is to help hasten the answer to the prayer our Lord taught us, "Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and not to be forever
seeking to build tabernacles on some Mount of Transfiguration.

This book of Dr. Banks's is a positive stimulus to this work of social
transformation. The young men and women of our Epworth League could not
do better than to carefully and thoughtfully study its vivid pictures
of every-day scenes in our great, and even in our lesser, cities.

Such study will open their eyes to sad deformities in their own
communities, to which too many have become strangely indifferent
through custom and wont. True, it is not pleasant to consider these
distressing matters; but is it the business of the Christian to avoid
that which is unpleasant? Consideration leads to sympathy, and sympathy
wonderfully quickens the inventive faculties; and the aroused intellect
and active affection are leavening forces that alter social conditions
always for the better.

I take great pleasure, therefore, in commending this work, because it
stirs all who read it. It may make you indignant. What of it? Would
that more were alive enough to be indignant with the indignation of our
Lord at the forces of unbrotherliness at work in our midst! It will do
more than rouse your indignation; it will help you to utter the prayer
that gave the accent to the life of Paul: "Lord, what wilt thou have
_me_ to do?" When in works of Mercy and Help our tens of thousands of
Epworth Leaguers are loyally living this prayer, the problem of Edison,
as applied to spiritual dynamics, will be solved, and the latent forces
of spiritual energy used to their utmost. Then, as slavery has passed
away, war and tyranny and idleness and poverty will be no more, and the
end to which Christ leads us, and for which He died, will be attained.