32 



EevieiD of Reviews, l/S/lS. 



TOPICS OF THE MONTH. 



I. THE MEN AND RELIGION FORWARD MOVEMENT 



We will shortly have amongst us two 

 of the most remarkable men in the civic 

 and religious life of America. They 

 are Fred. B. Smith and Raymond 

 Robins, who come as a deputation in 

 connection with the wonderful Men 

 and Religion Forward Movement, which 

 has so gripped the men of the United 

 States. This movement is the most 

 symmetrical expression of evangelism 

 in the history of the Church. It began 

 with boyhood, and reached all phases 

 of human life and experience, took the 

 Gospel to workmen in shop and factory, 

 and uses modern business methods to 

 win business men to God. But, unlike 

 many religious missions, it creates no 

 new organisation ; it galvanises those 

 already existing into quicker life, in- 

 troducing new methods and ideas, 

 which ha\e great results, when man- 

 fully applied. 



W. T. STEAD' S DESCRIPTION. 



My father's last journey in April, 

 1912, was undertaken solely with the 

 object of addressing the Convention, 

 which was the culmmation of the For- 

 v/ard Campaign throughout the States. 

 Just before he sailed he wrote of it as 

 follows : — "A very rernarkaVjle religious 

 movement has been in progress during 

 the winter in America, whir fi has at- 

 tracted much too little attention in this 

 country. For some time past it has 

 been noted in the United States that 

 the Churches are falling more and more 

 into the hands of women. They say 

 that, on an average, there are three 

 women church members to one male. 

 To arrest this tendency, and to restore 

 the requisite rna^-;riih'ne element to popu- 



lar religion in tne States, a syndicate 

 was formed, for the purpose of uniting 

 evangelical churches in America, and 

 of combining efforts to bring men and 

 boys into the Church. Women, appar- 

 ently, are left out of the movement alto- 

 gether. It began last summer, with a 

 representative conference at Silver 

 Ba>', in the State of New York, whicli 

 was attended by delegates from all 

 parts of the Union. It was decided to 

 hold a series of eight-day missions, 

 having as their objective the reviving 

 of the interest of men and boys in the 

 work of the Church. The dominant 

 idea of the promoters was to bring 

 business methods into religion, and to 

 work for the attainment of moral ends 

 with the same energy, concentration, 

 and common sense that are used in tlie 

 making of a great fortune. Selected 

 teams of speakers were sent to the 

 various cities, with the object of get- 

 ting the Churches into line in the first 

 case, and in the second case for the 

 getting of the men and boys into the 

 Churches. The objects of the Men and 

 Religion Forward Movement are divided 

 under seven different heads: — (i) Mem- 

 bership; (2) boys' work; (3) Bible- 

 study; (4.) evangelism; C5) social ser- 

 vice ; (6) home and foreign missions ; 

 (7) inter-church work. The 



department of social service naturally 

 appeals most to the world at large. 

 The Social Institute programme is very 

 comprehensive. It appeals to all our 

 readers, because it is an attempt to 

 realise on a national scale the ideals 

 of our old rivic Church, plus a dis- 

 tinctly evangelical element, which the 

 civic Church movement lacked. I am 



