at 7 P. M., and their Pleasant Sunday Afternoon is a delightful opportunity of suggesting divine truths.* At the Browning Settlement there is a Children's Service and a Sunday School. In the evening of Sunday they enjoy a Happy Hour. "One important feature is the asking each Sunday evening for some incident of kindness or heroism that has come under any child's notice during the week." The Hour of Social Study on the Kingdom of God is held every Wednesday evening. There are services on Sunday, only less formal than those common in churches. At the heart of the Settlement there is the fellowship of believers, in unbroken continuity with the old Congregational church at York street, which monthly celebrates the Lord's Supper and administers baptism." At Mansfield House the residents assist in maintaining worship in the Congregational church near the House. Frequently the residents are left to follow their own way of manifesting their beliefs, and they attend and assist the nearest churches of their own faith, just as others do in ordinary life. As Mr. Woods says: "The presumption is always against having a Settlement introduce any new institutional scheme. It is always in favor of falling in with the current of what is already advancing in the neighborhood." The University of Chicago Settlement expresses its attitude in these words of Miss McDowell: "These workers hold different religious and social * Professor Taylor, the warden, is also pastor of a neighboring church. creeds, but they unite in a belief that no class or neighborhood can live to itself, and that unless we love our brother whom we have seen we cannot love God whom we have not seen. "There is also a hope among them that in some unconventional way the religious feeling may be crystallized into a form that will recognize that the life of Christ if sincerely followed will lead to social justice and political purity. For the kingdom of heaven within will prove itself in making a kingdom of heaven without." Perhaps it would be a fair representation of the general and dominant thought of the residents that religion must be expressed in action and services in order that words may gain force and significance. The people are already familiar with the ideas of Christianity. But ideas are feeble until they are incarnated. Religion is not a separate interest of men, but a bond which unites all. The Son of Man came into the flesh, and made eternal truth visible and tangible. "And so the Word had breath, and wrought More strong than all poetic thought.” It is this reincarnation of belief in God which interprets religion to those who are sceptical, alienated, and superstitious. The Italians of the neighborhood, with "their invincible poetry," call the Hull House "la casa di Dio." They have divined its spirit by its deeds more than by its professions. Canon Barnett's statement may be regarded as typical: My hope is that Settlements may do something to bring together those forces which are now by misunderstanding so often opposed; my belief is that they will best do so when identified with no party, each Settlement setting an example of men agreeing to differ, and all together caring for the common good. The elements of religion are better spread by the example of life than by the preaching of doctrines.' An American friend thus answers objections: "We are now awaking to the obligations of brotherhood, and discovering new facts and forces in such talismanic words as altruism, solidarity, stewardship, and 'the struggle for life,' which has so long been the accepted principle of evolution, is not the sole governing factor; a second one plays an equally important part, viz.: the struggle for the life of others. This is the ethical factor in the drama of human development, without which sympathy, tenderness, unselfishness would have no place or part; and life would have been for us 'humans' only a continuous fight, and the Hobbesian war state the normal modus vivendi. The University movement stood first of all for the dues of brotherhood and the reciprocities of friendship. And what is more, it stood for these in populous districts which had been practically abandoned by the churches. Not that the sympathy of their members ceased, for this is to be said to their honor, that they have been the personal workers and givers in behalf of the University Settlement. But when churches formally, or through their pastors, doubt the utility claimed for the Settlement, and furthermore question whether it is, as a regenerative influence in society, equal in reach and permanency of influence to the Christian Church, then may the disclaimer be in order, that the Settlement sought as best it could to occupy the wide and needy fields the church had forsaken." SECTION 3. RESULTS AND OUTLOOK.-In the nature of the case educational work cannot be measured by statistical methods. Commercial standards do not directly apply. The merchant may take a trial balance and an inventory any time in the year and count his gains. The pastor may count his baptisms and sum up his missionary collections. But the teacher cannot give definite returns to the census-taker. The materialist will certainly misread the facts. The best work is sustained by faith, and not by sight. The first Set The movement is in its infancy. tlement was established in 1885. It is impossible to form a final estimate of a social movement which counts so few years since its birth. Nor can we deal justly with the movement until it has been tried on a far wider scale than has yet been attempted. The Settlement is yet a voice in the wilderness, and the jungles of huge cities almost suppress its cry for justice, light, health and beauty. Christianity itself asks ages for a fair trial, to show what it can do, and the area of converted empires to display its true splendors to advantage. It must also be said that there has not yet been time to raise up a host of disciplined and trained social workers. Much of the work hitherto done has been undertaken by amateurs and apprentices. The Settlement has been an academy for the preparation of the cadets of the future army of educators. Changes are frequent. The time of residence is, on the average, too short for the most effective service. CRITICISMS.-The main objections to the Settlements have already been casually noticed. Some of them may be summed up here and briefly considered. It has been asserted that the workers are usually young and inexperienced persons, without knowledge of life or sense of responsibility, who are easily carried away by the ravings of labor agitators and enemies of property and order. Many wealthy people express the feeling that a Settlement is a hotbed of dangerous theories, the rendezvous of conspirators against social peace. It may be admitted that earnest and sympathetic people, living daily in view of tragical situations, hearing the passionate pleas of the working men, may sometimes, through imitation, sympathy and social contagion, identify themselves too closely with a single-class interest, and with radical agitators. It is not easy to be patient in close proximity to misery and the effects of injustice or ignorance, But |