THE GERMAN INNER MISSION 67
represented in the orphanage at Halle. In this century municipal and state authorities have greatly extended the care of imperiled children, but there is still room for free effort. The day for building large congregate asylums is over. The tendency is to find homes in families for children who have lost their parents or have been abandoned by them. In the training of abnormal children for home life, and in the selection and oversight of the families employed to shelter the wards, many branches of the religious societies find a field of usefulness. "Sisters" are especially trained for this service. Cooperation between public and church agencies is frequent. The unwieldy and mechanical agencies of the state will always require much supplementary aid of volunteers. Thus we see the gradual absorption of many of the benevolent functions of the church by the state, while we see the state again solicit- ing help of the kind of people who receive impulse from the church. Educational unions have provided occupation and recreation out of school hours for boys and girls, in order to counteract the demoralizing influence of idleness and in order to teach useful arts.
Associations for Jielping youth. In former times the appren- tice lived with the master and was under his shop discipline all day and under the household rule of the wife of the master at all times. But machine industry brought to the apprentice earlier freedom and independent wages, with attendant moral perils. Sunday afternoons and evenings are times of greatest temptations to young working people in cities. The Inner Mission seeks to provide wholesome and rational recreation for these empty hours. The entertainments thus provided are not in accord with the Calvinistic and English notions of Sunday, but are entirely consistent with those of Luther. The Catho- lics go farther than the Evangelicals and provide theatrical exhibitions and dances in the halls of the associations. The mug is of course entirely unscctarian and is found every- where.
In addition to numerous municipal and communal schools
