CHAPTER VII. 

 Students and the Rural Problem. 



I count myself happy, — in coming, at the close of our 

 study of this problem, to an aspect of more personal in- 

 terest, — in that 1 address a company of students. '^ Tell 

 me what the young men of Oxford are thinking," some 

 one has said, " and you will tell me what all England 

 will be saying presently." This is said not by way of 

 flattery, but of help. I briug you not honey but a spur. 

 And of all students, one is happy, when speaking of 

 social service, in addressing students for the ministry. 

 You remember the famous picture, " The Lion's Cubs." 

 A group of boys from one of the great schools of Eng- 

 land stand before Xelson's monument in Westminster 

 Abbey. One can read the look of high resolve upon 

 their eager faces as they gaze at the figure of their hero. 

 He is England's lion ; they his cubs. Valor lives and 

 glows again in tlicm through his great life. Of the 

 young warriors of the ^Messianic King the Psalmist de- 

 clares: "Thy people offer themselves willingly in the 

 day of thy power: in the beauties of holiness, from the 

 womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth.'' 

 The gl(»w of c«jnsecration to service is upon the facos of 

 the Lion of Judah's whelps as they contcmplafo the life 

 of service of Jesus of Nazareth. 



In considering the relation of students for the minis- 

 try to the problem of the country church, let us notice, 



2o:{ 



