school is to make not only Christian disciples or learners, but also followers or soldiers of Christ, how can we meet this obligation? Certainly not through entering into political or controversial questions, but through implanting a spirit of service. We should begin early to teach of, and encourage gifts to relief and philanthropic purposes, such as to hospitals for crippled children, industrial schools, fresh-air, ice, and milk fund, missions, etc. Again in the matter of intemperance it is possible not only to fortify our youth against temptation but also to so plant the seeds of indignation in them as to ally them with forces arrayed against such evils.

By way of illustration, I mention one other way in which a spirit of social service can be awakened, namely, through Village Improvement, Garden Cities, associations and kindred activities, as instanced by the very remarkable work of the Cleveland Home Gardening Association, with its enlistment of men, women, and children who have found health and happiness, and forces that make for righteousness as school-yards, back-yards, cinder piles, and rubbish heaps, have been transformed into gardens of wondrous beauty and fragrance. Those of us who know of the dismal tenement, know of the delight of the tenement child with any touch of nature. As great, however, is the opportunity of the village. The possibilities of such work for moral awakening, civic righteousness, and development of character, is the story between the lines of the history of the Village Improvement associations of New England, and "The Garden Cities Association of America." The teacher in the Sunday school can teach of such work as a real service to society and in appeal to the immediate interest of the taught. Keeping in mind the principle of modern 1 Address Metropolitan Building, New York City.

pedagogy that moral and rcligious instruction should be correlated with the changing dominant interests and activities of life, the teacher need never miss the point of contact in teaching. One may begin with the pollen on a boy's nose, tin cans on a vacant lot, plants or flowers in a class room, near at hand surely child or adult can be touched at a point in his experience, and enlisted in social service. The gain to our youth would be great. Are we not told that a boy will absorb as much book learning in four hours of study and four hours of motor activity as he will in eight hours of study? But the gain through such simple service as seed-planting and garden-tending is more than the development of motor centers. Following the principle of grafting, that is of grafting one interest on to another, beginning with some interest that a child has, such as a plant, a few seeds, a pot of earth, and using this as a stepping stone to another interest, children can be led from personal interest to public interest, from home and school world to the social world, to interest in the cleanliness and neatness of streets, health, and weal of the community and the world. And when that spirit, a passion for righteousness, prevails, we shall have less and little need for charity societies, asylums, relief houses, and inebriate cures, which for the most part are as so many plasters, arnicas, salves, and liniments medicaments that ease but never heal.

Is the Sunday school a Bible school? Does it teach the Saviorship and the Kingship of Christ? Does it stand for the Gospel of the Kingdom? Is it a school for teaching and training, for instruction and inspiration, for information and transformation, and for a salvation whose ultimate is ministration? Does it make faithful followers of the Nazarene, who went about doing good? Does it ground our youth in the

laws and ideals of Christian ethics and give them a passion for righteousness? - then it is a beneficent, constructive, social force.

FRATERNAL ORDERS AND MORAL EDUCATION

SUPREME

CHARLES A. BARNES

CHANCELLOR OF THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS, JACKSON-
VILLE, ILLINOIS

As we view the history of the world and note the advancement of civilization and the continual changing of public sentiment caused thereby, we realize that mankind has been continually advancing to a higher and better state of moral and educational development. Man is to-day better fed, more comfortably clothed, living under more just and humane laws, with more general education, greater love, consideration, and respect for his fellowmen, and higher and more exalted moral perceptions than ever before in his history; and still, the situation to-day will look almost barbarous when this period is retrospectively surveyed by those who will be permitted to enjoy the advancement of centuries hence.

When the Order of Knights of Pythias was born forty-four years ago this month, a large part of the most highly educated, and especially the religious element, of our people condemned fraternal organizations as antagonistic to our form of government, dangerous to our stability as a nation, and injurious to religious ideas and the advancement of Christianity. To-day there is no general opposition to these organizations, but, on the contrary, they are now recognized as a strong ally of the church and a potent factor in the social, educational and moral advancement of our people.

By "fraternity" we mean the associating of men together into a society or organization having for its ulitimate object and purpose the common good of themselves and of humanity; the promulgation of the doctrine of the universal brotherhood of man; a joining of forces to exemplify the Golden Rule; to seek to build up higher ideals; to exalt true manhood; to strive to make life and the world better, happier, and brighter. This divine idea of fraternity was given to the world by the Man of Galilee, and since that date has joined hands with religious teachings in the promoting of human happiness and progress. The conception of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man has been the beacon light that has led advancing civilization in all its phases. To these two ideas we owe all of moral good and true happiness that mankind has received. For the purpose of advancing and propagating this Christian idea of the Fatherhood of God, various religious fraternities, or church organizations, were from time to time formed, and thereby the fundamental ideas of Christianity became extended and the generally accepted guide of a proper life.

Time demonstrated that the Christian idea of fraternity could best be taught and advanced by the organization of those who loved this idea and realized its benefits. This caused the formation of those societies known as fraternal organizations. At first these organizations were few in number and small in membership, but as their benefits became better known they extended as the churches have done. While these societies differ in their methods of organization, and while their forms of initiation teach fraternity to their members in different ways and by different lectures and object lessons, still the fundamental idea on which they are created and for which they have a

place is identical. That fraternal society is the best — that is, stands the highest in the personnel of its membership, the influence it exerts, and the esteem in which the outside world holds it that most forcibly impresses its members with the doctrine of fraternity, and causes them to practice it in their every-day life. Fraternity, as thus taught, seeks to impress upon the members of these organizations that they owe a duty to themselves and to their fellow men. That in order to live a happy life they should be temperate in all things; should obey the moral law in all its precepts; should observe all the obligations of life, which includes the obligations to the fraternity and its membership, the obligations to society, the obligations as a child, a husband, and a parent, the obligations to the law and to their country, and their obligations to the Supreme Being above. That they should regard their fellow man as brother, and exemplify towards him the lesson of the Golden Rule; that they should treat him honestly in all business dealings; should not injure his good name; should endeavor, as far as possible, to aid him in his laudable undertakings; and help him in every possible way to be a better, happier, and more worthy citizen. This is the ideal fraternity, and if these lessons became the generally accepted and livedup-to rule of conduct, what a different world this would be! It is not claimed that the millions of men, who, in this country alone, are connected with these fraternal organizations, live strictly up to the teachings of these Orders, but it must be admitted that they have all been benefited because of the teachings they have received in the lodge room, and are better and more moral men, with higher ideals of life, and that the general average of citizenship has been raised by their connection therewith.

It is hard for those who are not connected with