We ought to give to our boys, and to our adults for that matter, a more exact knowledge as to the awfulness of sin in human life. Scientists call it "degeneration," or at least the results of it they call "degeneration." We need to know just what it is in human society that makes for death, and what it is that makes for life. We want to know what it is in a boy's life that makes his muscles flabby, his eyes short-sighted, his memory poor, his association of ideas imperfect, his powers of perception indistinct and inaccurate; that makes him less a man. We want to know these things, and it is perfectly obvious that if we can present such things to a boy, it will set him to thinking. Get a boy to realize that a certain course of action makes his muscles flabby, puts it out of his power to ever be a strong, vigorous man, and that boy is going to think twice before he does that thing. Make a boy understand that bad habits are going to destroy his good health, impair his eyesight or his hearing, destroy in a very real and tangible sense his soul, and he is going to think twice before he indulges in them. We have a great deal of scientific information as to what sin does for a man. Religion could be tremendously reinforced if our teachers and leaders of young men were qualified to make use of this scientific information bearing upon sin, concrete, death-bringing sin-not abstract, not in a faraway, worldly sense, but sin right here and now.

Again, we should make a large appeal to the boy's social interest, to his friendship for other boys. There are two ways in which this will help. A boy can be best gotten to do a thing through his social interest. Boys like to do what their chums do. If you can get a group of boys to enter upon a common course, you will have no trouble with the individual boys. They all go where the "gang" goes. Furthermore, the friendly feeling, the social interest, in other boys can be made a means of getting a boy to love his fellows. That boys' club is a failure that does not get every individual boy to realize that he is his "brother's keeper." I know of cases where a boy would refrain from doing things because of his influence upon other boys.

Finally, provide heroes and hero teachers. Give the boy his types of religion and his types of morality through heroic characters. Study the Bible through its great characters. I have myself found through a somewhat extensive study of children's interest in the Bible that personal interest, that is to say, interest in the different persons of the Bible is far and away the largest interest at all periods of life. From about twelve years on to sixteen or seventeen years such interest increases very rapidly, that is to say, boys' interest in the Old Testament is an interest largely in Joseph, in David, in Solomon, and other great Bible characters. Their interest in the New Testament is in Jesus Christ, John, Peter, Paul and so

on.

So that the religious and the moral teachings and ideals should be given through personality.

Above all things, give the boys a hero teacher. All that I have said is but a trifle compared with the actual influence of personality. I only enunciate a truism. But if you could get the right kind of a man at the head of each boys' organization you would have the whole problem solved by the influence of personality. What should this personality be? I think you have inferred from what has been said that he should be an all-round man. He should be a man, the best man you can get, that represents the finest type physically, intellectually, morally, religiously; he should be a man who has lived successfully, a hero, a man that the boys can look up to; in whom they can see the realization of those qualities of manhood, and perhaps those elements of success that each boy craves for himself.

BOYS' WORK FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE

WILLIAM D. MURRAY

The first portion of this subject which requires our attention is the field in which boys' work is to be carried on by our associations. It is estimated that there are over five million boys in the United States and Canada between the ages of twelve and eighteen, inclusive; that is, seven per cent of the population. And of these boys about thirty thousand are enrolled in boys' departments of the Young Men's Christian Association and about ninety per cent of these are under the age of sixteen years. Those who have studied the subject agree substantially to the propositon that after the age of twenty-one the chances of conversion are exceedingly small. It should be noted again in this connection that nearly ninety per cent of the members of the church comes from the Sunday-school. It is a well-known fact that a good many of the boys from thirteen years of age upwards are not in the Sunday-schools, and therefore need some other organization to reach them. Again, after the boy reaches the age of twelve, he is not so much under home influences as he is before that age, or, rather, he comes under influences at that age which are antagonistic to home influences, and yet it is during the few years following the age of twelve that at least nine-tenths of the habits that last a man through life are formed.

A second matter which requires our attention is the work as it now exists. Ever since 1864 work for boys has been reported and a study of the reports shows how little the boy was at first understood and how poorly for the most part provision

was made for his needs. Unfortunately the present idea of boys' work in some places is somewhat like this: the gathering together of a horde of little boys, whirling them around in a gymnasium two or three times a week and then passing them out; the gathering of them together once a month or so to be fed a little cake and cocoa and coaxing them into a little Bible class where a little religious instruction is painted on the outside of their lives.

Up to the present time boys' work has been very irregular, and there has been a want of unity in it and a lack of agreement upon the underlying principles. Now let us look at the reports that came in from associations for the 1900 Year-book. Nineteen states and provinces reporting association work for boys reported no Bible classes for them, and fifteen other states reported less than five per cent of the boys in Bible classes. Sixteen states reported no religious meetings for boys, and ten other states reported less than five per cent of their boys in religious meetings. Under these conditions, one would hardly expect very large results. And yet in the United States and Canada we find that in proportion to the membership there were reported twice as many conversions among boys as among men. In the greater number of associations, the same man who reports the conversions of men reports also the conversion of boys, so that if the number is exaggerated in one case it is exaggerated in the other, and vice versa. In one of the states investigated it was found that in proportion to the membership there were three times as many conversions among boys as among men, there were four times as many boys in Bible classes as there were men, and there were nine times as many boys who joined churches as there were men. In another state there were three and one-half times as many conversions among boys as among men; in another state four times as many; in another section of the continent seven times as many; in two other states nine times as many. Most of the work thus far has been for school boys.

The leading features of the boys' work which is carried on and named in the order of their importance at present are: (1) the gymnasium; (2) boys' meetings; (3) boys' Bible classes. A hopeful sign at the present time is that many associations are planning the erection of buildings for boys' work, and that the associations are coming to realize that the boys' departments are the best feeders for the associations. This is true so far as membership is concerned, for the average association life of those who come through the boys' departments is much larger than of those who join the association as men. This is also true as to workers. A great need of the association to-day is voluntary workers, and it is found that those who join as boys make far better workers than those

who join as men. It seems wise in treating this subject to state a few principles which have been pretty generally agreed upon by those who are interested in this particular department of association effort.

I.

The boy needs a treatment of his own; he is not an undeveloped man, but a boy. Teachers are learning this truth in connection with their work in day-schools and are beginning to realize that the boy is an individual with characteristics of his own, and not a mere undeveloped adult, and in our schools the work of teaching is done with this principle in mind.

2. Work for boys is really work for men, for manhood begins in a very true sense about the age of twelve, which is the beginning of adolescence. Those who believe in boys' work hope to see it raised to even a higher quality than any association work now done.

3. The chief work of the boys' department has been defined to be the winning of the boys to Christ, developing them symmetrically and training them for Christian service. If the true association principle is the banding together of men to reach men, then the true principle of the boys' department is the banding together of boys to reach boys. Boys should be trained to work for other boys.

4. It is generally admitted that there are three classes of boys-the school boy, the working boy and the street boyand that the association's largest opportunities are in the order here stated.

5. A recent conference of leaders stated: "We believe that the secret of success in boys' work lies in the personality of the leader, involving active personal faith in Christ, together with a love for the boys, which leads to sacrifice for the work." And another has said, "The adolescent boy is not ripe for systematic truth. Life is communicated, not by precept, but by contagion."

6. Certain principles have been laid down as to the kind of work that should be done for boys. Naturally the physical agencies are most attractive, and they should be given a large place in work for the boy. Bible study may be made a productive agency for the development of the religious life of boys.

The International Committee has appointed a subcommittee of supervision, giving this work the same place in its work as is given to student, railroad or foreign work, and has appointed a secretary to have charge of this work under the direction of the subcommittee. The committee is now devoting its time largely to investigation, visitation and advice. Information is being gathered for the purpose of unifying the work, as, for instance, regarding the kind of work to be carried on, the kind of boys to work for, and the preparation of a Bible course suited to boys. Boys' conferences are being

urged on state committees and conducted; state camps are being supervised, and an effort is being made to develop the work and extend it to places where it does not now exist.

It is important to remember that there is sure to be always a work for boys. The important question is whether the Young Men's Christian Association will engage and lead in that work or leave it to other agencies.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE ASSOCIATION TO THE WELFARE OF BOYS

JAMES H. CANFIELD, LL. D., COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

A new and more intelligent recognition of the place, value and power of youth is to be found in all the undertakings and departments of life. Education grants it as never before. The kindergarten has come into deserved prominence. The church is coming to understand that there is something more for a boy to do than to blow the organ and to put up greens at Christmas; that there is something for the boy to do, and that it is well to begin its work with the boy rather than with the man. In the temperance movement, we do not get very large returns for time and effort spent upon older men who are set in their habits; and so we begin with the boys. In all our work we are learning that if we wish to go right we must begin right, and we cannot begin too soon.

Secular organizations for boys have been in existence for many years and have done a vast amount of work and some thoroughly good work. The association has not lacked interest in the boys, but it has lacked the ability to follow out the lines of its interest. It has not been willing to divide its strength and waste its resources over more ground than it could cultivate well. So it has refrained for a time from very many undertakings exceedingly desirable. This boys' work is one of these. Its existence the associations (through their International Committee) have long recognized and studied with care. Within the last year it has appointed on its permanent staff a secretary for this work.

It is hard to draw the line and determine just what we mean by a boy. The boy himself finds it rather difficult to determine his own status. However, the age of twelve is taken by many associations as the minimum and eighteen as the maximum; and we shall speak of work for boys who are between these ages, with the distinct understanding, however, that there is to be large liberty within those lines in the way of classification and in the choice of methods, and that when the boy reaches sixteen, he may have the privilege of belonging to both organizations. He has then reached the age when he is