that is to Literature

seem more beautiful and more worth living in produce literature that has permanent value. may have its tragedies; it may teach us also the stern side of life, may make us see the abysses of woe through which humanity must pass. But even in tragedy great literature teaches serenity and peace. We come to feel, when it is all over, that sense which Milton brings out when the father of Samson stands over the ruin and over the dead body of his

son

"Nothing is here for tears, ..

nothing but well and fair,"

that which comforts, that which uplifts, that which sustains.

Well, I do not know how much of that kind of literature is being written at the present time or will be in the immediate future, but, speaking as one of the ultimate consumers of literature — and that is what we all are, we readers, the ultimate consumers of literature we shall expect, and I think rightly expect, that in the future as in the past, seed-time and harvest shall not fail.

PRESIDENT WENDTE. Anybody that lives in our day and sees the trend of things and the researches that are going on, the investigations in all departments of human society, will find evil enough — injustice and wrong, and misery to be relieved to make him believe that there are devils enough in this world without seeking them in theologies of olden times. And there is selfishness enough among religious people to-day, as in olden times. Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer - whom we have just made a member of the Board of Directors of this Association, as we have Rev. William Sullivan and Mr. Alonzo Rothschild told me that she was reading "Pilgrim's Progress" to her little girl, and the child listened; but when she came to the cities which God destroyed in His wrath because

of their ungodliness, sending down fire and brimstone upon them, and read how Christian fled and forsook the doomed city, escaping with his life, the child cried out, "Oh, the horrid, selfish thing! why didn't he stay and help those poor people? I don't want to hear any more from that dreadful book."

I am glad to-day to present to you a younger member of our Association, who will give you his vision of the great question concerning the Social Movement of our time, — Rev. Mr. Freeman, of Braintree.

THE FORWARD LOOK IN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

REV. DANIEL ROY FREEMAN

A stream of water may be regarded from varied viewpoints. The chemist, for instance, is interested in its habits and composition chiefly as a relatively stable compound of oxygen and hydrogen. The geologist and the geographer regard it as the conveyer of high places to low places, the bringer-down of moisture and of sediment. The manufacturer, the practical man, looking at the same stream, regards it as the residence of forces which can be transformed so that they will whirl his spindles for him. The poet, on the other hand, regarding the same stream still, looks upon it as the food, or the contrary, of certain moods of his, so that Burns can sing,

"Ye banks and braes of bonnie Doon,

How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?"

The artist, the painter, viewing the same stream still, from his standpoint regards it as the embodiment of beauty, as making an appeal to the aesthetic part of his nature. Again, a man may be dying of thirst, and to him that stream of water may be a something to save his life and bring him back to connect him with all the various enterprises in which he is engaged.

Human beings, humanity, men, - you and I, may also be regarded from varied points of view. The physiological chemist, for instance, regards us chiefly as the theatre for the display of certain metabolic processes. He is interested in us principally as a creature who can digest and assimilate food. The physician regards us as a group of organs which may be working in harmony one with another or which may be in painful disagreement. We may be well or sick, and for this reason we appeal to the physician. The biologist looks at our history and has pieced it together and tells whence we came and what our animal relationships are.

man.

Again, the political economist sees mankind as the builder and destroyer of nations. Then the sociologist comes, and his interest chiefly is in the industrial relationships of man to He sees how the distribution of commodities may be just or unjust, and in these things his chief interest lies. The educator, on the other hand, has a realization of the mental possibilities of humanity, and he regards you and me chiefly as minds which can grasp, which may be comprehensive in their view, which can grow in their thinking qualities and powers.

The one who loves looks upon mankind as being a creature able to experience the wonder and the miracle of love, and to him "our life, with all it means of woe and joy and hope and fear, is just our chance o' the prize of learning love." Wagner at one time looked upon humanity, and the thing which interested him chiefly was the capability which certain ones possess, and which he wished all to possess, of musical appreciation, and he desired that through this way their lives might grow. The seer Emerson, looking at this audience, would have regarded us as animated interrogation-points, and he would make his "Sphinx" say to us,

"Thou art the unanswered question;

Couldst see thy proper eye,

Alway it asketh, asketh;

And each answer is a lie.

So take thy quest through Nature,
It through thousand Natures ply:

Ask on, thou clothed eternity;
Time is the false reply."

Again, Jesus, looking on men, realizing that there had come to pass the wonder of personality, and seeing in that the crucial and wondrous element in this world, said to men," You as human beings have it in you to be light to the world. Ye are the light of the world." And again, his vision lifted higher yet than that in his own case, and he said, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." He regarded human beings as able to rise to the dignity of a conscious union with the Author of their being.

Now, the viewpoint of social movements in the immediate past has been the viewpoint chiefly of the sociologists. That is to say, the energies of social movements have been concentrated chiefly upon securing for wage-earners their just share of the products of industry, and more leisure. This is the look back. The question is now coming to us, What then? We are having a larger amount of leisure. This is being had by men, and in increasing measure it will be had by them. What then? The present Forward Look in the social movements, as I see it, is toward the goal of all social endeavor and of human life. People are becoming dissatisfied that simply a larger power should be put in human hands, and they are asking, How may that power of leisure and of increased money be used so that men's souls and lives and minds, in the large way, will be developed and come to their own?

The centre of thought now is the nature of human beings as they essentially are in their possibilities. Men are more and more being regarded as creatures capable of loving and thinking and knowing and appreciating, and it is this vision which is leading onward the present social movement. The work of the true humanitarian in the South was not finished, it was only begun, when the Negroes were freed. So the task of social reformers will not be accomplished until men's leisure from bodily labor has been transformed into knowledge of history, science, literature; into appreciation of music, art, Nature; into social sincerity and grace, into political sagacity and integrity, and into spiritual culture. The shell

of long hours and low pay is breaking and will further break. All this noisy crackling, however, should be only preliminary to the real business, which is the development and maturing of the chick.

Now, as Myles Standish discovered that every man would best be his own lover, we are learning that every one must also be his own worshiper and every one must be his own social worker. We cannot give to others the duties that belong to us as individual persons. The first one with whom each of us has to do is himself to bring to pass in himself the best things that he knows. And then in the home, in the school, in all the relationships of life, the opportunity is now offering for every person in his own sphere to aid in the progress of humanity. And it is my belief that as we thus with a renewed determination, with a new conception of the meaning of human life, enter into the tasks that belong to us and work out as best we may our own salvation, we shall begin to ask the question, How did I come to pass ?- this I, with my love, with my appreciation, with my power of thought and all that life means to me at my best how came I to pass?

And our thoughts will be uplifted, and as we thus work out our own salvation the conviction will be growing in humanity that it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure.

PRESIDENT WENDTE. It was my good fortune to spend a portion of last year in Oriental countries, and there I discovered that the great fundamental, vital issue in their domestic, social, political, and even religious life was the elevation of their womanhood. They can hope for no future until that shall in some measure be accomplished. I went to London and witnessed there the imposing, wonderful woman suffrage parade that preceded the coronation procession of King George,