doom of American society. More family blood, tears and anguish arise from this source than all others. No blighting curse of earth has done so much to ruin family happiness and hopes, or severed so many ties of friendship and society. No other evil has wasted and consumed so much prosperity and life, destroyed so many minds and bodies, produced so much crime and misery, debilitated so many officers and citizens, as intemperance. The tide of civilization must subside or the waves of intoxication be stayed. This is an irrepressible conflict which cannot be postponed or evaded. The foe is in the field with millions of money and hundreds of thousands of servile followers. It is life or death for the nation for civilization-and for millions of families and individuals embraced in the relations of society.

Fourth.-Philosophical Enemies. The growth and progress of society must depend largely upon its ideals. If these are not above the human, then the development must be limited by the best which are accepted. The denial of a perfect Supreme Being must be a hindrance to personal and social advancement. Society is based upon social conceptions and feelings, and, if these are limited to human associations, social nature must be limited in practical exercise and experience as well as in ideals. But a small portion of human life can be spent in actual converse with society. Most of our time and thought is devoted to those who are absent, and these associations should be in advance of actual experience. As a child should be associated with those higher and better than his equals, so man needs to cultivate his social nature with a being higher than himself. In all cases of affection, there is a necessary tendency to deny all imperfections of the loved ones and to make out, as far as possible, a perfect object of love. This demand for a perfect object of affection is inherent in the human mind, showing that mind was made for something

higher than itself and that without such an object of love, like the bird with its broken wing, the man, and thus society, must sink instead of rising.

In all society there must be mutual dependence and feelings of obligation and a grateful recognition of favors. Gratitude therefore becomes a necessary condition of society, life and happiness.

Gratitude always contemplates personal favors, and gratitude to things is impossible. And yet, ninety-nine-hundredths of all our comforts come from some source above and independent of man, and any theory which ignores a Supreme Benefactor destroys all possibility of gratitude indispensable to true society. The denial of a divine supreme Deity, or the denial of a divine personality outside of matter, or such denial of evidence as leaves the mind professedly without belief in divine personal perfections, must be opposed to the best interests and life of society. Atheism, as positive, pantheistic or agnostic, robs society of its models of character and of the best associations of thought and feeling, renders gratitude impossible in many cases, and is a foe to society in the fundamental elements of its life. As a chain cannot be sustained by its own links without some ground of dependence outside itself, no more can obligation have a firm basis and standard without relations above equals, and supreme. Without a God there can be no standard of morality nor moral foundation for society. The denial of a God is virtually the denial of spirit, distinct from matter. But society is itself spiritual and to ignore or deny such existence is to deny society itself. So also is society necessarily constituted with reference to a future. And that tendency of mind and life of hope is to such an extent vital to all true society that the denial in any form of the existence and eternity of God or of man's immortality is to strike at the very heart of society and oppose its very life.

Such then are the enemies with which society has to contend. All the battle-fields of nations and conflicts of civilization, all the struggles for family and social life and happiness have been conflicts with Individualism, Monarchism, Animalism and Atheism. And when individual claims shall be held subject to society rights,-power be exercised in benevolence, -animal appetites and passions be subjected to reason and conscience, and all subjected to the Supreme Ruler, then will be realized the completeness of personal life, the perfection of society and the fullness of hope.

THE ASSOCIATIONS OF YOUNG MEN

AND YOUNG WOMEN.

BY

REV. B. F. AUSTIN, M. A., B. D.

WISH to address a few

words of friendly counsel to the young men and women who may read this book,

concerning their mutual associa

tions, the influence given and received therein, and the methods by which such influence may be increased and extended to mutual advantage. I shall assume, in this discussion, that such companionship of young men and women is eminently fitting and proper in itself, that it was evidently designed by divine providence, and that, though attended with some temptation and dangers, it subserves grand purposes, and is fraught with blessings to the race. Here and there in society may still be found a home where such associations are looked upon as an evil, to be restrained or prohibited, and occasionally, too, a church where separate seats are still provided for men and women. But, generally speaking, it is assumed that it is natural, expedient and right