effective preaching of the Gospel." [Footnote: Board of Missions
of the Protestant Episcopal Church.]

These pictures of the power of Home Missions to restore--to give
capacity--are merely typical, and stand for the thousands of others
unrecorded except as the lives of the reclaimed individuals and
communities make their indelible imprint upon our national life.

Surely through the demonstration of such reclaiming power the
consciousness must grow that ignorance, degradation, vice, crime,
and bitter poverty need not be the inevitable accompaniment of a
great civilization, but that these diseased spots in the social
fabric are abnormal and curable, if to their removing is directed
first the power of Christ in the inner life, and for the outer a
social regeneration which will substitute physical conditions that
do not menace, but make for righteousness.


"In haunts of wretchedness and need
On shadowed thresholds dark with fears,
From paths where hide the lures of greed
We catch the vision of Christ's tears.

"The cup of water given for Thee
Still holds the freshness of Thy grace;
Yet long these multitudes to see
The sweet compassion of Thy face."