of the Nazarene with in Brooklyn, the activity and efficiency of whose seriousness; at least, with as much serious-society has been greatly improved by the change. ness as may reasonably be expected of the In Washington women have all the privileges modern Vanity Fair. The Paris that knew of the library and reading-room, and certain of Jesus only as an ecclesiastical ornament hours are set apart for their use of the gymnaone whose reflected glory made Mary mother of God and an object of holy adoration-was made, for the first time, to realize that He was indeed a man, who lived, ate, drank, slept, sium. In Boston, debarred from active participation in the Association, they have organized a Young Women's Christian Association. Thus far, however, they have generally been topics is now rarely to be seen in the rooms of any association. For experience has proved that the interest in theological disputes is so slight, and the dread of theological controversy is so great, that the utmost freedom of discussion is not dangerous to the utmost cordiality of good-fellowship. To the general statement that no regard is paid to denominational considerations by the Young Men's Christian Associations one exception ought, however, to be made. excluded from the benefits and the labors of modation of doctrine. The odious sign forbidthese organizations, or admitted only as spec-ding free discussion of political and theological tators to certain of the more public meetings. It is certainly a serious question whether the associations of America have not in this respect followed too closely their transatlantic model, and whether, except possibly in the large cities, the social, moral, and spiritual efficacy of these bodies would not be greatly enhanced by uniting in one society the combined energies of both sexes. In the present form of organization a problem of some difficulty, and of considerable practical importance, is presented by the question, What constitutes a young man? No man is ever old in America till he dies. man is willing to confess to himself that, the life blood flows less vigorously in his veins, or that his eye grows dim, or his step more feeble. Yet it is of the very essence of these associations that they should embody the youth only of the country, and that the freedom of their social and religious gatherings should not be impaired by the fear of older and more experienced men. No Forty years has been generally fixed as the utmost limit of youth. When a member passes that age he ceases to be an active and becomes a counseling member only. In France marriage serves practically as the standard which is so purely conventional here. Old bachelors are unknown. No man is old who is a bachelor; no man is young after he is married, according to Parisian philosophy. The Young Men's Christian Associations of Paris are therefore chiefly bachelor brotherhoods. It The other characteristic feature of these organizations is their undenominational character, the fact that they are purely and simply Christian Associations. We doubt whether they could have been organized half a century ago. They certainly could not have been maintained at any time during the eighteenth century. is, indeed, a curious fact in the history of religious philosophy that the controversies which for so many years after the birth of free thought in religion imbittered and divided the religious world have simply sunk into oblivion. They are not settled. The problems-that is, the theoretical problems, on which Arminius, Calvin, Wesley, and Edwards expended their strength-are no nearer settlement to-day than they were three hundred, or even fifteen hundred years ago. The Calvinist is just as much Calvinist, the Arminian is just as much Arminian, as ever. But the subjects themselves have been supplanted in the minds of men. They are by a sort of common consent remitted to the store-house where the world keeps its unsolved and insoluble questions. Meanwhile Churchman and Independent, Immersionist and Pedobaptist, the follower of Wesley and the disciple of Calvin, recognizing in One greater than all their only Master, combine in common work for him. Nor is this union the result of a stifling of free discussion, or any doubtful compromise of principle, or any mutual accom A broad line seems to separate what are generally known as Evangelical Christians from those which represent what is perhaps best known by the title of a Liberal Theology. The differences of temperament, of methods, and of religious convictions between the adherents of these two schools are so great that it has been almost universally regarded best to work in separate organizations. So far as we know this separation has taken place without bitterness of feeling or rancor of controversy. In the sixteenth century Calvin decreed the burning of Servetus, and Protestant Europe approved the sentence. In the nineteenth century it is a long and hotly disputed question whether the followers of this deposed and executed heretic shall not be admitted into full Christian fellowship with those of his austerely orthodox judges. Surely in Christian charity the world has made progress.* Most of these associations are tenants. Halls used at times for other purposes, business offices, generally contracted and not always cleanly, rooms in out-of-the-way buildings, removed from the association's proper centre of operations, are very often the best that can be secured. For the Young Men's Christian Associations are far from rich when compared with other somewhat analogous organizations—the Masons and the Odd - Fellows, for instance. Recently, however, a more ambitious policy has been adopted. "I expect," says D. L. Moody, of Chicago, "to live to see a building for a Young Men's Christian Association in every town of considerable size in the country." This happy day must be somewhat distant as yet, we * In this country the condition of active membership in the Young Men's Christian Associations is almost, if not altogether, without exception that the applicant be a member of some Evangelical Church. Others are admitted as associate members to all the privileges of the association except voting and holding office. In the London, and generally in the English who gives decided evidence of his conversion to God." associations, any person is "eligible for membership As a general rule, however, none are admitted under this provision unless they are already connected, or about to connect themselves, with some Church. In Holland no such conditions are affixed. Any young man of good moral character is admitted to full membership. "Our associations," says Mr. P. J. Moeton, "are founded upon this principle-that it is not to be expected that any young man comes to us who is not seeking for the kingdom of God, and though he is not decidedly a Christian, when he is seeking for Christ we should welcome him in our midst." about a third of an acre in area. The groundfloor is occupied by stores, the rent of which, with that of the offices in the upper stories, considerably more than pays the interest on the mortgage debt of $150,000. think; still, not a little has been done toward | sandstone, in the French Renaissance style of its realization. Not only in the larger cities, architecture, is five stories in height, and covers as New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco, do the Young Men's Christian Associations own the buildings which they occupy, but they are beginning to do so in some of the more flourishing and prosperous of the smaller towns, as, for example, in Meriden, Connecticut; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Newtown, Long Island; Poughkeepsie, New York; Springfield, Massachusetts, and in similar places. A recent report which lies before us estimates that not less than a million and a half of dollars are invested, and under the control of the Young Men's Christian Associations of the United States, either in buildings already erected, or in funds for the purpose of erecting appropriate buildings. Of the houses which the Church has erected for its young men, undoubtedly the finest, not only in this country but in the world, is that recently completed in the city of New York. It is, indeed, fairly entitled to be designated the handsomest club-house in the city. Clubhouse we call it, for such in fact it is, both in its appliances and its purposes, though consecrated neither to politics as are some, to social festivities degenerating too often into gambling and intemperance as are others, nor to literature and polite society as are one or two, but to the cause of good morals, of pure religion, and of Him who is the divine inspirer of the one and the divine founder of the other. The two upper stories are devoted chiefly to artists' studios. The second and third floors are appropriated exclusively for the rooms of the Association. Ascending a grand staircase, and turning to the right at the head of the stairs, the visitor finds himself in the Lecture-room, one of the most convenient halls in the city of New York. It is arranged in modern fashion, with iron seats cushioned, separated from each other by arms, and numbered, for the purpose of lectures and concerts. A large gallery runs the whole length of the room, broadening out in horseshoe form across the rear. Opposite is the stage or platform, with a retiring-room upon one side, and upon the other an organ, which is curiously furnished with a drum, a triangle, and a pair of cymbals, so as to be a martial band as well as a church organ. This hall, which is two stories high, and is capable of seating over fifteen hundred persons, is rarely idle. To-day it is employed for an organ exhibition, to-morrow for a lecture, then for a concert, then for a public meeting of the Association. On Sabbath-day it serves the purpose of a church, where public religious services are held, the different pastors of the various city This building, erected of dark Belleville churches ministering in turn on invitation of a |