romising it may have seemed, must be
discarded. A mill that does not turn out lumber soon goes upon the junk
heap. So a plan that does not bring results will soon be relegated to the
limbo of unpractical and useless things. Of course it requires time fairly
to test a plan, an enterprise, or a method. An important experiment
cannot be finished in a day. But after three years it is time to look for
some proofs of success. What have we to show after working three years
that will justify the methods that have been used? What methods have been
employed? How have they worked, and what have they accomplished?

Nothing has been finished. The work is a growth, and is still in the
process of development. We are all the while finding something more to do
for the people, and larger possibilities of service are opening up before
us continually. But it may be said to have passed beyond the experimental
stage. Nobody looks upon it any longer as simply an experiment. It is a
practical plan in successful operation. The church has come to have a
well-defined policy. The people have accepted the idea of the Larger
Parish and are cooperating heartily in carrying it out. The work has been
organized in respect to various community human interests, and is moving
on with a fair degree of satisfaction. We are now in a position to deliver
_some_ goods--at least enough to prove that we are working a practical
scheme; enough, as we believe, to be a sure prophecy of greater results in
the future.

I. RELIGIOUS AND EVANGELISTIC PROGRESS

First, I will speak of some methods used and some things done that show
religious advance. This must be the crucial test of any church work. It
must be work for the kingdom of God. It must bring people into harmony
with God and his truth, it must line them up on the side of Jesus Christ,
or it cannot be said to be successful, however many other desirable things
it may accomplish. It is not easy to tabulate spiritual results. Any
showing that can be made on paper may be more than the truth or less than
the truth. Reports of organizations and methods and activities may be
misleading. The most that they can do is to approximate the truth. And
yet, that is the only way we have of reporting spiritual results. The
results of religious work must appear in the lives of the people, in the
Christian sentiment of the community, in the upward trend of all things
that make for righteousness and for the establishment and preva