who have been blessed and saved by its
ministrations of love. No skeptical doubt or "rationalism" can ever
pluck from the Christian Church this, its purest crown.

To attempt to prevent or cure the fearful moral diseases of our lowest
classes without Christianity, is like trying to carry through a sanitary
reform in a city without sunlight.

But the mistake we refer to, is a too great use of, or confidence in,
the old technical methods--such as distributing tracts, and holding
prayer-meetings, and, scattering Bibles. The neglected and ruffian class
which we are considering are in no way affected directly by such
influences as these. New methods must be invented for them.

Another obstacle, in American cities, to any comprehensive results of
reform or prevention among these classes, has been the too blind
following of European precedents. In Europe, the labor-market is fully
supplied. There is a steady pressure of population on subsistence. No
general method of prevention or charity can be attempted which
interferes with the rights of honest and self-supporting labor. The
victims of society, the unfortunate, the _enfants perdus,_ must be
retained, when aided at all, in public institutions. They cannot be
allowed to compete with outside industry. They are not wanted in the
general market of labor. They must be kept in _Asylums._

Now, Asylums are a bequest of monastic days. They breed a species of
character which is monastic-indolent, unused to struggle; subordinate
indeed, but with little independence and manly vigor. If the subjects of
the modern monastery be unfortunates--especially if they be already
somewhat tainted with vice and crime--the effect is a weakening of true
masculine vigor, an increase of the apparent virtues, and a hidden
growth of secret and contagious vices. Moreover, the life under the
machinery of an "Institution" does not prepare for the thousand petty
hand-labors of a poor man's cottage. But, greatest of all objections,
the asylum system is, of necessity, immensely expensive, and can reach
but a comparatively small number of subjects.

These various obstacles and difficulties, which impede thorough work for
the elevation of our worst classes, can, however, be overcome.

PIONEER WORK.

Some twenty years ago, the then Chief of Police of New York, Captain
Matsell, put forth a report on the condition of the street-children of
the city, which aroused universal anxiet