ciations have been coming into life without any general plan upon the impulse of earnest persons.
There are already Bible Societies and Tract Societies with colporteurs moving about from house to house; popular lending libraries; a few street preachers and evangelists; and the Gustavus Adolphus Society (after 1833) for assisting feeble churches to build meeting houses and support pastors. Suggestive beginnings of parish organization are mentioned; with a cooperation between women's charity societies, savings bank schemes, temperance societies, and deaconess visitors. The function of the Inner Mission is to extend these efforts and supply trained workers as assistants or leaders.
Special forms of moral evil must be met by special methods of spiritual work. The Inner Mission should extend the work already begun on behalf of fallen women, and imperiled girls.
To counteract depressing literature there was nothing better than the circulation of attractive and instructive books and papers. Drunkenness must be met by temperance societies under strong religious influence.
Social disorders and the Inner Mission.—All that concerns humanity has interest for this movement. The evils of domestic life are graphically drawn; the irregular sexual connections, foolish early marriages, illegitimate and deserted children, infanticide, pauperism and crime. The Inner Mission has already established schools for little children. Kindergartens, Sunday Schools, and ways of helping poor mothers with their burdens. Institutions of rescue for youth have been established. A system of relief has been sustained in a few parishes which offered a more friendly and personal method than that of cold and official state relief. In this labor the tender hand of woman was busy and their societies were growing in all directions.
Gossner had founded the Elizabeth fund at Berlin in 1833. And Fliedner's deaconess house had became "one of the most beautiful ornaments of our Evangelical Church" (1836).
Self help.—The Inner Mission was at first almost exclusively a ministry to the dependent and depraved. But Wichern urged
