2G2 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 



effective. Not so the means of defense. Your life is in 

 the hand of every man you meet. Society is safe to-day 

 only so far as every man becomes a law unto himself. 

 The lawless classes are grooving much more rapidly than 

 the whole population; and nothing but the gospel can 

 transform lawless men and women into good citizens. 



The number of missionaries in our cities ought to be 

 increased ten or twenty-fold ; and their work is expen- 

 sive. It is usually the densest populations which are 

 most neglected, and in such quarters mission chapels 

 cannot be built without large expenditures. If our cities 

 are to be evangelized, laymen must greatly enlarge their 

 ideas of the demands of the work, and of their pecuniary 

 responsibility for it. 



The perils which have been discussed (Chaps. IV.— XI.) 

 have, all of them with the single exception of Mormon- 

 ism, continued to grow more rapidly during the past 

 five years than the whole population. It is also true 

 that the membership of the evangelical churches has 

 increased more rapidly than the population. The 

 Church of Christ has aroused herself in some measure, 

 but, so far as I can judge, the dangerous and destructive 

 elements of society are stiil making greater progress 

 than the conservative. 



Has not the time fully come when the Church must 

 make a new departure of some sort? And is it not evi- 

 dent that one of the first needs is a true view of the 

 relations of money to the Kingdom, and such a spirit of 

 consecration as will lay it and all else on the altar? 



4. We have seen, in the preceding chapters, that a 

 mighty emergency is upon us. Our country's future, 

 and much of the world's future, depend on the way in 

 which Christian men meet the crisis. Do you say: "I 

 trust in God, and therefore have no fear ; I believe what 

 some one has said, ' If God intends to save the world, he 

 cannot afford to make an exception of America.' This 

 country is his chosen instrument of blessing to mankind ; 

 and God's plans never fail?" The difference between a 

 true and a false faith is that one inspires action while 



