Our own Brotherhood has its national organization, sixteen organized state Brotherhoods, and nearly all of the large cities have city Brotherhoods, giving opportunities for fellowship and conference, and adding to the efficiency of many of our churches. They bring to the front in our Congregational life capable laymen, who will be influential in the future of the denomination.

Five hundred local men's and boys' organizations in Congregational churches of the United States are enrolled with the national Brotherhood. This, however, is only a small portion. of the organizations existing and actually working.

The Brotherhood sprang up when the denomination greatly needed to develop new lay leadership. Laymen could not be found for responsibilities in state and national organizations. The support of missionary societies had not increased with the increase of church membership.

The Brotherhood developed when the church was emphasizing new ideals of social service. It needed a new and more adequate agency to express these ideals in practical fashion. Groups of men can and are doing this.

The Brotherhood Movement came in a time when theology and ecclesiasticism did not command men as they previously did. The church needed a new emphasis to meet a new need. That emphasis is found in the appeal to human brotherhood. That appeal is fashioning our phrases, our plans, and our approach to the work of the world. The mass of men are not enemies to be fought, but brothers to be helped.

A short time ago I attended a meeting of a state Congregational conference. The subject "What Changes are Necessary in Our Churches" was discussed. The prevailing cry was that the churches are not reaching the men. Various suggestions were made for getting hold of men. The one thought of the members of the conference, who were chiefly ministers, was that if men were not coming into the churches it was because the ministers were not preaching the right kind of sermons.

Suggestions were therefore given. Special music, special advertising, popular topics, stereopticons and moving pictures, to draw the men into the churches.

It reminded me of how the third Napoleon, when a revolution threatened and he was advised of the danger, said to gild the

dome of the Invalides and give the people something to amuse them. Soon the beautiful dome of this great building was covered with gilt paint. It became a nine days' wonder to the spectacle-loving people of Paris, and the revolution was forgotten.

I told the ministers in that conference they were on the wrong track trying to draw men into the church by amusing them; that the trouble with the church to-day is it puts too much of its emphasis on church attendance and too little on actual service. A man's Christian character and loyalty to the church is judged by his attendance on Sunday rather than by his activities during the week. A small boy, who in the Sunday-school was asked by the teacher what was his favorite parable, replied, "The one where every one loafs and fishes." That might well describe many of our churches to-day.

Speaking to our Brotherhood men at luncheon, Tuesday, Mr. Harry Wade Hicks, head of the Young People's Missionary Movement, said, "My conversion did not date from the time I stood up in B. Fay Mills' meeting at Oberlin, and promised to give myself to Christ; it did not date from the time I joined the church. It dated from a later time when I went with other students for a long, hard trip on a hand-car, one dark night, to hold a service to lead men to Christ. My conversion came with my going to work."

The problem of holding men in the churches is like the problem that faced the captain of the sailing vessel who took a scientific party to one of the South Sea Islands, and was forced to remain at anchor at this deserted island for many months. His problem was to hold his crew on the ship, and keep them under control. He did not give them books to read or a graphophone to hear. He pulled his vessel up on the beach, painted it from stem to stern; overhauled the rigging, and scrubbed, polished, and repaired every inch of the hulls, masts, rigging, and equipment. Then, for want of further occupation, put his men cleaning the rust off the anchor chains. Heroic treatment, you will say; but it kept the men under control and loyal to the ship.

You say the theory is all right, but the trouble comes with the practice. You have been striving for years to get your men to work. I say the church of to-day is not planned to give every man a job, and expect him to be on that job regularly and

efficiently all the time. The International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association keeps a secretary employed in New York whose duty it is to tie up young college men to some church for definite service. Their secretary said to me recently, "You have no idea how few churches can give a man a man's job."

The Brotherhood Movement is a movement to put men to work. It says a man is not converted until he has gone definitely to work to extend Christ's kingdom. It tries to inspire the local church to provide a place for him to work. It does not say that there shall be a specific form of organization called a Brotherhood in every church. It provides that any organization of men in any Congregational church can be affiliated with the national organization. It does not encourage a Brotherhood organization outside of the church in opposition to the church or any of its agencies. It urges that men in the local church organize to do the work of that church, and tries to furnish them with inspiration and information to make their work efficient.

With this in view, it maintains a central office, keeps a most efficient secretary in the field, and publishes the Brotherhood Era as a clearing house of information and enthusiasm. It coöperates in the state and city Brotherhoods to promote the fellowship of Congregational men and increase their efficiency.

But you ask what does a Brotherhood do? For answer I would refer you to an article in the October number of the Brotherhood Era, by our Mr. Harter, which gives a list of one hundred and fifty things a Brotherhood can do. Not one of them but has been tried successfully by some Brotherhood.

The Congregational Brotherhood has been on trial for two years and a half. What has it accomplished? What are the definite and tangible results?

Because it does not work for itself, but through the church for the good of the church, and upon the various problems of the church, no statistics can be given, yet it has in the local church and in the city, state, and national organizations brought to the front Congregational laymen, increased their efficiency, and promoted their fellowship. The efficiency of the Brotherhood in missionary work was demonstrated by its leadership in the "Two Million Dollar Campaign," largely conducted by our

secretary, Mr. Dyer, and the head of the Missionary Department, Mr. John B. Sleman, Jr., with the help of our national directors and officers of various state Brotherhoods.

In our boys' work, we have been exceptionally fortunate in having had as leader Rev. Wm. Byron Forbush. Through the Brotherhood channels he has furnished inspiration and information to Congregational men throughout the country, which has led them to put new methods and new vigor into boys' work in our churches. The December number of the Brotherhood Era has furnished one of the best catalogues of possible forms. and methods of boys' organizations that has ever been published.

Our Bible Study Department, under the leadership of Mr. E. K. Warren, has placed special emphasis on Bible study for men, and has furnished frequent and valuable advice and helps for the organization of men's Bible classes.

Working with a similar committee from the National Council, the Department of Labor and Social Service, under the leadership of Mr. H. M. Beardsley, of Kansas City, has directed the attention of our men to the great industrial problems. The questions of equal rights and equal justice to all; of legislation regarding employer's liability, child labor, hours of labor, Sabbath rest, living wages, health and sanitation, have been discussed in our Brotherhoods, and in many cases representatives of the labor unions have been invited to present their arguments.

Our department of evangelism, under the leadership of Rev. E. B. Allen, has kept continually to the front the principle that the chief aim of the Brotherhood must always be to win men to Jesus Christ.

In various parts of the country, Brotherhood organizations have followed different methods as local needs might require. For instance, the Congregational Brotherhood of Southern California called together the representative Congregational men from the Brotherhoods of that section in Los Angeles last January, to determine upon and provide for a larger missionary policy for the churches of their conference. The Seattle Brotherhood has maintained a strong department through which fellowship luncheons of the Congregational men of the city are given to meet prominent visiting Congregational men who may be passing through the city. The telephone numbers of the men

are kept by the officers, and by an efficient division of labor the men of the Brotherhood can be brought together at short notice.

In the Michigan State Union the problem of the efficiency of the Brotherhood in the country church has been considered. An extract from the report of that Brotherhood by its president, Mr. L. P. Haight, of Muskegon, Mich., is significant as showing how that problem is being solved. He says, "We attempt to stimulate interest in agriculture, especially in the rural churches, by the Brotherhood renting or buying one acre of land, known as the Olivet Acre, the same to be tilled by the Brotherhood with a view to determining the best methods for raising the kind of crops suited to their section, especially corn and potatoes, that the yield of these crops may be increased by a better knowledge of their culture. This gets the men together in the rural sections. They spend one-half hour in studying the experiments and one-half hour as a Bible Class.

'Where the ministers have entered into the life of their people they are getting nearer together and reaching the men as never before.

One church has rented two acres and will cultivate them next year, using the proceeds for the minister's salary. This little church has not been able to hire a pastor. The people are poor, but have set a good example by giving of their labor, although their dollars are few."

Is it necessary to have a Brotherhood to accomplish these things? Are there not too many organizations already?

Do you realize that a banker, who could not leave his desk to go to a state conference, will take a week to attend a bankers' convention? Congregational business men who will not go to an association meeting in their own town will get out and pull wires for days at a time to be elected delegates to a political convention in a distant city. This is because they do not feel the responsibility of the religious gatherings. They believe the minister is a better talker and knows more of such things, and they cannot compete with him on the floor of the conference or association. It has been demonstrated over and over that the laymen of the church will get together in laymen's movements, which they handle and direct. This of itself indicates that if we are going to reach the laymen it must be through organiza