“The difficulty has been that our churches have been too much afflicted with myopia, seeing little beyond the confines of their own four walls. They have also one and all slipped into the easy ways of formalism, and worse still, the laity have thrust the burden of their religious obligations onto the shoulders of a groaning, overladen clergy, trusting to discharge their own personal responsibilities on a cash basis by check. I am sure that the clergy are well aware that there is much to be desired in the social relations of the church to the community and I believe no set of men will show themselves more ready to advance on new lines if they can see that the movement is really a spiritual one and that a large service can thus be inaugurated. “There are many reasons why the churches must be depended upon as the backbone of any morals movement: They are ideally distributed among the people. They have the intelligence and the means. They have a source of continuous inspiration needed in dealing with chronic distressing problems. They alone can guarantee perpetuity of effort. “In utilizing the church, the minister must be the organizer and leader of his people. A new relationship between pastor and layman will ensue, and laymen, once drawn into a local work, will soon branch out into all forms of civic work for the weal of the community. Again, the churches possess the community buildings so much needed. The only other similar institution capable of a similar co-operation on a large scale is the public school which, while valuable and necessary in this movement, has not the independence and lacks the great inspiration. “What, then, is the specific program for the church? First, of all, she must not abate but rather increase her dependence upon God. She must never yield to temptation to abandon the one really valuable quality she possesses by relegating to the background the living fountains of inspiration she holds in God’s word, for a mere mundane horizontal social Gospel which makes a religion of the human activities which are but its appropriate outward expression. First a glance upward, then outward to God for the life, and to the human arena for the sphere in which the life must be manifested. This does not hinder but quickens the impulse to effective service. “The profounder my faith, the more am I able to work in affectionate association and harmony with the many who do not see eye to eye with me here on earth; I cannot, however, continue to work with any who demand as the price of their help that I shall stifle all outward expression of my faith. He who walks in the light must sing of the light lest the light he has shall fade into darkness, and he too shall be left to flounder along the dead level of merely human self-guided impulses. _A PRAYER FOR EFFICIENCY_