YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. The first of these Associations was founded in London in 1844. On June the 6th of this year twelve young men met in a room in St. Paul's Churchyard to establish " a society for improving the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery and other trades." The idea was to arrange for religious meetings, such as Bible Classes and Prayer Meetings, in the business houses in the centre of London. Branch and Corresponding Asso ciations soon sprang up in different parts of the Metro polis and throughout the country. They all adopted the same name, but each of them adapted its agencies to the varying circumstances and necessities of young men. The objects and methods of the Associations have always been dictated by the principles held in common by Evan gelical Churches. In 1855 a general conference of dele gates from the Associations of Europe and America was held in Paris, and a basis of Alliance of the Young Men's Christian Associations was agreed upon. This basis reads as follows: " Young Men's Christian Assdciations -seek to unite those young men who, regarding the Lord Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be His disciples iu their doctrine and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of His Kingdom among Young Men." The Associations in no way enter into competition with the existing Churches, and have no desire to enter upon functions proper to the Churches. In 1SS2 a " National Council of Young Men's Christian Associations " was formed. In June, 1899, at a joint meeting of British and Colonial representatives held at Dublin a constitu tion was adopted for the British and Colonial Union of Young Men's Christian Associations." A good idea
of the character and scope of the work of Young Men's Christian Associations may be gained from a description of the building which has been erected as a memorial to the founder of the original Association, George Williams. " In the basement there are a large gymnasium with gallery, a swimming bath with shower baths, a rifle-range and bowling-alley, and a self-con tained, fully-equipped Boys' Department, consisting of lounge, meeting-rooms, reading-room, games-room, and locker-rooms, etc. The entrance hall with its circular staircase, which is a feature of the ground floor, rises through two stories and has a saucer dome springing from the entablature over the columns. On the ground floor are also the large hall, the small hall, a club restaurant, and a public restaurant. The large hall rises through two stories, and has a flat curbed ceiling, with an organ. On the first floor are the principal social and club rooms. On the second floor is the Technical College, consisting of a library, a laboratory, lecture-rooms, examination-rooms, class-rooms, and a photographic section, with work- and printing-room, dark-rooms, and enlarging-rooms. The third floor contains the kitchen and larders, and the manager's flat; the remainder of this floor, together with the whole of the fourth floor, excepting the assistant manager's rooms, is occupied by bedrooms, of which there are upwards of two hundred, with baths and lavatory accommodation." See the English Year Book of Y.M.C.A.'s. 1910.