El)e Joeial /^mr C'ns&'A uor i-ord,,,..,... _^^ BELL mlnnmnioimuB •1 tihraxy of trhe theological ^tminavy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY •a^D- PRESENTED BY Rufus H. LeFevre C32A^*fe:5<^ n^Mdi^ %^ 3.1 Of PK/Ai^ MAY^i ][ 952 ^ 1 ^/GAL St? The Social Message of Our Lord >/ nriffiam (jneftjtn (geff, ©.© Bishop of the Pacific Di^dt, Church of the United Brethren in Christ Twelve Years a Pa^or, Two Years Superintendent of Indiana Sunday-School Association and Editor of the State Paper, Tv/elve Year* General Secretary for Home and Foreign Missions, Eleven Years Editor of The Search Light, Author of The Love of God. THE OTTERBEIN PRESS Dayton, Ohio Copyright, 1909. by United Brethren Publishing House Dayton. Ohio DEDICATION To Mr. James Knisely, Mr. W. H. Wagner, Prof. A. J. Douglas, Prof. Smith J. Hunt, Prof. Frank B. Moe, Prof. W. O. Marsh, Dr. P. B. Lee, and Mrs, M. E. Sickafoose, beloved and helpful above price in guiding my young life into the paths of knowledge and religion, this volume is respedlfully dedicated by the author. March 10, IQOQ 227 1V»tt SIst Strftt Los Angtlii, California .0 are Catholics and 30,000 more are found on the church and Sunday-school rolls of the Protestant churches. What of the redemption of the city where civilized paganism abounds? Let us apply the message of the book to the moral, social, political, industrial, commercial, and civic problems and affairs of San Francisco. God indwells a portio.n of this population. Their names and addresses are found in the directory of this city. They are real people and citizens, and they are living centers of the divine energy. They perform in San Francisco the duties both of heaven and of earth. God dwells in them. He functions in their faculties and lives through them into the complex whole of the city's life. There is weakness here in the religious body, and there is tremendous strength after its kind in the people of the world. But new moral life is gener- ating in the city and flowing in the channels of the public life. Some evils are going up to judgment, and we trust to a last judgment. San Francisco's greatest need in this intense and vital day is for a man, a prophet of the new order, to interpret more full}^ the fundamental truths and principles of God into the conscious life of the city. He must spell it out with a long patience ; he must say it so that men with their backs turned shall be startled by its moral demand. The man who can interpret gospel truth into the world's new conditions, experiences, and fellowships is the evangelist the multitudes are asking for to-day. In this regard Bishop Bell's book has a great mission and a great field. The author is a prophet of the new order. He has seen the vision and felt the power. He here tells us how it is that all social Vv^rong passes under effectual eclipse, and how all social righteousness reigns unto the victory of life. God, indwelling his people, must fail of his whole purpose through them, or he will ultimately elevate and energize society with the life of heaven. A new light is breaking over Christendom. In this light we are getting a new vision of men and social relatioins, obligations, and destinies. All things are being reappraised and set at new values. Things are falling in the scale ; the humanities are rising in the estimate. The constructive factor of this new era is conscience, hence there is vital assertion of practical righteousness in all affairs. God is in conscience asserting that righteousness. He is laying a blight upon selfishness and is causing sympathy to burst into flower. "The Social Message of Our Lord" has part in the illumination of our social problems and our social progress. Hugh W. Gilchrist. Mount Hermon, California. CONTENTS I. Christ's Saviorship and Methods - - - i II. Christ and the Unity of the Race - - - 6 III. Christ and Civilization - - - - - 11 IV. Christ and Character ----- 17 V. Christ and Culture - 23 VI. Christ and the Greatest Handicap - - - 3G VII. Christ and Human Ability - - _ _ 41 VIII. Christ and Human Inspiration - - - 47 IX. Christ and Social Institutions - - - - 53 X. Christ and Social Symptoms - - - - 59 XI. Christ and Social Progress - - - - 64 XII. Christ's Attitude Toward Social Problems - 70 XIII. Christ Competent in Social Problems - - 77 XIV. Christ and the Oncoming Social Order - - 84 XV. Christ and Social Democracy - - - - 89 XVI. Christ and Current Social Opportunity - - 94 XVII. Christ and Social Service - - - - 99 XVIII. Christ and Current Social Propaganda - - 106 XIX. Christ's Kingdom the Ultimate Social Order - 112 XX. Christ's Kingdom Fundamental - - - 118 XXI. Christ and American Duty - - r - 127 XXII. Christ in Human Experience the Supreme Utility 137 XXIII. Christ and the Trained Church _ _ _ 144 XXIV. Christ and the Victorious Church - - - 151 XXV. Christ and Specialized Christianity - - - 160 XXVI. Christ and Money Getting - - - - 168 XXVII. Christ and Conduct Reactions - - - - 176 CHRIST'S SAVIORSHIP AND METHOD. I. There was, and is a Christ of history. His name has entered permanently into the records of the earth. He is known to-day as an historic character. He was, and is Christ the Lord. He was a man, prophetical and typical. He was divine, the Son of God. He is the living, quickening Spirit. He is the race's second head. He is both historical and mystical. Imitation of him is not discipleship ; discipleship lays deeper claim on the human personality. We must have sonship of him and in him. Knowing Jesus his- torically, ethically, and ideally is inadequate. In what we call our modern civilization there are multitudes of people who, almost luiconsciously, put forth efforts in certain respects to imitate Jesus Christ. This is to their credit, even though they have not reached a decision that swings them into line with the functions and potencies of spiritual sonship. The Jesus idea may, indeed, crystallize into race habit and race tribute. It may dominate unconsciously the thinking and acting of a people ; so much, so good. Admitting all of this, the resultant civilization may yet be rotten in spots. Defects will mar what would other- wise be a beautiful countenance. Redemption is deeper than ethical imitation. Instruction and ethical ideals are useful. The church 2 The Social ^lessage of Our Lord and the ' state may never discard the duty of giving tl)ese. The new birth, through faith in Christ as Redeemer and Savior, is essential. In this gracious experience we recover our divine sonship. Nicodemus was a great and, in many respects, beautiful character, but up to the time of his night conversation with, our Lord, he was without the vital citizenship. Christ proposes to come into human life by essential, affectional, experimental approach. He provides that we shall share his own inherent life rather than exhaust ourselves in the hopeless effort of mere imita- tive action. It is his plan and method that we shall take on his character, as well as approve his conduct. It is a great thing to gather admiringly about the eth- ical ideals of Christ, but it is a greater thing to receive power from him, on account of which these ideals become potent in our own character and dominant in our own conduct. Christ conquers from the cross. To appearances, it was the hour of his defeat ; but in that hour he lib- erated a moral and spiritual force that is revolutioniz- ing human character and elevating the path of human life. The gospel is essentially Christ crucified, Christ on the cross liberated the spiritual ministry to the human constitution, which salvation requires. This gos])el occasions an abiding redemptive emo- tionalism. An emotion that proceeds from Heaven, and does not exhaust itself in useless self-gratification. It is the emotion of a soul redeemed from the shackles of sin and liberated to do the will of God. In some quarters there is an unusual disposition to discount emotion in connection with tlic life of the cliurch. Clirist's Saviorship and Method 3 The Bible is an emotional book from first to last. It proposes salvation through the person of Jesus Christ and the person of the Holy Spirit, in attestation to the human consciousness. How can such a needed, whole- some, and rational ministry come into the conscious life of a human creature without suitable and valid emotionalism? Ill must betide the church when she makes it her business to repress the natural, though controlled emotion which redemption properly sug- gests and affords. It is not to be forgotten that emotion vitalizes the truth. The perception of the truth by the intellect may be cold, valueless, and a morally powerless process. Satan himself lacks not in the mental power of apprehending the truth ; but the truth needs to be warmed, vitalized, and welcomed in the rich affectional nature with which God has endowed humankind. To be sure, our emo- tion must be fed on divine truth and justified by strong, thinking. It can be sustained only by clear and advanc- ing conceptions of the truth. It must be expressed in nrtpelling motive to activity and service, in which the highest moral qualities obtain. At this point it is possible that many are weak and at fault. God gives the emotions attendant upon redemption m individual experience as so much dynamic by which we shall be suitably related to the service of our dis- cipleship. There must never die out of the heart of the individual Christian, or of the church, the great, vital, and passionate emotion which is provided and induced by the witnessing Spirit in the human soul. No emotion abides that does not nurture itself in the highest service. It passes except it be employed in 4 The Social Message of Our Lord practical living. If this requirement be not observed, it burns the heart to a cinder and leaves the individual charred and powerless for moral effort. It is the method of Christ to reach and make con- quest of the race through a church that is suffused and permeated with missionary illumination and passion. He can operate only through a church that touches men with the touch of her Lord. He moves forward to save through a church that is saved to serve. The missionary outlook of modern Christendom is one of her most hopeful features. A growing interest in the world-wide conquest of Christianity, which shall put its blessed and holy evangel of the better life on the heart of a darkened race, is one of the sublime spirit- ual miracles of our age. The race is awaiting our Lord's method of loving and saving conquest. He who listens will hear the subconscious moan of a starving world. Our civiliza- tion is luxurious, providing numberless methods of gratification to the human senses and desires ; but all that the old world affords leaves yet an aching void, for man is greater than the material environment in which he lives. He is born of the upland, and craves the higher and the abiding joys. Moral and spiritual degeneracy puts a blight over the most abounding prosperity. Character and moral quality condition all satisfactory human life. Declin- ing morals have always mantled the world in night; it must ever be so. Neglect of righteousness may be accompanied by an unnatural glow in the face of civiHzation, but constitutional health is the abiding and requisite need. Potash and nitrogen forbid bar- Christ's Saviorship and Method 5 renness of soil. God is the potash and nitrogen of the human heart, and he alone can save the race from retrogression. God in experience — and we are guar- anteed the glorious functions of an elevating civiliza- tion. He is the one unfailing resource. Here only may we find nourishing and healing for emaciated life and weary organization. God exists for the heart and the affections rather than for the intellect ; hence, the demand for deep and legitimate feeling, without which all Christian effort is non-efifective. It is to be observed that merely intel- lectual preaching can never be satisfactory. Our nature is such that we crave the indefinable quality which we call "unction" — the atmosphere of the tender and suffused heart. The human reason is of too small a caliber to com- prehend God. Our intellectual limitation here is as old as the race, and will not be altered in the present order. AMiile, intellectually speaking, the idea of God is great and ennobling as an idea, yet human nature is helpless until the heart has swung to its home in him ; until, by the childlike faith, we are homed in the bosom of God. Our ability to know God is affectional rather than intellectual. ''He that loveth is born of God and know- eth God." So, the knowledge of God is a heart knowledge. In answer to the heart's clamorous faith and its uplifted prayer, Christ renews the soul, and begins, in patient and conquering power, the upbuild- ing of the character into his own likeness. Let him begin and carry forward his conquest in us now. CHRIST AND THE UNITY OF THE RACE. XL 1. The Unity Affirmed. It is clearly the message of the Scriptures, confirmed by the most judicious investigation of man, that. God made man in his own image. In Adam and Eve the race had federal headship. It is verily true that Eve is the mother of us all. So mankind begins with a twofold hered- ity — the one is from God, and the other from the federal head. God's fatherhood is to the race. Whatever we say about the influence and power of human heredity, let it never be forgotten that we have also a Divine heredity. This is true of all the sons of men without regard to racial distinctions or political classifications. 2. Significance of the Fact. The message of this fact is first to be heard in the imposition upon the most enlightened portions of the world of the burden of totality. The race is a complete unit ; it is a living organism, a real body. It is not a ques- tion of what is to be done for the favored and wealthy portions of mankind ; we must consider the sum total of human need and human comfort. This responsibility for the sum total is pressing upon the heart of the church and our civilization with new force and added significance. In all care- Clirist and the Unity of the Race 7 ful and S3-mpathetic thinking the great word is "man." Naturally, we have magnified nationality, personal attraction, social position, commercial leadership. In the divine scheme and estimate these lines of demarkation are wholly obliterated. The thought of the unity of the race is a mighty intellectual stimulant. When pondered well it arouses to the full our powers of thought, reflection, and invention. It compels to resourcefulness and legitimate uses of power. As a fact, it places an inspired prophecy in the center of our tliinking and outlook. The unity of the race creates the task of universal reconciliation and brotherhood. Nothing can be more shortsighted on the part of diplomats and leg- islators than legal enactments which offend the spirit of a growing world fraternity and federation. That man is farseeing who keeps his eye upon the fact that the inevitable end is toward race-wide rela- tionship that shall compass all mankind in the bonds of affection and kindly interest. He is a foe to civilization who, by any act or thought, proposes to disturb this growing equilibrium of the human heart and interest. This fact of race unity throv.-s on the universal horizon the enterprise of world betterment. We can no longer expend our energies upon what is merely local and provincial ; we must hold in just esteem our world-wide relations and look forward to the hour when the highest good of the whole is to be the dominant consideration. Statecraft, 8 The Social Message of Our Lord diplomacy, and religion must all unite in this new evangel of brotherhood and love. 3. Christ and the Fact. Christ has been fittingly called ''the Son of man." He is the brother of all men ; he is the "second Adam." Much was lost in the first Adam ; it is all recovered, and more, in Christ, the new federal head of the race. He makes all men one. He is the light of the world. His rays are fall- ing with healing power on the irritated and inflamed passions of men. They are discerning the spirit of an ever-growing brotherhood. The experience of Christ is instantly a bond of unity. Wherever he is reincarnated in the affection and life of man the anthem of "Peace on earth and good will to men" is resung, because repeated in the soul's experience. Christ is the Savior of the world. How this termin- ology, "Savior" and "world," compels, even for its voicing, a broad and unstinted vocalization. Here are terms that override geographical boundaries and polit- ical divisions. It is more and more apparent that Christology is the propaganda for the hour. Concen- tration and intensity at this point insure religious and political efficiency. When the whole personality crys- tallizes vitality in the sentiment, "For me to live is Christ," we have a social unit that is a prophecy of good, and only good. There is a glorious efficiency in Christ's metaphysical sonship in the Godhead ; in his atoning sacrifice on the cross ; in his resurrection and atonement ; in the descent and continued ministry of his Holy Spirit. The incarnation extended and consummated itself in the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He became Christ and the Unity of the Race 9 the wisdom of God and power of God unto human salvation. To-day his Saviorship for the world is the greatest social dynamic. Christ is risen ! Christ is reigning! Christ is alive, and governing forevermore. Therefore, preaching him is wisdom ; therefore, fidelity to him is the most splendid patriotism. Christ is risen, and faith in him brings new life power. Christ is risen, and all radiance, love, and triumphant testimony are warranted in the fact. Christ is risen, and the suc- cess of redemption is assured. Christ is risen, and our hope is nourished and sustained. Christ is risen, and the whole race may be saved. Christ is risen, and the whole race must be called. The most glorious evangel of all the ages is the message of the cross and the risen life. There is now open to all men everywhere a perfect son ship toward God, and a perfect brotherhood toward men. This is the glowing, heated, vital gospel of the risen Lord. We must gather about the moral message of this Savior of mankind. His lordship means the recon- struction, in many respects, of our social ideas. His domain involves the correction of all false and malig- nant individualism. It guarantees a new sense of social responsibility. We shall all be compelled to ask the question, as to what are the rights and needs of all men in all stages of development and under all sorts of political and moral control. We shall have to con- secrate all resources to the noblest and highest use. Nothing short of this will satisfy the Spirit of God in the spirit of the age. ]\Iore and more the crest of the race's ambition and life is rising in a holy purpose to 10 The Social Message of Our Lord live unto him. To live unto him is to live in every good sense unto our fellow-men. To this view of the unity of the race, with its attend- ant duties and obligations, there are some natural resistances. These grow out of our prejudices, our ignorance, and our lack of high moral and spiritual instinct. Exalted personal and spiritual quality is a universal need. We who live in such easy access to all that is highest and best under the kindly nurture of Jesus Christ must more and more throw ourselves into the service which the unity of the race involves. There are not only personal hindrances to the vital recognition of the unity of the race, but there are certain institutional hindrances. These must be noted and corrected. Any institution which fails to be keenly alive to the fact under discussion will run an abbrevi- ated race, and pass under deserved eclipse. Men and institutions must pass under the overwhelming call and requisition for service in world-wide betterment. We must accept, in theory and in practice, with all that it means and involves, the unitv of the race. CHRIST AXD CIVILIZATION. III. Slowly and painfully the race has made its way from primitive conditions to what we now call our advanced civilization. Each age, as the world ])ro- gressed, has had its own definition for this term, ''civilization." In actual history it has been a con- tinuous process, a growing fabric of law and order ; this latter, however, being the result of many genera- tions of development. Civilization has, in fact, been the outgrowth of experience and necessity. We have reason to suppose that, originally, individual might was all-determining; within the radius of that power whatever was done went unchallenged. Repeated experiences with human personality and conduct grad- ually revealed the necessity of rules and customs in the creation of a social order. There came a recog- nized relation between individual character and cer- tain standards of refinement and conduct. Individual character aggregated, combined, and coordinated has brought the race, by slow processes, to present attain- ments. Facing to the future, civilization is ever building a higher law of life and individual control. With polit- ical organization into nations and empires, it has set about creating laws to be administered by constituted authority, which we call "government." An accepted 12 The Social Message of Our Lord principle is, that government exists by consent of the governed. More largely than ever before this prin- ciple holds in the affairs of mankind. While it is not universal, and in portions of the earth stronger gov- ernments hold control over the more imperfectly developed races, yet the progress toward government by consent is marked and gratifying. This principle may be said to be ideal, and ideals are not always realized in haste or brevity of time. In the evolution of the race there came a time when public opinion, through orderly methods, expressed itself in suitable legislation. Legislation being mean- ingless, unless backed up by suitable authority and penalty, the last named was, by due process, attached to certain lines of conduct. Li fraction of the law must be punished if the dignity of the law be upheld. Beyond the matter of mere authority, however, civili- zation has pursued a constant quest for the useful arts and the highest forms of development. Law and lib- erty have been gradually conjoined. The law has outlined the boundaries of freedom; these boun- daries, however, are welcomed by the law abiding. Progress has come in the possession of a settled system of law and its administration. To this power and authority all the complex interests of mankind have been referred for adjustment in cases of dispute and contention. The race is organized into great political and civil communities. The moral standards of mankind, as commonly accepted, are advancing. The relation of the standards set by the Almighty over the race to universal well-being are slowly winning coronation. Christ and Civilization 13 These have always been the same, but their applica- tion and interpretation are a process of growth. Civilization may be a veneer, imposed or enforced by law and military authority. Such outward enforce- ment in certain monarchial governments exists, and it is not the highest type of administrative influence and power. A routine of life prescribed by authority, supported by suitable and voluntary intelligence, means an obedience of growing exhilaration. This obedience to authority must be more than a surface character- istic. Civilization is like the ocean, receiving and redis- tributing the streams of national and world life. Religion has always been the mainspring of civiliza- tion. It could not be otherwise. RELATION TO CHRISTIANITY. With the most virile and dominant nations Chris- tianity has become the national ideal. This is true more largely than one may usually be aware. A per- centage of population, sometimes large, may withhold formal identification with Christ and his standards of life and action ; nevertheless, it may be true that, in the large and final sense, the Christian ideal is to the fore. Civilization w^ould be a failure without Christ. He is its heart, its nurturing life. It follows that the religious responsibility in civilization is always a large and serious one. Whenever, therefore, there is a forced or unnatural eflfort to disassociate, sympathet- ically, church and state, the progress of the race is hindered. In America, we all believe that we have 14 The Social jMessage of Our Lord fe' done well to make a clear line oi demarkation between the state and an}' formal rite or expression of special- ized religion. IJut this line of cleavage, however, should never mean the lack of sympath}- and common cause between the state and the church. God ordained in the beginning that the minister of religion and the minister of the state should be amenable to common and revered laws of righteousness ; that their admin- istration should have constant reference to harmony and unity. Unhappy, therefore, must our civilization be when we shall permit any estrangement or lack of sympathy between these two correlatives of our advancement. The church is even more responsible than the state. The church is the embodiment of the divine dynamic ; the state, in comparison, a diminutive mechanism. The church is responsible for the duties and definitions of civilization. Hence the imperative need that the church shall be alert, progressive, judicious, and sym- pathetic for the general good. She is to afford ideals of individual life, to map out policies for governmental activity, and lead with a growing efficiency toward every good and desirable consummation. It may be true that in certain respects and certain ages the church has been too hospitable toward small ideas. She may not at all times have held steadilv to her God-given function of capable, though unob- trusive leadership in national ideals and policies. The church is made up of aggregated human personalities, and is disadvantaged by the sum total of their weak- nesses and mistakes. As much may be said of the state. Our plea is for less isolation and separateness. Christ and Civilization 15 Not for a formal union, but for a sympathetic union ; for cordiality, for confidence ; for mutual frankness, forbearance, and persuasion. God hath joined together the two ; let not man allow their being apart. If the church has been given to little comforts and sacred day indulgences, she, nevertheless, has held the conserving germ of growth and progress. When she has grown tardy overmuch, and failed to respond to her providential function and appointment, God has wrought his will outside of her boundaries. This is the age when she is able to be prompt, sensitive, and statesmanlike in her relations to current need. The church is called upon to give, with all gladness, hos- pitable hearing to the cry of the needy and oppressed. She must not be despoiled of a tender heart by a pedantic criticism. It is, indeed, the vocation of the church to seize the world ; to seize it by the right of love, persuasion, and tenderness ; to arrest its attention and evil bent ; to fight its enemies and to shut up its hells. Civilization sometimes forgets that its original obli- gation is to Christ and his religion : forgets where it first lighted its torch. Civilization is busy with its elaborate distribution of offices and patronage. It needs to step aside awhile for the more profound mes- sage and obligation of brotherhood and genuineness. It must renew its care against the contagions of cor- ruption. Civilization without Christianity is languid, self- complacent, and self -destroying. Christ recalls us from our lethargy; disturbs our self-complacency by stronger ideals of service and devotion. He arrests 16 The Social Messasre of Our Lord t>' the elements that lead to our self-destruction. With- out Christianity, civilization exhausts itself upon itself and reverts to barbarism. This statement has histor- ical vindication. Civilization coarsens and brutalizes without the vital inward refinements and inspirations. It is empty and meaningless, save as used by the Chris- tian evangel. It lacks projectile and strength, save as mastered and inspired by Christianity. It must be undergirded by regenerated life. Irreligious civiliza- tion is a menace; civilization apart from the vitaliza- tions of religion is helpless to save the world from sin. God only can deal adequately with this last-named element of human peril and degeneracy. He has dealt with the problem of evil through Christ the Lord and Savior of men. Christianity prompts the slow and measured processes of evolution ; at times it compels the more radical, and yet effective method of revolu- tion. The two have ever been combined in the histor- ical development of mankind. Christianity, by its inherent power and nature, is the stay and staff* of an ever-advancing social order. CHRIST AND CHARACTER. IV. God's objective in his dealing with the race is character; character molded after the Model Alan. The attaining of this objective is a call from God to man for his cooperation and abiding interest. Let us consider the physical basis. If it be said that this is the sphere of the medical practitioner rather than the clergyman, our answer is that it is clearly the domain of the clergy to cooperate with the doctor in inculcating a few requisites of the body for the vigor of character to which all may well aspire. There is, then, a demand for a sound body. We live in bodies ; they are the vehicle and instrument of the soiil ; through the body we are related to the present environment. The success of life must, in a large sense, depend upon this relationship being effective. It is, therefore, a worthy ambition that one should seek a perfect body as the embodiment of the perfect soul. Another phase of the physical basis of the vigor- ous character is good blood. Our minds make use of the brain. The brain must have flowing through it pure blood. The process for this vital element moves on with suitable food in the stomach, a perfect assimilation, with proper oxygenation through the lungs ; hence, the question of proper dietary. 18 The Social iNlessage of Our Lord breathing, and ventilation enters into the problem of efficient human life. The relation which all this sus- tains to over-eating, to the eating of improper food, and to the use of intoxicants, is self-evident. God made the stomach for an exalted function, and happy the man or woman who recognizes this function and lives accordingly. Abstemiousness is anoither factor in the physical basis of character. Moderation and control in all things — this law is as old as Sinai. Yes, it is as old as the race. It has never been abrogated, and it never "will be. Obedience enriches one's life wnth infinite blessing and gracious power. Occasional fasting may fitly be considered as not only having original religious significance, but as having great value in one's care of the body. These requisites of effective character are Avorthy of our study, and no religious curriculum is complete that does not take them up. Our Lord has indicated certain damaging weak- nesses which forbid development of strong char- acter : Separation from God. The light for the eye, the air for the lungs, the blood for the body, and God for the soul and character. Changeableness is indicated in the Scriptures as calamitous to good character. A correct attitude as to one's moral choices and religious experiences must not only be taken, but held with grim deter- mination. Who of us but has been weakened by this lack of high quality? Christ and Character 19 Again, character is improverished by aimlessness. Life needs to gather about definite aim. Aimless people are the gad-aboiits of society. They impov- erish themselves and impoverish others. A divided affection is a deadly foe to that vigor of character for vv^hich Christ stands and to which he invites. Life needs to be a unit. It is so often fractional — goodness in streaks, purified love in alter- nating currents and variable quantities, goodness as the morning cloud and the passing dew. A feeble tenacity tow^ard moral truth and Christ- like ideals makes strong character impossible. Our Lord illustrates this in the parable where he tells us of good seed caught away. The soil might have produced bountifully ; the seed was vital and well placed, but it was caught away, and the process of germinal life made impossible. Superficiality is another foe to strong character. The call to genuineness is the call of the Christ to all generations. No strong character can be built up that does not make its base line in this require- ment. It is easier to act a part ; it requires a struggle to be as good as we know. Failure here, however, is fatal, and touching this problem of gen- uineness we must ever be on the alert. Many are brought to bewilderment by rival claimants for affection, time, talent, and earthly possessions. No life can be builded into strength and power that does not settle this rivalry by mak- ing the claims of the kingdom of God first, forever and forever, and through and through. Rivalry in 20 The Social Message of Our Lord the human heart forbids its unity, its power, and its peace. "Thou shall have no other gods beside me." When this enthronement of the Divine Lord in human life is thoroughly made, the vital processes of our upbuilding are under way. Doublemindedness is another foe to vigor and character; the two-souled man is unstable in all his ways. He has a mind to do evil, and a mind to do well. He swings like a pendulum between the two ; he makes a mockery of life and of his own powers. He goes to the bottom at last, like a dismantled and abandoned craft at sea. Periodical or chronic doubt is an element of weakness. Doubt is negation ; faith is affirmation. Doubt is destructive ; faith is constructive. Doubt is depressing; faith is inspiring. Doubt is paralyz- ing; faith is quickening. Dismiss doubt. Live on the positive side of life, and thou shalt triumph gloriously. Inward tendencies to evil are immediately notice- able in the beginnings of the Christian experience. Those who are not Christians also note this inward tendency. It must be corrected ; it must be stayed ; yea, it must be destroyed. Christ announces that he came into the world to destroy the works of the devil. It is the work of the devil to maintain this tendency to evil within the human heart. Christ's proposal is for eradication, cleansing, and substitu- tion of the higher and the more potent life which is in him. Christ and Character 21 An abuse of the divine forbearance forbids strength of character. God is patient and delays judgment. He is not wilHng that any should perish, but rather that all should turn to him and live. Years are added that life may have the added opportunity to do well, but who cannot see that an abuse of this forbearance is a most fruitful cause of weak and non-efifective character? Every man should bring himself delib- erately to an immediate surrender to the claims of the Christian life, so that divine forbearance is not put to the test. This attitude invites and secures the nourish- ing presence of God, until no one may predict the rich and bountiful influence that shall flow therefrom. Heart hardening is a process to which human nature gives itself under a strange delusion. A moment's serious thought must lead one to feel that the kindly ministries coming to our hearts for recall to obedience and righteous living, are to be imme- diately recognized and encouraged. The process of hardening one's heart against the appeals of goodness is a foe of such subtlety, and exerts, withal, - such a paral3^zing influence on the character that one needs to be keenly on the alert against this seduction. Protracted religious conviction is another occa- sion of many a downfall. When convictions for religious living and experience come to one they should be met with hospitable treatment and im- mediate obedience. The writer has in mind a man who, for thirty or forty years has struggled with conviction as to the religious life, and, so far as one can see, all to no avail, except his own misery. 22 The Social Message of Our Lord Long ago, if he had brought the matter to an issue, squared himself to it like a man, he would have been living in the freedom of God's sunshine and in the pow^er of a divine sonship. He has had no moral rig'ht to this long and costly delay. Gradu- ally, his ability for response to conviction has weak- ened, and he is more adrift now than ever before. Such a result is inevitable. It comes by fixed and fatal logic. Our very earliest religious convictions should be respected, welcomed, and obeyed. Narrow vision and sympathy is the opponent of strong character. This is the age of vision. This is the hour for sympathy. We limit either only at our peril. Many lives are weakened because they worship at many altars. They are the devotees of numer- ous deities. One may, indeed, deify his own appe- tites and passions. Finally, it needs to be said that a failure to w^holly follow the Lord, after his gracious life has been planted in the heart, can but make life weak peren- nially. This matter of unquestioned and entire obedi- ence to the law which regenerated life sets up in the heart is all-important. Fidelity here means growing power, joy, and sweetness in the whole life. Here are a few of the vigor requisites : First and foremost comes the question of inward divine en- thronement. Our heart thrones belong to Christ. When he rules, every subordinate affection is made the richer and the more pleasing. If the heart throne be withheld from him, then our affections Christ and Character 23 rage and wander; they fall into entanglements, struggle with divergencies, and fail of holy functions. Communion with God through the daily presence of the Holy Spirit is the high and holy inheritance of us all. When our interests are God's interests, our toils in harmony with his wishes, our commun- ion with him shall be unbroken and satisfying. No vigor of character is possible without a decision for Christ which is radical, final, and irrev- ocable ; a decision which forbids the lingering of any tempter and which brooks no invitation to go astray. If, in a moment of severe and unexpected trial, one should fall into evil, it must not break this decision. Immediately the heart must lift up its cry to Almighty God for pardon and restoration, for the vows to God are in thought. Continuous Word nourishing is a daily need of the noble and godly character. The succeeding generations in Christian life and service all attest in unbroken testimony the power and place of the Word of God in daily spiritual nurture and development. AVe dare not be negligent at this point. The Word nourishes the passion for goodness, it nour- ishes resistance against evil, it reinforces every desire for holy living, and insures the conquest of one's unworthy selfhood in the light of our Lord's own countenance. Vigor of character calls for frequent and exacting introspection. This must not be overdone or car- 24 The Social ]Messao:e of Our Lord fe' ried to the point of discouragement. One must, however, candidly and unsparingly take inventory of his own inner spiritual quality and life. He must slay, without any disposition to spare, the idols that would usurp the Lord's own throne in the affec- tions. This introspection will call our attention to our growth and advancement in the life of holiness. It will indicate to one who is thoughtful just how good a use he is making of his time. It will call attention to any failure to consummate the voices t^hat have called toward righteousness. In this great work of holding the character to the standards of eternal righteousness one must be everlastingly at it, for, in this conflict, as in any other, vigilance is the price of our freedom. Faithfulness in soul winning is a cardinal virtue with the child of God, and potent in maintaining the Christian character. At this point we have reason to fear many make serious mistake. It is clearly the New Testament conception that every Christian is to be a soul winner. It is easily possible if one but goes about it with a heart to do. Winning another life to Christ is the sweet and holy occupa- tion of the Christ-illumined soul. No Christian should think of allowing any length of time to elapse without l)eing reasonably sure that he has been used of God in winning another to the service. Complete abandonment to God, with a daily acquies- cence in his will for service, insures the strength that fails not. Here are the laws of efficiency in the Chris- tian life. Christ and Character 25 A\'hat are the glorious results of the character indicated and brought within reach by the holy influence and ministry of Jesus Christ? We an- swer, as one of the most gratifying results of this enthronement in any life, there will come continuous transformations, changes from strength to strength, from glory to glory, from purity to purity, and from power to power. Who shall set the boundary be}'ond which these transformations may not go under the sympathetic ministry of Christ? It also follows with the obtainment of such char- acter, that a growing influence wall characterize the life. Influence we all covet, and it is a compliment to our personality that we do. To be influential in a good sense is to be in so much like God. We live not for ourselves, and it is certain w^e cannot live to ourselves. The radius of a gracious human life has never been defined. It survives the dust of the gra^•e and the grim reaper may not cut it down. It exercises peculiar and telling ministries during the days of one's pilgrimage on the earth, and survives v/hen onh^ a marble shaft in a quiet cemetery may undertake, in a material" way, to remind one of a name long since erased from the book of the living. Growing influence is, then, to be coveted. This will be the normal result of a character which is begotten by Jesus Christ, and which is daily nourished in the sw^eet ministries of the Word and of the Holy Spirit. Yet, another result of this gracious, Christlike character will be the prevalence of triumphant 26 The Social Message of Our Lord reforms. Individually, many a life slips away, at the- beginning, from its moorings and haven in pure and good living. In such case there is no hope for life unless some heavenly influence fol- lowing the youth-time shall recall to purity and right. This reformative evangelization in adult life is always uncertain and always difficult. How- ever, when it does obtain it means the reform of the individual, and by so much as his personal influence counts the reform of the community, the State, and the nation. The horizon of the present generation is bedecked with the stars of promise. These stars are the various reforms sweeping over the land in behalf of human betterment. If we may have Christian character in our citizenship these reforms will triumph gloriously. If we may not have Christian character in our citizenship the chariot wheels of reform will drag heavily. In the last analysis everything depends upon character. Another characteristic of this type of character which justifies emphasis, is the fact that it inaugu- rates in the earth life the eternal felicities. Our little way of three score and ten is a part of eter- nity. In the eternity of the past, lying behind our conscious life, it has been the great pleasure of God to excite the human heart with joy. The con- summation towards which he is constantly looking is the restoration of joy on earth and the prepara- tion for the joys of heaven. What these are to be we may not know ; we can taste and anticipate. Christ and Character Z7 At the last, sorrow shall die and peace shall reign supreme ; the scars from the battle of life that have marred our souls' history, bringing us hours of disquietude and depression, shall all be erased by the deft and tender touches of the life eternal. Eternal felicities of the earth? Yes. Eternal happiness here in the human heart, and now? Yes. The redeemed soul can but sing its rapturous story. It can but burst from lips that have been dumb and express itself in the very rhapsody of the soul. z\ll hail to the glorious coronations of Christian char- acter ! It is worth our while to enter upon this conflict and to win in this battle. CHRIST AND CULTURE. V. All the calls of Christ are upward. He leads life by the spiral stairway into the heights of ever-freshen- ing delight. Any other conception of the communions and joys of the Christian life is a misconception. In this upward journey, in which Christ links himself with the human personality, he indicates interest in every possible phase of individual development. He is indeed, the shepherd leader who knows where the green pastures are located, and who fights to the finish the foes of satisfying ruminations and rest. The bliss of this fellowship and the joy of this communion are not magnified as they should be, even by the people of the church. It must have occurred to you that, in our report on the gracious care and shepherding of our Shepherd King, we have lacked quite the enthusiasm which the facts justify. The blessedness of the Christian life can never be de- scribed. It will take the endless ages to unfold its beauty. Hence, it follows that with this interest of our great Shepherd in human joy and human attain- ment, his voice is always on the side of culture and development for the children of men. In his thought, "Where shall this culture begin?" the answer is, "With the divine renewal and full Christ and Culture 29 inspiration of the ego." Back of, and dominating the will, using the mental processes, related through the senses, and evidencing itself in the sensibilities, lies the ego, the center of personality which God would inhabit, beautify, uphold, and perfect. This beginning of human culture, with the beginnings of divine com- munion, is normal for human development. Strange that the approach to this subject of personal religion should so often be characterized by a feeling of shame, of stupidity, and dullness. Personal religion is as normal to a human being as are limbs and organs to the human body. Strange that there should be resist- ance in some sections of the educational world to this natural claim of personal religion on the attention of the child and all of the child's teachers. The voice of the Scriptures, for early piety, finds confirmation in the psychological development of child life. Culture, to be sure, involves the acquisition of knowledge ; knowledge vitalized by the living teacher; knowledge classified and systematized under a curriculum ; knowl- edge by training in handcraft ; knowledge by conver- sation, by books and periodicals; knowledge by divine worship and the divine Word ; knowledge by doing ; knowledge by seeing and feeling; knowledge by dis- cussion and comparison. \\'e may profitably note the contributing institutions of culture. At the head of all of them stands the home, built about two loving hearts, united in the pure bonds of mutual confidence and affection. The home, nourished by the most kindly influences of the heav- enly world ; the home, safeguarded, protected, glorified by the abundant teachings of Holy Writ ; the home, 30 The Social Message of Our Lord the source of hope for added life and the world's future. We shall never overestimate the influence of the' home in the culture of the race. The time is well spent by any nation, community, or individual who shall patiently collate the discriminating messages of the Word of God touching the home, as related to its inmates and to all human posterity. Christ stands for the home in all its beauty, sanctity, and power. Here he would install the love of- one man to one woman. Here he would call into being the offspring, welcomed by parental affection and nurtured in the breath and atmosphere of prayer. Here he would give tempera- ture and tone that shall give character and form to subsequent life. A second contributing institution to culture is the church". The church is the home idea and atmosphere extended and organized about a great common center. The church is the greater home for all the homes, and which cannot exist with efficiency unless vmdergirded by the original institution for the training of the race. Upon the church devolves the responsibility of carry- ing to the highest general and individual efficiency the holy influences that emanate in the home. She is called upon to devote herself with unflagging zeal and energy to the development of the race in the high and holy art of living well. Her appointed functions are sacred and her influence an echo of the divine purpose and plan. Added to the foregoing comes the influence of the school. There can be no question about the testimony of the Scriptures for this institution. Wherever Christ's name is known and revered, there the school, Christ and Culture 31 in all grades and forms, is provided, and its great work encouraged. Its instrumentality in human culture passes without challenge. Care for the school devolves upon church and state ; and, sympathetically, these are one. Unhappy the day when sympathetically they drift apart! Yet another agency of human culture is the state itself. The government is the mechanism through wdiich the church is to apply her holy influence and energy to the problems of public control and direction. The state may need no formal union with the church ; the church may need no formal union with the state, but by no false view of the functions of either should a chasm be allowed between the two. The minister of the church and the minister of the state are called upon to be at one. The home, the church, the school, the state, are a holy quartet, called upon to act in unison, thereby guaranteeing an efficient relationship to the whole population. The blessing of Christ is on all of these agencies and institutions for human better- ment. His mind and spirit in control of them will bring the golden age for which the centuries have cried. What is the value of culture? To the individual, culture means everything desirable. One who passes into adult life, with all its serious responsibilities, without adequate culture always regrets the early neg- lect. To the individual, culture means the enhanced value of every native endowment, the judicial control of every faculty of mind and body. To the family, culture has immeasureable value. The family ma}^ not be so situated as to pass to their 32 The Social Messasfe of Our Lord &' children large endowments of material good. The children of many families must leave the home-tree and confront the battles of life wholly dependent on their own resources, so far as earthly gain is con- cerned. But, if the family has been properly ambi- tioned and properly atmosphered on the subject of education, an inheritance passes along the line from parent to child that cannot be estimated by any amount of money. Next to the legacy of a good character is the legacy of a good education. The family circle creates a great center of teeming and tender memories. Age and the passing years calling, it may be, to far distant scenes of activity, the memory will often revert to the scenes and fellowships of the days at home. If the family life has been built about the exaltation of learning, floods of sweet memory will cheer the children on wherever they may roam. The urgency and kindly influence of parental life in encouraging children to an education is a most gracious factor in the home. Its value is above gold. Gold perishes, but culture is immortal. The value of culture to society is worthy of our discussion. Children soon grow away from the home life and, of necessity, become members of society here, there, and yonder. If they, themselves, are the prod- ucts of Christian culture, they will carry that air and quest into society wherever they move. The cultured man or woman has had awakened in his or her own mind the spirit of inquiry and investigation. He resists the tendency to dull monotony and intellectual decay. The mainspring of learning has been set to Christ and Culture 33 the machinery of hfe, and it will run to the last. A fondness for learning carried into society as the result of early culture, is an asset to be highly valued in any commonwealth. But what of the value of culture to the church and religion? Since the church stands for leadership in all questions of vital human interest, those who have charge of her pulpits and worship at her altars need the ministries and refinements of the broadest and truest education. Learning has been designated as the handmaid of religion. Certain it is that the whole trend of the Scriptures and the unmistakable testimony of Christ in his sovereignty over human life, is on the side of the deepest and most genuine culture from all the possible sources and institutions to which human beings can be related. We may properly ask, "What are the conditions of efficiency in human culture?" First and foremost, it must be under Christian motives and ideals. This prin- ciple is fundamental. It ought not be abrogated by an unfortunate prejudice against religion, or by any neg- lect of its high and helpful ministries. It is not extrava- gant to say that education is absolutely lost and vain unless given, accepted, and used under the high motives and ideals which stand forth in the divine Man. Cul- ture should be given in a Christian atmosphere; this to preserve from its unhappy association with wicked and vicious character. An educated villain is one of the most despisable objects on the earth. He has brightened his mind by the stimulating processes of culture, and yet, because he lacks in Christian charac- ter, his life is a loss, a menace, a catastrophe. 34 The Social Messas:e of Our Lord b' Culture should be genuine and thorough. This requirement carried through the home, the church, the school, the state will do much to enhance the value of learning. It should also be broad and continuous. Narrow and exclusive culture makes one provincial, while a culture that does not extend throughout all of one's career blunts and dulls any personality, however brilliant at the onset. Every good process and quality in humankind calls for continuity. The broken shaft is not a more certain impediment to efficiency and strength than an abbreviated temper and quest for learning. Culture should be hospitable, charitable, and ample; it should be general and special. General education, because it lays deep and broad those foun- dations that are essential to any specialization in after years ; special, because the age demands that one should be highly efficient in some definite field of achievement rather than have a low grade of efficiency in general activities. How would Christ have us extend the ministry of culture? It is clearly his teaching that we should extend its ministry by the actualization of its mental and spiritual ideals. In other words, cultured people are called upon to make good in the real battles of this old work-a-day world. Whenever a child of culture goes bankrupt in character, and fails of a holy zeal for learning, by so much he interferes with the ministry of learning. We may also extend the ministry of culture by exalting its spirit and advocating its claims upon church and state ; also, by supporting its agen- cies and endowing its operations. The final word to us all in this age of libraries, schools, colleges, homes, Christ and Culture 35 and churches is for culture of the complete and efti- cient kind. Culture of mind, of heart, and of hand. Because life affords a golden opportunity for service, and opens the door to achievement, we must all secure training, and, at any cost, prepare ourselves for the splendid conflicts and victories of an earthly career. CHRIST AND THE GREATEST HANDICAP. VI. When the philosophers have had their say, and the theorists have handed down their conclusions as to the greatest handicap of the race, the testi- mony of history v^ill force us back to the conclusion that the one thing above all others which forestalls and impedes human progress is an uncleansed moral nature. Some politicians may not see it, some educators may not consent to it, some devotees of society may not acknowledge it ; but the fact re- mains : it is sternly true, its confirmation is found in the records of human experience in every century of the world's history. Strange, the fact should be overlooked. Sin corrodes and corrupts human personality, ever and always. Science and mere mental culture have not removed sin. By tacit consent we avoid the unpleasant. One of the standards of modern conversation makes a demand that we shall con- verse about agreeable subjects. Our disposition to shrink from a candid inquiry as to the importance of moral cleansing is costly and not to be encour- aged. Delusion of any sort is ruinous. Delusion as to this matter puts one in a catalogue with blind Samson in the dungeon of Gaza. Christ and the Greatest Handicap 37 A man handicapped by an uncleansed moral nature is like a seagoing vessel with defective en- gines and inadequate power. An underpowered vessel may make many voyages under peaceful skies ; she may pass into many ports and deliver cargoes without serious delay ; but in the day of storm and stress she is brought to a standstill in the face of the gale ; and when power is most needed she is left to founder in her helplessness. Sin is the enemy of power. By so much as it enters into the human life it diminishes power. Sin is a unit of evil. Its opposite is salvation, the unit of righteousness. When it is unmasked it can but hiss its abomination and malignant hate in the face of an offended God. Sin has great variety in its methods and seduc- tions. It mocks God in every attribute of his nature. It is the expression of satanic effort to thwart the beneficient plans of God for the race. Leaves var)^ in size, color, and form, but all grow from the same trunk and tree. No matter about the variety, sin has common origin in the unit of evil, an uncleansed moral nature. Sin is self isolation from God. Isolation is al- ways dangerous. Everything in creation depends upon relationship. Man^s peace and power, char- acter and destiny, depend upon his union with, or isolation from God. Sin is the erratic comet in headlong flight. It breaks away from the laAvs of gravitation that hold to paths of safety and orbs of light. The comet is a pirate on the high seas 38 The Social Message of Our Lord of space. Detached from its' mother body it swings ,into space without control. It is arres-ted in its wild flight at last, when the attraction of some body, which it is passing, brings it into leash. Sin brings an indescribable sense of guilt to the human soul. It always means an apprehension of approaching judgment and penalty. Our guilt is tlie result of a change in our feelings. It is the chill and numbness from God's withdrawal. It works the ultimate and final distortion. It is the permanent and all-determining negation. Touch- ing all the cardinal virtues and surpassing excel- lencies the child of God alone has hopeful and powerful relation. We may ask, with all candor and solicitude, "What is the attitude of God toward the human handicap?'' There is such a thing as rig'hteous indignation. All correct thinking brings us to the conclusion that God, by his very nature, flames in wrath against persistent evil. The INIaster's scourge of cords, as he appeared in the temple, and with which he drove out of the sacred enclosure those who were doing violence to its holy traditions, indi- cates a permanent and commendable trait of the divine character. God's wrath aginst evil is but the expres- sion of his unflinching condemnation of that which despoils the world of its purity and drenches it in sorrow. A shattered life can be repaired by God alone. He only can make human life helpful and fruitful. He wdio disregards this possibility and law^ commits Christ and the Greatest Handicap 39 an offense of the most far-reaching seriousness. Between man and man we may accept an apolog-y. God only, and alone, can really forgive sin. Sin fixed up between man and man is only half settled. The deepest wound of a ruined and godless life is on the very heart of Deity. God can forgive only because grace is stronger than the law. There is both pity and power in the forgiveness of God. The same Lord who said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," said also, ''Arise, take up thy bed and walk." God pardons our sins that he may fill us with new moral power. Christ not only proposes to cover, but to cure our evil. As to the faults and failures of a forgiven man, God looks far deeper than any human observer. To know any man at his worst is not to know him at all. Divine forgiveness deals with penalty. It also removes the obstacle to communion. This communion God is always seek- ing. It is foremost in all his plans, and most effi- cient in the fact. The moment a soul is united to Christ a vitalizing process begins. We may never forget that divine forgiveness is costly. There is no place in the whole trainsaction for spiritual dishonesty. The mystery of the atone- ment is half explained \Vhen we recall that it ex- presses God's exaction and integrity in the moral realm. The atonement is the greatest transaction in human history. Surveying the whole human horizon, nothing more sublime appears. Finally, let us review the attitude of the cross to the greatest human handicap. No American ques- 40 The Social Message of Our Lord tions the value of what transpired on Bunker Hill. At mention of the name his heart is aflame with a bounding sense of the bravery, patriotism, and devotion of the fathers of his country. Bunker Hill is a great place in American thinking, because it witnessed an unquestioned act in behalf of country and liberty. Who can estimate the value of the sacrifice on the cross? Calvary, with all that was back of it, was the price of human pardon. Forgiveness may not end entirely the natural results of sin. It does, however, rebegin the life under the over-shadowing grace and protection of Almighty God. There is no place for gleeful sin- ning. Forgiveness may not touch the bent to sinning; this must be taken up subsequent to the experience of pardon, and dealt with in the tender- ness and depth of a continuous care for righteous- ness and rectitude in God's type. Sunken war vessels may not carry the flag of commissioned service again. They may lie at the bottom of the sea, dismantled, and forever unused, the abode of denizens of the deep. Church harbors contain many submerged and dismantled lives. It becomes the serious work of the church and the problem of the ministry to cooperate with Almighty God in recovering submerged lives and in re- christening and repowering those who have gone astray. Wrecked vessels maist be raised and refitted if made effective. Men everywhere need the up- lifting, cleansing, and refitting touch. We need the fresh and unexpired commission. Thank God for the miracle of human repair. CHRIST AND HUMAN ABILITY. VIL There are two types of life: the one is on the plane of strictly human ability and effort. Somebody has cliaracterized it as ''the ennobling spirit of strug- gle." Just how much of creditable human achievement is to be attributed to this spirit in the world, we may not know. It is evident that a persistent determination to achieve, even when disassociated with any recog- nized religious inspiration, has value and strength. Much may be accomplished by dint of will and work. Steady concentration of the mind on any task is a guarantee of at least slow, though laborious advance. Another type of life has origin in what we may term "divine inspiration." This involves spiritual insight and faith. It means superhuman uplift and illumina- tion. It recognizes energy and power quite above and apart from one's self. It sometimes occurs that both of these types of life have the same objective. Either type produces its own variety of character. Either type must be regarded as incomplete if alone. United, these types make the complete character. Illustrations are afforded in such men as Gladstone, Robertson, Brooks, Roosevelt. If one's life shall be put on the plane of mere human ability, with no outlook and uplook toward the divine and supernatural, one may climb, but it must be painfully and slowly. He must 42 The Social Message of Our Lord be the more often defeated by hindrances. He must hve his life in the twilight instead of the noonday. Much of his talent must be non-effective and unnur- tured. "To do easily what is difificult for others is a mark of talent." "To do what is impossible to others, no matter how talented, is inspiration." Any study of passing humanity reveals the fact that there are many talented people who are not inspired, and vice versa. Talent has been referred to as "a thing weighed." We, therefore, hear of a "weighted mind," a "rich mental endowment." We easily comprehend the fact that talent pertains to the mind ; hence, properly we say "a talented mind," but never "a talented heart." Toward all human ability Christ sustains the rela- tion of utmost friendliness, and that friendliness is never withdrawn until the mind has so given itself over to evil bent as to destroy the influences of the Christ nurture and action. Friendliness of the human personality to Christ is rewarded a thousandfold in the splendid reactions, visitations, and communions that flow from one's acquaintance with him. Our Lord stands for the spiritual inspiration, main- tenance, and endowment of all human ability. When human ability becomes immoral, it eclipses itself from his enrichment and communion. It is the plan of Christ that there shall be interpenetrations between human ability and his inspirations. He would have the individual wait reverently before him for the advent of divine and religious inspiration. He would have the heart religionist seek high mentality and the use of every possible worthy human resource. Christ and Human Ability 43 Let not talent, though strong and self-reliant, forget that there is a plane of higher power. It is the very strateg\^ of Satan to keep inspiration and human ability from uniting into the highest energy and effi- ciency. Christ would have the man of inspiration accept, with all heartiness, the drudgery of hard study and strenuous toil. He would warn such a one against becoming a grand master in the art of lying down when difficulties hedge the way. Christ would have men careful to deserve inspiration and careful to retain its far-reaching ministry and enriching influ- ence. Inspiration from Christ is the power of ample, comprehensive, and worthy achievement. It is the power of working availably and helpfully in the whole circle of one's life. Intellect and reason are valuable and essential ele- ments of the human personality ; but there is a force available and coming within the scope of human out- reach that is deeper than intellect and reason. It comes because of that provision which the divine Lord has made for the introduction into human experi- ence of the inexhaustible powers and forces which emanate from him. These forces spring, forth in connection with an honest and genuine faith. Christ stands for the mighty quickening of the spiritual nature. All of life that precedes this quick- ening is "death" and "sleep." It is eminently rational that our Lord should say to every man, "Ye must be born again." All human ability stands in need of this divine enrichment ; its practical utility in the problem of human life and achievement is beyond all question. Previous to the moment of one's definite and full 44 The Social Message of Our Lord religious inspiration there are touches and periods of preparatory influence and effort on the part of Christ to possess his throne in the human heart. This accounts for temporary feelings of conviction for wrong doing, and of conviction for righteousness. These touches and occasional visitations are a source of hope, and, if properly treated, bring upon the human soul the permanent divine indwelling. Individual inspiration is the effective message in religion. The educated man has the greater ability to use religious inspiration. It follows that, other things being equal, the possession of marked ability of any kind in one should mean the larger, the superior, the more influential life. It is not always so. Some indi- viduals with great ability in several directions fail seriously and fail finally, because, upon their human abilities they would never permit to descend the in- spiration that Christ would pour into the heart and life. THE SUBLIME MOMENT AND EXPERIENCE FEATURED. Life on the dead level of unaided human ability must often be dull, monotonous, and disappointing. He who dwells apart from God consciously realized in the soul must often feel the chill which is always the result of a divine absence. May we not describe, to a certain measure of profit, what are the features of the moment and the experience when Christ's inspira- tions touch and vitalize the whole personality? It is fair to say that the moment and fact of such incomipg inspiration is intuitively recognized. In a sense, our struggling and striving cease — cease for the moment in the very ecstasy of the divine visita- Christ and Human Ability 45 tion and incoming, displaced by a quiet and satisfied receptivity as the life of God flows into the soul. It brings a sense of superhuman and assuring strength. It releases one to natural and spontaneous relations to God and his law. The Bible has a new, fresh, and invigorating significance. God is not far off, but at hand. There comes a sense of rest to the weary soul ; it is the advent of ''intuitive religious life." All this is no more incredible than the inspiration of artist or musician. A word here to the religiously inspired : Rest not on the initial experience; it is capital, but for immedi- ate enlargement and investment. Do not do business too long on this one spiritual event ; there are heights beyond. If you hesitate to go in quest of them, you v/ill exhaust the power of the initial visitation. Follow up its holy advantage. Act on its most delicate intima- tions. Insist definitely with yourself on the ''ascent of the spiritual consciousness." Remember that it is Christ's order that we remove through repeated and enlarged inspirations to ever higher planes. The initial inspiration is forerunner to those more mighty and transforming. We must, by all means, remove by safe distances from the starting-point. The initial experi- ence is the point of departure from the uninspired life. We shall need even more than the "second blessing," good and splendid as that may be. The higher we go the wider the horizon. We may reach the altitude of a glorious inclusiveness ; mark the play of the more beautiful lights and shades. It is the altitude where all the discords of the earth die. God's horizons have an expanding boundlessness everywhere. 46 The Social Alessage of Our Lord In this, the ascent of Hfe, we shall find the need of periodical readjustments, where the whole ground of the. character foundations and inspirations must be gone over with care and precision. Let us not fear these necessary periods; they will yield us only gain. Neglect of this duty is the occasion of so many impov- erished lives. Let it ever be remembered that while no real growth discredits, falsifies, or minifies any previous stage, neither will real growth be satisfied short of a constant quest for the heights above. The beginnings grow dearer the farther we are removed from them. The childhood home never seems half so sweet as when many leagues separate, and memory spans the space to reinstall one in the place where life had its beginning. CHRIST AND HUMAN INSPIRATION. VIIL Ix I. Thessalonians 2:13, we read, "The teaching of God, who is even now at work in you." From this statement, which refers to the gospel as the teaching of God, with its message of instruction covering all that is vital in life, the writer passes to call attention to the fact in the after part that God works within the human personality. This statement is over and over again affirmed in a variety of expressions in Holy Writ. It is plain, therefore, that Christ intends to work within us as well as without us. The Lord's objective in individual inspiration is the elevation of the race. In a very important sense the whole race was elevated in the inspiration of David and Paul. So of all the great characters whom it has pleased God to use in the functions of inspiration. Paul and David, for illustration, were the mouthpieces of our Lord for a distinct and specific purpose, beyond that of their own religious development. While only a few were needed to produce the Bible, everybody needs to be the recipient of the individual inspiration under discussion, in order that he may exemplify and pass the divine message along. If it be said that in presenting the duty and privi- lege of individual inspiration, there is danger of fanaticism, let us be reminded of the fact that there 48 The Social Message of Our Lord has been provided an accurate test for the inspirations tliat may come to men. Any inspiration from Christ through the Holy Spirit correlates with the divine Word. The Bible, therefore, is our book of reference, and we can easily determine by its laws and principles whether our inspirations are from the right source, and therefore trustworthy. We have no doubt that spirits of evil have access to the human mind; exag- gerated emotions may become mischievous and work harm, but we shall not, on this account, fail to empha- size the universal need of individual inspiration by Jesus Christ. Individual inspiration gives one a proper estimate and appreciation of the Scriptures. If doubts have been in the mind about their validity, authenticity, and inspiration, they are all removed under this gracious experience. Sometimes one's individual inspiration is like the dawnings of intellectual life. In other cases, this consciousness may be sudden and rapid in its development and satisfying testimony. At any rate and in every case, it is a gratifying and strengthening experience. This individual inspiration, by which one correlates with the Word of God, revolutionizes char- acter and life. If preceded by intense and clear prep- arations, the soul bursts into the joy and freedom of a new citizenship. This individual inspiration makes the authority of the Bible welcome. Its precepts and laws mark the glad boundaries of all our activities. Its law is our liberty. We come to feel that there is no despotism in the duties imposed by Holy Writ. It should be observed, furthermore, that while God has used human beings in the transmission of the Christ and Human Inspiration 49 Scriptures to the race, the human element has not impaired the divine authority. The goal is the inspira- tion of humanity. Individuals are the points of con- tact for divine action ; some of them rise like moun- tains set against the sky; they have been used to give a message that the world will never allow to die. Inspiration is greater than personality. No matter what may be said with regard to the personality, bril- liant, attractive, aggressive, or what not, the indefin- able quality which comes by the inspiration is the all- vitalizing element and all-determining factor. Alan in God's order is to be the instrument of the divine plans and purposes. Christ would elevate him by the use to which he devotes him. We may think of Christ as we think of a dynamo in some mountain canon. The dynamo is gendering power. It is saying constantly within itself : 'Tf the wires are but strung, I will be away into the city and turn its wheels of transportation and manufacture. I will light its streets, its homes, its hospitals, through the long and dreary night. I will warm its chilled apartments and bring the glow of comfort to the poor and the sufifering." So God is ever saying: 'T would be away into a thousand ministries of love, relief, and help ; but I must get hold of men and women and children. If I can but get hold of them I will inspire them, and that inspiration will give them power to be and do." There are obstructions and foes to individual in- spiration. One's prejudices of any kind may hinder. One's selfishness or self-worship; one's stupidity, lack of alertness, lack of quest, lack of application, lack of 50 The Social Message of Our Lord high and holy resolve. Because individual inspiration is hindered, we have varying degrees of spiritual development. There are varying degrees of intellectual and moral attention. This accounts for the lack of uniformity and even unanimity in the religious and moral senti- ments of different communities and, indeed, of the whole race. This also accounts for the various types and degrees of Christian experience. After all, the great question is the question of the thorough, full, complete, continuous inspiration from Jesus Christ, the dependable source. Let us look a moment at the undeniable need of this individual inspiration. The natural moral sense of mankind at flood tide in the history of the race v^^as expressed in that significant inscription found by St. Paul on Mars Hill. It read, *'To the unknown God." If this be the highest crest in the movement of the native moral sense of mankind, it goes without argu- ment that men must be uplifted from above. They must needs open their natures to the divine inbreath- ing. Universal personal inspiration is the ultimate goal; and it can come, and will come, if we shall allow, by the divine action on the moral sense of mankind. The instrument places certain limitations on the musician. He is always greater than the instrument he uses. It must always, after all, inadequately afford the outflow of the pent-up harmonies that play across his own soul. We are to be the instruments on which Christ would play the harmonies of holiness. We put limits upon what God would do in the world when we, Christ and Human Inspiration 51 for any reason, refrain from those inspirations that he is ready to give. Again, this individual rehgious inspiration should be emphasized and sought because it means reserve power. Anywhere and everywhere, if every particle of power is used in any performance, there is rapid and irreparable exhaustion. Reserve power is the measure of personality. Because inspiration provides for power, even beyond the exactions of our daily service and cares, it is the prime requisite for all man- kind. It is to be sought as our chiefest good. It is to be thought of as we think of bread for physical life; it is not a luxury, but a necessity. This inspiration is mightier than selfishness. Any power that will correct the selfishness of the human heart and reanchor it is a power of infinite and vital value to society. Selfishness is answerable for so much that is mischievous, cruel, troublesome, that any pro- vision for its curtailment, control, and effacement should have our immediate consideration. It is the abiding function of our Lord through the Holy Spirit to provide this inspiration. No accounting for the facts of history until we have taken into our estimate this experience of inspiration. Men and women have risen gloriously above their environments, to triumph in beautiful and sublime achievements. Their rise and maintenance in the higher altitudes of living have but one occasion and source ; their springs have been in God. This inspiration is majestic and sublime because it produces constructive moral conviction. It builds the advancing public sentiments on all questions of mor- 52 The Social Message of Our Lord ality. It establishes with growing clearness, command- ing distinction between the right and wrong. It thor- oughly enlists the conscience on the side of high achievements. Nothing is done until the right thing is done. We need to consider that God looks at our purity, not at our paint, our pretension, our appear- ance. We must allow greater scope for this inspira- tion; give it a larger place; magnify more generously its wonderful ministry; reckon upon its supernatural aid. God changes his method of inspiration, but not the fact. He has ceased to call upon men to be the vehicles of Holy Writ; but he has not ceased to ask men everywhere to accept the inflow of his own quick- ening life, to the end that the standards of life called for in the Book may be made potent and real in our civilization. Our inspiration is demonstrated, or our lack of it, by the use to which we put our talents and possessions. This is the universal test. Churches, communities, nations, individuals stand in need of this inspiration, for it glorifies and extends human duty. We may be crammed with information of a high and helpful order, but until inspiration has warmed and vitalized it, and vitalized us, our information is dull and deadly. For this inspiration we must pay the price. To possess it, we must meet the terms. To be under commission from this holy source, we must be ever sensitive to the will and mastery of Jesus Christ. CHRIST AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. IX. ' By social institutions we mean those institutions of our civilization in which we all have common interest without regard to creed, wealth, or social distinction. First among these we may place the family, which some tell us is a passing incident. This observation, coming from recent agitation against the existing social order, is not deserving of extended comment or notice. The history of the family in connection with civilization has been, withal, so uniformly in its favor that any expecta- tion of its removal from modern social institutions is certainly baseless and hopeless. Just why cer- tain critics should advance argument in favor of abolishing the family may not be easily seen. Some, however, have been heard to say that chil- dren should be the common inheritance and. care of the public; that the family is often non-ef¥ective and hollow in its spirit and influence ; that its removal from institutions of civilization would pro- mote human happiness and advance the welfare of mankind. We need only to call attention to the necessary relations and training required for all young life. The abolition of the family would divorce offspring from the tender care and solicitude prompted by an affection, the like of which does not 54 The Social Messasre of Our Lord 23' exist anywhere. The love of parent to offspring has been implanted within the constitution of man by the Creator for a beneficent and wise purpose. No institution, however philanthropical in its con- ception and however well manned, can ever take the place of a father and a mother and the atmosphere of the home. Public institutions designed for the care of dependent children are efficient only as they approximate the tender and careful ministries of a well-ordered family life. When the best has been done that can be, through those institutions, they fall far short of the efficiency which the well-ordered family affords. Suffice it to say that the family is ordained of God, and will continue to serve in the interests of a godly and worthy posterity until the end of time. Private property, another social institution of our civilization, has been designated as a symbol and method of social oppression. This criticism calls up for earnest consideration the question of legiti- mate use of what we call private property. That there have been abuses by the rich of their steward- ship over large fortunes and much wealth, no one can deny. The prodigal use of material good, its employment in catering to the most silly indul- gences and uncalled-for luxuries in the presence of so much abject want and poverty, must always call for unfavorable comment. The possession of pri- vate property has been, by some, regarded as en- tirely their own affair; its administration, subject only to their individual whims and wishes. The Christ and Social Institutions 55 refining influences of the religion of Christ evi- denced in advancing ideals of human stewardship over property is responsible for a quickened public attention at this point, ^love and more the wealthy will be compelled to pay respect to a wholesome public sentiment with regard to the use and amass- ing of great wealth. Doubtless the legislation of our country will continue to call in question the right of a single family to transmit to its own heirs, from generation to generation, fabulous sums of monev without a laro-er reference to the burdens imposed by necessary taxation and the general necessities of the entire world. ''Cosmopolitanism" is a great word. It stands for an advancing enlightenment touching the obli- gation of favored individuals, organizations, and iiations toward the need of the world. This word and its spirit are prompted by Jesus Christ. In what he did and said he is the embodi- ment of interest, conscience and control touching this important problem.. Our civilization will, doubtless, become more and more sensitive to the general social claim of the current generation, and both by the constraints of legislation and the growing conviction that all the fundamental and natural endowments are intended for all, will provide for the rights of all. A grow- ing zeal and care at this point is a symtom of the age which can be interpreted with unerring cer- tainty. The ideals put forth by Jesus Christ must more largely govern the distribution of wealth, or 56 The Social Messasfe of Our Lord fe' the present restlessness under conditions of poverty will grow more and more insistent. The state as one of our social institutions, as to function and office, is in a period of transition. Doubtless the framers of our Constitution never dreamed of the federal authority which is exercised to-day by the general government. This centrali- zation of power has become necessary because unscrupulous citizens have usurped control of local government in behalf of preferred interests. When- ever this local control has become so manifestly selfish, unjust, and cruel as to infringe upon the rights of the public, the indignation of the people has arisen like a flood. The appeal has been made, and not in vain, for the rescuing hand of the national or state government. The wisdom of our fathers in providing for gov- ernment, with graded measures of independence, from the township, the county, the city, the state, to the nation, is more and more apparent. These wheels within wheels are counteractive in their work. They play back and forth upon one another, and fit as fractions into the whole unit of our civilization. The tendency to make larger reference to, and use of the federal government, under proper limitations, is a wholesome tendency of the hour. With all our provincialism and semi-isolation into the smaller political divisions, we are yet a great whole. All the parts are merged into the vital national life. Christ and Social Institutions 57 The criticism passed upon the state at this time — and the word "state" stands for all sorts and grades of government — is based on the conviction that government has become the instrument of privil- eged classes. It is needless to say that this con- viction prevalent in any large measure will abso- lutely destroy the American republic. Our govern- ment is built on the conception that every individual is a sovereign, and that whatever power and authority may be conceded to the government is by the consent of the governed. This must remain the fact for all time if our ship of state is to be held off the coast that bristles with rocks that wreck. The moment the abuses of government are such as to justify and create, in a considerable portion of our people, the feeling that privileged classes are operat- ing the government to their own advantage, we shall have revolution and ruin. At this point every citizen of this republic should tarry, deliberate, and decide. The American republic is putting to the test the principle and theory of self-government. We have not yet demonstrated the entire safety of- this en- couraging assumption. If we should fail to carry to a successful issue our great civilization under this advanced pronouncement of governmental control, we should set back the calendar of progress by a thousand years. The seriousness of our obligation at this point cannot be over-estimated. It is only Hs Ave preserve the state as an instrument of control and administration, absolutely above all just ground 58 The Social Messas:e of Our Lord fc.' for suspicion, that we can hope to carry forward our people to the inspiring goals of American life. By an overruling Providence, current agitation as to social institutions is more and more turning on the moral issues. At bottom the social question is an ethical issue. A decision that it is wholly economical is only reached because of a surface view of the whole question. The modern social agitation springs, primarily, from a somewhat prevalent sense of wrong. For instance, men look on and ask how material progress can possibly mean low wages and pauperism. It is well known that the sum total of American wealth is increasing every year at a fabu- lous and unprecedented rate. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that this restless age should have a spirit of inquiry as to the justness, equality, and fair- ness of the prevailing social orders. There is coming, indeed, a new sense of social equity by which the inquiry is taken up as to what are the real claims and rights of all men. The imperative cry for social righteousness will not down. What is right awd wrong in social conduct is a question of growing interest. We are thinking of it more than we ourselves recognize. It is sifting through the products of our presses. It is echoing in our pulpits. It is present in our schools. In the midst of such agitation and inquiry every one of us must feel the call for personal devotion and unselfish service as most imperative. The hour demands self-control and wisdom as perhaps no other hour has ever demanded. CHRIST AND SOCIAL SYMPTOMS. X. Current social symptoms are more and more engag- ing the attention and thought of the most intelHgent and fair-thinking people. The symptoms are manifold and easily noted. They are attracting attention and inviting comment. They are calling forth a great variety of interpretation, some of which certainly have merit, and others of which may be far from it. Any earnest effort at interpretation is to be com- mended. It seems clear that these symptoms are an expression of education and prosperity as well. The general progress of education, which makes its absence noteworthy in every instance, is having its eft"ect upon public sentiment and public conduct. Education quick- ens the mental processes and creates a growing spirit of independence and fearlessness. It also engenders a self -consciousness, which is sure to be more insistent on personal rights. It is also to be observed that the general prosperity of the country and the distinguish- ing prosperity by which some men are amassing such large fortunes, is calling general attention to the mate- rial resources which it would seem should become a blessing to all. Prosperity, as certain as poverty, raises many questions for solution. It is also to be said that present social symptoms are an indication of a growing social vitality. That is 60 The Social ^Message of Our Lord to say, the social consciousness of the people is laying hold upon the vital problems of life and insisting on thorough investigation as to the relation which certain effects must have to certain causes. The profound thoughtfulness which is to be observed in American life is occasioned by a revival of moral responsibility, which, unquestionably, is taking deep root. There is a rising tide of moral and spiritual life which is finding outlet in new social interest and activity. It follows that the moral quality of the social question gives it interest to all right-minded people. Ministers and educators, editors and authors, laborers and capitalists are aroused with the spirit of inquiry. Let us believe it is a fresh effort for a better world, here and now. In speaking of this question, a prominent waiter says, 'Tnto the dry channel of the older ethics is pour- ing the new blood of social interest." This new blood of social interest is charged thoroughly with moral interrogatory in a growing tide of public opinion. The question of what is ethically good and its relation to what is economically desirable, is being investigated with a mighty purpose to reach a correct conclusion. More people than ever before are saying, "What is ethically good cannot bring economical disaster." Also, that anything ethically bad cannot be economically beneficial. The bearing which these conclusions have upon various vicious and questionable phases of our civilization is self evident. If the liquor traffic, for instance, is ethically wrong, it is, beyond question, commercially ruinous. Just now the American public is having a sensitive nerve toward this sentiment. It Christ and Social Symptoms 61 is cutting deep into the thought and poHcy of the state. It is influencing executive and legislative departments of government. This is hopeful and is a prophecy of the day when the liquor traffic shall be made an outlaw throughout the whole nation. It seems very evident that there is a vital relation- ship between the new social agitation and the Christ of Nazareth. The social question is, at bottom, a religious question. This truth may not be as largely recognized in certain quarters as the facts warrant, but it is slowly and surely making its way to the fore in all discussions of this great question. Who knows but from this very fact is to come forth the next great revival of religion in the United States. It is but rational to suppose that the church of Christ will stand in the gateway and demand justice and equality for all. Xo matter where that demand shall strike, it must be respected and it must be applied. The rights and value of the humblest human soul must be respected. The soul may have some very undesirable qualities, but we must more and more raise the ques- tion as to how largely the present social order figures in these undesirable qualities. There is regnant in the consciousness of men a strong desire for spiritual democracy. Righteousness is becoming the test of institutions, customs, and per- sons. Everything unfruitful is doomed. The ethical principle applied, raises the question of utility and humaneness. Socialism and Christianity, under the true definition of both terms, must and will come to unison and agreement. 62 The Social Message of Our Lord It is very evident that the .church is coming to a new social effectiveness. She is broadening the range of her ministry to men. She is doing more things in the six-day life of the world. She is insisting that her temples of worship shall not only swing open their gates on Sunday, but shall invite the presence, and provide for the blessing of all the people during seven days of the week. The efforts of the church were never as compre- hensive as they are to-day. The utility of the Chris- tian experience is being resurveyed and reestimated. The church is more and more showing a disposition to go into the slums and dark places of the land and patiently take up the burden of human elevation at any cost. This policy may, and will require some readjustments in the schedule and scope of church activity, but these adjustments are bound to come. Yea, they are already here and in hopeful progress. It seems certain that with this more hospitable atti- tude of the church toward the problems and rights of the less favored classes, the instincts that should have drawn men to religion in the past, but may not have done so, will prevail and secure the legitimate result. The very things that prompt a fair-minded laboring man to go into the unions and cooperative societies might well find satisfaction and response in the church of Christ. Why not so? More and more the church and the masses must be together. If they are apart anywhere and to any extent, it is because both have drifted. The mission of the church is absolutely to all men, of every race, language, and clime; to the rich and to the poor; to Christ and Social Symptoms 63 the learned and to the ignorant. The heart and pas- sion of Christ lays hold upon men as they are, and proposes upbuilding from whatever altitudes they occupy. Be it said to the praise of the Christian gospel that it is impartial, uniformly hospitable, and provides, in its intention and spirit, for an equal chance for all men. CHRIST AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. XL The achievements of mankind through all the centuries may be analyzed, classified, and assigned to periods or epochs. Human history seems to have moved forward in cycles. There is continuity and relationship everywhere, with notable grouping of events, which it is interesting to study from the standpoint of cause and effect. 'Age characteristics, under a little patient study, stand out like mountains against the sky. From these mountains we locate the facts of history and organize our theories of human progress. These rugged outlines which mark the age movements yield rich returns to the student. History is not a jumble without progress or order. There is a place of beginning, a scope for development and legiti- mate and ultimate result. We are coming more and more to see that every age has its mission. As much may be said of every race and nation on earth. Each one has had its function, served its purpose in a general and comprehensive plan, and in case of retirement it has been for good and manifest reasons. The Almighty is the supreme economist. His plan is that nothing shall be lost. All the events of mankind are within the scope of his overruling Christ and Social Progress 65 and masterful providence and scheme. Within these boundaries human qualities have ample test, development, and reward. Some ages are conscious of their mission. They become sensitive to it, take it up, exalt it, and gather about it. It is a great thing for an age, a race, or nation to be conscious of its mission ere it pass from the scene of action. To have a consciousness of mission is to have added to one's life a pronounced strength and re- source. Nations or individuals may move forward under only a depressing sense of blind fate, for any form of fatalism paralyzes the highest human achievement. One must have a consciousness that a purpose is being wrought throug'h his life, making life worth while, if he is to carry forward his work with strength. We get a sense of age function or national func- tion usually when our view is from the lapse of years. It may be the vision will come before the period of achievement is ended. It may be long delayed. Details always melt at a distance. Any generation is apt to be swallowed up with, details. It is not easy for an age to rise above these and grip the mighty and determining currents of life and progress intelligently. To do this is a high type of human mastery. The age seems to be keenly conscious of certain social maladjustments. This consciousness in some quarters is becoming acute. It is liable, under such circumstances, to lead to radical and ill-advised action. 66 The Social Messa«:e of Our Lord &' A worthy indignation against what is certainly wrong is always commendable. But even so good a quality and temper must be kept under control. The keen observer concludes that there is war between our economic development and our social ideals of liberty, justice, and equality. Ought this war to exist? Can it be avoided? If not, how shall it be conducted? What temper must we bring to the firing line? There w^ill certainly be a call for patience and a demand for heroism. Such a conflict tries the moral quality and the exalted purposes of men. Any study of this subject would be incomplete which did not take into account the social and spiritual ideal of the age in which we live. These ideals are finding expression in noteworthy social service; also, in social legislation which, even a few years ago, would not have been thought of, much less have been made a matter of record. This has come legitimately by the peaceful processes of social evolution. Our social ideals may find expression in the pro- test of passion and hatred. This is not well. It is to be avoided for the good of all concerned. There is, to be sure, a demand for a better social world, which will not down. Every man may as w^ell take notice that nothing short of an honest attempt to meet the issue will save the day. Any man who looks can see more than weather signs. Our Lord referred to those in his day who were observant of these, but who w^ere not reading or interpreting the Christ and Social Progress 67 real signs of the times. In certain vital respects we must have relief or we shall invite revolution. It is an age of unusual activity in all kinds of organization. Organization means a fight. It means alignment on a given issue. It means the utilization of all possible resources for much-desired results. Our conceptions of governmental func- tions are changing. The age is in a profound agita- tion, the modern temper is, in some respects, radical^ and certainly w^ill insist on reconstruction and re- adjustment. Respect for w^hat is ancient and for conservatism may be altogether desirable, but the age w^ill, in many respects, make precedents when none are to be found. The hour is teeming with life and tremendous consciousness of power. Tem- porary measures of relief are not enough. Let us observe with interest the remedial move- ments which have passed into American history. A great wave of public indignation and sentiment swept out slavery and freed a subject race. Another is sweeping out the saloon. It will soon cease to be under the American flag. Another wave is sweeping out unscrupulous corporate rule. There is a demand that men who take advantage of the law of incorporation shall insist and guarantee that the business of the corporation shall be conducted upon the same basis of honesty, fair-mindedness, and square dealing as any individual business. Another rising tide is compelling the moral issue in politics. Far too long has a long-sufifering peo- ple been imposed upon by the loose and illogical 68 The Social Message of Our Lord conclusions, that in politics moral principles were to be unknown. By a strange neglect we have allowed, in many cases, political affairs to go by default so far as the attention of upright men was concerned. There has been far too ready a consent to allow the professional and immoral politician to manipulate the aft'airs of the state. The day for such a mockery of statecraft is rapidly passing. In the thought of Jesus Christ the state is sacred, and the church must enforce this view by consistent methods. The new social interest is dealing with causes as well as effects. For instance, the present inquiry as to the occasion of poverty is digging deep and will not be satisfied until the causes of poverty are located, branded as they deserve, and eradicated from the national escutcheon. We are inquiring why the effects of industry are often associated with so much that is cruel, debasing, and unjust. Why cannot business and industry be placed on a plane of mutual good and higher efficiency. Such a view of the present case is not ethereal or impractical. It is no more certain that two and two make four than that the placing of business transactions and industrial regulations on the basis of Christ's law will yield the most satisfactory returns in the long run, to both capital and labor. Wiping out the demoralizing American liquor shop, it is a question as to whether there would be a call for charity if the social system were administered in impartial justice. At least, it is a legitimate inquiry to raise Christ and Social Progress 69 fc)' the question as to how nearly we might efiface poverty if the American saloon and attendant vices were obliterated, if the industrial operations of the country were conducted in absolute equity to all parties concerned. Along these lines of inquiry the American people are moving with an unalter- able determination to get at the facts. God speed them in their quest. CHRIST'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SOCIAL PROBLEMS. XII. Probably the briefest and yet clearest embodiment of the attitude of Christ toward social problems is indicated in a favorite text, which is recorded in John's Gospel, ''For their sakes I sanctify myself." Note, then, our Lord's perfect friendliness to social institu- tions. The very center of his life revolved about a group of people whom he selected with tender consid- eration and characteristic wisdom. This little group was trained to receive his ideals, share his toils and triumphs. He moved forward in his career under the assumption that he must be represented and his doc- trines extended by this group of sympathetic lives. This group idea pervades the social life of the race in all lands. He entered feelingly and with appreciation into the social life of the people. He was not a recluse, but, on the contrary, cultivated the fellowship of the people. It was his pleasure to have an unbroken relationship to the social life of his time. He deliberately mingled with all classes. It is usually far easier for one to select certain social circles in which he finds affinity, common interest, and sym- pathetic tastes. This habit with our Lord would have been disastrous to his influence and the scope of his Christ's Attitude Toward Social Problems 71 ministry. He came to be the friend, not of one class, but of all classes. There is preeminent wisdom in such a method of human contact. Any other method must always result in abridged sympathies and an imperfect ability to enter into the real needs of those about us. He exalted the family. No circle was more attrac- tive to him than the home circle. His retreat to the hiome at Bethany up to the very last, including that most eventful Passion Week, will forever touch the heart of the world. His presence at the marriage also indicated how fully he gave approval to this founda- tion of home life. He was friendly to the rich, for did he not warn them touching the dangers that arise from abundant \\ ealth ? He indicated his purpose to guard the heart against the deceitful entanglements of riches. His teaching on the subject of covetousness is no small part of his ministry. He was ever ready to comfort the poor ; they appre- ciated his friendship ; they shrank not from his approach. They seemed to feel it perfectly safe for liim to know all about them; they depended upon his friendship, sought his counsel, and revered him to the end. Nobody questions the fact that his very highest con- cern was for the soul's personal relation to God. Touching any other matter of interest to men, he was keenly alive, but at this point his great heart flamed into passionate desire. He made it very clear that every earthly good was not to be compared with tlie rich inheritance of divine grace and salvation for the 72 The Social Messae^e of Our Lord t>' soul. At no time did he permit any side issue to bury from sight this, his one all-dominating objective of his mission. He did the work of a reformer, and his message wrought great social agitations. But he was not, first of all, a reformer or an agitator. He was a Redeemer, a revealer of the final truth touching the deliverance of the human soul from the bondage of sin into the free- dom of the sons of God. His revelations were like the floods of sunlight hurrying across the deserts, chasms, and dangerous pits of human life, indicating the way of safety. He was an idealist, with such a vision as had never been given to mortal man. He looked out upon the earth and saw its beneficent beauty. He looked into the skies to admire their azure blue. He passed over the waters to appreciate their reflections and provi- sions for life. But, above all, his vision of the spiritual need of mankind, and of the glorious power that Heaven stood ready to extend to men in their struggle for righteousness, was the distinguishing vision of this prince among men. His mission w^as preeminently religious. Religion had not had its legitimate and normal place in human thinking. He laid emphasis upon its vital relationship to all the interests and activities of humanity. While he encouraged interest in every legitimate thing, he laid special emphasis upon the matter of seeking first the kingdom of God. His is the gospel of spiritual redemption. That announcement will not mislead us into a conclusion that he lacked interest in the every-day affairs and Christ's Attitude Toward Social Problems 7?i struggles of life. On the contrary, it indicates his supreme wisdom and his full knowledge of the true philosophy of human existence. He presented the central force in human experience. It was impossible that he should escape more or less appeal in behalf of the social problems of that age. When asked to decide a controversy touching an estate, he replied in a warning against covetousness. He refused entanglement of any kind which might for a moment, even, eclipse the glorious religious mission on which he had come to the earth. His message and personal influence could but come in contact with the forms of civil government incident to his time. Thoughtful people promptly reached the conclusion that such a gospel must have its effect upon civil government. He admitted this, and was not averse to such an interpretation of himself or of his message. He did not aim primarily at governmental reforms, though he knew full well that the principles he came to establish and the powers he came to release into human society would have their effect upon polit- ical administrations. His attention to social questions was, therefore, incidental. Is not this, after all, the only attention that is effective? Is it not true to-day that when- ever a civilization takes up as the one supreme con- cern of human life the possession and distribution of m.aterial good it makes a fatal mistake? Social ques- tions, as full of interest as they are, as urgently demanding solution as they do, and appealing in some cases to visitations of judgment as they do, are, never- theless, not as important as the matter of character 74 The Social Message of Our Lord and spiritual relation to the kingdom of righteousness. That civilization has reached a high type of wisdom when it places first things first, for only by so doing can the real enrichment and blessing which subordinate good was intended to supply, come to the children of men. We do so fatally err by undertaking to reverse the divine order and economy. He had an objective which he regarded as being vitally related to all social problems, and in this view he was not mistaken. All human development con- firms the wisdom of his estimates and doctrines. He promptly raised the question of the spiritual motive underlying social demands. Modern social demands can be sifted in no other way so quickly, or their im- portance and justice determined so readily, as by sub- mitting them to the test of the spiritual motive. A laboring man may have as unworthy a motive for an increased wage as a capitalist may have for the in- crease of his capital. In either case the question of spiritual motive is vital. The very heart of our Lord's message was spiritual renewal. The social teachings of Christ have been correctly denominated a by-product. The gospel is not, first of all, a program of social reform, although its prevalent acceptance and the general experience of its power is the one sure agency for social reform. Our Lord gave himself to specific cases in his con- tact and teaching. It is certain that he attached great value to the single personality, the unit of all social life. Much of his time was given to talks with single individuals and with loving acts of relief to individuals. It may be said that his teachings were in some sense Christ's Attitude Toward Social Problems 75 fragmentary. However, this much is true, that a care- ful analysis of all his deliverances will indicate the profound harmony which possessed his mind. He reduced all wisdom to a few simple principles and laws of unquestioned efficiency and value. He made it clear that the spirit, rather than the letter of the New Testament is vital. The spirit of the New Testament is a unit ; it is the unit which this age needs above all else to discover and apply. A part of our task, left to us for our own good, is the quest through fragmentary utterances for the mind of the Lord. It is best so. The artist does not argue about beauty. He goes to a canvas and with a few dashes of his brush, his training throws into vision the picture. No question but our Lord has given in his gospel the real picture touching the relativity of all human values and interest. Our appreciation as to what Christ has disclosed and what he stands for is, in a large measure, depend- ent upon the abilities and perceptions with which we are possessed. There are many forms of blindness ; moral and spiritual blindness is more prevalent than physical blindness, and even more distressing an-d fatal. When once the eye is single the whole body is filled with light. When through refinements of heart and elevations of character we give welcome to a correct and discriminating view of conduct, of right and wrong, we shall have no trouble in getting the simpli- fied unity of the Christ's message. Our Lord used what some of the professions call the "case method." Great lawyers are trained in the general principles of the law ; but their real skill is 7() The Social Messas^e of Our Lord fe' evidenced, and the thoroughness of their knowledge verified and put to the test when they come to deal with case after case, each having its own complexities and problems. So in medicine a physician graduates from the medical college with the comprehensive knowledge of the modern system of materia medica, but he will be a failure in his profession unless he has the skill and discernment to make correct diag^nosis of each case and apply his knowledge accordingly. In some cases our Lord set out to soften the bed ; in other cases, to harden the man ; under either policy and method the result would be the same. He trained his disciples to fundamental habits of mind, to funda- mental experiences of the soul, and to fundamental ability in the resistance of evil. He provides certainly for the constitutional need of the race. He moves ever to the target with unerring precision. He is bent on purified character, redeemed personality, sanctified and glorified life. His supreme mastery over the prob- lem of sin and his sovereignty in the realm of man's salvation appear as clear as the noonday sun. Christ was lofty in his conceptions and doctrines of God. He was accurate and unerring in his analysis of man. He adhered to certain fundamental lines of control and policy, which, as largely as might be, he would apply to all men and to all circumstances; but he had the rare ability to discern what an occasion in itself should suggest and demand. He viewed social problems in the correct perspective and propor- tion. The right perspective is as important in social questions as in camera operation. It is a great vital law. CHRIST COMPETENT IN SOCIAL PROBLEMS. XIII. That beautiful statement of the prophet in which he refers to our Lord in these words, "The gov- ernment shall be upon his shoulders," has a wider significance and application than has been gener- ally supposed. By a strange fallacy of judgment and a surprising lack of penetration this old w^orld so often proposes to have the government emanate from any other source than from Christ the Lord. The world has never quite known what to do v.'ith him. There are in certain quarters peculiar resistances against anything that squints toward the settle- ment of problems, or defining objectives of organ- izations by reference to Jesus Christ. Oh. what blunders we mortals do make ! The government of Zi'Jiat upon his shoulder? The government of the man, the government of the labor organization, the government of the capitalists' organization, the gov- ernment of private operations, and the government of corporations, the government of society, the government of nations, the government of the world. Like a poor bird beating out its life because it will insist on trying to fly through solid objects, so we, poor mortals, beat ourselves into misery. 78 The Social Message of Our Lord &' distraction, irritation, wrath, malignant hate, class strife, and nameless ills because we are not wise enough to know and not holy enough to desire that the government shall and ought to be upon his shoulders. WHY CHRIST IS COMPETENT. Note his distinguishing tranquility and elevation of mind. His repose and serenity were never really disturbed. Oh, what a triumph, and with what marked contrast does this quality in our Lord shine forth! To be tranquil under all circumstances is indeed a great evidence of power; to hold the mind in undisturbed elevation so that the survey of all matters referred to it shall be candid, dispassionate, judicial, discriminating, and thorough is indeed a miracle of life and personality. Such quality is worthy of God. Christ w^as possessed of a unique sagacity. That he was tender of heart, that he was urbane of mind, that he was forbearing in temper, that he was meek in spirit, that he was pure in heart, is generally accepted ; but that he was possessed of an unparal- leled sagacity is not so generally recognized. Christ was, indeed, the most sagacious moral, spiritual, and social leader that has ever had to do with this planet of ours. His was the complete mental horizon. We may always be uncertain of outcome when we have to do with the man of limited horizon. There are so many things that may fix this limit. Prejudice may do so, so that the man can see only in the frac- Clirist Competent in Social Problems 79 tion of a circle. Questionable habits may establish this limit; a dull moral sense, a perverted nature; a compromise with evil will bring this dread result. One difficulty with us all in our treatment of one another, in our view, especially of the interests and rights of others, is this lack of complete view. Our horizon broadens as we arise. For most part we live too close to the earth. The heights above us are but little frequented, hence our stupid- ity, lack of charity, and incomplete activity. Christ came with the full acquaintance of human nature. He is sane in his judgment and profound in his sympathy. The wickedness of men was not a surprise to him, for did he not know the depths of evil in the human heart? Was he not in pos- session of knowledge as to the ministry of demons and the degeneracy of mortals vx'hen he approached the problem of saving a lost race, and consented to undertake the mighty task? He did it understand- ing full well the depth to which human nature had sunk, and the awful conflict that would be necessary in order to bring salvation. He knew the worst about us, yet came to save us ; the evil of the human heart did not rob him of his sympathy and interest. The very fact that our Lord came from the world above us gave him insight into our awful problems. He descended into the arena and sphere of the races' life advantaged because he was from above. His viewpoint was the perfect viewpoint. His sense of values had been adjusted in a latitude and 80 The Social Message of Our Lord longitude where no magnetic, currents could warp his judgment or impair his insight. I'f it be said that because our Lord's mission was preeminently religious, he was by so much dis- qualified to exercise social authority and leadership, let us recall the fact that the exact opposite is the truth. We may well question any man's authority or leadership in social matters if he has blotted out of his nature his capacity for religion and its up- lifting inspiration. A man who neglects divine worship, who holds aloof from church and religious agencies presents in that very fact conclusive evi- dence that he is unfitted for social leadership of any kind. At first, this position may not be ap- preciated or understood, but as sure as the human constitution is what it is, and as sure as the religion of Christ is what it is, so sure is it that any man Vv^ho will presume to leadership and social reform is handicapped by his lack of religious intuitions and experiences. There has been altogether too much loose and rabid talk about the Christian religion liaving no place or function with hard-headed busi- ness and industrial leaders. There does not exist on this earth any line or class of men or any human activity or function which does not call for the high- est religious endowments of which any man is capable and which Almighty God can bestow. Let us have respect to the law of proportion and correct emphasis. Christ and the prophets were moved by a common social intention and purpose. Their sniieres of Christ Competent in Social Problems 81 influence were dififerent, but the continuity of in- tention is clearly discernible. A study of prophet- ical intention will confirm this conclusion. There is great force in this fact. The prophets were reformers for their own age. Christ was the prophet for all ages. He was in- diflFerent to numbers, so far as his immediate follow- ing was concerned, for he rested well assured on the final realization of his mission and the supremacy of his principles. His viewpoint of the world gave him unfailing courage and inspired him with a glorious hopeful- ness. He was never in despair. His was the com- prehensive and all-inclusive view of all things. Hope was never banished from his heart, and at no time did he have any other idea but of the final triumph of his kingdom. Our Lord exalted individual integrity and func- tion. The Father had sent him, an individual. He would send each disciple, an individual. He gave to individuals that individuals might give to others. His way of approach to the social problems of men was not by external organization. He did not even direct his teachings to the wholesale conver- sion of the multitudes about him. This one-bv-one consideration of man as the unity of all social in- terest, responsibility, and progress is worthy of note. It is a convincing recognition of the merit of democracy. So little concern did he show for organization that when he ascended to heaven there was at first a 82 The Social Message of Our Lord feeling of confusion because of the lack of it. The disciples were so filled with the idea that organiza- tion was the first requisite, yea, the only one, that they inquired of him when he spoke of the descent of the Holy Spirit as to whether, after all, he did not mean that the Pentecost would bring the restoration of the political and organic Hebrew nation. Their minds were on an organization. His mind was on a mighty spiritual quality and superhuman endowment. They said with despair, "We had hoped that it was he who should restore Israel." He would fix their minds upon a power- quality which, if possessed by individuals, would revolutionize and vitalize the whole world. Evi- dently he reckoned, as well he might, on a contin- uous capacity to deal with form and organization. That capacity has never been lacking in men. Rightfully, they reserved their freedom at this point and reckoned that each generation would have wisdom touching this matter requisite for its day. At this moment our Lord's first emphasis is not on organization, but on inspiration. He makes it plain that the highest social order can never come save by the individual inspiration of personality. Christ approaches human life and all its problems from within. We rush immediately to external measures. We are prone to depend upon legal enactments. We have recourse to contracts, stipu- lation, carefully-worded treaties. He would throw into the heart of the race the all-determining spirit- ual quality, temper, mind, and disposition that Christ Competent in Social Problems 8v3 would make possible the vmiform exercise of right- eousness, equality, and justice everywhere and all around. Oh, the infinite wisdom of such a provision and power in human affairs ! He not only stands for social wisdom and justice, but he stands for social power. It is at this last point where our current ominous failures have origin. Corporations are organized and operated without sufficient social power, which is after all the power of correct social ideals, the guarantee of justice, consideration, and fair treatment to em- ployees and employers. Lack of this power brings on a strike with attendant waste, bitterness, and strife. A\'hat we need everywhere and along all lines of dispute and in all social alignments is the social power that will hold men to considerations of justice, mercy, and of the common good. "Power" is the great word. Power to repress our selfishness. Power to control our covetousness. Power to sub- due our passions. Power to enable the all-round visions. Power to discern spiritual values. Power to hold in exact and due estimate material good and success. Power that delivers from exaggerations and unbridled quests after gold and gain. Power that smooths our asperities and restrains our excesses. CHRIST AND THE ONCOMING SOCIAL ORDER. XIV. "The whole creation waiteth for The revealing of the sons of God." So, THEN, sons of God on the earth are the impera- tive need. The earth has often wanted to kill them. There have not been found wanting" men who hated them with cruel hatred. What a parody and what a paradox ! What the wdiole creation is unconsciously waiting- for, it also wants to kill and get out of the way. The social order that ought to come on, and which we ought to help bring on, is the social order that can come only through the fact of the sons of men becoming the sons of God. Oh, for a thousand tongues to publish it ; for a voice like Niagara to thun- der it; and for an eloquence like Beecher to tell it out! Weary old w^orld, hear! hear! hear! The ideal social order for which man is waiting, and which he unconsciously or consciously craves, must be the product, not of artificial or mechanical power, but of certain spiritual qualities and tempers of the mind. Personality expresses itself in the social order, no matter what the temper of that personality may be. If it is suffused with hate; if it mocks good- ness by its sin; if it is atrocious and vulgar in its love of gain; if it is tyrannical and autocratic in its control, Christ and the Oncoming Social Order 85 it reproduces itself in the social order to which it may be related. \\'e ought to dig into this truth with such thoroughness as that it might fill us to the full. Per- sonality, just, inspired with the spirit of God, gov- erned by moderation in all its desires, merciful and- considerate in all its acts, yet vigorous and efficient in- all its relations, fulfills itself in the social order. Such; a one never has a strike in his factory; never spends- millions of money for the sake of conquering the mobr never enforces an order, and never issues one that is not based on principles of equity and high-minded con- sideration. Oh, this problem of self-realization, and the tremen- dous cost when the selfhood is distempered from lack of grace ! A man may hold himself aloof from Chris- tian experience, but, oh, at what infinite cost ! His self-revelation is of the most destructive and ungra- cious type. He fails of realization in the realm of service, and lives and dies the victim of a fatal incom- pleteness. A prodigal son once said, '*I will arise and go to my father." That is exactly what every son of man should say to his Heavenly Father to-day; and when he goes, he should remain. ^^'e need, above all things, to be conscious of our- selves in relation to God the Father. With what strange infatuation and blind persistence do men mar the divine likeness on their own hearts, blast the mem- ories of earth ; mar the marts of trade and the seats of commerce by unrestrained and unhallowed selfish- ness ! There is no antagonism between the spiritual life and social good. Let us close up the breach that is 86 The Social Message of Our Lord made with our own hands. Christian experience and character is God's method in social salvation. Social salvation is the end he has in view. Love is the only efficient motive for social, political, commercial, or industrial service. Jesus said, 'Tor their sakes I sanctify myself." Character, then, as some one has said, "is the supreme method of social service." ''I sanctify my- self." Sanctification of character is a universal duty. A prominent writer on sociological questions has sub- mitted the following summary of our Lord's social principles : "1. View from above. "2. Approach from within. "3. Movement toward the spiritual objective. "4. Wisdom and sagacity. ''5. Inspired personality. "6. IdeaHsm. "7. Complete social horizon. ''8. Social power. '"9. Social aim." i r'- We observe that our Lord presented the kingdom of God as his great social ideal. He presented it as an ideal fit for the nation and the world. He presented it as the present and future potency. He presented it as a free gift, and also as an achievement. God's gracious ministries on the human heart are the one and only source of worthy initiative. The kingdom of God is to reign in the hearts of his children in any given generation. Christ has in view the fact that Christ and the Oncoming Social Order 87 be}ond the radius of life and light occupied by the children of God is rim or circle within which the inherent powers of the kingdom of God are to move to universal conquest. It is in this realm of conquest that the sons of God are to evidence the utility of their experience and prove their mettle in service. What a good thing it is that good and godly folk have something to do in the world in the line of direct propaganda and influence. The kingdom of God, then, is on the earth. Its reign is not, as yet, universal ; its extension is the duty of every enlightened and purified mind. Because the kingdom is spiritual, lying in the tempers and aifec- tions and dispositions of men, it is always a present reality ; it is also always a future consummation. Here is the incentive to efifort ; here is the call to heroism. \\^e have in the earth a society of heaven. It is to undertake, through divine help and cooperation, the task of continuous conquest. Looking down through the ages, our Lord foresaw the movements of the children of men. He indicated the lines along which the great conquest would move, and the lines of cleav- age on which men would divide. The issue is well defined, the forces and tendencies are accounted for, and the triumph is fully and freely predicted. When the kingdom of God shall pervade the whole social order, with its refinements, its heavenly dispo- sitions, its brotherly kindnesses, the social order will be glorious indeed. Life is in the seed ; it is also in the tree. The kingdom of God is in process ; it is to be also in completion. It is a present power; it will be a future realization. The world affords an unlim- 88 The Social Alessage of Our Lord ited scope for its expansion. ' Captains of industry, merchant princes, pohtical leaders, financial manipu- lators, and, in short, all men, are working out their destinies and determining their eternity within the range and scope of this expansion. How glorious to contribute to the great triumph ! How inglorious to defeat it by so much as in one may lie ! Christ views the race as slowly but certainly purified and shaped by the life and power of God. In the pur- pose of God, in the mind of God, in the faith of the godly, the kingdom is already a great and completed reality. CHRIST AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY. XV. It is understood that the would-be ''social democ- racy" that is advocated in various quarters at the present time is unfriendly to Christ and the church. The reason assigned is, that Christianity, and the church as its exponent, provides a religious sanction for the existing economic status. Of course, so long as that misunderstanding prevails, the attitude in- dicated has an origin in plain view. Radical socialism is not at peace with spiritual ideals. It has created ideals of its own, and they share the nature and antipathies of their creator. ]\Iodern socialism originated in Germany, where a so-called scientific type has appealed for popular favor. ]^Iany of its principal advocates and authors have been, and are Hebrews. Their natural prejudice against Chris- tianity in any form has impregnated all their views and attitudes. They labor under a fearful misappre- hension as to the relation of Christ and his religion to the present economic conditions, in so far as those conditions are to fall under just condemnation. Anything like a thorough investigation of the mind of Christ and the gospel that emanates from him will show that always and ever the spirit of Christ has been in constant and protesting conflict with every unjust and cruel economic condition. It must, indeed, be a 90 The Social Message of Our Lord prejudiced inquiry which will attribute to any active moral agency any surviving evil against which it is constitutionally opposed. We are compelled to admit that certain schools of modern socialistic propaganda are not only indifferent to religion, but openly propose to be a substitute for religion. Their antagonism to Christianity, as we have indicated, grows out of misapprehension, which, in all fairness, should be cleared up at the earliest possible moment. Nothing but regrettable loss to all parties and causes concerned can -result from anv estrange- ment between the church and all sane and equitable social reforms. It is certainly unfair to charge Chris- tianity with being the religion of private property and the religion of the upper classes. Any candid investi- gation will disprove the first affirmation, and history disproves the latter. Socialism ought not be presented to this age as the alternative of the religion of Jesus Christ. It is easy to see how these false views, both of Christianity and the spirit which must permeate, and the motives which must underlie all desirable economical and social re- forms, would logically compel ungracious and unhappy attitudes toward the great Friend of all classes and conditions of men. This misconception, perforce, encourages malicious combinations of the working classes against the wealthy, and especially the wealthy religious. On the face of things only can existing prejudices even appear justified by these fatally defec- tive views. Carried to its logical result, this misconception and superficial interpretation of Jesus Christ and his reli- Christ and Social Democracy 91 gion will not be satisfied merely with a new economic and social program. It will rise up to compete with Christianity for popular favor and support. When we have gone to the bottom of things, it will become more and more evident that the present social movement itself, in so far as it cries out for just and deserved betterment, is a modern expansion and ex- pression of the religion of our Lord. The lines are being drawn for a severe conflict between anti-Chris- tian socialism and Christianity itself. The outcome is not to be feared, for it can result only in the trium- phant vindication of the Christian religion as fully and only competent to deal with the present social questions. The message of righteousness must go forth, and Christianity is its one supreme source. We are disposed to plead for a great sympathy on the part of the church with all reasonable socialistic propa- ganda. The current aliveness of social reforms should be regarded as an opportunity for the church, and should be improved. W^hat is the prime duty of religionists? They must give themselves afresh to observation and investiga- tion. The Christian motives must be applied to the social life. The principle of brotherhood, mutual help- fulness, and cooperation must be brought into a studi- ous comparison with hardship working competition. Let us have an interpretation of the entire social prob- lem in the terms of the Christian gospel and standard of morals. It is an opportune hour for the church to stand in the breach and throw out the hand of helpful- ness to both sides in the present conflict, which is growing more keen every hour. 92 The Social Message of Our Lord Let us, by all means, renew our quest for the causes jof. our social problems. We must fearlessly discuss the relation of these problems to moral and personal life. There will be some objection to this, but the demand is rational and philosophical. The social propaganda may not simply demand that certain privi- leges shall be withdrawn. We may not know how slight may need to be the changes in the economic order to bring us peace, until we have been frank and candid touching the questionable moral habits on the part of our complaining brothers. Who shall say how far the matter of domestic integrity, of thrift, econ- omy, education as to morality, and the living and vital experiences of religion would avail in solving the problem ? It is time for the churches and ministers to think these things through ; to adopt a social program ; to stand for an intelligent social propaganda. Let this be done without fear or favor ; let it be done because it is right ; let it be done at any cost ; let it be done in the spirit of brotherly love; let us discover and apply the Christian doctrine of economics. The current social movement might readily become revolutionary. This will be the case unless all classes of our population shall be attempered and dispositioned by the spirit of Christ. The working classes them- selves must be allowed a larger direct interest in the profits and products of the factories. Christ is not indifferent to the secular problems of the modern world. The church and church people must not be. We must go out to the battle for the abolition of poverty and injustice. This social service Christ and Social Democracy. 93 and stand for political morality is the coming test of Christian virility. Our Lord was keenly alive to all that passed about him while he was in our world of human relationship. His gospel is twofold. It pro- vides for love to God and love to men. Jesus was certainly the Savior of the toiling poor. If the Christian leadership of the generation will do their duty, we shall be able to substitute a well- wrought Christian socialism for an agnostic and anti- Christian socialism. We can never avoid the test which is to come to us all, based on our relation to human needs. At the last it will be, inasmuch as ye did it, or did it not unto these the least of mine. The message of Tesus Christ is to the religious life and ex- perience, but it affects the external order and world in which we live. The very quality of the Christian religion compels the attention to social problems and interests. Every message of our Lord evidences this fact. CHRIST AND CURRENT SOCIAL OPPORTUNITY. XVI. Our Lord was an optimist. He unwaveringly believed in certain consummations for mankind that were most glorious to anticipate and .foresee. While his experiences during the period of his incarnation must have put to the test his holy soul, yet he never faltered or complained. He believed so implicitly in his own mission and its restorative relation to human ill that he looked forward with confidence to a final order which would be modeled after the heavenly world. This is God's world, hence social optimism is justi- fied. God has never forsaken his own creation. He never will. While there are many adverse currents to human progress, and the onlooker sometimes thinks that the streams are turning backward, a more careful investigation of the cycles of human history will prove altogether reassuring. No one element is more needed in the present crisis and transition than a strong and buoyant hopefulness. The forces of righteousness and good order must keep heart. Man is God's instrument, hence his dignity and responsibility. This view of human relationship to Deity is at once stimulating and elevating. Since we are designated for such an intimate and responsible Christ and Current Social Opportunity 95 relationship to our Father in heaven, there is demand for care and interest in the problem of our fitness. That fitness must have reference to our relations God- ward and to our relations manward. Once again we come to the old issue, for a moment's meditation at this point indicates the vital importance of character. The glory of God is his character. His throne and sovereignty are built thereon. No one may hold a throne who is not a king. Since the activities of personality are indicated, and have origin in character, we can readily determine the kind of divine activity which is ever being exerted in civilization. When we have determined character, we have no trouble to decide what that character would have done. Hence, as we come to know and appre- ciate the character of Christ, the path is at once open to those activities which we are sure have his interest and approval. Since man is to be the instrument of God, his own quality, temper, and disposition have absorbing interest. It is here we find the imperative demand for a noble sensitiveness. Who can view the dignity and representative nature of an appointment to such function as this without asking with great heart solicitude what tempers and disposition the All-Father would have us possess? what sort of administrators over the affairs of others he would have us be; what sort of industrial operations and usages he would have us sanction and enforce. Since this is God's world, the people in it should be his people and they should make it their chief busi- ness to establish his kingdom of love and righteous- ness. Humanity has a certain quantity of energv; 96 The Social Message of Our Lord i>' when it is exhausted, the race is run. We have about so much abihty for attention and achievement, and when that is exhausted we are done. It is evident that there ought to be a law of proportion in our bestowment of attention and energy. We give time, talent, and vital life force to so many things that are not worth while. It would elevate our civilization rapidly if the people would but move over to God's view of what is most important. God's view of what is important will really become the view of every sane mind and every purified heart. His view of what is important has been so thoroughly tried and so thor- oughly attested as correct by the succeeding verdicts of the generations past, as to constitute a valid reason for their adoption. Our optimism to-day needs to be well informed ; hence the current efforts in the study of social prob- lems, in the collation of facts, in the establishing of reading circles, in the publication of literature, ought to be commended. Intelligence upon any subject can come only after much labor and thorough investiga- tion. Committees, commissions, institutions, organiza- tions of every sort and order are to contribute to the efi'orts of general information. When this securing of the facts has been completed the revelation will not be, in all respects, gratifying. It never is. A thor- ough investigation of the conditions of any community will always reveal more of want and need than had been supposed. Nevertheless, investigation is the only method by which we can secure intelligence, and the intelligence is necessary to right action. We must have anchorage somewhere. That anchorage needs to Christ and Current Social Opportunity 97 be dictated by faith in God, the beneficence of his pur- poses and faith in man as promising a hopeful sphere for every redemptive force. Our optimism and hope must be unyielding. If not, the tests placed upon it by the discovery of facts will utterly discourage us and call us off from effort. We must stay on the field of battle until the battle is over and the triumph secured. The present is a period of unprecedented social opportunity. The kingdom of God is human person- ality fulfilling the will and law of God in social service in the inspiration and power of the divine Spirit. A careful study and analysis of our population anywhere will reveal the fact that no community is without at least a small circle of individuals who are broad- minded, pure-hearted, exalted in motive, and given to public good. These are the bases of hope as to all reform and social advancement. Every community also has an element that is neutral and indifferent ; neutral as to religious and church obligation; indif- ferent as to reform and the prevalence of good prin- ciples. This last-named element in any community becomes a menace to its advancement. They must be taken up for consideration, and regarded as the legiti- mate field for higher propaganda and the persuasions of love. Here is where the better elements of society find their field for service and their material for con- versions. While these conditions are not ideal, they, nevertheless, afford strong incentive for good living, pure character, and social service. As we confront the serious problems of our social and religious life, take inventory of resources and 98 The Social Message of Our Lord liabilities, the first feeling is one'of incapacity; the task set -opposite the reform elements of our population appears to be overwhelming. We dare not, however, permit a sense of incapacity to take possession of our minds and paralyze our efforts. The fact is, that judged from any inventory that can be made, our resources for social and religious advancement are more than equal to our liabilities. It may be observed that they are not all in command, and that our forces are not all dedicated to the service. This is certainly true, but here again this inside duty of stirring up, quickening, surcharging with enthusiasm, realigning, and projecting the forces of righteousness is a gracious opportunity for service to humanity. This inner circle can be led into a most glorious efficiency, and it de- volves upon the leadership of our social and religious organization to effect this gracious change. There is a call of exceeding urgency for unselfish, effective, persistent social and religious service, which is enough to inspire the dullest heart. CHRIST AND SOCIAL SERVICE. XVII. The religion of Christ, by its essential spirit and life, dictates and inspires a social service under the highest motives and ideals. There are certain definite elements in an efficient social service that need to be well considered and well understood. Vagueness at this point and inferior ideals are both destructive. A thorough analysis of Christianity and social needs will indicate, with unmistakable clearness, a few essential elements of the social service required. In this survey there appears at once the urgent demand for the spirit of intense and constructive right- eousness. Righteousness should, as a matter of course, be intense; but it is not always so. There is possible to the human character a sort of supine, spineless, noncombative righteousness v/hich, though good as far as it goes, never goes far. It is a sort of harmless negation, chiefly significant in the fact that it refrains from positive evil. The present social opportunity will not be met save as we secure a righteousness of in- tensity and militant aggressiveness. Christ is, indeed, the Prince of peace, but he also said that his coming and his kingdom would put a sword in the earth; not the military sword, not the sword of contending hosts, but, nevertheless, a veritable sword, the sword of spir- itual righteousness. Intensity is a quality of exceed- 100 The Social Message of Our Lord ing importance. Thousands of church people fail from lack of it. Men in the pulpit give ill account of their opportunities, their ministries, because they have it not. If Saint Peter were writing his epistle to-day, he would use the word again and again. Constructive righteousness is an element of present- day social service and religion that needs to come to the fore. It will mean a battle, but battle it must be, or our civilization will drift into breakers and become a wreck on rocky shores. Constructive righteousness is the province of religious and religiously-dictated social service. Secretary John Hay, when he insisted on the principle of the open door in the Far East, acted under the principle and passion -of constructive righteousness ; but for his far-seeing diplomacy and the splendid heroism of his character, Europe would have long since dismembered China, and who can imagine what would have been the conditions of the Orient. It is always easier to avoid the issue which morality and righteousness must ever create, but it is cowardly to avoid it. Militant goodness is the good- ness especially needed at this time. Touching many evils of the day, manifest in business delinquencies, commercial dishonesties, social outrages, financial exactions, only one spirit and temper of mind IS appropriate, and that is the feeling of indignation. Indignation under certain circumstances is highly com- plimentary, and its absence would be positive evidence of a personality lacking force and character. We need tremendously a revival that will enforce moral prin- ciples and honest practices in the six-day life of our civilization. The most carefullv-worded contracts do Christ and Social Service 101 not suffice against a character bankrupt of honor, honesty, and cardinal virtue. The growing indigna- tion of our country against the use of official position for personal gain, against the dominance of the liquor traffic in politics, against the disposition in courts of law to defend criminals by technicalities, against pro- tracted and unreasonable delays in the verdict of judge and jury, is one of the most hopeful indications of the present hour. Another requisite to the social and religious service which the age requires is the growing horizon — such an outlook upon society, religious activity, reformatory movements as will make one broadly intelligent and truly effective. The growing horizon will inspire our courage, control our activities, repress our hatreds, and economize and unify our agencies. Imperfect views as to the unity of religion, the unity of the race, the unity of social interest, as to the real value and function of organization and as to the fundamental spiritual ministries, occasion great weakness, needless conflict, and irritation. A better horizon will compel the Christian forces to accept the growing tendency to get together and unify administration with all hearti- ness. Courage to do and dare in the present unparalleled social opportunity is manifested by a larger number of people every day. Many governors within the last few years have risen absolutely above political and selfish consideration and stood for great principles of reform and righteousness in a way so thoroughly refreshing and inspiring as to occasion thanksgiving to Almighty God. Because of the shifting results of 102 The Social Messag^e of Our Lord & political preferment, names may. not be taken up, but they are in current thought, and the galaxy of noble men who have made records of this sort are worthy of all compliment, honor, and praise. Official adminis- tration, in freedom from corrupt and selfish political dictation, is now having some most encouraging illus- trations. It is a prophecy of good to the whole land. The influence of a single political leader who is great enough and splendid enough to stand for the right thing, against the devotees of vice and selfishness, is marvelous, and should encourage us all to a larger faith in the fighting efiiciency of goodness. However much the reformer may be decried in cer- tain prejudiced quarters, his work will always be important and in demand. We cannot conceive of a state of civilization in which this would not be true. Such a state would mean the paralysis of goodness and the stagnation of progress. Some of the reformers stand in need of being reformed, which is to say, they need to get a viev/ of sufficient breadth to give them the relation of their special work to other invaluable movements for social betterment. It is very natural for one to magnify the especial movement with which he may be connected, hence the warning for modera- tion and open-hearted sympathy toward all that is good and constructive is in place. One but injures his own cause when he decides, under any delusion, that the only way to build up his own cause is by minifying some other. The best view of the landscape is to be had from the hilltop. All reformers, therefore, need hilltoj) experiences and hilltop sympathies, controlled and dictated by breadth of horizon. Christ and Social Service 103 The mount on which the world holds communion with God will always need to be in thought. Our more immediate communions are with nature and with one another. While these are delightful, interesting, and sometimes restful, they, nevertheless, lack a cer- tain vital quality which is to be found alone in com- munion with the Heavenly Father. Let not this state- ment be regarded as a case of special pleading, for it really is one of the most practical and helpful facts for every-day living. When we have reached the real wisdom for human living, communion with God will be regarded with the same ready consent to fitness as light for vegetation and air for the lungs. One of the enemies to the kind of social and reli- gious service which the age requires is political and social provincialism. The diplomacy of the nations of the earth to-day has growing recognition of the cos- mopolitan idea and claim. It is a mark of littleness for one to segregate himself in his politics or religion from the profound communion which flows from the unity of religion and the unity of the race. We must look over our dividing walls into adjacent enclosures with such anxiety for openness and unobstructed fel- lowship as will compel the advocate of isolation and narrow sympathy to forego his ill-advised mission. The ministry of breadth and catholicity is always the ministry of progress. There devolves upon thoughtful people at this time the duty of defining and propagating a correct social idealism. This must not be left to men of coarse and brutal instincts, not to special interests. It must be done by the best-proportioned and best-endowed life 104 The Social Message of Our Lord afforded by any grade or strata in our civilization. Whoever shall undertake this work must be in sym- pathy with true religion and in sympathy with human- kind. This task is difficult, but we must not evade it because it is so. So much is at stake, and delay is dangerous. The church of Christ must take first responsibility here, as elsewhere. The definition of a correct social movement will probably deny the proposal that the fundamental prob- lem is economic. It will indicate that above the ques- tion of wage and income is the question of self-control, reasonable economy, approved domesticity, and gen- eral integrity. It seems unfortunate that in connec- tion with a clamorous demand for more generous com- pensation for all kinds and varieties of labor, the matter of personal character and religion should be relegated to subordinate attention. At this point we must be absolutely true to the human constitution and the claims of the moral and spiritual life. Character above dollars, and the spiritual above the material, must be the dominant truth. The atmosphere is murky with the philosophy of an enslaving materialism. The electrical currents and flashes of a purif3ang righteous- ness and uplifting spiritual influence alone can clear the air. Christ does indeed call our attention to the other world. From the other world he came forth, and to it, in the body of his incarnation, he returned. Never- theless, he announced that he would continue his influ- ence on the earth through the gracious influences and ministries of the Holy Spirit. So that, while he does fix our attention on the life to come, he does not call Christ and Social Service 105 it off from the life which now is. He only insists on balance, proportion, and the correct emphasis. He would incite us with desires for a better world, but he would commission us with the high and holy responsi- bility of making this one so good a one that we may decide that Zion hath descended from above. Our Lord is the stanchest advocate and mightiest potency for the better world here and now, which we all so much desire. CHRIST AND CURRENT SOCIAL PROPAGANDA. XVIII. On the whole, the modern social activity is to be commended. As we have indicated, it is hopeful rather than discouraging. Some positions, how- ever, that are insisted upon in the present social propaganda reveal weaknesses which, for the com- mon good, should be noted and eliminated as nearly as may be. Any great popular movement is liable to be sadly marred by lack of deliberateness, or, in other words, an impulsiveness which is always so fatal to satisfactory action. Human nature is sometimes so agitated that its action comes without due consideration. First thought is sometimes good' thought, but how often the sober second thought conveys the message of superior wisdom. Another phase in the present social propaganda is its tendency to shift position, to be fickle. This grows out of a lack of thoroughness and well- grounded conviction. It is also occasioned by the presence of any appreciable passion or ill feeling. The feelings of hatred that sometimes rankle in the human breast, thank God, are subject to reactionary influences and counter calls, but whenever, for any Christ and Current Social Propaganda 107 reason, a great reform takes on the temper of hatred its success is thereby sadly interfered with. It can be truthfully said that many persons who are interested in so-called social reform are so ex- ceedingly narrow in sympathy and outlook as to destroy their usefulness. An incomplete interest evidences itself in isolation from everything but the petted and favorite scheme or propaganda. The ail-round man is, of course, the ideal toward which w^e all look vs^ith admiration. A man who can appreciate the other side of a proposition to the extent that he will be fair and impartial is not as generously distributed on the earth as one could wish. A narrow enthusiasm is an unhappy enthusi- asm in its influence on the Avorld. Even enthusiasm for Christianity would fall under this criticism were it not that Christianity is so comprehensive. Another weakness may be indicated by the term "externalism." The tendency to magnify organiza- tion, political or otherwise, to live in its past achievements, to crystallize its ideals by the exclu- sion of new^ light, clogs the wheels of progress. Whenever an organization of any kind becomes empty of present vitalities it glorifies a few individ- uals who have entered into its history favorably, but who never would have left their mark on the organization unless they had met the hour of their obligation and service w^ith an open and fearless mind. No organization has real vitality unless it is keenly alive to the issues of the hour, and pro- poses, without undue regard to the effect upon it- 108 The Social Message of Our Lord self, to do the right and the noble thing. A deserved criticism on some of the great political conventions is the tendency here referred to. With the public clamoring for good leadership, as to moral issues, advanced legislation, and the general good, the devotees of externalism obstruct the functions of organization, and so far as they may, forestall advancement which ought by every lawful consideration to be made. Political majorities are merely so much social machinery, and v/hen they are manipulated and operated with a view to the spoils and not with a view to righteous principles, the zest and flavor falls out of them. The great political bodies of the country, when they have made their best history, have been possessed of a noble enthusiasm for righteousness. They have moved on under the spell and inspiration of a great cause which so appealed to their devotion as to lift them into an atmosphere of noble action and achievement. The dominance of selfish officialism discourages individual initiative. Officialism should really stand for leadership ; leadership should always mean momen- tum in the direction of the best things ; officialism should always be sensitive to the voice of the people. This fact is recognized in the provision being made in many of our city charters for an action of recall, when a public official fails to be in sympathy with sound public sentiment and policy. An unscrupulous or autocratic officialism is a parasite on social order. Christ and Current Social Propaganda 109 Another current weakness of social propaganda is evident in a lack of emphasis upon character qualities. Xot enough is said about self-control and the great profitableness of an improved individuality. This would mean, to be sure, the enforcement of a larger and more commanding sense of responsibility for indi- vidual type. There ought to be a grip at this point which would be so universally at work as to reduce to a small fraction, indeed, the number of improvident, shiftless, and ill-charactered men. The higher stand- ards of individual life must be held up to view until lack of conformity will make one notorious and lead to shame. Religion itself is always in danger of being institu- tionalized, externalized, and drawn away from its inherent life. Among religionists are to be found those who think more of their particular organization than they do of the fundamental spirit of Christianity, or the growing demand on Christian citizenship for breadth of view and holiness of character. This exaltation of the external is the deadly foe to true piety. Religion is always greater than its institutions. An institution is the product of an idea or force ; the force or idea that produces the institution is the thing to be magnified. External forms and methods, we fear, have had an emphasis out of proportion to their ordained place and value. That which, in itself, is admirable must not, because of our dullness and stupidity, become a men- ace and a barrier. When once the passion for exter- nalism has marred the vision, the really important things are under eclipse. True, the existing external 110 The Social Message of Our Lord conditions should be conducive to individual develop- ment and character. If they are not, they ought to be changed. But we should never lose sight of the fact that the better social order imperatively calls for the better man. As one author puts it, we shall never have golden conduct in life if we permit our instincts to be leaden. Prosperity, widely heralded when it exists, deplored when it is absent, often abused when it is present, sometimes presages both political and moral decline. This ought not to be so, but it will be so unless we have a propaganda before the public in invariable constancy, securing the public attention. Externalism is like a ghastly skeleton, helpless, repulsive, useless unless life shall come into it. Canals are good if they be full of water. When their channels are dry, the trees perish and the landscape loses its beauty, and commerce languishes. No matter how perfect our social machinery may be, it is helpless without high-charactered men to apply it. We have talked about the man behind the gun, and there is reason for the talk. Much of the social maladjustment is to be traced directly to the blame- worthy faults of men; defects that need not, and ought not exist. Our criminal classes, blameworthy though they be, are often made all the worse by the fact that the men who take charge of them are lacking in Christian character and the qualities which men must possess if they are to be helpful and just in their administrative functions and duties. Another defect in current social activity is the dis- position to withhold any reference of social wrongs Christ and Current Social Propaganda 111 or inequalities to a personal cause. It is so much easier to berate the impersonal state or social order; to -call down imprecations upon it, and omit entirely any reference to the matter of character or individual integrity. Too much can scarcely be said at this point, and whenever the friends of social reform lose sight of this phase of the question they make a mistake for which their cause must suffer. The individual man, his traits of character, his habits of life, are factors to which constant reference must be made if our civilization is to advance to the higher excellencies. Reference to the personal causes of social unhappiness, poverty and the like, may be characterized as preach- ing, and spurned for lack of wisdom. Nevertheless, we shall be driven back upon the threadbare issue, if threadbare it shall be called, and compelled to reiterate the claim of God and man for personal integrity. CHRIST'S KINGDOM THE ULTIMATE SOCIAL ORDER. XIX. When we seek the ideal in civilization and social order, we find it in the nature and scope of the king- dom of God. Christianity- provides for balance, dis- crijnination, poise, proportion, and requisite detach- ment in human life. It provides for practical and patient activity, for inclusive and wise activity. Its proposition that every human shall come into com- munion with God as the daily habit of his life, stands between us and exhausting weariness and social despair. Here is tonic and bread for the disquieted heart. Christianity can even maintain courage under meager immediate results. Furthermore, the kingdom of God creates a type of personality at once unique and noteworthy ; a type which the more it is studied will glorify and vindicate the message of the kingdom of God as to human char- acter. The real test of character is its ability to rise above and modify environment. All great characters have triumphed at this point. Every one may triumph here if he will. Much is said in these days about environment, and some people go so far as to claim it is the all-determining and final element. But what a hopeless world this would be if that were true. Many a boy has been environed by poverty, but he Christ's Kingdom the Ultimate Social Order 113 rose above it. Many a woman has struggled with unhappy surroundings and glorified her mission. Per- haps^ the most vital statement that can be made about the Christian character is the one under discussion. Christianity refuses to concede that environment is greater than personality. It works on the exact oppo- site of this proposition, and based on that practical law of human progress, it makes appeal for our inter- est, devotion, and support. It has been observed that salvation has always been by saviors. The statement cannot be successfully con- tradicted. ''Saviors have always been by sanctifica- tion." That is to say, they have saved others by losing themselves ; which is to say, again, that they were saviors under the law of devotement ; which is to say, again, that they have saved by vicarious sacrifice. The saviors of the world have always had reference to both spiritual and temporal salvation. Christianity is not indifferent to environment. It insists that where external conditions are not as they might be, or should be, the only righteous thing is to change them for the comfort, happiness, and welfare of humanity. Chris- tianity stands for a beautiful world, for a clean world, for a happy world. The first concern of Christ is a manhood that can conquer ; a manhood that has ability for self-control ; a manhood fitted to deal with the problems of each age ; a manhood which, while sensitive to individual right, understands full well that no individual right exists which constitutes any part of a general wrong. Our Lord was once met with the suggestion that he turn stones into bread. This he refused to do, not 114 The Social Message of Our Lord because bread-making was a bad occupation, but be- cause self-control and the law of spiritual integrity was far above even so good a commodity as bread. In our clamor for bountiful material good and its generous distribution to all men, we must not sacrifice God's rightful claim, and society's rightful claim for uprightness and nobility of character. Our age is so materialistic that some people would judge all spiritual agencies by the test of bread-making. The exalted and spiritual ministries of the church and religion are belittled in comparison with those agencies that deal with the supply of our external want. Christ recognizes needs that are far more funda- mental than bodily hunger. Yet he would have the world clothed and fed. He pleads for the satisfaction of man's complete capacity. Men have a capacity for bread and they have a capacity for God. They have capacity and talent ; they may also have inspiration and spiritual intuition. The world moves everywhere under an impelling desire for an agreeable self-con- sciousness. No self-consciousness can be agreeable so long as the moral nature is uncleansed of its evil. Men and women make such queer and unusual quests ; yea, illogical quests for happiness. They are ever seeking for living waters in cisterns and springs that have long since run dry. They wear themselves out in futile search for satisfaction in that which satisfies not. The kingdom of God must be the ultimate social order because it provides for regenerated and high- powered personality. Let no one stand aghast at that word "regenerated." We are doomed to sure disap- Christ's Kingdom the Ultimate Social Order 115 pointment if we expect social relief while we abrogate so far as we may all idea of personal responsibility for our sin and unrighteousness. Sin is, after all, a matter of human control, because it is a matter of divine control. By so much as we weaken personal responsi- bility we forbid social progress. We must gird up the loins of our mind and be strong. With all of our efiforts for the annihilation of the liquor traffic in legalized form, and these efforts ought to be redoubled, we must, nevertheless, never with- draw the emphasis on the individual responsibility for drunkenness. The major responsibility for the evils of intemperance, we will allow, rests with the manu- facturers and retailers of intoxicants. The govern- ment that gives license for this unspeakable outrage on humanity also bears a large and discrediting respon- sibility. Yet let it be thundered through the land, th^ft the man who voluntarily walks up to the bar and spends money which ought to go to the support of his family, for the intoxicating cup, is, himself, culpable in a high degree, and his conduct should be branded as unworthy of any man. A claim made for the saloon is, that it supplies a real need in the present social order. Every man who has not put his manhood above the control and patronage of the American saloon is, by so much, guilty of conduct for which he should blush in shame. It is not complimentary to any com- munity that it has so many devotees of the blighting cup that nothing else will do but a great seductive liquor house and coarsening resorts. We shall solve the problem of charity largely when we develop in our civilization the general capacity to 116 The Social Message of Our Lord live without it. If we increase the power of good liv- ing, we shall diminish by so much the demand for the agencies that must supplement bad living. If we may engender the habit of thrift, we shall forbid the blight of poverty. We shall be rid of our negations when our citizenship is builded about the great affirmatives. Positive character-power will ever be in demand. Cen- tral in all social adjustments is the factor of redeemed character. A large percentage of human suffering is chargeable to the prevailing social order, but even more is to be attributed to human sinning. A good many things have been said in criticism of the prodigal son, but one thing should be said to his credit : He made no accusation against the existing social order. He made no reference to a bad father and ungracious mother, jealous brothers and sisters, or unkind neighbors. He manfully declared that he, himself, was a sinner. In so many words he declared, ''I have sinned." When he returned to the father he had a just estimate of the good things which, after all, he had marred by his own defects and wanderings. He recognized that the scope and purpose of the home life to which he had been a party was, in its nature, kind and beneficent. It was much better than his conduct had been. The kingdom of Christ is the adequate source of capacity for social service. Such service calls for the sovereign life which flows from Christ, the King. Here is provision for devotion in spiritual ideals that will make human life fruitful and efficient; the inner ministries of the kingdom of God make the man ; the service of the man extends the kingdoni. The temper Christ's Kingdom the Uhimate Social Order 117 and spirit of the kingdom creates social righteousness. No individual has discovered himself until he has discovered an objective to which, with all heartiness, he can devote himself. This objective is found in Christ. Wisdom, vision, and power are given to one as he gives himself to the kingdom. We are in a battle for ideals in this country. This is more impor- tant than the fight for bread. The lack of a spiritual ideal is the greatest curse of the modern world. We cannot suffer an unspiritual objective to take the place of a correct spiritual idealism. To do so would be to increase the present social peril. CHRIST'S KINGDOM FUNDAMENTAL. XX. In considering the place of the kingdom in history, we are impressed with the fact that its coming and character were the burden of prophecy. No prophet arose among the Hebrew people who did not speak forth a great message to the heart of the nation touch- ing this central fact in their history and hope. The initial potencies of the kingdom were even then at work, but its fuller and final glories could only be fore- told, and an appeal made to faith, service, and patience. The kingdom stood for great ideas of God, of right- eousness, of individual and national character. These ideas the world has never outgrown, but, on "the con- trary, they have called into being individual, social, and political ideals that the race has never actualized, much to its own detriment and hurt. These ideals will continue to stand in advance of the most noble development and achievement in the history of human progress and invite forward the hosts of coming gen- erations. The kingdom standards will always be at the front. The kingdom meant then, and means now a new era for mankind. The great prophets and poets have always sung of a golden age yet to come, and the song has hushed the notes of despair. This song has given the clarion calls of reform and stilled into patience the Christ's Kino^dom Fundamental 119 '& unduly agitated passions of men. The race is aging under the passing centuries and is often weary for waiting, but this song brings buoyancy and hope. It brings into the heart of the race a perpetual youth- fulness. In all the past the kingdom has upheld the courage of godly men and women. This has meant more than we can realize for the advance of righteous- ness in the earth. Whenever good men lose courage, evil triumphs and righteousness languishes. Courage must have root and stronghold somewhere. The cour- age of the kingdom is moral courage, and that is the most difficult courage for man. Animal or brute cour- age is as nothing compared to it. The prophetical announcements of the kingdom, together with its cur- rent potencies, have always inspired the hearts of men to do and dare and sufiter for righteousness. The messages of the kingdom have always been in preparation for the elevation of the race. Stage by stage its forces have moved men upward and God- ward. From valley to upland, from upland to plateau, and from plateau to mountain top, it has caused man to pitch his tent in the scheme of constant progress. Where the air once seemed rare and exhausting man has come to be at home by continued residence and acclimatization. The moral heart of man has been fitted to the ascent of spiritual life, and the "higher ground'' is not so sparsely settled as it was in the long ago. The moral and spiritual preparations for the lifting up of the race are constantly being made by the manifold ministries of the kingdom of Christ. The Jews fearfully and fatally misapprehended the nature and scope of the kingdom. They looked for it 120 The Social Message of Our Lord in externals, in worldly splendor, racial and political supremacy, immediately beneficial to themselves. When Christ talked to the disciples about the Pente- cost, they asked if it involved the restoration of Israel as an organization. There is well-grounded reason for concluding that there are people in our lists of church communicants who make a kindred mistake to-day. They are the devotees of their particular ecclesiastical organization and are over-zealous for certain phases of sectarian propaganda which are wholly unimportant as compared to the fundamentals of Christ's spiritual kingdom. They are missing the vital experiences of our Lord's spiritual reign in the individual through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist had a particular and unique relation to the kingdom of our Lord. For four hundred years the Hebrew nation had heard no prophetic voice, for the spirit of prophecy had apparently perished from the Hebrew heart. Just a little while before the begin- ning of our Lord's public ministry, John the Baptist appeared on the scene, with all the fervor and power of a Hebrew prophet, but he immediately indicated his intimate and peculiar relation to the Messiah, whose forerunner he proposed to be. He was the connecting link between the Judaism about to pass and the Christ evangel about to burst on the world. Let us consider, in more immediate connection, Christ and the kingdom. Christ was the king of the kingdom appearing for enthronement. He was the king indeed, and he had every element of kingship. He was no usurper of the throne he came to occupy. Christ's Kingdom Fundamental 121 Being a king, he could only rule from a throne, and the kingdom afforded an appropriate throne. His reign was to be its central life and fact. Blessed were those who contributed in any way to his enthronement then, and thrice blessed are they who contribute to his enthronement to-day. Our Lord's coming as king of the kingdom was in exact fulfillment, in word and spirit, of prophecy. It is altogether convincing to make a study of prophecy and see how, as to its letter, Christ fulfilled it. This is true in every respect, and our readers are asked to make this study, for space will not permit our going into this matter of detail. In spirit, prophecy had always had reference to two things of fundamental importance, repentance and righteousness. Repentance because evil must be done away, and righteousness because it must underlie the whole social fabric. Life freed from sin and invested with righteousness was the spirit and heart of proph- ecy. Christ came in immediate promotion of this spiritual realization. He came to fill life to the full with the power to lay aside sin and take on righteous- ness. To this glorious end he was Heaven's full power container. Christ came as the embodiment of the kingdom's vitalities and potencies. He embodied its highest doc- trines and life. The kingdom had held out the hope of victory over sin, and Christ embodied the divine provision for the realization of that hope. The king- dom had proposed that men should walk in daily com- munion with God, and Christ embodied the power called for under the proposition. He came to remove the barriers to this communion, and. beyond all ques- 122 The Social Message of Our Lord tion, he administers to human need in this respect to this day. Christ made the kingdom the central message of his earthly ministry. The word occurs again and again in the records that have come down to us, evidently be- cause the idea was uppermost in his thought. His Sermon on the Mount has been well named "the con- stitution of the kingdom." He characterized his own preaching by declaring that its chiefest message was the message of this mighty spiritual and social potency. There is more than a hint here to the ministry of the present day. The burden of the Master's sermons may well be the burden of ours. Christ set forth the fact that membership in the kingdom was an infinite privilege because it brought one in touch with the infinite power. Estimated by any sort of sane reasoning and sound logic, this mem- bership should be accorded first place in all human thinking. The touch of the kingdom is the power touch on the character of man. Other privileges rank high, but this one outshines them all. Christ installed the inexhaustible kingdom vitalities. He loosed them and let them go. They have been tested by all the generations of men, and have not been found wanting. A numberless host of men and women and children in each generation have received their uplifting minis- tries and have been happy in singing their triumphs. The oncoming tides of evil have felt the restraints of these vitalities and have accepted control and limita- tion. These vitalities have cheered the tempted and comforted the sorrowing; have brought a high degree Christ's Kinedom Fundamental 123 't) of moral heroism into the trying scenes of earthly service and achievement. Christ gave commission for the world conquest of the kingdom. The apostles indicated the processes by which this would be brought about. Beginning in Jerusalem, it was to reach the uttermost parts of the earth. No clime, condition, or boundary was to be allowed to place a limit to its redemptive messages and helpful ministries. No nation, people, or tongue but was to feel the persuasions and encouragements of the joyous evangel. ''Through the church to all the world," the divine order. Christ indicated the universal hos- pitality of the kingdom — ''Whosoever will may come." Nothing like this in all the range of human thinking. Since this glad note has passed out upon the air the most blamevv'Orthy and culpable thing in any man is his failure to come. He is not most of all condemned for being a sinner, but for his failing to accept the Savior. We Anglo-Saxons have so long been accus- tomed to this note of most gracious v/elcome that it has become commonplace and meaningless through its very familiarity. Most Americans are the children of European ancestors, and we have had the gracious message of hospitality for many generations. Let us train our hearts to a new tenderness lest this sweet note of invitation come up at the last for our con- demnation. If we shall note the nature and power of the king- dom, we shall readily see how fundamental it must always be to a satisfying social order. It is the king- dom of the interior life. In the language of Holy Writ, "It is within you." It is established in the affec- 124 The Social Messa2:e of Our Lord fe' tional life and registers in the outer activities. It exists in the tempers and dispositions of the mind, in the sweetness and love of the soul. It provides designated character as the source of happiness and blessedness. The world is always say- ing the rich, the famous, the powerful are blessed. It is the message of the kingdom that the pure in heart are blessed. The Sermon on the Mount locates bless- edness, not in the environment, but in the soul quali- ties. Here is the wisdom of life ; here is the philos- ophy that is Heaven-born. The blessed character is installed and supported by a spiritual experience which our Lord refers to as a birth from above. It is the second begetting by the gracious Holy Spirit, and gives us our citizenship in heaven. The doctrine of the kingdom is exalted and exalting, viewed from every standpoint. Like the river which the prophet saw in vision, everything lives wherever it flows. Its doctrine of wage and capital is just, equi- table, and satisfactory. But we dare not go into detail just here. Let it suffice when the observation is made that the whole body of doctrine promulgated by the kingdom, thoroughly comprehensive in scope as it is, will continue to challenge and command the approval of all right-minded people to the end of time. The kingdom is adequate in power, for it compels to applied and practical morality. Everywhere and all the time the man of the kingdom must of inborn neces- sity stand for practical righteousness, and his failure to do so is evidence of his being mistaken as to his citizenship. "By their fruits ye shall know them." The power of the kingdom is sure to get into contact Christ's Kingdom Fundamental 125 for the sohition of every problem where the right and the wrong are in issue. It stands for generic right- eousness. Its power of purification is marvelous and dependable. Its deliverances are in all the earth. The kingdom inaugurates the triumphant reign of God in the soul. The Holy Word and the Holy Spirit are efficacious through the atonement of our Lord Christ. The Christian life-power is a triumphant power, and uniformly seeks a full individual manifes- tation. It is feared that many church people stop short of this full manifestation of the kingdom life-power. At one time, while traveling in Canada, I came to a stretch of land growing both barley and mustard in considerable abundance. It was not easy to decide which crop was in the purpose of the owner. The Christian life was not intended to be a medley. It is to be all of a kind, the unit life of righteousness. The character afiforded to kingdom citizens is for life demonstration and use. \\'e know of no world where this type of character is so certainly needed as in this present world. Persons of this character begin eternal life now, for they are now the sons of God. These citizens of the kingdom are in heaven now essentially and vitally. This type of character is of primal importance, for its relativity is all-determining in all values. While it is not of this world, it is for the mastery of this world. Christ's kingdom compels the battle-line for the sov- ereignty of great and holy principles. It advances the battle-line as rapidly as human cooperation makes it possible. It establishes the skirmish and main line for all reform. Its proposition is the glorification and 126 The Social Message of Our Lord sanctification of all material good. It unsheathes the sword of the Spirit and is the unrelenting foe of all unrighteousness. It proposes and enforces eternal war on the monarchy of hell. It brooks no defeat and never sounds the order for retreat. It marshals and projects the forces of constructive righteousness. Its victories are the victories of humanity. It appeals to our heroism and complete dedication. It is forever the hope of weakness and oppression. It makes supreme the passion for the moral elevation of the race and keeps one's nature ever sensitive to all worthy appeal. Pity the men and women who are not of the king- dom, for time soon fades their crown. Their sensual and silly lives vanish like morning mist and their names perish from the earth. For the man of the kingdom conquest and coronation are just ahead. CHRIST AND AMERICAN DUTY. XXL There are certain duty points for Americans that need to be emphasized at this hour. In the Hght of the message of Jesus Christ, we have a pronounced duty to degenerate humanity within our borders. Wherever the law of degeneracy is allowed to exert its destructive power a great interrogatory must be faced manfully and fearlessly. Degenerate plants and animals are pitiful and deplorable exhibits of arrested development. More pitiful than all is the deformity exhibited in degenerate mankind. The physical, social, moral, intellectual, and economic causes of this degen- eracy must be studied, noted, and eradicated. Gener- ally speaking, it may be that a limited number of men and women who have fallen from the normal type are the inevitable outcome of existence at all, but it is easily apparent that a profound study of the methods by which the number shall be reduced to the lowest possible percentage is the urgent social duty of the hour. We must probe deep and long until we have located causes, and then go to work heroically to elim- inate them. All the resources of church and state administered by high-minded servants of Christ and humanity must be applied to the solution of this problem. 128 The Social Messas^e of Our Lord fe' Selfish and passionate socialis'm and unionism must be persuaded to higher and better ideals. The message of Christ touching the reactions from selfishness and hate are clear and unmistakable. Class hatred is dan- gerous seed, and ill must betide the sowing from any source. America is not in a position to countenance this sort of sowing within her borders. In origin and history she is molded on broader lines. A republic cannot thrive on selfish agitations or alignments of any sort. Universal love arid good will are the foundations of democracy. l^dobs with curses for law, order, and property are scenes from which we may well shrink. That they transpire is at once a challenge to the efficiency of our civilization and the agencies that underlie its develop- ment. Vice, ignorance, and wretchedness have certain inherent tendencies toward which the movement is absolutely certain. The most marked tendency of these is toward revolution. The anarchist grows out of these elements, and hence lifts his rash outcry against the existing order, whether that order be well proven or no. Attention to vice, a ministry to ignorance, and relief by righteousness are matters of common concern to the state and the church. Another point of duty for present consideration is the usurpations of unscrupulous centralized power. Power aggregated must always be unsafe, unless con- trolled by goodness. In proportion as great power is uncontrolled by the ideals of righteousness, it becomes a menace to the general good. In our favored land, we are all at work on the problem of free government. The fundamental idea of free government is the guar- Christ and American Duty 129 antee of the rights of all. It easily follows, therefore, that any tendency to override the right of the indi- vidual through the superior power of the corporation is a tendency that must be guarded and restrained. Institutions, as also individuals, must be held respon- sible to the laws of righteousness. Attention to the individual will compel effort to the end that individual evil may be removed, and the personality readjusted to the correct standards of life. Forces of evil, whether institutional or individual, must pass under redemptive power and be reapplied. So long as the forces of evil pursue their own bent and trend, they can only distract and destroy. All evil consumes energy, exhausts re- source, and misapplies valuable life. This waste is a drain upon civilization, which all lovers of human progress must deplore. Wickedness is always self -destroying, and beyond what it does to selfhood is its awful blight as far as its influence may reach. With the foundations of evil dried up life will flow on in a gladdening stream. The fascinations of the human family with evil can but raise a query in any well-balanced mind. Why the fascination, and why a surrender to it with the abrogation of all the laws of restraint and permanent happiness? This is an hour that calls for a patriotism even higher than that called for in times of war. The patriotism of peace is the kind of which our civiliza- tion has most need. With a rapidity pleasing and pro- phetical of good, the thirst for war is passing, and in its place we are confronting the complex problems of peace and order. War, as a type of human evil, may well pass, but in its stead civilization will need to con- 130 The Social Message of Onr Lord front surviving evils with a devout and even stern persistency. Ordinarily, the prevalence of peace in a nation is accompanied by great prosperity. It also means the advance of learning, the encouragement of art, the development of government. Evil, under these circumstances, is sure to arise in some other form than that of war, and the form may be all the more dangerous because it comes under the disguises and refinements of a luxurious and ample material prog- ress. The patriotism of peace calls for a scrupulous regard for the essential equities, for a care to maintain the equality of all before the law and in the presence of opportunity. It also compels the execution of the strictest justice and the exemplification of the true spirit of brotherliness. In the directions we have indi- cated are to be found some of the calls of duty and patriotic concern in this, our favored land and genera- tion. Let us scan at least briefly the responsibility of the church of Christ as set in the center of American duty. Upon her devolves the task of a Christlike sensitiveness to all the needs of the current age. Christianity has never failed where its inherent life has had opportunity for expression and development. W^henever its generic life flows unhindered toward the realization of the Christ character in humankind, there it will inevitably succeed in planting the standard of human hope and progress. It becomes the duty of the church to keep with the masses. Here is her natural home. If she and the masses are apart, it can only be because both have yielded to serious defects. The Christian religion is the natural ally of popular afifec- Christ and American Duty 131 tion and interest. Among all the institutions and agen- cies which appeal to human attention, nothing sur- passes in genuine attractiveness the true church of Jesus Christ. When she serves in the spirit and meas- ure of her Lord and his gospel, she can but secure an unquestioned place in human interest, yea, in human love. The church stands for blessing and beneficent ministry. She is God's angel, sent for the relief and even the cure of human ills. Her commission is aglow with the character and life of her divine Head. In order to fulfill the reasonable expectations of civilization, the church must put her activities on a higher plane than mere quest for members. It is diffi- cult to determine how much the church has sufifered by allowing a mania for numbers to overcome her care for the quality and fullness of her gospel. There is a snare in the ambition for great statistical exhibit. \\'e may be so overborne by this desire for numbers that we quite forget those things that are of far more vital importance. The church that will conduct its work on a plane of exact obedience and fidelity to the gospel and methods of our Lord will not suffer finally in its lists of membership, but it must always sufifer when, for any reason, it removes its services from the higher plane to the lower. God is always attentive to the matter of quality. ]\Ian is more likely to yield to the seductions of quantity. It is clearly the duty of the church to render a service in human need and development which cannot be challenged. Ordinarily the church has shown an ability to institute, on her own motion, the essential criticism of herself in motive and method. The church 132 The Social Message of Our Lord has never been without the criticism of men without her- communion, and she probably never will be. It may be said, however, to the great credit of the church's vitality, that her most profound and helpful criticism has originated with herself, and that there never has been a time when she was lacking in an ability for this valuable function from within. Wher- ever, in the present crisis, the church is taking up with absolute fearlessness and devotion the work of Chris- tian ministry, leadership and service, she stops the mouths of her foes and compels a tribute from even the ungodly. The vital element in the church's life must always be a consuming desire to build up and perfect hu- manity. Such a definition of the church's duty lays upon her an infinite task. Such a definition grows more and more significant as we study it and throw in contrast the urgent problems that characterize this age. It, however, is as clear as the noonday that only as the church takes up this real and mighty task can she hope to fulfill her mission, disarm her critics, and overcome her foes. Humanity must be perfected in the furnace fires of earthly agitation, trial, and sor- row. With all the diversity of human need that diversity is not wider than the church's God-given ability to minister. The church of our Lord is called to giving and serving rather than investing. That is to say, she dares not hold over all of her council tables the ques- tion of what will come back to her treasury and her organic life as the result of the outflow of her re- sources of men and money. Her giving and her Christ and American Duty 133 unselfish serving are, indeed, investments of the high- est order, but they are not the kind which the passion for gain in the commercial world has compelled us so largely to think about. In other words, the commer- cial spirit dare not dominate the church of Jesus Christ. Whenever she proposes to cheapen her serv- ice by a decision that she must have a return to her treasury for what she expends in the ministry to human need and suffering, she will, by so much, dimin- ish her power and misrepresent her Lord. Missions in the cities, missions in the country, missions at home, and missions abroad must be maintained by the church whether they pay commercially or not ; for all such work let the prosperous church pay the bills and give, expecting nothing in return. It is only by placing the life and the work of the church on this biblical plane that we can hope to have the blessing of Christ and the approving interest of all right-minded men. The responsibility of the Christian for service will often suggest identification with a weak church or mission, even though such identification may not, first of all, promote our comfort and social advantage. The great question with the disciple of Christ must ever be, How, where, and when can I most certainly rep- resent and carry out the controlling will of my Lord and Master? Far too many Christian people in the present age worship at the shrine of numbers, wealth, and talent, as represented in some great congregation, to which, as a matter of ease, they attach themselves. Naturally, the large and wealthy congregation offers excellent social advantages, and can always ex- hibit and command in its occasions of worship and 134 The Social Message of Our Lord public assembly talent of a very high grade; but far oftener than we could wish scores of Christ's disciples hide themselves away from the need of the world in the great congregation wherein individual responsi- bility is reduced to the minimum. It is clearly the duty of the church to broaden her ministry. Far too long, in some quarters, conceptions of what the church might or might not undertake to do have been too narrow. This narrowness of vision has narrowed activity, dried the fountains of sym- pathy, and impaired the high efficiency to which the church in God's economy is ordained. Very properly a congregation of Christians in this age may place on the schedule of things to be undertaken and wrought out a greater variety than has been possible in the past. Our complex civilization is, every year, raising new issues and defining added responsibilities for good people. We are rapidly reaching the conclu- sion that no greatness can exist without goodness of the genuine sort. The church is called upon to grapple with the her- culean task of maintaining the purity of the nation under advancing and abounding light. The general advance in knowledge is flooding the mind of this generation with light, and that means that we shall confront the serious question of creating an adequate moral force and control for the added information. Historically, we know that it is easier to evangelize a nation than to maintain its purity after it has been evangelized. This fact is a tribute to the religion of Christ and indicates how absolutely it is fitted for the promotion of advancing evolutions in social order and Christ and American Duty 135 efficiency. The human family has a proneness to rest in the initial processes. Against this tendency we must wage an everlasting warfare. Only as we sur- mount this difficulty can we make sure of the reigning life of Jesus Christ in our midst, and of the marvelous strides forward which we are all anxious shall char- acterize our civilization. After evangelization, follows the danger of substi- tuting machinery for spirituality. Another danger just as deadly is that of substituting culture or knowledge for piety. To be keenly alive to this peril is to prac- tically guarantee our deliverance from it. An intense realization of the fact that no real excellence of char- acter is possible to the church without care for spir- ituality is of first and primal importance. There are numberless temptations to overlook this fact. These temptations must be overcome and the church led, not only to see duty at this point, but to feel in her deepest heart her absolute need of reincarnating in her life and love the life and love of her Lord. Let us conclude here with attention to a few notes of warning. Free government means self-government. Self-government means high-grade character and in- telligence. Conscience, intelligence, comfort are an essential trinity. They have logical relation to one another, and united make a complete cycle. Nothing will save but the efficient prevalence of religion. These are the safeguards of the American republic. Nations and cities have perished because, in their violation of honesty and righteousness, they went beyond recall. Apostasy caused the Dark Ages. Our own loved America may be the final problem in the history of 136 The Social Message of Our Lord the race. If America fails in her leadership and char- acter, who can predict the influence upon the world? We are classed among the Christian nations, and yet, in the comprehensive use of the term, we are far from being a Christian nation. If America is not thor- oughly Christianized, one more nation will perish on the earth. The decisive conquest of America for Christ and the gospel must come now. We cannot delay the crisis of moral battle, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The panorama of passing events presents for our steady and calm contemplation developments with startling rapidity and" of a character to involve our profoundest concern. The Pacific Ocean is rap- idly becoming the world's central sea. Even a few decades are to witness, if our Lord shall tarry, devel- opments, political and religious, along its shore lines that will astonish the most far seeing. Everywhere and all the time we must associate Jesus Christ with American duty and move forward to those glorious culminations in power and service of which he is the guarantee. CHRIST IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE THE SUPREME UTILITY. XXII. Our age is utilitarian, and that test is passing upon all matters that appeal to public attention and interest. Christianity is an experience. It deals with the essen- tial spiritual nature of mankind; it proposes to come into that nature because it stands for certain well- defined expressions and results in human character and conduct. Christ does not shrink from this test of utility. Touching humankind, there are certain possible sources of action. One may act from information and fact. This is intelligent and philosophical. Both information and fact lose their fruitage and signifi- cance unless action follows. Any action is logically accounted for when based upon either of these causes. Again, men may act because of the influence of the unseen and the spiritual. Facts as to what we see or what we cannot see should prepare the way for con- sciousness. This is legitimate fruitage. There follows also the reciprocal relation between consciousness and fact. Consciousness can make a mighty use of facts. Facts enter personality by the process of transfusion. To work from consciousness is to work from inspira- tion. This is working from the internal and the spir- itual to the external. Whether from consciousness or 138 The Social Messasre of Our Lord &' information, the duty of all personality is action. One may act from both consciousness and information, or he may act from either. By all means, the vital word for mankind is "action." The experience of Christ is the true dynamic for social service. We read, ''J^sus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and was returning to God, arose from his place, and taking off his upper garments, tied a towel about his waist and proceeded to wash the disciples' feet." At first glance, this statment affords what we may term an anti-climax. Jesus definitely announces the most sublime consciousness of his life ; namely, that he came from God, was returning to God, and in the interval he was God's plenipotentiary to the earth. From this sublimest consciousness he is im- mediately moved to an expression in the humblest possible social service, to the group of men whom he had called. Here is a message which we are bound to consider. The whole incident is fraught with instruc- tion. We readily conclude that the experience of Christ wrought into human consciousness is immedi- ately subject to draft in helpful ministry. Christ appoints that this consciousness of him shall be the dynamic for service to our fellows. Moments of spe- cial spiritual vividness will perish out of our hearts unless they be suffered to express themselves in utili- tarian activities. Christ is the great economist, and it is his plan and purpose that the spiritual experiences which flow from him to the human spirit shall immediately be con- nected with the hard work of this busy world. With Christ in Human Experience 139 this th.ought in mind, we can readily see the vital rela- tionship which exists between man's experience of the Saviorship of Christ and the daily routine of duty and toil. He who would have the sweetest visions and experiences growing out of communion with Christ must consider how these may fall out of the heart, absolutely and finally, unless they be coronated and used at once in the activities of Christ-inspired serv- ice. Here we may find an explanation as to some of the waning characters that have had more or less rela- tion to the forms of Christian worship. Under the inspirations of the Christ experience one must invari- ably go forth to nobility of service and efficiency of action. With such a dynamic as this, who can meas- ure the social service of the church of Christ? Christ in human experience glorifies the commonest service and lifts it into exalted ministry. It seemed a very common thing for our Lord to wash the feet of the disciples, and evidently he yielded himself in this act of humility for the specific purpose of expressing his own inherent life, and at the same time giving the world for all time to come the vital message now under discussion. A sublime spiritual consciousness is not a dreamy or impractical thing. On the contrary, it is the need, yea, the absolute need of the most common- place life. Knowing that he w^as the Son of God, our Lord washed the disciples' feet ; and know^ing that w^e are the sons of God through faith in him. we shall have power to do and serve in his name. It is apparent that the consciousness and the deed may well be simultaneous. Doubtless we lose in char- acter vigor whenever there is a long interval between 140 The Social Message of Our Lord our rarest, moments of spiritual consciousness and some marked expression of that consciousness in serv- ice to our fellow-men. We are always in need of a great reserve for the little deed. Only so can we be certain of the momentum which will carry us beyond the deadly center of our own selfishness. All the work of life needs to be wrought out under this spiritual experience of Jesus as divine Master and Lord. The world has never tried this prescription and reported a failure. Its use insures success. There are temptations and possibilities of ineffi- ciency even under the highest spiritual consciousness. This statement is not discouraging, but it is instruct- ive. We may well take warning and bestir our hearts. No excellence without struggle, and no culmination of struggle is utilized save as we secure the character victory ; no one may rest in beatific quiet and senti- mental contemplation. These are all good in their way, and must never be ruled out of thought or prac- tice, but we dare not rest in them. Every genuine spiritual experience and inspiration will prove its divin- ity in visible and useful labor. It cannot be other- wise. We may well regret with the most profound repentance any failure at this point. Out yonder is the battle-field, and here the armor and ammunition for the bloodless conflict. Spiritual consciousness must not miscarry or fall short of the mark. The higher the consciousness the more abundant the service. Here is the secret of successful resistance in the temptations that come to good people. Through the great compassion of Christ and the forbearance of the Holy Spirit, the lures to higher spiritual conscious- Christ in Human Experience 141 ness are frequent and attractive. *'We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." That is to say, one's spiritual consciousness of having passed from the bondage of sin and Satan and moral death into the liberty and illumination of discipleship to Christ is demonstrated by an over- whelming desire for the well-being of our brothers. Does the old world need this ministry? Showing our relationship to Christ is a broad and comprehensive obligation. The more nearly the relationship is per- fected, the more absolutely the obligation is estab- lished. The more vital the experience, the more all- embracing the sphere of duty and service. It is possible to die of spiritual luxury. Just as in the case of daily menu for the body, the absence of the plain, substantial, and nutritious would shortly result in depleted physical energy, so in the Christian life, if one should dwell upon the ecstasies and high communions of his glorious experience without atten- tion to the plain duty of fellowship with the church, steady cooperation in Christian work, careful and daily Bible study, the result could only be emaciated character. The very highest in Christian- experience must have great care lest the temptations to the im- practical, the extreme, and the visionary shall over- come one and remove him from the resource of the church of Jesus Christ. The very highest spiritual consciousness is always accompanied by promptings to duty and service. Obedience to these promptings is the path of safety. God-given feelings may be utterly worn out by our disregarding them. One's condition is, indeed, pitiable 142 The Social ^Messasre of Our Lord fe' when he has, by his lack of intelligent daily obedience, incapacitated himself for the recurrence of the finest sensibilities within the range of experience. It is against this inevitable result that the apostle gives warning when he admonishes that we "quench not the Spirit." Quench not the Spirit in highest aspirations and holiest vision. Quench not the Spirit by withhold- ing life from service, however humble and unnoted that service may be. Doctrine and experience must at once pass into example and conduct. Christ in human experience places life on the plane above that of mere reason. We may not always work from the standpoint of knowledge or understanding. He who chooses to refrain from effort save as he is guided by these may refrain indefinitely from the choicest paths of life. The reason must sometimes stand aside. Wisdom speaks in the command that we shall do, and afterward we shall know. Alany things in life are properly done without full understanding at the time of their significance by the parties con- cerned. A child memorizes the Scriptures, but the meaning of the Scriptures is for the time unnoted. A child is offered in infant baptism without realizing the possible relations of such baptism to after life and character. Some things are to be done before they can be fully explained, because of limitations in the human mind. This calls for a trusting obedience to God's will as the test and the source of high character. This thought may be illustrated by the planting of the tiny seed in the cold earth. This planting must often be done, yea, always done without our under- standing fully the secret processes and forces of Christ in Human Experience 143 nature that manifest themselves in the germination of the seed. We do know that the sun, the earth, the air, all unite in the miracle of seed life and growth. After a while we return to find acres of waving grain, vintages of purple fruit. Many elements in human character can be devel- oped only by ministries, trials, and experiences in which reason is quite, or almost helpless. If we were to endure our da3's of suffering and adversity with no source of relief but that afforded by our reasoning faculties, ours would, indeed, be a dreary world. Christian experience makes it possible for character to ripen through all the days of sorrow and distress. Faith triumphs over the mysteries of life. She sings her song of abounding joy in the presence of reverses and fears. It follows, therefore, that we may come to the ordinances of the church, to the facts of the gospel of life, to all the means by which life and character are to be perfected, in the exercise of a simple and child- like trust. Faith is a higher faculty than reason. W'lierever we move in the doing of God's will, we shall find the infinite good. Our Lord is always saying, "I have done, therefore do thou." Precedents. and exam- ples vitalize the present, and beyond these, faith, love, and inspiration will bear us on to certain victory and solace. I cannot always understand, but I can always love, honor, adore, and serve. CHRIST AND THE TRAINED CHURCH. XXIII. A MOMENT with definition. The church is trained when she is made fit. After that word "fit" we can place the full category of Christlike service to human- ity. The church is trained when caused to see her calling. Many perish for want of vision. In a mystical sense seeing comes before doing. The church is called to purity, righteousness, service, and eternal life. She must see her calling. The church is trained when caused to demonstrate her calling and set it out in clearest outline against the sky; to demonstrate it beyond a justifiable doubt or challenge. The church is trained when caused to work at her vocation — soul- saving and life-building. Many a man who has a useful trade counts for nothing because he fails to work at it. His trade is all right, but his lack of energy and application causes his failure. The church is trained when caused to be genuine and efficient in her art, invitation, welcome, and hospitality. There is a distinguishing art that belongs to the church. It is real, unaffected, and cordial. The church is trained when she is caused to make good her profession of holiness and service. Let us observe more fully what this fitness involves. She must be made fit in knowledge. In knowledge of the Word, for it is her charter and guide. Without Christ and the Trained Church 145 this knowledge she lacks the ability to grasp her prob- lems with an adequate touch. She must be made fit in knowledge of the need of her own parish ; the need of her immediate relation to organized church life just beyond the parish ; the need in home and foreign missions. She must be made fit in the knowl- edge of the past — knowledge of her denominational past ; in knowledge of the epochs and stages that have marked the doctrine and development of the universal church ; in the knowledge of the missionary trials and triumphs of the kingdom of God on the earth. She must be made fit in a knowledge of the present; the present, with its diversified and impera- tive claims to all that the church has and is for human elevation, for outreach and upbuilding in human char- acter. It is tragedy itself for a church to be set in the midst of the thrilling exigencies, responsibilities, and opportunities of the present hour without a due sense of appreciation and response to this unparalleled occasion for the triumph of Christianity. The church is trained when made fit in faith. The first essential faith is a faith in God, in the mighty potencies which emanate from him, and which he is willing in a sense to place at the disposal of the church in all ages; faith in God as inclined earnestly and urgently toward all men in redemptive love and power. The church must be made fit by faith in man. It appears at times as if the old-fashioned expectation that violent and vile men can be saved by the power of Christ to-day as in any yesterday has not the place it should have in the working faith of the church of this generation. The church must believe thoroughly 146 The Social Messas^e of Our Lord to' that man is savable. Whenever we have lost grip at this point we contribute to the church untrained. We must persist in a faith in man's ability, through divine grace, to arise above the enslavements of an evil heart into a companionship with God and the good. The church is trained when she has faith in her mission to men. In order to conquest, the church must move under a high sense of her mission as of all-embracing importance and graciousness. She is in the world to save, fulfilling the original purpose of her Lord and Master. The church, without a sense of her mission, divinely-inspired and inwrought, is the most helpless organization on the earth. The church is trained when it has faith in its message. Its message is, of neces- sity, the message of the Christ. It is to the heartache and sorrow of the world ; it proposes comfort, renewal, rest, and eternal life. It is the message of pardon, divine uplift, and sonship in the heavenly kingdom. It is the message of triumph here and now, and of victory in the presence of the grave. The church is trained when made fit in power to represent Jesus Christ in the earth. She must be made fit in the power of experience. Let this never be omitted by the ministry or by the pew. It is essential to the complete influence and the complete character. It embraces all that is desirable and necessary in indi- vidual character. The church is trained when she is made fit for her Lord's work in the power of character. Christlike character is power in and of itself. To be like Jesus Christ in moral quality is to possess in so much the power of divinity. The church trained in character power is invincible by all the contending Christ and the Trained Church 147 influences that may be arrayed against her. The church is trained when made fit in the power of divine reaHzation. The best of all is that God is with us, as one of old declared. God imminent in the church as the source of power is the unparalleled provision which the gospel makes for the church's efficiency and growth. The church is trained wdien made fit in the power of genuineness and thoroughness. These are great tests for the work of any organization or of any individual. They are absolute conditions of power for the church on the earth. Thoroughness counts anywhere, and always yields abundant reward. It is a quality of high and essential importance. The church must be made fit in the power of initiative. Pastors and churches ought to cultivate the power of originat- ing and doing things even without any outside or supervisory touch. It is not a compliment to church virility wdien constant supervisory visitation is the lone s:uarantee of a reasonable activitv and achievement. The supervisory touch is powerless if there be no local power of initiative to give response and continued effixiency in the absence of the supervisory touch. \\'e shall not escape, as long as human nature is what it is, the need for the visitation and leadership of superin- tendents in order to stimulus, quickened interest, and unflagging devotion ; but we repeat, no church is trained until it has a large power of initiative which is constantly evidencing itself in new methods, in new enterprises, and in advancing standards. The church is trained when made fit in the power of leadership. Review the departments of the modern church, and you will see how untrained a church must be regarded 148 The Social Message of Our Lord when it has no trained leadership. In fact, success at this, point assures good history and abundant fruit. The church must be trained in the power of achieve- ment, the power of doing things, the power of bringing things to pass. At the end of a great task there always comes an added sense of power. Confidence is begot- ten by achievement. It is related of an individual that he dreamed he entered heaven. He was challenged as he entered the gates ajar; the challenge involved the reference to his opportunity for service and the fruit- fulness of his life under these opportunities. The man hung his head when he thought how little he had done, and he seemed to hear the angel say, "Is this all you have to show for your life?" The church is trained when it is made fit for the Lord's work by the temper of conquest. This temper must come into individual members. It must thor- oughly possess the aggregation of individuals who constitute the congregation. There must come the temper of local conquest, a rugged determination to win out in the battles of a local parish. A study of problems that must be solved in order to satisfactory parish productivity. The temper of conquest in the local church will lead to insistence on revivals, on mis- sionary interest, on intelligent cooperation in all the great movements for forwarding the kingdom of God. The church is trained when it is brought to the temper of conquest as to the general or denominational life, of which the local church is a part. Call this connec- tionalism, if you will ; it is the condition of high effi- ciency in carrying forward the tremendous enterprises which devolve upon Christianity in this age. Church Christ and the Trained Church 149 to church, conference to conference, association to association, synod to synod, presbytery to presbytery; and in all of this we can truly adopt the language of the splendid hymn, the first line of which reads, "Blest be the tie that binds." The church must be trained to the temper of competitive conquest in these days. There are other influences at work than the influences of the gospel. There are other institutions and organi- zations which lay claim on the time, money, and talent of men and women. The institutions of vice, the organizations for evil are in contest for every inch of ground, and only a church militant can win. How shall we train the church? What distinct elements and methods shall be noted and emphasized in the training? There is an imperative demand for stronger Bible school work. The Bible school must be put upon a better educational basis. It must pro- vide for the use of graded lessons that shall have ref- erence to the psychological development of young life. The church's Bible school work must be stronger in teaching force, and in every requisite which is called for by the general advance in the efliciency of educa- tional methods and in the appropriate equipment for making these methods effective. We must have a larger emphasis upon the place and importance of adult classes in the Bible school. The boy especially is likely to leave the school when he approaches man- hood if he discovers that the men have fallen out of it. Across the open roadway that has been leading out from the school, and over which the hosts of our youth have been passing, we must throw the restrain- ing influences of large organized classes of adults. We 150 The Social Message of Our Lord must train the church of to-day by accepting fully the responsibility for such training and the large fruit ful- ness beyond the training. We must train the church by deepening the spiritual life of her membership without accepting or indulging the extremes recognized in some phases of the modern holiness movement. We must, nevertheless, stand for those subsequent experiences which are in God's plan to follow the beginnings in the spiritual history of con- verted people. Stripped of unessential radicalism, of destructive criticism of the church, and of un-Christian attitude toward those who may not see their way to the deeper things of the Christian life, we must stand definitely for full-powered Christianity. We must train the church by bringing the vision of opportunity. All around and everywhere the fields are white to harvest. We dare not delay. Our relation to opportunity is limited. Our sun will soon set for- ever so far as the present life is concerned. ''Ere the sun of life goes down," may well ring in our ears as affording a wholesome stimulus and reminder. The church must be trained by complete self -dedica- tion on the altar of God and humanity. The resources of Christendom are ample and the need for that resource in solemn and vital dedication to the holy purposes of the kingdom is appallingly urgent. The training of any church breaks down at the most vital point, if it does not involve the complete transition from the v/orldly-minded. self-seeking life to the in- tense, devout, and consecrated life. Concerning all this great and gracious work the church of our Lord dare not. and must not fail. CHRIST AND THE VICTORIOUS CHURCH. XXIV. Let us consider, first, the place and purpose of Christ's church. Any effort to reach a true conception must have absolute docility in the pres- ence of our Lord's own message. He indicated that the church should exist for the purpose of Christianizing the world. That objective lingered with him ever, and charmed his great mind through all the days of necessary sorrow. We can never think of the discipleship in any generation exhaust- ing itself in its own maintenance. It must always have the vision of the uncompleted task and of the goal, though it appear far away. Our Lord thought in terms that were all-embracing. He was the one perfect cosmopolitan. Xo boundary of race or meridian interfered with the breadth and scope of his thought and sympathy. He made it very plain that the disciples of all ages were to be like their Lord in that they would think of no benediction apart from its universal distribution and use. It is ver}' plain that our Lord intended the church to adopt and act upon his simple view of duty to the world. It is possible that we have made that duty complex by processes and enswathements of our own devisements. We are sure the church of Christ on the earth to-dav would come to be an 152 The Social Message of Our Lord engine of unlimited power if it would adopt a deter- mination to do the thing that Christ would have done. We are expending our time and energy on questions of organization and provincialism. We have but to recall the Pentecost to be reminded of the Lord's central purpose to establish on the uni- versal heart of the race the redemptive ministries oi the Holy Spirit. He had completed his sacrifi- cial work. He had ascended to his rightful place with the Father on high. The acceptability of his finished work was indicated by the release from the heavenly world of the Holy Spirit for the work of transforming human character and inspiring a Christlike use of character and personality through- out the world. Peter, the great Jewish Christian Apostle, received the Pentecostal effusion, and yet there survived in him a provincialism that only a special vision from heaven could correct. The message of Christ was to spread from people to people, and zone to zone, until the whole world had heard. The first essential step in the spread of the message was to come in the transition of Christianity from Judaism to the Gentile world. It is instruc- tive to note that back yonder in the very beginning there was a tendency to encumber the simple design and absolute universality of Christ's purpose with human prejudice and narrowness. Who can tell v/hat would be the result on the world immediately if Christians of all names and orders could be in- duced to gather about the simple message of Christ to a waiting world. Christ and the \'ictorious Church 153 No question but our sectarian forms and organi- zations have made complex, if not more difficult, the task of Christianizing the world. By the very nature of these organizations every sect or denom- ination feels called upon to parallel the others in certain costly organizations and equipments. This duplication of agencies and paralleling of institutions can but diminish in a very marked way the re- sources of Christendom for the giving of the mes- sage to the whole race at the earliest possible moment. There mav be a kind of strensfth in this segregation, and the outfit and plant necessary at least, in our thinking, to the existence of such segregation. If we mistake not the signs of the times, there is coming a new and unsparing scrutiny of our methods at this point. Money for colleges, men for the chairs, money for theological semin- aries, money for printing-plants, money for hospi- tals, etc., all good in a way, must now, as it appears, be considered in the absence of sectarian ambition. If the Christian discipleship of the present day were to unitedly take up at once the single and simple enterprise of conveying an intelligent message of Jesus Christ to every member of the human family in the present generation without the encumbrances which have come as the result of our sectarian forms, who can deny that the work could be con- summated within a brief period of time? We are hoping it may be done anyhow, and even with m.atters as they are ; but when we discuss the relationship of Christ to a victorious church, we must consider whatever acts as an impediment to 154 The Social Message of Our Lord the rapid and thorough evangelization of the world. It is evident that our Lord would have his church always keenly alive to the primitive world-vision. He would not have the church absorbed so utterly with internal and institutional interests. No wonder the question has been raised in foreign mission fields as to whether there may not be a unification of agencies and equipment. It has come to pass that Foreign Mission Boards, representing the different denominations, are entering jointly into the creation and equipment of publishing-plants, colleges, and institutions for the training of Christian workers. This spirit and policy on the foreign field has its suggestion to the churches a:t home. They are bound to consider the suggestion and feel the force of this splendid example of economy and unity. The segregation of Christianity, even formally and organically, has had certain results (some good, it may be) in the history of Christianity; for in- stance, at an early period in the Christian Era Greek and Latin Christianity became arrayed against one another and each went its own way. Have we stopped to consider the plague which at once sprang up under the very shadow of cliurch steeples in the form of Mohammedanism? From that day to this the man of the Mosque has been a tremendous and militant foe of the man of the church ; to this day Christianity has no more im- placable and unyielding enemy. Who is prepared to say that there is not a relation between divided Christendom and the appearance on the earth of the religion of the false prophet? There is basis for Christ and the Mctorious Church 155 meditation at this point at least. It is interesting also to note the historical development of Christian- ity following the facts referred to above. Chris- tianity perished in Asia ; it survived in Europe, but under conventionalized forms. The simple unctuous message of the Christ perished out of the heart of the church. She fell under the be- numbing influence of ceremonialism. Then came the revival of learning and exploration. Euro- pean energy poured forth in unstinted measure in these two spheres of effort. If God could not work through the church because she had lost her simple message and the simple heart, he could Avork around the church and quicken the secular world into a renewed effort for intelligence and in a profitable quest for the boundaries of the earth. This, it should be noted, is, after all, in consonance with the simple program with which Christ orig- inally conimissioned his followers. Then came the efforts of the Jesuits to establish a paganized Chris- tianity with the Inquisition and the sword. Oh. the tragedy and significance of it all ! \\'hat chas- tisements and plagues when the church fails of fidelity to Christ and his simple message to the children of men. The next development came in the Protestant Reformation in northern Europe. What a time there was, a genuine revival and restoration of primitive piety and faith. The fires of the true devotion commenced to burn on the altars of the church ; but, alas, alas ! the church of the Protestant Reformation did not take the zvorld plan of her 156 The Social Message of Our Lord Lord. A great Roman prelate said: "If Protes- tantism had not broken into fragments and sects within fifty years of the Reformation, Romanism would have been swept off the earth." Whenever the church has failed of an overwhelming passion for the evangelization of the world it has fallen under the baneful influence of the divisive and partisan spirit. Genuine spiritual Christianity has a tre- mendous tendency to unity and simplicity of mes- sage. Care for organization as such is forgotten in the overwhelming desire for evangelism. A correct balance and a discriminating judgment as between these two phases of the Christian religion is an urgent need of the hour. Instead of Christ's simple world plan, following the Protestant refor- mation, there came the growing conflict of the different schools and sects of Christianity. During this interval, and answering somewhat to the revival of learning and exploration, there came into every European home a desire for the invasion of non-Christian lands by the emissaries of a military commercialism. Who will say there is not evident here the onward trend and purpose of Divine Providence and the reapplication of a principle noted before, that when God cannot work out his plans and purposes through his church, he will work them out on the outside of her formal boundaries? Instead of military commercialism the church should have arisen in the spirit and power of a united campaign in ithe bearing of an intelligent message of Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth. Christianity, herself, should have traversed Christ and the Victorious Church 157 all the seas and invaded all the foreign lands with her sweet and winsome evangel. Christ never forsakes his own world. While the lethargy and indifference of the church may delay his plans they are not to be thwarted. In the crisis hour, the movement known as "Pietism," in Germany, and the so-called ''Wesleyan movement" in England and America, recalled a lapsed church. Follow- ing these great spiritual movements, sporadic efforts to obey Christ in his great world vision and on the lines of the great commission were made. The historian notes inspired groups within the hardened and despiritualized church. These groups came to the rescue in an effort to establish a spiritual religion and to compass the evangelization of the whole race. That movement, thank God, though sown in weakness, has risen in power. The mis- sionary movements of the present day are all unit- ing in effort to establish more fully the unity of Christianity and extend its ministry to all men. We can but reach the conclusion that the extension of specialized and sectarian forms of Christianity and the Christianization of the world, as the simple duty w^hich Christ had in mind for his disciples, are propositions of unequal authority and scope. They may, or may not run on parallel lines ; they are not necessarily in conflict, but they may become rival interests. All our denominational organization and machinery can have no other worthy function ex- cept to prepare the highway over which the King of kings and Lord of lords may come to a waiting world. As a great Christian leader has indicated, 158 The Social Message of Our Lord our denominational distinctions have no universal validity or authority as compared to the essential essence and spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ. Let us tarry for a time to consider the true and fundamental power of the victorious church. We must observe the demand for a far more general emphasis on the common Christian essence and experience. Let this simple message ring out from all our pulpits and flame forth in all our assem- blages. With Christ, the head of the church, there were no sects, no denominational polities, no dog- matic system. Li his mind there existed simply a race to be brought to him, and he was to be brought to that race. The contact, the fellowship, the com- munion would miean salvation from sin and the release of the race from its fatal handicap. In our Lord's thinking the church was to come to an effi- ciency by the true vision and the effective contact. A study of the spiritual movements that have characterized the Christian centuries reveals the willingness and purpose of the Holy Spirit to ope- rate within the visible church. That efficient spiritual movements have sprung up outside the visible church is a significant and noteworthy fact. At this point our hearts need to grow tender, and our minds solicitous, for it must be that the Holy Spirit will never seek expression in the movement and agencies outside the church except we grieve him from our hearts and our altars. How easily evident it is that we of the church to-day need to be extremely careful lest we quench, grieve, and offend him. The spiritual movements outside the Christ and the Victorious Church 159 church we are bound to consider with judicial fair- ness, without hostility, and in a spirit of absolute candor. The most hopeful and helpful criticism of the church must ever come from within. Such criticism she will naturally receive with favor and without prejudice. The question arises, therefore, as to how we shall interpret all this outside activity and goodly service to humanity. It is helpful to remember that God's kingdom is always more all- embracing than its organized form. The fundamental power of the church is to come and to be conserved through the administration of the Holy Spirit in the revival of spontaneous right- eousness and the w^orking of redemptive experience. There is an imperative demand for a fresh attention to, and interpretation of Christ's idea of the church. It is fair to say that the essential church idea w^as born in the mind and soul of the Son of God. The fundamental power of the church, furthermore, is to come by the prevalence of a mighty faith in supernatural power. We must insist on spontaneity rather than mechanism. It is not an element of sitrength, but a w^eakness that in the worship of the church there has so largely fallen out of use appropriate, thrilling scriptural public testimony. Oh, for the tongue of fire upon the man in the pew as also upon the man in the pulpit! Oh, for a church, the entire membership of which is so thor- oughly infused and indwelt by the spirit of God as to make public testimony, supported by godly living, the universal expression of the life of the church victorious ! CHRIST AND SPECIALIZED CHRISTIANITY. XXV. A TRUTH deserving emphasis in these strenuous days is the continuous identity of Christian faith and experi- ence, and its relation to modern attitudes and poHcies in rehgious work. There is a non-faihng similarity pervading the real Christian character in all genera- tions. Christian experience and character have certain essential elements that are fundamental. This is easily accounted for in the fact that all in Christian experi- ence emanates from a common life and center in Jesus Christ, the Head of the church. Terms of the same degree make an equation. A Christian equals a Chris- tian, no matter in what denomination, generation, or section of the earth he may be found. Our Lord stands for a new race, and the sons of men, who, through his grace, become the sons of God, have mem- bership in this new kingdom of life. All who are in him belong to the same family. This identity in the Christian experience and character is related to the different specialized forms of Christianity. Let us observe as to the real nature and value of this specialization. Which shall dominate in our think- ing and interest, the specialization with which we may be identified, or the essential Christian experience and character? There can be but one answer to this inter- Christ and Specialized Christianity 161 rogatory. However, it is" notable that a mischievous emphasis is easy, very easy. Whenever our emphasis is on the specialization, rather than on the fundamental and identical experience, we have an illy-begotten and misplaced zeal. This zeal is, of necessity, divisive. The emphasis on specialization may obscure the essen- tial experience and power of Christianity. It also may diminish the vital authority of the real Christ experience and character. The taking up by any sect of Christians of certain peculiarities growing out of their development, as a special expression of Christian faith and interest, may serve to weaken conviction for that which is decisive and essential. It is fair to inquire, What is the logic of homo- geneous Christian faith and experience? If Chris- tianity is a unit in fact, how nearly may it be a unit in form ? May not lack of unity in form be challenged at any time? What of any effort or movement which destroys the formal unity of Christianity? Segrega- tion of Christians into small parties and organizations must, of necessity, enforce certain limits of develop- ment. Isolation is often perilous and dwarfing. This is illustrated in human history again and again. Ex- treme devotion to specialization may also mean poor leadership. Such a leadership as is the outgrowth of an unjustifiable determination to rule and to assume the role of leadership. Beyond any doubt the numer- ous divisions in our Protestant Christianity encourage, in some instances, both passion and prejudice. Frac- tional interest forbids enthusiasm. There is something decidedly helpful in the fact of unity along given lines of action. It follows that certain forms of inter- 162 The Social Message of Our Lord denominational Christian work illustrate and justify this statement. They have developed the very highest power which Christianity has exerted in many vital respects. A large, formal unity naturally encourages, and should produce a befitting and God-fearing lead- ership. It provides also for all forms and grades of service. It gives the inspiration of large enterprise and heroic undertaking. One faith, one experience, and a more nearly unified expression of both, is an ideal toward which modern Protestantism is slowly but surely moving. We decry unity and prate of union in the absence of union. I have heard men say that they did not care a "rap for the unity of modern Protestantism." What they wanted was union of effort and action. The writer confesses that he is not indifferent to the division of the Lord's hosts at this time in our country. He believes that, far more largely, Protes- tantism should become a tangible and actual unit in the Christ life. Uncalled for divisions make union impossible, and touching much of good that ought to be wrought by the churches often presents an insuperable barrier. Judging by the practice, rather than by the platform utterances, the unity of the church is a beautiful but well nigh empty senti- ment with many people; any thought of any other portion of the church than that with which they are identified having a right or a capacity for occupying a given field is unthinkable. The writer has in mind some cases now where it has been a matter of public knowledge that the representatives of some of our denominations have said that no com- Christ and Specialized Christianity 163 munity had the gospel until their own particular sect had entered the field. This appears to be pre- sumptuous and unworthy of that catholicity of spirit which should mark those who bear the Christian name. Some of our denominations do not respect the right of previous occupation in even a small parish, but deliberately start in to destroy another church in order to build up their own. To be sure, this is a manifestation of an unhappy type in sectarian life which is not prevalent to any large degree. There is a grovy^ing demand for comity between denominations, and the adminis- trative officers of the dififerent churches are show- ing a most gratifying disposition to make more of the principle of comity. Our sentiment for the union and unity of the church is contradicted by the fact of unnecessary division. That God has overruled for good, in some respects, the divisions of the past, no one may question. Neither can we question that the time has come when readjustment should be sought and the formal unification of many branches of Protestantism actually effected. Any effort to reduce the number of denominations immediately confronts the regrettable results of unnecessary and unwarranted division. These re- grettable results are manifest in a disposition, in some quarters, to magnify nonessentials. We scarcely see how this can be avoided with the competitive Christian agencies that enter a given field, all bent upon their own particular advance- ment and growth. Our divisions have encouraged hatred and bigotry. They have exerted a bad 164 The Social Message of Our Lord fc>' influence on the unconverted ' world. In many cases, this fact is directly responsible for the in- adequate support of the ministry. It has made complex the problem of evangelizing' the world. It has exhausted our attention on sectarian differ- entiation. It has gathered us about evolutionary forms of Christianity and put in the distance the final form. Without a disposition to utter any kind of destructive criticism, or to encourage the unfor- tunate and unhappy position of the ''come-outer" the writer begs for a favorable consideration of the real unification of the body of Christ, which is his church. Whenever any movement of unification is taken up a little way in the road reveals many difficulties. There is the lack of acquaintance and real knowl- edge of one another. Then there is the question of church polity ; as between many of the churches, slight fellowship. Touching the ob- jective under discussion, some church leaders will even refrain from conference ; others really have no desire for the consummation. Probably the most far-reaching hindrance is a defective spirit- uality. The unification more or less extensively realized must come. Our age is utilitarian, and thoughtful men are inquiring more and more sternly as to the wisdom of parallel Christian agencies of every sort where the number might be fewer and the work better done. Everything unfruitful is doomed. Our divisions, in so far as they are unfruitful, Avill pass tmder this general law of judgment. In some Christ and Specialized Christianity 165 places the competition between churches is rapidly becoming unendurable. The leaders of church work can, at least, correct these glaring abuses, and transfer the agencies to the under-churched portions of our country and the world. There is a call to readjustment and realignment which will not down. Christianity is confronting gigantic foes and incomparable tasks. More is expected from Christianity in this age than in any previous period of the world's history. Everywhere there are commanding and far-reaching enterprises and movements to be carried to a successful issue. We must approach, with the open mind, the question of coordination w^herever such coordination means a more thorough efficiency. Cooperative power is a legitimate force. There is such a thing as an exaggerated development of the principle of indi- vidualism. The prevalence of civil liberty, rather than personal liberty, is the inflexible law of a growing civilization. The atmosphere of the Amer- ican continent has been laden w^ith the spirit of extreme indulgence in personal liberty. This prin- ciple of individualism, when it has gone to seed, contributes to division and the paralysis of united action. The bond of union for all believers is lov- ing and loyal obedience to Christ and the church as based on, and resulting from the renewal of the nature by the new birth. This is vital, and this only is fundamental. The ideal church administration is based on the folio win Of: 1. The principle of cooperation. 166 The Social Messae^e of Our Lord t>' 2. An effective mutualism which recognizes a reasonable individualism. 3. The restraint of absolute and unfruitful independency which may manifest itself in local insubordination and loss of efficiency. It is a mark of high character to yield becoming reverence and obedience to lawfully constituted authority. A way must be found to elicit, combine, and direct the energies and resources of the whole body of Christ in supreme and pov/erful effort. Such effort, indeed, as shall give Christianity the mastery of the world in the legitimate completeness, which all right-minded people must desire. It is evident that the problem of establishing the supremacy of the kingdom of God upon the earth must be, and can be taken up in a spirit of deter- m.ination and in a dedication of resources to Al- mighty God that shall give unparalleled impetus to the reign of the Christ in the earth. It is time for the unusual, the phenomenal, and the adequate in Christian achievement. At one time, coming across the Atlantic Ocean, Edison, walking the deck of the steamer and looking out upon the rolling waves, was heard to cry out, 'Tt makes me perfectly wild to see all this power going to waste." So, in the name of the world's awful and far-reaching need, we do well to take up the question of the unification of agency and the conservation of resource. We may yet have to learn the art of aggregating, com- bining, and coordinating agencies and resources in service. The supreme function of the church must not be eclipsed by the minor questions of polity and Christ and Specialized Christianity 167 method. Denominational interests must be held as subordinate to the larger interests of the king- dom. We do well to cease exaggerating our dif- ferences. Much controversy in support of our differences means the absence of evangelistic effi- ciency. We must drive ahead on the main issue. Political union between different races with differ- ent customs and traditions is a fact in the political government of the world. W^hy may we not have church unity, even though it shall call for the harmonizing of differing church traditions and church polities ? CHRIST AND MONEY GETTING. XXVI. The passion for acquisition of money or property up to a certain point is to be commended. Any one lacking in a purpose to satisfy his own need, and many of his justifiable wishes in Hfe, may be justly censured for falling below the wholesome requisites of an efficient social unit. Christ's message is a message of control touching the accumulation of all material good. He would attach to this, as to everything else in life, the test of the spiritual motive. He would make all possession amenable to the social aim. That social aim he unmistakably defines. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth" is a message of wisdom and moderation. Christ warned against the danger of covetousness, and insisted upon the principle of re- sponsibility in the administration of money. In a section of the New Testament we may read : "Alas, for them! Led astray by love of gain, they plunged into sin and came to their ruin." This is Christ's lamentation over people who go astray because of an undue love of money, and who, under the subtle con- trol of that love, plunge into questionable methods and dishonest practices which always bring one to ruin. America is, in the world's thought, the great conti- nent of opportunity and material good. Other con- tinents may be holding in their lap great riches yet to Christ and jMonev Getting: 169 t> be developed; but America is before the world's eye, and hither come the emigrants from every clime, all expecting to promote their own welfare. Fertile lands, favoring climate, people of thrifty and neighborly habits, great progress in all the arts and sciences, unite to invite the stranger within our gates. America offers unparalleled commercial opportunities. The fact that men of ability, energy, and application do arise, year after year, from a condition of comparative poverty to competence and even wealth, is heralded as character- izing our civilization. Nowhere else under the sun is devotion to a business career so certain to be crowned with success. The very immensity of our opportuni- ties in the world of commerce has placed before our weak human nature a temptation to control the essen- tial commodities of one kind and another, hence we hear of ''corners" in this and that. The meaning is that some sharp and far-seeing men have combined in the control of capital, which capital, in turn, controls the total output of some article of every-day and uni- versal consumption. One can see at a glance that tremendous wrong can be done by this unscrupulous method of getting money. At one end of the proposi- tion is a helpless public, absolutely held up and com- pelled to pay, under protest and against their will, what they know is an exorbitant, arbitrary, and arti- ficial price for the necessaries of life. At the other end of the proposition are the farmers of the country, who, also, by this unscrupulous combination, have an artificial and arbitrary price fixed on what they have to sell. Between the rights of the public and the farmer, the man of mercenary motives and an undue 170 The Social Message of Our Lord fc>' passion for wealth conducts his nefarious scheme, defying public sentiment and ofttimes the law of the land, to say nothing about the God who broods over a struggling world. It is well known that great transportation companies are guilty of rebates and discrimination in freight rates to the unjust enrichment of certain favored men and corporations. Here is a social and commercial evil, bound to be corrected by the strong hand of the law, backed up and executed by an heroic public senti- ment and the Government that stands for a "square deal." After all, exact justice is the best thing for everybody. The wisdom, however, and beneficence of this principle must sometimes be enforced by law as against avaricious and wicked men. If all men were under the control of the social message and aim of Jesus Christ, they would not wait for the compulsions of law to control them, but would be constrained to moderation and justice by the inherent powers and dispositions of their. own personality. Because there are men who have an undue love of gain, and are lacking in conscience, they resort to the organization of corporations, which they reckon will hide their personality and end individual responsibility. When evil men control, the avowed policy and purpose of the corporation is to rob the public for the sake of larger dividends. Because the public is supposedly represented by public officials, and because, in fact, public officials must be reckoned with in extending privileges to corporations, we witness the distressing spectacle of corporations corrupting public officials to the end that the robbery of the public may proceed Christ and ^loney Getting 171 unobstructed by official action or restraint. Christ indicated that tainted dollars are a heritage of death. It is as plain as the sun, from his message on money- getting, that a corporation, in its birth, may be a crime against civilization. It will be, of necessity, unless it is dominated by the social aim and spirit. The very anathemas of God are against a criminal conspiracy to crush competition and fix artificial values with the producing class, and artificial values for the consuming class. The message of Christ is against the iniquitous get- ting of money by the liquor traffic. Here there is a character-testing to which many men unfortunately surrender. To begin w^ith, there is great profit to the manufacturer of intoxicating beverages. The bever- age liquor traffic feeds on an abnormal and vicious development of the human appetite; its appeal is to unholy passion and indulgence. Great is the profit, from the moneyed standpoint, in the manufacture of liquor. There is great profit in retailing intoxicating beverages. It follows that the men who yield to the unsocial and selfish aims for the sake of money have been able to build up palatial homes and vast fortunes ; but, ''Alas, for them ! Led astray by love of gain, they plunged into sin and came to their ruin." Admittedly, many men of ability and kindly nature, so far as orig- inal endowments are concerned, have found their way into the liquor business. Liquor is not sold as food is sold. There is always a systematic effort to increase sales at any cost to human happiness and domestic thrift. The liquor- seller rides roughshod over a natural solicitude for the 172 The Social Message of Our Lord protection of childhood and youth. The liquor busi- ness can be sustained only by tolling in the boys and implanting in their natures, even against their will and wish, an appetite for the deadly cup. It is the policy of the liquor business to multiply saloons every- where ; only so far as the corrective influence of public opinion has been exercised lias there been any dispo- sition on the part of liquor men to curtail even the number of saloons. The saloons are admittedly the hotbeds of vice and animalism. Let it never be for- gotten that from the manufacturer to the retailer, and to the drunkard and those about him, the slimy trail of death is over the business. The liquor traffic is the enemy of every good thing. Iniquitous getting of money through the traffic in strong drink must be stopped in America. Thank God, the days of the licensed saloon are well-nigh numbered ! There is in our day an iniquitous getting of money by newspapers. Journalism, at one time, developed great men. Not only were great men called into the service, but they grew in greatness because their serv- ice did not permit of a compromise with good princi- ples and wholesome policies. In those days newspaper men felt a moral responsibility to the public. There was no anonymous writing. What are the facts to-day in the world of journalism? In the management of many of our newspapers personal responsibility has faded away. Many of our newspapers now feel at liberty to do their best to destroy character for the sake of gain. Only some ''interest" that is willing to put up the money, and lo ! the batteries of the news- paper are massed on character which dares to stand Christ and Money Getting 173 in the way of injustice and selfish ambition. Let us consider that with such poHcies in the management of a great newspaper, men must degenerate. No man can stand behind the hedge of an impersonal news- paper and throw bombs at passing travelers in the spirit of disreputable subserviency to wrong and not feel the rebound of his infamous and cowardly work. Such a man strikes like a hidden reptile. Let him ever remember, however, that the reactions from his con- duct are deadly. It would be unjust to the newspaper world to make no discrimination or to bring a universal accusation against the men who have charge of these great builders of public sentiment. Many of these men are noble, scholarly, courageous, and honest. The public, as never before, is having an appreciation for the newspaper that has convictions and principles of high and approved order and Vv^ill stand for them at any cost. The reputable journalist who refuses to mislead the people through his editorials or by instruc- tion to correspondents and reporters, in the coloring of news columns for gain, will find a growing disposition on the part of the American people to compliment such manhood, even to the reasonable commercial reward of one who refuses to be corrupted. The student of present social conditions cannot but observe an iniquitous getting of money by some em- ployers of labor. These misguided men refuse to determine wage by equity. The social aim forbids fixing the compensation of any kind of labor on the mere basis of supply and demand. What right has a man of means to employ his fellow-man to do a given amount of labor and accept that toil, because of com- 174 The Social Message of Our Lord petition, at a price which he knows means an empty larder, unclothed children, squalor, and wretchedness? Again, there should be a larger acceptance of liability in the case of accidents to employees. The little amount which would be called for by this Christlike care of the disabled and dependent might well be accepted as a legitimate claim upon all individuals or corporations that employ labor. The helplessness of the weak should be considered. ' Another manifestation of cupidity and covetousness for great wealth without regard to the principles in- volved is exhibited by some of our bankers and great financiers. These train themselves to severe business methods, all because of a determination to secure dis- proportionate and unreasonable gain. Greed for money can easily turn a man into a financial hyena. He takes advantage of the necessities of others without scruple or care. What if the mortgage is closed; what if the interest exacted is usury? The dividends must be large and the fortune must be fabulous. So the un- fortunate and misguided man trains himself to usurous interest, excessive discounts, and learns to draw blood at every touch. For such severity in money getting there is no excuse because of law, custom, or business methods. In the light of the countenance of Jesus Christ, the money changer must have regard to the claims of humanity, the demands of self-restraint and moderation, and he must persistently nurture the ten- derer elements of his nature. Unfortunately, our laws are usually made by the strong, and usually favor the strong. The weak and the unfortunate are, as a rule, never called upon to sit in legislative halls. It follows. Christ and Money Getting 175 therefore, that everywhere and all around, men need to consider the claims of the under man. Money get- ting, in any class or calling, must be moderated by the restraints of brotherhood, justice, and high social aim. Over against the selfish commercialism of the liquor traffic, or any other vicious method of getting rich at the sacrifice of character and goodness, let us place the health of American manhood and the happi- ness of American homes. The battle against avarice and covetousness is in behalf of the virtue and triumph of our race and generation. CHRIST AND CONDUCT REACTIONS. XXVII. There is a divine law of recompense. Here the Scripture : *'As I have done, so God hath requited me." There is a great temptation in these days coming to good men and women as they look upon the luxury and careless life of many about them to question whether or not it is worth while to fight the battle for a clean life. Many a man whose heart is well disposed looks on the passing throng of unscrupulous life and wonders whether it really pays to refrain from evil, and at times goes a lonely wa}^ because of that constraint. It is easier to go with the multitude. It is worth while, therefore, that w^e should scan afresh the eternal verities by which God would confirm and justify our purpose for holy living. Deeply underlying all processes of social development God has laid the universal equities. These rise up in their might to scan, measure, and requite human character and conduct. Let it never be forgotten that life is under high moral view from the cradle to the grave. The exalted claims of morality and religion are not to be turned aside or dismissed at our pleasure. If denied a hearing they will come to court again and again ; they will lift up their angel faces into ours to chide us for our neglect. Christ and Conduct Reactions 177 The spirit of judgment upon evil is a world vital- ity. It acts and interacts on the complete social activity and order of the race. It is the true vitality. Dismiss judgment against wrong doing from the forces that touch the life of the race and we should drift to anarchy, wretchedness, and woe. The law of retribution has never been outwitted. Young men, especially, are sometimes tempted to believe they are smart enough to do it. They sometimes reckon they can play with the virtues of life as if they were matters of trifling moment and concern. Let the young man note that for the burial of wrong doing and its inevitable chastisements and judg- ments, no sea of oblivion hath ever been found. If such a sea existed it would be a favored resort with some men, but search through the whole universe of God and it cannot be located. He that doeth evil shall confront the damnation of his deadly doing. Life is not a game of chance. Woe betide the man who reaches so rash and unfounded a conclu- sion. Over all stands the incorruptible judge. There are judges presiding in human courts who can be influenced from justice by money or other consideration, but there is a court set in the midst of the universe that is absolutely impartial and unpurchasable. "Though hand join in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished." Our Lord makes it plain that the conduct re- actions destroy the wicked man while he is yet alive. It is a sad and unnecessary destruction. It is a destruction against which Christ ofifers the 178 The Social Messae:e of Our Lord fc.' protest of his sacrifice on the cross and the universal profifer of his mighty grace for the recreation of man's spiritual nature. This law of conduct re- actions dissolves fortunes, so that it is a matter of common observation among students of sociology and morals that a fortune accumulated by wicked- ness passes from family control before the natural life of the second generation has ended. This law rots down families, so that the roster, instead of bearing names that are honored and famous for integrity, comes to bear the names of those who are notorious for evil. The wrong of every sort scars the doer first of all. Every small, mean trick lowers the moral status and vitality. Stealing a ride w^here pay is honestly due, or robbing a bank or a house- , hold, the principle is the same. Evil doing is, after all, a matter of direction. Man's moral nature is delicate and sensitive. We talk about machines for recording earthquakes at remote distances, and a sensitive mechanism it must be. " We talk about camera films and plates, which, even with instan- taneous exposure, record the image of the object presented with unfailing accuracy. But more delicate and sensitive than any mechanism of man's invention is the moral nature over which flows the actions of one's earthly life. The small infraction has unmistakable relation to the permanent de- formity. The permanent deformity has been designated as hell. Wrong blights the doer and his descendants. This is true even though for the time being there may be the flush and fever of prosperity. Some Christ and Conduct Reactions 179 poisons temporarily stimulate. The law of con- duct reaction may be retarded, but cannot be abrogated. Redeeming qualities are an elYort at equilibrium ; like one at walking a rope, the man is out of balance ; the rush of the occasional impulse for ofood into one side or the other of his life is the effort of redemptive influences, and comes because there is a divine purpose that the man shall be restored to balance and safety. Redeeming quali- ties without essential and regenerative righteous- ness can do no more than postpone the day of penalty. God insists on the absolute recreation of the character into the likeness of Jesus Christ, man's elder brother and Divine Savior. This and only this can save life from evil conduct and the deadly reaction of such conduct. There are reasons why we need a revival of atten- tion to conduct reaction. In the business world there is much inclination to act on the maxim, "Get as much as possible for as little as possible," for that is business. Such a principle in business will decay and disintegrate any family within two generations. Many maxims of the modern business world are absolutely rotten and pernicious. Some of our business methods are heathenish, cruel, and devilish. Unjust dealing, extortion, oppression, bribing of legislatures and city officials, the mon- eyed control of courts, the defeat of justice, these are all plague spots in our civilization, and we need the very vitalities of the divine kingdom to eradi- cate them. Inevitably, men guilty of all these, or any of these, must, of necessity, sneer at the moral 180 The Social Message of Our Lord issue in politics or business. This is to be expected. The blight of death is on every temporary or appar- ent success of immoral power, cunning, trickery, fraud, or technicality. The tendency of the courts in the recent past to decide cases in favor of crimin- als because of some technicality as againt the whole trend of the law, and the honorable and dignified demand of the higher law of rig'hteousness, is to be condemned in the most scathing terms. Subserv- iency to technicality in law will make any man diminutive, for he stultifies himself by such an abuse of the high and holy functions of his judge- ship. It is a matter of common knowledge that some railway officials have been known to rob their own corporations by favoring freight and express companies in w^hich they, themselves, had large interest. It is also stated, on good authority, that some railroad officials have combined to boom or depress stocks and thereby rob the public and their own stockholders. Such men need to be reminded of the inevitable result of their deadly doing. In church and State, in private or official life, in the corporation and with the individual, let it be ac- cepted as a doctrine most sweet, wholesome, and helpful, that honesty, justice, consideration for the rights of others are the principles that are to govern in our favored civilization. The first effect of unscrupulous commercial and corporation conduct may be a fever period of false prosperity. All too soon the reaction sets in and the glory of character has perished. The peace and integrity of life have been violated. The whole Christ and Conduct Reactions 181 tendency of an unscrupulous devotion to money getting is to the brute level. The financial glutton becomes coarse, hard, a veritable degenerate. This tendency to wicked conduct in money get- ting has instituted the custom of monopoly in the local public utilities. What could be more repre- hensible and worthy of scathing denunciation? Let the local public utilities be owned by the people. By so much we shall remove some of our brother nien from temptations which they do not have the hardihood to resist. In creating corporations and granting franchises the people have often made a few financial gluttons. Then there has come the watered stock, the poor service, irritated public and blasted life. Great fortunes may, indeed, be obtained in a short time, but consider the scandal, corruption, dissipation, and death. In all this mad struggle for wealth we have great ability, vigorous character, high ideals, noble traits and aspirations, all sacrificed and brought to ruin and degradation. Who can estimate, as our Lord did estimate, the deadly peril of the irreligious life? There are a thousand w^arnings at every turn of life's road against irreligion. Happy the man who frankly, candidly, and early in his career faces the claims of Christ and the conduct that he prescribes for all human activity. 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