When the young man, fresh from his pure home in Great Britain, or America, first arrives in the East and sees the materialism, the hollow pretense, and the moral rottenness of much of its life, he is naturally horrified. But it is the saddest of all sights to watch the change that gradually comes over him as his enthusiasm gives place to cynicism, and his youth to the knowledge which ends in death. Could the newcomer be isolated until his orientation is complete, until he knows his way about in his new surroundings, and has gathered some reserve of moral strength, the terrible tragedy might be averted. No sooner is he arrived than he is taken in hand by some accomplished man of the world, possibly his own superior in office, and instructed in the way he must go in order to prove himself an acceptable member in the gilded company. The first steps in vice are made as easy as they could be made. Everything irregular is concealed, if there be any need for concealment. The young man can lead a double life without his most intimate friend knowing anything of the shady side. Later he may feel that self-restraint is superfluous, and rather prides himself upon his freedom from moral restraint. He looks upon his acts as the marks of his distinction as a man of the world. He will soon smile loftily at the innocence of the next arrival, and scoff at the narrowness of the religion of his old, simple-hearted parents in the home land. Conscience has now lost the power of distinguishing the true from the false, and the pure from the impure. Later he may come to realize something of the value of the purity he has thrown away; but then it will be too late to recover it. His life may end, as the life of many of the East has ended, in a cynical despair, or in a suicide’s grave. Is it not time for Zion to awake out of sleep? Is it not time for the people to arouse, when the enemy is not only making terrible inroads upon her ranks, but is strengthening the citadels of error on every hand? What are the people of God doing with the power that He has placed at their hands, that they should be obliged to acknowledge their weakness and the greater progress of the adversary? “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion.” Then “when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”