RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Young People’s Societies
place; and on Christmas a dramatic production of a religious character is presented. The associations lay great stress upon the industrial education of their members, and for this purpose special departments have been instituted for bakers, tailors, carpenters, etc. There is an employment bureau, a sick fund, and a savings-bank, and two dwellinghouses with twenty-three rooms for working men. (THEODOR SCHAFER.)
X. Young Men’s Christian Associations: These are interdenominational societies of young men, organized on an evangelical basis to promote the mental, moral, social, and physical welfare of young men. Active, voting membership is confined to church-members, but larger numbers unconnected with churches become associate members for the sake of physical, social, and educational privileges. The work is carried on by the Christian young men themselves, laboring individually in the sphere of their daily calling, and collectively on
1. General committees having charge of reading-
Character rooms, libraries, gymnasia, athletic and fields, educational classes, lecture- Origin. courses, religious meetings, and Bible-
classes, for young men exclusively, boarding-houses, dormitories, with which most modern city association buildings are equipped, employment bureaus, visitation of sick young men, ete. The associations also, as opportunity offers, hold interdenominational religious services in shops, in neglected neighborhoods, public institutions, theaters, halls, etc. The parent English-speaking association was organized at London by George Williams (q.v.), June 6, 1844. Societies earlier formed in Germany (see above, IX.) came into affiliation with the English-speaking associations and those of other lands in 1855. By suggestion from London, associations were formed in Montreal Nov. 25, 1851; in Boston Dec. 29, 1851; and in New York June 30, 1852. The first international convention of the associations of the United States and British Provinces met in Buffalo, N. Y., June 7, 1854, and the first world’s conference convened in Paris Aug. 19, 1855. Here the following test of membership, since known as the “ Paris Basis,’ was adopted:
“The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men, who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Savior, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their doctrine and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his kingdom among young men.”
In Apr., 1860, the 203 associations of North America had about 25,000 members. At the outbreak of the Civil War, many members entered the armies
on both sides, and the associations
2. Rapid followed them with efforts for their
Growth in welfare. At the instance of the New America. York Association, a special convention was called, Nov. 14, 1861, which re-
sulted in the organization of the United States Christian Commission (q.v.); and during the war the associations were largely absorbed in army work. With the close of hostilities, a new season of growth and activity began. In 1866 the executive committee of the convention, which had been located from year to year in different cities, was situated for a term of years in New York City (where the
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working quorum has since been continued) and has become known and incorporated as the ‘ International Commititee.’”’ The convention which met in Detroit June 24, 1868, adopted the following test of active membership, since known as the ‘‘ Evangelical Test ”’:
“* Resolved, That as these organizations bear the name of Christian, and profess to be engaged directly in the Savior’s service, so it is clearly their duty to maintain the control and management of all their affairs in the hands of those who profess to love, and publicly avow their faith in Jesus, the Redeemer, as divine; and who testify their faith by becoming and renaaining members of churches held to be evangelical; and that such persons, and none others, should be allowed to vote, or hold office.”
At the Portland convention, July 14, 1869, the word ‘“ Evangelical ’’ was thus defined:
“We hold those churches to be evangelical, which, maintaining the Holy Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of faith and practise, do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (the only-begotten of the Father, King of kings, and Lord of lords, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and who was made sin for us, though knowing no sin, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree), as the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved from everlasting punishment.’’
All associations organized in North America since the passage of this resolution, in order to be entitled to representation in the international convention, must limit their active, voting membership to members of Evangelical churches. The formal adoption of this test by the American associations has secured for them the active sympathy of churches and Christian communities. It is only since this time that the associations have received the real estate and 713 buildings which are valued at over $60,000,000, and which give the societies a permanent foothold in the communities where they are located.
While the associations originated in Europe, their expansion has been most marked in North America. The American association agency of supervision, The International Committee, with the state and provincial committees which it has organized, has
greatly contributed to this. It was not
3. Special till 1878 that the World’s Committee, Reasons with its headquarters at Geneva, Switfor this zerland, created a similar committee. Growth. Four features of the North American
associations have given them _preeminence: (1) the development of the all-round
work, physical, educational, social, and religious; (2) the extension (which is still in progress) of the organization beyond the commercial class of city young men, among whom it originated on both sides of the Atlantic, to students in colleges and schools, railroad employees, miners, lumbermen, factory operatives, mill hands, quarrymen, and other industrial classes, soldiers and sailors, immigrants, young men in country neighborhoods, and, with an increasing emphasis, to boys, or “‘ the young men of to-morrow,” in all these groups; (3) the enlistment and training of employed officers with varied qualifications for the leadership of this varied work; and (4) the erection of association buildings specially adapted to the accommodation of the work. Superior emphasis upon the development of all these lines has given such preeminence to the North American associations that they contain
Young People’s Societies