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diff --git a/old/12290-8.txt b/old/12290-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9cd36e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12290-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4821 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Church and Modern Life, by Washington +Gladden + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Church and Modern Life + +Author: Washington Gladden + +Release Date: May 7, 2004 [eBook #12290] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHURCH AND MODERN LIFE*** + + +E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + +Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end + of the book. + + + + + +The Church and Modern Life + +By + +Washington Gladden + +1908 + + + + + + + +Preface + + + +"The time is come," said a New Testament prophet, "for judgment to begin +at the house of God." Perhaps that time ought never to pass, but if, in +any measure, the criticism of the church has of late been suspended, it +is certainly reopened now, in good earnest. Nor is this criticism +confined to outsiders; the church is forced to listen in these days to +caustic censures from those who speak from within the fold. + +That such self-criticism is needed these chapters will not deny. That +the church is passing through a critical period must be conceded. But +the way of life is not obscure, and it seems almost absurd to indulge +the fear that the church, which has been providentially guided through +so many centuries, will fail to find it. + +These pages have been written in the firm belief that the Christian +church has its great work still before it, and that it only needs to +free itself from its entanglements and gird itself for its testimony to +become the light of the world. Something of what it needs to do to make +ready for this great future, this little book tries to show. + +Through all this study the thought has constantly returned to the young +men and women to whom the future of the church is committed; and while +the book is most likely first to fall into the hands of their pastors +and teachers, the author hopes that ways will be found of conveying its +message to those by whom, in the end, its truth will be made effective. + +W. G. + + +First Congregational Church, +Columbus, Ohio, December 17, 1907. + + + + +Contents + + I. The Roots of Religion + II. Our Religion and Other Religions + III. The Social Side of Religion + IV. The Business of the Church + V. Is the Church Decadent? + VI. The Coming Reformation + VII. Social Redemption +VIII. The New Evangelism + IX. The New Leadership + + + + +The Church and Modern Life + + + + +I + +The Roots of Religion + + + +The church with which we are to deal in the pages which follow is the +Christian church in the United States, comprising the entire body of +Christian disciples who are organized into religious societies, and are +engaged in Christian work and worship. + +This church is not all included in one organization; it is made up of +many different sects and denominations, some of which have very little +fellowship with the rest. Among these groups are some who claim that +their particular organizations are the true and only churches; that the +others have no right to the name. Such is the claim of the Roman +Catholic church and of the High Church Episcopalians. Their use of the +word church would confine it to those of their own communions. Others +would apply the term more broadly to all who _profess and call_ +themselves Christians, and who are united in promoting the teachings +and principles of the Christian religion. + +The church, as thus defined, has no uniform and authoritative creed, and +no ruling officers or assemblies who have a right to speak for it; it is +difficult, therefore, to make any definite statements about it. It is +possible, nevertheless, to think of all these variously organized groups +of people as belonging to one body. In some very important matters they +are united. They all believe in one God, the Father Almighty; they all +bear the name of Christ; they all acknowledge him as Lord and Leader; +they all accept the Bible as containing the truth which they profess to +teach. The things in which they agree are, indeed, far more important +than the things in which they differ, and it is our custom often to +speak of this entire body of Christian disciples as "the church," +forgetting their differences and emphasizing their essential unity. This +is the meaning which will be given to "the church" in these discussions. + +The church is concerned with religion. As the interest of the state is +politics, of the bank finance, of the school education, so the interest +of the church is religion. Religion organizes the church, and the +church promotes religion. + +Religion is a fact of the first magnitude. We sometimes hear ministers +complaining that the people do not give it so much attention as they +ought, but we shall find it true in all countries and in all the +centuries that it is one of the main interests of human life. There are +few subjects, probably there is no other subject, to which the human +race has given so much thought as to the subject of religion. The +greatest buildings which have been erected on this planet were for the +service of religion; more books have been written about it than about +any other theme; a large part of the world's art has had a religious +impulse; many, alas! of the most destructive wars of history have been +prompted by it; it has laid the foundations of great nations, our own +among them, and has given form and direction to every great civilization +under the sun. + +It is not a churchman, or a theologian, it is Mr. John Fiske, one of the +foremost scientific investigators, who has said of religion: "None can +deny that it is the largest and most ubiquitous fact connected with the +existence of mankind upon the earth."[1] + +About the size of the fact there is no disputing, but how shall we +explain it? Where did it come from? + +The scientific people have puzzled their heads not a little over the +question where the life on this planet came from. They cannot make up +their minds to say that it came from non-living matter; and some of them +have ventured a guess that the first germs might have been brought by a +meteorite from some distant planet. That, however, only pushes the +mystery one step further back: how did it come to be on that distant +planet? + +The origin of religion has furnished a similar puzzle to these +investigators. There are those among them who assume that religion is an +invention of crafty men who find it a means of obtaining ascendency over +their fellows. That it is all imposture--the product of priestcraft--is +the theory of some small philosophers. Such being the case, they expect +that the progress of knowledge will cause it to disappear. + +To others it seems probable that religious ideas may have originated in +the phenomena of dreams. In the visions of the night those who have +passed out of life reappear; this gives room for the belief that they +are still in existence, and suggests that there may be another world +whose inhabitants exert an important influence over the affairs of this +world. According to this ghost theory, religion is all an illusion. + +Such crude explanations are, however, not much credited in these days by +thoughtful men. It is easy to see that the foundations of religion are +deeply laid in human nature. Aristotle told a great truth, many +centuries ago, when he said that man is a political animal. That is to +say, there is a political instinct in him which causes him to organize +political societies and make laws; he is a state builder in the same way +that the beaver is a dam builder, or the oriole is a nest builder, or +the bee is a comb builder. + +With equal truth we may say that man is a religious animal. The impulse +that causes him to worship, to trust, to pray, is as much a part of his +constitution as is the homing instinct of the pigeon. This natural +instinct is, however, reinforced by the operation of his reason. Feeling +is deeper than thought; we are moved by many impulses before we frame +any theories. But the normal human being sooner or later begins to try +to explain things; his reason begins to work upon the objects that he +sees and the feelings that he experiences. And it is not long before +something like what Charbonnel describes must take place in every human +soul:-- + +"Every man has within him a sense of utter dependence. His mind is +irresistibly preoccupied by the idea of a Power, lost in the immensity +of time and space, which, from the depths of some dark mystery, governs +the world. This power, at first, seems to him to manifest itself in the +phenomena of nature, whose grandeur surpasses the power or even the +comprehension of mankind."[2] + +Toward this unknown power, or powers, his thought reaches out, and he +begins to try to explain it or them. He forms all kinds of crude and +fantastic theories about these invisible forces. At first he is apt to +think that there are a great many of them; it is long before he clearly +understands that there can be but One Supreme. The moral quality of the +being or beings whom he thus conceives is not clearly discerned by him; +he is apt to think them fickle, jealous, revengeful, and cruel; most +often he ascribes to them his own frailties and passions. + +In some such way as this, then, religion begins. It is the response of +the human nature to impressions made upon the mind and heart of man by +the universe in which he lives. These impressions are not illusions, +they are realities. All men experience them. Something is here in the +world about us which appeals to our feelings and awakens our intellects. +Being made as we are, we cannot escape this influence. It awes us, it +fills us with wonder and fear and desire. + +Then we try to explain it to ourselves, and in the beginning we frame a +great many very imperfect explanations. Sometimes we imagine that this +power is located in some tree or rock or river; sometimes it is an +animal; sometimes it is supposed to exist in invisible spirits or +demons; sometimes the sky or the ocean represents it, or one of the +elements, like fire, is conceived to be its manifestation; sometimes the +greater planets are the objects of reverence; sometimes imaginary +deities are conceived and images of wood or stone are carved by which +their attributes are symbolized. + +These religious conceptions of the primitive races seem to us, now, as +we look back upon them from the larger light of the present day, to be +grotesque and unworthy; we wonder that men could ever have entertained +such notions of deity, and we are sometimes inclined, because of these +crudities, to dismiss the whole subject of religion as but a farrago of +superstitions. But these imperfect conceptions do not discredit +religion; they are rather witnesses to its reality. You might as well +say that the speculations and experiments of the old alchemists prove +that there is no truth in chemistry; or that the guesses of the +astrologers throw doubt on the science of astronomy. The alchemists and +the astrologers were searching blindly for truth which they did not +find, but the truth was there; the fetish worshipers and the magicians +and the idolaters were also, as Paul said, seeking after the unknown +God. But they were not mistaken in the principal object of their search; +what they sought was there, and the pathetic story of the long quest for +God is a proof of the truth of Paul's saying, that God has made men and +placed them in the world "that they should seek God, if haply they might +feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." +It was not a delusion, it was a tremendous reality that they were +dealing with. The fact that they but dimly conceived it does not lessen +the greatness of the reality. + +Not many intelligent thinkers in these days doubt the reality and the +permanence of religion. Herbert Spencer did not profess to be a +Christian believer; by many persons he was supposed to be an enemy of +the Christian religion; yet no man has more strongly asserted the +permanency and indestructibility of religion. As to the notion that +religions are the product of human craft and selfishness, he says: "A +candid examination of the evidence quite negatives the doctrine +maintained by some that creeds are priestly inventions."[3] And again: +"An unbiased consideration of its general aspects forces us to conclude +that religion, everywhere present as a weft running through the warp of +human history, expresses some eternal fact."[4] And again: "In Religion +let us recognize the high merit that from the beginning it has dimly +discerned the ultimate verity and has never ceased to insist upon it.... +For its essentially valid belief, Religion has constantly done battle. +Gross as were the disguises under which it at first espoused this +belief, and cherishing this belief, though it still is, under +disfiguring vestments, it has never ceased to maintain and defend it. It +has everywhere established and propagated one or other modification of +the doctrine that all things are manifestations of a power that +transcends our knowledge."[5] + +That religion is, in John Fiske's strong phrase, an "everlasting +reality" is a fact which few respectable thinkers in these days would +venture to call in question. But, as we have seen, this reality takes +upon itself a great variety of forms. Looking over the world to-day, we +discover many kinds of religion. Religious ideas, religious rites and +ceremonies, religious customs and practices, as we gather them up and +compare them, constitute a variegated collection. + +Professor William James has a thick volume entitled "The Varieties of +Religious Experience," in which he brings together a vast array of the +documents which describe the religious feelings and impulses of persons +in all lands and all ages. It is not a study of creeds or philosophies +of religion, it is a study of personal religious experiences; of the +fears, hopes, desires, contritions, joys, and aspirations of men and +women of all lands and ages, as they have been dealing with the fact of +religion. + +Not only do we find many different kinds of religion existing side by +side upon this planet; we also find that each of these types has been +undergoing constant changes in the course of the centuries. To trace the +religious development of any people from the earliest period to the +present day is a most instructive study. + +Take our own religion. Christianity is not an independent form of faith. +Its roots run down into the Hebrew religion, whose record is in the Old +Testament; and the Hebrew religion grew out of the old Semitic faiths, +and these again sprang from the ancient Babylonian religions or grew +alongside of them. So we are compelled to go far back for the origin of +many of our own religious ideas. Jesus did not claim to be the Founder +of a new religion; he claimed only to bring a better interpretation of +the religion of his people. He said that he came not to destroy but to +fulfill the law and the prophets. The New Testament religion is a +development of the Old Testament religion. It is a wonderful growth. +When we go hack to the old monuments and the old documents and trace the +progress of religious beliefs and practices from the earliest days to +our own, we learn many things which are well worth knowing. + +The central fact of religious progress is improvement in the conception +of the character of God. As the ages go by, men gradually come to think +better thoughts about God. Little by little the old crude and savage +notions of deity drop out of their minds, and they learn to think of him +as just and faithful and kind. + +The Bible shows us many signs of this progress. The earlier stories +about God give him a far different character from that which appears in +the later prophets. It was believed by the earlier Hebrews that God +desired to have them put to death all the inhabitants of the land of +Canaan when they took possession of it; and when they put to the sword +not only the armed men of the land, but the women and the little +children, they supposed that they were obeying the command of God. They +learned better than that, after a while. + +When Abraham started with Isaac for Mount Moriah, he undoubtedly +thought that he should please God by putting to death his own +well-beloved son; but before he had done the dreadful deed the +revelation came to him that that was a terrible mistake; he saw that God +was not pleased by human sacrifices. That was a great day in the history +of religion. Because of that experience, Abraham was able to make his +descendants believe the truth that had been given to him, and from that +time onward human sacrifices probably ceased among the Hebrews. A long +step had been taken toward the purification of the idea of God of one of +its most degrading elements. + +This superstition lingered long in other faiths; probably it survived +among our own ancestors after Abraham's day. Tennyson's poem, "The +Victim," is a vivid picture of human sacrifice among the Teutonic +peoples:-- + + "A plague upon the people fell, + A famine after laid them low; + Then thorpe and byre arose in fire, + For on them brake the sudden foe; + So thick they died the people cried, + 'The Gods are moved against the land.' + The priest in horror about his altar + To Thor and Odin lifted a hand: + 'Help us from famine + And plague and strife! + What would you have of us? + Human life? + Were it our nearest, + Were it our dearest,--Answer, + O answer!-- + We give you his life.'" + +The Gods seemed to say that the victim must be either the king's wife or +the king's child; which it should be, was the terrible question that the +king had to answer. The choice seemed to have fallen on the child, but +the wife would not have it that he was the king's dearest, and she +rushed to her own immolation. The poem reflects the common notion of +those dark days, that the angry Gods could only be propitiated by the +slaughter of those whom men loved the best. From this horrible idea the +Jewish people were delivered by the insight of their great ancestor. + +Dark notions about God still lingered among them, however, and the Old +Testament record shows us how they slowly disappeared. Moses and Samuel +were good men for their time, but the God whom they worshiped was a very +different being from the God of Hosea or of the later Isaiah. + +This development of the idea of God has been going on in modern times. +It is not long since devout men were in the habit of saying that God's +displeasure with the wickedness of cities was exhibited in the scourges +of cholera and scarlet fever in which multitudes of little children were +the victims. Not two hundred years ago the great majority of our Puritan +ancestors were believing in a God who, for the sin of Adam, was sending +millions of infants, every year, to the regions of darkness and despair. +The God of Cotton Mather or of Edward Payson could hardly have lived in +the same heaven with the God of Dwight Moody or Phillips Brooks. + +The changes which have been taking place in our ideas about God have +been mainly in the direction of a purified ethical conception of his +character. We have been learning to believe, more and more, in the +justice, the righteousness, the goodness of God. In the oldest times men +thought him cruel and revengeful; then they began to regard him as +willful and arbitrary--his justice was his determination to have his own +way; his sovereignty was his egoistic purpose to do everything for his +own glory. We have gradually grown away from all that, and are able now +to believe what Abraham believed, that the Judge of all the earth will +do right. + +In the presence of a God who, I am assured, is a being of perfect +righteousness, who never blames any one for what he cannot help, who +never expects of any one more than he has the power to render, who means +that I shall know that his treatment of me is in perfect accord with my +own deepest intuition of truth and fairness and honor, I can stand up +and be a man. My faith will not be the cringing submission of a slave to +an absolute despot, but the willing and joyful acceptance by a free man +of righteous authority. + +Now it is certain that the belief of the Christian church respecting the +character of God has been steadily changing, in this direction, through +the Christian centuries. Enlightened Christians have been coming to +believe, more and more, in a good God; and by a good God I mean not +merely a good-natured God, but a just God, a true God, a fair God, a +righteous God. The growth of this conviction has been purging theology +of many crude and revolting dogmas. + +It is a great deliverance which is wrought out for us when we are set +free, in our religious thinking, from the bondage of unmoral +conceptions, and are encouraged to believe that God is good. It is a +great blessing to have a God to worship whom we can thoroughly respect. +A tremendous strain is put upon the moral nature when men are required, +by traditional influences, to pay adoration and homage to a being whose +conduct, as it is represented to them, is, in some important respects, +conduct which they cannot approve. All the religions, through the +imperfection of human thought, have put that burden on their worshipers. + +Christianity has been struggling, through all the centuries, to free +itself from unworthy conceptions of the character of its Deity, and each +succeeding re-statement of its doctrines removes some stain which our +dim vision and halting logic had left upon his name. + +What, now, has caused these changes to take place in men's thoughts +about God? What influences have been at work to clarify their ideas of +the unknown Reality? + +From three principal sources have come the streams of light by which our +religious conceptions have been purified. + +The first of these is the natural world round about us. We are immersed +in Nature; it touches us on every side; it addresses us through all our +senses; it speaks to us every day with a thousand voices. Nature is the +great teacher of the human race. She knows everything; she waits to +impart her love to all who will receive it; she is very patient; her +lessons are not forced upon unwilling pupils, but whosoever will may +come and take of her treasure. Longfellow said of the childhood of +Agassiz, that-- + + "Nature, the old nurse, took + The child upon her knee, + Saying: 'Here is a story-book + Thy Father has written for thee. + + "'Come, wander with me,' she said, + 'Into regions yet untrod; + And read what is still unread + In the manuscripts of God.'" + +It is not the child Agassiz alone whom Nature thus invited; to the whole +human race, in its childhood, its adolescence, its maturity, she has +always been saying the same thing. She has been seeking, through all the +ages, to disclose to us all the mysteries of this marvelous universe. We +have been slow learners; it took her a great many centuries to get the +simplest truths lodged in the human mind. The cave-dweller, the savage +in his teepee, were able to receive but little of what she had to give. +Yet before their eyes, every day, she spread all her wonders; with +infinite patience she waited for the unfolding of their powers. All the +marvels of steam, of electricity, of the camera, of the telescope, the +microscope, the spectroscope, the Roentgen rays,--all the facts and +forces with which science deals were there, in the hand of Mother +Nature, waiting to be imparted to her child from the day when he first +stood upright and faced the stars. + +Slowly he has been led on into a larger understanding of this wonderful +universe. And what has he learned under this tuition? What are some of +the great truths which have gradually impressed themselves upon his +mind? + +He has been made sure, for one thing, that this is a universe; that all +its forces are coherent; that the same laws are in operation in every +part of it. The principles of mathematics are everywhere applicable; +gravitation controls all the worlds and every particle of matter in +every one of them, and the spectroscope assures us that the same +chemical elements which constitute our world are found in the farthest +star. "On every hand," says Walker, "we are assured that the guiding +principle of Science is that of the uniformity of nature." + +It has also come to be understood that nature is all intelligible. +Everything can be explained. This is the fundamental assumption of +science. Many things have not yet been explained, but there is an +explanation for everything; of that every thinker feels perfectly sure. +"Fifty years ago," says Sir John Lubbock, "the Book of Nature was like +some richly illuminated missal, written in an unknown tongue; of the +true meaning little was known to us; indeed we scarcely realized that +there was a meaning to decipher. Now glimpses of the truth are gradually +revealing themselves; we perceive that there is a reason--and in many +cases we know what that reason is--for every difference in form, in +size, and in color, for every bone and feather, almost for every +hair."[6] + +This is the latest word of the latest philosophy; there is a reason for +everything. As Romanes says, Nature is instinct with reason; "tap her +where you will, reason oozes out at every pore." + +If all things are rational and intelligible, then all things must be +the product of a rational Intelligence. That conclusion seems +inevitable. + +But we can go further than this. It is not merely true that we can find +in the world about us the signs of an Intelligence like our own, it is +also true that our own intelligence has been developed by the revelation +to us of this Intelligence in the world about us. "If," says Walker, +"human reason is but 'the reflection in us of the universe outside of +us,' then, clearly, the Reason was there, expressed in the universe, +before it possibly could be reflected in us. It is _our relation to the +Universe that makes us rational_." And again, "Apart from the Reason +expressed in the Universe around him, man could never have become the +rational being that he is."[7] + +This, then, is the first great reason why our religion has gradually +become more rational. The rationality of the universe constantly +presented to our thought has developed a rationality in our thoughts +about the universe. The mind, like the dyer's hand, is subdued to what +it works in. The response of primitive man to the pressure of Nature +upon him was a response of wonder and awe and fear; his religion was +instructive, emotional; but through the long tuition of the ages, the +old nurse has taught him how to use his reason; and he now finds unity +where he once found strife, and order and law where once confusion and +chaos reigned. His religion has become rational. + +But what do we mean when we say that man's great teacher has been +Nature? Nature, as we have seen, is instinct with Reason, and the Reason +which is revealed in Nature is only another name for God. It is the +immanent God, the Eternal Reason, who has been patiently disclosing +himself to us in the world round about us, and thus cleansing our minds +from the crude and superstitious conceptions with which in our ignorance +and fear we had invested him. + +The second of the sources from which the influences have come for the +purification of religion is humanity itself. + +We are told, in the Book of Genesis, that man is made in the image of +God; and the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God, on which the entire +teaching of Jesus rests, is but a stronger statement of the same truth. +It is true that we find human nature, as yet, for the most part, in +very crude conditions; its divine qualities are not clearly seen. It +does not yet appear what we shall be. But we have learned, in our +evolutionary studies, that no living thing ought to be judged in the +earlier stages of its development; we must wait to see the perfected +type before we can make up our minds about it. The eaglet just hatched +does not give us the right idea of the eagle, nor does the infant in his +swaddling clothes reveal to us the man. So it is with species and races; +if they are undergoing a process of development, we must wait for the +later stages of the process before we judge. The apple is not the crab, +but the Northern Spy; the horse is not the mustang, but the Percheron or +the German roadster. In estimating any living thing, you take into +consideration its possibilities of development; the ideal to which it +may attain must always be in sight. + +In the same way when we think of man, we do not take the Patagonian as +the type, but the best specimens of European or American manhood. + +If, then, we are taught to believe that man is a child of God, we should +be compelled to believe that it is the most perfectly developed man who +most resembles God. We have some conception of the ideal man. Our +conceptions are not always correct, but they are constantly improved, as +we strive to realize them. And in the ideal man we see reflected the +character of God. We are sure that a perfect humanity would give us the +best revelation we could have of divinity. If we could see a perfect +man, we could learn from him more about God than from any other source. + +Most of us believe that a perfect Man appeared in this world nineteen +hundred years ago; and the best that we know about God we have learned +from him. More has been done by his life and teachings to purify +religion of its crudities and superstitions than by all other agencies. +The worst of the crudities and superstitions that still linger in our +own religion are due to the fact that the people who bear his name only +in part accept his teachings and very imperfectly follow his example. If +we could all believe what he has told us and do what he has bidden us, +our religion would soon be cleansed from its worst defilements. + +The manifestation of the life of God in Jesus Christ we call The +Incarnation; and it was a manifestation so much more perfect than any +other that the world has seen, that we do well to put the definite +article before the word. Yet it is a mistake to overlook the fact that +God dwells in every good man, and manifests himself through him. And +whenever, in any character, the great qualities of truth and justice and +purity and courage and honor and kindness are exhibited, we see some +reflection of the character of God. + +In many a home the father and the mother, by their faithfulness and +kindness and self-sacrifice, make it easy for the children to believe in +a good God; and in every community brave and true and saintly men and +women are revealing to us high qualities which we cannot help +interpreting as divine. We cannot imagine that God is less just or fair +or kind than these men and women are; they lift up our ideals of +goodness, and they compel us to think better thoughts of him in whom all +our ideals are united. + +Thus it is that our humanity, as glorified by the Word made flesh, and +as lifted up and sanctified by the lives of good men and women, has been +a great teacher of pure religion. We have learned what to think about +God and how to worship him aright by what he has shown us in the living +epistles of his goodness and grace which he has sent into the world, +and, above all, in that "strong Son of God" whom we call our Master. + +The other source from which the influences have come by which religion +has been purified, is that divine Spirit who is always in the world, and +always waiting upon the threshold of every man's thought, and in the +sub-conscious depths of every man's feeling, to enlighten our +understanding and purify our desires. To every man he gives all that he +can receive of light and power. To many his gifts are but meagre, +because their capacities are small and their receptivity is limited; but +there are always in the world open minds and docile tempers, to whom he +imparts his larger gifts. Thus we have the order of prophets and +inspired men, whose words are full of light and leading. In the Bible we +have a record of the messages given by such men to the world. In that +teaching, rightly interpreted, there is great power to correct the +errors and cleanse away the delusions and superstitions which are apt to +gather about our religion. We cannot estimate too highly the work that +has been done by these sacred writings in purifying our conception of +God. + +It is possible, however, to treat this book in a manner so hard and +literalistic that it shall become a hindrance rather than a help to the +better knowledge of God. The one fact that it brings vividly before us +is that fact of progress in religious knowledge which we are now +considering. It shows us how men have gone steadily forward, under the +leadership of the divine Spirit, leaving old conceptions behind them, +and rising to larger and larger understanding of divine things. Any +treatment of the Book which fails to recognize this fact--which puts all +parts of the Bible on the same level of spiritual value and +authority--simply ignores the central truth of the Bible and perverts +its whole meaning. + +The truth which we need to emphasize in our use of the Bible is the +truth that the same Spirit who gave the men of the olden time their +message is with us, to help us to the right understanding of it, and to +give us the message for our time. Nor is his illumination confined to +any guild or rank of believers; the day foretold by the prophet has +surely come, when the Spirit is poured upon all flesh, and the prophetic +gift may be received by all the pure in heart. + +The one glorious fact of our religion--a fact but dimly realized as yet +by the church--is the constant presence in the world of the Spirit of +Truth. If there is anything at all in religion, this divine Spirit is +ready to be the Counselor, Comforter, and Guide of every human soul. And +we cannot doubt that the steadily enlarging conception of the character +of God is due to his gracious ministry. + + * * * * * + +Such, then, are the sources from which have come that better knowledge +of God which makes the religion of our time to differ from the religion +of past generations. And it will be seen that these three sources are +but one. It is the divine Reason and Love himself who has been revealing +himself to us in the unity and order of nature, in the enlarging life of +humanity, in the inspired insights and convictions of devout believers. +What we are looking upon is that continuing revelation of God to the +world which has been in progress from the beginning, and which will +never cease until the world is full of the knowledge of God as the sea +is full of water. + +With this great and growing revelation the church is intrusted. Its +business in the world is to take this truth about God, this new truth, +this larger and fairer truth, which God himself, in the creation and +through the incarnation and by the Indwelling Spirit, has been clearing +up and lifting into the light, and fill modern life full of it. This is +the truth which modern life needs. Religion is a permanent fact, but its +forms change with advancing knowledge. There are forms of truth which +are suited to the needs of modern life. God himself is always at work +preparing the truth for present needs. It is the function of the church +to understand this truth, and make it known in every generation. + + + + +II + +Our Religion and Other Religions + + + +Our religion is the Christian religion. This is the form of faith which +the church in our country is organized to promote. Ours is a Christian +country. + +This is not by virtue of any legal establishment of Christianity, for +one of the glories of our civilization is that first amendment to our +national constitution, which declares that "Congress shall make no law +respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise +thereof." Buddhists, Hindus, Mohammedans, Parsees, Jews, are just as +free to exercise their respective forms of religion in this country as +are the Christians. The government neither forbids nor fosters any kind +of faith. + +Ours is a Christian country because nearly all the people of the country +are, by birth and by choice, identified with the Christian faith. + +Still it is true that the freedom extended by our constitution to other +forms of faith has been claimed by some of their adherents, and we have +in the United States a goodly number of groups representing +non-Christian creeds. Of these the Jews constitute much the largest +number, there being, perhaps, six or seven hundred Jewish congregations +in all parts of the country. There are also sixty or seventy Chinese +temples, a few groups of Parsees and Mohammedans, a few hundred +companies of Spiritualists, and a few scores of societies of Ethical +Culture and Free Religion. All told there are not, probably, among the +eighty millions of our people, more than a million and a half who are +not either traditionally or nominally Christians. + +Our contact with the Orient, on our western frontier, is likely, +however, to bring us into close relations, in the near future, with +other ancient forms of faith. The Christian church in modern life will +be compelled to meet questions raised by the presence of Buddhists and +Confucians and Mohammedans, and to prove its superiority to these +religions. The study of comparative religion has had hitherto purely an +academic interest for most of us; in the present century it is likely to +become for millions a practical question. Many a young man and young +woman will be forced to ask: "Why is the religion of my fathers a better +religion than that of my Hindu associate or my Japanese classmate?" The +answer, if wisely given, may be entirely satisfactory, but the question +must not be treated as absurd or irrelevant. In the face of the great +competitions into which it must enter, our religion must be ready to +give an intelligent account of itself. + +One of the first questions to be asked when we take up this inquiry is, +What is the attitude of our religion toward the other religions? Perhaps +it is better to put the question in a concrete form and ask, What is the +attitude of the Christian people toward the people of other religions? + +The answer to this question may not be as prompt and confident as we +could wish. Many, people who profess and call themselves Christians are +not so broad-minded or so generous hearted as they ought to be, and they +are inclined to be partisans in religion as well as in art or politics; +they think that all the truth and all the goodness are in the +institutions with which they are allied, and that all the rest are of +the evil one. But such people are not good representatives of +Christianity. They never learned any such judgment from him whom they +call their Master. And we may safely claim that those who have the mind +of Christ are tolerant and generous toward those whose opinions or whose +religious practices differ from their own. They do not forget that their +Master treated with the greatest sympathy men and women whose faiths +greatly differed from his own; that some of those who received his +strongest testimonies to the greatness of their faith, like the Roman +centurion and the Canaanitish woman, were pagans; that one of his most +intimate and gracious conversations on the deep things of the Spirit was +with a Samaritan woman, and that his representative hero of practical +religion was a Samaritan man whose genuine goodness he placed in sharp +contrast with the heathen selfishness of the priest and the Levite of +his own faith. No Christian ever learned to be a bigot by sitting at the +feet of Jesus Christ. And I think we may justly claim that those who +have entered into the spirit of the Christian religion are always +generous in their attitude toward those who worship by other forms of +faith. + +They cannot forget that all these people whose creeds and rites differ +so greatly from their own are children of our Father, and that they can +be no less dear to him than we are; and it is therefore hardly possible +for them to imagine that he can have left them without some revelation +of saving truth. They approach, therefore, the religious beliefs of +other peoples with open minds, expecting to find in them elements of +truth, and desiring to put themselves into sympathetic and cordial +relations with those whose opinions differ from their own. + +As has been said, not all those who are known as Christians have this +tolerant temper, because there are many who are known as Christians who +have but dim notions of what it means to be a Christian. It was once the +prevailing assumption that all religions were divided into two classes, +the true and the false; that ours was the true religion and all the +others were false religions. That the heathen were the enemies of God +was the common belief, and it was a grave heresy to insinuate that any +of them could be saved without renouncing their false religions and +accepting the true religion. This was the basis upon which the work of +foreign missions was long conducted, and there are still many who bear +the Christian name who have not yet reached any other conception. + +But the church in modern life is learning to see this whole matter in a +different light. Our best modern missionaries decline to take this +attitude in dealing with men of other religions. They do not regard the +heathen as outside the pale of the divine compassion; they seek for +points of sympathy between their own beliefs and those of the people to +whom they are sent. From no other sources have come stronger testimonies +to the sympathy of religions. We must not, these veteran missionaries +insist, assume that our religion is the only true religion, while all +the others are false religions. We may well assume that all human forms +of faith are more or less imperfect--our own as well as theirs, and +invite them to a candid comparison of the differing systems. If our own +is really superior, if it meets universal human needs more perfectly, we +ought not to fear such a candid comparison. But we must be ready to see +and approve the good that is theirs, if we wish them to accept the good +that is ours. + +This is not admitting that there is no difference--that one religion is +as good as another; we should stultify ourselves by making any such +admission. But it is a willingness to recognize truth and goodness +everywhere, and to rejoice in them. And we must show that we are not +afraid to take from the many truth which has been revealed to them more +clearly than to us. If we believe in the universal fatherhood and the +omnipresence of the Holy Spirit, we must expect to find, in every form +of faith, some elements that our Christianity needs. In fact +Christianity, through all its history, has been appropriating truth +which it has found in the systems with which it has come in contact, and +it is one of the glories of Christianity that it has the power to do +this. + +A great Christian scholar has just published a book entitled "The Growth +of Christianity," in which he shows how this has been done. He finds +that "just as Jewish morality was ennobled and beautified by the +teaching of Christ and yet made an essential element of that teaching, +so the philosophy of Greece, the mysticism of Asia, and the civic +virtues of Rome were taken up by the Christian religion, which, while +remaining Christian, was modified by their influence. This process +cannot fairly be called degeneration, but growth, such growth and +development as is the privilege of every truly living institution."[8] + +It is true, as one critic suggests, that in taking in these foreign +elements Christianity not only made some important gains, but also +suffered some serious losses. Greek philosophy and Asian mysticism and +Roman legalism are responsible for certain perversions of Christianity, +as well as for enlargement of its content. We have great need to be +careful in these assimilations; some kinds of food are rich but not +easily digested. But it is, as I have said, a chief glory of +Christianity that it possesses this assimilative power. It is the +natural fruit of faith in the divine fatherhood. We ought to be able to +believe that God has some revelations to make to us through our brethren +in other lands, as well as to them through us. It is the possession of +this power which fits Christianity to be the universal religion. + +It has already given some striking proofs of the possession of this +power. We have had, once, upon this planet, a great Parliament of +Religions, in which the representatives of all the great faiths now +existing in the world were gathered together for comparison of beliefs +and experiences. It was, perhaps, the most important religious gathering +which has ever assembled. The presiding officer, in his opening address, +thus described its import:-- + +"If this congress shall faithfully execute the duties with which it has +been charged, it will become a joy of the whole earth and stand in human +history like a new Mount Zion crowned with glory and making the actual +beginning of a new epoch of brotherhood and peace. + +"In this congress the word 'religion' means the love and worship of God +and the love and service of man. We believe the Scripture 'Of a truth +God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth God +and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.' We come together in +mutual confidence and respect, without the least surrender or compromise +of anything which we respectively believe to be truth or duty, with the +hope that mutual acquaintance and a free and sincere interchange of +views on the great questions of eternal life and human conduct will be +mutually beneficial. + +"The religious faiths of the world have most seriously misunderstood +and misjudged each other, from the use of words in meanings radically +different from those which they were intended to bear, and from a +disregard of the distinctions between appearances and facts, between +signs and symbols and the things signified and represented. Such errors +it is hoped that this congress will do much to correct and to render +hereafter impossible." + +Such was the purpose of this parliament, such the spirit which prompted +the calling of it, and found utterance in its conferences. It was surely +a notable and beautiful thing for, the adherents of these dissimilar +faiths, whose ordinary attitude toward one another has always been +suspicious and oppugnant, to come together in this friendly way, seeking +a better understanding, and emphasizing the things that make for unity. +And whose was this parliament? Which religion was it that conceived of +it, and made provision for it, and set in motion the influences that +drew these hostile bands into harmony? It was the Christian religion +which gave us this great endeavor after unity. And it is highly +improbable that such a movement would have originated in any other than +a Christian country, or among the followers of any other Leader than the +Man of Nazareth. It was the natural thing for the disciples of Jesus to +do; and while many men of the other faiths yielded to this gracious +influence, and were thus brought under the power of the bond that unites +our common humanity, it is not likely that any of them would have taken +the initiative in such an undertaking. + +We may hope that this is not the last parliament of religions; that in +the days before us such manifestations of the unity of the race will not +be uncommon. And we are sure that the leaders of all such endeavors will +be found among the followers of the Prince of Peace. + +Here, then, we find one clear answer to the question with which we +started. The Christian confessor who is confronted with the question +"What reason have you for thinking that the religion of your fathers is +better than any other form of faith?" may answer, first, "It is better +because it cares more for the unity of the race than any other religion +cares; because it believes more strongly in the essential brotherhood of +all worshipers; because it teaches a larger charity for men of +differing beliefs, and more perfectly realizes the sympathy of +religions. It is far from being all that it ought to be, on this side of +its development; many of its adherents are still full of bigotry and +intolerance and Pharisaic conceit; but these are contrary to its +plainest teachings, and all its progress is in the direction of larger +charity for men of all religions. Already, in spite of its failures, it +has shown far more of this temper than any other religion has exhibited; +and when it gets rid of its own sects and schisms, and comes closer to +the heart of its own Master, it will have a power of drawing the peoples +together which no other religion has ever thought of exercising." + +I have spoken of the fact that Christianity claims to be a universal +religion. That was the expectation with which its first messengers were +sent forth. They were bidden to go into all the world and preach the +gospel to every creature. There has never been any other thought among +the loyal followers of Jesus than that the day is coming when every knee +shall bow to him and every tongue confess him. + +This expectation of universality is not shared by all the religions of +the earth. Many of them are purely ethnic faiths; they grow out of the +lives of the peoples who adhere to them; it does not seem to be supposed +that any other peoples would care for them or know what to do with them. +The old Romans had a saying, "_Cujus regio, ejus religio_"--which means, +Every country has its own religion. The earlier Hebrews had the same +idea; they thought that every people had a god of its own. Jehovah was +their God; Baal was the god of the Phoenicians, and Chemosh was the god +of Moab. They believed that Jehovah was a stronger God than any of these +other deities, but they did not seem to doubt their existence or their +potency. Even the prophet Micah says: "For all the peoples will walk +every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of +Jehovah our God for ever and ever."[9] The later prophets gained the +larger conception of universality; they believed that there was but one +supreme God, and therefore but one religion, to the acceptance of which +all mankind would at last be brought. The narrower conception of +religion as a national or racial interest has, however, prevailed and +still prevails among many peoples. The Hindu religion, which numbers +many millions of votaries, has no expectation of becoming a world +religion. Indeed, it could not well entertain any such expectation; the +system of caste, on which it rests, makes it necessarily exclusive. It +has no missionary impulse; its adherents are content with a good which +they do not seek to share with other peoples. The same thing is true of +many of the minor faiths. + +Now it is manifest that religions which do not expect to be universal +are not likely to exceed their own expectations. "According to your +faith be it unto you" is as true of systems as of men. And none of us is +likely to be strongly drawn to a faith which has really no invitation +for us, no matter how stoutly it may maintain its own superiority. No +religion which has only a tribal or racial significance can make any +effective appeal to our credence. The note of universality must be +struck by any religion which claims our suffrages. + +There are certain great living religions which make this claim of +universality. Judaism and Parseeism have both entertained this +expectation, but the fewness of their adherents at the present time +indicates that the expectation is but feebly held. The three living +faiths which aspire to universal dominion are Buddhism, Mohammedanism, +and Christianity.[10] Each of these hopes to possess the earth. Each of +these is strong enough to enforce its claim with some measure of +confidence. + +Recent estimates give to Buddhism 148,000,000 of followers, to +Mohammedanism 177,000,000, and to Christianity 477,000,000. +Mohammedanism has been rapidly extending its sway in Africa during +recent years; Buddhism is not, probably, making great gains at the +present time. + +If any form of religion is to become universal in the earth it would +appear that it must be one of these three. If any of us wishes to +exchange the religion of his fathers for another faith, his choice will +be apt to lie between Buddhism and Mohammedanism. What claims to our +credence and allegiance could either of them set up? + +It would not, for most of us, be an easy thing to turn from the faith of +our fathers to any other form of faith. The ideas and usages to which +we have been accustomed all our lives are not readily exchanged for +those which are wholly unfamiliar. Rites and ceremonies and customs of +other religions, which may be intrinsically as reasonable and reverent +as our own, strike upon our minds unpleasantly because they are +unwonted. It would, therefore, be somewhat difficult for us to put +ourselves into a mental attitude before either of these great religions, +in which we should be able to do full justice to its claims upon our +credence. + +Yet if we could gain the breadth of view to which the disciples of +Christ ought to attain, we should be compelled to admit that each of +these great religions has rendered some important service to mankind. + +What those services have been can only be hinted at in this chapter. Of +Islamism, Bishop Boyd Carpenter testifies that it "has been, and still +is, a great power in the world. There is much in it that is calculated +to purify and elevate mankind at a certain stage of history. It has the +power of redeeming the slaves of a degraded polytheism from their low +groveling conception of God to conceptions which are higher; it has set +an example of sobriety to the world and has shielded its followers from +the drink plague which destroys the strength of nations. And, in so far +as it has done this, it has performed a work which entitles it to the +attention of man and no doubt has been a factor in God's education of +the world."[11] + +Of Buddhism even more could be said. In the words of Mr. Brace:-- + +"Sometime in the sixth century before Christ there appeared in Northern +India one of those great personalities who in a measure draw their +inspiration directly from above.... When he says, 'As a mother at the +risk of her life watcheth over the life of her child, her only child, so +also let every one cultivate a boundless good-will towards all beings, +... above and below and across, unobstructed, without hatred, without +enmity, standing, walking, sitting, or lying, as long as he be awake let +him devote himself to this state of mind; this way of living, they say, +is the best in this world'--when these words come to our ears we hear +something of a like voice to that which said, 'Come unto me, all ye that +are weary and heavy-laden.' From a thousand legends and narratives we +may gather that to Gotama the Enlightened (the Buddha) the barriers of +human selfishness fell away. To him the miseries of the poor, the slave, +the outcast, were his own; the tears which men had shed from the +beginning, 'enough to fill oceans,' were as if falling from his eyes. +The great pang of sorrow, piercing the heart of the race, inconsolable, +unspeakable, struck to his own heart. For him the sin of the world, the +unsatisfied desire, the fierce passion and hatred and lust, poisoned +life, and he cared for nothing except for what would change the heart +and remove this fearful mass of evil."[12] + +The character of Gotama as it emerges from the reek of tradition is one +of the noblest in history, and while the religion of which he was the +leader has been defiled by all manner of corruptions and superstitions, +it has borne much good fruit in the life of many peoples. + +It would be easy to point out the radical defects in both these +religions; let me rather call attention to some of the distinguishing +peculiarities of our own faith. + +1. The God whom Jesus has taught us to believe in, is a far nobler +object of affection and trust than is ever presented to the thought of +the followers of Mohammed or of Gotama. He is our Heavenly Father, +infinite in his purity, his truth, his kindness, his compassion, his +care for all his children. + +Now it is true that the central and fundamental difference in religions +is that which concerns the character of the deity. The best religion is +that which worships the best god. And when we compare the Christian +conception of God with the Buddhist conception or the Mohammedan +conception, we cannot fail to see which is the highest and the purest. + +A brilliant Japanese scholar, discussing this subject of the relative +values of religions, was asked if, in any respect, the Christian +religion was better than the Oriental religions, and he promptly +answered: "Yes; the Christian conception of God as the Heavenly Father +is higher and better than that of any Oriental religion." If that is +true it settles the whole question. + +It is, perhaps, inaccurate to speak of Buddhism as having any conception +of God. "The very idea of a god as creating or in any way ruling the +world," says one authority, "is utterly absent in the Buddhist system. +God is not so much as denied, he is simply not known." Buddha taught +men to be compassionate to one another, but he did not teach them to +look above themselves for any divine compassion. It is true that they +now venerate him, and even pray to him; for the human soul will +pray,--its instinct of dependence, its craving for fellowship with +something higher than itself will prevail over all theories; but this +prayer must be somewhat incoherent, for the worshiper believes that +Buddha has no longer any conscious or personal existence. And there is +certainly no conception in his mind of any such fatherly relation with +any Power above himself, who loves him and cares for him and knows how +to help him, as that which Jesus has revealed to us. + +The Mohammedan Deity is indeed a person, but he is a relentless, +omnipotent Will. The worst phases of the old Calvinism--those which have +disappeared from Christian thought--are the central ideas of the +Mohammedan creed. God is represented in the Koran as fitful and +revengeful, as arbitrary and despotic; he is a very different being from +the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. + +2. The religion of Jesus emphasizes, as no other religion has done, +"the redemptive principle in its idea of God." It does not hide the fact +of moral evil as the source of all our woes, but it shows an eternal +purpose in the heart of God to save man from sin, even at the cost of +suffering to himself. This is the meaning of redemption; it is the +salvation of men through a divine self-sacrifice. No such revelation of +the love of God as this has ever been made to the world, except through +the life and teachings and death of Jesus Christ. No wonder that when it +is simply and clearly presented to men it wins their hearts. A Chinese +woman, listening to a recital of this redemptive work of God, turned +suddenly to her neighbor and said, "Didn't I tell you that there ought +to be a God like that?" + +We shall look in vain through the scriptures of the other religions for +any such conception of the relation of God to men. Men must save +themselves by their own endeavors; they must obey or they will suffer; +perchance by their own suffering they may be purified: but that God +should stoop to earth and stand by the side of sinning and suffering +man, and save him by suffering with him, is a truth to which none of +them has risen. + +3. Christianity, above all other faiths, is the religion of hope. It +not only kindles in our hearts the hope of overcoming the sin which is +our worst enemy, but it conquers in our hearts the fear of death and +opens up to us the prospect of unending and glorious future life, in the +society of those most dear to us. + +Mohammedanism also permits us to hope for future blessedness, albeit its +representations of the life to come are not always such as to purify and +elevate our thoughts. Buddhism, on the contrary, though it tells us that +we may be reborn many times, assures us that each reappearance in this +world will be attended with suffering and struggle; from which, if we +continue to walk in the true path, striving more and more to conquer our +desires, we may at length hope to be delivered; but the blessedness +which comes at the end of all this struggle is simply forgetfulness: we +shall lose our identity and be remerged in that fount of Being from +which at first we came. Existence is the primal evil: to get rid of +ourselves is what we are to strive for; salvation is our disappearance +out of life, our absorption in the ocean of unconsciousness. This is the +best that Buddhism has to offer us. Not many of us, I dare say, will +wish to exchange for this the Christian hope. + +There are many other characteristics of the Christian faith on which it +would be interesting to reflect, but these three great elements are +sufficient to enable us to form our judgment as to its comparative +value. No religion which in these particulars is inferior can ever draw +the world away from the leadership of Jesus Christ. And it ought to be +clear to all who can comprehend the needs of human nature that while +these other faiths, in view of the great services they have rendered to +mankind, are not to be despised; and while it is probable that the +world, until the end of it, will be indebted to them for contributions +which they have made to our knowledge of the highest things; yet there +is no good reason why any one who has been walking in the light that +shines from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ should wish to turn +from his way into the ways of Mohammed or Gotama. + +It is not by any happy accident that Christianity is growing far more +rapidly than any other form of faith, and now vastly outnumbers every +other; it is not a strange thing that the lands in which it prevails +are far more prosperous and far more powerful than the lands in which +other religions prevail. It is winning the world. It is winning the +world because its interpretation of life is a truer interpretation than +any other religion has offered; because it meets and supplies the +deepest wants of men more perfectly than any other religion meets and +supplies them. + +The great evolutionary law is at work here, as everywhere. There is a +struggle for existence among religions, as among all other forms of +life. The law of variation has had full play in all this realm; human +nature has produced a great variety of religious ideas and forms, and +natural selection is doing its work upon them. The fittest will survive. +And the fittest religion will be the religion that ministers most +perfectly to human needs; that makes the best and strongest men and +women; that rears up the most fruitful and the most enduring +civilization. + +Everything visible within the horizon of our thought to-day indicates +that the religion which will survive--the permanent religion, the +universal religion--will be the Christian religion. + +It will gather into itself the best elements out of every other form of +faith, but the constructive ideas will be those which have found most +perfect expression in the teachings of Jesus Christ. + + + + +III + +The Social Side of Religion + + + +We have found in our previous studies that religion is a central and +permanent element in human nature, and that Christianity bids fair to be +the permanent form of religion. + +But the readers of these pages are constantly meeting with those who +would admit both these statements, yet who are disposed to deny or +ignore the value of the church in modern society. They believe in +religion, they say; they even believe in the principles of Christianity; +they may go so far as to say that they believe in Christ; but they do +not believe in the church. What they seem to object to is organized +religion. They appear to think that it ought to be diffused, somehow, +like an atmosphere, through the community. We hear Christians talk, +sometimes, about "the invisible church;" that is the only kind of church +which these objectors are disposed to tolerate. _Institutional_ religion +is the special object of their distrust. + +Some of the more radical among them oppose religious organizations, not +because these organizations are religious, but because they have an +antipathy for all forms of social organization. It does not take an +open-eyed onlooker long to discover that social organizations of all +kinds are infested with many evils. Social machinery is never perfect in +its construction or operation. It is always getting out of gear; there +is endless friction and clatter and confusion; it takes a great deal of +trouble to keep it moving, and its product is often of poor quality. +When men get together and try to coöperate for any purpose, by orderly +methods, they are always sure, because of the imperfection of human +nature, to do a certain amount of mischief. Often their organization +tends to tyranny; freedom is unduly restricted; selfish men get +possession of the power accumulated in the organization, and use it for +their own aggrandizement; it becomes, to a greater or less extent, an +instrument of oppression. Thus government, which is normally the +organization of political society for the protection of liberty and the +promotion of the general welfare, sometimes becomes, as in Russia, a +grinding despotism despoiling the many for the enrichment of the few. +Thus, in our American politics, we have the machine, which is simply the +perversion of party organization, and which in many instances has +become, under the manipulation of greedy and conscienceless men, an evil +of vast proportions. + +Looking upon these abuses with which political organizations of all +kinds are always encumbered, some men propose to abolish all forms of +political organization. This is anarchism, of which there are two +varieties,--the anarchism of violence, and the anarchism of +non-resistance. Czolgosz represents one type and Tolstoy the other. For +the anarchism of violence we can have only detestation and horror; to +the anarchism which expects to abolish laws by ignoring them and +suffering the consequences, we must extend a respectful toleration. +Nevertheless the anarchism of Tolstoy offers us a programme which is +hardly thinkable. For we are made to live and work together; and if we +work together effectively we must have rules and working agreements, +methods of coöperation, and these, whatever name we may give them, will +have the force of constitutions and laws. The great coöperations, on +which the welfare of society depends, involve social organization. Even +if the form which this takes should be largely economic, it would have +political force and significance. Man is a political animal; it is his +nature to live politically; and, as Horace says, you may drive out +nature with a pitchfork, but she is sure to come back. And the same +weaknesses of human nature which infested the old forms of organization +would be found in the new ones, unless human nature itself were +regenerated. + +Those who would destroy political society on account of its abuses are, +therefore, guilty of the same foolishness as that of the man who burned +his house to get rid of the rats. Doubtless the rats all escaped and +were ready to enter, with reinforcements, into the new house as soon as +it was builded. + +The same reasoning applies to ecclesiastical anarchism. Those who, +because of the defects of church organizations, would abolish the +churches, are equally unpractical. For it is not only true, as we saw in +our first chapter, that religion is a primal fact of human nature, it is +equally true that religion everywhere has a social manifestation. The +same impulse which moves men to worship, draws them together in their +worship. + +Any deep or strong emotion makes human beings congregate. Just as a +flock of sheep huddle together when they are frightened, so men, when +deeply moved for any cause, seek one another. As the impulse of religion +is one of those by which men are most deeply moved, it always brings +them together. + +So long as religion keeps the form of fear it produces this result; when +fear is succeeded by more grateful emotions, and men begin to have some +sense of the goodness of the Power they have been blindly worshiping, +then their gladness and gratitude bring them together. Religion, +therefore, in all lands and ages, has been a social interest; indeed, it +has been the strongest of the bonds uniting human beings. To demand a +religion which should have no social expression is to fly in the face of +nature, and forbid causes to bring forth their normal effects. Wherever +there is religion men will be associated, and their worship and their +work will be carried on under forms of social organization. Anarchism is +no more thinkable or workable in religion than in politics. + +If this is true of religion in general, it is eminently true of the +Christian religion. The characteristic note of Christianity is its +emphasis on the social relations. In this it simply exhibits what we may +call its scientific temper, its tendency to keep close to the facts of +life, to give the right interpretation to nature and to human nature. + +A modern sociologist[13] tells us that "the sole point of view, aim and +goal of Jesus, in all his teaching and by implication of all his acts, +was social. The divine Father whom he proclaimed was social--a Being +whose one attribute was love." When we say that "God is love," this is +what we mean. He delights in Companionship, and finds his happiness in +the relations which unite him with his creatures. Since his own supreme +good is in these reciprocal affections and services, we cannot imagine +that he could expect us to find our good in any different way. If we +share our Father's nature, we must seek our happiness where he finds +his. The blessedness of life must therefore be in our social relations. +Such is the teaching of Jesus. Such is the essence of Christianity. + +While, therefore, every religion by its very nature tends to bring men +together, Christianity lifts the social impulse into the light and +sanctifies and transfigures it, making it not merely a concomitant of +religion but the heart of religion. The effect of this revelation was +seen in all the ministry of Jesus. Whereever he went the people flocked +together. "Great multitudes followed him." Into the wildernesses, up to +the mountain tops, across the stormy lake, they made their way; it was a +day of great congregations. It was because they wanted to be with him, +of course; but when they came to him they came together, and one of the +things he sought for them was that they should like to be together. That +was surely a lesson that they learned of him; for as soon as he had gone +they began to gravitate together. Every day they met, sometimes in the +temple courts, sometimes in their own homes, for praise and prayer; +every evening they partook together, in little groups, of a simple meal, +in memory of him. Their religion, from the start, manifested a marked +social tendency. Indeed, we might give it a stronger word, and say that, +in the beginning, it was socialistic; it seemed to threaten a complete +reconstruction of the industrial order. For "all that believed were +together, and had all things common; and they sold their possessions +and goods, and parted them to all, as every man had need."[14] + +Just how far this communistic experiment was carried it is difficult to +say, but it is evident that the disciples felt that their religion ought +to permeate and control their entire social life. And there has never +since been a day when the social side of religion has not been +recognized and provided for. The very impulse which is kindled in their +hearts when they are brought into association with Christ, brings men +together. Communion, fellowship, these are the first words they learn. +It has been so from the beginning. One of the great Christians of the +apostolic age admonished his converts against "forsaking the assembling +of themselves together," and that admonition has always been heeded. No +other religion has brought people together so constantly and in so many +ways as Christianity has done. Christian people are always getting +together, to pray together, to sing together, to partake together of the +sacraments, to listen together to the teaching of the pulpit, to study +the Bible together, to take counsel together about their work, to unite +their efforts, in manifold coöperations, for the upbuilding of the +Kingdom. They have even come to believe--and they are profoundly right +about it--that it is a good thing for people to come together just for +the sake of being together, even when no distinctly religious business +assembles them. To establish and promote pleasant and amicable social +relations between human beings is a Christian thing to do. It is a sign +of the progress of the Kingdom, and a preparation for it, when men and +women enjoy meeting one another for no other reason than that they like +to be together. It is a condition of the manifestation of the love which +is the fulfilling of all law. The stranger, as many languages testify, +is apt to be the enemy. The chief reason why he is dreaded and hated is +that he is not known. Acquaintance allays suspicion and promotes +sympathy and kindness. + +Not the least of the services which Christianity has rendered to the +world may be seen in what it has accomplished in bringing human beings +together socially. Setting aside its purely religious function, it has +done, in Europe and America, more than all other agencies put together +to promote acquaintances and neighborly relations among men. It has +done, as we shall see by and by, far less than it ought to have done in +this direction; its failures in this department of its work have been +manifold and grievous; but after all this is admitted, it must still be +affirmed that it has done most of what has been done to socialize +mankind, and no other institution or agency is entitled to throw stones +at it because of its deficiencies. + +When, therefore, those who read these chapters hear the criticisms and +cavils to which I referred at the beginning, they will know how to reply +to them. + +When they hear an argument which assumes that the church is worse than +useless because all social institutions are worse than useless, they may +answer that the reasoning is unsound, because it repudiates the deepest +facts of human nature; that social institutions, the church among them, +are natural growths as truly as the cornfields and the forests. + +When they hear any one maintaining that he believes in the principles of +Christianity but not in the social organizations which embody these +principles, they may well reply that the principles of Christianity +naturally and inevitably embody themselves in forms of social +organization; that you could no more prevent it than you could prevent +light from breaking into color or spring from coming in May; that, as a +matter of history, the growth of Christianity has been signalized by a +marvelous development of the social sentiments and habitudes which must +find expression in some kind of social coöperation; and that, as a +matter of fact, after all necessary deductions have been made, the +church has been a powerful agency in developing that temper of +likemindedness which makes civilized society possible. + +There is still another cavil to which it may be needful to refer. It is +based on the notion that religion, after all, is a purely individual +affair; that it concerns only the relations between the soul and its +God; that therefore public worship is not only needless but unseemly. +Prayer is sometimes described as "the flight of one alone to the only +One;" and it is sometimes contended that any other than private prayer +is a violation of all the higher sanctities. If this were true, of +course the church would be an anomaly or an imposition. And while there +are not many who would urge this argument unfalteringly, some such +notion as this may be found lying at the bottom of a good many minds. + +The words of Jesus, in the sixth chapter of Matthew, are sometimes +quoted in support of this criticism upon public worship: "And when ye +pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray +in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be +seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, +when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy +door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth +in secret shall recompense thee."[15] + +But we must learn to interpret the words of Jesus as meeting the +occasion on which they were spoken; and before we base any +generalizations or rules of conduct upon them, we must bring together +all that he said and did which bears upon the case in hand, and try to +arrive at some meaning which shall include and explain it all. When we +treat the utterances and acts of Jesus after this manner, we shall find +that no such deduction as that which we are considering can be drawn +from them. + +We discover, in the first place, that he himself did not always pray in +secret; for several of his prayers made in public places are reported +for us. Moreover, he told his disciples that when even two or three of +them were gathered together in his name, he would be in the midst of +them. The implication is that they would be in the habit of gathering +together in his name, and that there would generally be many more than +two or three of them. + +The only form of prayer which he has left us is manifestly intended +primarily, not for secret worship, but for social worship. The pronouns +of the "Lord's Prayer" are all in the plural number: "_Our_ father who +art in heaven;" "Give _us_ this day our daily bread." For solitary +prayer these phrases are not suitable. + +When he went away from his disciples he left them a great promise of the +manifestation to them of that Spirit which had been given without +measure to him; and he bade them tarry in Jerusalem until that promise +should be fulfilled. Accordingly they assembled, about one hundred and +twenty of them, in an upper room in Jerusalem, and "continued +steadfastly" in prayer together for many days. The response to this +prayer was that outpouring of the Spirit by which the apostolic church +was inspired, and equipped for its work. Saint Peter told the disciples +that this was the gift of the ascended Christ,--the fulfillment of his +promise to them. If this was true, it can hardly be conceived that he +disapproved of the common prayer in answer to which this gift had come. + +Nor can any reasonable interpreter of his words and deeds imagine that +he intended his admonition in the sixth chapter of Matthew to be taken +as a prohibition of public worship or of social prayer. Those words were +simply a reproof of ostentation in worship. The Pharisees, whose conduct +he is castigating, "loved to pray standing in the synagogues and in the +corners of the streets, that they might be seen of men." It was a +private and personal prayer, offered in a public place, to advertise the +devotion of the worshiper. With our private and personal prayers the +public has no concern; it is a manifest indelicacy to thrust them before +the public; the place for them is the secret chamber. Individual sins +and sorrows and needs we all have, and when we talk with our Father +about them we ought to be alone with him; but we have also common sins +and sorrows and needs, and it is well for us to be together when we talk +with him about them. It is therefore a gross perversion of these words +of Jesus to quote them in condemnation of acts of public worship. His +entire life and the example of all those who were nearest to him, as +well as the testimony of the best Christians in all the ages, unite to +render such a notion incredible. + +If I have succeeded in answering the cavils which seek to discredit the +church as a social organization, and especially as an agency for the +maintenance of social worship, let me go on to suggest some positive +reasons for the existence of such an agency. + +Such an opportunity as the church offers for social worship is essential +to the maintenance of religion. Religious feeling the expression of +which was confined to the relations between the individual and his God, +would become self-centred, egoistic, and morbid. If there were no +praying but secret praying, if the social element were eliminated from +prayer and praise, faith would take on ascetic forms, devotion would +become rancid, sympathy would be smothered, and the character of the +worshiper would be hardened and belittled. There is a place and a time, +as we have seen, for private devotion; probably many of us make far less +use of it than would be good for us; but any attempt to shut our +religion into the closet would be suicidal. It would mould there. To +keep it fresh and wholesome it must be taken out into the light and air; +the winds of heaven must blow through it; our desires must mingle with +the desires of others; our voices must join with their voices; we must +learn to think of the needs, the struggles, the sorrows, the hopes that +are common to us all, to put ourselves in other people's places when we +pray, to feel that our religion is a bond that binds us to our kind. + +There is a kind of prayer which we could only use in the +closet,--intimate, personal, dealing with matters of which no one else +has any right to know. But there is another kind of prayer for which +there is no other place than the great congregation; a prayer in which +many pleading hearts unite; in which the sympathies and hopes and +aspirations of a thousand worshipers are blended. Such a prayer, if some +one can give it voice, is something far higher and diviner than ever +ascended from any secret shrine. + +It is true that the prayer of the great assembly does not always find a +fitting voice. It is sometimes arid and formal; it is sometimes palpably +insincere and perfunctory, alas for our human disabilities and +infirmities! The power of the leader to forget himself, to gather up +into his heart the common needs of those who are listening, and pour +them out before God, is sometimes wanting. Not seldom we may find +ourselves wishing for those forms of prayer, sanctified by centuries of +use, in which the Christian church, in all the lands of earth, has made +known its requests to God. These are always dignified and reverent; +every truly devout heart may find utterance for some of its deepest +needs in the petitions of the Book of Common Prayer. But most of us have +heard prayers in the sanctuary which lifted and kindled us as no written +prayers could ever do. If the leader of the devotions could be "in the +Spirit on the Lord's day;" if he could forget himself; if the simplicity +which is in Christ could take possession of his thought, if he could +look over the company round about him before he closed his eyes, and +with a swift glance could glean out of that field of human experience +some inkling of the trials, the perplexities, the griefs, the struggles, +the tragedies of the lives there before him, and with a great, fervent, +energizing[16] prayer could carry them all up to God, there would be +something in that which would convince all who were listening that the +highest form of prayer is not secret prayer, but social prayer. Nor is +it an uncommon thing to hear, even in humble pulpits, prayer which +effectually meets this great demand. + +It goes without saying that, for the highest forms of praise, we must +have the conspiring voices of the great congregation. We cannot let +loose the hallelujahs in the closet; that would be almost as unseemly as +to pray on the street corner. If the Bible is any guide as to the forms +which our worship should take, praise must constitute a large part of +it. And praise is mainly a social act. + +Even the preaching gathers much of its impressiveness from the +congregation. The message which stirs the hearts of five hundred +worshipers would make much less impression upon any one of them if he +heard it alone. It could not be given to him alone, as it is given to +the five hundred; that is a psychological impossibility. There is +something in it when the five hundred hear it that is not in it when the +single auditor hears it, and that something is, far and away, the best +thing that it contains. + +All these considerations show that public worship is essential to the +vigorous maintenance of true religion. The elements which it supplies to +religion are vital elements. Let no man imagine that by reading the +Bible and good books at home, and by worshiping in his closet, or, as +some are fond of saying, "in God's first temples," the life of religion +can be successfully maintained. It never has been maintained in that +way, and it never will be. When men forsake the assembling of themselves +together for worship, there is no more reading the Bible and good books +at home, and no more praying in the closet, much less in the woods. +Single individuals might, if the religious atmosphere of the community +were kept vital round about them, continue to enjoy religion. Invalids +are often forced to deprive themselves of social worship; but if they +are there in spirit, something of the benefit finds them. But a +community which deliberately abandoned social worship would be a +community in which no private worship would long be maintained. + +If, then, we agree that religion is an essential element in the life of +mankind, we must see that it is necessary that some institution should +exist which shall make provision for social and public worship. The +Christian church undertakes primarily to fulfill this function. It has +other large and important relations to society, of which we shall speak +further on. But this is its first concern. I hope that it has been made +evident in this discussion that it is a very important function. I hope +that those who read these pages may be able to see that if we are to +have any religion in our land, the kind of work which the church +undertakes to do cannot be neglected. That the church is not doing this +work as well as it ought to be done is true enough; we shall have all +that before us presently; but the vital necessity of the work is not +therefore disproved. The work would be better done if those who now hold +aloof, because they see its defects, would put their lives into the +business of mending them. + +There are very few men and women, after all, in our modern society, who +do not say, without hesitation, that we must have churches; that it +would not do to let them die; that they are essential to the social +welfare; that, imperfect as they are, they supply a need which every one +can recognize. They have no hesitation, either, in admitting that if +there are to be churches, somebody must belong to them, and share the +responsibility for their maintenance. But when the question is asked, +"If somebody must, why must not you?" a good many of them are not able +to give a very clear answer. Very often the excuse that is set up is +some form of theological dissent. But that is not, in many cases, a +serious barrier. It might shut some men out of some churches; but there +are great varieties of creeds, and the conditions of membership in some +churches are so simple that no really earnest man is likely to feel +himself excluded. If it is essential that the work of the church be +done, and if the reader of these pages has not convinced himself that he +is exempt from the common human obligations, then he can find, if he is +in earnest, some church with which he can conscientiously ally himself, +and in whose work he can bear a part. + + + + +IV + +The Business of the Church + + + +We have seen that religion is a social fact; that religious feeling +creates social organizations, and is preserved and promoted by them. God +is love, and love is social attraction; the children of God, who are +made in his image, must find in their hearts a tendency to get together +and worship and work together. + +We find here a reciprocating action. An apple seed produces a tree which +in its turn produces apples with seeds. So the religious impulse +organizes the church, and the church cultivates and propagates religious +impulses. The point to be emphasized is that religion, and especially +the Christian religion, is inseparable from social forms; that its +natural result is to bring human beings together in coöperative groups. + +It is the business of life to organize matter; there is no life without +organization; the inorganic is the lifeless. These are facts which +should be borne in mind by those who approve of the religious life but +object to religious organizations. If religion is life, it will create +organic forms. + +In our last chapter we showed how worship, in its highest expression, is +essentially social, and how impossible it would be to maintain it +without the aid of institutions having the same essential purpose as the +Christian church. Let us turn our thought now to the other great +function of the church, the regeneration of human society. + +Religion cannot be kept alive without alliance with the social forces; +the social forces cannot be kept in healthful operation without the aid +of religion. Neither blade of a pair of shears will cut without the +other. You cannot raise corn without seed, and you can only get seed +from corn. + +Religion is not an ultimate fact. When men are religious just for the +sake of being religious, their religion is good for nothing. Religion is +for character. Its end is gained when it has made us good men and women. +Religion is for service. It finds its justification in the work that it +can do in making a better world of this. Jesus gave us the truth about +it when he said, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the +Sabbath." And he carried the truth forward to a larger application when +he said, "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." + +"_To save the world._" That was the errand of the Christ; that is the +business of his church. It is not merely to save a certain number of +people out of the world, and to get them safely away to another world; +it is to save the world. + +There is no danger of giving to this phrase too wide an application. We +are entitled to the expectation that this salvation is to have a large +scope; that it is to include the earth and all its tribes of life. When +we speak of making a better world of this, we ought to mean the physical +world as well as the social world and the moral world. It is a true +insight of faith which makes the poet say:-- + + "The world we live in wholly is redeemed; + Not man alone, but all that man holds dear: + His orchards and his maize: forget me not + And heartsease in his garden, and the wild + Aerial blossoms of the untamed wood, + That make its savagery so homelike; all + Have felt Christ's sweet love watering their roots: + His sacrifice has won both earth and heaven. + Nature in all its fullness is the Lord's. + There are no Gentile oaks, no Pagan pines; + The grass beneath oar feet is Christian grass; + The wayside weed is sacred unto him. + Have we not groaned together, herbs and men, + Struggling through stifling earth-weights unto light, + Earnestly longing to be clothed upon + With one high possibility of bloom? + And He, He is the Light, He is the Sun + That draws us out of darkness, and transmits + The noisome earth-damp into Heaven's own breath, + And shapes our matted roots, we know not how, + Into fresh leaves, and strong, fruit-bearing stems; + Yea, makes us stand, on some consummate day, + Abloom in white transfiguration robes." + +This vital sympathy between man and his environment is never lost sight +of by the great prophets. The redemption of man must mean, as they +clearly see, the redemption of the world in which man lives. When the +drunkard is reformed, the house which he inhabits puts on a new face and +there are flowers instead of weeds in his garden. Isaiah knew that when +his people were redeemed from their captivity, the wilderness and the +parched land would be glad and the desert would rejoice and blossom as +the rose. + +That wonderful passage in the eighth chapter of the Romans shows how +strongly Paul had grasped the old prophetic idea; he beholds the whole +creation humiliated and disfigured by its share in man's degeneration, +and waiting to be delivered with man from the bondage of corruption +into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. That expectation +is yet to be realized. It is an essential part of the Christian +expectation. It is part of what redemption means. + +True, it is that by the selfishness and thoughtlessness of man large +portions of the earth's surface have been despoiled; mountains have been +denuded of their forests; fertile lands have been worn out, and fruitful +fields have become wildernesses. But we are beginning to reverse this +tendency, and now many a wilderness is being reclaimed, arid plains are +green with corn, and the forests are creeping back upon the hillsides. +As men become socialized, as they learn to coöperate for the common +good, as some sense of their social responsibility gets possession of +their minds, we shall see this process extending; the waste of the +common resources of the earth will cease; deserts will be visited by the +life-giving water; swamps and jungles will be subdued; the earth, in +many regions now uninhabited and desolate, will be made to bring forth +and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. + +All this is the natural result of the quickening in human hearts of the +social sentiments, by which they are drawn into closer coöperation for +the common good; and this quickening of the social sentiments is the +work that Christ came to do, and the work that his church will be doing, +with all her might, as soon as she fully understands what is her +business in the world. + +The redemption of the physical order will be the result of the +socialization of mankind. It is an integral part of the work that Christ +came into the world to do. It is part of what he meant when he said that +he came to save the world. When we realize this, we get some idea of the +scope of the redemption which he proclaims. It is not a superficial or a +sentimental thing that he proposes; it takes hold of life with the most +comprehensive grasp; it proposes to redeem not only man but his +environment. + +It is not, however, the redemption of the physical order to which Christ +primarily addresses himself. He begins in the spiritual realm. He begins +with the individual. His first concern is to reveal to every child of +God the great fact of the divine Fatherhood, and to bring him into +filial relations. His whole programme for humanity rests on this simple +possibility of realizing the Fatherhood of God. If this can be realized, +everything else will follow. If any man is in the right filial relations +with his Father in heaven, he cannot be in wrong social relations with +his brother on the earth. If he is in harmony with God in thought and +feeling, he must think God's thoughts about his neighbor, and the law of +love will be the law of all his conduct. No man can love the God and +Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with heart and soul and mind without +loving his neighbor as himself. Heartily to believe what Jesus has told +us about the Father, and fully to enter into fellowship with him, is to +put ourselves into such relations with our fellow men that every duty we +owe them will be spontaneously performed. In a society composed of men +who were thus in harmony with God the only social question for each man +would be, "How can I best befriend and serve my neighbor?" + +That the religion of Jesus begins here, in the heart of the individual, +cannot be questioned. And it must never be forgotten that there can be +no sound social construction which does not build on this foundation. +But it is well to remember also that here, as everywhere, a foundation +calls for a building, and is useless and unsightly and obstructive +without it. The foundation of Christianity is the reconciliation of +individual souls to God, and the establishment of friendship between +these individual souls and God; but what is the structure for which this +foundation is laid? It is the establishment of the same divine +friendship among men. That is the building for which the foundation +calls. If the building does not go up, the foundation is worthless. If +the building does not go up, the foundation itself will crumble and +decay. The only way to save a foundation is to cover it with a building. + +Fault might be found with the figure, but the fact which it imperfectly +illustrates is beyond gainsaying. The right relation to God, which Jesus +always makes fundamental, cannot be maintained except as it issues in +right relations with men. Here is the apostle John's blunt way of +putting it: "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a +liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love +God whom he hath not seen. And this commandment have we from him, that +he who loveth God love his brother also." + +The commandment is, in fact, only the statement of a logical necessity. +How could any human being enter into a loving communion with that great +Friend whose love is always brooding over our race, who is seeking to do +us good and not evil all the days of our lives, who is kind even to the +unthankful and the evil,--and not be a lover of his fellow men and a +servant of all their needs? + +It is evident, therefore, that a religion which has no room in it for +social questions cannot be the Christian religion. The social question +is the one question which Christianity--genuine Christianity--never +ceases to ask. The first thing it wishes to know about your religious +experience is, how it affects your relations with your fellow men. It +insists that your relations must first be right with God, but in the +same breath it declares that there is no way of knowing whether or not +your relations are right with God except by observing how you behave +among your fellow men. Faith is the root, but faith without works is +dead, being alone; and works concern your human relations. + +These principles enable us to determine what is the business of the +church. Its business is to foster and propagate Christianity, and +Christianity exists to establish in this world the kingdom of heaven. +The church is not, therefore, an end in itself; it is an instrument; it +is a means employed by God for the promotion, in the world, of the +kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not an ecclesiastical +establishment; it includes the whole of life,--business, politics, art, +education, philanthropy, society in the narrow sense, the family: when +all these shall be pervaded and controlled by the law of love, then the +kingdom of heaven will have fully come. And the business of the church +in the world is to bring all these departments of life under Christ's +law of love. If it seeks to convert men, it is that they may be filled +with the spirit of Christ and may govern their conduct among men by +Christ's law. If it gathers them together for instruction or for +inspiration, it is that they may be taught Christ's way of life and sent +out into the world to live as he lived among their fellow men. Its +function is to fill the world with the knowledge of Christ, the love of +Christ, the life of Christ. That is what Christ meant by saving the +world. The world is saved when this is true of it, and it is never saved +till then. The work of the church is successful just to the extent to +which it succeeds in Christianizing the social order in the midst of +which it stands. + +If by means of its ministrations, the community round about the church +is steadily becoming more Christian; if kindness, sympathy, purity, +justice, good-will, are increasing in their power over the lives of men; +if business methods are becoming less rapacious; if employers and +employed are more and more inclined to be friends rather than foes; if +politicians are growing conscientious and unselfish; if the enemies of +society are in retreat before the forces of decency and order; if +amusements are becoming purer and more rational; if polite society is +getting to be simpler in its tastes and less ostentatious in its manners +and less extravagant in its expenditures; if poverty and crime are +diminishing; if parents are becoming more wise and firm in the +administration of their sacred trust, and children more loyal and +affectionate to their parents,--if such fruits as these are visible on +every side, then there is reason to believe that the church knows its +business and is prosecuting it with efficiency. If none of these effects +are seen in the life of the community, the evidence is clear that the +church is neglecting its business, and that failure must be written +across its record. + +Even though it be true that large numbers are added to its membership, +that its congregations are crowded, its revenues abundant, its +missionary contributions liberal, and its social prestige high; yet if +the standards of social morality in its neighborhood are sinking rather +than rising, and the general social drift and tendency is toward +animalism and greed and luxury and strife, the church must be pronounced +a failure: nay, even if it be believed that the church is succeeding in +getting a great many people safely to heaven when they die; yet if the +social tendencies in the world about it are all downward, its work, on +the whole, must be regarded as a failure. Its main business is not +saving people out of the world, it is saving the world. When it is +evident that the world, under its ministration, is growing no better but +rather worse, no matter what other good things it may have the credit of +doing, the verdict is against it. + +This judgment rests, of course, against the collective church of the +community or the nation, rather than against any local congregation. It +may be that there are a hundred churches in a city, and that ten of them +are working efficiently to leaven society with Christian ideas and +principles, while the other ninety are content to fill up their +membership lists and furnish the consolations of religion to the people +who make up their congregations. The church of that city would probably +be a failure, but the ten congregations which had accepted Christ's idea +of the church and were striving to realize it could not be charged with +the failure. They would have done what they could to prevent it. If the +rest had been working in the same way, the results would have been +different. + +The point on which attention must be fixed is simply this, that the test +of the efficiency of the church must be found in the social conditions +of the community to which it ministers. Its business is to Christianize +that community. There is no question but that the resources are placed +within its reach by which this business may be done. If it is done, the +church may hope to hear the commendation, "Well done, good and faithful +servant!" If it is not done, no matter how many other gains are made, +the church must expect the condemnation of its Master. + +It must not be gathered from this argument that the church in modern +life is a failure. There may be discouraging signs, reasons for +solicitude; but it may appear, after all, that the signs are on the +whole encouraging. We are not maintaining that the social tendencies in +modern society are all downward; far from it. We are simply pointing out +that it is only by observing these tendencies that we can judge whether +or not the church is fulfilling its mission. + +It is greatly to be feared, however, that many of the churches of the +present day fail to apply this test to themselves. Their social +responsibility is by no means so clear to them as it ought to be. +Indeed, there are not a few among them that spurn it altogether, +declaring that their business is to save souls; that the condition of +the social order is no concern of theirs. + +There is some reason to believe that phrases of this kind are often used +without due consideration of their meaning. What is meant by the saving +of a soul? Is not the one sin from which souls need to be saved the sin +of selfishness? Is not the death that threatens the souls of men, from +which we seek to rescue them, simply the result of the violation of +Christ's law of love? What is salvation but bringing them back to +obedience of this law? And this law finds expression in the social +order--can find expression nowhere else. It is the law of our social +relations. What possible evidence can you have that a soul is saved +until you see it entering into social relations and behaving properly in +them? + +It is to be feared that these very simple truths are not always so well +understood as they should be. There is a notion that salvation is +something metaphysical, or legal, or sentimental; that it consists in +the belief of certain propositions or the experience of certain +emotions. But all this is delusive and puerile. If it is with the heart +that man believeth, he "believeth _unto righteousness_;" that is the +destination of his faith; and unless his faith goes that way and reaches +that goal, there is no salvation in it. Righteousness is the result of +saving faith; and "he that _doeth_ righteousness is righteous"--none +else. Righteousness is right relations--first with God, and then with +men. And no man can have any evidence that he is in right relations with +God except as he finds himself in right relations with men. + +The message of Christianity, we often hear it said, is to the +individual. Yes, it is; and what is the message of Christianity to the +individual? The first thing that it tells him is that he is not, in +strictness, an individual, any more than a hand or a foot or an eye or +an ear is an individual; that he is a member of a body; that he derives +all that is highest and most essential in his life from the life of +humanity, to which he is vitally and organically related; that no man +liveth to himself; that his good is not, and can never be, an exclusive +personal good,--that it is in what he shares with all the rest. The doom +from which Christianity seeks to save the individual is the doom of +moral individualism; the blessedness into which it seeks to lead him is +the blessedness of love. + +Thus it appears that even these cant phrases by which the church +sometimes tries to fence itself off from the world into a pietistic +religiousness that has little or nothing to do with life, all point, +when you get their real significance, to a relation between the church +and the social order so close and vital that any attempt to sever the +bond must be fatal to the life of both. The church is in the world to +save the world; that is its business; and it can never know whether it +is succeeding in its business unless it keeps a vigilant eye on all that +is going on in the world, and shapes its activities to secure in the +world right social relations among men. + +In what manner the church is to carry forward this work of +Christianizing society is a practical question calling for great wisdom. +It may not be needful that the church should undertake to organize the +industrial or political or domestic or philanthropic machinery of +society. Its business is not, ordinarily, to construct social machinery; +its business is to furnish social motive power. It is the dynamic of +society for which it is responsible. But the dynamic which it furnishes +must be a _dynamic which will create the machinery_. Life makes its own +forms. And the church must fill society with a kind of life which will +produce such forms of coöperation as shall secure the prevalence of +justice and friendship, of peace and good-will among men. It may not be +required to look after details, but it must make sure of the results. If +the results are secured, if society is Christianized, if the social +order is producing a better breed of men, if the business of the world +goes on more and more smoothly, and all things are working together to +increase the sum of human welfare, then the church may be sure that the +life which she is contributing to the vitalization of society is the +life that is life indeed. But if the social tendencies are all in the +other direction, then she should awaken to the fact that the light that +is in her must be darkness, and that the responsibility for this failure +lies at her doors. + +It is the recognition and acceptance of this responsibility for which we +are pleading. That the church, in all the ages, has very imperfectly +comprehended this responsibility is a lamentable fact. What the social +aims of Jesus himself were, most of us can fairly understand. The Sermon +on the Mount indicates to us the kind of society which he expected to +see established on the earth. He never defined the kingdom of heaven, +which he bade us seek first, but he described it in so many ways that we +know very well what manner of society it would be. But the church which +has called itself by his name has but feebly grasped the truth he +taught. As a late writer has said: "As soon as the thoughts of a great +spiritual leader pass to others and form the animating principle of a +party, or school, or sect, there is an inevitable drop. The disciples +cannot keep pace with the sweep of the Master. They flutter where he +soared. They coarsen and materialize his dreams.... This is the tragedy +of all who lead. The farther they are in advance of their times, the +more they will be misunderstood and misrepresented by the very men who +swear by their name and strive to enforce their ideas and aims. If the +followers of Jesus had preserved his thought and spirit without leakage, +evaporation, or adulteration, it would be a fact unique in history."[17] + +That his disciples held fast so many of the ideas and impulses he +imparted to them, and that they have been turned to so large account in +the reconstruction of the social order, is matter for profound +thankfulness. But much of this has been indirectly wrought; the +Christian elements which appear in the industrial order of to-day are +largely of the nature of by-products. It can hardly be said that the +church of Jesus Christ has ever, in any age, consciously and clearly set +before herself the business which he committed to her hands. She has +always been putting the emphasis somewhere else than where he put it; +she has always been doing something else instead of the great task which +he began and left her to finish. It is the great failure of history--the +turning aside of the Christian church from the work of Christianizing +the social order, and the expenditure of her energies, for nineteen +centuries, on other pursuits. + +The writer from whom I quoted devotes a very interesting chapter to the +reasons why the church has never attempted the work of social +reconstruction. He shows that it would have been almost impossible in +the early Christian centuries for the Christians to have undertaken any +work of social reform; if, under the rigors of the Roman despotism, they +had meddled with politics, they would have lost their heads. Then they +began to look for a miraculous return of Jesus to set up his kingdom in +the world, and they waited for him to reconstruct the social order. That +expectation held them for a thousand years. When it failed, they turned +their thoughts to heaven, and "as the eternal life came to the front in +Christian hope the kingdom of God receded to the background, and with it +went much of the social potency of Christianity. The kingdom of God was +a social and collective hope, and it was for this earth. The eternal +life was an individualistic hope, and it was not for this earth. The +kingdom of God involved the social transformation of humanity. The hope +of eternal life, as it was then held, was the desire to escape from this +world and be done with it." And this led to the ascetic tendency, which +made men think this world not worth mending. Then came in the paganizing +influences of the Middle Ages, which made ritual the supreme thing and +paralyzed the ethical motive; and then followed the controversies about +dogma, which deadened the life of the church, until finally the great +ecclesiasticism was developed, and the church, instead of being the +instrument for the Christianization of the world, became an empire in +itself, separate from the world, arrogating to itself all the honors and +powers of the kingdom of God. "By that substitution," says Professor +Rauschenbusch, "the church could claim all service and absorb all +social energies. It has often been said that the church interposed +between man and God. It also interposed between man and humanity. It +magnified what he did for the church and belittled what he did for +humanity. It made its own organization the chief object of social +service[18]." + +This is only a hint of the process by which the church has been +deflected from its course, and hindered from undertaking, with conscious +purpose and consecrated power, her own proper work. She has done many +other things, some beautiful and excellent things, but the one thing she +was sent to do she has not done. + +It is only in our own time that she has begun to get hold of the true +conception of her business in the world. That the church is here to seek +first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, to concentrate her +energies upon realizing the kingdom of God in the world, now begins to +be evident to men of insight; and there is a loud call upon her to +bestir herself and take up this work so long neglected, and give to it +all her energies. That is the meaning of the cry, "Back to Christ," +which we are hearing in this generation. It means that the church needs +to get into sympathy with its Leader and Lord, to try to understand his +social aims, and to understand what he meant when he bade us seek first +the kingdom of God and his righteousness. + +Two or three practical suggestions may be ventured here to those who +have followed this argument. + +We have seen that, since religion is a permanent need of human nature, +and since the church is indispensable to the maintenance of religion, it +becomes the duty of good men and women to ally themselves with the +church and help to make it efficient. But there are churches and +churches. We cannot help noting, as we look over the community, some +churches which at least dimly understand their business, and some which +obviously do not. + +Some of us may be connected by birth or confession with churches that do +comprehend their true function. If so, let us rejoice in that fact, and +give our strength to the support of such churches in their work. It is, +far and away, the most important work that is being done in the world at +the present day. If we can have part in it, we ought to rejoice in that +privilege. + +We may be connected with churches which do not understand their +business. Possibly we may think that the best thing for us to do is to +come out of them, and seek fellowship with churches more enlightened. +Let us think two or three times before we decide upon this. Perhaps the +best thing we can do is to stay where we are and use our best endeavors, +modestly and patiently, to bring our own church to a realization of its +responsibilities. + +We may not be identified with any church. If we are not, then it is +clearly the part of wisdom for each one to find the church which seems +to him to understand its business best, and to give the strength of his +life to making its life vigorous and its work efficient. + + + + +V + +Is the Church Decadent? + + + +The assertion is often made that the church is an effete institution; +that its usefulness is past; that it is sinking into innocuous +desuetude. That assertion has been current for a thousand years--perhaps +longer; there have been many periods in which it was urged much more +confidently than it is to-day. This fact would suggest caution in +pressing such a judgment. Wise physicians do not hastily pronounce the +word of doom. They have seen too many patients return from the gates of +death. Men and women who, in their younger days, appear to have a +slender hold on life, often reach a vigorous old age. The same thing is +true of institutions. It is not prudent to assume that because they are +ailing they are moribund. + +The Christian church, as we have seen, is far from being in perfect +spiritual condition. Some of her symptoms are disquieting. But even as +we often have good hope for our friends when their health is impaired, +and find that there are good reasons for our hope, so we need not +despair of the recovery of the church from the morbid conditions which +we acknowledge and deplore. That the patient has a good constitution and +surprising vitality is indicated by the experience of nineteen +centuries. More than once, through this long lifetime, she has been in a +worse way than she is to-day, but she has rallied, and returned to her +work with new vigor. + +At the beginning of the sixteenth century her case seemed to be +desperate; but heroic remedies were used, and while the cure was far +from complete, and did not reach the root of the malady, there was at +least a partial recovery. In England at the beginning of the eighteenth +century, and in America at the end of the same century, the symptoms +were alarming; but she lived through those critical periods, and has +done better work since than ever before. + +That the work of the church has been sadly misdirected; that she has +often put the emphasis in the wrong place; that while she has been doing +many things that were worth doing she has largely left undone the main +thing she was sent to do, was made plain by our study in the last +chapter. And there can be no doubt that this misdirection of her +energies, and this failure to exercise her strength in normal ways, have +resulted in many morbid conditions, some of which she has partly +overcome, but from some of which she is still suffering. + +With the disorders from which the church has suffered in past +generations we need not now concern ourselves. But the weaknesses and +ailments of the present time demand our attention. We must know what +they are that we may help to cure them. That responsibility rests upon +us all. If the church is to be made whole, it must be by the intelligent +and normal action of the men and women who are members of the church. We +must know, to begin with, what health is, and what is disease; we must +have some clear idea of what would be the normal condition of Christian +society. + +Men sometimes mistake conditions of disease for conditions of health. In +cases of nervous breakdown, patients are often spurred on, by the malady +itself, to work when they ought to rest. The less able to work they are, +the harder they work. They do not know that this restless activity is a +sign of disease, they think it is proof of abounding vitality. And there +are many ways in which morbid conditions tend to propagate themselves. +The instinctive impulses of an invalid are not safe guides. Yet there +are many cases in which, even if the man is not his own medical adviser, +he must have an intelligent idea of what ails him, in order that he may +be able to follow medical advice, and adopt the regimen which leads to +health. His reason must be summoned to discern and resist his morbid +impulses, and keep himself in the ways of life. + +Equally true is it that if the church, which is the body of Christ, is +out of health, the men and women who are the members of that body must +know what ails them, and how to supply the remedy. And when they summon +their reason and seek to have it divinely enlightened, they are likely +to discover that many of their worst disorders are conditions which they +have been cherishing; that some of the things they have been most proud +of are ills that they must pray and work to be rid of. + + +1. The first and the worst of the church's infirmities is unbelief. In +one of the moments of vision, when the long obscuration of his light in +the future centuries was revealed to him, Jesus sadly wondered whether, +when the Son of Man came, he would find faith on the earth. The pathetic +query has always been pertinent. Faith is the vital force of +Christianity, and the weakening of that vital force is the prime cause +of all its disorders. + +The unbelief which brings enfeeblement and decay to the church of Christ +is not, however, the kind of unbelief which the church is most apt to +reprove. + +There is, doubtless, in the church of to-day some weakening of faith in +the historical facts of the Christian religion, and in the central +doctrines of the Christian creed. Science and criticism have rendered +incredible some statements which once were universally accepted. +Considerable revision of theological belief has been found necessary, +and it is probable that in this process the hold of some upon the +central verities has been relaxed. + +It may even be that the theories of some Christian confessors respecting +the person of Christ have been modified, so that his humanity is more +strongly affirmed than once it was. To some persons this change of +emphasis may seem to be a serious form of unbelief. + +Admitting all this, however, these intellectual changes are not the +principal cause of the enfeeblement of the church. These changes, +however we may regard them, have affected but a small minority of the +members of our churches; the great majority of them continue to hold +substantially the same theological opinions that they have always held. +The trouble with the church is not chiefly a lack of faith in the +creeds, it is a lack of faith in Christ. And it is not a lack of faith +in the metaphysical theories of Christ's person, but a lack of faith in +the truth of his teaching. It is an unbelief in which the most orthodox +people are quite as much involved as those who are considered heretics. + +The central question is not, after all, what we think about the nature +of Christ. There is good reason to believe that none of the twelve +apostles held, during the life of our Lord, opinions which would be +regarded as orthodox concerning his person. They believed that he was a +great Prophet, a revealer of God; nay, they believed that he was the +Messiah, the long promised King, who was to set up his kingdom in this +world. Of this they had no doubt. This was the belief that Jesus himself +sought to fasten in their minds; and when he had drawn from Simon Peter +a confession of this faith he cried out, "Blessed art thou, Simon son of +John; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father +which is in heaven." It was this faith in him as Lord and Ruler of men, +as the Founder in this world of a kingdom of righteousness and peace, on +which, as he declared, his church should be builded. Such faith as this +these twelve men had. They would have found it difficult, probably, to +assent to the Nicene Creed or the Athanasian Creed; but they believed in +Jesus as Lord and King, and they believed every word of his Magna Charta +found in the Sermon on the Mount; and they were ready to do what they +could to establish that kingdom in this world. It is just here that the +faith of the church is lacking. It believes the Nicene Creed, but it +does not believe the Sermon on the Mount. It believes what men have said +about Christ; it does not believe what Christ himself said. It does not +accept the practical rule of life which he has laid down. It does not +believe that the Golden Rule is workable in modern life. It does not +believe that it is feasible to love our neighbors as ourselves. It does +not believe in the kingdom of heaven as a present possibility. It +expects that Christ will come, by and by, in person, with miraculous +power, to revolutionize society, and that after that it will be +practicable to follow the law of love, in all our human relations; but, +for the present, we must let the law of competition control all our +practical affairs. + +Of course it is not often that the teachings of Christ are directly +controverted; they are generally ignored, or passed by, as "counsels of +perfection" which we are to admire rather than obey. But we sometimes +find arguments in which disbelief in the teachings of Jesus is +distinctly justified. In a late volume, one of the great leaders of the +German church elaborately contends that we cannot follow Jesus in his +social teachings. "Our attitude toward the world," says Herrmann, +"cannot be that of Jesus; even the purpose to will that it should be so +is stifled in the air that we breathe to-day. The state of affairs is +very clearly described by Naumann, who says with truth: 'Therefore we do +not seek Jesus' advice on points connected with the management of the +state and political economy.' But when he goes on to say: 'I give my +vote and I canvass for the fleet, not because I am a Christian, but +because I am a citizen, and because I have learned to renounce all hope +of finding fundamental questions of state determined in the Sermon on +the Mount,' we can detect a fallacy. He regards as painful renunciation +what ought, on the part of the Christian, to be a free, decisive, and +voluntary act."[19] + +Naumann repudiates, rather regretfully, the counsels of Jesus about +economic and civil affairs, but Herrmann says that he does it +light-heartedly, because he has found out that these counsels are not +applicable to existing conditions. + +It is evident that these counsels must be rationally applied,--the +spirit and not the letter of them is the essential thing; but what these +teachers mean is more than this. How far they have departed from the +spirit of the Sermon on the Mount is indicated by the words already +quoted. The reason why Naumann does not seek the advice of Jesus in +questions of public concern is that he is determined to give his vote +and influence for the German fleet; and Herrmann is following the same +impulse when he characterizes the call for the disarmament of the +nations as a "noble folly." It is evident that the reason why these +teachers feel that the way of Jesus is impracticable is that they are +fully committed to the ideas of German imperialism. To conceive that +nations could dispense with war is a "noble folly." And, for the same +reason, they conceive that any attempt to substitute coöperation for +competition in the industrial world would be disastrous to modern +society. The morality of strife outranks, in their judgment, the +morality of service and sacrifice. The law of Jesus may be permitted to +hold some subordinate place; it will be found useful in mitigating the +savagery of strife; but as the regulative principle of the industrial +order it is not to be considered. + +The attempt of these German theologians to frame a philosophical +refutation of the Sermon on the Mount gives us something of a shock; +but, practically, this has been the attitude of the church in all the +generations. The hopeful sign is that it does now give us a shock to +have the doctrine badly stated. + +Through a large part of the Christian era the teaching of Jesus with +respect to strife has been flouted by the church. The bitterest and most +wasteful wars have been religious wars. The disciples of the Prince of +Peace saw no incongruity in the settlement by the sword of such +questions as whether Jesus Christ was of the same substance as the +Father or of a similar substance; and whether the cup should be +administered to the laity in the Eucharist or only the bread. The Thirty +Years' war in Europe was a religious war. Roman Catholic theories still +maintain the right of the church to enforce its teachings by the sword. + +All these facts show how far, through all its history, the church has +departed from the teaching of Jesus. When our German theologians set +themselves to prove that the Sermon on the Mount is no sufficient guide +for public affairs, they have the whole history of the church behind +them. + +Nevertheless they might have noted that the drift, for the last few +centuries, has been in the direction of the teaching of Jesus. It is +hardly conceivable that Christian nations should go to war to-day for +the settlement of points of doctrine. Three hundred years ago the whole +church thought that necessary; to-day a very large part of the church +would think it horrible and monstrous. It is not very long ago that the +church believed in the settlement by force of disputes between +individuals. The wager of battle was supposed to be a proper and +Christian way of determining the guilt or innocence of an accused +person. To most of the great Christians of the fifteenth century the +proposition to dispense with that would have seemed a "noble folly," +just as the proposition of general disarmament now seems to some +twentieth century Christians. But the church has learned that there are +better ways of settling personal quarrels than the wager of battle; and +it is likely to learn, after a while, that there are better ways of +settling international and industrial difficulties than the way of war. +The church is beginning to see that the way of Jesus is not, after all, +so impracticable as it has always been supposed to be; it is beginning +to discern the truth that the law of service is a stronger law than the +law of strife. One of these days we shall find the church of Jesus +taking its stand on the Golden Rule as the practical rule of everyday +life, and insisting upon the organization of the industrial and the +political order on the basis of good-will. When that day comes we shall +have a right to say that the church believes in Jesus Christ. When that +day comes it will be evident to all that the main cause of the church's +enfeeblement through all these centuries has been her unbelief. And we +shall marvel that it took her so long to find out what might there is in +meekness and what force in gentleness; and that it was so hard for her +to understand that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the +weakness of God stronger than men. + +2. The second of the church's chronic infirmities has been orthodoxism. +Perhaps it was the recoil of her unbelief in Christ that sent her over +into the intellectual prostration of orthodoxism. + +Orthodoxy is defined as correct belief. But when we ask what is correct +belief, orthodoxy answers: "That which is generally believed to be +correct." Its demand is, therefore, conformity to current opinion. It +assumes that essential truth has been sought out, registered and +certified once for all and finally: this you must believe, and you must +believe nothing other or more than this. Of course, then, belief must +be stereotyped and stationary. There can be no growth of doctrine; no +new light can break forth from God's holy word. + +"Orthodoxy begins," says Phillips Brooks, "by setting a false standard +of life. It makes men aspire after soundness in the faith rather than +after richness in the truth.... It makes possible an easy transmission +of truth, but only by the deadening of truth, as a butcher freezes meat +in order to carry it across the sea. Orthodoxy discredits and +discourages inquiry, and has made the name of free thinker, which ought +to be a crown and glory, a stigma of disgrace. It puts men in the base +and demoralizing position in which they apologize for seeking new truth. +It is responsible for a large part of the defiant liberalism which not +merely disbelieves the orthodox dogma, but disbelieves it with a sense +of attempted wrong and of triumphant escape. It is orthodoxy and not +truth which has done the persecuting. The inquisitions and dungeons and +social ostracisms for opinion's sake belong to it."[20] + +It is evident that when for loyalty to the truth is substituted loyalty +to a prescribed statement of truth, the entire moral order is +subverted. Truth for me is what justifies itself to my reason and +insight; to that my choices must conform; by that my conduct must be +guided. To accept statements to which my judgment does not assent, which +are repugnant to my reason, because others seek to impose them upon me, +is in the highest degree immoral. "Let every man be fully persuaded in +his own mind," is the apostolic maxim. + +Every honest man wants to know what is true, and seeks to have his +character and his conduct conform to the truth. But orthodoxy insists +that he shall limit his acceptance to fixed and definite statements +prepared for him by others. Freedom of investigation is denied him. The +limits are set, beyond which his thought must not range. If there is +truth outside of the boundaries of orthodoxy, he must not reach out +after it; if he does, he shall suffer the consequences. + +For there always is a penalty for heresy. Those who diverge from the +orthodox standards are always exposed to some measure of censure or +discredit. In former days the stake or the gallows was the penalty. John +Huss and Michael Servetus, Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer were put to +death on the demand of orthodoxy. It was not because they were not +lovers and seekers of truth; it was because they declined to assent to +the statements which authority sought to impose on them. Orthodoxy has +found a great variety of methods of enforcing its demand; in recent +times it does not often resort to physical coercion, but it never fails +to use some kind of pressure. Those to whom orthodoxy is dearer than +truth have ways of their own, even now, of making uncomfortable those to +whom truth is dearer than orthodoxy. Thus it is that the progress of +truth has been greatly impeded. "Ye shall know the truth," said Jesus, +"and the truth shall make you free." "Ye shall know," says orthodoxism, +"only the truth that has been prescribed and ticketed by authority; ye +shall be taught what is orthodox, and orthodoxy shall keep you safe and +sound." The entire attitude of the mind is changed, under this demand. +It is no longer that of free inquiry, of open-minded search for truth; +it is that of passive assent, of unreasoned submission to authority. + +Just to the extent to which orthodoxism succeeds in forcing its demand +is progress rendered impossible. There have always been brave men to +whom truth was dearer than orthodoxy, and to them we owe all the gains +the church has made. "The lower orders of the church's workers, the mere +runners of her machinery," says Bishop Brooks, "have always been strictly +and scrupulously orthodox; while all the church's noblest servants, they +who have opened to her new heavens of vision and new domains of +work,--Paul, Origen, Tertullian, Dante, Abélard, Luther, Milton, +Coleridge, Maurice, Swedenborg, Martineau,--have again and again been +persecuted for being what they truly were--unorthodox."[21] + +The temper of coercion, physical or moral, which is an essential element +in orthodoxism, always produces, in those who do not submit to it, the +temper of resentment and rebellion, which largely characterizes what is +known as liberalism. Those who are thus flung off into opposition are in +no mood to examine fairly the truth that there is in orthodoxy. Their +mental attitude is apt to be quite as unfavorable to the discovery of +the truth as that of the other party. Between those who affirm, with +the threat of the withdrawal of fellowship, and those who deny, with the +sense of injury and oppression, the truth has a poor chance for itself +in this world. The enfeeblement of the church, in all the generations, +has been largely due to this cause. + +What orthodoxism produces when it has free course and is glorified, may +be seen in the Greek church. More than any other branch of the Christian +church the Greek church has put the emphasis upon orthodoxy. The natural +and inevitable result has been that that church has destroyed itself and +the nation whose life it has dominated and blighted. It is the Greek +church that has led Russia to its doom. And it is orthodoxism that has +made the Greek church a blind leader of the blind, and has plunged +nation and church into the ditch together. + +Truth, not orthodoxy, is the sovereign mistress of the human intellect. +What I must know, for my salvation, is not what everybody says, but what +is true. There is old truth--truth that has nourished the lives of men +in many generations; let me cling to that and feed my soul upon it. +There is new truth--some fuller outshining of the great revelation of +God, in nature or in human nature; let me hail that light and walk in +it. + +It is often useful for me to know what others have believed and now +believe. Not to be influenced by the consenting voices of the great and +good of the past would be childish egotism. But it is always needful +that my mind should be open to new truth and that I should be free to +seek it. Orthodoxism restricts this right and disparages this privilege, +and in doing this it has greatly weakened the Christian church. + +Several other sources of weakness must be treated much more briefly. + +3. Sectarianism is not the least among them. To a large degree it is the +product of orthodoxism. Men who venture to think for themselves are +driven forth from the fold of the faithful and compelled to organize in +separate groups. Sometimes they are not driven out, they go out and slam +the doors behind them. The seceders often claim a superior orthodoxy; +their separation from the fold is an act of judgment on those they leave +behind. The responsibility for these divisions sometimes rests more +heavily on those who go out, and sometimes on those who stay in. On the +one side or the other, often on both sides, pride of opinion is a main +procuring cause. Sometimes men go out because they desire to hold fast +in peace the truth which they have found, and sometimes they are thrust +out because they will not permit those who are within to hold fast in +peace the truth which is their inheritance. + +The ambition of leadership also figures largely. Men who are not able to +control the church to which they belong are often tempted to lead away a +faction in which they may be more conspicuous. Satan, according to the +Miltonic mythology, was the founder of the first sect; and his +philosophy was that it was better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. +The leaders of many of the sects have had a similar inspiration. + +It would not be true to say that all schisms have sprung from +selfishness: they have often originated in a larger vision of the truth, +and their testimony, which has cost them many sacrifices, has enlarged +the thought and enriched the life of the whole church. + +It must, however, be admitted that selfishness, in the forms of ambition +and pride of opinion, has had more to do with the multiplication of +sects than love of the truth or loyalty to the Master. The existence of +such numbers of organizations, differing from one another only in the +most trivial particulars, cannot be reconciled with the plain principles +of Christian morality. There is no justification, in reason or +conscience, for the existence of so many sorts and kinds and classes of +Christian disciples. Even if we could admit the wisdom of the larger +divisions, what excuse can be offered for the endless subdivisions? What +possible need can there be for thirteen different kinds of Baptists, and +twelve kinds of Mennonites, and eleven kinds of Presbyterians, and +seventeen kinds of Methodists, and twenty-three kinds of Lutherans? +Could any rational man maintain that these multitudinous variations on a +single string represent distinctions that are useful? + +The rivalries and competitions which these sectarian divisions promote +are the scandal and the curse of Christendom. The sectarian procedure +habitually and brazenly sets aside the Golden Rule and pushes partisan +interest, with very slight regard for fairness or equity. Churches are +all the while doing to other churches what they would not like to have +other churches do to them. "Every church for itself, and the angels +take the hindmost," is the sectarian motto. The competition which exists +in the ecclesiastical realm is almost always cutthroat competition; it +destroys property and crowds out rivals with merciless purpose. + +No argument should he needed to show that the existence of such a spirit +and tendency in the church must cripple its power and impede its growth. +The sect spirit is the antithesis of the Christian spirit; the sectarian +propaganda is an attack upon the fundamental principle of Christianity, +which is unity through love. The superior loyalty of every true +Christian is due to the kingdom of God. "Seek first the kingdom of God +and his righteousness!" What makes a man a sectarian is the fact that he +loves his sect more than the kingdom of God, and is willing that the +kingdom of God should suffer loss in order that his sect may make a +gain. Sectarians are doing this very thing, all over the land, every +day. + +How great have been the injuries suffered by the Christian church +through the existence of this antichristian spirit of sect it would be +difficult to estimate. How alien it is to the spirit of Jesus Christ +one does not need to point out. It is simply amazing that the followers +of him who prayed, in his last prayer, that his disciples might all be +one, in order that the world might believe in his divine commission, +should imagine that they can be pleasing Christ while they persist in +these childish divisions. + +Some sense of the shame and sin of sectarianism has, of late years, been +getting possession of the mind of the church, and the tendencies toward +unity are stronger now than the tendencies toward division. Splits and +secessions are rare in these times; movements toward unity are +multiplying. All this is hopeful, but many generations of toil and +sacrifice will be required to recover for the church the ground she has +lost by the ravages of sectarianism. + +4. Only one more cause of the enfeeblement of the church can be +mentioned here; that is her too close reliance upon the principles and +forces of the material realm. She too often forgets whence her help must +come; she is too willing to go down to Egypt for her allies instead of +trusting in the Lord of Hosts. She cannot always understand that she is +safer and stronger when she puts her entire reliance on moral and +spiritual forces; when she refuses to sacrifice truth for the revenues +of the rich or the friendship of the strong. + +The church is probably suffering more from this cause at this day than +she has ever suffered in any former period. She lives in the midst of +the abounding marvels of the materialistic civilization; she sees how +much is accomplished through the use of material forces; and the spirit +of the time gets into her brain and blood, and she begins to think that +money and the things that money can buy are the most essential +conditions of her growth and usefulness. Therefore she makes such +friendships and adopts such policies as will bring to her the revenues +she thinks she must have for the prosecution of her work. And thus her +vision is dimmed for the truth she needs to see, and her arm is weakened +for the work she has to do. + +No influence so insidious as this, and none so fatal, has ever assailed +the Christian church. She is passing through her greatest temptation. It +is Mammon who has taken her up into an exceeding high mountain and +shown her the kingdoms she wants to conquer and the glory she hopes to +win, and is saying to her: "All these things will I give thee, if thou +wilt fall down and worship me!" May God grant her the grace to answer +"Get thee behind me, Satan; I hear the voice of one who said: Thou shall +worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." + +That the church has suffered serious injury and enfeeblement from the +causes we have considered,--from her lack of faith, from her subjection +to orthodoxism, from the ravages of sectarianism, from her entanglements +with Mammon, no one can deny. But that these evils are tending to +increase is not evident. There is reason rather to hope that they are +all on the wane, unless it be the last. + +That the church is far from being in perfect spiritual condition we will +all admit. But that she is growing worse rather than better we need not +believe. Most of these maladies are of long standing, but they are less +acute now than once they were, and there is better hope of recovery. +Above all, we may say that the church knows to-day what ails her better +than she ever knew before, and that she may therefore more +intelligently proceed to apply the needful remedies. + +What kind of treatment is called for will be the subject of the next +discussion. + + + + +VI + +The Coming Reformation + + + +It would be instructive to study the attempts which the church has made, +in past generations, to escape from the evil conditions into which she +has fallen. For she has been convicted more than once of her sins of +omission, of the perversion of her powers, and the misuse of her +opportunities, and has bestirred herself to cast off the yokes that were +oppressing her, and the bands that were impeding her progress. It cannot +be said that she has ever yet become fully conscious of her radical +defect. She has never quite clearly discovered that her enfeeblement and +failure are primarily due to the fact that she has been neglecting her +real business in the world, or making it a secondary concern. When she +gets that truth fully before her mind, and that conviction upon her +conscience, we may hope for better things. + +There was, however, one epoch in her history when she came very near +making this discovery. That was the period of the Reformation in the +sixteenth century. What happened then is full of interest for us in +these days; it throws a flood of light on the problems with which we are +dealing. + +We have been taught by the historians of the Reformation to think of +that event as mainly a theological crisis, as an intellectual revolt +against certain doctrines imposed by the church upon the faithful, or a +rebellion against the stringency of ecclesiastical discipline. That +issues of this nature were deeply involved in it is true; but these were +by no means the only causes of that uprising. It was largely a social +and economic movement. It was, in its inception, less a reaction against +bad theology than a revolt against unchristian social conditions. What +weighed most heavily on the people who started the uprising that we call +the Reformation was not theological error and confusion, it was their +poverty, their servitude, the miseries and wrongs of their daily life. +They knew something of the Christ of Nazareth, and they could not +believe that he meant to leave them in that condition, and therefore +they began to have a dim sense of the truth that the church which bore +his name was misrepresenting him, and needed to be reformed. This was +the source of the movement known as the Reformation. It was, therefore, +a sharp reminder to the church that she had wholly forgotten her main +business in the world. + +One of the latest of the histories of the Reformation, that of Dr. +Thomas M. Lindsay, brings this truth into clear light. His chapter on +"Social Conditions" gives us a vivid sketch of the economic and social +forces which were operating at the end of the fifteenth and the +beginning of the sixteenth century. + +It was the time of transition from the old system of home production and +home markets to the era of world-wide commerce. Under the old system, +industry had been largely regulated by guilds, and there was a fair +measure of equality; while trade, though not extensive, was regulated by +civic leagues. + +But the end of the fifteenth century brought the great geographical +discoveries and the beginning of a world trade. "The possibilities of a +world commerce," says Dr. Lindsay, "led to the creation of trading +companies; for a larger capital was needed than individual merchants +possessed, and the formation of these companies overshadowed, +discredited, and finally destroyed the guild system of the mediæval +trading cities. Trade and industry became capitalized to a degree +previously unknown.... This increase of wealth does not seem to have +been confined to a few favorites of fortune. It belonged to the mass of +the members of the great trading companies.... Merchant princes +confronted the princes of the state and those of the church, and their +presence and power dislocated the old social relations."[22] + +This enormous increase of wealth manifested itself in every form of +senseless luxury. Of refinement there was little; pleasures were coarse, +indulgence was beastly. "Preachers, economists, and satirists," says Dr. +Lindsay, "denounce the luxury and immodesty of the dress both of men and +women, the gluttony and the drinking habits of the rich burghers and of +the nobility of Germany. We learn from Hans von Schweinichen that +noblemen prided themselves on having men among their retainers who could +drink all rivals beneath the table, and that noble personages seldom met +without such a drinking contest. The wealthy, learned, and artistic +city of Nürnberg possessed a public wagon which every night was led +through the streets, to pick up and convey to their homes drunken +burghers found lying in the filth of the streets."[23] + +Such were the manners of the house of mirth at the beginning of the +sixteenth century. It might be supposed that when luxury was so riotous +the poor would have plenty, but that is never the case. Profusion at the +top of the social ladder means poverty at the bottom. The world has +never yet been so rich that waste did not work harm to the neediest. +Even if the poor had been actually no poorer in these flush days than +they had been when manners were simpler, the glaring contrasts would +have been maddening. But multitudes of them were, no doubt, not only +relatively but positively poorer; the destruction of the guilds of +labor, the displacements in industry, had left great numbers not only of +the peasantry and the artisans but also of the poorer nobles in +practical destitution. The organization of society was giving strength +to the strong and weakness to those of no might--thus exactly reversing +Mary's prophecy of what her royal Son should bring; and those who were +thus dispossessed and scattered felt, and had a right to feel, that the +social organization under which such things could be done was +antichristian. + +"While," says Dr. Lindsay, "the social tumults and popular uprisings +against authority, which are a feature of the close of the Middle Ages, +are usually and rightly enough called peasant insurrections, the name +tends to obscure their real character. They were rather the revolts of +the poor against the rich, of debtors against creditors, of men who had +scantly legal rights or none at all, against those who had the +protection of the existing laws; and they were joined by the poor of the +towns as well as by the peasantry of the country districts. The peasants +generally began the revolt and the townsmen followed, but this was not +always the case. Sometimes the mob of the cities rose first and the +peasants joined afterwards. In many cases, too, the poorer nobles were +in secret or open sympathy with the insurrectionary movement. On more +than one occasion they led the insurgents and fought at their head."[24] + +The uprising against the church was due to the fact that the church, +instead of being the friend of the poor, had become their social +oppressor. Through all these social mutterings runs the outcry against +the priests, and this was not because the priests were teaching a false +theology, but because they were grinding the faces of the poor. Not only +in Germany, but all over Europe this cry was heard. "The priests," says +an English reformer, "have their tenth part of all the corn, meadows, +pasture, grain, wood, colts, lambs, geese, and chickens. Over and +besides the tenth part of every servant's wages, wool, milk, honey, wax, +cheese, and butter; yea and they look so narrowly after these profits +that the poor wife must be accountable to them for every tenth egg, or +else she getteth not her rights at Easter, and shall be taken as a +heretic." "I see," said a Spaniard, "that we can scarcely get anything +from Christ's ministers but for money; at baptism money, at bishoping +money, at marriage money, for confession money,--no, not extreme unction +without money! They will ring no bells without money, no burial in the +church without money; so that it seemeth that Paradise is shut up from +them that hath no money. The rich is buried in the church, the poor in +the churchyard. The rich man may marry with his nearest kin, but the +poor not so, albeit he be ready to die for love of her. The rich may eat +flesh in Lent, but the poor may not, albeit fish perhaps be much dearer. +The rich man may readily get large indulgences, but the poor none +because he wanteth money to pay for them."[25] + +This revolt against priestly oppression was by no means, however, an +irreligious uprising. It was characterized by intense religious feeling, +with which, as Dr. Lindsay says, "was blended some confused dream that +the kingdom of God might be set up on earth, if only the priests were +driven out of the land." Among a populace so ignorant it was, of course, +inevitable that the social revolt should take on fanatical forms. Wild +zealots arose, drawing the multitude after them, and inciting the people +to revolution. Hans Böhm, a wandering piper, had visions and went forth +as a preacher of righteousness, railing against priests and civil +potentates. True religion, he declared, consisted in worshiping the +Blessed Virgin, but the priests were thieves and robbers, the Emperor +was a miscreant, "who supported the whole vile crew of princes, +overlords, tax gatherers, and other oppressors of the poor." He +predicted the coming of a day when the Emperor himself would be forced, +like all poor folks, to work for days' wages. The people flocked by +thousands to hear him preach, but his day was brief. + +They burnt him at the stake, but multitudes venerated him, and made +pilgrimages to the chapel which had been the scene of his triumph. The +"Bundschuh" revolts which broke out in Elsass and spread through +Switzerland and Germany were of a similar character. Then came years of +famine, which deepened the popular disquiet, and which help to explain +the fact that "on the eve of the Reformation the condition of Europe, +and of Germany in particular, was one of seething discontent and full of +bitter class hatreds--the trading companies and the great capitalists +against the guilds, the poorer classes against the wealthier, and the +nobles against the towns." + +These were the social conditions in the midst of which Luther appeared. +It was on this turbulent flood of social unrest that the Reformation +was launched. When the great reformer's voice was heard, denouncing +priestly misrule and hierarchical tyranny, these were the people who +listened, and they interpreted his words by their own experience. If his +quarrel was largely with theological or ecclesiastical abuses, theirs +was mainly with industrial inequalities, but it seemed to them that he +was fighting their battle. Indeed, his brave words gave fit utterance to +their hopes. For, as the historian reminds us, Luther's message was +democratic. That must have been its character if it was, in any proper +sense, a return to "the simplicity that is in Christ." "It destroyed the +aristocracy of the saints, it leveled the barriers between the layman +and the priest, it taught the equality of all men before God, and the +right of every man of faith to stand in God's presence, whatever be his +rank and condition of life. He had not confined himself to preaching a +new theology. His message was eminently practical. In his 'Appeal to the +Nobility of the German Nation' Luther had voiced all the grievances of +Germany, had touched upon almost all the open sores of the time, and had +foretold disasters not very far off. Nor must it be forgotten that no +great leader ever flung about wild words in such a reckless way. Luther +had the gift of strong, smiting phrases, of words which seemed to cleave +to the very heart of things, of images which lit up a subject with the +vividness of a flash of lightning. He launched tracts and pamphlets from +the press about almost everything, written for the most part on the spur +of the moment, and when the fire burned. His words fell into souls full +of the fermenting passion of the times. They drank in with eagerness the +thoughts that all men were equal before God, and that there are divine +commands about the brotherhood of mankind of more importance than all +human legislation. They refused to believe that such golden ideas +belonged to the realm of spiritual life above."[26] + +When, therefore, the religious reformation was fairly launched, a great +uprising of the poor people speedily followed. It seemed to them that +the return to Christ meant, for them, the breaking of yokes and the +enlargement of opportunity, and they proceeded to claim for themselves +some portion of the liberty that belonged to them. Their demands, as +voiced in their "Twelve Articles," were by no means extravagant, from +our point of view. The abuses of which they complained were flagrant, +the rights they claimed were far less than are now, even in despotic +Russia, fully granted to the humblest people. And they protested most +earnestly that they "wanted nothing contrary to the requirements of just +authority, whether civil or ecclesiastical, nor to the gospel of +Christ." + +It would, however, have been unreasonable to expect that such people +would confine their protest within the bounds of law and order. It was, +in fact, a revolution, and it discerned no way to its goal but the way +of violence. That, indeed, is the path that most of the seekers after +liberty have felt constrained to take. + +What was Luther's relation to this uprising? It cannot be said that he +had kindled the flame, but he had fanned it to a conflagration. And yet +when it began to rage, he found himself unable to control it. It had +come to pass, in the exigencies of the warfare he was waging, that his +allies were the German princes. Only through them, as he believed, could +he hope to win the fight he was making against the Roman hierarchy. If +he put himself at the head of the peasants' movement he would alienate +the princes, and it seemed to him that the Protestant cause in Germany +would he stamped out in blood. And therefore, after vainly attempting to +quiet the insurrection, with whose principal aims he had confessed +himself in sympathy, he turned upon the peasants in almost savage wrath, +and in his tract "Against the Murdering, Thieving Hordes of Peasants," +he urged the princes to crush the insurrection. "In the case of an +insurgent," he says, "every man is both judge and executioner. +Therefore, whoever can should knock down, strangle, and stab such +publicly or privately, and think nothing so venomous, pernicious, and +devilish as an insurgent.... Such wonderful times are these that a +prince can merit heaven better with bloodshed than another with prayer." + +The princes followed Luther's counsel, and the peasants' uprising was +put down with relentless severity. Thus ended in blood the movement +which promised to make the church the champion of social freedom. It +seems, as we look back upon it, a tragical issue. What these poor people +asked for was really only a crumb or two from the table of the lords of +privilege; they thought that the brotherhood taught by Jesus warranted +them in expecting it, and they seemed to hope that the church of Jesus +Christ, when purified from formalism and superstition, would support +that expectation. It must have been a bitter disappointment to them. And +it is a sorrowful reflection that the great hero of the Reformation +fell, in this matter, so far below the Christian ideal. + +Doubtless his strenuous repugnance to revolutionary methods was a good +trait in his character; but surely revolutions are sometimes +justifiable, and it looks, at this distance, as though this one was as +nearly so as most of those that have succeeded. If Luther had put his +great heart and mighty will at the head of this movement which he +confessed to be most righteous, it might have succeeded, and +Protestantism, in its beginnings, might have made a firm alliance with +those whom Jesus Christ recognizes as his representatives in the earth. +But it was hard for him to believe that the poor of this world, chosen +to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, were stronger allies than +the German nobles. He thought that he must have the support of the +princes, and he turned his back on Christ's poor. + +It was a melancholy conclusion, not only for Luther but for the cause +which he represented. "It is probable," says Dr. Lindsay, "that he saved +the Reformation in Germany by cutting it free from the revolutionary +movement, but the wrench left marks on his own character as well as in +the movement he headed." One wonders whether success won at such cost is +worth having; and whether, if he had gone down with the peasants in +their struggle for freedom and opportunity, the sacrifice would not have +brought a larger and fairer Reformation. + +It was the coming reformation to which your attention was called, and we +have kept our eyes for a long time upon the past. But this history has +been uttering, through the entire recital, its own prophetic word. +Conditions have greatly changed since the sixteenth century; but we are +still confronting the same issue which forced itself upon the church in +the days of Luther. Many of the disabilities and wrongs under which the +common people were suffering then have been removed, but the poor are +still with us, and the cries of millions of overworked, underfed, +pale-faced men and women and children have entered into the ears of the +Lord of Sabaoth. There ought not to be any poor people in this country; +if it were a thoroughly Christian country there would not be. If there +were those who because of mental or physical defect were unable to care +for themselves, we could easily provide for their wants, and in the +exercise of such compassion we should find an abundant reward. If there +were those who because of idleness and vice were indisposed to provide +for themselves, we should find a way of inspiring them with a better +mind. But, if this were a thoroughly Christian country, there would be +no willing workers dwelling anywhere near the borders of want. There are +resources here which are ample for the abundant supply of all human +needs; if ours were a completely Christianized society, the needs of +those who were able and willing to work would be abundantly supplied. + +We are often told that this is already done; that there are no poor in +this country save those who are either incompetent or indolent or +vicious. If that could be proved, the question would still remain +whether the incompetency and the indolence and the viciousness may not, +to a considerable degree, be the effects of causes for which society is +responsible, and which, in a thoroughly Christianized society, would not +be permitted to exist. But it cannot be proved that poverty is wholly +the fault of the poor. The fact is that a very large number of those who +are doing the world's work to-day are receiving less than their fair +share of the wealth they produce. + +It is true that there are many laborers who earn large wages. Compactly +organized labor unions have been able to secure a favorable distribution +of the product of their industry. But we are often reminded that but a +small percentage of the laborers of this country are organized; and the +wages of those thus unprotected are often lamentably small. Many +attempts have been made to find out what is the average wage of the +average workman; our census reports contain very carefully prepared +statistics. I have taken pains to go over some of these, and here are +the results. + +In the textile trades, with 661,451 workers, the average weekly wage of +all workers is $6.07; of men over sixteen, $7.63; of women, $5.18; of +children under sixteen, $2.15. + +In the iron workers' trades, with 222,607 workers, the average weekly +wage is $10.46. + +In the boot and shoe trades, with 142,922 workers, the average for all +is $7.96; for men over sixteen, $9.11; for women, $6.13; for children +under sixteen, $3.40. + +In the men's clothing trades, with 120,950 workers, the average for all +is $7.06; for men, $10.90; for women, $4.88; for children, $2.61. + +These weekly wages are obtained by dividing the annual wage by 52. Often +the weekly rate is much higher, but for many weeks the workers are +unemployed; the only fair estimate is that which is based upon the +annual wage. + +Have we any right to be content with conditions like these? Is the +average wage of the average worker, as it is here indicated, all that he +ought to ask? Should society wish him to be content with such an income? +Sit down yourself and figure out just what it would mean to be obliged +to maintain a family of four or five on such a stipend as is indicated +in any of these trades--even those best paid. Find out how much should +have to go for rent, and how much for food, and how much for the +plainest clothing, and how much for doctor's bills, and school books, +and street-car fare, and how much would be left, after that, for books +and church contributions and the wholesome pleasures which we ought to +count among the necessaries of life. Life can be maintained on such an +income, but is it the kind of life that we wish our fellow men to live? +And is there any need that life, for the humble laborer, should be +reduced in this rich land to its lowest terms? With the marvelous +productiveness of fields and mines and forests and waters, with the +immense development of machinery, by which the wealth of the nation is +multiplied, might we not have an organization of industry and a method +of distribution which would give to the army of manual toilers a much +larger average income? + +That is the question they are asking, and it calls for a candid answer. +Their needs are not as dire as were those of the German peasants of the +sixteenth century, but they are real and serious needs. Now, as then, a +tremendous industrial revolution has dislocated industries and +demoralized and impoverished many; now, as then, the concentration of +capital in great companies has destroyed small enterprises and left +many who were once thrifty stranded and discouraged; now, as then, +glaring contrasts in condition excite the resentments of the needy; now, +as then, the propertiless are wondering whether this is the kind of +thing that the church has been looking for when she has prayed that the +kingdom of God may come. And there is a feeling now, as there was then, +among the millions of the toilers, that the church which assumes to +represent Jesus Christ needs to be reformed, in order that through its +testimony and its leadership the kingdom of God may come. + +It is sadly true that there are many among these toiling millions who +are embittered against the church, who have no faith in it, and no +expectation that any good will come out of it; but the great majority +are not hostile to the church; at worst they are indifferent, and this +indifference is due to their belief that the church no longer represents +Jesus Christ. Toward him there is often a pathetic outreaching of hope; +if the church would come back to the simplicity that is in Christ and +would plant itself on the Sermon on the Mount, it would quickly win +their loyalty. And I cannot help feeling that now, as in the sixteenth +century, there is in the minds of the toiling millions "a confused dream +that the kingdom of God might be set up in the land," and that the time +is ripe for it. Nor can I deem it possible that this great expectation +of the multitude will now be disappointed. The church of this day must +be able to see that this call of the poor and the humble is the call of +its Master. It is with the weak and the needy that he is always +identified; service of them is loyalty to him; neglect of them is scorn +of him. It is his own word. + +The coming reformation will be signalized by a great change in the +attitude of the church toward the toiling classes. It will not turn its +back on them, as it did in Luther's day; it will not maintain toward +them an attitude of kindly patronage, as it has done in our day; it will +recognize the fact that its welfare is bound up with them; that the +barriers which separate them from its sympathies and fellowships must be +broken down, at whatever cost; that it must make them believe that the +church of Jesus Christ is their church; that it needs them quite as much +as they need it; that it is a monstrous thing even to conceive that a +church of Jesus Christ could exist as a class institution, with the +largest social class in the community outside of it. + +The coming reformation will consist in the awakening of the church to +its social responsibilities. It will see more clearly than it has ever +yet seen, that those who pray that the kingdom of God may come, and who +are responsible, as citizens of a republic are responsible, for the +answering of that prayer, must see to it that justice and liberty and +opportunity are established in the land. The church of Jesus Christ, +with a passion that is born of loyalty to its Master, must set itself to +the task of realizing, in the social order, the principles of his +teaching. That was what the peasants of the sixteenth century called +upon it to do; and for answer it turned and smote them to the earth. It +will not repeat that blunder, which was nothing short of a crime. It +hears the same call to-day, and when it obeys, as obey it must, it will +save its own life and that of the nation with whose destiny it is put in +trust. + + + + +VII + +Social Redemption + + + +The New Reformation will be wrought out with weapons that are not +carnal. One of the lessons that the church has learned, in the nineteen +centuries of its history, is that it must keep itself free from all +suspicion of entanglement with physical force. + +That statement needs qualification. It is not universally true. The +Greek church, as we have seen, is still fatally involved in political +complications; the Roman church, while forced to abstain from the use of +the temporal power, has maintained its right to use it; and other state +churches, as those of England and Germany, retain some hold upon the +political arm. But we are speaking of the church in our own country; and +of the American church it is true that it has ceased to rely upon the +power of the state. The entire divorce which our constitution decrees +between the government of the church and the government of the state has +become, with us, a settled policy, which we do not wish to disturb. It +is doubtful whether intelligent Roman Catholics in the United States +would be willing to have this condition changed, and no other Christians +would for one moment consent to it. + +What the church does in the way of improving social conditions must, +therefore, be done by purely moral and spiritual agencies. Society is +not to be Christianized by any kind of coercion. The church cannot use +force in any way, nor can it enter into any coalition with governments +that rest on force. "It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, +saith the Lord," that the kingdoms of this world are to become the +kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. It is as irrational to try to +propagate Christianity by coercive measures of any description, as it +would be to try to make plants grow by applying to them mechanical +pressure. + +Nor can the church undertake to dictate or prescribe the forms of +industrial society. Its function is not the organization of industry. It +would not wisely attempt to decide between different methods of managing +business. + +It would not, for example, be expedient for the church, at the present +time, to take sides in the controversy between collectivism and private +enterprise. The Socialists declare that the wage system, based on +private capital, tends to injustice and oppression; the advocates of the +existing system contend that Socialism would destroy the foundations of +thrift and welfare. The church cannot be the umpire in this contest, nor +can it take sides with either party. Questions of economic method are +beyond its province. Its concern is not with the machinery of society, +but with the moral motive power. Or, it might be truer to say that it +seeks to invigorate the moral life of men, and trusts that reinforced +life to make its own economic forms. Its business is to fill men's minds +with the truth as it is in Jesus, and to make them see that that truth +applies to every human relation; and it ought to believe that when this +truth is thus received and thus applied, it will solve all social +problems. When employers and employed are all filled with the spirit of +Christ, the wage system will not be a system of exploitation, but a +means of social service. + +Here is an employer of many hundreds of men, at the head of a very large +business, which is rapidly increasing. This is not an imaginary case. +This employer is a man of flesh and blood, and he is in the very thick +of the competitive mêlée; he is using the machinery of the wage system, +but he is governing all his business by the principles of Christianity, +and the business is thriving in a marvelous way. This does not mean that +the manager is piling up money for himself, for he is not: he is living +very frugally, and is adding nothing to his own accumulation; but the +business is growing by leaps and bounds. The increasing profits, every +year, are distributed in the form of stock among the laborers who do the +work, and the customers who purchase the goods. The men who do the work +are buying for themselves beautiful homes in the vicinity of the +factory; in a few more years they will own a large part of the stock of +the concern. This manager is not getting rich; but he has the +satisfaction of seeing his business prospering in his hands; he is +helping a great many men to find the ways of comfort and independence, +and he insists that he has himself found the secret of a happy life. It +is evident that if all employers were governed by the same motives, the +wage system would be an instrument of philanthropy. Whether this man is +a church member or not does not appear, but he is certainly a Christian; +he has learned the way of Jesus, and is walking in it. If the church +could inspire all its members with this kind of social passion, all +social questions would be solved. And this is the church's business--to +inspire its members with this kind of social passion. Without this +spirit in their hearts, no matter what the social machinery might be, +the outcome would be envying and strife and endless unhappiness. + +We have had the inside history of some of the many communistic +enterprises that have come to grief, and all of them have been wrecked +by the selfishness of their members, most of whom were seeking for soft +places, and shirking their duties,--each trying to get as much as he +could out of the commonwealth and to give in return for it as little +service as possible. These contrasted cases show that the machinery of +the wage system cannot prevent the exercise of brotherliness, and that +the machinery of communism will not secure it. No kind of social +machinery will produce happiness or welfare when selfish men are running +it; and no kind of social machinery will keep brotherly men from +behaving brotherly. + +We are often told by Socialists that the present régime of individual +initiative and private capital tends to make men selfish and +unbrotherly, while the tendency of Socialism would be to make men +unselfish and fraternal. If the church were sure that this is the truth, +she would be inclined to throw her influence on the side of Socialism. +But, on the other hand, it is urged that Socialism tends to merge the +individual in the mass, to destroy the virtues of self-respect and +self-reliance, and to weaken the fibre of manhood. If the church were +sure that this is true, she would be constrained to pause before +committing herself to the socialistic programme. + +She knows, in fact, that there is truth in both these contentions. That +the individualistic régime has bred a fearful amount of heartlessness +and rapacity is painfully evident; that such socialistic experiments as +have been tried have weakened human virtue appears to be true. Under +which régime the greater damage would be done is not yet quite clear. +Therefore the church cannot commit herself to either of these methods. +The best work she can do, at the present time, is to inspire men with a +love of justice and a spirit of service. She must rear up a generation +of men who hate robbery in all its disguises; who are determined never +to prosper at the expense of their neighbors, and who know how to find +their highest pleasure in helping their fellow men. If the Christian +morality means anything, it means all this. A church which represents +Jesus Christ on the earth must set before herself no lower aim than +this. And a generation of men whose hearts are on fire with this purpose +may be trusted to fill the earth with righteousness and peace, whether +they work with the machinery of the wage system or with the machinery of +Socialism. + +There are many good men, outside the church as well as within it, who +believe that the existing social order can never be Christianized; that +it must be replaced by a new social system. But most of us are still +clinging to the belief that the existing social order can be +Christianized, so that justice may be established in it, and good-will +find expression through it. That it has been sadly perverted we all +confess; we acknowledge with shame that it has become, in large measure, +the instrument of injustice and oppression. But we believe that it may +be reformed, so that it shall represent, in some fair degree, the +kingdom of God. + +The redemption of the social order is, then, the problem now before us. +Can it be accomplished? President Roosevelt thinks that it can, and +those who stand with him and support him assume that the existing +competitive régime can be moralized and made to represent the interests +of equity and fair dealing. If this can be done, nothing more is needed. +If it cannot be done, the existing régime must make way for something +better. The conviction that it can be done is finding expression just +now in the vigorous efforts that are being made to amend and strengthen +the laws which restrain plunderers and oppressors, so that opportunities +may be equalized and the paths to success be kept open for men of all +ranks and capacities. This is simple justice, and for this the church of +God must stand with all the might of her influence. + +That she has been derelict in the discharge of this duty must be +confessed. If she had kept the charge committed to her, the inequalities +and spoliations now burdening society would not be in existence. For +although it is not the business of the church to furnish to the world an +economic programme, it is her business to see that no economic programme +is permitted to exist under which injustice and oppression find shelter. +The right to reprove and denounce all social arrangements by which the +few prosper at the expense of the many is one of her chartered rights as +the institute of prophecy. A church which fails to exercise this +function is faithless to her primary obligation. + +That the church has incurred heavy blame because of the feebleness of +her testimony against such wrongs must now be confessed, and the least +she can do to make amends for this infidelity is to speak now and +henceforth, with commanding voice, against all the corporate wrongs that +infest society. It may be that by her testimony the magistrates will be +strengthened so to enforce the laws that aggressors shall be restrained, +and freedom and opportunity secured to all; and that thus the existing +industrial order may become, so far as law can make it, the servant of +justice and good-will. + +This is the first step toward social redemption. The reënthronement of +justice is the primary obligation. John the Baptist must speak first. +The conviction of social sin is the beginning of social righteousness. +The church has a great work to do in awakening the public conscience to +forms of injustice which are so involved and concealed that our +attention is not fixed upon them. Professor Ross has just announced a +volume with the title "Sin and Society." It is an illuminating word. The +deadliest of the evils which are oppressing the community to-day come +under this category. They are hidden from the public view. They assail +you from ambush and you are helpless. The deadly missiles smite you on +every side, but there is no revealing flash by which you can locate your +foe. The social order is so complex that wrongs of this nature are +easily perpetrated. Many of the transactions by which we are wont to +profit are veiled injustices. They are of a nature so subtle and +indirect that the law has not yet defined and forbidden them. Those who +suffer these injustices are at a distance from us, and there is a +network of legal and commercial relations between ourselves and them; we +know that they will never confront us and call us to account; it is +safe for us to do wrong, and we keep on doing it until our consciences +are dulled, and we are not able to see that any wrong has been done. + +The fact is, that such a complex social system as ours needs for its +safe administration a kind of conscientiousness far higher and finer +than that which men needed for honest living fifty years ago. Unless our +minds are trained to see the right and wrong of very intricate +transactions; unless our ethical imagination is sensitive enough to +discern the nature of far-reaching and wide-spreading social relations, +we shall constantly be profiting by the injury of our neighbors. + +It is the business of the church to train the consciences of men for the +moral problems that confront them, and this work has been but +indifferently done. The first step in the redemption of the social order +is the education of the Christian conscience to discern the smokeless +sins. It is with evils of this character that the nation is now in a +life and death grapple; the church ought to be able, by its testimony, +to lend effective aid in this conflict. + +The nature of the testimony needed may be indicated by a typical +instance. + +Not many years ago a very prosperous manufacturing company was doing +business in a thriving American village, giving employment to fifteen +hundred men and women, many of whom had purchased homes, in the +expectation of having permanent occupation and livelihood. It was known +to be a well-paying business; its stock, which was in few hands, was not +in the market. + +Suddenly a project of reorganization was announced, and stock amounting +to five times the value of the property was placed upon the market. It +was eagerly taken, for the reputation of the company was very high. With +the proceeds of this sale of securities the managers made themselves +very rich men. It was not necessary for them to do business any longer. +Indeed, they could not have continued to pay dividends on the amount of +stock which they had sold; they had never expected to do any such thing. +What they did was promptly to close the business. The price of the stock +dropped immediately to the neighborhood of zero, millions of values were +canceled, and thousands of investors were made to suffer loss. But the +direct consequences were seen in the village whose prosperity was +suddenly destroyed. Fifteen hundred men and women were deprived, at a +stroke, of employment and livelihood. In many homes there was +destitution and hunger; hundreds of men were compelled to seek +employment elsewhere, sacrificing the homes whose value had been greatly +reduced; businesses that depended on the patronage of the mill hands +were ruined; churches were paralyzed; families were scattered; +discouraged men fell into ways of dissipation; young women were led into +the paths of shame. + +All this was done under the forms of law, and yet it would be hard to +find in the annals of crime an instance more flagitious. And the men who +did this thing were church members--members in good standing, leading +members of an evangelical church. Nor does it appear that they suffered +any discredit in the church to which they belonged, and to whose +revenues they continued to contribute out of the plunder by which they +had impoverished and ruined so many. The church had not sufficient moral +sense to reprove and denounce this iniquity. What is worse, the church +had not had enough moral sense to make these men see beforehand that +such an act was infamous. + +Undoubtedly they would have promptly justified themselves. "Such +transactions," they would have said, "are occurring every day; what the +law does not forbid, and what everybody else does, cannot be wrong. The +property was ours, and we had a right to put our own price on it, and +sell it for what it would bring. The business was ours, and we had a +right to do what we pleased with it, to keep it running or shut it down +when we got ready: it is a free country: do you think you can compel a +man to go on doing business when he prefers to quit? We never guaranteed +permanent employment to these people: we paid them their wages while +they worked for us, and that is the end of our obligation to them." + +Some such answer they would, no doubt, have made to any one who called +in question their conduct; and by such an answer they would have +revealed the failure of the church to which they belonged to bring home +to them their social obligations. + +The existing social order can never be redeemed unless a fire can be +kindled on the earth in whose clear shining light such deeds as these +can be seen in all their deformity, and in whose purifying flame such +excuses as these will be utterly consumed. We must have laws to make +such wrongs impossible; but behind the laws must be the moral insight +and the social passion which shall make them effective, and it is the +business of the church to furnish these. When this is done we shall have +made a good beginning in the work of social redemption. + +But it will be only a beginning. The work of John the Baptist comes +first, but one mightier than he must follow. The voice of one crying in +the wilderness is but the prelude of that larger revelation which is +made upon the mountain top. To bring home to men the obligations of the +law, and to show them wherein they are failing to obey it, is the first +duty of the church in the present crisis; but it is the gospel with +which she is primarily put in charge. + +Clearer teaching about social morality is fundamental, but the great +need, after all, is the vitalization of morality. The moral code, no +matter how accurate may be its precepts, tends to become a dead letter, +unless it is constantly revivified by the spirit of religion. + +The Sermon on the Mount is often conceived of as purely ethical +teaching, but the heart of it all is religion. The revelation of the +Fatherhood of God is the light which shines through all these words and +furnishes the motive of all this morality. If we do the things here +commanded, in the way that Jesus expects us to do them, it is because we +know ourselves to be the children of our Father in heaven, living in his +presence, rejoicing in the great love wherewith he has loved us, +trusting in his care, seeking his kingdom, doing his will. The church +which represents Jesus Christ in the world will never forget that its +business is the leavening of society with the life of Christ; but +neither can it forget that the life of Christ can only be maintained by +constant communion with the Father. That the spiritual life of Jesus +himself was thus maintained, the record makes clear. The central fact of +his experience was his living union with the Father. We talk of "the +practice of the presence of God;" Jesus was the only man who has ever +perfectly realized it. And no one who knew him ever failed to see that +it was the Father's kindness and compassion and grace and truth that +were being manifested in his life. It was because he was filled with +all the fullness of God that he imparted to those who received him the +spirit of good-will, the passion for social service. + +The church which represents him in the world will need, for its social +service, the same inspiration. Unless its life is fed from this +fountain, its stream will soon run dry. There are those who seem to +think that sociology can solve all the problems of our modern life. If +sociology be sufficiently expanded, this may be true; for a truly +scientific sociology would have to explain how men came to be social +beings, and what is the bond that unites them. If it finds that their +relation to a common Father is the fundamental fact of their existence, +then it would know that religion is at the heart of it, and that right +relations with God are the spring and source of right relations with +men. But a sociology which ignores this primary fact has in it no +redemptive power. + +The more earnestly, therefore, we contend that the business of the +church is the Christianization of the social order, the more strenuously +we must maintain that she is powerless to do this work except as her +life is fed by faith and prayer. The redemption of the social order is +the greatest task she has undertaken, and she needs for it a strength +that can only come from conscious fellowship with God. If she ever +needed inspiration, she needs it now. If there ever was a time when she +could dispense with the divine guidance and grace, that time is not now. +The churches which desert the places of prayer, and think to substitute +the wisdom of men for the power of God, are not going to give much aid +in this struggle. + +"It must be claimed," says one, "on behalf of the passion for God, that +where it exists it will--automatically, as has been said--set charity, +love, all sweet graces of philanthropic activity, into quick and +ceaseless play.... If the emphasis of religious thought be made to fall +upon the idea of life, this cannot fail to be; for to have the divine +life is to be possessed of and to give out the divine love.... The +regeneration of human society is found to come from the dominance of +spiritual passion, even though it be not the first thing on which +spiritual passion is set; the saint will be--just because he is a +saint--a philanthropist too, since a true sainthood must number love +among the graces of character it brings. It is a fact--one has to make +the sad admission--that religious people, professedly spiritual men and +women, have been and still are in some cases eaten through and through +by selfishness; these are those who, so that they can declare heaven to +be their own, have no care for the present hell in which so many of +their fellows spend their days and years. But that is not because they +are too deeply immersed in the passion for God,--it is because they have +not really immersed themselves in its flood. And in claiming for a +Godward passion the regulative and supreme place among the elements of +life, we do but secure a fuller tenancy among those elements of a +manward love; for the nature which sets itself to receive the whole of +God will, ere it knows it, and as an automatic effect of the new life it +wins, give itself to its brethren in their need. For God is love, and he +must dwell in love who dwells in God."[27] + +We may hesitate to say that when the passion for God is the only thing +aimed at it is bound to result in social regeneration; there are too +many facts which prove the contrary. The aim must always include both +the Godward and the manward obligations; the first and the second great +commandments are of equal rank; what needs to be insisted on is the +impossibility of divorcing them. + +The church which seeks the redemption of society cannot, then, dispense +with its religion. Nothing has been made plainer, during the recent +exposures of social decay, than the fact that our social morality must +have a religious foundation. Even the man on the street is ready to +concede that no righteousness is adequate for the present emergency but +that which springs from faith in a righteous God. And nothing is more +needed, at this hour, than the deepening of men's faith in the great +religious verities. + +It is often said that the only cure for existing social ills is a great +revival of religion, and this is true. But the revival of religion which +is needed is not the kind which the churches are most apt to seek. The +religion which needs to be revived is not that which puts the sole +emphasis on the safety and welfare of the individual, but that which +equally exalts the social welfare; which identifies the interests of +each with the interests of all; which makes men see and feel that no +salvation is worth anything to any man that does not put that man into +Christian relations with his neighbors. Nothing but religion will do +this for any man, and the religion which fails to do this is a spurious +Christianity. + +A great revival we shall see, one of these days, which will have this +character. It will bind together the two great commandments of the law, +and make men feel the weight of both of them. It will compel them to +recognize the truth that, while the root of their religion is faith in +God, the fruit of their religion is love for men. It will drive home the +fact that the religion which does not hinder a man from being a boodler +or a grafter; which permits a man to enjoy religion while fleecing his +neighbors by crafty schemes of finance or artful legalized robberies; +which allows the love of gain to triumph over truth and honor and +brotherly kindness; which sits serene and complacent while social +classes make war on each other, and children's lives are consumed by +grinding toil, and women are forced by want into the ways of shame, and +the enemies of society are set free to make gain by the ruin of human +souls, is a religion which is not worth having. It will insist that a +religion which is rightly described as the life of God in the souls of +men, would begin in the house of God itself, and kindle there a +consuming flame before which such iniquities could not stand. Perhaps it +would set men to saying--they might not feel like singing--Thomas +Hughes's great hymn:-- + + "O God of truth, whose living word + Upholds whate'er hath breath, + Look down on thy creation, Lord, + Enslaved by sin and death. + + "Set up thy standard, Lord, that we + Who claim a heavenly birth + May march with thee to smite the lies + That vex thy groaning earth. + + "_We_ fight for truth, _we_ fight for God, + Poor slaves of lies and sin! + He who would fight for thee on earth + Must first be true within. + + "Thou God of truth, for whom we long, + Thou who wilt hear our prayer, + Do thine own battle in our hearts, + And slay the falsehood there. + + "Still smite! still burn! till naught is left + But God's own truth and love; + Then, Lord, as morning dew come down, + Rest on us from above. + + "Yea, come! thus tried as in the fire, + From every lie set free, + Thy perfect truth shall dwell in us + And we shall live in thee." + +It is hardly needful to say that the redemption of the social order will +not be wrought out without sacrifice. "The redemption of the soul is +costly," says the Psalmist. No man is rescued from moral degradation and +death without suffering and sacrifice. Those who are saved are more +often saved by the suffering of others in their behalf than by their own +suffering. But the price of a soul is apt to be high, and love is +sometimes able to pay it. + +The redemption of society from the welter of selfishness and brutishness +and cruelty into which it is now plunged will be a costly undertaking. +The church is here, as Christ's representative, to take up this work; +and it must not expect to accomplish it without suffering. "It is enough +for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord." +If the Church is Christ's servant, she must not expect to find any +better way than his way of saving the world. + +It is true, as we have seen, that the present deplorable conditions are +due to the failure of the church to enforce the Christian morality. The +price that she must pay for the redemption of society is heavy because +of her own neglect. But it must be paid. There is no other way of +salvation. + +Thus it appears that the church which bears the name of Jesus Christ has +come to its testing time. It finds itself in the midst of a society +whose tendencies are downward. Mammon is on the throne; the greed of +gain is eating the heart out of commercial honor; reputations are +crumbling; confidence is rudely shaken; the most cynical schemes for +plundering the multitudes are daily brought to light; social classes +stand over against each other distrustful and defiant; the house of +mirth resounds with the mad revelry of the wasters, while the purlieus +are noisome with poverty and vice. + +Can this society be redeemed? Can this all-ruling commercialism be held +in check, and this reign of plunder be overthrown, and all this seething +selfishness and heartlessness and suspicion be made to give place to +good-will and kindness, to trust and truth, to faith and honor? It will +never be done without a vast expenditure of sacrificial love. "This kind +goeth not forth but by prayer and fasting." Is the church ready for +this struggle? Is she willing to put forth the effort and pay the cost +which is required for the redemption of society? + + + + +VIII + +The New Evangelism + + + +Those who have followed these discussions from the beginning will not be +inclined to hesitate in answering the question with which the last +chapter closed. That society can be redeemed, and that the church can +and will purge herself from the things that defile her beauty and +corrupt her powers, and gird herself for the redemptive work assigned +her, is the faith of every loyal Christian. The grievous failures of the +church we cannot deny and must not palliate; it is of the utmost +importance that she be brought face to face with them, and be made to +see how far short she has come of her high calling. Such criticism she +has received from the beginning. The seven churches of Asia were sharply +called to account by the beloved disciple; their faithlessness and +neglect were unflinchingly brought home to them. The churches at Ephesus +and Sardis and Laodicea had as hard things said about them as have been +said in these chapters of the churches of this generation, and probably +deserved them no less. We cannot doubt that that clear-eyed witness, if +he were confronting the church of the twentieth century, would be +constrained to say: "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou +livest, and art dead.... Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased in +goods and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the +wretched one, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel +thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; +and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame +of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eye-salve to anoint thine +eyes, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I reprove and chasten; be +zealous therefore, and repent." In every generation such chastisement +has been needed; the need is no greater to-day than in past generations, +and the chastening love no less. What Lowell says of this country, many +a Christian believer has been constrained to say of the church:-- + + "I loved her old renown, her stainless fame; + What better proof than that I loathed her shame." + +But this keen sense of her shortcomings is not inconsistent with an +unfaltering faith in the recovery of her integrity and in her final +triumph. And those who have read the history of the Christian church +with sympathetic vision can hardly doubt that her brightest days are +still before her. + +For while it must be admitted that she has neglected, hitherto, her +great work of social redemption, it cannot be said that she is more +neglectful of it now than she has been in past years; the truth is that +she is nearer to the recognition of it to-day than she has ever been. +Derelict as she is to her primary obligation, it must yet be said that a +consciousness of that dereliction is beginning to make her uneasy, and +that has never before been true of any large portion of her membership. +Since the earliest centuries the possibility of transforming the social +order by purely spiritual influences has scarcely dawned upon her. So +long as society was feudalistic or aristocratic, the problem seemed to +be beyond her reach; she might hope to improve society, by inculcating +kindness and charity, but hardly to reconstruct it upon new foundations. + +The advent of democracy has brought home to her her social +responsibilities. Here in America, more than anywhere else, the nature +of her social obligation has been revealed. Here the fact cannot be +disguised that the people are the sovereigns, and that social as well as +political relations are under their direct control. The sovereign people +have pledged themselves one to another, in their constitution, to +refrain from establishing, by law, any form of religion; but they have +also covenanted together to promote the common welfare. This puts the +responsibility for social conditions upon the whole people, and the +Christian people are among them. They cannot avoid the obligation to +apply Christian principles to social conditions. Power is theirs to be +used in Christ's name and for the promotion of his kingdom. To see that +society is furnished with right ruling ideas, and organized on Christian +principles, is their main business. And while there are many by whom +this obligation is still but feebly felt, yet there is a goodly number +of those in whose minds the leaven is working, and to whom the nature of +the kingdom that Jesus came to establish is being clearly revealed. That +this number is destined to grow very rapidly we may reasonably hope. + +The present situation is so clearly outlined by a recent writer that we +may welcome a liberal quotation:-- + +"The first apostolate of Christianity was born from a deep +fellow-feeling for social misery, and from the consciousness of a great +historical opportunity. Jesus saw the peasantry of Galilee following him +about with their poverty and their diseases, like shepherdless sheep +that have been scattered and harried by beasts of prey, and his heart +had compassion on them. He felt that the harvest was ripe but there were +few to reap it. Past history had come to its culmination, but there were +few who understood the situation and were prepared to cope with it. He +bade his disciples to pray for laborers for the harvest, and then made +them answer their own prayers by sending them out two by two to proclaim +the kingdom of God. That was the beginning of the world-wide mission of +Christianity. + +"The situation is repeated on a vaster scale to-day. If Jesus stood +to-day amid our modern life, with that outlook on the condition of all +humanity which observation and travel and the press would spread before +him, and with the same heart of humanity beating in him, he would +create a new apostolate to meet the new needs in a new harvest time of +history. + +"To any one who knows the sluggishness of humanity to good, the +impregnable intrenchments of vested wrongs, and the long reaches of time +needed from one milestone of progress to the next, the task of setting +up a Christian social order in this modern world of ours seems like a +fair and futile dream. Yet, in fact, it is not one tithe as hopeless as +when Jesus set out to do it. When he told his disciples, 'Ye are the +salt of the earth; ye are the light of the world,' he expressed the +consciousness of a great historic mission to the whole of humanity. Yet +it was a Nazarene carpenter speaking to a group of Nazarene peasants and +fishermen. Under the circumstances at that time it was an utterance of +the most daring faith,--faith in himself, faith in them, faith in what +he was putting into them, faith in faith. Jesus failed and was +crucified, first his body by his enemies and then his spirit by his +friends; but that failure was such an amazing success that to-day it +takes an effort on our part to realize that it required any faith on his +part to inaugurate the kingdom of God and to send out his apostolate. + +"To-day, as Jesus looks out upon humanity, his spirit must leap to see +the souls responsive to his call. They are sown broadcast through +humanity, legions of them. The harvest field is no longer deserted. All +about us we hear the clang of the whetstone and the rush of the blades +through the grain and the shout of the reapers. With all our faults and +our slothfulness, we modern men in many ways are more on a level with +the mind of Jesus than any generation that has gone before. If that +first apostolate was able to remove mountains by faith, such an +apostolate as Christ could now summon might change the face of the +earth."[28] + +The time is ripe for such an apostolate. The old type of evangelism has +plainly had its day. Strenuous efforts are put forth to revive it, but +their success is meagre. It is easy by expending much money in +advertising, by organizing a great choir, and employing the services of +gifted and earnest men, to draw large congregations; but the great mass +of those who attend these services are church members,--the outside +multitude is scarcely, touched by them. Those who are gathered into the +church in these meetings are mainly children from the Sunday schools. +There may be evangelists who, by an extravagant and grotesque +sensationalism, contrive to get the attention of the non-churchgoers, +and who are able to report considerable additions to the churches; but +the permanence of these gains is not yet shown, and we have no means of +enumerating the thousands who, by such clownish exhibitions, are driven +in disgust from the churches. + +The failure of the modern evangelism is not conjectural: the year-books +show it. The growth of membership in several of our leading +denominations has either ceased or is greatly retarded; the Sunday +schools and the young people's societies report decreasing numbers; the +benevolent contributions are either waning, or increasing at a rate far +less than that of the growth of wealth in the membership. It is idle to +blink these conditions; we must face them and find out what they mean. +This slackening and shrinkage is not a fact of long standing; it +represents only the tendencies of the past twenty years. + +We hear rather frantic demands for a return to the old methods of +evangelism, but that is a foolish cry:-- + + "The mill will never grind + With the water that is past." + +The old appeal, which fixed attention upon the interest of the +individual, has lost its power. It is not possible to stir the average +human being of this generation, as the average human being of fifty +years ago was stirred, by pictures of the terrors of hell and the +felicities of heaven. These conceptions have far less influence over +human lives than once they had,--less, doubtless, than they ought to +have; for there are realities under these symbols which we cannot afford +to ignore. But the fundamental defect of that old appeal was the +emphasis which it placed upon self-interest. "Look out for yourself!" +was its constant admonition. "Think of the perils that threaten, of the +blisses that invite! Do not risk the pain; do not miss the blessedness!" +To-day this does not seem a wholly worthy motive. At any rate, it is +below the highest. Men feel that the religion of Christ has a larger +meaning than this. A presentation of the gospel which makes the welfare +of the individual central does not grip the conscience and arouse the +emotions as once it did. For the conception of human welfare as social +rather than individual has become common; that "great fund of altruistic +feeling," which, as Mr. Benjamin Kidd tells us, is the motive power of +all our social reforms, is constantly stirring in human hearts; and +although there are few whose lives are wholly ruled by this motive, +there are fewer still who do not recognize it as the commanding motive; +and a religious appeal which is based upon considerations essentially +egoistic does not, therefore, awaken any large response in human hearts. + +If the church wishes to regain her hold upon the people, she must learn +to speak to the highest that is in them. A man's religion must +consecrate his ideals. A religion which invites him to live on a lower +plane than the highest on which his thought travels cannot win his +respect. And therefore the new evangelism must learn to find its motive +not in self-love, no matter how refined, but in the love that identifies +the self with the neighbor. It must bring home to the individual the +truth which he already dimly knows, that his personal redemption is +bound up with the redemption of the society to which he belongs; that he +cannot be saved except as he becomes a savior of others; nay, that the +one central sin from which he needs to be saved is indifference to the +welfare of others, and a willingness to prosper at their expense. + +The time has come for the church to take an entirely new attitude in +offering men the gospel. It has been too well content with pressing the +personal advantages of religion, with trying to lure them into +discipleship with baits addressed to their selfishness. It has been +inventing attractions of all sorts,--fine buildings, sumptuous +upholstery and decorations, artistic music, brilliant oratory; it has +thought it possible to enlist men by pleasing their tastes and +gratifying their sensibilities. So far has this gone that the average +churchgoer consciously justifies his presence in church or his absence +from it on the ground of pleasure. If it pleases him enough, he goes; if +not, he reads the Sunday paper or goes out with his automobile. It is a +simple question of enjoyment. + +The response of those invited shows the nature of the invitation. It +indicates that the church has been putting a great deal of emphasis on +the attractions which it has to offer. We can hardly imagine such +replies to be made by those who were invited to listen to the preaching +of Jesus or his apostles. They did not suppose that it was a question of +entertainment that they were considering. They knew that it was a +summons to service and sacrifice. That, beyond all doubt, was the nature +of the appeal of the church in those earliest centuries, when it was +marching over Asia and Europe, conquering and to conquer. It was not +baiting men with soft cushions and pictured windows, with coddlings and +comfits; it was calling them to hardship and warfare, to ignominy and +ostracism; the words of the Master to which it gave emphasis were not +mere metaphors: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and +take up his cross and follow me." + +The call of the cross has never failed. The power of God and the wisdom +of God are in it. And it is time for the church to take up this heroic +note and sound it forth with new power. This is the new evangelism for +which the world is waiting. It is not a call to be "carried to the skies +on flowery beds of ease;" it is not an invitation to the sentimental +soul to "sit and sing herself away to everlasting bliss;" it is the +clarion of battle; it is the challenge to an enterprise which means +struggle and suffering and self-denial. + +The redemption of society is the objective of the new evangelism. How +vast an undertaking this is was indicated in the last chapter. Let us +look at it a little more in detail. How much does it signify, here and +now, in the United States of America? + +It means, first, the reconciliation of races. One thing that must be +done is to take this chaotic mass of dissimilar, discordant, suspicious, +antipathetic racial elements and blend them into unity and brotherhood. +The first Christians had a task of this nature on their hands; they had +to bring together in one fellowship Jews and Gentiles. But that was a +pastime compared with the herculean labor intrusted to us,--the bringing +together of whites and blacks, of Caucasians and Mongolians, of scores +of groups divided by the barriers of language, of religion, of custom, +and fusing them into one nationality. No task of the same dimensions was +ever undertaken by any people; but this is ours, and we must perform it. +It is the task of the nation; but the church of Jesus Christ is charged +with the business of furnishing the sentiments and ideas by which alone +it may be accomplished. + +It means, secondly, the pacification of industry. The contending hosts +of capital and labor must be brought together, and constrained to cease +from their warfare and become friends and coöperators. It is absurd to +suppose that the war of the industrial classes can continue to be waged, +as at present, each seeking to overpower the other. Such a condition of +things is simply irrational. All warfare is illogical and unnatural. +Human beings are not made to live together on any such terms. They are +made to be friends and helpers of one another. The elimination of war is +the next step in industrial evolution. And it is the business of the +church of Jesus Christ to speak the reconciling word. She has the word +to speak, and when she utters it with authority it will be heard. + +It means, thirdly, the moralization of business. The trouble with +business is simply covetousness. The insatiable greed of gain is the +source of all the dishonesties, the oppressions, the spoliations, the +trickeries, the frauds, the adulterations, the cutthroat competitions, +the financial piracies, the swindling schemes,--all the abuses and +mischiefs which infest the world of commerce and finance. Against all +these forms of evil the church must bear her testimony; but the root +from which they all grow is the love of money, and it is this central +and seminal sin of modern civilization that the church must assail with +all the weapons of the spiritual warfare. "Covetousness is idolatry"--so +St. Paul testifies; and a grosser or more debasing idolatry has never +appeared on earth than the worship of material gain. Unless the bonds of +that superstition can be broken, the race must sink into degradation. It +is the one deadly enemy of mankind. And the church of Jesus Christ is +called to lead in the battle with this foe. Against no other social evil +was the testimony of Jesus so trenchant and uncompromising. Nothing more +clearly evinces his unerring vision of moral realities than his judgment +upon this encroaching passion. In his day it was an evil almost +negligible compared with what it is to-day. It was because he foresaw +the conditions which prevail to-day that his words were so hot against +the rule of Mammon. The church is face to face with the danger which he +discerned, and she must meet it in his spirit and with the energy of +his passion. To make men see the hatefulness and loathsomeness of this +greed of gain is the first duty of the church. When that is accomplished +the worst evils of the business realm will disappear. + +It means, fourthly, the extirpation of social vice. When covetousness is +conquered, the procuring cause of much of this kind of evil will be cut +up by the roots. The greed of gain is the motive which breeds and +propagates social vice. But there are animal propensities to which these +incitements make their appeal; and some way must be found of quickening +the nobler affections, so that the spirit shall rule the flesh and not +be in bondage to it. To fill the thoughts and wishes of men with +something better worth while than the joys of animalism is the radical +remedy for these degradations. And the church ought to be able to supply +this remedy. + +The redemption of society means, in the fifth place, the purification of +politics. The dethronement of Mammon will go a long way toward this +also; most of the corruptions of our political life spring from the love +of money. Graft is the first-born of covetousness. But the love of +power also plays a part in the debauchery of citizenship; and the +central sin of using men as means to our ends is exhibited here on a +stupendous scale. This is the vocation of the boss and the briber and +the political machinist; and a deadlier way of destroying manhood it +would be hard to find. It is not only the interest of other individuals, +but the interest of the whole community that the corrupt politician +sacrifices upon the altar of cupidity or ambition; and when a man has +learned to turn the one great privilege of service and sacrifice which +citizenship offers into an opportunity of private gain, he has sunk +about as low as man can go. What more urgent task has the church upon +her hands than that of making men see the treachery and infamy of this +kind of conduct? And unless men can be made to see it and feel it, what +hope is there for free government? Can anybody imagine that democracy +can long endure if the ruling motive of the citizen in his relation to +the commonwealth is a purpose to get as much out of it as he can and +give it as little as he can? All political reforms which leave the +citizen in this state of mind are futile. There is no salvation for a +democracy which does not change the direction of the motive in the +heart of the individual citizen. And this is the business of the church. +Without this, social redemption is impossible, and there is no other +agency which even proposes to accomplish this. + +And, finally, the redemption of society means the simplification of +life. Here, perhaps, we strike more nearly than anywhere else at the +heart of the whole problem. The bottom trouble of the world in which we +live is the enormous over-multiplication of our wants. In the multitude +of ministrations to our senses, the life of the spirit is overlaid and +smothered. Jesus said that a man's life consists not in the abundance of +the things which he possesses; it is this elementary truth which the +world has ceased to believe. For the most part our life is in our +things; our happiness depends on them; our desires do not often rise +above them. + +The complexity, the artificiality, the profusion of our belongings +absorbs the larger part of our interest. The energies of invention are +mainly directed to the creation of new wants. As the resources of the +earth are developed, life takes on an accumulating burden of cares and +conventions and superfluities. We read, with a wonder which is a thinly +disguised admiration, the stories of the extravagances of the people of +the whirlpool, but most of us are jogging along after them, wishing that +we could get into the swim ourselves. Our houses are cluttered with +adornments; our social functions are spending matches; our feasts invite +to satiation; our funerals are exhibitions of extravagance. This thing +has been growing by leaps and bounds, and the time has come when we are +fairly swamped by the abundance of the things which we possess. Nay, it +can hardly be said that we possess this abundance; it possesses us:-- + + "Things are in the saddle + And ride mankind." + +In recent years the cry has been rising for a simpler life. It is a +voice in the wilderness; in the din and clatter of our complex +civilization it seems faint and far off, but it is making itself heard; +it begins to be evident to all thoughtful people that we must somehow +manage to get away from these entanglements of sense and live a freer +life. In these artificialities and extravagances the soul is enfeebled +and belittled, and the national vigor is lost. If we want to save our +nation from decay we must learn to live a simpler life. And this change +will not be wrought out by evolutionary processes; it means revolution +rather; not by violence, we may trust, but certainly by choice, by +effort, by struggle and resistance we shall turn back these tides of +materialism, and lead the current of our national life into safer +channels. + +We are not going to strip our lives bare of beauty, or to consign +ourselves to the meagreness of the anchoretic regimen; we shall have +beautiful homes and abundant pleasures; but we must learn to make our +spiritual interests supreme, and not suffer our thought to be blurred +and our faith enfeebled and our love stifled in the atmosphere of modern +materialism. + +Such, then, are some of the phases of that great work of social +redemption which now confronts us. Other aspects of the work, not less +serious, might be presented, but these are some of the outstanding needs +of modern society. Certainly it is a tremendous work. To reconcile +hostile and suspicious races; to pacify industrial classes; to moralize +business; to extirpate social vice; to purify politics; to simplify +life;--all this is an enterprise so vast that we may well be appalled by +the thought of undertaking it. But this, and nothing less than this, is +the business which the church has in hand. For which of these tasks is +she not responsible? From which of them would she dare ask to be +excused? To what other agency can she think of intrusting any of them? +Nay, this is her proper and peculiar work. For this is she sent into the +world. + +In truth, the one thing that the church needs to-day is to envisage this +task,--to take in its tremendous dimensions; to comprehend the +overpowering magnitude of the work that is expected of her. It is this +revelation that will rouse her. Never before, in all her history, has +such a disclosure of her responsibility been made to her. And the +enormity of the obligation will set her thinking. It will dawn upon her +after a little, that it is for just such tasks that she is called and +commissioned; that the achievement of the impossible is the very thing +that she is always expected to do; that the strength on which she leans +is omnipotence; that she can do all things through Christ who +strengthened her. She will see and understand that her progress is not +made by seeking the line of least resistance: some such worldly wisdom +as this has been her undoing. She will learn that it is only when she +undertakes the greatest things that she finds her resources equal to her +needs. + +This is the heroic note of the new evangelism. The work of making a +better world of this is a tremendous work, but it can be done. It can be +done, because it is commanded. If there is a God in heaven, what ought +to be done can be done. To doubt that is to deny him. And there is one +way of doing it, and that is Christ's way. For all this manifold, +herculean labor on which we have been looking, there is no wisdom +comparable with his. He said that he came to save the world, and he is +going to save it. He has waited long, but he knows how to wait. The day +of his triumph is drawing near. This world is going to be redeemed. This +social order, so full of strife and confusion, of cruelty and +oppression, of misery and sorrow, is going to be transformed, and the +love of Christ shed abroad in the hearts of men will transform it. We +are not going to wait another thousand years for our millennium; we are +going to have it here and now. This is the gospel of the new evangelism +which it has taken the church a long time to learn, but which she is now +getting ready to proclaim with demonstration of the spirit and with +power. + +We must not hide from ourselves the fact that some great changes will +need to take place in her own life before she can give effect to this +great evangel. She must heal her divisions, and fling away her +encumbering traditions, and greatly deepen her faith in her Lord and +Leader. Above all, she must simplify her own life. She cannot bear +witness, as she must, against the deadly influences of our modern +materialism, until she utterly clears herself of all complicity with it. +This means, in many quarters, a radical change in her administration. + +When the church has thus envisaged her task, and comprehended its +magnitude, and when, with her heart on fire with the greatness and glory +of it, she has laid aside every weight and the sins that so easily beset +her, and has girded herself with the truth as it is in Jesus, and has +set the silver trumpet to her lips, she will have a gospel to proclaim, +to which the world will listen. + +It will tell the world, as it has always told the world, of forgiveness +and hope, of comfort and peace, of the help and guidance that comes to +the troubled soul in believing in Jesus. It will speak, as it has always +spoken, of the rest that remaineth, and of the great joys and +companionships of the eternal future. But it will have something more +than this to tell. + +The kingdoms of this world--this will be its message--are becoming the +kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. It is not an event to be +awaited, but to be realized, here and now. Nothing is needed but that +men should believe the word of Jesus Christ and live by it. We do +believe it, and we mean to show our faith by our works. We believe that +by simply living together as Jesus has taught us to live, we can make +this world so much better than it now is, that men shall think heaven +has come down to earth. We believe that the race question and the labor +question and the trust question and the liquor question and the graft +question and all the other questions will find a speedy solution when +men have learned to walk in the way of Jesus. And we call you to come +and walk with us in that way. + +It is not a smooth and thornless way. It is a toilsome and painful way. +It is the way of the cross. It means hardship and struggle and +suffering. Such intrenched and ingrained iniquities as now infest our +society will not be overcome without conflict. We are not calling you to +a pastime. We are not offering you riches or honors or sensual joys. We +are calling you to service and to sacrifice. But we are going to build +here in this world the kingdom of heaven. We know that it can be done: +we know how to do it, and the glorious thing we have to tell you is that +you can have a share in it. Look forward with us to the day when-- + + "Nation with nation, land with land, + Unarmed shall live as comrades free, + In every heart and brain shall throb + The pulse of one fraternity; + + "New arts shall bloom, of loftier mould, + And mightier music thrill the skies, + And every life shall be a song + When all the earth is paradise,"-- + +and come and help us to bring that glad time. The Leader whom we follow +knows the way, and the future belongs to Him. + +That is the message of the new evangelism, and when the church learns +to speak it with conviction, and to make it good in her life, she will +find that the gospel has a power that she has never even imagined it to +possess. + + + + +IX + +The New Leadership + + + +These discussions have failed of their purpose if they have not made a +few things clear. Let us restate them:-- + +1. The roots of religion are in human nature. It is a fact as central +and all-pervasive in the social realm as gravitation is in the physical +realm. It is no more likely to become antiquated or obsolete than oxygen +or sunshine. It is an interest which no intelligent person can afford to +ignore. + +2. Like every other living thing, religion grows. It is not outside the +sphere of operation of Him who said, "Behold! I make all things new!" It +is subject, continually, to his wise economy of renewal. + +3. Our religion is Christianity. With the other religions of the race it +is destined to be brought into closer and closer comparison and +competition, and that religion will survive and become universal which +most perfectly explains the universe and provides for the wants of the +human soul. All the indications are that the religion which survives +will include the essential elements of Christianity. + +4. All religions are rooted in the social nature of man, but +Christianity, more than any other, is a social religion. It depends for +its culture and propagation upon the social forces. Some form of social +organization, like the church, is necessary to the life of religion. +Worship, to be sane and salutary, must be social; and the life of +Christianity can find expression only in such coöperations as those for +which the church provides. + +5. As the life of religion is nurtured in social worship and service, so +its fruit is gathered in the transformation of society. The primary +function of the church is the Christianization of the social order. The +business of the church is to save the world by establishing here the +kingdom of heaven. + +6. The church has very imperfectly performed this function. It has but +dimly discerned and but feebly grasped the social aims of Jesus. It has +tried to do a great many other things, some of them good things; but the +one thing it was sent to do it has largely left undone. + +7. A new reformation is therefore called for, and that reformation must +accomplish what the reformation of the sixteenth century failed to +accomplish,--the restoration of the social teachings of Jesus to their +proper rank and dignity. As the reformation of the sixteenth century +brought the individual to Christ as a personal Saviour, so the +reformation of the twentieth century must bring society to Christ as a +social Saviour, and must make men see that there is no way of living +together but his way. + +8. The church is therefore called to the redemption of society. But the +work of redemption to which it is called is not a reconstruction of +economic or political machinery; it is the quickening of the social +conscience, and the reënthronement of justice and love in the place of +selfishness and strife as the ruling principles of human society. + +9. For the redemption of society a new evangelism is needed. The new +evangelism will not emphasize the interest of the individual; it will +rather emphasize the truth that the individual can only be saved when he +identifies his own welfare with the welfare of his fellow men. And it +will not try to win men by offering them ease and safety and comfort, +but rather by showing them how tremendous are the tasks before them; +what a mighty work there is to do in delivering this world from the +bondage of corruption and selfishness; what hardship and toil and +sacrifice are needed; but how sure the victory is for those who are able +to believe the word of Jesus Christ and follow, whole-heartedly, his +leadership. + +Such are the characters and conditions under which the church of Jesus +Christ presents herself in this new day to modern men. Her record is far +from flawless; it is the necessities of logic, not the facts of history, +which make her infallible. She has blundered along through the +centuries, missing much of the work she was sent to do, and staining her +garments not seldom with the soilure of greed and the blood of the +innocent; but through all these generations the patient love of her Lord +has been chastening her, and through many wanderings and stumblings she +has come down to this hour. The light upon her candlestick has often +grown dim, but it has never been wholly extinguished; the fire upon her +altars has burned low, but it is still burning. She has not done all +that she ought to have done, but she has done a large part of all that +has been done to enlighten, to comfort, and to uplift humanity. And the +discipline through which she has passed gives some indication of the +work she has yet to do. It is not credible that a wise Providence should +have kept her alive so many centuries, and should have made so much use +of her in the establishment upon the earth of the kingdom of heaven, and +should have led her into a constantly increasing knowledge of Himself, +if he had not meant to make her his servant in the great work now +waiting to be done. + +Her hour has come, and her task lies before her. It might be urged that +she ought to have been better fitted for her work before she was called +to undertake it; but that is not God's way. We get our preparation for +great work in the work itself. We are called from the sheepfolds to lead +the armies of Israel. We are sent out with a few loaves and fishes to +feed the multitude. Our powers are developed and our resources are +multiplied by using them. And though the church is far from having the +equipment she needs for the redemption of society, the power and the +wisdom will come when the work is bravely undertaken. + +To whom, now, does this great enterprise of social redemption make its +strongest appeal? It ought to appeal to all good men and women. It ought +to enlist the powers of those who are in the meridian of their strength. +The men whose vision has been widened and whose wills have been +invigorated in the great undertakings of industry and commerce ought to +find in this proposition something worthy of their powers. It ought, +also, to stir the hearts of those who have labored hard and waited long +for the coming of the kingdom to hear a great voice saying, "Now is the +accepted time: behold! now is the day of salvation!" To many of those +who have not much longer to live life never seemed a thing so fair as it +is to-day. + +But this great appeal ought most strongly to lay hold upon the hearts of +the young men and women of this generation. The enterprise is mainly +theirs. If the new reformation comes, they will lead it on. If society +is redeemed, it will be by their toil and sacrifice. If the church ever +learns its business, it will be under their tuition. And it must be by +their voices, chiefly, that the new evangel will be proclaimed. + +The young men and women who have had the patience to read these +chapters have been invited to consider some large and serious themes. It +has been assumed that they did not care for kindergarten talk, nor even +for the ethical platitudes to which youth are apt to be treated. There +has been no talking down to them; they have been asked to sit where +Jesus sat, among the doctors in the temple, to hear and answer +questions, and to consider, with the rest of us, our Father's business. + +All this tremendous work of social reconstruction about which we are +talking must be done, and most of it must be done by them. It is to be +hoped that they will be able to see the urgency of it, and to feel that +it is something worth their while. + +Those of us who have been permitted to come in contact with the more +thoughtful young men and women of this generation, especially those in +the colleges and the professional schools, have been made aware of a +deepening conviction among the best of them that the kind of prizes for +which the multitude are contending are not of the highest value. Great +revisions have been taking place, during the past few years, in the +estimates of success. Many careers which, but a little while ago, +seemed enviable, now appear much less alluring. And while this change of +attitude is far from being universal, there is a goodly number of young +men and women scattered through all our communities whose souls are +kindled with social passion, and who are asking not so eagerly how they +may succeed as how they may serve. To these we have a right to look for +leadership in the work of social redemption. + +Many phases of this work will appeal to them. In education, in +philanthropy, in journalism, in literature, in art, they will be called +to serve; many philanthropies will invite them; the organization of +industry upon coöperative lines will offer some of them a vocation, and +the government will be upon their shoulders. + +But what they are asked to consider here is the claim of the church upon +them. That claim need not conflict with any of these other vocations, +unless, indeed, the work of the Christian ministry should offer itself +to their choice. That possibility, by the way, is well worth thinking +of. Some of them, let us trust, will keep it in mind for further +consideration. If the business of the church is what we have found it +to be, and the new evangelism is such as we have outlined, the Christian +ministry must offer to any man whose heart is on fire with social +passion a great opportunity. But for the present let us note the fact +that upon those who are not to give their whole lives to the work of the +church, the church has a claim, which they ought seriously to consider. +Whatever their callings may be, in whatever fields they may be laboring, +the church will need their loyal service, and they will need its goodly +fellowships and its inspiring coöperation. + +The church which ought to be, and must be, is not for some of us, but +for all of us. Even as the state is the political commonwealth to which +all citizens belong, so the church is the spiritual commonwealth in +which all souls should be included. The interests for which the church +provides are the common human interests; it never can be what it ought +to be, or do what it is called to do, until it gathers all the people +into its fellowship. And therefore these young men and women to whom the +future is intrusted must find their places in the church. The church +needs them; it cannot fulfill its function without them; and we have +seen that its function is a vital function; that it furnishes the bond +by which society is held together. + +The church is God's agency for leavening society with Christian +influences; and these young men and women by whom the social order is to +be reconstructed will be in the church. Its leadership will be committed +to them. They will have the shaping of its life. Its life will need much +reshaping, and that will be their work. What will they make of it? + +1. They will make it, what it has always been, a place of worship; the +shrine of the spirit; the home of Christian nurture; a school of +instruction; a fount of inspiration; a seminary of religion; the +meeting-place of man and God. + +Attempts have been made in recent years to organize churches--or, at +least, associations which should take the place of churches--in which +religion should be dispensed with; in which there should be more or less +of ethical instruction and of charitable coöperation, but no recognition +of any connection between this world and any other. That is simply a +reform against nature, and it will never prosper. For, as Professor +William James has taught us, in a great inductive study, the sum of all +that is known about religion warrants us in saying:-- + +"(a) That the visible world is part of a more spiritual universe, from +which it draws its chief significance; + +"(b) That union or harmonious relation with that higher universe is our +true end; + +"(c) That prayer or inner communion with the spirit thereof ... is a +process wherein work is really done, and spiritual energy flows in and +produces effects, psychological or material, within the phenomenal +world."[29] + +These are the indubitable conclusions of modern science; and the +proposition to ignore the deepest fact of human experience will not be +entertained by the young men and women of the present day. The church, +under their leadership, will be a worshiping church, a praying church. +It will keep itself in close relations with that unseen universe from +which its help must come. It will be a channel through which the divine +grace will flow into the lives of men. And it will also be, what it has +always been, a school as well as a shrine, a place where the teacher +searches out and unfolds the truth and the prophet proclaims the message +that has been given him. + +2. Under its new leadership the church will continue to be a minister to +human want and suffering. The charitable work which has always been +emphasized in its administration will not be neglected, but it will take +on a new character. There will be less almsgiving, and more of the kind +of help which saves manhood and womanhood. The young men and women who +are called to this leadership will understand the worth of souls--that +is, of men and women; and they will be careful lest, in their relief of +want, they undermine the character. Above all, they will feel that while +it is the business of the church to care for the poor, its first +business is to cure the conditions which breed poverty. + +3. They will thoroughly democratize the life of the church, making it +the rallying place of a genuine Christian fraternity, in which men of +all ranks and stations meet on a common level, ignoring the distinctions +of rich and poor, cultured and ignorant, and emphasizing the fact of +Christian brotherhood. We have churches which profess democracy, but +there is reason to fear that many of them are little better than +oligarchies; that some of them come near to being monarchies. The new +leadership will discern the importance of making every member of the +brotherhood, no matter how humble, a partaker of its responsibilities, +and a helper in its services. They will know that the problem of church +administration is to make every man feel that he is needed. They will +grasp the significance of Paul's figure of the body and its members, and +will see that "those members of the body which seem to be more feeble +are necessary," and that "those parts of the body which are less +honorable" ought to receive "more abundant honor." They will have +workingmen in their vestries and their sessions and their boards of +trustees. They will show to all the world that they have accepted the +word of Jesus: "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are +brethren." + +4. This means that the life of the church will not only be thoroughly +democratized, but greatly simplified. All its administration will take +on plainer and less luxurious forms. The splendors of architecture and +art, of upholstery and decoration, of ecclesiastical millinery and +music, with which we now so often seek to attract men to the house of +God, will be put aside; and the followers of Jesus Christ will get near +enough to him to have some sense of the fitness of things in the +ordering of the houses of worship where the Carpenter is the social +leader and where rich and poor meet as one brotherhood. + +Instead, therefore, of permitting the church to be invaded and +vulgarized by the luxury and extravagance of the world, they will turn +the current in the other direction. The church, under the new +leadership, will not take its cue from the world; it will enforce its +own standards upon the world. "Out of Zion will go forth the law." + +Bitter words were those spoken at a recent meeting of the Congregational +Union in England by one of the greatest of English preachers.[30] "The +common life of the home," he said, "is often a mere vulgar exhibition of +the means of living. We try to persuade ourselves that showy living is +essential life. In tens of thousands of English homes the mere show of +things is the goal of a restless and feverish ambition. Everywhere we +seem to be loitering and pottering about in the implement yard. Even in +our universities we must have showy buildings, though we starve the +chairs. All this peril becomes the more insidious when we pass into the +realm of the church of God. Why, the 'means of grace' are often +misinterpreted as grace itself. We are obtruding our badges and ribbons, +our soldier's dress without the soldier's spirit, our music, our +ministers even,--how they look, what they wear, what they do--they are +all part of the wretched vulgarity of the modern spirit." + +The two things are rightly put together. The ostentation of the home, +the tawdry luxury and profusion of fashionable society, creep into the +church and set up their standards there, and the religion of Christ puts +on a costume in which its Founder would never recognize it. + +We are dealing here with the very heart of the trouble in our national +life, and the problem is one which must be solved by the present +generation of our young men and women. The social conditions which are +depicted for us by close students of the life of our luxurious classes +are ominous in the extreme. The cynical dishonesties and the brutal +spoliations which have come to light in the realm of high finance and +big business are the natural fruit of such a manner of life as many of +our recent novelists have vividly portrayed. And the wanton extravagance +of the House of Mirth would not exist if the majority of the people did +not admire it. The outcry against it is oftener the voice of envy than +of moral revulsion. The cure for this evil, as of most others, is found +in public opinion; and the church must educate public opinion to reprove +it, and the leadership of the church will be in the hands of the young +men and women of this generation. + +It will be evident to them that the place to begin is in the church +itself. The heartless luxury of the world will not be chastened into +simplicity by a church that surrounds itself with splendor and spends +money lavishly upon its pleasures. They will know that a church which +wishes to reprove the vanity and ostentation of the outside world must +order its own life in such a way that its word shall be with power. + +5. Finally and chiefly the young men and women who are to be called to +the leadership of the church will feel that their main business is the +work of church extension. But they will give to this phrase a little +different meaning from that which it has generally carried. The church +extension to which the boards and societies in the church have been +devoted is the work of building new churches in promising fields. It is +properly denominational extension. Something of this kind will remain to +be done in the new day now before us, and our new leaders will doubtless +have some part in it. But the church extension which is most loudly +called for just now is the extension of the life of the church into +every department of human life. It is more analogous to what we call +university extension work. The business of university extension is not +the planting of new universities; it is the projection of the university +into the community; it is the attempt to carry the light and the +knowledge and the truth and the beauty for which the university stands +down among the people; to popularize the higher culture and the finer +art. That is a most praiseworthy enterprise, a most Christian +undertaking. And something very much like this will be the church +extension for which the new leadership will stand. Its aim will be to +make a vital connection between the Christian church and every +institution or agency by which the work of the world is done, so that +the influence of the church shall be directly felt in every part of our +social life. It will consider the church as the nursery or conservatory, +whose growths are to be planted out all over the field of the world. It +will make the church the central dynamo of the community, connected by a +live wire with every home, school, factory, bank, shop, store, office, +legislative chamber, employers' association, labor federation,--with +every organ of the whole social organism, so that the light and power +which are in Jesus Christ shall be the guiding influence and the motive +force of our civilization. + +This is the work which remains to be done, and for which this present +world is loudly calling. It is the work that Jesus Christ came into this +world to do, and he will not see of the travail of his soul and be +satisfied until it is done. The opportunity of realizing the social aims +of Jesus, of organizing society upon the principles which he laid down, +is offered to the young men and women of this generation. It will be +open to them so to order the life of the church that in its democracy +and its simplicity it shall represent Jesus Christ, and then to extend +this life into industry and commerce and politics and art and social +diversion, thus bringing all the kingdoms of this world into the kingdom +of the Christ. It will be their principal task to translate the sermons +and the prayers and the songs of Sunday into the life of the shop and +the factory and the office on Monday and the other days of the week. +That would mean, of course, a tremendous overturning in the business of +the world; a radical revision of the ideals and standards of the great +majority; a new point of view and a new aim in life for the most of us. +But such a peaceful revolution in our ways of life would be far less +painful and disastrous than the revolution which our present habits are +sure to bring, and it is the only thing which will prevent it. And if +the young men and women of to-day will but discern this truth, they may +have the honor of leading in the new Saturnian reign. + +We hear in these days from earnest men many anxious questions why the +message of the gospel fails to reach and convince the outside multitude. +"Why is it," good preachers say, "that there are so many people in all +our communities--some of them very good people--who are not at all +touched by our appeal? They do not seem to be interested in what we have +to offer them. They do not appear to feel their need of it." + +To this question more than one answer could be given, but there is one +answer which needs to be well considered. One reason is that these men +and women fail to discern, in the life round about them, the reality of +the thing which we offer them. For Christianity is, as we have seen in +these studies, not only an individual experience, but a social fact. And +while we might not be qualified to judge whether the individual +experience, in any given case, is genuine, we could see the social fact, +if it were in sight. That social fact would be profoundly interesting to +us, and it would be convincing. Nothing else is likely to convince us. +In truth, we cannot understand Christianity at all until we see it in +operation in society. One man alone cannot give any idea of what it is. +As some one has said, one man and God will give us all that is essential +in any other religion, but Christianity requires for Its operation at +least two men and God. In fact, it takes a good many men and women and +children, living together in all sorts of relations, to give any +adequate exhibition of it. What we need, then, first of all, to convince +men of its reality, is a good sample of it, in active operation--a great +variety of good samples, indeed. When we have these to show, we can get +people interested. + +It would be difficult, if a very homely illustration may be permitted, +to enlist the interest of any boy in baseball if you made it with him an +individual matter. You might try to train him for any given position on +the field, but if he undertook to study it out alone it would not be +easy for him to understand it. In fact, it would be impossible. No one +could learn the game all alone. The team work is the whole of it. And it +would be absurd to expect any one to become interested in the game +unless he could see it played. + +To take a similar illustration from a somewhat higher form of art, you +would not be likely to succeed in awakening enthusiasm in any one for +orchestral music by giving him his individual part of the score to study +and play over by himself. No matter what his instrument might be, the +solitary performance of the part assigned to it would be the dryest +possible business. You could not convert any man to the love of +orchestral music by any such process. But if he could hear all the +instruments played together, and, better still, if he could play in with +all the rest, that might be inspiring. + +So you need not expect to convert any man to Christianity unless you can +show him Christianity at work in human society. In considering only the +individual application of it, its whole meaning and significance would +be hidden from him. The team work is all there is of it. Let him see it +in active operation, and it will awaken his enthusiasm. + +This is, in fact, the essence of the new evangelism to which the young +men and women of this day are called. Their business will be to take +Christianity out into the field of the world and set it at work. It is +for this that the leadership is intrusted to them. The church has been a +long time coming to this, but it seems at last to be arriving, and the +young people of this generation will be summoned to the great +undertaking. Surely they may feel that a high honor and a heavy +responsibility are thus put upon them. It is the most heroic enterprise +to which the sons of men have ever been called. + +Not all of them will respond to the call. But we may hope that there +will be found among them a goodly minority to whom the appeal will come +with commanding voice, and whom we may hear answering: "Yea and amen! +The work is ours, and we will not shirk it. It is work worth doing, and +it can be done. To make a better world of this is the best thing a man +can think of; and we believe that Christ's way is the right way. It has +never yet had a fair trial, and we are bound that it shall be tried. We +know that we shall not make ourselves rich or famous in this +undertaking; but we shall see the load lifted from many shoulders, and +the light of hope shining in many eyes; we shall hear the din of strife +changing to the songs of cheerful labor; we shall share our simple joys +with those who know that we have always tried to make their lives +happier, and who cannot choose but love us; we shall find life worth +living, and we shall die content." + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] _Through Nature to God_, p. 189. + +[2] _The Victory of the Will_, p. 213. + +[3] _First Principles_, p. 14. + +[4] _Ibid._ p. 20. + +[5] _First Principles_, pp. 99, 100. + +[6] Quoted by Walker in _Christian Theism_, p. 47. + +[7] _Christian Theism_, pp. 40, 42. + +[8] New York _Independent_, September 12, 1907. + +[9] Micah iv, 5. + +[10] I do not include Confucianism, because it is, primarily, a system +of ethics or sociology rather than a religion; and also because it seems +to have no missionary impulse, and no expectation of universality. + +[11] _Permanent Elements in Religion_, p. 143. + +[12] _The Unknown God_, p. 228. + +[13] Professor D. M. Fisk. + +[14] Acts ii, 44, 45. + +[15] Matt. vi. 5, 6. + +[16] James v, 16. + +[17] Rauschenbusch: _Christianity and the Social Crisis_, pp. 93, 94. + +[18] Page 182. + +[19] _The Social Gospel_, Harnack and Herrmann, pp. 216, 217. + +[20] _Essays and Addresses_, p. 194. + +[21] _Essays and Addresses_, p. 189. + +[22] _A History of the Reformation_, vol. i, pp. 85,86. + +[23] _Ibid._ pp. 87, 88. + +[24] _Op. cit._ p. 96. + +[25] Seebohm, _The Era of the Protestant Revolution_, pp. 57,58. + +[26] _Op. cit._ pp. 327, 328. + +[27] _The Philosophy of Religious Experience_, by Henry W. Clark, pp. +234-236. + +[28] Rauschenbusch, _Christianity and the Social Crisis_, pp. 414-416. +The volume is one that no intelligent student of present-day +Christianity can afford to neglect. + +[29] _The Varieties of Religious Experience_, p. 485. + +[30] Dr. J. H. Jowett. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHURCH AND MODERN LIFE*** + + +******* This file should be named 12290-8.txt or 12290-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/2/9/12290 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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