AN APPEAL FOR THE YOUNG.
By H. F. Phelps
ON the banks of yonder stream are gathered a group of merry-hearted boys. They are preparing for a swim. Listen to the shouting and laughter! See the splashing of the water! They feel no danger. They are a happy company. A sudden change comes over them. A boy that can not swim has gone beyond his depth and is drowning. There is a cry for help. All within hearing are aroused to activity. A man plunges into the stream. The drowning boy must be saved; and, a most reasonable thing, there is no one to raise the cry that the man is engaged in a private enterprise. But another scene is constantly before my eyes. I see, not one boy, but one multiplied by tens of thousands of boys and girls going to ruin—eternal ruin—all unwarned, but encouraged by example upon every hand in the use of rum and tobacco. O what a sight to behold! It is a most pathetic scene. My soul is stirred to anguish! Must this be so? Is there no life-line, no message of warning, of encouragement, to these dear youth? Yes, there is a message from One whose heart of infinite love led Him to give His own life to save these souls from every form of impurity. It is the mission of the journal, Save the Boys, to give this message of love. But where are those who will carry these pages to the perishing? A few respond. But O so few! While we wait, thousands perish. When the writer began this effort, he asked that a few crumbs might fall this way. But he is growing more bold. He now asks for a whole loaf. He desires that our people everywhere shall aid in the circulation of this journal wherever there are boys to save. He asks that in the coming missionary campaign our churches, and every organization within our churches, shall give this little journal a place. Come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty foe, intemperance—the twin evils of rum and tobacco. Why not? There is no reason. Thirty cents a year is the price of the journal; or twenty-five cents in clubs of five or more to one address. Address, Save the Boys, Washburn Park, Minneapolis, Minn. H. F. PHELPS.