Horace Mann: “One former is worth a hundred reformers.” It is often said that the redemption of society is as important as the regeneration of the individual. Yes, we reply; but the regeneration of society can never be accomplished except through the regeneration of the individual. Reformers try in vain to construct a stable and happy community from persons who are selfish, weak, and miserable. The first cry of such reformers is: “Get your circumstances changed!” Christ’s first call is: “Get yourselves changed, and then the things around you will be changed.” Many college settlements, and temperance societies, and self‐reformations begin at the wrong end. They are like kindling a coal‐fire by lighting kindlings at the top. The fire soon goes out. We need God’s work at the very basis of character and not on the outer edge, at the very beginning, and not simply at the end. _Mat. 6:33_—“_seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you._” (_d_) It is a change in the moral relations of the soul. _Eph. 2:5_—“_when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ_”; _4:23, 24_—“_that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth_”; _Col. 1:13_—“_who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love._” William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 508, finds the features belonging to all religions: 1. an uneasiness; and 2. its solution. 1. The uneasiness, reduced to its simplest terms, is a sense that there is _something wrong about us_, as we naturally stand. 2. The solution is a sense that we are saved _from the wrongness_ by making proper connection with the higher powers. (e) It is a change wrought in connection with the use of truth as a means.