The life of the church, generally speaking, is largely manipulated in
the services of worship, the Sunday school, and such auxiliary
organizations as the Brotherhood, Christian Endeavor, Missionary
societies, and other like organizations. At the present time the church
organization itself is but little adapted to the needs of the growing
boy, the church being a splendidly organized body for mature life. On
the other hand, until lately, the Sunday school has been recognized as a
place for children under twelve years of age. With the Adult Bible Class
movement of the past few years, there has come a revival in the Sunday
school in adult life, so that the place of adults and children in the
Sunday school has been magnified. There still remains, however, the need
of a modification of Sunday school organization to meet the need of the
adolescent boy.

The opportunity that faces the church and the Sunday school in this
adaptation is tremendous. Investigations of the past few years have
demonstrated beyond a doubt that the time to let loose impulses in the
life for the development of character is between the ages of fourteen
and twenty, or the plastic years of early and middle adolescence. Recent
studies have shown that the break in school life occurs at about
fourteen and a half or fifteen years, and that the majority of cases in
the juvenile courts fall in the same period. More souls are born into
the Kingdom of God in the early years of adolescence than at all other
ages of life put together, and the vantage ground of the church lies at
these ages, the effort necessary being the minimum and the results being
the maximum that can be attained.

The problem of the church in touching these adolescent years is to make
the right use of all the facts of boy life. Too long has the church
looked upon the boy as a mere field of operation. Too long has she