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IV
THE PURITY PLEDGE : ITS CALL TO YOUTH.
(1914)
I may tell you at the outset that there are, indeed, several classes of members In an organisation like this of the Young Men's Social Purity and Temperance Association. To the first class belong those— and they are very few — who, by God's grace, could say, 'I have observed till now, and will continue to observe in future, the principles of this pledge.' That is the first, the superlative, the blessed class. There is a second class of members — and to it belong a great majority amongst us — who could say, 'I am only honestly and persistently trying to realise these ideals in their fulness by God's grace ; I cannot say I have been able to satisfy the standard fully.' And so it is. What we have already been hitherto able to do — that ought not to, and shall not, be considered satisfactory. It is a testing ideal,
