, and determining the standards of
our time. So complex is our modern civilization that it is not
possible to separate the individual in our estimation of his
standards and character from the conditions by which he is
surrounded, and in which he lives. For they vitally influence his
point of view, his ideals, his efforts to attain them. A boy who
grows up in an atmosphere of openly accepted corruption will
inevitably lack sensitiveness of moral perception. Our young men
and women, our boys and girls are subjected to a moral pressure
that is extremely difficult to resist. What is the duty of the
Church? The moral welfare of these young people is its intimate
concern. It may, and it must, bring to bear a counter pressure of
high individual moral standards and ideals. It may, and it must,
hold up before them faith in purity and honesty, and persuade
them to receive it. But that is not enough. It must utter its
word of protest against the rule of the Boss, not because it
wishes to enter the arena of politics, not because it differs
from him on political questions, not even because he is the
denial of democracy, but because he maintains his power of
corrupting manhood and womanhood by protecting and fostering vice
in order that they may be his allies. It must utter its protest
against the dictum, "Whatever pays is right," not because it
wishes to dictate business methods, or to set itself up as an
authority on economics, but because it finds this corruption in
business demoralizing to standards and character. It must utter
its protest against overcrowded and unsanitary tenement houses,
not because it considers its function to be the censorship of
buildings, but because such conditions breed immorality among the
boys and girls. The individual message alone is made ineffective
by the constant pressure of these conditions. To make that
message effective, the conditions must be changed. And it is
peculiarly the work of a church, situated as is Christ Church, to
say and do what it can to make them intolerable to the conscience
of a Christian city. I have said all this because I want you to
see clearly the place in the pulpit and church of such preaching
and work as we have tried to give and do. We must go forward with
increasing energy and purpose, and that whether the results seem
great or small. We may, and must, at least sow the seed in the
faith that