THE SOUTH CHURCH. 10.") 



Otis, and others not now residing here, some of whom haNelxMMi called 

 to the nobler service above. 



From the beginning the joiing people have had most inspiring help 

 from their pastors in the conduct of these meetings. Religion never 

 could seem a joyless and forbidding thing to those who in those first 

 years saw the radiance that lightened Dr. Goodell's face, and later 

 during the great revival of 1876, the face of our young pastor, Mr. 

 Griffin. They seemed to .speak as though they saw Heaven opened as 

 they unfolded the attractiveness, the riches of the spiritual life. Then 

 Dr. Cooper, with his practical wisdom and organizing power, welded 

 our highest spiritual fervors to the experiences and duties of our every- 

 day life. 



After Mr. Moody's and Mr. Sayford's work in 1885, the primary class 

 room was outgrown and the meetings were held in the chapel room. 

 A covenant of Christian service, involving in the main the obligation 

 of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor pledge, was in- 

 troduced, and about a year later our young people formed themselves 

 into a Christian Endeavor Society. Greater possibilities for good 

 seem open to them now than have been presented in the past. The 

 influences now working will surely lead to great improvements in our 

 church life and in the tone of our community. 



Much as we have reason to thank God for the inheritance of the 

 past, there is very much room for improvement. The definite obliga- 

 tions taken for Christian service, and with God's help lived up to, will 

 surely prevent the disproportion between the male and female mem- 

 bership of our church. Only just one-third of the original one hun- 

 dred and twenty members were males, and the proportion of the 

 nearly nine hundred members to-day is still less. This surely cannot 

 be the fact in the near future, when the Christian men of our commu- 

 nity realize that the obligations of church membership and church 

 work are just as vital to the interests of this city as any business en- 

 gagements possibly can be. With a population more cosmopolitan than 

 that of any other city in the state; with the ends of the earth coming 

 to us, if the moral and spiritual tone given to this community by the 

 good men and women who have lived here in the past is to be main- 

 tained, the young men of this city will be forced to see that they must 

 take their true place and do loyal service for Christ and the church. 



But we sh<5uld not be satisfied in holding the ground merely. The 

 increased responsibilities of living in these times under different circum- 

 stances bring vastly greater opportunities for service and for personal 

 development in the graces of the Christian life. The watchword of 

 our young people should be, and I am sure it is, "Strive after the 

 best gifts," and with all their strength they should seek to impart to 

 others the Christlike love with which their own souls have been blessed. 



