Another source of power is to know the factors that enter into our problem and the facts of our undertaking. That we may intelligently synthesize the influences that bear powerfully upon the church as it seeks to meet its present day task, apprehend the effect of these influences upon the religious ideals and thought of our young people, and realize the atmosphere which Home Missions must permeate with its saving faith, we must take account of the moulding thought-life of our day. It is always difficult to separate the apparent from the underlying and more subtle causes and influences. Within the outer and more obvious is usually hidden an inner current of thought and movement that must be sought and realized in order that the whole content may be obtained. Until quite recently--and we are still feeling its effects--the tendency of our time strongly emphasized material accomplishments. The world has been "intently and almost exclusively occupied with subduing natural forces and material matter to humanity's growing physical and mental needs." Thus have been given us the wonders of scientific triumph which make possible the civilization of our day. In America, especially, material development has appeared to receive an exalted value and place. We have become familiar with the charge made against us by Europe of being a nation of materialists. The transforming of a continent from a wilderness to a land of homes and highly organized industry in the brief space of three centuries; the marvelous and rapid development of the vast material resources of our land; the hastening here of eager recruits from other lands, passionately seeking and needing material betterment, have magnified in this country the feverish acquisition of material wealth and accentuated the hard, calculating business spirit; and has seemed to place undue value upon the worth of material success and the things of which it is made. John Burroughs from his quiet vantage point of observation says--"The present civilization arms us with the forces of earth, air and water, while it weakens our hold upon the sources of personal power. "It gives us great intellectual riches but it deadens our finer spiritual faculties, our clear conception of the higher values of life. Where there is no vision, no intuitive perception of the great fundamental truths of the inner spiritual life, the best and the highest must perish." Before seeking to discover the hidden ethical motives and forces that animate and elevate our national life, let us consider the very real effect of the apparent predominance of the materialistic upon our college students. Our young people are exposed not only to the pressure of the materialistic atmosphere which throbs and beats about us all, but they must also meet the same force from a different and very direct contact in their classrooms at college, and in the universities.