JUBILEE YEAR PRESS ESTIMATES

OF THE ASSOCIATION

AND CONVENTION

Wherever any considerable number of young men are found seeking to ally themselves with an institution of this kind, a strong influence for the welfare of society at large may be assumed at once.-Times-Union, Albany, N. Y.

The unprecedented success of the organization and the great good that it has accomplished demonstrates clearly that there is no better way of reaching and developing the religious side of young men than this.-Salt Lake City Herald.

Its half-century of life and growth indicates long life for it. It seems to have the spirit of the age in expanding to meet new needs. It becomes of particular value and significance at a time when the cities of the world are growing with such rapidity.—Indianapolis News.

During the last few years the work of the association has broadened in many ways. Mistaken methods and ideas have been discarded. Physical development has been encouraged. There is little of the narrow pietism to be seen in the various associations now that in its earlier history was supposed to be dominant. But on the other hand it is no less religious than before, and it still holds to the theological system generally known as evangelical Christianity.-New York Tribune.

The Young Men's Christian Association long since passed the period when any thinking man, friend or foe, would attempt to set it aside as a haven fit only for the namby-pamby. It is an organization now standing in the forefront of the large powers of the century. Not only does it lead young men into the church, but it trains them into finer physical manhood, sharpens their minds, and fits them for the fight for better government, individual, municipal, state and national.-W. Š. Harwood in the Century Magazine.

The association is the church projecting itself with practical effect upon society in its immediate vicinity, not an independent competitor of the church, but the church doing its own work through the association as an instrumentality. Considered as a whole, the Young Men's Christian Association has accom

plished a work that has been spiritual, sane, public-spirited, and eminently practical and helpful to individual men and to society at large. Its work has tended to elevate the whole man, intellectual, moral and physical.-New York Observer.

The great lesson which the Young Men's Christian Association has given to the world is not that of service, excellent as that is, for Christian men are banded for service in a multitude of ways, but in its proof that denominational lines need not separate those engaged in such work. We know of no other society which so well proves this. * The Young

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Men's Christian Association has remained true to its first plan, and has proved that churchmen and dissenters, that Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists and Episcopalians, can, if they will, work together for the kingdom of God.-The Independent.

At one time it was supposed that the Young Men's Christian Association would develop into another denomination, and thus interfere with the work of the churches. Such was not its design, and such has not been its history. Instituted for the purpose of interesting young men, particularly those who by force of circumstances are without home influences, in the religious and moral side of life it has become a center of instruction along lines which make for good citizenship. It looks to religious, to mental and to physical development, and is practically a home center in which these phases of life are presented.—Toronto Mail and Empire.

If one were to sum up in two words the essential object of the Young Men's Christian Association one would find it in the phrase good citizenship. The work is essentially sociological along religious lines. The reading-rooms, gymnasiums, educational classes, lectures and athletic pastimes are planned and managed with a distinct recognition of the fact that young men must have their energies turned into beneficent channels if they are to make the most of their lives and confer the greatest possible good upon the community at large. The Young Men's Christian Association is a magnificent manifestation of the truth that the Christianity that means anything is the Christianity that does something.-Boston Beacon.

We realize the value of denominational life. We realize, at least under present conditions, the value of denominational lines. There is no disposition either to lower or break these lines. And yet, here is the danger point in our modern life, great multitudes of young men without Jesus Christ, and the young man without Christ becomes a very demon of destructive influence. Realizing this condition very keenly, the association is seeking to combine the tremendous power of the church and